Over at Parka Blogs, he have a whole list of art blogs on the internet that he compiled. Very useful links for character design references and inspirations for doodling your own stuff.
http://parkablogs.com/content/art-blogs-of-note-2011
Also more importantly, he reviews art books! Lots of them. And most of the ones you want, I bet he have already reviewed!
Also is this really useful one for more character design. If you have any more links, pls post them below. Thanks.
http://characterdesign.blogspot.com/
hilscreate.blogspot.com
February 28, 2011
February 27, 2011
Student's attitude part 1
A student really tested my patience last weekend with a really shitty attitude. Whinging why does she have to come in to school on a Saturday to attend a animation masterclass and why must she have so much work to do.
My 1st reaction was "How ungrateful is that? We arranged for a senior animator from a huge
animation studio to come in and give a master class in animation. Do you know how impossible it was during my time for that to happen?"
She sulked through the whole masterclass falling asleep dozen of time before taking her bag and walked off deliberating showing us that she is going off. She is not the only one, some other students sneaked off or didn't even bother showing up. I even have students not showing up the while semester and not even producing any work at all. I even caught them torrenting on school comps.
I love students like this. I really do.
My 1st reaction was "How ungrateful is that? We arranged for a senior animator from a huge
animation studio to come in and give a master class in animation. Do you know how impossible it was during my time for that to happen?"
She sulked through the whole masterclass falling asleep dozen of time before taking her bag and walked off deliberating showing us that she is going off. She is not the only one, some other students sneaked off or didn't even bother showing up. I even have students not showing up the while semester and not even producing any work at all. I even caught them torrenting on school comps.
I love students like this. I really do.
Choosing a local animation school and the problems. part 1
DISCLAIMER (not the movie) : Most of these thoughts are gathered from my personal working/teaching experiences as well as talking to students, ex students, friends who run studios as well as friends who work in small and big studios as well as friends who have lectured. It is not based on published facts or figures. All comments are my own. No names of schools or companies are mentioned because I do not want a lawsuit and frankly I cannot be arsed to be sued.
How to choose an animation school if you are interested in going for animation? (Can I convince you to pick up accounting/banking/law/property development instead?)
How to choose an animation school if you are interested in going for animation? (Can I convince you to pick up accounting/banking/law/property development instead?)
February 24, 2011
Thoughts on the local animation industry in Singapore - Short courses
Previously on this post, I talked about the problems with the education model for animation in Singapore.
"The most critical flaw with the current model of having specialised courses just so that the students can get into Lucasfilm, D Neg is heavily flawed. Because all you are churning out students who are one trick pony following tutorials and step by step in doing a prescribed way of working. They are severely limited by the skillsets that they have. "
I want to add that the problems actually go down deeper.
vished posted a link from the online citizen website last year.
The part that stood out was "An individual whom I know on a professional basis recently graduated from a private animation school in Singapore under a government-funded diploma program. He was scathing of the standard of teaching (by a former graduate of the same course). It’s easy for me to criticize competitors but a specific claim this school makes is its faculties are current industry professionals. Clearly this is not the case but who’s going to complain?
The person I know said everyone passed their course and received a diploma when some clearly deserved not to. One of the reasons I believe what I have heard from this individual is because I know how the scheme providing the grants works. If the student doesn’t pass the course, the school doesn’t receive their fees from the government. If that happens, it’s bad for business."
Incidentally, this was a post written by the boss of another animated school in Singapore who also happens to run their own production studio. (loads of animation schools in Singapore eh?)
"The most critical flaw with the current model of having specialised courses just so that the students can get into Lucasfilm, D Neg is heavily flawed. Because all you are churning out students who are one trick pony following tutorials and step by step in doing a prescribed way of working. They are severely limited by the skillsets that they have. "
I want to add that the problems actually go down deeper.
vished posted a link from the online citizen website last year.
The part that stood out was "An individual whom I know on a professional basis recently graduated from a private animation school in Singapore under a government-funded diploma program. He was scathing of the standard of teaching (by a former graduate of the same course). It’s easy for me to criticize competitors but a specific claim this school makes is its faculties are current industry professionals. Clearly this is not the case but who’s going to complain?
The person I know said everyone passed their course and received a diploma when some clearly deserved not to. One of the reasons I believe what I have heard from this individual is because I know how the scheme providing the grants works. If the student doesn’t pass the course, the school doesn’t receive their fees from the government. If that happens, it’s bad for business."
Incidentally, this was a post written by the boss of another animated school in Singapore who also happens to run their own production studio. (loads of animation schools in Singapore eh?)
February 21, 2011
Cost of living and salary in Animation in Singapore.
DISCLAIMER : Most of these notes are gathered from my personal experiences as well as observation and talking to students, ex students and friends. It is not based on published facts or figures. All comments are my own rough gauge. I will not be responsible for you do not land a job here or you end up giving up a comfy job overseas because overquote or underquote a starting pay because of what I posted here.
In recent months I saw a rise in the number of people from Malaysia, Indonesia and the States on the blog looking at this post.
I bet this is a interesting topic for some people who are thinking of working in Singapore. Especially students from nearby countries who want to consider working in Singapore after graduation.
Also I have talked to some guys who came over from the States and also UK to work locally. And the most shocking aspect of it was how expensive it was to live in Singapore compared to the States or UK.
In recent months I saw a rise in the number of people from Malaysia, Indonesia and the States on the blog looking at this post.
I bet this is a interesting topic for some people who are thinking of working in Singapore. Especially students from nearby countries who want to consider working in Singapore after graduation.
Also I have talked to some guys who came over from the States and also UK to work locally. And the most shocking aspect of it was how expensive it was to live in Singapore compared to the States or UK.
February 17, 2011
Children transform relative to their parents in Maya.
Simple but Awesome revelation from Malcom Gustave from www.ikfk.com who gave a masterclass in rigging.
It completely makes me see things in Maya so much simpler and helps understand offset groups and zeroing out groups so much easier to explain.
When an object in Maya is created, you can consider it to be parented to the world because it is taking its transformation relative to world coordinates 0,0,0.
So when a child is parented, its transformation values will be then relative to the parent and no longer the world.
THIS is the key to offset or zeroed out groups.
sweet.
It completely makes me see things in Maya so much simpler and helps understand offset groups and zeroing out groups so much easier to explain.
When an object in Maya is created, you can consider it to be parented to the world because it is taking its transformation relative to world coordinates 0,0,0.
So when a child is parented, its transformation values will be then relative to the parent and no longer the world.
THIS is the key to offset or zeroed out groups.
sweet.
February 16, 2011
Parent vs Constraint Differences in Maya
From CG talk.
http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-739070.html
parent object
An object or other item that controls the attributes of one or more child objects. A parent can also be the child of another parent.
parent constraint
A constraint relating the position (translation and rotation) of one object to another object, so that they behave as if part of a parent-child relationship.
The parent constraint allows you to keep elements within their own hierarchy and not have them contained within a larger and hard to understand hierarchy.
http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-739070.html
parent object
An object or other item that controls the attributes of one or more child objects. A parent can also be the child of another parent.
parent constraint
A constraint relating the position (translation and rotation) of one object to another object, so that they behave as if part of a parent-child relationship.
The parent constraint allows you to keep elements within their own hierarchy and not have them contained within a larger and hard to understand hierarchy.
January 18, 2011
Closure.. for now.
Its been a while since the last flurry of posts. A lot of contemplating the last few weeks and taking a short break while adding the finishing touches to the animation short.
Honestly it was getting a bit depressing writing those posts and listening to replies and comments. I got suck a little into feeling aggrieved with the situation.My primary motivation to write was a selfish one. Initially it was an outlet for venting my frustrations as well as putting down my thoughts so that I can hope to find a answer to various questions. And that I can appease some guilt I have when some talented and hardworking graduates are having difficulty finding stable jobs while more schools are churning out graduates by the bucket load seemingly caring only about how much cash they can get from the students and government.
Initially I thought this was my way to help potential students understand what the industry is like. To examine themselves to see if they are good enough or have the initial ability to be polished or taught to be able to compete for a job.
If I was a supervisor reviewing reels of potential people to hire, I have to make an informed choice of who who be a good fit of the department and will work within the confine of the system. And everyone else essientially was " not good enough or too expensive or pain in the butt to work with, better luck next time".
I thought my responsibility as a educator was to train they to be at a level to be able to get that job. Or that 1st step in the industry. And not be the ones not selected.
And also questioning if I can continue my path into education and away from production work with a clear conscience.
It took an extremely enlightening talk by my ex-lecturer/now-boss to make me realise how arrogant it was of me to feel that way and how narrow my vision is. It is not just constrained or restrained to animation/vfx. I have become so small and less confidence at at the future of the industry in my own eyes that I could not move away from this and become angry or frustrated at the situation. Saying stuff like if you are not good or talented enough do not bother with animation. What does to all do?
December 25, 2010
The middle management in the animation/vfx industry and you. Part 2.
continuing from part 1
The following post will sound like sour and bitter gripes of previous experience. But they are all teach me something.
One of the common issues arises is when the middle management look after their own self interest 1st while preaching teamwork and taking one for the team to the artistes.
In a corporation, there are a lot of these middle managements all looking out for themselves. Hey, for a lot of people, its human nature to want to climb the ladder and be in a position of power.
A classic example would be the production manager to tell the artistes that they have to work through the weekend to get the shot out and then himself taking that weekend off to some beach resort.
Of course there is nothing technically wrong with the above scenario since its the artiste's job to deliver the shot, not the manager.
The following post will sound like sour and bitter gripes of previous experience. But they are all teach me something.
One of the common issues arises is when the middle management look after their own self interest 1st while preaching teamwork and taking one for the team to the artistes.
In a corporation, there are a lot of these middle managements all looking out for themselves. Hey, for a lot of people, its human nature to want to climb the ladder and be in a position of power.
A classic example would be the production manager to tell the artistes that they have to work through the weekend to get the shot out and then himself taking that weekend off to some beach resort.
Of course there is nothing technically wrong with the above scenario since its the artiste's job to deliver the shot, not the manager.
December 24, 2010
the good side.
this is the season to be ranting.. tralalalala...lalalala...
with all this perceived negativity in the air...... let me remind myself why I got into this industry.
Its a playground. You can create anything. Seriously anything that your mind can think of in CG. Entire civilizations, worlds, creatures, spaceships and for the sadder ones, digital fantasy females. And make them come alive! Living breathing digital entities. (can't shag them though but if you tried, I do not want to know).
Even things that you didn't think of via noise frequencies as well as modulation of particles and geometry. .
man.... You get to play god! How cool is that. ( I can see the messiah complex thing in a lot of guys in the industry) But seriously that is awesome.
Z-brush and mudbox man.... u can sculpt something out of a cube with no mess and almost infinite Undos. Its a awesome tool for a creative outlet. I wait for the day that we can sculpt in holographic mode.
And you can get some pretty pictures even with a simple 3 point setup, you can move and frame the camera to get the perfect composition. And animation wow..... making your creation come alive. That is the ultimate coolness.
But most importantly you want to tell stories. Stories that people can feel for and like.
But that is something that CG can't do. Which is to tell stories. It can create the most amazing worlds and creatures that is beautiful to look at but if there is no story, there is no soul to your creation. Its the stories that define and shape who the people that live in your world are. Their hopes and fears, their advantages.
And that to me, is the allure, the addiction and the magic that is animation. The POTENTIAL in all of us to tell stories with these really amazing tools.
with all this perceived negativity in the air...... let me remind myself why I got into this industry.
Its a playground. You can create anything. Seriously anything that your mind can think of in CG. Entire civilizations, worlds, creatures, spaceships and for the sadder ones, digital fantasy females. And make them come alive! Living breathing digital entities. (can't shag them though but if you tried, I do not want to know).
Even things that you didn't think of via noise frequencies as well as modulation of particles and geometry. .
man.... You get to play god! How cool is that. ( I can see the messiah complex thing in a lot of guys in the industry) But seriously that is awesome.
Z-brush and mudbox man.... u can sculpt something out of a cube with no mess and almost infinite Undos. Its a awesome tool for a creative outlet. I wait for the day that we can sculpt in holographic mode.
And you can get some pretty pictures even with a simple 3 point setup, you can move and frame the camera to get the perfect composition. And animation wow..... making your creation come alive. That is the ultimate coolness.
But most importantly you want to tell stories. Stories that people can feel for and like.
But that is something that CG can't do. Which is to tell stories. It can create the most amazing worlds and creatures that is beautiful to look at but if there is no story, there is no soul to your creation. Its the stories that define and shape who the people that live in your world are. Their hopes and fears, their advantages.
And that to me, is the allure, the addiction and the magic that is animation. The POTENTIAL in all of us to tell stories with these really amazing tools.
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