I've not updated for a little while, things have been pretty hectic!! I guess I'll start at the top:
I'VE BEEN HIRED AT DINAMO!!!
Woooooo :D
Yeah, I'm super super super super happy ^_^
I'm so grateful to Lucy who never stopped fighting my corner and pressing the issue whenever she could, so thank you so much Lucy for getting me my first and most wonderful full-time position in the animation industry!! I promise I'll be dedicated and hard-working each and every day to try and help make the series completely amazing!! I also owe so much to Fatemeh for being so patient with me and looking out for me every day, making me feel so welcome and accepted ^_^ And of course Nia in the Rastacrew for giving it that final awesome push and letting me work on the amazing Rastamouse series! To be honest, everyone at Dinamo has been so great to me that really I need a huge scrolling credits list!! None of them will read this, but if they do happen to, I hope they know how much I honestly appreciate the effort they've gone to just for me ^_^
Anyway, enough gushing! The placement details are hopefully going through soon and on the 23rd I'll be signing stuff and starting my first full-time week!! Amazing :D So excited!!
Funnily enough the 23rd happens to be the next weekday after our FINAL MAJOR UNIVERSITY DEADLINE!! Yes, capital letters are necessary, it's that scary!
I've been powering through the work recently so I'll have some work updates for you later. I thought I'd just get this lovely info down first (sorry for those of you who dislike text!) and now I'm going to get back on with the artistic business.
But I do want to add, while I'm gushing with the thanks, one more mention.
University hasn't been as smooth a ride as I hoped it might be, and opinions might have changed back and forth a lot over the years, but there is certainly no way I can in any way say that the tutors haven't always done their best for us. It probably doesn't show, but I'm honestly so incredibly grateful for all the extra work and effort that all the tutors have gone to in order to accommodate my niggling preferences and awkward choice of career path. While the Dinamo crew helped me secure my job, I would never even have gotten work experience there if it wasn't for the tutors doing everything they could to bend and shape this year around my work needs.
So thank you so much - Graham Griffiths, Matt Morgan, Gerald 'M&S' Emanuel, Brian Fagence, Pete Hodges, Nicola Marlborough - even if this job lasts a year, a month, or a week, it's because of your incredible patience and continuing effort that we students even make it out to get jobs at all!!
I know I sound daft, but people rarely bother to thank those that have put in a genuine effort to help them, and I don't want people to think they go unappreciated!
Anyway, enough text for now - back to work!!
Art Of Alexandra - The Final Year
28/04/2011
Opening Shots and London
So firstly, the opening shots for Trail of Crimson. Due to editing and sound design, the opening shot needed to be cut to 20 seconds, so I've done my best to fit everything in!! Here are 4 different options, though I think the final one is the best:
I also have a version that has 5 seconds extra either side for editing purposes :)
Secondly, LONDON!
Jeesh, how hard can it be to plan a simple route in London? Very, apparently. I have to go and pick up a special file for Dinamo, all very important, so I'm happy to be trusted with such a responsibility!! It's all very exciting, but no details, you know the score :)
But planning the route has been hard, as I'm rubbish with London as it is ~_~ but I think I've finally got it sorted!! So I'm going to go and have a shower, prepare everything for tomorrow, then perhaps have an early night so that I'm fresh for the journey, as I'll have lots of time to work on the coach!!
I also have a version that has 5 seconds extra either side for editing purposes :)
Secondly, LONDON!
Jeesh, how hard can it be to plan a simple route in London? Very, apparently. I have to go and pick up a special file for Dinamo, all very important, so I'm happy to be trusted with such a responsibility!! It's all very exciting, but no details, you know the score :)
But planning the route has been hard, as I'm rubbish with London as it is ~_~ but I think I've finally got it sorted!! So I'm going to go and have a shower, prepare everything for tomorrow, then perhaps have an early night so that I'm fresh for the journey, as I'll have lots of time to work on the coach!!
27/04/2011
Trail of Crimson Credits
Well I'm pretty sure these are the final ending credits for Trail of Crimson - all that was needed was a quick name change and hopefully it's all good now :) I've exported a H.264 file as well as a MOV, just in case.
I'm just rendering some tests for the opening shot and will post those asap :)
Early Bedtime Methinks
Well it's only 12.30pm, so I may yet stay up and do a bit more work, but I'm still feeling a bit peaky from earlier and my eyes are starting to melt from staring at a screen for 12 hours a day...sigh...
But on the brighter side, here are the textured layouts for my book - please bear in mind that the text has still to be added, and some of the pop-ups aren't shown (most are done, one or two yet to finish), but there will be full before-and-after images soon...ish... >.< or perhaps an animatic if it turns out to be easier XD
Here ya go:
So sleepy....was going to do some flash expression sheets but not sure if I'll manage...perhaps I'll get ready for bed then just work til the Sandman takes me :)
But on the brighter side, here are the textured layouts for my book - please bear in mind that the text has still to be added, and some of the pop-ups aren't shown (most are done, one or two yet to finish), but there will be full before-and-after images soon...ish... >.< or perhaps an animatic if it turns out to be easier XD
Here ya go:
So sleepy....was going to do some flash expression sheets but not sure if I'll manage...perhaps I'll get ready for bed then just work til the Sandman takes me :)
26/04/2011
Dear Brain,
Why oh why have you been telling me to export all these files as MOVs? Huge, chunky, flicker-y evil MOVs?? When you know full well they all needed to be H.264 - how many times have we gone through it in Uni?
I have come to the conclusion that you suck.
Yours sincerely,
Me.
Yes, brain = suckage. Oh well, here's the nice, small, high quality H.264 file of the opening shot. Please note I've left a long bit of black on the beginning because I'm not sure how long they'll need for music, and this way they can edit it to their liking. Also, for the lovely director who will hopefully read this, I do have an even longer version, where each bit has a little more time, so if you need any part longer or shorter, just let me know ^_^ hope this is ok!!
NOW I'm going to start the rest of the pop-up pages, get all the main textures done for pages 3 to 8 - hopefully won't take long, but I've cracked open another Diet Red Thunder drink to take the edge off!
I have come to the conclusion that you suck.
Yours sincerely,
Me.
Yes, brain = suckage. Oh well, here's the nice, small, high quality H.264 file of the opening shot. Please note I've left a long bit of black on the beginning because I'm not sure how long they'll need for music, and this way they can edit it to their liking. Also, for the lovely director who will hopefully read this, I do have an even longer version, where each bit has a little more time, so if you need any part longer or shorter, just let me know ^_^ hope this is ok!!
NOW I'm going to start the rest of the pop-up pages, get all the main textures done for pages 3 to 8 - hopefully won't take long, but I've cracked open another Diet Red Thunder drink to take the edge off!
Urgh Brain Fail
Ok so apparently the failing of After Effects to export the file was not, as I had hoped, due to some silly computer error, but in fact the far more common human error of my brain, trying to export it as mp4 format instead of H.264 (which comes out mp4 ANYWAY but whatever...still a different choice on the menu -_-).
So yes, that should be exporting all nice and lovely and I'll pop it up on here when it's done. I'm referring to the final version of the scrolling credits for Trail of Crimson, by the way. Well, hopefully the final version, though they may ask for tweaks, which is fine. I'm about to go into the opening credits file and just change a few things there and then I'll upload that here too.
Ooo here's the credits:
Two more updates:
Dinamo was fun again today, though a bit painful on the old back (yes, am already an old woman XD). Twas mainly audio cuts and some production filing, nice and easy, soothing almost. Plus the kids are great so it's easy to get the audio. I chopped up about 46 minutes worth of audio for Abadas today - wooo! ...that doesn't sound like a lot does it XD but it is if you think that it takes about 10 minutes to cut like 5 seconds... ~_~ trust me, you can fit a lot of words into 5 seconds!
Also, look, drawings!! Like, real-life pencil-y done-by-me drawings!! It does happen now and again XD they aren't great sadly. These are three poses for Niamh's action sheet. There's two more I haven't scanned, and two of Rae to scan as well. Still need to draw the rest....still need to do a lot of thing >.<
Right, let's get that opening shot done.
Also, I'm listening to the Ocarina of Time soundtrack. Be jealous. :)
So yes, that should be exporting all nice and lovely and I'll pop it up on here when it's done. I'm referring to the final version of the scrolling credits for Trail of Crimson, by the way. Well, hopefully the final version, though they may ask for tweaks, which is fine. I'm about to go into the opening credits file and just change a few things there and then I'll upload that here too.
Ooo here's the credits:
Two more updates:
Dinamo was fun again today, though a bit painful on the old back (yes, am already an old woman XD). Twas mainly audio cuts and some production filing, nice and easy, soothing almost. Plus the kids are great so it's easy to get the audio. I chopped up about 46 minutes worth of audio for Abadas today - wooo! ...that doesn't sound like a lot does it XD but it is if you think that it takes about 10 minutes to cut like 5 seconds... ~_~ trust me, you can fit a lot of words into 5 seconds!
Also, look, drawings!! Like, real-life pencil-y done-by-me drawings!! It does happen now and again XD they aren't great sadly. These are three poses for Niamh's action sheet. There's two more I haven't scanned, and two of Rae to scan as well. Still need to draw the rest....still need to do a lot of thing >.<
Right, let's get that opening shot done.
Also, I'm listening to the Ocarina of Time soundtrack. Be jealous. :)
Pop-Up Book Work
Well I'm waiting for the final few changes to the Trail of Crimson work to render on AE, so I thought I'd put a quick update of some of my own work in progress - I've been working on my pop-up book a lot, and it's finally starting to take shape :) Originally sketched in pencil, all the designs were then drawn over in Flash and last night I was texturing the elements in Photoshop. I'm hoping to finish all that tonight, as I'm just going to use the same few textures so that it doesn't get too crazy XD I do love my textures!! Of course, all the ones I'm using are royalty free from wonderful texture-providing people across the web, but sadly I was given them in a collection so I have no links to the original downloads.
Of course, a lot of these won't make sense yet as they're just the separate elements, but hopefully the two more finished (ish) pages will give more of an idea. I've left most of the mechanisms out for now, but will either be putting together a before-and-after style set of the final images in Photoshop, or, if I have time (which I really don't -_-) I may animate each page in After Effects. Anyway, here's some of the pages so far:
And yes Luke, that is you on the last page =P
Anyway, hoping to finish all the pages tonight and maybe even start the before-and-after images...it's only 9.30pm after all, the night is still young XD
Right well something is wrong with After Effects, not exporting in mp4 right now, so will finish here and restart my beloved Mac -_- If all goes well, I shall be back with more updates and hopefully the finished shots for Trail of Crimson!
Of course, a lot of these won't make sense yet as they're just the separate elements, but hopefully the two more finished (ish) pages will give more of an idea. I've left most of the mechanisms out for now, but will either be putting together a before-and-after style set of the final images in Photoshop, or, if I have time (which I really don't -_-) I may animate each page in After Effects. Anyway, here's some of the pages so far:
And yes Luke, that is you on the last page =P
Anyway, hoping to finish all the pages tonight and maybe even start the before-and-after images...it's only 9.30pm after all, the night is still young XD
Right well something is wrong with After Effects, not exporting in mp4 right now, so will finish here and restart my beloved Mac -_- If all goes well, I shall be back with more updates and hopefully the finished shots for Trail of Crimson!
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