BSA306, 3D experiments, 23 May, 2017

Rachel got the makerbot 3D printer running yesterday and after 9 hours and 19 minutes, Jellybean was made!  The rest of the characters are 1/2 to 3/4 his size which will speed things up considerably.  I will print him again in his Zbrush version.

This version will be cleaned up and painted/decorated for the exhibition.

BSA306, "Ugly" animation, 19 May, 2017

Ugly trailer

errors and happy accidents in cgi cartoon brew story


How Framestore animated Baby Groot in GotG v2

I love this character so much- going from a giant tree that could fight and be tender to a child who is still a member of the team is such an exciting character arc for a super hero/space/action movie.  I'm sad that they're going to take him back to an adult for the third film but I'm sure that they'll surprise me with how good that actually turns out to be.

BSA306, Reservoir Dogs, 30 May, 2017

Reservoir Dogs

Quentin Tarantino, director, 1992, Sally Menke, editor
A group of hardened criminals is brought together by a crime boss to knock off a wholesale diamond store, but the job goes wrong.  They suspect a rat immediately and Mr. Orange is ultimately revealed as an undercover cop after a series of flashbacks.  The movie is famed for it's style, use of music, and extreme violence and profanity- all hallmarks of Quentin Tarantino's directorial style.  This film is one multiple critics "must- see" lists and I'd have to agree as it revolutionized crime dramas and brought a new and distinctive directoral vision to movies.  The non-linear narrative produces surprises as loyalties and backstories are revealed that a straightly chronological style of editing would not have produced.  Sally Menke edited 9 of Tarantino's films including his segment in Four Rooms ("The Man from Hollywood") before her death in 2010.  I enjoy non-linear narrative structures because the reveals are always much more interesting and put story and suspense over realism and chronology.  Memento and Predestination are films that use the technique to good ends.

BSA324, pitch bible prototype for exhibition, 30-31 May, 2017

Writing for animation: pitch bible with Rob Hoege and Grant Moran


BSG pitch bible
I was planning to print and foam core character and illustration boards for the exhibition but Rachel reminded me that one of my goals for my third year project was to create a pitch bible to shop around to potential investors and stakeholders.  So I've taken those pieces and added pages that handle where and what the show is, a 6 episode series summary, and a summary of the script that relates to the illustrations, and a few filler pages to make a booklet.  There are pages I can add or pages I can combine to create a better flow for anyone who flips through it.  I'll get feedback and do another practice run before I send it away for printing.  Chris MacDonald has lots of info on printing through Blurb and Rachel's pitch bible for Tale Enders looks great.  These are the pages and their layout:

Now that they've been printed, I can see that the contrast between the black letters and whitish boxes is not strong enough and legibility has been compromised.  I threw in the black line drawings of Girl sitting because I needed another page- there was no time to colour them, let alone collage' them.

BSA326, Mari tests, 25 May, 2017

Program's sole job is to paint texture onto 3D models.

set up folder in D drive before opening Mari because it will want to set up a folder system on opening program
set projects and tell program where to find obj or fbx file and where your texture folder is, too

Ctrl R to rotate the figure for painting, otherwise you can move around the space like you can in maya
Ptex is the UV in Mari
Channels has the folders with the layers inside it
shelf has brush menus
diffuse/albedo/colour= colour
history view- ANYTHING you do after jumping back will overwrite the following moves, even twisting the view.  be careful!
choose shader you want to use back in Maya (blinn) before you start painting
green light tells us how much strength the computer needs to run the layer
blue layer bit of computer power
and red layer takes quite a bit of computer power
this is important while you're working
procedural layer means you can change things easily without messing everything up when somebody wants to change the colour

BSA324, Funding advice, 24 May, 2017

How to fight bias in startup funding
take aways from this article:  be passionate and dream big, take a well-dressed man "prop" to first meeting to better chances of getting a second meeting, and having a mentor.

BSA305, 90s animation part 2

Pedro Serrazina (Portugal) Tale of the Cat and the Moon

Black and white animation
Ghost in the Shell (Japan) 1995 Mamoru Oshi

based on Manga comic of the same name, recently released as a live action movie 2017
James the Giant Peach (1996 USA) Henry Selick

Starts out live action and transitions to stop-motion as James crawls into the peach.

Beavis and Butthead (1992) by Mike Judge, who also made King of the Hill

Bill Plympton I Married a Strange Person (1997)
credited as only person who ever drew every single frame of an animated film

William Kentridge made Felix in Exile (1995, South Africa)

made with charcoal and eraser and photographed after each bit rubbed out.

Dave Borthwick (UK) The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb (1995)

Creepy blend of plasticine and human figures

Paul Driessen The End of the World in Four Seasons  (1995)
nonlinear and a multiple narratives, often experimented with split screens and parallel stories

In Spring, you can see things happening and one square and then repeating from another angle or continuing on in another square.  Is there a story here?  Maybe.

Behind the Scenes of how South Park is made doc

In their first season, they used stop motion techniques and filmed craft paper cut outs of their characters.  It was a time consuming process.  As of 2011, each episode is written, filmed, and recorded in 6 days for delivery to Comedy Central on the last day.  They use Cintiqs and the computers are so fast that the production pipeline can move as quickly as they can write.  One of the staff said they once delivered an episode 4 days early but they don't do that anymore- understandable because they'd have the network all over them to make changes.  

BSA303, Active Documentation is Important, 22 May, 2017

Proposal 10
Dissertation 50
Documentation 30
Public Seminar 10

Documentation task will be key to passing the class.

Due 19 June
Presentation in 2-slide format
1. How documentation is being utilised in project questioning
2. An example of approach to how you may layout documentation as an appendix to Dissertation

Go to SIT library to see how past high grade earners have done their documentation

In the workbook:
As an appendix of annotated practice will provide a visual archive or collation of practice which reveals research projects critical and rigorous thinking in and through practice.   Documentations structure, content and overall coherency needs to be considered in conjunction with written dissertation.

Documentation should provide sense of journey in projects questioning including phases an key points in project.  Phases and key points should be precisely discussed in brief annotations that accompany the visual record.  These should make concise references to key theoretical, contextual and technical investigations that inform, support and drive the projects questioning as articulated in the dissertation.

While mainly a visual record, there should be evidence, through notations and organisation of content of reflective practice and the use of active documentation processes.

Documentations should be about MY practice.

Research project documentation must include:
Content
annotated visual archive or collation of practice demonstrates
clear evidence of focus and development of project questioning
critical and rigorous thinking in and through practice
sense of journey in projects questioning including phases and key points in the project
concise reference to key theoretical, contextual and technical investigations that inform, support and drive the projects questioning as articulated in the dissertation
evidence of reflective

structure
coherent content aligned with dissertation
content structured to aid understanding of projects development of key questioning
layout aids visual reading of development of projects key questioning

General
mainly visual record with concise annotations
form of an appendix of annotated practice or other suitable format
organisation of visual and text material aids readability

priorities for exhibition, 20-29 May, 2017

collage' illustrations
Girl helping work things out
Girl and Jellybean
critters on their backs looking up at the ceiling

3D stuff
draw turn arounds for all characters
3D print Jellybean
Imagination Warehouse

Storyboards
finish opening sequence
Jellybean and Prickles fight
Dr. Picklesniffer and Teppy fight
Goldie and Flash fight
solution 1 hide the toy sequence
solution 2 play by myself sequence
Girl asks questions and Dr. Picklesniffer makes his diagnoses
solution 3 take turns with the toy sequence
settling down for the ending and Girl back in her room
(complete as much as you can)

Script draft #3
incorporate live action kids giving ideas about what to do (solutions 1 and 2) into the appropriate spots in the script
Flash needs to be utilized to bring kid's onto a screen somewhere to have their say
Girl shows off pictures she's drawn that illustrate the problem she's having today at top of show

for exhibition:
print illustrations of script events and characters for hanging and mount on foam core
look again at Pirates! stop motion movie for how they did their end credits.  Can my exhibition space be set up like part of the Imagination Warehouse?

BSA324, going from 2D to 3D tips, 19 May, 2017

Claudio Saavedra tips


Breathing life into 2D animation

Adobe character animation workflow

BSA324, Armadillo reference film, 19 May, 2017

Armadillo rolls into a ball gif

BSA306 and BSA326, setting files up for 3D printing, 19 May, 2017

Files should be taken out of Maya as Objs and imported into photoshop.  Need to get Chris to show me again how to film what's being done with OBS or PRS or whatever that program was...
Save file in Maya as an obj.
In photoshop, open a new document- anything will do.  Under 3D menu, select new 3D layer from file and import your obj file. when prompted, accept moving to 3D space.

change size of file to 10 x 10 x 10?  so it will fit on 3D printer.
somehow, it has to become a .stl file to be read by the Up 3D printer program.  I can't remember how to do that...

open Up program in printer room.  and blah blah blah from there.   Go through it again with Chris on Monday.  There's a list of things that have to be set in the program and measured on the printer like pad and nozzle heat setting (cover pad with glove once everything else is done so it heats up evenly).  Nozzle temperature has to be what?  filament melts at 260 degrees Celsius and pad has to be 100 ish to work.
You have to test that the filament will come out of the nozzle and isn't stuck in there.  You have to plug the magnetic thingie into the printer so it can calibrate where the pad is and make sure it's evenly set up.  Turn the printer on from the back and initialize it from the front. Never touch the motor!  Electric shock will occur.

Once printer is calibrated and set up, then you can bring in file and make sure it fits inside the invisible cube with the checkerboard floor in Up.  Printer will print 13 x 13 x 13 centimeters so make sure your object is smaller than that.    

BSA324, Prickles and Jellybean arguing over the sock, 18 May, 2017

I've now illustrated each of the pairs in conflict over their toy and Girl opening the show.  

 Jellybean and Prickles in conflict over the sock illustration.    In time, I'll get the right blend of light and dark that my design influences have.  I expect it'll be much easier to do that in Maya when I can turn lights on and off.

 Warehouse visual influences: Toys in the Attic (2009) Czech stop-motion film, First Scene (where I used to work), and Warehouse 13 (2009) TV show
     

First Scene Ltd props department

Warehouse 13 SyFy (2009) TV series