University: Week 9

The end of semester is getting really close and everything is piling on. I've got five assignments to go and as much as I hate it, I procrastinate all the time. And it doesn't help that I work casual either. Despite this, I'm not worried at all. I'm usually pretty laid back about homework and stuff and if I stress too much, I tend to rush and just make everything really bad because I just need it over and done with otherwise I'll explode.

Digital Media, I've done nothing but brainstorm, which is really bad because this four minute video is the big thing. The ideas I have are simple and involve mainly either using my brother as an actor and me as a background person or just me. I don't want to make this a super awesome thing that has explosions and fabulous acting, I want this to be simple and witty and easy enough on the eyes and ears. It's about the way it's edited and constructed, not about the actor accidentally skipping a line. Less is more because honestly, this is a school assignment. Not some big budget movie.

Animation Methodologies, I'm in the process of writing my three minute oral. Orals, I have no big deal. I learned my mistake from the Digital Media oral and I understand that one, this is not high school and two, don't clump paragraphs together on your speech and make it hard to read and three, practice. The essay however, I'll really need to get into. Essay's are okay, it's just trying to write it without repeating myself within the 1500 words because I seem to do that. A lot.

Visual Communication, my oral went really well in my opinion. I practised it probably a million times and it really helped. I did rush the whole thing, but that was because I needed to fit it all in there. I had a lot to say. And luckily, everyone understood me! I even had a fellow classmate come up to me and tell me she really liked my oral and that it made her day (which made me feel awesome). The assignment will probably be something I can do with ease. Design seems to be my speciality at the moment, especially here when a lot of students seem to not understand that bright colours and rainbows is not the way to go.

Drawing for Design is one of the biggest hoops. To create such a portfolio will really take it out of me since it's not really my brain that decides when I draw, but my hand. I won't upload my drawings from that class (on account I haven't done the homework yet) but I'll upload one I did this week.

And also, I'll upload some drawings by my friends for me!!

The one on the left is of Azure (based on the pixel art I mocked up of her) who I drew last entry by another member who manages the roleplay. The other is a picture my uncle did of me as we were drawing each other. SEE, I'M SUPERMAN!

Since, apparently, we get six or so weeks holidays, I've decided to partake in a project with some of my closest online friends. We're creating a Pokémon game with RMXP (RPG Maker XP) and I'm the artist. I really wanna put my all in this, especially since I do nothing else but work other than university. If I can grab some attention with this, perhaps I really can get my name out there. I really want to start commissions and by doing something like this, it should really help with a 'portfolio'. I plan on remaking a lot of the overworld sprites (600+ Pokémon may be too hard, but I'll see how I go) and all of the art should be original. I'll keep everyone posted, even post art and junk here! I do have few sketches for the trainers but nothing solid yet.

Anyways, hopefully by next week, I should have a bunch of stuff for you guys!

Today's song; Live to Rise - Soundgarden

University: Week 8

Whoa, sorry for the late entry! I wrote everything last Tuesday and am posting it all now, so just read everything as such!

Week 9, MORE ASSESSMENT! I handed in my Visual Communication and went awesomely on my oral, hopefully my tutor thinks the same way. I'm gonna take a few days break until I get stuck back into it. I've written half a script for Digital Media (finally, I have an idea!!) and I've gotta get back into drawing for my weekly drawings (apparently last week's storyboard wasn't what we had to do, so expect that redrawn!) but Animation Methodologies seem like a breeze, writing an essay and doing an oral about what was crap about my Animation. Self critique? HELL YEAH I SUCK!

Moving on, last week in Drawing for Design, we did mostly life drawing again, but we learned about typography. I've never been that good with words and such, so it was marginly helpful (I still suck).

As for my own stuff, this week's life drawing went really well, actually! I enjoy longer drawings as I can spend more time on details and shading.

I started this last night and it's turned out pretty awesome so far. I seem to start in the weirdest places. It's a product of me playing too much Monster Hunter though I did buy Disgaea recently, so perhaps I might start going crazy. ANYWAY! Next week! Metamorphosis!

Today's song; Always - Panic! at the Disco

University: Week 7

This new blogger layout is kind of freaking me out...

Anyway, real time week 8, I handed in my assignment for Animation Methodologies and I seemed to get some good facial expressions from my tutor when I showed him about 15 seconds, so I'm kind of confident. I've seen some really good ones from my fellow students but that really doesn't put me down at all; I'm more of a "this is how I do things" and "try my hardest" kind of person. And I put a tonne of work into that Animation, so I'm really hoping for the best!

My Visual Communication advertisement and final logo is due next week, which I've kind of completed. There's also an oral, which I really need to get focused on since my oral in week 5 for Digital Media was a bit of a flop. It's alright, I'm not too bothered, I'm gonna bounce back from this. But, focusing on the now, here's what I've got so far for Visual Communication.

As part of the assignment, I do have to take my own photos, so I'll have to go find a brick wall and a police car (which shouldn't be too hard) so the finale will be slightly different, but you get the idea*. The hardest part was probably photoshopping the squares out of Brad's shirt since police officers wear plain blue and he had a white pattered. Took a good few hours but at least I know the rest to complete this will only take a short time. I do have to get it and the logo professionally printed so it definitely has to be done before the weekend.

Drawing for Design! We had more life drawing and our first male! It was... not very exciting. Unfortunately, the guy wasn't very helpful when our tutor said "pretend you're attacking a bee or something" because he did three or four poses of him cowering him in pain, which most people don't do. I'm more of a 'furiously waving arms around while running' person unless he's deathly allergic to bees. Maybe then I'll forgive him. Anyway! Moving on!

For that week, we had to draw an 8 panel story board. This is my perception of a guy fighting a bug!

 As for sketches and junk, I'll upload some of my favourite drawings from this week's life drawing (female this time) and some roleplay character sketches.

*I wrote this a few days ago, and now I've completed the advertisement and the logo! Take a look!

By the way, Supanova was awesome! Tedious trip down, but awesome. I spent a lot of money, regretted it but, y'know. WHATEVER! Next week? More naked people! And typography!

Today's song; Moving Pictures, Silent Films - Great Lake Swimmers

University: Week 6

Real time, week 7 (the holidays don't count as a week), was a tiny bit of a wake up call. I've got a one minute stop-frame animation for Animation Methodologies due on Tuesday. I did 20 seconds today and I've got tomorrow off, so I should be able to finish it then**. Apparently, this is an impressive feat, according to others (my tutor mentioned that it takes some 70+ hours for these kinds of things? I spend less time on video games!) and the animation itself is smooth and works quite well, except for the fact my iPhone likes to focus and unfocus all of the time. No matter, the marks are on the quality of the animation, not of the quality of the camera.

**This was when I wrote the start of the blog entry. I've finished it now, uploaded it and have inserted it at the bottom of this page.

Visual Communication is due the week after, and I have to get some photos in before it's due. Shouldn't be too hard, but it kind of sucks I can't use photos off the internet.

Digital Media has a little bit until its due and even then, should be a piece of cake. The subject of a video is literally "anything" which makes things really annoying since I have no idea what to make it about. My video editing skills are quite okay and I have Premiere Pro now so it should be cake.

Drawing for Design, my final week 1 portfolio was due, which I submitted on Tuesday. We did more life drawing this week, which you'll get to preview in next weeks entry. But, how about week 6's stuff?!

This was pretty much it for week 6. Draw the precinct at Kelvin Grove. I chose third perspective because it seemed like... well, more fun! It's not perfect, but I've never been good at buildings or anything real. So I'm still proud of it.

As for odds and ends, just a few mindless sketches from this week from work and inbetween my animation assignment. I tried a different style from my usual and it turned out quite nicely, especially "Zac" (but he does look like a giant d-bag, which was the point). The second is Michael Cale, who is Oakley's brother in Atlantis Arising. And then, there's Oakley.

So, I managed to finish my Animation Methodologies assignment in two days and I quite like it. Those two guys really make me giggle so I took some action shots of them as I went along. Check out the YouTube below to see the final product.

Well, I'm going to SUPANOVA tomorrow down at the Gold Coast. I have to get up at like, 5AM so hopefully I actually get up on my alarm! If you're going, I may or may not see you around (though I definitely won't be dressed up). I plan on seeing ry-spirit, frzdragon and kururu-pon while I'm there and stuff. Wish me luck!

Today's song; Saturday Love - Angels & Airwaves

University: Week 5

Because of Easter and junk, in the actual week of University, we all get a week off! Yay! I'm planning on spending this week doing homework, downloading crap to go on my new laptop and playing Age of Mythology. Also, I watched the finale of Being Human and I pretty much cried tears of cliffhangerness, because it was an enormous cliffhanger. I'll probably start watching Game of Thrones or Adventure Time and probably start Teen Wolf when it comes back in Winter (apparently it's going to have 24 episodes, which is basically half a year. So, I should be all set until Being Human gets back on, right?)

Anyways, in week 5 we didn't do life drawing. Instead, we did shapes. Yeah, sounds a little boring, right? I guess it is a little. Here are some shapes!

And because I had a week off, I did a little bit of casual drawing and SAI painting, so I'll upload those also!

I also found this old sketch from like, a month ago that I did at work. I kind of liked it because it was quite spontaneous and the characters were all made up, except for Adeline sitting on the train there. I need to sketch like this way more often.

So, in the meantime, I have a lot of homework to finish (which is conveniently next week's art), so I might as well get back to that. Sorry about the rather undescriptive post. Also, just to take note, it's my birthday today, so happy birthday to me!

Today's song; All of This - Blink-182

University: Week 4

In real time (week 6), we're starting to really get into our subjects with assessment bubbling on the edge. I do four subjects, like I mentioned from Week 1 of my blog; Visual Communication, Digital Media, Animation Methodologies and Drawing for Design (which is what I usually upload sketches from).

Visual Communication, we've created our devices and starting to complete the details. So far, I've got a rough draft copy of my logo and I've got ideas for my advertisement. The device itself is a spray can that, with a pair of sunglasses, create tags on walls and are simultaneously uploaded to the cloud. If anybody has these glasses, they can also view tags and can also paint over your own tags! Very cool right?

The logo thus far.
Could you guess what it
is just from the logo?

Digital Media, we already have done a five minute oral which breaks down either a trailer, a music video or a TV show start up. I originally wanted Daft Punk's Around the World but someone else beat me to it, so I got the trailer to Where the Wild Things Are, which never-the-less was pretty damn cool. I did okay... I think! I did go over the five minutes but so did most of the class! Next assessment is to create a video. What of? Anything was the criteria. I have a mix of ideas but nothing set in stone at the moment. One of them was a travel journal/letters to home using a friend as a guinea pig. I've never been much of a director (mainly in my head) but it sounds like a lot of fun, especially compiling it all together.

Animation Methodologies, we're working towards a one minute stop motion animation which has to have interaction between two characters. I've already chosen mine, those two Bionicles from the .gif in my last blog entry. I have a few story ideas for this too; exploring my room, fighting each other in a wasteland (with other Bionicle parts spewed on the floor and they pick them up and make themselves bigger), building a plane or exploring a post-apocalyptic area.

Drawing for Design, we've just been drawing a whole lot of random stuff. And I'm not even kidding. Shapes, bodies, buildings... yeah. Though, in week 4, we did some more life drawing, so I'll upload it here;

And another sketch from this week! Another of Oakley, who still remains to be my favourite character, and some silly sketches of a few of my friend's characters. I should probably start drawing other things, don't you think?

Next week? Holidays!! Happy Easter, everybody!

Today's song; Time to Say Goodnight - Two Ton Boa

University: Week 3

Week 5 is over now and I had my first assesment piece due last Monday. It was an oral breaking down a trailer to try and find meaning by explaining camera effects and such. Mine was Where The Wild Things Are and I think I did okay, I was a little muddled in the oral. No matter! My next assessment in Digital Media is to make a video of pretty much anything. We gotta take into account camera angles and junk so this is either gonna be really easy or really hard.

Alright, so pressing onto drawing matters; naked people. Honestly, life drawing was not as bad as I thought it would be. It was uncomfortable for about 30 seconds, then you realise you can't really not look otherwise you won't get the drawings done since they were only minute long poses. We did about three thousand million gestural drawings of this one person but I won't upload them all, I'll just upload what went into my PowerPoint (which is what the tutors see).

Basically, what the above is was when the model opened up an umbrella and we were meant to draw it in a kind of 'frame-by-frame' way, then arrange it our top seven drawings into a .gif. At first, we were encouraged to use this creme pastel/charcoal/whatever-it-was on the brown paper, but I found it all to be too... annoying and switched to charcoal. It was quite messy but earned a better result in the end. Good thing I took photos before I rolled it up! I was going to upload my favourite gestural drawings from that week but it all... yeah, no. They don't make much sense.

For homework, we had to do two exercises; draw ten people losing their umbrellas on an A4 sheet and break down two of six objects (either a cat, a horse, a tricycle, grapes, a fan or... something else) in for frames. I chose a cat and a tricycle. The cat was okay but the tricycle was atrocious.

And because you guys are all so lovely, I'll upload some of my crazy sketches that I did this week. Most of these were done either on the train or in class or when there wasn't any good TV to watch (speaking of TV, the second season of the North American version of Being Human started last week on Eleven. It's on Monday at 9:30pm so I suggest everyone to watch it because it's the best show ever. Go watch the first episode of season two on their website. Go buy the first season as well so you understand what's going on).

(sorry about the blue tint, I took photos in my room (since my scanner is crap))

One last thing; for our Animation Methodologies class, we are required to make a 1 minute stop frame animation. I rubber band'd my phone to a tripod, downloaded AnimatorDV and bought the Mobiola Web Camera App for my phone and created the following. It took about 45 minutes for 9 seconds of animation and the focus option on the phone kept pulling the image in and out (and I think the iPhone kept moving down on the tripod). Plus, I got lazy on the last frames. But other than that, it turned out quite nicely!

And one last plug; I'll be seeing the Ignatians Musical Society's Sweeney Todd on Friday night and I suggest everyone to go book tickets and see it also. My good friend Sam will be in the show as well, checks out his blog, yo.

Today's song; I Heard Ramona Sing - Frank Black