Toni Haythornwhite's Blog

Overall I am extremely pleased with my animation, as I feel it is a massive improvement from last year. I feel like I have stuck to the brief and produce good character animation which is clearly shown throughout the animation. The only issue I am not pleased about is the problems I have had with my rig. With the problems that have occurred I was not able to produce my animation in the way that followed my storyboard, but with what I have changed I feel has been a great improvement on my storyboard and the animation itself.

For this report  I am going to be explaining how I created my animation piece and why I created my particular character and its movements within my animation piece. For this animation project, I was given the task of creating a piece of animation that shows a character’s emotions and characteristics through a 30 second animation. I was given a list which had eleven character traits and action traits. The idea behind the animation would be to join one of each trait together and that would be the brief for the animation. For this project I chose to adjoin frustrated to the action of lifting a heavy object. I decided that I want my animation to be different and quirky and not take the obvious route of modelling a human. So I decided to use a windup toy for my main character. The story behind my animation starts with Skully the windup toy being situated at one end of a table where he is focused on a pencil at the other end of the table. He looks down at the winder and slowly rotat...

Well finally I have posted my animation on youtube and allready I have 13 viewa on it so it can be that bad lol... and today is my last day of uni till after christmas!!!!!!!!! I feel my animation has turned out well and I also feel that it is a massive achievement from my last animation "Larry the Tortoise" Overall I have found this animation project to be enjoyable and quite rewarding, as I have learnt new methods in both modeling and animation. The only thing I feel that has let me down on this would be the characters rig, as this made me change certain aspects of the animation as I could manover my character as I would like. But Overall I am extremely pleased with the result and my animation can be seen on my youtube channel :)

Final me and my group have completed our film for video production. For our film we have done a spin on the tradional red riding hood story but mixed it with the tv show "How to catch a predator". Our Film named "How to catch a carnivore" tells the story of the wolf being under survallience by a film crew. I feel the film has turned out great and really funny. I also feel I did ok with the acting to say this is the first film that has been produced and placed on Youtube lol :) The video can be seen on my Youtube Channel or just click on the link below. :)

Well yesturday I had finished my advanced character animation project and what can i say I am really happy with the outcome of the animation. I feel that you can see the different emotions of the character which was the main objective of the project. The only problem I have is that when I have rendered my animation on an avi file, and when played in windows media player the animation is jumpy... but when you speed it up it looks great. Not sure if this is my laptop or the animation itself... but will look into this more. Basically my animation is complete its just the rendering. Plus I have had to render my animation on two camera... so I have ended up with 5 avi files... need a way to merge these together to create 1 full avi... windows live movie maker... you suck lol... Just need to write my report and then I am official done.... overall this project has been really enjoyable and interesting to work on :)

Well its nearly christmas and that means nearly the end of uni till next year.... Only got this week and next and that means its a rush to get everything done before. On tuesday it was the deadline for the dreaded matchmoving and what can I say I know for a fact that I have failed for sure.I am so disapointed with myself for the fact that I knew i was struggling and I let it get the better of me by giving up and having a BF lol... also I have been distracted with Im a celebrity and ANTM which are totally awsome... but i dont think that these will help me to get a carrer... but you never know lol :) For next week me and my group for video production have to hand in our 2 minute film.Our film is based on the tale of little red riding hood but with a twist... and the best thing about this is that I got to be an actress for a day and I love the whole experience as working as a team with great friends and also experience a media/ film side of the course... hopefully when finish we be put...

Today I have been working on my character Skully for my uni course and what can I say... all the modelling is done but the rigging is a pain in the rear end. Im not really sure what I am doing wrong as I am following tutorials really carefully and nothing seems to be going right... going to have another go and if this does not work I may have to ask for help at uni... what is it with maya and nothing working like it should do lol :D 

Having taken a break from my uni work and the dreaded Maya, I decided to have another crack at painting in photoshop :) Having recently seen Disney's Tangled, I immediatly loved the character Pascal the chameleon. I really like the design of the character and his characteristic's so I decided to draw and paint the character in photoshop :) I am really pleased with the outcome as I think it looks like the character and I am really pleased with the contrasts of green as they look really well together. Please feel free to comment on my flicker account :)

Today I have completed my storyboard for my animation :) The objective of this was to complete a thumbnail storyboard... but I find it quite difficult to draw really small, so I ended up using a full sheet of A4. I also drew my sketches in pen as I thought that it might just stand out a bit better than pencil. I then took my sketch into photoshop to add some anotation so that you can follow the story through words as also images. The emotion that I have showed through this animation is anger. Anger is an automatic response to ill treatment. It is the way a person indicates he or she will not tolerate certain types of behavior. It is a feedback mechanism in which an umpleasant stimulus is met with an unpleasant response. ( Information taken from wikipedia ( www.wikipedia.org ) 

Today I have completed my Advanced Character Animation task, which was to animated a rocket by giving it an emotion. For this I decided to give my rocket an angry expression. The story behind this animation is that there is 2 rockets and 1 takes off, and the other tocket tries to fly away but does not succeed and gets really mad and then his madness turns into anger. I still need to do a thumbnail story board before I go back... so I will do this shortly. My video can be seen on my youtube account ... If you are interested lol :)

Starting today my directed study week begins... basically I have a week to catch up on work and have a short break lol :) Today I have been concerntrating on some tutorials on Matchmoving that I recieved via Blackboard. I have been experimenting with Automatic Tracking on Matchmover 2012... and I have to say i think it has gone well for a first attempt. I think the main purpose of this tutorial is to see the difference between 2D tracking and 3D tracking as you can see from the following images... Having rendered the following sequence, I have managed to render a short clip showing the 3d markers follow through the scene which I think gives me a better and clearer idea of the whole process.... Going to experiment more with this .... will post more progress soon and upload to youtube :)

On friday we had our last Advanced Character Animation session before directed study week. For the session we were given another assignment for when we come back after our week's holiday (Or should I say reading week lol). Our assignment is to create an animation from a rocket piece that I have worked on before... What we have to do is to show an emotion through the rocket and animate it. Lucky enough we dont have to model the rocket... but this animation has to be good stuff as this has quite a good mark for it :) I have decided to give the rocket an angry emotion. The idea is to have 2 rockets and 1 flies off and the other rocket is mad for the fact that he cant seem to take off from the platform. He throws himself a tantrum and within a split second he takes off a short distance then crashes back down and has a really mad look on his face! Hopefully I will manage to achieve this and recieve a good mark :) (Fingers crossed lol ) I also need to produce some research on the...

Today I have had my third instalment of Advanced Character Animation. We have looked into Non Verbal Communication today, which has been pretty interesting. I have really come to look at how characters can express emotion by not speaking. This can be done through posture and eye contact ect. Oh... I have come up with an idea and a story board for my character. Basically I am going to have a wind up skeleton toy called Skully, and his aim is to pick up a pencil... but to do this he musst wind himself up to reach the pencil... and when he finally gets there he struggles at first, but finally manages to pick up the pencil in the end!!!!! Things To Do For Next Week!!!! . Complete favourite animated character, film and why and post to flicker! . Research an emotion either happy, sad , angry or excited! . Animated eye blob to the emotion! . Finish of Character shilloute! :)

Today we have had our third Matchmoving lesson... well what can I say... I dont think im gonna consider this for a job lol Also I have had my tutorial today. It was basically a talk about placements and future jobs. Not sure how to take it really... dont know what I really want 2 do lol. Need to start looking for job descriptions and see what I might be aming for in 2 years times ...

Today I have had my second instalment of Advanced Character Animation... and what can I say... I feel like I am not progressing quick enough !!!!!!!!!! :( I just feel sometimes that others in this module are far more advanced in this area of animation where I am not even in the same league. Today's lesson has been a real wake up call for me, seeing some friends work and how good it is has made my realise that I really need to up my game in maya!!! Have some animations that need to be completed before next week, as well as a completed story board.... have not even got a clue what I am gonna do yet... need to get ma thinking cap on :) Also need to completed a self assement thing on flicker, and also make my google calander shared!!!!!!!!! Also I am gonna make some changes to my youtube account and upload my animations :P

Today I have been organising near everything for every topic for uni... . Have written down all my deadlines and mark percentages for every module. I feel this will be usefull as I can see what I need to be concerntrating on and what to do first. I have also completed one of my task for Advanced Character animation which was to list all the tasks/events on Google calander!!! Also I have added all my deadlines to this so I can check daily if needed. What I need to do before next week!!! . Read Chapter 1 of matchmoving for tuesday! . Come up with an Idea for Video Production! . Start thinking of an idea for my animation piece and come up with a story board!

Well since monday I started my second year at Bradford uni... and what can I say we have some good modules and some sh*t lol :) I feel script programming is gonna be hard and frustrating... but the matchmoving and the video production is gonna be good and really intresting. For the matchmoving I need to start researching and comparing industries for work after uni if i want to pursue this carrer... For video production we were placed into groups and I am really pleased with whom I am workin with.... we just need to sort out what theme we are going to do for our two minute film  by next week!!!! Have advance computer character animation 2moro... dont know if I am lookin foward to it ... but I know that I really have to up my game with Maya and be more commited with the module!!!!!!!! Will write back soon with an update..... ;D x x

Today I have tried somthing new, and painted a image in Photoshop :) I am really pleased with the way that this has turned out, with this is being my first attempt at painting in Photoshop, and the comments i got back were fantastic. Going to experiment in this sector a little more as i really enjoyed the time doing this. Might try doing a person next time... will keep in touch with the progress lol :)

Today thanks to Sophie, I have recieved my timetable for the first semester.... and what can i say.... um it looks allright lol Im just a bit mift that the topics I wanted to do will all take place in the second semester... which i will have to wait three months for.... Well learning something new will be interesting but hopefully usefull lol... will write back soon :P x x x

Woop Woop... well it took me 2 days but I have offically re enroled back at University... just need my timetable now and im back in september... bring it on lol :) x x

Being at University can have its down sides, like not being able to spend as much time with friends. And after nearly three months I mangaed to have a fab day with kim :P Also decided on my next project to do in Maya before I embark back to Uni, thinking of going down the modeling a human road, which I think is going to be a challenge but will be well worth it in the long run lol :)

Hi everyone... :) It has been a while since I was last on here, I apologise... A lot has happened and I am more than happy to fill you in ! I finished my first year at University in May, having completed all my work on time and had no majour problems with any. Looked around for a summer job and unfortunally I did not get anything. This comes as a majour blow, but an advantage on this is that I worked on my Maya skillls as I have to say this is something that I definatly have to improve on! I have been working on my modelling and texturing skills and produced a Motorbike (mainly an old school Harley Davidson), which I am pleased to say turned out extremely well lol. (Images to follow) I recieved my results in June and I am extremely pleased to say that I have passed everything with flying colours and can proced to next year... with I am looking forward to... but at the same time I know that I have to buck my ideas up if I am wanting to proced in the future. My main goals are t...

Woop Woop... iv finished everything (apart from observational drawing), and has got a 2 week holiday. saturday went to see scream 4 with kim... was really great... had a fab time. Have to decided on my options for next year and i think im going for . Special Effects . Motion Capture . Something else when i decide lol xD

Today is my last lecture for DPS... wonder if we have another essay to do lol Have completed all my essays so far... all thats left is my animation project, my report for conventions of animation and last but not least my observational drawing... better get cracking lol :P

have not really wrote on this think for weeks... well ma flash has 2 be in on tuesday 5/04/2011... and its gonna be tight... Plus ma maya has to be in on the 15/04/2011... and its being a pain in the rear... really starting to hate the whole idea of doing animation within maya.... arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh :Z

Today i had my presentation... it went really well... the tutor was happy but said that i could improving my ending... something to do on 2 weeks off!

had the very boring Character animation today... and guess what all my work has gone missing... fan blumming tastic Need to work on my story board!

Conventions of animation      8/02/2011 Have completed my first ever flash character design... quite pleased with the outcome. Presentation - 15/02/2011 - 2.15pm- STORYBOARD NEEDS TO BE COMPLETED AND PRESENTED! Had observational drawing... was ok i guess lol :)

Have done my part for the group presentation... hope its ok with everyone lol :P

Today iv had to endure another boring and pointless lesson of animation. Dont get me wrong its kind of interesting and fun to do... but sometimes it takes the pi** lol. Really want to be starting on my own animation work... bring on Larry ha ha ha x Also recived news of my job interview... wish me luck x x x

Had DPS this afternoon, and was happy that our group acheived 77% on our group report (Well Done Guys :), but that was shortly followed by disapointment to find out that I only acheived 45% for my intro to animation exam. Even though this is a pass, i am really disapointed with myself as nearly everyone in that room has done better than me.... so this has got me thinkin.... am i in the right proffession and should i give up now? :( * need to do my powerpoint slide for the group presentation!!!!

YEAH... finally got this blog thing under control lol. Going to start to keep a record of lectures and lesson notes from uni as it will help with my diary for both dps and intro to animation :) Today has been observational drawing which has been the same as usual lol, studied negative space, plus shape and form which could be helpful in my drawing for the crits next week!