More W.I.P

Second Test Render and Resume

W.I.P crit:

Well for my animation so far, the main thing I got accomplished was reshooting my entire background and sticthing it together. This time the photos are all in focus and it looks much better, in my humbley awesome opinion. I also changed how I was making my transition from light to dark, but I feel the bottom should be a little more darker. I also put my my new background in the animation and made it look correct.

So on the character front, I solved the problem I was having with his multple layered parts and opacity. Originally since he was different layers parts of him would double up on his transparency, making him darker than I wanted. Now I'm doing all my animation with him as a solid and then precompsing. This allowed me to set a uniform opacity over him. This also allowed me to apply the "roughen edges" effect to him to make him look more like spray paint.

As far as actually animating, I didnt get a whole lot down, but I attempted to animate the falling leaf beginning. I ran into a problem though as without puppet points it looked very stiff even when 3D was enabled, but when I would try and move applied puppet points aftereffects just kept crashing. I don't know what the problem was, but it was rather annoying. Oh well I think it'll be okay later today.

Resume:

Overall, im pretty happy with how my resume looks so far, but making a new email was kind of annoying as I had to end up using my whole name. Apparently theres a slew of John Furrs creating gmail accounts somewhere. I should destroy them....

Anywhom, heres my resume thus far.

John Merrell Furr

75 Oldfield Circle, Montgomery AL, 36117

(334) 220-1487

johnmerrellfurr@gmail.com

To obtain a full-time position in the field of design with an emphasis on motion design; special interests include animation, web design, and typography.

Education

Memphis College of Art Aug 2009 – Present Candidate for Bachelor of Design Arts

with a concentration in Digital Media, Fall 2013

Skills

Adept at both Windows and Mac platforms

Design - Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign

Animation – Aftereffects, Animate Pro

Web – HTML, CSS, JavaScript

Conceptual – Storyboarding, character and concept development

Experience

2009 – Present: Mac Lab Assistant

Memphis College of Art, Memphis, TN

Managing computer labs, providing tech support, and upkeep

2004 – 2009: Video projection and Light Technician

Aldersgate United Methodist Church, Montgomery, AL

Managed projectors, mixed and fade material, set light cues, and timed lyrics

Honors

Earned the Rank of Eagle Scout

Boy Scouts of America

WIP Critique and Demo Reel

Well, I'm back from thanksgiving break, and while I was glad I got to be home I wasn't able to get a whole lot done while I was there. Though I tried to get at least a start on animating my final project. So I decided to do my opening sequence. I had actually imagined a leaf falling during the pan and resting against the wall on top of the character to be the inciting incident to get him up and moving. I dont have the leaf yet, but I do have the pan down. I'm also not entirely happy with all of his animation. I like his stand up from the wall, but I had a hard time making his walk cycle not look well dopey. It'll just take more finagling to get it right.

Now as for my demo reel, this was my first time trying to cut one together. I tried to keep it around a minute in length, but it went a little over. I'm overall happy with the transition of pieces, and I had more work than I thought I did to put in it. Now I'm just going to await critique and see what others think should change or be cut.

Calendar:

So far I'm actually on schedule, but I knew I wasn't going to get a whole lot done over the break, therefore I planned for it. So well see if I can stay that way.

Background work and Timeline

Over the weekend, I went and took a lot more pictures for my background, and started the process of trying to stitch them together. I was doing my best with no reference and just trying to visualize it as I was taking the pictures, but there's still inconsistencies. Also some of them came out of focus, because it was kinda muggy outside (at least that's my excuse). Next time I'm going to bring my tripod, and also some chalk and a tape measure. That way I can set up a line to keep consistent and do check marks along it to take the pictures at. Though here's what I've made so far.

So as far as the timeline goes, its currently 11/22, and I'm shooting for the project to be finished on 12/6. That's 14 days. Oh man. welp so I guess the schedule goes as thus:

11/22 - finish taking background photos

11/23-27 - Thanks giving break. Finish character design, and map out journey through the space.

11/28 - Have everything ready to start animating.

11/30 - Try to finish act 1.

12/3 - Finish Act 2.

12/5 - Finish Act 3 and button up project.

12/6 - Crit

12/7 - Revise

12/8 - Turn in project.

Full Color Scene and Storyboard

Elevator Line:

In a grungy urban setting, a graffiti character is inspired to climb his way up the wall from the darkness in which hes been sprayed and into the light.

Scenes:

I decided to mock up two different scens from what I'm envisioning for the project so far.

First we have the opening scene of the animation where the character first comes to life.

Second I mocked up the scene in where the character first starts his journey upward.

I'm still not entirely 100% on the aesthetic or the character design, but they're still works in progress.

Storyboard:

As far as my story board goes, I didn't have to change a whole lot, but the biggest thing was that I needed an inciting incident. I decided to use a leaf falling on the character as that, because I found that the space in which I envisioned starting the character had a lot of leaves already on the ground. I also like the idea of something natural kicking off this urban journey.

The spatial aspects of the story board are still not 100% as its relies heavily on the space thats already there. I've gone and taken many pictures of the area so far, but I need to do more. I also need to plan out his journey amongst it more throughly.

Story:

So far my story actually pretty closely follows the "three act structure".

Act 1: It opens with a showing the character sitting still in his place on the wall, and a few seconds later a leaf falls and lands on the character. This is the inciting incident for the character to get up and start moving. From there the character starts to walk melancholy like around his environment. A the end of Act 1 he sees a ray of light shining down and is inspired to climb towards it.

Act 2: The begging of this is where the character starts to climb upwards. Hes using the objects in the environemt around him and some of the graffiti already on the wall to hoist himself upwards. He starts to get closer and closer to the top, except he slips and falls. He is eventually caught by on an object before falling all the way down. Here the character lies still and the camera starts to pan away.

Act 3: The climax is as the camera pans away and another light ray slowly shines down upon his face illuminating it. This inspires the character again to pick himself up and start climbing upwards. His journey starts again, but its not any particularly easier. He finally makes his way to the top of the building and sits down to rest staring at the sky and being finally completely illuminated. The camera pans away towards the sky.

Travel Fellowship Proposal

As a digital media major, the focus of my work may appear to strictly be digital, but I believe that artists, even those in computer based fields, take inspiration from everywhere. Therefore my proposal for the travel fellowship doesn’t adhere solely to my major, but to all my interests and passions as an aspiring artist, designer, and photographer. Having never spent any considerable amount of time outside of the country, or even really out of the southern region, a fellowship to Europe would prove to me a wonderful opportunity to take inspiration from places that I might not otherwise get to experience.

France and Switzerland, one may seem to be a stereotypical destination for a euro-based trip, and the other a smaller more obscure place to travel. Except both will provide a wonderful learning opportunity. I plane to enjoy everything from museums, to architecture, to even castles, and to cultural events. France is one of the premier places in Europe to experience the arts, as it contains everything from museums such as historic Louvre to land marks like the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Tropmphe. With tons of things to visit and experience from the Notre Dame Cathedral, to the Palace of Versailles, to Chateau de Vincennes, to the Moulin Rouge, the artistic opportunities of France seem almost innumerable. France is also the birthplace of both animation and photography. The focus of my trip would be to visit mainly Paris, France, but if possible I’d like to venture out a little too to places, such as the beaches of Normandy. Overall, France would be a wonderful place to experience, enjoy, and learn from.

Switzerland on the other hand may seem to pale in comparisons to what France has to offer, except I have personal and artistic reasons for traveling there. Firstly, my father has significant interest in our family’s genealogy, and has been cataloging and researching our ancestors for years. He currently operates a website and database dedicated to our heritage called “The Furr Surname,” homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~furr/. I’ve learned from my dad that the Furr family lines runs all the way to Heinrich Furrer who was the first Furr to immigrate from Switzerland to the United States. Beyond that, our research is sparse and full of holes that I would be grateful for the opportunity to help with, by actually traveling to my family’s homeland. As far as artistically, Switzerland would offer me the opportunity to visit the homeland of the International Typographic Style. With my interests in graphic design, I have a penchant for typography, and Switzerland would afford me the opportunity to visit some of the famous type foundrys. They were the creators of some of the most prolific and well recognized typefaces in use today, such as Helvetica. Along with foundrys, Switzerland has a beautiful landscape surround by mountains that would wonder to capture through photography. It contains everything from the wondrously large Alps mountain range with peaks such as the Matterhorn, to the Rhine Falls which is the largest waterfall in Europe, and the many lakes spotting the country. Switzerland would also be a beautiful place to appreciate and document.

To document and draw from this journey, MCA has provided me with the tools and experience to sketch out my inspirations and create from them. I plan to record my entire journey through the use of sketchbooks and photography. Both my sketchbook and my camera will never leave my side. I hope to fill up both my sketch book and many memory cards worth of photos that could provide me not only beautiful images to enjoy in their own right, but with resources for future web designs, animations, graphics, and anything else I would be inspired to create.

Budget:

Flight (round-trip): ~ $1632

Hotels: ~ $900

Rail Pass: ~$300

Food and other expenses: ~ $668

Time line:

June 1, 2012 – June 15^th, 2012: Leave Memphis Tn and arrive in Paris France.

June 15^th, 2012 – June 30^th, 2012: Leave Paris and arrive in Geneva.

June 30^th ,2012- July 30^th, 2012: Arrive back home in Alabama and sort and create from my resources.

More Inspiration.