Try again?

Once again I'm down this weekend - this time even on Monday despite having Life Drawing class. It's my brother's birthday.

This morning in bed was quite nice, I actually felt comfortable this time round. (Incessant itching and pyjama shorts in a constant twist last night was irritating though)

That is, up until 7:30 when this sounded. (Note: not my Uni)

Really, now? I sat their for a few seconds in a daze, then suddenly threw on a pair a of jeans and scuttled out of the house. It's a really disconcerting sound to use, but I guess it was designed in mind to freak everybody out of the building. Yannis traced behind me, going out bare-footed in hustled confusion.
Sophie, Georgia, Kit and just about everyone else grouped up with me and Yannis, where us two (and someone else) were the first to arrive at the designated point. Rory really didn't look too happy. James joined with us as well.

The alarm had stopped, and everyone saw it as the time to head back.Was it, though? We had gotten a newsletter this week, almost entirely composed of what, as immature bastards, we did wrong - one of such notice was how the fire drill "was extremely disappointing." It was, yes, but beside that the students didn't know where the assembly point was, went back in before told to and best of all, some hid from the staff.  There are two drills planned through out the course year - I'm wondering if this is really the second one, or a retry? Hopefully the former.

My lesson wasn't until 12:00, but now that I was up, I got dressed and washed up. Headed upstairs to see Sophie (in her PJs) and Rory there. Sophie didn't have a lesson at all today, yet felt she couldn't even go back to sleep. Impressive considering she and most other housemates were up until about 4:30am.
Sophie noticed I was going to have some waffles, and asked if I have syrup or chocolate sauce with them. Neither - my mouth is but a dry wasteland. Besides that I sort of mumbled a rather crass outburst, something really incoherent like "these are just American sweetness gay." Not sure why, maybe still annoyed by the sudden wake-up call.

After both drinking and eating, I rested until 11:00. Got my bearings together and headed on over to Jon Hunt's class. There was an issue though - when prompted to open up last week's projects as a base example for 'masking' techniques...mine wasn't there. In fact, each week I noticed my folders on the network kept disappearing. When asking Jon at one point what the reason for this was, he asked if I changed computers. ...yes. It seems work is local to a system, and it isn't saved to a joint network. (Which the Macs and...most PCs are) Furthermore, he guessed that other students must likely of deleted my work, and scolded me for not saving my shiz to a USB dongle. I have one, just...yeah, I was confident my work was safe. Guess not!! It got me rather down. I still not sure whether to believe that students really have deleted my work - there just isn't any valid reason to. I'll check the other PCs in the undercroft next time.

That aside, we learnt the basics of masking in After Effects. I've seen 'Mask' numerous times in Photoshop, Illustrator and the like but never quite figured out what its purpose was, or how to use it. Now I can see - it's a way of erasing specific spaces of a piece. I think. We were tasked with finding a banner (just a simple one) off of the internet - something which I somehow had great difficulty in simply tracking down. We'd give it a transparent background and save it as a .PNG to which we then apply a transitioning mask on After Effects. I lagged behind here, due to said delay on just finding an appropriate clip art of a banner. What's more, I converted the image incorrectly into After Effects - I should of left a box unchecked, despite Manjit advising to tick-it upon asking. Eventually got a masking effect going.

Moved onto another technique - we were explained the basics of green screening, with a YouTube video featuring a god-awful Kermit the Frog (KEYING GREEN, 5 STAR!!!) impression teaching us. The next exercise had us use a video footage of an owl amongst a green background (with a pink X) - using a dark forest background, we had to remove the green using masking and an effect plugin called KeyLight. Most students finished this within a matter of minutes, but since we were tight on time I couldn't even understand the gist of KeyLight's variables. At 2:00, we headed off. The next group was waiting outside (cramping up a narrow corridor, it was amusing to see), and asked what we did. Tried to quickly tell them all roughly, even if I was blocking the door to a man.

Upon quickly popping into my room, I charged on over to Subway feeling in the mood for a 'B.M.T'. My lust was enough to warrant a Facebook update with me checking into the fast-food chain. (Which later Jade Midson decides to like, wha'?) Whilst waiting in line, two other fellow students from my group queued up behind me. Up ahead in line also was one guy that I swear is in Sophie's documentary group...his voice is unmistakable. I wanted to reach ahead and ask, but I couldn't leave the line. I ordered a footlong B.L.T, and the guy filled my sub with bacon....oops! NO! I meant B.M.T. They could of given it a better name. Headed home, and when quickly cleaning some plates up in the kitchen, Rob and Sophie commented on knowing I went to subway despite the food being in my room. Like an idiot I forgot for a second I left an update on Facebook. Enquired Sophie about the familiar guy in Subway - upon describing his coat and 'that voice', Sophie quickly told me it was indeed her friend. He's a sparkling gay, so to speak, so he's easy to distinguish from our grey, conforming society.

I didn't have that much time, so I chomped away the tasty sandwich, and with only a few minutes before 3:00, drank the rest of the coke on the way to W104. Left the donut, I'll eat it later. Fortunately, I was far from late. Whilst waiting outside, I told my concerns on having little to no work for showing to Andy Joule (due partly to loosing my work of Digital Skills) - Erika reassured me that it is the idea that counts, above all else.

Luko happened to pop out of the room ahead, and talked about the tutorial itself. Apparently he was only the 4th one out despite it being about 10 minutes past 3pm, meaning Andy has the same hyper-slow pace for reviewing as Ron does. Despite this, Luko felt his 1-to-1 with Andy went pretty well and saw the whole thing as fairly lenient. He advised me and Oscar to "sit near the front" if we want to stand a chance of leaving on time, as it is where Andy supposedly starts. Because I feared on having little work to show, Luko instead suggested I sit at the back, since at least there will be time for me to develop some ideas in accordance to the review. Becky passed by.

Eventually we all headed in regardless if everyone else was not out by this stage, and sat three rows to the back. Got on with working on another scene, looking for some inspiration. I asked Manjit next to me if she had any ideas on animations that utilised paper - eventually she remembered one song, JCB. Talk about nostalgic! I remember when this song rattled up the UK for a week before being forgotten almost immediately. There was also another animator in mind - Don Hertzfeldt. His animations in mind are mainly for absurd humour but there are a few instances where creativity hits a high mark - especially the final moments on Rejected, linked there. Oscar quickly noticed the animation, having loved it.

Almost literally out of the left field, Andy Joule did his 1-to-1 with me earlier than anticipated - I think I was 3rd or 4th! Regardless of this I took in a breath and opened up the scene I produced last Friday (and the one made thus far) to explain to Andy my ideas and where I want to take the animation. Obviously, a storyboard would be necessary (I somewhat cheated, could hear him suggest this to a student beforehand) and Andy agreed. Despite some clear issues with me maintaining a steady flow on my talking, and one or two instances or sounding like I was coming up with ideas on the spot (but I really wasn't) Andy seemed very much content with my proposal, and said that he looks forward to seeing how my animation develops. I was actually talking to him longer than he wanted, and broke himself away from me (as necessary in terms of time). After he reviewed Manjit, she headed off for work at 4pm. She works at a chippy in Farnham! I first mis-assumed it was the transit-chippy just outside Waitrose. Whoops.

Before heading off, I checked on China James to see how he was doing, going as far as to kneel down to his level. He has some firm ideas for Digital animation, but wanted Andy to review him sooner. China James has a habit, according to Jon Hunt, for turning up to the wrong groups constantly. In this case though, he wanted to get the 1-to-1 over and done with since he was invited to a Sushi party at 2pm. It was past 4pm when asking him this, but attempts to be reviewed in an earlier group only resulted in Andy Joule demanding James to come to the correct one. He felt gutted, and he wasn't even reviewed by Andy yet. I tried reassuring James that the party is maybe still going, and his friend won't mind if he didn't make it. When I reminded him to text her friend, a response later lit James' face a little. Maybe the party was still going?

Before leaving, Jame's also mentioned being constantly pushed by his parents to do well and keep on top of things at University. He was forced into giving his mother his login details for MyUCA. Besides this, he gets frequently called during his time at Uni (he lives at home still) if he's kept up to date with the work load and such. It's stupid - University is the best time for James' to freely explore and be himself. His family is living in the UK, so if they become bewildered that their son is under influence from his peer's work ethic, well, tough tits. Also, James's stressed how he is a slow learner, putting it towards lack of proper socialising as a child, being sucked into a world of his own. I assured him that not only are most artists/animators/religions within a world of their own, he really isn't as slow as I am on picking things up. Street dance, oh my god.

On the way out with Oscar, we saw Felix sitting in the corridor on his own. He must of come early ahead of his group. Asked him how he found manipulating the green screen with KeyLight in digital skills - said he found it fine for the most part. Heading towards the student village, Oscar commented on James' restrictive family. He told me how one time, when his mother was teaching young children in Primary School, she had one Korean pupil - the pupil had blisters and pains on her fingers. This pupil's mother apparently had her practice the piano on an extensive basis each day. UGH.

When home, I popped into Sophie's room. It was full of books, and she was busy typing away on her laptop - presumably the essay due in next Monday. Because Sophie was going to head home for the weekend like me, I told her I won't be back for Sunday so I can't clean the kitchen this week. She assured me that she'd clean it up on the Sunday she gets back, and gratefully nodded my head followed by a hearty thanks. Got a text from my dad saying he'd be over by 6:00. With an hour to go, I relaxed, planning to pack up at 10 to 6. However, by this time I could hear my dad talking outside - he was leaving a voicemail addressed to me. I quickly opened the window to call him out, telling him I'd meet him. Rory passed by, who gave my further some surprised looks. Dashed outside, and told dad I'd be as quick as possible. CRAP! Frantically packed up as quickly as possible, tossing in some black jeans and shirt for my brother's birthday (and some fresh pyjamas.) Quickly did extra checks on all the switches in my room to see if they were turn off, and everything unplugged. Charged out, and my dad was happily waiting patiently the whole time.

We went to Waitrose in Farnham to do some shopping for tonight. Got one of this Indian meal packs, and waited at a checkout. Despite using a basket, we queued at a trolley till - basket lines are often stretched far back. We changed checkout due to potential time it'd take for the former, and upon waiting in the latter, James Allen (in a checkout next to ours) and I exchanged a hello. On the way back home, we stopped at a pub mainly because my dad had wanted to piss badly.

Got back home, and quickly had a rest on my bed with fireworks clapping outside. I wore a coat over a thick jumper in a warm car on the journey back, so I felt sick. Some resting fixed it up though, and headed next door to greet my sister Holly (and Iggy the dog).

I'm over the weekend including Monday, for my brother's birthday. Need to let Andy Joule know of this, and I should of done beforehand in the tutorial. Was probably afraid of an upfront scolding though.