Stop-motion

I tried stop motion for the first time and it was actually not as difficult as I thought. When work in 2D it is quite hard to play with different textures. I love the little imperfections of materials of hand made models and since everything is animated straight forward so it is more intuitive. I was able to explore and experiment with different materials too in a way that I couldn’t with traditional 2D animation. The ability to physically manipulate objects and see them come to life frame by frame was also a unique experience. Overall, my first time trying stop motion was a rewarding and enjoyable experience, and I look forward to continuing to explore it further.

Blender project

Since it’s close to the deadline I didn’t get much time to play with my own project, but I did get to make some test renderings to see where to improve. (The model is still work in progress)I threw in a dawn HDRI and mixed with a sky texture and then the result was an aboslute disaster as self-explained in the image above. First the windows of the building on the left look too copy-and-pasted, I examined my reference photo again and realized it is just how it looks in real life, a boring and depressing flat block. Even if I try to add in some props and more colour varations it’s still not going to look good on screen. So definately going to get rid of the blocky windows first and change it to a balcony. Lighting needs to change too but at this stage I decided to just focus on the general composition and trust the process. Generally it was a fun and relaxing experience outside of school work and I’m looking forward to apply my 3D skill in 2D animation. I came across a tutorial on watercolour shader online which can turn any 3D models into watercolour paintings, I think it would work very well with grease pencil tool and create some cool 2.5D effect so definitely the next thing to experiment after submission.

Networking event

I was quite anxious after the Networking event on Thursday worrying that I might end up unemployed forever then spent a whole night contemplating my life. After I graduated last year I changed my major so my undergrad degree in production design certainly won’t get myself a job and in fact I have never worked a day in my life I just got way too comfortable with being an ‘art student’ or maybe I should better just go do a doctor degree next year to escape the reality and it might eventually get myself a job as a kindergarten art teacher back home which I believe my parents would be quite satisfied with. So I later reached out to an alumni to ask more questions on career. His answer was very reassuring and inspiring. He was an international student too and both of us are from the same country, He got into a game company as a concept artist immediately after graduation. He told me it’s better to start preparing your portfolio as soon as possible since it is actually more important than work experience so stop panicking right now and get some works done. When I asked him about the difference between the animation industry in the UK/west and in China he said you certainly don’t want to go back unless you can endure the extremely toxic working environment and the jail life after you get arrested for saying stupid things online. So I got up from bed immediately and started working on my body acting exercise.