Computer Animation Arts

Hello!   As Phil has already introduced me, and most of you either know me already or have at least had me poking around your blogs for the last week or so, I won’t go into too much of an introduction here, but will keep it short and sweet. So, I could kick off with a Phil-esque ‘Who the f@*k is Jackie Hagan’ spiel, but I’m far too ladylike for that!  But I guess you might still want to know why I am here, picking your film reviews to bits and generally dishing out advice, even when it’s probably not wanted… So, me in a nutshell – I have always seen myself as a ‘crafter’ rather than an artist, although I do paint too, and I’m certainly   not particularly academic, but in 2005 I took the big step of undertaking an Access course in Art and Design at UCA on a part-time basis, just to see if I could do it.   I discovered I could, and enjoyed myself so much, that the following year I took the even bigger step of packing up work, and embarked on an Honours degree i...

Dear Dissertation Group 2 - Please could you email me your 'Framing Practice/Dissertation Proposal' Assignments and feedback sheets from last year to pgomm@ucreative.ac.uk today/tomorrow so I can have a quick read of your ideas so far, so ensuring that we use your half hour slots efficiently and constructively.  Please note your time slots too.  See you Tuesday! 9.30 Emma Foster  10.00 Anita Gill  10.30 Sasha Hart  11.00 Michael Holman  11.30 Joey Ku  12.00 Paul Lavey  12.30 Urvashi Lele

See below: your Toolkit groups have been revised in light of final student numbers.  For most of you, it means no change from your previous groupings, but please take note if you have moved from one group to another and how this effects your timetable more generally.  The revised group lists are viewable too on myUCA under CG Artist's Toolkit/Handbook & Timetable .  Please use your network of creative partners to ensure all your classmates have seen this information in readiness for next week.   Please note that this Monday's Photoshop classes with Jordan Buckner are in DM4 on the Lwr 2nd Floor.  Don't worry - I'll be on hand tomorrow morning to direct you.  Assemble in the CGAA baseroom at 9.50am and I'll show you the way :)

Wednesday, 9th October is your Cinematic Spaces Online Greenlight Review (OGR) Your OGR is to be presented as a single Scribd presentation on your blog, beginning with your name, date, and project title. If you are still yet to get to grips with Scribd go here for some easy-to-follow instructions.  I suggest you save your documents as PDFs before uploading to Scribd, as this should mitigate against formating glitches. When pasting Scribd embed code into your blog, you must first select the HTML mode tab, then switch back to 'Compose' to view the embedded presentation. Your OGR presentations should be uploaded to your blogs by 8pm on Wednesday 9th October. Written feedback will follow as a comments on your OGR post and will take between 1 and 3 days. Cinematic Spaces OGR: What do you need to present? 1) A short illustrated synopsis of your book(s) to include plot, author biography, social and cultural context (i.e. when the book was written and ...

Hello everyone! For my final year's project, I am working on making an animation about Edward Lear's poem, The Owl and The Pussycat. I will be posting work in progress quite often on the blog that I have created for this project called Sir Pea Greene Studios...you can visit it at http://sirpeagreene.blogspot.co.uk/ http://sirpeagreene.blogspot.co.uk/ Please do check it out and feel free to give me your opinion..it is always useful. If you want to receive updates on the project, then Sir Pea Greene also has a twitter account which will inform you of any new posts that go up. Follow Sir P. Greene Studios on Twitter @SirPGreene Sir P. Greene also has a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/sirpgreenestudios so please do click like (because it would mean the world to me) and tell everyone about it! (Please? THANKS!!) Thanks for reading!! Love, Le

I'm coming a little late to the Ryan Gosling fan club.  I'm still yet to watch Drive (2011) -  but I did watch Derek Cianfrance's  The Place Beyond The Pines  (2012 ) recently, which I enjoyed for what was quaint and reactionary about its macho romanticism and reverence for the motorcycle as the signifier of  uncomplicated masculinity and Thanatos made literal.  It comes as little surprise to me that Gosling is the straight man's crush du jour .  He is Brad Pitt's Tyler Durden to Edward Norton's average Joe.  Ryan Gosling as the motorcyclist bank-robber in The Place Beyond The Pines (2013) Ryan Gosling as Julian in Only God Forgives (2013) In all truthfulness, it wasn't Gosling's blank-faced, shell-shocked machismo that had me so transfixed in Nicolas Winding Refn's  Only God Forgives - no, it was Kristen Scott Thomas's terrifying Crystal, the Gosling character's castrating, terrible mother, the monstrou...

Now that you're second years, I'd like to extend to you individual authorship permissions for publishing  content on the CGAA group blog.  All you need do is send me the email address you use for your individual blog, and I'll use this address to invite you as an author on the group blog.  The expectation is, now you're experienced bloggers, you'll share content with the course community via the various categories ( One-A-Day , The Supplement , CGAA Cinema etc.), and use this space proactively in terms of problem-solving and sharing best practice.  I look forward to receiving your emails, and you can look forward to receiving an authorship invite in return.

Here is an amazing example of a 3D animation that has successfully retained its 2D quality through the characters :) Rob 'n' Ron from Tumblehead on Vimeo . Rob'n Ron - Tour de Rigging from Tumblehead on Vimeo . Rob 'n' Ron - Making of from Tumblehead on Vimeo .

Hello 1st years! Great to see some of you grabbing the bull by the horns and getting your first reviews out there! :) I just wanted to make a quick general point - when I provide you with feedback, please don't worry about going back and editing the review to fit my suggestions; just take the advice on board, and apply to the next review :)  You have way too much to be getting on with, to keep re-editing the same film review to get it perfect.  Also, if you edit the existing post, we lose the record of how you are progressing... Looking forward to reading some more in the very near future!

H ello E veryone, I've been meaning to get cracking on this post for a couple of days but kept thinking I had so much to say which set my inclination to send this to the back burner. However, today Alan asked me why the hell I had a camera out so I figured id state all of my intentions and stop being so damn mysterious. Now I'm not going to dilly dally here there are a few videos which are a bit slow to get into so I'll give you the highlights here in text and you can watch videos if your bored... or need to be bored. First and foremost I have undertaken a mini side project for the next 365 Days... it is called *Drum Roll* "the 365 Day Project" http://www.365dp.co.uk . This project basically requires that I document student projects as well as my personal Polydoodle Pictures collaboration project with video and photography. There will also be a number of additional tutorial videos and some funny stuff (nothing dodgy don't worry) . There is also ...

Hello Everyone in our CG Community!!! It's the first week back for us 3rd years which means my studio and I can finally announce ourselves! So introducing.... This is a collaborative project between: Chrissie Peters -  http://small-brown-dog.blogspot.co.uk/ David 'Stitch' Vandepeer -  http://stitchshift.blogspot.co.uk/ Sammy Butler -  http://sammybutler.blogspot.co.uk/ We'll be working together for the whole year! So please follow our new joint blog to learn what we're doing and to watch our creative process! http://polydoodlepictures.blogspot.co.uk/ Thank-you :-)

It's a UCA Open Day on Saturday 28th September.  I'll be in the CGAA Baseroom from 10am until 3pm.  Open Days always work better if actual students are about and looking busy, so you're welcome to join me and make use of the facilities - including the blue room and the red room.  I'm giving a talk to prospective students and parents at 12 noon in the base room - so no heckling! - but if you do come in, be prepared to have a chat with people if a chat is what they want!  

As seen on Flooby Nooby - 10 Top Tips For Perfecting Your Showreel

And so it begins, ladies and gentlemen - your first undergraduate project brief, and your first foray into the fast-paced, high-energy culture of Ba Hons CG Arts & Animation!  I'm not alone in looking forward to seeing how you respond to the challenge of your Cinematic Spaces project, but before you get stuck in, just take a few moments to take a look at these examples of previous student work.  By clicking on their names, you'll be able to view all blog posts associated with their respective Cinematic Spaces projects.   Don't get preoccupied with the polish of the final paintings (that will be you too in five weeks), give your attention instead to their methodology - that is, how  they arrived at the final three paintings.  Review their research and reflect on its presentation.  Take time to think about the ways in which the students have organised, presented and published their bodies of work.   I also want you to read some of their film...