June 2010
1 post
Cumberland, not just a sausage! →
As Thomas Edison rightly said “genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration”. Being a student however, usually means ninety-nine per cent partying and one per cent thinking about studying and there is nothing genius about that.
WatchInteractive Web Trend Map
I recently bought the poster for the Web Trend Map and seeing this video about the interactive version makes me a little bit excited.
WatchBarack Obama is the World’s Latest Superhero
Apparently this was shown at one of the President’s addresses. Good on him for having a sense of humour. Definitely a change from the last president!
WatchApple’s Hyperwall Thingy-ma-jig
This installation at the 2009 Apple WWDC event is pretty damn cool. It shows a live (5 min delayed) visualisation of all the downloads on 20,000 of the most popular apps. It utilises a huge array of Mac Pro machines that are running the yet unreleased version of OS X Snow Leopard. It’s quite mesmerising to watch!
May 2009
3 posts
Baker Tweet →
BakerTweet is a way for busy bakers to tell the world that something hot and fresh has just come out of the oven. It’s as simple as turning the dial and hitting the button. All of the baker’s followers get a Twitter alert to tell them that it’s bun-time. Or bread time. Or whatever.
April 2009
11 posts
WatchI never thought I’d understand the recession but this infographic-style video has changed all that. It’s pretty and interesting!
WatchThis is probably my new favourite video of recent time, at least of the last 24 hours. It’s not got much of a point but the graphics and animation are so slick and especially cool when watched in high definition.
Google Streetview Hits Bournemouth
I saw the Google Streetview car driving around Bournemouth the other day so I quickly got my iPhone out and took some photos of it. Today it appeared in the local newspaper!
Looking forward to the Summer Project
I just received an email from uni detailing the lecture for our Summer Project. I’m really excited about it actually, it’s going to be a good experience to work with the other courses. Of course, my group will win so so might as well give up now! ^_^
When a girl blogs for the very first time... →
My sister who is studying media related things at Bristol UWE has created her first blog, check it out.
Wired Magazine UK →
I bought the first issue (technically the re-launch issue) of the Wired magazine, UK edition. Haven’t had a chance to read through it yet but from a quick flick through it looks really good. I can see myself subscribing once the loan comes through.
March 2009
19 posts
Audiences Is Over!
The title says it all. Audiences is over. No more work until we come back from Easter. Going out tonight to celebrate with the IMPs. Good times!
WatchPlant Fight - The First Minute 78.1 Seconds
I‘ve finally reached the first 60 seconds of animation. I’m pretty impressed that I’ve managed to do so much in just two days but there is still lots left to do…
Well it’s the end of the night for me and the animation has officially hit 78.1 seconds of footage. I’ve updated the video above to show the latest version of the...
WatchPlant Fight - Progress Report
The animation is progressing really well, I’m so happy with what’s been done so far. The above is the first 40 seconds. There is still so much left to do!
WatchPlant Fight - First Scene
It’s been a slow but productive day and I’m pretty close to having the first scene done and dusted – 11.2 seconds so far. Tim came over earlier so that gave me a little break from work and it was nice to see his animation, which is awesome. My ladyfriend has been keeping me company most of the day providing input and advice when required, sometimes when...
WatchWalk Cycle - Front On
Here is the finished version (kinda) of the front walk cycle.
WatchSpeech Bubble Development
As fond as I am of the plant fight scene I decided to move onto a different aspect of the animation, namely the dialogue and speech bubbles. I’m fairly certain there is going to be no audible spoken words in the animation so I’m going to deal with dialogue by using cartoon style speech bubbles, enhancing the feel that the animation is set inside a comic...
WatchPlant Fight - Sleeping Giant
This scene is taking way longer than I imagined but I’m still battling on. I’ve pretty much finished drawing the plant, possibly in too much detail. I’ve also added a basic sleeping/snoring animation to the plant to see how it looks in situ. I kinda like the little anime-style snot bubble.
WatchPlant Fight - Concept
I’ve been working on this scene from my animation the entire day and although I’ve done no where near the amount I expected today I’m still pleased with how it’s turned out. The above is only a concept so far and is likely to change, particularly with the colours and positioning. I’m hoping it’ll look better once it’s animated as...
WatchOrbital Tests - Fire, Water & Electricity
The basic elements are finished now. I’m not happy with how they’ve turned out so I’m going to work on some other aspects of the animation and come back to this later.
WatchOrbital Tests
The plan is to have a bunch of floating orb-like elements above the character’s head. So far it’s been proving an interesting learning experience trying to get the orbits feeling right. I even got down and dirty with ActionScript so some of the orbs move in reverse and start at a different frame from the others. This has allowed me to use the same orbiting animation for...
WatchI’m A Fire-starter
It’s now coming up to 3am (a few hours since the last post) and I’ve finally completed the first version of the character covered in fire. I’m quite happy with how it’s turned out.
WatchPlaying With Fire
I’ve been experimenting with techniques for creating fire today. The first efforts were incredibly poor but I’m particularly fond of this latest version. I still need to set his limbs alight though…
WatchMicrosoft’s vision of the future
I’d love for the future to be like this. Somehow I don’t see it by 2019 though.
February 2009
12 posts
WatchHappy Up Here by Röyksopp
I absolutely love this video. The whole space invaders in real life concept works really well and looks damn cool. It helps that the song is decent too.
Narratives Results
I’m just about to head into Uni to pick up my Narratives essay result. Hopefully they actually have it this time…
…Well I’m back and no they don’t have it. I’m starting to think it’s gone missing.
[Edit] I found out that it actually has gone missing so I’ve sent another copy of the essay by email. Hopefully I get the marks back soon.
WatchCharacter Test: Walking with Hands
I’ve just finished my first attempt at adding hands to the walking animation. I have to admit it doesn’t look quite right just yet as it’s too smooth. I’ll have a read through the animation book tomorrow and see what is suggested for arms and hands, I’m thinking they need better easing, connecting to the body movement up and down,...
WatchCharacter Test: Walking
It’s a little fast and could certainly be improved but here is my first ever (non-IMP Workshop) walking character*. It wouldn’t have been possible without the surperb advice given in the book, ‘The Animators Survival Kit’ by Richard Williams.
* Minus hands as I haven’t got to that bit in the book yet!
Character Development: Flames
Character Development: Eye Movement
Character Development: Sketches
Character Development: Sketches