BSA226, 3D, still with the hands, 31 March, 2016

get rid of all 5 sided polygons.
grab central vertex, hold v key to drag vertexs on either side to central vertex and then hit  merge.  this creates two triangles.  this new problem can be fixed by deleting middle edge then pushing out to create a diamond shape

change from world, object, component mode through tools menu icon

snap tool up at top -magnet with blue ball, turn it on when moving lots of vertices to each other


add thumb
remove faces on hand, use snap tool to position ? towards the thumb
put edge loop on thumb end so it helps to join later.  select hand and thumb and hit combine tool to make them a single unit

select the vertices across from each other then hit merge so you can find out where holes are.  this allows them to meet in the middle so I can find out where problems are.
thumb is harder than fingers
not enough geometry?  select all edges and right click select mesh- fill hole buttons
weird bumps areas "fixed" can be pulled out or smoothed with sculpting tools

pull out geometry to help ease that transition from hand to thumb when bridging isn't enough.

Clothing construction: copy the basemesh and cut it apart to make the clothes.
Can also draw directly onto the basemesh.  change No live surface to live by highlighting the body.  The mesh is then live and quads can be redrawn by hitting quad draw tool.  Draw series of dots so quads are always being formed ( as in, never a straight dotted line, but two rows of dots to create a series of quads on the surface.

Half of my figure disappeared while I was putting on the fingers.  Fixing it needed a "duplicate special" move, but I couldn't figure it out.   But Doug did, hooray!  The settings must be instance and the SCALE changed to the screenshot below.

BSA225, 3D animatic problems, 30 March

EXTENTION: ANIMATIC DUE NEXT TUESDAY AT 5PM!!  Huzzah.

That's really good because doing the cameras and animating this weekend was...challenging.  I did decide to go home at nine pm last night rather than cry/break stuff in public.  My camera kept disappearing and my figure would only do one set of moves and nothing else.  I'd reset her in a chair and she would promptly disappear when I hit s to set a keyframe.  The camera would be listed in the asset list but could not be found over, in or under the stage.  I got 11 shots, some repeats, into After Effects.  It's a start, however poor.

 29 March animatic
I'm going to concentrate on beefing up the audio in the 2D animatic until I get those problems straightened out.  I had a good editing conversation with my friend Helen and took out 10 seconds of shots and tightened up some other stuff for clarity.  I still need to record some dialogue because I don't want to have the whole thing with subtitles.

BSA225, BSA226, Research, 28 March 2016

The Electric Pencil

In 1970, a boy found a pile of drawings in a trashcan.  He held onto them for 30 years and then sold them.  The buyer discovered that the artist had made them while incarcerated in a State Mental Hospital.  He thinks that the title might be a reference to the electroshock therapy the man was "treated" with while in hospital. The drawings have been bound together in a book.  I was touched by how they think the artist carried the drawings with him everywhere, perhaps for comfort, due to the wear and tear on the edges.

WWF Paper World

  An ordinary desk becomes the interconnected habitat of savannah, forest and ocean dwelling origami creatures in this beautiful animation from Mome Animation.  The story is merely that all habitations are connected and the smallest, most insignificant human actions can wreak havoc on the natural world.

BSA226, 3D character, hands and head, 24 March, 2016

Between Times 3D animation we watched in class








keepvid.com website to upload and trim youtube videos
http://keepvid.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D0-lcqIuVaR8

My first attempt at a body wasn't successful.  the knees are off  to the side, which I thought was workable, but wasn't.  The shoulders are also problematic, but the hands and feet are OK, so Rachel got me started on a new body that makes the skirt the legs, so to speak.  The shoulders are better and I'll keep rounding the body out.  The 3 button can't be trusted, so I have to keep working the base mesh.

Research, gaming, viral apocalypse, 25 March, 2016

I don't like to play video games, but I have yet to meet a disaster film that I didn't love.  That includes everything from the 70s flicks like The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure to The Walking Dead.  LOVE THEM.  And the more B actors they contain meeting gruesome ends, the happier I am.  Because, hey, I KNOW that guy from somewhere...

So I'm very excited to play Collapse online and see how long it takes me, as Patient Zero, to infect the rest of humanity.

First off, the aerial "camera" hovers over a map of Wellington.  How did it know I was in New Zealand?  That's creepy.  Starting from Invercargill, I get sent to Dunedin's Mercy Hospital.  In the end, it only takes 26 days to bring about the collapse of world governments, infecting billions and killing millions.  25 days and 18 hours if I start from my old home on Parliament St. in Auckland's CBD.  That's surprising- you'd think somebody, lots of somebodies, would get on a plane out and spread the infection sooner than I did in this simulator.  Still- very good scenario as it points out how quickly the collapse of food, militaries and people going to work will bring it all to a crashing halt.  This is game is to promote Ubisoft's video game "Tom Clancy's The Division" which follows survivors in NYC as they try to pick their way through the rubble and survive.  I tried playing a third time, this time from my parent's home in Virginia.  Game over in weeks, I thought, with Washington DC being a two hour drive from there.  Still 26 days.  This is the flaw in this simulator- everything runs at roughly the same pace, no matter the start point, and the shock value diminishes the more you play it.  But, as I said, it's a promo piece for the video game.  Now I need to go and fight my way out of the rubble.  Because they never said I was DEAD, only that I'd caused everybody else to bite it.

BSA225, BSA226, Film Review, Anomalisa, 25 March 2016

Anomalisa trailer

I listened to a podcast of the US radio show "Fresh Air with Terry Gross" about Inside Out and Anomalisa.  I've seen Inside Out, but not Anomalisa.  It may not come to Invercargill, but I'll be on the lookout for the dvd.  Maybe Chris will get it for our library... in the meantime, this is the trailer.  In Ardman Animation's The Pirates!, the faces were divided in half to facilitate the changing of eyes and mouths for emotions and speaking.  The splits were then taken out with CGI.  No such attempt has been made with this film, which is very interesting because everyone seems to be wearing a mask.  This design "flaw" works with the film's world view.    The main character (David Thewliss) is depressed and can't relate to people.  They all appear to him to have the same face and the same voice, even his young child.  Except for the woman with the scar (Jennifer Jason Leigh) that he meets while traveling.

To Do List Easter weekend 24-30 March

BSA202 Audio
Hot Fuzz presentation due Wednesday 30 March
7 minutes long including film clips
worth 30% of the grade

BSA225 3D Animatic
due Wednesday 30 March
timing, basic environment, camera work

BSA226 3D Character
finish rounding off character basemesh and connecting fingers to the hand

BSA Professional Practices, Project
work out graphic novel story and identify key pieces to connect it all together
write first draft of animation
finish Boxed Up

BSA? drawing
3 drawings on A2 paper that use mirrors, 3 objects, tonal shifts, composition

BSA202, Audio, 23 March, 2016

1st presentation due next week 30 March!!!!

BSA225, 3D animatic, 23-30 March, 2016

Setting up cameras.
set to HD1080 in camera wheel icon next to hypershade
click on frame of beginning of move, hit s on keyboard, then click on last frame of move, move your object, then hit s again.  first frame that's ready for animating will have transform attributes in pPlane2 highlighted in red, last frame for animating will be highlighted in pink.
right click timeline, select playblast to see what you've animated.  won't do full render for animatics, will just use playblast function.
animating a camera is same principal as animating object. choose camera in outliner or by looking through it in panels perspective camera view.
under playblast settings, tick box and change display size to from render settings.  close out and choose clapper with blue wheel and change renderable camera to camera 1 (or whatever camera you choose)so you can see what the camera filmed rather than the camera moving.
 each character needs to have a pivot in the center so it goes to the right place.  modify menu -center pivot when character is selected.   then choose edit delete history type selected.  choose resolution gate icon with blue dot in center
You can work from the end of the move or from the start of the move.  Select object or camera to be moved, then hit s once you've chosen the frame you want (for example, 100), then choose next frame (1 or 150) and move the camera.  Then select the object to move and do the same thing.

Save each scene once you've finished animated moves and camera so you can go back and continue on from that point, if needed, or remake the scene, if necessary.  It won't take up too much space.

Properties and sets list for 3D animatic.  always move objects in perspective view, not camera.
Cantina interior, bar view x

• bar  x
• no pets sign  x
• pipes and brewing mech  x
• skylight  x
• front doorway(rounded arch)  x
• patrons x8  x
• bartender  x
• glasses

Cantina interior, nook view x

• round table  x
• booth  x
• chairs x2  x
• bell/light  x

Other

• ring

Characters

• Peddler x
• Pet x

 I got some nooks started with booth, table and bells, a bar, the rounded entranceway and stairs leading down into the cantina.  I used a schematic that someone has created based on the set in Star Wars as a reference.  None of these object are the real thing.  Or they might be- you never know.  For now, to keep the worry at bay, they're just sketches so I can get the movements and cameras working in my animatic.  It's all a process.

 Second pass at the bar interior.  The chairs have been boosted on legs, the bar has the beginning of the drink pipes and a canopy, a wall has been constructed around the entry arch, and windows have been extruded into the walls.  I took the back faces off the windows for lighting purposes.

BSA203, ProPrac, test #2, doll sculpture, 23 March, 2016

Found object doll sculpture, in-progresss.  I like the limited colour palette (the glasses need to be replaced with wire ones or made thinner and painted) and the crumpled brown paper.  The skirt should be lengthened and brought in to give the doll more height.  I'm still not in love with the hands.  They may need to be replaced with sculpted hands or a full arm out of femo clay.  The paper will be painted to look like it's been written on OR replaced with paper covered in images from the illustrated journal.  I don't know.  I need to wait on it until I create the story of the animation.  My intention is for it to bookend the piece but whether that is as the Tree, the Puppet Master, or the Author, I don't know.

Exploring the tree metaphor as a way of taking the story from booklet to animation

illustrated journal entries with trees in them (and seasons)
tongue stuck to pole (winter)
chocolate trap (autumn)
wormy apple (autumn)
bird in thicket (winter)
flaming tree (autumn)
tree bears good fruit (summer)

complimentary to trees
golden bubble (birds fly out of a tree?)
seed in hand (plants a tree?)
double face (trees grow heart-shaped fruit?)

formulating research questions guides and centers research pulls together threads to present unique argument

checklist:  Is the research...

• do others care about it?  Is it arguable?
• new spin on old idea or does it solve a problem?
• too broad or too narrow?
• researchable with given time frame and location?
• What info is needed?

Should not have yes or no answers, but be answered by research and project.

Unfocused?= what is the effect of the environment on global warming?

focused?= How is glacial melting affecting penguins in Antarctica?

Do not be afraid to change direction in response to what I'm learning.

Do mini self-evaluations along the way which can be summarized at the end.

BSA225, 3D animatic 2nd draft, 22 March, 2016

Speed Dates animatic2

BSA203, ProPrac, Critique 2 powerpoint, 21 March, 2016

These are the slides I have prepared for my critique tomorrow.  I've done more than I've seen others do because I'm trying to get out ahead of the project.  I will need to spend more time on other things soon and I hope to be done with the analysis part of the project, excluding journaling, soon.  I have one more slide to fill, so I will go home early to continue working on the found object sculpture of the doll I started on this weekend.  In keeping with the self-portraits I've been doing, I've attempted to give the doll features more like my own, including wee little glasses.  Could be unintentionally hilarious.  Onward!

 I've read the previous graphic novels and like their simple black and white line drawings, but they don't relate to my work except for being autobiographical.  Maybe I can have bw cartoons, like Super-Traci, linking each section?  Explaining things?

 The previous three artist's works are more relevant to my piece because they've been translated into moving images (movie, animation and musical) but I haven't been able to get copies of their graphic novels or movies yet.  I could research forever but I'm going to pick one that I can relate to and run with it.  I also really really want to see Audrey Niffenegger's graphic novel/books.  They may be more relatable to what I'm doing even though they aren't autobiographical.

 colour and pattern experiments for Boxed Up with the final digital sketch.  The 50s ladies will be replaced by me mimicking their poses and expressions.  Probably angrier at the end, though, with an atom bomb going off in the background.

Doll research, sketches and beginning of the found object sculpture.  The face is done with a mock up of the dress.  Juliet suggested lengthening the skirt for more dramatic possibilities.  I still need to decide how that dress is being used: as a play stage, as the roots of a tree, as a leaf out of the book?

 Deb and I sat down to discuss what she's come up with so far.  We will chat again during the term break.  By then I should have a story outline and have made decisions about the how the book is going to translate into the animatic.

Dreamworks Animation Exhibition at Te Papa, 21 March 2016

http://dreamworks.tepapa.govt.nz/takeaway/videos/Dreamworks-your-video.html?file=/20160319/38665f3c-0c8f-460b-aeec-b39280201bd3.mp4

My friends got to see the exhibit and sent me this animation.  Ha, ha!  Dead stick men.  The exhibit runs until the end of this month and  I won't be able to get up to Wellington to see it myself.

BSA206, German Expressionism, 21 March 2016

How has the past influenced film today?

post WWI, the Weimar Republic emerged in Germany.  The government subsidized the Universum-Film AG (UFA) to make films that could compete with other countries. This led to the golden age of German cinema, which lasted 1919 to Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933.  German expressionism was it's most important contribution to world cinema.

Expressionism was a broader artistic movement in Germany early 20th century.  It was in all of the arts, and the opposite of Impressionism (surface reality) and sees the world through the filters of human perception and emotion.  It's use of heavy stylisation and shadowy lighting are widely admired and imitated.

MOMA German Expressionism collection

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Street, Berlin (1913)

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Woman buttoning her shoe (1912-13)

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Judas (from Umbra Vitae,1924)

Kathe Kollwitz
Self-Portrait, hand at the forehead
(1910)

Kathe Kollwitz
Death Seizes a Woman (1934)

Kathe Kollwitz
The People (1922)

Egon Schiele
Shaw or the Irony (1910-12)

Egon Schiele
 Squatting Woman (1914)

Egon Schiele
Poster for the 49th Exhibition
of the Vienna Secession (1918)

Cinematic Style: German expressionism uses stylised worlds with artificial sets, elaborate costuming and unnatural makeup.  Cinematography emphasises bold contrasts of dark shadows and bright highlights.  Chief characteristics are distorted and exaggerated settings, compositions of unnatural space, use of oblique angles and nonparallel lines, moving and subjective camera, highly stylized acting.  protagonists have extreme psychological states which reflect their strange environments.
key themes: madness, fractured identity.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari  (1920): most famous of the style
story of fantasy and horror told by a madman.
influenced film noir and horror movies in Hollywood

First vampire film came out of this movement: Nosferatu, a symphony of Horror (1922) by F. W. Murnau
the first of many adaptations of the Dracula story

Metropolis by Fritz Lang, one of the most influential science fiction movies of all time
vast sets, thousand sof extras and special effects, the most expensive film in Germany at the time and almost bankrupted UFA
also notable
The Golem (1920), last laugh, M, Faust


Tim Burton's movies are heavily influenced by German Expressionism

Vincent (1982)

Other filmmaker's that have been influenced by German Expressionism
Alfred Hitchcock (according to The Wrong House: The Architecture of Alfred hitchcock by Steven Jacobs

Still from "Vertigo" (1958)

Nosferatu's influence

Nosferatu's influence continues to be felt widely. Werner Herzog remade it in 1979 and his star Klaus Kinski's febrile intensity was similar to Schreck's. In 2000, Willem Dafoe starred as Schreck in the self-reflexive Shadow of the Vampire, a fictional film about the making of Nosferatu.

Metropolis' influence on Star Wars

Maria's robot double

C3PO
The Nasty Girl (1990)

A German film which explores what happens to a woman who decides to investigate her town's Nazi past.  In one scene, the protagonist goes to the library.  She and hte actor playing hte librarian stand next to a photocopier and a projected image of a giant library.  Other "flat" sets are used to great effect in the film.