Poster for pop up show

This is a poster i created for the pop up show. I collected everyones characters and used the skills i have learnt on photoshop to create a unique poster.I used the colours orange blue and green to represent sun water and grass as i think it looks good with the characters as it is visually pleasing to the eye, this is what we see all the time.In conclusion i am very pleased with the outcome of this piece of work.

buisness card for concept art front and back

Above are photos of the buisness card i created i chose my favourite pieces of work to go on the front and back as this is what i think will get people to call me or email me to do some work for them.

Understanding copyright

Copyright is one of the issues that affects most films and certainly all of the mainstream releases. It also affects me as a student, I need to know about it for the future but I also need to know about it when I am doing research or sharing clips on my blog for example. There are many kinds of copyright. In film the copyrights usually last for 70 years after the last surviving person dies out of the director, anyone who composed music specially for the film and the authors of the screenplay and script. Of course there is more to it than that, and within any film or tv series there are copyrights associated with product placement and for example clips form actual tv footage or news. Also in the media there has been a lot of coverage of pirating, this is a problem as it infringes copyright laws which means that the copyright owners don’t get the revenue for the hard work they did in getting the film (or whatever) together. There are many strong adverts in cinemas about this and it has hit the news as it is so easy to download off the internet and whereas if you buy a pirate dvd, you probably are aware that you are doing just that (and that you shouldn’t) but with the internet you don’t feel the same somehow and you do need to be reminded that in fact piracy (even unauthorised sharing over the internet) is in fact stealing. Using archive film clips is also something that has to be done through the right channels though often much of this is available freely or cheaply, but it is important you go through the right channels and can show that you did. Institutes like the BFI and Pa they have many archives available and many institutes have archives that you can use under a special student/education licence organised either by the student or more usually by the educational facility ( uni/college/school) Any music you use as a student needs to have the owner of its copyright traced and to have permission, and this can be very difficult, but as this can add quite a bit of time to a project, fore-warned at least should be a bit fore-armed!

The cg bros

This is interesting to see especially after looking at the mill showreel, while the effects are amazing and really well done, as a show reel i don't think that this flows very well, the images dont seem to link together, and i find the music a bit overpowering, i would have preferred it if the music didn't start off so loud i think as it is a bit too strong somehow. each image is great, but i don't feel that they run together very well and the music doesn't help. i find it a bit confusing as a showreel, but maybe that was their intention.

Cinematic made in maya (Favourite)

This cinematic has to be my favourite at this moment in time. It is wonderful from the start when they set the scene to the end when he brutally slaughters the king.As i have been using maya i was fascinated in how realistic it all looks and inspired.It must have taken them ages to create this as the level of detail is second to none in other words its fantastic. I love the slow motion part when everything turns to ice as the main character hurls his spell into the air to freeze them all,it makes me think back to when i was a kid when animations like this wouldn't be possible,all so makes me think what will it be like in the next few years will it keep getting better or will we hit a barrier soon.

Review of the mill showreel

Review of the mill showreel I wanted to look at The mill showreel for their VFX special effects, I worked at this post production company in Soho when I did my work experience for school, and it really was inspirational. This showreel starts off slowly and builds up to a crescendo of special effects. The music is so much a part of it too and I love that as this is really energising. What I like about the showreel is that there is much of it which doesn’t seem like there has been much post production work to it at all (though of course there has!) but the things that explode with colour and effects are not the things you expect to do that, and as the pace of the editing and the action increases so does the pace of the music. As I am learning to use VFX this is really a great showreel to watch, it makes you feel full of possibilities, but as it is hard to master it also makes me realise how far I have to go!

competition work OUT OF MY MIND

: : :Out of my mind: : : When i saw the compettion fro Mind. Spirit and emotion I was really inspired by the title. For me art is about expressing emotions and actions, but not necessarily about realistic interpretations. I first thought of doing a piece on re-incarnation for this competition. I researched various other interpretations of this theme, which is a subject that has always fascinated me, but a huge proportion of the other artworks I could find were to do with religion, Buddhism, Christian (easter) etc. this is of course to be expected but this was not what I wanted to explore and I couldn’t get the religious images out of my mind. The religious aspect of so many of the artworks really stopped my creativity if you like, but I am still interested in the spirit and spirituality, so I tried to look at it another way. This made me think more about the title for the competition and tried to go into my own mind and see what came out… I wanted to portray mindblowingness and freedom, the idea being that emotion and the spirit are able to flourish if the mind is free. I expressed this by giving my character wings. I want the wings to be at the edge of the piece, they are like an option. I also looked at an art therapy site and the use of colour, I wanted to see what the colours I wanted to use might mean to someone else. http://www.finearttips.com/2009/08/use-the-hidden-meaning-of-color-in-your-art/ the predominate colour I used for the character is blue and tones of blue. The strongest colour is for the wings which represents freedom of mind and spirit Blue is thought of as a calming colour, and I feel this works with my artwork, my character is not panicing, he is thinking, creating, he is a free spirit. The background is a sandy textured surface. I wanted a yellowy tone to represent happiness and hope, which is where he is coming from.

The Simpsons title sequences

i really like the title sequences for the simpsons as they have become a bit of an iconic thing, you can tell the episode form the title sequence and what time the episode was made as they use recent events to inspire them in their title sequences, they are always so expressive and to the point, alwayas spot on, i love that. with the simpsons part of the reason i think they are so successful is that everyone knows the characters so well, and so they can do a screen shot of a title and everyone gets it. They also keep it current by having great guest characters come into the show, its amazing that it has been around for so long and is still so poipular all over the world, even in non english speaking countries. This is inspiring.

Reincarnation (inspiration for competition)

When I saw the theme Mind Body and Spirit my first thought was of reincarnation, so I thought I would look into how I could do some art based on this. I did research into reincarnation and art but was disappointed if not surprised when most of the references were religious, for me this is more of a spiritual thing, but I found that the art about reincarnation was too religion based in general and this closed my mind rather than open it, which was not what I had wanted to do. Lots of “cycle of life “ art, and Buddhism and hellfire etc all a bit telling you what to think, and not about letting your mind and spirit develop. For me the thought of reincarnation is more about having an open mind and taking responsibility, trying to live a better life as there may be consequences afterwards. But I can’t think of this as a religious thing, so I decided to try and let this theme inspire me in another way.

Buddha research for competition (inspiration for competition)

When I thought about the competition theme – mind body and emotion – along with thinking about reincarnation I also thought of Buddhism, though a religion, it is more open and has a reputation for being spiritual and using meditation as a tool. I like the idea of losing yourself in this way, and I think it is interesting how thoughts and spirituality can affect your mind and even your body. Kind of mind over matter and the power of positive thinking. I looked at a Buddhism site to try to understand more about Buddhism and its point of view regarding meditation and so mind body and emotion. They see meditation as a way of being able to focus on things you may want to change for example, without this internal focus then it is much harder to change your behaviour which is often habitual. They also advocate repeating certain positive phrases over and over in your head while meditating, and believe that this can really affect the way you think and act and your emotions. Buddhists see the mind as a very powerful instrument, and believe that you can project positive mental energy. I find this really interesting, however for this competition I want to do something that is not religion based, as even with Buddhism I find the fact that it is a religion to constricting, I want to show something that is more to do with the mind and the potential for thoughts changing or affecting your body and emotions.

Hayayo Miyazaki

Hayayo Miyazaki is one of my favourite artists.As a kid i grew up watching a lot of animations,i have stopped watching a lot of them but yet i still watch animations by Hayayo Miyazaki, i believe he is amazing.I love the vast variety of unusual characters,building and stunning backdrops in his animations.Hayayo Miyazaki has inspired me to create loads of my own creations that are just weird and wonderful from rats that can fly to armoured alien type creatures. My favourite film by him has to be spirited away.The level of detail in it is outstanding he is defiantly someone i look up to in the art industry and i strongly recommend you watch his films if you haven't.

Research for inspiration for competition brief

Mind spirit and emotion competition what i plan to do

.Open for Submissions: $7,635 in cash and prizes .Submission Deadline: June 08, 2014 (Midnight EST) .Judging: June 11, 2014 Winners Notification: June 16, 2014 Art-Competition.net: Announces a call to artists for an online-juried international art competition, April 14, 2014 - June 08, 2014 (Midnight EST) $7,635 in cash and prizes. The Competition is open to all artists 18 years of age or older working in any painting, digital or photo medium. I plan on doing this competition as i believe it gives me the chance to use all the skills i have learnt in photoshop this year on other projects and create a piece of work that is very unique and creative.I plan to look into reincarnation for my theme for the project as that is what came to my mind when i heard the title of the comp.

Riot and League of legend Game design at a high standerd

I chose to look into league of legends witch is a MOBA(Multiplayer Online Battle Arena).This game has kept me playing it for many years. I believe this is due to the amount of hard work the riot team have put in over the years from making new skins for the charecters you get in the game regularly and creating new a exciting gameplay by adding tons of new characters.Looking back at the lecture by the guys who created the game worms and the golden points in relation to this,i believe they have done this for example there are many fresh new animations.Stuff like this is vital if you want to keep your consumers happy.It has made me think about how if i do want to get into the game industry i need to improve very fast as the workflow at this level will be vastly increased.

Drawing tutorial with jazza (how to draw demons)

Another video by jezza. I looked at this video as i love to draw monsters(demons) in my spare time.This video taught me so much for example i learnt many new ways to draw demonic heads,noses,ears and eyes. In this tutorial i also learnt that if i want to symbolise something for example if i wanted a demon to look like a king i would give him horns that go around his head resembling a crown but My favourite tip in this tutorial would have to be to look at animals for inspiration when creating new creatures.

How to draw tutorial (facial construction)

I am trying to get better at drawing so i decided to go on the search for some tutorials witch i think could help me improve my skills. I have trouble drawing faces at angles so i looked for someone who could help me on youtube. I looked at many tutorials some were boring and some were just terrible but this guy jezza is just amazing.He is to the point and gives you little tips along the way on how to draw a lot of things.From this tutorial i have learnt how to draw a head so much better.I thought i was good at drawing but i guess i have a lot more work to do,i plan to follow this guy and learn as fast as i can. In conclusion this guy is a great teacher.

Gallery Munro House, Leeds Margaret thatcher cartoon drawings

Thatcher exhibition I grew up hearing my parents and their friends talking about Thatcherism, and this discussion continues as her legacy continues to be relevant today, particularly as we have a conservative government. Agendas of privatisation and cuts in public services/pensions etc. When I saw this exhibition was on last year I had to go and see it. I love the work of political cartoonists, and Thatcher and what she stood for was a great subject for them of course. Though this is not the kind of art I am interested in creating, I love this kind of art as a punter, it shows how art is a great communicator, so much can be shown with a clever hand and an eye for caricature!

Baf game worms 3d

I love the worms and when i found out we had a talk on the new one on the trip to baf game i had to go.The worms game is a multiplayer shooter 2d based well until now! Worms has turned 3d and it quite frankly looks so much fun to play. All the animations look fresh and interesting plus the amount of weppons you can use now has increased, you can also customise how your worms look. It was enjoyable finding out about the new game but the best part of the lecture had to be when he taught us some golden rules about creating games. (listed further on) ---The Golden rules--- At the lecture he taught us 3 main rules when making a game they are Make it snappy------ .think carfully about the animation reacting with the game play Make it rewarding----- .visual feedback is part of the games reward quality visual feedback can be used to modify game behaviour Make it playfull------ keep animation fresh and have multiple animations for frequent events to keep the consumer interested 9/10 for this lecture

Baf game

Youtube and how it is the best way to spread your work about

Youtube is a great way to show a general audience your work, or opinion. There are many internet options for sharing/spreading your work such as Facebook etc, which promote your work to friends and friends of friends (depending on their privacy settings). There has been quit a lot of work done in schools lately to make kids aware of how quickly things can spread around to people they don’t know through things like Facebook, I’ve seen stuff on Facebook posted by teachers to show kids the power of the internet, and to try to stop them posting things that are private on such a forum. But of course you can also use this in a positive way to get your work seen and heard by a huge audience (potentially). You need to try to promote yourself as much as possible, enabling comments etc to try to generate a conversation about your work, the more people talk the more will watch it. You can also monetise your page/site by adding adverts etc where you get a payment of some sort per hit. The thing is these days if you want to be well known or well publicised its hard to do this without some sort of reference to youtube etc, as people go to it to have a look at say a new band or a filmmaker, and to help them form an opinion about it , so you have to try to understand how it works so you can use it to your advantage.

Baf game tomb raider

The tomb raider lecture was very interesting In this lecture i learnt about how creating a believeable hero is a challenge as you think about many things.For example where were they born?What age are they at the start of the game and do they grow?the way they walk?will different terrains make your character act in a different way? and If you character is hurt will they look different in game? These tips were very help full as it got me thinking about how i can improve my drawing skills and idea generating skills by researching a lot when creating a character,Not just how he looks but the backstory to him to make them more bellieveable . 10/10 for this lecture.

Barry finnegan concept artist and why i like his portraits

I love the work of this artist, he does photorealistic art, which is , in my eyes, simply amazing. I also find it interesting how he has publicised his work using videos of him doing certain pieces and in this way he has raised his profile. His work, or at least most of it, is big - life sized, I love his technique and find his work and methods really inspirational especially now when so much art is made on a computer, it is great to see real actual raw talent, inspiring. his portrait of the characters Leon and Matilda in a film, is just amazing, you think you are looking at a photo, but somehow his images have more depth! Amazing.

evaluation

Evaluation The brief was to create a one minute cut scene cinematic film in teams of three, using Maya and Unity. We also had to (individually) create an alien and rig him and make a video show reel demonstrating a rigged animated and textured version of our tutorial character. For the alien character we were all given reference images for this part of the assignment, but I did try to give my alien a bit of my (his) own identity nonetheless. As I was confident with modelling I left this way too late as I thought the rigging would be a lot easier than it turned out to be, I had real trouble with the the rigging which was incredibly frustrating. Also I had missed some of the lessons ( a really bad idea) and so this meant that I had to do more work before I could even start this part. The modelling was the easiest bit as I enjoy modelling and that always helps, I feel confident in this part of the work. I have learnt again about the importance of proper timetabling, I mistakenly left myself with not enough time to do justice to my alien, thinking that this part of the exercise would take much less time than in fact it did, which is frustrating and I will need to work on my skills in the rigging department much more. For the short film we chose to do a “western” theme opting for the topic “challenge” which was to be a duel in our film. We divided up the work involved and I got the task of creating all the scenery and backgrounds. Initially we created lots of mood boards to look at different storylines and settings and it became clear that we would need a street scene with a saloon, a church and a barn along with other buildings. If I were to do this again I would have created a jail and a lot more different types of buildings/houses to add more depth to the backgrounds. I did research into various western type buildings and this was useful, I could see that the texturing was going to be an important part of this part of the project as the dry and timbery buildings have a specific “feel” which I needed to convey. We went to the royal armouries to see if we could get any good reference images, we took photos of the images we thought would be useful, to do with weaponry and this was a useful thing to have done as we were able to come up with some good ideas as this setting inspired us and we were able to brainstorm a lot about what we wanted to do and what would be possible. I needed to research the types of buildings that would be needed so I looked at two animated western type films : Rango and Black Water Gospel. I compared these backgrounds to those in old western scenes and photos I found doing my general research. I could see that the buildings themselves were actually quite simple. I also knew that I would not have to create the whole buildings in most instances but that the inside the saloon part would be the most important as this is where the animation was going to start so I really needed to set the scene to start with. It was important to make the scenery look run down and decrepit, this seems to be a common theme in western type films, and also we were using a grim reaper character so the old and tatty nature of the backgrounds would add to the overall feel and atmosphere of our animation. This was my first time doing texturing though and I didn’t really know how to do it at the start, and I had a few false starts with textures that didn’t work. When I was modelling I made a few models that didn’t work out so I had to remake them, but this did not waste so much time as I have done modelling before. With the texturing I found that I spent far more time than anticipated and this was frustrating but of course also useful and I feel I have learnt a lot from this exercise, particularly regarding texturing as I tried loads and loads of different textures but the scales were not right and so the planks of wood were not to scale and so they didn’t work out at all, so this part of the exercise took the most time for me. As I knew I was going to put this into unity with cartoon shading (which we as a team had decided to do) I didn’t put any bump maps into my textures. During the project we had a change in members of the team which added significant delays, also my time management was not great, however I do think this is a good outcome for my first attempt at such a big project. Overall I am pleased with our end result, particularly given the poor time management and change of team during the project. If I did the project again I would design the buildings a lot better as I had a bit of a mental block with Maya but now I am starting to have some fun with it and this is a breakthrough for me so I don’t feel now that Maya is as difficult as I used to, so I am confident that next time it will be easier to allocate my time better which is useful as next year I will be creating a whole level in Maya. This project has been so useful in helping me decide what I would like to focus on next year – Maya scenography rather than film.

This guy is amazing and his tutorials rock "Animation Methods"

I was really pleased that i came across this texturing basics tutorial online as i found it fun and inspiring.He made something that i had thought of as very difficult seem fun and this has really changed my attitude to maya witch is a great thing for me as maya has really stressed me out in the past. In this tutorial he spoke about how to uv map a easy shape and texture it using a method that I now use for everything. In conclusion i strongly recommend that people watch this and subscribe as i believe if you can make maya seem fun to people that have never used it before or are beginners is a very good thing and this logic should be applied to most tutorials.

building blocks

Above are some of the parts of my town that are duplicated. I decided to build most of my town like this as i believe it helped me create my town a lot quicker as i could be a lot more creative when build as i could duplicate these objects to create my buildings and put them where I wanted with ease.

finished right side of street with textures

This is the finished right hand side of the street for the film.I am pleased with the overall colour scheme witch i think reflects the western setting really well as the greys and browns compliment the desert like land scape. This is what want the viewers to imagine.

some of my favourite textures i created

Above are my favourite textures that i created. I Am new to texturing but I am quite good in photoshop.I watched a few tutorials on how to texture and was on my way to create the textures you see above. To create these textures i used many layers combined with the stamp tool to create seamless textures. I tried to find textures that were either brown,yellow or grey along with other stuff for example blood splatters and spider webs to give off a spooky feel i believe i have achieved this in these textures. I cant wait to start creating textures for my project next year and i believe doing this has helped me improve my skills in photoshop and in maya at uv texturing.

finished far left side of town pictures with textures

Above are photos of the whole of the left side of my town apart from my saloon. I used a lot of the same textures on these buildings as i did for my other buildings so it all would look the same or it would look out of place.I am very pleased with the outcome again. I did not have to create the backs or the insides of these buildings as in our animation you would not see them so this saved me time. This i believe gave me a lot more room for creativity and is definitely a factor as to why i think they came out so well. In the future I plan to add more to these buildings by creating the insides. I would also like to say i did not use bump maps as we plan on using cartoon shader.

looking into more buildings for my film church and barn

I need to create a church and a barn for my animation so i looked into more photos of buildings.Above are 4 that i used to help me make my buildings. I tried to again find pictures of decayed buildings and ones with the same colour scheme i was using as i thought this will help me a lot in the next stage, making the buildings, as i can look at them when building and can see in my mind what i want it to look like more easily. I particularly like the one on the bottom right of the broken down church as it i think has a lot of character and is something i would like to create.I am also very happy with the colour scheme so far as it in my eyes is looking great.

textures i did not use and some buildings

The top two Photos in this blog are of some buildings i created in maya,i did not use these as I thought they were definitely not good enough. I thought they were not good enough for a few reasons for example they lacked character in my eyes as they looked to similar to stuff all ready out there and They looked a bit blocky.The next photo down is a photo of my final saloon with a texture that i created that i liked but when i showed a few of my friends they told me the wood planks were way to big for the size of the building ( scale was wrong). I am glad i showed a few of my m8s as it got me thinking and made me get back on photoshop to create a new texture in doing so i created something a lot better and improved my skills. The final photo is a a texture i created using the colours i wanted but when i added it to my texture it didn't look right this is the only reason i did not use it.

saloon pictures finished with all the textures

My finished saloon, above are 3 pictures of the saloon i created, i used many textures to create this which took me ages. I am very pleased with what i have created and the research i have done has definitely helped.The colours i chose in my textures are dark and light with a mix of yellows,browns,greys with a few extra textures such as blood and spider webs for the door to give it a spooky like feel, below are the textures i used for the door and floor boards for the outside and top of the saloon After i finished the textures i had fun wrecking the place as i moved it about so it looked run down, by deleting some planks of wood and turning tables upside down. In conclusion i am very happy with what i have achieved but i did it again I would concentrate on the inside a lot more by adding paintings,broken glass a whole manner of objects to make it come more alive.