Here is my drum set pretty much complete for me to use for my sheep to rock out to. I done a few different colours but as my main theme is going to be black ad white, i thought having a quite a bright drum set would really help to make my piece to look attractive. I also have a clip on which i intend on using from about 40 seconds in but i here is the full video. I will use around 7 seconds of this footage.

Around 10 minutes ago, i had my formative to see how i am getting on with my progress. I believe it went quite well, but i need to so some story boarding to think about what sort of camera shots i want going on. My first thought was not to have all that many, but as i thought a little deeper, it may work to my advantage, as i am having quite a heavy drum beat going on for one of my indents. As i only have 4 weeks to go i really need to start animating, so me being able to model a sheep is starting to become less and less possible. So, my latest idea is to use a Moom rig that was given to use last year and just add a sheep costume onto him. This may then become funnier for the audience as well as help me!

I am well on my way through working on Maya, and i must say, so far it has been rather enjoyable, yet i still have the hard parts to do. I have now nearly finished modeling my drum set which i am pretty impressed with. The quility of the pictures do not help as such but it does give you an idea of what i have created. I used a photo reference to help me which is bellow, but the colouring shall be completely different. As most of my work shall be black and white, i thought the drum set, should be red or blue to make it stand out.


Once my drum set is completed i then need to work on a guitar, which is going to be a little more tricky. I am going to model my sheep last because i need to do some more character creations before jumping into Maya. I am finding it a little difficult to create a sheep that doesn't look all sweet and innocent, i need him to be more aggressive.

So here is a preview of what i would like my character to look like, the only problem with it is that, it looks a little like a deer.... So any of you notice that? Remember when i had said that i started modeling my sheep in 3D, well that has been scrapped because the sheep was not going to look like it had any personality. So i went back to the drawing board and this is what i came up with. I think this shows character and that it is not just your typical day to day sheep that you see.

Today i received my Maya Character Rigging book which i ordered from Amazon about five days ago. There looks to be some really interesting things and shall help me to be able to start rigging. The only thing now is that i need the time to read it, and with all the projects and life out of university, it makes it a little difficult!
I finally received an email from melissa and this is what she had to say:

Hi Karen! As far as the model of the sheep, my friend created the model for me to rig and animate. I credit him at the end of the reel. There's nothing easy about modeling lol. We went to Fullsail University together. The method for modeling was mostly get some photo reference and model to the pictures. I drew up the ideas i had for what the sheep's face should look like and he interpreted them to work in a model. I have no idea if that's helpful at all, but you can see the sketch on my website! Sincerely, Melissa As a student studying modeling and animation... There are a lot of resources cgtalk highend3d and animation mentor links have been important resources to me. Feel free to ask me any questions! Repiled on the 17th october at 2.14pm

So, if you can gather from the email, it was not quite the information that i was hoping for, she pretty much said what i already knew but at least she got back to me and tried helping, it looks as though i need to send an email to her friend.......

My next step is to do a few more drawings, read my new book and start modeling in Maya again!

So, what is the lastest change to my progress you ask? Well! It is going a little slow. When i went into university on Monday i was feeling a little under the weather but nothing that would stop me coming in, until Wednesday. Wednesday i had my weekly lesson with Gareth and oh my, did i feel terrible!? I felt so ill that i had to leave at lunch time and have been stuck in my bed since, and yes i am in my bed right now if you were wondering.
Before when i had said that i had emailed a lady called Melissa about any tips on how to model a sheep in Maya, well, i am still waiting to hear back from her but it is not looking good. I was having difficulty processing how i would go about this. So, i emailed my teacher Jared about my situation and he was very helpful. Now the one thing i really need to remind myself about animation is KEEP IT SIMPLE!!!!! I don't have to make a complex sheep, having it simple probably makes it look more animated then trying to capture the real thing. With some useful words and websites from Jared i was on my way. But i have more of my own research which i have collected and now finding useful. A website called turbo squid ( which is a site which sells 3D models) has helped me figure out how i want my sheep to be. They had a range of different models and there was one i quite like which is going to be my inspiration.
Now i would post the picture up if i could but you are unable to safe pictures from the website, so heres the link, http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/198359.

I am now back into Maya, slowly reminding myself of everything, and i have now started modeling my sheep, though i have only created the form so far. I just need to create the eyes, nose, mouth and start doing colouring and texuring and i shall pretty much be there. Then i have all the props to make, eeekkk.
I am unsure how far i should be in my project so far, but i'm hoping i am not falling behind.

Above are a few images of The Black Sheep Bar. This should help to get a little understanding of what the bar looks like. The first image is artwork which is inside the bar, there are also other images of artists and staff who have worked there.

Okay so i have been trying to model a sheep, but there has been no luck. I haven't done any modeling so i don't really know what the hell i am doing. I've looked for tutorials but there was nothing. I done some further research and found an animator called Melissa who has animated a sheep. Whilst looking through her website, she had posted her email address for people like me to contact her.
I am now waiting to hear a reply from her to see if she has any tips for me to help out on my project. I just hope she contacts me soon. Until i can sort myself out with a rigged sheep, i don't feel like i should create other things, such as a drum set as i am worried that i will have no luck with a sheep and may even be forced to go in a different direction.

I have been told by my teacher Jared that we need to produce a blog during our first term of our second year.

The first week started off great met new people and made new friends. But now the hard work is about to begin already and what a adventure it should be.

My class were given three different briefs from which we could choose from but none of them cried to me in the slightest. To my delight, we were also able to create or slightly change the briefs to our interests.
For the time being, my brief is going to be to create three different icons ten seconds each, for a place called The Black Sheep Bar, which is in Croydon, for any of you who may know. They have a set routine each night for music, for example Thursday is metal and Friday is indi music.
I am going to focus on three different types of music, two of which is above and have a black sheep rocking out to each night.
I have done some research into The Black Sheep Bar and i am just waiting to hear from a member of staff there as i need to pitch my ideas to him and hope he agrees to what i have to say. But as they are my client, the focus is on them and i shall do whatever they ask of me, as long as it isnt something i cant model or animate.
The only issue i am having at the moment is contact with them. Ive waited a few days to hear from someone which has been non successful. So as i had a friend who used to work they called James i am wondering if i could talk to him instead.

Todays lesson we had a presentation on When I Grow Up I Want To Be......
Now even though i am not taking the character brief, there has been some really interesting information about the best way to go about making a character. My teacher showed us a book called Maya Character Rigging, which i am really interested in getting my hands on, so i am going to try and find it on the internet for cheap if possible.