Online Presence

My new vimeo + account:

Vimeo Account

My existing youtube account which has been a bit cleaned up:

Youtube Account

Winter

Over winter my goal is to completely finish modeling out and texturing my BFA. I will also be working on other skills with Richard at his center, so will be working on other things to add to my resume.

I will try to post some images along the way, through winter, and will have a slightly updated demo reel when I get back.

Presentation Outline

I. Where was I?

A. Development of 2-D to 3-D mentality…(Why? The moment of enlightenment)

1. Influences

2. What I did (With demo reel)

3. The transition (2-d vs 3-d)

II. Where am I? Wilson!

B. Senior Project Info

1. Idea development...how did it come together

2. Development of models

3. Animation of train pulling into station

III. THE FUTURE!

C. Where am I going?

1. Plans for the project…continued development after school and festival circuit

2. What type of jobs I want to get and places I want to visit for animation

BFA Update AGAIN!

I am officially behind where I wanted to be today. UV Texturing is taking longer than expected since I made some of the models on the engine needlessly complicated. That said, I am maintaining my current calendar. I will catch up by the end of Thanksgiving Break.

It does, however, mean that I will spend a bit less time lovingly embracing food..and I'll need to cancel my plans to travel down to Starkville for a couple days to visit friends. Oh well, I didn't like them anyways...*sniffle*.

BFA Update

Over the last couple days I got a majority of the UV maps of the train engine finished. The UV maps are the layout mapping for texturing. By the next class I will have completely textured the engine and have a good portion of the outside passenger car modeled out.


Calendar Update:

CALENDAR!!!!!



.

WIP

I have finally managed to finish modeling the train engine and have begun to UV texture map all of the pieces. I had originally intended to be finished with the entire engine by mon/tues, but the modeling of a specific piece of the train engine to longer than originally thought. The mechanism which moves the wheels was far more complex than I anticipated as the way the mechanism moves made it confusing to model it in a way that can be animated.

This puts me behind on my calendar, but using the upcoming weekend as well as the thanksgiving break, I should be able to close the gap and get back on, or even ahead, of schedule.

Logos..do you have them?

Yes.


P.S. Logo will be changed shortly. I have spoken to a fellow student who knows significantly more about design than me and made some recommendations.

IMAGES!!!?

Y'all got a parcel full of 'em images.

BFA Progress

My professional progress is stalled at the moment, as I feel odd not sending in 3-d work with my demo reel. I have contacted someone about a remote internship, but still haven't heard back from him. If I hear an affirmative from him, I will forward my demo reel and resume to arena.net for review and hopefully get an internship. Either way, I plan on making some cover letters for a couple different companies within the next week, as I stated in my previous post.
I am "happy" with my demo reel as it is, and I seem to have gotten good reviews from the class, but I still want to add some 3-d content. If they don't work together well, I may make a separate demo reel for the 3-d content to really show off line flow and models...potentially a bit of animation as well.

Gadspy told me "Great" on my resume and there was no further mark-up, so unless something is glaringly missing I believe that it is at a satisfactory point, for the moment at least.

For my future, I want to work for a couple years after graduating. If I manage to get where I want to be fairly quickly, then excellent. If I'm struggling in moving forward or despise the people I work with, I'll probably go to grad school and develop my skills further. I also do still have dreams of opening a small gaming studio at some point in the future, though that will only happen if I can find a group of reliable and friendly people who also want to do the same.

Updated Calendar

Thar' be whales in these har' waters
Calendar
|
|
|

Things I'll have on Tuesday:

It took me a bit to decide on what I would have due on Tuesday, but I eventually decided that I was just going to continue to attempt to catch up to my calendar schedule.

While I doubt that i'll be able to completely finish the Engine model by monday like i originally planned, I should be able to finish the model and textures within a week if I eschew sleep for a few days.

I will also continue to research the interior of trains, but I want to step away from the interior for a bit and get back to doing some modeling. 3-D seems to be a dance between all the different aspects...sometimes modeling, sometimes uv'ing, sometimes texturing...much in the same way that painters handle the entire canvas. Hmm, saying that makes me think that I approached texturing the interior in the wrong way. Perhaps I was focusing too much on individual elements at a time as opposed to looking at how it would all fit together in the end...though i guess it all fit together, just looked like a run down barn.

Other than that, I am going to contact someone this weekend to see if arena.net offers remote internships. If it does, I plan on sending my resume and a finalized demo reel to them within the next week or two. If they don't offer remotely, then I am going to try out companies like running pony and enigma games. But within the next week or two I plan on having enough new models/animations to add some good 3-d work to my demo reel.

I'll see y'all on Tuesday...unless someone random is reading this...then i'll see you at some random time at some random location...i'll be the one in the random clothes.

Isaac Castilla

The layout of Isaac’s portfolio site, while it follows an atypical, block format, quickly grabs my attention with the cycling imagery in the upper portion of the page. The images represent his work, and shows the various styles he draws in, causing me to be curious about what’s further down the page. It helps that his demo-reel made me extremely curious as to who he is, and after reading some Spanish I didn’t understand...i feel I really have a grasp on who Isaac Castilla is. The clean layout of the site, with some nifty (yes nifty!) design aspects, such as how switching between “animacion” and “ilustracion” itself performs a cool little dynamic bit of movement.

My only issue with the whole thing really, is his limited biography…but that seems to be relatively popular. Also my lack of understanding of the biography probably doesn’t help. Me no hablo espanol.

http://icastilla.net/

Martial Fontan

This time a 3-D animator that I love the demo reel of. The fluidity of the shadows is fantastic, and the characters themselves move well. While Martial doesn’t seem to have a pro site, the basic layout of the behance pages seems to work well enough for his/her content. The basic layout offers the choice for the owner to create their own video order, allowing the owner to position what he or she considers to be the most important videos right in the view of whomever clicks into their profile.

http://www.behance.net/RatSagittarius

Hyperdark (Can’t find real name…)

I decided to troll through the pro sites rather than looking through demo reels for this one. I came across Hyperdark, a photographer who seems to take a lot of photos of interesting subject matter (the underwater images especially caught my interest). The images are also very well situated. This site seems to have a bit more navigation than the previous two sites I mentioned, with teasers up front and the depth of individual shoots and projects in a task bar to the side.

http://hyperdark.com/

Senior Project Update Oct. 25, 2011

For this presentation, I will be showing the pure Maya file in which my current work exists. The current extent of my work includes the model of the interior train, as well as all of those models having their UV's laid out.

I have also included my demo reel and animatic in order to have them visible on the blog.

Write-Up

I need to remove the full description of my animatic, and allow the animatic to speak
for itself more. The major criticism of my overview was that I was basically giving
saying the same thing twice, by spelling it all out and then showing the animatic.
In the future, I think I can aleviate this by either giving a smaller induction, and
perhaps adding a small music track to occupy the viewers ears so it doesn't seem so
disjointing when I suddenly stop speaking.

While I added travel plans and such to the presentation due to a percieved
requirement, I would keep the plans in as they are important to me if I can manage
to pull them off.

I also need to create a better transition from my past to my present, perhaps adding
a deeper personal development as a means of conveying the magnitude of the changes
that have brought me here today.

First and foremost above all of these, however, I need to develop my own skills at
speaking in front of a group of people. My mind tends to go mostly blank when put
in front of people, causing me to forget things which I have gone over multiple times.
This caused me to focus too intently on the notecards I had made, as opposed to
engaging with the audience.

Calendar

Here is the calender.

Although I f'ed up the dates, fixing now.

internships

1^st Internship:

http://tbe.taleo.net/NA5/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=NCSOFT&cws=1&rid=577

((Arena.net created GuildWars, a popular game which has lasted many years, and is currently developing GuildWars 2))

I have chosen to apply to Arena.net as they are a well-known and semi-large gaming company that still focuses on only one project at a time. The level of detail, and amount of work they place into every element of their games is astounding, and I love the idea of working on games with the company who has given me one of my favorite games, and is working on the game at the top of my watch list.

2^nd Internship:

((Internship sheet provided by Gadspy))

The second place I will apply is Palm Coast Imports. I would work at Palm Coast Imports as a means of developing skill working with 3-D programs in a professional setting to create marketable models. The experience would be invaluable for making the jump from student to professional.

3^rd Internship:

Crew Training International

The third location I will apply for is Crew Training International. Although it says knowledge of 3ds Max is required, 3ds is an offshoot of Maya and I should be able to make the transition fairly easily. I choose this internship due to its involvement with 3-D criteria, but also because it has been known to hire interns in the past.

Model's Needed ((WIP))

Train Animation Model List: (subject to change)

Train Station and Landscape:

Station, Platform, Railroad tracks, Exterior Landscape, Time board, seating/benches

Train Exterior:

Steam engine, caboose, passenger car, wheels

Train Interior ((passenger cars)):

Aisle, aisle window (exterior), compartment doors (with windows), dividing wall between aisle and compartments, dividers between compartments, piping, seating in compartments, luggage racks, compartment windows (exterior), door between cars

Train Interior ((mechanism car)):

Gears, belts, poundy things I don’t know the name of in car engines…more to be added.

"The Hollywood Sell"

The greatest moment of either of the times Howard met with us was when he said my pitch and story idea were "fantastic".

However, probably the most useful information that he imparted on us was specifically his pitch. His mannerisms and the layout of how he spoke, where it was more of a conversation which led into the actual pitch, was what hopefully gives me the ability to develop my pitches even further in the future.

Elevator Line:

A man boards an unscheduled, mysterious train where the only other passengers are his personnel demons.

Back of the box:

After missing his train leaving him alone in the middle of nowhere, Oliver counts his blessings when an unscheduled train pulls up to the station. However, this train is more than what it seems, and Oliver will spend those blessings just trying to survive the “Death Train”!

Theme:

“Own worst enemy”, Master of own destiny, ((ultimately…don’t miss the bus/train))

Summary of summary:

Oliver Stanson is trying to get to the city, but when he misses his train he is left alone at a station in the middle of nowhere. His luck changes when a new, unscheduled train pulls into the station. However, he quickly learns how badly his luck has turned as he sees the decrepit and aged interior. Add in a mysterious figure hunting him through the cabs, chains rattling and making grabs him, and a mechanical death trap he must traverse. When he manages to evade all of these hindrances, and finally comes close to his goal, it is snatched away from him as the figure finally gets a hold of him. Oliver has a short moment to register the face of his hunter before he is engulfed by closing darkness.

Summary:

Oliver, an average, but jittery, working class man needs to catch a train, but he gets to the train station just as his train is leaving the station. As he's looking at the train schedule, a different, menacing train pulls up going his direction. Oliver looks at the train, obviously put off by it, but after looking at his pocket watch decides to get on anyway.
As the train begins to move, Oliver is alone in a decrepit, compartment style passenger train. Dust, rust, cobwebs, and dander cover every nook and cranny, and all the windows are grimy, writhing shadows just visible inside the compartment windows. Just visible out of the aisle windows is a gray and desolate landscape. Light exits the area around the entrance, giving him only one direction to go.
As he moves through the train, he encounters a shadowy figure who proceeds to chase him through the train, forcing Oliver to work through various obstacles, including dodging chains which try to latch onto him and a room full of mechanical implements and contraptions.
When Oliver finally makes it through the obstacles, and is about to open the glowing door, something keeps him from moving forward. He looks down and sees that chains have grabbed onto his leg. They pull his legs out from under him, and then drag him back to the shadowy figure. When he looks up at the figure, he sees that the figure has his face. The screen goes black.

Overarching Story:

Opening:

Oliver Stanson gets to the train station right as his train leaves the station. Oliver is now alone on the platform, and is checking train times as a second train rolls into the station, headed the same direction as the train before. The train whistles blows, and he turns around as the train’s door opens in front of him. The man checks his watch, realizing that the train is unscheduled, but being in a hurry, decides to get on.

On the train:

The entryway of the train is small and has a flickering light, but is otherwise normal. The man moves to the door leading to the first of the passenger cars.

Passenger cars:

The first coach looks worn and old, with an assortment of cobwebs, rust, and even moss along the aisle. Old chains lay across the aisle with some hanging from the walls and ceiling. The right side of the coach is a line of windows, looking out on a desolate, gray landscape. The left side of the aisle is lined with passenger compartments.

The man begins to move forward slowly. The glances out the windows, which are dirty, as he moves and sees the desolate landscape, but continues to move forward. He passes the compartments, which have dirty windows as well, but shadows are moving in them. After he passes a couple compartments he stops to wipe away a small amount of dust on one of the windows. What he sees inside are shadowy figures hanging from hooks and chains. One of the figures opens up glowing eyes and looks towards the man. He backs away from the window, frightened.

The man looks back the way he came, but the path is pitch black. Moving away from the blackness the man moves quickly towards the door to the next car, but as he steps away from the compartment, the door opens. Oliver looks back at the compartment as a shadowy figure steps out. Oliver begins to run through the train as chains begin to come snaking out of the compartment towards him.

Oliver runs through the train, compartment doors opening and pouring more and more chains after him. He comes to a temporary halt as he reaches the last car.

Last Car:

The last car of the train is a mechanical nightmare. Large machines pound like pistons and large gears turn and grind each other. On the opposite side of the car is another door.

The man stops at the doorway to look at the machinations in front of him, but after a couple seconds of amazement, he turns and looks behind him chains are snaking from the compartments of the cars behind him, and the shadowy figure is following him, now one car length behind.

The man begins to move forward through the car, dodging around the various machines and objects, which block his path. He turns to look back every few steps, seeing the figure and chains grow closer. Finally he reaches the door, but something stops him. He looks down and sees that a chain has wrapped itself around his leg. He tries to pull the leg forward, but the chain pulls back harder. Another chain latches onto his arm, then his other leg, then around his neck. The chains begin to drag him backwards as he reaches his last arm forwards towards the door.

The chains start pulling the man even faster, and he looks back to see the figure. As he gets closer, he sees the face of the figure. The figure has Oliver’s face. As the figure reaches for Oliver’s face and contact is about to be made, the screen goes black from the darkness finally catching up.

Tones and Execution:

The tone of the piece will be gray, dark, and dirty. There will be heavy shadows, and the train will be covered in dust, cobwebs, rust, and grime.

The mechanical room will also be full of rust and grime, with some potential screen shake to imply the gravity and weight of the machinations.

The platform and the train the woman is on will be clean and well lit, other than the moment when the death train enters the station and the lights dim and smoke billows.

Images:

Train Image 1 | Train Image 2 | Landscape 1 | Landscape 2

Atmosphere 1 | Atmosphere 2 | Machination| Station Platform

Introduction (Act 1): Train Station	Rising Action (Act 2): Aboard The Train	Act 3: The Final Door
Oliver misses the train, but is given an opportunity when another train pulls up.	Aboard the death train, Oliver is put off by the atmosphere inside. Oliver is chased by demons and faced with obstacles, culminating in a room full of mechanical contraptions like a clock tower.	After making it through the mechanical room, he finally gets to the glowing door. When he opens it, he sees the woman he let go sitting in a train car. When he tries to go to her, he is grabbed by chains and pulled back into the darkness of the “Death Train”.

Storyboard

---------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------


---------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------

Pitch Revision

Elevator Line:

A man misses his train, and ends up getting onto a train filled with his personal demons.

Theme(s):
We hold ourselves back, Wrong Train, Ghost Train, Personal Demons,

Setting:

1920's, countryside train station

Summary:

Oliver, an average, but jittery, working class man headed to the city, gets to the train station just as his train is leaving the station. As he's looking at the train schedule, a different, menacing train pulls up going the same direction as the previous train. Oliver looks at the train, obviously put off by it, but after looking at his pocket watch decides to get on anyway.
As the train begins to move, Oliver is alone in a decrepit, compartment style passenger train. Dust, rust, cobwebs, and dander cover every nook and cranny, and all the windows are grimy. Just visible out of the aisle windows is a gray and desolate landscape. When Oliver looks back towards where he got on the train, all he sees is darkness. He backs away from it and begins to move through the train, having nowhere else to go.
As he moves through the train, he encounters a shadowy figure who proceeds to chase him through the train, forcing Oliver to work through various obstacles, including dodging chains which try to latch onto him and a room full of mechanical implements and contraptions.
When he finally makes it to the back of the train, he opens the final door which is the only "clean" looking thing in the train, and sees on the other side a normal looking train, with people seated in rows and reading newspapers and doing other normal activities one would perform on a train. But, as Oliver attempts to go into the car with the other people, he is grabbed by the chains and pulled back to the shadowy figure. As the figure reaches for Oliver, he sees that the figure has his face.

Two Amazing Videos

This one is kind of a demo reel...but not really...maybe.





And just a very good 3-d short film:

Demo Reels Research and Outside Critique

Outside critique:

I spoke to Richard Coleman for the technical side, and his general comments were that the piece was entirely doable. When I spoke to him about reducing the overall workload from an entire animation down to an intricate model and setting in which to put the animation in to at a later date, he stated that it would indeed give me more time to really flesh out the models and textures of the scene.

For the review of my story, I went to my current literature teacher, Soyoung Park. She seemed to have enjoyed the story, but did have a couple recommendations to make, such as the figure chasing him through the train turns out to be himself. She also wished that the opening scene was a bit less about love and more about missed opportunity, which is something I believe we went over in class as well.


Short guide to forming a demo reel, written by Mark Mahler, of Rainbow Studios ---- Link

In this short guide, Mark gives an overview of the basics of creating a 3d focused demo reel, stating how to choose what to put in based on what type of job you are aiming for. He also goes through some of the more basic, but still key, ideas of studying film (lighting, shots, etc) and states how long shots and reels typically are.

What a company like Pixar looks for in demo reels ---- Link

Michael Shaw actually showed me this link, and it has a lot of valuable information that I believe applies to any of the major companies who go through a large number of demo reel submissions. In it, the author, or Pixar itself perhaps, outlines what it looks for in a reel. It breaks down the application process involved with the demo reel, and goes through the elements of a good demo reel as well. Things as basic as "put your best foot forward" to things like "we hate your music" (they didn't say that..but got close to it).


Various Job Links:

Internship at Arena.Net: Link

Environment Artist for Blizzard.net: Link

Pixar Internships: Camera/Staging Crowds Render B*

Betheseda Gameworks Animation: Link


_____________________________________________



Demo Reel Research:




This is a more straight forward demo reel, containing none of the fast cuts or flashy effects so common in the demo reels I viewed. That's the reason I like this one, as it focuses on what is important in the reel. Character Animation.




I chose this demo reel because it showed off the author's skill set and ability to create more commercialized 3-d elements in an effectively interesting manner. It wasn't the most interesting demo I watched, but it was effective.



This demo reel is another character animation demo, but this time it also goes into an in depth display of the rigging of the character. Rather than having a lot of elements in the video, the creator has instead decided to quickly show his ability to animate, but then to focus the majority of the demo on his ability to rig and to manipulate said rig.
This method is also popular with character modelers. They will show the model in every way shape and form that they can, and maybe have a bit of animation or setting to go with it. They also usually focus on a limited number of models.



This one has a wider ranger of materials, and shows more of a general skill set. Admittedly the reason I put it in is because of the steam engine at the end.

Pitcher on a hot streak

“Death Train”

Elevator Line:

A man fails to hold onto the woman he loves and, while depressed, boards a train which is the physical manifestation of his regret.

Theme:

The theme of the project is to chase after the important things in life. If you fail to hold onto what you find precious, the regret will build until it dominates your psyche.

Synopsis:

When the protagonist watches the girl of his dreams get onto a departing train, he nearly gets on with her, but hesitates and stops. As he watches the train depart, he sinks into a depressed state until another, darker looking train comes along. The man stares at the train a moment, but is compelled to board.

The train is decrepit on the inside, and the scenes outside the windows are gray and barren. As the man walks through the train, he becomes aware that he is not alone on board. As he continues through the train, the way becomes more and more difficult to traverse, with a figure and chains chasing him through the cars. When he comes to a car which appears to be a mechanical deathtrap, he sees a glowing door on the other side, a light at the end of the tunnel.

After he makes it through the machinations, he opens the door and on the other side he sees the woman from earlier sitting and reading a book. The man smiles to himself, and begins to walk towards her, but is held back by the chains which have caught up to and wrapped themselves around his legs. They begin to drag him away from the door.

The man finds himself back on the platform, watching the woman get on board the train. This time he gets on with her.

Structure:

Introduction (Act 1): Train Station	Rising Action (Act 2): Aboard The Train	Act 3: The Final Door	Act 4: Back at the Train Station
The Protagonist is at the train station and doesn’t get on the train with the girl. Filled with regret, he is compelled to board the “Death Train”	Aboard the death train, the man is chased by demons and faced with obstacles.	After making it through the mechanical room, he finally gets to the glowing door. When he opens it, he sees the woman he let go sitting in a train car. When he tries to go to her, he is grabbed by chains and pulled back into the darkness of the “Death Train”.	The protagonist finds himself back on the station platform. This time, he boards the train with the woman.

Tones and Execution:

The tone of the piece will be gray, dark, and dirty. There will be heavy shadows, and the train will be covered in dust, cobwebs, rust, and grime.

The mechanical room will also be full of rust and grime, with some potential screen shake to imply the gravity and weight of the machinations.

The platform and the train the woman is on will be clean and well lit, other than the moment when the death train enters the station and the lights dim and smoke billows.

Images:

Train Image 1 | Train Image 2 | Landscape 1 | Landscape 2

Atmosphere 1 | Atmosphere 2 | Machination| Station Platform

Objective:

I’m assuming that the objective is what I personally want out of this project? If so then what I hope to gain is a full scale piece that I can be proud of, but more importantly, that I can use to get my name around. With only a year until graduation, I find myself lacking a sufficient amount of 3-D work to pad my resume and portfolio with. Considering 3-D is what I find myself moving towards, this lack could hinder my ability to move into the industry.

Target Audience:

My target audience would be males (and potentially females) between the ages of 18-30. These are the ages I believe would most identify with the protagonist, and who are also at the age to most benefit from the message it delivers.

I hope to reach this audience through mediums such as youtube.com and vimeo, as they allow one to distribute to a large audience. A large percentage of the age group I’ve identified spends a large quantity of time surfing these venues. As far as promotion, the only thing I can think of is to enter film festivals in real life, or to enter into video contests on the internet.