Friday, August 31, 2007

RR: The Staircase


Remember that animation I posted that had Roy going up the stairs and turning his machine on? Well here's his poorly crafted staircase, textured. I'm not entirely sure at the moment of how to shoot this scene, but I just wanted to show off the staircase. It really looks unstable now, and partly painted. Funny thing about Roy is that he can build amazing things out of plastic and metal, but when it comes to wood and carpentry skills, he lacks big time. Time to model a paint can for it. Just extra little details.

Went swimming in the lake today, possibily the last time this year. Got to go swimming 4 times this year. Kind of sad, but better then only once like 2 years ago!

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Smoke, Mirrors, Grass... Fire...?

Ok, Rendering has been taking place! I've done a few little scenes and so far so good. I've been playing around with some particles and hair for the effects as well as volumetric lighting. My short is beginning to look pretty damn sexy looking *wink*. But there has been set backs. Right now a scene is still rendering and will take another 20 hours or so. But it has a lot of stuff in it, probably the most technical shot, looks pretty good. Another set back is the picture to the right. In this that little white thing is Princess, Roy's next door neighbour's dog. I thought the grass looked like grids and not like real grass, so I'm re-rendering it now and it looks a heck of a lot better!


In personal news, I got Metroid Prime 3 and I'm loving it. It's only my 4th game for my Wii. I also have Wii Sports, Zelda: Twilight Princess and Excite Truck. But looks like I'll be getting a lot more soon with Mario Galaxy, Fire Emblem: Goddess of Dawn, Smash Bros Brawl and Puzzle Quest: Challenge Of The Warlords all coming out within the next 3 months. Must get job in the animation field to feed my video game addiction....

Sunday, August 26, 2007

I Present To You... The First Rendered Shot!

Well, rendering is finally on it's way. I have rendered out two quick scenes. One where a drawer opens and a chalkboard full of items. These two scenes are very small, but play a part in the short. I'll be compiling what I have so far and then make adjustments from there. Animation is looking a lot smoother and has a lot more feeling to it now. I'll be e-mailing my sound engineer later tonight to see if I can make an appointment to do some vocals so I can properly sync them to the animation. That's probaboly why it's one of the first things they do in big productions. Things are getting pretty close to the end, so stay tuned!

Monday, August 20, 2007

CATO Film Fest Reviews (exclaimnation point)


I know the previous entry said "Tomorrow" but it's 1 in the morning, so it's still technically Sunday to me.
Ok the Centre For Arts and Technology Film Festival '07 happened on Thursday and had the theme of Golden Age of Hollywood. A few people dressed up, including me. Hopefully they push the theme more next year. Anyway, this year Animation didn't have much of a showing. But thankfully the Film Department really stood up and offered some much better films this year then last year. Improved sound, better locations and away from the school locations. But needless to say not everything was golden. Here are my reviews and ratings. Needless to say they go from A to B to C then F for Failure. A, B and C have + ( ) and - for A+, A and A- grades.


Maple Flavored Irony - A good way to open up the Film Festival. A light hearted slap stick piece. Would have worked better as an animation. A-
Old Time Calamity - The first in several "silent" black and white shorts. This one had 2 jail birds getting free and trying to get away from the cops. Nice to see some locations away from the school. B+
Nathan Hibberd Reel - My classmate Nathan's demo reel, very well done, view it yourself, see the link on the side. No Rating.
Being Ivan Sampson - A complete rip off of Being John Malkovich without a proper ending or reason. Think of it as Being John Malkovich in slightly more then 4 minutes. C
The Neighbour Below - Anpro project that Nathan and several other of my classmates worked on. Due to the Okanagan Film Fest, production values on this short got hurt along the way, but was still good. B
75 Years of BC Wine - An interesting history piece of wine from around the region. Interviews felt a little cut off. B-
The New Janitor - An attempt at some Charlie Chaplin, but fail. Most of the slapstick felt flat and didn't quite have the timing that the master had. Also the film quality was very over exposed. C
Another Whiskey Jack - An attempt at using filters to make the production look like a 3D or comic book piece. Looked extremely grainy and bad, but nice to see it tried. C
Unfolded - Nathan's short he submitted to EA Reveal. I critiqued him along the way and helped it shape form. You can view it on his blog. A
The Black Baron - Another black and white one, this one was very silly and had a very good ending. B
Archie Meets the Punisher - Script didn't work, no real ending, colours were messed up during the Archie scene. Why? F
Impostertute - A very silly short, Ivan must have been very brave to be in this film. Very simple, but funny. A+

Mature Films:

Prey - Good to see some locations other then the school being used. This one was shot in Mission Creek park, just a few blocks away from where I am now. The story was pretty simple, but the thing that got me was the must and camera. The music was too simple and didn't add to the scene. The camera was shaky and in several scenes the focus was off the main character and too blurry. But I give the main actor credit for going down the river... must have been cold. B-
Cannabis Zombies of Death - I was hoping for something so bad it was good. It wasn't quite that. It was bad, but felt too long. C+
InterventioN - Good to see it on a bigger screen instead of the Youtube player (see it HERE). I have made my comments to the director on his youtube page. Acting needed to be pushed a bit more, few sound problems and brightness contrast for the black and white scenes needed to be pushed since they looked very grey. A
Collaboration - Epic failure. Two bad shorts combined to make an even worse one. Horrible location for the part with two guys and mediocre dialog. It was like pulling teeth. F
Highjinx - By far the funniest black and white short. Classic gags and puppets and more! Very well done. A+
Thin Lines Between Us + Nick of Trades - Thin Lines Between Us and Nick of Trades kind of blended into each other. Each had a guy who got beat up because of drugs for some reason or another. Seriously... why drugs? Dialogue was flawed in both. They both left me rolling my eyes and checking my program to see what was next. C- for both
Wes Falls - When I saw this was a 17 and a half minute long film I thought, "Oh no... please not another bad drug movie.." Sure enough this one didn't disappoint like the previous two films. It was well shot and made the school lunch room look like a reasonable set. Music needs a bit of a hand, but it wasn't too bad. Good acting. B+

Retrosepective:

Consummatum Est - Really sad feeling, but didn't feel complete to me. B
Coffeeeee - I've seen this a hundred times and I still smile at the peeper shaker. Hopefully my short will be the 3D equivalent of Coffeeeee (awards and praise wise).

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Setting Up The Sets


Well, Roy's Revenge trailer is online and I'm prepping the rest of the short. The trailer contains no footage from the short. I'm currently texturing and getting render settings correct. Thankfully, I only have 2 sets, one indoor, and one outdoor. There has been several weird issues that have popped up, such as in the scene where Roy screws the light bulb into the machine. In that scene his eyes would turn complete black, reflect the noicon.pic and the render time would shoot through the roof. Thankfully I found the reason behind it and now the scene is good. Having to find the right textures to fit Roy's Revenge is a bit tricky, but it's very fun. I also got some help from Asinine Animation, fellow students who donated their house from their short. It would be funny if Roy from my short and Willy from their short were neighbours. Anyway, Enjoy the screen shot of the Machine's keyboard and Roy's hand.

I'll be posting my reviews of the films shown at the Centre For Arts and Technology Film Festival tomorrow.

Friday, August 17, 2007

Roy's Revenge Trailer

Ta-da! Nearly out of nowhere comes a trailer for my upcoming short. James Hamilton requested something of mine for the 5th annual Centre For Arts and Technology Film Festival.... but it was rejected. Their lost. Now you can enjoy the 45 seconds of awesome that is the Roy's Revenge trailer. Enjoy:

Sunday, August 12, 2007

The Open Door

Grad was a blast! It was great seeing some friends again and once again congrats to Ian. Anyway a nearly 3 year journey has come to an end, and the next one is coming up quickly (depending on how you look at it). I'm texturing and doing some render tests for my short, Roy's Revenge. I thought ahead and only have to texture two locations. Since the short happens in Roy's basement and outside his house. Just because I'm an animator doesn't mean that the short can't shine. When the renders were going for my entry into the Centre For Arts and Technology Film Festival (August 16th), Gord and Chris Quigley saw the renders as it was going and they thought the renders looked pretty pro. Here's a shot from the short, it's the basement door:

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Grad is Tomorrow!

My graduation ceremony from the Centre For Arts and Technology is tomorrow evening. I'm getting excited. Not as excited as my high school grad, but I haven't spent that long going to the Centre. While I was working on my entry for the film festival last night I was asked to supply some things for the Grad Reel, then they came and ask me to do an opener. I quickly formulated an idea and went to work on it. I delivered the opener to them and they liked it. And now I'm editing together my entry for the film festival. I found some awesome music from Freeplaymusic.com and I'll give them proper credit on here.

In more audio related news, I have found an audio student to do sound for Roy's Revenge! I'm so excited! Here's a little teaser image from Roy's Revenge:

Thursday, August 02, 2007

RR: Centre for Arts and Technology Kelowna Short Film Festival

Rejoice! The first public showing of Roy's Revenge will be at the Centre for Arts and Technology Kelowna's 5th Annual Student Film Festival. Sadly it won't be the short, but will be something else.... Something smaller... I'll be devoting the next couple of days to this project, so stay tuned for teases!
The Film Festival will be
Held at: Rotary Centre for the Arts, Kelowna.
On: Thursday, August 16th
At: 6:30 PM show starts at 7:00 PM
Price: Free

I'll be posting my surprise entry on the day of the festival, so if you don't go you can view it here. Or you can watch it here again and again and again and again...