Clearing out my Thoughts & Other Stuff

I recently spoke to former Abertay graduate, Neil McNaughton to help clear some thoughts. Since Neil is currently technical animator at Ruffian Games, he had some nice pointers to give.
Mostly, what was clarified, was that technical animation would be a suitable role for me to persue, given my interests, passions and skills.
We spoke a little about his project and the trials and obstacles he encountered throughout the project and what I might want to avoid on my own project.

Mindmap

Here is the mindmap produced around my topic. You can see immediately that there is a lot of interest between technical art and characters. Though some of the ideas and concepts presented in the orange area of the chart are intriguing, there isn't that much immediate linking to the other sections. I found a very common theme amoungst all my explored topics - which is grey areas. Areas inbetween - in characters, industries, techniques, visuals.

Personally, from my exploration of these topics. I love to explore the divide between many subject areas and often ask myself why there is such a divide. Why would it exist in the first place? Is this because of technical restraints or visual choices. Is it lack of knowledge?

Homogenisation is a hot topic in the modern world. The divides in culture and technology becomes less with the introduction of a simutaneous global communication - like the internet.

Maybe an investigation into these gaps through the use of technical art/animation might be something relevent. I'm eager to stretch my character development skills too though. I don't mind incorporating some design into my project, but I am scared of the time divide (yet another thing that seems separated).

Overall, I'm still quite uncertain where my project might take me. Hopefully through talking it through with many people might help clear my mind.

Rango

Just recently out, Rango is and was one of the most visually interesting movies I have seen ever. What is most interesting about Rango, is that it walks the line between film and animation, realism and abstract and technology and art.

All the shot were first shot with the live-action actors - no motion capture involved. This gave the film a much more fluid basis for the acting in the animation. Having all the characters in one room interacting also allowed for interesting ad-libs and character development. Instead of having a lone animation in a room shooting footage of himself, the animators had a rich resource of the acted shots from all angles, allowing them to scruntinise every nuance of the performance.

Gore Verbinski appraoch ILM with the pitch and ideas, having previously worked with them before on Pirates. What's interesting however, is that ILM is primarily a CGI and effects company and this was their first animated feature. Approached from a cinematographic view, rather than traditional animation - this movie was shot as though it was filmed allowing for its unique visual style.

The blend of characterture and realism is another interesting angle in the film. Each character is rendered to loving realistic detail - but it's obvious that they are charactertures. Visual liberties has been taken with the design and origins of the characters.  The characters were developed by a host of concept artists, but the final pass was always through artist Crash McCreery - which gave unity to the look and feel - but allowed for all the ideas.

Character Illustrations

Here is a little teaser of the "making of". The behind the scenes on the Blu-ray version of the film is much richer in content but this clip will suffice for now. :)

"Making of Rango"

 

A great insight into the art of the movie can be found at: http://www.pixologic.com/interview/rango/1/

Inspiration

First off, before we dive into anything too complex, I'd like to talk a little about my inspirations.

Doing a course in Computer Arts at Abertay University, it's a no brainer that one of my biggest inspirations in life is technology.

Not so much the chips and the boards, but more so the power behind it. Ever since I was young, I've had a fascination with it - owning my first computer at 7 and my first graphics tablet and drawing program at 13. But while the link between technology and art is strong, there's also a very fine line between the two. Personally, I've always walked along that line - not seeing the technology as a means to an end nor ignoring the importance of art. This is why I hope to investigate into technical art.

Technical art is a loose term that varies between the film, animation and video games industry and changes from company to company. A technical artist is usually someone who works between the creative art teams and the technical programming teams. I'm hoping to cover a little bit of everything - from rigging to scripting and dynamics to even shaders. Right now, I am hoping to find a niche that will let me develop all those skills and come out with something unique and interesting in the end.

Welcome!

This blog will record all my thoughts, ideas, processes and concepts throughout my entire honours year project. It will show insight into the process from concept, to production to final piece.

Providing all goes well. ;)


Now - onwards to the content!