FLIP winner badge

Just received an email confirming the award I won for Caged at FLIP festival 2011.
The official name of the award is:

Best of Festival - Audience Choice

I have also been sent the official winner badge which I have now added to the dedicated page for Caged.

Flip winner version of the Caged poster

Caged wins an award at FLIP 2011

So FLIP festival 2011 was held this weekend where i attended the event on Friday and Saturday. Considering the festival was in danger of not being held this year, the FLIP team pulled off an awesome festival that in my opinion was better than previous years that I've been to.

It was an honour meeting industry figures Bill Plympton, Barry Purves, Cosgrove Hall (they made Danger mouse!!!) and Aardman. Bill Plympton's masterclass was amazing and very informative. He also showed a pencil test from his upcoming film " Cheatin' " which I cannot wait to see. I recognised him more for his Hot Dog film so will definitely catch up on his past films such as "Idiots and Angels".

From left to right: Me, Bill Plympton and Josh


BrothersMcleod also premiered their latest film, Isle of Spagg, which was awesome. I love the style and the humour was great. I enjoyed the scenarios the little boy was put in and couldn't stop laughing.

Caged was shown on Saturday during Open shorts 5 and I am proud to announce that it won the award for best film from open shorts 5 (Each open shorts session had its own winner based on public vote).

The ringmaster sting that I made with Sector5 Studios was also shown on Friday to open the first event of the day, Open shorts 1. Unfortunately I missed it by 10-20 seconds as I was in the queue to go in to the cinema room. The winners of the sting competition will be announced online later on, so fingers crosswed we win.

Caged at Shorts on Walls

A quick update to announce that Caged will be screened at Shorts on Walls today at the Lighthouse (Wolverhampton) which starts at 7:30pm. Looking forward to going there tonight so hope to see everyone there.

process of the ringmaster 1: eyes

As promised, here's the first of a series of behind the scene posts for the FLIP sting entry we made at Sector5 Studios. I will also use these to compare my skills with the skills i had when making Caged so expect a lot of comparisons.

For this post, I'll focus on the eye as there's a huge leap from Caged. For Caged, the eyes were shaded through basic material colours. For the Ringmaster, I decided to UV map and texture the eyes following the philosophy that the eyes are the first thing the viewer will look at in a character; so it was important for me to kick the bar higher that I set for myself with Caged by putting in effort in to the eyes.


Render comparisons of how they would look in their final state

The results were noticeable straight away but there is still a massive room for improvement as I was treating the Ringmaster as a test subject for texturing the eyes. For example, the iris can be improved a lot in its texture.


the ringmasters eye was originally going to be plain colours which I've labelled Caged style


The next big change is in the blend shapes. In Caged I created blend shapes for the pupil to increase and decrease in size but it still didn't look right. The reason for this was that the iris never changed in size. For the Ring Master I made sure to do this which meant extra blend shapes were needed for the iris, eyeball, and the cornea.



The difference is subtle but pays off in close shots as well as adding to the characters personality. In this case it exaggerates the ringmasters crazy personality with the blood shot eyes.

 Whilst there's a big improvement in the eyes in comparison to the eyes i made for the characters in Caged, there's still a huge room for improvement. Perhaps in the near future, I will have another comparison between a new project and the ringmaster.

You can catch both the FLIP Sting and Caged at this years FLIP festival later this month. For more details visit: http://www.flipfestival.co.uk/

Caged to be screened at FLIP festival

A short update to announce that Caged will be shown at the FLIP festival on Saturday 29th October.

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The 3D project I introduced in my previous blog entry is complete and ready to view online. Over on the sector5studios blog, we announced that it was our entry in the FLIP 2011 stings competition. If you haven't seen it yet check it out below:



I will go into depth on the process behind this project in future blog updates.

The Cut 2011 Impressions

Decided to go against my original plan of going on the last 2 days as I didn't want to miss the debut showing of Caged.

The cut 2011, being a part of Mosely festival, took place in a pub similar to past screenings I've been to like Shorts on Walls. After a minor hiccup with the projector the screenings opened with the Brothers McLeod animation, THe Moon Bird. Even though I have seen this multiple times already at other festivals it's still a treat to watch.

My film was the 8th film shown during the 12:30 screenings and I was glad that the screening room was dark and the projector worked great as some events have shown films in lit rooms or next to a window with street lights having an effect on the visibility. I was however, slightly disappointed in the turnout with only a few people turning up. I hope the amount of people coming to the screenings improves for the next 4 festival days.

I will try to come in for next week's screenings but will definately be back for next year.

The Cut 2011 Festival begins tommorrow!

Caged will have its festival debut during The Cut 2011, showing on all four days.

The venue is The Prince of Wales Pub in Mosely. Screenings will take place on the ground floor.

My film will be shown during the following screening times:
Saturday July 9th -
12:30 Screening

Sunday July 10th -
12:30 Screening

Saturday July 16th -
2:30 screening

Sunday July 17th-
screening suitable for kids (must be accompanied by an adult)
12:30

Final Grades and my Student Degree Show experience

Still two days left for the student degree show and then my time at university comes to an end (which is both exciting and upsetting as I'll miss the 1st and 2nd years as well as the lecturers, its been an awesome time).

Last Friday marked the start of my student degree show with a private viewing for the evening. It was a very busy night and I got a lot of attention. I was extremely pleased with the evening, especially with the new contacts that I made.

The student show then opened for the public this week and closes tommorrow (Friday 9th June). The past three days have been great and whilst it's no where near as busy  I've still had a lot of interest in my film and gained more contacts.

I also got my final grades for this year which I'm definately proud of and my degree is definately a 1st by looking at my grades (13 grades out of the 14 that make up my second and third year have been A's). I was also told that the examiner found my film to be the best student film he has seen which is very motivating for me to keep animating.

I already have some ideas for new films although these will be shorter than Caged.

In my next blog post I will include a photo of my booth at the student degree show.

Student Degree Show 2011

So it's finally time for the student degree show, something I've been looking forward to since last year's degree show. It's been fun preparing for the show especially since I've been one of the main organisers of the event for my class.

It's been an interesting experience pitching for a budget, organising posters and life size cut outs as well as helping with the designs for the promotion of the animation show.

The degree show begins on Friday 3rd June with a private viewing from 5:30pm to 8:30pm. This is an invite only day so to attend and to have the chance to see Caged, you must print this e-invite off:

http://www.wlv.ac.uk/files/images/newsletters/sad/4/degree-show-invite.pdf
(allows 4 people to attend)

or you can

RSVP to:
E: art-design@wlv.ac.uk
T: 01902 322058
The degree show will then be open to everyone on Monday 6th June to Friday 10th June (no invite needed).

The sound of Caged

The sound effects of Caged consisted mostly of foley sounds that I recorded myself mixed with royalty free sound effects for scenes I found difficult to make sounds for, such as explosions. The sound effects were then compiled with the film in premiere.

However, the quality of the sounds weren't consistent as well as not simulating the environments that the film takes place in. This was solved by adding reverb to certain sound effects and composing them into the music, which was something composer, Joe Cruickshank, wanted to improve the audio of the film. Certain sound effects and notes in the music would sometimes clash. After an entire night was spent working with Joe, we finally reached the final soundtrack with the enhanced sound effects.

The enhanced sound was a definite improvement as sounds had the echo, although i reverted the bird's cough and Overlords scream to the original as the echo (which was realistic) took away from the effect that I wanted to achieve with them. So the end result was a mixture of realistic and non realistic effects to make the world believable but to also make sure the film's narrative was not harmed in the process.

Huge thanks to Joe for creating the original soundtrack and taking the sound effects to a whole new level.

Caged completed

It feels really weird but Caged is finally complete totalling at 4 minutes 50 seconds (including credits).

Really excited about showing it this Tuesday for the last presentation in my course (*sniff* If only the course was another year or two longer).

With the completion of the film ,my focus will now be aimed at it's promotion for the student show. With a poster concept ready to be printed, I can start designing the space I will get for the student show (hopefully with a life size cut out too)

Here's another screenshot of the film:



Enzo isn't happy despite his surroundings...



Caged Trailer now online!

With my film almost complete, I have uploaded the first trailer for Caged:



I will be re-editing and spending more time on the trailer once my film is finished, for now I quickly put this together to promote my presentation on May 10th. Can't wait!

Caged progress report

Things are moving at a good pace, although I have only finished the first half of the film, I only have one more environment to create with the rest being lighting so I am very close to finishing.

Alongside a screenshot, I've also posted what it looks like whilst working in maya. Enjoy.



Enzo is captured and dragged back by his feet



A special guest

Here's another screenshot of the film, this time featuring a special guest from my past work.

Can you SEE it?

Any guesses?

got any more boxes?

Here's another final render from Caged, quite proud of this shot, the shadows really enhance this scene:

Enzo lands beside Bird as their journey begins...

Enzo explores the crystal caves

Another preview of what Caged will look like with this render of the crystal caves.

shiny eyes....

Here, Enzo has followed Bird to keep him safe from the vicious Overlords.

This screenshot is different in the actual film, which is using a different camera angle.

Building the World of Caged

Now in the process of building the environments and lighting ready for the final rendering.
Here's some test renders of what the film will look like in the end. Some of the metal textures like the minecart's a missing however:



intro scene



Enzo meets bird for the first time

Caged poster

In preparation for the student show, I've designed the following poster:

This is a design that I've drawn in my sketchbook when I first began the project and before I began blogging so its great to be able to create it in its final form.

The poster also features the logo for the film which I spent today working on since I was taking a break from maya.

Caged update

its been a while since my last update and have been wanting to update the blog during that time but with deadlines getting close I found myself neck deep in work, work that is beginning to pay off now that I am getting closer to completion. 

Caged is now in a complete animated form, albeit being mostly rough playblasts and blocked out environments. With constant reminders of the deadlines and concerns from others on whether or not I could complete it were quite heavy as I had to make sure I proved everyone wrong and hit that challenge. However, I definately believe I can hit that bar that I've set myself over the past year or two, completing Caged is much more to me that just "a 3rd year film".




A still from Caged in its current rough/ early state.


2 university deadlines passed today and it definately feels relaxing even though I have less than a month for the next pair of deadlines. It isn't going to be easy but the support and feedback I have been getting is awesome motivation.

One of the deadlines was for the credits of Caged which is fully rendered and in the final state and it's something I am proud of, being able to fully realise my vision and not having bland credits. I have always wanted to experiment with credits in my past films but was either stopped by time constraints or just the inability to get exactly what I want from my mind to paper. But, the credits system is definately how I imagined it should look like and its definately a goal for me to hit for my final film; to make sure it stands up to that quality.

A Still of the credits for Caged

Anyways, after 21 solid days (and by that I mean 2-3 hour sleeping) I have the animation complete (there are a few tweaks to make however). I can now focus on making it pleasing to the eye by creating the environments, lighting each scene and rendering it out in Mental Ray.

I should have my credits uploaded by next week (out of upload space for this week on vimeo).

The student show is also fast approaching early June, so its time to start thinking about that too. I have ideas in mind such as a design for the film poster and preparations being made for a life size cut out of Enzo and Bird too.

wow, wall of text for todays blog post. Will resume my weekly-daily blogs again with screens now that a lot of the stress is clearing.

I think I have finally decided to stick with the title Caged for Project Enzo (will feel quite strange not using project Enzo to refer to the film anymore). However you may be wondering why "Caged"?

-Enzo is a slave
-Cage has a connection to birds
-bird himself is trapped in the mines
-The Overlord is also caged within the mechanical forms and insecurity
-Sticks to the one word title I like to give my animations

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Having finished all development on my characters I began animating last week. I uploaded a work in progress showing the playblasts of the animation I had created on the first day(environments are blocked out):


Caged _ work in progress 1 from Ravi Maheru on Vimeo.

I have made slight tweaks to the animation such as the bird's tail being pushed completely back to streamline the bird whilst it flies. This was simply corrected by adjusting the set driven keys.

Since uploading this video I have animated the first 30 seconds (up until the point where the Overlords startle Enzo, who proceeds to hide Bird in his hands). If there ever was an adrenaline rush in animation, this is the time in production where I have that as I'm having alot of fun animating.

From what I have so far, I really believe that this will be my best film yet, although it means tons of 24 hour days. goodbye sleep...

Also, you may have noticed new music in the work in progress above, thats thanks to Joe Cruickshank, the composer of the film who I have worked with in the past (created the music for Sentry). This will ensure that the music and animation are perfectly in sync. It's a great feeling when the project is updated with new music specifically created for it. I cannot wait to have the finished piece so you can enjoy the animation and the soundtrack.