"No man ever reached to excellence in any one art or profession without having passed through the slow and painful process of study and preparation" Quintus Horatius Flaccus
It's been a while, I know, but it's that time again - your 'one-stop-shop' for browsing the delights of the CGAA bloggosphere. Since the last PWTM, the first year have completed their Unit 4/Storytelling. It was a big ask and more than any brief before it, properly revealed the true challenge of creating engaging stories populated by memorable characters - to a deadline! Unit 4 proved that CG Arts is not for the faint-of-heart, but with Unit 5/Animation already underway, and Unit 6/Commission just 3 weeks from-the-offing, the true test of CGAA year one is yet to come...
There were many strong story ideas resulting from Unit 4 - two of which feature below: Paul Lavey's Gnarled and Jon Pearmain's A Hero's Hat. For the CGAA veterans out there who no doubt still recall their own '3 randomly selected story components', Paul got contortionist, vending machine, and desert island and Jon picked superhero, seesaw and cemetary.
For CGAA Year 2, the deadline for Transcription is just under three weeks away, and in terms of cg bling, I'm spoiled for choice. JJ's animated short about a curious, hand-crafted bird and his mysterious quest is well underway, with hours spent animating - and more hours finessing the animation. I'm reminded of the John Lasseter quote from the documentary, From Pencils to Pixels, when he said, in cg, you get "nothing for free". Indeed, but these renders suggest that all the time and effort will be worth it.
The same might be said of Leo's quest to originate innovative character designs with which to populate the junkyard world of his Tribe 17 project. It's no secret that Leo had to work hard at breaking new aesthetic ground and establishing alternate styles - but characters that began life as collages of silhouettes are now fully rigged and getting ready to dance. It's at moments like these that the extraordinary power of design + Maya + you becomes abundantly clear.
One of the most exciting things about the CGAA community right now is the sheer creative ambition of its respective projects. Ruben's The Music of Erich Zann exemplifies this directorial drive and determination. Check out Ruben's final character turnarounds and animation and remember that seven weeks ago, The Music of Erich Zann was just words on a page...
Jordan's apocalyptic animated short, The Ticket Taker, has its two characters rigged and ready for texturing. Jordan's project is another hugely ambitious undertaking; an end of the world scenario encompassing a ruinous Golden Gate Bridge and an enormous ark.
Much less 'end of the world' is Ethan Shilling's feel-good 'hug' of an animation inspired by the Madness song, It Must Be Love. If you haven't met him already, let me introduce Ethan's very cute and very fluffy bear character. Is that a collective 'ahhh'?
Elsewhere, Sam moves from the creation of his wild west mise-en-scene, to the simple/complex business of bringing his plucky suitcase to life...
... and a world away from Sam's frontier town, Earl is finalising his city-sized computer (or should that be computer-sized city?).
Shahbir is at the modelling stage - bringing Albert, the inebriated star of his animated short, to life; next up, some rubber-hose lamp posts and levitating paving slabs...
Alex - dark duke and dabbler in dynamics - is putting the finishing touches to his digital set and prepping his pyrotechnics...
... and Elliot is going to hell!
Continuing the gothic theme, Ethan Clements piles on the atmosphere for his sunken city...
...and from the Big Apple to the Amazon (via Seurat and Monet), as Charlotte gets creative with painterly effects.
3rd year Zack produces new character designs for his Chernobyl Boy project...
...and, finally, if you haven't done so already, settle back and take an 8 minute break to listen to the audio narration for Tom's forthcoming animated transcription of The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Wishing you all a productive week. Remember to play safe and always back up your work. I look forward to seeing you all in Lecture Theatre 2 @ 2pm on Tuesday 22nd for DNEG's Robin Konieczny. Be amazing!
"If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude" - Colin Powell
"Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude" - Ralph Marston
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