Not sure why I haven't posted in so long. One way or another, I haven't.
DP1 is now over, and my content is all submitted. Including this here video.
I suppose I should put some explanation of what went into it, since I don't think I've put it down in writing yet.
This video was more about trying something new than demonstrating skill. Had I decided on a different plot, I could have done some good modelling and lighting and worked a normal animation. But I ended up with this concept since it allowed me to explore Reactor.
Reactor, for the uninitiated, is the physics simulation engine built in to 3DS Max. It's what let me set up all the dominoes, and animate them dropping, without going through frame-by-frame and animating every single collision and drop with keyframes. It uses Havok physics, which is used in many current-generation games (such as the Bethesda RPG's, Starcraft, and pretty much every Valve game) for dynamic physics simulation in real-time.
Once you get around the basics, it's all a matter of just figuring out what sliders do what and how you can use this to make what you want to do. Anyone scared to press a button to see what it does isn't going to get far in 3ds Max, so I just flipped through a few tutorials then started tweaking dials.
Lighting used Final Gather, which is significantly more realistic than the default lighting engine in return for significantly increasing render time. Significantly. The whole peice took around sixteen hours to render on my laptop.
There were bugs about whilst trying to make this piece. Most obvious being the render on the original scene bugging somehow and preventing me from rendering anything but single frames. I ended up having to import all the scene info into a different scene entirely which was rendering okay, and use that one instead. An odd fix, but it worked.
Also, been building contacts, which is cool. I now know a guy who knows a guy who worked on Heavenly Sword. Since I'm considering a sandwich year, knowing people in the industry could be a big help one way or another.
Been told that we're doing something haunted house related in the Animation section for the rest of the year, so soon I'll start working on various haunted-ish ideas.
Saturday 11 December 2010
Thursday 4 November 2010
Motivational Words from a Clever Man
http://blog.semisecretsoftware.com/asking-the-right-questions
I particularly like the first one.
I particularly like the first one.
Something involving water, spaceships, and wobbly cameras.
Here's the final, 7+ hours rendering of my little practice session in Max.
I went for a sunset kind of feel, being a sucker for how the light from the Daylight system reflected from the water. Played with the cameras a bit, too, having a bit of interaction between the moving ship and the camera, causing it to shake out of alignment in the draft. The animation part was quite fun, though I am missing out on being able to 'ease' animations, which makes for some more jaunty movements.
Also, I try a little to use the rule of thirds in this with regards to camera positioning. How successful I was is up to you.
Overall though, for a simple practice clip, I was happy with how it turned out, and learned a lot of things in the process.
In other news, my illness is still ongoing, with my throat feeling like it's being punched every time I swallow. Hopefully it should clear up over the weekend.
3ds Max practice from Dan Routledge on Vimeo.
I went for a sunset kind of feel, being a sucker for how the light from the Daylight system reflected from the water. Played with the cameras a bit, too, having a bit of interaction between the moving ship and the camera, causing it to shake out of alignment in the draft. The animation part was quite fun, though I am missing out on being able to 'ease' animations, which makes for some more jaunty movements.
Also, I try a little to use the rule of thirds in this with regards to camera positioning. How successful I was is up to you.
Overall though, for a simple practice clip, I was happy with how it turned out, and learned a lot of things in the process.
In other news, my illness is still ongoing, with my throat feeling like it's being punched every time I swallow. Hopefully it should clear up over the weekend.
Wednesday 3 November 2010
Here begins the grind
Got quite a good work-feeling going on today, despite being ill.
Target: 3ds Max Bible 2010.
Picked it up from the library a while back, and as luck would have it, it came with a DVD that contained the entire book in .pdf form, and all the lesson material. As well as about 1200 big, big pages. The book has long since gone back, but I now have the whole thing saved up to use (though I do really prefer having a physical book.)
Big task.
I'm starting from page 1, chapter 1, which I can see already will be patronising at some points considering I have a bit of experience in Maya to the point where being told how to zoom in and out and what different primitives look like seems obsolete, but in any case, I'm starting at the start, because I've never used Max properly before, and it's likely there will be some small but utterly crucial bit of info hidden in the basics.
Bring it on.
Edit, the aftermath: Okay, after a large amount of pattering through the basics, I finished the first tutorial, and then some. Copious amounts of experimental button-pushing took place, so whilst this incarnation took a lot of time, I could probably replicate the whole thing in the space of around 15 minutes. The scene is going to be rendering tonight.
A few of the textures on the tutorial assets weren't working, annoyingly, so instead of stone-like buildings I have utterly smooth blank textures. Meh.
Tomorrow I might play about at adding some sounds to the clip as a bit of polish. Or I might do some work that actually counts for marks, hyuck. ( Plans for interactive media piece and essay assignment are done )
Edit: The Morning After:
Oh dear. Five hours night-rendering and I'm at 182 frames out of 251.
Picked it up from the library a while back, and as luck would have it, it came with a DVD that contained the entire book in .pdf form, and all the lesson material. As well as about 1200 big, big pages. The book has long since gone back, but I now have the whole thing saved up to use (though I do really prefer having a physical book.)
Big task.
I'm starting from page 1, chapter 1, which I can see already will be patronising at some points considering I have a bit of experience in Maya to the point where being told how to zoom in and out and what different primitives look like seems obsolete, but in any case, I'm starting at the start, because I've never used Max properly before, and it's likely there will be some small but utterly crucial bit of info hidden in the basics.
Bring it on.
Edit, the aftermath: Okay, after a large amount of pattering through the basics, I finished the first tutorial, and then some. Copious amounts of experimental button-pushing took place, so whilst this incarnation took a lot of time, I could probably replicate the whole thing in the space of around 15 minutes. The scene is going to be rendering tonight.
A few of the textures on the tutorial assets weren't working, annoyingly, so instead of stone-like buildings I have utterly smooth blank textures. Meh.
Tomorrow I might play about at adding some sounds to the clip as a bit of polish. Or I might do some work that actually counts for marks, hyuck. ( Plans for interactive media piece and essay assignment are done )
Edit: The Morning After:
Oh dear. Five hours night-rendering and I'm at 182 frames out of 251.
Tuesday 2 November 2010
Work Submission: 10 Frame Hitchcock
http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/7692/10framehitch.gif
Linked to the picture, as I used full-size images making for one long strip.
Hopefully the idea will carry along. I won't explain it here, it shouldn't need explanation if it's done right.
Linked to the picture, as I used full-size images making for one long strip.
Hopefully the idea will carry along. I won't explain it here, it shouldn't need explanation if it's done right.
Thursday 28 October 2010
A Game of Cards: Thoughts
So, the metaphorical rollercoaster cart has reached the end of the three-point-lit camera tracks that make up the Moving Image section of the first half-year, tumbling down into Aitch-Tee-Em-Hell and the Interactive Media section.
What an extensive metaphor that was.
So, the previous post has the final (ish) submission, a minute-ish-long film in tribute to the various 'Silver Age' films such as Charlie Chaplin skits, characterised by their black and white colouration, slightly sped-up action due to the manually-turning cameras (I even credited our camerawoman, Jessica Fung, as a Deguerrotype Operator, hyuck), use of intertitles for speech, ragtime piano music, and other miscellanious themes and nuances that are hallmarks of the style.
I think I managed to get a good deal of these features into the film with varying degrees of success.
The biggest fault was possibly that due to the small amount of footage that had to be sped up for the desired effect, about 40% of the clip is comprised of the text intertitles. However, it still comes to a desired length, and fits well with the music, especially at the end.
I tried to make the scene as comical as possible, to contrast the seriousness of the original footage. The cheery tune of music and ridiculousness of most the text was part of this. I tend to get a bit of a smile from the suprisingly apt timing on the music right at the end of the clip.
Was my first time properly using Premier Pro, but nothing that an hour or so's combined Googling, hitting random buttons and drinking tea couldn't fix.
Altogether, and as is my way, I tried to do something pretty heavily different. And for once, I don't think I made too massive a mess out of it.
What an extensive metaphor that was.
So, the previous post has the final (ish) submission, a minute-ish-long film in tribute to the various 'Silver Age' films such as Charlie Chaplin skits, characterised by their black and white colouration, slightly sped-up action due to the manually-turning cameras (I even credited our camerawoman, Jessica Fung, as a Deguerrotype Operator, hyuck), use of intertitles for speech, ragtime piano music, and other miscellanious themes and nuances that are hallmarks of the style.
I think I managed to get a good deal of these features into the film with varying degrees of success.
The biggest fault was possibly that due to the small amount of footage that had to be sped up for the desired effect, about 40% of the clip is comprised of the text intertitles. However, it still comes to a desired length, and fits well with the music, especially at the end.
I tried to make the scene as comical as possible, to contrast the seriousness of the original footage. The cheery tune of music and ridiculousness of most the text was part of this. I tend to get a bit of a smile from the suprisingly apt timing on the music right at the end of the clip.
Was my first time properly using Premier Pro, but nothing that an hour or so's combined Googling, hitting random buttons and drinking tea couldn't fix.
Altogether, and as is my way, I tried to do something pretty heavily different. And for once, I don't think I made too massive a mess out of it.
Assignment Submission: A Game Of Cards
A Game of Cards - NTU One Shot Assignment from Dan Routledge on Vimeo.
Credits are in the clip, and on the Vimeo page. Personal notes coming soon.
Saturday 16 October 2010
Something interesting...
We were asked to post about something that interested or inspired us, and I think this video sums up a few things that interest me very well. There are clear imperfections, but that's to be expected in something that isn't a budget-backed project.
OCB Roll' n Rock
Uploaded by renderyardchannel. - Check out other Film & TV videos.
What I like is the style. To say it's stylised dosen't do it justice. The entire clip is crackling with personality, and the animation using only black, white and grey is, whilst not entirely unique, far from the norm.
There's no real story to speak of, but I see it as a showcasing of some creativity. The stretching of characters, sentient cactus and ability of the main character to withstand being hurtled down a mountain speak of old-style Hannah Barbarah cartoons, but with an appearance of stylised realism.
Thinking around in circles a bit, I come to the thought that how good a film will be from a visual perspective comes from three things:
The art direction, the quality of the art, and the way it integrates with other parts of the film (sound and story). Avatar was an example of this done fairly well, for me. The art direction of a completely original world with a lot of interest to be drawn from it, the graphical quality was stunning, and it meshed in with the plot well enough.
The above clip has good art direction and visual gags, and meshes in well with the audio (the sound of the gunshot particularly made me smirk), which makes up for the lower quality of animation compared to budgeted released (not that it's bad to begin with).
I'd entered this course with the thought that I'd just be content to learn about the graphical quality and how to be good at it, but like a science, learning one without knowing anything of the other won't get you far.
OCB Roll' n Rock
Uploaded by renderyardchannel. - Check out other Film & TV videos.
What I like is the style. To say it's stylised dosen't do it justice. The entire clip is crackling with personality, and the animation using only black, white and grey is, whilst not entirely unique, far from the norm.
There's no real story to speak of, but I see it as a showcasing of some creativity. The stretching of characters, sentient cactus and ability of the main character to withstand being hurtled down a mountain speak of old-style Hannah Barbarah cartoons, but with an appearance of stylised realism.
Thinking around in circles a bit, I come to the thought that how good a film will be from a visual perspective comes from three things:
The art direction, the quality of the art, and the way it integrates with other parts of the film (sound and story). Avatar was an example of this done fairly well, for me. The art direction of a completely original world with a lot of interest to be drawn from it, the graphical quality was stunning, and it meshed in with the plot well enough.
The above clip has good art direction and visual gags, and meshes in well with the audio (the sound of the gunshot particularly made me smirk), which makes up for the lower quality of animation compared to budgeted released (not that it's bad to begin with).
I'd entered this course with the thought that I'd just be content to learn about the graphical quality and how to be good at it, but like a science, learning one without knowing anything of the other won't get you far.
Thursday 14 October 2010
Work Submission: Ethics
Ethical implications in filmmaking, especially at such a low level as we're operating at, have a snowball effect. A scene that seems simple in the imagining will give rise to some problems, which will require extra consideration to avoid, which will then generate more implications and problems until the project soon becomes unfeasible due to the amount of effort needed to make it ethically secure.
For example, filming in a public place, by a road. First you have to consider the bypassers, can and will they all give permission to appear? If not, how can you stop them? Are you able to stop them? What about cars? Can the road be temporarily blocked off? Is this feasible? What other options do you have? Does the size of the crew support such operations?
And so on and so forth. So yes, it does impose boundaries on creativity, but half of creativity is the ability to adapt to problems like this, either through overcoming them with the proper measures, or by adjusting the plan to the point where the concern is sidestepped entirely.
In higher-level filming, these problems can increasingly be phased out with CG. Using live animals is problematic, ethically, requiring a large amount of care to ensure the animals are treated according to standards. But a CG animal needs none of this treatment. Massive crowds are hard to organise and require a lot of care in terms of keeping the filming safe whilst using so many people, but if the first few rows of a crowd are human, and the rest are well done CG, it'll be hard to tell the difference without trying.
This progression will likely mean that scenes that would previously only be possible in massive-budget A-movies will become more possible in cheaper and lower-budget films over time, as it always has. Going back to the start, hopefully this will mean that instead of finding ways to avoid a problem, which often comes at the expense of losing the original vision of the scene, that these problems will be much more easily dealt with, allowing filmmakers more freedom.
Long story short, I believe ethics are likely to become a less and less restrictive element in filmmaking as technology progresses that allows easy workarounds.
For example, filming in a public place, by a road. First you have to consider the bypassers, can and will they all give permission to appear? If not, how can you stop them? Are you able to stop them? What about cars? Can the road be temporarily blocked off? Is this feasible? What other options do you have? Does the size of the crew support such operations?
And so on and so forth. So yes, it does impose boundaries on creativity, but half of creativity is the ability to adapt to problems like this, either through overcoming them with the proper measures, or by adjusting the plan to the point where the concern is sidestepped entirely.
In higher-level filming, these problems can increasingly be phased out with CG. Using live animals is problematic, ethically, requiring a large amount of care to ensure the animals are treated according to standards. But a CG animal needs none of this treatment. Massive crowds are hard to organise and require a lot of care in terms of keeping the filming safe whilst using so many people, but if the first few rows of a crowd are human, and the rest are well done CG, it'll be hard to tell the difference without trying.
This progression will likely mean that scenes that would previously only be possible in massive-budget A-movies will become more possible in cheaper and lower-budget films over time, as it always has. Going back to the start, hopefully this will mean that instead of finding ways to avoid a problem, which often comes at the expense of losing the original vision of the scene, that these problems will be much more easily dealt with, allowing filmmakers more freedom.
Long story short, I believe ethics are likely to become a less and less restrictive element in filmmaking as technology progresses that allows easy workarounds.
Sunday 10 October 2010
Work Submission: The Design Process
Having completed a small design task with the specific goal of identifying what steps I took in designing, it seems that I draw the most from Market Research and Prototyping, in that order.
Originality is important to me in any design task, but so is a certain amount of drawing ideas from other designs. Looking at these designs and thinking of ways to retain a recognisable feel to them, whilst building new ideas into it is generally how I go about things.
For example, in designing the banner I looked at similar blog banners to find appropriate dimensions, but adapted somewhat by using a design that actively blended in with the background of the blog, to make the separation of the background and header clear, but less jarring.
A problem I encountered was that if using the actual background of the blog, via cut and paste, I'd have problems with image compression. The gradient effect on this background means a significantly higher number of colours are used, which when applied to the image means that a much larger file size is produced, and the blog automatically compresses it, giving the image a layer effect rather than a gradient. I worked around this by removing the gradient effect, and outlining the header with white borders to conceal the difference. Though this does make the change between the background and header more obvious, the outlines make it obvious that it was intentional rather than just a design gaff.
Repeated small changes like this are part of my Prototyping stage. The more prototypes I end up doing and testing, the closer to a good end result I get.
I notice that following the Market Research, I avoid diving straight into designing without laying down some planning. Again in a similar way to how I try to create originality without going too far as to produce something that's clearly begging to look different, I also try to set myself up so I can work with spur-of-the-moment creativity without just randomly cobbling whims together.
This is shown in my notes for the small task:
QUOTE FROM TASK NOTES__________________________________________
Things I think about:
My design process in larger projects can be summed up most simply in a handy diagram, like so.
I did only create the one plan to design the header, since it was only a test run.
Originality is important to me in any design task, but so is a certain amount of drawing ideas from other designs. Looking at these designs and thinking of ways to retain a recognisable feel to them, whilst building new ideas into it is generally how I go about things.
For example, in designing the banner I looked at similar blog banners to find appropriate dimensions, but adapted somewhat by using a design that actively blended in with the background of the blog, to make the separation of the background and header clear, but less jarring.
A problem I encountered was that if using the actual background of the blog, via cut and paste, I'd have problems with image compression. The gradient effect on this background means a significantly higher number of colours are used, which when applied to the image means that a much larger file size is produced, and the blog automatically compresses it, giving the image a layer effect rather than a gradient. I worked around this by removing the gradient effect, and outlining the header with white borders to conceal the difference. Though this does make the change between the background and header more obvious, the outlines make it obvious that it was intentional rather than just a design gaff.
Repeated small changes like this are part of my Prototyping stage. The more prototypes I end up doing and testing, the closer to a good end result I get.
I notice that following the Market Research, I avoid diving straight into designing without laying down some planning. Again in a similar way to how I try to create originality without going too far as to produce something that's clearly begging to look different, I also try to set myself up so I can work with spur-of-the-moment creativity without just randomly cobbling whims together.
This is shown in my notes for the small task:
QUOTE FROM TASK NOTES__________________________________________
Things I think about:
- Context of the image: Where will it be positioned, how will it link with other areas of the blog to look like part of a whole design, rather than misplaced.
- Colour scheme: I dislike going for 'Dark' colour schemes, but white text on dark grey or black is easier to read and causes less eyestrain. And eyestrain is bad. Orange tends to be a colour that goes quite well with a dark colour scheme, in my opinion. but I might also want to use a white majority for the header for contrast with the rest of the blog.
- Information needed: What needs getting across quickly to the reader.
- Style: Professional, casual, colourful, modern, impressive, etc.
My design process in larger projects can be summed up most simply in a handy diagram, like so.
I did only create the one plan to design the header, since it was only a test run.
Thursday 7 October 2010
On blind drive and human sacrifices
During my first proper tutorial, a bald man whose name sadly escapes me completely asked us collectively if it's possible to give 100% to a task.
I didn't think it was, but then, I'd rarely been given tasks I actually enjoyed. In the past week or so, I've discovered that I can be an incredibly driven person, a veritable tornado of unstoppable effort, if the task is one I enjoy or set my mind to.
I've also discovered that this isn't necassarily a good thing.
Without planning, 100% effort can be wasted, and with a team who are more focused on planning and therefore not sharing in my blind drive, things get a bit complicated. That said, for the most part I had an excellent team who've done a doubly excellent job at putting up with me so far. And the torrent of work we've pumped out today has left us with a strong framework for what we're doing tomorrow, and I for one am feeling good about it.
That said, we've managed to get a good mix of ideas, taking parts of a lot of peoples thoughts to come up with the final theme for the scene, which is good. It's a hard thing to actually throw your ideas into a public pool for a lot of people, with the fear of sounding stupid or ridiculous being quite hard to overcome, despite how silly that sounds.
I don't tend to suffer from this massively by virtue of knowing that I look ridiculous and stupid the majority of the time. But then, if I was the only one willing to give out ideas, people would feel forced into something. Luckily this wasn't the case, and after the ground idea was set, I lost track of the times people added their ideas to the pool and the whole thing was twisted, changed, and adjusted until we were (insofar as I can tell) happy with the result. And despite how much it deviated from my original thought, I truly think the final product is going to go a lot better than anything I could have thought up alone.
So, yes, massive thanks to the rest of my team for both putting up with me and being generally brilliant and, as Jools would say, engaged. And for reigning me back before my blind drive ran me directly into a brick wall, metaphorically.
I didn't think it was, but then, I'd rarely been given tasks I actually enjoyed. In the past week or so, I've discovered that I can be an incredibly driven person, a veritable tornado of unstoppable effort, if the task is one I enjoy or set my mind to.
I've also discovered that this isn't necassarily a good thing.
Without planning, 100% effort can be wasted, and with a team who are more focused on planning and therefore not sharing in my blind drive, things get a bit complicated. That said, for the most part I had an excellent team who've done a doubly excellent job at putting up with me so far. And the torrent of work we've pumped out today has left us with a strong framework for what we're doing tomorrow, and I for one am feeling good about it.
That said, we've managed to get a good mix of ideas, taking parts of a lot of peoples thoughts to come up with the final theme for the scene, which is good. It's a hard thing to actually throw your ideas into a public pool for a lot of people, with the fear of sounding stupid or ridiculous being quite hard to overcome, despite how silly that sounds.
I don't tend to suffer from this massively by virtue of knowing that I look ridiculous and stupid the majority of the time. But then, if I was the only one willing to give out ideas, people would feel forced into something. Luckily this wasn't the case, and after the ground idea was set, I lost track of the times people added their ideas to the pool and the whole thing was twisted, changed, and adjusted until we were (insofar as I can tell) happy with the result. And despite how much it deviated from my original thought, I truly think the final product is going to go a lot better than anything I could have thought up alone.
So, yes, massive thanks to the rest of my team for both putting up with me and being generally brilliant and, as Jools would say, engaged. And for reigning me back before my blind drive ran me directly into a brick wall, metaphorically.
(Side note: Already been playing with 3d Studio Max and ploughing through the tutorials on NOW. It's made more entertaining by the fact that the narrator sounds a little bit like Chekov from Star Trek. (Even more side-note: I am a massive geek) )
So, on my to-do list is now to write a prototype script for tomorrow (other people are also doing this on the theory that since we're bound to have good ideas and bad ones, more scripts means we can fit more good ideas together), write the short essay for Jools on my design process, get a shower (lots of ground covered today, running and walking, I probably smell like the devil), then if there's any time left, save the post-apocalyptic world from mutants and cannibals.
Oh, the life of a student.
Edit: An idea for a final one-shotter, when we have more time to prepare...
A Rube Goldberg machine. Always wanted to make one of these babies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w
Oh, the life of a student.
Edit: An idea for a final one-shotter, when we have more time to prepare...
A Rube Goldberg machine. Always wanted to make one of these babies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w
Tuesday 5 October 2010
Unnecessary Glorification
Note: Not my actual submission for the design process task, just pointless fluff note material.
So, we've a week to write a small journal about design processes, and how we work with our ideas.
Last real design project I did was my portfolio. I could just crank out a page or so about that.
...
Nah.
This blog is looking a bit plain. As of writing, that title at the top is just some kind of Arial text saying RootBlog. In white. Against grey.
I'm beginning to hate it.
First thing's first, figuring out what I'm going to do. Answer is, create a header image for this blog.
How do most headers look?
Not sure. So, I shamelessly look at other blog headers. I suppose this section of my design process could be considered Market Research. Looking at what other kind of material is out there and how it's being used.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/03/05/blog-headers-for-free-download/
http://www.freewebpageheaders.com/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/533
Okay, looks like 800x200 pixels is a good size for them. By no means am I going to glue to this boundry, I'm aware larger ones are possible, but they run the risk of becoming too dominating if not done right.
I've not much experience with Photoshop, and unless you really know what you're doing with the program, images just tend to become swirly masses of pointless filters that just look amateur. So I go for Fireworks, which is far simpler.
Now I consider the design.
Things I think about:
I decide the colour scheme will be bright, to contrast with the greyness of the rest of the blog. It's an easy change to make later if I ever choose to redesign the entirety of the blog with a more optimistic and less gloomy theme.
The information I need is my name, course, and the blogs title. I write these down on a notepad next to my laptop so's I don't forget.
As for style, I already know what I want. Something that looks fairly professional, whilst not being serious in the slightest. Good old reliable pixels, 8-bit design.
Context is figured out with a test image.
Anyway, time to make a start on the actual header with all these in mind. Tomorrow I'll probably finish it and add it to the blog, and then start writing up what I was supposed to do in the first place, that being the design process.
Edit: I notice I'm doing a lot of test exports and then previewing it. I suppose this could be considered prototyping.
Edit 2- The Addition Strikes Back: Just finished a little 8-bit image of me, intentionally based on the Megaman sprite. The whole theme of the blog header is currently a kind of tribute to 8-bit video games. Which I'm happy with.
So, we've a week to write a small journal about design processes, and how we work with our ideas.
Last real design project I did was my portfolio. I could just crank out a page or so about that.
...
Nah.
This blog is looking a bit plain. As of writing, that title at the top is just some kind of Arial text saying RootBlog. In white. Against grey.
I'm beginning to hate it.
First thing's first, figuring out what I'm going to do. Answer is, create a header image for this blog.
How do most headers look?
Not sure. So, I shamelessly look at other blog headers. I suppose this section of my design process could be considered Market Research. Looking at what other kind of material is out there and how it's being used.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/03/05/blog-headers-for-free-download/
http://www.freewebpageheaders.com/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/533
Okay, looks like 800x200 pixels is a good size for them. By no means am I going to glue to this boundry, I'm aware larger ones are possible, but they run the risk of becoming too dominating if not done right.
I've not much experience with Photoshop, and unless you really know what you're doing with the program, images just tend to become swirly masses of pointless filters that just look amateur. So I go for Fireworks, which is far simpler.
Now I consider the design.
Things I think about:
- Context of the image: Where will it be positioned, how will it link with other areas of the blog to look like part of a whole design, rather than misplaced.
- Colour scheme: I dislike going for 'Dark' colour schemes, but white text on dark grey or black is easier to read and causes less eyestrain. And eyestrain is bad. Orange tends to be a colour that goes quite well with a dark colour scheme, in my opinion. but I might also want to use a white majority for the header for contrast with the rest of the blog.
- Information needed: What needs getting across quickly to the reader.
- Style: Professional, casual, colourful, modern, impressive, etc.
I decide the colour scheme will be bright, to contrast with the greyness of the rest of the blog. It's an easy change to make later if I ever choose to redesign the entirety of the blog with a more optimistic and less gloomy theme.
The information I need is my name, course, and the blogs title. I write these down on a notepad next to my laptop so's I don't forget.
As for style, I already know what I want. Something that looks fairly professional, whilst not being serious in the slightest. Good old reliable pixels, 8-bit design.
Context is figured out with a test image.
Anyway, time to make a start on the actual header with all these in mind. Tomorrow I'll probably finish it and add it to the blog, and then start writing up what I was supposed to do in the first place, that being the design process.
Edit: I notice I'm doing a lot of test exports and then previewing it. I suppose this could be considered prototyping.
Edit 2- The Addition Strikes Back: Just finished a little 8-bit image of me, intentionally based on the Megaman sprite. The whole theme of the blog header is currently a kind of tribute to 8-bit video games. Which I'm happy with.
Monday 4 October 2010
We couldn't find the 'Pause' button...
So, I glean from my first Lecture that we're going to be doing a one-shot movie, which intense research from extremely reliable sources (two minutes on Youtube, then another five watching giggling at various submissions) lead me to discover that this basically means we record the entire submission in a single, uninterrupted run. No pausing, no editing, just from Record to Stop.
Not yet sure if time-lapse is appropriate, but I reckon I have time to find out if it is or not.
Tricky to come up with ideas, which is always a good thing. So far I've thought of two...
Idea 1: What's in the fridge?
The camera is placed on a shelf inside the fridge, along with something obscene / hilarious / terrifying / provoking-of-general-reactions (not sure what, yet). Then, various flatmates, work partners, random bystanders and/or extraterrestrials are invited to open the fridge, and have a look in it, without having any idea what they'll find. Hopefully the resulting montage of shocked, startled or outright bewildered faces would make for a good watch.
Still got to decide what the trigger object is, and whether or not the video will actually show the viewer what the object is at the end or not. (considering some of the ideas for a trigger I had, this might not be a good idea... (Note to self: Get mind out of gutter))
Idea 2: Freedom of Speech
This idea would use time lapse, and was given to me mainly by the way certain members of our flat insist on putting post-it notes everywhere physically possible. Essentially, the camera would be set to time-lapse on a tripod in front of a large, paper-covered notice board along with a stock of post-its, pens, crayons and possibly even more archaic materials like spray-paint, other paints, stamps, a polaroid camera, etc, depending how hard they are to get hold of and safety issues (along with not wanting to void my deposit in the first week for getting paint all over the floor).
Everyone is then given free reign and encouragement to write whatever they please on this over the course of the day / few days, with the camera constantly recording the noteboards progress.
If internet forums (or an unnamed member of out flats previous actions) are anything to go by, the resulting collage will contain enough offensive material to cause heart attacks in the elderly and mental breakdowns in those of nervous disposition.
Oh, what fun!
Not yet sure if time-lapse is appropriate, but I reckon I have time to find out if it is or not.
Tricky to come up with ideas, which is always a good thing. So far I've thought of two...
Idea 1: What's in the fridge?
The camera is placed on a shelf inside the fridge, along with something obscene / hilarious / terrifying / provoking-of-general-reactions (not sure what, yet). Then, various flatmates, work partners, random bystanders and/or extraterrestrials are invited to open the fridge, and have a look in it, without having any idea what they'll find. Hopefully the resulting montage of shocked, startled or outright bewildered faces would make for a good watch.
Still got to decide what the trigger object is, and whether or not the video will actually show the viewer what the object is at the end or not. (considering some of the ideas for a trigger I had, this might not be a good idea... (Note to self: Get mind out of gutter))
Idea 2: Freedom of Speech
This idea would use time lapse, and was given to me mainly by the way certain members of our flat insist on putting post-it notes everywhere physically possible. Essentially, the camera would be set to time-lapse on a tripod in front of a large, paper-covered notice board along with a stock of post-its, pens, crayons and possibly even more archaic materials like spray-paint, other paints, stamps, a polaroid camera, etc, depending how hard they are to get hold of and safety issues (along with not wanting to void my deposit in the first week for getting paint all over the floor).
Everyone is then given free reign and encouragement to write whatever they please on this over the course of the day / few days, with the camera constantly recording the noteboards progress.
If internet forums (or an unnamed member of out flats previous actions) are anything to go by, the resulting collage will contain enough offensive material to cause heart attacks in the elderly and mental breakdowns in those of nervous disposition.
Oh, what fun!
Sunday 3 October 2010
The most fun you can have in 11 seconds.
http://www.11secondclub.com/
Anyone with any interest in animation needs to know about this place.
Anyone with any interest in animation needs to know about this place.
Thursday 30 September 2010
They don't call it the Wasteland for nothing...
So, I'm a big fan of the apocalyptic / post-apocalyptic genre. Mad Max (film), The Book of Eli (film), Stephen Kings Dark Tower series (books), the Fallout series (CRPGs), all of them. Though the settings vary between them, if I were to choose my favourite take on the setting, it would be the one from the Eli universe.
The post-apocalyptic setting gives a really interesting sense of perspective, in a way that I find can cut quite close to home. Fallout and Mad Max go fairly humorously, so this is generally lost, but I found that the Book of Eli did this best. I was unable to shake the feeling that amidst the ruins of civilisation, the entire place looks like what little I know of third-world countries.
The whole idea of an economy that's been turned on it's head, with everything that was once valuable (gold, gems, expensive clothing, status symbols) now being next-to-worthless and things needed for survival (clean water, sunscreen, safe food) now being the biggest commodities, is one that I enjoyed being immersed in. Anyone who's also read the Dark Tower might recall the section where Roland (the protagonist) finds his way to real-world New York, and is alarmed by how cheap and easy sugar is to come across, where in his world it's seen as a rare drug.
And the worlds that are produced by these kinds of settings are almost always massively impressive, mainly coming from the way a building or object has been put to a vastly different use to what would be expected. Bottlecaps being used as currency, tyres being fashioned into clothing or armour, cars being stripped down and used for furniture or housing, and so on, along with everything being a mix of pre-apocalypse technology crudely repaired or amidst piles of improvised junk.
I find a lot of enjoyment in interesting and unique settings and worlds, ones that don't go so far from the norm as to be overly comical (Hitchhikers Guide) or to the point where they're too far into High Fantasy for any meaningful comparisons (Narnia, Harry Potter), but instead use the setting as something truly believable whilst also being intriguing.
As a side-note on Fallout, I've always liked games in which non combat-focused characters have some viability. I recently picked up Fallout 3 cheap, and though it's a long shot from the old-style isometric turn-based Fallouts of the past, it's done pretty well at maintaining the theme. The biggest qualm I have is with having the game practically hold my hand. Fallout 1 just dumped you in the middle of a deserted wasteland and told you to find your own way. No quest markers, no clear way to complete your objective, just a world out to get you, the clothes on your back, and a ticking time limit reminding you that every day you spent lost or distracted, your people were running out of water. Fallout 3, however, has very clear and obvious quest markers that require little outside thought other than just going to the marker and killing / talking to / picking up whatever it's set to before going to the next one, and the time limit has been removed along with all sense of urgency.
Anyway, I've rambled long enough. I leave you with the trailer to Book of Eli. 0:36 to 0:45 really shows off the scenery of the world that I like so much.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKfZrbS79To&feature=related
(Anyone knowing how to embed a video to a blog, do tell)
The post-apocalyptic setting gives a really interesting sense of perspective, in a way that I find can cut quite close to home. Fallout and Mad Max go fairly humorously, so this is generally lost, but I found that the Book of Eli did this best. I was unable to shake the feeling that amidst the ruins of civilisation, the entire place looks like what little I know of third-world countries.
The whole idea of an economy that's been turned on it's head, with everything that was once valuable (gold, gems, expensive clothing, status symbols) now being next-to-worthless and things needed for survival (clean water, sunscreen, safe food) now being the biggest commodities, is one that I enjoyed being immersed in. Anyone who's also read the Dark Tower might recall the section where Roland (the protagonist) finds his way to real-world New York, and is alarmed by how cheap and easy sugar is to come across, where in his world it's seen as a rare drug.
And the worlds that are produced by these kinds of settings are almost always massively impressive, mainly coming from the way a building or object has been put to a vastly different use to what would be expected. Bottlecaps being used as currency, tyres being fashioned into clothing or armour, cars being stripped down and used for furniture or housing, and so on, along with everything being a mix of pre-apocalypse technology crudely repaired or amidst piles of improvised junk.
I find a lot of enjoyment in interesting and unique settings and worlds, ones that don't go so far from the norm as to be overly comical (Hitchhikers Guide) or to the point where they're too far into High Fantasy for any meaningful comparisons (Narnia, Harry Potter), but instead use the setting as something truly believable whilst also being intriguing.
As a side-note on Fallout, I've always liked games in which non combat-focused characters have some viability. I recently picked up Fallout 3 cheap, and though it's a long shot from the old-style isometric turn-based Fallouts of the past, it's done pretty well at maintaining the theme. The biggest qualm I have is with having the game practically hold my hand. Fallout 1 just dumped you in the middle of a deserted wasteland and told you to find your own way. No quest markers, no clear way to complete your objective, just a world out to get you, the clothes on your back, and a ticking time limit reminding you that every day you spent lost or distracted, your people were running out of water. Fallout 3, however, has very clear and obvious quest markers that require little outside thought other than just going to the marker and killing / talking to / picking up whatever it's set to before going to the next one, and the time limit has been removed along with all sense of urgency.
Anyway, I've rambled long enough. I leave you with the trailer to Book of Eli. 0:36 to 0:45 really shows off the scenery of the world that I like so much.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKfZrbS79To&feature=related
(Anyone knowing how to embed a video to a blog, do tell)
Tuesday 28 September 2010
Touchdown
So, here's the start of what I'm told will be my place to open up my head and dump everything found therein at for the next few years.
I'm 18 years young, study Multimedia at Notts Trent University on date of posting, and find most my interest in 3D design and animation, for everything in movies (both fully animated and animated effects), games, art, and anything you find inbetween.
I claim to have some experience in Maya, but such is really dabbling with everything I found. I have, however, got a 1200 page book on it, and if the Fallout series are anything to go by, I should be able to use it to improve my skills by at least 2.
I'm currently lacking important doo-dads to contribute any real content, so... Nothing of interest.
I'm 18 years young, study Multimedia at Notts Trent University on date of posting, and find most my interest in 3D design and animation, for everything in movies (both fully animated and animated effects), games, art, and anything you find inbetween.
I claim to have some experience in Maya, but such is really dabbling with everything I found. I have, however, got a 1200 page book on it, and if the Fallout series are anything to go by, I should be able to use it to improve my skills by at least 2.
I'm currently lacking important doo-dads to contribute any real content, so... Nothing of interest.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)