Demo Reel – Locked Down

FINALLY!

after months of debating with myself and my skills, I have finally locked down my Demo Reel Idea. I have started working on it, and I shall continue to work on it over the next few months. if was last night in our last Portfolio for Animation Class that we reviewed everyones Previs’s (Pre-Visualization) of our Demo Reel’s. their were all good but my Demo Reel concept had one Definite trait that set it out from all the rest…. it made people laugh.

Like, not in the sense that people were laughing at my work, but the way I was able to convey the story made it was I was aiming for… A Comedy! so now my concept works, Everything is now falling into place, peace by peace. Everything is looking good for me, and I can’t be any happier at this moment.

Planning out my Demo-Reel

Today in Portfolio for animation class, I started to work out the ideas for my demo-reel, making low-rez versions of the models I will use for my Previs. I am starting to lock down the duration and the way my demo reel will be, I have a general Idea in my mind, I just don’t know how to fully present it. I have an Idea of how I will accomplish most of the obstacles that will consist of my demo reel… the rest I am currently learning.

It is fairly simple and yet it still feels complex, it will be time costly… which I am concerned about because my family is always hounding on me to spend more time with them. I will just have to explain that I have a commitment to this coarse and to myself to succeed. It’s funny, I feel that this Self Motivated project (Demo-Reel) is a going to be a turning point in my life, one that will help me along the way, or change my path… either way, the more I think about it, the more it will drive me to the brink of insanity.

It’s funny, if you think about it… we as students entering the Industry need these demo-reels to be the best work we could every accomplish compressed into 2 minutes.

not a lot of pressure ehy…

Current Event’s – More Schoolwork

People are starting to ask me what I have been up to lately. I tell them that it is the same as all ways. But of coarse they have to keep asking me what I have been up to. well, here’s an update on what I am working on in school

Compositing: We just started this class recently, we are currently working on a project in which we film a shot of footage, then we take that footage and add a CG Element, adding 3D Animation to Real life. simple enough, it’s actually harder than it looks.

Portfolio for Animation: we just finished making our PreVis assignment. A PreVis is when you film a scene for whatever project you are working on in sort of a low quality version just so you can get an idea of what the shot feels like (Timing and Camera Angles). and now we are working on concept Ideas for our demo Reels. This class makes me what to really get A story based animation reel going. so what I think I am going to do, is make a short story animation reel based on an animation reel. so basically, have a character do the normal things animation jobs are looking for (example: Weight Lifter, Walk Cycle, etc…) with a bit of story, like, why is he lifting what he is lifting.

Carrier Prep: I am working on a project in where my partner and I will attempt to teach the class a tutorial on how to create a lava shader for maya 8.5. I will be reading out instructions on how to create it while my colleague will show the class visually how to make it step by step in Maya.

Animation: My favorite Class, we are working on a project that involves a Marine, A Mercenary, and Comedy, cause… you need Comedy in animation, it’s a must… anyways. it’s a great project, were getting into adding audio with it. so it’s coming along nicely.

Modeling: Remember how I said I have a Favorite class, this one is my dreaded class. I like it, it’s just really hard. we are working on characters for our Demo Reels. I think I am going to keep it simple, simple so It will work with animation.

Production: Love this class too, gotta love those visuals that just make your mind boggle. were learning a lot about Particles at the moment. we just made a scene involving sparks that looks pretty real. it was cool, that’s the thing about this class, everything we make in this class is meant to just look cool.

and that is an Update on assignments and current events, and until next time, take care..

My Delema…

I am now half way through the coarse here at BCIT, Things are going great, but I find that my demo-reel is now lurking upon me and I still have a vague idea of what I want to do for it.

It’s driving me mad! I know what I want to do, but I don’t know if I can pull it off. I have had this idea lingering within my mind for over 5 years now. it’s a roughly 5 minute story based animation reel. when I got into this coarse at first. I knew it was a fantasy I had. but it has all ways been stuck in the back of my mind. and now, the further and further I get into this coarse, I start to believe I can do it. for once I actually think I can pull it off!

but, my delema is that I am unsure that it will be as I have seen it in my mind, if I will finish it on time, etc… all that and I have no idea of what I can do otherwise. these thoughts are clawing at my mind. I worry to much about these things, it’s going to be the end of me I bet.

either way, the demo reel time is coming up soon, and I need to get started on my idea…

The Great War

I DID IT!!

I made a face, from reference I got of the internet I created a head that was for a project and I worked my butt of on it, and it turned out great! I used the patch modeling technique, and I gave it hair, simple hair using Planes and Alpha textures.

Being able to accomplish that really made me feel good about myself, it shows that I have truly improved my skills. it brings me back. to the time of High School… (LoL, Story-time)

Back in Grade 12, I was taking Drafting and Design 12 AD (Basically, 3D Modeling Grade 12 Advanced Class) which in comparison to BCIT was Child’s-play. never the less I was faced with a challenge in that class. it was interesting seeing as the class was a split between architects and Designers, I got their on the first day to find an alarming number of designers. I sat up and asked the class how many people their were architects. The entire class, besides myself, raised their hands. I was the only Designer in the class. I felt awesome cause of this, until he walked in the door…

one of my best friends, Mike Lim, waked into the room, and announced that he was the only Designer in the 12 AD class, I stood up and announced my presence. thus starting what I like to call, The Great war. every day of class was a new battlefield. we sat next to each other, watching each others work, doing everything in our power to be better then the other. every assignment was a new weapon, we tweaked and worked as hard as we could to out due the other person. and every day before class, we would meet as we usually did with our other friends down in the courtyard for a friendly game of cards. everyone could notice the new competitiveness between us, and this new rivalry we created towards one another.

Over the months things seemed steady, until marks came in. I was beating my Rival by 15% of the coarse Mark. I was shocked and amazed, and pleased with myself. my friend was not, our rivalry of friendly competition turned us into bitter enemy’s. we battled more fiercely since that day. this lasted the entire coarse. when the last day came, and we got in our final projects, awaiting for that final mark, things grew silent. the marks came in, thus were the results

Me: 95.3%

Mike: 95.7%

I saw these marks the same time my friend Mike did, he burst into joy, and I burst into laughter. he got a bit confused by this, and I explained that he was a worthy opponent, and a great friend. after that we have been best buddies since, still hanging out occasionally, playing games and cards from time to time.

This experience changed my life. it was the one time in my education career that I have literally battled at to be the best that I could, and it inspired me slightly, I knew this is what I wanted to get into as a career, but now, I knew that I had the strength and power to fight hard for the chance to become a part of the industry.

Production – “A.K.A. ‘Shiney..’”

I like this class, we don’t learn as much but what we learn is what people like to see, it’s all about the “Icing on the Cake”.

We learn things like visual effects and Tricks that will help us with our other studies, but the neat things they teach us in this class, no matter how small a thing, it’s all ways a new and interesting thing. For example, we learned how to make bubbles! now, I know what you are thinking.. Bubbles, Come on.. but seriously, getting the texture to work right, it’s kinda tricky, but when we figured it out, we were able to turn plain old half a spheres into totally awesome looking bubbles! another neat thing we learned how to make recently was a hologram, like a holographic picture you see (Example: the small square on a credit card). to figure out how to make these things in 3D programs isn’t as easy as clicking a button. you gotta usually dig into the code or poke around with settings until you find the right stuff. it’s hard! another cool thing we were taught to make was LAVA, yeah, and it looks as sweet as it sounds.

This class’s point is to basically make things looks sweet, they teach us all kinds of things, Smoke, Rain (Same thing, different programming) Sparks, Fire, EXPLOSIONS, basically all the cool stuff that people like to see, so it’s kinda like you take someone to a movie, are they gonna remember the awesome detail in the walls, the acting, The Script, Not likely, they’re gonna remember that scene where some guy got blown to 50 peaces by a rocket or something.

This coarse is basically described as “Eye Candy” it’s the part of any film, game, or peace of entertainment, that we actually find entertaining. I don’t really know any other real way to describe it, but anyways, I should get back to my studies. until next time, take care.

Texturing – UV’s and Textures

I find this to be more of a challenge then, say, Animation or Modeling. Only because I don’t find myself as much of an artist then some of my other fellow students.  I have all ways found myself more Technical then Traditional, I am trying to improve but I have all ways been for the technical side of things. UV’s are easy for me, everyone I talk to is all ways trying to find a way to make it easier, but I find it easy. it’s just taking a 3D object and laying it down on a 2D plane. I don’t see what the fuss is about, I find it harder to make the Textures that you apply to the object to make it look amazing hard as hell. I am working hard to get better but still, I don’t consider myself an artist, not a masterful one at least. but I do consider myself a great Technical artist.

I work hard to be good at what I do, I just find my pace to be A bit slower than my fellow class mates. Slow, but steady. I have to admit though, it’s hard, it’s all hard. I take pride in my abilities to create with these tools what most people can’t even understand. And I plan to have a great life working at what I love to do.  anyways I don’t have much to say this post. My studies keep me very occupied, that with other things on my mind, I run a busy life. so until my next post, take care.

Modeling – Face

I found myself really getting into my last modeling class. at first I had my doubts when the teacher said, “Today, were going to be making a face” Bringing back horrific memories from my high school days, when one of my projects was to model a face. back then we used the Box method of facial modeling, and for reference we used Bill Gates. Suffice to say, He could have looked better.

Our teacher told us that he was going to teach us the “Patching Technique” I was interested but still fearful. after that three hours of what I like to call, “Pure Awesomeness” we all learned how to model a decent face. I was surprised at my results to find that my artistic skills have increased, and that it was indefinably better than what I had made last year in high school.

I found it to be very fun and I an having a great time with my next project, modeling another face from reference. I found it was too bad that we couldn’t model the entire head in three hours, to the response we got from our teacher when we asked, he said ” It is all most impossible, at your level, to model an entire head in less than three hours.” and he was right. In three hours, with lots of “Tweaking” we came up with a face and the general shape of the head, excluding the ears. besides having tremendous amounts of fun while making a face. I found the process kind of soothing. our teacher kept telling us to make the model “Flow” with the Polys and Edges maintaining their direction and curvature. I guess I took it to the next level.

I was amazed at how easy it was too, I mean. It was a pain back in high school but now, It was a breeze. of coarse their is the fact that I am now working at so called, “Industry Standard” but still, I knew most of this stuff from high school from reading up on it. I just guess that our modeling teacher really knows his stuff. I think all of our teachers here at BCIT are great, especially our Animation teacher, and for good cause. He’s the only one that actually writes down notes for us to take and reflect on! not to say that I hate my other teachers for not doing so, it’s just that I find it really helps.

Anyways, that’s my Weekly Update, oh and I all most forgot, I am gonna throw up a rendered file of the face we made in class last week, I found that I liked the results, only thing was, I forgot to turn off the Blinn when I rendered it so, Don’t mind the shininess.

Animation – Rigging

I found myself last Animation class not only heavily enjoying myself, but asking the teacher for additional Information about the topic. I found what we learned most enjoyable that I was even able to recall it days later and tutor my fellow classmates while they had completely forgotten without reviewing their notes.

Rigging, what is it? Rigging is the term Digital Animators used to describe an object that had the Bone Deformers enveloped properly, but the Bones need more Control. Rigging is giving the bones the control they need.

for example, you have a character walking, you could either envelop the bones, then animate the bones individually, tweaking them as you go along, making changes, and then spending five hours till you get the right look. Or you can take ten minutes to properly rig the character, that cuts time spent on animating from five hours to Ten minutes, instead of dealing with all the bones in a chain, you can rig it, use the rig, and only have to deal with one or two elements with the best control and letting the IK or FK take it’s effect.

I remember learning how to rig characters in high school, I covered that topic on the side of my other projects, it worked out nicely, but I didn’t recall how much fun it was until I got it to work on our current projects. I have all ways liked Animation the most over my other class’s here at BCIT, and not only because it is the only class I have that writes notes on the white board for us to take down, (I find it hard and somewhat annoying in my other class’s how they will just talk and explain everything for three hours straight, but then they never give us any straight notes.) but because I just love the Idea of bringing your 3D world to life. Sure it is pretty cool to make something that looks absolutely amazing, but I find it a lot more interesting if you can take that what you made, and bring it to life.

Current Events – School Work

What we are currently working on at BCIT, is a list of the following…

Texturing, we are working on UV Texturing an entire area, A Junkyard to be exact. Mine will be more around, 25-30% Modeling and 75-70% Texturing,. Seeing as how Modeling isn’t really my Strong Point, all though I am improving my modeling skills, I find that it takes time. Also, Considering it is a texturing assignment, I plan to use as many Texturing “Tricks” as I can think of.

In our Portfolio for Animation class, we are currently working on a movie script, coming up with the concept designs for props and locations, I really enjoy this, a lot. the whole idea is just enjoyable to me.

In our prodution class, we recently learned about moving UV Textures, I found this concept to be very interesting and fun. It also gave me an idea of how they pulled that trick off in “Doom 3″ with the Living Walls, I see now that trick could be created with a nicely UV textured Polygonal object with a displacement map. I made an attempt at creating it, all though it wasn’t the masterpiece I had hoped, I noticed that it turned out quite nicely.

I find our Design class to be a challenge and fun at the moment, we are creating characters. from reference I can say that I like how mine is turning out so far. the main body is very low-poly (Great for Animation) and the hands turned out quite nicely, I found the finger construction technique that our teacher showed us to be kind of lengthly, but the results were better than the technique that I had all ready learned.

Our animation class right now is great, were working on Rigging , and now we are finishing up the weighting on our characters. I find it to be a fun job, trying to get the character to look right when the bones bend in a certain way. I find it to be somewhat lengthly, but fun and I enjoy doing it, well, maybe the rigging a bit more than the Weighting, but using techniques like Gator and parenting makes things a lot easier, and quicker.

and my last class at the moment, is Carrier Prep. My assignment is what you are reading at the moment, All though I consider this an assignment, I also see it as a way to finally talk about the stuff I work in school, without people asking me every five seconds “What does that mean?” which makes me loose track of what I was saying and slightly frustrating to try and explain to people something that they have no idea about. because they don’t get it they keep asking, and I am not the one to tell them. Anyways, that’s my weekly update. until next time…