Computer Animation Arts

Today I have came across a problem. I used a script called CurveDistribute which is meant to duplicate one object around a curve, and I used it on the small blocks around the curve(figure 1).It works but when I move the time line they disappear (Figure 2), I don't know if this is because my laptop's graphic card is low or it is a problem with the script that I am using. If anyone knows the problem please help out, and this is also to Alan as well. Shahbir Figure 1 Figure 2

Here's the normal texture for the UV layout, but as soon as i select it, the grid changes, as shown below... Then whenever i go to look at the model in smoothed view, the grid and model goes like this (Image below) and i can't seem to figure out why...

Hi Alan, hope you had a good Christmas? I'm stuck on one of the camera rig tutorials and was wondering if you can help? Here's a screenshot of my problem, I've created a nurbs plane and assigned a lambert material to it and loaded the HD_1080_Thirds.tif file into the colour channel with the alpha baked in. For some reason the hardware texturing isn't showing it as a grid? I checked the "alpha is luminance" box in the file node but that had no affect. I did get an error message when creating the lambert stating : // Error:Object 'lambert_qualityMenu' not found. Is that the problem? Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks Paul Hi Alan, starting to panic a little now as texturing is a huge part of unit 3 and I really don't want this to affect my environment. I made a transparency map as suggested and loaded it into the transparency channel but it still has no affect... here's another screen shot.... I've made a solid red

I happened upon this rather useful freebie - an online Colour Scheme Designer that enables you to confidently put together ranges of colours guaranteed to work together. Once you've identified the desired spectrum, you can export the resulting palette to Photoshop as a .AOC file. The .ACO file is used in Photoshop as a swatch . In Photoshop, you can add, remove and edit swatches by going to the preset manager (File->Edit->Preset Manager), or open up the "Color Window", by pressing F6, and select the "Swatches" tab. On the top right of the color window there is a small arrow, which will display a menu when clicking on it. Go to "Replace Swatches", open the color scheme, or click on "Load Swatches" to add the color scheme to the current color set. You should now be able to use the colors from the color scheme.

Ok, I found a very interesting international project here in one lithuanian page. The project winner will have the honor to work with the best artists in the world and will be called upon fulfillment of 3D projection by using unique and latest technology with the prize of £ 5,000 cash. (sorry just by giving this google translation), but I couldn't find any further information about it. That facebook just didn't worked for me and the other one was only in Italian language. Bombay Sapphire

Okay - it's obvious, I know - but please - all of you - remember to back-up your project work regularly. As you get more engrossed, more up against it, and more tired, backing-up your stuff can get pushed to the bottom of the priority list, so write yourself a post-it note reminder and stick it somewhere 'high-vis'. Every year, someone on the course falls foul of sudden hard-drive death or a spilled tea catastrophe or similar. In terms of mitigation or extensions, the course team are powerless to grant additional time in these circumstances. Back-up your work - then back-up your back-up. Don't hesitate - do it now. Then do it again. Then keep doing it...

Be warned: this is a dangerous time for CGAA students! Christmas encourages us all to wind down, our bellies round and livers throbbing - and yet the last 2 weeks of semester 1 still require from you huge amounts of focus, energy and stamina if your creative projects are to achieve all they should. We have third years up against the clock with hugely ambitious workloads; second years in a race to ace their Retrofest submissions, and first years working creatively in CG for the first time. This is crunch time for everyone. If you've still got your hand in the Quality Street, while sitting slumped in front of Channel Five's 100 Best Catfood Commericials, you might want to think about giving yourself a shake. If motivation is in short supply, a few words from CGAA graduate, David Keefe, might kick-start some inspiration and remind you what all the hard work is for. I asked him to put together some advice born from his experience on the course - and all that happened next. Th

Hey everyone, I was wondering if anyone knows whether theres a way to control fur length using something like a texture map? I have a big rabbit that is basically finished, but I need long fur on some parts and quite short on others, and then even bald in most places. It would be easier if I didnt have to break him up into separate pieces to do this, help? thanks :)

Unfortunately I couldn't find the complete stop-motion animation on Youtube , so the second and the third part will have to do. I don't think you need to like Frank Zappa to enjoy this, in fact like Zappa's own music and most super weird stop-motion animation I don't believe you have to 'enjoy' it full stop. Just sit back and take it in. The following animation is part of a concert film Zappa produced called 'Baby Snakes', Bruce Bickford animated a number of peculiar sequences and I believe went on to win awards for this.

Have a wonderful time, you lot! Eat, drink and be merry!

You're probably in the pub tonight, what with it being Christmas Eve. If so, you would have missed the BBC's adaptation of M.R. James ' classic ghost story, Oh, Whistle and I'll Come To You, My Lad . This latest adaptation reframes the original story and gives it a thematic spin not present in the original text - nonetheless, it manages some unnerving moments - and owes a big debt of gratitude to Robert Wise's The Haunting. It's got a wonderful, sustained atmosphere throughout and encompasses a number of tropes associated with your Unit 3 creative project: things to look out for; great use of framing/cropping to create unease; the empty hotel setting; an uncanny bust; wonderful, wonderful lighting, a nasty bit of business with a door, a creepy doll's head, and a disembodied hand... Go here to view on iplayer - turn out the lights, turn up the volume, and enjoy...

  Merry Christmas!  

This is a short animation I found on http://www.aniboom.com/ . It depicts the growing up stage of a man. It's pretty scary to think how this will actually happen to us too. Watch more cool animation and creative cartoons at Aniboom

After Tom & Jerry's The Night Before Christmas and Alan's festive Snoopy , I want to share this nugget of nostalgia with you - MGM's Bottles , released in 1936. It's not Christmassy in the slightest - indeed, Halloween would be more appropriate - but this Happy Harmonies cartoon looms very large in my memory and synchs somehow with Christmas Eve, and the idea that toys etc. have secret lives. Indeed, when Alan and I were recently discussing favourite, formative cartoons, this one came up as a shared touchstone - an emotive 'hot-key' to our respective childhoods. Do a bit of research around this animation, and you'll see Alan and I are not alone in our respect for it. Enjoy!

Comic book Character costume design An interesting read on costume design in comic book characters, though most of it carries over to every other aspect of character design.

Not sure if this is of any use to anyone, but here's a fantastic head model tutorial that I've used countless times in my projects. I hope it helps. http://escapedintothewaves.com/uploads/Head_tutorial-41f%281%29.jpg

What is the best ways of animating waist disposal content spread away from it after meteorite crashes? Or is it best to animate each box/pipe/tire in the dumpster?

Dan Sperrin (Graduate) kindly posted this link on his blog (Thanks Dan)... ...It features a short interview with Dan Hibon who is the creator or the three minute animated segment "The Tale of Three Brothers" in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. Dan Hibon has now started work with Nexus Studios. Nexus regularly give talks on the CG Arts course and took Tod (Year 3) for work experience last year. And for all you year one people out there take a look at "Lotte Reiniger's" work too. Enjoy! Shadow Play with Potter's Tale of Three Brothers Ben Hibon discusses his acclaimed animated sequence in the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. By Bill Desowitz In a daring move, we momentarily leave the tense world of Harry Potter in Deathly Hallows: Part 1, and enter a stylized animated one, when Hermione (Emma Watson) narrates The Tale of Three Brothers. Conveyed imaginatively in silhouettes and shadows and sepia tones, she describes how three wizard brothers try to outwit

I was about to post asking if anyone knows of this error in Maya and knows of a fix, but instead I 'Googled' it. If ever you get this error, simply do the following; Windows - Settings & Preferences > Preferences. The find the 'Undo' tab on the left hand side, there you can find the On and Off settings. (Tip: You can also set how big the queue can get, I think some how, it's useful to set it to unlimited, but be wary of your memory usage and file sizes. :) ) -Dan. EDIT: Apparently Maya randomly decides to shut down the "Undo" script if memory gets to scarce or something, another quick fix is to go into the mel window, and type; flushUndo; and place that shortcut onto your Shelf.

I've finished creating the replacement eyes for the cartoon character but the pupils are too small. Is there anyway of changing this without me redoing the entire tutorial again? They were created using NURBS spheres and Isoprams

Hi Alan, Would it be possible to upload the tutorials on modelling heads so I could see if it is at all possible to create a 3D marionette in my environment in time? Thanks Oliver

No - you're not going mad and this isn't a mistake. Unit 5/Animation is a way off yet, but in preparation for this unit, there are a number of essential items you might want to add to your Christmas present list... As part of Unit 5, you will participate in a weekly series of 2D animation workshops with Meg Bisineer - who comes to us from the Royal College of Art. This is a great opportunity to experience the fundamental principles of animation and Meg has asked you to equip yourselves with an 'animator's kit'. Meg recommends you purchase the following: Economy grade 60gsm A4 punched (1000 sheets – pre-punched) 3-Pin Plastic Pegbar Pre-punched paper and pegbars are necessary for the effective registration of the individual drawings or frames that comprise an animation. And if you haven't got your hands on these yet, you'll need to add them to your Santa wishlist: The Animator's Survival Kit : A manual of methods, principle and formulas for classical

A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), was produced by Lee Mendelson Film Productions, Bill Melendez Productions, and United Feature Syndicate. Based upon the successful comic strip 'Peanuts' (1950-2000) by Charles M. Schulz the 25 minute long special sees Snoopy and the gang’s first outing as animated characters. The animation successfully transfers the 'semi-adult neurosis' humour of the comic strip as we see Charlie Brown struggle with his depression during the Christmas holidays. We then follow his attempts to direct a neighbourhood Nativity play before he finds the true meaning of Christmas. On the way the story touches upon views about the over-commercialisation and secularism of Christmas in the U.S. The special first aired on the ABC network Christmas 1965 and has played annually since. Its popularity with a younger audiences proved that children could understand the adult world via animation and its continuing popularity with adults has seen it shown more times on A

I had some questions in regards to thinking about what area we should take our briefs over the christmas period...but wasnt sure wether to post them or ask about them in more detail in an email perhaps, and who to aim it at lol?

We found a new Chinese buffet to stuff ourself at ~ Definitely going to be the permanent place at every 'end of crit' day.

Ok here is the fix...However the 'welded' geomtery you have at the top of the foot (Yellow crosses) is not good. Leave space here to create a loop which runs over the foot.

Tom and i have spent quite a while trying to remove the triangles from the geometry on this leg, and we thought that we'd sorted it out. But it seems two triangles have come out of nowhere and i'm pretty sure they weren't there earlier so i'm not too sure where they came from. But anyway, has anyone got any ideas on how i can rid of these two feisty buggers as they don't seem to want to leave. Help would be muchly appreciated so i can continuing giving birth to my alien leg... thanks

School's out and Christmas is fast approaching; what better moment to get all nostalgic and share with you this favourite Tom & Jerry cartoon from 1941, produced by Fred Quimby and directed by William Hanna & Joseph Barbera. This Tom & Jerry cartoon was always shown at Christmas on BBC 1 when I was a child. I loved it for its Norman Rockwell view of Christmas, for its wonderfully evocative soundtrack - and for the clearest indication yet that Tom and Jerry were best friends after all. An inter-species bromance, no less! This is best watched while wearing Spiderman pyjamas and eating chocolate santas stolen from the Christmas tree.

Announcing the winner of the One-A-Day Design-the-Icon competition, as voted for by you... Congratulations to Ryan Leitao , whose logo design proved most popular with the CGAA community, closely followed by Jonathan Pearmain in second place, and Sam Hayes in third. Many thanks to all those who submitted designs and those who voted. We have a new logo with which to preface our 'One-A-Day' offerings - I look forward to seeing it in frequent circulation!

What could be the reason Maya doesn't show image planes.. I tried to go into image plane nodes and relode the image, reset settings and preferences delete any old image planes The thing is it still shows images loaded weeks ago, but not the ones just being loaded .. Such a simple but frustrating problem :/

Patrick Boivin,a genius director/animator. For those are lookin' for inspiration for uncanny,check out his work. He's a genius. This is his latest film,which i found beautiful and felt the need to share with all of you.

Don't forget to cast your vote for your preferred logo design for the One-A-Day icon competition. Go here and make your choice.

The Tale of How from Shy the Sun on Vimeo . "Nine months of part time work gave birth to The Blackheart Gang’s acclaimed short film,The Tale of How . The Tale of How is the second part of a trilogy of works called The Dodo Trilogy. It is later to be flanked by The Tale of Then and The Tale of When. The Dodo Trilogy, in turn, fits into a much greater work called The Household. In The Tale of How we meet a giant octopus with a tree growing in his head, the terror of the Indian Ocean, OTTO THE MONSTER! His lonely pass-time is to devour the innocent dodo’s who lived on his head. We then see the dodos unite and with the help of a little white mouse, we see them escape the clutches of the terrible be-tentacled tyrant and sail off into the sunset on their mother the tree." I did previously post this on my blog but I really wanted to share it with everyone, just in case someone hasn't seen it.  This was the first animation I saw that made me know for sure that animation

I was stumbling across the internet after hearing about Titanic II and found the people responsible for it (looks okay actually, but we all know how it ends). The company: The Asylum , they seem to knock out large numbers of B movie awesomeness. One in particular is 'MEGA SHARK VS CROCOSAURUS' which looks amazingly funny, I cant embed the video but heres the page its on: http://www.theasylum.cc/product.php?id=180

One of many amazing works from Gobelins university. It's a good example of what is posible to create during our third years. It is hard for me to post only one of those short animation, but I tried my best to find my most favorites and here it is. I also highly recomend watching more animations from there for some inspiration and one of those could also be  Après la pluie (After the rain)  . You can find everything there: intriguing scenarios, absolutely different techniques, increadible creativity with unseen worlds.

Fallen Art is an animated short by self-tought former architecture student,  Tomek Baginski, polish director. His previous works include The Cathedral (2002) animated short posted previously. Everything happens  in military base, where soldiers with minds or  no longer wanted by army are sent to be expended. There Sergent Al,  Photographer Dr. Friedriech and mentaly lost general A atempts to create wholy different art. The highly stilised world of animation plays as yet another tool to tell the story : anomalous and grotesque style  reflects  the story being told. But at the same time its soft and rich  colour pallete and smoky  lighting adds to the appeal. As reviewer of World Wide Cinema Festival notices, it is like  director took two illustrators Dave McKean's and Bill Sienkiewicz's styles and brought a new one in this film. Example of Dave McKean Illustration :  Bill Sienkiewicz's : But there would be many other aspects to discuss in the animation, fo

I am not sure whether the life drawings lessons take place or not today. Chis mentioned the last life drawing lesson was the last one before xmas right?

Okay - so, in no particular order, the seven designs for our new One-A-Day Logo. Vote for your preferred design by leaving a comment - give the number of the logo and any constructive feedback - and no, you can't vote for your own design! You've got until 12pm on Friday 17th December to cast your vote. The winner will be announced soon afterwards. Logo 1/Dan Bright Logo 2/Jonathan Pearmain Logo 3/Ryan Leitao Logo 4/Ollie Fowls Logo 5/Jordan Buckner Logo 6/Jonny Stewart Logo 7/Sam Hayes