Pixel Portfolio

A quick update for the blog. I have now added a new page at the top called Pixels! This is a seperate gallery dedicated to my pixel work that I had created for a game project I worked on.

Head on over by clicking Pixels! on the top menu or just use this link below:
http://ravimaheru.blogspot.com/p/pixels.html

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

Blog version 2

With the end of the S5S blog, I can resume my focus on this blog and what had bothered me for a long time was the look of the blog. So it was the perfect chance to give this blog a makeover. However, it hasnt just got a new look but has been updated with new content.

With the new blogger update for viewing images in a slideshow format, it was clear that I needed a gallery page. Also, I have added a seperate page for my showreel with indepth detail on what my contributions are to everything shown in the showreel which I believe will be helpful for any jobs I apply for.

I plan on adding more pages in the near future but for now I can call this blog v2!

Graduation Ceremony

My graduation ceremony was held yesterday at the Grand Theatre in Wolverhampton. I was quite nervous about the event but it ended up being a great day, despite wearing a suit and gown (former being something I'm not used to wearing).

Me on the far left.

The graduation for the school of art and design began at 2:45pm with my animation class being seated on the front row which meant that we got to go up on stage to collect our degree first. Luckily I didnt fall over, drop my hat or make a fool of myself on stage so all went well.

It definately felt weird as this ceremony marked the end of my university life which I've enjoyed alot and will definately miss.

Extended Showreel now online

I've uploaded my extended showreel that was on display during my degree show. I felt that my main 1 minute showreel didn't give much attention to my older work so I created this 3 minute extended showreel to show off my non-3D animations.


http://vimeo.com/ravm/longshowreel

I will also be updating my deviantart gallery too with Caged related work such as stills from the film and concept art so keep an eye out for updates from there. Now that I have a twitter account, I can use that as the central hub for all my sites.

Student Show Photo

Finally got a decent photo of my booth for the degree show. The Life size cut out of Enzo and Bird to the right of the image is barely visible unfortunately.



Caged was shown on the left monitor whilst my extended showreel was shown on the left monitor

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I have also submitted Caged to the OneDotZero festival, making that the fourth festival that I have submitted it to. Fingers crossed that my film is picked for the screenings.

Twitter

As you can see I've added my twitter updates to this blog, which I joined a few days ago.

Follow me at:
www.twitter.com/ravanimate

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?

New semester starts

Has been a really busy holiday (for me it just meant working all day at home). The big presentations are now done and provisional grades are coming in which have been awesome for me so far; really motivates me to work even harder and to do better than what I've achieved so far as theres always tons of room for improvement.

Project Enzo is the biggest project I am working on and it is a huge risk but its the result of constantly pushing myself further with each semester. I've reached a point where I have to outperform myself from each previous semester and its something I really hope doesnt bring me down in to a mess as even I can understand just how difficult the road ahead is. But Project Enzo is more than this as it is a chance to prove to myself that I am capable of reaching my life dream.

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Will be attending "Breaking into animation, armed with a crayon" by Curtis Jobling. Looking forward to it as it's quite intimidating with the end of the 3rd year quickly approaching.

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Don't have much to show since my last blog update, my body caught up with me and I couldnt concentrate on work for the past few days thanks to going to sleep at 3am-4am daily and a few 2 hour nights in between. It's annoying as I want to keep working but I find myself falling asleep. So a few days rest and I'll be back to normal as I want to get as much ready for 2nd semester which starts next Friday.

Muybridge Exhibition at Tate and British Museum

Back from the London day trip to see the Muybridge exhibition at Tate. Enjoyed it a lot as I had never been to Tate or British museum.

Muybridge Exhibition

This was pretty cool, although I was surprised how small it was (for some reason I thought it was going to be a huge exhibition). Found quite a few good reference photos by Muybridge that would help a lot with Project Enzo; like the studies of the birds and mining poses.




Muybridge's Bird Study



Wanted to buy something related to the bird studies but couldn't find any other than the book so I left with a pose-able wooden hand (<impulse buy and it will be useful for drawing and modelling hands).

Forbidden Planet

We also went to Forbidden Planet, which I've been to before but it was still awesome. Wish I could have got everything from there.

British Museum

I was shocked by how amazing it was, the moment you enter the court hall inside and realise how big it is... felt quite intimidating and felt like I was standing inside something from God of War. Didn't get too see much because of how little time we had (some of us had decided to quickly find a McDonalds which turned into a long search so we had 35 minutes to see as much of the museum as possible). I was glad I was able to see the Egyptian exhibitions as I loved studying ancient Egypt when I was younger (alongside space and dinosaurs). Was quite surprised to see the 'mummified' Cleopatra there too.




Mo, Matt, Gary and me got impatient for my phones camera to work



Disappointed we had so little time to check it all out, but I definitely wouldn't mind going again just to visit the museum.

A Gorilla's shortcut

Been working on this piece over the past 3 days (perhaps around 8-12 hours was spent on this, not sure).

Anyways, it started off with the face which I designed on a cushion when watching TV. By design, I mean using your finger to change the direction of the pillow material so that the light and shade forms a picture...if that makes sense. I will always find a way to keep drawing and designing even if i dont have a pen and paper.

So I scribbled the idea down on paper before i lost the cushion's version but had no idea what to use it for.

Well, then I thought why not have the Gorilla surf on a giant banana...right?

Click for bigger version....

The Best Shortcut

As the sun sets and it gets late, the Gorilla takes a shortcut...

I will always find time to paint (digitally) as I find it's great way to take your mind off other pressures like work. Sit back, listen to music and draw...that's my way of relaxing and keeping my motivation high.

Now...back to work.

(Also posted this in my deviant art gallery too)