Recent Activity.

Main Project - The Last Trophy

So Recently,... We've been in all of Easter. 9am to 5pm everyday, (apart from weekends) We've even faced the odd porter who walked in asking if we should be there.... Could you imagine if they tried to kick us our in this crucial time of getting out Animation out?

I've been updating the group blog and correcting the lighting, compiling things for rendering, figuring out what needs changing, editing passes and Ambient Occlusion as directed by Pete (Technical Director), Unfortunately Olly has been away quite some time now, and with my lack of lighting knowledge, I've had to go into scenes and edit the lighting to suit our needs, which isn't looking too bad, it's still based off of all of Olly's base lights, I've just stopped some Shadows being cast and added a few more rim lights and toned down some of the heftier lights that were making our characters blown out, the major change was just offsetting the direction of the main Sunlight.

We're all still optimistic, and I can honestly say right now, this year has been pretty amazing, we've all been talking about it, but really, look at how much we've done so far, everything we've learnt, technically, team work wise. Had we done more of this in the first two years, we'd be proper Pro. Honestly, I never thought I could effectively lead a team of my peers, although not alone in this endeavor, with Simon's help on the creative side of things.

I think when I finish I will be attacking more personal creative aspects of my life, As I've taken a more administrative role this year, which I've enjoyed. But at the same time. I'm an Artist as well believe it or not.

I point you to what I can find of my Musical Career. Something that's followed me through life and pulled me through every aspect, I think most of the hardest times I've faced whilst at uni accumulate to me thinking, "You know what, Georg is right, I'm gonna be a rock star and marry a fat Britney Spears", which is something I'd happily do to make the music that I love and have people all over the world enjoy it. (I would hope) So here's a live video from a pretty awesome gig we did in a small venue in Birmingham, inter cut with our times at our practice shack. I looked thinner back then.....



Next I'd like to point you to someone I'm fond of musically and now as an Animation Professional as well. Jamie Lenman is still in my eyes one of the greatest British Song smith's of all time, but as a Musician turned animation professional, You can find his Youtube channel above where he has posted animatics and bits of animation works along with a cover of a Frank Turner Tune on a Banjelele (Is that how you spell it?) Jamie when he was with his band Reuben directed a lot of the bands videos. So I figured for your watching pleasure I would post up one of my favorite Video's by the band.



Innovations

I'm aiming to do something game related. Something that I intend to follow on with when I finish Uni. As a lot of people know. I did intend to do something with the Unreal Engine. But as of yet I have no models, My computer can't run Maya or Unreal without dying a death, and I haven't the money to upgrade, So with purest intention, I'm gonna hit my summer project again and work on doing something Flash related. I know the basic Actionscripting required to make a simple platform game.

I did really want to make an Avatar Based chat room, much like Sulake's Habbo Hotel, only for a more mature audience, and with Facebook integration, which is still an idea for when I finish Uni, I think it would make a good business starter, and would gain a lot of financial input from advertising, but that's a wait and see.

Anyway. That's all I can think to share of this moment, no doubt there will be more coming up in the next couple of weeks what with the deadline approaching.

Tx

The Last Trophy - Quick Update.

So I've been collating together all the animation and work that's gone ahead so far, and been throwing it into the offline edit. AKA. The Block Through. (haw haw) The results are as above.

All the guys in the group are powering on, and it feels really good again to have all this work coming together, I'm currently waiting on Olly to send me scenes with Passes and Layers added in so I can start getting my render on. Animation is looking fantastic which we have Emma, Roy & Oddne to thank for that, through all the hard times and technical difficulties, we're all still here powering on through the Easter break in our own little corner of the room. (That's right, I said it. OUR OWN! haha nah I kid.) Matt. B, Matt. L and Simon have been texturing and conquering all the technical difficulties, and plastering the scenes with textures at the same time. Pete's Scripting has been a god send in sorting out our file management, and he's also been hitting up our effects with his genius. Olly Kingston-Winston has been in constant contact with me, A Master of Fire and Brimstone, he has brought the magic of light to our worlds, and for this we thank him, also being a great base for creating presets and shaders, it's safe to say that without his dedication and pure "Lightness", The Last Trophy would in no way look as good as it does, and without the pretties, we'd all be less stoked to get this finished. So Massive Kudos to him.

This is kind of an update for everyone really as I've just done on the groups blog as a lot of the guys have been so busy night and day, that blogging has just seemed a million miles away, which is where I come in, as my Mentor, (Hopefully) is none other than The Creative Assembly's Mark O'Connell. A PR and Marketing Manager who has recently just put out the fantastic Total War: Shogun II. (I'm sorry for being premature on that, it may not even happen yet) But I'm massively stoked for this, and from what I've seen, he seems like a really awesome guy, get across to his website at the link above and check out his achievements.

Anyway, to conclude, everyone's pushing it, the studio smells of sweat and fear, and that's just me!

Take Care Guys.

Tx

Splash Page Concept

Recently I've been trying to figure out how I'd like my professional practice website to look, and to be honest. I like using my blog to keep up to date, so essentially, I think I'm just going to use it as a splash page for this Blog, and to throw some contact details up there.

Maybe put up pretties if I have them. But at the moment, I don't have much art work I can throw up there. I finished the rest of the work for Loading today.

Anyway, here's an idea for a splash page, and the finished work for Jim.





Tx

Like a homing pigeon but slower!

Easy You Sleazy Geezers.

1. It's my Birthday,...

2. It's Blog Time....

So Recently it's been dissertation and checking out the extent of our animation on a whole. We have some nice renders coming out and the toxic work seems to be pretty easy with the RGB colour correction, I've started playing around in pro-tools with the foli sound that Sophie has collected for us, so far it's sounding great, but I know I'm going to have a lot of work to do when things start getting pushed out, Editing/Sound Engineering/Comping it's all going to be a bit crazy, but It's invited.

Also looking forward to getting our "Mentors" I really can't wait to see who Andy has lined up. I've been beefing up my CV and applying for Jobs and failing as we speak. Never mind eh? Just gotta keep firing on, only 11 - 12 weeks left until we know the results of the 3 years of labour.

I've also been working externally for Jimmy again. I'm not allowed to post to what extent, because it's a secret. Even I don't know what my art work is being used for. But I'm going to sneakily post up the 8 Bit characters I did of Robyn, Chris, Jimmy and Lucy.


Jimmy needs a haircut, but close to being finished, Also need to add in a Loading itself. (Already done, but these are for your viewing pleasure.

Tx

Easy Now!

Dissertation, Dissertation, Dissertation...... What's going on there?

Although nearly finished on most of our behalves within' our Team. It's been a drag, destroyed scheduling and timetables and most of all..... been horrific!

I mean I enjoy writing.... fictitious stuff....

It has put a bit of a halt on everything for the final project, but seeing that counter on moodle slip into the double numbers is pretty scary, we have about 14 and a half weeks left to get this done, and to be honest, that's less time than we need to fully render.... Saying that. I'm still really optimistic. As we go on, the guys are all getting better and better and everyone's thinking for the good of the project, it will be great to just get back into it and continue to steam ahead.

ACTING

So Me, Roy, Simon and Oddne took to the university in search of rooms recently to act out the first scene of the animatic. We intend to act out more as we go along, but as for now a day of acting, this was all we could fit in. I compiled it into a short edit for Oddne and Roy to use, our intention was to have all the animators acting, so they could get used to the mannerisms of the film and also to cut back Simon's work when it came to the animating, that he would only have to explain things once or twice and not a thousand times over so he can concentrate on texturing, which is a mammoth job in it's own right! I need to get in contact with Sophie and Rich and get an idea for what they're up to on the sound side of things.

That is my next job..... starting.... now.

I'm not an artist (?)

I thought I'd just do a quick blog update on some external commercial work I've been doing and working on. So this is a pretty Mahoosive Dump of work from the past month, alongside sorting out the Scheduling for 'The Last Trophy', Updating the Modeling Process and laying down some beefy deadlines, keeping 'Bap Rambling' Updated, and caring for my general mental welfare, which at times seems the hardest task of them all.After Jimmy @ Loading Cafe/Bar asked me to do some promo work for his Portable stand at Falmouth Vintage Flea Market, something inspired by Bioshock or Fallout, I started to draft up some characters from those games as an inspiration, I decided that 'Big Daddy' was one of the more recognizable characters from the series, so I did this little bad boy. Admittedly It didn't go toward the poster, but I was pretty stoked by how it turned out, as I'm not particularly familiar with the character, and I hadn't done anything too 'Arty' Recently, but this was pretty cool. I'm happy with it.The Next two Images are Demo's I came up with the theme of Portable. I really like my Colourful First attempt Poster, but the final piece requested was something a bit more straight forward, and ended up being just the gameboy with the information on the screen, but this was a really cool exercise and it was really cool to give something back to Jimmy for all the Milkshakes he supplied me with.This was the final Poster/Flyer that Jimmy Settled on. All self contained within' my Game boy.

Makes me miss my Donkey Kong Special Edition Nintendo Game Boy of Old! My Parents bought me Rad presents on such a tight budget, I have no idea how they did it, but that thing was so good. Pokemon, Donkey Kong, Bomber Man, Legend of Zelda. Anyway,... here it is.

Finally, I won't upload all the reiterations of this image, but Rich Pearson asked that I work on his Campaign trail, running for Student President, which normally I would throw away if it was anyone else, But Rich has been a great friend to me, and we've done some awesome things together, had laughs and gotten lost when attending UCAS fairs, McDonalds breakfasts in Weston Super-Mare, This dude, is a complete Legend and has done so much for the student body already, being a leading Ambassador and Mentor along with myself, if anyone deserves Student Presidency Next year, it's Rich.

So Rich asked me to make a Character of him for his posters. Which in the styles I'm accustomed to, being more a Pixel Basher, I first approached it my regular way with little Chibi Characters, but it was hard to make it look as if it was going to go anywhere poster wise. So I stole a picture from his facebook and began going about making him look like a Pixel Jesus. Initially using block black outlines, but having looked into more pixel works, a lot of them don't use block black outlines, especially larger pieces, they use a darker tone of the pixel before it to separate out the areas. Which on this image, I believe works quiet well. But this is still a work in Progress, Still have quiet a bit to do, and changing the eyes around makes me giggle lots.

Along with the Images, I've been working on music with my Friend Tommy Davidson, we're pioneering a 'new wave ambient punk revolution', Sounds good,.... probably won't be.... haha. I think that about covers everything, lots of stuff going down with "The Last Trophy" At the moment, and some great work being produced. So I'll update you all on that one later.

Til Next time. Tx

Pixar's Zoetrope

Really Interesting, Check it out. Love the fact it was inspired by the Ghibli Bouncing Totoro!

Working On Assets

So I've began working on the Credits for "The Last Trophy", It's an early stage to be doing it, but it gets it out of the way, here's the quick camera block through and gives a small insight into the unfinished Hunters Cabin being worked on by Matt Luxton.

(Unfortunately Youtube wouldn't take my Video. I will get it posted soon. Tx)

Reminder of Work to Do for External Forces.... Like the Sith.

Along with my Work for the The Last Trophy, The Musician & Barista I've now been asked to work on stuff for.

1. Jimmy @ Loading

- Poster for Retro Gaming Cafe with the theme of Portable. Bioshock & Fallout as Themes.

- In time for the end of the Month - Vintage Flea Market

2. Alisa @ BA(hons) Dancey Stuff Aka Choreography

- Shadow Puppet Animation. 3.00 mins to match Choreographed Sequence.

3. Rich Pearson @ UCF President Campaign

- Campaign Posters. Use of Head Mentor T-shirt. Allowed to go to town. Promote your mate!

EVERYONE SHOULD VOTE RICH PEARSON FOR UCF STUDENT PRESIDENT BTW!

Ps. Dear Tom,.... Try not to commit to too many things. Love Tom.

Probably one of the greatest Animation Showreels I've seen.

Blur Studio

Check it out!

Blur have done Cut scenes and Teaser trailers for the likes of DCUO, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Dantes Inferno. Really amazing stuff.

The Deciding Year!

Down Time is OVER!

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, but it is now time to get back to work. If not slowly. Dissertation is underway, and I will be taking a few days in the studio next week as to break up my time spent sat in my room, watching through Ghibli Films and other Animated works to fuel my 8000 to 10000 words.

I'm heading into the Studio on Monday to start work on my Editorial Duties working on the Credits. (I know that sounds a bit forward seeing as we don't even have a film yet, but it's one less job out of the way!) There's a critical meeting to determine the forward planning of "The Last Trophy" and the fate of Bap on the 11th January. Thing's are still good and on track,.... to an extent. And it'll be nice to get people back into Jobs that they can enjoy and flourish in, and also get a bit more specialist toward their own Portfolios.

I've been looking around some more, and I think I could really get into the role of an Animation producer very quickly within' the Industry, even though at the moment, with this project, is what I see myself as, but alas. I am still a student. But to see yourself as what you aspire to be is really inspiring. I'd love to produce for Games, but it's an Industry I'm very passionate about, and I believe my Ideas and Ideals could get torn apart very easily. Wheras Animation, again another industry I'm passionate about, but it's something I find easier to take a step back from.

After 2010's Toy Story 3 and writing like a mad man about Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki's works. How could you NOT be passionate about Animation. They're all amazing pieces of work, and If I get to influence and work on anything like that and leave my mark on the world in the form of an animated work, that may feature in peoples DVD collections, My life will be more fruitful for it. So that's it. I'm headed for Associate Producer Jobs at Pixar! John Lasseter, You have carved the path for my future, with your fantastic CG works. It's great to read about Miyazaki's thoughts on Lasseter and Pixar as well. To see a man who works so amazingly traditionally embrace the works of others and rival it with beautiful works of his own in a very traditional manner. 2010 is leaving me more the Animation Producer, and 2011 will be the year I realize it. I know with "The Last Trophy" team and the other groups, I'm helping out with "The Musician" & "Barista" With the Talent behind those teams, I look to have a great Uni life to look back on.

On a lighter note.

Good Luck to Everyone in 2011. Best of Luck to EVERYONE on BA(hons) Digital Animation. It's wierd to think that 3 years are almost up and we'll be graduating this year, I really look forward to seeing what everyone goes on to do. Thanks for a 2010 full of learning and growing up, there's still a lot to go, but I have all the blank pages in the world to go forward.

Average?

After Joining Twitter, whereas Matt, Simon & Jake went off to find inspirational Artists, I being my smart and always thinking about my prospective future self, Came across a Man, who more inspirational than any artist, has proven that no matter who you are, you can make a difference. Even if it is in Lidl.

Here's to you Average Batman! I hope you Enjoy My Pixel art dedicated to making sure people know who will help them, and who will at least try up until the point it involves any effort.

Tx

Artsy Stuff + Twitter

So I recently thanks to Roy, Matt and Simon, Joined Twitter. Which is becoming a bit of an addiction, checking who's checking you out, and following people like Tom Delonge and Adam Lazzara, When I write E-mails now I feel compelled to put an @ sign infront of their name and it'll automatically link their blogs. Strange,... but Follow me at the link above!

Also above is a change to my Sprite Character I did as a quickly to put on my Twitter's background. Fun times. I thought I would try and keep with my Games Design approach to things.

I still hope to go into the Games Industry as my first plan of attack! Even starting to look at jobs as a Games Designer, thus I have started writing again and getting back into the swing of creativity. Even thinking I would have liked to have spent the third year developing an Indie Title. But I am pleased with what I have achieved thus far and intend to continue with my development as a producer and in my spare time work towards my Artsy side.

THE LAST TROPHY

We're still working away in the studio, at least, Me, Roy, Simon and Matt are, Matt B. has also posted up more on his Rig, which is looking really good. Scott has also posted more on his rigging process and is keeping in touch with us when he can.

Environments are coming along, but we may have to drop the level of detail down a bit in order to accommodate for time. We will See.

We must say sorry to Steph Haymes, who is sharing the studio with us at the moment, as we are a slightly crazy bunch, and the holiday is much needed to try and regain some sanity. But please check her blog out at the link above, she keeps it regularly updated, and is working like a pack horse. Every time I look over there's another few frames of animation done, and it's really inspiring to see her work away. Massive Kudo's to her.

What Have I Achieved...

So, as it stands, I for myself as this term at University comes to a close would like to just go over what I've accomplished within these 2 and a bit months both work wise for University, and professionally.

• I have Written and Re-Written the script 4 to 5 times, after criticism from Derek Hayes, and the team. Cutting down a 9 page Epic to 3 or 4 pages
• I have lead the team, Scheduled, contacted and kept on top of everything going on within' the Team, allowing for Illness, Holidays and we are still on schedule.
• Handled problems within' the team, between members including myself.
• Compiled Design bibles for both occasions.
• Pitched the Project on behalf of the team
• Worked as part of the creative force behind the idea along with what I would call a team of writers, heading it up as the lead writer who physically scripted (Thus the project is in no way just my idea)
• Furthered accessibility to the project by keeping the team's Blog.
• I have brought together Other members for the team from a cross course range.
• Promoted the project and myself to Companies like The Peoples Republic of Animation
• Made attempts to contact professional's in the Games Industry in an attempt to set up my Mentor Scheme.
• Become Thicker Skinned
• Learnt more about professionally developing my blog & internet presence.
• Found new and different Art styles that I enjoy working in.
• Set myself up for professional development modules next year.

I would go into what I have done on other projects so far, but as of the moment, I have more so worked as a contact point between technology and art for the Musician, and as part of the Brainstorming team for Barista.

I have plenty of things I wish to achieve next year, but for now. I'm proud of what I have achieved this year, and by far am proud of all the people I've had the chance to work with thus far. Especially the Bap team, who without, I think I wouldn't have had the chance to develop in a sense of professionalism that leads to a more mainstream industry, one that I feel I would more likely flourish in.

Liquid Animation

Thanks to Katharine Nicholls, I have now been introduced to Liquid Animation, these guys are, AMAZING, I love their VFX work, they've worked on the video for "If you keep losing sleep" By my favorite band in the world Silverchair. They also have some absolutely fantastic animation and are seemingly contracted by Disney. I am hoping that I will be able to have some contact with the guys there due to Kathy's contacts with them.

They're based in Brisbane in Australia, which is again another possibility for me. I'm really looking forward to getting out of the UK and working elsewhere for a while, getting to know a new culture, be it anywhere in the world. But with my Best friend out in Adelaide in Australia, it seems like a good place to Start.

EDGE

Just a quick post to say, if you're interested in Game Development at all, or going into it as a Career, check out Edge Magazine, especially this month's. This month's Issue not only covers some things that I'm very excited about, MMO releases from Blizzard and ArenaNET, a look at Dragon Age 2, and talking to one of my favourite producers in the world of Gaming, J Allen Brack Senior Producer at Blizzard.

Also, I'd suggest getting it for the insight into the industry it gives, and the Job opportunities that arise from it.

Tx

Exciting Stuff.

Now as many or few of you may know. I am a MASSIVE fan of the work done by The PRA. Which is "The Peoples Republic of Animation" who are based out in Adelaide where my best friend moved to 4 years ago.

So this morning as I was talking to Kathy about working out in Australia and finding myself an Animation or Games Design Mentor that I would really like. I thought, why on earth not. Why not try and contact them and see what Information I could get. As the evening has set in,... or should I say night, as it is half past 11 now. But I received an e-mail on my phone. Looked at it and quickly took to my computer to read it in a full view. I don't think I still believe my luck.

Sam White, The Managing Director of the PRA responded personally to my E-mail. Saying that as it was a unique request and that he would pass on the e-mail to his producers to see if they would be willing to help. Even if they cannot with their busy schedules, I feel really privileged to have received such a nice E-mail from someone who's running a Company that I really have the time of day for. In fact... More so, I really really respect and admire. I also now have the names of the two producers who work within the PRA who hopefully even if nothing comes of the E-mail I will be able to find some information on their specific works and gain an insight into the work that they have done. I really look forward to maybe hearing from either Renee Boucher or Hugh Nguyen in the near future, and if not hearing from them, at least following their works with now names to give to the animation I watch.

Again if you follow the Link provided above, you can have a look and see what I mean about this studio. Give them a visit and you may see some cool animation you didn't know which studio to give credit for!

Tx

For Kat

Kat asked me to post an update on my little sprites the other day when I'd done an update and I didn't get round to it in the afternoon, so here's the line up so far.

Check Kat out at the Link provided above. I love her art work and she's great to work with, really seems to be pushing herself this year, and I'm really looking forward to working with her, she's going to be working with me a while on Sarah's Project, doing storyboard touch ups, but in the mean time, pop over to her blog and give her some love.

Class Photo

I know I'm normally updating this with no pictures, and normally my blog seems quiet bland and boring, but today I enlighten you with a little project I'm doing. I aim to pull together an Animation class 2011 photo in Pixel form, and hopefully portray some of the Personalities that I've encountered over the past three years in a bit of a homage! These are what I have so far. From Left to Right..... Infact,.... I'll just let you guess.

On another note..

Trying my hardest to get in contact with Industry folk to give me a chance to prove my Metal. I'd really like to be able to go back to Leicestershire this Christmas and maybe get in contact with the guys at RARE, a games company from near my home who produced classics such as Golden Eye, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Banjo Kazooie. I can hope for the best, Also looking into Codemasters in Warwickshire!

2 Weeks Until Rendered Environment...

And I'm pretty confident for The LT Team.

The Last Trophy on Friday came into their last day of Character Modelling and thus starts the Texturing and Modelling of Environments yet again. Also tweaking of the Block through to continue and to hopefully be some what 'Finalized' by the 10th. (As we know tweaking will go on throughout, BUT we hope to get this out of the way by the 10th) Also Rigging is to start and to at least have a Basic Rig for our Human Characters and of course Bap.

The one thing I am concerned about is the Dissertation and the Rigging/Animating going through Christmas, I think this is somewhere I am going to end up losing time and end up using the Contingency time I set in place. I wish to a point that I had gotten the rigging and character modelling out of the way earlier, but these things couldn't have gone any quicker and I'm pleased with the results the team has achieved.

Here's a List Collated by Roy on what we all have to get done by the End of this University Term, we will of course continue to work into the Christmas break and New year, but this is our little deadline for ourselves.

CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY DEADLINE (December 10th)

Tom

Collate final work for design bible.

Talk to Rich about Music.

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Simon

Colour storyboard.

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Roy, Emma & Oddne

Finish refined block through.

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Matt L & Simon

Final render of blimp interior.

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Matt B

Skeleton, Orient joints and IK Spline (including tail) for Bap.

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Each person has decided for themselves what they believe is achievable in that time, thus we all agree to get these things done. I am going to start doing Dailies again by request from a few members of the team. Which I'm really happy about to be honest, before I just felt I was wasting my time at points with attitudes from different ends of the spectrum.

In Other News....

Sarah's Team are now underway with testing the Eye movement, after a long chat with Sarah (and the refusal of a fiver on the 41 from town) we have both managed to come to terms with the fact that 1. She's going to have to make compromise on certain things, and trust her team members with her baby. and 2. I'm going to have to learn new ways to approach members of teams differently. Should be good fun none the less.