Tuesday 1 December 2015

The Workscene

Animation skills are very useful in multiple careers. All media requires talented and creative minds with animation skills to help realise a vision/concept.

Some examples of companies in different genres of media are:



Games

Odd games

6 foot kid/Halfbrick

Serious games and simulation

Holopoint/Rheinmetall



Effects

Rising Sun Pictures

Emergen

Resin

Kojo



Animation

Monkeystack

Vishus


A bit more on certain workplaces:

Rising Sun Pictures


A company that specialises in visual effects in film. Their work includes Harry Potter, X-men, and The Hunger Games.

· Work predominantly with visual effects


· Work on extremely high profile movies


· Have won numerous awards and were nominated for an Oscar



MonkeyStack


An animation company that works mainly with advertisements, and also works on animated TV shows, games, and concept art.

· Work on both 2D and 3D animation


· Get mostly advertisement work


· Also work on animated shows and games


· Showreel



ANIFEX


Another leading animation company that focus on stop-motion animation. They do a lot of advertisement work and have a lot of well known characters from TV advertisements.

· Work mainly with stop motion animation


· Get a lot of advertisement work but also create short and feature films


· Have won numerous awards


Other Australian companies include




Halfbrick Studios

· Game Developer


· Based in Brisbane


· Created the mobile game Fruit Ninja in 2011, which had accumulated 300 million downloads by 2013


Vishus

· Animation company


· Based in Adelaide


· Created the children's television show Figaro Pho



Monday 23 November 2015

My Future/Career

At this current moment in time, I work a casual position in Hospitality and my spare time consists of art. I am a digital artist and have been working under an artistic persona for 3 years. It's an unofficial second job at times and my main hobby too. I am always looking to further myself creatively which is why I undertook this Cert III in Media. Learning animation and how to make it work was appealing to me, especially the 2D animation as it lined up with what I already do, drawing in a two dimensional space.

What I like about this course:
- 2D animation projects
- Character design/concepts

What I dislike/not very interested in:
- 3D animation, not really my thing but good to know how it works.

My strengths are definitely in 2D animation as I came into this course with drawing skills and experience with character design.
A weakness is 3D. Something I had never touched and also was introduced in the course at a very busy time in life outside of the course, which has affected my progress.

Possible pathways to take after this course:
- CDW Studios, the most likely choice as they offer what I am interested in through multiple courses.
- Taking this information and skills I have learnt and using them for personal projects.

Methods of "breaking in" to the career:
- Conventions, showing off talent to other talented minds or meeting and discussing with them.
- Indie projects with peers
- Youtube, Vimeo and other online sources to share projects/work
- Seminars, meetings and networkings

New Ways and Means

In today's technological society, new ways of creating and producing are appearing all the time.
Websites providing paid & free resources, applications that can take your work and improve it through cloud powered technology, and multiple media websites providing an outlet for creative minds to share with others.

Video games, movies, television & multiple other sources of media and entertainment are growing larger everyday, with a mixture of older experienced veterans of the career mixed with younger generations and new people bringing in their new ideas and methods to pave the way for new and exciting ways to create.

Free software is always available through the internet as a way to give anyone a chance to seek resources and help for what they are doing.

Blender , Gimp, 3Dsweep


Lightworks are some examples of these.

Cloud based software is the next big thing and it's efficient and useful. Video game brands such as Xbox, powers itself through Microsoft's amazing software capabilities and their use of the Cloud. While they are in early stages of using the Cloud to their advantage, they are coming closer to realizing it's potential with every game they release that is able to use it's power.
Some examples of cloud based resource software is
Mixamo,

p3d, Kwiksher, 123Dcatch & puzzlescript.org

Resources are also available on the web as free or paid services. Websites that provide what someone may be looking for at a potential cost. Turbosquid, for example can provide a wealth of 3D resources, but the quality of that resource determines it's price. A fully rigged model from a movie can be upwards of $100 while a basic model of something similar that isn't rigged or of high quality may be less than $10 or even free. These resources cater to a varied audience.

In this age of sharing and creating media, multiple websites have provided a way for people to share their creations with the world, for free. If particular content creators become quite popular, they can even end up becoming paid by the company for their works and for them to keep on creating. Youtube is such a website that embraces this model. Vimeo is another recognizable name.

Another new technology is the tablet. Wacom is a huge brand in particular and one I take advantage of. I own 3 Wacom tablets through upgrading to the next model over time.

3D Project II

Our second 3D project was a little more difficult as we modelled the head, hands and feet ourselves and attached them to a premade body. We went through many steps to make the body work with the additional parts and then begun animating.

We first modelled a head out of clay as a reference, and then built the head in 3DS Max to then use as our characters head.

I was pushed for time during this project in my personal life and it impacted on this final project quite heavily. I was eventually able to complete the project and add sound.
The purpose of this project was to put the character in an awkward situation and have a surprise happen to him afterwards. This is what I ended up with.





3D Project

Our first 3D project focused on a strong emotion change which could be easily portrayed visually.
I went with a character who almost knocks over an expensive vase which causes initial shock, but to his quick relief he is happy to know it didnt fall.

We used a pre rigged puppet for this project as the main focus was the animation itself, and having a pre made body/face really helped.






Monkeystack, and 2D Project II

Our second 2D project was overseen by Troy, one of the owners of Monkeystack. He visited us and spoke about his company and what they do and how it works.
We were given a brief and discussed ideas with Troy before moving forward with the project. It was about expressing emotion from one to the other eg. happiness to sadness and vice versa.

My idea was set in a post apocalyptic setting, where humanity's ideas on valuables had changed drastically. I had a boy, scavenging in a pile of rubble who emerges with a shiny ring, which he chucks away without any second thought. He does this to illustrate the change in society and how this boy has been raised to take interest in what he can survive on, a ring that was once considered valuable now no longer has value. He emerges from the rubble once more, finding fresh water to which cues his celebration and spark of happiness.


Monday 6 April 2015

Creativity

There are a number of things that can get in the way of creativity. Most of the time the left side of the brain will try to override the right sides creative thinking with things like:

First Idea Headset: Falling in love with the first idea you come up with, neglecting other ideas that come after.

Pre-Judgement: Judging ideas before they are even created.

Social Anxiety: Being too anxious that you will be judged on your ideas, causing you to hold back.

Habit: Staying in your comfort zone which can prevent you from furthering your creativity.

Lack of Time: Running out of time and therefore rushing the work.

Fear: Being scared of your ideas not being good enough.

Workplace Pressures: Being pressured to do what you do not want to do or not do it in your own way.

Tensions: Other stresses in life that can put up roadblocks in creative thinking.

Lack of Exercise: Too little exercise/sleep results in poor creative thinking.

The left brain tends to be a distraction for creativity. It requires training and focus to be able to strike a balance and also utilise the creative power of the right side of the brain.