Polygon Modelling

We were given a polygon modelling task a couple of weeks ago, which involved modelling an old item of clothing such as a shoe. 

My trusty cowboy boots have recently given up the ghost after 10 years of faithful service, so I figured it was only right to model them so they can survive digitally forever. 

The next stage is to UV map then sculpt additional details, which is when I'll add in more of the wear and tear (of which there is a lot), but the base mesh is completed and you can check it out below!

ISO in love with photography again.

I've recently rekindled my love for photography.

I'm still continuing my photograph a day project, which is currently at around 3.5 years and 1,300 images, but the last year has been predominantly boring "diary shots", randomly interspersed with the occasional adventure and/or climbing photograph.

Since coming back to Dundee I've had the chance to do a lot more photography for the sake of photography... and I love it. It's good to get the creative juices flowing again, and I've always found the surrounding area pretty inspiring. The stunningly unique Tay light certainly helps.

Here's a handful of highlights from the past couple of weeks. 

Masters film concept art.

In a mild panic, I've been trying to think up some potential film ideas for the Masters... particularly considering Ticked Off was written, boarded, designed, modelled and textured by this point in the production timeline. 

My esteemed drinking buddy animation peer, Tom Paxton, and I have been fleshing out an idea over the past couple of days about a guy who gets turned into a cartoon version of himself. It's early days yet, and we're going to keep the details under wraps until we figure it out... at which point we'll no doubt pitch it then start the hunt for potential collaborators. 

In the meantime, I whipped up this first concept piece today to give us something to work with. I've included the original image and a cropped in section as well. 

Fire away with any feedback and/or suggestions! 

Masters assignment - Mindmapping

Earlier in the week we were given a small talk on the benefits of mindmapping ideas to gain a more holistic view of projects/aims/research.

We were asked to draw out a mindmap with potential research areas for our studies, so I decided to start out with what I'd consider to be my current skill set and expand on that. I didn't find this particular mind map useful, but the exercise in general was pretty handy. I wasn't quite sure what direction to take it in, and it's not something I've done in the past, but I can definitely see why it'd be useful throughout the course.

48 Hour Film Project

Salutations!

To go straight to the video, skip to the bottom of this post! Last week we were given the challenge of filming a short movie in 48 hours, with a few extra days of our own (limited) time for post effects & edit. It was an intense punishment of both body and spirit, but a jolly good laugh too. 

I had the pleasure of working alongside two of my former undergrad animation cohorts Lilly and Steph, as well as our new Greek φίλη, George, which was a top-notch team. 

Each group was given a set of 3 "rules" to abide by... a theme, a quote, and an object.

Theme: Comedy.

Quote: "Listen to them... children of the night, what music they make" [Source: Dracula]

Object: Leather gloves. 

Initially we were flabbergasted at the atrocious combination of rules the animation gods had bestowed upon us, but it all worked out rather well. 

We collaborated on the idea together from the start, and slowly began forming the tragic tale of a nameless vampire who's down on his luck. Various plots were thrown around, including a phobia of blood, fear of the dark etc. Eventually we settled on a vicious character who ends up losing his fangs, his only weapon and (more importantly) only way of feeding off innocent graveyard lurkers.

Production was pretty hectic, and we had 5 different locations to shoot in and the weather was annoyingly beautiful... making our planned day-to-night conversions rather dubious at best. Thankfully we'd decided to go for a "quantity over quality" approach, and cram in as many jokes as possible, so we probably won't win any awards for our film making prowess... but we're confident it ticks the "comedy" box with a satisfying swoosh.  

Given the fact I was (justly) deemed the most vampire-esque, I was given the responsibility of "acting". With regards to other production roles, I set up most of the camera shots, as most of the kit was my own and I was very familiar with the camera. This included a moonlight timelapse from my bedroom window, which inserted a rather incongruously pretty shot amongst our hammed up cinematography. In post, I done most of the dodgy VFX (all showreel worthy, I'm sure you'll agree...) and a decent chunk of editing, which was actually great fun.

All in all the project was a blast, with the exception of the sprained ankles, red hot chilli peppers, multiple slaps to the face, and a scraped back... but apart from that it was OK I guess.