Deeetroit Basketbaaaall!

I finally got to see a Pistons game. I needed that. Today's game against the bulls was national (or I guess international, technically speaking). The Pistons won it in a 2 point thriller, but I think I would have enjoyed it almost as much even if they lost. And since it was the Bulls I even got to see Big Ben play again. After watching about 80 of their 82 games each of their past few seasons, those guys feel almost like family to me. It was nice to see some familiar faces, even if they were only on the TV.


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The Library

So I finally made it to the main branch of the Vancouver Public Library (for all my library people). It's the coliseum like building. It was pretty cool. Six floors, and a nice collection. They are much more archival than the AADL. Not too many of the newer CDs or DVDs. They still have a lot of VHS in their collection. They have a food court that surrounds the area outside the library... I didn't notice any self-check machines but I didn't look that hard, Oh and they just barcode their books. No plastic covers or anything like that.
I was on the Seabus, a ferry that crosses the water, that same day. It's the fastest way to North Vancouver. They have a marketplace that kind of reminded me of Kerrytown up there. I bought a caramel apple in the chocolate shop, and took a ling hard look at their caramel squares and white chocolate and peanut butter bars and all the other stuff in there. It actually didn't rain at all that day. It was a really nice trip and a good break from sitting in front of a computer all day for weeks at a time.

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my robot

We've come down to the end of Term 1 now. That means I'm a third of the way there! Our last assignment before our term 1 exam was to model the main character for our story. So here he is. The robot I've posted so many drawings of. He is in his early stages but already has a pretty nice range of emotions if I do say so myself. All in all I'm pretty happy with him, which is encouraging for my final film.
As I mentioned we also took an exam. It was an all day affair involving a written portion with multiple choice, true or false, and short answer sections. We also had a practical portion where we had to pick a toy out of a box (they were wrapped in paper bags so we couldn't see what we were getting) and then we had to block it out (a primitive, model of the item using simple shapes such as cubes, spheres and cylinders) and then animate it. Lucky me I drew a spider. That's eight legs to block out, and animate folks, plus did I mention I hate spiders? Anyway I completed the assignment. It wasn't too hard considering what was expected of us and the amount of time given. You can look at it here:

Spider Video

Hopefully that link will work. It is a ".CA" which is the Canadian version of ".com" but hopefully that won't interfere with anything.

After a short break we return for term 2. Which means lots more animation assignments and further refinements of our stories. I'm pretty excited about the whole thing now that things are coming together. I should have more to post pretty soon...

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Socializing

Once in a while we manage to push away from our computers. We all went out for Nick's birthday. The Red Robin. Sometimes we hit the basketball court. That's me and Gonzalo shooting on the court. Picture to the right is from left to right: Gonzalo, Nick, Sreejit, myself and Reggie. Not pictured: 30 seconds later when we all get up pay the bill and shuffle back into the lab where we pretty much live now.
Our row is filled with basketballs and clay models, books on animation, storyboards etc. Its also starting to get a little ripe in there. I might have to bring in one of those car air freshener's or something because somebody's been pulling one too many all nighters.
2 big projects coming up. The walk cycle where we make our character rigs walk for the first time and the first revision of what will eventually be the final model of our character. So I should have some interesting things to post soon.

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Robots, robots, robots

As the story "obsolete" has evolved I have gone through a number of changes. Here are a series of sketches. The blue circled robot on the page full of robot faces is the current (and hopefully final version) of the story's protagonist, model X-J 800.
On the page below are some preliminary designs for the other model of robots in the story the shiny new X-J 1000 model.
The final page down at the bottom is the full model, body and legs, of the current X-J 1000 series. They will be taunting, mocking and otherwise giving our protagonist a hard time. To the right of them is the updated version of X-J 800's body.
It has been a lot of fun doing the concept portion of the assignment. I will have to work really hard in the coming months to make sure that the final product matches up to the original concept.

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Sets, waffles, and the superbowl

here is a basic environment of the junkyard in which my story takes place. We had to block it out, and then start the modeling process. The colors go on later and a lot of refinements will be made but this is the basic set where all of the action will take place.

Today I planned to go and check out this waffle place I'd seen before. They have a big sign that says authentic Belgian waffles. So I went down there and lo and behold they were closed. All day. How do you close a waffle place on Sunday? Seriously, I'm asking. It's just wrong.
So there I was standing in the rain outside the waffle place, that sign taunting me. I searched for a Denny's, there are a lot of those out here, but all in vain. I finally just came home, bought some syrup and made my own dang breakfast.

Sports bars out here will show a regular season hockey game over the Superbowl. That's almost as disturbing to me as a waffle place that's closed on Sundays. Things like this make me realize that I am truly a stranger in a strange land. It's the SUPERBOWL people! Sigh.

Next up is the infamous bouncing ball animation...

The days are just packed.

Today we started with our usual early class of lectures. Then we had a break during which we were able to do spend some time in the computer lab, and take a life drawing class. Me and a couple other guys also took the opportunity to go to a local court and get into a game or two. Then at 6:30 we had a night class where we met our advanced modeling instructor.
She has worked for EA games (makers of Madden and other sports games. She now works for propaganda games. She worked on Def Jame Vendetta (for fighting game fans.)



We also met our animation instructor this week. He worked for Hanna Barbara for a while before becoming a teacher full time. It's pretty cool that we're getting the chance to be taught by industry professionals. I have three projects due during the upcoming week, so I'll probably post some of the final images when they are done.

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