Returning from a long Summer.

After a long summer holiday, I have finally returned for my second year of College. While I havn't been as production as I would of preferred during the holidays I have done a fair few things.

5th Stage

The start of my holidays began very busily, as I was in the middle of creating my novice round animation for NATA. My open round animation Paradox Pandemonium focused a lot on humour and dialogue. Not wanting to appear like a one trick pony to the judges, I went for a more serious animation. Originally the characters were going to be more realistic, however I knew the competition i was facing was tough and I didn't want to work out of my comfort zone. Instead I opted for a more simple design, to allow easier animation and hopefully to stand out more to the judges.

Unfortunately I hadn't used my time well during the tournament and ended up working up to the deadline for forty hours straight. With a few scenes cut I managed to get my animation 5th Stage completed. I managed to get a total score of 81.3 out of 100, while my opponent got a mighty 91.3, knocking me out of the tournament. While I was quite disappointed to be out so early, I was in a way glad to be free of NATA as it was taking up the vast majority of time. Not to mention I would of been lying if I said I didn't expect the outcome!

Click for animated

Click for animated

After the tournament I spent a long time relaxing. The hectic timeline of NATA had taken its toll on me. However I also spent time drawing and animating little gifs to keep myself practiced. I continue to put up a lot of work on my Tumblr page, though admittedly not at the rate of which I used to update it with.

New computer  

I also got a whole new computer! After the monitor broke on my old computer I thought it was time to finally get a new one, especially considering I have had the old one for roughly 8 or so years. I also got a new tablet  as my old one was not suited for wide screen use. I'm very happy with the new set up, it's certainly faster a less problematic than the old one!

I've been playing a lot of games over summer, specifically I have been heavily getting into Rouge-likes such as Dungeons of Dredmor and FTL: Faster Than Light.

Dungeon Of Dredmor

FTL: Faster Than Light

Rogue-likes are characterized by there randomised scenarios and their often brutally difficult gameplay. The idea is to die frequently throughout multiple playthroughs and slowly learn the patterns in the game. Each time events or items are randomised so each time you play it is a new scenario. I have been sinking a lot of time into these games as they are exceptionally addictive and very satisfying when you finally get luck on your side!

And of course, I have been making silly videos over summer. But I sincerely doubt that will ever stop happeneing! c:

Elephant in the Room

The theme for the next round has been revealed as 'The Elephant in The Room'. This is an interesting theme as I can take it in multiple directions. I could take it literally, using an elephant, or I could take it metaphorically, going with the idiom and having someone ignoring a blatant truth.

I personally think that the literal method is a little too lazy and obvious, but directly going with the idiom is also a little too obvious.

This theme seems to lean well with comedy and dialogue, so I would like to go against this. This will help me stand out amongst the judges.

I will have to think about this theme carefully, especially with such a difficult opponent that I have for this round.

I Got Through!

I got through to the novice round in NATA!

This is very exciting! I genuinely didn't think I would get through to the next round so I am really surprised!

32 animators have all been placed into brackets to start the tournament proper. Unfortunately I have been placed with a very tough opponent for the first round. 'Vie Rickend' Came second in the judges choices for open rounds and also produced the highest ranking animation in the tournament. The odds are not in my favor it would seem.


However this doesn't mean I am giving up. I am going to try my best to get through to the next round, having such a tough opponent has inspired me produce a really good animation for the next round.

Paradox Pandemonium

I have finished my  animation for NATA. Paradox Pandemonium!

I finished it with two days to spare from the deadline. Though things didn't go quite as planned during the making of it. I skipped out on a couple of days as I was burned out, so I had to make up time at the last minute by waking up early and spending my entire day working on the animation.

I also had to cut some scenes out of the animation, as I feared I wouldn't be able to finish it on time with them. Despite this, I feel I have done well for an animation created in under 25 days.

If I get through the Open round (which I think is unlikely) I will most definitely do some things differently. I would make my next animation less verbose and have more of a focus on movement, as it is an animation tournament after all. I would also make it a bit shorter, as it took almost all my time to create a 3 and a half minute animation. Making something shorter would mean I have more time to relax and more time to focus on the quality of the animation.

We will soon found out the results and see if I have gotten through to the Novice round!

NATA Animatic

This is the rough animatic for my NATA animation, which I have named 'Paradox Pandemonium'. Unfortunately it glitches out at the end and the sound quality isn't very good but it identifies what I want to show well enough.

Although it is rough it allows me to identify timings and the positions for the animation. I have worked out I need to roughly do 14 seconds of animation a day, taking away days I am working on college work. It is going to be difficult but I am sure I'll be able to do it.

NATA

I have decided to enter the Newgrounds Annual Tournament of Animation (NATA).

I saw the original post for it on Newgrounds and decided to enter on a whim. While I don't think I have very good chances in even entering the Open round, I think it will be good practice for my animation skills and good dicipline for working to a deadline.

The deadline for the Open round is May the 10th and the theme for this round is 'Discovering Time Travel'. I have already thought of an idea and will begin working on it straight away.