Kettle

I just stumbled upon kettle which is an animation compony 'a different kettle of fish' I just love their stuff! I've watched a few of their showreels now and I'm just blown away and want to be able to do that! I especially love the footblakk part where the guy almost is made out of dust. I would love to be able to make something like that!!

http://www.kettlestudio.co.uk/Projects/Showreel-2014.aspx

About kettle
They do 3D cross media and visual effects
They find creative solutions to complex problems
They are not tied down to any particular style or method
The people involved are Jules Stevenson- founder+director, Phin Glynn-producer and list maker, Neil Canterbury-VFX supervisor and math genuious.
They've done things for adidas, john lewis, Lindt, syfy, carlsburg, talk talk, nokia, soooo many big companies!

I like how in their work they tell people how it was made for example under the lindt one it says

"Working with Leo Burnett, we were tasked with creating Lindt's very first foray into digital, with the creation of some high production value banners.Research was difficult, with most of the research items disappearing into people's bellies. Never the less, we fought through, producing a fine looking animation piece that both client and agency were more than happy with.
The unwrapping process was a challenge, forcing us to use a plethora of tricks from our armoury.We used Softimage ICE cloth for the base simulation, with multiple stacking ICE trees on top to add secondary effects and clean up the sim where required. The chocolate was simulated in Realflow, with additional processing in ICE" 
I think I have found another company that inspires me and that i would like to work for.
I think.

I

Animation industry

pre prodution
-writer
-script editor
-idea development
-commission editor
-director is producer
director-creative process-style-    
producer-logistic process-funding/budget-marketing-legal/insurance-
-concept artwork
-storyboard-cinematography-layout artists-
-pre visualisation/animatic
-production manager

Production
-Director
-assistant director
-runners
-animator
-inbetweeners 
-assistants
-cinematographer
-camera
-lighting
-art department
-set build
-electrics-health and safety
-sound department-voice over-sound effects
-reference



Post production
-Sound-music-composer-musician- Foley(make own sound effects)-voice
-editor-moving scenes etc
-compositor-grading(changing colour)-vfx-


www.creativeskillset.org

children's media conference

Look for script writers also illustrators

shutterbug challenge

So I do this thing called shutterbug challenge which is a Facebook photography competition. the themes this time were still life for advanced and food for novice. I won the advanced category!!! my sister won the novice! even though she's more advance than i am...not sure how that works... I'm well chuffed! never won before!!

I think i could use my photography knowledge in my animations like shot framing and lighting and my love of depth of field. I think i would like to go more in depth into shot framing and animation and maybe study what works for what reason and why we do it etc. 

PPP

RSS feed
everything thats new will get taken to one place so you don't have to look through a million sites.
feedly


consider lists on twitter to organise the noise

get a linkdin before end of second year

create youtube playlists

SWOT analysis

S-trengths
-What are you good at
-unique selling points
-experience/knowledge
-recourses
-innovation
-location/geography

W-eaknesses
-What can you improve
-gaps in your knowledge
-timescale
-reputation
-commitment
-planning

O-ppertunities
-what do you get out of this
-networking/partnerships
-learning new skills
-research

T-hreats
-What to keep an eye on
-Time management
-Competition
-Technologies
-Distraction
-Expectations
-Popular








SWOT on my self



Strengths:
-fairly good at drawing

Weaknesses:
-insecure about work
-envy of other peoples work/compare myself to them
-laziness/lack of motivation/ love of sleep+bed

Opportunities:

Threats:

PPP2

PPP2

deadline- 19/05/2015

aesthetic festival

thought bubble

develop networks, work with other courses

where is our animation skill set?

life after college- creative tuesdays

creative networks on estudio

get confident talking about my work

create a showreel for summer internships and work

tax breaks for animators?

bloggin 

critical animation about your year

make planning more professionally presented

terminology of animation

minimum of 20 blog posts

blog anything and everything that you like or dislike or inspires you

self marketing materials (business card etc)

study task 1

20 blog posts containing 

critical reflection and documentation of attending conference or festivals.

baf, thought bubble, leeds international festival,  attend AT LEAST ONE

idnetify an area of practice you wish to research and develop further. the journal should document your enquiry with the process outputs and reflection on the personal development. this activity should finish before the end of the module. you will be prepared to showcase this development on 24th MARCH 2015

roughly a project that can be achieved in 50 hours max

completed by 24th APRIL

pop up show

blog tasks

Study task 2

reflect on practitioners industry developments and trends and resources and organisations that support you as an animator

book you read, workshop you attended…if something has interested you to do with character, write about it in that context

showreel - 2 mins targeting animation companies that you want to work for. a portfolio, paper or web based

10 best pieces of work (storyboards etc

look at animators showreels

study task 3

reflecting on level 5 development and what you want to do at level 6

presentation 19th MAY 2015

talk about being student ambassador and how its helped you be professional

animated self

Here is my final animation for the animated self project. It has no sound yet but it doesn't need any for the exhibition so I might just add that on in my own time. I am fairly pleased with the results though if I had more time I would've liked to spend more time on the secondary animation like making her hair move as this would have made it more believable. I also would have liked to spend more time making hands as I think this would have looked better but I just didn't have time to slave away at that, but I may alter it over summer.  

research

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deT_f6vcFfs

I found this video of a toddler running and its done in a way that looks animated. In it you can see how floppy their hands are and how little their legs are and they move their legs a lot for the amount of ground they cover. 
I found another video in which you can see what the toddler looks like running from a side view, I used this as reference for my run cycle but it didn't look quite right so I decided to rotoscope the simple body shape/ bone structure so I can put my character over that and it will look more believable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY3A8nPYL-c

animated self storyboards

Here is my idea for my animation in storyboard format. I wanted something simple as its only a 15-30 second animation. There's not much time for a story really I think my animation is going to be about 20 seconds long at 24 frames per second. 
The idea is that the background is just white but then the girl peers round the edge of something in the middle of the screen. then she runs out and plays then runs towards the camera really cheekily. I'm hoping it will look cute and make people smile and I'm really hoping it moves and looks like a toddler! That's going to be difficult.

And here it is put into an animatic...

animated self

So I started drawing my niece with reference from photos and I think it worked quite well. I really like the first two I think I captured her body and posture and proportions quite well. However the face doesn't look anywhere near young enough. I notice how she has her fingers splayed most of the time.

 So then I tried working on her face. I thought this was a pretty good drawing! Then I put in next to the original photo and just realised how far off I was. 

 She looks to grown up and her eyes are too far apart and her cheeks aren't chubby enough. I put this on instegram to get feedback and what needs to be changed.

 Here is the image after feedback. I think this is so much better! though by no means perfect. But she definitely looks younger and chubbier and her eyes are better and her lips are younger. I am quite pleased with this.

 Next, I started making her into a cartoon. In the image her eyes are too close together but I changed that. I enjoyed doing this as you have to get the detail in the solid lines not using shading.

 This was to get the profile view and also to decide whether she should have her hair up or down. I like it down from the front but up from the sides! I have decided to use it up but put some strands of hair in the front that I missed out.

I also experimented with a skirt that could help get some secondary movements but I think I'm just going to stick with the trousers and a t-shirt.

Then I started drawing on the computer and drew her from 4 views. I really like this! I think her legs may need to be a little shorter though.

animated self

For my final animation for my animated self project I think I would like to work on character design and better movement and make the character move how it should for it's personality as these are all things I would like to work on next year. 
For this I think I am going to animate my niece. I started making her into a character before in my sketchbook and in plaster-cine and clay which was really fun but they never really looked like her so I think this will give me chance to improve my drawing skills and character design skills. I will draw my niece and try and get it to look more like her then I will change her into a character. 
I will use photos and videos of her and of other children around the same age as reference for movement and posture etc. 
I am quite looking forward to this!

Pixillation

I think this pixilation animation music video is really clever, I like the way they have used the paint and made it seem like it just changed like lights being projected but actually it would have taken ages to film. It looks like it would have been a lot of fun! I think they would have had to plan this out very carefully though and had a proper project manager, someone to film it, an artist, not to mention the band themselves, so that this ran smoothly. They would probably also needed to get permission from whoever owns the property they use to paint on it. But I think it gives an awesome effect.

Presentation

This is my finished Animation / presentation. I had to add new parts because I misjudged how little time my story board would take up. Even after adding these new things I still hadn't got close to 5 minutes and was beginning to wonder what an earth I was going to do.Unfortunately it's not 5 minutes long, but I spoke to Mike and he said he would rather it be shorter than be padded out with "fluff and guff".

I enjoyed this project and it was a nice change to be able to do lots of different things and not have a really short time limit. It enabled me to play about a bit more and experiment and I learnt some new things on photoshop like how you make a layer into a smart object which enables you to transform the layer on a keyframe so you can move an object on screen from one position to another or change its size over a set period of time. 

I found it difficult to make each slide long enough because when you make it yourself you know what it says so you read it faster than a normal person would. 

I chose the music because I think its uplifting and catchy and I also think it goes well with work because of the lyrics 'and if you cry out, im gunna push you more' in this instance meaning if you complain about the work you're just going to get more!

Blue zoo job oppertunity

I found out on twitter that Blue zoo are doing internships! They're 6 weeks long and pay £300 a week! I think that's brilliant! The catch is you have to know Maya....and I don't yet :( So I'm hoping they do this again next year and that I am good enough at Maya to get this internship! I would love it! I've wanted to work or have work experience at blue zoo for ages! I'm excited already and I haven't even learnt the software yet! I think its not too far by public transport from my grandparents house so I could always ask to live with them for 6 weeks, would definitely be cheaper board and my Nana is a fab cook!

http://www.blue-zoo.co.uk/jobs/#MayaGeneralistInternship

Storyboard for -reflect

For my PPP reflect presentation I want to have a lot of it moving but I understand there is not much time to do this so I have had an idea. At first I wanted everything to be on a sticky note because they are extremely useful to me. So I rotoscoped my hand peeling off a sticky note and it looked great.

 I started adding words and I loved it but then I realised that it took me a whole day to peel off about 4 notes. I have to do a 5-10 minute presentation maybe thats not possible. so here is my new storyboard. It still includes post it notes but not as much as it would have before.

Ideas

My idea for my PPP presentation is to have a post it note with it being written on then torn off. I thought about this because I use post it notes all the time and find them very helpful. I think I might have a little character in the corner that maybe changes expressions every time the post it note is taken off.
Ideas for the content...
-Post it notes rule
-Time management, looking frustrated then being finished early
-Not knowing anything to knowing multiple techniques and it being easier
-learning to cook more than just pasta. maybe have a pasta monster
-working in pyjamas is the best
-Essay was hard
-so much work. work overload
-money management

Our wonderful nature

http://vimeo.com/26632368
This starts of as such a beautiful animation with great realism and technique and its just so perfectly awesome!!! Then just as I was getting bored...the 2 animals start fighting with a mixture of martial arts including capoera and kickboxing and the dude even did a double corkscrew! That's serious skill. It just gets funnier and funnier but always with the beautiful animation and then at the end when one of the guys finally gets the girl...all romance is dead and they just mate and run away. Absolutely hilarious portrayal of nature. I would love to make something like this with the perfect animation and it still be funny. Such a misleading title too, I thought I was in for 5 minutes of how it started like something off the discovery channel. If there was more things like this on the discovery channel I would SO watch it!!

Lego movie

I saw the lego movie yesterday it was HILARIOUS. But on a serious note...I was impressed with the level of animation. I particularly liked the way they did the water and fire. They made them both flow really well just using stop motion that would have taken forever! I was curious if all of the movie was made in stop motion like the faces etc so i googled and this is what I found...
http://entertainment.time.com/2014/02/20/how-the-lego-movie-was-made-animation-video/
So apparently none of it is stop motion! It's not real lego at all! They make virtual lego bricks on the computer then use a software that clicks them together and it works like real lego how it doesn't connect with some pieces. The video at the top of the page explains the whole process of this film right from storyboarding. I found it quite interesting how just a bit of lighting can make a virtual object look like a real life object! I think the visuals are absolutely fabulous mainly because you can't tell it's all computer generated! 
I think knowing it's all done on computer took the magic out of it a bit but I think making it in stop motion would have taken a heck of a lot longer than this so I see why they did it in this way.

Blik

I found this video on vimeo. It's about a young boy who falls in love with a much older neighbour.
I think its amazing that even with no dialogue and no faces you get the story and even the emotion. I would like to learn the skill of using body language to portray emotion. I think in animation it needs to be slightly exaggerated so you notice it.
I am also intrigued by the style. It looks hand drawn with brilliant colours and textures and has little pencil lines on but somehow the characters look like they're made from wood and quite 3D. I can't find anywhere that says how they did this but I really do like it! I also like the realistic movement they captured, I think they may have filmed this before animating it.

Process

I found this link really interesting. It explains the process and production of 'Frozen'. It explains that although it is based on the Hans Christian Anderson novel 'The snow queen' it only takes a few bits from this like the ice and the queen. The entire rest of the story is completely different. It also explains reasoning behind decisions and what was difficult and easy like creating a character (Olaf) that is able to split into 3 pieces and put itself together was an interesting task.
This part parrticularly made me giggle but I can understand why they did it!-
'Like all of our films, research was a big part of out process. With our animators living in California, we needed to send them to Cheyenne, Wyoming so they could experience what walking through deep snow is like. They actually did it in dresses – the guys did it in dresses to – in order to get a sense of what it would be like for our heroines to traverse the snow.' 
This peice really helps you get an insight into the work that goes on behind the scenes in the making of disney movies.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/09/25/inside-the-research-design-and-animation-of-walt-disneys-frozen-with-producer-peter-del-vecho/

John Lewis

Today I was reading a magazine in the library and there was an article on the John lewis christmas advert. When we watched this in a COP seminar I assumed this was 2D animated mixed with a bit of 3D maybe film. Apparently I was wrong! They used cut out images! I think its fabulous that you can't tell that it isn't done on the computer. HOWEVER, I think it was a little pointless as it would have taken forever and gave the same effect as 2D on computer would have. It would have saved a lot of time. I'm not sure if it would have interacted with the background as well though.

copyright

Copyright gives the owner, creator, publisher or author the right to control the way their material can be used.
film, games, animation, music, computer apps, drawings and illustrations can all be copyrighted.
Anything with an independent or collaborative intellectual effort can be copyright. This includes stories scripts and lyrics. Everything produced in the uk is protected by copyright.
copyright means you can't copy, adapt, distribute, perform, rent, or lend these items without prior consent/permission.
you can transfer the rights or buy them LEGALLY.
copyright lifetimes:
literary, dramatic, artistic, photographic...life+70years.
sound recordings...70 years.
always seek permission to use the work if you intend it for public consumption. some sights take ownership of your images so be careful!



Alternatives to copyright

Copyleft!!
the auther may give someone permission to reproduce, adapt or distribute the work as long as they also mark their work as copyleft.

Creative commons
non profit organisation that allows people to share, reuse, remix things legally.however it gets confusing

CC BY means you can distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon work, as long as they credit you for the work.

CC BY SA means you can distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon work, as long as they credit you for the work as long as they license it under the same terms. (like copyleft)

CC BY ND means allows for non commercial  and commercial re-distribution as long as it's unchanged and credited to you.


CC BY NC means you can distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon work, as long as they credit you for the work. but its non commercial.

CC BY NC SA means you can distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon work, as long as they credit you for the work. but its non commercial and they must license it under the same terms.

CC BY NC ND allows other to download and share your work, with credit to you but they cant change it or use it comercially.

Thought of you

I just found this....wow. It is absolutely beautiful. So raw, so passionate, so fluid. Just beautiful! 
This animation is by Ryan Woodward.
This is a link to his page where you can see the making of- http://ryanwoodwardart.com/my-works/thought-of-you/
It's really interesting to find out how and why this animation was created. It puts even more emotion into it. 
This animation how shown me a) the power of music, b) that reference is very important and can help a lot and c) movement can be absolutely beautiful and I want to create something like this. 
I can't describe just how much I love it. I really like all the little extra bits on the movements too. They don't have hands they just sort of drip and flow like a secondary animation. 
I really like the style too, its like it's in a sketchbook but its also in a room and its simple and elegant, yet somehow detailed I think the movement helps create the detail, not to mention the fabulous drawing. I want to draw like this. It has definitely inspired me. And given me a new favourite song! 

Tron

This is actually quite interesting to watch. We have come so far in CGI animation since the first Tron, it's amazing to see them both together like this. I know that people like the original, but from my opinion, having watched the original second, they have improved the effects so much but kept the story. Granted, for its time, Tron was good. It was great! the first motion capture feature-length film i believe? It works very well but the new one....just brings things to life a bit more. Everything moves better, the background are better, the motorbikes can move wherever not just in straight lines crashing into a wall. It's just amazing that in 28 years we have come that far.

Brain Divided

I just watched this on youtube, it's by Josiah Howarth, Joon Sik song and Joon Soo song who are from the Ringling college of art and design.
It's on the same level as pixar and they're only studying! I find that fascinating. The style reminds me of 'Rio'. I like the exaggerated movements and the anticipation- they have obviously used the animation principles. 
I just love the storyline. It's showing that people have two sides to the brain and everyone thinks differently. I absolutely love the end! It made me laugh so much, this guy is trying to hit on a hot chick and in the end she goes crazy and over the top and wants his babies! It's like taking the Mick out of females but it's hilarious. 
I like the colouring and lighting they used in this. its a restaurant so its romantic so the lightings dim. Also red is a romantic colour so this is used for the overall tone and colouring of the restaurant. I also like how you know its a restaurant but you can't see a lot of the background.  
I am very interested in this style of animation and would love to do it eventually.

Jessica rabbit real life

I know this really doesn't have much to do with animation except she's a cartoon but I came across this and actually found it fascinating to watch! so clever the way they used a few images to make her appear real. The result is just stunning! This also gives me inspiration of the wonders of photoshop.

Tangled process

I found this on youtube, it shows you the makings of Tangled- how they start with rigid rigs and models in 3D software, use film of people from real life to get the movements right, add the hair in last etc, it gives you a real sense of what goes on behind the scenes and the amount of work that goes into it. I love it when the robotic figures move more flowingly. I also like how it looks the same in pencil as it does in the end product! they stuck to their design. I love when she says "gettin kinda chubby", makes me laugh every time. I like the lighting they use in the end too.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM8fXYZ-6u0

BAF Trailer

I just found this on Skwigly, it's an interview with the makers of the trailer! I actually found  this really interesting seeing what goes into the process of the animation that's so loveable. There are so many different parts to do with so many different people doing them. I liked how they used students aswell, I wouldn't mind doing something like that but when I am more confident maybe next year or in my third year as some experience. 
In the animation, my favourite part has to be the mixing bowl being the zoeatrope! Very clever! It looks like it was a lot of hard work with lots of hours put in but it was such a good result! I like what she said about having an idea and if the client likes it, stick to it. This way there's no room for "ooh maybe this would be good" which takes up a lot of time. I would like to look at some more work of Joanna Quinn, she said she usually works on her own and the exaggerated "yummy bits" are her trade mark which I would like to see.


http://www.skwigly.co.uk/joanna-quinn-baf/