Week 14 - Video Presentation

In this final blog post is the final video presentation for PPD 2.

                                        

Video. 1. Professional Portfolio Development 2 Video Presentation

Week 14 - Final ShowReel

This I finally completed the showreel for professional portfolio development 2. I'm happy with the end result of the showreel even though it's drastically changed since the block out phase in PPD 1. In the final cut of the showreel some aspects of the original block out are still in some way in the final version. At the start we have a short sketch animation piece and what follows next is the first part of my independent studies animation short. After the cinematic of my environment based on the concept art from 'Flushed Away' plays next. I did edit down the cinematic for my showreel as in it's original run the cinematic plays at just over 1 minute. The second part of the independent studies short follows leading into the final piece being some game footage of my animations from Game Development.

I would liked to of included a lot more of the little comedy sketch pieces into the final showreel and have them all placed out in various places. This I can obviously do to continue to improve my showreel in the future. Here is the final showreel.

Video. 1. Final ShowReel

Week 13 - Other segments in my Showreel

The footage in my showreel was mainly going to be animation related however I did plan to add an extra segment that wouldn't be related with animation if I felt it was up to scratch. This was the 3D environment based on a piece of concept art for Advanced 3D. The cinematic that I'll be developing for the environment will be added to my showreel at the midway point. Below is a screen shot of the environment in it's current state.

Figure. 1. Screen Shot of environment from Advanced 3D

Figure Reference

Figure. 1. Screen Shot of environment from Advanced 3D

Week 12 - Industry news

The animation website cartoon brew released an article announcing the there will be a new animation studio being set up in the UK. This new studio is called Locksmith Animation. The animation industry in the UK has given us a variety of films like 'Valiant' and 'Chicken Run'. The studio set up by Sarah Smith (former Creative Director at Aardman) says it will be the first high end CGI animation studio in the UK.

This is amazing news for the industry as new studios being opened will bring a lot more job opportunities to artists. It'll be also interesting to see how Locksmith animation progresses and the films they will make.


Website Reference

Cartoon Brew Available at: http://www.cartoonbrew.com/business/british-studios-locksmith-and-double-negative-plan-to-make-cg-features-98410.html (Accessed 13th April 2014)

Week 11 - New Animation

This week I've started working on extra bits of animation pieces to be added into the showreel. Watching back to the roller coaster animation scene, I felt the animation wasn't working right and a lot more work would be needed to help vastly improve the scene. I began looking back into the website MovieWav in search for some new audio effects to animate to. The audio piece found in the animation below is from the film Austin Powers and the line is "Gentlemen you have my demands, peace out". I'll have the character be placed in front of a chalk board written with a list of outrages demands. 

Video. 1. Animation Block Out

Week 10 - Further Progress

This week I finished my animated short film for my independent studies project. I've always planned on incorporating it into my showreel, however when planning for PPD 1 I wasn't sure what I would be making for Independent studies. I'm going to keep the short film in it's entirety for the showreel and the only parts I'll trim down is the end title screens that I had when when uploading to YouTube.

Video. 1. My Independent Studies Animation Short Film

I've also recorded in game footage of my animations from the team project Game Development. Using Fraps I had the characters perform attacks and run around in the city environment. In the final edit I'll have credits stating that I only did the animations and not the character and city models. Here's the footage below.

Video. 2. Game Render from the Module Game Development

What's left is the roller coaster scene where I need to tidy up the animation by making it play smoothly and set the scene up more.

Week 10 - Progress on the Showreel

The progress for the contents of my showreel for PPD 2 is currently going well. The animated short film I'm creating for my dissertation is nearing to being complete with the film just needing to be rendered and compiled together with sound effects. This will be featured in either it's full state which lasts around 30 seconds or be cut up and spread across the showreel. I have shown progress of a few shots that were completed early in past blog posts. I'm not sure yet It might be the case that I try an example of both and upload them onto here and see how they play out. For other work that'll be included in the showreel My contribution from past modules Game Development by recording in game footage of me and others who worked on the project playing the game focusing on my animation work and obviously stating while the footage is playing my role to the work and who's other contribution is shown.

When planning the showreel I was going to have a obstacle course featured. I have shown in early posts examples of animation of a astronaut character running. However since then I have made no other contribution to this work. This may possibly be cut from the showreel due to time constraints. This could change, however at this moment in time it's not looking likely.

Finally the Roller coaster scene animation. This piece of animation is moved on from the block out stage, but it's still not exactly finished. For this scene I want to improve the environment more by developing the roller coaster into a more child targeted ride and this makes the scene funnier as the grown man doesn't want to go on the ride. Also from looking at feedback from PPD 1 I may need to add more of a set up to the scene by visually telling the audience first that the it is a children's ride before seeing the adult.

As far as what I've stated above this is the current state of my showreel. With week 10 me rendering the animation from my dissertation and really soon I'll be compilling footage from my contribution to Game Development, I should soon have footage to place into my showreel.
I've also been looking into using Adobe Premier Pro a lot more and I feel I'll be able to properly render out my show reel this time compared to PPD 1 where I had trouble getting the resolution to be true HD and some parts of the video where a bit jumpy. However there's still a lot to learn with the software.

Week 9 - Continuing with YouTube & other related websites

In past blog posts I've talked about YouTube as a starting platform to upload your work to and have an audience be able to watch and give feedback directly to you. However there are other web sites on the net that offer a similar experience to YouTube. The first is a animation focused site called Newgrounds.

Figure. 1. Screen Shot from Newgrounds Homepage

The next video based site is Blip. Blip is more similar to YouTube than any of the others and offers a wide range of genres from comedy to animation. From what Iv'e heard Blip is a lot more easy on restricted content and copyright issues however this could have changed.

Figure. 2. Screen Shot from Blip.com Homepage

The final site I've seen is Fillim, how they differ from the others is they give the creators the option to charge users for their content. However if you're charging for your film or short film the content is expected to be worth the price or you can set your film as free of charge. Uploading your film is free to do to.

Figure. 3. Screen Shot from Fillim Homepage

Reference Images

Figure. 1. Screen Shot from Newgrounds Homepage http://www.newgrounds.com/ (Accessed 24/03/2014)

Figure. 2. Screen Shot from Blip.com Homepage http://blip.tv/(Accessed 24/03/2014)

Figure. 3. Screen Shot from Fillim Homepage http://fillim.com/ (Accessed 24/03/2014)

Week 9 - Future software in the Animation Industry

With technology and software improving and constantly being upgraded to raise the bar in visual effects, presentation quality and technical limitations it's guaranteed that the industry will change considerably when I'm hopefully working in the industry.

Figure. 1. DreamWorks Animation Logo

Recently I came across an article from the Wall Street Journal discussing the new animation experience DreamWorks animation are introducing and are currently using on production due for release this year. The article was written in October of last year however the the films taking advantage of these improvements have yet to be released in cinemas. The software is developed by chief technology officer Lincoln Wallen and it promises to speed up the time consuming process and to cut down production costs by at least $30 million from late 2014. This will of course means fewer highly skilled animators working on a single production. That is of course not good. With the average production cost of an animated film at DreamWorks in 2013 around $135 million compared to other studios in the animation field with lower costs of around $100 million and under. This narrows down the opportunity into getting into the big studios like DreamWorks animation. Leading into and making the smaller opportunities like YouTube based work more appealing. This is just one example of how the industry is developing further and quickly changing.

References

Figure. 1. DreamWorks Animation Logo http://www.awn.com/tag/dreamworks-animation (Accesssed 19/03/2014)

Rachael King. (2013). DreamWorks Improves Experience.Available: http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2013/10/21/dreamworks-improves-animation-experience/ . Last Accessed 19th March 2014.

Week 8 - Portfolio Websites

In my last Blog post I talked about YouTube as a platform to build and upload my work onto. However I have also been looking at portfolio hosting websites where you can create your own website with the tools to customise the look to fit your work. After a lot of searching I have found a few sites that look promising, One of those is Portfolio Box (http://www.portfoliobox.net/). From first glance the templates and examples shown on the homepage look appealing and professional. The site does allow you to start with a basic free account which allows you to upload 40 images and gives you access to the basic templates. However they also give you the option to expand to the pro account which costs around £4 a month. Obviously having the pro account gives you a lot more features like your own domain and a email address and it also allows you to upload 100 images. Compared to the other portfolio sites I've looked at this site seems to be the cheapest.

 Figure. 1. Portfolio Box Homepage

Another portfolio website I've been looking into is 4ormat. 4ormat offer a similar deal to Portfolio Box allowing you to have a free basic start up site but then they allow you to upgrade. However one problem I did find with this site was once I had started a free account It then told me that I would be billed by the end of the month and automatically upgraded to the basic fee account. I deleted the account as soon as I noticed this as I still wasn't sure about if I would use this or not. 

Figure. 2. 4ormat Homepage

I'm still considering having a portfolio website, having a website dedicated to showcasing your work makes it all the more professional and also I would still upload the show reel to my YouTube channel.

Reference Images 

Figure. 1. Portfolio Box Homepage (Screen Shot) http://www.portfoliobox.net/ (Accessed 10/03/2014)

Figure. 2. 4ormat Homepage (Screen Shot) http://4ormat.com/l/portfolio?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Search:Portfolio-Head-Terms&gclid=CJyRve2riL0CFUsUwwodmTQAVA (Accessed 10/03/2014)

Week 7 - Animation for YouTube

YouTube in recent years has become a variable platform for not only independent film makers, but for animators too. On YouTube now there so many channels dedicated to animation and have full creative freedom to make and create what they like. One of the biggest YouTube channels is the Frederator Network. The Frederator Network launched in 1998 by Fred Seibert who was the former president at Hanna-Barbera. Their YouTube channel now has over 1 billion total views across it's separate 130 show channels. Frederator's back catalogue includes shows like Fairly Odd Parents and Adventure time.

Figure. 1. Channel Frederator Screen Shot

Dominic is a Canadian animator and illustrator who started creating comic strips on his Tumblr page. He now has a YouTube channel with 510, 235 subscribers as of making this Blog post. He creates amazing and funny short films that reflect on his life that he makes by himself.

Figure. 2. Domics Channel Screen Shot

Also other big animation companies like DreamWorks Animation have partnered with YouTube to produce a new show called YouTube Nation. YouTube Nation is a show that hosts various videos ranging from music videos to animation shorts. This show proves that larger animation studios are treating YouTube as a more stable platform.

  Figure. 3. YouTube Nation Channel Screen Shot

I feel that YouTube can be a great starting point for me to work on projects and upload them to my personal channel. I created a channel around the same time I started the course back in 2011 and I have uploaded animations from various modules and also my personal work. The figure below is a screen shot of my YouTube channel, I've tried to use the channel tool bar space to represent my 2D character work that I've done over the years. I did do a lot of research of how other channels look on the site. I have linked my YouTube channel to my Twitter account so when I do upload a video all my Twitter followers will see the video link.

Figure. 4. JordanPeely Channel Screen Shot

Reference Figures

Figure. 1. Channel Frederator Screen Shot http://www.youtube.com/user/ChannelFrederator (Accessed 09/03/2014)

Figure. 2. Domics Channel Screen Shot http://www.youtube.com/user/D0MICS/featured (Accessed 09/03/2014)

Figure. 3. YouTube Nation Channel Screen Shot http://www.youtube.com/user/youtubenation (Accessed 09/03/2014)

Figure. 4. JordanPeely Channel Screen Shot http://www.youtube.com/user/JordanPeely (Accessed 09/03/2014)

Week 6 - Reading Week

This week I've carried on with the roller coaster animation that started a couple of weeks ago. I've also been working on animation for my dissertation work that I'll want to include in my show reel. These animations are in various stages of completion with some pretty much finished.

Video. 1. Starring at Me Animation

The video above is a piece of animation taken from my dissertation work. This animation takes place near the end of the short film. With this particular animation shot I'm pleased with the poses and the lip sync. However I may make a few changes to the lip sync near the end of the shot as I think some of the mouth movements don't fit the audio. Also a prop needs to be added to the shot too. 

Week 5

This week I've carrying on with my roller coaster sketch by smoothing out the animation and moving away from the block out phase. To do this I work over the block out animation pass I did the last couple of weeks. Also I'm trying to go over the key poses and work out what the character will be doing in-between those key poses. Where the animation is at at the minute I'm really happy with it. I'm still going to carry on smoothing out the animation and after that I'll move onto the lib sync. 

Video. 1. Roller Coaster Sketch

Week 4 - Roller Coaster Scene

Nearing the end of this week I began starting to block out my roller coaster scene animation for my show reel. In the Christmas holidays I created a basic scene and a rough roller coaster kart for my character to stand in. I did plan last term to use the Max for Maya rig for this particular animation however I am now using the Morpheus rig instead due to the fact that I have various characters in the sketch for example the mum and young kid and Morpheus allows me to easily customise the characters to give them each a unique appearance.

Video. 1. Roller Coaster Animation Playblast

In the video above you will be able to see a rough pass of the key poses the character will be doing in the scene. The next steps is to perfect the timings of the poses and start to smooth out the animation. 

Figure. 1. Maya Scene

In the figure above is the mum and kid rig they'll appear in the sketch. The two will look at each other in embarrassment as they witness their husband/dad chickening out on going on a roller coaster. 

Week 4 - Getting a Job

Last week I looked into the animation studio Blue Zoo productions. On the BAFTA Guru YouTube channel there are tons of videos giving advice on how to get into the industry. In the video 'Advice For Getting a Job with Animation Studio Blue-Zoo Productions'

Video. 1. 'Advice For Getting a Job with Animation Studio Blue-Zoo Productions'

Oli Hyatt the creative director at Blue Zoo gives his thoughts on how you should/could approach a studio with your portfolio. In the video above Oli Hyatt gives examples of show reels that have been sent in to Blue Zoo with students putting all their work in from the bad stuff in the first year to the good stuff near the end. Of course they don't know what order it's all in and a show reel isn't about showing the bad stuff you've made. He goes on to say that if there's 5 seconds of work that'll blow them away, they would rather see that instead.

Another video from the same YouTube channel 'Advice For Getting a Job with Games Studio Media Molecule' producer Siobhan Reddy gives her advice on getting a job in the industry. In the video she goes on to discuss women in the industry and that there are plenty of jobs in the industry. 

Video. 2. 'Advice For Getting a Job with Games Studio Media Molecule'

Video Reference

Video. 1. BAFTA Guru. 2014. Advice For Getting a Job with Animation Studio Blue-Zoo Productions [Online]. [11th Feb 2014]. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yiD9RNlKJQ

Video. 2. BAFTA Guru. Advice For Getting a Job with Games Studio Media Molecule [Online]. [11th Feb 2014]. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v04FqwkWdBU

Week 3 - Walt Disney Apprenticeships

In the industry there are great opportunities not only with the independent studios but also with the bigger companies too and the Walt Disney Animation Studios one of those companies looking out for new talent. On the studios website they have a section dedicated to the careers within the studio showing open positions currently open at the studio and apprenticeships.

Figure. 1. Walt Disney Animation Studios Logo

Figure. 2. Apprenticeship Positions

In figure 2 a screen shot from the apprenticeship positions page and within that it shows all the current vacancies available at this current time. However you can create an account to get updates from the studio with new opportunities see figure 4. When you've created your account you can attach a digital version of your portfolio. Also figure 3 shows the actual jobs open at the studio related to animation. Again if you create an account you can get notified when new jobs are available 

Figure. 3. Job Vacancies

Figure. 4. Create Profile Page

Picture References

Figure. 1. Walt Disney Animation Studios Logo http://disneyexaminer.com/2013/04/scratch-it-out-disney-animators-laid-off/walt-disney-animation-studios-logo/ (Accessed 09.02.2014)

Figure. 2. Apprenticeship Positions http://www.disneyanimation.com/careers/opportunities/building-our-future (Accessed 09.02.2014)

Figure. 3. Job Vacancies http://www.disneyanimation.com/careers/opportunities/developing-appealing-characters (Accessed 09.02.2014)

Figure. 4. Create Profile Page https://careers.disneyanimation.com/signup (Accessed 09.02.2014)

Week 3 - Blue Zoo Animation

This week I've been looking into more depth on my approach to the industry and how I may tackle that. I don't have an answer as of yet, however I have been looking into a lot more like I did in the last module.
Blue Zoo are an independent animation studio winning numerous Baftas and over the years have built relationships with a variety of TV broadcasters. The company are based in London and their work expands from TV idents to full 22 minute children's TV programming.

Figure. 1. Blue Zoo Website Screen Shot

Figure. 2. Blue Zoo Website Screen Shot

Oli Hyatt the creative director at Blu Zoo features in this video below. The video is 1 of many of  a series of videos from the Creative Skill set channel on YouTube. In the video people from the animation and special effects industry talk about making your portfolio short and sweet. Other tips include only showing your best work and show a variety of skills in your chosen area.  

insert video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKchlSGxsp0

Reference Images

Figure. 1. Blue Zoo Website Screen Shot http://www.blue-zoo.co.uk/animation/ (Accessed 10.02.2014)

Figure. 2. Blue Zoo Website Screen Shot http://www.blue-zoo.co.uk/styles/3d/ (Accessed 10.02.2014)

Term 2, Week 2 - Starting the animation

This week I will be start producing the animation based upon the storyboards I made last term. I did over the Christmas holidays start building a scene for the roller coaster sketch I had planned. In other show reels I watched last term I noticed that the backgrounds in the animation scenes where very plane because all the focus is on the animation. That was what I had originally planned for the roller coaster scene, however I thought the joke of him crying because he doesn't want to go on a roller coaster even funnier if the roller coaster was for kids like 'It's a small world'. Not going over the top but having images of cute animals and bright rainbow colours would I feel add to the joke visually. This is adding more work and I know the animation of the character is the most important part of the sketch so that'll be what I'll focus more. This background gag I'll add and work on over time.

screen shot insert of scene

For the obstacle course like I mentioned in my last blog post I was going to use the spaceman character rig I received from a 3D magazine. Over the holidays I set myself the task to get used to the rig by creating a walk and run cycle animation with the rig.

One of the storyboards I had in my block out show reel I had a guy dazing all loved up after seeing a girl who caught his eye and an old man seems to think he's looking at him. I have since presenting this storyboard I've Incorporated this gag into my short piece of animation I'm doing for my Independent Studies. However I'm still wanting to show the animation I've done for this module in my final show reel.

Figure. 2.

Term 2 week 1 of PPD 2

Moving from PPD 1 over to PPD 2 this module now consists of me developing everything I have planned for my show reel from last term. My show reel was mainly going to be animation based containing various little sketches, an obstacle course and work from last term Game Development. A few changes from my original plan, I was planning on having a character model in a small environment which I would create based on a piece of  concept art in the module Advanced 3D Modelling. The plan is now to work on an environment based on the concept art from the film 'Flushed Away'. This is the only real change to my show reel plan.

The plan of my showreel now:

Roller Coaster Sketch - Animation

Staring at me Sketch - Animation

Flushed Away - 3D Environment

Obstacle Course - Animation

Super Collateral - Animation In Game Footage

Animation Footage from my Dissertation

At the start I wanted to use a variety of rigs in my show reel to make it more interesting, rather than using just one rig throughout the whole show reel. Over the Christmas holidays I searched the web for different rigs to use. The first new rig I came across was a Spaceman rig free with a magazine. The spaceman has cartoon style proportions and I felt this rig could work great for my obstacle course segment. I could set the obstacle course in a space style environment (not too over the top)and I've already started working with the rig creating run and walk cycles.

Fig. 1 Spaceman Model

For the sketch segment of my show reel I'm planning on still using the ideas and storyboards I worked on in the past. However I may incorporate one of them into my Dissertation work where I'm looking into comedy techniques used in animation and I would like to include my work there into the show reel.  

Image Reference

Fig. 1. Spaceman Model [Screenshot]