I've moved my blog to Wordpress!!

Where'd I go?

My new blog, complete with animations, illustrations, thoughts and weekly Illustration Friday updates can be found at http://crazycatgirl.wordpress.com 

Why'd I do it?

The internet is an awesome thing and I feel that in general cyberspace has given people more opportunities than it has taken. However, there are certain things about the internet that annoy me. These include, but are not limited to, the way Facebook seems to be changing its privacy settings every five minutes, spamming, trolling and the fact that Google has shared information between Youtube, Blogger, Gmail and their search engine. Call me old fashioned but I would like to make the choice as to whether my blogging activity, private emails, youtube viewings and searches are connected!

So in protest, and because they have some seriously snazzy templates, I have exported by posts from here, upsticks and moved to Wordpress.

Please come along and check out my new, funky blog at http://crazycatgirl.wordpress.com

Rusty The Robot

Meet Rusty The Robot....

Yes, for those of you who saw the university Character Animation project I posted up here earlier in the year, you'll know that my odd fascination with designs incorporating battered robot characters continues!! This steampunk inspired illustration looks at the juxtaposition between machines and nature, with a slight nods in the direction of both Pixar's 'Wall-E' and 2004 film 'I,Robot'.

Rusty is my first attempt at character illustration using the techniques I learnt from some Photoshop tutorials, including the Turf Text tutorial (see previous post), that I have been working through. This is obviously a first attempt and very rough and ready. I could spend a lot of time to polish it up, but it was really just a trial to see if I could apply the tutorial info to my own concept.

Playing about with Photoshop...

Photoshop is the swiss army knife of graphics apps. Not only has it become a verb in regards to digital photo editing but it can also produce graphics, animations and probably more stuff I haven't even found yet. You know when a piece of software has an entire range of magazine publications dedicated too it and a section in Foyles that this is the thing to learn, the thing to have on your resume, the monster that needs to be reckoned with.
So, with that all in mind, thats what I've been doing! I have gone to war with Photoshop to see if I can learn the ways of the force and become a Jedi Master... or at least an Adobe Credited Expert (ACE)!

Today I stumbled on a tutorial about making turf text and, in my quest for knowledge, I followed it and produced this....

First Attempt With ZBrush...

Post graduating my college course, I have been trying to up-skill and flesh out my bony showreel by doing courses, tutorials and workshops. To this end I have broken open the Gnomon Workshop DVD-ROM on ZBrush I've been saving!

This was the result of Lectures 1 and 2 on the disc.

Limpy vs the Ball - Character animation

This is the final render of my character animation project for college.



Modelled, rigged and animated in Maya.

Howling Wolf - 2D Animation

This is my attempt at hand drawn 2D animation.
 

Though the wolf was initially hadn drawn, I then used Adobe Photoshop CS5 to create them in to a graphic style and animate them. Despite the fact that this was a time consuming way to animate, especially drawning the wolfs walk cycle, I absolutely loved creating animation this way.

The writing, by the way, is Greek myth of King Lycaon from which the term 'Lycanthrope' derives. The word means wolf-man and has come to mean werewolf. I've put the text in latin in the animation but if you want to know the story check it out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycaon_(Arcadia

Work in progress... character animation

Meet Limpy, my cursed character animation for a college project. It's been a long and difficult road to get him this far, as both project and character have limped forward, and there is still much to be done including adding lights and UV mapping!



Limpy was modelled, rigged and animated using Maya 2011. I'd not used this software before so this project came with yet another steep learning curve... where have I heard that before!

'Friday Night' - Animated Music Video

This disco inspired song is by Cold Weather

This animated music video is my university FMP. For this I had to model, rig, weight and animate the character and scenery... so quite a learning curve for me!!

It was made using Cinema 4D, Apple Motion, Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro.

Rig Testing

Well, after an epic battle to get the YouTube upload system to upload this without crashing, I am pleased to present my first test of a professional rig. This is my very short animation experiment undertaken as part of my research in to rigging and character animation for a college project. The animation is not perfect but I think it gives the impression of weight and mass to both character and object.



This was great to animate and I absolutely loved working with this character.

The model I used for this was a prerigged model called Whimp that is included for non commercial use with Maxon's Cinema 4D. The copyright for this character remains with Glenn Frey (Bonewire)

Character Designs

Thought I'd share some of the concept work I've created for the college character design project.

These are my character turn arounds:

These were hand drawn then coloured using Photoshop - I have always shied away from that dreaded program before but I confess I'm a convert, I guess there is a reason it's become a verb! Who knew?!

The final character will be created, rigged and animated with Maya. Hmmm... wish me luck with that!!

Satisfying this Craving!

Animated trailer for E.F Morris' book - "Craving"


This is a trailer for the vampire novel, "Craving", by young adults author, E.F Morris. I made this using a combination of Cinema 4D and Adobe Premiere Pro, both of which I have really grown to like.

New Character

Ok, so I know I should be doing the truck load of other things that are piling up in this final sprint towards the end of my college course, but sometimes you just need to step away from the weighting tool and go back to basics... and so I did and this was the result!

Please let me introduce... The Biped!



The Biped - part frog, part freak and all mine!

This is part of a project I started ages ago and left because I wasn't really familar enough with the software to get him finnished. But since recently I've spent a lot of quality time on Cinema 4D it seems I've skilled up enough to get him finnished. 

Any New Ideas For The New Year?

What does animated cinema hold for 2011?

Sad as it is, it looks like there is every chance that this year could hold another crop of animated sequels and spin offs. I’m not saying that that means there’ll be nothing to look forward to, I’m personally quite excited about the new Kung Fu Panda and I know there will also be plenty of those queuing to see the sequel to the Pixar film Cars, but still the lack of brand new titles doesn’t inspire that much enthusiasm.

That said, there are some lights of innovation and originality in animation in the years ahead!

1. Tangled – Disney’s re envisioning of the Rapunzel story sees the studio turn its hand to 3D CG for this musical fairy story.
Watch the trailer

2. Rango – ILM venture in to the land of CG animated films. Johnny Depp stars as the chameleon who has to work his way through a wild west of dessert critters.
Watch the trailer

3. Rio – The makers of Ice Age bring a similar style to this story of a domestic Macaw who must face his fear of flying after being taken to South America.
Watch the trailer

Monsters Without A Monster Budget

Sometimes a film comes along that gives hope to all of us struggling to break in to the world of film, VFX or animation and Monsters is one such beast. Made on a shoe string budget the film is the brain film and directorial debut of Brit VFX artist, Gareth Edwards.

Reminiscent of movies like Cloverfield and District 9, Monsters again takes a look at how humans would deal with alien guests. However unlike previous films, Edwards attacked his idea with a tiny crew of 5, an even smaller cast of 2, a camera, a van, a laptop and the beautiful and distopian vistas offered by South America. There was no script, no storyboard and no huge team of post prodcution staff waiting at the other end! Instead what editing and VFX wasn't done on his laptop on the road was done on his PC at home.



Were they crazy? Possibly. But in these times of austerity, where smaller studios are finding it hard to support themselves and big studios are happier to sequels then risk huge investments on new ideas, it will be film makers like Edwards who make sure that cinema isn't left to stagnate.

The film is released in cinemas on 3rd December in the UK and is already available to download on itunes.

Holidays are coming, holidays are coming...

Well, its mid November. There are mince pies for sale in Tesco, frost to be scrpaed off the windscreen in the morning and Mariah Carey singing "All I Want For Christmas Is You" wafting from the car radio. There is no denying it, this years Christmas season has begun. And so its time to break out the eggnog and tinsel and decide what are my top five all time Christmas animations...

1. The Snowman
It was the song that brought a young Aled Jones to fame and a beautiful animation that brought us all to tears. So much better then Frosty!

2. The Nightmare Before Christmas
Tim Burton and Henry Selick bring us an enticingly original and deliciously dark stop motion adventure that gives Christmas magic a gothic twist.

3. A Christmas Carol
Its not like there aren't other films of this Charles Dickens story, heck even the muppets have given it a whirl. But in 2009 Disney knocked it out of the park with this incredible piece of 3D CG animation.

4. Robbie The Reindeer
It might look and feel like an Aardman prodcution, but this stop motion was actually created by the BBC... all be it by Aardmans Richard Goleszowski.

5. The Coke advert
Hey, I never said they had to be feature length animations and there is nothing that says its Xmas like the Coca-Cola advert.

Make Your Animations A Little Xtranormal.

If you have't yet encountered xtranormal then let me enlighten you, xtranormal is a "free" online animation application that lets you create 1 or 2 character animations, complete with a script, using their special text-to-movie software. All you need to do is select your characters, set and sound scape and then start typing what you want your characters to say. You can also add in your choice of expressions, gestures, sound effects and camera angles to your film. And don't panic you don't need to know anything more fancy then drag-and-drop.



As you can see from my attempt, there are limits... not least to my scripting skills. Not everythings free and a lot of the characters and scenes etc cost a little extra to use. Additionally don't expect Laurence Olivier style vocal performances from your actors, the voices will say what you've typed (most of the time) but not suprisingly with minimal inflection or emotion. Also your characters movements are minimal - you can select from a range of premade gestures but they're not going to dancing around... not using the free online facilities anyway.

Which brings me to the topic of Xtranormals software, State. This, I'm guessing from the video posted on YouTube, gives you a lot more freedom of choice and movement but this time at the bargain price of $49.50. Personally I wasn't willing, I'd prefer to go and download iClone if I just wanted to have some animated fun or learn Blender and produce real 3D, but thats just me. If you've tried it please feel free to leave a comment and tell me what I'm missing.

There's a lot to be said for xtranormal. If you just want a bit of fun then its a fantastic tool, and if you want a simple way to test out a script, understand a scenes pacing or look at the effect of various camera angles then its excellent. However, if you think you are trying to create stuff for an animation showreel or think you might be the next James Cameron and are looking for the right too for making Avatar 2 then keep googling, xtranormal is not the tool you're looking for.

REVIEW: Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole

Lord of the Rings... with wings!

Okay, so this is my terrible confession... I have wanted to watch this childrens film since I first saw the trailer at the cinema back in March! Strange perhaps that, anticipating this movie as I was, that whilst on holiday in Cornwall this year I happened to visit the Screech Owl Sanctury near Goss Moor where a team from the film were filming some of the sancturies residents as reference material for the film.

Guardians is based on the 15 book series by Kathryn Lansky and marks the animation debut of film director Zack Snyder - known for directing more grown up fair such as 300. It tells the story of Soren, an owlet who taken from his parents by evil owls begins an epic quest.



Audiences have no doubt become complacent about amazing CG landscapes and realistic water, as these things have become common place with films like Avatar and the Chronicles of Narnia raising the bar. Still you have to concede that the look of Guardians is incredible, from the beautiful (and often slow motion) sequences of owls gliding and soaring through theatrically lit rainstorms, to the wonderful way that the production team at Animal Logic have developed the characters without making them, visually, human.

I have read in some reviews that this film is too violent for kids but I disagree, certainly there is a lot of action, dark characters and fighting but there is also some strong statements on family, friendship and some pretty heavy moral themes on liberty and equality. I will save you from my thoughts on any symbolism that could be seen in this story and instead end by saying this that on the whole I liked this film. Though it is a little Lord Of The Rings with wings, Legend of the Guardians is was unquestioningly beautiful avian epic, and even though the story felt like it dragged at times, it still managed to be both action packed tale of adventre and warm-hearted family film.

If you would like to meet some real owls, as well as other incredible creatures, and find out about how to help conservation of these amazing birds visit - http://www.screechowlsanctuary.co.uk/

Read It And Weep!

5 animations, long and short, that made me cry...

1. Kiwi
I analysed this amazing short animation, created by Dony Permedi as part of his Masters Thesis, for a project on sound and no matter how many times I watched it the last few seconds of Kiwis doomed endeavour always brought a lump to my throat!

2. Sentil 
It is just not good form to tear up when you are sitting in a classroom, but watching The Blender Foundations latest 15 minute animated short made me want to sob like a child! And it wasn't just the awesome design or superb animation either!!

3. UP
I have yet to meet the hardened soul who managed to stay dry eyed during the opening ten minutes of this Pixar film! Only the most stone hearted of those in the cinema audience I was with was not glad of the dim light and the 3D glasses to hide their tears.

4. How To Train Your Dragon
Was it just me on this or did the loyalty and desperation of Toothless to save Hiccup from the Mosterous Nightmare moving? I have to confess that so much about this offering from Dreamworks really tugged my heartstrings... big softy that I am.

5. Clik clak
Its such a stylish little animation that you may not think that it would turn out to be so sad. But the end of Supinfocom's short animation about 2 robots who communicate with sound left me feeling misty eyed.

But thats just me! What animations made you cry?

Cat... in progress!

Make no mistake about it, I am not gods gift to character modelling on any 3D platform. I may be able to draw them, design them, possibly even sculpt them in some physical form, but when it comes to modelling them in the great world of Cinema 4D then its like trying to throw a pot wearing boxing gloves and sunglasses!

But perhaps the problem is that I'm wokring towards becoming an animator not a model maker, still its very hard to animate with out something to... well, animate!! So in an effort to keep my hand in here's my latest character model.

This cat (just incase you couldn't work it out) was crafted in Cinema 4D by my own fair hand. I went for a stylized look with cartoon feel to it. Soon I hope to animate the little digital fuzzball but first, with the models real life counter part sat purring on my lap, I am going to journey in to the mirky world of rigging and add a digital armature of bones and joints to the model or as the unfortunate 3D lingo would have it to "bone" the character!!

Constant Craving...

You've already seen some of the original art I produced for dark fantasy book 'Craving' by young adults author E.F Morris. Now we're starting on an internet trailor to help promote the book. Have been working on 3D models before I look to animate, but here's the first still from it.

More to follow!! The finished trailor will also appear on our production website http://www.hungryscavengers.wordpress.com/

To find out more about E.F Morris' book 'Craving' visit her blog at http://www.theredpendofdoom.wordpress.com/