Introduction - this blog and my project

While I already have a blog on which I post updates on my 3D work, I was advised to create a new one for my final year project -- one that would make sense to anyone marking my project or judging if I'm appropriate for ExpoTees, for example, without being distracted and confused by loads of stuff that isn't directly to do with this project!

For those who don't know, ExpoTees is Teesside University's own student showcase, where the best students in the School of Computing can, if they are chosen, exhibit their final year work and have employers from animation and games companies from London and all over look at it. Needless to say if you want to nab an awesome job it's somewhere you should aim to be!

So for clarity, this is where I will post everything to do with my 'Computer Animation Project' module, showing every stage of the process along the way.

Since I want a job as a 3D character animator when I leave uni, the focus of my project will be on creating some really awesome character animation. This means lots of emotion, acting and comedy in my character, with very simple block environments to keep the audience's focus -- and mine! -- on the animation. Rather than creating a showreel I want to make one cohesive story -- not a short film, as such, but a one- to two-minute piece that shows off the different kinds of animation I am capable of and my ability to tell a story.

The idea I am going to focus this piece on is "The Life of a Student Animator". This means I will effectively be animating someone animating! I want to portray the humour and trials an animator faces through their day, from pulling funny faces in the mirror for reference to nearly falling asleep while waiting for a render. I want this piece to be relatable -- something that aspiring, current and used-to-be animators can all watch and say, "Man, I know that feeling!" and that at the same time can have non-animators watch and say, "Wow, they go through a really crazy process!"

I have written my proposal, so that just needs to be approved now, and while I have a first draft of the script it needs shortening quite a lot before it will be something that I can realistically finish for hand-in by the 21st March next year. I aim to have the planning process -- script, storyboard, animatic, reference footage, scheduling -- done my mid-November. I'm glad, at least, even if the whole idea of doing the project seems a bit scary at the moment, that I know where I'm going and what I need to do next. Having a blog also motivates me and keeps me excited, because even though I don't know if anyone is reading I am still eager to share what I'm up to.

Caitlin :)