GameCity5 Ends

Yes, the last day of the the festival has passed and although I have enjoyed the festival immensely I am glad to be relieved of my duties so I can assign my attention to other things (and not have to wake up at 7:00am anymore!).

The friday night was great as I got to visit a small bar I'd never heard of called Nihon which was really cool. I met some great people and even got a t-shirt as there were two designers printing t-shirt designs on the upper floor of the bar. After this me and some other GameCity staff headed back to the Tent to join in with the Crysis 2 tournament that had been arranged. The top prize for winning was a trip to Frankfurt to visit Crytek studios. Unfortuantely I didn't win but I did win a t-shirt for being the top player on my team in the first round. I also got to talk to the crytek employees that were managing the event and acquired one of their e-mail addresses.

Saturday was the final day of the festival and we were celebrating Mario's 25th anniversary by having a huge party with lots of great games, prizes and of course...cake! Mario and luigi were even there to party with everybody, have a dance, and pose for photographs. There was also a costume party with the winner being awarded a special edition Wii console. We ended the day with a steward meeting where everybody who had helped out through the week was duly thanked for all their hard work. All the stewards had a photograph together and then wrote their contact details down in order to be contacted for future projects.

The festival was a great experience and I will definately consider applying to work next year. I have met a lot of great people, played some fun games and acquired some valuable experience.

I've posted a few more photos below from the party on the Saturday.

Life Drawing

I was finally able to attend the free life drawing class tonight and it was a really great experience and something I'd never done before. We started by doing three quick, five minute sketches of the model and then did another three more detailed drawings where we were given twenty-five mintutes for each. I've uploaded the three more detailed sketches and I hope to add more in the coming weeks.

GameCity!

GameCity has begun and I was there!...as a steward. Yes I've volunteered to help out during the festival and the opening night has ended. I'm looking forward to the rest of the week and hopefully I'll get to meet some great people and play some awesome games, obviously. I took a few pictures but the camera on my phone is terrible but I managed to get some decent shots. Check them out below.

Hand Rigging!

My first ever rigged hand animation is complete!

Awesome Art

I just stumbled across some amazing artwork by game developer Bioware created for Dragon Age and also an interview with some of the senior artists. The interview was conducted by Pixologic, the creators of Zbrush and gives an idea of how the Bioware team operate. The artwork is really impressive and is something I hope to work towards. There are also some animation reels in the link below too.

http://www.pixologic.com/interview/dragon-age/1/

The Power of Cartoons

Interesting talk by editorial cartoonist Patrick Chappatte about the importance of cartoons in the media around the world.
http://www.ted.com/

3D

I've finally started to develop my designs in 3ds Max. This is just a very basic 3d model of my robot. It resembles one of my 2d designs quite well.

Lots more to come.

Initial Storyboard

Deliver Hope

Interesting video I thought I'd share about the making of the "Deliver Hope" trailer for Halo Reach, showing how the costumes and special effects were created.

Nuts!

I mentioned earlier that I had been looking at some clips of Scrat from the Ice Age films and I stumbled across this animated short that I had not seen before as it is not part of any of the feature films. It is a very entertaining and over-the-top animation which reminds me of the classic Looney Toons cartoons, only in 3D. I hope to create a similiar type of humour in my animation with my robot having a problem that he must overcome or an objective he must complete.

New Robot Design

My second illustration created with my new graphics tablet. I think this is a better design than my last partly because I spent more time on it in order to add more detail.

ROBOTS

I thought it was time for another update so here we go...since my last post I've continued to watch more Charlie Chaplin films which have been really helpful to me but also enjoyable as mere entertainment. I have also began to look at other examples of slapstick including Tom and Jerry and the Ice Age films, particularly focusing on the character Scrat and his quest to acquire his beloved nut.

As well as studying slapstick films and animation I have begun to think about where I want my animation to be located. I have a few locations in mind including an alleyway, a landfill and a forest.

The image above is a rough illustration I did today after recieving my new Wacom tablet. I'm new to using this kind of device but have already found it quite easy to use. Hopefully I will be able to use it to create my storyboards and more defined illustrations in the future.

Slapstick Madness!

'Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated physical violence and activities which exceed the boundaries of common sense.'

'a stick or lath used by harlequins, clowns, etc., as in pantomime, for striking other performers, esp. a combination of laths that make a loud, clapping noise without hurting the person struck.'

The "Of Bots and Bananas" project is all about slapstick so I thought I'd better define the term before doing anything else. After I had fully understood the term 'slapstick' I began to study some classic slapstick comedians beginning with Charlie Chaplin. I had never watched a Chaplin film from start to finish so after acquiring some of his work I did just that.

I have just finished watching 'The Gold Rush' and the biggest thing I learned from this film was just how many similiarities there are between silent films and animation. Both mediums rely on exaggerated body language and mannerisms to convey the emotion and narrative elements that are required for the scene. I found this observation very interesting and feel it will help me when animating my own comedic scene.

I will continue to study and watch more examples of slapstick/silent comedy in the form of 'City Lights', 'Modern Times' and 'The Great Dictator'.

Year 2 Begins

It's good to be back. After a long, long break at home I've just attended the first lecture of the year and it seems that there is a lot to look forward to. Highlights I noted were the university buying a very expensive, awesome MOCAP suit which I definately want to try out and also a trip to Berlin is being planned for early next year.

I've just skimmed through the first Virtual Environents brief too which involves animating a robot that can 'walk, trip, slip and fall.' I'm eager to jump back into 3ds Max and make some crazy stuff.

Plenty of updates to follow.