This semester for our Advanced 3D Animation class we had to create a 3D animation, of course.
We also had another subject (Graphic Visualisation) which involved creating our own character and making a sculpture/model of it, drawing up a concept design and making an animatic for it. I finished all that last week which felt good to finally present it all.
I ended up using the same character I created for both that Graphic Visualisation and my 3D animation subject, it just worked out that way for me. Some would call it cheap, I'd call it, fleshing out my character more.The character's name is Slink, a robot with springs for arms and legs (forearms, calves), hence the name Slink. He basically has limited knowledge of the world and learns as he goes, often getting himself into trouble, but due to his nature, is able to get away from any trouble, most of the time. Below is the concept design for the Graphic Visualisation subject, unfortunately my Wacom Bamboo's sensitivity decided to die on me which is apparently a Windows XP problem when I searched it up. So my concept design looks like it was done in paint, but I maintained that I went for a cartoony look.
It's basically Slink in the city, being lost and such. My animatic was taken from my storyboard I did for my 3D animation class, just tightened up and shortened and ended up being 15 seconds long so when I presented it, it flew by fast while everyone else's animatics were up to a minute long, even longer for some.
Below is Slink in 3D! Chucking a pose, from the look of that pose, what sort of character would you say he is?
Finally, my 3D animation, which I spent ages doing, first modelling the character and rigging him, creating his environment and finally animating. When I started animating I realised my rig failed on me, giving me a weird glitch with his leg springs. So I had to limit the amount of walking he does, and the view you have of him walking to keep it looking decent. That also means this is a once of character in terms of large movements unless I fix it, but I think that'll involve re-doing him. I'll leave that for another time.
Animating took probably 3 nights total, with very late nights, sleeping later and later each night to get it completed. But I timed things out well and finished animating on Friday night, leaving Saturday to render everything and find sound effects/music to edit it all together. Come Sunday I put it all together, with sound effects (recorded the walking sound effects myself as I couldn't find what I wanted online) and showed it off to a couple of people, after their comments I decided to add an extra ending, and animated another 7 seconds of animation, which took....around 2 hours to do then edited onto the video and rendered it all out and now, what was to be a 30 second clip originally is now a 1 minute short film. I think it could've been better but I'm happy with what I've done, considering my first attempt was horrible compared to this. And with that I'm done for the semester, I plan to muck around with 3D during the holidays in preparation for next semester's two 3D animation subjects.
And now, for your entertainment, Slink at the Museum...
Uploaded it to youtube for better viewing than on this small video thing.
It all started off with a *crash*, a sound I've heard many a time before. My instant reaction is to walk to my window and look at what happened, and most times its a car crash.
Well today, another crash occured, between two cars no less and most times it's always the same position outside my house so I always know where to look.
It's also ironic to me that so many car accidents happen there, since there's a speed camera to slow people down, but even at slow speeds cars can still go smashy smashy.
Here's a picture of the crash. Look how loving the cars are, resting their proverbial heads against one another. But that's not always the case. (never the case actually) Soon enough the police get called in to scope things out and contain traffic if needed and in some cases, these are needed...
An ambulance! I think a person in the passenger seat got hurt, but didn't really need the help after all as the ambulance left soon after it came. Tow trucks are always involved, in moving the cars out of the way and into the street where the ambulance is.
Right now the police are still talking with the people, the cars are being towed and its also raining.
The fun is over for me and there is nothing interesting to see anymore.
The biggest crash I've seen outside my house involved many police cars, one or two ambulances and two or three firetrucks and it was all outside my house. Lucky I didn't need to go out because that would've been impossible as they all took up our driveways and everything to rescue some poor person trapped inside their car. I think it was raining that night too...
I think the rain plays a part in these car crashes so until next time it rains, drive safely and don't drive outside my house!
Two weeks later and my ribs are fine, after a week I actually forgot about it and no longer felt pain.
And since that's all I've really got to say I'll use this opportunity to update both you and I about whats happening.
My University timetable have been primarily night classes, meaning I've had to miss out on my training, so I've taken 2 months off from that to save myself money, and will get back to training in June. I'd like to gain more weight over the next year so that when I enter competitions I'll be in the heavier side of the weight range, and have a slight weight advantage, with my long leg advantage I still have to develop. I'm hoping to get my Blue belt this year, but that can only happen if I enter competitions and do well with them, unfortunately most (if not all) competitions run on a Sunday....
...Which brings me to my next update. I'm still looking for someone to help me with powerpoint work at church (Cabramatta Anglican Church), I've only had a handful of real breaks in the last....2-3 years? (2 in the 2008) One of which I've used to enter a BJJ competition, but this year alone I've already had to miss 4 competitions, with one on tomorrow which I won't be able to go to, but I wouldn't have gone anyway because I'm in no shape to take on anyone now.
So I've got to continue to pray for that, and open my eyes to the opportunities present.
I'm still doing children's ministry at CAC, which is wonderful, teaching kids about God and Jesus and see them grow in the knowledge and learning. I often wonder how long I'll be doing this for.
University life is fine, I've actually got a proper group of friends, something I didn't properly have in the last 3 years at UTS doing my IT degree. Uni work is fun, but tough and requires a lot of time. Next year is going to be trying whether I'll be taking a year to do my final project or 6 months, after which I'll have to start looking for work. Either way it's something I'm looking forward to.
Things are looking up, my rib's fine, I just have to remain positive, trust God and move forward, twirling and twirling!
Doing BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) is a dangerous sport, like any other contact sport you can get hurt and/or injured. While at training, we had a guy who broke his arm while wrestling, and amazingly he didn't scream in pain like I would and had to go to the hospital, needless to say I don't think he came back.
I've seen people get choked out to the point of blacking out, which is pretty funny seeing a person go limp, and then recover later not knowing what had happened. I once nearly blacked out, but managed to tap out, leading to the other guy letting go of my head and all the oxygen and blood rushed back to my brain and for a moment I didn't know where I was but regained my composure only to tap out again moments later.
I've seen guys get hurt in their downstairs area, which, as painful as it is, is also amusing. I once accidentally landed right onto a friend I was wrestling and I've never seen a person leap so high from his back in pain before, it reminded me of pro wrestling and how they take bumps, but to see it happen in person was hilarious even though he was in extreme pain. That's why I wear a cup, to avoid these things.
Anyways, last week on Thursday I was wrestling a friend who is better and heavier than me, and while wrestling he wound up on top in mount, which is one of the best positions for him to be in, and worst positions for me to be in. He transferred to what is called "Rodeo Mount" where his legs would extend out so he's fully sitting on you, like a cowboy sits on a bull, trying to control him. I knew I was going to lose pretty soon, but I tried to escape anyway and decided to buck him and try to roll him over, all I succeeded in doing was bucking him up into the air for a second, and like a persistent cowboy came back down on my chest and essentially sat on my ribs, particularly my left side of my ribs. So I was in major pain, following the round I didn't wrestle anymore, went home and iced my chest down.
Come Tuesday my rib is still bothering me, it's sticking out more on my left side (where it hurts) than on my right side, so that's not normal. So I go to see the doctor, but due to the mass amount of other people waiting, I end up going to Wednesday.
The doctor checks out my rib and prescribes an X-Ray for me, which I went to take after seeing the doctor. Getting an X-Ray was interesting, I was expecting to lie down on a bed while a machine X-Ray's me but instead I had to stand up against a wall thing and breathe in, breathe out and even stop breathing for the lady to X-ray me. Having a female do it was slightly awkward for a bit, being a bit self conscious of being topless while some lady takes pictures of your bones, that's going way deep...
Come Friday I pick up my X-Rays and then see the doctor so he can look at them. Fearing a fractured rib, he told me that I was okay, and that it was just tissue damage, or something like that, but having said that he told me "X-ray's may not pick up everything", so I had to keep an eye on it and in two weeks if it's still hurting come back for another X-ray.
Right now my rib hurts, but hopefully it'll heal itself like Wolverine (go go current blockbuster movie reference) very soon. Let's see how I go in two weeks time...now where's that ice pack.
SYC blog will be on pause for now due to not finding adequate time to blog about it and do it justice.
So I'll be continuing random blogging for now until I find such time, hopefully my memory will remember enough of it to blog!
Anyways, I've started my Masters (of Animation) which is very arty in nature and quite different from when I did my IT degree but I'm loving it so far. My brother found a second hand Wacom Bamboo tablet for cheap and I figured it'd be good to get one for the course, and for life!
So I got the Wacom Bamboo MTE-450k, and though that may not mean anything to you in name, it means nothing to me too, so here's a picture to show you what it looks like!
And here's a picture that I rotoscoped to test out my new technical toy!
Lookin' good
