Storyboard 1.0

Formatted storyboard version 1.0. To be read in conjunction with animatic 1.0, see this earlier post : http://what-would-sant-elia-do.blogspot.com/2011/11/animatic-version-1.html

Initial HDRI Studio Tests

These are three HDRI tests I took earlier this evening with a garden "gazing sphere" I bought off amazon and a SLR camera which I could only borrow for a few hours. So what is it I'm trying to achieve? By creating a set of High Dynamic Range Images (HDRI's) for the sites in Edinburgh I can then create panoramas of the lighting of the sites which can be used in Maya using Mental Ray's Image Based Lighting (IBL) effect. This means that the images are what is driving the light and reflections of the scene making any 3D objects placed within it integrate better with the live action plate. Regardless of the outcome which seems too dark at present, it was very fun and I look forward to going through to Waverley in the next week once I've perfected the technique to get some final ones.

So here we have the studio corridor, the studio itself and the external studio roof. The first set of circular image are the Photoshop HDR's used by combining 5 photographs of different levels of darkness together, the panorama is the two images merged in Nuke and the final is a 3D red sphere in Maya where I have tried to used the HDRI's as Image Based Lighting. Long way to go but a start...

Blog Mapping

In preparation of Wednesday's presentation for the research and context module I have created an online mind-map of my Master's blog linking the posts together and where they sit in the wider context of the project. Despite my initial skepticism I have found this a relatively useful exercise, and one which will come in handy not only for this week's presentation but for the one to be presented in the DCA later this month as part of our final assessment. There is a link to it below, it may be slow, for it is a bit of a mammoth project so bear with it!


SpicyNodes: Blog Map

Personal Definition of Animation

We have had to write a post about this as part of the Master's course but I thought it was probably worth putting it here too so that you can argue with me and maybe understand my personal work/ ambition a bit more.  I've been giving some thought as to what animation means to me. For me it is a way of creating the world in which I want to live, based mostly on reality but with some surrealist elements thrown in [I've possibly read too much magical realism stories]. I find it much easier to accept the reality of a situation if I think that there is something else to this world and I feel that above all the arts that animation arguably presents the right tools and techniques to do this. I guess I learned from an early age that this is not a world in I want to live and so the only way to find that place was to make it myself, even if I don't have the skills to do it well enough yet! This view is something which will no doubt change the older I get and the more varied work I do however as I currently stand my definition is thus:

Animation :

A man made technologically aided process to make the impossible believable in order to enhance our perception and visually make sense of the world in which we [want to] live.

Animatic v.1.0

See what you think...

http://vimeo.com/32347388

Very rough. This will be an evolving process as it will be live action mixed with 3D so much of the final shots will be created ad-hoc depending on the outcome of the model. Where this animatic is useful though is in outlining the shots where live action is needed and working out a loose narrative. There will be parts of the Futurist manifesto being read out on the tannoy/ train systems etc and I do not own the rights to this track [it is echos by the band Digitalism] but ideally I would like a similar soundtrack for the final piece. So not even nearly there but a rough idea!

11.11.11 Remember X

I wanted to do something for Remembrance Day. Not only do I feel its an important cause to support and should not be taken lightly but the date this year is particularly special. It is just a very basic typography piece which was put together in a few hours this evening. I would have loved to have spent more time on it alas I'm short on time as it is and listen to the line "We are the dead" over and over is deeply saddening. I do not own copyright to the recording [but did buy it] and it is from "Listen To Britain"[dir. Robert Garofol © Classic Pictures, 2002] and is an excerpt from John McRae's 1915 poem "In Flander's Fields". Since Higher English I've always liked the war poems by McRae, Sasson, Owen and this is one of my favourites, more information on it can be found here. I hope you all go buy a poppy or two. 

Slow-Boarding

Almost there....

Construction Commences

I've been incredibly busy badgering away with the Master's brief and the courses associated admin/written assignments recently but can confirm that construction work has begun on Waverley. This is the start of a lot of necessary Maya work on the project and was just wondering if any of you 3D users out there could give me any advice on if I'm modeling this behemoth in the best way? I'm enjoying the process but it's slow going especially when it comes to all the curves and having not done this before I'm curious as to whether this will actually work...

Carlton Hill View

First Match-Moving Tests

These are the first tests I've ever created using Matchmover. Incredibly basic so that I can get feedback on how to improve but I actually had a lot of fun doing them, despite some initial technical incompatabilities! Time was limited so excuse the dodgy masking. It really is quite a monster of a building...

Manifesto of Futurist Architecture

Turn the volume up and listen to the madness. There is no picture.


"The Futurist Manifesto of Architecture"
Sant'Elia 1914 


This is a poor recording I made earlier of the Futurist Architecture Manifesto written by Sant'Elia [and most likely Marinetti] in 1914. The original manifesto accompanied Sant'Elia's New Tendencies exhibition and is a mad and enigmatic piece of writing. I recorded it in order to help me begin to formulate a narrative to my Master's film, so I could listen to it on the move while at Waverley itself and to get across some of the frantic speed and language used by the Futurist's. I hope at some point to get a professional or fellow male student to record it and play around with some typography/ sound bites for the film. The youtube link below is a similar idea but is a recording of the original Futurist manifesto from 1909. Love it or hate it it is certainly dynamic stuff!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY8kVa0qB9Q

Programme Of Study

Wordy but finally edited and complete with full project rationale. I won't post it all here but feel free to ask questions! 

Backgrounds Take 2

Getting better...

Post 400! Have a Shoe!

I would of liked to have done something epic for post number 400 however i like the silliness of it being a shoe. Baby steps towards modeling Tom and Ada in Maya for Leap Year. Its been a while and I have lost the model three times but its a learning process and one which i am starting to enjoy! Once they are modeled I can't wait to test out 2D textures onto them and fellow animator and friend Rudy has offered to help me rig them, a lot of tea and pints will be heading his way! However advice is needed as I really don't have 
much clue how I should be doing this!

Under The Bridges