In this section you will find out about my daily college blogs and what was worked on each day. Please click the "Projects" heading then select a category you wish to look at.
Monday 14th September 2020
College began again for the year. We had 1 lesson today which was predominately explaining the first units (9-11) and what we are expected to do in the first term. We set up our chosen websites and were told what to start adding. I started by adding a title and introducing myself. I explained who I was, what I wanted to do with my life and why.
Tuesday 15th September 2020
Today was a longer day. I did a lot of work on my website and published it as a fully working link. I started writing my Journey and story as well as adding my portfolio section with pictures from my first year work. I created all the logos and the Walle image on the home page, along with an inspirational quote from one of my favourite animators Pete Docter. I added this little image as I thought it would be a nice addition to the page and gave the page some colour and life. I finished the day by writing this blog and adding the rest of the home page images.
Wednesday 16th September 2020
Today I continued all day with my website and added lots of new sections to the website. I also sent an email to friends and family to get feedback and criticism. I received very positive reviews so continued writing. Today I also added all "thumbnails" for each page completed so far.
Friday 19th September 2020
The final day of first the week saw us looking at the UCAS website. we signed up and had a talk about the UCAS/University process and started looking at personal statements and the requirements of one.
Monday 21st September 2020
Today we started our UCAS personal statement worksheets. This took all day as it was a short day.
Tuesday 22nd September 2020
So my UCAS worksheet didn't save... I had to start again. This took until lunchtime and I just completed all the questions and sections asked. For the final lesson I wrote my blogs, continued with the "Why Pixar? " section and started the list of hardest things to animate.
Wednesday 23rd September 2020
Today I worked on my website all day. I created a section in the "Why Pixar?" section which talked about small details and improvements across 25 years of Pixar. I started from the beginning and got all the way to the Good Dinosaur.
Friday 25th September 2020
Today I started my research on Universities and created the "applying for higher educations" section on my website. I then researched into the California Institute of the Arts and why I wanted to attend here.
Monday 28th September 2020
Today I started my research on another University and continued the "applying for higher educations" section on my website. I researched into Gobelins, a school in Paris, and why I wanted to attend here.
Tuesday 29th September 2020
Today I again continued my research on another University and continued the "applying for higher educations" section on my website. I researched into Bournemouth and why I wanted to attend here.
Wednesday 30th September 2020
Today I finished the "Why Pixar" section
Friday 02th October 2020
Today I continued the industry inspirations section and wrote about one of my inspirations Jacob Frey.
Monday 05th October 2020
Today I continued all day with my website and added lots of new sections to the new Animation Studios folder, which replaced the Why Pixar section. I made this decision because I didn't want to come across as a person who wants nothing but Pixar. This way I have more chance of reaching more company's and looking interested in the industry rather than set place.
Tuesday 06th October 2020
Today was art day, we did some life drawing and character creation and were told to create a picture of someone or something we valued, I drew my grandad.
Wednesday 7th October 2020
Today I continued the industry inspirations section and wrote about Ed Catmull, a very successful professor and computer pioneer who helped the creation and co founding of Pixar.
Friday 9th October 2020
Today I started my research on another University and continued the "applying for higher educations" section on my website. I researched into Sheridan, Canada, and why I wanted to attend here.
Monday 12th October 2020
Today I worked all day on my website doing my Industry Inspirations sections, and wrote about two of my inspirational artists from the Disney studios, I also did more on the animation studios section too.
Tuesday 13th October 2020
Wednesday 14th October 2020
Friday 16th October 2020
Monday 19th October 2020
Today I finished my UCAS ready to send off. This included the finishing of my personal statement to which you can find under the progressions section above.
Tuesday 20th October 2020
Today was art day again, we did some concept art today and worked on the pre production for Units 9-11.
Wednesday 21st October 2020
Today I continued with pre production for Units 9-11. I came up with 2 short motion clip ideas, one of a slime ball in 2D dropping from one surface onto another and seeping through a drain. Then the second is a short clip of a 3D modelled robot that will walk into shot, wave and leave again. These will hopefully show my skills in 2D and 3D software's.
Friday 23rd October 2020
HALF TERM
November 2020
This whole month was production of my project, I modelled both characters and with help from my tutor Simon managed to get them fully rigged ready for animation. When not in college I continued with my websites finishing off pages like Careers for me and created the Illumination/Rovio section on my website. I also focused on art and did a fair bit of sketchbook work to better my portfolio.
December 1st-4th 2020
This week was a week at home so I continued to model assets and sets like the kitchen, sponge, top hat and bow tie. These were also then all textured. I then continued with my website and also worked on my sketchbook again.
December 7th-11th 2020
This week we finished rigging my characters completely in Maya and imported them into my scene. I started animating my kitchen scene and rendered out the footage which took most of Friday.
December 14th-18th 2020
This week went back to online again for our final week in college before Christmas. Over the Christmas period I will be animating all my scenes fully ready to edit together for the January deadline. I began to animate to the voice over my actor and friend Max recorded and edited each scene in Premiere Pro with sounds and effects. I tried to create a fire effect in After Effects but it caused me pain and did not work how I intended, even following a tutorial.
December 19th- December 23rd 2020
This week I focused on the larger scenes and tackled the therapists scene, to which I loved creating. I also created the builders/demolition experts scene and loved how the final render turned out. Overall I wasn't happy with the builders scene and I felt it could've been done better. I also created the musicians scene and messed about animating a free rig of Walle I had downloaded and put in the scene.
December 27th-30th 2020
This week I created all the shorter in between scenes. This included the opening and closing scenes. The opening scene really caused me some mental battle as Maya was not allowing me to import the audio in so I had to animate each mouth movement by ear. This was difficult because the timing was really hard to grasp and led me to reanimating for hours. I also animated the cleaners/bin men, cashiers and the boredom scene. This scene took all day and is the biggest scene in terms of asset creation.
January 1st-4th 2021
This week was due to be the final week before my deadline but due to Covid we were given a 1 week extension. I reanimated a few scenes that look a bit odd and created a scene of warehouse boxes and a waiter style scene. These were annoyingly done on a new device as my regular PC decided to break. These scenes replaced the talking scene "We are robots who are trying to find a purpose in life". This was due to time, ease and my mental ability to cope on my new device...
January 4th-8th 2021
This week was entirely focused on improvements. It started with website improvements and after I published my project I got some feedback. I was missing sound effects. So this was my next step. I went back to Premiere Pro to edit and began getting free sound effects. I added these into the scenes that needed more sound like the kitchen. I then took out the fades to black and replaced the demolition expert fade to a new setting. I took the end frame of Noland into Photoshop and added a layer of a low opacity black paint. I think this turned out very well and shows a layer of soot from the explosion that backfired. I also created a new feedback form for those who watched my film to see what they liked, disliked and what could be proved upon.
January 11th-17th 2021
This week we were given a new project. We have just under 2 months to create a channel ident or advertisement. I immediately new what I was going to do so spent the week storyboarding, concepting and finding textures. This week the college also sent out my university applications!
January 18th-22nd 2021
This week I had one university come back to me so spent the beginning of the week created a virtual portfolio and scanning in all my pieces to then be able to send them off. I added the photos into a small demo reel and sent them off to my first university. I spent the rest of the week creating the vending machine which will play the main role in my ident.
January 25th-29th 2021
This week I created the basic set for my piece and textured most of it and finished editing my portfolios. This week I also learnt how to make things glow and emit light aswell as shine and become metals. This, I think made my project look a lot more realistic. I also exported and rendered the opening shots of my project which are cinematic camera shots.
February 1st- 5th 2021
This week I found a free character rig of Mikey from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and I decided I would use him as my character. I spent the week animating him, the rig wasn't great so I had a fair bit of trouble and the textures started playing up. In the end I managed to get the choice scene, falling scene and end scene all rendered which took so long to do. I hate working on a surface pro and need my laptop back asap...
February 8th-12th 2021
Everything decided to break this week... nothing worked and Maya decided to corrupt all my files so I couldn't actually continue with my project, I had to work with what was already exported...
February 15th-19th- HALF TERM
This week was hectic... I had to decide to scrap the ident and change it to an advert to better suit what I had already exported. This meant I spent a few days trying to edit together my final piece and came to my final conclusion. The video turned out great and I got the wonderful Louis Doran to voice my project for me. This week was also spent creating my ArtStation account as I had a Uni interview on the Friday.
February 22nd-26th 2021
This week is release week. On Monday I released my project to the world and started gathering feedback from friends and family. The week mostly consisted of website work as well as waiting to hear from universities.
College began again for the year. We had 1 lesson today which was predominately explaining the first units (9-11) and what we are expected to do in the first term. We set up our chosen websites and were told what to start adding. I started by adding a title and introducing myself. I explained who I was, what I wanted to do with my life and why.
Tuesday 15th September 2020
Today was a longer day. I did a lot of work on my website and published it as a fully working link. I started writing my Journey and story as well as adding my portfolio section with pictures from my first year work. I created all the logos and the Walle image on the home page, along with an inspirational quote from one of my favourite animators Pete Docter. I added this little image as I thought it would be a nice addition to the page and gave the page some colour and life. I finished the day by writing this blog and adding the rest of the home page images.
Wednesday 16th September 2020
Today I continued all day with my website and added lots of new sections to the website. I also sent an email to friends and family to get feedback and criticism. I received very positive reviews so continued writing. Today I also added all "thumbnails" for each page completed so far.
Friday 19th September 2020
The final day of first the week saw us looking at the UCAS website. we signed up and had a talk about the UCAS/University process and started looking at personal statements and the requirements of one.
Monday 21st September 2020
Today we started our UCAS personal statement worksheets. This took all day as it was a short day.
Tuesday 22nd September 2020
So my UCAS worksheet didn't save... I had to start again. This took until lunchtime and I just completed all the questions and sections asked. For the final lesson I wrote my blogs, continued with the "Why Pixar? " section and started the list of hardest things to animate.
Wednesday 23rd September 2020
Today I worked on my website all day. I created a section in the "Why Pixar?" section which talked about small details and improvements across 25 years of Pixar. I started from the beginning and got all the way to the Good Dinosaur.
Friday 25th September 2020
Today I started my research on Universities and created the "applying for higher educations" section on my website. I then researched into the California Institute of the Arts and why I wanted to attend here.
Monday 28th September 2020
Today I started my research on another University and continued the "applying for higher educations" section on my website. I researched into Gobelins, a school in Paris, and why I wanted to attend here.
Tuesday 29th September 2020
Today I again continued my research on another University and continued the "applying for higher educations" section on my website. I researched into Bournemouth and why I wanted to attend here.
Wednesday 30th September 2020
Today I finished the "Why Pixar" section
Friday 02th October 2020
Today I continued the industry inspirations section and wrote about one of my inspirations Jacob Frey.
Monday 05th October 2020
Today I continued all day with my website and added lots of new sections to the new Animation Studios folder, which replaced the Why Pixar section. I made this decision because I didn't want to come across as a person who wants nothing but Pixar. This way I have more chance of reaching more company's and looking interested in the industry rather than set place.
Tuesday 06th October 2020
Today was art day, we did some life drawing and character creation and were told to create a picture of someone or something we valued, I drew my grandad.
Wednesday 7th October 2020
Today I continued the industry inspirations section and wrote about Ed Catmull, a very successful professor and computer pioneer who helped the creation and co founding of Pixar.
Friday 9th October 2020
Today I started my research on another University and continued the "applying for higher educations" section on my website. I researched into Sheridan, Canada, and why I wanted to attend here.
Monday 12th October 2020
Today I worked all day on my website doing my Industry Inspirations sections, and wrote about two of my inspirational artists from the Disney studios, I also did more on the animation studios section too.
Tuesday 13th October 2020
Wednesday 14th October 2020
Friday 16th October 2020
Monday 19th October 2020
Today I finished my UCAS ready to send off. This included the finishing of my personal statement to which you can find under the progressions section above.
Tuesday 20th October 2020
Today was art day again, we did some concept art today and worked on the pre production for Units 9-11.
Wednesday 21st October 2020
Today I continued with pre production for Units 9-11. I came up with 2 short motion clip ideas, one of a slime ball in 2D dropping from one surface onto another and seeping through a drain. Then the second is a short clip of a 3D modelled robot that will walk into shot, wave and leave again. These will hopefully show my skills in 2D and 3D software's.
Friday 23rd October 2020
HALF TERM
November 2020
This whole month was production of my project, I modelled both characters and with help from my tutor Simon managed to get them fully rigged ready for animation. When not in college I continued with my websites finishing off pages like Careers for me and created the Illumination/Rovio section on my website. I also focused on art and did a fair bit of sketchbook work to better my portfolio.
December 1st-4th 2020
This week was a week at home so I continued to model assets and sets like the kitchen, sponge, top hat and bow tie. These were also then all textured. I then continued with my website and also worked on my sketchbook again.
December 7th-11th 2020
This week we finished rigging my characters completely in Maya and imported them into my scene. I started animating my kitchen scene and rendered out the footage which took most of Friday.
December 14th-18th 2020
This week went back to online again for our final week in college before Christmas. Over the Christmas period I will be animating all my scenes fully ready to edit together for the January deadline. I began to animate to the voice over my actor and friend Max recorded and edited each scene in Premiere Pro with sounds and effects. I tried to create a fire effect in After Effects but it caused me pain and did not work how I intended, even following a tutorial.
December 19th- December 23rd 2020
This week I focused on the larger scenes and tackled the therapists scene, to which I loved creating. I also created the builders/demolition experts scene and loved how the final render turned out. Overall I wasn't happy with the builders scene and I felt it could've been done better. I also created the musicians scene and messed about animating a free rig of Walle I had downloaded and put in the scene.
December 27th-30th 2020
This week I created all the shorter in between scenes. This included the opening and closing scenes. The opening scene really caused me some mental battle as Maya was not allowing me to import the audio in so I had to animate each mouth movement by ear. This was difficult because the timing was really hard to grasp and led me to reanimating for hours. I also animated the cleaners/bin men, cashiers and the boredom scene. This scene took all day and is the biggest scene in terms of asset creation.
January 1st-4th 2021
This week was due to be the final week before my deadline but due to Covid we were given a 1 week extension. I reanimated a few scenes that look a bit odd and created a scene of warehouse boxes and a waiter style scene. These were annoyingly done on a new device as my regular PC decided to break. These scenes replaced the talking scene "We are robots who are trying to find a purpose in life". This was due to time, ease and my mental ability to cope on my new device...
January 4th-8th 2021
This week was entirely focused on improvements. It started with website improvements and after I published my project I got some feedback. I was missing sound effects. So this was my next step. I went back to Premiere Pro to edit and began getting free sound effects. I added these into the scenes that needed more sound like the kitchen. I then took out the fades to black and replaced the demolition expert fade to a new setting. I took the end frame of Noland into Photoshop and added a layer of a low opacity black paint. I think this turned out very well and shows a layer of soot from the explosion that backfired. I also created a new feedback form for those who watched my film to see what they liked, disliked and what could be proved upon.
January 11th-17th 2021
This week we were given a new project. We have just under 2 months to create a channel ident or advertisement. I immediately new what I was going to do so spent the week storyboarding, concepting and finding textures. This week the college also sent out my university applications!
January 18th-22nd 2021
This week I had one university come back to me so spent the beginning of the week created a virtual portfolio and scanning in all my pieces to then be able to send them off. I added the photos into a small demo reel and sent them off to my first university. I spent the rest of the week creating the vending machine which will play the main role in my ident.
January 25th-29th 2021
This week I created the basic set for my piece and textured most of it and finished editing my portfolios. This week I also learnt how to make things glow and emit light aswell as shine and become metals. This, I think made my project look a lot more realistic. I also exported and rendered the opening shots of my project which are cinematic camera shots.
February 1st- 5th 2021
This week I found a free character rig of Mikey from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and I decided I would use him as my character. I spent the week animating him, the rig wasn't great so I had a fair bit of trouble and the textures started playing up. In the end I managed to get the choice scene, falling scene and end scene all rendered which took so long to do. I hate working on a surface pro and need my laptop back asap...
February 8th-12th 2021
Everything decided to break this week... nothing worked and Maya decided to corrupt all my files so I couldn't actually continue with my project, I had to work with what was already exported...
February 15th-19th- HALF TERM
This week was hectic... I had to decide to scrap the ident and change it to an advert to better suit what I had already exported. This meant I spent a few days trying to edit together my final piece and came to my final conclusion. The video turned out great and I got the wonderful Louis Doran to voice my project for me. This week was also spent creating my ArtStation account as I had a Uni interview on the Friday.
February 22nd-26th 2021
This week is release week. On Monday I released my project to the world and started gathering feedback from friends and family. The week mostly consisted of website work as well as waiting to hear from universities.