Post It

I’ve had a post-it note sat on my desk for ages now telling me to blog, so I think it’s about time that I did just that!

I know I’m a bit behind now, but obviously all the Animation unit got completed and handed in. Not without its fair share of problems at the last minute…it was all playing at the wrong speeds, not playing at all, or not even recognising that it had an animation to play! But I got there in the end and the majority of it worked fine in the end.

However, in my moment of joy realising that somehow I had got the animation to play in the browser at the correct speed, I didn’t watch the whole thing all the way through and so, having watched it at home showing my family, I’ve realised that it goes outa time slightly.

On top of that, the essay, well let’s just say it was appalling!! Haha. I really didn’t get on with that too well, and was just praying for a pass, nothing more and hopefully nothing less!

Nevermind, there is nothing I can do about it now, but it got handed in and I had a worry free holiday period. I came back to Bournemouth a week early though as I had to start work again, gota keep the funds coming in ay!!

It was very strange being back in my flat with no one else here. The whole building seemed deadly quiet with only a few people around it seemed. But things are starting to pick up now with the start of the term next week.

I can’t believe that we have reached the last unit of our first year as IMPs!! It’s gone scarily fast and after this summer project, which I hope will be really interesting and quite fun, the real work for our degree will begin. But it just shows you how fast time really does fly!

On a completely different side, I entered the Nerve Media Competition to win tickets to see comedienne, Pam Ann (hostess to the stars) on her new tour, Terror at 41,000ft live at the Pavilion tonight, which I ended up winning. So I’m really looking forward to that and hopefully if this one is as funny as her last DVD, I will come out with tears rolling down my cheeks and a stomach that hurts from laughing too much!

See you all very soon guys and girls!!!

Animation

So whilst sitting on hold waiting to speak to Vodafone, I thought I would post a little blog entry of my progress with the animation so far.

I’m pretty much finished with only one and a half pages of storyboards left to animate. I HATE FLASH, it is official, but that is probably because it’s the first time I’ve used it…although it is so frustrating I’m getting there with it. In a few places I think I’ve taken Mark’s lecture about “shortcuts” to the extreme, but I’m not too worried.

I also no longer like the song to which I am animating, I’ve heard it so often and on repeat so many times that is has actually driven me insane. Not to mention that for some reason the quality of the song is different when you watch the .swf file and I’m not sure why or how to improve it…but nevermind.

I feel I’ve progressed well over the last 2days, having not been outside at all and actually managing to sit at my desk and make this thing – I’ve been struggling to find the motivation at times, but with a good chocolate supply and a steady pattern I’m getting there!

I’m not looking forward to trying to make the website having had a chat with Alex the other day about how we could do it, but at least I now have a vague idea of how to make it in Flash although putting it into a XHTML index is another story altogether! Still I feel i deserve a break today being a Saturday so I’m taking a day off and going out into the fresh air – I’ve forgotten what it feels like!!

Time will tell…

On a happier note, I have a new gadget to play with – the Nokia 6500 Slide

That is all!

Updates ‘R’ Go! +1

I forgot to write something in the last post…and as WordPress doesn’t remember your paragraph breaks I thought it would be easier to write another post instead – so two posts in one day – I’m doing well!!

Anyway, what I wanted to say, was that I’m not looking forward to trying to do the essay assignment for this unit AT ALL! They don’t even make sense and quite a few of them are written in really bad English so they don’t make sense when you read them. But I can’t complain about that now can I…!?

Just over 2 weeks to complete the whole project – I’m aiming to have my animation done by Friday 21st April, to then give me the next 5 days to write the essay (we’ll see how I go with that one! lol). Also need to try and work out what we are meant to do for the website part yet – if anyone has any ideas of what we are meant to do then it would be nice to hear them. Is it meant to be like the stage setting we did in the workshop…?

Over and out!

Updates ‘R’ Go!

So it’s been quite a while since my last post and I’ll try to cover as much as I can remember.

First things first, the Narratives unit essay…I was quite impressed with the mark that I got given considering I didn’t have a clue what I was writing and was so many words under the word count – I was expecting a much lower mark, so was quite surprised when I got given that!

Now onto the Audiences unit. I was dreading the one day project as I didn’t have a clue what I was meant to do for it and I had no ideas for what I wanted my final animation to be before that morning. I happened to have my iTunes playing in the morning whilst I was dreading the thought of getting out of bed, when I suddenly decided what I was going to do. I had decided to animate a character walking and have them “sing” to a pre-existing song medley of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and “What a Wonderful World” by Aselin Debison. So whilst the character is walking along, I planned to have the background change so it looks like he is moving and the background is going to relate to the song. For example, when the song goes “Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high” there will be a rainbow that gradually grows across the sky and then disappears again. This particular line of the song is repeated a couple of times so there will be a few sequences that repeat.

I’ve already – just about – cut the song using GarageBand as the original was 5 mins 30 which is WAY too long for me to animate and too long for the brief. So it is now just over the brief time limit at 2 mins 30, with the actual content of the song within the 2mins, which I hope will be OK.

Mik seemed impressed at the pitch seminar where I wasn’t met with any objections, which I thought there might have been. I just need to try and get in contact with the producer/artist of the song to see if I’m allowed to use the song so that I could if I wanted too, publish it on the Internet. In terms of the Uni Server, it doesn’t matter, but it would be nice if I am able to do so if I wished later on as a kinda of portfolio. In the presentation, I somehow managed to get the sound on my presentation to work (it had been a bit temperamental when I was making it) and I showed the storyboards as the song went a long so that people could see what was happening along with the music.

I plan to make the animation, using Key Frame animation, so that it ‘jumps’ between each frame to make to look a bit sketchy as though its being drawn and edited as it goes on, which is in contrast to the song which is very melodic, smooth and flowing.

I think that’s about all I wanted to say for now. Don’t forget – IMP Social Quasar/Laser Quest on Thursday if my memory servces me correctly. Get in contact with myself/Rea/Gemma Vincent for details…! Byeee!