Saturday 30 September 2017

Canterbury Anifest 2017

Today I travelled down to Canterbury to be part of the Canterbury Anifest. My film Dysmorphia was not shortlisted, but was still screened on the Art Screen in the festival so I was given a few tickets to the event. I saw quite a few films there that I really enjoyed and thought were amazing.





It was also quite encouraging for me to see what other films were shown there, and to see if I work hard enough I can achieve a lot and be screened alongside other amazing films. Some of my favourites included Overrun and The Neverending Wall. It also made me feel grateful that I've had the opportunity to work on individual projects as it seemed most of the films were made by groups. I do enjoy collaborating, but I think it is nice to also have individual, personal projects.

Overrun from Rubika on Vimeo.

YPGTTO: The Violin District - Master Environment Pre-vis

I've now finished the environment scenes for The Violin District. This was the most difficult one I've worked on so far because of how the first shot is a direct transition from The Bassoon District into The Violin District...but I think I got it there! Here is the master pre-vis for it excluding the wipe cuts which will be in the final version...I look forward to seeing it fully rendered. Next up is texturing The Double-Bass District.





Wednesday 27 September 2017

Minor Project: Edited Phrase List #1, Ideas & Brainstorming

After more discussions, I have a somewhat solidified list. I still need to narrow things down...I'm trying to remove things that I don't feel are as impactful or phrases that I feel are somewhat repetitive/do not offer much more than other phrases already have. I'm finding this quite difficult since all of them have emotional weight for me so it's hard to pick the 'less important' ones but I'm also trying to consider what may or may not work in terms of visuals and transitions as well. These are just my initial thoughts on the list and obviously they may still change and develop.



I'm also trying to look at some more animations and tutorials in hopes I can try to get a more concrete idea of what I want my film to be and/or some techniques that may be helpful. At the moment I'm looking into the possibility of using blend shapes to morph an object into a range of different shapes but I'm not quite sure if that'd be the best. I also wonder if perhaps animating bump/displacement maps may be an interesting thing to explore.






Thursday 21 September 2017

YPGTTO: Adjusting Textures for The Flute District & The Violin District

Before I got to work on animation The Violin District, I was tasked to make some adjustments to The Flute District's textures and Gobo lights on the ground plane (modelled and initially textured by others on the YPGTTO team).

Before

After

After that, I also adjusted some of The Violin District's lights, textures, and the digital set (modelled and textured initially by others on the YPGTTO team). I increased the saturation, added more blue components, added some additional detail lights, and added some more buildings to the set. I can now get into The Violin District and begin animating.


Minor Project: 'When' - Initial Ideas, Creative Writing Exercises, and Phrase Lists

Admittedly I've so far kept my Minor Project ideas behind closed doors, but I now feel ready to begin sharing my thoughts and ideas on this project (which I temporarily labelled as 'When' - this obviously may change). Dysmorphia was a very personal piece of work for me - and it helped me discover how to use Maya as an art medium rather than a mechanical piece of software.

Dysmorphia (film still)

I really enjoy working with Maya, After Effects and other programs, and the topic of Mental Illness/ internal conflict is something I still feel I need to explore and discuss. This is why for my Minor Project I want to create a piece of work that is even more raw and honest in hopes it may help people understand that everyone experiences the world differently.

To get started on this, I've been given a list of questions/prompts to answer as honestly as I can. Some were direct, some more abstract, and some intended to be more directly triggering. Some examples include "Tell me about a favourite childhood memory", "Why is Halloween important to you?", "Imagine your illness is/was architecture; describe its structure, its materiality, its exterior and interior spaces, its location, its functions etc", "What makes you laugh?", "What makes you cry?", and several others.

However, it was agreed that the prompts that led to the most interesting result were:

"You need to try and make someone else understand your relationship to food and to eating - but you have to use similes in order to do so - find the images that express the truth of your feelings.

You need to try and make someone understand your relationship to your own appearance - but you have to use similes in order to do so - find the images that express the truth of your feelings."

To answer these questions, I answered with long lists that I tried my best to write honestly and quickly without thinking (essentially I tried 'free association' writing). I felt myself that this was the most direct and honest response since I tried my best to not give myself time to second guess my answers and responses.


From here, I was given several other phrases to answer in a similar way regarding my feelings/thoughts towards other people's bodies, my relationship with my family, my idea of perfection, my relationship with hospitals, my relationship with happiness, what (in my view) it feels/means to be Anorexic, and what hope is to me. I have several long lists in response to this, and I am currently in to narrow down the lists and select the ones that are the most truthful, have interesting contradictions, and may be interesting visually.

From my understanding/what I imagine, I will aim to create realistic, morphing textures on some sort of object or abstract form to represent these phrases to achieve an emotional reaction from my audience (both positive and negative) to express the a constant internal conflict. I think my phrases will create a sort of poem that will be voiced over the animation (and I would like to collaborate with a music composer in conjunction with my own sound design if possible/appropriate).

While I'm not quite sure what this will be just yet, I have a few films and animations that I feel may relate to what I feel this may be or that I just find interesting.



Owl from Thomas Beg on Vimeo.




Friday 15 September 2017

YPGTTO: The Cello District - Master Environment Pre-Vis & Rendered Stills

I've now completed what is required for to render the environment for The Cello District. I'm really happy with how this turned out, possibly because The Cello District is one my favourite districts in YPGTTO. Now onto the Violin District after sorting out some extra detail lights for The Flute District.