Go Go Gadget Time Machine!

Mini progress update. 

Here's the first design for the time machine... we liked the idea of having it as an archway to make it a bit more original, as opposed to your typical chair/chamber setup. I'd really appreciate some feedback on the design actually, I want to do a couple more but I'm not sure what to change. 

This is another quick concept piece too, we started looking at a lot of more simplistic styles such as Samurai Jack and similar cartoon network animations. We loved the shapes and textures in those, but we're not sure how well it'll translate into 3D. 

A great animation we found that really got us going towards the simpler side of things is The Saga Of Biorn, a hilarious 3D character animation piece. Check it out! It's got a great simplistic look to it, we love the textures in the sky!

The Saga Of Biorn from The Animation Workshop on Vimeo.

We've finished the first draft of our storyboards, and we're going to pass them onto the ever talented Lynsey Schaschke who'll take our mindless, scrawled doodles and re-draw them to make them pretty :D

So yeah... PEACE!

Look! Work!

Today (amidst countless hours of Worms, Tetris and Half Life) I've managed to cobble together some actual material to show you. Huzzah! I'm just messing around with possible looks, so far we're leaning towards quite a graphic, simplistic style... I'm not sure how well these pieces actually convey that. The look of the film is really important so we're not going to rush it. These are very early concepts and will no doubt change a lot, we're still not sure how big to make the city, or it's design, but feel free to give us any feedback or thoughts you might have on the matter. 

Sláinte!

Me, Myself and I

Being the narcissistic prick that I am, I've been experimenting with self portraits over the past couple of days. I've not had this much fun with a camera and photoshop for ages! Here's what I've got so far, I'm going to do a series of the clone photographs... I'm already brainstorming cool, challenging scenarios to do. Again, there's high-res uploads on my flickr, but I'm not sure how many of you guys use it... if any.

I like to tell myself these are research, as the whole cloning idea relates to our degree film... but it might be pushing it. 

I'll hopefully be firing up some concept art soon, the style of our film is crucial. We've not settled on anything concrete yet but we've got a few ideas. Stay tuned.

Inspiring Quote Du Jour:

"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions."

- Dalai Lama

"Me, Myself, and I"

"Confidence Boost" 

"A Splash Of Colour"

If it ain't bokeh, don't fix it.

So in my infinite wisdom concerning student finances, I decided it'd be a bloody good idea to blow a load of the bank's money on a shiny new Canon 450D. Hello noodles, it's been too long <3

Je ne regrette rien.

Check out my Flickr account here, and feel free to add me as a contact if you're a member. Also big thanks to DoJ on twitter, who linked my last P365 post, you guys are awesome!

On a school related note, pre production on the degree film is coming along smoothly. We're still ironing out the creases in the storyline - time travel is not as simple as one might believe. We've timed it out by filming it live action (stellar acting from Mr Grossi) and it's sitting at around 3 minutes, that's the heavily edited version. It's a daunting length, but it paces really nicely so I think we're sticking with that until we panic and hack it up into a 30 second nonsensical short a month before the degree show.

Some fellow dedicated 3rd years and I are also helping out on the ever delightful Flying Duchess 4th year production, which keeps us nice and busy to say the least. It's worth checking out! Between that and our first dissertation hand in this week, it's all hands on deck in the animation studio.

Not to mention the shitloads of Worms and Half Life 2: Deathmatch we've got to deal with too...

Inspiring quote du jour:

"Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans"

 - John Lennon

A picture says a thousand words - P365

Which puts me at 365,000 words...

As I'm sure most of you know, for the past year I've been taking a photograph a day. A documentary of my day to day life , a diary, an exercise in photography, but most importantly it was a motivation to really live. Well, as of the 5th of Febuary my year is officially finished. 

I'm pretty proud of myself for finishing it. Not long after I started it caught on with a number of people, but the vast majority of people lasted a month or two before giving up. (Thankfully there's a couple of dedicated snappers still going strong!) There were so many times when I couldn't be bothered myself, but then you think about how amazing it's going to be when you look back in 20 years time... to see every single day captured for eternity in a picture. I can see how my relationships with people have grown and changed, as well as all the new people I've had the pleasure of meeting, and the experiences we've shared.

I've had so many people tell me how cool an idea it is, and I can see other P365 albums cropping up on Facebook. To clarify, I'm by no means the first person to do it, but inspiring other people to start taking photographs and go on cool adventures of their own gives me such a sense of purpose, I really can't even begin explain how happy that makes me. It's something that I think everybody should do because not only does it document each day, but it gives you a completely fresh outlook at your own life. I wouldn't have done half the things I got up to this year if it wasn't for this project, I wanted to make each day as interesting as I could which resulted in the genuinely happy young lad I am today. 

Alas, I'm really sad that it's finished. It's had such a positive impact on the past year, and I'm not sure if I'm ready to let that go. I'm genuinely toying with the idea of doing it for the rest of my days. Would it get stale? Probably... but maybe that staleness would just inspire me to change something. I think it'd be quite interesting to have a hard copy of my life in a photo album after I've kicked the bucket, but I might just be being overly self centred by assuming anybody would actually care.

At the very least I've decided to keep going until the end of uni, these are probably the most eventful years of my life. It'll be cool to see my steady financial decline and slowly increasing stress levels captured :D

I hate to sound like a big fairy, but it wouldn't have been the same without you. Sure it's had it's ups and downs... but you inspire me, and make me who I am.

Finally, here are a few of my favourites from the past year which sum it up relatively well. I'm in the process of getting them all printed, and compiling them into a video... but I'm a lazy prick so who knows when that'll get done. I spend most of my time trying to pick music for it. Expect that soonish.

Keep being awesome,

Kieran x

Inspiring quote du jour:

"Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile." - Albert Einstein