PASSED MY FIRST YEAR

Never ever thought I'd see the day but passed my first year at NTU :)

First Year Over :)

Did my presentation today, went alrighttttt! After many tears & tantrums first year finally over

:) :)

Last Week Of The First Year..

& I have finished all 3 of my projects - my interactive I feel being the strongest, animation obviously the weakest.

I have finished my assessment presentation & will upload it on here soon!

My visual essay after so much time & research is nearly complete :)

One Week To Go..

until deadline for visual essay & presentation.

Have just uploaded my interactive media & evaluation to the dropbox - also made it live.

My visual essay and presentation are about halfway through, have just got an email saying Waverley is closed for 4 weeks from next week which is brilliant as I was hoping to edit my film & animation.

I am going to try and improve my animation now but my track record with it this plan may not go too well! also if I have time will do my own edit for film Herds.

Also need to make dvds today if Waverley is closed?!

Presentation

I'm presenting my dp2 presentation to Deb - would have prefered Shaun as I am doing the interactive pathway so my strength in the powerpoint would be this & not film but hopefully it'll be a ok :)

I'm doing a powerpoint & it seems pretty easy, 5 slides on each project - the design process of each one & how we think it could be improved, what's good & what's bad etc etc!

I now need to make my portfolio live - will try this tomorrow.
Finish visual essay & make this live.

Improve my ainamtion & film a little if time & finish presentation.

Quick Update

.. After another 2 weeks off.

I currently have 2 weeks left of interactive media & have no problem with the deadline as I am well underway with my online portfolio & really enjoying this part of the module.

I have started my visual essay & although I may not be doing it 100% correct I am pretty sure i'm on the right track and will finish it in plenty of time for the deadline - 27th May.

I need to start my end of term presentation which hopefully shouldn't take too long as I know what I am doing as I have already done one - saying this I do need to start asking peers for feedback & improving my animation which I keep putting off as I am dreading it!

My Haunted House Animation

Here is my video of my haunted house, which Andy helped me to render :) it's not great / finished but I will improve it for the presentation. Just wanted some evidence of my progress over the last 5 weeks in animation.

Rendering Animation

Today is the deadline to submit the animation work, I have completed my animation but my 3dsmax anaimtion won't render I have been trying for hours :( Going to try again tomorrow and upload to my blog.

Animation Evaluation.

For my first project of 2011 I started with animation. The brief was to create a haunted house with 3 scare scenes. We were told to think of a theme for the haunted house, I had the inital idea of either a halloween theme aimed at young children or a death/murder theme aimed towards an older audience - such as young adults. I decided on the halloween theme as scare scenes were easy to relate to this theme - pumpkins, witches, ghosts and skeletons. It could also be quite a fun / amusing ride as the audience was younger. There was the normal convention of the ride entrance having the sign entering the haunted house will say "Enter If You Dare.."

My main ideas and intentions that I was trying to express in the project were that the theme came across well, the name of "Trick Or Treat" related to the halloween theme. The scares such as the pumpkin tunnel, witches and skeletons in graveyard created the mood for a haunted house which also fit well into my theme, scary yet an amusing ride for young children.

The methods I used to develop my ideas can all me seen on my blog posts over the duration of the project. I created a 3d model with wire on a theatre plan of the waverley building to give me an insight of ideas for a track. I made a few moodboards of theme ideas which helped me decide which theme idea to have for my final idea. I created drawings of the cart, ride entrance and scare scenes. I made a storyboard for the ride - including entrance, scare scenes and exit. To develop my ideas I also looked on sites such as youtube at other ride animations & looked at previous haunted house rides (such as the Pasaje Del Terror in Blackpool) to help with ideas.

I took a risk by trying something new, most people in the group were doing quite a deathly theme and had more of an older audience. I thought the theme and audience was different to everyone else & although it may not seem as "scary" as some of my peers work, the young audience should be taken into consideration.

Some of the unexpected problems I had to solve while working were that I really found the software 3d max hard, some ideas I had - such as a sweet cart to go with the trick or treat title couldn't be done as I was unable to make the cart so had a basic square cart which looks no where need as good. The scare scenes were't as good as I had hoped, although I did really try to make them as effective as I could.

The decisions and choices I made to help solve these problems were that although sometimes I did feel like giving up as mine looked pretty poor compared to my peers, it wouldn't get me anywhere. When I had done the basics such as making the track and plan for the ride I went onto youtube to look at online tutorials. Some of them weren't the best but I did find a few good ones which can be seen on my blog which helped me to produce scenes such as my pumpkin.

The things I have learnt from this particular project were that research is important to produce a good product. Last term i also struggled with animation but throughly reasearched into female idents such as living tv so I had a good idea of what to produce - even if the end product wasn't brilliant the idea was there. I researched everything for this product from the cart to the music. Producing moodboards and storyboards helped me with specific ideas for my theme.

Areas for improvement , If I were to do this project again I would change or do differently would be to have a cart that fits my theme I would also really have liked my track to be more interesting / thrilling for the user. I am hoping to add music by the end of the term.

A new project that might grow out of my experience maybe not so much to do with 3d animationn but maybe whiteboard animation which we did in induction week of a haunted house or ride.

Updated Pumpkin..

Andy has just helped me with my pumpkin as I struggled to put him onto my track due to his mouth being higher up than my track. Also smoothed the edges off & added a stalk.

My Pumpkin :)

Coming along okish...

Pumpkin Videos..

To hopefully help me later on. Look pretty complicated but better than nothing!

Animation Update..

Tuesday is my last seminar on animation haunted house. I have planned my cart - pumpkin shape although is hard to design on 3dsmax so may have to keep the basic square cart I have, Could perhaps have a sweet cart to go with the "trick or treat" theme. I have made a basic cart on 3dsmax which animates by moving along my track attached with a light & camera.

The scare scenes are a pumpkin in which the cart goes through his mouth on the track - his mouth moving up and down. A room with witches and sound effect of a cackle. The last scene is a graveyard in which arms come up from the grave. I need to do all these on tuesday which I am slightly worried about as it will be so complicated & I stuggle to draw a box on the software let a lone a pumpkin.

Will be pretty happy when animation is overrrrrrrr :)

Haunted House Storyboard

Had a seminar with Yelena & made a storyboard for my design:

worst person at drawing in the world.

Also had the idea to add an animating hand from the grave for a scare scene:

Pretty worried that I have all these halloween ideas & tuesday is the last animation lesson and I have to design and animate all my ideas on 3dsmax.

:(

Animation Lighting

Seminar about using light on 3dsmax.

Also made my cart I did want the pumpkin design & attempted many times to create one on 3dsmax but it didn't work so just stuck to a square cart. Also managed to animate it around the track.

Tried to add a camera to follow the cart but will continue with this next week which is the last week of animation in which I also have to add scare scenes and render. :(

Animation. Mardy. Depressed. Want To Quit Uni.

Yesterday we had a seminar on materials & textures ( can be seen in previous post ) but I got so wrapped up in doing that & trying to do it right I didnt even get started on my haunted house :( so now i'm feeling more behind than ever. I've done the track & plan and that's it. I went in to uni today to do some but I just find it so hard to use the software I ended up doing pretty much nothing.

I have 2 weeks left in animation, the last week will be mostly rendering & adding sound so next week is pretty much it.

Big fat fail.


:(

3d Textures

Right now we are learning about textures & material editor on 3dsmax. I have started with a simple box in which I have changed the texture to bricks.

Also created this window imaged box:

I Hate The Feeling..

Of dread :( which is what i'm feeling right now as I have animation later & I feel so behind & like my design is so so bad.

Tomorrow is my day off & i'm going to look at the other tasks for the other pathways on the NOW to have a good idea of what i'll be doing when I finish animation.

I also need to look at year 2 and 3 blogs to look what work they do for film / interactive.

Entrance & Cart For Haunted House..

Now I have decided on a theme for my animation I need to think of the extras such as music I will use, entrance, cart and props.

Signs at the entrance usually say "Ride not recommended for the faint of heart," "Turn back now," and "Not responsible for dying.

Most of these rides have some sort of cart that seats two or three
individuals and moves along a predefined track. The motion and speed of thecart is not particularly fast but filled with quick, jerky turns. As the cart turns, the riders view props and scenes that are intended to elicit a shriek or scream.

Ideas for my cart:

I did like the pumpkin cart idea for the theme which I have now decided on however it will be really hard to make on 3dsmax so I may have to keep to a simple square cart with space for one child. I also like the idea of a sweet which will go with the trick or treat title. The sign entering the haunted house will say "Enter If You Dare.."

Entrance:

:(

Finding this so so hard :( creating the floor and walls to the haunted house:

Track: