Web Design and Logos Concept

This idea came to me for my own personal professional customized website. I designed the Website using 3DS Max but I can create the buttons using DreamWeaver. I will obviously need to get my own domain if I plan to do it this way.

The first link will show a collection thumbnails that link to vimeo videos of my top projects that I have made in University. 

This page will just basically tell me about myself and also include my contact information.

Personal Branding Logos

Plant shading

I attempted to shade the plant. The paint is now darker than it once was, one darker by 25% and the other darker by %50. The two images below show different types of shading that I attempted.

Sound

I booked out the sound booth room to record some sounds to be featured in my project. This would be a great opportunity to get some real sounds that I could not find anywhere online. In addition, the sounds will be at my own rhythm and at my own pace, so it will give a better atmosphere of the project.

Pencil
Using a real pencil, I scratched it against the paper for a few seconds before dropping it. The only problem came is that the pencil didn't drop the same way as the one in my movie did. The Pencil would always bounce a few times when dropped before coming to a halt. I think this is something that I could change in the animation to suit it.

 

Shoes

For the walking sound effect for the lady, I borrowed my mother's shoes for this. Fortunately for me, there is a carpet in the sound booth room, which would make a good sound for the woman walking across the room, which consists of hard carpet.

 

 Cup

The sounds from the cup are from a real cup that I have. Obviously I could not break the cup to get a sound effect for health and safety reasons but I did manage to obtain cup rolls and knocking the cup over sound effects.

Paper
For the scene which the little music note emerges from the waste paper bin, I flopped crunched up pieces of paper a few times. I also smacked the paper against the desk to make the sound effect that will be used when the paper is kicked and when the paper hits the gramophone.

 

 Here is the sounds from the sound booth that I recorded. I took multiple takes. This way, I can decide which one I feel as though could be right for the animation.

 

I signed up for freesounds.org, which provides me with .WAV files for appreciate sound effects. This video contains the rough version of the sounds that I intend to use in the project. I didn't include the soundtrack from the gramophone because that is the type of sound that I need to correlate separately to these sounds.
Sounds from Jack Vanes on Vimeo.
Project Sounds from Jack Vanes on Vimeo.

More Business Cards and Branding Statement

Here are two more business cards I have created based on the existing business cards that I looked at.

Personal Branding Statement
I am a recent graduate with extensive skills in animation interested in entering into this field. I am proficient in both 2D and 3D animation. I am creative, have initiative, am consistently hard working, can rise to new challenges and eager to learn more. I would like to be part of your team and help your company to grow.

My Business Card

I decided to go with a film strip like business card. I think it looks old fashioned but unique in a way.

Sample Business Cards

Here is a collection of business cards in the art field that I found online. Hopefully these will give me some inspiration to give me a better idea for what to do for my business cards.

The main thing I like about this business card is that it shows what appears to be a character curling around the name and information on the person. This person also added what seems to be a gradient background to the picture photo, which I personally think should've been on the contact side as well.

The cross border is what I'd say is the thing that I like about this business card. It separates the name from the smudge background. I also like the text font with each letter appearing at various heights rather than neatly in a correct line.

This person has kept it rather simple, with a simple background and basic example of a deer drawing to show the person's style. However this is not a bad trait as sometimes less can be more. I personally prefer to have business cards show the basic stuff of the person rather than have it be overly detailed.

 

 

Simple shapes such as triangles can also work on a business card. Text fonts also don't need to be overly complicated when it comes to business cards. And while the business card itself can stand out from other business cards, I feel as though the neon colours gives it a bleachy effect and can stand out too much in a negative way. 



 

I like the vector art in this business card. How it presents the head looking towards the name of the person. This person, like the other business cards, has kept it simple.



This person has taken a different route in terms of business cards. They have used a very highly detailed drawing to show off their talents. I like how the character is using the border, which shows the person's name and contact details, as a corner to peek around. The black and white colouring works well on the business card as well.

More on Once Were Farmers

Aside from being an award winning animation company, Once Were Farmers also create Visual Effects, which look very interesting. One I especially like is the use of a few layers of soldiers used to form a whole army. This sounds like the type of thing I could also consider doing on top of animation.

OWF VFX from Once Were Farmers on Vimeo.

Internship Application

In October, I applied for an internship at Charactershop, emailing the producer from the contact information on the official Charactershop website. The producer replied requesting a showreel/work examples and asking if I prefer modelling or animation. I replied presenting a showreel and answering the question. Although I didn't get an email back after that, I learned how to professionally email asking for an job/internship application.

Musical Notes First Scene

Since adding the bones to the musical notes, they have surprisingly become even harder to animate as every bone that links them together needs to all be keyframed as well as the others to keep the bone in tact with the musical note. However, despite being a more complicated process, I think this new method of animating is worth it. This new method of rig animation with bones has give the musical notes much more character and made them more flexible rather than stiff like they were before.

Musical Notes Sample from Jack Vanes on Vimeo.

Opening Scene Update

I have updated the opening scene. Instead of cutting away to the gramophone to present the chair swinging, I thought it would be better to have the camera just miss the female going off screen, where we see her shadow.

One of the disadvantages of doing it this way was that I had to add another light to illuminate the room, so that the woman's shadow will be shown when she gets out of the chair and walks across the room. The light made the image above much lighter, which would kinda make having the lamp on to be pointless.

Opening scene Update from Jack Vanes on Vimeo.

New Asset

One of the feedbacks I recollect is the empty space that occurs in the office during the wide shot screens of the area. So I thought it would be a good approach to fill in that space with another 3D asset.

So one of the most obvious and simple way of filling in the space would be to add a plant. 

The two images below show the basic texturing of the plant. The one on the left is the diffuse map texture, which will obviously be the texture for the plant. The image on the right is the opacity map. What this image does is create a mask around the texture when applied to an object, so that it gets rid of the black area.

This is the result of the texturing. Notice that the leaf texture does not have a black background but rather a clear background, which will give the impression of the leaf being on its own.

Now that the leaf is textured, I need to add a bend modifier to give the leaf a shape. The gizmo played a part in bending at this angel as there is no option to bend the leaf at this angel in the properties. 

With the duplicate tool, I created more leaves, scaling the sizes and rotating them to form this simple plant shape.

Finally I put the plant pot in the corner where the drawers and the wall meet, but not before creating a pot to put the leaves in. This will without a doubt fill in the empty space that was occurring within the room, giving it a better environment.

Example CVs

I have searched for some existing CVs that will hopefully give me some inspiration for decorating my CV. Also identifying any errors I can avoid, so I can avoid making those errors myself.

I like this CV with a personal graphically imaged portrait of the person really big on the screen. I like the introductory approach, giving the reader a charming welcome to the CV with a "Hello, I'm Matt." The orange background works well with the foreground. I also like the illustration icons to represent the skills of the person. It gives the CV a better appearance.

This CV uses no images. However the charts as the main eye-catching part of the CV to express skills. The pink strip at the top is a good idea to erase the empty spot of the CV. Though I feel as though this CV is lacking any kind of visual images that could demonstrate the graphic designer's style in digital work.

It is really interesting how in this CV, the person uses multi-layer pie charts to express their skills. And they use drop symbols to present the necessary contact information. This CV proves that there doesn't need to be a decorated background for the CV to stand out. A white background can be just as effective if done correctly.


























This CV is in black and white, which shows the person's style of the field which they work in. This person has made great use of the black and white, with only those colours alone. This CV makes me think of an old 1940s Noire Newspaper, with the large bold text and the use of tiny illustrations floating around.

Using a character to hold up a board seems like a rather interesting way to present a CV because the reader will appear to be given a presentation and will catch the eye of the reader. Big bold writing to highlight the different sections of the CV would also work in grasping the attention of the reader but also adding diversity in the text levels.

This CV isn't in English based on the look, I can tell that it relies on timelines and charts to get the message across. I do like the drawing background border. The circles in the bottom left corner showing the creativity of the person in question is in my opinion a good way to get the message across.

More Rigging for background notes

The background notes are required to be modelled as well as the project will seem uncanny if only the foreground notes are the ones with character, flexibility and bones.

These shapes have also been broken up by tiny polygons using the slice tool one at a time, so that the mesh moves consistently. The large music note will only bend sideways, rather than forwards and backwards, so I did not need to slice it up.

The purpose of envelopes is to highlight the effected areas of which the bone segment will effect on the skin. So it is important to keep the highlighted area within the required range of where the skin needs to move. The envelopes in these were a struggle to accomplish like the first ones. However I did manage to get them in the appropriate places in the end.

Business Card ideas

First business card

 

Front



 

Back

 

Second Business card

 

Front

 

Back

 

Third business card

 

Front

 

Back

 

 

 

 

 

 

What's my brand?

My Skills
My primary skills are 2D and 3D animation, VFX, drawing and graphic editing. I am very familiar with 3D Autodesk softwares. The 3D software I am most skilled in is 3DS Max, as that's the software I have used the most. Maya and Mudbox are the secondary 3D softwares that I am skilled in. I have used Adobe programs all my life so I can work with them with ease. These programs include, Illustrator, Photoshop, Animate, Audition, After Effects, Premiere Pro and Fireworks.

Interests
I enjoy participating in media outlets that help me increase my social participation. I also enjoy electronic art that provide entertainment for the virtual reality simulation. Exercise is also one my primary enjoyments, going to the gym to remain fit and healthy, as well as cardio such as cycling.

Values
In order of important to least important, here is the things I value:

• Time - This is the top priority for values as without days off, I would not enjoy the job and would not be able to the job properly. 
• Stability and security - The salary doesn't need to have a major income but enough to get by would do me just fine. And having a regular work schedule that I can get used to will also satisfy me.
• Excitement - Having enjoyment with my work will make working a lot easier
• Creativity - A lot of things in animation have already been done in the past. I would like to be original with my work and be able to produce projects that will grab the attention of the audience.
• Intellectual - Creativity is more important than intelligence, hence the reason it is below creativity. However intelligence does play a major role in this as well as I can learn new things, which will help improve my projects.
• Social - Communicating with others and exchanging conversations is how I learn, and as I learn, I hope to grow as an animator and become fully developed.
• Status - Building a good reputation will support my ability to work under the conditions, as it will keep me motivated.
•  

Qualities
Competent, Creative, Considerate


Achievements
Scholarship from Dudley College


Swot
This SWOT contains all my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that I have identified within myself.
SWOT

Animation Test

Although this is an animation test, the animation isn't what the test was about. The test was more about testing whether or not the bones function correctly with proportionate flexibility.
Animation Test from Jack Vanes on Vimeo.

Rigging

One of the notable criticisms of my final film was the lack of character from the musical notes. And upon this, I agree. The entire project relied on manual movement, scaling and rotation for the animation of the musical notes. So to start adding character to the notes, I thought a way to go is to add bones to the musical notes. This will make them much more flexible and bendy as well as squashy and stretchy.

I went back to the original file where I created the notes. And then used wireframe on the musical notes as I created bone structures. I made sure to put it in the key parts that I would be needed to be bent otherwise it would come out choppy and it would bend in the wrong area.

Before I apply the bones to the notes, I need to add a tessellate to subdivide the object, which will give it a higher polygon count. This will ensure that the objects will flex around the joint area needed and not anywhere that it doesn't need to.

Then I use a skin modifier using all the necessary bones to the objects. However there was still an issue with the envelopes, which essentially highlight the effected area of skin which the bone is placed.

Now that the envelopes have been altered, the bones now flex very well around the joint areas. This should make the musical notes more flexible, thus it can add more character.