Polished Off

Credits

2010-05-31T14:22:00.001-07:00

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=NH9JOV5Q

Credit Sequence

2010-05-31T09:12:00.001-07:00

Credit Sequence:

Written & Directed by Dan Edgley
Produced by Alec Smith

Modelling

Characters - Dan Edgley
Environment - Dan Grigsby
Props - Dan Edgley, Simon Harvey, Alec Smith

Texturing & Lighting

Dan Grigsby & Simon Harvey

Rigging

Dave Ross & Clym Smith

Animation

Dan Edgley & Alec Smith

Rendering

Simon Harvey

Compositing

Simon Harvey & Alec Smith

Sound & Music

John Solly

With Special Thanks to

Phil Brooks, Alex Hulse, Dan Dalli, Dave Bull, Mike Smith & Tom Ritchie

Insp

2010-05-18T05:09:00.001-07:00

It's that time again...

2010-05-13T14:46:00.000-07:00

Months have past without an inspiring post to boost the team moral and spur us through these difficult times, so without further a due let me enlighten you all on your achievements....

Alec.

Might as well start with the worst member of the team to give you a sense of priority. I cannot stress how thankful I am for the amount of effort and commitment you've put into this project. You've been my right hand man every step of the way and had total belief in my story since day 1. Although slow to pick up the work rate in term 2 you've completely pulled it out the bag in term 3 and animated alongside me every day with a passion to succeed. If I ever fail to remember something or slack off you pull me back on track and remind me of the rewards without fail. I cannot complete this without you mate so please keep chugging out those shots for the next couple of weeks and I promise you it will be worth it.

Simon.

Played. Unbelieveable asset to the team. You are always willing to take on new challeneges and learn new things resulting in you becoming a fantastic lighter and compositor in the space of two weeks! I can't believe how quickly you picked up the skills and to be honest I'm amazed at the quality your hitting. If I do come over to check up now and then its only because I'm excited to see the end result, not because I don't trust you! I'm so glad I took you on board for this project mate as I know without you Polished Off wouldn't get finished. All I can ask is that you continue at the rate you're going and keep rendering out our brilliant animation ;)

Grigs.

I know things got a little heated a few weeks ago when the pressure of Polished Off became too much however looking back you made the right decision to jump onto Splay as you had done more than enough for me. Providing textures, lights, models, render settings, and constant advice you've been a great team member and friend over the last 7 months. I dont know many people who would put up with my moaning on the bus, late night phones calls, and 24/7 mum harassment. If you don't get a job from your work on this film then I'll be shocked.

Phil.

"We might as well shake hands and say sorry now because we're going to have an arguement by the end of this year" - Well that didn't happen! Not yet anyway. Despite what people may think you have been heavily involved in P.O from the beginning, in fact you were the first person I pitched it too - over pasta I believe. If theres one person I turn to for advice on storytelling or animation its you. I respect your opinion too much, it's actually a little bit ridiculous. If I was in the emerald lab and I wasn't sure whether to add a finger flick to my animation then I would gladly walk all the way down to the caves to ask you. I'd probably return five minutes later to ask about the thumb. It's been a pleasure working alongside another director who shares my vision, my only regret is that I havent been able to animate for splay but thats what the holidays are for! You're too deterimined not to succeed so just keep going mate.

I hope this has given everyone a confidence boost and made you all realise that we CAN do it and that you all deserve it.

Website Images

2010-04-30T03:41:00.000-07:00

Website Images

2010-04-14T06:05:00.001-07:00

Updated Jed

2010-04-08T07:19:00.001-07:00

ok guys, heres the link:

Jed Updated

The spine roll attribute is connected to the rotation of the master control, so when you turn the whole thing the spine and the head go with it now. The head turn attribute now works, and the afro follows. The rotate Y on the afro control is now un-useable as a result, although I did check to see how useful that was and to be honest there would have been no point keying it anyway.
There are also head_twist and spine_twist attributes, but these are kind of crap- the afro doesnt follow the head_twist, and the spine_twist unavoidably turns the head as well. These attributes dont seem too important though, so I havnt bothered trying to sort them out.
There are also two new attributes on the fingers- Finger_crunch, and Finger_drop. I added these for my own personal gain for a short body-popping animation, I dont know if they will be any use to you but they're there all the same.

Scaling it up is proving very problematic. Adjusting the scripts with the new initial distances dosent work for the arms and spline handles, and I dont know how to get over the unwanted geometery deformations either. Im going to email Hulse and arrainge a time when we can work something out.

Let me know if you can see any immediate problems with the updates and I'll get straight on it.

Remember

2010-04-05T09:59:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder that we need to do those 100 hundred words for our profiles on the website, dont really want it blank, i think you just need to say what film your working on and what your main area is on it etc.

Simple

Hope your all having a good bank holiday!

Jed rig finally finished!

2010-03-31T11:31:00.000-07:00

Here it is at last guys, sorry its taken me so long. I couldnt get it to attatch to emails though, but you can download it from rapidshare here!

Butt clench attribute is found under the torso control (thats the arrows around the pelvis) along with the indivudual locators for controlling individual cheeks. The nametag control is switched on via the shoulder controllers, and the extra afro controls are switched on via the afro controls. You should find its all working pretty sweet now.

would love to post a demo like I did for ed, but my trial period on Camtasia studio has run out!

Copycats

2010-03-30T12:58:00.001-07:00

Dont you just love it when a trap works to perfection! ;)

Guys

2010-03-19T16:42:00.000-07:00

I think we should go for the Team Fortress look.

Clever Animation Explanation

2010-03-07T12:00:00.000-08:00

Next time someone asks us how it all works we hit play. Saves loosing our temper.

Edge x

Wednesday

2010-02-22T06:56:00.000-08:00

Hey all, hope all is well,

Went into college today for the fundraiser went well, but also bumped into some of graphic design saying that they want our mug shots for the website and the will be doing it on wednesday between 10:30 and 3 i will go in to do it, hope you guys can too.

How have you all been? Havent heard much recently...

Simon

Wheres Ed?

2010-02-17T16:05:00.000-08:00

Dont worry I havn't lost ed, but if you were looking for him he's in the public folders polished off / ed folder, and the file name is Ed finished.
Well kinda finished, I just remembered I did nothing to lock off / make unselectable the facial GUI elements that you dont use. Never mind, it'l get done.

Ed- finished!

2010-02-16T11:21:00.000-08:00

Here it is at last guys, I am proud to present Ed finished and skinned. I got rid of the top controller, because it was only causing problems when moving the model/head around. Instead I set up a little script for quick selecting the cluster handle, which you can access from the shelf. No further problems, skinning was a dream, and I gotta say I think he's looking pretty good!

Hows the diss going?

2010-02-16T10:56:00.001-08:00

Just thought I'd check everyones progress today? Ive managed to write 619 words today for chapter 2, bringing my total word count for the chapter to 2120. A good day but I still have a little more to write for it so hopefully that just means my other chapters will be shorter! Im going to start chapter 3 tommorow. What about you guys?

Edge

x

Jed Render

2010-02-15T12:26:00.000-08:00

Night Lights

2010-02-15T12:15:00.000-08:00

Guys, Cubes!

2010-02-14T13:45:00.000-08:00

Hey, well i decided to try and help Alec with the machine with those sharp edges not sure if he has come up with an alternative, but i have one this was a quick test and just wanted to see what it may look like, and thought i would share it with you! It was so simple cube, edge loop tool, press 3. Sorted! So two pics up close one showing before the other with my alteration and then a long shot of it all.

Couple of videos for ya

2010-02-13T09:25:00.000-08:00

yo I got some updates here- before I go further I need some feedback on the head:

My first attempt at the head spline controls was more flexible as youd expect but it kinda looked weird when deforming. Furthermore when you moved the spine around the head just stayed put and the deformation broke the geometery. I've pretty much worked today experimenting with various head/spline handle setups, and the first video posted is a demo of the best solution I could come up with. It also means the head can now translate as well as rotate, because the spline curve is parented to the head controller. (oh yeah its not on the video but I also found a way to link up those squash and stretch deformers to attributes, so theyr all working nicely now too.) See what you think and let me know.

The second video is mainly demonstrating the working stretchy arms. Feels good to post this one I can promise you! I sort of understand how I did it; it required expressions linked to dimension nodes that work out the difference between the stretched distance and and the intial distance, and filled in that difference on the scale values of the joints. Then a couple of clamp nodes linked to the same values so that the arm still bends like a normal IK setup as well. Thanks to Alex Hulse for finding this very helpful tutorial by Paul DiPierro. I learnt a little bit more about scripting and expressions as well through this. Take note guys, a '$' (dollar sign) at the beginning of a word means your stating the word to be a variable, and ';' (semi-colon) means 'end expression'.
This video also demonstrates the new shoulder controls- these work nicely with the stretchy arms. It also shows the wrist and the hand controls are in working order. Sorted the hands out today with set driven keys, and theyr looking sweet. I also went round most of the controllers and locked off and hit attributes that wernt going to be needed, and changed the wireframe colour of the controllers so that it looks nice, and slapped in a master control with 'Ed' written on it for selecting the whole character.

My concerns for tomorrow then are to do something about the teeth and eyes that just dont quite follow the face properly. To be honest though it'l be a miracle if I could get them to follow every possible movement of the head properly, they will probably require some degree of keyframing to keep them in place. I'l do my best to minimise that though. The clusters around the eyes might need some work as well, as parenting them to stay with the rig doesnt end well. The only other thing was the controls for the right ear and wrist that only seem to work in reverse. Skinning shouldnt take too long as most of it works really nicely already, aside from that it's nearly done. So close.
Also, how plausable is it (should it come down to it) to scale the environments up and down to fit the characters? I remember I was able to do it that way round during bare-bear, and it's looking like if the scale isnt right then thats the way we're gunna have to do it here. Getting a whole rig to scale up and down too much is very unlikely.

Another render test...

2010-02-11T21:48:00.001-08:00

- Textures made for cabinet and vase (colours need adjusting)

- Improved texture of wall

- For the purposes of HD, i've also changed the tiling, so its more detailed and smooth. We can revert to the other tiling in wide shots.

Thoughts?

p.s. I worked on this till the early hours, so do forgive me guys if I'm late in...

Render Tests

2010-02-10T17:48:00.000-08:00

Plenty more to do. Lighten EVERYTHING as there is way too much contrast. Yet this is definitely going somewhere...more to come

Clipboard modelled

2010-02-10T07:20:00.000-08:00

This took a good few hours to model. Renders out really quick, low poly, and has a standard lambert applied. I think this should go on the wall near the door. I reckon we could just leave it like this to be honest, no textures needed. . .

As you can see it has complex edge loops and 9 high res vertex. Im really proud of this, I hope the team feels the same. Im on a high. Thanks for the modelling help Si.

Rigging update

2010-02-09T11:10:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, I sent an email off to Alex, hopefully to organise a time when we can fully sit down and just get this sorted out cos its gone on for far too long now. Essentially I had a crack at this tutorial I found that looks like it does exactly what we need it to. Here, have a look at the vid on this link:
awsome stretchy bendy arms
looks perfect right? Unfortunately I havn't even run into any scripting yet (thought there is a fair bit of scripting involved) and I've run into various problems. Point constraints seem to flip the wrist and forearms over 180 degrees, and furthermore most of the scripting and expressions involved are written for arm joints of equal length. Neither ed nor jed have forearms that match the lenght of the upper arms, so I will have to work out how to adjust the scripts accordingly.
Sorry this has taken so long guys, things ought to pick up a bit after this hurdle.

We can do it...

2010-02-09T02:11:00.003-08:00

Qube can now wrok from our homes you need to go into college to download it but yeah, this is good news. Not sure if you guys have checked your email but it is there to see.

I Regret to Inform....

2010-02-07T07:00:00.001-08:00

Guysssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss,
Unfortunately, I have struggled with my dissertation badly this weekend, and have made literally 'no' progress. With a deadline on thursday for chapter 2 and 3 I'm in serious shi*. I've spoke to Phil who is in the same situation as myself, and we have both agreed that we simply cannot come into college until we have chapter 2 finished for thursday - minimum. I never thought I'd say this because I hate not working on the project but Im going to take Mon, Tue, and possibly Wed off to catch up. We're making fast progress with the films and so hopefully I can afford to direct a little attention to the diss now, and just get it out the way. Whoever is not behind then please do continue to work on the project, and we will ron - day - voo midweek. By this point the rig should be almost complete and the Ed shot loooking alot better, so animation can dare I say it - commence.
Sorry again,

Edge & Phillipo

Shall we just quit now?

2010-02-06T11:53:00.001-08:00

Rigging progress

2010-02-05T07:57:00.001-08:00

I've set up the skeleton on ed and added controls where appropriate. The rotations of the right wrist are all wrong though, they dont match up to the rotations of the controller so its off when the two are connected. I cant remember sultans method of getting them to match. I also cant remember his method of setting up a spine to do ik/fk, which is a shame coz it was really useful. To be honest theres a lot of things from that lecture that i feel i need to use but the notes have been removed from moodle. Either that or they've been moved somewhere, which pretty much means theyr lost forever.

I spoke to Alex Hulse today, who showed me a bit of basic scripting. I'm basically going to have to do some scripting to get stretchy/bendy arms. He also told me you could skin joints to a lattice deformer, which I thought would help with the issues on Splay, but it doesnt work.

I've pretty much done everything i can now without working out the solutions to these problems.

I know its bad but....

2010-02-03T17:08:00.000-08:00

at least he's imported now.....

This is straight out of maya - no layers, no occ, no HD, no colour adjustment, no nothing! (apart from a quick blur) We have a term and a half to make this look amazing.

I think the reason he wasnt importing on the college PC's was to do with import settings or preferences, because it works fine in mine. Ive saved the file with him in, so hopefully it should open fine at college. Si - still ask Hulsey babes about all the crashing n shizzle though....

Im on it

2010-02-03T14:54:00.001-08:00

The render takes 3mins and 45secs on my machine, a huge improvment. However it still messes when I import Ed, leading me to believe its nothing to do with the textures nor the memory nor the shiteness of the college PC's - it's something in the file. I reckon its render settings merging or something. Either way, I'm gonna solve it. Im on it right now....

P.S Als I found the wall textures lol

4 Phil

2010-02-03T14:20:00.000-08:00

Awesome.

2010-02-03T10:55:00.000-08:00

Phil

Straight from Maya

Original Failure

Dans

Alec

NEW RULE

2010-02-03T06:12:00.001-08:00

TEXTURES MUST BE NO BIGGER THAN 2048x2048 - ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM OR COLLEGE PC'S WILL FAIL, ASWELL AS US.

GRIGSBY YOUR NO EXCEPTION.

Sink uvd

2010-02-01T15:05:00.001-08:00

Dan, I’ve mailed you the sink encase you didn’t know .
What’s the update with Ed?

Team in Action

2010-02-01T05:44:00.000-08:00

Today

2010-01-27T01:17:00.000-08:00

Gona be in a bit later, sorry guys!

2010-01-26T09:04:00.000-08:00

With Edgley's render of Ed, I've done a couple of quick tests in Photoshop.

Image 1) Applying a blur layer, softening the light and shadow, as well as altering the colour of the skin to more warm (the lighting in the hospital room will be white/slightly yellowish). The colour may be too yellow, but I don't think we should have it too green either.

Image 2) Applying a texture. I have used an Apple skin, as I thought this would be a good way of achieving the freckles or spots on Ed.

You probably can't tell the difference, but you know me, I enjoy putting these up here for the hell of it :)

Monday Meeting

2010-01-25T16:43:00.000-08:00

Chim Chiminey Chim Chim Cha - Rooooooooooooooo.....

Today the team had a serious team meeting in the morning to discuss the progress of the films. Whilst we are all working hard we agreed that we need to worker harder, faster, and longer if we intend to complete everything for the degree show. Unfortunately the dissertation has become a hinderance to all of us and caused the production to fall way behind schedule. With so many days off for essay writing it is hard to pick up the momentum from where we left off.

Thankfully Splay has enjoyed recent success with test renders looking amazing, textures almost complete and rigging well underway. However P.O has taken a turn for the worse with blendshapes dragging, the light setup causing ridiculous render times, and textures taking longer than expected. As well as all this the rigging is lying firmly in Daves hands, who, at present is rigging Splay. With no new visuals to inspire I must admit I've been a bit disheartened with progress. We simply must start animating midway through the term, but to do that Ed needs to be textured and rigged with facial controls attached - something that is proving to be very time consuming.

As a result I have set immediate deadlines:

Dave must complete a fully functional torso rig by next friday.

Simon must texture the bed by next friday.

Alec must model and rig the oxygen tube and mask, aswell as sort out lighting and help with animation by next friday.

Grigsby must finish all of Jeds textures by this friday, aswell as test skin and wall textures for Ed and Jed by next friday.

Spence must have Ed, the sink and the radiator Uv'd by this friday.

Phil has kindly agreed to chip in with any spare texture/s

I must have all of Ed's blendshapes and test facial controls complete by this Thursday.

I dont want to be a nasty director, I love my team, but reality has kicked in and I know now that if we keep shrugging off these deadlines and messing about all day we will never achieve the film we all want so badly.

On a more positive note Alec, Grigsby and I stayed behind late tonight in an attempt to render out a decent shot of Ed in mid terror. I really wanted to check that the model looked nice coloured and lit, and more importantly that the blendshapes looked good. Test animations proved difficult due to limited controls and unfinished blends however we managed to get him waking up with a fright - until Maya crashed. Therefore I cant post the little test but we concluded all was fine as long as a decent facial setup is attached and the model is smoothed properly.

We did however manage to render out a nice still of Ed in action. Alec set up a few lights, then we applied a coloured blinn with a subtle fractual texture. The first test was AWFUL....

But after a smooth, an occlusion pass, and light and texture changes we stumbled across something half decent....

Maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel....

Machine Dan

2010-01-25T13:56:00.000-08:00

Right here it is thought i would put it here easier to access and see and all that especially Dan nagging me, joke mate love you really well as much as a dog loves a stick. Other variations are on my blog along with this one but thought i would put the master one on here, for you all to look at. Just experimenting with the glow a lil bit now. Its nearly ther though! Enjoy

ED

2010-01-25T13:48:00.000-08:00

Is now fully Uv'd,i'm just going to run some texture tests first tho . I'm now starting on the sink .

Machino Machino, Where art thou Machino?

2010-01-24T12:20:00.000-08:00

Guys plain and simple here is the machine jus in color at the moment, waitin to see what it looks like in the room to sort out stuff like glow, bump and spec and reflections. Plus a teaser of the start.

Shoe reference for Grigs

2010-01-22T03:57:00.000-08:00

Only the odd harsh crease, the rest subtle and cloudy. Hope this helps.

You Forgot the Hospital!

2010-01-21T12:24:00.003-08:00

Oh and pick up your phone Grigs.

UP Textures

2010-01-21T08:18:00.000-08:00

Here are a few screengrabs from UP, showing lighting and texture for the hospital room and Carl Fredricksen's bedroom:

I was meaning to post these up here a while back. Sorry for the delay.

For dan

2010-01-19T20:04:00.000-08:00

Dan the Bed is nearly done. Though it’s proving to be quite annoying as the model has been awkwardly made .. Faces within faces quite literally lol ( the wheels for example) . so I’m sorting them out best i can with UV mapper . After which you or i can then delete the faces which aren’t visible + also lowering the poly count on it, as the model currently stands at an unnecessary higher count for what it could be as it's 33068 polys. Check my blog too see how it's coming.

I'll be adding more images later as well .

ps

not sure if I’m gna be able to make today (Wednesday) as i have an important gig to play later on in the day and i want to spend some time doing my Dissertation/Bed UV/Portfolio before i goto it, as I came in Tuesday as you know to see if i could catch anybody about & do some other work as I knew I may not be able to make today.

load up that model on maya btw and check out what i mean. It's defo gna need sorting mate, We can do that once it's fully Uv'd in Uv layout

see you later on today or Thursday & we can chat about this bed in detail :) .

X-rated material for Simon

2010-01-19T13:48:00.000-08:00

Might need a few more tweaks mate, but the basics are there. I decided to leave the teeth out, it made him look really ugly. Plus we only see this breifly and we want people to focus on the broken legs....

I think maybe the legs could flash red or the red squares around the injuries could zero in?

poor guy

2010-01-18T03:52:00.001-08:00

Jedds Tongue

2010-01-14T07:29:00.001-08:00

Dan, the tongue i don't think was in that Uv'd file we gave to Dave . So if you just want to mail him over jedds tongue from one of the updated versions you’ve modelled that be great.

Things to Model

2010-01-13T06:56:00.000-08:00

- Bin
- Corkboard
- With pins and paper
- Clipboard on the end of the bed
- Wardnumber on a plaque
- Mop and bucket
- Fire alarm
- Smoke alarm
- Vents
- Soap despencer
- Lamp connected to the bed
- More pipes
- Light switch

- Maybe a plant

Daves Rig Requirements for Jed

2010-01-13T03:40:00.001-08:00

- Afro needs parenting to head
- Afro needs general wobble.stretch/squash (lattice?)
- Headphones need parenting to head - account for change in mouth shape
- Headphones need to throb/squash & stretch - rig. (lattice?)
- Mouth blendshape facial setup - GUI
- Tongue needs parenting/attatching to mouth
- Teeth - need to follow lips when blenshaped i.e an up and down control
- Head rig - needs alot of bend so he can whirl it to and fro
- Body rig needs to be very flexible (squash and stretch/bend) Needs to be able to perform groovy snake like moves
- Arms need to be able to stretch
- Hands rigged
- Bum clench and expand controls
- Legs need to stretch
- Feet - reverse foot control?
- Not too many body rig controls/rings
- Eyes - stretch/squash/expand controls in channel box - parent to face

For Alec

2010-01-07T13:31:00.000-08:00

Link to that tutorial i was saying about.
http://www.floze.org/2008/07/six-tuts-on-light-and-shade-part-iii.html

Okay

2010-01-06T10:21:00.000-08:00

Well done a bit more work rendered off an occlusion aswell thought a bit about what you said and the more i look at it the more it looks like it should be for a game, so ifelt the best way forward was to make it more subtle. So, i have lowered some of the layers in photoshop and rendered off a new one i am also gona look at some films for inspiration. So the two images below are the old one and the new one with more subtle details on it. Will go college tomorrow depending on weather of course, but yeah its still along way away but its getting ther!

Bad News

2010-01-06T08:49:00.001-08:00

Think Im going to have to start the Ed model again guys. I spent like 3 hours today trying to correct it because Ive modelled it with hardly any subdivs therfore making it near enough impossible to extrude arms and legs. I tried adding some but that meant reshaping the head and nasty pinches occuring. I began doing a Grigsby and making life so much harder than it needed to be. Ithink its best I just start again tommorow. Sorryyyy...

Cheating Lil Machine

2010-01-06T04:06:00.000-08:00

Hey this is mainly aimed at Dan but of course we are a team so everyones feedback will be appreciated...

Have been working on the machine this morning creating various textures and different techniques. Well this image below was me just putting the same texture on each part of the machine no tweaking just plonking it on and i was wondering what people thought of it, does it look ok?

As if i just use it for each one as a base texture i can now go in and add specific unique details for each part of the machine let me know please hope your all on here and having a productive day.

Sorry about the quality i forgot ot change the background, add another light and remeber it looks blurry over the internet.

Final Character Uv

2010-01-05T06:12:00.001-08:00

Dan mate, mail me the Character (including the afro) & i'll be able to start his uvs sooner =], I can see you're having trouble with it haha.

Dates

2010-01-03T01:39:00.000-08:00

Just wondering what days we are coming in this week?

Work Tuesday Again!

2009-12-29T04:44:00.000-08:00

Guys Im at work 1-6 today but Im definately still gonna do some work tonight. Please can we have a repeat performance of last tuesday, everyone update their blogs with new work tonight at some point....

Much love

Edge X

Uv tests

2009-12-28T17:13:00.001-08:00

The Uv's for the character are going very well, so once the final model is complete & given to me i'm very confident it wont take me long to fully UV him (I‘ve had enough practice as you can see).Here's an example of how busy ive been,
primarily whole of yesterday and early hours on this morning been spent on nailing some really good UV's

+ some examples of test maps

Bad News

2009-12-27T09:47:00.000-08:00

My Photoshop has gone wrong guys, so cant do much texturing until i get it fixed, think i may need grigs to help me, so i may go back to some stuff i tried earlier like the bed etc or maybe the cable. i dunno im a bit anoyed was doing so well, i knew i shudnt have updated my comp oh well! I stil got a bit of unwrapping uv to do and can kind of work on the skin, but obviously need to do the textures and need photoshop oh well!

Well hope your having a good holiday!

X

Well Played

2009-12-23T09:49:00.000-08:00

Well the results are in. I think the day working at home proved to be a success. The only people who failed miserably were Alec and Phil.

Simon continued work on the machine, developed the texture and has almost finished UVing it out. He succssfully posted his work by 5.00pm.

Grigs made an awesome clothing texture and has informed us he's done more. He too posted to the deadline.

Spence posted early in the day to show how the UV mapping of Jed was going and I must say it looks pretty damn good.

I posted, granted, at quater past 5, my progress with the floor polisher model.

Phil and Alec did bugger all.

For those of you who did complete some work by 5, well done! You made our online class a success. Im really impressed with the work going down guys, so keep at it, I can genuinely feel a great film coming our way...

TOMMOROW CANCELLED

2009-12-22T16:10:00.000-08:00

I know I said lets go in tommorow but check your mail and you'll see that the college closes at 12.30pm so theres no point. However everyone should have enough to get on with at home and so I suggest a mass blog session at 5.00pm tommorow. That way we can see what everyone achieved in the day it proves you did work!
Grigs I wana see 3 detalied, high resolution, boiler suit textures
Spence I wana see the UV's of the suit beginning to be mapped out
Si I wana see new texture tests for the machine, high res, and layered
Phil I dont wana see any of your bullshit
Alec lets face it we're not gonna see much from you, your a let down
I will post my dvelopments with Jed.

5.00pm I want to see blogs updated guysssssssssssssss

Edge X

Jobs

2009-12-21T10:37:00.000-08:00

Alec requested I re-post everyones tasks this xmas, so here it goes:

-Grigs: Room bock out, Jed texture tests, Room texture tests

- Alec: Life Support Machine Model complete (pipes n all), Texture tests, Bed or Plug model blockout

- Spencer: Wall texture tests, Tile texture tests, any extra models

- Simon: Machine textures, objects textures, skin textures (important)

Please make sure we come back with most of this done.

Update blogs

2009-12-21T06:38:00.000-08:00

guys, can we all make an effort to update our blogs please. At the moment it looks like we're producing no work. If you've tested something, no matter how small, post it. If not for grades then for team moral.

X

request i think

2009-12-18T07:17:00.000-08:00

not sure if you guys check im currently working on the machine its getting their, gona work on skin next week and other objects should be fine. but is their anything you want me t model? maybe my famous bed? or something as small as pipe? i dunno just throwing it out their if you need it.

lates

2009-12-14T14:51:00.000-08:00

im gonna b in a bit late tomo, got an appointment in bed at 10.00 ;) X

2009-12-14T09:02:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine suggested this clip from the film Airplane! Thought it was fairly similar to Polished Off in the respect the kid on the bed is suffocating while no else realises:

Smith Message

2009-12-08T15:39:00.000-08:00

Alec, send that DVD pronto, Im in the mood to work on Jed. Remember to put 3 things on the disc:

- Maya 2010
- BBQ snaps
- Dissertation notes

Edge x

festival

2009-11-28T03:47:00.000-08:00

As you were saying about festivals the other day Edgley, I think this one is a big deal, Shelley Page is on the judging panel.

https://www.encounters-festival.org.uk/

Done my essay

2009-11-25T10:17:00.001-08:00

http://www.ukessays.com/index-nlbanner.php

Quickie

2009-11-24T10:06:00.000-08:00

Boys, just to set the record straight - for friday bring in 2 folders, one for P.O, one for Splay - containing all your pre production work for this term.

Also Als if you wanted to do your shindig thursday night I can make it now, just not friday. Or if you want to stick to next monday thats cool with me aswell.

Im struggling with these essays guys...

X

Presentation

2009-11-22T05:50:00.000-08:00

Everyone in at 9.00 tommorow to run through the P.O and Splay presentations. We're going to look like complete dicks if we dont know whose saying what and when!

Edge X

Guys

2009-11-22T02:36:00.000-08:00

Are we ready for Monday? how did the rest of Friday go?

More Sounds...

2009-11-16T14:13:00.000-08:00

Grigs - a list of further sound effects needed...

- bed sheets rustle
- teeth glistening
- swoosh
- inhale
- heavy breathing
- mirror sheen
- polisher engine
- footsteps on clean kitchen floor
- wheel creak
- metal frame clanging
- grunts
- hand grabbing plastic tubing

Theres more i just cant think of them at the minute, that should keep you going though. We need to start getting them in the final animatic tommorow.

Bit of Brandin'

2009-11-11T07:44:00.000-08:00

Simon's Materials

2009-11-09T08:54:00.000-08:00

- Rubber tubing for electrical cords
- Clear, clean rubber tubbing for breathing tube
- Stainless steel for "Lifted" switches with those lines.
- Slightly Rusty red metal for large valve
- Grey Plastic for ports, terminals and small electrical equipment
- LED lights. On/Off. Reflective.
- Tiled Floor uncleaned. Slightly reflective.
- Tiled Floor clean and reflective.
- Ceramic sink
- Dirty metal for taps. Not insanely dirty just "used"
- Back Lit plastic casing for the back of the dials
- Cotton stitching for the seat
- Wood for chair seating
- Ceramic for pot (could be the same as the sink)
- Paper/Card for the bed side card
- White, painted metal for the bed rims
- White stitched cotton for the bed sheets and pillows
- Florescent lights in the ceiling
- Ceiling tiles

SUNDAY NIGHT!

2009-11-08T09:45:00.000-08:00

this weeks going to be mental with essays presentations and all that jazz, so any work you could do tonight would be greatly appreciated. Im going to thumbnail. Please guys, lets stay one step ahead, and hopefully someone will get gold star in the morning X

4 Als

2009-11-06T05:52:00.000-08:00

Sounds Needed

2009-11-05T12:47:00.000-08:00

- Pump inhale
- Pump exhale
- Heart Monitor
- Machine blips/chatter
- One clock tick (we don't need a looping sound of a clock tick for every second.) It's more of a paklunk than a tick
- Lights turning on
- Light switch turning on
- Doors flapping
- Foot steps on tiles
- Swoosh (as he walks past the bed)
- Plug coming out
- Plug going in
- Machine revving
- Polisher loop (engine loop)
- Finger click
- Foot tape
- Boom/Doof for headphone banging
- Boing for bum shake
- Swish (for camera warp)

Tasks:

2009-11-03T11:33:00.001-08:00

Thought I'd remind everyone of the priorities for P.O over the next week or so...

Myself:

Model Jed
Music & Sound fx
Final dance move list
Pose board
Finish thumbnailing

Als:

Animatic
Sound fx
Finish thumbnailing
Finish machine

Si:
Splay
(If available for P.O then - further cloth, steam, texture and wire tests. Also could begin unwrapping finished machine parts?)

Grigs & Phil:
Splay

Note: these tasks need to be complete in the next 2 weeks, as well as anything Phil needs you to do :S.

Storyboarding for films

2009-10-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

I came across this really simple tutorial in the latest Imagine FX magazine on how to create a storyboard. It may be for live action, but the same method is applied for film or animation. I've been meaning to put this up on here for a while. Hope this helps in some way for both projects...

For Grigs to Disect.....

2009-10-26T10:38:00.000-07:00

Hi mate, heres the latest flash mov. Be as brutal as you can, because it really isnt working at the moment. The timing and feel just isnt right. I think your right, it starts off too fast paced. If you could make a list of what needs changing, shot by shot that would be wicked. I think you have a good idea when it comes to editing and camera rules etc. Also please try and think of shots you would add and remove. Cheers pal X

stuff

2009-10-26T10:28:00.000-07:00

Simon that's cool, we don't expect you to do anything on the weekends if you have other stuff, same for Grigs as we know he works too.

I also think we are getting into a better rhythm of working, at the start we went off like greyhounds and spent the next 3 weeks trying to recover. The last few days have been more relaxed and I'm finding I'm more driven to work on the projects. You can't sprint a marathon from the start, you have to jog 3/4 then sprint to the finish. We also now have to start our other projects so keep it relaxed and enjoy it.

Oh and I found the list not Dan Fail Edgeless.

To do list

2009-10-26T05:35:00.000-07:00

Check out this document I found on moodle:

3rd YEAR FILM PIPELINE

1. DEVELOP IDEA

2. SCRIPT WRITING

3. ASSEMBLE TEAM

4. STORYBOARDING

5. RECORD SCRATCH TRACK

6. CHARACTER DESIGN

7. ANIMATIC (ROUGH - WEEK 5)

8. VISUAL DEVELOPMENT

9. PLAN PRODUCTION FLOW

10. BREAKDOWN SCENES – TASKS

11. MODEL CHARACTERS

12. MODEL/SETS/PROPS

(WEEK 9 BLOCK OUT ANIMATIC)

13. BUILD IK SKELETONS

14. PAINT AND SCAN TEXTURES

15. LAYOUT SCENE AND SETUP CAMERA

16. BLOCK - ANIMATE CHARACTERS

17. WRITE SHADERS

18. RENDERING TESTS

19. FACIAL BLEND LIP SYNC

20. RECORD FINAL DIALOGUE AND SOUND TRACK

21. ANIMATE CHARACTERS – (START WEEK 5 TERM 2)

22. FINAL EDIT DIALOGUE AND SOUNDTRACK

23. ANIMATE EFFECTS

24. LIGHT SCENES

25. FINAL RENDERING – ENTIRE SCENE OR LAYERS

26. COMPOSITING

27. REVIEWS/PREVIEWS/FIXES AND CHANGES

28. EDIT IMAGE AND SOUND

29. FINAL OUTPUT

30. QUALITY CONTROL AND RELEASE

ALL FILMS WILL BE COMPLETED AND SUBMITTED BY JUNE 15th

ANY INCOMPLETE ELEMENTS SUCH AS ANIMATION – SOUND ETC WILL MEAN THE SUBMISSION WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED AS MEETING THE CRITERIA OF THE UNIT.

( FINAL RENDERING PASSES WILL BE ACCEPTED)

ILL

2009-10-25T10:35:00.000-07:00

guys, im really sick. been in bed all day, and missed work. I'll do my best to come in tomo for formative. sorry

Gold Stars all Round

2009-10-25T05:20:00.000-07:00

Right, tommorow everyone better come in with something that's gold star worthy. I dont want anyone saying they did nothing over the weekend, cause it wont be funny. Sort your lives out and come in with something that will amaze, and hopefully it will be the first ever gold stars all round day. Work boys, work.

P.S Phil Ive got your sore throat.

Flash File

2009-10-23T12:20:00.000-07:00

Here's the Flash file you wanted Edge. Hope this works:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=59LQ462I

I third that

2009-10-14T16:51:00.000-07:00

It's kinda late so I'm not going to go into specifics but I agree with what everyone else is saying. I'm really proud with the team and everyone's pulling their weight. The enthusiasm shown is a awesome and........

...that's all I can think of for now.

But the race is long guys, the finish line is beyond the horizon and we don't know if we're going to win yet. If we want to win the race guys, we need to run.

Fucking run.

Agreed

2009-10-14T10:44:00.000-07:00

You've all done seriously great work so far, and have been putting in a lot of your own time, (which hasn't gone unnoticed) and we appreciate your patience when we try to explain something we envision to look like. I suppose I should write something nice about Edgley as he can't write it for himself.

So far you've probably already drawn about 3,000 decent images for your characters and environments, most people would be happy with a few to the quality you achieve. You're closing in on a style that is undoubtedly you and have made leaps of improvement in developing your film. I know you feel it soul destroying to think about having to change something you already thought you'd finalized, but remember this was always suppose to be hard, otherwise anyone could do it. I've no doubt you'll finish this film to a standard that excels most others, driven by your fierce determination and natural flare.

Edgleys Moral Post

2009-10-13T14:06:00.000-07:00

Ok. I know I was in a bad mood today, things on my mind, Ed pissing me off etc. Anyway I want to say a few things...

Simon:

Mate, you've slotted into the team so well. You've been in everyday, sorting stuff out and getting on with it. Concepting was never your thing, yet you've churned out some awesome designs which take pride of place on our board. Recently you've become R&D man which is a job I never really thought about, but its vital. Figuring out all the technical problems we will face in advance is not just clever on your part, but will save us immense time in production. The wire tests look sweet, so keep at it man!

Grigs:

Again, perfect team member. You've become realiable and hilarious to work with. The work you've been producing is to a proffessional standard mate, and to be honest I never thought you were capable of it. You need to have more belief in your abilities because I couldn't do half the concepts you've done. You modellled, textured and lit a ward in 3 days! Thats unreal. Okay, you textured and lit in PS, but even so it looks stunning. I dont even need to mention the amount of work you've put into Splay as well. Plus you provide cans of drink and mum jokes every day. Keep going grigmeister!

Alec:

S***bag! As a producer, you are sorting us out so far mate. You've been hammering home deadlines and keeping us all on track with the schedule. As well as getting on everyones back, you have been jumping between projects and giving your classic advice and wisdom. I honestly think both projects would be completely different if you weren't around. Splay would be about circles falling in love, and mine would be about a fruit slinging maniac. Decisions are so important, and luckily for us, you love to deal with them. Add concepting, animation tests, thumbnailing, and flash animatics to the list and you've got a pretty damn good team member.

Phil:

Sometimes I wonder, what have you done for us, especially with no gold stars under your belt until today. However, you have done moreeeee than enough! You touch the keyboard and out comes a concept, its scary. You were born to direct Splay, its your baby, and its shaping up mighty fine. I think everyone is working to create the vision in your head, and your doing a great job guiding us. You worked harder than any of us on your project over summer, and filled half the board on the first day with concepts, I really dont understand how you failed to achieve a gold star until today (of course I'd never admit that to your face - I want one). Seriosuly Brooks, carry on like this and you're going to have to splash out serious amounts of cash entering Splay into every festival out there, cause it will win.

Spence:

Working on 3 projects must be hard pal, but some how your dealing with it! You seem to knock out these top quality paintings for both of us regularly, so well played man. All I can say is keep at it mate, your portfolio next year is going to be ridiculous! Im looking forward to gaining your help with texturing in production, as I think you know exactly what Im going for now. Thanks for all the effort so far mate. Help hitman now, they deserve some of your magic touch!

I wouldnt be a good director if I didnt tell you guys what I think. This post was meant as a thankyou, a pep talk, and hopefully to restore some moral. Keep going guys, Im grateful.

X

Edge

Intresting Stuff

2009-10-11T05:27:00.000-07:00

hey guys been doing a bit of home work this weekend, got some ideas for polished off in terms of final look, so render layers etc and also been looking into some new stuff i was telling you about SSS. Ohhh dont worry Phil may have something to show and tell you.

Lil bit of help...

2009-10-05T09:23:00.000-07:00

Ok guys and gals (grigs), if you have any more ideas on how poor lil Ed can communicate with Jed then please post them. If you can think of any other ways he could grab his attention, without going too mad then that would be mighty handy. . .

Also Spence, for the nightime lighting in the ward, refer to one of those interent pictures grigs researched, as I think dark blue works. But for when the lights are on, try and create a cool light blue atmosphere with white tiles. Refer to "lost and found"s subtle patchy textures with very slight dirt. I know you got 3 films on the go, so whenever you find time mannnnnnn

MUCH LOVE XXX

Link

2009-10-03T13:44:00.000-07:00

Hey guys a link below is to a website i have been keeping track on its really useful for what we are doing this year an animatic is on my blog from these guys just a heads up for us i guess.
http://gypsycartoon.com/default.aspx

Colour choices?

2009-10-01T09:19:00.000-07:00

Hmmmm Im thinking pink or purple? Whats your feelings guys?

Storyboard Blog

2009-09-29T07:39:00.000-07:00

Karen J Lloyd is a storyboard artist and she set up a story boarding blog offering advice. The great thing about this blog is that it's not story boarding specific; there is some great advice on portfolios, composition and other advice.

http://karenjlloyd.com/blog/home/

This pretty much needs to be in your favorites.

What a start!

2009-09-28T13:59:00.000-07:00

Today "Polished Off" was green lit, and I can safely say - the feeling was almost better than sex with Alecs mum. I want to thank everyone who voted for it, and also wish all the other directors in the class the best of luck - especially Phil. Not because he's a dick, but because we are collaborating to produce 2 films. Yeah thats right 2........

"Splay" was also chosen, and so not wanting to give one up, we hired a trusty team to help create both - Alec, Spence, Simon and Grigs. The plan is as follows - Phil will obviously direct his. Alec will be producer for both - ensuring that the production pipeline runs smoothly, and that deadlines are met. The rest of the guys will freelance between the two, specialising in their skilled areas.

If everything goes to plan and jobs are spread evenly and effectively then I am confident we will produce 2 of the best animations ravensbourne has ever witnessed.

So without further a due - welcome to the Polished Off Blog - guys start blogging!

X