Finally, I Present My Second Demo Reel.

As mentioned in my last post, I was planning on putting together another demo reel featuring the work that I have created since the start of the year. I used work from six different projects, all of which can be found on my Youtube channel.

Next, I will start working on the website that I talked about creating to showcase all my work. Additionally, I have a number of ideas for my next animation (excluding the work on "Gump & Gil" and "Grumpy Gary") such as a comedy involving a bully and his victim (3D) swell as a road runner type story involving a fox (2D)

Tim's Time Machine

Well, as mentioned in a previous post, I chose to create storyboards for a story about a boy genius who has an obsessive love for everything related to Vikings. He therefore decides to build a time machine in order to bring a Viking of his own into the present day. Initially I had intended to create the piece in 2D using Toon Boom Animation Studio. However, I learnt afterwards that our lecturer wanted all of our work to be created in 3D and so I instead had to quickly model and rig a character (which isn't my favorite task) I also decided to change the name of my character at this point from Ted to Tim, as I felt it gave the title a little more appeal.

For this project, I chose to create the first thirty seconds of my two minute storyboard, which has my character finishing his Viking book then going to collect another book based on "Time Travel". Below is the completed piece, though the quality isn't great, the HD version can be found on Youtube here

Changes that I would make to the piece, in retrospect, would be to cut down on the ladder pushing/pulling scene to just having him push them towards the bookcase. I included two separate scenes for the ladder pushing to allow more animation of my character, and also to add a little humor into the piece. Our class had roughly a month to complete this project, but this included the sessions with Mark Andrews, which ate up about a week of our schedule. However, as I had planned on doing 2D I didn't consider a number of factors: the modelling, rigging or render times, so I caught myself a little off guard. In the end, I managed to get the entire project completed in about 10 days.


Overall, I am fairly happy with the final outcome of the assessment. We have had quite a number of assessments this semester, far more than I was used to during my time at my previous university. Our second semester has officially come to an end with this assessment and the third semester will officially start on Thurs 30th May 2013, where I will be creating a dark 2D animation, based around a child snatcher, more details to follow.

A Ninja Tale

 As mentioned in my previous post dedicated to "A Chessy Love Story" we was handed out another assessment that was to be completed in a period of only two weeks. This proved the biggest challenge for me as an animator, having always favoured 2D animation, and not ever feeling good at rigging and 3D character modelling.

So, for this assessment we were tasked with modelling and rigging a bi-pedal character, who we were then told to animate. I decided fairly early on that I wanted to create a ninja character, as he would be great to animate carrying out fast paced actions and stealth.

Overall, I am happy with the project considering how little time I had, and considering that I am wasn't overly confident modelling a character. I do feel though that I could produce much, much better animation with a little more time and without having to worry about rigging and modelling.

Our next project will be another character animation, though we have much more time and the option to work in 2D. I will most likely work in 2D for this assessment and have an idea involving a boy genius with a love for Vikings and a time machine. Inspired by Dexters Lab! More to follow.

Also I should add that the Academy Award winning director of Pixar's "Brave" Mark Andrews (pictured below) will be visiting the Glasgow School of Art soon. This will be great for our class, as well as for animators across Scotland in general who will get the opportunity to listen to his, no doubt, brilliant advice. I will post more about this great experience nearer the time.

Max Howard & Practising Walk Cycles

Well, as mentioned in a previous post, Max Howard, a former Disney producer, gave a very interesting lecture in the Mackintosh Lecture Theater at GSA. He made some very interesting points about overcoming issues with production time, namely making creative changes to speed up and meet expectations. He also covered some topics that we have been looking at in our Film-making class, including the basic structure which every movie should adhere to. He also shared how he himself managed to get into the industry back in the "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" days. 

Max in all his glory.

Below is a quick walk cycle that I threw together as part of a non-assessed assignment for university. It scares me to think that this is one of the only walk cycles I have actually done, so will definitely continue to make them for practice.

For this animation I used "The Mechanics of Motion" by Chris Webster which can be purchased here.

We have also been handed out the brief for our next assessment, which is due in less than 3 weeks!! Talk about cutting it close. For this assessment, we have been asked to create a piece of character animation (including modelling, rigging and lighting) using a simple inanimate object. I've decided that I would like to create some sort of "love story" between two opposite pawns on a chessboard. Hopefully, this is the idea that I will use and develop for the deadline on February 25th 2013.

I will post the final piece of work onto the blog when I'm finished.