March 25, 2007
So Far...
The past few weeks have been quite busy.
my room is about 90% complete to being a studio to continue filming. I shall start filming again on Tuesday 27th March. In the meantime I have been doing some post production on the footage I have so far. I have had to submit a first cut of what I got so far, unfortunately it has very little post on the work I submitted. My new friend that I am using is Motion Tracking. It's helping me out with a few camera problems I had before.
In other news, my dissertation is done and out the way, glad to get that out of the way
Posted by Matthew at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)
March 11, 2007
Bleh
Dissertations Suck!
Fact!
Well it's coming on, its all coming together. I'm looking forward to see the end of it
Posted by Matthew at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
November 23, 2006
Synthespians
Just a few notes about my dissertation
Part of my dissertation is talking about CG actors "Synthespians", it's interesting to read about actors fearing them from when Final Fantasy: Spirts Within came out.
I found a case study written on Spirits Within which is quite interesting, it explains about the Screen Actors Guild feeling threatend about synthespians replacing them, can read it here:
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
A Case Study
Jane Park
(Note: PDF Format)
It's funny to note that it was Tom Hanks who represented the guild about the digital actors replacing them, and now he can be found as a digital actor himself in the Polar Express
The case study then goes on to delve into the "Uncanny Valley" which makes everything that is bad in the film stand out due to the actors trying to be so human
so yea thats my little note/blog/rant type thing on this subject
Posted by Matthew at 08:40 PM | Comments (0)
November 19, 2006
Bibliography
These are the books I have been reading through for my Dissertation
First Draft Deadline: 8th December
Animating real-time game characters
paul steed
2003 - Charles River Media
ISBN 1-58450-270-3
Understanding Motion Capture For Computer Animation and Video Games
Alberto Menache
2000 - Morgan Kaufmann Publishers
ISBN 0-12-490630-3
The Art of 3-D Computer Animation and Imaging (Second Edition)
Isaac Victor Kerlow
2000 - John Wiley & Sons, Inc
ISBN 0-471-36004-x
Computer Animation, A Whole New World
Rita Street
1998 - Rockport Publishers
ISBN 1-56496-377-2
Understanding Animation
Paul Wells
First Published 1998, 2005 reprint
Routledge
ISBN 0-415-15597-3
Film Art An Introduction (seventh edition)
David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson
2004 - McGraw-Hill
ISBN 0-07-248455-1
Stop Motion - Craft Skills For Model Animation
Suzannah Shaw
First print 2004, 2005 reprint
Focal Press
ISBN 0-240-51659-1
Understanding Comics, The Invisible Art
Scott McCloud
1993 - HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN 0-06-097625-x
Posted by Matthew at 08:15 PM | Comments (0)
March 29, 2006
Pre Dissertation
Ok, so.. we have to do a 2000 word essay, which is basically a chapter or a sample of the 10000 word dissertation we have to do in the 3rd year.
Ok, no problems, except that I thought that it had to be handed in after easter (where did I get that idea from?), so last week I found out its due in April 6th, so i'm now working into it all.
I have been stuck with an idea for my dissertation, I wanted to talk about stop motion and CGI.. but what do I say? it's just something i'm interested in. I took a visit to the library, they seemed surprised to see me as the last time I went was in October apperently (The librarian told me this and welcomed me back).
I had no idea where to start, normally I goto my good friend Google, but this time I wanted to goto a source with hard copies that had been written and approved whereas the internet is compiled of so much crap, you don't know what is genuine or not.
So I spent some time in the library, wandering around the animation section, looking at books about CGI, motion capture and virtual reality.
I came out with two books, one on virtual reality and one on Motion Capture, CGI and Video Games:
"Virtual Worlds"
-Benjamin Wolley
"Understanding Motion Capture for Computer Animation and Video Games"
-Alberto Menache
I havn't read the second one yet, but I have read bits of the first. Reading about simulation which was rather interesting.
After reading it, I started to think properly and began writing notes to work on an argument to discuss for the essay. So after writing out my notes, I went to good ol Google and found a Blog written by an animator(see link) where he had gone into most of what I want to discuss. So it's a helpful source in that it's given references to go look up that can aid my essay.
The Ward O Matic (an animators blog)
So i'm currently exploring
Motion Capturing being used as a tool not as a sole means to make a computer generated live action film
ooo... maybe I can use that as a title for my dissertation?
Something to work on I guess...
Posted by Matthew at 09:21 PM | Comments (0)