WEEK 15: Blending together

29 July 2016 

Wow it has been 15 weeks already. My priorities is no longer just CPD, I must do well in my other modules too. I don't know why i found this semester to be extremely difficult to cope.

My week was made when i experienced smething wonderful this week. I recieved a scholarship!! :)))) I did not expect that at all!Here is a quote that i read today i hope it will encourage everybody to persevere and not give up.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

CPD
Our group is doing farely well. Currently we are all very serious when doing our work. Though some people are currently prioritising other modules right now. Hopefully they will lend a hand soon,
I kind of missed the first few weeks of our project where we were able to joke around during meetings.

Everything is blending together very well, I think our teamworks skills are improving a lot. I realise what Alvin said was true if you have a positive attitude, people around you will be affected by your happiness and the job will get done faster. Our distribution of work is also more fair, and because we update each other regularly on each others progress everything has been more clean and structures compared to before week 13.

I've stopped modelling for awhile to update our old environment sketches and colours. I also did part of the colour script. I had to apply my knowledge from my DCG classes about light, shadow and colours.We consulted Yitting about how to make our character stand out from the background and she adviced us, if our characters are cool,background is warm, vice versa. I've learnt a lot about colour harmonies and apply the knowledge i already have into this project.  I thought it was just splashing the colours that was in the character and environment colour guide sketches. No, there is a lot of planning involve, about how to set the mood.

Self-reflections and improvements:

Because of all the stress from all the modules, I realised I have been cranky this week. I took out my fustruations on my rigging class because it was the most foreign to me and I kept pestering my teacher to help me fix my problems. I stopped thinking on my own on how to solve the problems I was facing.

I will try to control my emotions better and to be more independent. I understand asking people for help is part of the learning process but I have been very reliant on others.
Here are the sketches i did this week :) Enjoy and remember to persevere.

WEEK 14 : Anxiousness

21 July 2016

I feel very suffocated this week. The comments and the deliverables are too much for us to handle. I am really regretful that previous weeks I did not do much and also I am not sure what I am suppose to do for the following weeks. Am I even the right person for the task I am doing now?  I just hope for us to not have unequal distribution of work.

This week have so many ups and downs. Everything was really pleasant until Wednesday, I even thought we were on schedule so I concentrated on my other homework for awhile. Little did I know, during Wednesday morning session, Roxann and Alvin showed Ms Karen a shot of our exterior and interior environment with the characters in it. She commented that there was no colour harmony at all in our work. At first i didn't get it but after analysing the frame I realised she was right. It was a very the saturation level of the environment was all wrong and the colour combination of everything was all jumbled up.

It's quite amazing, individually everything looks great and the teachers had no problem with everything on last weeks viva but this week, when we complied everything together, it looks like a hot mess. Ms Karen also briefed us on the deliverables of week 18 and the hand up list just gets longer and longer, i get into instant panic mode every time i think about it.
 
Group dynamics

We have been implementing what we learned from last week. We have improved our communication skills. This whole weekend we've been interacting on watsapp and skype. Updating each other constantly on our progress and asking for opinions. This is really great that we are applying what we know.

Self reflection:
My aim is to do my best these following weeks till week 18 so that I won't become a burden to my group. Also i will also try to find work to do to use my skills in areas where they can be best at.

Praying that future weeks will go much better for us.

Here is the sketch that I did

WEEK 13: Opinions and Advice

15 July 2016

Time for another edition of feelings of the week!

Meme:

This week was quite unique, we had a viva and a reflection with our teacher.

Viva 3

 We were the first group to present to our lecturers Phil and Karen. I was hoping that this viva will be our turning point to break our streak on bad presentations. Sadly, I was wrong. My group-mates came late and we had to start the presentation without them, on top of that not all the work was with the people who came on time. You could clearly see annoyance on the teachers faces. Honestly I was a bit annoyed as well because I am not a tardy person and i wouldn't want my group to be view that way.

Finally when we were all here came the presentation went smoothly for awhile but because of the missing files our presentation flow was ruined and we were jumping back and forth between slides and animatics.

On the upside, we uplifted the teacher's mood with our live action. Even our classmates said it was hilarious because the special effects were so cheesy and obvious. You could see all the hooks and the strings.

Talk with Karen
The next day, Wednesday, Karen talked to each person individually on how they felt about their group-mates and about how we viewed our peers. I was pretty nervous before going in because I my english is terrible and i didn't want to say anything i didn't mean about someone.

The talked went well, she gave me advice on how to make our team dynamics better and how our group seems to be divided 2D and 3D. I also see this in my group. I was shock however that Roxann and Alvin doesn't know what Priyanka and I are doing. I thought I've updated them quite often. I guess it isn't often enough.

She also talked to me about readiness and we should rehearse before the week18 viva. Overall i found this talk really useful and there wasn't stressful and it allowed her to help us with our queries.

Self improvements and implementations:

From this i shall try to involve Roxann and Alvin more into the 3D process so that they can also monitor it themselves. I will be more open about my work as i think one of the main factors i am worried about is that they will judge my work though it isn't complete yet. As a person i think i shouldn't be so rigid and try to accept adapt to other people's way of doing work.  I WILL FOR ONE TRY TO FIX THE TARDINESS IN OUR GROUP. I find it super unprofessional and it will affect me in the future if i slowly pick up that behaviour.

SEE YALL NEXT WEEK 5 MORE WEEKS TO GO.

WEEK 12: one more week to viva

8 July 2016

Year 3 is really fast i feel like I'm mentally running a marathon and now I am super exhausted. I can't believe it's already week 12. This week we had Hari Raya so our viva got pushed back one week. We are really lucky to be given more time to finish up the packages.

Re-filming Live action
We refilmed our live action as last week Karen told us some of our camera directions were wrong also our first take was incomplete because we were uncertain of what we wanted.

This time was more efficient and fun compared to previous filming. It was really hilarious how we are coming up with creative, low budget ways trying, to make everything work. There was this one scene where it was Stanley's (me) POV, washing his hands and looking up into the the mirror. However the angle was too difficult that i had to be the camera man and Roxann had to go behind me and wash her hand. The position was so awkward and we could clearly tell it wasn't my(Stanley's) hands because our skin tones are like night and day. That shot too really long and because we kept on laughing.

 We showed Karen the viva and she told us it looks good and much more clearer. Our group really needed that assurance that we are on the right path :)

Modelling update
Priyanka and I are have started modelling the interior ourselves. We didn't see Borko this week so we couldn't ask for advice. I am doing the toilet and office interiors while she is doing home and lift.
I'm having slight trouble with the whole look of it, on one hand i want it to show its clearly 3D models, however on the other hand we must make the textures to looks 2D because we wouldn't want the characters to look out of place. This juggling act has be quite difficult to manage.

I don't feel the urgency of week 13 viva, I am really worried as i feel like I'm missing out something but i cant put my finger on it... :/

Here are 2 posters that i did :

Thoughts and feelings:

I'm going to do something different. I'm gonna analyse my work now compared to April me.
I know the modelling and planning process clearer now, compared to the first environment the 2nd one is modelled faster. Planning helps me be more efficient and organised. My film knowledge has widen, My friends and teachers recommended me a lot of film to watch and I have a wider perspective and a lot more ideas thanks to them.

What i should improve on: 
Be more helpful towards others. Don't be so afraid towards critiques.

WEEK 11: FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL!

2 JULY 2016

WELCOME BACK CHARMAINE!!

I GOT MY RESULTS BACK FOR DCG AND 3AP! It was average but not what I was aiming for, I guess I have to work harder for the assignment 2s.

This week wasn't that bad i have just finished my environment modelling assignment and I'm really please with the work I've done. Borko even praised me for my modelling. For this assignment Priyanka and i worked as a team to do the streets of our Short film.

Im really excited to show the work i have accomplished for this assignment:

layout followed

Layout of the streets.

 You may be thinking: "you are doing a 2D/3D film, will this match your 2D characters?" Priyanka has found this program called ToonShader which makes 3D objects have a 2D feel to it. We haven't applied it on our building, but we have tested it out and it works! Not to fear.

Feeling of this project
I felt really bad for rushing Priyanka all the time, and I know she already has a lot on her plate since she has 2 more modules than me. Still I really like this module, so I want to produce the best quality that i can. I didn't mind the fact that I was doing extra work or unnecessary stuff. Another reason was, I fought for the rights to do 3D modelling during the first few weeks of CPS so I can't produce lousy quality. My ears would be full of "i told you so" , "full 2D is way better".

CPD Class

During CPD Karen talked to us about knowing what we want for our projects. We were feeling very down that we were still haven't confirmed our story. She comforted us saying that its better to be a group open to changes than a group that is restricted with our ideas. Which i think she is right, now we have a vast variety of pieces, all we have to do is piece them together and we get a beautiful picture.

"It's always the small pieces that makes the bigger picture."

Thoughts and feelings
I am really worried that we might not finish everything in time before next weeks viva, so this coming week i will focus all my energy to finish up all the base modelling for the environments.

I think I shall be more encouraging to my group mates. Right now everyone is slowly falling sick and getting gloomy. Lets be a positive energy to everyone around us! :) 

bad video quality, so sorry.You can check my work out on my deviant account the link is on the left side of this blog. ( the Chinese house photo)