Week 2 - The Work Begins

Hello Again!  Week 2 has come and gone and I have some wonderful updates.  There, that should draw you in enough to read everything I type.  It has been a good, but fast week.  It would seem to always be the case when a bigger project is given but at least it was a busy and productive week.  Time flies when something is due!

We started the week off strong on Tuesday in Modeling 100 with Joe.  Learned some more valuable XSI tricks and started on our journey to create an interior environment.  Something I am familiar with but with a bit of a difference for me.  We can use as many polygons as we wish!  No need to worry about keeping the mesh clean or anything like that, just an exercise to learn to model hard surfaces in XSI.  Even with the no restrictions restriction, I wasn’t able to bring myself to go as crazy as I could have.  The assignment isn’t due until week 4 so I still have plenty of time.  Here are a couple screens of what I currently have.  I deviated quite a bit from the concept I found but when given freedom, take it.

Next up was some good old classical animation with Brett.  I gave you a taste of my magical drawings brought to life last week and I intend to do the same this week!  Unfortunately you will have to wait until Monday to see what I have done.  I didn’t get a chance to re-record my animation after some changes but I will be able to get it going and post it on Monday.  I will make it an edit in this original post and keep it a surprise until then.  Don’t get your hopes up or anything.  I haven’t yet finished my first, full length, feature film.

Here we are!  The animation to end all animations!

Wednesday was an easy day.  A day of learning and simply applying.  We had Scott for 3D Animation 100 and Chad for XSI 100.  Scott got us bouncing a ball through a hoop in XSI and then posing Mr. Wile E. Coyote.  Simple exercises but we got to mess around with a rigged character so it was good, but only because we didn’t have to rig it.  Nothing to show here though.  Some simple poses with a character I didn’t make or rig isn’t a whole lot to brag about.  After Scott came Chad.  Chad gave us an excellent lesson on materials in XSI and then told us we were to apply some of these materials to our environment scene in Modeling 100.  I will be applying these on Monday as well as I wanted to have as much of my environment done before I went at it.

Thursday was a lesson in Production 100 with Scott and Digital Imaging 100 with Peter.  Scott gave us a lesson on lighting in XSI and Peter showed us how to make our own Frankenstein using bits and pieces of things we find on the internet.  ITS ALIVE!

Last class of the week is Life Drawing 100.  We had a nude, male model this week and I produced the same unfortunate drawings I did last week.  I have promised my mother that I will show her some of them but no one who reads this blog will ever see these insults to our wonderful models.

A good week!  It was nice to always have something to work on especially because it was something I am used to working on.  We managed to use the theatre room as well this week for a viewing of “Fight Club.”  Such a sweet movie.  Once Saturday night rolled around I was good to go for some serious gaming.  I busted out about 5 hours of Fallout 3 so I am still moving along in the wastelands.  Also, it would seem I have brought some Saskatchewan weather along with me.  Some major snow the last couple days so I am going to chalk another one up to Vancouver because I am sure that if I ever leave Vancouver, it won’t be fickle and try to get revenge on me!  Vancouver 2, Saskatchewan 0.

Week 1 - A League to Belong To

The first week of school has completed!  Like any good travel show knows, you skip the part of the travel that wouldn’t be very interesting and you get right onto the meat and potatoes even though my travel through the mountains was far more interesting than I had anticipated.  With the threat of avalanche, mountain goat, caribou, deer and semi I had a lot to keep my eye out for.  I will note though that the drive from Kamloops to Vancouver was like driving through a dream.  A beautiful 4 hour long end to a full 12 hour drive.  Now let’s never speak of this again.

As I said, the first week of school is done!  I have been oriented to the wonderful world of the Think Tank and I am a believer.  Monday was our orientation.  Scott Thompson (Owner), Joseph Bullock (Co-owner) and Angela Gielen (Knower of all things not art) gave us the rundown of how this school works and how it will work for you.  I could go on forever about how dedicated they are to their students success but I will just say this; If you work hard this is your chance to follow a dream while being backed by a superhero league of industry professionals who are there to make sure you gain the powers needed to land that sweet job you’ve always wanted.

Let me introduce you to the “Superhero League of Industry Pros” in order of class appearance.

First class we had was Modeling 100 with Joseph Bullock.  Joseph has the power of creation.  From his brain to his fingers to the computer, he can create, and teach you to create, worlds, characters and everything in between.  Of course he has more experience than just modeling but the League has chosen him to pass his knowledge on to the worlds next generation of superheroes.  So far he is a wonderful instructor and I look forward to learning more from him.  Joe’s first assignment to the “Semester One Heroes” was to give shape to an elephant while channelling the power of Softimage.  A low poly representation to get used to the tools and hot keys that Softimage has to offer.  I am partial to Maya but wielding all powers is much better than only using one.  It is fairly similar to Maya so if you have experience in Maya it will cross over.  I ended up modeling my Elephant along with a Brontosaurus and a Triceratops.  Triceratops didn’t end up how I wanted it but I will show off the other two.

For our next Superhero we have Brett Vanderkist.  He has the power to give life in the 2D realm as well as the power to travel back in time.  Classical Animation 100 and Flash Animation 100 is what he was chosen for.  He loves 2D animation and it shows.  His first lesson to us was a trip back in time when animation was done on a thing called “paper”.  A wonderful lesson indeed and out of it came the challenge of giving life to a rubber ball.  I have seen many videos of an old school pencil drawings coming to life but I found a certain satisfaction in being the one that gave it.  We each hand drew our bouncing ball on every odd frame and then captured our images with a webcam so that we could play them back in a program called Flipbook.  It is nice to know how easy we have it these days but I look forward to stepping back in time again to give my rubber ball even more life.  You will see what I mean next week.  Check out my bouncing ball video!  Make sure you have it on loop.

Next up is the essential Superman of the “Superhero League of Industry pros”.  Scott Thompson was next up to pass his knowledge on to our small band of up-and-comers.  Although I am not sure what his kryptonite may be, I did get a good understanding of all the things he has to offer and that is what matters.  Scott has had his hand in many different aspects of the industry and certainly knows what he is talking about.  He also has some awesome stories about the industry and what we can come to expect.  Scott is in charge of 3D Animation 100 and Production 100 in this first semester.  His first challenge to us was to slide a box down a ramp and into another box that was to tumble and fall and eventually come to a rest.  We were to use Softimage which I found easier to animate in then Maya was, but the last time I animated in Maya was in Maya 8.  It was an easy enough project when it came to simply animating the boxes but it was a bit harder to make them move realistically.  This video is really small but I didn’t want to wait 20 mins while it uploaded.  I think my powers of giving life in the 3D realm still need some work but it can only get better!

Our next hero is Chad Fox.  He has been chosen to pass his knowledge of Softimage on to us.  He has the power to see inside programs to help us better understand how they work.  I would be afraid to see what he could make a program of his choosing do……or would I?  Chad is a wonderful instructor and I look forward to learning all I can from him about Softimage.  My powers in it grow almost every day!

Next is Digital Imaging with our Photoshop hero Peter Hogan.  Photoshop has always been a fun program to use.   Peter has the power to manipulate reality and he is very good at passing that on while keeping it fun.  His first project to us was to create a fictional CD cover for fictional band.  He told us to go a bit crazy with it so here is a digital representation of my crazy.

Last but not least is Sarita Baker.  She is our Life Drawing 100 instructor.  She has the power to simulate real life in the blink of an eye.  She is a wonderful artist and I can only hope I learn enough to be able to simulate the simplest of life.  We had a female, nude model as our subject and we were to draw her in many different styles.  Squiggles, figure 8’s, scribbles, sharp curves and soft flowing lines were all represented.  Many different styles that I had a lot of trouble with.  I certainly do not have the speed or skill yet required to produce a drawing I would be proud of but I can hope that this class will get me there.

So that is it!  I also started a project of my own based off of some Mass Effect 2 concept art.  I wanted something to do if I got my projects done quickly enough.  We have Saturdays and Mondays as our work days and Sundays as our days of rest.  Superheroes in the making need time to adjust to our new found powers.  I enjoy the other young heroes in my class and I think this will be a good year.  The school atmosphere is amazing and all the instructors are dedicated to delivering a program that will benefit us beyond what I could imagine.  I want to quickly thank the Xaviers of this school, Scott and Joe.  I look forward to learning how to better use my powers.   Alright, more to come next week!

My leaving quip is that is has been positive temperatures every day since I have arrived in Vancouver.  My parents informed me that that hasn’t been the case back home.  That’s Vancouver 1, Saskatchewan zip.