Computer Animation Arts

Your Time Machine theory timetable and brief are now available on myUCA timetable @ Unit Information brief @ Unit Materials See you all @ 11am Lecture Theatre 1 on Thursday

Hey Guys! Found some interesting stuff that might help when it comes to storyboarding or animatics. There is a show on Cartoon Network called Adventure Time. Some of you may know it (its amazing, watch it) Well they release a lot of storyboards and pre production content for Adventure Time neatly packaged in a scribed format. "Evicted" Storyboard This is the board for 'Evicted' Its pretty useful to look at some of the directions and how you could use their techniques. I will certainly be using there format and a cleaned up version of their board, which I will upload at the bottom. Also they have done some animatics. And to add on top of this, they also release backgrounds and Character Designs- Here are a selection. So yeah. Interesting stuff. Here are some links for your eyes. Adventure Time Storyboards Adventure Time Animatics Adventure Time Art Art of Adventure Time Thanks Callum

To all First Years:  unfortunately life class this evening (Tuesday 31st January) is cancelled due to unavailability of both model and teaching support staff.

No - you haven't fallen asleep and missed Unit 4!  For Unit 5: Animation, you will be creating an original one minute HAND DRAWN animation.  You will be working with animator Meg Bisineer - and she runs a very tight ship!  You need to order the following materials in readiness for Unit 5.  It might seem a long way off, but please don't wait, as delivery can take longer than expected. The materials you need to order are listed below - and hyperlinked to the supplier's website. 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 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 ...

Okay - the following clip contains repeated use of the f-word, so if you're easily offended by potty-mouthed VFX artists, this is not the Youtube clip for you.  However, if you want to smile wryly and knowingly, press play...

Recently there was represented enchanted edition of The "Witcher 2" developed by Polish studio "CD Projekt RED" that will come out this year on the 17th of April for XBOX. I think this new amazing CG intro might be interesting for most of us. ""The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings" features a thoroughly engrossing, mature storyline that defines a new standard for realistic,non-linear game narration."

Summary: Simple but stunning - Chris Marker’s seminal  La Jetée  is a short, experimental Science-fiction film. World War III has left Paris in ruins. Deep underground, scientists search for a way to secure mankind’s future by utilising time-travel. The film employs numerous innovative techniques which help to drive the bold narrative – most notably, the film is made up entirely of atmospheric still images. Influencing countless circles of science-fiction culture,  La Jetée  remains as fresh, thought-provoking and beautiful now, as it did in 1962. Analysis: “La Jetée‘s virtue is its immediate, haunting ability to evoke the emotions of love and desire; its use of photomontage poignantly conjures up the frozen moments that constitute memory. As the man remembers his past, and the woman, he relives it – never really sure if he is sent or if he is dreaming – one snapshot literally coming alive with his subjective colouring. The familiar SF framework is merely a narr...

Yes - another reminder re. your ISS & NSS survey duties!   Thanks to those students who have already completed theirs.  A few year 1/2 students have been wondering where to find their log-in details.   Your username and password have been emailed out to your ucreative email address - so that's where you need to look.  You're asked to simply copy/paste this info into the survey's login - to avoid any clerical error. Again - just to reaffirm the purpose of the surveys - they are the means by which you can assist the powers-that-be to  monitor teaching standards etc. on your degree courses. If you're reading this and thinking 'my input doesn't matter' - you're wrong.  For the resulting statistics to actually mean anything, they need to be representative of your student community - all of you. It only takes a short time, so find me a few moments and complete the survey - much appreciated. Go to the original notification here - wh...

With Year 2 CGAA students turning their imaginations towards their up-and-coming Transcription project, I've had a number of conversations about emphasis - i.e. what emphasis should and could Transcription take re. character design and/or animation.  Perhaps this short, sweet, bizarre and really rather wonderful animation by Alla Kinda for Pocoyo's director, Guillermo Garcia Carsi   might help clarify things - for here we have some striking character designs, the animation of which serves to further communicate their character (as opposed to 'tell a story' or satisfy a complex narrative structure).  This animation showcases series of small, perfectly-formed performances by a set of cute and quirky character designs.  Watch and learn (and maybe downsize your expectations of a 10 week project accordingly...). Doomed from AllaKinda on Vimeo .

Hi Phil, is there a timetable for this unit? As i'm not doing this one or the last I don't have the project folders in myUCA available to me but id still like to keep a check of what's on where kind of thing. Could you let me know please :)

Animation - The Art of Layout & Storyboarding by Mark T. Byrne has just been added to myUCA/Storytelling/Unit Materials.

I loved this - a macabre, animated, Neil Gaiman narrated overture to James Thurber's 1950 'fairy story', The 13 Clocks .   There is something wonderful about having a story told to you - and the painterly, faux-naive Phil Mulloy -style aesthetic is fabulous.  Enjoy.

Unit 3's preoccupation with all things 'unheimlich' may have been and gone, but I saw these installations by Nicola Yeoman and was so reminded of Urvashi's 'birdcage place' and Chrissie's dressing table-in-the-forest , that I wanted to share. "Yorkshire born Nicola Yeoman moved to London in 2001 and worked at the Guardian as a picture editor whilst studying furniture at Guildhall University. Her combined love of photography and her practical skills as a designer led to an accidental career as a set designer. Now, at first glance at least, it is her eye for the theatrical, honed and developed in this latter role, that most informs her current artworks. Yeoman’s childhood spent growing up on a farm in North Yorkshire is also a big influence on her work: the dens she made in barns are still evident in her work today. Her sets range from elaborate interiors, to junk yard sculptures and ethereal and dreamlike worlds. She uses a wide array of diffe...

Well done to all the 3rd years who handed in their dissertations today - one project to go, and you are off out into the real world! :)

Another deadline - another milestone!  Best of luck for tomorrow's dissertation hand-in!  And, whatever you do - enjoy yourself this weekend - do something lovely (and which doesn't require a Harvard citation!).

Boardwalk Empire showreel from Branstorm Digital , New York City. Brainstorm Digital is an Emmy award-winning effects house who service all the major Hollywood studios. Working for HBO they recently produced all the digital effects for Boardwalk Empire . Take a look at their recent show reels below:

I don't know what difference this makes, but it might... students whose first language is not English, (you know who you are! :)can put a post-it note on their dissertation stating as much... on both copies please! Good luck to all of you!

All Year 3 Students The Major Project brief is now available on MyUCA Click here and go to Unit Matrials.

Just to notify my colleagues who about to hand in the dissertation tomorrow, and need to print a plagiarism form. After some time of searching myUca, it is visible that the plagiarism form on the dissertation unit folder is not the right now. in order to download the right one, you will have to go a couple of subfolders. the right form will be at: Dissertation (30credits) > Unit Assessment> Help with Turn it in> (then the 4th or 5th option). the right plagiarism form will need to have the turnitin reference option on it. hope it helps!

I'm working on the barrel from the tutorial and it has spontaneously decided to become transparent. Up there is everything I've meddled with. I have no idea what I've done; if anyone can help I'd be much obliged. - Meg

Apologies for another post, but I just wanted to clarify a few things before printing. - When submitting to "turnitin", shll we include the bibliography? And do we have to print anything from turnitin to attatch to the dissertation? - The word limit allows for 10% over? Thanks, Jordan

Ok - The Oscars is unarguably one of the most horrible, pompous 'cultural' unevents to plague this planet BUT the award for Best Animated Short Films is usually quite interesting. I don't think anyone would disagree with me when say it's the standard of the work everyone on the course strives for. Trailers or full film below where possible... "Dimanche/Sunday" Patrick Doyon Dimanche / Sunday (trailer) from doiion on Vimeo . The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore "La Luna" Enrico Casarosa Clip from Pixar's short film La Luna by animatieblog "A Morning Stroll" Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe  - Trailer in link "Wild Life" Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby - FULL FILM HERE

Hi everyone - see below.  Unit 4 will see you writing your first script for a proposed one minute animation - the precise constituents of which will become apparent at Monday's briefing *Tutorphil laughs cruelly* . Fact: the challenge of creative script writing is made easier if you're bouncing your ideas off other people, and this time, your 'creative partnership' sees you working in a 'writing group' - your stories are separate, but you should seek to work closely with each other as you develop and devise your story ideas.  I want to see you functioning as a creative team; a few pleasantries via the blog or Facebook isn't going to cut it in Semester 2.  You're going to need each other! If you haven't done so already, you should be familiarising yourself with the Scriptwriting Resources available on myUCA/Storytelling/Unit Materials.  If you're reading this and already thinking you can wait until week one to make a start on Un...

Just a quick question, Im doing the tutorial Shot 1:Pan shot which I have done. How do I save the small film clip into a format I can put onto my blog? Its prob easy but I only know how to save images in maya. Any help would be very helpful :) Mike.S

Year 2 & 3 Timetables are now available on MyUCA Click here and go to Unit Materials Note: The Major Project briefing will take place on: Monday 30th January at 10am in the CG Arts baseroom Click here and go to Unit Materials Note: The Transcription briefing will take place on: Tuesday 31st January at 11am in the CG Arts baseroom Research Framing Practice Timetable Click here and go to Unit Materials

Something to get your mouths watering... Geek 2012 , featuring our very own 'Photoshop Phil'. Check out the 'Geek Game Jam Challenge' ... Go for it.

As some of you may remember, Tony Reeves, a Learning Technologist at UCA (he of the soothing voice on the Turnitin Video tutorials!), is looking at CG Arts and its use of blogs as a research subject.  Tony's interest is in 'communities of practice' - the way in which like-minded people work and support each other in specific disciplines and subject areas.   Tony wants more of your views on blog use on CGAA - and if you visit his latest blog post  - you'll see he's asked you a new question and if you could leave your response in the form of a comment, Tony would welcome your views.  For an idea of how it worked last time, see the original Q & A here . Tony will be asking more questions of you in coming days, so look out for the prompts via the group blog.  I know Tony is looking forward to hearing from you.  He'll be keen to hear from our new first years, most of whom are new to this blogging lark, but old hands and alumni are encourage...

I noticed the timetable for the next project is not on myUCA yet. Does the briefing on Tuesday start at 10:00 in lecture theater 1?

Hey Chris,  I just wanted to make a post to check some final details for the dissertation before hand in. - The word count is 8,000 - 10,000 words (with an allowance of 10% on either side) - Do footnotes count as part of this word count? - Do references count as part of this word count? For example, after a quote will  (Geist, 2007:238) be included in the word count? - I noticed that on myuca, it states that we need to hand in a submission form with each copy, is this available yet or is it simply the  plagiarism  form? Thank you

These were featured on the Guardian website and I thought they were absolutely FANTASTIC! These are new illustrations done by Anita and Elena Balbusso for The Folio Society's edition of Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel 'The Handmaid's Tale'.   I love the strong use of primary colour, particularly red - a classic symbol of power - which seems almost contradictory to the chiseled expressionist designs and the hard, modernist surface qualities these images possess.

Mind is a blank and was wondering if anyone could post up some popular cg companies that are out there, needed for dissertation, thanks.

Spectacular Science - the UCA / UoK collaboration, which saw CGAA graduates create original animations in response to Dr Peter Klappa's bioscientific scenarios - is featured in the latest edition of   3D Artist magazine .  Well done once again to Tom Beg , Simon Holland , Pol Winandy (& Jon Stewart!), and Sebastian Schauman - and if you haven't yet had a chance to see the resulting animations or want to revisit Tom's snake-hipped basidia, go here.

I have spent the last 2 hours trying to figure this out and I'm sure its so very simple but, on the tutorial of the texturing of the x ray and the water droplets  I'm having some problem in the hyper shader.  The part I'm stuck on is where there are several 'Ramp' which need to be connected to one of the 'place texture' that comes with the ramp when you select it. In the video he seems to hover his mouse over the place texture and then to the ramps which connect the two with a yollow line. How is this done? what is it that i have to press in order to do this as i have tried almost every but tern on my lap top with no luck. This is what it looks like if my wording is confusing. Thanks.

Student satisfaction surveys need your input now! This is your chance to have your say about your course, your campus and your experience at UCA.   The survey is important to our understanding of what you think about us. It informs us of the things we are doing well and where they need improving. Your feedback (good or bad!) is used to improve the student experience and the results become part of formal monitoring processes within the University and it’s important that all of you take the time to complete it for the views expressed to be representative. The ISS is for year 1 and 2 UG students and is administered in-house. The NSS is for year 3 students only and is administered externally by Ipsos-MORI. The survey asks you for a satisfaction rating via multiple-choice questions for the following areas: 1 Teaching 2 Learning 3 Assessment and Feedback 4 Personal Development 5 Work Placements (Not yet applicable to year 1/ year...