Animation: SpotOn TV

Animation: SpotOn TV from George Pickles on Vimeo.
This is my first attempt at an Animation using 3DS Max Software. At first I struggled to get to grips with the software itself, I spent many hours practising until I finally managed to produce this. I had a few problems trying to get the correct sound clips to go along with it but I made the best of what I had and I believe this is the best outcome. I am pleased with it, however there are changes and improvements I would like to of done. I hope you like it and fingers crossed my next animation will be better than this one. 

2nd Attempt at a One Shot Film: Tension

One Shot Film: Tension from George Pickles on Vimeo.
Here is our second attempt at One Shot film. We decided to do another shot as we wanted to try and produce a film with less mistakes than the last one, 'Was it worth it?' and just simply to gain more experience with the camera, lighting and Adobe Premiere Pro editing software. The idea behind the shoot is that as the camera circulates the two people as the tension builds, until one of the characters can no longer keep there anger under control and reacts in a physical way. I hope you like it.

An Inspiring Lecturer's, Last Lecture

Here is a video I found online, the Lecturer gives an inspiring lecture on life lessons where he shows his strength, wisdom and compassion for his work, family and friends as he is slowly dying from Pancreatic Cancer. I feel that it relates to the the virtual world I have been producing over the last three weeks in my Animation Seminar's as well as the presentation I have to give this coming week. 

I feel that I can relate this to my work and skills outside of the studio in the way that it gives me a lot of strength and hope for the future as long as you make the most of the opportunities that you have been given and that the 'brick walls are there to show our dedication'.

Final Animation in Production

Animation: Jellyman

In week two of my animation project we learnt how to create a jellyman, again it took a lot of time and effort but I feel that I am improving. I learnt how use several more  of the many tools within the software (3D Max) to allow me to create, shape and bring the character to life. I have started to sketch my ideas down which I will upload shortly for my final ident, I just hope that I will be able to create it using the software and my final idea will be able to draw in the viewer.

Jellyman 1

Jellyman 2

Animation: Jelly

Here is my first animation, I am very pleased with it and I had to stick at it for a long time to get it right. I started over and over again till I got it right, I enjoyed the first seminar and now I cannot wait for the next one... bring it on. 

Ident Research

I have been doing some research on already existing ident's to help me with my own ideas. Here are some of my favourite ident's that I have come across on YouTube that I feel could influence my concepts before I produce my final idea. Enjoy!

Channel 4

BBC Three

Sky

Animation

Today, I started animation; it's something I have never done before but something I am very interested in and the one out of the three projects I have been most excited for. At first I found myself to be pretty useless at it but I persevered and I slowly improved until I managed to get my text 'JELLY' to actually start bouncing like jelly, I will upload a video of this shortly. The project I have been set to produce in the next three week is an ident that represents me as a person. I already have a few ideas floating around and I cannot wait to start bringing them to life.

The Final Images

Finally I have completed all of my final images I have produced using Photoshop, it has taken quite a while to do this, but now it is time to put them together to make my interactive space using the HTML I have been taught in my seminar's over the past three weeks. Here are all of the images I have designed that will take you on an adventure to the Zoo, they are simple which I believe allow's you to easily navigate from page to page, whilst giving you the choice to choose what story you tell, I hope you like them.

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Image 5

Image 6

Image 7

Image 8

Image 9

Image 10

Image 11

Image 12

Image 13

Image 14

Image 15

Interactive Space: Update

I just thought that I would upload a few more images for you to see what I am getting up to. Creating these images in photoshop is time consuming but I feel that it will make it a more of a personal project. I am looking forward to linking the images together for you to have a play. I hope you like the new images I have created.

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Image 5

Interactive Space: Idea Change

I haven't blogged in a while as I have been struggling for ideas for my final outcome. The one I talked about in my previous blog I was not pleased with. The idea was too simple and I didn't feel it was very exciting or very interactive for the user. Instead, I have decided to produce my own from scratch with the use of Photoshop and a Graphics Tablet.


The idea I have now put together is of a little cartoon boy I produced who visits the Zoo. You have to decide which animals you want to see and what you want to do with them; from feeding to swimming. The Space is aimed mainly towards the younger generations but I look forward to showing you my final outcome. For now, here is some of the images I have produced, they are simple however,I believe they are effective.

Image 1

Image 2

Interactive Space: My Idea

For my final idea I want to produce a game where you have to search for particular products around Nottingham. You will be presented with a shopping list, where you will select which product you want to buy, this will then lead you onto a map of Nottingham City Centre where you will be able to select the shop you think will sell this product. If the product is in that store then you can move onto the next item, if not then you search another shop. This continues until you purchase all the items on your list. 

I will produce a visual branch map of my idea to allow myself to plan exactly how my 'Interactive Space" will be put together, so that I don't get confused as it will be a complicated design. Fingers crossed it will all come together nicely and I cannot wait to show you the final Interactive Space.

Practising HTML

Over the past two weeks we have been learning how to use HTML's, at first I found it a bit of a struggle but I think I have finally figured it out. After many trials and many failed attempts I have managed to use the images below to produce my own test website before I move onto my final idea (which I will explain in my next blog). However, there is lot's of room for improvements, the final website will be a lot more complicated to produce but  hopefully simple and entertaining for the consumer to use. 

Interactive Space

So this is my first attempt at linking through association, the original idea came together as i sat in my room and realised what a mess it was, therefore I decided to take pictures before and after I cleaned it. As this was my first attempt I do not want to use this idea as my final outcome, but simply an experiment to see what I can do with these images and HTML's. I am excited for this project and look forward to producing to what will hopefully be a interesting site.

Which room is mine?

Do you want to enter?

Do you want to clean my desk?

Clean =D next job?

Do you want to do my washing?

Clean =D next job?

My bed is a mess, do you want to make my bed?

My bed is made =D all done?

Bye Bye

This will in between the photos to allow the consumer

 to make a 'Yes or No?' decision. 

I hope this allows you to have an insight into my idea, it is quite basic and not very exciting but hopefully it will allow me to learn and be more creative for my final outcome. 

One Shot: My Thoughts?

As my first project at university, I found the one shot film to have taught me a lot. The most immediate piece of experience that I suppose I've gained from this project is the realisation that it is very difficult to transfer what's in your mind to something that can be shown to others.

The original concept of the film was for a guy who has hit rock bottom at the end of a hectic, alcohol filled night (as attempted with a guy being sick) to move back through the scenes that led towards that event and slowly show a chain of events in reverse. We attempted to leave the end of the film with the same actor that was present at the beginning of the film questioning whether or not "was it worth it?", with 'it' being the party / university lifestyle. The problems that we had transferring a relatively simple idea into something that can be instantly understood by any viewer is that its really difficult to have the same person in all of the scenes of film when you are limited to one shot. To salvage at least a small part of that idea, we did actually manage to get our actor in the first and last scene of the film, even though it may not be immediately obvious (bad choice of clothing...).

Other than that I found out of the terror that is working in a group. People's schedules, followed by different outlooks on a certain idea can just be too much especially when you leave it to the last minute! However its definitely something that I'll get accustomed to overtime.

I think if we spent more time on the props used within our film and maybe explored the studio's size and dimensions before actually venturing in then maybe the message would of came across more clearly. Problems that I feel we had with our props were:

• They looked nothing like walls. I opted for painting them, but time wasn't on our side.
• Height wise they were a lot smaller then the height of the ceiling in the studio. Which therefore looks odd on camera. 
• They were very flimsy, another material other than card should have been substituted in. 
• They were just bad.

All in all it was a great learning experience and I consider it a positive thing to come across all of these problems so early on in the course!

Our Finished One Shot Film

One Shot Film: Was it worth it? from George Pickles on Vimeo.
Here is the final edit of our One Shot film.  As is evident from watching the film, we have pushed the boundaries of the rules by putting the camera on a Dolley (on wheels) so we could move the shot around without physically touching the camera. Although I am reasonably happy with the final shot, I still believe that with better props the film would of been more successful.
Within the edited version, we have added a dance audio track that has a muffle effect. This co-ordinates with the character moving from one room to another and also suggests the idea of time passing. Moreover, we have also added a title sequence to match the video. The final stage of post production editing was the increasing of saturation of the entire film. This was done because the lighting seemed to “bleach out” the whole scene, possibly because the white balance wasn't set properly on the camera when we recorded the original footage. Regardless, the film looked better with added saturation which adds to the films effectiveness.
Overall,  I think that the final edit was reasonably successful and I am proud of our first One Shot Film. Enjoy!

The Unedited One Shot Film - "Was It Worth It?"

Here is the unedited version of our film, the edited and complete version will be up shortly. I hope it gives an insight into our first filming experience.

The Shoot

Today, we filmed our One Shot; despite not completely satisfying our initial plan, we made productive use of the limited time we had in the studio. With hindsight, there is much scope for improvement that my group and I would make, but were simply not possible during the time we had. Regardless of having an exciting and innovation idea for our film, I feel we underestimated the difficulty of the transforming the imagery and visions in our head into video. I felt the quality of the materials we used for props were not good enough - the cardboard was simply too flimsy, possibly styrofoam would have been better although this would have been harder to get hold of. Overall, the group and I were all pleased with the outcome of our first One Shot film, and cannot wait to show everyone!

Lights...

Camera...

Action?

One Shot Preparation

Prior to starting to shoot our One film , our group had to meet up to assess the necessary props we required. This lead to us to face our first problem; where do we get hold of industrial amounts of cardboard? Consequently, we went to the local Tesco, to the Graphics Department in the University and managed to get plenty - too much in fact. The next job was to duct tape all the cardboard together to produce two large wall-like screens. These were used to divide as well as help to isolate the different scenes, insinuating the idea of time passing (as shown in the several images below). Moreover, during that time we also managed to finalise everyone’s roles within the production team. We then noted the list of actors that we had contacted and established who would partake in our film. Lastly, Alex and I booked the studio and equipment so all that is now left to do is film! Fingers crossed it all works out!

Lighting Practice

This week we messed around with lighting techniques to notice the differences in an indoor interview environment. Below is a sample of what was recorded:





From the video you can see a clear glow on Harriet's face in comparison to Tom's. Deborah our tutor complimented us for the fade in light in the background and also questioned the composition of our shot.

The Plan For Our One Shot Film

After brainstorming a variety of ideas and shuffling through an array of previously published one shot films, we managed to come to a conclusion on how ours will pan out.
Our inspiration came from a video we stumbled upon whilst looking through other one shot films which can be seen here.

We managed to get a rough text based story board of our film which I then mapped out in a visual presentation which can be seen below:

Text Based Story Board

Visual Story Board