Practice Jounal

The past following weeks I have been working on The Illusionists' Toolkit assignment, in the creation of object and walk cycles. I have thoroughly enjoyed this assignment and the challenge that it presented. Handed in 22/10/12

27 - 28/11/2012 - Over the weekend I completed the paper, cut out and stick moving model kit that we had all been given in preparation for our automata workshop starting after reading week. I found parts of the model very fiddly and difficult to put together (such as the dogs head and body) and it was a very time consuming production, but I found it very enjoyable! I had a complication whilst attaching the dogs legs - I somehow glued the joints together so that when I had the whole model finished and I tested it, the legs wouldn't bend with the action causing them to detach from the body. I therefore had to make and cut out new washers and braces and re-attach the legs so that they could then move like they were suppose to. I'm quite pleased with how the model ended up in the end though, even if it was a terrible surfer and appears to dive bomb the water on its way, I am pleased with its overall motion and it really helped me to understand how the mechanisms of automata models work and are produced.

07/11/2012 - Today we started the automata building workshop. We had a health and safety briefing, an induction into the various machine uses and we planned and started our own automata models. Our first session was very enjoyable and informative, I am looking forward to seeing how my model will progress. 

14/11/2012 - Today we had our second automata workshop. The automata expert Keith Newstead visited our class today to give us a talk about his way of creating automata buildings and to offer feedback and improvement tips on our automata designs. It was very interesting to see his original design sketches and test models, it gave us all ideas of how we could work, in order to end up with a fully functional and decorative automata model. He gave me some very knowledgeable advise about the moving background of my design. I had come up with an idea for my automata model that I was happy with and very excited to make, but i was struggling with how to attach a background design that would move to give the impression of my deer running forward rather than appearing stationary. He came up with the awesome idea of painting my background onto a wooden disk that would rotate when the deer was moved. He even showed me a video online of one of his models that featured a similar design - it consisted of a man riding a bike with a rotating triple perspective background. It was really awesome to see such an amazing piece of work, and it inspired me to create better and more in depth layout and mechanical drawings so that I can make the most of this workshop and create something I will be happy with.  

04/12/2012 - We were given the project of rotoscoping an old black and white film clip! I managed to complete 3 clips, in two and a half days. I thought that they were to a poor quality but I was unable to complete them any faster, due to the short time span we were given and other pressing commitments that I could not avoid.