IMAGE QRITIQUE

This is a little art piece of mine creation inspired by artist’s Stewart Bruce tutorial. I wanted to make something that raises warm and familiar feelings for me, but hopefully others can enjoy it too.

Last summer while I was visiting home I’ve took some pictures of my favorite city, Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Even being in the 21^st century the city has the magic feeling that brings you long way back. The baroque style architecture, tiny winding and paving streets, makes you feel like you in the mystic labyrinth and the only way out is by following spires of the churches.  

My goal was to add a fine art look to the urban style graphic image and express the feeling of old and new. First I’ve picked the most suitable images for my work. Most of them are originally taken by me while I was visiting Lithuania.

Using a Photoshop I had add a painting textures on, cutting and pasting different parts of the images tried to combine a composition. I had to play with different display modes and masks to make stand out particular parts of the composition. I had to borrow the car image of the S.Bruce. That way I had something new to add for an image. I did change the New York taxi t making it look a bit like a cabriolet. You can see some other cars in the distant background. Overall, I think I manage to reach the effect I wanted. I’ve done few different designs, but this one seemed the most successful one.  You are welcome to criticize.

The images bellow I’ve used for the composision.

A breif History of communication from on VimeoAgency: CHI
Director: Kristofer Ström
Producers: Blink Ink, Nicholas Wakeham, Björn Wahlström, Bart Yates
Music & SoundFX: Minilogue.com

NAE_New Art Echange Gallery

NAE (link is here)

>> Goin back to HTML world <<

Start learning some xhtml/html, thought if i will need to make my portfolio, may as well learn it myself to design instead of paying money to someone else ;))only started few weeks ago, and only look into this one day per week. I've looked into this website made by Lithuanian company, they won a EUROPRIX MULTIMEDIA award last year, very impressive and interactive, hope my portfolio will look something like this one day. oh. click on the picture to get to the website.Great is in it?? and this is my shitty website.lol even better :)http://www.geocities.com/matata_alabamba/

<< Playing Time >>

Oh, that could be a nice present to someone-a full deck of playing cards with family members or friends faces on it or used it poker tournaments or something :D

I had to do something different, so found some tut of how to make a creative playing card, it took me 2 nights to make it, loads of cutting and playing around, but i enjoyed it - still few mistakes left though. Unfortunately can't find my original picture, it disappeared between the playing cards.lol.

<< NICO>>

My little naughty cigarette with hair or no, with color or no ::P

3D cinema >>

Creating a 3d effect in the video:
I thought i might use this effect in my animation, so tried to experiment it. It's quite limited, but with a suitable picture, it's possible to make some amazing 3d effect using, photoshop and after effects. Plus thought to make it look more realistic, added some movie effect:) I like it.


b

FX > New Scary Expierence

After effects, a real horror ;) Took me a half of a day trying to install it and than i can say it's gonna take the rest of my life trying to figure out how does it work :( But i have a hope that the big day will come sooner than i think and i become a master of effects.lol. Just recently tried to make an opening sequence for my trailer "Best Buddies", thought it will b easy as i liked the idea i had for it, but the results are bellow and it's still not the exact outcome i expected. After 2 days and nights watching introduction tutorials to AE my final outcome wasn't satisfied, i had 10 different versions, but it's only few of them the most presentable. Explain why on each of them :

<< I NEED SOME PROPER SMOKE FOOTAGE!!!

1. Like of the effect about the tittle coming from the smoke, but cause i don't have a long smoke footage,had to cut it in premier, change duration and so on...and it still lucks choppy and 2 colorful.

2. I think the colors looks better and it feels smoother, but than the text a the end disapears in black, and couldn't figure out how to change it.

3. This was my last try, don't think the transactions are really suitable, but this is a ay it be for a mo, really need more knowledge of the software, also missing the smoke effect on the letters, don't know what happen to it.



4. Just some test without smoke.


So i'm having a real war with AE, haven't lost it yet, though. ( next fight -3D max

<< Story board >>

Buddy's Roomy Stage 1>

Start making my little Buddy's room,I bet he can't wait for the final result, and me for a holiday.

Still thinking about materials of the walls, i wonder what color Buddy would like it? plus the lightening...

Sometimes i just feel tired of 3d max, need a change...

Have to learn after effects too, as want to do smoking letter effect for my trailer, and yet i found a good tutorial but it's only for After effects cs3, and plus can't find a suitable smoke video...and the time is ticking ticking...I wonder if i can finish this year, just sometimes feeling like given up :(

<< Script for Odd Couple >> Character Study

The Odd Couple – Best Buddies

By Rimante

Int. Buddy’s flat. Morning

You can hear Buddy brushing his teeth, the phone rings and he goes to answer it. Half way through the conversation with his girlfriend he picks up the picture of her, looks at it and puts it back.

BUDDY

Morning hun, (pause) yes, I just woke up half an hour ago (pause) yes I had my breakfast, cleaned my plates, brushed my teeth and yes I remember we are meeting later on (pause) no, no, I won’t be late, promise (pause)… no, you know I’ve stopped it..(pause) How long? It’s been quite few days now...ok, hun see you soon. Kiss kiss

Hear the bang of door (Buddy left his flat). Shot of the calendar with red circled days.

Ext. Outside Café.

Buddy is sitting at the table drinking coffee and reading the news paper. He hears a voice.

NICO

Pssssssst, Hey Buddy, long time no talk, how are you doing?

Buddy looks at him for a moment, ignoring NICO he carries on reading his news paper.

NICO

It’s me Buddy, NICO, you haven’t forgot about me have you? (sarcastic)

Buddy reading his newspaper

BUDDY

I’m trying..

NICO

That’s not really nice, is this how you greet your old friends??? Anyway, I forgive you, as I missed you so much, really, no lies. You know I was thinking what if we do something cool tonight together. What you say?

BUDDY

No, thanks

NICO

Come on, don’t be a chicken, Just me and you, like in good old times.

NICO looks at Buddy. Buddy nervously moves a newspaper away.

BUDDY

Just leave me alone

NICO

Leave you alone??? Leave you alone???!!! After all we been through together???

NICO comes closer to Buddy.

NICO

Don’t you remember what a great time we used to have together??? Night clubs (pause), Drinking (pause), Walking home together singing (pause) sleeping till the next day launch time.

Buddy smacks Nico on the head with a folded news paper

BUDDY

STOP IT! Those days are over, I’m changing my life now for the better..

NICO is rubbing his head.

NICO

You changing it?!! HA HA I think it’s that bird you are dating recently is changing it for you. You are like her puppy now: (Imitating girls voice) Buddy, do this, don’t do that. Buddy you naughty boy!.. She is not for you anyway…Where is my Buddy I used to know?

Buddy stands up.

BUDDY

What do you know?!! Just leave me alone..

Buddy leaves NICO at the table and walks away

NICO

Sure, just walk away..

NICO’s eyes follow Buddy walking away.

EXT. Street.

Buddy is walking along the street. Looking down to the ground. The day darkens. He is thinking about NICO and his girlfriend. He hears their voices in his head… Suddenly he sees someone (NICO) and his face lights up. He smiles. Walks towards him. Phone rings.

GIRLFIREND

Buddy!!! I can’t believe you. I just saw you on the street walking with that filthy thing again. Gave up already?? You are in big trouble mister. You have to explain yourself. Are you listening to me?

Hello? Hello?

Buddy hangs up. Beep Beep..

Ext. Cafe.

NICO

You are back, Buddy!

Character Study.

Buddy, is a 23 year old young man, who grew up in a children’s house. His parents refused to keep him, so than he reached 14 he decided he never going try to find them either. The only person who used to come to visit him was his grandmother, but she was to ill to look after him. As a kid Buddy was closed and quite kid, he didn’t have many friends, the only friends were his books. He loved reading and he still does. The other kids used to laugh from him and call him freak. Than he reached 15 he moved to live with his grandma in small flat at the city centre. He was a good kid and used to help her a lot in house work till he met some other kids, who thought they are cool by drinking, smoking, sometimes stealing. Soon Buddy got involved in the game and became one of them: start smoking, drinking, stealing, wouldn’t come back home for few days. He forgot about his books. He used to spend more time in the street than in the house.

Than his grandma got very ill and died, she did left a flat for Buddy to take care of. Suddenly Buddy realised the value of life and decided to change. He left all his street friends, start reading again, found job as a pizza delivery boy, he found a new girl, the only habit he couldn’t stop was smoking, he loved smoking.

Girlfriend, 22 year old girl, came from a very delicate family; she does sports and is very organised person. She can’t stand any filthy habits. She is a nice person, but a bit to controlling and irritating. Everything is good if it goes all her way.

NICO, is an imaginary cigarette, a friend of buddy’s that really represents Buddy’s thoughts. It looks like a cigarette, a rough looking cigarette; it got hands, eyes and big yellow teeth. NICO is cheeky, smart, very lazy, he loves easy life and loads of parties. Nico is like other side of Buddy, that sometimes is not that great, as it’s irresponsible and mischievous.

*** Salt * Rock * productions ***

Last Sunday I had a great and expensive experience at SU. The experience that cost me loads of "bling bling", as I had to take a day off at work, but it was worth it. I had a chance to see a live multi camera shouting, that was about 6, plus helped D.Allen and his filming crew down in toilets with making a video clip for "Blah Blah" (music band). Another "good" experience was a filming in boys toilet - really smelly.lol Although, I bet D.Allen and the guys enjoyed the new experience in lady's toilet, shouting some sexy girls of putting their make up on for 1000 times :)

Well, they did make some interesting shots and I really can't wait for the outcome. By the way I just remembered what D.Allen said to me: " Thank you for help down at toilets" lol really funny, he never thought he would ever say such thing for the lady in his life.Well i never thought i would get such a "compliment" either. Overall had some fun time, but i have to remember never drink a beer at "Glo bar" again, unless it's Guinness+Wisky ( Jools favourite mix:)

** My Date With The Robin Hood**

Few weeks ago I went to see Nottingham castle, than my manager find out about it, joking he asked me if I had a date with a Robin Hood? Well I didn’t, but I saw his statue from the distance that was all wrapped up in golden paper-that made him shine. I don't think it suited his stereotype of robbing gold from rich and give it to a poor while looking at his statue all wrapped up in gold it made me feel, that he actually kept all the gold.lol. Anyway it’s enough about Robin let’s go back to exhibition

Nottingham castle, c.1500 (model by P Dixon and D Taylor).

P.S. I haven't put original pictures, as i have difficulties of uploading it into my PC. Apologies.

Nottingham Castle is a 17th Century Ducal mansion built on the site of the original Medieval Castle.

Have to say that apart from spectacular views across the city from the top of the hill I haven’t enjoyed my trip at all. As most of the castles it hosts a museum and gallery and housing collections of various daily usage things. It’s all interesting to see, but I think the poor layout of the museum destroys the feel between the viewer and exhibition. There is no flow of the time line either and a contrast between rooms is to strong. As in one room you can see little spoons and jewelery and you all happy and admiring things than the next room brings you to war and suddenly you have to forget about the beautiful necklace you saw just a min ago and still admiring it into your head and concentrate on war theme. Or like one of the picture galleries you can see all those great paintings and works of great artists and than just in the middle of the galleries room is a set up of 3-4 year old kids drawing that was displayed messy and didn’t have any function in national museum of the history.

So I didn’t even try to go to see the ceramic room as i was scared to see the elephant poising near the big 13th century ceramic pot or something like that. lol. Fortunately I saw one thing that interest me, it was at the beginning of the exhibition, while I still had interest in it.

This magnificent ivory chest set is made from Indian elephant tusk-I hate this idea about killing animal because of art (money), but trying to ignore this fact it is a beautiful and attractive peace of art with it's subtitle details and various patterns."The words for chess in Old Persian and Arabic are chatrang and shatranj respectively — terms derived from chaturanga in Sanskrit, which literally means an army of four divisions ." more info HERE. Apparently this chess set was carved in china in the early 19^th century made specially for sales purpose, that was Europeans. Very expensive and high quality. It was purchased by museum in 1933 from and cost £65 that was a lot of money those days.

The chessman are supported on ball stems.Each ball contains a series of other balls.of ever decreasing size,each enclosed by another.

I do believe it would be possible to develop some ideas to adapt the idea of chess set in animation. It might even be a good exercise try to model one of the chess figure. Good luck with that. lol

>>Computer Animtion<<

Character Animation

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Basic animation principles to make character look more realistic and believable for the audience.

1. Squash and Stretch - defining the hardness and mass of an object by tranforming its shape during an action
2. Timing and Motion - spacing actions to define the weight and size of objects and the personality of characters
3. Anticipation - the preparation for an action
4. Staging - presenting an clear idea
5. Follow Through and Overlapping Action - the termination of an action and establishing its relationship to the next action
6. Straight Ahead Action and Pose-to-Pose Action - The two contrasting approaches to the creation of movement
7. Slow In and Out - the spacing of the in-between frames to achieve subtlety of timing and movement
8. Arcs - the visual path of action for natural movement
9. Exaggeration - Accentuating the essence of an idea via the design and the action
10. Secondary Action - the action of an object resulting from another action
11. Appeal - creating a design or an action that the audience enjoys watching

More information found HERE

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Tricks of Animating Characters with a Computer

KEYFRAMES:

• Work down the hierarchy of the model.
• Create separate keyframes for the different controls at each level of the hierarchy.
• Have a clear idea of the action you want to achieve before you start.
• Plan out the action with thumbnail sketches and plot timing ideas on an exposure sheet.

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WEIGHT & SIZE:

• Think of how you want your character look like, when it is in motion

• Think about timing of the movement of an object as it defines the weight of that object.

• Than animating think of how the object behaves in real life. (ex: Heavy objects move slower than light ones)

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THE THINKING CHARACTER:

• Every action must exist for a reason
• Connect character actions + hes thought process.

Walt Disney said, "In most instances, the driving forces behind the action is the mood, the personality, the attitude of the character—or all three. Therefore, the mind is the pilot. We think of things before the body does them."

To convey the idea that the thoughts of a character are driving its actions, a simple trick is in the anticipation; always lead with the eyes or the head. First you would move:

Eyes (few frames before head)->Head->Body->Main action

• Think first before you do action.

• Understand character's thought process and how long it takes.

The only time that the eyes or head would not lead the action would be when an external force is driving the character’s movements, as opposed to his thought process.

ex:if that character was hit in the back by someone the force of the impact would cause the body to move first, snapping the head back and dragging it behind the main action of the body.

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MOVING HOLDS

• Instead of having every part of the character stop, have some part continue to move slightly in the same direction, like an arm, a head, or even have the whole body.

• Even the slightest movement will keep your character alive.

• The motion should match the design of the character and the world.

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EMOTION

• A character would not do a particular action the same way in two different emotional states.

ex: if a character is happy, the timing of his movements will be faster. Conversely, when sadness is upon the character, the movements will be slower.

• To make a character’s personality seem real to an audience, he must be different than the other characters on the screen.

• Discover the personalities of your characters through contrast of movement.

• No two characters would do the same action in the same way.

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READABILITY OF ACTIONS

• Proper timing.

• Make sure the audience can follow what is happening.
  

The action must not be so fast that the audience cannot read it and understand the meaning of it.

• Make sure only one idea is seen by the audience at a time.

• Each idea or action must be timed and staged in the strongest and simplest way before going on to the next idea or action.
  

"The animator is saying, in effect, "Look at this, now look at this, and now look at this.""

• In most cases, don't stop action completely before starting another action; the second action should overlap the first. This slight overlapping maintains a flow and continuity between whole phrases of actions.

A STORY TRICK

• Time the ideas and actions, so the audience’s understand the story at any point in time.

• Keep the audience guessing about what will happen next in the story.
  
• Time animation to stay either slightly ahead of the audience’s understanding of what’s going on with the story, or slightly behind. It makes the story much more interesting than staying even with the audience.

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ASK WHY

• In every step of the production of your animation, the story, the design, the staging, the animation, the editing, the lighting, the sound, etc., ask yourself why? Why is this here? Does it further the story? Does it support the whole?

• To create successful animation, you must understand why an object moves before you can figure out how it should move.

Character animation isn’t the fact that an object looks like a character or has a face or hands. Character animation is when an object moves like it is alive, when it looks like it is thinking and all of its movements are generated by its own thought process. It is the change of shape that shows that a character is thinking. It is the thinking that gives the illusion of life. It is the life that gives meaning to the expression. As Saint-Exupéry wrote, “It’s not the eyes, but the glance - not the lips, but the smile...”

• Every single movement of your character should be there for a purpose, to support the story and the personality of your character.

>>30 sec animation

Fallowing the breath I had to to 30 sec animation of my character expressing mood,I tried to do it on 3d max, but I lost my patient, as i was doing something wrong and couldn't work out the time line on 3d max, so i thought to myself before i get any help, i just try to make some screen shots and make kind of a story board of possible animation. The idea was, that Peepo is exercising, abit bored, than suddenly he sees something that scares/angry him.

>> Peepo Evolution 07- 08

Instead of writing it all down the process of creating Peepo in 3dmax, (as it's 2 boring) I thought i'll make even more boring movie, of the creation, changes and mistakes I've made.
I've realized it's very important to fallow the original drawing, or you can loose the track very quickly, that's how my 1st result of Peepo was rather scary. Anyway if you watch you shall see it all yourself.

>> Meeting Peepo <<

PEEPO is the live test toy, which in the future should be used for kids as a learning device for foreign languages.

He use his headphones to record all the sounds he hears (including languages, that has been recorder in lab ) and the big head is used as massive memory to storage all the records. Also he can record other peoples voice and play it back by pressing his belly button.

He is a cute looking creature, who appears in the story falling from the sky in the glass ball package. He is very clumpy, cause of his big feet and addictive to sugar.

Stage 1 - CHARACTER STUDY <<

•Thinking about: Mood

•To do: Plan and produce a 30 second animation of one character expressing one of the following states: Anger, Excitement, Desperation or Satisfaction

•Presentation: To evidence your work you will be expected to show:

1. A Story Board: In your journal
2. A written character study: In your journal
3. A 30 second animation [On a CD 720x576 DVAVI 25f/s]

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

If you have a chance read this book: Bancroft, Tony.: Creating characters with personality : for film, TV, animation, video games, and graphic novels

It's useful of getting understanding about how to start creating original characters for visual media and what is the main principles of process ( like script, story, scene, etc.,). Also it's not boring has got loads of illustrations, so even if you don't like books I'm sure you will enjoy reading this one.

Though it's much harder to create original character than it looks like, espeacially if you never done it before and skills for the software ( 3d max ) are just as a beginner's.

I had to think about who are my audience ( in my case most probably - kids, maybe some soft adults lol ), about my characters functionality and a what part he plays in the story. Talking about the story. i've tried to write a script, but got only the very beginning and kinda stopped, just lost the inspiration and i'm short of time, hope i can finish it some time...

>>Horror<<

Filmed in the old "Clarence Hotel" basement, that connects to tunnels, which has been used during the war for escaping. That tunnel goes from the castle up to radford road. The filming crew was bore and got tired quickly as of strong lightening ( as it weren't any inside) and air shortness. Killer ( Clive ) was one of the customers at the bar. But I can say his acting was better than mine ( no one gave me a second chance ) lol .. uh-huhuhuuu- i'm soooo scared... anyway was good exercise x