Hi. I’m in Delaware.

What to watch: The minutes of Duke’s bench. Duke has seven players that Mike Krzyzewski trusts right now: his starters, Josh Hairston and Tyler Thornton. That’s it. Against Ohio State, freshmen Amile Jefferson and Alex Murphy played a combined six minutes. Coach K will not play a freshman for the sake of letting him learn if he’s not doing the right things in practice or in games. Games like today give Murphy and Jefferson a chance to prove they deserve minutes. Duke could use the depth, but Krzyzewski is not going to manufacture it.

Random Delaware facts: Monte’ Ross was hired as Delaware’s head coach in 2006, and it was the first time since the 1994 season that Delaware wouldn’t be coached by a former Mike Krzyzewski assistant. Current Notre Dame head coach and Krzyzewski assistant Mike Brey coached at Delaware from 1995-00. Former Duke guard (and assistant) David Henderson took over from 2000-06. …. Delaware still hasn’t played a home game this season, and won’t until December 4.

Prediction: Duke, 95-72. After Duke’s previous four-game stretch, this should be a breeze.

Miami (4-1) at Massachusetts (3-2), 2:00 PM, CBS SN

What to watch: Reggie Johnson. The senior center did not play against Jacksonville a few weeks ago because of a “sore tailbone”. After scoring 22 points against Stetson in the season-opener, he has 23 points total in three games since. Miami can win without him being a force, but it would be a lot easier if he could be more consistent.

Random Massachusetts facts: UMass is quite the stepping stone job. John Calipari, who took UMass to its only Final Four, left to go to the Nets in 1996. Bruiser Flint succeeded him, resigned in 2001 and went to Drexel, where he’s been since. Travis Ford was hired in 2005, had a good year and was snatched up by Oklahoma State. Steve Lappas is an interesting exception, hired in 2001 but basically let go in 2005. He had just one winning season. Before UMass, he took over at Villanova for his mentor, Rollie Massimino, who stopped speaking to him as a result. Also, people don’t seem to think he has the voice for his current job, a basketball analyst/studio commentator for CBS Sports Network.

Prediction: Miami, 73-61. I guess.

No. 15/17 Oklahoma State (5-0) at Virginia Tech (6-0), 2:00 PM, ESPN3

Pistol Pete is always watching.

What to watch: Erick Green and Marcus Smart. Both have been spectacular this year. Smart hasn’t had a game as good as the one he had against NC State a few weeks ago (20 points, seven rebounds and seven assists), but he’s still been very good. And it appears that Virginia Tech’s up-tempo offense suits Green well.He’s averaging 24.3 points on 51% shooting. He has always put up a lot of points, but often had to take a lot of shots.

Random Oklahoma State facts: Pistol Pete might have a freakishly large head and creepy expression, but the character he’s based on is beyond awesome. Frank “Pistol Pete” Eaton(1860-1958) saw his father murdered by “lawless former Confederates” when he was eight years old, so he basically tracked them all down and killed them. And he killed two of them before he turned 17. He also used to pick up lumps of coal with his feet.

Prediction: Oklahoma State, 81-80. Virginia Tech can win, but their defense is probably not far enough along yet. It should at least be a very entertaining game.

Green Bay (3-3) at Virginia (5-2), 4:00 PM, RSN

In the 60′s and 70′s, everybody was all about some papier-mâché mascots.

What to watch: UVa’s point guard situation. Senior point guard Jontel Evans is still coming back from injury, but freshman Teven Jones also made a somewhat recent return to the lineup (after suspension). UVa is 4-0 with Jones, and the freshman is averaging 6.3 points, 2.5 assists and a steal per game. Evans played 16 minutes against Wisconsin and didn’t score or record an assist. It’s going to be a process for him before he’s fully healthy, but Jones should still factor into the rotation.

Random Green Bay facts: Until Elon came along and ruined it, Green Bay was the only school to use the Phoenix as its mascot. That became the team name in 1970 after a schoolwide vote. But the alleged runner-up name, “Fighting Tomatoes”, would’ve been ever better. … This is a personal game for UVa head coach Tony Bennett, as Green Bay is both his and his father Dick Bennett’s alma mater.

Prediction: Virginia, 71-45. The Cavaliers have looked better and better since some of their pieces have returned to the lineup, and the win at Wisconsin on Wednesday night was big.

UAB (4-3) at No. 14/13 North Carolina (5-2), 6:00 PM, ESPNU

RIP, Beauregard T. Rooster.

What to watch: UNC’s veterans. For the Tar Heels to have success this season, their older players must play better. In the blowout loss at Indiana, no one seemed able to step up and make a play. James Michael McAdoo struggled (4-of-15 shooting), but his three older teammates – Reggie Bullock, Dexter Strickland and Leslie McDonald – combined to shoot 9-of-24 and 0-of-4 from three. Bullock and McDonald were just 3-of-14, and Bullock in particular has been a non-factor too much this year. He’s used to deferring, but he simply can’t anymore.

Random UAB facts: UAB’s mascot is a dragon named….Blaze. No really, that’s its name. But perhaps the best-loved mascot was Beauregard T. Rooster, who performed at games from 1979-92. The San Diego Chicken sued for some sort of infringement. Seriously.

Prediction: North Carolina, 81-67. UAB’s squad is coached by former North Carolina assistant Jerod Haase in his first year as a head coach. The Blazers have been competitive against some good teams, and they won’t be afraid. But UNC should win this game at least somewhat comfortably.

Wake Forest (3-3) at Richmond (5-2), 6:00 PM

The new and improved Richmond Spider. At least it has all its legs?

What to watch: Can Wake Forest play any defense? All signs point to ‘no’. Wake’s opponents this year are shooting 46% and averaging 74.2 points (in low-possession games). Offensive juggernauts like William and Mary and Nebraska have torched the Deacons’ defense so far this season. So a team that actually is pretty good offensively in Richmond shouldn’t have many problems. But if Wake Forest wakes up defensively, this game could at least be close.

Random facts: The question everyone wants to know: why the Spiders? Well, because of legendary pitcher Puss Ellyson’s “lanky arms and stretching kick”, of course! Oh. Also, Richmond revamped the mascot’s appearance in 2011 because fans were complaining that the mascot didn’t have eight legs. They should have complained that it looked like a ladybug:

Prediction: Richmond, 72-58. Go ACC!

DECEMBER 2

Clemson (4-2) at South Carolina (5-2), 12:00 PM, ESPNU

Big Spur was initially South Carolina’s mascot, but the tail was a hazard.

What to watch: Clemson’s newcomers. In the loss to Purdue, Clemson’s freshmen (Adonis Filer and Jordan Roper) and transfer DeMarcus Harrison combined to shoot 4-of-17 from the floor. Without Milton Jennings, an offensively-challenged Clemson squad can’t afford to have those guys disappear, even against a bad South Carolina team.

Random facts: The costumed rooster we see today, “Cocky”, is supposedly the son of the original, “Big Spur”. He was booed off the field in his first appearance because fans thought he was “not dignified enough”. Please, try to suppress your laughter. And South Carolina might have some of the most famous/successful mascot alums of all time (at least in the mascot world) – the original Cocky, John Routh, later became Billy the Marlin. Tommy Donavan went on to be Sir Purr for the Carolina Panthers.

Prediction: Clemson, 64-57. It wouldn’t shock me if Clemson dropped this one – they’ve lost to bad South Carolina teams before – but with the exception of the Purdue loss, Clemson has looked pretty good and competitive all year.

Mercer (3-4) at Florida State (4-2), 2:00 PM, ESPN3

What to watch: Michael Snaer. As he goes, so go the Seminoles. In their losses, he shot 5-of-20 (2-of-8 from three). In wins, he shot 46.3% (11-of-21 from three) and averaged 17.5 points. If he struggles and his teammates do too, this is the type of game FSU can lose. But if they’ve come as far as they seem to have come since their season-opening South Alabama loss, they should win this one easily.

Random facts: Mercer originally became known as the Bears when they played Georgia in a football game in 1892. The Mercer players had handlebar mustaches and long hair. When they came out on the field, a spectator said, “Whence cometh that bear?”

Prediction: Florida State, 84-69. This Mercer team almost beat Wake Forest at Wake earlier this year. The key word is “almost”.

Maryland (5-1) vs. George Mason (5-2), 5:00 PM (Washington, DC)

Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon forced freshman guard Jake Layman to cut off his awesome long hair. Don’t worry, Jake. He can’t block your shine.

What to watch: Can Maryland ever force turnovers? Whether it’s through a combination of bad luck, defensive strategies or really careful opponents, Maryland is forcing just 9.8 turnovers a game (6.8 a game in the last four). If they’re ever going to force any, now is the time: George Mason is turning it over on 22.3% of its possessions, according to Ken Pomeroy, which is 227th nationally. They can win without forcing them, and it’s probably just a statistical anomaly, but it’s bizarre to say the least.

Random facts: The leading scorer in George Mason history was Carlos Yates, who was killed at age 27 in a drug-related shooting. And just so everyone knows that people have been writing borderline-controversial columns for a long time now, this guy seemed to think he was asking for it?

Prediction: Maryland, 72-60. The Terrapins were impressive in their dismantling of Northwestern on the road last week. George Mason is a pretty good team, but not a great one, and they should make relatively easy work of Paul Hewitt’s squad.

ACC/Big Ten Challenge: 6-6
Last week: 15-9
Overall: 57-18

But for this scene it’s a lot slower, which is nice, maybe the main reason I was finding this scene difficult was due to me making  imagery that’s pleasing without havign extra animation to save me, since it remaining the same frame for more than 3 seconds… Which can become boring if nothing is happening (heck look at old Disney animations none of the character remain still after more than 1 second).

Anyways 52.4 seconds complete, this scene is almost finished and all that is remaining is the final 20 seconds and the Spanish Flu and Nipah are complete.

Feels good now that this scene is finished…

Anyways here part of the updated scene, naturally certain animation areas need fixing which is what this weekend has been and fixing issues within the animation, which include the farmer animation, I’ve come up with another idea which involves gears to display the epilepsy problem and inflammation of the brain, I’m keeping the cough scene though.

As for new pictures of the scene:

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And SWF preview can be seen here.

Anyways I’m also going to talk about my process I’ve been using while creating this piece of animation.

I usually sit and listen to the audio and draw up anything I believe would be a potential idea for an animation on a particular scene, I quickly do a scribble and write out my idea on paper, I then start drawing images in a separate flash file and then import into the main file where I animate inside a large Graphic symbol. This basically allows me to ‘cut’ up the scene, since flash already has scene manager already built, I prefer to work on the same scene timeline instead of another because it can cause playback problems, hence I prefer Toon Boom method of individually animating each scene and then importing into a video editing program which are compiled together.

The storyboarding on this project has been very free for me since I build one each time I complete a scene, it makes the project more fun rather than having to stick to a ‘finished’ storyboard, however at this stage it also shows HOW important storuboards are, all the pre-thinking has been complete it’s just a matter of creating animation content, no errors of thinking if a shot would work since it’s all been tested previously and experimented with, we’ve done the check up in pre-production HOWEVER we can’t move away from the storyboard, so another idea pops up which potentially can be better than the last idea, it can be a kick in the teeth.

The method I’m employing now is okay for what I’m doing, I’m a one man team at this stage so I can change whatever and whenever, however time is always a factor and in a busniess it’s also money so my method of storyboarding would be too risky for businesses (but thankfully I don’t ant to be a storyboard artist because it’s brain draining).

However I attempted  a quick animatic which can be seen here.

Terrible animation and I only  took the first scene and I just went with the flow and from the looks of it’s been a good decision. So yes not having a static storyboard isn’t always  a great idea but for this project it’s been fine, however for animation wise this isn’t complex, if it was per say character animation, it CAN then become very dangerous, and I attempted that in cell by cell and I hated the outcome… a lot, to the point I skipped my presentation and lost marks. So really due to these trials and errors I have good idea on how I want to tackle per-production, either just jump or take it slow, Intermission is a good example of fixing and working in pre-proudction and in result won me an award, so really it’s the content that’s involved.

Anyways heres that quick sketchy coloured and somewhat complete (I need to add the owl into the mirror). I don’t feel this needs finishing, looks and feels crappy but it was fun. Feels… empty to me.

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Anyways I can use this as reference when I model this rather large entrance in 3Ds max.

Anyways this week I’ve made a test design of Gretel, to be ready to be imported into Maya and rigged.

The process of taking Gretel a part can become rather complex, since I have to re draw pretty much all of her again so that each part can be animated and rigged individually within Maya , so the more parts I have the more fluent the character can become but naturally the more you have, the more parts to animate, so really it’s striking the middle ground for this type of animation.

in the images are the process, I individually re drawn and coloured each part until i have Gretel as a whole.

Next week hopefully a little animation tests and finally I can then start with Unity.

To note this won’t be the final design of Gretel. I still need to add shading, some extra detail and colour changes etc

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EDIT: fixed the drawing

No. 9/8 Duke (1-0) vs. No. 3 Kentucky (1-0), 9:30 PM, ESPN (Atlanta, GA)

Should have guarded the inbounds pass, Rick.

What to watch: Who runs the point? NC State transfer Ryan Harrow will miss this game for Kentucky with the flu, so it looks like walk-on Jarrod Paulson will see a lot of time again. Against Maryland, he was great. But can he do it again? And for Duke, Quinn Cook is not listed as a projected starter and didn’t start the opener. Tyler Thornton takes better care of the ball than Cook generally, but he’s not as much of a potential game-changer. It will be interesting to see how that rotation develops.

Is Mason Plumlee ready to assert himself? Kentucky’s bigs are inexperienced, and Maryland’s frontcourt dominated them on the backboards last Friday. Nerlens Noel was the No. 1 recruit in the country, but Plumlee is athletic enough and certainly savvy enough to get the better of that matchup. He’s “the guy” this year for Duke, and this is his time to show why.

Will Alex Murphy play? This question speaks for itself. And if the redshirt freshman – who was a healthy scratch from Duke’s opener due to “match-ups”, per Krzyzewski – does play, where will his confidence level be?

Random Duke-Kentucky facts: They’ve played just five times in the Coach K era, and Duke is 4-1 in those games. And yet this is being billed as a rivalry game. It’s a bit one-sided in that Kentucky fans still have a lot of bitterness towards Duke stemming from the 1992 Elite 8 loss. A lot of the hatred from Kentucky fans stems from the fact that Christian Laettner didn’t miss a shot, including hitting this game-winner…

…but it didn’t help that this moment came earlier.

Chris Farley as Christian Laettner. No, seriously.

This guy hates Duke almost as much as he loves Jagermeister. But a Duke football shirt?

Prediction: Duke, 67-61.

Delaware (1-1) at Virginia (1-1), 7:00 PM, ESPN3 (NIT Season Tip-Off)

Blue Hen, or Gray Hen? You be the judge.

What to watch: Joe Harris. Joey Hoops has literally accounted for 30% of Virginia’s scoring so far this season. He’s going to need some help at some point, but he’s been very efficient. Can he keep carrying that load until Malcolm Brogdon and Jontel Evans come back?

Random Delaware facts: According to the Delaware website, the Fightin’ Blue Hen comes from the Revolutionary War, when the Delaware regiment started putting on cockfights with the Kent County Blue Hen.

Prediction: Virginia, 57-49.

Florida Gulf Coast (0-1) at Miami (1-0), 7:05 PM (Fort Myers, FL)

What to watch: Miami’s defense. Allowing 79 points to Stetson on 44% shooting (42% from three) to go with 20 assists on 28 field goals for the Hatters? Yeah, that’s not very good.

Random Florida Gulf Coast facts: Florida Gulf Coast’s mascot is an eagle, because – per the University website – “The Eagle serves to identify not only the physical environment of Southwest Florida but also the University’s relationship with it.” Okay. He did hit a halfcourt shot and win free books for a year:

Prediction: Miami, 91-68.

NOVEMBER 14

Presbyterian (0-1) at Georgia Tech (1-0), 7:00 PM, ESPN3

This guy played football for Presbyterian, and he was on “The Bachelorette” this summer.

What to watch: Presbyterian’s turnovers. It could have just been a fluke, but Georgia Tech forced Tulane into just four turnovers on Friday.

Random Presbyterian facts: One of their former football players was on “The Bachelorette”. He got in a a bit of trouble for saying he wanted a “trophy wife”.

Prediction: Georgia Tech, 81-57.

Last week: 11-1

Overall: 16-1

At this stage I’ making great progress so it’s best I keep at this pace, usually means I’ll have extra time for editing and polishing up in post production.

Anyways the images are progress screen shots of the frames and me testing out composition.

Can’t say I’m the most optimistic about this topic area although it is going to a good cause AND anything goes (animation wise) as long as it’s based Movember movement.

So in advance I apologize for people who follow me… I always seem to be stuck in Pr-production let meeeee move on damn you!

As for execution probably be the use of Flash since the ideas I have  are small (and silly) Toon Boom will be for the big boys animation.

As for ideas it’s somewhere between robots and ponies.

I’ll likely post this on Vimeo and YouTube.

Robocop hollowed out a special place in my heart since I was a kid and I never had been able to grow past it. The ultimate good guy, father, husband, and unshakable honest cop until his death. Then resurrected by the corporation indirectly responsible for his demise to battle evil with a virtually indestructible body to match his unbending will. The first and second movies were phenomenal. They showed the world from the “near future” that is not unlike our own now. A corporate dystopia, businesses have an iron grip on a new status quo where the rich control the poor and human lives are a disposable commodity. A place where a man can be brutally gunned down right in front of you and in less than 2 minutes, you are celebrating a personal victory. “That’s life in the big city.”.

The first movie was dark and graphic. So graphic in fact, that some parts of the movie can only be found in special edition DVDs or as clips on YouTube these days, such as extended scenes of Alex Murphy and Kinney‘s murders. They had to be edited down to take the movie from Rated X to Rated R. I can see why. In the uncut version, Murphy took roughly 43 shotgun shots all over his body and one bullet to the brain. Kinney took approximately 84 large caliber machine gun rounds in his death. Very graphic stuff even for adults. Feel free to click the links to YouTube and see for yourself. Unless you are a hardcore fan, odds are you haven’t seen these cuts even if you have seen the movies.

One of my favorite scenes is when Robocop goes back to his family’s home and finds it for sale. Things that remind his family of him have been abandoned and/or destroyed. Books, pictures and a coffee mug that says, “Worlds Greatest Husband”. In this place, he gets the most powerful of his memories returned to him. His son idolizing him, a Halloween afternoon with his family, and his wife passionately professing her love for him in the bedroom. I love that scene because even though Robocop is nearly entirely mechanical and we only get to see just a small part of his face, you can clearly see… no, clearly feel the pain and rage that builds up in him until he decides to leave. Peter Weller is without a doubt the absolute best choice at the time for this role. I wonder if Joel Kinnaman can match Weller’s virtual perfection.

I want to see another Robocop movie. Desperately so in fact. I want to scrub Robocop 3 from existence. A movie so bad, that even when I saw it when it was released on VHS (kids, ask your parents what VHS is), I knew it was offensively bad. So I am completely on board for a new Robocop. I just wish they took the same route that Bryan Singer took for Superman. Instead of a reboot, he simply cut the terrible movies out of continuity in favor of his. But I suppose I understand. This is the movie generation of reboots. It just is that I have my reservations on whether or not the reboot can eclipse a movie that still stands the test of time to this very day. The special effects obviously are dated after 25 years but if you can look past that at the plot, the execution of the film, and the deeper struggles of Robocop, this reboot seems largely unnecessary.

Then there is the manner in which reboots often fail in today’s time. They are all about the explosions and that is supposed to make up for lack of content. Take the new Dredd movie for example. The 95 movie was… not good but it had its cute moments that made it worth watching. So in theory, it would be no problem at all to make a reboot vastly superior to the original. Not so here. The reboot was packed with clichés, was unimaginative, and mostly a very loud shoot ‘em up snooze-fest. Actually the only thing that made it mildly interesting was the slow-motion scenes. I fear the same for this reboot. No depth, just mindless action. I hope it rises above that though. The reboot does have an amazing all-star cast. People like Samuel Jackson, Hugh Laurie, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Abbie Cornish, and new actor Joel Kinnaman.

If you’re a bloke, you will probably, find these questions irresistible:

‘Who is the greatest footballer to play for England?‘ or, ‘Who is the best rugby league scrum-half, ever?’  I find that men (though not only men, and not all men) can’t resist the conversation and the debate (and the argument) of such a question.  Of course they are impossible to answer simply because of their sheer scope and of course, it’s very hard to be objective when it comes to such subjects.

That day, in the Temple courts, a lawyer is listening in on the conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees & Sadducees and he has this urge to ask the sort of question that those men present, simply couldn’t resist.

Of all the commandments, which is the most important?  Mark 12 v.28

That would be sure to get the debate up and running.  The Torah contains some 613 commands.  Can you imagine the disagreements in debating the answer!

The problem with questions like these of course, is that there will never be any real consensus and a huge amount of energy and emotion can be spent in the debate, and for what?  No definitive answer will be agreed upon and our lives will be no better for it, though it may have even harmed some of our relationships!

But of course it isn’t the answer that is important here.  The Scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees all loved to talk and debate.  Questions like these would fill the Temple courts but for many this would simply be an intellectual exercise.  It is possible, at an intellectual level, to have all the right answers without necessarily having a real commitment to the ideas being expressed.  You could talk & talk about which is the greatest commandment until the cows came home, but where would it get you?

What is important to you…

So think about it another way: Imagine your house is on fire and you have to evacuate and you have just enough time to grab one thing to save, what would it be? Your children, your laptop, your wallet, your passport, a present from you parents?  What would it be?  What is it that is really important to you?  If you think about the lawyer’s question in those terms, it gives it a greater gravity.

Jesus, in response actually gives two commands in his answer:

The most important one… Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. Verses 29 & 30

Here Jesus quotes from the book of Deuteronomy.  What is the most important command?  To love God with everything we have; this isn’t just an intellectual concept; it’s about loving God with our heart, soul, mind & strength… Jesus continues:

The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’  Verse 31

Again, Jesus quotes from the Old Testament.  These, says Jesus, are the most important commands and in answering in this way he goes to the heart of the matter.  Jesus speaks of love and not duty; it is about our attitudes, our loyalties, our relationships that count, not a simple code of rules.  Love is at the heart…

More than a feeling…

But it is important that we understand something more; we are commanded to love God, but we are also told to seek him.  ‘Seek’ may be more helpful than ‘love’ for the language of love can easily become confused with a ‘warm’ feeling of being on God’s side which unfortunately leads to no change of behaviour, no sacrifice, no promise to serve him till the end, or to stand for justice.  It’s like coming to the conclusion that of course, the greatest ever scrum half was Alex Murphy (I suppose you have to be a Rugby League fan to know who he is).  What difference does that make?

Seeking is more.  Seeking speaks of determination, of hard choices and being disciplined in reaching the goal.  It also speaks of not yet arriving, but travelling in the right direction and taking steps toward it.  It’s a bit like making the decision as to what to save from your burning home.  The choice has a meaning and a purpose; it will effect you for the rest of your life; it brings you to the point where, maybe for the first time, you make a real choice as to what is really important!

Jesus tells the lawyer and us, that the most important command for life  ~ real life ~ is to love.

And the lawyer knows this. Look at his response:

You are right… to love God with all your heart, with all your understanding, and with all your strength and to love your neighbour as yourself is more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices. Verse 32 & 33

To say these words in the Temple ~ the place of sacrifices & burnt offerings would have taken great faith and great courage.  This would have been such a challenge to those of the Temple, for whom burnt offerings & sacrifice was the only way of relating to God.

The implication is clear; if these are the two most important commands; if this is what real worship, real love and real serving is all about; then all the ritual of the Temple is not necessary and ultimately will not bring eternal life.  When the chips are down it is loving God and loving our neighbour that counts, not sacrifices and burnt offerings.

What do people see…

And the challenge I believe for us is the same.  When people look at us in our churches and our ‘Christian communities’ do they see us arguing and debating over irrelevant and ultimately useless questions, or do they see a people who are constantly seeking out true meaning in life by they way we love both God and our neighbour?

Blimey it’s wise to keep re-drawing rather than sticking with your first image…. I find her a little bit weaker than Gretel (maybe Gretel has more charm?) However Erica style came out great and feels ‘correct’ in terms of drawing, a little bit of negative space but meh she’s cool. Next will be Boris ,Aaron then they’ll be drawn in different poses and finally colour! And characters sheets…. And animations!  Okay sorry to waffle….

Anyways more drawings to my little game project.

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Blimey this scene was re-designed… alot of! But the end result feels great and I’ve completed 18.4 seconds of my animation (total been 80 seconds) so the progress so far is advancing quickly, however progress will slow even more if I don’t storyboard as well. Why storyboard? It so that i don’t keep stuck in a rut, although experimenting is very important (heck that’s what I’ve be doing all evening) it can prevent progress and having  a storyboard there allows you to keep moving, remember it’s not finished so if there’s time you can always come back, the storyboard just acts as a guide, rather than going with the flow, which can fun but you my end up losing the plot or purpose, thus wasting time… a lot of time!

(Reason why we have animatics too!).

Anyways what i experimented with:

• I tried creating a computer scanner, so when a light goes across an object it disappears… turns out I can’t make the image ‘disappear’ due to complications (way too many tweens, causing problems).
• I tried making  transition when the error message occurs (didn’t really work, a simple flash worked better).
• In result I made the interface (with the world map on) as a computer monitor, so in motion it looks like someone is accessing a computer and manual controlling it.
• The feel looks like a war meeting or military observing  a pandemic.
• I didn’t intend this but ‘accidentally’ happened! Which I’m glad!

Overall I’ll need to post the animations of the tests to understand where I’m coming from.

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I like the colour scheme I’ve used so far even though it wasn’t really my intention to use (I was going to go with green but hey this looks nice!). From the screenshots, I’ve gotten around 10 seconds  of animation done, which means I have 70 seconds left to complete on this particular disease. From the screen shots the images are a more advanced animatic, usually this stage I’m experimenting with drawings, animation etc Just seeing how things work. So really so far it’s just been one big experiment from my old animatic. As for the task this weekI intend to have 20 seconds done by the end of next week. I’ll also post a couple of my animation tests which majority will be the viruses which are consisted of mechanical parts, so it was fun drawing cogs and gears for these.

Wait cogs and gears for viruses? Well yes viruses are considered as non-living (due to the structure),  its a debated subject, in fact there just copycats of nature! In fact they work in a mechanical, systematic way, I thought I’d design them as machine parts. Naturally this concept may change later on.

Nothing is really final at this stage.