Thursday, 29 November 2012

Personal Statement (Blogger Back up)



I have an interest and a passion in the area of animation, watching in wonder at how an inanimate object is given life by the animator, a personality and the ability to inspire awe and emotion from an audience. In the future, after graduation I wish to be able to eventually work in a company such as Disney, to inspire audiences, enthrall them and excite with the animations I create.

The use of claymation gave me some experience and knowledge into the use of clay, cameras and the software used in making clay based animations. College helped me progress these skills, adding such skills as team based skills, both leadership and following specific orders, time management by working to a set and somewhat specific deadline, this will be vital due to the fact in University I will be working to tough deadlines, so it will help in time management. This will apply past that into being able to work to a stricter deadline in the industry. Another skill these will help develop is problem solving, I say this due to the fact in many projects I have often found myself having to use orthodox ways to solve certain problems, and this often made my finished project better than what it would’ve been.

I was once a student representative. In which I had to address concerns and problems to the tutor from students either to nervous or scared to ask, it demanded such qualities and skills as leadership, empathy and power.  I believe these help me due to it giving me the chance to lead a team, while also being sensitive about thoughts, feelings and concerns, all which will help on working in a team for an animation group.

From both Media and ICT I developed my computer based skills, though this is more valuable in Media due to this being done for animation and media based subjects, also on Macs, this helped when I progressed to college as they are heavily based applications and programs such as iMovie. This gave me experience into the software I would use in college and then possibly in University also. I have also done some paper based animation in my spare time, from the ages of 10 stretching through to when I was 13, I did simple animations, such as movement the movement of legs and arms, then progressing to running, this shows my passion and interest into animation. Wallace and Gromit often inspired me towards choosing a course like animation or interactive media, the slick movements and simple look is always something I thought was great, especially after reading into the complexity behind such skillful productions.


I hope for the University to be able to offer me a career path, or multiple. As there are a variety of paths for Animation, stop motion and Claymation being two examples. Gaining knowledge and a deeper understanding into my chosen career will be something I hope to achieve, as this will be key if I do get a job in the animation industry. Also the skills, tools and experience required to be able to proceed and excel in my career path, to be able to work in a well known brand of animations, such as Walt Disney and the software in which I can develop skills for my craft and future career.

Tuesday, 20 November 2012

Michel Gondry

Michel Gondry is an Academy Award-winning French filmmaker, He has worked on many different things ranging from TV commercials to music videos. I researched a lot into his music video side in which he has worked with a variety of bands, anything from Rock such as the Foo Fighters - Everlong video, to a techno or dubstep style Daftpunk - Around the worlds.

For the Foo Fighters he used quite a few techniques the obvious one being the grayscale which is used over most of the video. Also when the protagonist grows his hand (featured twice in the whole video) the the time seems to slow to something like 75% as it grows. The grayscale is seen in multiple Music videos he has done.
A song he directed by Bjork known as Bachelorette Was also done in the style of grayscale, it seems he does this to add emotion to each emotional piece, though in Everlong it was a comedy, the parts that were grayscale were nightmares and night terrors part, in which the protagonist woke up in a cold sweat. Bachelorette was featured on a stage,as was Daftpunk - All around the worlds, this is a replicated element, this seems like he likes carrying a piece of another video into a new one, such as in the White Stripes videos he directed they had an urban British scene, which in one featured projection and the other stop motion. Carrying on in this theme he also used projections in yet another Bjork video known as Hyper ballad, in which the projection was on the protagonists face. One big thing seen in a lot of Gondry's music video is the big use of CGI, in Bjork's and Beck's video CGI was seen extensively. This shows a pattern of elements which he has used from one video to another, this could be a coincidence but there is some form of, whether purposely or not, reoccurring patterns.
This is to show both he similarities and differences in these videos, above is Daftpunk below is Bjork. Both feature on a stage, this is similar, and could be seen as a purposely done similarity, although the Bjork is a very plain paper and cardboard scenery, where as Daftpunk, due to his music being dubstep (almost futuristic), seems on a simple stage with different, futuristic, multicoloured lighting.

Monday, 17 September 2012


FaradayStudents:324720:Desktop:Screen shot 2012-09-10 at 13.16.54.pngFaradayStudents:324720:Desktop:Screen shot 2012-09-10 at 13.04.02.pngGames design research
This is Sumo digital, a games design company based in Sheffield, they have worked on quite a few big names, such as Sonic racers, they focus on animated racing games. (Sheffield)

Capricorn is a company I really liked they are based in London; the designs they have done are really cool and detailed.


Studio aka is an animation design company. (London)

This a blue zoo an independent design company in London who work on many things with such clients as AMV, Nickelodeon’ and Disney.
Blue-Zoo Productions Ltd.
Chesterfield House
385 Euston Road
London
NW1 3AU
Tel. +44 (0)20 7434 4111
Email.
info@blue-zoo.co.uk

Thursday, 21 June 2012

Sheffield Hallam University Day Trip

Sheffield Hallam Uni:
Introduction

This is my student research from the day to Shef Hallam Uni, this was a good experience as it changed a ot of my views on going to uni, the things i may take up in uni, what skills to focus my priorites on and most importantly what style i would like to work in as my specialization.

Also the last artist is from the chesterfield college art exhibition, all the artists I chose is because of the pure fact their work, caught my eye, inspired me or purely just because it was aesthetically pleasing.

The artists have helped me to understand better, why we research, why and how we annotate, I now know, the true importance and how vital for both develop ment and final piece it is.

Design work:
Chloe Pearson & Hannah Tindale
These were the first students I saw that I really liked, the pieces being the Rowntrees sour pastels and Internet Explorer 9. The Rowntree sour pastels, had a lot of initial ideas, layed out neatly in the skletch book, screen shots that shown the use of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. The simplistic style of the finished piece was really well used showing an open mouth with the pastels tingling the taste buds. The research consisted of mainly other similar items and previous posters of the company, for example the rowntree fruit pastels, wine gums and skittles. The research were extensive and on multiple similar items. The finished piece were really simplistic but effective as the motto is tickle your taste buds. The annotation was very clear in explaining the design process of their work.
I really like the simple/old school design, it shows off the product well and advertises it really effectively, the style in which they did their final piece, almost a sketched cartoon style, the fact that it was done in illustrator is also a bonus as the quality of the piece is increased, as adobe illustrator is a quality piece of software.

The internet explorer looked futuristic, looking chrome chromatic style layout.Research consisted of mainly older explorer styles, the idea based on this design was that were mpoving to the future and the monochromatic design and shine represents the futuristic element into it.
I really like the overall clean and neat look, the webpage was based in illustrator and included really good elements in the piece. I believe the idea they were aiming for were a technological piece, as internet explorer is the future of internet software, and this were shown in thier idea through the use of mettalic colours, like chrome and silver to add a cool shine to it.

IE9:
Things that worked well:
The style used on this piecve worked well as they used a metallic and chrome look to the Internet explorer 9 pieces as this adds the futuristic and techonological feel to it. The layout was that of a proffesional standard and careful research into other internet browsers such as, mozilla fire fox, google chrome and safari.

Things i didnt thtink worked well:
It looked quite close to the already existing one, and advert based one, so i wish i could look more original.

Rowntree fruit pastels:
Things that worked well:
 The simplistic and original design relating to rowntrees catchphrase all these important things in advertising posters and products. The knowledge and skill in adobe software such as photoshop and illustrtator, is really obviously present and are good skills when doing an advertising poster.

Lea Scott
Her pieces were massively based on a sketch style, like drawings based on quick hand movements, but this added a really good effect in all her pieces, she mainly did thumbnail style drawings , at times random but showed obvious skill in the sketching aspect, my favourite was that of a gameboy colour, this stuck out because it looked really effective in this form of sketch style and caught my eye which i really liked.

Things that went well in her piece:
The pure fact the basic, quick sketch style showed great detail crossed with obvious sketch style, this is a unique combination that ive never seen before but was really aeshtetically pleasing, which is strange giving the combo are opposites. The gameboy piece is what caught my eye the most as it is something i really enjoyed and brings back memories, as it would for many others, this gives it an effectively strong tie to anyone whoi has memories attached to one, drawing them to love the piece. All of her pieces was good but this was the one that stood out, I have nothing bad to to say.

 Animation:

Xu Hu
The idea i  think the idea was going for, is for the ethenicity of the characters, to match the style of her drawn chinese style, this is smart as it makes the drawings relate to the actual character which adds an authentic feel the both the style and quality of the work.
Xu Hu has done a really cool chinese style, sketch based animation. The style was very simplistic only containing basic sketches, which i really liked, this really helped me consider a job in animation, though i pondered the thought before this, i had'nt considered it a preferable choice. All the animation was hand drawn and based on other animations, in the same asian drawn style, it has a really good simplistic effect, which adds a really strong presence to the animation, a clear colour scheme of the duller colours was used but it looked really good. The movements in the animation were fluent and did not once jitter or drag, this adds to the quality and intergrity of the piece. The animation looks proffesional as the crisp frames per second are almosty perfectly spaced and no missed movement. The use of the duller colours, made it match the styles pof ancient chinese drawings as they used the duller versions of colours in thier pieces, this again i believe she used to make the work to look like authentic ethenicity, to the chinese style of art.

There was not anything i really did'nt like, the style was well connected the actual piece, the one thing i did really like is the obvious careful planning of the animation, the crisp movement and the overall authentic asian feel to her work.
Over all i believe her piece has worked out really well, i like the style, story and amazing animation.

Xu Hu animation piece:
what went well:
I believe the crisp animation, chinese ethenicity theme that carries from the artistic style to the base of the characters is really effective in presenting strong chinese style. This adds a teheme that is really good and looks really aesthetically pleasing in my eyes.


Animated games/ Movie short film( game cut scene):
Daniel Cornes:
Daniel Cornes did a really cool 3d cutscene from a game almost, the software used look professional, as the churh environment, templar, and both male and female knight looked proffesionally made, also the texture packs used were proffesional standard, or at least semi proffesional you can tell that from the quality and detail on each character, because of the texture pack.
I believe he was going for a deep emotional piece, as the characters depicted were lovers, this research could be based on any 3D medieval games, such as two worlds or the older diablo games other games that match this could be an old final fantasy game or oblivion as the graphics were good but not as good as their modern day counter parts, either way this could have been viable research for his project.

The cut scene was really good as the moevement were fluent and without delay, the music matched the piece, and the inside of the chapal work and scenery really well, but the sound he used for the flooring was bad, the flooring was stone but thte sound was that of someone walking on wooden plank flooring, as they both have distinct sounds.

Things that worked well on this piece:
The overall crisp animation, environment and scenery, and the texture on all characters. Also the shading and shdows of the furniture and characters, the duration was quite long showing multiple uses of the textyure packs and a lot pof skill in using the software to bne able to make a animation of that maginitude with just under 10 minutes of animation, showing great familiarity and skill with used software and texture packs.

Things that did'nt work well:
The pure fact of the sounds were quite wrong, for example the stone floor when hit by the metal boots of the armor should make a distinct almost clatering noise where as on this animation, the floor where the pews were, was stone but make the distinct stomp of plate metal boots hitting wood, this was dissapointing and let the animation down a bit.

Arts exhibition:


Painted and handdrawn designs
Amy Roe-Parkin:
The pieces she did were based on native indian style drawings, paintings and overall style of the native americans. One of the pieces she did was a drawn feather within this drawn feather she painted a wolf and a native american 'apache', these were really cool because in native american history, is important as it was used to be made into head dressers, dream catchers and other items unqiue to their culture. This is key as it represents the native american culture well with key wolf spirits and the tribesmen inside of the feather, using colours of brown and red which was widely related to native americans for thier skin, tanned leather clothing and the feathers of the chieftan's head dress.
Other pieces were that of just a wolf, in the colour colour brown in a 'tribal' style drawing, then a second wolf which was painted more realistically. Then another apache, with head dress, face paint and again in different shades of brown.
Obviously a lot of research was used and put into this piece, mainly on the culture of native americans culture, showing feathers, wolf spirits and the tribesman of the apache, this all key in the revenlence and viability of her piece.

Things that went well:
I believe everything did as the piece has really big relevence and includes key items and beliefs of the native american people. I believe the research was key in her piece as if she had not known about the feather she would not of produced the two amazing paintings she did, as the over all style was massively based and related colours and culture of the native american apache. I really love her pieces as the details are amazing and the overall cultural relevence was masssive and that is a big belief among apaches as their culture plays a big part in alll their lives, and this to me adds massive key effectiveness to her pieces. I have no critasism as I really admire her piece for both quality and style.

Friday, 3 February 2012

Josef Muller - Brockmann

I chose Brockmann as i have already studied his work and i really like it, he uses the swiss international style and uses curves and very basic shapes to make a cool complex design. His most famous piece is entitled Beethoven..
Beethoven by JMB

His work still inspires the 21st century artistic and design world, which hows his work is very successful. I love the beethoven design as the circular blocks in the form of a 3/4 circle adds a really big futuristic effect in my eyes and the curved design has been variated by both rookie and professional designers and artists. I admire his work and can see it being used in my work, especially with the piece i'm doing in Sarah's class at the moment.

Thursday, 5 January 2012

Renewable energy

Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable (naturally replenished). About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from hydroelectricity. New renewables (small hydro, modern biomass, wind, solar, geothermal, and biofuels) accounted for another 3% and are growing very rapidly. The share of renewables in electricity generation is around 19%, with 16% of global electricity coming from hydroelectricity and 3% from new renewables.
 Wind power is growing at the rate of 30% annually, with a worldwide installed capacity of 198 gigawatts (GW) in 2010, and is widely used in Europe, Asia, and the United States. At the end of 2010, cumulative global photovoltaic (PV) installations surpassed 40 GW and PV power stations are popular in Germany and Spain. Solar thermal power stations operate in the USA and Spain, and the largest of these is the 354 megawatt (MW) SEGS power plant in the Mojave Desert. The world's largest geothermal power installation is the Geysers in California, with a rated capacity of 750 MW. Brazil has one of the largest renewable energy programs in the world, involving production of ethanol fuel from sugarcane, and ethanol now provides 18% of the country's automotive fuel. Ethanol fuel is also widely available in the USA.
While many renewable energy projects are large-scale, renewable technologies are also suited to rural and remote areas, where energy is often crucial in human development. As of 2011, small solar PV systems provide electricity to a few million households, and micro-hydro configured into mini-grids serves many more. Over 44 million households use biogas made in household-scale digesters for lighting and/or cooking, and more than 166 million households rely on a new generation of more-efficient biomass cookstoves. United Nations' Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that renewable energy has the ability to lift the poorest nations to new levels of prosperity.
Climate change concerns, coupled with high oil prices, peak oil, and increasing government support, are driving increasing renewable energy legislation, incentives and commercialization. New government spending, regulation and policies helped the industry weather the global financial crisis better than many other sectors. According to a 2011 projection by the International Energy Agency, solar power generators may produce most of the world’s electricity within 50 years, dramatically reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases that harm the environment.

over all renewable energy could not yet be used as a full time source of power but can be used as helping towards a greener future  which will eventually save this world.

Green wash

Green wash is a term used for a company or organisation, with a slightly greener product than their last and trying to persuade people to buy it by bending the truth saying its really very green, even though the truth is there is a slight difference if not any.