Festivals update

I have recently discovered that my graduation film was shown in Italy as part of Cortoons - International Short Animated Film Festival of Rome.

I have also heard that my film is supposed to be shown at Latitude Festival which starts today. Which is pretty cool although I am not actually sure whereabouts or when it is going to be shown.

[EDIT] Relating to Latitude my film can actually be seen here atDitto.tv.

I haven't actually entered any festivals for a while now as I just haven't had the time. I will hopefully get back on it the next time I have a break as I think I only have one year left until my film becomes "too old" to be screened anywhere. :)

Martha's Vineyard Film Festival

My graduation film Xiao Xi has recently been selected for screening at The 9th Annual Martha's Vineyard Film Festival taking place on the 13th - 15th March in Chilmark, Massachusetts.
Xiao Xi will be screened on Saturday the 14th at 1:00pm as part of the International Short Films Program '09. I was invited to the festival and would have absolutly loved to go, but sadly I could not afford the travel costs.

You can see the full festival programme at the link.

Anim!arte 2008

I have recently found out that my film was screened in Brazil last November as part of the International Students category at the Anim!arte Festival. As part of that my film is also due to be shown on TV on Canal Futura this month.

Also I have ordered my laptop today so I am getting very excited about that arriving in the next few days. I'll finally be able to work on the go! ^-^
Will update soon with the latest on Little Leap Forward.

Manchester & Nottingham screenings this week.

For anyone in the Manchester or Nottingham area this week my graduation film 'Xiao Xi' will be screening at Exposures and the Bang! Short Film Festival.

Wednesday 26th Nov - MANCHESTER

2pm screening 'Of Mice and Men' 52mins at Cornerhouse cinema.

Sunday 30th Nov - NOTTINGHAM

6pm screening 'Bangimation' at Broadway cinema.

Exposures Screening - 26th Nov

'Xiao Xi' is going to be screened on the 26th November as part of the Exposures Film Festival in Manchester. If you are in the area it would be great if you could check it out! It is being shown alongside some of my fellow NSAD graduates work which is worth checking out if you haven't seen any of the NSAD 08 Showreel so far. ^-^

I am going to try and make it to the event as I'm sure there will be lots of interesting people to meet! ^-^ It's strange how my film is showing in the animal themed sectioned... I never really thought of my film in that way before. Although now that I think about it there are many many animals in my film so it seems quite obvious it should be in this category. ^-^

BBC Big Screen Event, Icewhole.com

The Norwich School of Art and Design 2008 Animation Showreel is going to be screening in Norwich on the BBC Big Screen on:
Sat 27 Sept, 6.30pm – 7.30pm at Chapelfield Plain.
So if you are in the area and haven't seen the reel already you should try to get down there :) I am going to try raise some funds to get back over to Norwich for that weekend also :)

'Xiao Xi' has recently won an award on the website icewhole.com. This site provides a place for film makers to upload their work and also gives them a chance to win prizes every month in 4 catergories, Best Film Under 5 Minutes, 5 to 10 Minutes, Over 10 Minutes and Most Viewed.

I haven't really been getting up to much else recently. I have been looking at working on two interesting projects which is fairly exciting and spending most of my time working on some personal projects.

August Update

I realised I never posted my finished film onto my blog... so here it is!:)

My film has also been reviewed over on AnimationBlog.org. It's really great to know that people have been reading my blog and like my work :) So thanks to Ian over there!

I also want to mention I discovered the use of labels in my blog :) hurrah! so now all the posts related to my final major project have been grouped together to anyone who wants to access them :) I'm suprised I didn't sort that out earlier but never mind, better late than never! ^-^

I have currently been a bit of a festival entering machine. It's really exciting sending my film out to be viewed in different places all over the world :) I find is really fun putting together the little parcels to post out :)


I am still looking for jobs. It seems there is no work around at the minute. :( I am also looking out to get involved in any local art projects. I managed to arrange to get our NSAD Showreel shown at a local arts and music festival called AMEF. So thats pretty cool. :)


Also my film and a couple of others from my class have been chosen to be screened at the upcoming Exposures Film Festival in Manchester in November. So that is very exciting! :)

That's all thats really been happening at the minute. So I am off now to look for more jobs and send out more applications :) Lets hope something comes of it soon :)

Exhibition Phase One!

So we had the opening to our first ever screening tonight! ^-^
How very exciting! We have a lovely room with a great plasma tv and lots of bookshelves :) I would post a picture up here but the photo I took on my phone camera makes the room look pretty rubbish... so the picture will come later!

So yes :) Our films are going to be screening in 'The Library Restaurant' Norwich for the next month. We also have several other screenings and events which will be happening over the next month. I will list the details at the end of this post :)

So... it seems everything is over... or almost... I did some background clean ups for my film so I need to reburn the DVD to update it to the new version. But apart from that I am finished with it. It's such a strange feeling... I don't really know how I feel right now o_O

We do have other things to get on with. There is a lot of preparation going into the show and we need to print business cards, postcards, posters and invites to our exhibitions. There is also the online portfolio I am supposed to be working on. I did start it last Monday but I have decided I no longer like my designs and want to change it. So I think I will be spending the weekend doing that :)

Apart from that I have been spending a lot of my time relaxing and sleeping... and it feels good ^-^ Lots of things to look forward too like the private view parties, graduation and the graduation ball :) It's gonna be lots of fun! :)


NSAD ANIMATION GRADUATION SHOWS

THE LIBRARY RESTAURANT (upstairs)
(That is the old library on Guildhall Hill NOT the FORUM!)
Norwich
12th June - 6th July
Open 12-2pm and 6-10pm 7 days a week

PLAYHOUSE SCREENING (one night event)
Norwich
22nd June
8 - Midnight

NORWICH SCHOOL OF ART AND DESIGN:
DEGREE SHOW
Second Floor, Guntons Building
Opens 6:00 25th June - 3rd July

LONDON SHOW
CFC Framestore, 19-23 Wells Street
8th July
6 - 10pm

The Last Day....

Stuff has been mounted... The screen is up... we're all ready to go!





We have another week and a half to make any adjustments to our films before the private view opens but everything has gone in for assessments now ^-^

Almost there...

The DVD has been handed in...
Tomorrow we will mount the exhibition and watch all the films to check everything is okay.... how exciting! ^-^

...watch this space...

Title and Chart...

I think I have a title for my film. It is 小希 Xiao Xi, it means small hope. I figured this would also work as the main characters name. I did want her name to be something like little light.... but the chinese for that is 小光 which is a boys name. So never mind..... I think xiao xi has a nice sound to it anyway :) quite small and delicate.

I made a chart last week... based on Martin's chart to see how much stuff I had left to do. I was very excited to make the chart because I love organising things! Anyway it has proved to be very very helpful as I can see everything that needs to be done in my whole film all at once! ^-^ I thought I would be nerdy and scan it in and put it on here ^-^



I have had a fairly productive weekend. Got most of the animals finished off, I just need to animate the tiger... which if the worst comes to worst can be left out if I run out of time. I also managed to complete a fair bit of hand drawn stuff. :)

The deadlines approaching fast so I won't be updating much for the next couple of weeks. My next post will probably be my almost finished animation with sound.... we'll see though... o_O who knows.

Must stay positive!!

I spent all day cutting up footage of the bluescreening and putting it into my final film. I had managed to get quite a lot done but a last minute mistake at the backing up stage caused me to lose everything I had done today >.< gah!! This mistake was followed by a lot of staring at the screen and a few tears. BUT It's okay! I must not get down at this point in my project! I MUST be positive! I did some maths and figured I only really lost 4-5 hours work... which isn't THAT much really. And since I have done it all today I'm sure I'll be much faster working on it tomorrow :) So this is the way it will be :) I'm going to stay up a little later than usual tonight and work on some other things then make the most of the DV suite from 9-1 tomorrow! EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY! :)

On another note... my computer has decided to play up again... so I am going to have a fun weekend of reinstalling things o_O eeskh! The bad luck all comes now >.< Lets hope tonight was the last of it! ^-^

Three weeks left.... o_O

I have almost finished rendering out my scenes animated and static ! hurrah! :) Been having a few problems today rendering stuff out large enough to print, but I have an idea which might make it happen tomorrow :)

Made a final list today of the work for the next three weeks. It is four pages long... o_O and it doesn't include sound or clean up o_O eek! I only have a little more drawn animation today and then I will be back into the world of after effects. Lots of compositing to do >.< plus lots of fireworks to make :) should be fun.

My animal scene is having a few set backs... mainly because of the Ox. Having a few problems with his run cycle but will be showing it all to Suzie tomorrow to see what she thinks. Tomorrow is our last crit/tutorial also cleverly known as critorial ^-^ I have put together all the animation I have completed so far with a small portion of the sounds I have been recording. I would upload it but I was having some problems rendering it out small from home... I don't know why... o_O I'm planning to work quite a bit on sound and crowd shots this week so I'll try to post some kind of animation up in the next couple of weeks.

Animal Scene

I have been spending the weekend and will be spending this bank holiday trying to finish off my animal scene. It has taken a lot longer than I initially thought. The Maya stuff turning out to be the easiest bit and the run cycles turning out to be the hardest... something I thought would be the other way around.
I have cut up and started animating the pig, ox, horse, goat and rabbit and just have the tiger to start on. However the animation side isn't so good.
I have finished the pig and I am happy with the horses run cycle. The other three are causing me some problems... no matter how many pictures/videos of cows, goats etc I look at online I still can't get them to look right >.<
Just thought I would post with two little tests I have put together so far ^-^

Other updates....
I still haven't started rendering my backgrounds or the dragon and lantern scenes yet as I have had a few set backs with lighting and was getting sick to death of sitting for hours not getting anywhere. So I decided to take a break from that until next week. I have done some more hand drawn animation and have completed the scene where the girl first meets the rat.

Sound is slowly coming along. Last Friday I recorded lots of papery sound effects which I can mess around with to create all kind of lovely things ^-^ I have booked out the sound room tomorrow and hope to get a start on some music tomorrow with the help from Phil of course :)

I need to have a look at the crowd scenes and finish off Zainals intergration into my film which I might have a look at tomorrow afternoon... who knows o_O
Anyway... It's back to the animals now ^^

Opening Shot... almost complete....

Nearly finished with the Maya backgrounds and lanterns....
Just need to work a little more on the lighting tomorrow and I should be all set to go! Then I can get back to the actual animation! hurrah!

Sparkler...

Just thought I would mention that I have been having lots of fun in Maya creating sparklers :) Initially I was going to use tissue paper to create them but as time is running out and the paint effects in Maya are so much fun I think I might use them :)

Rendering.... Rendering....

I pretty much have my scenes completed I am just trying to figure out how to render it.
Maya Software and mental ray are both good and bad in different ways.... I am thinking about combining the two. See my example below...

Maya Software
The Maya software shows the detail on my textures a lot more and the colours are much more vibrant.

Mental Ray
This is using the physical sun and sky so I can get a really realistic look which i s much softer... but at the same time I feel like I'm missing the kinda brightness that I think would work well with my girl character.

Combined
This is a quick combined version so I can get the affects of both of them. As most of my backgrounds are going to be statics it would be quite simple to layer the two renders out on top of each other with a filter in after effects... however it could be more troublesome when it comes to the dragon scene, unless he also looks good with the combined effect.

I know I could spend time messing around with the lighting effects and the textures but that is the problem. I could mess around all day with that kinda stuff when there is other important things to be done so I guess this combining this is just a shortcut for me. If anyone has any opinions on the above images or ideas with what I can do then let me know ^-^
I've once again had a pretty slow week... now is not the time for slow weeks! eek!
I'm working on the opening shot of my lantern again... but as always maya is causing me some problems and confusion... best get back to it o_O

Today's Crit

Today was pretty much the second to last crit for us. Everyone had to put all the current animation they had done ontop of the exisitng animatic.
I just thought I would post it up here for recordings sake :)
I added some of the bluescreen footage into this version. But as you can see it's not completely finished yet. :)

I have pretty much finished texturing up the street scene today just need to add a few more snow patches then I am going to move onto the Forbidden Gate scene and add the finishing touches there.

There are a few edits which I need to make on the final scene of the dragon flying away but that should be easy enough to sort out tomorrow in Maya :) so hurrah! things are coming along... slowly... slowly...

Animation of the last (almost) two weeks

I realised I didn't update with any animation for last week... and now I am almost at the end of another week o_O I can say however I have been animating very very hard!
I've been working on my dragon flying scene.. which is one of the most important scenes in my film. It took a while to get the dragon rig made up and then sort out all the timings. I have almost finished it! I am planning to finish it off tomorrow and sort out the dragon texture so he looks more like transparent paper and perhaps with a slight glow... I am not sure yet o_O I do however know that I need to get this scene completed by the weekend so I can start thinking about the animating the girl to put on his back. Here is a video from a couple of days ago... the movement is looking a lot better now and I have fixed the timing of the camera movement on the closing shots. I just have to tweak a few more things tomorrow and hopefully it will be done.



Other things I have to think about this weekend are the paper animals... I'm thinking I will have to animate them all in after effects first and then apply the animated textures to a flat plane in Maya... I really hope this all goes smoothly as time is running out o_O It seemed to go well in my tests but I've heard animated textures can sometimes mess up and cause problems. eek!

The sound side of things is going pretty slowly. I need to put aside some time for recording and searching for sound effects as well as sending Suzie examples of the kind of music I would like. o_O The whole sound thing freaks me out and because of that I have been avoiding it >.< but I must not ignore it forever!

There are many other things that need to be done such as
-the lantern shot
-the chinese lion parade
-more bluescreening filming
-sorting out the bluescreened footage
-fireworks and sparklers
-sorting out the lighting in both my Maya scenes

eek! I am getting very stresesd when I think about all these things! >.< so now I am going to bed and hoping for an early day tomorrow. Goodnight!

Back to Maya...

Been trying to finish off my environments with textures and snow etc... I am finding working at uni really slow o_O Hopefully by tomorrow I'll be working at top speed again. I need to add a couple more buildings to the Tianamen Square scene as its looking pretty empty o_O Not too good considering I want the dragon flying over it.
I really must get a move on now though because I need to start animating the dragon itself. That is essentially the most important part.

I just rendered out some shots of what I have been doing today. The first image in rendered with the Maya software and then the second two are using the physical sun and sky settings with mental ray. The sun and sky was lots of fun to play with! ^-^ But I only started playing before uni closed today so hopefully tomorrow I can mess around a bit more and try to create a dusk and night scene ^-^ yay! I also need to learn more about this physical sun and sky because I seemed to be loosing a lot of the detail on my textures when rendering with these settings.... o_O Lets hope I can sort it out! I would hate for all my painted textures to go to waste >.<