A Summery!

Where to start?

Firstly I will get Whack'd out of the way. In the first 2 weeks after my original pitch, I only had two members on my team, Tom and Mu. It was looking bad for 'Pirates' and, at that point it was highly likely that the film would fall through. Dan and Sam approached me and asked whether I would like to join the team, to help with animation. I knew deep down this was Sam and Dan doing me a favour. It was clear they wanted me to have somewhere to go if 'Pirates' failed. Naturally I said 'yes'. However, 'Pirates' lived to fight another day and so I was on two films. In the first terms I did a few concept drawings just for fun but nothing major. At this time I had acquired the music editing software known as Protools. As a little pet project I scored an Whack'd inspired song. After I completed it I showed it to the group on a whim just to see whether they thought it was any good. Dan and Sam really liked it so I became the composer for the film. I had no intention to be, but I was thrilled that they liked it. Over the next few months I produced three new tracks, 'Locked and Loaded', 'Out of the Frying Pan...' and 'Ninjutsu Blues'. Through all of it I drew influence from composers such as Harry Gregsom Williams, Steve Jablonsky, Tyler Bates and many more. I also drew influence other musicians such as surf guitar legend Dick Dale, Blues Virtuoso Stevie Ray Vaughan, hard rockers Motorhead, Flamenco Master Paco Pena and even horror punk and Country musicians like The Monsters.

Unfortunately with the workload increasing with 'Pirates' all of the time, my role as an animator diminished to just two shots. This was a shame as I really like the film and wanted to be a stronger part of it. However, Sam and Dan were very understanding. Overall the Whack'd team and film is fantastic.

'Pirates'. Where to begin. I never thought that my stupid little idea about Pirates in a supermarket would ever get picked. Just look at it! When you write it down on paper it just looks ridiculous. But for some reason, the class really loved it. As I've said, the first tow weeks were rocky but it evened out. There were many story problems in the beginning, many hours wasted on boards. We must have gone trough three different plot ideas before the film settled months later. In retrospect the film is much stronger now. So all of my moaning was just hot air. My role in the pirates film was overwhelming. I was Director, writer, character designer, organiser, modeller, texturer, rigger (blendshapes), renderer and compositer. Many of the positions I fell into and had to adapt.

The group has seen a little bit of a 'revolving door' membership. I am not going to name names, but I have to be honest. People have let me down this year, more than once. We have had disappearing members, I do not know how many texts I sent around chasing people up. I want these people to know, I do not feel any bitterness toward them, this pipeline is far to constricted time wise to wait around for people. With this kid of mentality, it fell upon the rest of the group to pick up the slack. I modelled, textured and created blendshapes when I was not originally supposed to. All of which were not my strong points and I had to learn as I went along. I had never textured on created blendshapes before so it was a new experience for me. However, the team really came together, we would all tweak each others work so it would look the best.

When time got a too hairy, I employed some of the second years to help out with the film. Fahran, Marios, Mel, Hayley, Carlos and Alex. I saw each of them improve with every piece of work they did, except for Fahran, who blew my mind the moment I met him. All of these second years were fast learners and their unyielding enthusiasm for a film which they had only just joined was inspiring.

So what do I think of the film? I knew we would not get the film completed for hand in. 70 shots, with for characters lip syncing with high octane action... it was impossible. However, Pirates will be finished.

Over this year I have learned so much. Mainly thanks to the pupils in my class. The Splay Polished Off crew raised the bar for what I could expect a student animation from this college to look like. With that as well, they shared their secrets with me and tried to teach me the best they could. Sarah and the little film that could. We both helped each other out with musicians and voice actors, and she has been fantastic. The Whack'd team has been a pleasure to work for, Dan's determination is truly inspiring and Josh's 2d artwork always keeps me on my toes (he's always one step ahead).

Finally Pirates. Overall my team is fantastic. Mu is my right hand man. Neil, my ever patient animator. Josh, the mood lightener. Ash and Dean, the cool cucumbers. J.B my technical guy. I would also like to give a special thanks to Tom. He is always patient, always enthusiastic and extremely skilled. Tom has worked like a horse this entire year, and never complained. He picked up most of the slack when team members disappeared and has risen to every challenge. Over the past fours years that I have known him he has improved so quickly it has truly amazed me. He is the star of the show!

In conclusion, the year has been extremely stressful, but I have learned more in this final year, than the two years previous.

Now that the submission is creeping up, It is time to cross our fingers. Who knows one day we might see a big blockbuster movie, with my name in the directors position...doubt it though!

Composite test

This is my after effects compositing test. I used a technique that Dan Edgley and Simon showed me. Basically, you make a copy of you layers (i.e. beauty etc), you then blur that layer and place it on top of your other layers. This softens the edges of the characters and also adds an extra dimension of colour. All in all it makes the piece look better!

Final Animatic

Here is the animatic. I've been trying to get it on here but it's been difficult. Hopefully this works!

This was a bit of a nightmare to compile last weekend but I pulled it off, (with the help of my team!)

My Original Guard model

I forgot to post my original model for the guard. It was the base for what tom would work from.I made it in an hour. I started it u, but Tom really was the master!

WHAT A SHINER!

Hey guys I did the beaten up texture for the guard! I gave a black eye and a few scratches on his face!

Some More Shots!

Blogger is being weird so here is just one of the shots. Mel did the original and i tweaked it, but I got so complicated that i just redid the whole shot again. It turned out OK.

Progress

Today was a long day. But I am pleased with the results. Mu and I (mainly Mu) sorted out some rendering problems. I textured a scene for Tom. Neil and Josh's animation tweaks are looking good. Ash's ship texture is looking pretty great too. J.B sent his storm clouds off to render, and Mu and I set up shot 30 for render!

Whack'd shots

This shot was tricky, hes not doing anything but you have to make him look alive. It was a hard one, especially considering the limitations of the rig. A faked a sniff by moving the vertex points on his face up. I also added some brow and eye movements to emphasise it. Too bad you can not see it here!

This one was also tricky because of the limitations to the rig, especially in the elbow areas. You cannot move the as the rolled sleeves to his shirt dig into his arms. All that aside this was allot easier than than shot 21!

new animatic

This was mammoth it took ages, that all i need to say!

Shot 49

This one was a pain, a real pain! Need to turn down the ol' giggly wiggly on this one!

Shot 35

I spent too long on finishing this shot today. There was a point today were it was going so badly i was thinking of smashing the computer. Luckily after a slew of happy accidents, I managed to get it together. Turned out OK didn't it?

Sniff Test

I wanted a little sniff in between gunfire in this shot for whack'd. This is a little test of me animating the vertex points.

Shot Overload

This is my tweaking of Hayleys Shot.

This is shot is halfway done!

This is shot 30 and it is COMPLETE!

CARDBOARD

This one was just for fun!

Right. I was up till the early hours of this morning re-texturing Walker's head. When I awoke a few hours later, I realised, what I had done, looked rubbish. Clearly I was too tired to know what I was doing. Anyway I had to do it AGAIN! This was supposed to be a quick job but it took most of the day. I thought I could just copy paste my old textures but the UV points had shifted drastically so I had to do it again! After that I created the cardboard cutouts for the supermarket. Here we go!

I can see that!

Hey guys here is breadbeard's line for shot 30. Let me know what you think!

Shot 21 again!

Right guys I took on board what Josh said, and here it is. I still had some difficulties. The hand stopped spazing out for some reason but lets not jinx it. This is not the best animation I have ever done, so I'm sorry. A couple of things have come up with pirates at the moment, so I don't know how much the Whack'd team can rely on me. I don't want to let the team down.

Target Shot 21

Right guys, I don't want to sound like I'm winging, but I found it really difficult to animate with this rig. The controls are fine and the weights are good, but there are some issues that i personally had. One thing I don't think there is enough blendshapes for this shot. I mean, we can still cheat it though. The other thing is i cannot really control the fingers, also i cannot key the wrist rotations, which means I can't get any follow through. The eyeballs also poke through the mesh when you make the character blink. This is my progress so far, the animation is pretty poor, as my computer was lagging so I could not really see what I was animating. So the animation is not great guys. To top it off, his left hand decided to have a right little spack out for no reason, I did not key it, I DIDN'T EVEN MOVE IT! Please ignore his spacktacular hand and try and concentrate on the animation.

WALKER!

Hey all. Finally I have finished Walker. I have been hard at work at him all day but he's done. I have to say, I find texturing a little bit of a pain. I mean I'm new to it so I'm a bit shaky. Anyway here he is, tell me what you think.

Mu! I noticed that the model's eyeballs a just a fraction too high, they poke through the mesh. When weighting, just lower his eyeballs appropriately!