Grey- Day... Get it?I make myself laugh. Actually the weather has been nice, but today i got my grades. Which grades? Well both my Professional Practice and my finals grades. Exciting right! Professional Practice So for this i got a 2:2. Not great, but it's about on par with the rest of my grades this year. It's not that i don't care, but i really don't see grades being all that important. Especially in a less significant assignment like this. I'm more bothered about what i end up with in regards to work to show, not the grades i got for them. The feedback was very thorough and mostly negative, but i still passed so who's the winner here! Me. I especially don't mind my grade considering i had to do an assignment about showing off my work when i didn't have any. Most of my files from previous projects are back in England on my boxed up computer, and the stuff i did here was not finished when this was due. So not too bad Harry. Not too bad. Finals
Video- A Sound- B 3D- A Independent Study- A That's right, 3 A's and a B! It's clear i do much better in America than i do in England. Again i don't get that hung up on grades, but i am happy with the work i produced while being here for the most part. I don't believe it has been a waste coming here, and i definitely believe i've done and learnt much more here than if i stayed at UWE. The structure of education here keeps you on track a lot better than in Bristol, and having to go in to class twice a week, while tiring, works a lot better than once a month for some random lecture. At least in regards to production. The sheer amount of projects i've had while being here has made me feel a lot more productive, and produce not just a lot of work, but in the end some good quality work too. So that's that! If that ain't closure i don't know what is!
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The Calm After The StormFiguratively, no real storm this time. So its been a week since we finished. Did we spend this free time exploring the great US of A?
No... Do i regret it? No! So what have we been doing? Sleep. So. Much. Sleep. For the past week our sleep cycle has been going to bed at 4 am and waking up at 4 pm. That's not an exaggeration either. But even if we did spend the last weeks in America traveling, i don't think it would have been worth it. We were both far too tired after finals, and we just want to rest. That isn't to say i haven't been doing stuff aside from that though! In fact in the past week i've done 1 practice animation loop in After Effects, 2 short Maya animations, and i just spent the last 4 days creating and rigging a digital Vasilena per her request, which i put a lot of effort and new techniques into it. You will see all of these if you check back when i've rendered them hopefully! Just a short update today but keep updated! 'Till next time! Is There An End In Sight?Well they're good questions. What am i going to do now and what will become of this blog?
I fully intend to keep updating this blog up until the day i leave America, which is the 31st of May. While my studies are over, i still plan on keeping active both in real life and on the blog. It will be less frequent, but be sure to check back once in a while! At the end of May, i will be posting a master post of all the work i've done since coming here, but i decided not to do it now as i want it to appear right at the top of the blog, proud and prominent. Well, see you next post! Hybrid AnimationFinally, my final final. What a sentence. Well this was it. I know have no more work. I can finally sleep. With the end of this final i had no work left to do. How did it go? Well it went just fine. As you'll see by the video below, i was unfortunately not able to finish, but i was assured it was ok at the final showing in front of Pam and my other two classmates. They understood that i bit off a little more than i could chew, especially with all my other finals. But they like what i had done. Pam Said she'd like to see it when i finish it, as i intend to keep working on it. The other two animations were also really cool! But i feel i was on the same skill level which was nice. The last half an hour of the final ended up being us all talking to each other about graduation and me going back to England, and what i'd been up too in the States. It was a nice final, and i hugged Pam goodbye and parted ways with my fellow students with a handshake and wishes well for the future. Now i just need to wait for my grades... Digital To PhysicalSo here is my finally finished video project. I say finally because even though it only took 3 days to make in total, it felt much longer with the added day of losing everything and having to remake it all. This was showed on two macs in classroom for my final, side by side, and everyone seemed pretty impressed i think. In the end i'm pretty happy with it at least, even if it does need some final polishing up. So what you want to do is play the video on the left first, and then play the video on the right when the countdown says now. I've tried to make it the easiest way possible to sync up, but i know it can still be a little tricky. And don't forget to take into account loading time!
Well That Didn't Go To Plan...Well... according to my notes, my sound final began at 1:50. So imagine my shock when i got to class and found everyone already set up with their makeshift instruments and already jamming. After awkwardly sitting in the corner not being acknowledged for about 10 minutes i piped up and asked a student what was going on. Apparently it started at 1, and after the embarrassment of being alone on the corner, as well as being late, i decided to just hightail it out of there. Josh was there but also didn't say anything so i figured it would be best to leave now, and send an email to him when i got to the flat explaining that i left early so not to get in the way. He replied saying quite a few students didn't even show up so he wont hold it against me. I also sent him a picture of my instrument, a Mtn Dew can ocarina, so it wasn't done in vain. Anyway i hope my last two finals don't go as bad. The Cloud & ClockMy first final was today! And it was 3D. Unfortunately, i missed my alarm and woke up super late, and while i wasn't too late to hand in, i was too late to add foley to my video. As such, all the sound effects currently on here are temporary and unfinished! But the animation is final. Enjoy! Wiping My Hope Of FinishingSo yesterday something very annoying and very inconvenient happened. I spent a solid 12 hours working in the depot on a computer, without leaving it. I spent these 12 hours animating all of the animation needed for my video class due on Thursday. Little did i know however, that on a Sunday at around 2 am, the computers wipe all their data, even if you are still using them at the time. What this meant? Well my 12 hours of nonstop work. Gone. That's 12 hours wasted. This meant that i had no video work to hand in for finals, no time to finish my independent study animation, and no time to add sound to my 3D project. So you can understand why i'm talking about this today instead of when it happened, as i was understandably upset. In the end however i was convinced by my father to bite the bullet and do it again. And so today i spent a very deja vu day of pretty much the exact same thing. And now, at 4 am in the morning, so i guess technically tomorrow, i have 3 out of 5 scenes re animated and rendered, with the other two in progress. The animation is cheap and and poorly timed, but i now have at least something to had in. An unfinished independent study project and a little lousy video project is better than a little less unfinished independent study project and no video project. I even got time to add some sound to my 3D project while i was waiting for the rendering, so there's that too. Not the smoothest Finals, but it could have been worse i suppose. Not to jinx it or anything... Take Me Out To The BallYes i know i said i wouldn't be posting much because of work, and yes i am doing said work. But in between that work we were given the choice to go to a Baseball game in the stadium not far from here! Thanks to the Baptist Church who often do trips us exchange students can tag along with. This was Vasilena and i's first ever baseball game, and after having the rules and scores explained to us, we had a really great time! The weather was a bit chilly but there was a double rainbow which stayed in the sky for a solid 20 minutes! And the game was actually really interesting to watch, even if the players weren't too great. Most of the game consisted of people getting strikes or caught out, and our home team the Flying Squirrels lost without getting a single person to home base, but there was often a wow moment like the opposite team getting a home-run, the many balls which landed in the crowd, and the many many mini events happening in between team switching. This varied between people shooting shirts out of cannons, people racing in giant peanut costumes, people in drag dancing while combing the fields dirt, and of course the mascot dance offs. It's hard to explain how bizarre it really was at times, but it was certainly entertaining. I would definitely go again, and recommend to anyone who can go, even if you're not a big sports fan like me.
And at the end, there was a spectacular fireworks show which had the whole stadium ooh-ing and ahh-ing. Our First TornadoThis morning we were awoken to the city sirens blaring. And so with a quick search on the internet it turned out to be a tornado warning. That explained the rain, as it was the most rain i've ever seen, and i live in England! Long story short after about 15 minutes the alarm went off and we never got to see the tornado. But it did come by Richmond apparently but you would never guess it from a few hours later. In true Richmond style, the rest of the day was so sunny and hot all the rain was gone by the afternoon. Busy Busy BusyWith finals coming up fast, it will be likely i won't post much in the next few days as i will be doing nothing but working on my stuff. Ordinarily i would update my progress but since there is such a small time, i will just post my finished work when it's done.
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IntroductionHello! My name is Harry, a 20 year old Animation Student from Bristol. Archives
June 2017
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