Details are sketchy

Ok.. so a few days ago I was bored waiting to go back to Sheffield and decided to remember as many different animated tv series I watched when I was younger and name my favourite ones. Turns out, I watched a lot. It's not really surprising that I did when I'm an animation student now but I thought you guys might like to get a bit nostalgic or maybe even learn of a new series you could watch. It's been so hard to pick a top five to write here, but here they are:

6.(Yeah I said 5 but this had to be in here)

Digimon

This is one show that no matter how cheesy it seems when I look back at it, I will still remember watching it with some paper and a pencil infront of the tv drawing all of my favourite charaters and the endless Digimon that they met on their adventures. I absolutely HATE when people say that Digimon was copying Pokemon. I myself loved both shows and their storylines were completely different. This story much more depended on the friendships of the characters for them to get through their trobles in the "Digital World". There's a lot of cheesy moments with "friendship" and "love" and "belief" thrown in there but it wouldn't be a great nineties series without it. This series, much like Pokemon has been done to death with many seasons and different Digimon introduced and the first season is definitely the best. I have a lot of good memories watching this after school and got a lot of drawing practice from it too (I think I have some around at home somewhere actually..). Anyway, great show and had to be on the list.





5. Dexter's Laboratory

Ah, Dexter's Lab.. a great show by the brilliant Genndy Tartakovsky, the genius behind many nineties cartoons that could all be in this list, including The Powerpuff Girls and Samurai Jack. His unique art style always stuck with me as one of the greatest simplistic drawing methods around and through his writing he managed to bring a constant stream of situations, crazy and inspired that were put across by the mind of the genius that was Dexter. The diminutive intellectual would create an experiment in his secret lab in his room while his parents sat downstairs blissfully unaware. That is, until his sister Dee Dee come along to ruin it all for him. This sibling rivalry was the thing that made the show so great.
Another thing that I distinctly remember and loved is the segments about Dexter's pet, Monkey. Dial M for Monkey was a great little segment that followed his pet's adventures as a superhero while Dexter was ignorant to it all. These layers of misunderstandings and ignorance of aspects of the show by the characters living in the house were great examples of comedy, along with perfect traditional wacky animation which are what I think made it so well remembered.





4. Hercules

The tv series based on one of Disney's best animated movies of that time, Hercules is such a great extension of an equally great movie. Disney animated shows were always flawlessly animated by some of the greatest we've known in the last couple of decades and the huge mythology of Greece allowed for many, many different characters and plots to be brought into the show. It's a bit strange really because it contradicts the film somewhat so is not considered canon but it really can stand on its own. I can't really explain what was so great about this show, other than saying it really was. Voice acting talents such as James Woods made this a show I could watch over and over and never get bored of. The characters of Cassandra and Icarus always provided a great back and forth and the show again helped a lot with my development as an artist as I'd basically draw anything put infront of me.





3. Looney Tunes

One of the greats. I really wouldn't have been so enthusiastic about animation if it weren't for the legendary Warner Brothers animation studios. I really don't think I have to introduce the characters that are the Looney Tunes but here:
Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Sylvester, Tweety, Marvin the Martian, Taz, Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner, Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam, Pepé Le Pew, Speedy Gonzales, and many more.

The animation will probably never be surpassed, with the greatest squashes and stretches and perfect timing. The characters are all so indivudually brillaint that any of them could and did have their own sections dedicated to them. Personally, Syvester and Tweety and Bugs were my favourites but then again, I liked Daffy with his irritable personality nearly as much.

Currently, the animation industry is really missing this great dynamic style and I really hope it returns soon. I was so influenced by this show and I could keep going on and on but it's not quite as nostalgic for me as the next two.



2. Pokemon

Yeah, I know, it seems childish now but I will always stand by my love of the original Pokemon series. The endless possibilities of stories revolving around a game I played at the time: what more could I ask for? As everyone knows, the show follows ten year old Ash with his friends Misty and Brock, all Pokemon trainers who go on an adventure together. There really wasn't a lot more to the episodes than them trying to get to the Pokemon trainer's ultimate test: the Elite Four.

I think what was so great about this show was that every kid who watched it wanted to BE Ask. They wanted to explore and it really evoked that sense of adventure in kids. Each pokemon was different and although it has (in my opinion) gone downhill since, I will always have fond memories of getting in from school and following their quest, guessing the pokemon in the break, then going to play on my own game. I don't think anything will steal more years of my life in total than this franchise, not to mention that "Pokemon: The Movie" was one of the first cinema going experiences I can remember and has really stuck with me. So I think this show really deserves to be in the top few.




1.
Dragon Ball Z

This show was originally broadcast in Japan starting in the late eighties and continuing through the nineties, ending its run in 1996, but I started watching itaround 1998 when it first aired on Toonami (RIP), one of the best channels of my childhood. I was amazed by it, a show about aliens that weren't the typical little grey/green things that abducted people, but instead kicked ass! The story arcs were interesting and although they were drawn out, you'd never find someone getting bored and leaving. This show was like nothing else and until then, anime was a really rare thing to see in the UK and I loved every minute of the fast-paced fighting, interesting characters, menacing villains and to be honest I though the comedy mixed with the violence was awesome. Another thing is, it was actually a sequel series to "Dragonball" but I much preferred this one. If any of you don't know of this series (and I'd be really surprised if you haven't) then this is the plot of the show (All via TV.com):

Many years have passed since Goku first searched for the Dragon Balls. He is a grown man, with a wife and son. He and his friends have settled into their own lives and, for the most part, things are rather peaceful. Then one day, Goku learns he is really a Saiyan and comes from another planet. Now… More begins new adventures for Goku and his friends as they defend their home against new, more powerful threats.

As you can tell, it has a very Superman vibe to it and that's a lot of what it was about; a guy who always thought he was normal but finds out he's not. You'll see it a lot in 80's/90's tv and even today.

But just to get to the point of this choice, it had every element that a show needed to be brilliant; great characters, strong plots in every story arc and flawless, fast and some of the most dynamic animation ever produced. Great show all round.


So that's them all, I'd like to hear what your favourites are so feel free to comment!
Thanks for reading, I might add some more soon so keep an eye out for an update :)

Ever have one of those moments when you realise just how little free time you really have. Lately I've been having a lot of these. Looking through my 3rd year Univeristy timetable, I have a total of 12 hours in lectures and semesters each week, which really doesn't sound like a lot but I can assure you it's exhausting. They say that you are meant to do two hours of work outside of Uni for every hour in so that's 36 hours in total. Yeah, a lot, but i'm probably (well definitey) not doing this much and I really should be.

I don't mean to say this isn't fun in any way because I'm enjoying every minute of it but honestly, with my leap into the industry only two years away and my level of knowledge in Animation still so limited, it's a little daunting.

Alongside this, I'm currently studying French, which is going great. I'm starting to be able to understand whole chunks of writing and listen to tv shows and films and good grip on what's happening. I've honestly been slacking a bit when it comes to this though, with my inteded amount being an hour of French exercises a day, but lately i've been too swamped to do this. So I make do with listening to Smallville or a movie in French language in the background or with English subtitles when I'm having a break. It's a really fun way to do it and has helped the speed of my comprehension, to say I can understand things that before were much too fast to follow.
This blog seems really rushed and I'll probably hate how it sounds in the morning but it's gone midnight and I'm tired, been to see The Social Network (which by the way is a great movie) with my friends after class and I just want to sleep. Another thing I've been going crazy for lately is the Animation Podcast, which everyone who's a fan of aniamtion should check out. Animators for Disney and other great studios talking about their experiences in some of the best animated films of all time. Great listen. Ok, I'm going to listen to some more of these and go to sleep, up early for more work (on my day off) wooo!

This past couple of weeks I've been swamped with work at Uni and looking for a job to get some extra money in, but no luck at the moment. My final University project has begun and it's pretty great if I do say so myself.
The basic idea behind it is that a man is sitting in a coffee shop looking around him. He spots a guy sitting across from him who it staring at the waitress working in the shop. He is besotted and can't take his eyes off her. But she barely notices him. Taking out a sketchpad, he draws the two, the guy first, signing the picture at the bottom. Then the girl, also signing this picture. As he does, the girl looks up, finally noticing the guy and their eyes meet.
He goes home and takes the pictures, pinning them side by side on a wall. The camera begins to zoom out, revealing many drawings of couples on a huge wall. Back at the coffee shop, the couple are holding hands. He smiles and walks off past the
shop.

My main character, I decided, would be based off Joseph Gordon-Levitt, mainly due to the similarities in character and look. Without being blatant, I hope it's clear that he is Eros, or Cupid, bringing people together with his drawings.



My second character, the waitress, will be based on one of my favourite actresses, Felicia Day. The character is beautiful but unaware of it, here's a few more drawings..



I haven't got the third character designed yet but as soon as I do, I'll upload to here.

Another part of this project that I did simply for myself, to try to get my head around the characters and who they really are was to write a short narrative about them. It's not finished but this is what I have so far. Enjoy, and I'll post another blog soon:

Sitting alone at a table in the most typical of coffee shops in the most ordinary town was a man. This man waited for nothing but knew something would eventually turn up, not for him but for someone else. Everywhere stood elements of the classic Italian coffee house; canvases with picturesque little shops with old Italian men buying their daily espresso, beautiful young women riding Vespas down the winding cobble-stone streets of Rome or Milan. All in black and white of course, it wouldn’t look nostalgic in the normal vivid colours of these places, despite the fact most of the customers were business men and women driving through or the locals who had never left the country. Contemporary glass ornaments sat in shelving units, filled with coffee beans that gave off such a rich aroma he could not help but take a moment to enjoy it. The deep brown wooden chairs and tables, along with the soft oversized armchairs that sunk almost to the floor when even the lightest person sat on them, gave the place a warm welcome feel. The clean, shining coffee maker resembled something you would find in a diner of the nineteen-fifties and although it should have seemed out of place it only added to the character of this quaint little coffee shop. Despite all the manufactured elements that made up this wonderful place, a place he could have stayed all day, there was one thing that caused not a break but a minor crack in the illusion. The coffee. Ever since his first visit to Italy, quite a few years back now, a cup of freshly brewed coffee never tasted quite the same. He was quite the connoisseur when it came to good coffee and had always found there was no better bean than the Columbian, straight from the plant and made as fresh as any coffee could be. Nonetheless, this cup of coffee was absolutely fine. It was the best in this part of the world in fact and so he found any chance to work in the area. Working was what he was doing today, but as it often was, work was scarce so he did what he always did, waited. He often got compliments from the women he met and twice already had been approached by women, both beautiful, who wanted his phone number. He had politely declined. They were attracted to his boyish good looks that while young-looking were also chiselled. He had long brown hair that he brushed to one side. The words most people described him as were “classically handsome” which had always made him laugh.
Once he had finished his first coffee, he placed the cup back to the saucer gently and called over the waitress. Long red hair tied back into a ponytail and a black blouse and trousers with a green apron tied around her waist, she looked stunning. In fact, maybe stunning wasn’t quite the word he would use. She was beautiful indeed but there was something about her that made her invisible to most men who visited the coffee shop. She would spend every day exchanging pleasantries with her customers and always get a nice amount of tips, but never for her beauty. This had led to a shyness developing within the girl that was all the more endearing to him and clearly to the man sitting across from him. As she walked over to him, she smiled sweetly and took his empty cup away with her, quickly returning with another hot coffee. All the while, the man across from him followed her with his eyes, love-struck and completely enchanted. Her pale flawless skin glowed in the soft lights of the coffee shop that seemed to reflect and bounce so perfectly off the countertops. He knew very little of her other then she worked incredibly hard and on her breaks sat at a table in the corner of the cafe studying.
Rooting through the inside pocket of the coat placed across the back of his chair, he took out a black book, around the same size as the average novel. It was leather bound and held closed with a piece of well-worn elastic, a piece of ribbon sticking out of the bottom of its pages, keeping his place. He took a pencil from the same pocket and, stretching the elastic over the book he began drawing the man that sat across from him. This man, so infatuated, was the perfect subject. In the twenty minutes or so that he was drawing the man he moved only to try to catch the gaze of the young waitress. It was done. Both pride and happiness escaped the man in the form of a small grin and once he had finished up some last bits of detail, he signed the drawing.

So I have just watched the season six premier of Supernatural and I have to say, although I was initially a little concerned that the show would plummet downhill after the epic season five finale (come on, epic's pretty much the only word to descrbe the apocalypse), I'm really happy with what they've done with the show. The only successful way they could have done it was to return to the shows origins; those themes of guilt, family, the real American mythology and gritty, realistic tone of it all. This is exactly what they've done. Last season left Sam dead as far as Dean knew and him carrying out Sam's final wish of getting a normal family. The show has never given any allusions to the idea of being able to have a "normal" life with the knowledge that the evil of the world is out there. Dean could not stay this way, with the wife and kid and house in the suburbs. Ignorance is truly bliss in this world and the episode begins with a comparison of clips from everyday life with clips from the past while they were fighting demons and this immediately puts that point across; you cannot separate the two. Dean's suspicions are always present and rightly so; Evil has once again tracked him down and, disrupted his life, much like Sam's in the Pilot episode.



The show's new show runner, the brilliant Sera Gamble, who has been there since the very start has taken the reins from Erik Kripke who has left the show this year and she has made clear that the boys are going back to their roots, fighting the monsters of the world they were in the beginning, but to a greater extent. She wrote this episode herself, which is probably why this point comes across so well. Instantly you see classic iconic horror imagery that was so typical of the first and second season. From the scratches on wall that have been indicators in television and cinema for years of werewolves and other creatures of the night to the more technical use of long corridors with extreme high and low camera angles, also staples of horror in cinema and games. Not to mention that classic use of limited lighting and the only lightsource a bright torch aimed at Dean's face. I was looking for these sorts of things but they're so subtlely done that they seem to quietly give the audience the feeling of the first seasons. Strange way to describe it I know but it's the technical genius of the team working on it and Sera's great writing.



It wasn't all so subtle though, and not in a bad way at all but much more blatantly bringing back the first season’s “Big Bad” Azazel, allowed for that ever-present guilt to resurface (which we all know is one key theme, the guilt of not being able to save everyone and especially trying to make up for past mistakes, often involving family). This episode's plot draws from Dean’s guilt of not being able to save his mother, then his father and now his brother. This is mirrored completely in the hallucinations he suffers from that show his new girlfriend being killed in the same way his mother was. I could talk forever about the idea of guilt but as I would never reveal a spoiler (i'm not evil) the idea of family is also reintroduced in the introduction of characters we both haven't seen for a while and some we've never seen before.

Well everything I've wrote seems a bit vague but watch this episode and you'l see exactly what I mean by it. I think the team have done a brilliant job at rebooting the series and bringing everything back down to a less apocalyptic level. Can't wait for the next episode and what ideas the writing team can dream up for one of the greatest shows currently airing.

This week I start back for my third year, actually starting my Integrated Masters degree this year and really looking forward to starting it. After asking about doing some more theory work on top of my other work my theory teacher from last year asked me if I want to be one of the editors on a university journal which is great news and I think i'll be taking her up on the offer. Should be fun and can't wait to get started on both that and working out a new essay to try to get published in the journal too.

I've been doing as much stuff as possible in the few days I have left before we start back. Been watching the season premiers of the tv shows returning and reading a lot. Not to mention practicing writing a bit. I was watching the first season of Alias the other day and realised I'd never written something in that secret agent sot of genre before so I decided to do that. Here's what I wrote for the beginning of a story that I've got no idea how to develop, Comments would be great :)

Bullets and blades riding the air like whispered secrets of the deadliest nature. They travelled with such a silence and with such speed that passersby could neither hear nor see the things that picked them off one by one. Each of them fell so gracefully with little more than a moan. Within the time it took them to take their last few steps, twelve men, women and children lay there dead.

Dust still unsettled around the fallen residents of this part of the city, a man approached one of the victims. He was dressed in a simple suit, frayed here and there and not the typical Armani attire you would see many of his co-workers wearing. He reached down towards the young woman at his feet, gently brushing aside her fair brown locks to reveal delicate features stained with a splash of crimson from the deep and evidently fatal wound to her chest. Lifting up her chin, he looking deep into her cold, dead eyes and realising she was not the individual he was searching for, he callously threw her to the pavement, breaking her neck and letting out a deafening crunch.

A sick smile spread across his face and stretching his arms above his head, he shrugged off the botched bloodbath before him. He raised his head, his face blank and sinister, pointing to the next bustling street of unsuspecting pedestrians. He spoke into the microphone attached to his collar and the smile reappeared as he gave the same signal that had started the silent massacre and walked calmly towards his next victims.

This blog post is about the show that everyone’s talking about with it being renewed for a fifth season; Eureka.

The team of writers at Eureka have yet again surprised us with this latest turn of events; a rewritten future. In a sense, it has taken the series and again proved that there are no limits with what direction it can take. After spending the morning reading an essay by Scott Westerfeld on alternate worlds in science fiction television (in this case Buffy the Vampire Slayer). I felt I needed to write a blog on the subject as I found that his ideas really applied to Eureka and their most recent season in particular. This is not the first time that the writers at Eureka have used time or interdimensional travel and the characters have wrestles with the moral implications of it, but I believe it is the one that has affected the show the most. Of course, anyone reading this is probably a fan of sci-fi and so I don’t really have to explain the ideas behind time travel and chaos theory etc. So I’ll just go ahead with a recap of what has been happening so far this past season.
Last season left us with Carter’s life in disarray; his daughter had left for Harvard (another great character development from struggling teen to someone who realises their capabilities), his girlfriend Tess Fontana has left for Australia for work and the love of his life, Alison has given birth the late Nathan Stark’s baby. Things are shaky for him to say the least. As for Jo, her relationship with Zane has finally taken shape and things are looking up, helping her so soften as a character from the angry, strong woman she has been so far. Fargo, typically is jealous of this but continuing his normal life, he decides to date a fellow scientist (who is sadly for her second choice). As for Henry, his feelings for Kim have again resurfaced and do in the beginning of the fourth season with an unexpected arrival. Other than that, he is named mayor of Eureka and continues saving the day with his superior knowledge as always.

But onto the next season there are some drastic changes in this little town. The season opens with Jack, Alison, Fargo, Jo and Henry going back in time on founder’s day to the original opening of Eureka as a town sometime in the 1930’s. After a while trying to get back to their own time they manage to, but things aren’t as they left them. Characters were getting set in their ways and although I haven’t seen it happen yet, there was a real danger of storyline getting repetitive as many shows have done. This is why I believe the writers decided to shake things up a bit. And shake things up they did. Bet they’re just happy bending the space-time continuum isn’t so farfetched in this town.

By doing this, I think that Eureka has successfully made the transition from being a short-lived show with a cult following to what will be a long-running show remembered by many. Some shows (some great shows actually) have been cancelled way before their time for many different reasons but I am so happy this one survived and now, after being renewed for its fifth season, I think it’s definitely in the running for a couple more yet. Each season opening and finale have had gripping twists and revelations that have kept us coming back for more and this one is no exception. I was a bit hesitant of it at first, mainly because, as a general rule I’m weary of time-travel arcs as the can be easily confusing or messed up, but there is nothing wrong with this one. It’s dead on and there isn’t a problem in sight.
Coming back to the first thing I said about reading Scott Westerfeld this morning and it making me think, he says of science fiction that there are two distinct types of stories; “Trespass” and “Alternate World” stories. This first thing I should probably mention is that if you’re watching a TV show, it’s pretty much guaranteed you’re watching a Trespass story. Eureka is no exception. A Trespass story is one in which a stranger comes to town and they must be dealt with and all evidence of them ever being their removed before the characters can go on with their normal lives. In short; strange things can happen, but only if they’re dealt with and resolved at the end of the episode. In Eureka’s case, it is not so much a person that comes to town (although that has been known to happen) who has to be dealt with but instead, an idea that someone has dreamt up in a lab and experimented with, often resulting in it reacting badly with some unforeseen problem, thus leading to often deadly consequences. These problems are systematically solved by a combination of Carter’s logical thinking, the main character’s expertise in their fields and with the help of the person at fault (who are very rarely doing anything maliciously). The nature of these universes is that they return to normal at the end of every episode, which makes them perfect for television.

So this decision to switch timelines in the season premier and following episodes was one that everyone immediately expected to be resolved quickly. And so when they were returned to their own time, we believed this was the resolution we were expecting, so you can imagine how great a twist it was when those truly awesome writers decided to change the future they returned to. This was again, another thing that we expected to resolve itself, but it didn’t. The nature of this show had been changed to what Westerfeld describes as the “Alternate World” story. It is “...the reader going on a journey to another era, another planet, a world that follows different rules”.

Not many things in this world are visibly different, but things more personal to each character were altered hugely. For the most part, things appear to have been changed for the better, Tess never moving to Australia, Henry married again to a fellow scientist and most heart-warmingly of all, Alison’s son Kevin no longer is autistic. Of course, not everything is perfect, how could it be? Zane and Jo’s relationship does not exist, as does Fargo and his girlfriend’s. It’s a sad turn of events but they are given different chances in life; Jo is the head of security at Global Dynamics working under the new head, Fargo. These differences, caused by a scientist from the original Eureka camp making his way through time with them to the 21st century has brought a fresh feeling to the show. We now have the constant struggle that these characters go through having to keep from everyone the fact that they are from an alternate timeline, this shared secret bringing the characters together much closer than before. This decision by the characters to not tell anyone for fear of repercussions has thus made this timeline the main one, allowing the show to revert back to the “Trespass” story it once was, giving us great stories that can conclude in an episode in a new world.

This storyline is sheer genius; a perfect plot device to strengthen character relationships and breathe fresh life into the show. With season five confirmed and only part of season four having aired, I have to say that this is one show that has gone from strength to strength, improving with time and I would like to congratulate the writers and everyone who worked on it. Great actors and a well made show that clearly has a dedicated team working on it. Can’t wait for the next episode and bring on season five!

So for the past few days I've been ill. I had gastric flu, not pleasant. Other than it being physically painful, it's been such a pain because although I've been off work, I've not been well enough at any point to get anything done. This cycle of days and days at my part time job at a time and being distracted by things; illness or otherwise, has left me with little time for anything else, particularly 3DS Max. This is getting to be a big problem as next year's final project is looming. French was going well until this week, but starting tomorrow I will be forcing myself to get back into it, which shouldn't be do hard with how much I've been enjoying it. On a plus side, I got don't great news this week; through my mums contacts at work, I have been commissioned to do an art piece. It's such a good thing that I've been waiting for for so long, actually being paid for doing the thing I love most: drawing. I'm not quite sure of how much to charge but my mum suggested somewhere around 30 pounds per realistic A4 portrait, which is nowhere near professional prices but my work could do with being improved so it's worth the practice alone. Anyway, that was definitely the ego boost I needed haha, it's always nice to hear your work is appreciated. On top of this request I've been told there will probably be a lot more where that came from, so hopefully a steady flow if them should help me through next year if Uni. Not to forget, while I'm mentioning Uni, I'm happy to say that I was accepted onto the extended Masters program fir animation. But even better than that news, it's exactly 5 weeks until I return to Sheffield! Can't wait.

Back again. So recently I followed a user on Twitter that tweets quotes that are by people who meant them to be inspirational and the majority of them are. Some are not so. But one in particular stood out to me and really made me think a day or two ago.

"You are what you think about all day long." - Dr. Robert Schuller

Then it occured to me. I've always had my heart set on working in the games industry and it was probably in agreat part due to my uncle's career. He has always worked in the video games industry and is now the president of Rockstar Leeds. I have been there for work experience over the years and really enjoyed the small amount of time I had there; the people are great and the place they work has such an atmosphere with people workin together and all getting along. I aimed my work in the direction of the arts and always used computers, always getting good grades in my other subjects but for most of my school time doing much better at art and design. Although my uncle found his way into the indusrty fairly easy, making some lucky breaks without any of the necessary qualifications you have to attain nowadays, I was always told and figured out for myself that I needed to work hard to get to the place he was at. Money, accomplished in the field and he had everything that I wanted to have to. It never really occured to me that there was another path I wanted to go down and as I was such a big fan of computer games I focused on this. I took Animation (which I am currently studying) as I was told that the broad set of skills they would teach me would translate into many fields (they haven't taught us these skills yet...). But this is one thing I am really glad of. If I had taken Games Design I would have limited myself to a career that I have recently had doubts about. I would never say never to working in the Games industry as there are some incredible artists and animators working in that field and their advice and that experience would be invaluable, and I would love doing this for a few years. But since I have drifted more and more away from games and more towards my love of Television and film, TV in particular, I have realised Games are not the way I want to go in life. This quote really resonated with me, made me think.

If "You are what you think about all day long." then I am film, television, animation.

I am films. The writing; scripts, ideas and even the philosophies and depths behing the ideas in these series. Even more so the visual effects, the CG modelling, texturing, integration of the whole process and above all the opportunity to work on a long running project that allows for a new piece of work each few weeks to work on. This is where I really want to work and from now on I have decided to put everything into finding out about this career choice and doing everything I can to make myself employable in this industry. Films and television are my biggest hobby and I have a never-ending list of shows I am watching, analysing and wanting to work on.

I've decided to get organised and it's working! I'm making strides in learning French, finally understanding it much better and alhough slowly, my 3D modelling work is coming along too. But a real downside to this week is that my boss (oh how I hate her sometimes..) has given my so many shifts that I have barely any time to do all this work. I don't like working there but hey, I have to start saving for next semester so I can live now my rent's going up.. It'll be worth is one day! I'm sure of it :) But for now, I'm going to relax and draw a picture of Jessica from True Blood, should look awesome.

Night all

So I ordered Warehouse 13 on DVD from The Hut and after waiting for three or four weeks and sending a few emails on the lateness of its delivery, I finally gave up, cancelled my order and paid a few pounds more to get it from a shop in town today. At had really worked my hopes up for this series after finding out its links with Eureka and from the first two episodes, especially the pilot I can say I'm pleased with the writers. They've done an awesome job on the show.



Warehouse 13 is a show that follows two main characters; United States Secret Service agents Myka Bering and Peter Lattimer who, in the pilot episode are approached by a woman in their respective homes and told to go to South Dakota and wait there as they are being reassigned to the government's secret Warehouse 13 facility.

Upon arriving at the place they were ordered to, they realise it is in the middle of nowhere and is a huge, none-descript warehouse with one door and they quickly meet up with the man currently working at the facility, the eccentric Dr. Arthur "Artie" Nielsen. He beings to explain the the function of the warehouse to them and immediately Myka has a dislike of the situation. She attempts to get transferred back and is told that she will be there indefinitely. This is confirmed after an incident with a ferret which will make more sense if you watch it yourselves.



It is explained that this warehouse was the idea of some of the greatest minds in history and that every item that possesses an ability or energy that cannot be explained must be found and contained at this facility. Everything from Houdini's wallet to a magic kettle and many, many more artifacts are kept here.
The thing that I found most striking about the plot of this show is the explanation of these seemingly magical devices. Rather than leaving the origins of these items up to, simply that; magic, it is explained that humans are always capable of learning more. And many, many things in this world cannot be explained by our current knowledge. Of course, as our minds progress, more and more things can be removed from the Warehouse as we discover they are not a threat to us. But until that day comes, we must be protected from these mysterious forces.



There is an immediate feeling in the show that there is something we haven't been told as with every good drama and this just makes it all the more watchable.
There are many reasons you should give this show a chance, everything from the likeability of the characters for all their unique strengths and flaws to the endless possibilites of the artifacts within the Warehouse. Not forgetting their perfect and brilliant implementation of history into their storylines, drawing on interesting historical figures and ideas. This is a smart show, much like Eureka and I really think SyFy are onto a winner with this one. It combines all the elements for a good supernatural investigative drama and I can't wait to carry on watching. In fact that's what I'll do right now. Anyone who reads this, trust me, you should watch it and kudos to SyFy and the writers of their awesome shows.

G'night all.

Hey, I'm back after a day of doing various things, including 3DS Max modelling and French exercises. But the thing that I want to talk about it Eureka (A Town Called Eureka in the UK). This is a show that, way back in around 2006 when it was first aired on the SciFi channel (now SyFy) I watched a few episodes of and although I thought it was good, I never really had the chance to watch it. A year or two ago I bought the first season on DVD and only just got around to watching it properly a few months back. It's brilliant. I immediately went about finding the rest of the DVDs online and after a I found a great deal, I bought season 1 and the first half of season two and honestly, the show has gone from strength to strength.



If you haven't watched this series, it revolves around Sheriff Jack Carter who finds himself working in a small town called Eureka (never would have guessed right..). He moves there with his teenage daughter, who has been causing endless troubles for him and his ex-wife. Little do they know that this town isn't as it first seems. It is quickly revealed that this town was created in the early 20th Century when the government realised that the scientists who had been making the biggest developments in history needed somewhere to thrive and make their discoveries in an environment that would nurture these minds.

The first season looks at Jack and both his struggle to comprehend the goings on in this top-secret world, stopping potentially town-destroying experiments and his day to day struggles in trying to deal with his daughter, Zoe, who also has a journey in the first season to realising that, in this environment she can be much more than she ever thought she could. This continues through the next season as she learns more from her genius teachers, classmates and finds out she might too be a potential Einstein.



There are other characters that play an important part in establishing the feel to this show and to the atmosphere of a town of geniuses:

The brilliant Allison Blake is a great example of this; an agent for the Department of Defense, medical doctor and government liason between Eureka and the Pentagon is key in helping Jack settle down in Eureka and opens up a possible romantic relationship there. Her story with her autistic child and her high-powered and high-stressed job really gives a sense of reality to a very different story and helps ground this sci-fi series in reality which I think is one of the reasons this show has real staying power.

Henry Deacon provides an elder-like character that Jack can look up to who will always have the right answer to both advanced scientific questions that Jack has and also the emotional problems brought up in later series. Storylines involving love and loss in season two will really get people thinking and his attempts at getting over this loss, although pretty unrealistic provide a look at what people would do if they had access to knowledge and the ethical drawbacks of this. A strong-willed character played by a great actor.

Nathan Stark is initially the angtagonist in this show and as the ex-husband of Allison, presents an immediate problem for Jack to deal with. This changes over the seasons as each character develops and truths come to light. His name seems to be an homage to Tony Stark aka Iron Man and his character really reflects upon this character, with a little bit of an unethical streak to him in the beginning. Develops as a character really well and by the end he will be a favourite.

There are many other characters that I won't bore you with mentioning now such as the geeky scientist Douglas Fargo and the tough yet sometimes (rarely) sensitive Deputy Jo Lupo but I won't bore you with descriptions, you should really check it out for yourself.

When I first watched this show I was wary of the seemingly typical set-up of each epsiode that many shows can make the mistake of over-using. Was every episode going to be: Some crazy mishap with a Quantum something-or-other occurs, Jack is set out to find out what happened, It's some scientist from the research facility in the town, Global Dynamics and his experiments at home, Jack thinks of a smart yet dumb at the same time idea to fix it, town saved.

It really isn't like this at all. Yes, the first series uses this formula to help introduce new characters, new scientific ideas and new plotlines that will run through the whole series but as soon as the characters are established it becomes much more than this. The sci-fi element of this series is something that's reall refreshing. Instead of aliens and far-off galaxies, it is much more grounded in reality and uses real scientific theories and rather than blowing them out of proportions, just asks the question "what if?". What if we could really travel between the 3rd and 5th dimensions, what if we could manipulate the molecules in our bodies and wal through walls? It takes these ideas and explains them well, using them as brilliant plot devices that can be both fun and deadly in the same episode.



The development of the series really takes off as it gets into its second and third series, introducing some really interesting storylines that explore some themes in ways that I don't think any other show would be capable of. You will, I guarantee you, watch episode after episode to see what happens next, while the nice conclusions of each episode will leave you feeling fulfilled enough to leave the dvds if you really have to.

It isn't the best series out there, simply because at the moment there are some really great ones. But it is definitely worth watching, it has intelligent and witty dialogue, characters that ae easy to identify with, stunning visual effects and a storyline that is just getting better and better and although I have always thought it was great, in season 3 it really seems to be hitting its stride. I would go into more detail but I really want to get back to watching it.

Anyway, I really urge anyone reading to check it out, I may not give it justice in my review but I can't put in much better than this. It's one of a kind and has the perfect formula for a tv show; Strong, intetesting characters, well-written storylines and great actors. With that splash of Sci-Fi that's missing from todays tv.

G'night all.

Couldn't help but update a bit more before I sign out.

I recently got inspiration from an artist from DeviantArt. I know, there are loads of great artists on there but what really struck me about her was that she was around my age (maybe a couple of years older) and some of her work that was dated around 2006/07 really resembled my own. They were good but they lacked that painstaking attention to detail that she now has in her drawings. But now when I look at her recent pieces, I think, 'hey, I could actually be that good in a few years'. It will take a lot of practice, but luckily it's practice at something I love. I haven't drawn any realistic pieces for a long time due to my experiments with style and trying to move away from what I am good at and develop other skills. I realise now that that's probably the wrong thing to do so I attempted to draw a picture of Olivia Wilde, the stunning actress who plays Thirteen on Fox's House MD, one (of many) of the favourite american dramas I watch. I used a reference for it and after spending a lot of time building up some nice contrast in the picture, this is what I came up with:



Pretty good if I do say so myself. This set me on a mission to get better and after nice comments from people when I uploaded the picture to the web, I decided to draw another great character from an even better show. Sarah Michelle Gellar (if you didn't know, which you should if you're reading this, Buffy the Vampire Slayer). This one took a couple of days to finish, well evenings after I had finished work and it looked even better than the other picture. It might be one of the best pictures I have ever drawn and after comparing with older drawings you can really see the difference in depth and thus how realistic it is. Anyway, here are some work in progress pictures:



The face took my quite a while to get the right look for but after I finally got it to look like her, I started on the hair, which was by far the most time-consuming part of this picture. (Sorry about the different coloured photos, as you can probably tell it was well into the night when I finally pried the pencil from my hand hehe)



Some more hair.. and this is the finished piece, which I am so incredibly proud of :) I would love to see some comments on it and will be uploading many more pitures, possibly one from Supernatural next. I'm off to bed now but thanks for reading :)



G'night all.

So, I've redesigned my blog and there are a few different things that I still want to add when I get the chance but I'm pretty happy with how it's looking right now.

The main thing that's changed for me at the moment is that i've gotten organised. I bought a day planner and set out the things I need to do each day. I'm really disorganised when it comes to getting stuff done, especially when i'm at work in the summer but things are going to change; one of those being this blog.

I plan to change the style of it, from the personal blog it is at the moment to one that's updated much more frequently, basically talking about anything and everything that I like in the media. I plan to work in television in the future and my drawing has been coming along lately so you can expect realistic drawings of characters from television shows posted fairly frequently. I'll also be posting reviews on new episodes and old of shows that stand out to me and some 3D modelling work i'll be working on in the next few months. I'm going to be busy but by the end of the summer i'll be well prepared for next year at University.

I'm hoping a few more people will subscribe to it, possibly giving me pointers on the sort of things you want to see from the film, television and animation industry and from time to time maybe some more intellectual things will pop up.

I've just finished watching the first half of the third season of A Town Called Eureka and the show seems to be picking up a good stride of late so there may be some reviews on the latest season of that. I've also just finished season four of Ghost Whisperer, watched almost three seasons of 30 Rock and I'm almost done reading Neil Gaiman's American Gods, which definitely deserves a review. Time management will hopefully allow me to get a lot of these things done but as I said before, I'm currently working part time to save for my next Uni year so there may be slight gaps in the times I post updates.

Anyway, thanks for watching and I hope you like the new design and way i've decided to take this blog. Bye for now

Again its been a while since my last post but I've been busy. working 3 days a week cleaning and every weekend at the place I did last year. Its awful. I really just want to get on with getting good at 3ds max but I end up tired after work. And all for paying my ovetdraft off so I can live next year. Been having a bit of an artists block too.. I think its just down to working and not having a lot of time to myself. There's a lot of stuff I've been doing but I'm quite excited about a side-project I'm working on. I want to start a second blog based around US drama series and the theory surrounding them. I've ordered some books on the subject. Mainly about Buffy and they should come tomorrow morning. Anyway, i'll keep updating. Back to work for now...

So I've spent a few days at home between finishing my fantasy, fandom and franchise module work and really getting into my animation to Muse's cover of Feeling Good. It's been a nice few days of relaxing and all ice pretty much done is life drawings of randomers and my family and watched various tv shows including starting to re-watch Supernatural after I bought the first season for 9 pounds yesterday! So awesome :D After seeing the last 5 seasons and now looking back on it I really think that its one of the greatest American dramas and I really urge people to watch it.
I started reading Good Omens too (although how busy I am tends to mean it'll take a lot longer than it really should to finish) and it seems to share a lot if the same elements and the same feeling to it as Supernatural has. Gaiman is an incredible writer and shares a lot of ideas with McG.
Other than that I've really just been really busy with Uni work as usual.
Tried to keep up with US releases of shows.. its really become as much research as it is entertainment for me to watch series. I really think its where I want to end up working.. Tv shows, especially drama ones: supernatural, heroes, house, smallville, ghost whisperer, buffy, angel.. just to name a few, they're just so great and one day I'm gonna be involved in all that :D I really can't wait. And I'm gonna have to work my ass off to get there but its gonna be so worth it. Anyways.. better actually do work rather than just talking about it haha. I'll be back soon enough.

So it's just gone 8am and I thought I'd get a blog entry in before uni.
It's been kind of hectic at the moment with piece after piece needing to be finished and just trying to get an equal amount of each piece done at a time. The work on my Fantasy, Fandom and Franchise module is coming together nicely and I'll be going into lesson today to see what our tutor thinks of my essay and script for our group's screencast. I've really got to get caught up with my ani animation workshop group work but so far the set i've designed for the same class is looking awesome. Our other group's integrate project work is coming along nicely too, although I think i'm just trying to get the best mark for the year I can and then in the summer really start practicing on my 3d programs for next year.
As I've had the money (not often) I've been trying to build up a collection of digital art magazines ready for summer when I can really get into the tutorials. But the best part with this is probably that my uncle has given me over fifteen hours of 3DS Max tutorials to work on. So by next year I should be able to produce something great for the final project. Oh and while i'm talking about that, it won't actually be my final project, I'm in the process of enrolling on an integrated masters degree in Animation which should be great. Same qualification but a thrid the price :D.
Other than work I've got myself hooked on a number of different tv shows as usual. But I see it as research for the future when I'll hopefully be working on them :). I'm caught up with the American releases of Smallville, Supernatural, House, Glee, Heroes and there must be a few more. I've kind of switched to sit-com's recently though as i've got so much work on my plate that I just have it on on my second monitor while i'm typing or max-ing or whatever work i've got to do next.

Well I better get to the city centre, want to go over some of the work before we go to lesson and make sure I get the best mark.. I want that first :)

Anyways I'll try to keeo you posted and be on again soon once something eventful happens. Bye anyone reading.

Well, yeah first thing has gotta be that I've been watching House which has turned out to be much more awesome than I first thought. Getting quickly hooked on it actually. Same with the third season of Ghost Whisperer but I'll have to wait till I have any money to watch the rest... Which isn't looking too good at the moment, with the overdraft looming over me. Really need to pay it off soon.

Uni wise I'm pretty excited. We went for a talk on getting an integrated masters after our Ba Hons Animation degree. Well it's integrated so we apparently go straight on to it next year and come out with one degree and rather than pay 10,000 for a separate masters it costs the same as an extra year.. Wooo. Looks like we'll be learning a lot more next year too from our 3rd year "diet" as he called it. Just got to work on getting that first I want this year now. It starts with a hell of a lot of research on the Westernisation of the games design industry and the factors that went into it. It's pretty fun, I spent a good five hours in the library learning about the history of the games industry from stuff like Nintendo's globalisation and specifically how it affected the Final Fantasy franchise and looking through various books on economics (which were far too complicated and specific for me to undestand, think they were 2nd or 3rd year Economics texts). Well once I get through the two books I ended up getting out, my other blog, the one for my Fantasy, Fandom and Franchise module will be updated so follow if you want a somewhat simplified outlook on the games industry http://chrisw45.wordpress.com/ ).

Other than that lesson, I'm still looking for stuff to animate for my music video but I did model a CG Guitar the other day. It does need some extra detail and I need to learn how to texture it properly but so far I think it looks pretty good so far.




Oh well, I'm off for now. If you enjoy games and media then have a look at my other blog, and follow :) Night all.

So I did so very well at keeping up these blogs.. I'm just gonna do them as they come to me and not put any pressure on it, that clearly doesn't work.

So recently what have I been up to. Well a fair bit of Uni work for starters.
In our Animation Workshop module i've been set the task of portraying a story through a set design. Taking any scene that I want to design and adding scenery that I have designed myself I have to tell some sort of a story through it using lighting, prop design and generally creating an atmosphere inside of a box. Since i've recently been watching a lot of Wuxia films, I decided to go for a Chinese throne room or chambers set in which I will lay a small kimono (admittedly crafted by my mum who's great with textiles). I want to give the feeling that something has happened in this room but not blatantly point out that it's a murder like most people have done with a splash of blood here and there but go for a more elegant and serene scene with (probably) arrows scattered all around the kimono but none piercing it giving an inference of some sort of attack. It's a bit all over the place at the moment with other projects but so far i've designed and built a throne with balsa wood (going quite into detail with smaller pieces) which i've painted with gold leaf paint. The is also a hand stitched cream and gold cushion (again not my work) to go on top of it. I also went on a search for things to put in this scene while I was at home a few weekends back and happened to come across a small stall run by two nice old chinese ladies who had crafted and painted loads of things that I had to buy. One thing I got from them was a wooden varnished Buddah that I will place at the back of my scene and a piece of card with a dragon on that they kindly wrote the kanji for "Imperial" on for me. That just finished things off. There are a few more things such as some quite authentic looking draped curtains and a chest and all I have left to find is some mosaic tiles to act as miniature tiling for the floor and to construct some walls using tracing paper. I think it will look great when it's finished, it's taking enough time.

Sounds a lot more boring than it is I assure you. This class has to be one of the best ones this semester, the other assignment for it is to animate a music video to a song of out choice which first of all I though would be really tedious but now i've found the right song (Hide Another Mistake - The 88) it's going great. I've hand drawn some detailed pictures of the band members (well the ones from 2005) and I'm going to work out how to animate them and break down the song into layers and it should look really good. We have to use equal amounts of 3D, 2D and stop motion animation and I'm really glad we're finally getting the chance to practice them all.

My other projects are good too, I'm not so pleased about one but that's mainly due to the lack of say we have over the content of it so the less talked about that the better. My theory project is all to do with Final Fantasy and the Westernisation of the franchise and what things have brought this about, such as the economy in both Japan and the West drastically changing in recent years. It's pretty interesting stuff and it's really making me want to do loads more independent research. But that'll have to wait for the summer.

That's about all I have to say right now.. oh other than Final Fantasy XIII is awesome. Some of the best story i've played in a game, almost like being in a movie, hats off to the guys at Square Enix for this one, hopefully i'll be there one day. Anyway, night all who are reading.

So I should be going to sleep but I'm gonna keep to this blog-a-day pact i've made with myself.
First of all, i've spent the day still ill and taking various different types of medication seemingly to no avail. Then at around half past 1 I was miraculously recovered. Awesome. I've now been given a new burst of energy and put it into this story i'm writing.

The premise of the story is that in 1980, because of a significant cosmic event, the veil between earth and hell was weakened enough for a split second that demons strong enough to break it managed to spill all hell onto earth. This was promptly stopped but some got through.

The problem for these demons was that when they broke through they needed to immediately take a host body but aften the escape had weakened them significantly so the only body and soul weak enough to take over was that of an unborn child. So on a day in early 1980, an unknown number of demons took their places in the wombs of pregnant women.

Although this had never been done before, the demons believed that they would grow and be themselves immediately at birth buy they were not, they lay dormant, unknowing about their capture for 18 years, slowly releasing evil into the souls of these people, corrupting them.On their 18th birthday, their bodies and souls we no longer that of a child so the demons were released, causing the destruction of the human souls and allowing them to take over.Due to this possession, the humans grew up dysfunctional and often abandoned by their parentsThey decided, rather than cause physical destruction, to work towards jobs high in businesses, politics, governments and other trades and corrupt people through the media etc.

That's what i've set in stone as the background to this series of stories. That and it will be comprised of short stories, structured in the way of a 40 minute Drama television show much like Supernatural or Heroes. I've been researching and have found a way to transfer this across and hopefully it will be a success. I've so far written two chapters and i'm quite happy with them so i'll keep you posted. Also, first lesson of the new semester tomorrow, although I don't imagine i'll enjoy it much with the teaching situation I think i'm going to enjoy getting back to work.

Anyways, now for bed.

Night world.

So just a quick blog entry. Today was pretty normal, I got a lot of the stuff I wanted to get done until about 2 or 3 hours ago when I started being sick. I'm so ill and really want to get better ASAP.. anyways feeling ill again so I'm off. If I'm better tomorrow i'll blog again then

So today i went for that interview for the part time job at a cinema. Would've been awesome with how much I love films but I didn't get it :( It required lots of teamwork and as usual I gave some great ideas and came out with none of the credit. So I've decided to just take charge of things for myself and after downloading an ap for my android installed a program to help me keep up with a list of things, from 3DS Max practice to learning French. I think it will help motivate me but I am really going to struggle without money coming in. Thankfully my parents give me enough for food the government barely help me at all. So although I have no money and somehow still need to save for the summer, I will still have to go out on nights out with friends. I do appreciate their friendship its hard when they all have money to spend on what they want and i can either have alcohol OR things I like :P

Oh well.. I guess I just have to carry on doing what they want, I don't want to lose a friendship just from not getting this job and financial stuff but honestly if I could just get this term over with and get ome good work experience somewhere over the summer I'd be so happy, I just don't think I can work over summer like last time, I need to be doing something career-related now. Might just run away to the US for a couple of months :P I wish...

Anyways night people (well the few who follow this..) hope to see more people following soon :)

Ok so not so frequent as i'd hoped but now I've got my new Android phone. I'll be able to blog and tweet as much as I want wherever I want :)
Firstly, I have a job interview tomorrow at cineworld.. the best possible part time job for me as I watch movies all the time and if anyone has seen my dvd collection will know tv and film are really important to me. This brings me to my next thing. Since I was really young I've always wanted to work on the games industry and recently after learning more about where my career could go after.my course ends and realising the importance and influence that television and film has to me, that's where I want to go in life. Learn as much as I can about high ploy modelling and eventually move to the US to pursue that area of 3D modelling. I'm really excited about how sure I finally am about my career. Anyways, i'll be back again soon. Night :)