Job Opportunities

Seems I didn't get round to updating last week... probably because I didn't really get that much done, so there wasn't anything worth commenting. A couple of cartoons, life art and general sitting about. But then again everyone needs a holiday. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

This last week has been more prosperous. I have finally got a job to pay the bills, and with working 21 hours (with a chunk of those being time and a half) I can actually crack on with some animation without the stress of not being able to afford anything. A big load off means my brain can be entirely Maya-orientated. And with this, I managed to sit and draw some decent observational sketches as well as mapping out some orthographics for my generic rig, ready to be scanned, tweaked in Photoshop and stuck directly onto image planes for my Maya cameras. That should see some light very very soon now I have the relevant references.

In addition to my own work, I've been contacted by a Leicester-based animation company. Basically the owner should be getting a few projects in soon, and needs some animators fresh out of uni to provide a bit of manpower. After a chat, I know one of the main focuses of the company is in 3D compositing and matching work up with the real world. Not neccessarily ultra-realistic work, but it needs to look like it fits in with the environment, such as lighting etc. I will be providing a short animation with a high-realism finish on it that will be imported into Flash for some added interactivity. My knowledge of Flash, Encore and the like should really plug this for me, as although it's self taught, I am in the know with interactive multimedia projects.

This project should be done by the end of next week, so I have a tight deadline to get this as good as possible. At the moment I am thinking of what object I should create that will be acheivable in the timeframe, and what will look impressive. If I pull this off, there should be some animation work in store for me, which will also help provide this blog with some handy techniques I'll no doubt pick up as I go along.

Fingers crossed!

Clay and Sketching...

I've been spending a lot of time sketching characters, obscure folk with no true direction as of yet. Once I have a couple of interesting profiles for these characters to go by, then maybe a couple of designs will be put forward, along with many fresh designs and styles. At the moment, I am still thinking of some entertaining people that have suffered some rather unfortunate accidents (better than just falling off a ladder into a pot of paint) so they can go ahead and sue someone. Turns out this task is quite tricky when you have to make it as clear as possible that it is a believable accident without being awfully cliché. And this is without taking the humour into account.

However, I have redesigned what would be my stock rig in the near future. It's a little more characatured version of myself, although it shan't be named 'Stu'. This should be more expressive and easier to use than a chunky-limbed figure... the skinner the limbs, the less awkward the binding will be. Here is a basic sketch...

The eyebrows should help expression a lot more, as the previous character only had a brim of the hat. For some reason I forgot to add eyebrows to an awful lot of my characters in the past. This head has also been built in clay (and good old tin foil)

He is at risk of looking a little Keith-esque, which I think is down to the bags under the eyes. I shall avoid this in development.

As well as this, I have also built another experimental head to see how a single eyeball could be used for a two-eyed human, much like Beano characters and the like. Using one of those dosing balls from detergent packets, I made a solid eye and worked round it. Overall it turned out pretty well.

This coming week I am off on holiday for a bit, so I'll take my sketchbook down on the train and have a go at designing a few more people based on the southerners there.

Stuart

Getting back into it again...

It's been quite a break from animation... in fact over a month since I did anything linked to my work, and even then it was modelling and animating cigarette packets. Now I'm just wanting to get straight back into things, but before I start up in Maya, I'm going to have to get some sort of plot, character design or general idea together before anything is going to take shape.

Originally I was planning to make another generic rig, hopefully one that does not follow any particular story so it's a bit more universal for exercises. So a cross between my Stu Rig v1 (which is a year old, and I've learnt so much more since in every department) and Keith, which is nice and easy to use thanks to trial and error over about 7 character models. I may still do this, perhaps making a better characature of myself. I've seen some pretty impressive models that animators have made of themselves and was thinking it's not a bad idea. After all, the inspiration is staring straight in the mirror at you.

However, a new project that hopefully will take off is a little collaborative piece with a few people from uni, which should give me/us some direction in what to achieve in the big bad world. I've spent the last few days sketching some random characters to create a bizarre little community within my sketchbook. Some are good, others not so good, but hopefully I'll figure out some decent designs for people who are rather accident prone, eccentric, or just unfortunate. That, and one person who is just so charismatic and confident that you will have to buy what he is selling.

Hopefully some headway will be gained soon, but seeing as one of the people I will be working with is off on holiday, I'll either crack on with this by myself, or I will get on the case with a generic rig. We will wait and see.