Roy Nottage | Art and Animation Portfolio

Moved House – Still No Internet

Roy Nottage — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 22:50:17 +0000

I’ve recently moved house. It’s closer to work, so I can cycle there and cut two hours off of my daily travel time. Which is awesome.

The downside is that our internet won’t be activated until the 30th. Which has been agony (and expensive with all the phone tethering). Not long now though.

I’ve been trying to get back into drawing. Using my tablet for a change.

The Demonisation of Video Games by the Media

Roy Nottage — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:02:50 +0000

Thought I may as well upload my dissertation for any of you who are interested in reading it, or who are perhaps writing on a similar topic.

I studied how the demonisation of video games may be stemming from the news media’s demonising portrayal of contemporary youth. Covering the history of crime representation, moral panics and a number of case studies.

The Demonisation of Video Games by the Media [PDF - 1.03MB]
Right Click > Save Link As if you prefer to download.

I was awarded 78% [a 1st at BA]. All sources; books, articles, etc were accessible through the biggest and fastest library in the world – Google.

Anyway, enjoy. There are probably loads of typos, so if you are some kind of grammar nazi, feel free to point them all out. You might win a prize*.

Working on a New Portfolio

Roy Nottage — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 21:25:06 +0000

I’m putting together a new portfolio site, since I buried my last one. It still needs a proper about page, the current one is a bit daft. It was only supposed to be a place-holder until I put something there.

When I created the site, I just wanted to keep it super simple. No bullshit. Plus, I wanted to make it easy for me to adjust for mobile. I’m slowly tweaking this WordPress theme to fit with what I’ve done for my portfolio.

~~Don’t think I’ll merge the sites, instead I’ll keep them separate and try to make it clear what each site is for: co.uk = blog and .com = portfolio. Got it? Good.~~

Update: Totally changed my mind. Going to merge them.

Where is your final major, lolz?

Roy Nottage — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 21:29:26 +0000

Who knows, probably went straight to DVD. We finished as much as we could, but a lot of content was left in a pretty sorry state from trying to finish the entire film in time. It is unlikely the film itself will ever see the surface, but we will be putting the best elements into our showreels.

Any animation bits that I actually want to show, I imagine will make their way onto the blog and maybe my showreel quite soon. However, I’m in the process of doing some other bits for my showreel first.

I’d like to think I would revisit some of my shots and finish them up, but I can’t see that happening. Time for some fresh stuff.

The End of My Degree

Roy Nottage — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 18:59:36 +0000

So that is it, the 3 years of Digital Animation are over. Results are in and everybody has gone home to play Team Fortress 2.

We had a lot of fun over the duration of the course. From freshers, right up to the final deadline. Our whole year group was an awesome bunch. I’ll miss a lot of those guys and I wish them all the best. Good luck, boys and girls.

Animation Showreel Underway

I’ve been doing some personal animation since we finished, with the plan to put it all into my showreel. Although I want to explore outside of animating, producing some shots would allow me to put together an animation showreel that I am happy with.

The showreel I created for hand-in was put together in about 30 minutes and was filled with a lot of crap. Doing some stuff for myself will allow me to try and put some of my own personality into it.

What Next

A job surely?! Well guess what, I have a job (just not in the games industry yet). Whilst I work, I will be trying to push my portfolio, find out what I like doing, etc. I’ll learn to rig as well. That, I’m sure of. Even if I hate it, I feel like I need it.

I have also begun messing around with the Source Engine and UDK. I’d like to add at least one game engine to my ‘core skillz’ and I think it’ll probably be UDK. Just because it seems to be so well supported. Of course there are others out there, so I will have some fun trying those out too.

Anyway, Meet the Medic. Only the Pyro left.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Last Trophy: Further Texturing, Block Through and Rig Testing

Roy Nottage — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 12:55:12 +0000

Things are coming along quite nicely for The Last Trophy at the minute, we are starting to see results from what has been going on the last few months, such as rigs, environments and textures.

Texturing

Our first pass of texturing for the room is almost complete, without any detailed painting or shaders applied. The final texturing will most likely be done by Simon, with myself possibly jumping in again where necessary. I will from now on be back to animating and other animation director duties.

Olly Skillman-Wilson has been putting together some lighting shots for the room, which have been looking very nice. He’s a great addition to the team.

Shot below without lighting.

The jungle scenes are being modelled as we speak, so texturing for those will begin as soon as UVs become available, over the next few weeks.

Block Through (from December)

This is the block through from way back before Christmas, which followed the animatic I put together and is now pretty out of date. Oddne, Emma and myself split the scenes between us. Simon has been producing storyboards even at this stage, going through something like the 8th version.

[There is sound, but it was put together during the animatic and is now completely out of sync].

Click here to view the embedded video.

The final scene was not storyboarded due to how complex it got, so I have worked along side Simon with him directing me as I animate it. That will be one of the first scenes animated, to allow Pete plenty of time to do his visual effects.

Below is my latest version of the fly-by at the end of the first scene, using Matt Luxton‘s high_res blimp model. It’ll be passed over to our visual effects master to test out some more smoke and heat haze effects.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Rig Testing

Rigs have been coming through this week, so I’ve had a chance to play with early versions of both the Hunter and Bap rigs, which Scott and Matt B have been working on. Although Bap is both a mythical creature and a complicated rig, it animates very nicely already. Matt Butler has done a great job putting it together over the last few months. Below is a quick walk cycle test I did using the ‘alpha’ version of the rig.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Once some weight painting aspects are ironed out, I’ll put up a test of the Hunter. Very shortly we will be making a start on the first pass of animation (or final block-through, depending how you look at it).

Let’s keep up the pace.

The Last Trophy: Files and UV Texturing

Roy Nottage — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 17:53:12 +0000

Back to work on our Last Trophy animation project, which went a little quiet over Christmas.

Since I last reported on this project back in October, we have moved out of pre-production, into full production. Just before Christmas I finished a rough block through with Emma and Oddne, which has been given to the Foley and music students to work with. I will post the block-through and details of that shortly.

UV Texturing

Texturing has begun and I’ve been exporting all the UVs ready for painting. Matt is still in the process of modeling for the cabin, so I’m working with his UVs as he models the objects. At the minute I am just applying very basic textures, ready to paint into once Simon produces a moodboard for us to work with.

File Management

Myself, Simon and Tom spent a lot of Tuesday morning discussing how we would manage the Maya project folder(s) and file naming conventions. Simon was concerned about the size limitations of our shared Dropbox (about 3GB, thanks to referrals), since the project is eventually going to become very bloated. We weighed up pros and cons of multiple project folders, then decided to split the project into two separate Maya projects – Interior and Exterior. If necessary, we can remove a project whilst working on the other.

With the /sourceimages library building up nicely, texture artists can grab the UVs, paint them, then drop them back in. With the project synchronised across Dropbox, we are always up to date and practically working in real time. It has worked fantastically so far, since we all reference our files from one to an0ther, allowing us to essentially work on the same file, together.

Good start so far, we are getting back into the swing of things.

Breaking into 2011

Roy Nottage — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 01:34:42 +0000

With so much going on at the minute, it is easy to forget about the blogging, so I will make sure that gets fixed in 2011. The first term (of our final year) was jam-packed with all sorts of excitement, and I’m pretty sure it is only going to get better over the next 6 months.

The Last Trophy

The Last Trophy project really needs a proper update of its own, so that’ll follow shortly. We finished the first term with a reasonable amount to support us in the New Year, though having a dissertation to do over Christmas isn’t ideal. I’m hoping to have a first draft done before going back to the studio.

Just before finishing the term, we had a full (but un-tuned) block-through animation completed. On the last day, I began learning how to unwrap UVs and create textures, since there is going to be a considerable amount of texturing to be done. Simon has pointed me in the right direction for good tutorials and such, so I can learn a bit more before returning on the 10th.

PC Gaming and a New Computer

My Christmas has mostly been spent getting giddy about FINALLY building a gnarly computer. My good friends have been helping me get into the fantastic world of PC gaming, which my poor old Dell has never been able to satisfy the requirements for. I’ve been rubbing myself all over Steam this Christmas, buying games I can’t even play yet. The holiday sales are just too good.

Of course it isn’t just for the gaming. I think it makes a lot of sense to learn as much as you can about the tools you use – and get as much out of them as possible. Most will be aware of how much I love discovering efficient software and cloud applications. That stuff gets me wet. Hardware though, it has just been a big mystery, which I left well alone. Well, not any more. I want to build stuff.

Drawing

Drawing was almost non-existent last term, except for the Dr. Sketchy’s events. Myself and Simon Acty made a deal to do 6 hours of personal drawing a week. I managed to do a week and a half leading up to Christmas, but it got a bit much the last week or so. Probably best saved for the New Year. If we can keep it going for a couple of months, throughout the year, I’ll be impressed.

2011 and beyond

This is going to be a pretty mega year. Probably the most mega in my life so far. I’ll be finishing my Honour’s Degree, my last year of prescribed education. After that, I’ll almost definitely need to get a driving license, because I can’t hack a train and bus combo to/from work each day. With no homework being set, I’ll be able to concentrate on building up my portfolio, ready to flash at interviews.

Let it commence!

Dr. Sketchy’s Halloween Special: Toy Box of Terror

Roy Nottage — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:37:52 +0000

The Dr. Sketchy’s Toy Box of Terror was possibly my favourite of the events so far, it was rammed with the fun stuff. In fact, it was basically a massive orgy, drenched in alcohol. It was THAT good.

I also bagged a copy of Bizarre Magazine for my incorporation of an octopus, since someone else was denied the prize for having won too many of the contests already. I was involved with choosing the contests for the night, surely I should have the upper hand? I must learn to rig competitions better…

The next Dr. Sketchy’s will be at Mango Tango’s. November 23rd, 7- 10pm.

Life drawing and Dr. Sketchy’s: October 2010

Roy Nottage — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 20:12:45 +0000

Been a bit delayed on the old posting. Been busy with our final major project, which you can follow the progress of at baprambling.tumblr.com. Our producer Tom has been maintaining it, helping us keep track of where we are at. I will still be posting the parts which I’ve been involved in, on here, whenever possible.

The Dr. Sketchy’s Falmouth sessions have been fantastic fun as always. The number of people attending rocketed up for the October event, probably due to it being the first session since term started again. I’ll post my sketches from the Halloween Special later this evening hopefully.

Traditional Life Drawing

A few bit from our last traditional life drawing class. Wasn’t quite the norm though, since the model never actually turned up. Instead we ended up drawing each other. Naturally most people scarpered at first break…

More life drawing sketches later.