Animation Core Lecture 4 review

The foundations of the animation were discussed in good depth today, with particular attention paid to the history of technological progression in animation. This seemed to me to be one of the best way to begin researching the subject of professional animation, which is always restricted to the technology available at the time. The uncanny valley, one of the earliest pieces of animations in human history, being made from a series of "key frames" appeared to demonstrate this. I learned that despite the effective shortcuts that can be used to create realistic animations nowadays, unavailable in earlier times, the artsitic study and breakdown of animation frame by frame is needed to capture the essence of animation.

Pokemon: another insight - a repost

As an aspiring developer of 8th Generation Games, I was stunned again with the sight of Pikachu comming to life through a Pokeball card symbol on my dinner table. Having had a crack at coding augmented reality for iPhone Games, I was most impressed with a 2D to 3D Animated fantasy of my childhood of mine come to life here. This is a first step towards one of my dreams; blending fantasy with reality to create a new reality for humanity.

I SAW TIN TIN in 3D with my CLASSMATES at the ODEON YESTERDAY

Initial comments:
Oh wow! This was a masterpiece, visually for me. I only have one criticism. I felt TIN TIN's character was too 2 dimensional, the star should have been Captin Hadock. I'll speak more of this later.



A quick technical review:
This piece is indeed a masterpiece in its blend of cartoonist and human-realistic CGI achieved through green screening and body morphing with 3D software. The animation has captured practically perfect human-realistic motion through the combined use of motion capture software and very well observed "ROTOSCOPING-like" of the original actors' performances. This Spielberg film stands as a milestone in CGI films, in a league right next to "Avatar".

Core Animation Tutorial 3

Today with Su Lynn was a hand dirtying exposition of 2D animation paper sketching techniques with lightboxes; the founations from which 3D computer animations rose. With a hit-the-ground-running approach to the session, we were immediately set an assignment of creating a 2D Animation of a  bouncing ball for the day, and then we were assigned a task of animating a rocket flying through space. Using the "old-school" animation techniques refered to in our lectures thus far in a practical way enthralled everyone. This brought a good conclusion to our week as animators: our homework task was to complete this second task and produce a fluid animation with Dragon Stopmotion software. Good stuff!

My Animation:

Life Drawing, Research and Theory 3

This class in life drawing, of a nude model, was very pleasant, yet awkward as the drawing technique we were instructed to implement, guiding a charcoal stub taped to the end of a bamboo cain  whilst standing, through most of us off. This exercise immediately opened my eyes in appreciation whilst observing the various research pieces in the Lecture of Animation Theory that Magnus presented today.

Finishing Modelling Jack!

Wala! Behold the Final product of Jack, ready for presentation:

Uh-oh, my Model of Jack for my presentation almost got flattened

Although the title is true the below clay Model is an apt indication of where I began when beginning my character:

Animation Core Lecture 3 review

The foundations of the animation were discussed in good depth today, with particular attention paid to the history of technological progression in animation. This seemed to me to be one of the best way to begin researching the subject of professional animation, which is always restricted to the technology available at the time. The uncanny valley, one of the earliest pieces of animations in human history, being made from a series of "key frames" appeared to demonstrate this. I learned that despite the effective shortcuts that can be used to create realistic animations nowadays, unavailable in earlier times, the artsitic study and breakdown of animation frame by frame is needed to capture the essence of animation.

Ponyo: a repost of my first insight

I, a huge Hayao Miyazaki, was touched today by watching Studio Ghibli's Ponyo, full of warm art and animation. The colourful and striking character Ponyo was a hit with my whole family, grandchildren to grandparents, captivating us with her transformation from golden fish to human. My Mother who seeks out hidden messages in Anime Cartoons found it ironic that this story about a tsunami being caused by a disregard for the balance of nature was Miyazaki's last film before Japan's 3/11 disaster. The layers of profoundity contained in this animated story serve as an inspiration to me as an aspiring Japanese games developer and animator.

SUPER STREET FIGHTER 4 - 3DS!

GOD ALMIGHTY, WE HAVE SUPER STREET FIGHTER IV, 3D EDITION! This issue of the classic 'STREET FIGHTER' arcade game series is a personal favourite game of mine and is why I am so passionate about pursuing a games development career in no other place than Japan. Street Fighter is one of the few games that genuinely represents the animated ideas seen in Japanese Manga Anime animations. This can be seen in characters such as Dhalsim, a Yoga fighter who's arms and legs can stretch and reach you across the room to strike you, or E-Honda, the Sumo Wrestler who can deliver a 100 hand slap depicted as a blur of hands, on the illustrated covers of some game editions. The beauty of this game is that it beautifully captures the retro 2D animation day and contemporary 3D realism fans of today through Cell Shading the 3D models to maintain a black outline around their bodies, and eliminating side stepping, as in it's rival TEKKEN and in older 3D Street Fighter Games, restricting movement to the x and y axis as in the 2D classic. Ergo, the ideas brought to life here aren't based on rational realism - as the unfortunately infamous first attempt of the Street Fighter acted movie was - rather the fantastic artistic depictions of legendary fighters of different styles seen through the eyes of a manga artist.

Core Animation Tutorial 2

Today with Su Lynn was also a hand dirtying exposition of 2D animation paper sketching techniques with lightboxes; the founations from which 3D computer animations rose. With a hit-the-ground-running approach to the session, we were immediately set an assignment of creating a 2D Animation of a  flower's growing life cycle the day, and then we were assigned a task of animating a rocket flying through space. Using the "old-school" animation techniques refered to in our lectures thus far in a practical way enthralled everyone. This brought a good conclusion to our week as animators: our homework task was to complete this second task and produce a fluid animation with Dragon Stopmotion software. Good stuff!

My Animation:

Life Drawing, Research and Theory 2

This class in life drawing, of a nude model, was very pleasant, with a more slender model and more of a conventional charcoal sketching style with an upheld easel. This exercise had it's share of challenges too, however, with a quick succession of poses struck that we had to sketch. This too immediately opened my eyes in appreciation whilst observing the various research pieces in the Lecture of Animation Theory that Magnus presented today.


- PHOTO'S COMING SOON -


Magnus's Lecture on research and Theory today was also just as enriched with ingenious visual art techniques for the budding young animator as last week's. This lecture moved onto the journey of the earliest animators' attempts at bringing life to their comic storyboards, such as Rotoscoping developed by Max Fletcher's Coco the Clown. Again, this session set a standard for the students in terms of the dedication required to move the hearts of the calibur of artists assessing work at this University.

Max Fletcher's Out of the Inkwell (1921):

Maya Session review 2: Sculpting Jack!

The homework task of sculpting Jack from plastercine proved to be a most useful in pre-planning the polygons needed to sculpt him in Maya. This modelling task suddenly began to feel more organic when using the plastercine model as a reference with reference planes, textured with front and left photos of the model. This activity gave me an eager anticipation for using laser scanning hardware of 3d sculptures to get my exact model brought to life more quickly one day.

- The pics and the rest of this blog is coming -

Peppa Pig critique

Astley Baker Davies an Alumnus of this here Middlesex University has captivated my nephews and nieces with his delightful Peppa Pig cartoon - along with their uncle. The show being born out of his passion and the principles learned from the illustration course tutors of this University has such a pull, resulting in the multi-million pound franchise that is now Peppa Pig, because in my opinion the wholesome family values of a good children show has survived through the competitive market place littered of lifeless money seeking attempts at cartoons today. This is a subject that I will certainly return to at a later blog.


(Peppa Pig: 31 May 2004 (2004-05-31))

Animation Core Lecture 2 review

Animation & Observation

The foundations of the animation were discussed in good depth today, with particular attention paid to the history of technological progression in animation. This seemed to me to be one of the best way to begin researching the subject of professional animation, which is always restricted to the technology available at the time. The uncanny valley, one of the earliest pieces of animations in human history, being made from a series of "key frames" appeared to demonstrate this. I learned that despite the effective shortcuts that can be used to create realistic animations nowadays, unavailable in earlier times, the artsitic study and breakdown of animation frame by frame is needed to capture the essence of animation.

(The above to be adited later)


Thought of you, by Ryan Woodward (2011) - Moving to say the least:

The wonderful animation of Jackie Chan: Who Am I

I indugled in my enourmous collection of Jackie Chan movies this weekend and marvelled once more in the miracle that is Jackie Chan and his action sequences. This hero of mine has expanded as a concept into the TV animated series and video game series world, due to his distinctive awareness of physical comedy and Kung Fu fight scene choreography. This movie in question "Who am I" featuring an accademy award winning finale fight sequence was so captivating that I paused the scene continously key frame by key frame and sketched out the key poses struck by the fighter in my portfolio at 14 years old whilst living in Japan. The man may not be an animator, but he is certainly the most animated fighter in Hollywood today.

Playing "Zelda: Twilight Princess", anticipating the "Skyward Sword"

This Sunday, I had a blast with Zelda: Twilight Princess on my Wii with my Nephew, appreciating it from a new perspective as an animator, as well as a coder. The game is full of influences from fairy tales and religous stories, such as the symbol of the "triforce" from Catholicism and "Excalibur" from the Sword in the Stone - I now, as an animator feel that the Pulling of the sword from the stone in this game is much more standard than the charsimatic pulling by the protagonist Authur in Walt Disnsey's "Sword in the Stone" (1963).The game is as enthralling as ever, however, with developer legendary Nintendo Game Developer producer Shigeru Miyamoto seeing even more to add to the animated gameplay in later versions, such as the player's Wiimote to be used as a tracker to accurately guide the motion of the hero Link's sword holding hand. This is but a sliver of why I anticipate the sequel the "Skyward Sword".


The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess:

Core Animation Tutorial 1, with Su Lynn!

Today with Su Lynn was a hand dirtying exposition of 2D animation paper sketching techniques with lightboxes; the founations from which 3D computer animations rose. With a hit-the-ground-running approach to the session, we were immediately set an assignment of creating a 2D Animation of a  bouncing ball for the day, and then we were assigned a task of animating a rocket flying through space. Using the "old-school" animation techniques refered to in our lectures thus far in a practical way enthralled everyone. This brought a good conclusion to our week as animators: our homework task was to complete this second task and produce a fluid animation with Dragon Stopmotion software. Good stuff!

My Animations:

Life Drawing, Research and Theory 1

This class in life drawing, of a nude model, was very pleasant, yet awkward as the drawing technique we were instructed to implement, guiding a charcoal stub taped to the end of a bamboo cain  whilst standing, through most of us off. This exercise immediately opened my eyes in appreciation whilst observing the various research pieces in the Lecture of Animation Theory that Magnus presented today.

- PHOTO'S COMING SOON -

Magnus's Lecture on research and Theory, however, was just as enriched with ingenious visual art techniques for the budding young animator. This lecture journeyed from man's earliest attempts at animatable art, e.g. key framed figures drawn on ancient surfaces including the "Cauvet Cave" (32,000 years old) a decorated Iranian Bowl (5,200 years old) and a egyptian motion piece (400 years old), to the first deliberate inventions of machines purposefully built for animation purposes. This session set a standard for the students in terms of the dedication required to move the hearts of the calibur of artists assessing work at this University.

Maya Session review 1: Sketching Jack!

First of all, Maya is a art package that I've been using since 10 years old, which was the same time that I developed my character Jack for a flash game I was designing called "Tether Ball" - now calle "CONKER BALL" for the Nintendo Wii on Ware. I would normally overlook modelling and animaton with much detail and certainly didn't spend as much time as I was asked to in sketching the character before hand on earlier pieces, not coming from an art background, in my earlier works. This was humbling to say the least and most invaluable.

HALLELUJAH! I now have a vintage "Dragon Ball Manga" Comic - Vol. 1!.

Being a true fan of the Dragon Ball Anime series, and a regular viewer of the subtitled japanese anime version  online today, holding and reading the Manga comic of my cherished early episodes, in japanese also, distilled the beauty of the story. As the storylines are exactly the same in the comics as are in the anime shows, they comic read like a storyboard, showing where the animators probably drew inspiration from for the animation style of the fight scenes, repeating expressive key frames continuously. This reminded me of  the "Asterix the Gaul" comic by René Goscinny (story writer) and Albert Uderzo (illustrator), adding voice to an already living story.

HERE'S WHAT I GOT:

                           

Animation Core Lecture 1 review

Animation & Visual Research

The foundations of the animation were discussed in good depth today, with particular attention paid to the history of technological progression in animation. This seemed to me to be one of the best ways to begin researching the subject of professional animation, which is always restricted to the technology available at the time. On observing the works from early dilegent animating artsits, such as Ryan Larkin - of the acclaimed "Street Musique" (1972) and subject of Oscar winning animated documentary "Ryan" (2004)  - highlighted the important progression from Pencil to "Key Frame" to Pixel that all animators can benefit from taking. Despite the effective shortcuts that can be used to create realistic animations with computer software today, unavailable in earlier times, the artsitic study and breakdown of animation in life frame by frame is needed to capture the essence of animation.

Walking - Oscar nominated-, by Ryan Larkin (1968):
A diligent piece centred around walk cycles, good reference material.

Pokemon's POKEDEX 3D: A 3DS Miracle

This Sunday, I was blessed with the experience of Pokemon in Augmented reality with my 3DS, online with Pokemon Black and White - POKEDEX 3D. As an aspiring developer of 8th Generation Games, I was stunned with the sight of Pikachu comming to life through a Pokeball card symbol on my dinner table. Having had a crack at coding augmented reality for iPhone Games, I was most impressed with a 2D to 3D Animated fantasy of my childhood of mine come to life here. This is a first step towards one of my dreams; blending fantasy with reality to create a new reality for humanity.

Here's a clip of more on the way:

Moved by Miyazaki - A quick Ghibli Film review: Ponyo

I, a huge Hayao Miazaki movie fan, was touched today by watching Studio Ghibli's Ponyo, full of warm art and animation. The colourful and striking character Ponyo was a hit with my whole family, grandchildren to grandparents, captivating us with her transformation from golden fish to human. My Mother who seeks out hidden messages in Anime Cartoons found it ironic that this story about a tsunami being caused by a disregard for the balance of nature was Miyazaki's last film before Japan's 3/11 disaster. The layers of profoundity contained in this animated story serve as an inspiration to me as an aspiring Japanese games developer and animator.

Summer Work - The Fresher's Fair at Middlesex Uni

On attending the Fresher's Fair at Uni today, and enjoying the free Pizza, I found a number of job opportunities that could serve me as self-promotional events in my career. Firstly, there was an anime workshop consultant job stand that caught my attention in being a window into promoting my animation to visiting enthusiasts and business opportunists. Second, the job stand for Olympic jobs proved to be a similar prospect for promoting my developed iPhone Games aimed at 'game enthusiasts'. This reminded me of the great social networking potential that good Universities provide.

http://www.londonanimecon.com/

http://www.london2012.com/get-involved/jobs/

My trip to the Comic Museum

I took a trip to the comic Museum in London to explore the history of cartoonist expression in comics. In a word, "Insightful"!

http://www.cartoonmuseum.org/

Induction Week: Life Drawing Reflection 1

Today I drew a raw whole headless chicken in my induction week's life drawing class and gained valuable insights on life drawing. On building a character from primitive geometric 3D objects, as though with Maya the 3D Modelling software, a consitent naturealistic sketch can be achieved quickly. I had gleened this prior to the class from the Nintendo DS Art Accademy's life drawing class. This proves to be very useful to me as a 3 animator, as this technique also serves as a plan for setting up 3d geometric primitives to flesh out a 3d object with.

By the way I had the pleasure of meeting our guest Lecturer, Dave McKean, I'll talk more of him on a leter post:

EASTERN ARRAYSAIL: My poem and next project theme

I have entered, and had accepted for publication, another poem into the national poem competion POETRY RIVALS 2011. This poem, "Before Baptism" is dedicated to the victims of Japan's 3/11 Tsunami and Earthquake disaster. Japan is very beloved to me and I have always wanted to make a game that I could dedicate to the my experience of it. Hence, due to my poem's positive reception amongst readers thus far, I decided to aptly name my next game project "THE EASTERN ARRAYSAIL" - inspired by a 3/11 documentary by Pharrell Williams "Tokyo Rising".
 
Link: Tokyo Rising | Palladium Boots

Enrolled on 3D Animation and Games Course

Greeting's y'all. I'm taking a new approach into the Games intustry. I'm still a coder, ofcourse, but I'm perfecting my art for a while.

 BA 3D Animation and Games