Super Ego (Plus Second Life Mayhem!)

Today I finally signed up for Second Life, and created my own personal avatar. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the snapshot feature to get a decent photo of it, but I'll try and get one soon! I tried to make it look more or less like myself, and it sort of almost does, heh! After getting to grips with the controls, figuring out where you had to wander to to change your appearance, etc., I started walking around the initial area talking to people. The first person I spoke to didn't speak any English at all, and the second approached me totally naked and said they were new, and wanted to know where they could get some clothes to conceal their virtual modesty, so I directed them to the place I got mine. The final person I interacted with was an unfortunate fellow who I accidentally smacked with a car, pushing him into the ocean. I apologised, but he remained silent. Funnily enough, hit-and-run in the virtual realm comes with none of the feelings of guilt I imagine it'd be accompanied by in reality... Still, I'd probably better not make a habit of it, just for etiquette's sake.
After this, I started flying about for a bit and was then kicked out of the room as a lesson was about to start there. Second Life seems quite entertaining in a slightly surreal way, I'll venture into the actual main hub next time!


I started work on my other 3D avatar today, and made a (very!) rough model of the Super Ego's head. I don't know why I started with the Super Ego (or SE from now on), maybe I was subconsciously drawn to it's sense of discipline as I sat down, readying myself for some serious work, and maybe I was just attracted by it's delightful beard. Who knows?
I sketched SE out from a few more different perspectives, just to get an idea of how it would look in the third dimension, and then constructed him out of a few basic shapes.

I had a little trouble making the nose, and a lot of trouble making the aforementioned delightful beard. I tried quite a few different shapes, and eventually settled on this one for the time being, even though I'm still not happy with it. I couldn't figure out how to fill in the centre of it, as I'd originally hoped to have a nice, satisfyingly full beard and then draw the mouth over the top, but every time there was a big gaping hole in the middle. With the beard I eventually went for, it does kind of look like the hole in it is actually his mouth, but it's not perfect. I think SE also needs smoothing over, as there are some parts of him where I joined two shapes together and they haven't quite stuck together as smoothly as I would have hoped, but it's totally cool to see SE starting to take shape in 3D. Just for my own personal glee, I made SE get himself flustered over some deep moral dilemma -

A Freudian Slip

I've just started to doodle some ideas for this Identities project, and I accidentally spewed this out -



I'm not sure if this is quite what the brief has in mind, but running with the notion of symbols and images feeding in to humanoid figures, I thought I'd extract all the parts of a person, give them a face that kinda fits with what they're all about (so, for instance, the Id, the primal desires, urges and instinct of a person is strained, wide eyed and feral, the Super Ego, the person's sense of morality, our conscience, is lofty, contemplative and superior, while the Ego, the person's mediator, their way of keeping the balance between the Id and Super Ego, must maintain a careful balance, stay alert, and never allow itself to cast too much of an imposing presence over a person).
Back to the multimedia side of this though, I do like the idea of a big floating head as an avatar, hovering just above ground level. As for the kind of environment I'd place this creature in, I hadn't quite thought that far, but vague embryonic ideas include a big black and purple cavern type thing, like the inside of a brain, or maybe something more ordinary, maybe a tranquil field or something. I'm not sure, I'll give it some thought.

Southbound Pachyderm

I think I'm beginning to grasp 3D Studio Max a little more now. I can make up little characters now without having to constantly refer to worksheets or tutorials, and don't feel quite as intimidated when faced with some of menu screens. However, I'm still struggling a little with the actual animation itself, as quite often the characters don't quite do what I want them to and I find myself unable to rectify it. It's definitely getting there though, here's the latest creation -

I wanted to try and give the elephant a little bit more of a personality than the previous attempts, so I made this little rat run past him. The rat looks a little shoddy, one of his legs looks like it's going into spasm, and I wasn't quite feeling adventurous enough to flesh out the elephant with a body, but I still kinda like it!


After talking to Roma about the Identities module today, I feel a little clearer as to what I have to do. Not having a copy of 3D Studio Max at home is definitely a hinderance, but I'm still gonna be able to draw some sketches or whatever so I can squeeze some ideas out of my head and onto a nice solid slice of paper. I'm still unsure as to what I could put in my 3D box, but there are a few vague ideas floating about right at the back of the ol' grey matter. Hopefully spending some quality time with a pencil will help sort things out!

3D Tree!

Today we created a model of a tree on 3D Studio Max, and here's my finished foliage -

I managed to craft the tree without too much difficulty, but struggled a bit with mapping textures onto it. Eventually (and with Andy's help!) I finished the tree off, but there are still a few things about it I'm not too happy with. I drew the leaves out myself, and here they look way too small, making the tree look a little...odd!
I've gotta admit, the more I learn about 3D modelling, the more confusing it seems...

The Confused Octopus

The process of getting my head around 3D animation is slowly but surely making progress. In uni the other day we had to design little octopuses, and then make them float up down in a relaxing manner... Here's mine -

I was very satisfied with the way the octopus looked, as from all angles he did indeed resemble a happy-go-lucky cartoon squid, but unfortunately his movement didn't go quite as smoothly. Rather than bobbing up and down, he kinda shoots into the air and then falls back down again. Just to add insult to injury, then all his legs fly out in the wrong direction and he, erm, gets himself into a bit of a mess.
However, by confusing this poor octopus I think I've learnt a little more about 3D Studio Max. Hopefully within a few days/weeks/months/years (let's hope it's not years, eh?) I'll have cracked it!

Entering The Third Dimension

Yesterday we started using the programme 3D Studio Max to, erm, make giant bulbous letters jump up and down, which was pretty cool! At the moment, I have to admit I'm pretty bewildered by the interface. After a bit of fiddling about and experimenting with it I managed to make a little pig, and then make his face glide about like a swine in a lava lamp. I've literally just downloaded Blender, the free 3D animation programme, and it looks even more complex, but I'll have a read through the tutorials and see what kind of creatures I can concoct...In the mean time, enjoy these!

First Blog Of The New Year!

And a happy new year to you all! Here's a little visual aid as to how mine was spent -

But enough of this frivolity, lets sink our teeth into a tasty hard work sandwich.
After several projects last term didn't actually come to fruition, it's probably a good idea to look at why. The Pixelation videos turned out fine, other than one me and John were working on which was probably a little too ambitious to finish off in the time (who knows, maybe we could have done, but with other projects, a social life and a need for sleep, realistically maybe it was a bit much...).




The film was going to be about a sketch artist who can't really sketch very well, and just as he gets frustrated by this, he gets sucked inside his own crude sketches, and then goes on a little adventure. We got as far as taking all the photos for the artist starting off in 'real life', and then him sticking his hand into the paper and watching it turn into a cartoon, and then him jumping in and landing in the animated world, but no further! There was a further plan to get him onto a little cartoon boat, and then voyage across seas of ink, but this sadly never happened. Even though it won't be marked now, I'd still like to finish it off, as it'd look pretty cool!

The One shot films weren't quite as successful, partly because our group could never get together. This term it might be a good idea to make group meetings a higher priority, but I think for this one it was maybe because we were all a little uninspired to begin with, and when we did start having some cool ideas we were all too stuck into the Flash animations and it was too late to give them the time they deserved.

Finally, here's my presentation for the last term! I decided not to use Power Point, because pixelation is way more satisfying, heh! The different projects are meant to be viewed in between each part of the presentation, but you'll get the gist of it. Enjoy!