Work Placement Unit Evaluation

The work experience unit is officially over, and with it many things were learnt. With my work placement at Picasso Pictures, I had the chance to see how a small part of a vast industry works. Being in such environment and meeting such great people, helped me understand how to approach work in a production team.  With feedback talks with director James Boty from FinkBoom, t whom I mainly did work for, I understood that is crucial to be able to visualise what the director wants, and quickly show him what he wants.
Although, many times at Picasso Pictures during my placement it was very quiet it allowed me to sneak upstairs and ask productive questions to the freelancers working there.
Questions mainly were focused on work ethic, career approach and professionalism. with these talks I learnt a lot not only about the industry, my career, but also how to effectively approach university. the importance of a community in the CG and animation world.
These were the high points of my work experience, however where is highs is also lows, the only low point I can figure was the fact that it was extremely quiet on the first week, and it truly lowered a lot my esteem to face the second week, though I didnt allow that affect my work ethic, and I was hard-working as I always do.

Overall, It was a great experience, because it allowed me to meet different people and keep their contacts, for future questions. and mainly to have a taste of what the industry awaits me.

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Picasso Pictures, Production Company, 2003

Picasso Pictures is a one of the UK's leading independent production companies based in London, more specially in the animation/ advertisement field.

It all started back in 2003 when a group of producers (Jane Bolton, Dominic Buttimore and Richard Price) from the Post-production house The Moving Picture Company , decided to create a production team. The main objective of the creation of Picasso Pictures was to introduce new work to The Moving Picture Company as well as giving opportunity for new talents to shine in the animation/ advertisement world.
The initial studios were on the corner of Wardour street and only later, they moved to 9-11 Broadwick St where they still remain. This studio consists in a 4 floors building in the centre of Soho London, the 4 floors are divided accordingly, the 1st floor houses a small post-production team, which quickly, composite and edit any animation footage ready to show to the clients. The 2nd floor, consists in the executives, Jane Bolton and Richard Price,  and many producers, such as Inga Johnson, they are the people in charge to secure the jobs and ultimately are the face of the company who have to negotiate with the client.
The 3rd Floor is the place where ideas are made, brainstormed and decided, on the director's floor, many animation directors are based in there, however many others work away from the studio.
So if the 3rd floor is the place where ideas are born, the 4th is theproduction of those same ideas. The production room, houses a few computers where many freelances artists pass by and work for Picasso Pictures, giving all their best to the clients. To receive the ideas into a final product Picasso Pictures has its own Render-farm, a potent unit which allows to render the work in time for tight deadlines and picky clients.

One of the main objectives of the creation of Picasso Pictures was to give the opportunity to young talents to share their work and visions. Therefore, the studio consists in great directors who are distinct with their work.

What follows is a quick showcase of some of the directors and their work.

Tokyo Plastic

Zune Art

MTS 4G Commercial

Finkboom

ZombieGotchi

Steve May

X &Y

Alongside this great directors and many more, is a exhaustive list of freelance artists that make these ideas happen. I had the chance to meet 2 of them, and was really pleased to bo able to aske them a lot of questions.

Ricardo David

Gael Lendoiro

These 2 artists were freelance artists, who were working on one of the projects. While Gael Lendoiro,  was a generalist artist, Ricardo David is a generalist focused on animation, his strength. These 2 artists are only two of many people that work for Picasso Pictures as freelance artists, aiding with their respective skill, from concept to final product, from modelling to animation.

With a house full of talent either in the director's room or the production one, Picasso Pictures has been growing since its launch, and the success doesn't look like is going to stop.

All works are copyrighted to the named artists

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Maya Tutorials: Intro to Ncloth Week 2

The continuation of Ncloth Maya tutorials, it is great to get a bit more advanced in terms of animation with particles, etc. this will definately help step up my game for next year.

M & Ms Bag

Balloons

Tearable Surface

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Maya Tutorials: Intro to Ncloth Week 1

On the 3rd week of maya tutorials we were introduced to Ncloth. Although I have used Ncloth on my last project, it was great to see it being applied differently onto different materials. these tutorials not only deal with the characteristics of Ncloth, but also but also how to attach it to other surfaces by using constraints.

Flags

( I guess here Patriotism came in first place)


Netting

Rubber Castle

Rope Bridge

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Maya Tutorials: Soft/ Rigid Bodies Week 2

The continuation of simulation with dynamics, more precisely Rigid/ Soft Bodies. This time applying them into a more organic environment.

Flesh

Marble

Snow

Water

Bubbles

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Maya Tutorials: Soft/ Rigid Bodies Week 1

For the last unit of the year our tutorials were divided in three distinct subjects, Simulation with dynamics, Motion capture and and High Resolution modelling.

Here is the 1st week of the simulation with Rigid/ Soft Bodies, where we learned how to create models which can assume a more realistic feel.

Chain 

Catapult

Earring

Newton's Craddle

( even though I followed the tutorial, the simulation seemed to not work correctly, it still needs more tweaking).

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Anatomy sketches *1

As part of my plan for summer time, I want to get on with drawing a lot more. understand better human proportions and then apply that to my characters for either realism or stylisation. Therefore I began my own set of Anatomy classes, where i will sketch the human body, either as a whole or detailed parts.

Here is the first set of drawings:

Exploring Skull and Neck Structure- Bones and Muscles

Now back to the Maya tutorials.

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