Bruce Weight Lift

Here is the main animation exercise I had the chance to do at my time at Nexus - with my attempt to capture the good old weight lifting test with a small twist. Big thanks to Mark Davies and Michael Greenwood for all their help and feedback on this.



It may not be perfect with many parts that could do with some further refinements, but I’m pleased with what I’ve achieved so far as it’s come a long way from its first incarnations. I now feel much more confident in how to approach animation which will hopefully show in my future projects.

Nexus - Week 5

Last Friday was the end of my work experience at Nexus - and while I'm sad to go, I've had a fantastic time that has been very inspiring.

While I was unable to get stuck in on a live project in production, I still managed to learn lots about working in a professional studio environment. From the many creative group meetings to the dynamic between directors and studio members, the collaborative nature of working to form the best creative solutions was very inspiring. The projects that I did work on were predominantly in the pre-production stages, creating various props and environments for a number of pitches. This allowed me to work within the practices of the Nexus pipeline, such as ensuring naming conventions and file locations were consistent and ready for use for other members.

Becoming familiar with 3D Studio Max has also opened my eyes to some new approaches and ideas when it comes to working in CG. From modelling, animating and to the advantages of working with Linear Workflow - a process of working with gamma correction to achieve the best lighting and colouring results. Both Max and Maya have their ups and downs, and while I'm not championing one or the other, there's certainly things I'm trying to bring into Maya from Max and vice versa.

With animation exercises, I learned a lot with the process of animating with the help from Michael and Mark whose feedback and words of animating wisdom have proved invaluable to me. From the importance of animation curves with trajectories, to the effective use of the graph editor, I've certainly learned a few new tricks that have given me confidence to animating.

Overall, I had a great time with the whole experience being very enlightening and inspiring to say the least. I want to thank everyone at Nexus for helping me out and making me feel welcome, and of course to Phil and Alan for making this possible.

While I won't be able to upload everything I've done, I will be able to post some stuff including one of the main animation exercises I've been working on - so look out for that!

Nexus - Week 4

An update from my fourth week at Nexus!

As I have continued with my animation exercise earlier this week, I've been fortunate enough to be getting some great feedback from animator Michael Greenwood, giving me quick lessons and pointers that would have taken much longer for me to figure out myself. While I still have much to learn, I've certainly feel a lot more confident in approaching animation in a CG world. Its a challenging process that cannot be rushed, requiring much feedback and perseverance that will make the hours fly by, but its also one of the most rewarding experiences you could ever achieve once things fall in place.

Michael has worked on a variety of projects with some wonderful examples of animation, so be sure to check his work out on his site. Here is a commercial for 'TNT Post' that Michael was the lead on.



Another CG artist who I work with at the studio is Florian Caspar, who is working on a potential high-profile project that is also very exciting. Check out Florian's impressive showreel below, and also a fun twist to presenting a character turnaround.




This CG character didn’t anticipate his turn around!

Otherwise, I have also been working collaboratively for another upcoming pitch, building models and props to populate the environment. The project has an intriguing concept and art direction that brings a different approach to modelling - so some exciting stuff at it begins to gather pace into my fifth and final week here at Nexus.

Nexus - Week 3

This week at Nexus has been an interesting one as a variety of pitches have come and go. Its an interesting dynamic between directors and studio members, as while the directors lead the 'vision' so to speak, everything else is a constant collaboration between directors and studio members in order to create the best, creative designs and solutions possible.

While things are still a little quiet on the live project side of things, I've been spending most of my time with some animation exercises using some of the Nexus characters and rigs. Often I'll show my progress to some of the animators around the studio who are able to give me some invaluable feedback on my work. Its all very encouraging as I'm learning a lot of the process of animating which would have taken me a lot longer to learn otherwise. I can't quite post my progress on here yet as I'm using some Nexus characters, but hopefully there will be a workaround to this at a later point.

A group of us had a little field trip to a mo-cap studio this week, which unfortunately wasn't quite finish to say the least, but interesting nonetheless to see the potential workspace. I also met a bunch of people working in the industry as we went out for some drinks one evening. The people there came from a range of fields who had either worked at Nexus at some point or were simply friends of Nexus - so it was great making contacts with people and talking about their experiences in the industry.

The end of this week brings me past the mid-way point in my work experience, with 2 weeks left at Nexus!

Nexus - Day 6

Day 6 and I'm continuing to work on stuff for another upcoming pitch. Its exciting stuff as its got a neat concept going for it. I'm learning more and more on the collaborative side of things with group discussions, important feedback from the directors as well as the pipeline that ensures everyone can work together across multiple files with proper naming conventions etc. Hopefully, it will get the green light so we can continue to take it all the way.

In the mean time, I thought I share with you an animated short by Dara Cazamea, one of the guys at Nexus that I am fortunate to be working with. This was his graduation project co-directed by four other guys. Some really great stuff here so be sure to give it a watch when you have the time. It has a B-movie type plot so it rings a lot of bells from our own group projects earlier in the year.

Word of warning: contains a lot of blood and scenes not for the squeamish... but really its hilarious so don't let it put you off.

Hambuster
You may like having a good lunch in a quiet place as a park... But what if your lunch doesn't?
In the street everyone can hear you scream, but honestly who cares?



Try it out in stereoscopic 3D if you dare!


Hambuster is a graduation movie co-directed by five students from Supinfocom Arles. 
This production is a 6 min short film and it was all done in 3D stereoscopic.
Enjoy!

I just realised Phil has already posted this on the group blog (2 days ago in fact!) but waargh I'll post it up here anyways.

Nexus - Day 4-5

With the beginning of the second week here at Nexus, I've been working on a few bits and bobs across a number of pitches. I've also got to meet a few of the directors who lead the majority of projects for Nexus, as well as participating in the creative group meetings where its fascinating to witness the creative decisions, solutions and ideas taking place.

Some of the work for a pitch is going through a redesign after feedback from the clients, so its fine for me to post one of the environments I put together. From a quick concept, to modelled set. Lighting is pretty basic at the moment, but I'm now learning to use the Vray lighting system (which is coming to Maya) and getting my head around the Linear Workflow theory with gamma correction... its a little bit tricky but I think I'm getting the hang of it.

Concept


Scene


That's all I can post for now!

Nexus - Day 3

A small update at my day at Nexus - I've begun some work on some environments for an upcoming pitch, which I'm very excited about but unfortunately can't say too much on here.

Today also signals the end of the first week here at Nexus (cut short by the big royal day tomorrow). Its been a captivating week as I've met the team, familiarised myself at the studio and learnt some new software with 3D Studio Max. Its all still fresh and inspiring so far - where I can't wait to get stuck in in earnest with some meaty projects.



On a side note: You may want to be on the look out for 3D Artist magazine issue 28, as it features a double page article on the CG Arts & Animation course at UCA Rochester. It also features my Dark Carnival piece from the 1st year, along with some words I mention at the beginning of the second paragraph. Otherwise, there's some great stuff on the legendary Syd Mead too.

Nexus Productions - Work Placement

Nexus Productions is an independent Production and Animation Studio based in London. They work in a variety of fields from short films, commercials to interactive media; from which they have achieved world wide recognition in the form of an Oscar nominated short, Grammy nominated and MTV Award winning music videos, Cannes Grand Prix, Gold Lions, and Black D&AD pencil winning commercials.

Here are a few examples of their work.


Muffin Man
Commercial
A fully animated spot taking the viewer through the runaway expansion of a muffin making business from a small stall to international franchise. This was actually shown to us last year when Mark Davies came to give a talk.



Mr Long Legs
Commercial
A feel-good spot for Royal Bank of Canada, which follows Mr Long Legs as he takes his kids on an adventure around the World.



The Girl Effect
Commercial
Some 2D stuff, this short takes us on the journey of a 12 year-old girl to escape poverty, exploitation and the risk of AIDS/HIV, to build a better future for herself and future generations. The Girl Effect is the potential of 600 million adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves and the world.



The Tale of the Three Brothers (Harry Potter)
Film & TV
Inspired by oriental shadow puppetry, the captivating sequence visually narrates Hermione's story about three wizard brothers who try to outwit Death. I believe Nexus prodimantly worked on the 'second brother's tale' of the scene.



Browser Pong
Interactive


I also wanted to show some of the interactive pieces that Nexus does, as I was shown a great example the other day. The only one I can find at the moment, is Browser Pong which simulates a game of pong played with your very own browser windows. You can try it out right now after the jump, otherwise, watch the video example - in fact I recommend both as there are some neat little tricks you can do for some kicks and giggles.

Play Browser Pong!
Watch the video demonstration here


Hope you've enjoyed this brief look at Nexus Productions!

Nexus Productions - Day 1

I started my work placement at Nexus Productions today - exciting stuff as I got to meet the team and familiarise myself with the studio I'll be working at for the next five weeks. One of the big hurdles to overcome, however, is learning 3D Studio Max as it is the main CG software Nexus uses. Its certainly a separate beast from Maya as navigation, menus and hotkeys are all mapped differently. However, the two do share similarities with familiar terms with Graph Editor and Material Editor (aka hypershade) with mental ray settings returning.

So today, I set out learning the ropes of Max with some tutorials to get accustomed to the interface. I created a set of dice, as a sort of homage to our first Maya tutorials, where I've also modelled a toycar which significantly helped me learn the basics of modelling in Max - extruding, edge loops, vertices etc.





Max has the intriguing feature of using Modifiers when modelling, which essentially acts like a layer system similar to Photoshop. Modifiers affect things down the list hierarchy, where visibility can toggled to hide/reveal any changes to the model in a dynamic fashion. For example, a Symmetry modifier can mirror a current mesh object, which can then be easily turned on and off whilst continuing to work with the model. Max also likes to give different colours to newly created objects, so forgive the wacky colours below.



Its still early days yet with much to learn, but there are some nice features in Max which I'm slowly discovering.

Other than that, things are a little quiet at the moment as there are only a few minor projects going on. Hopefully, things will pick up as some bigger projects come down the line. I intend to make a post showing some of Nexus's previous work when I have a moment, so look out for that. Otherwise, back to Max for me!