Maya - Final Week Tutorials

So this is the final week of tutorials for this project, below I have added my camera shots and animations which I finished by following the tutorials set by Alan.

The first tutorial I attempted was the Vertigo shot which I did using the translate and a camera roll. shots like this can be seen in the movie "Vertigo".

The next tutorial that I finished was the Pitch Shot, what I mean by this is a flying/falling man, a bit like Iron man.

 

The third camera shot I completed was the Dolly shot. As you can see in the playblast below, the classic sceneario of this shot would be used during a western standoff between two cowboys.

 

The center pivot bouncy ball

Paperclip chain

Crane Shot

Rolling bouncing ball

 

The video above is my 3rd ball tutorial, but for some reason it is'nt uploading. I have been having this problem all over the weekend, hopefully it will have processed by the time you look at it Alan.

Psycho Storyboard

This is my Storyboard of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 masterpiece "Psycho"

Sketchbook Work

Maya - Two and Three way Conversation,Pendulum Swing and Panning Shot

The video below displays the tutorial of the pendulum swing. By doing this tutorial I have found that animating is becoming more pleasing because I am more aware of the software. In other words I'm finding it easier and understanding it more.

 

The next thing I did was the Panning shot. A very easy but effective tutorial. I had one problem, I forgot to set the prefrences from stepped to linear which resulted in the final pan becoming cut at each point and basically not a free flowing pan shot which I wanted. I adjusted this and it worked perfectly, something I will remember in the future.

 

Two way conversation

Three way conversation

 

Todays Movie - Rope - not finished!

As a newbie to "Alfred Hitchcock" work, I have found myself becoming increasingly attatched by his scripts and placement of the camera. I know have a mild understanding of why Phil admires this man and his work.

 

("Rope" 1948)

This above is the theatrical trailer for the movie "Rope", however I believe that this trailer doesn't really do the film any justice. For this I would have to say you should take an hour or so from your scheduel and have a watch.

After having a good and much needed chat with Phil, I feel like a ton of weight has been lifted off my shoulders, which means back to work. In yesterdays lecture we watched a movie called "Rope", which was directed by the main man "Alfred Hitchcock" himself. The movie "Rope" was released in the USA on August the 28th 1948.

The plot of "Rope" follows the story of two close friends who believe themselves to be intellectually superior to the people closest to them. One of the men, "Brandon" is highly inspired by a philosophy based around the "Art of Murder", how to commit the perfect murder. Throughout the film characters begin to crack and thier arrogants leads to their demise. Have a watch for the full story.

Reviewers believe the movie "Rope" to be one of the most experimental and interesting movies ever produced by someone of "Hitchcocks" Caliber. He abandoned standard film techniques which

"Hitchcock" shot the film in diferent segmetns which sometimes lasted upto ten minutes long. Through these continuous shots, he began to pan from from actor too actor

The video below introduces one of my favorite parts of the film. Before it was mentioned by Phil, this part of the film really stood out to me because of the suspense that it created. By leaving the camera stiill within this scene, "Hitchcock" created a suspense which gave the audience a an edgy feeling as the character "Miss Wilson" went back and forth from each room clearing off the chest were "Davids" body lay. Take a look for yourself in the video below.

 

Even though "Hitchcock" didn't want to use editing throughout this movie, he very smartly tracked the camera into an object, such as the funiture or even the actors completely blocking off the entire screen allowing him to mask

Essay Film - Psycho

I'm really just going to keep this post short because if you don't know the movie I will be researching and writting an essay on will be "Psycho". In the next couple of days I will add post to my blog which contain my valid research.

Bedazzled (2000)

Just added up this post about the film Bedazzled. this shows how wishes can go bad. In my story, the genie is stupid, but in this film the devil makes it impossible for the main character to have what he wants.

It is this type of backfiring that I want to use throughout my story whilst the boy is making his wishes.

Story Update/Final

Within this post I hope to explain were I am with my story, as it says in the title this is my update. Since my last update I have had a number of ideas in which I would change the core of the story.

Rough start -

- The scene starts off with a very daring young teen, the teen takes it amongst himself to crawl under a fence and investigate an old distribution centre.
- After crawling under the fence, the teen makes his way into the centre were he begins to skate around the hazzardous environment.
- The curious boy ends up with an old and rusty bedazzled lamp, which he brings himself to rub.
- To his astonishment, the boy sees before him the most beautiful, 'blonde' genie.
- As all genies are known to do, she grants him three wishes.
- He begins to make these wishes which end up backfiring on him with drastic consequences due to the genies less than intelligant nature.
- But how to finish.....

Considering this is very rough there are plenty of gaps needed to be filled in. I have these gaps which I will add up ASAP! I just wanted everyone to know that I have a story, just not a finished script. Please bare with me, im on it, don't panic! :) this is only an update.

I wanted one of the wishes to be about money. When the boy wishes for wealth, he words it in a way which confuses the Genie. He asks, " I wish for all the riches in the whole world". You can see were this is going, Instead of the wealth the boy intended on having, the Genie grants him every man by the name of Richard in the world. I was thinking of adding some more famous people in this part of the story.

Another wish I wanted to twist was about the boys interest in Skating. He asks the Genie to become the worlds greatest skater, she changes him into the worlds best figure four skater leaving him highly embaressed.

Female Genies - Research

After alot of thought, I have decided that I want my genie to be a women. I have collected images from magazines which I consider to be of use when creating the ideal genie for the story. I already have sketchbook work which I have used to develop my final characters.

In this post I wanted to add the magazine images, some female genies/costumes to show how they dress.

The top three images are typical of what you may think a genie looks like. The clothes, culture, colors and overal perception which demonstrates to the audience what a Genie is.

Ermmm, I kind of freaked out when I saw this image looking for female genies but I thought I would add it up with the others because I thought it is looking at the Genie in a different way.

The two images above were added because I wanted to add a more girly approach to the genie. As I wanted to make her a bit of a bimbo I collected a few Girly/Promiscuous looking images. The bottom image is more girly, whereas the one above that is a little more exsposing.

A Genies Wish - Fellow Students/Phil/Alan

Just want to add a quick post because I'm rather stuck on the whole three wishes treatment and how to go about making them funny amongst my storyboard. I thought I had a solid idea and undertanding of what I wanted to achieve thoughout the one minute I had, but over the weekend I decided to change my idea slightly and make it a bit more commical.

I have thought of some wishes that I want to use amongst my story which I want to backfire on the person making them due to the genies less bright nature. If peeps can leave a comment of what they would wish for if they had three wishes then this would be much appreciated. ;)

The Skater Image

Now I just want all you fellow Skaters out there not to take this post the wrong way because I was once too a Skater. The soul purpose of this post is to allow me to come up with character based on a skateboarder.

 

  

  

  

All of the above are just different styles of clothing people wear as skaters. These are not the only types of clothes people can wear, the ones above are only a brief example to help me achieve my character.

Bouncing Ball

Today I couldn't get into uni because the weather in Faversham is so horrible, therefore I had a go at animating a basic ball bounce. I would like to go over the tutorial again and have another go because I think this tutorial is key to becoming a more knowledgeable animator in the future. A very good tutorial, easy to follow but I'm sure it will take me many years to master the art of the Ball bounce. ;) (looking forward to more like this).

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Bharathi and Benga!

Hey you two, got a major problem. The snow has hit were I live pretty bad and I don't think I will be able to make it in for the lecture especially with the roads so bad were I am. I know I'm letting you both down but it can't be helped. If one of you could either post or email me a little about the lecture so I can get right on the research all weekend and then Monday we can compare research and put together the best of it for the presentation. I will also go onto MYUCA and download the podcast also. I assume you two are in because you live in halls. I hope you see this message and don't think I just can't be arsed because that's not true. I'll see you either tomorrow if it's better or Monday if not.

La jetee

I must say, this short film was actually very interessting and also very cleverly made. I can honestly admit that I have never seen a film completly made from still images, I must say that I am rather quite impressed.

La Jetee was released in the UK in 1962, Directed and Written by 'Chris Marker'.

The plot of 'La Jetee takes place in different time periods. The setting of the movie changes from past, present and future. The future beholds the end of the world war three and the destruction that it has caused. It is the mans story that we follow, travelling back and forth between timelines trying to find a soloution into the worlds fate.

 

La Jetee - 1st third of the movie (I'm sorry about the videos translation, I hope you can understand French until I find an English version)

Errm I'm going to add this post and come back to it when I have compared some reviews.

The Pre-Viz - The Third Floor

Well I looked at other peoples blogs to see what a Pre-Viz was and found it to be very useful, so thanks to them and Phil. The interest in Pre-Viz work for me led me to look into a few more videos and documentarys on the subject just to fill my brain with as much knowledge on the subject as possible.

Whilst doing some research I came across a company called 'The Third Floor'. The video below which I added to my blog is from the game, resident evil 5. The documentary shows the storyboarding and Pre-Viz work that needed to be used in order for them to make a successfull game.

 

The company, 'The Third Floor' take part in alot of Pre-Viz work for countless movies and games.
I'm not going to bore on about 'The Third Floor', I recommend going and having a look at the site posted in the link at the bottom of the page.

So If you want to know more about Pre-Viz, or you are just curious, please have a look on this site because their site is amazing.

http://www.thethirdfloorinc.com/

New Story Idea - Starting Point

After the lecture, with a bit of help we came up with a new idea for my story. In this idea I want to use a young Skater. The Skater is working the night shift, Its his job to keep watch of the distribution centre, making sure all runs smoothly throughout the night.
In his boredom, the Skater decides to have a bit of fun and use the extra time to mix work with his Skating hobby. Whilst Skating through the Hazardous factory the boy bails and finds himself in a serious situation. He has managed to bring life to the distribution centre and not in a good way.
What he doesn't know is that this centre is not just any distribution cantre, but a genie in a bottle centre.

For now I just wanted to add up a basic starting point which I will hopefully bring into a fully developed piece in the next few days. In the next week I will have most of my character sketches which I think will bring the story together nicely.

At the end of this post I just thought I would add a quick three minute or so clip from the animated series, 'Mr Bean'. Having seen it before with my brother, I thought this particular episode is a good start into the research of distribution centres. This may not appeal to most people, but I think it has good aspects for short storys. (Bean has a goal) - Bean the Burgular.

Update on story after Lecture

Todays lecture proved to be very very helpful in more ways than one. Not only did I get to listen to other peoples ideas but I also had the oppertunity to throw in some of my ideas and recieve much needed feedback. Phil pointed out one minor detail about my story ideas which I had overlooked. The Genies importance! We had a discussion and came to a conclussion that I needed to use the Genie to highlight its attributes.

How are Skateboards made?

As my idea stands I really need to take a look into how skateboards are made. The research that I have obtained can be seen throughout the images, videos and text through the rest of the post.

 

Short example of how a Skateboard is made -

Many types of Skateboards are made from different types of woods, this usually depends on the weight, durability and the manufacture of the board. One of the more common types of wood used to make the skateboard is from a Maple tree. The wood is cut into very thin strips, applied to each other and laminated into place in a similar process in which Plywood is made.

The Skateboard is glued and compressed together leaving it dry for a period of time. However, depending on the type of Skateboard, some are bent in their resting period to create the front or tail end of the board.

After the resting period, the Skateboards are cut out, drilled and sanded down ready for a full finsh or custom graphics.

Ideas...

Today at work when it was least expected, I had an idea of a few story ideas which could be possible starts. I grabbed the nearest bit of till roll and started to add my ideas down, breaking them down and trying to come up with the best possible soloution  into making a story.

Just to re-cap, my three objects which I will be using throughout my story are; A genie, a Skateboard and a warehouse.

For my first idea I wanted the story to be about an EX Genie. The Genie has lost his license and rights to be part of any magical organization and now as a result, the Genie now has to work in a sweatshop(the warehouse). Part of the Genies job is to put together Skateboards and allocate them into their rightful place amongst the Warehouse.
What I was thinking of doing is starting off the story with the genie working in the warehouse, then I wanrt to skip back  to the point of when and why he lost his rights to be a Genie. Maybe show what he did and what his actions cost him. Now this is the start of an idea which I consider to be a good starting point for a successful short story.

The other idea I came up with was based around the same scenario as the first. In this story I wanted the circumstances of the Genie working in the warehouse to remain a secret, but focus the attention onto what his current job asks him to do. I want to use this story to RE-invent the skateboard. There is a point in time were the 'Long board Skateboard' was changed and formed into what we know as 'the Skateboard'. I want to show the Genie discovering the skateboard. I want to make this comical and use different methods to Pre-Produce a very interesting and entertaining story

Object 2 - The Skateboard

For my second object, the piece that will drive my story will be a skateboard. I'm not yet sure how I will use this device top thread together my story but hopefully with time it will fall into place. This is a quick research post were I will be having a look into the different types of Skateboards and how they can be used to tell a story.

The LongBoard - The LongBoard is a specialist type of skateboard which is often used for racing or cruising of some in some way. In a deeper sense, the LongBoard is used for downhill racing, Transportation, Slalom racing and cruising out and about. Due to there mass and weight, the Longer shape and size of the board makes it harder, if not impossible to pull off tricks which are usually performed on a different type of board. This type of Skateboard first became popular during the Mid 1950's alongside the surfing culture, people look at a LongBoard as a cross between a skateboard and a surfboard.

Some images which show what a LongBoard looks like and what a Skater looks like whilst on one.

Normal Skateboards - The most common type of Skateboard is what we know as 'Skateboard'. The newly designed Skateboard is made specifically for the hobby which is referred to as 'Skateboarding'. Skateboarding using a Skateboard is a mixture of both movement and stunts which are performed by its user. This modern Skateboard first became popular in the Mid 1980's after being mass produced and sold throughout America. The Skateboard was said to have first originated It  in California in the late 1970's. 

Images and videos below show a selection of good examples which demonstrate this activity skaters undertake. 

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The two video s above show some Skateboarding tricks and some bad accidents. I just want to see Skatboarding from both points of view. 

Some more Shorts

Okay, just some good examples of some of the short movies. I have added them mainly for my reference now and in the future. The first video which is below is for a vodafone commecial which was made by 'Pixar'.

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Laurel and Hardy - Genius

Some people might not appreciate these two brilliant comics, but I just wanted to add a couple of videos showing some of thier comedy moments because I believe they could be a big influence if I decide comedy is what I wanted to achieve when Pre-Producing my one minute animation.

 

Just a few Laurel and Hardy commical moments which I thought may help if I decide to stray down the commical route of things. These clips may not appeal to alot of people but I find these two very clever in the way they act there comedy. Even though thier films and sketches have sound, they are a very visual duo which is why I think they are a success.

Joshua Ortega - Gears

So I just wanted to add up a post which I think has a good display of laying out storyboards using different methods. Joshua Ortega is the writer of the 'Gears of War' series of short story comics. After the games popular success, Epic and DC comics decided that they would release a comic which tells the story of the Gears in another time. Artist 'Liam Sharp and a few other very talented artists were responsible for the artwork behind the comic.

This page from one of the 'Gears of War' comics is a good example of taking the action and exploding it out of the panel.

The image above and below are good exmples of laying out the images to help the eyes follow the comic without losing interest. The Images overlay one another which creates a sense of conversations over a main scene. In the image above there is the main shot of the character 'Marcus' in a chainsaw duel with a 'locust' enemy. The other panels though show the scene from other characters point of views at that time.

This final image I added just to show the different shapes of panels which could be added to the comic to create different effecsts. The bottom three panels give me the impression that the story is being told in a consecutive roll, The same scene but told from different views.

The video below is a quick reel of the comic just showing the first of the series. Have a look if you like and see the different ways they have layed out the comic to tell their story.

Sin City - Storyboard too film

Okay, whilst doing an essay on Sin City during the space project I came across something which relates to this Storyboard essay. Whilst looking into 'The Making Of Sin City' I found that the films comparison too the graphic novels were near identical. 'Frank Miller' explained how when 'Robert Rodriguez' proposed the adaptation of the comic to the movie, 'Miller' instantly decided that this must go ahead.

The three images above are screen shots from the movie plus images from the comics which they used as thier storyboard guide to produce the film.

In this video there is a quick comparison of a scene with the character 'Marv' from the comic/film. In this reel of still images you are able to see were they got their Pre-Production images to make the final image for the film.

Concepts of a Genie - Evil or Good

There are many different concepts for the word 'Genie'. In the western continents of the world, this term can be taken in many different ways. It is Genie Mythology were we can see the differences between what people believe a Genie to be. Some believe that the Genie is made up from the earths elements, fire, water, wind etc, while others seem to believe that you can have a female Genie which is most commonly known as a succubus.

 

  

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Got work in a little while so ill need to finish this later on tonight or tomorrow :)

BMW Shorts

A few years ago one of my friends recomended watching some of the BMW short films. The short below is from the BMW series, the one below is 'Beat the Devil'. Clive Owen plays a driver who becomes involed with Singer 'James Brown' who has sold his soul to the devil, 'Gary Oldman'. The driver finds himself becoming more involved as Brown trys to renegotiate a deal which would see him reunited with his soul.

These are great little films which appeal to me. This one I find to be a great little tribute to the entertainment industry, rock and roll to be precise.

The Three Objects - Intro To The Genie

A genie in different cultures and religions have many different definitions/meanings. In Arabian mythology, the word Genie, or Djinn as they announce it, is a spirit which shares some similarities with a ghost. The thought behind a Genie would be that they contained magical powers which could be used for a good or evil situation. In Islam, they believe that the Genie is closer to being a demon than of a spirit. For this post I will add images of different genies, all shapes sizes and colors just to give me and people a good idea into what one looks like. In later post I will research deeper into what the genie means to other cultures and religions because I think this will allow me to break down my story, helping me to define the characters which I will use in my story.

The image below, one of the most famous genies which I could think of. The Genie which comes from the Disney Film, 'Aladdin'.

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Alladin is a young street urchin trying to get along in life. Whilst in prison, he meets a very strange man who  convinces him to journey into the cave of wonders were he will retrieve a magical lamp for the stranger. This is were he meets the 'Genie'(voiced by Robbin Williams).

 

  

  

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The Genie doesn't need to be an all mighty powerful being, these genies in the images above all represent something different. A genie can be evil or good, it can also be mischievous. They can be drawn in many different ways so we can  portray them differently.