Raa

Life After Uni

2011-09-21T05:55:00.000-07:00

Hay everyone,

I had a good time on the course and learnt a great deal. I was disappointed that i was unable to attend the graduation ceremony. Umfortunatly though I had to go into hospital for surgery and was not released until after it had happened. It was sad to have not had the opportunity to see everyone one last time.

Sinces then alot has happened and i am currently employed as a junior graphic designer at South Nottingham College in thier marketing department and... i... am... loving it. its a bit of a change in direction in what i was studying at Trent but having come from a graphics background it is something that i am very passionate about.

Trent was great and I'd like to thank all the tutors that took the time to help.

I'll be seeing you

SPP3

2011-05-11T12:28:00.000-07:00

Cataogue Text

Martin is a very passionate person and looks forward to new challenges. He is very confident at learning new software in a short time frame. During the last two years he has been studying 3D he has demonstrated competent understanding of 3D Studio Max and Mental Ray. He has produced a wide verity of work ranging from character modelling, rigging and animation, to visualization and lighting.

Catalogue Images

client project

2011-05-11T12:04:00.001-07:00

here is my completed client project with some of the additional information.

I worked to an animation brife from the D&AD website that had been set by Disney.

The brief was to design a character for a leading role. The challenge was to develop the characters personality.

here are some rough designs.

So Here it is The Werewolf Kid

Summery of year 2

2010-11-10T12:24:00.000-08:00

During my second year i had to make my most important decision, interactive media or virtual environments it was no easy decision and came with lost of sleepless nights but eventually i got their. Below are the projects i covered over the year and my outcomes for them. Oh iv not included the spp stuff because i don't feel its relevance.

Projects Term Two

Up Above Down Below-
Design a roller coaster that takes you to either outer space or under the ocean.

A roller coaster in space, not much else to say about that really.

Verdict: Quite happy with this.

Of Bots and Bananas-
For this project we had to design a robot and rig it(put bones inside to help it move). once we had done that we had to think of a way to make it interact with a banana peel... yes that old gag.

basically its the old banana gag with a twist.

Verdict: Quite happy with this.

Card Game-
Also for this term i had to design a brand new card game.

Project Term Two and Three

Fantastic Airport-
This is already on my blog but i suppose it wont hurt having it on twice.
In this project we were to design a full scale airport, a fantastic airport.

I designed an offshore wave powered airport. This design is intended to help preserve land space. i presented it in a minimal style because i wanted it to resemble an architects preliminary model.

Verdict: Very happy with this.

A Nice Cup of Tea-
Again this is already on my blog but i suppose it wont hurt having it on twice.
For this we had to design an original character rig it and animate it making a cup of tea in the most creative way possible.

Basic rundown is Cecil about to make a cup of tea slips on the milk he gets out of the fridge only to wake up in a dream world.

Verdict: Very happy with this.

Board Game-
I had to also build a board game

Here We Go

2010-09-28T01:50:00.001-07:00

So I'm all enrolled iv got my timetable and ready to go.

A nice cup of tea

2010-08-10T02:18:00.000-07:00

i should have posted this sooner.

fantastic aritport

2010-08-10T02:16:00.000-07:00

this should have been up earlier.

I designed an offshore wave powered airport. This design is intended to help preserve land space.

Brilliant

2010-04-04T12:21:00.000-07:00

Right everyone should remember seeing this video from our first project on this course... EVER it was the Minilogue/Hitchhikers choice video whiteboard animation video that inspired the project, still not got it ok here it is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u46eaeAfeqw

So to the point of this blog i just this second found a remake of the video and think everyone should see it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yK249UWDxM

I think this remake is brilliant, not as good as the original mind you because thats a classic.

Force Five Freakout

2010-03-15T02:13:00.000-07:00

Only seven weeks left of class time (9 in total) AHHH

Visualisation

2010-03-03T13:26:00.000-08:00

Fantastic Airport (This is gonna be a long post)

So i have to design an airport... fantastic airport. The question I have to ask myself is, where should my airport be? what purpose is there for my airport?

Firstly i decided that the ocean would be a good place to start as it would give me an opportunity to learn some new skill such as; realistic ocean textures, daylight systems, and an underwater environment that resembles foggy water.

Secondly why would there be an airport in the middle of the ocean? Because of new Atlantis. Picture this a city under the sea inhabited by millions but how do they get to mainland or how do we get out to there.

My idea is an airport with no runway because that's quite dangerous water and planes don't really mix also the average landing strip is 2 miles long that is a lot of needless modeling so the only planes will be VTOL aircraft, this is probably they way aviation is heading.

Here is a list of learning outcomes and things to consider.
-Utilizing daylight systems
-creating a realistic ocean surface
-creating a fully functioning airport
-create a realistic underwater scene
-foggy/murky
-animals?
-bubbles?
-ruins?

I will put up some of my drawing soon but for now here are some images i have been using to help inspire me.

Character Research pt 2

2010-02-07T05:15:00.000-08:00

I decided that id rather design a mad scientist type character even though i had gotten as far as building my old man in 3Ds Max i looked into mad scientist characters particularly Emmit Brown of the Back to the Future series.

below is the character that i have designed next i will look at different contraptions and other inventions to fill the environment. This characters name is Dr Von Burke

Character Research pt 1

2010-02-07T04:45:00.001-08:00

First i thought about maybe creating a character of an old man so i looked around and found some images of old men to use as inspiration when designing mine here is a mood board to show my resources.

Here is the character i designed his name is Cecil

BUILDING :: STRUCTURE :: ENVIROMENT

2009-10-28T14:42:00.000-07:00

Physical Environment

The environment is for anyone, probably because it’s pretty hard to confine a national park to a particular group. The environment its for social activities like walking orienteering. it is also a preservation site housing wild deer and birds. The park is organized be park rangers, they clean and tidy the park. It is funded by a pay and display car park at the entrance of the park. There is also a small café at the far end of the park. The park is pretty well sign posted at the entrance, there are also bridal paths in the park that are signed. And stamp posts for orienteering. I feel sentimental about the park because my grandparents are from Leicester and have told me many stories about the area. There are a few problems that could prevent and hinder me from visiting the park such as; weather, bad weather could prevent me form getting there, money, no money could prove to be a problem i.e. not being able to pay for parking.

Crazy pet owners of the world unite

2009-10-22T15:20:00.001-07:00

http://www.pawbook.com/

Not really much to say about this social network sight other than it is of cause a social petwork. I would go into detail about it but i feel its pretty self explanatory. there is a zoo of social petworks for cats dogs general pets like the one featured here and strangely enough hamsters http://www.hamsterster.com...told you. I chose this one because after googling 'social petworks' this was at the top of the list. what an absolutely brilliant concept.

VS

2009-10-22T15:10:00.000-07:00

http://www.rivals4ever.com/

as far as websites go this one is less designed than the previous, but as far as concept and content go this one must be amongst the top few. basically its a social network site aimed at pitching two things against each other (two rivals), members can choose who they want to side with and discussing who would win or somthing along those lines. rivals can be very normal things like say, Slash vs Tom Morello, slash has 2 fans and tom has non, sorry tom. there are others like Nike vs Adidas. there are also really strange rivals like Boeing vs Air Bus, and classic rivals like Godzilla vs King Kong. i could go on but there really is not much else to say other than it is a brilliant network. join it now.

Out of this world

2009-10-22T15:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.alienufosightingsvideo.com/

For this task i found a very bizarre social network site dedicated to UFO sightings. It is hard to tell if its all serious, i think it may be. As far as websites go its brett basic there's not much going on. The sight is dark grey and a majority of the font is green (nice). Im unsure as to how many members there are on the sight i know for a fact there are three as on of the posts on the main page has is from a group with three members. I don't really know how to review something like this other then it is just truly strange.

First journal task

2009-10-15T14:50:00.000-07:00

Joel Schafer

Joel Schafer has a vision and that vision is more 3D on the web i would love to see more 3D on the web. I can relate to lots of the statements made in his answers "easy to use easy to find" web sites NEED to be accessible otherwise the viewer gets board and lost. also command and conquer is the best cure for any level of designers block... classic game.

Dan Saffer

I found it very difficult to come up with a constructive comment on this interview as i am not feeling particularly inspired by it. he does make some interesting comments particularly "Usefulness, usability, and desirability. If your design fills a need in people's lives, works well, and looks beautiful, you've got design gold." I found the section on mistakes newbies can make and how to avoid them interesting but other than that i got lost with the text and unfortunately a little distracted.

Its Good to be Back

2009-10-15T14:46:00.000-07:00

So this is my first post of year 2 and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by it all. I'm also currently toying with the idea of moving to 3D but i have an awful lot of thinking to do... Yay for me.

Identities

2009-05-12T08:02:00.000-07:00

So I'm going to make a multiple choice questionnaire about me should be good when its done but you will just have to take my word for it for now

2009-04-17T07:08:00.001-07:00

http://sg.motorola.com/motospeed/

campaign for Motorola produced by TokyoPlastic

One Shot Film

2008-12-09T13:30:00.000-08:00

For this project I was asked to work in a group to produce a short film, filmed in one shot. The twist however is that we film three shots and two of them are shown in the final viewer perspective shot. I enjoyed shooting this film and editing the sound and text. If I had any criticisms with my video it is with the credits at the end i feel they go far to fast but it is all a learning curve so I'll keep trying and learning.

My group members were:-
-Steven Carrol - lighting and equipment
-Joe Whawell - Actor and concept artist
-Samantha Kirk - Actress
-And me Martin Stanley - Cameraman

Why are we willing, as soon as we can afford it, to pay extra for things with appealing forms?

2008-11-04T09:46:00.000-08:00

Other things have an impact on aesthetics like for example the current release of HD. With it there have been televisions, DVD players even television broadcasting comes in HD, for a price of course. It isn’t just by choice any more though, we are all being told that by 2011 we are going to need a digital television or we wont be able to watch our shows. People are going to pay more for it because in the one hand we want what is new and exciting and in the other we don’t have a choice but to pay more for a television that shows more aesthetic pictures and looks impressive in a room.

In this ever-moving consumer world its pay out of your own accord for the newest best looking thingy on the market or buy it because you have no choice and are being told you need it. You have to decide are you going to be brainwashed into getting it or get it because its your only option.

Why is it we want our belongings to do more than just function well?

2008-11-04T09:15:00.000-08:00

The other week I bought a new monitor to replace my old one for my PC. I had to choose between two made by Samsung. Both models are 22inch and have exactly the same specification the only difference is one is newer and the older one has a pebble shaped case making it look like a television rather than a monitor. I found both monitors at various places for roughly the same price only the monitor with more expensive search results was the older and pebble shaped model. I also found that the monitor regarded as the most aesthetics was in fact the pebble.

I went with the newer model and after lots of searching found it for around £140. I preferred this style because it looks like a monitor not a television. This led me to believe that people do not always pay more for aesthetics over practicality. For example I paid less for a monitor that is regarded as less aesthetic and blend into the room and not be so noticeable even though it’s a large monitor.

Then I realized that I had in fact followed the norm of the modern consumer as my computer set up was fine as it was the graphics were a little set back and the monitor was not DVI but it worked. The only reason I bought the monitor was to make the GUI more aesthetic.

This leads me to believe that everything we buy has a direct relation to aesthetics weather we realize it at first or not. For whatever reason we are buying something we buy it with aesthetics in mind it has been this way since the 80’s this do I really need it oh well it looks pretty mentality that society has nowadays. I think people feel they need to express themselves through their belongings it allows us to show sides of our personality that we cant always show in general conversation.

Pixilation

2008-11-03T11:01:00.001-08:00

So I had a go at pixilation last week and this is what I came up with. it's a lot harder than you I first thought it would be you have to be so patient and and make tiny movements with what ever it is you are animation, otherwise things appear to jump from place to place. I think I will definitely be giving this style of animation another go because it is very effective look. I do think my animation could have done with sound but I am still getting use to the software and in any case this is something I can experiment with in my own time so keep posted to see other ideas i come up with.

Recent Multimedia Technology

2008-10-27T12:47:00.000-07:00

Using the infrared camera in the Wii remote and a head mounted sensor bar (two IR LEDs), you can accurately track the location of your head and render view dependent images on the screen. This effectively transforms your display into a portal to a virtual environment. The display properly reacts to head and body movement as if it were a real window creating a realistic illusion of depth and space. By Johnny Chung Lee, Carnegie Mellon University.

A few months ago I found that someone had done something really interesting with the Nintendo Wii. The thing in question is a virtual reality display basically this means that with head tracking you can turn your flat dimensional screen into a full 3D world that will move depending on where you yourself move (you move to the right and you see more to the left and so on). As stated in the demonstration though this effect will only be stunning to the one with the head tracking which is a bit of a shame that no more than one person can experience it. I think that this break through with the Nintendo Wii technology will have a big impact on the way we play games in the future and it has the potential will no doubtfully change the way we play games. With this technology apparently possible it is a shame that Nintendo did not opt for the Wii to have better graphics and match say the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 but in any case pursued in properly they will defiantly come up with something interesting, perhaps a re-release of Far Cry Instinct but with motion tracking.

Motion tracking technology dose not have to end with games it could be used for educational purposes. What if using what if you could walk around the world galleries and see some of the most famous paintings in the world. A person in France could walk around the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and see a Jackson Pollock painting or a person from New York could walk around Le Louvere and see the Mona Lisa. As for how easy is it to feel if you’re actually there, there are already companies producing full peripheral vision monitors, you could though just create a wall of monitors about 6 foot high and there you go you’re really there. I think there is still a lot of work to be done with this technology but as it stands despite the lack of a mighty graphics card and processor Nintendo’s Wii has a massive advantage over its competition.

What do i want to get out of my course

2008-10-08T04:25:00.000-07:00

I want to expand on my current strengths and learn some new ones as far as what I want to specialize in if I knew that (coming from an HND) i would probably be in the second year. Obviously i want a digree but mainly I think its a personal goal.

What did i do on my first week?

2008-10-08T04:04:00.000-07:00

Monday - Monday was slightly boring mainly because I spent the best part of the day sitting in a hot lecture being talked to. The worst meeting has to have been an hour long meeting listening to a woman describe every last thing about NOW. Annoyingly enough when I got home to have a look for myself I didn't have a clue what to do. Oh also I watch Fringe the new JJ Abrams (the creator of 'Lost') TV series and it is very very good.

Tuesday - Tuesday, what can i say other than I now know i don't like dark, crowded rooms and my short term memory isn't to good (due to dyslexia) so Tuesday was rather interesting. I am really fond of photography and whenever an opportunity comes along for me to take some photos I jump at the chance so Pinhole photography was probably one of the most interesting things iv done. All in all a pretty good day.

Wednesday - Today I set up my online journal and had to write two past tense posts about what I have done this week and one about what I want to get out of the course its going to be a challenge keeping up to date with this whole blog thing as I have never really been keen on the idea of the blog but I can see the reason behind this one so I am more than happy to try looking forward to tomorrow as I get paid and can buy pretty things... Yay.