Animation test

Hey Guys here's a little test animation I have been working on In between seeing the family for Xmas. I came to realise something. I'm really rusty with Maya. This was more of a test for me to see if I can still use the programme. My Maya is being funny at the moment though.

Hope everyone has had a good Xmas.

I know this animation sucks, It was a test!

Kim Crow Patches Voice

Hey guys this is Kim Crow's voice of Patches. Kim did a good job but I don't know whether you guys are going to like it. Please let me know.

Alma

Alma from Rodrigo Blaas on Vimeo.

This is an amazing little short from France that I found. The short looks incredible. It is very inspirational. I recomend everyone go to the vimeo link and watch it in HD, full screen! Trust me it's the best way to watch it!

The pirates display

Hey guys this is a design of the pirates layout based upon Lewis's layout. I've been thinking that I haven't seen any colour pallette for the market. I liked the browny-sort of beige like colour that lewis had goin on in his display pic, so I went ahead and did the same. More pictures coming y'all way, let me know what you think piece!

Paul: Delay and sound

Hi guys ; sorry for the delay. The past fornight I've been busy working on a personal work project thats getting done for this week. I have got some work done for our project but I rather not show till ready.

HOWEVER I found something useful. This website has loads of free sound effects (mp3) and in great quality too. Obviously there are a handful of free sound sites over the searchbar; but the quality of these are fantastic; so we can use this site + Ravensbourne sound boxes when it comes to editing.

http://www.therecordist.com/pages/downloads.html

*edit*
Also; this:

http://www.vofa.dk/sound/mp3/

John Bell Voices

Hi Guys, the voice actor John Bell has come back with an audition for the voices. Wow he's quick. I sent him a script and a picture of all the characters and that was it. I wanted to see what he came up with. He has decided to give all the characters a go. Keep in mind, he did not have the animatic to go by. He says if we want him to change anything, all we have to do is say.

Urgently, let me know what you guys think.

I personally really like them and think he has done an absolutely fantastic job.

Be warned he has done a lot of improv in hear, but I think it works well!

Maya Problems

Just to let you guys know, I've hit a snag at trying to complete the 3d animatic. My Maya does not seem to like the files. In fact it hates them. Looks like I might have to go into college to finish this stuff off!

Voice Update

The two voice actors that I contacted have replied back and are very interested in trying out for the parts. I have emailed them a copy of a new draft of the script (just with a couple of little changes) and a picture of the character line up. Hopefully they shall come back with some voices for us to hear. I know that these two are good so I'm quite excited!

Guard

Hi Lewis, I've seen the model refs on the blog and I've gone back into Maya and re-worked some parts. I need put some more edges in to give him that look. Let me know what you think then I'll make the changes and finish him off. I'll post another update on the weekend again.

Voices

I have just contact two voice actors who I think could suit some of the roles in the film. I know some of you like the voices I did for the animatic (obviously not including the sound levels) but I personally don't think I could survive the production of the film, constantly hearing my nasally, whine voice. I'd probably end up smashing my head through the PC monitor. Anywhoo, I contacted these two people. One is a man with a very extensive range of accents. The other is a woman who I thought could give a stab at patches, as his voice is so high (here's her website http://www.best-voice-actress.com/resumes.html ) It's the best website name ever! Female voice actresses often play the roles of young boys or high pitched males (Tara Strong voices Timmy in Fairly Odd Parents and Ben in Ben 10).

Hopefully they can get back to us. I have also set up an account on Voice 123 to look for other voice actors.

IMPORTANT PROGRESS!!!!!!!!!!

YO LISTEN UP GANG!

I know that I suck at modelling so currently I am modelling nothing. (if need be I shall do some though). In the meantime, I will be drawing new frames to the story board and finishing off the 3d animatic. I will also be improving the script as well as tweeking the opening.

HERE'S THE IMPORTANT PART!

I have been glancing across the other group's blogs and frankly ours is not up to scratch. Whack'd and the other groups blogs are filled with development and ours has next to nothing. Even if you have just barely modeled a face, or a shelf, I want to see it. It is very important that you show development on the blog, as it is the holidays and I am not in everyday to check up on you.

There is one thing I cannot stand hearing. This goes to all who are working on other films as well. I do not want to hear that the director of another film has given you a job to do so you are going to do it first over the Pirates film. This films is not something that you do in your spare time, if you are on this film, you are on this film. I am aware that if you are working on two films you will have to share the work, that means sharing not favouring. I do not want to hear how you couldn't model this because another director gave you a new job and you had to do it. I DON'T CARE. In the real world if you are working on a James Cameron movie and a Steven Spielberg movie, you can't go ans say "Sorry James but Steven asked me to do this thing!" You will get fired!

I don't want to sound like a dick, I'm extremely reasonable. My brother suffered with people dicking around with different projects, and not doing his work. He had to pretty much do his whole movie himself (HAND ANIMATED!). That will not happen with this film.

I am fully aware people have other things like dissertations. Ash has had work experience, and JB's gotta do what he's gotta do for his work and family.

I'm just saying that I want his film to be finished, and not like 'Junk Food' last year!

I will be organising a meeting in the new year!

Spreading the love,

Lewis

p.s everyone go see Avatar!

The Ending

I have been thinking long and hard about the ending. I have come with two possibilities.

1. The guard wakes up, sees the displays all set up. He looks at the signs that say 'Free sample', he is exited. He starts walking towards the display. The eyes of the pirate cutouts nervously move to the free sample sign and the cereal box. We hear three faint, muffled screams.

2. The same as above up until the guard views the free sample sign. He walks all the way up to the display, and whips out his grabber to nab the cereal again. We then see the cutouts frown, and the arms come out of the boards once again!

Let me know what you think guys, preferably sooner, so I can draft up a storyboard.

The ending

I remember ol' Mike Smith and Dave Bull said the ending was lame. I'm trying to think of a new one I've got a couple of ideas.

Any suggestions?

RE: List of work over holiday

I don't mind doing the security office. so l'll model walker and the security office yeh.

A snag in the sound!

Spencer has informed me that our sound designer Chaz has left college. I don't know why but, out of respect, I don't wish to pry into her personal life. This means we are currently without sound. Tom is going to talk to Kai to see if anyone in the sound design department wants to carry the torch. If that does not amount to anything, I will have to pitch to the sound design class to see if I can get them to come aboard (pirate pun!).

If anyone can think of anything let us know.

Lewis OUT!

List of work over holiday

Ok so the work been taken so far are:

Captain Breadbeard - Tom
Walker - Dean
Guard - Ash
Pirateship - Mu
Shelf Contents - Paul
Scooter - JB

Works been left out are :

Patches
Office
Shop

and some jobs that can be worked on but would not be finished by the end of the holidays, meaning...it's good to do some tests and preperations, R&D etc... those jobs are:

Character Rigging
Character texturing(which i think better to be done next term, with the same guys did the modeling.)
Environment Texturing
and Lighting

also, Mike and JB carry on with all the dynamic tests, including canon firing, shelves collapsing etc.

NEW PIRATES DISPLAY

Hey yall! Here's my second design for the cereal display. This one is a lot better, me thinks. I putthe cereal on top of two barrels. I also added some more signs and what not. To top it off I added some cardboard boxes and hammers to make it look like they are still setting up. I did not draw the pirates as I wanted to purely focus on the environment.

ATTENTION MODELLERS!

Yo people. I'm not going to lie. I did kinda nick this stuff from the Whack'd blog. But I thought this illustrated perfectly how I wanted the models to look. These models have lovely round parts and extremely flat parts too. This is an element that I tried to get across in my artwork (though I don't know how successfully). The models also have an extremely nice level of detail to them and have rich characterisation and personality. If we could get our models to look like this, I would be as happy as a pig in...mud!

RE: Holiday Works

Hey guys, i think my strengths is in modeling, I want to be using Character Modeling and Environment modeling for my Show Reel. So like i said, if i model Walker and the shop would be cool? i spoke to Neil about modeling characters before we broke up for Xmas. he said yeah i can go ahead with it. so like what i said on my previous post. I'll aim to complete those. with any other suggestions i guess. i will also participate in the animation process as well once we get back?

Holiday Works

Hi guys, sorry I have been stuck to my games for the past few days after essay.
I think what we should do first, is to find what is your position on this scheduel. Don't worry about the name asighned to it and the dates and stuff, just look at the job title(with red dots*) and see what interests you the most. Then post here the job title you want to work on. This way we won't have over-lapping jobs. Just remember communication saves time! So before you head down start doing your stuff, post here.

*Red dots is the ones I think we can work on during the holiday. Animations and others has to wait until modelings finished.

Red squares means the job has already got its owner. Once posts(your applications) are up, this scheduel will be full of red squares. Hopefully.

WORKLOAD

Hey guys, yep Paul is right. I will ring Mu tomorrow and we will sort out what everyone has to do over the holidays. If there is any questions, you have my number!

THE CEREAL DISPLAY!

Hey all, sorry for the delay! We all had Keiron's essay to do and I've have been very ill this last week, bad chest infection and I fell down the staires at work(mucking up my hands, back legs and butt!) That aside I managed to squeeze out this little design for the pirates cereal display. We need to put more signs and cardboard boxes near it to make it look like it's half set up. As well, I think that The display stand should possibly be a pile of barrels as it is more piratey. Let me know what you think!

Paul: RE

Come on people; post up already.
I've rested enough last week; gah... I left Kieran's work late.
This week I shall make a start, plus I might try some Character modelling and animation for my showreel.

Even with all the props done; it just feels like I'm not contributing enough; so the least I could do is assist with extra animation. It's just rigging in which I'm terrible at...

Over The Holidays...

Hey guys, hope you all been okay, still touching on my essay for Kieron, so not much work for the project yet. Sorry I didn't see you guys last Friday to sort out whats happening over there Xmas holiday. so anyways, if anyone can let me no or update me what the pan and schedule is it would be great. Like Paul suggested. if people would like to post a list of things they would do then thats cool. Here is what I'm looking to do for the team. Or suggest me some Task =)

Modeling:

• Character Walker (maybe another character aswel?)
• Supermarket Exterior
• The Cola Fridge
• CCTV and cameras
• Supermarket structure and layout

Paul: Oholidays

Ok good end folks. Now our holidays plans...
Comment in this thread to say what you are going to do over the holidays; and... I shall edit the post and add everyone's job.

PAUL - I'm going to start modelling and texturing the props and products of the store using the example of the concepts; as well as designing better examples. Though... not everything.

Tune in folks.