Critical Ideas

Might of already used that title before, so whoops. Never mind.

Wanted to be up for 7:00am today but instead it was 10:45. Briefly checked my e-mail to be sure if I was in the right group for the right times today and thankfully I was. Felt like a prune for having not produced the assets today.

Waltzed on over to the library, seeing fellow classmates ahead of me. Lagged behind and squeezed my way into the undercroft corridor with everyone. I saw Erika come out - I'm in her group, so I suddenly spooked that I might have got the times mixed up - but I'm sure enough that I'm in the right place at the right time - Group B for 12:00 at the undercroft.

Jon Hunt took off to refill his water bottle (talking all day, and all) and I talked with Farideh. She's had a tough time as of recent; illness gets her down, and she had to work today before 12pm, only getting a few hours sleep last night because her bedroom is above the kitchen wherein the students raise the roof with the bangin' choonz. Jade Midson, her friend and also the subject for my digital skills animation wasn't in today due to choosing to sleep in, apparently. Her uncle died recently though, and brought upon depression.

Back came Mr Hunt and before starting the lesson, he explained to us (or those guilty of this) the tighter recording on those who are either not turning up to lesson or being in the wrong group. As it turned out, Erika was in our group - but requested to change. (Why would you need to?)  E-mails have already been sent out to those missing 2 or more sessions and Jon diligently tried not to sound so pressed by the matters.

We got on and learnt some more of Adobe After Effect's powerful wizardry. The prime focus on today was manipulating various assets using keyframes. I've practiced this before with Adobe Premier although not to the sort of flexible extent that this software can deliver. Our guidance lead us to spinning the wheels of a quad-bike and using one of the preset effects to give the main body and driver a realistic rattle. Similarly, we did the same with the background and were taught the prime element on fake panning - one huge and wide picture to scroll across the extent of the canvas, or 'camera'.

Parenting was explained in which with a few clicks, various other layers can copy the same functions and parameter of another. (Ex. moving in the same direction, at the same speed) Actually, I ended up using a similar tool for getting the quad-bike and ground to wiggle at the same rate - a spiral icon in which you can parent/copy specific parameters to something else. At the end, I had a 6 second clip of a biker racing along the alps with a realistically dramatic Bourne camera shaking. I didn't let the wheels spin for long enough but eh. Oh well!

Outside, we (mainly I) began to worry over both the tutorial's captivation (or lack of) and worth. Two peeps headed off to get some food and drink - having had neither due to the plug sockets in the kitchen gone ca-put from last night, I felt inclined to follow. Didn't want to turn up late though, and so went onto the Graphic Design building. As it turned out, it wouldn't of mattered since the class going about 15 minutes over-time. It would sure be annoying if that....happened to us as well, right???


Headed on in to catch Luko also leaving. He looked similar to the bad state he was in a good few weeks back - this time once again due to a hang over. Dan, our tutor, welcomed us in and quickly got to business. We were to explain our, what should be by now, solidified and final idea for the 30 second animation. From what I've heard this is a form of 'crit', or I believe, 'critical analysis'. Dan went off to get a drink and we were given 10 minutes to produce a scene on Photoshop for our movie. Cracked on ahead and made a scene of a pin board complete with scrap paper, Pixie Lott poster, post-it notes and other stuff. Lamp and MacBook Air were on the fore-front of the scene, blurred in with the Gaussian filter. Not only was this to give a better sense of a bedroom but I may use it as a focus for panning in.

Dan came back and went spent nearly the entire two hours of the lesson explaining to the group our ideas. Since Dan pointed out that this was the last lesson we had with him for the duration of the project, it was important to get the finalised ideas across and be told of any critical judgements on it. One guy had to do a movie based on his partner's enthusiasm for Pairs, and shopping there. I avidly (because I love that sort of style) suggested to him on using those sort of fanciful, vintage high-fashion illustration styles and colour/text for it. I think that one song from Princess and the Frog has influenced me too much.

Towards the end of the session, including gasp 15 minutes over-time, we were taught the basics of using the 3D virtual camera in After Effects. Dan suggested we open our scenes and follow along, but After Effects was botching up the placement of the objects in the PSD file. The result of using the virtual camera did look pretty damn cool though, so I look forward to using it.


On the way home, I caught up with Farideh. Outside of her place, near to mine, we talked and talked and talked. I didn't mind personally but I did need to piss really badly, so I buggered off when one of her friends happened to pass on by. The electricity returned to the kitchen returned by this stage so thankfully someone (Likely Georgia) contacted the Accommodation Office and sorted it out. The food in the fridge/freezer is saved! Headed to Waitrose to pick up ingredients for a stir fry tonight, passing Lucinda with a friend of hers there.


Got back and yet again rested a little bit. By 6:00 or so, I bolted upstairs to start cooking when I heard the others come in. Wanted to use as much space of the kitchen before everyone else. :(  The package of diced steak had quite a lot, and spent a fair amount of time transferring one batch to a plate and frying the rest. Whilst making the stir fry, Sophie came up with a friend of hers none of us had seen before. Natalie, I think her name was. Yannis was putting on some rice, peas and a personal pie. Initially he enquired Sophie for advice but she turned him to me, despite how I don't know that much more on rice and cooking it.


Stir fry was great, and Sophie/Georgia ordered a pizza from Dominos. Georgia at first was going to do the Buy One Get One Free but no one made up their mind - in particular Yannis whom Georgia mainly asked. He jumped off, claiming to be having pie. (also pretty tired from today) Sophie's arrived before Georgia's despite ordering afterwards, and went to the car park outside the Library which was apparently riddled with long worms at the time. Not only did she utilise the BoGoF deal, but also got classy black boxes with handwritten typography across them. I couldn't finish all of my Stir Fry, and whilst cleaning up chatted a bit with Kit. Apparently the halloween party was (durr) last night. I thought it was Friday! But it did explain the large amount of ruckus, particularly by Sophie and the others later on at 1:00-2:30am. PJ came up later, having got back from his trip to Marlborough, New Zealand a few days ago.


Everyone is upstairs at the moment, so I'm going to end my entry here to shave up and shower. Need to find out if my sister and father are over tomorrow or Sunday. Clean clothes and a showering brush would be great!!