Unit 6 - 'Art of Publication'

Unit 6 - Art of Publication 1

Unit 6 - Cell Modelled in Maya

This is the cell design number 3 but modelled within Maya. Pretty basic but still gives off the information needed and how I can work around this through out the piece. A bit edgy around the cell but this can be sorted.

Unit 4 - Pendulum - Re-sub



Unit 4 - Dolly Shot - Re-sub

Unit 4 - Roll Shot - Re-sub

Unit 4 - Crane Shot - Re-sub

I would like to add that the reason the perspective lines are not on any of these videos of my Unit 4 Re-subs are because the perspective lines that I created back in Unit 4 are now corrupted files and when I upload the scenes to Maya the ‘Shot_Cam’ has a white square in front of the lens instead of the perspective lines.  So I have had to work with what I have got.

Unit 4 - Pan Shot - Re-sub

Unit 4 - Written Assignment Re-Sub

Written Assignment - Final Draft

@Phil - Red Bulb 'Pitch'

Hey Phil, I’m just posting this up before the pitch to let you know that I won’t be able to do the Pitch on Tuesday the 8^th, with the circumstances of the extension for the previous unit I have only got up to a storyboard for this unit, I have no animatic, no pri-viz or any sounds ready to be able to present my idea to a better understanding. 

I would feel embarrassed compared to ones that will have there’s ready even if I have an extensions its just an experience I wouldn’t want to go with unless I was ready and started the same time as everyone else. I’m sorry for letting you and the other members at the pitch down.

Nick

@Phil - First Draft of the Script

Hey Phil the first draft of the script is up, I haven’t put any emotions and feel for how I want the voice actor to do the dialogue yet I was going to add them in soon before I started searching for a voice actor just to give you a head ups. I just wanted to get the first draft out the way and put up on here for you to see, I did put a lot of effort into for a first draft though so I reckon it needs tweaking and your feedback first. Hope you like the script.

Nick

Script - The Cell Cycle - Draft 1

Script - The Cell Cycle

After Effects Session 2.0 - Title Sequence Clip

Within this after effects session it was quite a lot to take in at first but after a while it started to sink in and the work wasn’t so bad, it was really fun to learn this sort of tools that will help a lot for my idea through out this project and I’m started to get really interested in the software as well and what possibilities you can create with it.

Here is the second clip that I have made which is a title sequence using the teaching I learnt today.

After Effects Session 1.0 Rendered Clip

Sorry for the delay but I weren’t sure on how to export/render the first clip we made in the first After Effects session. Now I know after the second one so here it is.

@Phil - My Work so far

Hey Phil, sorry to be a pest if your busy at the moment but I was wondering if you have looked at some of my recent work around the thumbnails of the cells and environment for the 2D stage. Just wanted to know that I haven’t trailed off and everything looks ok. Please and Thank you

Nick

Draft of (G1 - S) stage of the Cell Cycle in 2D Style

Here is a quick sketch off how I imagine what the 2D part of the animation will be like straight after ‘Roger Matthews’ introduces himself before the 3D part of the cell cycle begins. There still needs to be a lot more work done, more fine tuning and detail to the 2D parts as well as the 3D parts.

Thumbnails of Cells 1-8

Here are some thumbnails that I have done of some designs for the cells for the animation. The animation will be in greyscale with added effects to perceive a 50’s educational film. I personally like numbers 3, 5 and 6 only because of the little facial features or accessory to add some charm and a vibe off dated animation from that era.

Logo for Animation and Unit

Here is a logo that I have created for this unit. It is for the animation being the company that have created this animation in the 50’s called ‘SCI-CORP’ which is short for ‘The Science Corporation’ and the CEO of this (made up) company is ‘Roger Matthews’ who will be the person at the start of the animation and when I get my a voice over for the animation, the voice actor will portray ‘Roger Matthews’.

Another Influence for the Voice Over for the Animation

Here is another major influence off how I would like the voice over for the animation to have. The character from Matt Groening’s ‘The Simpsons’  Troy McClure is exactly the type of style I would like the narrator to be like, with the ignorance and witty dialogue to make a bad situation sound good, could make my animation even stronger if I can get hold of a voice actor who can portray what I’m after.

The Cell Cycle - Research

The cell cycle consists of two phases ‘The Mitotic Phase’ also known as (M) which is the Mitosis and the ‘Interphases’ which is where a cell starts its growth of a chromosome and then starts the cell division. The Interphase consists of stages through the cycle which are;

            G1:       The growth of a Cell

            S:         Synthesis of duplication of DNA

            G2:       Cell prepares for Mitosis

            M:        Mitosis, the cell divided

            R:         (Checkpoint for each cell at each stage above).

A cell has to make it through each of these stages to be able to successfully divide and then start the process again as one cell goes off and the other starts it all over again.

When a cell reaches the stage of ‘Mitosis’ the cell must then undergo the four stages of ‘Mitosis’ which are;

Prophase:        The nucleus starts to condense and begins to become visible to light as chromosomes and the opposite ends of the cells fibres extend from the centromeres.

Metaphase:     The Spindle fibres align the chromosomes along the middle of the cell nucleus, when the chromosomes are the separated each new nucleus will receive one chromosome.

Anaphase:       Chromosomes start to divide by the Chromatids as they start to separate by the spindle fibres.

Telophase:       Chromosomes both move to either side of the cell and both start to create new nucleus to wrap around the divided chromosomes.

Cytokinesis:     Overlaps the latter stages of mitosis and when divided creates two identical cells. (Animal cells).

Bibliography

·         http://www.biology.arizona.edu/CELL_BIO/tutorials/cell_cycle/cells3.html

·         http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/C/CellCycle.html

·         http://myuca.ucreative.ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=null&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_18401_1%26url%3D

·         http://csir-lifescience.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/overview-of-cell-cycle.html

·         http://jasyre.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/mitosis-phases/

Adobe After Effects Session 1.0

Within the first after effects session we were introduced to Adobe after effects, shown some types of animations and that have had after affects help make what they are today. After effects has had a much bigger impact in our lives then a lot of us know, undermining the role of cg artists in the film industry and so on.

We were asked to choose a picture from Facebook of a friend or someone we know and turn their mouth into a puppets mouth like a nutcracker. We were then asked to mess around with After Effects to just understand some of the features that we will be using throughout the next few weeks. The video has not been exported yet and my version of After Effects cannot support the UCA’s version so I will export it and have the video on tomorrow but I will add the image that I used which I edited using Photoshop as well as explain how the session went.

Continuing Maya Session 1.0

Bshape Operation  

Maya Session 1.0

Blend Mirroring

R_Angry_Brow, R_Snarl and  R_Brow



Influence Maps and Further Research

Here are some influence maps based around the style I would like to go around to add better insight on my idea for the animation. The animation will be in greyscale, so there will be no colour but the effect that propaganda adverts have had on cultures in the past.

The first influence map is based on the style of the animation, blocky kind of pop art type of feel, I have a strong feeling that this will help to give my animation and impact and have a good clash with the 3D part of the animation, like for example the blocky pop up art could be the 2D bit where the cells are introduced and the 3D part could be the explanation and how it looks when mitosis happens throughout the cell cycle with the narrator going through the script in both parts.

The second influence map is showing cells and how I would like them to look throughout the parts of the 2D bit and the 3D bit, simple but effective to keep the idea of this was made in the 50’s.

I would like the narrator to have an American accent but with the proper annunciation and well-spoken attitude an American had in the 50’s. Here is a video of a narrator from a game called ‘Portal 2’ his name in the game was Cave Johnson and voiced by J.K. Simmons, this is the style I would like the narrator to have within my animation.



Inspirations and Influence

The inspiration for this idea is from the all the propaganda from the last 60 decades off all the news, adverts, posters about the communists and capitalism. America at the time was twisting and brain washing peoples perspective of communists stating them as bad and the enemy with the some quotes as “Reds under the beds”, “is your neighbour a Russian spy?” etc. With many adverts being quite straight forward and in your face about it with sexiest and unnecessary remarks about communism and mainly Russians.

Here are some videos sources below which have influenced me and give a better understanding of how I want my computer generated animation to look like to its audience. Mainly script voice overs and the way they commucated through propaganda in the 50's.

Unit 6 - Commission Brief

Unit 6 has begun over a week ago and I have just got everything else out the way for the time being to concentrate fully for the rest of the time I have left on this project. Within this unit we have to create a 2 minute computer generated animation and pitch the idea, pri-viz, and animatic of the animation to a potential investor from another university. The theme to choose from is either ‘Cancer’ or ‘Aging’. I have chosen to go for the aging of cells through the stages of Mitosis and/or the stages of the cell cycle. The type of style I wanted to go for is a 1950’s anti-communism advert like the whole propaganda around the whole Cold War situation of the ‘Reds under the Beds’ a Russian spy living next door kind of feel. I wanted to stylize my animation around that for the cell cycle stages as a narrator comments for example “can you trust the cell next to you are they your ally or are the imposter” as the cell tries to pass through the stages of the Mitosis through the cell cycle.

Ok now I was never great at biology so these next few days will be interesting to envision how to create this and get back into science, but I’m confident that this idea will be strong enough to hold together and come out a successful animation.