My Mickey Mouse Degree

Firstly, I’d like to address my frankly immoral usage of the word “ironically” in the last post. There was nothing ironic about that metaphorical arrow, and never will be, and I have little to no idea why I would write such a thing.

Regardless, I now have the internet here at last, so I can update this thingywhatsit.

I’ve got a fair bit of stuff to show, but I’m in the middle of some 3D modelling right now so I’ll stick them up here another time, just figured I’d drop by and write some words.

Oh, and check this the hell out - STREET FIGHTER EFFING 4!

Nice.

Clearly I haven’t updated recently. Why? Here are the reasons, bullet pointed to save you work.

• It was my birthday on the 15th so I took a couple of days off
• I had a driving test on the 19th so I took a couple of days off
• I’m going back to uni on the 23rd so I’m taking a few days off

Am I lazy? I think the lazy arrow is ironically resting on “yes”.

Anyways, here’s what I did on the 14th before the lazy streak -

Before the Lazy

It’s a group shot of the main characters in for my final year project. Or rather, provisional final year project, I still don’t know what it is I’m supposed to do. I keep having new ideas for short animations that I want to do this year but they’re all wildly ambitious and I’m not sure what’s actually required of me, so for now I’m just mulling them all over and we’ll see which one fits the bill when I get a brief, either way, I’d really like to do something based on musical timing.

Not long to wait I guess. It’s unlikely I’ll be able to update for a while too, since I won’t have the internet when I move into the new place on Sunday (something to sort out, plus all the other crap you need to sign up for like phone and gas and God knows what else). Anyways, what I’m saying is I’ll be back in a bit, with something to show for my time I hope after all this slacking off.

Cheers fer reading.

He’s been done practically for days, but now he’s actually done.

Do I like it?

A bit. Not as much as I thought I would.

If you watch it and wonder what’s actually happening you’ll see its major flaw (aside from the background being “experimental/dodgy”), explained further on the page linked in the image below -

Link

Much closer to model than my previous bugs attempts though, so that’s a consolation. Also, my timing is appalling, I need to work on that. Either way, I’m done with it now, it can bugger right off.
As far as my recently discussed project goes, I think I’m just going to run with it and see what happens. I’ll have a better idea of what’s actually expected of me when I get back to uni (hopefully), so I can decide whether to scrap the whole thing or rework it or whatever needs to be done. Until then I’ll just refine the concepts and try and come up with some kind of personalities for the characters.

More amazing news from me tomorrow I expect, see you then.

Hey all,

I’ve not been wallowing in self pity or anything since my last post, I took a day off and then I started a new little animation using Bugs Bunny after watching some Looney Tunes stuff frame by frame.
Up to now I’ve really been aiming for Disney “realism” and smoothness in my work, but after looking at the WB shorts properly I’ve decided to have a bash at more snappy, energetic animation, hence me doing this Bugs thing.

It’s pretty much done, I’ve just got a couple of overlap frames to do on his ears and about three more keys, so it should be up by tomorrow, it ain’t much, but I like it.

As for the post title, my good friend Karl just got a two page interview up on IGN about Team 17’s new game - Worms: A Space Oddity, that he’s working on.

That pretty much makes him famous, which automatically makes me famous. Almost.

Check it out - here.
More tomorrow, hopefully.

Since I’m not really “feeling” the drawing at the moment I’ve done a bit of 3D modelling today. Pretty simple stuff, because I’m still not that confident with anything complex, plus it’s for my final year project which coincidentally doesn’t requre realistic sets. How nice.

HouseProp

I must stress these things ain’t finished, and will probably get redone later into the project, but I’m just throwing stuff out there at the moment. I’m leaving the texturing for now until I got a solid colour palette for the piece in my head. At the moment it’s all over the place.

Well

A lot of the stuff in this project will involve doing normal stuff in odd, but nevertheless practical ways, as evidenced by this well. The bucket on the left still needs a handle, and the rod needs some string or whatever fancy technical term fishermen use for string.

I’m also looking to make sure everything is uneven or off kilter. It gives it all a homemade look, plus it means I don’t have to be as precise with my modelling. Clever, eh?

As far as life news goes, I’ve just starting listening to swing music and enjoying it. Is that a bad or good thing?

Bleh, been in a bit of a slump recently, I dunno what it is, I think I’m getting impatient with the rate of my skill development as I tend to every so often. Still struggling with anything bordering on realism as usual, and I’m not happy with the poses I’m putting out in my cartoon sketches.

I’ll get over it soon enough.

So today I’ve been looking at some cartoons that I haven’t really checked out since I was a kid. Generally speaking since starting my degree I’ve pretty much ignored most television animation that I grew up with, assuming it all would be disappointingly cheap and nasty looking if I saw them now, but today I had the sudden urge to take a look at Alvin and the Chipmunks (the 1980’s series) on YouTube and was pleasantly surprised by the opening titles.

It wasn’t superb, certainly, but it was compared to a lot of the stuff that was about in the 80s, and it leant much more towards Disney than it did the limited stylings of Hanna-Barbera.

As often happens when I get suitably impressed by an animation, I’m now on the lookout for a DVD of the show, but it looks like I’m going to have to delve into Region 1 because I can’t seem to find an R2 release.

Anyways,

From today’s Chipmunk realisation.

Street Scene

I wanted to see what I came out with without using any construction lines (how I used to draw).

Yogi

The one on the left is copied, so don’t give me credit for the nice pose. The one on the right is all mine.

And this final sketch is part of some concept sketches for what should become my final year project at university, I’m putting it up here in good faith, so please don’t rob me blind, as it were.

Final Year Project

That’s all for today, come back soon.

Okay then, let’s get started with this thing.

Hey, I’m Matt, and I’m an animation student.

That intro may sound like a heartfelt admission at an Alcoholic’s Anonymous meeting, but I like it.

I also like animation, thankfully. I like the painstaking tedium, the mind numbing frustration, the wondrous feeling of joy when all those marks on the paper finally come to life.

Currently, or rather, in a month or so, I’ll be undertaking the third and final year of my course in Computer Animation at the University of Teesside here in the UK.

For the two years I’ve been studying animation I’ve learnt a lot, as I started knowing absolutely nothing.

I just thought animation was about drawing loads of pictures, when I got to uni and found that it was about drawing loads of pictures, acting, animation principles and all the rest I didn’t know where to begin. Hell, I still don’t half the time, but I kind of grasp what it’s about now. I wouldn’t say I can animate well, but I think I could get there.

I enjoy all the usual stuff aside from animation – playing videogames, watching movies, reading, playing guitar/piano etc. etc.

So I guess that’s basically me, hope you stick around to look at my blog.

Oh, and here’s a link to the last animation I did (couple of weeks ago).