A Brush Up

Had a quick brush up session with Simon Wallett today. I couldn't clearly remember how to use the puppet tool, but after 10 minutes it was pretty much coming back to me.Strangely, there were parts that i have no recollection of either. Although I'm sure it was taught the first time round. It would seem that i only remember what i use, anything else is quickly forgotten. The best way to get round this would be to use everything! All the time!
Simon, at my request, also went over Render Passes with me. He covered layers, matte/shadow/reflection and using Render Elements. This was really enlightening to me, as it taught me how much easier and controllable rendering can be. I'm going to put this knowledge to use in my Context 3 project when creating my five images.

And finally Simon pointed me towards Master Zap's blog.
He's a whiz at using MentalRay, and just generally rendering. This is actually where Simon got some of our lessons from. So a good resource, all in all.

Fantasy Olympics

Fantasy Olympics from Diana Jones on Vimeo.

After Effects was a completely new programme to me. As a combination of Premier pro and Photoshop, i found it hard to adapt to, as quite simply it is an effects tool and not primarily an animating one. I had to learn that i was not working in 3d, as i have been previously on this course, and think in only 2-dimensions. I found it hard to wrap my head round 2d 3d creations, but i got there eventually.
What i loved about this project was the recreation of my character Saru! And throwing dodge balls into bunnies faces! HA!
Unfortunately there are a couple problems with my final piece. these include: The fast paced transitions between the scenes, and the sketchy look of my characters. the transitions between each scene seem as if they are cut off too soon, and should last a second or two longer. I had not noticed this at first due to the fast paced feel to the video. My characters, due to their photoshop filling and pen inked outlines, look very amateur. If i was to remake this video, these are the immediate problems i would rectify. But i would also love to expand on the storyboard, the ending is a tad bit abrupt, leaving the viewer let down fast.
Honestly, i feel i could happily make a awesome dodge ball video, due to me being more comfortable with the After Effects programme.
how i understand how it can aid and even create animation.

uniforms for my characters

I was just looking at different colour schemes for the uniforms. personally i quite like the black ones, they're quite snazzy!

Saru + Bunny

Okay so I've uploaded them to photoshop now. I need to colour them in and separate them all onto to different layers. It shouldn't take me too long.

Okay, i did it! Here's an example of Saru:

okay, so i know he hasn't got a coloured body, but that is because I'm still working on the uniform design. I will obviously add that in when i have decided.

My Fantasy Olympics

Finally, I've got the scanner working, so i could scan in my character designs and such.

Team logos at the side

 So these were my initial drawings for this project. Admittedly, I've used one character before. i just love him so much that i had to use him again! So, it's monkeys versus bunnies in a game of non-grav dodge ball! The spectators are little long armed aliens. the location is a game sphere in space.

Bunny

Monkey

Then i worked on my character design. I made a few expressions that could be used during the game. I doubt that the bunnies will be smiling for long though.

Fantasy Olympics

Here's the BBC's winter olympics advert for last year. I hope my olympics advert will be this awesome!


My ideas so far for this project revolve around a futuristic non-gravity dodgeball game between angry monkeys and scared bunnies. I drew a few pics to get a feel for it. Unforntunately my scanner has decided, that it does not want to scan anymore. I will upload them when i can.