The Button

4000-01-22T09:33:00.002Z

Welcome to my blog for my final year project - The Button.

Production Has Stopped Till Further Notice

The Idea For The Animation
There is a large red button in the middle of a room of a museum on a pedestal, (this is based on the “Big Red Button Syndrome”). Around the museum will be signs saying do now touch the art work also around the pedestal will be a red velvet rope to indicate that you are not to touch, but due to the “Big Red Button Syndrome” when a man walks past he has the uncontrollable urge to touch it but due to the signs and rope he feels that he shouldn’t. After much deliberation and conflict in his head he then presses the button and nervously starts to look around to find that nothing has happened, the screen then goes black and we hear an explosion then the scene comes back on screen and the audience see a destroyed room with a very black soot covered man.

Meaning Behind The Animation
The “Big Red Button Syndrome” is a debilitating condition wherein the sufferer is irresistibly tempted to do something they really ought not to. It is human nature to be curious to what things in the world do (this is more so in men then woman), and when told not to do something it’s because of this curious nature that it becomes harder to stop yourself from doing it.
The man in the animation is being told not to touch the button, he also knows (from life and how we are brought up) that a red button means something bad, be it an alarm or some other form of warning as well the color red.

In this blog i will upload all my work as i create it, i will be uploading videos, pictures information about the project and how it is progressing and what is said in meetings with my mentor.

At the end of this project i am hoping to have a fantastic peace of animations to put onto my showreel to take to job interviews.

i hope that you all like what you see here and i will be doing a weekly update as well as a update when needed so keep checking back, also please note that this is not like a normal blog this page will always appear as the first page so please click on the tabs at the top just like a normal website rather then a blog.

Ashley Stringer

Monkey Boy Animations

Videos

3999-01-22T09:47:00.001Z

On this page you will find all my uploaded videos for my project, these will include things such as test walks, runs, weight lifts, facial movements, animatics and anything else o do with my animation including eventually my final animation.

Unlike my pictures if you have the blog in a RSS feed tracker it will come up in there so you know i've updated.

Images

3998-01-21T00:52:00.002Z

Here are images of my production so far, this will be automatically updated when new images are uploaded to Flickr so if you find that you don't see an update in your RSS posts for pictures that's why so just remember to check back on a regular basic, and just as a reminder i will be mentioning it when i write my weekly report if i have uploaded in that time.

anyway guys hope you like what you see, there isn't much there at the moment as im still working on it but i hope you like it anyway.

Just press the play button and scroll though the images, feel free to leave comments as well the more the better.

link to main image page in case gallery doesn't load

The End - for now

2009-03-30T17:10:00.003+01:00

well i have done it, i went into university today and i withdrew from my Final Year Project module as well as Creative Character Animation. this is something i really wanted to do rather then something i was forced into doing, it means that i can stay in university for another year and i can learn animation to a better standard as well as gaining a better understanding of character animation.

for now all i need to worry about is my other 2 modules and then come next year i will be starting fresh with Final Year Project and Creative Character Animation, sadly this means that i will have to think of a new idea for my Final Year Project and CCA meaning that The Button animation will have to be put in the bin in the eyes of Teesside University but i will be continuing with this idea at some point on my own as i feel that the concept is strong and i can do it better once my grasp of animation is stronger.

but i will be keeping this thing up to date as best as i can as soon as my other work is out of the way.

Blocking Test - no timing

2009-03-30T10:25:00.001+01:00

this is my blocking test, there is no timing set yet and there are no keys set for the fingers, face or the eyes as they are my next step.

tune

2009-03-30T10:16:00.001+01:00

Download Ashley Stringer - Monkey Piano

Sound Track

2009-03-30T09:52:00.004+01:00

I've been working on my own sound track for the background of my animation, this can be changed but due to the short time left i think im going to leave it as it is now.

i would have used the one i had on my animatic but it is copywirted and i don't feel right using it for my animation.

so here is my sound track, i did it using iTouch applications Grand Lite and another that i can't remember the name off sadly but thank you to who ever created the apps.

enjoy.

LISTEN HERE

Changes

2009-03-28T11:45:00.003Z

We'll due to a vast number of issues with my project and other things i have been forces to change the animation to produce something that will show my abilities in character animation but also reduce the time it takes to animate it.

thanks to Dave Eagle i have been issued a 1 week extension on my assignment which will help a lot in finishing this animation to a standard that i can be proud and happy of.

I would also like to thank Chris Wyatt for the talk he gave me on Friday, it helped me a lot to understand my problems and also understand where i was going wrong and also how to organize my work to get everything done in time for hand in.

small problem

2009-02-19T13:10:00.003Z

i have lost my scene file that had the lighting setup for this image

i remember that its a 2 spot light setup but i can't rememeber any of my setting for the lights, now after showing many people my work they have all said that this setup and image is the best one, so to sort this issue out im going to have to go back to my scene (the most resent one) and mess around with it till i get the settings that i had in the other one.

i hate when things like this happen.

Animex

2009-02-12T10:32:00.004Z

Hi guys well Animex is over for another year :-(

Due to Animex and being able to talk to Ed Hooks my idea has changed a a little, instead of the character pressing the button and then the place blowing up he now finds that nothing happens and then walks away, another guy walks passed and a trap door opens and he falls into it. I will be working on this in more detail when i get to that section in the movie but for now that is what is happening.

Animex was FANTASTIC i can't believe i get to go to it every year for so cheap, you get to meat some of the leading professionals in the field of animation, games and visual effects.

well i have uploaded a video of my changes and i will be doing more as time goes on, talk to you all soon.

Animatic Part 2

2009-02-12T10:27:00.005Z

This is the newest version of my Animatic, i have added some sequences at the end and also changed some scenes from the old one.

i haven't cut it down yet, i will be getting to that when i talk to my lecturer and see what she makes of it so far.

Composit

2009-01-27T10:00:00.003Z

Hey i've been working on scene lighting and rendering as you will have seen through mu photo feed but due to this one not looking so good in there i thought i would upload the image through the image code.

to get this image to what it is now i used photoshop and XSI, all the lighting was and coloring was done in XSI the only thing done in photoshop was a small amount of gama change, the only reason i did this was because it was part of the tutorial i was watching and i thought i would give it a go and i must say it has worked out quite well.

i'll be doing something like this with my final scene i think and using the image as a projection.

anyway hope you like

let me know what you think.

Synoptics

2009-01-22T22:25:00.002Z

This image is the synoptic for the Eric Rig from my friend Orrie Walls, it didn't have a synoptic so i made this one, surprisingly i enjoyed making the synoptic and writing the codes.

And this is the one i made for my room that the character will be walking around.

So ye now that the synoptic's are finished it makes my animation creation much quicker.

There is still a little code i will be adding to them to make it that extra little easy on finger movement.

But after that im stopping with them as i am spending to long on the things that just don't matter that much, i have to stop thing about the little details and work on the animations. (taken from what Penny Holton (my mentor) told me today in our meeting).

Animatic Part 1

2009-01-22T09:54:00.003Z

Here is the first part of my animatic, not completely there yet but im still working at it.

the more i get into it the more i feel i should cut it down a little but we'll see what happens.

The Button

2009-01-20T04:54:00.000Z

hey well i got this idea from Ben, i noticed that he has made a blog for updates on uni and a log for his final year project so i though it would be a good idea to have so this is my new blog.

on here i will put EVERYTHING to do with my Final Year Project as it happens and as i get the work done.

as you can see in the image at the top of the blog i have done a little as that a promo image from the animation, theres nothing animated or blocked out yet sadly but when i get other things out the way i will be able to get on with it.

there are 4 links at the top of the page and more might come as i work out what is needed in the blog, but at the moment for those 4 links only 2 of them work as the pictures and videos dont have anything in them yet, once they do they will link you to them rather then coming up with nothing.

hopefully i will have an blocking shot using a moom rig just so i can work on the body rather then the face, i know to some people it might seem a waist of time to make part of an animation using a different rig to the one i will be using at the end but to me it helps. im not sure why, it just help me get away from the thought that this is for my Final Year Project (FYP) and it needs to be perfect, i start focusing on more of the learning and animation side of it.

well im going to get back to work right now so that i can get some examples up to you all and you can see what work i have come up with, if you have any questions about the blog or my work please feel free to contact me using one of the options on the contact list on the right.

bye for now