It's hard to believe next time the Computer Animation Arts PWTM goes live on here, the academic year will be as good as over and our students will be twiddling their thumbs post-submission. (It looks like I've hit that time of life when I'm astounded over-and-over by the swift passing of time and feel it necessary to comment thus!). Still, we're not there yet - the end is indeed nigh, but with a little under two weeks before final submission, our students have loads to achieve in the remaining time.
For our first years, their Fantastic Voyage animations find them operating at the upper-limit of their knowledge and experience. While this final project represents a culmination of all they've learned since they arrived at UCA back in September 2016, it also demands they 'learn on the job'. No single curricula can teach a group of cg-newbies how to model a cartoon car, Dr-Seuss-inspired chromosome or Lucienne Day-esque chemotherapy particle, and yet here they are, making it happen anyway. They're to be applauded for their ambition, determination and pluck!
Enjoy this selection of year one 'works-in-progress' and look forward to next month's edition, which will showcase the best of their final year films. Remember too, should you want to explore any of the projects profiled here, you need only click on the students' names by which to arrive at their respective course-specific blogs.
Year 2 on CAA is a famously challenging learning phase for students, characterised as it is by the rigours of collaboration and the prospect of specialisation, and by the looming reality-check otherwise known as 'year three'. Another challenge is presented by their 'acting for animation' classes with guest lecturer, Dan Snelgrove. At risk of making sweeping generalisations, it might be said students of cgi are not hugely extroverted, and for many of them the idea of acting and improvisation is daunting. That said, the truly lovely thing about the acting classes is how much our students come to enjoy them. Take a look at this selection of photos taken by various students during their classes - and note the lack of captions; the what, when and how of the scenarios so implied is up to you, dear reader, to decide!
When not playing 'ninja' in the baseroom or improvising characters of oppositional status, the second years are also finishing up with their Adaptation project. The exciting thing about these projects is the range and scope of their respective methodologies, with students using Maya in speculative ways. For example, while the likes of Eleanor Spence and Mark Bridgland are using the powerful 3D software traditionally as the means by which to translate their 2D production art into ambitious 3D assets, Deanna Crisbacher is deploying Maya as the mediator between audio and image, physicalising sound as disturbing deformations to the female form.
Devil's Elixir / 'Redrum' orthographs / Mark Bridgland
Devil's Elixir / 'Redrum' modelling progress #1 / Mark Bridgland
Devil's Elixir / 'Redrum' modelling progress #2 / Mark Bridgland
Devil's Elixir / 'Redrum' modelling progress #3 / Mark Bridgland
Our third years are surely beginning to feel it now - the pressure of their looming hand-in. They need to stare their fears down and push on, ticking items of their crowed to-do lists one-by-one and hold their nerve. Join me in wishing them all the very best of luck - fingers-crossed for a gremlin-free final leg of their three year adventure on Computer Animation Arts...
Work on CAA's adaptation of Britten's The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra continues apace as we move ever closer to the moment when we start to actually 'make' the film. As any one of our students will tell you, working with CGI is a prolonged exercise in delayed gratification - everything takes a long time - and there's always one more thing to be designed or 'just one more tweak' before the cameras roll. For the YPGTTO production team, that day is surely getting closer, but until then, here's a selection of everything we've been up to this month:
YPGTTO / The King & Queen orthographs / Julien Van Wallandael
YPGTTO / The King & Queen 3D models (works in progress) / Ethan Shilling
YPGTTO / The Violin Train #1 / Emily Clarkson
YPGTTO / The Violin Train #2 / Emily Clarkson
YPGTTO / The Overture staircase 3D model / Samantha Niemczyk (design by Emily Clarkson)
YPGTTO / The Overture staircase 3D model #2 / Samantha Niemczyk (design by Emily Clarkson)
YPGTTO / The Bassoon District buildings / Jordan Buckner
YPGTTO / The Bassoon District buildings 3D model texture development / Alan Postings
As regular readers of the PWTM will know, it's around about this time of year this course leader's online shopping habits begin to favour all things glow-y, as I prepare to continue my intermittent project exploring the other-worldly dimensions of long-exposure photography. At long last, I've gone as far as establishing a website archiving all previous excursions. It's a simple affair - and not finished yet - but it's interesting to see it all in one place, not least because it reveals an obvious preoccupation with uncanny effects and filmic tableaux.
As our final year students contemplate their lives after UCA, it's both inspiring and soothing to share stories from our extended family of alumni, who have journeyed far and wide in the pursuit of their creative ambitions. Dayle 'Class of 2013' Sanders dropped by the CAA group blog a few days back to precis his adventures-in-animation:
Dayle 'Class of 2013' Sanders
"Hi there, my name is Dayle. I graduated from Computer Animation Arts in 2013. I currently work as a Junior Animator/ Animation Fixer at Jellyfish Pictures in London. It's great to be able to share with you today what I have been up to and offer my industry perspective too, as a former classmate and fellow Rochester alumni... At the start of the year, I became a Junior Animator/ Animation Fixer on Jellyfish's new production, Dennis the Menace; actioning intersections, asset replacing, and animation alterations. I work on a few shots myself from time-to-time, too! From character, prop and environment layout in Maya, to polished animation approval..."
Some really impressive stuff here I really look forward to seeing the submissions, good luck everyone!
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