Computer Animation Arts

This animation looks time consuming ...but sure amazing  :)

Reminder! 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... The Animator's Survival Kit : A manual of methods, principle and formulas for classical, computer, games, stop motion and internet animators: by Richard Williams. The Fundamentals of Animation by Paul Wells. Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair You'll want to already be familiar with these books before Unit 5 begins and you comme...

Does the deadline for the transcription project fall before or after the Easter holidays? Just wanted to know when the deadline date was so I can create an accurate project plan. Cheers

Hello world, hello Alan. In part 2 - Chunk 2.zip is missing. Don't get me wrong, we have movie reference and I can do by my own, but I just want that everything will be correct. And I want complete collection of tutorials :). Maybe this is some kind of a plan :), but if its not, please add chunk 2 :). Thanks.

T his book was on our suggested reading list in the pack we got pre-start. It's awesome, full of theoretical, artisitc and pratical advice on editing, camera moves/positions and story-boarding techniques. It features some copies of story boards to key films such as Hitchcock's The Birds and Orwell's Citizen Kane . I'm sure I've seen a copy in the library and it's pretty darn cheap on Amazon . I've also got a copy if anyone wants to peek at it!

I think I may have uploaded this before, sorry if I have. What can I say, its a great animation. I thought this would be great for us 2nd years getting started on transcription... EXODUS Noisia & Mayhem ft. KRS one from alexanderlehmann on Vimeo . The guy started this in 2006 and completed it during his spare time. He finally got it out 8 months ago in June. His name is Alexander Lehmann and he is from Kaiserslautern in German where he studies Virtual Designat the University of Applied Sciences. Shortly after NOISIA released their debut Album "Split the Atom" Alexanders animation premiered exclusively on Sony Computer Entertainments vidzone. Synopsis: When the impatient Warmachine designed by mankind to murder the likes of him sets off to destroy itself in a ballet of annihilation hopefully something beautiful and intelligent will remain. Blog Website

Hello guys i was messing around my settings and i changed my blog address. please can you refollow Thanks Godwin :D http://godwinoppong.blogspot.com/

Hi all, Hope you're having a reading week to remember - I'm just curious if the timetable is correct; Research Framing Practice - Monday - 31st January 1pm Is that correct? Usually lectures/seminars start around 10am. Thanks -Dan.

Just wanted to wish all our 3rd years the very best of luck for their Dissertation hand-in on Friday 28th. It's no small matter bringing in an 8,000 word thesis on schedule. It's a BIG achievement - and it defines you as a degree student. Make no mistake - it's a badge of honour. You're nearly there, so remember to save (and save again), remember to proof-read, remember to paginate, get it bound before the rush, get it in and go celebrate! I still remember the night of my dissertation hand-in all those years ago. I woke up cuddling a toilet. Ah - happy days...

 Blendshape moves the head, after I'm changing the value to 1. I didn't find a solution. Please help. This problem doesn't allow me to continue. Thanks.

Something truly exhilarating for you! Being a huge admirer of Norman Mclaren and abstract animation generally, Michel Gagne 's transcription of Paul Plimley 's improvised piano pieces knocked me on my arse. "I've wanted to do an abstract animated film ever since I discovered the work of Oscar Fischinger , Norman Mclaren, Kandinsky , Yves Tanguy and many others. I knew that Paul's music, was the perfect catalyst to get started on such a project. The creation of this film was a true spiritual and artistic journey. Sometimes, I felt like I was channeling the images. I did no storyboards and virtually no preliminary work. I animated in a stream of consciousness, one frame at a time at a rate of 30 frames per second. The shapes revealed themselves as I listened to the music over and over again. The process was intensely focused and required large amount of concentration. I was becoming part of the music and expressing my creativity at its rawest and most primal. ...

I've noticed in the time table that we have some kind of Time Machine seminars. Are those like Perception seminars dedicated for an essay or is this going to be a different type of project?

I know you probably don't really want to be hearing this, but VERY soon you are going to have to start thinking about an area to research, in the lead up to your dissertations! I just wanted to show quickly, how research doesn't just come from a 'reading list', but how you have to keep your eyes open, read the papers, magazines etc and start to keep notes or a file of stuff that might be useful. So, just from yesterdays paper, I found an article on product placement, which would be useful if you were discussing advertising, subliminal influencing of viewers, or the integrity of British TV.... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1349936/Simon-Cowells-American-Idol-Coca-Cola-product-placement-transform-UK-TV.html ...and an artcle on the dangers of social networking sites, which you could discuss in relation to reality, changes in the way we communicate, and our relationships with others. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1349778/Facebook-Twitter-make-huma...

An animated transcription of Billy Collins ' laconic, wry poem, The Art of Drowning by Diego Maclean - beautiful! The Art of Drowning from Diego Maclean on Vimeo . The Art Of Drowning by Billy Collins I wonder how it all got started, this business about seeing your life flash before your eyes while you drown, as if panic, or the act of submergence, could startle time into such compression, crushing decades in the vice of your desperate, final seconds. After falling off a steamship or being swept away in a rush of floodwaters, wouldn't you hope for a more leisurely review, an invisible hand turning the pages of an album of photographs- you up on a pony or blowing out candles in a conic hat. How about a short animated film, a slide presentation? Your life expressed in an essay, or in one model photograph? Wouldn't any form be better than this sudden flash? Your whole existence going off in your face in an eyebrow-singeing explosion of biography- nothing like the three lar...

Void Canvas Studios proudly present there debut trailer:

I remember something about that they would be uploaded on 21st,but i can't seem to find any except Jolanta's. 2nd years worked alot on these projects and it's really interesting what they made.

I rigged and skinned character in different Maya projects. How to attach/connect/merge them together. I couldn't find an answer from google. Perhaps I asked wrong questions. This question mainly to Alan, but if anyone knows the answer, please help. Thanks.

Not to worry, Emails are back up :)

When doing the the blend-shapes on the character tutorial for the 2nd year I came across an unexpected error, when trying to open 'All Inputs', it came up an error, and it just wouldnt open. As shown in the picture: Inputs List: Error: Knowing if I couldnt sort out this error I could not progress on the tutorial, i did a quick research on internet and found out that in maya 2011 hotfix3 ( the version I am using) it has a bug.   ( for easy solution I will post directly the solution from the website I found) "  Maya goes over a list of items to add, but is told to skip an item called SEPARATOR; doing so messes up the list count and now Maya goes from list item 0 to 2 directly, and can’t find row1. This only happens if you have layers in the scene. The solution is to remove SEPARATOR from the list, which is pretty simple: Quit Maya In scripts/others/detachHistoryTable.mel change tokenize (  $all ,  $list  );   $n  = ...

I am trying to find the new brief on MyUCA but the Unit Materials folder is empty. (o_o) ?

Since our next project includes script writing for a story i think this might be helpful. http://celtx.com/#/desktop/nav-overview This is a free software for both PC and MAC. This is a story script writing software that i used in film course a few years back. It's more easy and fluent to write a script in than a normal text editor.

It's Reading Week 2011, which means you're at the halfway stage of year one of Ba Hons CG Arts & Animation. I hope you're nice and relaxed after the rigors of Unit 3. The first semester of any degree course is a big culture shock and intellectual leap. Not everyone makes it and not everyone enjoys it, but hey, you did it, and it's time to take stock. I n just 15 weeks, you have: evolved from dice to digital sets evolved from digital daubs to matte paintings written 6,000 words (approx) of degree-level essay (that's three quarters of a dissertation!) experienced 21 important films & written 21 degree-level reviews You are now: an improving cg artist an improving 2d artist an improving writer an improving researcher an improving critic increasingly literate increasingly confident increasingly credible and 15 academic weeks from your 2nd year... You should be impressed. I am. Congratulations - you've completed one sixth of your degree! But let...

Your Unit 4 Timetable is now available via myUCA/Story-telling/Unit Information

Can someone just refreshen my memory. For the lip-syncing tutorials, do we have to do all 11 of the 11 second club sound clips or just 1 (or some)? I really can't remember and would like to finish them up.

It's time to reveal the purpose of that mysterious draw of random numbers at Friday's crit. Okay, so you've got your 3 story components, but as part of your story development process, you'll be working with a writing partner - a sounding board and 'critical friend' - someone who will follow your progress specifically and help with lateral thinking, idea generation and constructive feedback The numbers drawn from the 'blue box' relate to your respective positions on the year group register - and the resulting partnerships are as follows: Chris + Paul-Arthur Adam + Molly Oliver + Sasha Dmitrij + Naomi Sean D-R + Domantas Jonathan S + Max Jonathan P + Paul L Conor + Oriskolade Sam + Nat Dayle + Kay D Ryan + Katy Andriana + Michael H Roy + Alex Z-P Lyn-Dae + Dan Justin + Sean B + Aidan Note - this isn't a group project - you are pre-producing your own 1 minute animation - but you are required to collaborate and work in partnership. Of course, the spec...

Hey everyone, I pondered on whether or not to post this on here, or my personal blog, but I hoped this would give me the most responses. Correct me if wrong, but as of Friday, 1st, 2nd and 3rd years all came to the end of their projects. Now, after a much needed 12 hour sleep, I've found today rather slow and it almost seems weird not to be panicking or staying up until birds chirp. What I want to ask, how does anyone manage to keep up the momentum that you build up towards the end of a project, and carry it on into the next? I enjoyed the hustle and bustle of a sharp deadline and don't want to 'forget' what it was like due to a week off. Any thoughts welcome. Thanks. Elliot.

Is it possible to put a project from maya 2011 onto maya 2010, only I use maya 2011 and wanted to bring my work in to collage if I get stuck on it. Can it be done or is it just not backwards compatible?

Timetables are now available for download from MyUCA. Year 2: Transcription \ Unit Materials Year 3: Major Project \ Unit Materials

Let's do our best everyone!

If anyone is up for it (and not to tired after the workload thrown at us this unit)  Another Chinese Fest is taking place; things you should know: - Costs £12 for the All you can eat - (There is a cash point near the shop) - Cosmo is better than the one we used to go to, shown to us by Kayle/ Kay D -Possible Dance Central gaming (depending on tiredness of participants) Hopefully I'll see you there ~

Has anyone else noticed that when you do a google image search for the films in this unit, some of the first pictures you find are from reviews other people in the course have done?  It seems like we could be in danger of becoming recursive...

Can i use 2011 powerpont to show my work On the uni comps. Or do i have to use 2010 To show my work.

I TOLD YOU NOT TO WATCH IT IN 3D BHARATHI

The technical class groups have been re-divided to balance out numbers. Please familiarise yourself with your new group.

This is a question thats probably been asked before, if so I am sorry, but what exactly do we need to have on our presentation tomorrow?

Having a little bit of trouble adding a UV grid lambert to my tree for my scene. It seems to not accept it and stays the same when adding the lambert any thoughts please? Thanks

Soon you will be able to sleep again! In the meantime, crank this up and keep going!

While not retro, I though I'd post something relevant to 2nd years' projects as we're all wrapping up our own horror trailers for tomorrow. RUBBER is the story of Robert, an inanimate tire that has been abandoned in the desert, and suddenly and inexplicably comes to life. As Robert roams the bleak landscape, he discovers that he possesses terrifying telepathic powers that give him the ability to destroy anything he wishes without having to move. At first content to prey on small desert creatures and various discarded objects, his attention soon turns to humans, especially a beautiful and mysterious woman who crosses his path. Leaving a swath of destruction across the desert landscape, Robert becomes a chaotic force to be reckoned with, and truly a movie villain for the ages. Directed by legendary electro musician Quentin Dupieux (Steak, Nonfilm), aka Mr. Oizo, RUBBER is a smart, funny and wholly original tribute to the cinematic concept of no reason. Needless to say, this s...

Just looking around at some scripts, some nice one out there to save render/personal time.This one allows you to render multiple files at one time. This is also helpfull if you need to render more than one camera.  jawa9000.com/Technical/batch/batch-rendering.htm It is also possible to just close maya while batch rendering, this is also good as you can allow more memory for maya to use. Give them a go, it is worth it!

Is there a simple straightforward way of making fog in Maya? I've looked at a couple of tutorials online but none have been very clear. There's mention of an env_fog node hidden somewhere but I can't find it :(

On behalf of my coursemates, WE ARE IN DESPERATE NEED OF COMPUTERS for the continuasion of the final 3D scene! Most of them are locked or rendering which makes it hard for them to finish their work on time. Can anybody help with this situation??? :(

Thursday 20th January in Lecture Theartre 1 Death of the Author When a studio submits a piece of work to a competition it becomes disconnected from its creators and therefore any further explanation. It's purpose is to be the best that it can be in the eyes of the judges. In essence the work speaks for itself. Therefore the Narrative Critique will run as follows... The Critique & Order of Events 9 am: File Transfer - All studios to meet in Lecture theatre 1. - Work transferred onto the main computer (Make sure your final trailer is clearly labelled and plays). 9.45am: Leave the Room - All studios to leave lecture theatre 1 10 am: Review - Phil & Alan to review work in private. 11am – 1pm: Studio Presentations - All studios to return, present work, and peer assess. Friday 21st January: Upload - All Studios to upload their final trailers to their Group blogs. Reading Week: Judging Panel - A panel of judges will convene, review the work, & present awards. Notes on studio ...

I opened the scene I was working on in uni today and all my texturing is gone (or hiding?). I tried the wireframe and all the rest of the modes but it doesn't seem to be there. Do I have to open the file differently or something?

For all of you who have chosen to switch to Maya 2011 When creating a render node, such as a file (for textures) make sure to right click on the button and choose 'Create Texture' (See Image). This is a slightly hidden variation on previous versions which featured three radial buttons in plain sight.

I haven't got there yet but I was wondering how the UV grid works in relation to texturing. I understand that the UVs flatten an objects faces down so they can be exported and textured but does the entire scene have to fit into the one grid seen in the UV Editor or does maya figure out the correct UVs for each model when a texture is put into the Hypershade? Theres no chance everything in my scene will fit into one grid nicely thats for sure!

very strange problem this time.. When I smooth my models head , eyebrows disappear from the surface: And end up being here notably far away from the character himself :/ Just a note to void canvas studio members, I'm rerendering one scene because no expressions can be seen as the face doesnt have the eybrows... It hapens only when I smooth the head. How to fix it?

It's been a while, but it's time once again for a round-up of what's caught your tutor's eye this week in the CGAA bloggosphere. In truth, I don't expect anyone to read the first PWTM of 2011 - at least, not until deadlines are done and dusted - but, for posterity's sake (and for those quiet moments following your RedBull come down), here you go... In a change to the usual order of things, let's start with Tom Beg and his Garden of Earthly Delights . It won't have escaped your attention that, f or the past 14 weeks, Tom has been firmly ensconced in the CG Baseroom from dawn 'til dusk working hard on bringing his CG recreation of Bosch's idiosyncratic painting to bustling, sensual life. He recently posted his final animation - minus soundtrack and After-Effects accoutrements. In truth, he's not entirely happy with it - not yet. I guess that means he'll be back in the baseroom first thing Monday morning... Raj, meanwhile, has comp...

Mustard Kid Show Reel 2011 from David Keefe on Vimeo .

With one week to go before the end of Semester 1 - and major deadlines for all CGAA students - it's a stressful, fraught and sleep-depriving time for everyone. You're up-to-your-eyeballs, I appreciate, but it's worth just taking a few moments to revisit your respective project briefs and supporting information to ensure you're clear on what you need to submit come deadline day. Don't fall foul of an omission, blindspot or criteria technicality. You need to deliver what's on the brief and in the formats etc. requested - no exceptions. Year one CGAA students should visit: http://ucarochester-cgartsandanimation.blogspot.com/2010/12/fao-cgaa-year-1-unit-3environment-essay.html http://ucarochester-cgartsandanimation.blogspot.com/2011/01/fao-cgaa-yr-1-unit-3environment-crit.html http://ucarochester-cgartsandanimation.blogspot.com/2011/01/fao-cgaa-yr-1-unit-3environment-crit_12.html Year Two CGAA students should visit: http://ucarochester-cgartsandanimation.blogsp...