Lazy Summery No.1

Oho! The title suggests this sadly isn't the only one to come! Truth be, writing these entries takes up longer and longer as the weeks go by. On average, about 2 hours, and maybe a half on top! The speed it takes is dependant on me, and that's a true fact - however I'm questioning how much commitment is really worth putting towards this blog.

Of course, I really do want to keep track of my days during University, mainly for myself so I can look back at how I developed, but then I'm meant to be keeping updates on a WikiSpace as it is for the course. The biggest nuance is how much time and energy writing up the posts take, though. Frequently I'm only able to go to bed at 12am despite starting to write at 9pm. (Showering and others) That's a stinker, and it messes up my roll.

So that said, I'll be keeping this one short and simple for tonight! :D & :(


Got up at 12:10pm today. That's stupid since I was awake and felt ready to get up at 6:12am, after I had risen to go to the loo. Besides that, spent most of today squandering over the challenges on animation itself, but also checking on the Units and what they needed.

At 2:30 or so, I headed over to G01 to try and finish up the walk cycle. Made two trips back to get the Animation Survival Kit, which I never used in the end, and more importantly, paper. G01 was cramped to begin with but it quietened down. I overheard some stomach-dropping news - we also needed to produce a 30 second animation for principles. So, amongst the walk cycle there are now five projects to try and finish by December 17th - Lip sync, Character motivation, essay, 30 second digital & principle animation. When time management is of the essence, I'm really not the essence of time management. The first thing to hit me was to start time tabling what to do when for the rest of the duration of this term. The girl next to me mentioned how she overheard the 30 second animation too, and felt panic-struck by the workload. She was sweet, and enjoyed talking with me despite my prudent dismissing of her at times (was trying to figure out my animation frames, amongst other things).

From 2:40 to about 4:50, I spent the most part of my walk cycle drawing in...six new frames! It makes little sense but much of it was towards trying to plan in the frames first (which didn't even help much towards the quality). Asked for advice on how to plan in the frames and keep it organised, most of the time people didn't give me a concise answer probably because they were just as confounded but one practical suggestion was to keep keyframe planning on separate sheets. Thinking back, I believe that was my intention but overlapping too many frames on top of one-another faded things too much.

Went to test my animation again with the line tester. Before, I made the mistake of numerically labeling the frames incorrectly which jittered the walk cycle on some frames but I rectified it. With 30 frames now  (out of 104 expected) it looked much nicer! Even if still a weird, that sense of character really adds a lot in my opinion:

Your guess is as good as mine.

Finishing up, I turned off most of the light boxes and switched off the iMacs. Wasn't sure if I was meant to, but I believe that being open-access, we're expected to switch off and pack away what we use. Manjit and another girl were still working away (I'm glad I'm not the only one still working on the walk cycle at this point) but I cleared things up a bit regardless. The girl next to me hung around a while to chat with me and see my walk cycle. I was rather flattered with her patience on waiting for me to pack away - but I was taking forever and she headed home to eat, as I really wanted to as well.

Back home, I decided on a quiche loraine with new potatoes. Whilst preparing, the 'taters, I could hear someone come up. I guessed it was Rory - and there he was! He cooks at about 5:30 − 6:15. He had a lot of shopping. Initially, I was quiet and stern (probably tense from the gravity of the situation) but Rory broke the ice. Good talking with him - he's going to the National Demonstration tomorrow in London with thousands of other students in a protest against cuts on education. Darted out to Waitrose whilst the oven was preheating to buy some milk and sugar. And waffles/crisps.

Quiche was nice! Potatoes could of been in the simmer for a little bit longer, but they were ok.

Yannis and Georgia were up - Georgia calling him a 'fucking weirdo' as she typically does for a reason I forgot. Something to do with his love on lemons, I think?

Thank god I finished this entry. Been holding my bladder in for too long (ONG TMI WTF!?) and I need to organise my time for the next six weeks until Christmas. Stuff is gotta' be done!

Happy Monday! Birthday, I mean!

Actually, I was back on Sunday. Not only was my brother's birthday then, but my dad insisted I be in on Monday for life-drawing. Going through a University night without having to write up a blog entry feels nice, though! I actually got to bed by 10pm! Unfortunately, I couldn't sleep comfortably; paranoia of an oven being left on or sink running kept me awake. The thought of the fire-alarm going off (despite last instances being merely a drill) churns my stomach. Most nights, I have to literally stare at the oven/sink turned off for five minutes just to force my neurotic mind into validating the evidence.

The lesson was at 10am today. I went to bed at 10pm, so...I got up at 9am! That's not right at all. Granted, again, I had little in the way of comfortable sleeping so I felt pretty drowsy. Couldn't wash my teeth - I forgot to bring my toothpaste (and, well, washing bag). Not even a mouth-rinse was possible.

Whilst preparing the morning tea, Jamie appeared in his pyjamas. Did he have a lesson this morning? No, not until 2:30pm, in fact. Even then, it's apparently a half an hour session based on handing in the essay. He was chuffed with this written result, ticking the word-count in at about 1004. The minimum is 1000.
On the way out I stupidly dropped one of my toast onto the floor.

Made my way to B123 - the life drawing studio conveniently next door to Animation's usual room. One of the guys in my class followed my lead - and started doing so as he came out of his house at the student village. No talk? :(  There, everyone was waiting. For who? For Sue. She's one of the teachers we haven't seen since our induction week - and she works closely with the 3rd year students. 10 past 10, she burst into the scene with coffee/tea in hand. Gracing us with her high-cultured accent, the first of her words was telling us to prepare our easels with a board in a ring around the subject.

And so we did. I tried to aim for a spot next to Oscar but people (despite my haste) already settled. Instead, I stood into position north-west, next to a student with long flowing hair (and often glasses?). Sue trotted around to check everyone's easels, seeing if they were in position and nagging to go in closer. I was having difficulties figuring out how to heighten my easel. I didn't think you'd twist the bottom screw at first since it was so tightly fixed, but after Oscar demonstrated, apparently so. I asked Sue for advise as well. Her answer was to move in closer to the model. (...)

Forgot to get some newsprint/A3-A2 paper and thus had to borrow Oscar's (abundant) supply.
The session started, and for the most part of life drawing we drew the model in quick poses - from 30 seconds to 10 seconds. Essentially, Sue wanted us to draw the figure with singular, confident lines. Scratchy/hairy mark making (forgot the specific term she used a lot) was a large no-no, and it was something that a lot of students, judging by Sue's consistent critics, had a hard time to overcome. Who can blame them? The energy and passion to do detailed and precise work is an instinctive goal in terms of illustration - and with animation, drawings need to be precise and accurate, at least that's why Richard Williams loves his job. Going off track there, scratchy lines is often the result of the mind unsure of what is wants to process on paper. I...think.

I just barely held up my paper up with left over masking tape (Again, forgot) and the poor guy next to me was having it worse with his work frequently loosing grip and falling off. What's more, I quickly ran out of news print and since Oscar was on the other side of the room I didn't have balls to march over there in front of everyone's view for more.

We had a few breaks - two small ones and a lunch. After the first break, Sue was fairly late getting back and we were all pretty much there. The model herself got things going and just stripped naked into a pose - all of us instinctively belted up and started sketching. Sue arrived and noticed our head-start, asking the model to change pose. We just started, mind you.

During the lunch, I headed over to the Workshop store in Farnham for some masking tape (that I owe the guy next to me) and Subway. Before doing so, I headed back home to get my wallet. On the way there, I met with Sophie and we passed by Kit. Sophie asked if Kit had done his essay - he was on the way to drop his in, in fact. He had done 500 words so far and Sophie gave Kit some encouraging words. After getting back, met Sophie up in the kitchen. She was really relieved to of gotten her essay done and dusted.

Munched my sandwich and headed back to B123 - late by about five or so minutes with Oscar already there to remind me. Sue was about an extra 10 minutes before she got back. On the last break, Oscar popped over to his place to grab the rest of the newsprint - and I showed TMwAH where the University shop was. He needed a display board for his exhibition in Brighton - hopefully selling some work in the process. Put off slightly by the price, he (and I) dropped the plan on last-minute shopping and moseyed on back.

As we finished our session, Sue mentioned liking my drawings and how I was "sticking to the brief". EW, not that old-walnut again. I swear it is the teachers versed more into Fine Art (as is the case with Sue) that push more towards keeping to the rule. Still, I was fairly appreciative of Sue's taking to my life drawing despite their messy, unclean look in my opinion. When checking my work throughout the duration of Life Drawing, her responses were almost always "good" - this surprised me considering the majority of the time she's pointing out something with everyone else's work. I look forward to the next lesson in Life Drawing.


Tottered on home with Oscar and TMwAH. When I got back, Sophie, Georgia and Yannis were hanging out in the communal hall. Sophie nearly close to literally - she was quirkily sitting on the banister. I asked if she was coming over to Street Dance, and she shook the head. At 5pm, Sophie was heading back to Brighton in order to shoot her documentary based there. Asked Yannis was coming and...I don't think he heard me? In any case, ate a doughnut, and whipped on the duffel coat. Headed on out to Street Dance.


There, I was about a minute or so late but...no one was there. Dan and Katerina, the two instructors, welcomed me. Dan casually asked how I was doing and such, and my responses were stuttered all over the place. I thought, what's going to happen if I'm the only one? Do I have to learn all this alone? Luckily however, Becky and her friend arrived telling Dan about Sophie and Ben's absence. Then, the fellow from animation (and last week) turned up shortly thereafter - with two other girls following him momentarily. Dan did a warm up with me and the other guy - namely, the routine taught last week. I did it with him at first, and...UGH, sucked at it. Then the other person tried it, did a bit of a better job at it.


Cracked on with the exercises. Amongst the obligatory stretches and pull-ups, we did dance exercises with Katerina! Of the dance exercises, some were easy to pick up and follow as she did it, whilst others were more apparently there to take the piss. My ego deflated before even starting to learn the routine proper. The actual dance routine this week was actually fairly straight-forward which was great, as I associated her's with being tricky (from first impression, I guess) In juxtaposition from last week's rather effeminate choreography (too bad Becky wasn't there), this was a rather butch serving on manoeuvres with fists covering the face, stamping, chest thrusting and the like. The chest-thrusting, despite practicing, I am still yet to get even get somewhat right. When we practiced with music, the build-up threw me off a little bit.


The dance routine was pretty much complete, but how to demonstrate it? Once again in groups - but fortunately it wasn't solo this time, we had the instructors once again backing us up. The catch? It's street dance so to drive the point home, we did a simulated STREET DANCE OFF. Each group of 3 with the instructor in front. If this was for real, my ass would of been busted big time. I fucked up partway through, but kept going. We had a round of applause, and watched the others. They faired alright as well, but the margin of experience was still pretty jarring against the instructor.

Finishing up, we headed back home. Popped by Sainsburys, although I didn't get anything, instead just waiting for the others. I went departed from the others near home to go to Waitrrose although Becky and her friend came along to wait for me. I think I took too long for them, about 15 minutes, as when I finished the duo had disappeared outside. Oh well! Scanned up and down, looking through the window into Waitrose to see if they were anywhere there. Guess not, so carried on home.

There, I rested for about half an hour and got on with cooking. (I waited for Rory to finish upstairs, as well) Bought some diced steak that came with a section of kidney too - but no kidney for me! (despite Yannis's approval) Waitrose was out of stock on purely diced steak packages, but for what I wanted it still worked out cheaper to get the combo instead of a full-on cut. Whilst frying the steak, I experimented a little bit in mixing the process of Niku-jaga into the Stir-fry. So, in went a little bit of the dashi broth, along with mirin and sugar. After trying to be patient with simmering away the broth, I poured as much of it into the bin as possible. Fried up the rest of the vegetables and noodles.

Tasted yummy! In fact, I could taste the essence of Niku-jaga all around the stir fry. Even with the black bean sauce mixed in, the flavours all resonated pretty well. I was surprised.

Headed to sleep at about 11:40. There was more that happened in-between, I'm sure, but eh. I actually finished up writing this blog on Tuesday the following day, as I was too tired/lazy to finish the rest.

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.

Trans-Media Picture Show

Got up a nice time of 7:15. Felt really tired through-out the morning though, for some reason. Pretty sure I got some good sleep last night...didn't I?

Headed over to the White building, hoping that was the right place for the lecture. This week isn't in the Maltings, separating us back to individual courses, but will return to so next week. Initially I had heard that the lecture was in the John Luard building, but it seems it wasn't the case. Everyone was waiting outside of the room in the White building. Farideh and Jade were there, and I talked with them whilst waiting. The Man with Awesome Hair turned up shortly before going in, I forgot what we had discussed, however.

Sat down, roughly in a middle row of seats. Farideh and Jade were behind - Jade had a new hair styling too. Looked kind of nice. Whilst we waited for the lecture to start, somewhat cheesy but surprisingly fitting music was playing - a typical orchestrated Hollywood piece with an uplifting sense to it. It was in fact a DVD menu, featuring a tree going through the seasons. About 10 or so minutes in, the lecture got underway, and Jon Weinbren almost immediately kicked off the movie, having us watch 30 minutes of it. The movie in question? Big Fish! I heard of it, and its good reception, but watched anything of the movie.

From the opening introduction (Oh, Tim Burton?) up to it's stopping point - Edward Bloom determined to leave the town of Specter. I was really drawn into the film, and this notion of an idealic tale hits a hidden spot within me. I need to watch the rest at some point, maybe loan the DVD of it from the library.

Jon stopped the movie on a note suggesting that it's almost like he interrupted sex. I see what he means but, well, alright. He asked for thoughts on the film, and as per usual no one wanted to respond save for Felix and the student from the US.
The main basis of the lecture today was on the concept of Transmedia storytelling. Media-studies professor Henry Jenkins once wrote an article reflecting on Kinder's assumption.
To explain it first however; Transmedia storytelling is when, according to Wikipedia:

"content becomes invasive and fully permeates the audience's lifestyle. A transmedia project develops storytelling across multiple forms of media in order to have different "entry points" in the story; entry-points with a unique and independent lifespan but with a definite role in the big narrative scheme."

I can't really put it into better wording. An example is for instance Star Wars - we have the films, the games, the books, the toys, the comics and so fourth.
Jon foretold us that this term would become highly important to us as animators within the next 10 years.  Mr. Weinbren also asked us for examples of where advertisement in animation can be spread across in terms of formats. I stupidly said corn fields, as I heard the 'advertisement' but missed the 'animation'. Still, Jon was really keen on that example. Somehow.

I'd explain the rest of the lecture but I couldn't jot down all the notes at the time. The powerpoint slides were mainly WALLS OF TEXT, and Jon had to rush through it as well thanks to Felix barraging the lecturer with examples and questions like a fucking Siamese cat wailing the most noise for attention from the teacher. He even deemed it necessary to point out to Jon, who after saying 'ATM machine' that "the machine is redundant." True, but we're not on some faggy elitist message-board here, and sounding the sirens for the Grammar Police (even to a teacher) is really setting a low benchmark amongst all the other peers around him.

Before the break, student next to me - Clev, I think his name was, spied my random, incessant doodling and gave a good remark to them. I appreciate that, but pssfff. I've got a long way to go on accurate proportions.

Having finished, I headed over to Waitrose with Luko. Picked up some items for the stir fry (Out of normal stir fry vegetables, so went ahead with sweet and crunch) and Luko got some Essential Waitrose loo rolls. On the way back, Luko headed to the library in order to renew a book - one on Animation workshops or something. We spent a good few minutes trying to remember the word 'renew', until it suddenly came back to Luko naturally mid-sentance. Near 92 we chatted further, commenting on the upcoming Carnage party in Guildford. I heard about it a few weeks back, but this week our letter box got stuffed full of advertisements for the party. Basically, if you wear the OFFICIAL CARNAGE T-SHIRT, and pyjamas, you get in for free or maybe half price. Luko said he wouldn't be turning up in pyjamas if he'd attend, boring sod. :(  'Till next Thursday, my friend.

Back home at 92, I packed my stuff for the stir fry tonight away in the fridge. Georgia and Yannis were up in the kitchen as well. Kit too, I think. Headed to my room and about an hour later I...rested, and then shortly flat-out fell asleep. Before I knew it, I was having all sorts of dreams. One of more nightmarish imagery on Evangelion Unit 01 taking on horrific forms (please do/do not watch the series), and another of me in PJ's room. Everyone was going to head out to do something but I suddenly felt lazy, rolly-polly'd onto the floor and demanded to kip out on PJ's bed. How tired must I of been? I think the dream carried on further where I caught up to everyone outside and then dropped to the floor to sleep again.

During the times I was awake, I eventually got up at 5:15. It was almost black outside, but how long did I sleep for? I didn't catch the time before, but I must of gone to bed at about 1:30 or so. It's stupid laziness on my part, but I must of been pretty tired to dream so much.

Stumbled up stairs to the kitchen, still in a slight daze. Told Sophie and Rory that I just got up, and they spread tales and tidbits on sleeping during the day. Sophie mentioned heading to sleep and waking up tired still...yeah, that's a real stinker. Got on with the stir fry, which took about a whole hour and a half to fully cook. Georgia, Rob and Yannis were up in the kitchen by this stage (Rory and Sophie absent), and offered Yannis some of my stir fry. In exchange he let me have some of his garlic bread. It was nice, even if bitterly lemon in flavour. Yannis has a bottle of lemon flavouring, and almost no meal of his - no matter what it be - goes by without some of that poured on. He couldn't finish all of the stir fry, and to be fair, it is fairly spicy.

Kit mentioned that Yannis looks more like an Egyptian than a Greek, and Yannis retaliated by stating how Kit appears to be more Norwegian/Icelandic. Actually, Kit sprung to glee on that remark since he himself believes to be of that origin - maybe even a descendent of Vikings. Kit's a pretty tall guy, maybe about 6. 5ft.

Yannis was also feeling irritated by back pains, specifically, he had a trapped nerve he believed he got from skating. Rob did not help Yannis out by making him laugh consistently, which sparked stabs of pain. Subsequently, Georgia moaned about an item she had wanted on eBay - an arrow for a violin. (which she seems to play??) Since Yannis seems to have little in the way of money management, he heatedly enticed Georgia to buy the item. Georgia did take a shot at bidding, and almost won. Someone else outbid her on pretty much the last five seconds.

Sophie and the gang have headed off to Becky's. They're going to drink there before going to the SU bar, which is doing a hip-hop night. Also, I read the e-mail for the Digital Skills time tabling tomorrow - it's fine, except for the tutorial with Andy Joule later on. WHAT? I thought last week was the last tutorial for Digital Skills! Did that guy bullshit us with misinterpreted information or something? Whatever, I haven't particularly got much work to show for Digital Skills yet - maybe aside from the stuff done with Jon Hunt.


Besides that, I'm heading home again this weekend, getting picked up tomorrow. I'm staying Monday to celebrate my brother's birthday, which I feel like I shouldn't be doing in regards to my studies...
There's life-drawing to take place on Monday all day, too. I mean, crap, why is it I refuse to look at my time-table so much? I think what I'll do is put in all the dates for sessions, regardless if they change. I need to reinforce my time structure and work commitment as well. As it stands, I'm a mess.


Anyway! Shower time!

Untitled

Today, uh...nothing really occurred. I've done a cop out like this before, but ouch. I'm afraid of pushing forward with my work, fearful that I'll hit dead ends of which I don't have the skill or capacity to overcome. In reality, there isn't anything really to hold me back. Then again, maybe I'm afraid of facing the reality of of how bad I really am at something? I hate working hard, and challenging myself. Ultimately there can never be any real enjoyment to come from that, and I seem to have a hard time with putting up with the stress it creates therein. I've pulled through before however, so again, there can't really be anything holding me back.

The latest time yet, I arose at quarter-past twelve. In the kitchen, Rory came up a little bit afterwards in his pyjamas. He didn't get much sleep last night, due to staying up 'till around 3am. He put it towards feeling guilty for not joining in with his friend's activities - and as it is, most people before their late twenties tend to be proactive towards midnight.

Someone had cleaned up the kitchen today, all of it. I saw Jamie come out, so I assumed it was him. With such a clean space, I decided to cook up something real tonight. At first, I thought on a stir fry but instead thought about yet another Nikujaga, as a reason to shop at Waitrose and waste time.

When I started cooking (early at about 5:30), Jamie, Sophie, Rory and others came up. Sophie had a pretty rough day and felt a little shattered, emotionally. Film Production had to do a Crit today, explaining their ideas and all. The basis of it was done in style of the TV show Dragon's Den, with the businessmen instead being the staff - and the audience was all the other students. Some groups were fine, whilst others came under fire. Sophie's group's film idea was torn to shreds. Supposedly the worst of all! Her group tightened their lips and left Sophie to do all the talking - so she came out fairly scarred from the experience. It was bad to a point where she felt like dropping off the course altogether.

She wasn't tearful or overall dramatic about it though, and earnestly remained natural. To cheer her up somewhat, I promised I'd get her a foot-long sub if she pulls through it all or similar.

I made the Nikujaga almost without any guidelines this time around! Getting better and better. I wanted to add in spring onions but they went off, mysteriously soaked and the root ends generally rotted up.
It was ready, and it tasted so damn good. I could seriously eat all of it, and...I kind of did! I asked if Georgia and Rob wanted to try some but they were already eating, so I put some into a bowl and went over to Yannis's room. Earlier today, I told him of my plans to cook the nikujaga and told him I'd give him some. He wasn't answering the door though, must of been out or sleeping. So, I tried Sophie's room. I heard from Georgia that Sophie had gone out with the others, but she was in. Left the serving on a table and she graciously eat it.

Cleaning up the utensils and everything afterwards, I chatted with Kit. Asked him how his group crit went today, and like Sophie, he was fumbled about it. Originally, his group were going to document tattooing, but the staff gave it the thumbs-down and instead pushed Kit and the gang to focus on the...library. How exciting! Naturally, he was pissed about it but appreciated the staff giving differing opinions. (Which I hate to no end, especially if the staff disregard their viewpoints conflicting)
Kit said he's looking forward to working on his own fictional narrative for the next project.
I asked him if his course was presented a showreel of former student's work - he was, and liked some of it. Others, however, he loathed - apparently due to the cheesiness of it. (Not so much Hollywood cheese ball, but the concept) Suggested to him that maybe the students that made the film had others ideas, yet were pushed into the final one by the staff. Kit responded that if it were to be the case with him in his final year project, he'd leave the course. FUCK YEAH, THIS IS MY KIND OF SPIRITED THINKING.

Also mentioned to Kit, from what Oscar told me Tuesday, how he apparently thought that we (housemates) disliked him when he first moved in. Trying to put this tidbit across was a little unnerving and Kit was a little troubled by this fact, looking like this:

"Whaaa?"

Panicked, I put my words across more straight-forwardly, and he suddenly remembered. Kit associated it to initial home-sickness (unsure if that's what it was) when moving in, and really wanted to meet new people to ease it over. Since everyone else was on the same boat, somewhat, Kit must of felt a little disdained from the shy nature we all had at first. It's surprising though, since I my initially thought that Kit hated us! I should really consider things more carefully. Told Kit that the weeks go by quickly (it's already half-way through the term, oh crap) to reassure that the Christmas break will come sooner than he thinks.

James Allen popped up in a bit, intending to watch a film. I said I'd join him a little bit soon, and did so once the washing was finally out of the way. The film was Dr. Stranglove (AKA: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb). Despite how I disregard 1960 films, I enjoyed this particular one. It had genuinely good element of humour and the ending (including that iconic scene) was...impacting, to put it one way. I must of annoyed James during the course of the film: I turned up 10 minutes late, stuck my feet to one side of Yannis's head (he had to sit in front of the bed, giving up his spot on the bed for me), came out and back in so I could take my boots off and twice leant over to put my satsuma orange (Kit gave me) peelings in the bin, obstructing the view for James. Sophie frequently distracted herself by snooping around Facebook on her phone, dropping comments here and there. She also goofed with her stuffed toys, of which is beyond apparent, loves. Her bear is called Scratch and the chick, uh, forgot. Rob called her a mental patient. Jamie, as wonderfully and unexpectedly venomous he can be, boldly stated the toys are going out the window like her pumpkins.


Finishing this entry and it's only 11:40! Wow, great! Maybe if I start at 7:00 I can actually get it done for 9:30pm.

Character (and myself) motivation

Kept poking my head over to the phone through out the early hours of the morning, to check the time. Got up at 7:15 after what felt like a good night's rest. Lied down a from quarter-past nine 'till quarter-to-ten.

Made me ways over to B124. There, I made headway finally with the design for my "Girl going on a date" character. I based the basic structure of her face off the shape of a heart, and used that as the foundation. Initially, I sketched out her design with the eyes beautifully closed. When opened it'd be boring if her eyes were simply nice so I threw in a Pixar-eqsue twist and gave her beady, somewhat majestic ones. The side-view took a few goes to get the proportion and dimensions looking right. From the side, the girl also somewhat reminds me of a fish, so her nickname shall be Fish Face! To give the character an added element of immaturity, she wears a skull hair clip. Initially a butterfly, or heart, but again - it's kind of boring.

Sat with Oscar and the man with awesome hair, and James (From Chi College). Had a look at Hair's dairy comic we had done a while back - his style fluctuates between each day, which is a nice effect. My favourite comic of his (and possibly of all) is four frames of a mere stick-man (presumably himself). He's walking, but even by frame 1 he starts to boogy a little. At frame 3, he REALLY gets going. Proper boogy-woogy. Then the last frame...he looses it suddenly and reverts to a timid hand-in-pocket walk. It's a blatant fact that I'm the only one amused by it so much, but I need to scan it in at some point - typically, words do not do this justice.

Chi-Jame's comic on the other hand...damn. Damn. From page 1 it is readily apparent he knows exactly what to do with his series of comics since page 1 is a fucking glossary on mark-making clichés. Heavily shaded face, cross-hatch surrounding, lighting from below, etc. The strips themselves were great, too, he went to great stretches on detail and perspective. They were also surreal. One comic in mind had James himself supposedly encountering a man on the verge of spewing. This isn't just any Joe's on-the-verge, his face deforms from the evil to come, even the front teeth expanding in size just to keep the jaw shut from vomiting... pills. Freaking waterfall  of pills. His face is an entire mess, and the mess itself spewing out is almost taken from the film The Thing. Nightmare fuel, right here.

We went on a break, and when I got back, Oscar mentioned he had looked at my comics. I hate them, but he seemed to of gotten a kick out of it. He liked my use of expression. Bleh, no, it's too exaggerated in my opinion. Ron assessed the comics too, and found them to be alright.

Ron came over to check up on how I was doing. I felt fairly regretful to not show much in the way of progress from last time, but he did give me some good tips regarding form and structure for a figure and character. Even with my design, he wanted me to keep it straight-forward in the animation testing stages. My incoherent lack of knowing to keep a design straight-forward was pre-heating Ron to gas mark 6, so by the time I said to him "Man, how do you get those proportions so spot on!", he was skulking out the advice to me like I was a man untrained to piss in the toilet. He felt settled after giving me some tips though, and it did clear some uncertainties for me.

Eventually, we went on a lunch break. I went to Waitrose with Oscar (who just wanted some cigarettes), and bought a packet of Sensations. I was meant to get milk as well, but it slipped past me. Oscar mentioned that if I meet him at his place - no.77 - he'll head onto the next session with me. At 1:45, I did just this, and saw him out of his kitchen. (His is on the ground floor) To my surprise, Chi James lives with him as well. He, Oscar and I headed on back to B124. Oscar asked if I knew Kit - indeed. I guess Kit must of passed on that there was an animation student living in the same house as him.

Back at B124, we were asked to spread out the comics of ours. Oh boy. Our group went around to other tables where other student's comics were left to be checked out. Some were quite cool! Felix had very confident use of line - really clean and smooth, as did another girl. (She really loves cats) Chi James's comics got a few looks from various students. Andy Joule popped in with a coffee also to snoop at our work with Ron. When-ether I noticed some people were glancing at my comics, I died a little.

Afterwards, we headed downstairs. One of the student, a girl from the US, stated her interest and enjoyment to Chi-James, with his work. This guy has potential, even if latent, and I could sort of sense it back last year in the Access to HE course we studied at Chichester College. He procrastinates a lot, though, like I did. But he's got definite talent, I just hope he pulls it all out for animation.

Everyone began to head down to G01. I raced ahead to nab a light box for myself. Got a place, next to Manjit and Sara. Wanted to crack on my animation for the chair-to-door. The problem was though that I hadn't even planned how to structure the scene - I wanted to keep it simple and two-dimension but there were issues with this. I wanted to show the face clearly for Fish Face girl, from her surprise to pouting. Pencils can only squeeze in so much detail, so the face had to inevitably done close up.

Initially, I had her running from the computer to her bedroom door, with the camera shot being done from the bedroom door itself looking outwards to the room. Trying to design this scene properly however proved to be too big a complicated issue, and I don't even fully know yet how to keep the background elements separate to the layer of drawn animation. (Redrawing the background each frame is just unpractical) Instead, I decided on a close-up of the girl sitting on the sofa, facing frontwards, with the door behind the sofa to the right. From focal length, it'd be about 44mm, roughly. Anything below 33mm...screw that. I'm not even practiced on perspective animation yet (but now I see why films almost never use a straight-up 2D dimensional camera shot, like most animated sitcoms do).

In terms of keeping the animation in perspective, one important piece of advice came back to me - one actually coming from an Anime/Game character designing book. It explained that in most cases of a scene, the character eye's are always on the centre of the horizon line, or least the character of focus. Remembering nothing more, I traced a faint line and tried getting the background elements in place for the scene. It proved trickier than I thought, as somehow I wasn't getting the sofa to look anything like one, and I have to take into account that girls are not adult size. When Fish Face gets off the sofa, she's more likely to slide off, or at least lean off of it. Along with this, I also need to bring into factor where her height is in proportion to the scene when standing. She might not even be higher than when she was sitting down.

Regardless,  I got on with sketching in roughs for the key frames. I started off with her attaching key rings to each ear, as well as turning the front door handle as a reference to where she should be in proportion. Actually, I asked Manjit at one point to just stand up for a second. She was near the studio door, and I wanted to get a rough understanding of where I'd see a 5ft figure in perspective to a door, at sitting angle.

On occasion, I'd hear Erika play back her lip-sync animation on computer. I think she was animating it by After Effects. From the voice recording, she chose the line of her partner and decided it was optimal to characterise him as a man with a beard. Sara mentioned to me that Erika had done commissions for Microsoft, like PJ had done. Nice! Erika seems to already know a fair amount of After Effects and the like - it would incidentally explain her e-mail to the course advising on how to get QuickTime working.
I asked her a variety of questions regarding how eventual commissioning to Microsoft. After returning to work on my animation, something struck me. It's so stupid, and I think it's just a coincidence. PJ has a wholesome fan-base, but he is also regarded as being a handsome devil. Erika, likewise, is...well, she's definitely not half bad. Is Microsoft just keenly focusing on exterior motif here? It's not unheard of for companies to go about favouring appearances, but...is it really the case? Most likely not, but it isn't like big name corporations to go about handing out commissions to just anybody with good knowledge on After Effects. Whatever, I'm over thinking it. Contacts! That was likely it.

Sara and I really sunk into conversation. She use to spend a lot of time in Chichester when young, like I did. It's surprising how many people seemed to of visited Chichester. When she was 6, Sara would also visit a farm in West Wittering frequently. She's fairly family orientated, and still lives with her parents up in Guildford - more due to Farnham being so close by, it's cheaper just to travel. We talked about what we want to do after University. One of Sara's mother's....friend, works at Disney in Florida, so she hopes (again, from contact) be able to get some work - possibly apprenticeship through her. Hope she does, that'd be awesome. On my side of the fence for the future, told her I'm not sure. Grunted that I'd like to work out in Japan at some point. Ultimately, I'd like to just make an impressive piece of animation for the film festival one during my three years here at University.

It came of 4:30, and Sara had to head off to play some netball, and cook for her friend afterwards. Incidentally, I was to meet my dad at about 5:00 or so - he'd drop off my clothes for me. I checked on how Manjit was doing for animation, and China James as well. James is now doing his walk cycle, finding it tricky. He mentioned that the 6-step walk should have about...108 or so frames? 120? Can't remember exactly. I told I'm I have done 24 or so far. He choked a laugh, but I mentioned that putting in character to a walk cycle can be difficult which is for some reason what I decided to do. Told James I'd let him borrow my Animator's Survival Kit book at some point to help him on the walk cycle.

Headed home, and came across Jamie and PJ hanging out in the kitchen. Took out the rubbish for the small bin, and tried to get a bin liner for the recycling bin, but typically the Porter's Lodge was unoccupied. Had to go get some milk, and something to eat for tonight. As I headed out, PJ was on the phone, so I threw over to him a Mr.Kipling Angel Slice. I believe he likes those.
In Waitrose (again), brought a pizza - Pizza Express American Hot, to be precise. Whilst waiting in line, Georgia and Yannis appeared out of no where from behind me. Nice to see them here, and Georgia had some rather luminescent lipstick on. (Decided not to comment on it, though) The two of them were going to Starbucks, and I contemplated joining but...was hungry and wanted to put the pizza on. Passed by James Allen on the way out of Waitrose. He didn't notice me (or did he?) since he was fixated on scanning for Yannis and Georgia ahead.

Just as well for opting out of Starbucks! On the way through the car park near the Student Village, I got a call from my dad. He came early, and said he was up in the car park where I was. Strolled ahead to see if he'd pass by but was parked already, knowing of his presence because he belted out my name aloud. Thanks, man.  Nonetheless, it was good to see him again. Hopped into the car and headed nearer towards central Farnham. We stopped by a local pub for a drink and told dad of news. He mentioned to me that my sister Holly had a hard time at work yesterday as she is pumping large amounts of work into ordering the food for schools, yet the boss/manager only allows her a 10 minute break or so. The concern is mainly spending long hours staring intensely at a computer screen which can ultimately speed or boost fatigue (and of course, headaches). Oh, I've been there. Late nights of Civilisation IV.
Dad glanced at some of the news reporting on a TV behind me in the corner, some sort of national parade happening in France today, it seemed.

Dad called up Holly at some point, tempting her to use/play with his iPad. He really has been getting his jollies from that gadget. I'm somewhat bewildered, Dad showed disinterest and confound to this product after it's unveiling and now he's getting avid satisfaction from it. He passed the phone over to me to let me talk with Holly. Asked her in concern about her excessive working, but she rubbed it aside as simply a bad day. Extended periods of time was utilised chatting with Holly, and dad eventually started pestering me to hurry up. In something of a panic, I abruptly ended the call mid-conversation with a OKGOTOGONOWBYE. BEEP. and briskly handed back the phone to dad. He had wanted to say a few final words to Holly before hanging up, but he just recalled her. Started throwing suggestions or ingredients her way, and I'm convinced Holly was just playing along with interest.

Finished up my Budweiser, and headed back to the car. Drove back to the car park, and dad took my heavy-duty laundry to the house with me. Yannis and Georgia (and James Allen) were outside having a smoke, and dad handed me the bag. Whilst saying my farewells to him, I was oblivious to Georgia keeping the door open for me which warranted dad to hesitantly mention out it to me. I'll be seeing him and everyone else next Friday.

Upstairs, I preheated the oven and slapped in the pizza. Rory arrived back soon at that point, too, from Sainsburys. It occurred to me at that time that he and I tend to operate in a similar routine, even like with yesterday in Waitrose I chose to get a ready-meal, like he had. Rory disappeared again, and I haven't seen him since. He's been mysteriously M.I.A a lot of the time, as of recent.

Georgia, Jamie, Sophie, PJ, James and Yannis were up. After eating up the pizza, James was busy in the process of preparing some sweet tasting Vodka mix. It involved hard-candy, Sailor Jerry's, lots of shaking, some Fanta and other fucking bizarre alchemy that took place in front of me. Jamie corrected me, Alcoholemy. Sophie seemed initially moody at one point, with both her legs and arms tightly crossed, but simmered over momentarily.

James Allen was at dismay when he discovered that PJ and Jamie vandalised a magazine of his - one in fact made by students of the university. I'd seen the booklet before over the previous couple of days, but never explored it properly until now. It's a neat little concept but honestly, I mistakingly believed that some illustrations were a result of PJ/Jamie's doings. Actually, this wasn't the only evil act of PJ and Jamie. PJ tried playing with one of Sophie's crafted pumpkins, squeezing it at the sides to make it talk like a puppet. Unfortunately he crushed it's cute little face into giblets, and proceeded to attempt at hiding the evidence by cramming the entire thing into another pumpkin next to it. At this point Sophie had noticed it, and bore witness to Jamie helping out with crushing the entire thing into another, finishing it via punching the lid on. It was the funniest thing to see, Sophie's dismay and all. :(  James theorised it had become a META PUMPKIN. I tried to reassure Sophie by perceiving it as a form of reverse pregnancy.

Kit and Rob were also up shortly after. Rob looked high, I think he was, but doing well nonetheless. According to Georgia (and well, himself) he was most definitely high this morning at 9:00am. Kit noticed the ruined result of Sophie's pumpkin and reckoned it was an Inception. I agree with this theory. It wasn't all bad though, PJ and Jamie's doing. As art students, we finally talked and theorised about a...piece of potential art!

I mentioned to Kit an incident Yannis may have caused either last night or on Sunday. In one of the houses (88? 82? Not sure) there was a honking party...and then a honking fight. Now, apparently Yannis was drinking outside with his friends near the place (but unassociated). Once he finished the drink, he whimsically tossed it behind him and unintentionally, it crashed into one of the dudes at the party. This guy mistook it as a hard-act by someone else amongst the crowd and boom, brawl outbreaks between the two. Supposedly though, this wasn't the cause but I like to think it is. I had already went and told this tale to Oscar, so I'm giving Yannis a bad name here. By the way, Yannis and Kit have an friendly-hatrid going on. Kit and Yannis both kept demanding to one another: "Don't talk to me." followed by "Nah. I'm just joking." Optionally, Yannis would tuck in close and offer something to Kit. (In this case, Jamaican Ginger Cake)

As I wrote this, I heard the finale outside. PJ and Jamie took it one step further, and finally threw out the pumpkins from the kitchen window, timing it so Sophie would see on the way back. The duo kept stating they would, but I thought it was just bluff. HOW I WAS WRONG.

This entry also took too long. Two hours and a half, god damn. I was meant to of showered by nine and now it's half eleven.

Sweet Soul Brother

Much of today was a little empty in events, but street dance was great.

Got up at roughly five minutes to 12 and washed myself up. Before getting up, I could hear the cleaner - a man, from the sounds of it - signing and tutting outside. It could just be the hassle of working or something similar, I just hope it wasn't something we had done. (Like...the mess outside of Yannis's room)

Whilst making tea in the kitchen, Jamie was up shortly in his pyjamas. It's clear he was as lazy as I, thank goodness. He DID have a lesson this morning; remembering from having asked Sophie last night she'd be up to tomorrow -there was a review session (similar to my crit on Friday, I guess) taking place this morning for film foundation. Jamie decided to skip on it. He told me also that poor Becky is having some issues with her group in that they simply aren't cooperating with one another. Sophie arrived momentarily into the matter, having incidentally just got from the review session. Kit came up there, too. Enquired about some of the things he mentioned last night - he got pissed off with some girls near the Porter's Lodge, I think? He couldn't remember any of it, though.  

Went out to Farnham today to pick up some pencil and paper. Found some soft B pencils in WHSmith, but no standard cartridge paper. Instead, I tried the Workshop place across the street. The traffic lights were quite a way ahead so, as most tend to, I crossed the street as is. Cars jammed up for the traffic lights, which had given me an opportunity to cross. Sadly, I was an idiot at the time and disregarded that cars can still go down on the other lane (it's a one-way, much of central Farnham is, actually) and dashed out, with a car coming down having to promptly halt. It wasn't a close enough proximity that it screeched but...what could of happened, eh? No one really noticed though, and I scuffled into Workshop frantically rubbing the back of my neck nagging myself to "be cool".

Got a wholesome pack of A4 for £3.60 regardless. Also, stopped by at Subway. Got a bacon and ham sandwich, was nice. The guy told me a stored up 1000 points, meaning I can get a free foot-long next time. That's nice.

Later at 10 to 4, I asked Sophie (who just back again from a class) if she was going to Street Dancing. Indeed she was, and was waiting for Ben to turn up before going. With a knock on my door 15 minutes later, I got ready and met her outside. Yannis was there with Georgia, both of them having a smoke. Sophie managed to convince him to come, despite apparently being tired! Nice. He wanted us to wait about 10 minutes for him, though. Sophie tried to hurry him up out of the psych for the class.

We traveled on over to the sports centre. Yannis kept poking his hand into Sophie's handbag (with her consent) to get something he had needed. To anyone else seeing this all, it looked pretty suspicious. Also heard someone make a weird-ass rock scream from a car waiting behind the lights, near us. Apparently he was also dancing and raving in the car. I wish I had seen that.

Got to the dance room four minutes or so late. One of the guys from my animation course was there. Dan was the only teacher there this week! He warmed up the two there before us with a routine he taught me and Ben last week. When it came to the actual session, it started off with the obligatory push-ups and stretches. 

The dance manoeuvres we had to learn this time were a lot easier to pick up and follow, save for this one move that involved a combination of shuffling and limping. It was complicated enough that it warranted Dan to get into nitty gritty details involving it. This shuffle IS something you see often in hip hop, but it's tricky. I picked it up a little bit better once I realised the entire torso needs to rotate along with the left leg. Still, splitting one manoeuvre to the next (like that one) was too tricky for to follow through with fluency. The entire dance routine itself had a fairly feminine element to it - specifically ballerina. When done properly to the extent that Dan demonstrated however, it's a pretty sick performance. Also, Dan was a bastard at one point and made us perform without his guidance (somewhat) in groups of two. I sucked ass. ;_; Yannis likewise got pissed off enough that he had to do rounds of beating up a boxing stand.

The session rounded up, and I felt a lot better afterwards than last time. Sophie and Yannis seemed to of enjoyed it, too. Along the way back, we stopped by at Sainsburys. Picked up a few snacks and what not, in particular drink. On the rest of the journey back, me and fellow animation student talked about where we were at for the walk cycle, lip-sync and character motivation. Most interestingly, he told me that today (Group A) had a group review on the dairy comics. Apparently Ron was really lenient on the level of quality, and style - mainly intent on just seeing who sort of resonates with what sort of element in drawing. Some comics varied from incomplete to really detailed. The fellow student told me some of his comics were even eight panels in length. I felt like a lazy prick, now.


Back home, James was waiting for us (or maybe just Sophie) - he brought up the Afghanistan documentary mentioned last week. It was tonight, 7:30 at the Maltings for £6.00. Supposedly before the feature presentation, the director/producer gives a live speech (through webcam). I was hungry and wanted to eat, so I turned down the invitation to come. Still, he, Jamie, Sophie, Yannis and Rob all headed off. I found out that although I have plenty of ready-meals, they are all side dishes/complimentary food, so I had to venture out again to Waitrose for something substantial. As I raced out, I caught up with the gang heading to Maltings.


In Waitrose itself, I bumped into Rory. I haven't actually seen all too much of him, but it was good to see him here and there. After surveying the ample selection of ready meals, I went and picked the Cottage Pie. Back home in the kitchen, I wanted to have it a potato ready-meal but both required an oven at differing gas marks/cooking times. Well, there were two ovens, but I only had one baking tray. Cottage Pie it was! Brought up my laptop to play a little bit on a computer game, and when it was ready, I avidly consumed the pie.


Sophie, Yannis, James and Rob returned later and went up to the kitchen. Georgia was there, too. There was a peculiar air of humour about the gang, but they obviously didn't smoke anything. Guess they were just energetic. Rob's curry caught the eye of Sophie, and it became her priority to be able to eat some of it. I've never seen her so keen to eat someone's food before - all the times I offer her and she's cool about skipping it. Yannis also mentioned he was going to finally give up on smoking for the 6th or 7th time, much to everyone's rather vexed outlook. Sophie rather boldly stated that as long as he is in University (or at least when around Rob and Georgia) he won't be giving up on smoking. Georgia also felt it appropriate to allow herself some alcohol after forcibly plowing through work despite the unexpected 'free time'. Yannis made a weird laugh, and some awesome bubbles (using washing up liquid and hand structures), and had also gotten some foam and water on Sophie's face when gesturing the hand-shake of promise. The look on her face was great.


My scheduling is going a little awry here. I shower by 9pm and be in bed by 10pm, but my body-clock is allowing itself to blunder from each consecutive late night up. I haven't been using Microsoft Entourage much either so time-tabling can be a helpful remedy. It's 00:10 as of finishing this entry.