Back to the drawing board...

Christ, that was a bad pun, sorry about that.

Well. It's over. We had the opening of the MA exposition last night, which seemed to go well, then our group went and got nicely drunk! It was really nice to see everyone, especially as it doesn't happen that often, and nice to see everyone relaxed and having a laugh...

So now, it's on to new things... I'm hoping to carry Digital Me on, and write some more articles and do more interviews. It's really made me enthusiastic about the web again, and about understanding how it works, not technically, but as a network and all the things that might include...

Anyway, the next thing is a new comic! I haven't made a comic in years, not since 1994 when I made Eek! Comic, spending my dole money on photocopying and graphics pens. The idea for a new comic started when i did some illustrations for Plug Magazine, and they spoke about giving me a page a month to develop a strip. I spoke about it with Steve and Chris, and asked them if they wanted to do some writing, so we're meeting next week to start to put some ideas down. I really like the idea of using the tracing drawings I made from Second Life, so I'm going to use Second Life as a photographers studio, and set up shots in there. Good ol' Second Life!

I'm really glad to be getting back to comics, I love 'em! Every time I move house, I rediscover my collection of favourite comics and they always get a re-read. Recently, I re-read three books from Love and Rockets, Jaime stories mainly, set in a fictional hispanic area of LA. They are amazing, and the drawing is so beautiful. Jaime's characters are so beautifully realised, but so comic-y and graphic at the same time. When I first read them, they were a real relief from the emerging 'serious' comics scene. At the time, Superheroes were getting the - ooh, but aren't they a bit dark treatment, which has become the standard for nearly all comic characters since. That's not to say that stuff like Watchmen and Dark Knight aren't brilliant, it's just that they provided a template for a lot of much worse comics to follow! Love and Rockets though, had an amazing mix of comedy, wrestling, old-style superheroes, punk rockers all brilliantly realised in a believable if occasionally surreal world. They were also comics with really strong female characters, something all but non-existent in the other comics I was reading, especially Gilbert's Love and Rockets strips, which are beautiful. Of course I know that that's a huge generalisation, there have always been strong female characters in comics, but I suspect not so many you wished were your mates. They had a massive influence on me when I was younger, and having re-read them, I realise they still have an intense power. I can just look at the pages for hours. This one pic doesn't begin to do it justice, but you can see how great the drawing is;

I can't wait to get started on this new comic, I think I'm going to head home and get doodling right now!

Back to the Daft

When Nicola and Stu left, they had a party. The theme was Black and White. Here's my costume, fashioned from some flipchart paper, marker pen and Oatibix box.

Looking at it now, I think it was a wee bit sinister.

It's the opening of the MA exposition on Friday...

100+ MA Exposition 06

Nottingham Trent University is pleased to announce the opening of 100+, the 2006 Exposition of Masters work in the School of Art and Design.

We have a comprehensive range of one-year, modular MA courses, offering a unique structure for postgraduate art and design study in the UK.

Exposition opening times:

Saturday 25 November: 1pm-5pm
Monday 27 November to Friday 1 December: 11am-4pm
The venues for this inspirational collection of work are the newly refurbished Bonington building and the Victoria studios, both of which are located in close proximity on the Nottingham Trent University City campus.





Update :
Just heard on the news that Robert Altman has died. I know he had a good innings and that, but it's very sad. Short Cuts has to be one of my favourite films, but I also love Popeye, which is darker and more subversive than you imagine. He made a really amazing tv series, Tanner 88, about a republican candidate on the campaign trail. Brilliant. I think Bob Roberts may be based on it...

So Much I Want To Say

Hello! Long time no blog.

I've been really busy the past few weeks, finishing up my MA, and I'm glad to say that finally it's all over.

It's been the usual mad rush to get everything finished the way I want, and inevitably ended up with many late nights, typing in the darkness, and the usual computer problems that only appear when you've got a deadline to hit.

Digital Me is finished, and I'll be launching it officially next week as the MA exposition. I'm really pleased with how it's turned out, and the interviews have gone really well, I'm so grateful to all the people who took part. It's been quite a ride making the project, looking back on ten years of work on the Internet, and realising how important it's been in all my work.

It's also made me think long and hard about 'me on the web', which is why I've not blogged for a bit, because thinking about why we blog and who for has raised a lot of questions - is this blog a sketchbook, is it a portfolio, or is it a diary? I think I've used it for all those things. I've certainly used it as a portfolio, I've begun giving the URL to people who are interested in my work. I've used it as a sketchbook too, and a little bit as a diary. I've avoided mostly talking about my personal life, as I'm not sure how appropriate or interesting it is to talk about your life on the Internet. At the same time, I think the Internet invites honesty, so maybe it's important to reveal at least some aspects of yourself. Hmmm, I'm really not sure.

Nicola and Stuart

One of the main reasons I haven't blogged for a little while is a personal one. Nicola and Stuart, who are two of my closest friends, have moved away. It's hit me quite hard, harder than I though it would and I miss them terribly. I feel a bit lost wihout them to be honest, and a bit lonely too. Every time I tried to write a blog post about doodles or Second Life, what I really wanted to write about was that, but I felt uncomfortable about putting that out there. My draft folder on Blogger is full of draft posts of what I wanted to write!

So there. I've said it. I'm sad about Nicola and Stuart moving away. Next week, back to doodles and adventures in Second Life.

A couple of weeks ago, I started a new job as research associate at Animation Academy at Loughborough University. It's great! We've been doing loads of motion capture, but so far I haven't been brave enough to don the Lycra suit with the ping pong balls on, need to do some sit ups first! I'm going to start blogging the work there as I go, because it's really interesting and we're doing so much stuff. We've also got some great students coming through, and I'll post links to their films if they let me.

I think that's all I have to say for now, I'm off to begin Christmas shopping, as my Mum keeps reminding me how close it is.

By the way, the title of this post is from the title of a video broadcast performance by Mona Hatoum. Isn't that very arty of me?

Digital Me!

For the final part of my MA, I'm making a project called Digital Me. I'm going to be interviewing people in Second Life, so I thought I'd need a suitable avatar. Following in the footsteps of Jeremy Paxman, who presented newsnight from Second Life a while ago, I created this little feller!

Yeh, ok, it's a little less bashed about than real life me, but I don't care, that's what avatars are for!

Plug Magazine

A Good Day!

Just made these for Plug Magazine Student Special...

Plus, I got my new job today at Loughborough University!

Plus... Machinima Island Trailer is nominated for Best Visual Design at the Machinima Film Festival!

Plus, Angels is going to be screened at the Avalon Film Festival in Second Life! I'm going to make a new avatar like Spook, one of the character in the film!

If only Karen MacDonald was back in Corro, it would be a perfect day!

The Rise of the Creative Classes

Matt just sent me this.

It's no wonder we're all so poor!

Bullet Train

I've decided to escape to the North for a few days to get the bones of my web-essay written.

I've had a load of responses from people to get involved, and I'm going to do one of the interviews in Second Life and video it!

Ricard made a trailer for Machinima-Island the other day, and it'll be available to view just as soon as the guy who's making his site publishes it - watch out for the new link down the side next week!

I nipped into Second Life today, to see if Cory Edo (who I'll be interviewing) was about. She wasn't, so I decided to take a trip on the mini bullet train in Nakama, a Japanese themed sim.

Also, we (me n Ricard) discovered a slow motion animation setting in Second Life the other day, which give more frames per movement, so you get better walk-cycles etc., which will be great for the tracing project!

Do Avatars dream of Crocheted Sheep?

I just made this image for the MA booklet. I've decided that instead of a paper dissertation, I'm going to make a website about the internet and creative process and practice on the web. It seems to make more sense to use the web to write about the web.

I'm going to include skype chats, podcasts and second life in world meetings with other web users, to find out how the web has developed and perhaps changed the way they approach their work and even the work they make. - It will be at www.digital-me.co.uk, which I'm about to register today, and I'll post the link down the side when it's available to view (or try this one).

If you're interested in being interviewed, or contributing comments to the new site, let me know, and I'll set you an account up.

The other elements of the MA are a study of my shop, and animation processes using Second Life as a live space. Yesterday, me and Andy captured some Second Life footage of my latest avatar (above) moving around, which I'm going to trace over like I have been doing with these pics.

More tracing paper pictures, played with a bit in Flash;

Tracing Paper

Hmmmm... I'm glad now that I didn't go for that September deadline for Pictoplasma - Mainly because I stumbled on this!

It hit me yesterday, while we were playing on MAYA toon settings (a set of lines and fills that give a cell-rendered effect in 3-d modelling), that what I actually wanted was a scruffy pen line, so that the characters look like doodles.

The idea is to capture footage from Second Life, then redraw over the frames on animation paper and scan them back in. It sounds long winded, but I really like the drawn look - I like it when pens don't always give an even flow of ink, so you end up with scratchy lines, then sudden bursts of ink.

So, last night, I printed out a few of the Machinima images I've posted previously, and traced over them. I really like the effect. In a nostalgia note -when I was little, my mum used to dry out the bits of greaseproof paper you get between frozen slices of meat, and give them to me and my brother to use as tracing paper. "I'm not saying we were poor" (Les Dawson voice goes here). It wasn't as bad as it sounds.

Then again, I am a vegetarian now, so maybe it was!

Next week, I'll post a short animated sequence to test it out. Let me know what you think!

Spooky Second Life Ghost Picture

More messing about with image editing from second life screen grabs...

Ok, I realise it's all just lame filter nonsense, but it's quite nice all the same I reckon, and done in a rush.

4 real?

For a while now, I've been mulling over the idea of using afictional blog as a space for developing stories and characters for my animations. It seems to offer a number of advantages as a development space - I can post short experimental video clips up there, pictures - start and stop story threads as i wish, and also generate direct feedback through comments etc.

I originally thought I might build my own system, so that i could easily post things like video panoramas, as I can do all that geeky stuff - but as I spend time writing my own blog, using mainstream web 2.0 technoligies like blogger, youtube and so on, it seems to me that what a fictional blog might need is 'realism' - in that if it is to be convincing, it should use available technology and services.

For example, although Inanimate Alice is a crafted piece of rich media which is immersive, it is made believable as a web fiction by 'Alice' posting a real life blog, and as she is a game designer, it's not too hard to believe that she would be able to come up with a nice piece of interactive Flash. - However, if i were to follow this route entirely, all my characters would have to be computer programmers!

I guess the reason I'm posting this is because I'd like to hear your feedback about whether it's necessary or desirable in web fiction for it to be embedded in the reality of the web. I've noticed increasingly in print fiction that a first person author will offer a context for why you are hearing their story. In Hey! Nostradamus -the main character describes the Invoice paper he is writing the story on - and in the 'Curious incident of the dog in the night-time', the story is told as a school report - so we are increasingly conscious of the author's world and where these words are being placed, rather than reading the voice as an inner monologue. Both examples would be great if you could actually buy them on invoice paper or bound in a plastic sleeve from 'stationery box' - but obviously too costly!

On the web though, we have that relationship and context straight away - if I write to a generic 'you' in a post - each reader assumes they are being spoken too, and the blog wraps a realism around it - it doesn't matter if it is fiction or not, the blog reader knows howto read it, how it was written and who it is for. I wonder how far this will go - are there any computer games where i'm not the character, but the character speaks to me and explains why they are speaking to me through a game?

Anyway, bit of a ramble there, but hopefully something that some of you may be able to feed back on. - Which is better for web fiction, bespoke application or existing tools?

Second Life on Channel 4

A couple of weeks ago, Channel 4 showed a series on short films about Second Life and the people who live there(?). Check them out here... If you haven't been into Second Life before, it's quite a good introduction to the whole thing - with links to good places to visit. If you join Second Life, let me know, and I'll give you a tour of the set of Ricard's film.

I've read a lot of articles about Second Life lately, and I'm still unsure as to how good it is. Actually, it obviously is good, maybe I've just got a problem with the amount of time people seem to spend in there, aimlessly swapping dance animations and virtual hair. I know that's not representative of the whole space or community, but there is a load of that. It's summer - get out and play! (Yikes, I have finally become my parents)

http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/S/second_lives

Today in Second Life...

Hooray! We are finally working with the characters to create Episode 1! Ricard has bought Comic Life, which adds speech bubbles to video and images.

I'm not sure how it'll work, as I think comic art is a personal thing - ie, You can tell an artist or writer by the style of the bubbles, lettering etc., it's as much a part of the creation and aesthetic as everything else.

So to have clip-art style bubbles and lettering seems to de-personalise it. But maybe not, we're playing with it now and we'll see how it goes.

We've achieved really nice capture from second life, which produced a really strong image with good colours - we hoped for High-definition capture originally, but couldn't get it, but I think it'll be ok as DV.












I took these screen grabs today, trying to look at how we might grade the final footage - i think the sepia with a bit of blur might work - makes it look less like a computer game, and more like something Smallfilms might have made with some ping-pong balls and a bit of felt!

Oops

Hi. Sorry for not posting for a while - It's been a really busy time. I've decided not to aim to complete 'The Trouble with Flying' before September 1st, as I don't think it's anywhere near formed enough. I'm a bit embarrassed that I said that's what I'd do, as time was clearly against me, and what with holidays, wedding season and the Eye Candy event, it just proved impossible - the major factor is that the computer I have in the shop (the one I'm writing on) is rubbish, and the thought of trying to run Second Life (let alone edit) on it is enough to make it weep.

Anyhow, my holiday in Abersoch was great - I've been going there since I was a kid, and I still love it as a grown-up. One day I'd love to go and live there, but since it's turned into holiday homeland for the Cheshire set, I'd need at least a quarter of a million pounds just to get a bedsit over the corner shop! Not a joke, I'm sad to say. We have a caravan which has been on the same site for nearly 40 years now, and that's about as close as I can get. Matt gave me his old mobile the other week which has a camera with a panorama feature on it, and I took loads of pics, which I'll post soon. I went there with Alan (my friend from since I was about 16), and his wife Emma - they're about to have a baby. Alan was excited about showing me a scan of the baby. Normally, at this point, you have to grit your teeth and feign interest as they show you a smudge which you can't make sense of, but this scan was spectacular - it was like a baby made in MAYA, really detailed and everything. One day, you will be able to design your child in MAYA and get it printed out in Rapid Prototyping. Mine would look like Pocoyo. Probably.

Anyway, back to cartoons. Ricard is back from his trip, and we are about to make episode 1 of the story - to be honest, I've been waiting ages to get onto it, but Ricard has been really busy - the plan is to get it into the Machinima Film Festival in New York in November. Of course, I expect Ricard to be furnishing me with a first class ticket to attend.

Back soon with a proper post, including Love and Rockets, Peanuts, and Why I'm sorely tempted to go and work with Monkeys - in the meantime, why not read this

More snow!

Here's some video capture from Second Life showing the snow and the head design for the main character. (You'll need Flash 8 to view it)

Snow!

I found this great snow in Second Life for the opening of the The Trouble with Flying!

The Trouble with Flying

I went home from the shop last night excited by the prospect of this quick Machinima project (see previous post). I've decided to call it 'The Trouble with Flying' - I think that's a nice title, and similar in tone to 'The Truth about Cats and Dogs' and 'Because of Winn Dixie' - both of which I haven't seen but I think the titles are sweet.

Nothing is formed yet, but here's a list of ideas that popped into my head, some of which will naturally be dumped as time goes by. These are in random order, just as thought about and jotted down.

• Mr. Vertigo by Paul Auster.
• Is it too much like Ricard's project?
• Picaresque - I love that word! It should be episodic - the episodes ultimately more important than the framing story.
• How do I make snow in Second Life?
• How much to put in trailer? - Needs to tell a story in itself.
• Some ideas; Girl meets Oracle at bus stop - is given power to fly - Monster is called Pinky, and tells the girl the future, between munching on buildings - Maybe Spook from Angels is in it, as a ghost.
• Maybe at the end of the trailer, it flicks to game controls on the screen (life meter etc.), like you've just watched the opening video on a computer game. Maybe that is just wrong.

I'm also excited (I never thought I'd say this) by an essay I am writing about the web and its effect on practice and process - it's for my MA. Initially it was basically an overview of tools and how to use them, but after talking to Frank (my MA tutor, not the scary rabbit from Donnie Darko or the drugs advisory service), I think there's a bigger essay in there. Why do these things always have to happen when all I want to do is go paddling and eat choc-ice?

By the way, me and Nicola are organising this; Come along if you can! (You may recognise the character from earlier posts!

Lovely Day Out!

Pictoplasma is coming, look busy!

Hi there. I have a long post hiding in my draft folder about exactly why cartoons for grown ups should be allowed to be cute (see Pocoyo post), plus some great quotes from Charles Schulz. It's proving to be a bit of a difficult one, but I'll post it as soon as it's done. In the meantime - I got an email from Pictoplasma today, calling for film submissions for their upcoming conference. 'Angels' was in the Characters in Motion screenings last year, and also in the book and DVD that accompanied it.

So, I need to make an animation before 1st Sept! I'm desperate to do it, even if it's just to justify a holiday in Berlin in October! I've decided to work in Machinima, using a character design which didn't make it to the final cast for Ricard's project.

She sort of looks like this;

To make character development simple, I'm going to exploit Second Life to the full, and take advantage of it's in-built tools. I'm also going to pretty much use this doodle as the beginnings of the character/story. This gives me a set of rules.
Here they are;

1. She is a bit sad to begin with.
2. It is cold where she lives.
3. She can fly.
4. She can teleport to new places.
5. She can change into anything.

I'm going to develop the piece as a 3 minute trailer. The rules suggest a longer story with episodic sub-stories. The teleport immediately allows for 'Quantum Leap' (that's not me being clever or fancy in any way, I mean the 80's sci-fi series with Scott Bakula) story development - she can be anything/anywhere each time, framed within a larger journey.

And that's all I have, although I'd like to include a monster. Maybe one that eats towns. But it's pink - and really cute. She is friends with it. I think I'd like ghosts in it. I'd also like a baby faced oracle who lives in the sky - maybe the narrator?. It should also have some romance in it, because that would be lovely. Maybe the episodes are true stories. So it's a documentary, set in Second Life. Narrated/presented by a girl who can fly. Er...Oh. I don't know, I might be getting carried away.

That monster I was telling you about.
Baby faced oracle who lives in the sky...

Ok, here goes - it starts like a fairy tale, a girl in a cold, gloomy Northern town wants to get away. One day she discovers/is given the power to fly - and change into things. She flies off. The trouble with flying is she doesn't know how long she can fly for, so occasionally she drops from the sky and lands in places she knows nothing about. And then all sorts of crazy adventures ensue.

I just thought - this might be a way to start off the fictional blog stuff too. I'm sure this is just cos I'm off on holiday next week - I'm already getting into the beach ideas flow.

Any ideas? - Seriously, if you have any - please let me know! I'll credit you on the film - you can even come and do a voice if you like! Anything - plots - tales, character ideas, new places to visit...whatever!

All apologies...

All apologies to Pocoyo, Where the Wild Things Are, BatImp etc. - Thought I'd post this doodle as I'm trying out some new character design ideas - I think it's quite sweet though! I've made some wallpapers of it - if you want one, contact me and tell me what size and I'll mail you one.

One of the artists, Alula (Sherry Pollitt and Andrea Scott), who sells work through our shop introduced me to the Japanese word Zakka, which they described as 'products that make you feel happy and light as air'.

I looked it upon Wikipedia, and got this;

"Zakka has also been described as "the art of seeing the savvy in the ordinary and mundane". On one level the zakka boom is just another in a series of consumer fads, but on another it's plugged into something spiritual. Cute, corny and kitsch is not enough. To qualify as a zakka, a product must be attractive, sensitive, laden with subtexts."

Finally, I have found a doctrine to live by!

Pocoyo!

I just discovered Pocoyo! Andy at work told me about it. It's the cutest thing I've seen in years, beautifully made and animated. Why aren't people making stuff like this for grown ups?!