Cinema and Television are the most powerful media in the World. They can and they do affect our lives for the good and for the bad. I found interesting a not-so-recent article talking about an award ceremony dedicated to one of the most important director in the Film History. The guy who changed many millions of lives during may 1977, the year during wich Star Wars took place on every silver screen of the Earth.
“There has been a conflict going on for thousands of years between the haves and the have-nots, and now we are in a position for the first time to show the have-nots what they do not have.”
[...]the United States is a provincial country with a culture that has invaded the world via Hollywood[...]
This is what George Lucas, the mythical creator of the Star Wars film saga, commented while receiving the “Global Vision Award” in San Francisco, United States.
He went on with:
“I hate to say it, but television is one of the most popular exports,” Lucas said. People see shows such as “Dallas,” about a wealthy Texas oil family, and decide they want the grand lifestyles portrayed, according to Lucas.”They say that is what I want to be,” Lucas said. “That destabilizes a lot of the world.”
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
Other work i have been doing.
I have been doing a bit of 3D modelling for a friend; he is an archetect and i asked him if he had any plans he wanted modelling. I had a period researching into compatability of different Autodesk products but in the end i used some PDF drawings as importing the DWG files did not work.
This project can be used in the 'US and THEM' project i am also doing for the third years.
It is far from finished; but was just more of an exercise in working off drawings and with increments.
The beetle is coming along ok; with the addition of a spoiler i think it is ready. I have done a turnaround of it and some small animated loops (which i will try to find now...). Ah my blog wont let me post vids; but i'll get it sorted for later.
This is a still of the Beetle. I am fairly happy with it but i feel it could have been tidied up a bit more; especially where the edges meet.
This project can be used in the 'US and THEM' project i am also doing for the third years.
It is far from finished; but was just more of an exercise in working off drawings and with increments.
Lighting Timmys Gift.
Hi i have been looking into the best method of producing some kind of fog in Maya. There is a way to do it at the render, but this is very general and does not look that good. It also is only available in Maya's own renderer.(Environment fog).
The alternative (or the one i am using) is to use a spotlight and a Mib shader. I also used a ramp linked to the colour of the fog to increase the feel of ‘drop-off’. There is a lot of methods of control, but the only way you can be sure that the change to the fog had any effect (at 640x480 for the sake of a quicker render) is to constantly render out your work and save incrementally. When doing this at home each full render takes 20 minutes but if i just render a section it does not take so long.
The alternative (or the one i am using) is to use a spotlight and a Mib shader. I also used a ramp linked to the colour of the fog to increase the feel of ‘drop-off’. There is a lot of methods of control, but the only way you can be sure that the change to the fog had any effect (at 640x480 for the sake of a quicker render) is to constantly render out your work and save incrementally. When doing this at home each full render takes 20 minutes but if i just render a section it does not take so long.
This is a shot of just the light coming in from the left; without the light for the characters. The blue spot in the middle is the size of the area i ended up rendering to speed things up.
This is the same shot with the characters lit from one side. It is still a bit bright. By playing around with the penumbra and the drop-off the edge of the light is feathered and soft. (sounds like some kind of nest!)
Thursday, 18 March 2010
New missions.
Hi all, had a good talk with our course leader Andy today (they call them tutorials; just like a catch up really), and he has given me the chance to work on an animation being made by Cherie, one of the third years on the lighting team. I will be working with Emma, who is a lovely girl, and starting on it TOMORROW!!!
This is cool as i was really wanting to do something with lighting; and i feel the practical experience we had in the green screen room with the lighting in there will come in really handy.
I am going to research theatre lighting techniques and really get on this one; COOL!!!
This project runs through the break, so i will not lose the momentum i feel i have built up over the last term. Thats one thing about our calender; if you don't keep busy then you lose that drive; and i dont want to do that.
The animation is in the style of Tim Burton apparently; so i guess the lighting will be pretty important for the mood, etc.
Will keep you posted, another new project is iminent as well so busy, busy!
Also making progress with Alex on the city scape he wants me to make; will post up a still of the slotted building idea that we have come up with;it looks awsome; got the beetle dodging a few asteroids now, the thing is coming to life. Got to get on the graph editor to ease in the beetles flying turns; in this way the flight pattern will look a lot more natural. Still putting the finishing touches to my literature reviews; Cultural Imperialism is a pretty deep subject; especially when you talk about media. It is a thing that has to be quantified from several different standpoints and a lot of factors have to be taken into consideration, such as the political power that is dominant at the time; the ability of the population to digest the medium. This shows why animation is such a powerful tool to get any message across.
Well enough of that for just now; signing out.
This is cool as i was really wanting to do something with lighting; and i feel the practical experience we had in the green screen room with the lighting in there will come in really handy.
I am going to research theatre lighting techniques and really get on this one; COOL!!!
This project runs through the break, so i will not lose the momentum i feel i have built up over the last term. Thats one thing about our calender; if you don't keep busy then you lose that drive; and i dont want to do that.
The animation is in the style of Tim Burton apparently; so i guess the lighting will be pretty important for the mood, etc.
Will keep you posted, another new project is iminent as well so busy, busy!
Also making progress with Alex on the city scape he wants me to make; will post up a still of the slotted building idea that we have come up with;it looks awsome; got the beetle dodging a few asteroids now, the thing is coming to life. Got to get on the graph editor to ease in the beetles flying turns; in this way the flight pattern will look a lot more natural. Still putting the finishing touches to my literature reviews; Cultural Imperialism is a pretty deep subject; especially when you talk about media. It is a thing that has to be quantified from several different standpoints and a lot of factors have to be taken into consideration, such as the political power that is dominant at the time; the ability of the population to digest the medium. This shows why animation is such a powerful tool to get any message across.
Well enough of that for just now; signing out.
Wednesday, 17 March 2010
My literature review.
Being that my dissertation subject is going to be colonial imperialism; especially post WW2 i thought i would see how the' problem' of identifying with the Middle East was tackled in the 1950's and especially in regard to the use of animated film.
I found a letter which had been de-classified http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB78/propaganda%20004.pdf which mentions the possibility of using Walt Disney to produce an animated propaganda piece.
This is all very interesting.
VFX-After the dust settled...
We are still working on the final edit and this should bee done soon. A hand in was made; but it was not finished. Told you i do not trust the rendering process...
I found a letter which had been de-classified http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB78/propaganda%20004.pdf which mentions the possibility of using Walt Disney to produce an animated propaganda piece.
This is all very interesting.
VFX-After the dust settled...
We are still working on the final edit and this should bee done soon. A hand in was made; but it was not finished. Told you i do not trust the rendering process...
Monday, 15 March 2010
Winding up the process.
As it is today that the deadline is upon us i am a little bit concerned that we have not rendered out anything yet.
This i have been reassured that there is no problem; its just using all the available time we have.
Still i dont trust the rendering/burning process and i still have to have time to sync the sounds. Thats all for now.
This i have been reassured that there is no problem; its just using all the available time we have.
Still i dont trust the rendering/burning process and i still have to have time to sync the sounds. Thats all for now.
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