1W25 After the Presentation

2 days ago I had my work presented to all the MADA students and both Jonathan and Andy (instructors). I got some great questions and feedbacks. We had a great discussion on the formula, in a way, I am using to compose my own story from my son stories.

Jonathan thinks the idea of using the child’s ideas and reworking them in an ‘adult’ way is interesting, it is the actual transfer of the ideas where some unusual things could occur, and this exactly what I am trying to achieve.

Well, overall it was a nice presentation with some great responses.

1W24 Presentation-production

Well this week I spend it to produce my Video Presentation. It sure took me a lot of time to put this video together. I wish I had more time on it. Anyways, what I did was to split the actual video of my son with the world of adults, or better to the things and the way I see it. So when my son narrates about a strange bird I have a drawing of the bird the way I see it and the description my son gives about the bird, and so on. You can get a better idea if you watch the whole video.

I used After Effect for compositing the video and the graphics together and Vegas for adding the sound and editing the video a bit. As for the music I take NO credits since its copyrighted to the rightful owners, I only take credits for the editing of it.

You can view it either on youtube http://youtube.com/watch?v=j4VhMxiJ-y0 or you can download the wmv version from dot-studios.com/fin.wmv

1W23 Presentation-preparation

This week I have tried to gather all the materials Ill use for my presentation and put them in same order. After that I made a storyboard or better a chart of how I will break down my presentation.

The presentation its self will be more of a video/images oriented rather than a voice over explanation of my project. I thought since we have already the written part where it explain our aims and objectives of our project, just to concentrate more on the visuals that I get influence and inspire by.

Blog

Don’t forget to see my sketches and more website where I have upload it last week. I will keep adding more stuff any time I have the chance to scan the hand drawing images.

1W22 More Artists

Well this week I spend 2 days putting together my PC; one wrong wiring can make your day go bad….. that’s all it takes. Anyways, after I finally handle to put the pieces of my PC together I was surprised how fast it was. Enough with it, I am glad it is working just fine.

Paula Rego

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Rego

Paula Rego, an artist where every picture tells her story. Even though I didn’t have many days this week to work on my MADA, because I went to Bulgaria for 4 days, I manage to have a good look on her work. I like the cartoonish feeling she is putting in her paintings. Her style is very interesting and it is something that may help the develop of my project.

1W21 Presentation

My video presentation

This week I have gather all the videos and still images I will use fro my presentation. Next week I will have to write down, and sketch out my presentation scheme. I have to plan out the layout and the look of it. I am still concern the format I will present it, so I keep it lower than 60meg or even smaller (limitation is 100meg as I know)

Some technical staff

I have order a new computer, so I can work a bit faster with video and animation. I decide to write down some info that may be helpful for anyone.

After a lot of research I have order the following PC

Lite-On SHM-165H6S 16X LightScribe Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive (LightScriber so you can laser print on DVD/CD)

320GB 7200RPM SATAII 16MB Seagate/Maxtor 3.5″ Hard Disk (For system files etc)

MSI P965 Platinum M/B Core 2 Duo/ P965/ DDR2-800 (this motherboard can support the coming up Core Quad Intel processors)

500GB 7200RPM SATAII 16MB Seagate Hard Disk (For projects files and softwares)

2GB DDR2-800 2GB CL5 6400 DDR2 XMS2 (2×1GB Pair) (DDR2-800 for faster memory – you can get 1000+ but are double or even more the price) (more is better but XP support up to 3g and better use memory in pairs – 2 -4 -6 etc)

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU 2.4GHz 1066MHz 4MB (775) (better get this one rather the 2.6 and save money for the Quad processors when they go at reasonable price)

MSI nVidia GeForce NX8800GTX 768MB DDR3 2DVI/HDTV PCI Express (the faster Geforce graphics card at the moment)

PC case – Thermaltake Kandalf VA9000 (for better cooling system)

By the way don’t get Windows Vista YET, because they don’t have all the drivers to support a bit older hardwares. In other words if your hardware is not certifite Vista ready don’t get into trouble. Let Vista get a bit “mature”.  

If you need more info or help to pick the right system for you, don’t hesitate to email me.

1W20 Tutorial

The Project

It was about time, finally; one more tutorial from Andy (my supervisor), what a relief. One think is sure, he did help me to calm a bit down. We talk a bit about the content of the story rather the structure of it. Andy raised some questions that will help me develop my work. He did like my work up to now so this is very good as it comes of the development of the story. He did like more the idea that is the transfer from a Childs mind / perspective to the adult production and understanding of the story, and this is what he wants to see more to get developed. He also told me to slow a bit down and try to research the possible outcomes for this project and investigate what ways I could do this project.

My video presentation

I decide that I will do a mix media presentation… live video and sketches. The video will be the videos I capture about my son and the sketches that goes along with that. I need to find some kind of ambient sound as well.

Oups…I have notice that I did not upload the 2 last previous tasks… o well here they are.

1W19 Podcast or not ???

The Project

I am still wondering if I should present my current work in a podcast format or not. This week I will explore a bit the way it can be done since I have no idea how podcast works or even if it is a format like wmv or a just a name that apple (is it apple?) gave to a different format they develop. I have all of my videos that I am going to use already upload on my pc. I still need to scan a few more sketches. From there I will work on after effects to add them together. I am not sure If I am going to add voice over, but for sure I will have text to support the video.

Blog

I start working on my interactive sketches site again. It should be ready in couple of weeks. It does take a lot of time as we know, but my main concern is that my time is kind of limited at the moment. I will need to come up with a new schedule

1W18 The Return

The Project

Well, here we are again. It is nice to be back and it is even better that my enthusiasm about this project it is just growing bigger. We are about to make a podcast presentation of our work until now. I am not sure if it has to be a podcast or any kind of “web” video. I was thinking to make a wmv format (windows media video), but I am not very sure how that will show on mac. I will have to ask some mac users if they have any viewing problems with that format.

Blog

In the couple of next weeks I have to upload some images on my blog or even better to finish my sketches interactive site. I need to scan my drawings and add them to the site and also I need to resample the current images to a lower quality, so it loads faster.

(some edit)

1W15 to 18 Off Site Study

Project

Even though it is Christmas break or better off site study I keep working on my project, and more on the visual part. I want to finish my models on paper so I can start working on the computer and the actual modelling. First of all though, I have to finalize my storyboard. My goal is to create a story that it can be told by a 5years old boy, plus to be visually nice with a mystical feeling and extreme lighting. Above all this, the story should be for grown ups only. I think this is what makes my project unique, the idea that this story is coming from a 5 years old and a grown up represent it on a screen with the adds and bits that makes it unsuitable for kids.

1W14 draft proposal

The Project

Today, (19 Dec 2006), I have sent my draft proposal for review to Andy. Until the final date I am sure I will change some things. First of all the look of the actual proposal will be more “creative”, but more important is my final research question that will help me more to develop my project proposal and follow a more strictly path rather than the massive world of kids thinking.  

This week also I have kept on reading more info about kids thinking and development. I have also draw a colour storyboard as I feel I need to start modelling and animate as soon as possible. I don’t know how much the rendering will take so this is something to consider of. I don’t think I will use mental ray since it will add on my render time (even thought that would be great), but I will rather simulate bounce lighting.

Blog

I will change my sketch web side again since I made the mistake to add many images and it’s heavy on downloading time. I will resample all the images to even smaller size, so this will keep the interactive sketches side down until I finish all the images manipulation.