microraptor

Doh
When you have so many projects on the go at the same time, you tend to drop the ball on something. I found out at the end of last week that in the rush of all last week’s projects I’d done just that.

When I got the job doing the animations for the ethical investment fund, I produced three alternative design ideas and emailed them all to the client.

She responded telling me which one she wanted and I got going on doing all the modelling and animation and rendering out all the animations needed to produce the final set of videos.

So far so good. When the first animation finished rendering, I was very pleased with it and happily sent it off to the client.

It turns out I’d misunderstood her – she actually wanted to go with the other option….

However, now I’ve done the first one, it looks great, so she’s now not sure whether to go with what I’ve done or get me to start again.

I don’t mind – it’s just that the version I did was much more time consuming than the other option, and I could have done with the time last week!


Anyway…

Monday I managed to polish off another of my monthly newsletters and get at least some way through my latest illustration commission for Nature.

Nothing is real
It’s all go, though and Tuesday was spent at a posh hotel hearing about the new version of 3ds Max courtesey of Autodesk…

Every year, they like to do a press event and it’s always a good opportunity to meet up with some of the other 3d freelance journalists (most of whom are journalist/animators/designers/all kinds of stuff). It’s also a good opportunity to hear from people who use 3d at the cutting edge of effects, animation and games… just to see what’s possible.

This year it included people designing green buildings by measuring the amount of sunlight light that would fall on an office worker’s desk before the building was built to stop them pulling down their blinds and turning on the lights.

There was also an interesting talk from a guy who works for a company servicing Ford motors….

Apparently when you see an advert or read a brochure for a new car, it’s highly unlikely that the photos you’re looking at are actually photos.

Most of the advertising for cars is created before the car is actually built. It costs them 2.5 million to build a prototype for photographing and even then, getting it to a location to photograph it means risking breaching its security – and in the paranoid automotive industry, leaking a car’s bodyshape before its launch is very bad indeed.

So instead, they build a 3d model and create the photos entirely digitally… the guy presented us with 2 pictures – one a real photo and one a CG model…. We couldn’t tell which was which.

I’m guessing this kind of replacement for photography is a lot more common than we think… and it’s probably on the increase.


Today
Today, I’ve been back on my new documentaries – or at least a very small part of them.

I’m designing a microraptor – one of the most bizarre dinosaurs ever to have lived.

The creature has wings on both it’s back and front legs and nobody is quite sure whether it’s a dinosaur or a bird. It clearly is designed to take to the air, though quite how it would have flown and how successfully remains a mystery.

Having roughed out a basic 3d shape and refined it in z-brush, I’m coming to the conclusion that this was a beautiful animal – such an elegant shape. That said, designing it is taking ages - This has to be one of the most challenging 3d models I’ve ever made. The combination of feathers, scales, and colours I’m trying to use means an awful lot of messing around.

I’ve created the basic shape as a solid object, which I’ve painted in z-brush (using some custom made feather brushes I converted from photoshop brushes I found on the net). I’ve then had to make the wing-tips semi-transparent with the shape of feathers – and I’ve had to do that by creating a separate transparency texture in Photoshop. In addition to that, I want the feathers to stand out – so I’ve had to create a bump map as well.

That’s the flight feathers, but there are also downy feathers on the body – and I’m experimenting with doing them as hair. The trouble with that is that hair is increadibly demanding and takes an awfully long time to create on a complex model (like the models produced in z-brush).

Even rendering the hair takes ages and I’ve had to create yet another matte to define which bits of the body need hair and which don’t.

All in all, it’s very time consuming.

However, since lots of dinosaurs apparently have feathers, getting them right is essential to my next documentaries… if I can’t get them to work, I’m going to find the programmes very difficult to make.

New Max
One of the problems is that I’m working on an old version of 3ds max – version 8… primarily because the new version which handles hair a lot better costs about £2500.

And having seen it in action yesterday it’s also got a lot of other features that would be particularly useful to me – the ability to easily animate quadrupeds is definitely one – as is the option of rendering just parts of a shot very quickly to see how they’re going to look…

So what to do?

Well, stand by, because I have a plan….

finishing the book
I finished the book today – or at least the initial version. There are bound to be changes and a few bits to add, but it’s great to get it off my list of current projects for the moment.

The section I left until last was the introduction… it’s much easier to write the intro to something once you’ve done the rest of it – by then you ought to have some idea of what it’s about.

It took a while though because I couldn’t work out what I was trying to say… or maybe it was just because I somehow felt more precious about the last section I wrote – as though the whole book hinged on it – which of course it doesn’t.

When writing’s difficult like that, you just have to work your way through it – get down at least something that’s roughly right – after all, you can change it later, and you’ll have a much better idea of what you need to change once you do.

I sometimes hear other writers talk about writer’s block. I’m not sure I take it too seriously. I think it’s a luxury you only allow yourself if you don’t have a deadline. How many writers on daily newspapers fail to deliver copy because they’re not feeling inspired? Not many… and certainly not twice.

Yes, everybody has bad days and everyone has times when they don’t deliver their best work, but I think it’s a bit self indulgent to simply grind to a halt for days or weeks at a time…

After all – most of the time, when you read back the work you’ve struggled over, it’s just as good as and sometimes better than the work you do when things just flow.

When you find writing difficult, it can be for a few different reasons. Sometimes it’s because you’re worried about the work and just need to get over it. Sometimes it’s because you’re thinking about other things and just need to focus. And sometimes it’s because writing just IS difficult – it requires you to solve problems and work out exactly what you want to say and how you want to say it – in which case, whether you do it now or in six months time, you have to buckle down and solve those probems.

You don’t get to be a writer by talking about writing. You only get to be a writer by writing. When it’s easy. When it’s hard. And when you’re on a deadline, hung over or just bored sick of it.


More pics
Nature got in contact again today – looks like just as I got ahead of myself by completing the book, I’ve got another tight deadline looming….

Still, that’s for next week.

For now, Lisa, George and I are taking a break – we’ve booked into a hotel in Reading and as a big luxury, we’ve got a babysitter to come to the hotel room and look after George on Saturday night.

Today was one of those Front Crawl days – where you take one look at the finish line, dive in and just keep swimming with your head down until you hit the other side.

Late last night, I got an email from a client in America who wanted an animation of a bottle (with a personality) for part of a video for children on recycling. The trouble is, they wanted it by Thursday (and I’m looking after George on Thursday). Adding that to the carbon nanotubes I had to get finished (the animation was rendered overnight) for the documentarymakers who were asking Science Photo Library for them (although whether they’ll be used, I still don’t know), you get a busy day.

Unfortunately, I still also have the book (another two chapters on my list to grab pictures for today) and the animation for the ethical investment fund manager and things begin to look hectic.

By the end of the day, I’m pretty well there on most of it. The book chapters are done (but not posted), the bottle animation is previewed and confirmed with the client – but now needs to be rendered in full size). The fund management animation looks good, but needs a little tweaking - right now the animation (which is quite complex) just starts up all guns blazing immediately. It needs to slow its pace a little to give viewers a chance to get orientated within (pompus phrase coming up) “the world of the story” before everything starts animating all over the place.



That’s a day’s work….

adverts, microraptors and nanotubes

What’s happening with this advert?
We’re getting nearer and nearer the deadline for this advert for Maltese TV and I’m still waiting for the information I need to proceed with making it. I’m really not sure how I’m going to fit it in for the deadline (the end of the month) and I know the person dealing with me has been away, but now it’s getting very tight.

I’m assuming they still want the ad done, but I don’t know.

Of course it’s possible that the end of the month deadline isn’t as firm as I thought it was. Perhaps the conversion of their shops (which is what the advert is about) has fallen behind schedule and they won’t want to start the advertising until everything else is in place.

Still, it’s the uncertainty…whether I’ve got a huge amount to do in the next two weeks, or whether I’ll be able to get on with my own projects…Which include finishing the space travel documentary and starting the new documentaries….


Being a creative freelancer
Being a creative freelancer is different from being (for example) a self employed builder or plumber. If you’re a plumber and nobody offers you any work, you can’t just start plumbing something in the hope someone will buy it when you’ve finished.

If you’re a writer, an animator a graphic designer or a filmmaker, and you’ve got no work, you can at least start working on the projects you want to work on and hope they turn into real paid work somewhere down the line.

However, that itself causes a problem. When you have got work, and deadlines, you have to decide how to get a balance between the work you’ve already been commissioned to do and your own projects.

If you concentrate solely on what you’ve been commissioned to do, the job will stretch out to fill the time you have to do it and you’ll never get any of the projects you want to do off the ground.

On the other hand, if you spend too much time on your own projects – well, they might not get anywhere anyway, and you’ll have lost out on the paid work you could have been doing in the meantime.

My solution is generally to start work on any commissions I get immediately – or as soon as I can. I get them say 75% done or at least to a stage where I can see how I’m going to make them work and there’s at least something there that looks or sounds good.

If it’s writing work, I try to get the right number of words – even if the piece still needs details to be tied down. If it’s graphics or animation, I try to get something that looks right.

I then leave the project if I can – depending on the deadline, I might leave it for a week or two. That way when I go back, I can see it with fresh eyes. I don’t waste time perfecting everything before that because the chances are it will all have to change anyway.

By doing that, I can be pretty efficient and most of the time I can do at least some of my pet projects even when I’m busy.

Socially aware investments
So today I got a good chunk of my new animation project done (this is a series of animations for someone who’s setting up a socially responsible investment fund and is looking for investors). This means I can render some of the animation overnight and tomorrow while I’m looking after George (two days off work looking after George this week).

I should have something to show the client by Wednesday (and I think she’ll be pleased with it).

Microraptors and nanotubes
Of my own projects, I finally managed to start on designing a ”microraptor” – it’s a rather strange four winged dinosaur that nobody can quite place between dinosaurs and birds. The creature will eventually make it into a documentary on bird evolution, but luckily I can also fit its design in with another project for Science Photo Library who want me to make some stock images for their library – so I’m able to call this both my own project and commissioned work….up to a point.

I also got an email from science photo library saying they’d been contacted by a documentary maker was urgently looking for some animations of carbon nano tubes…. Creating them was easy enough, so I did it in a spare moment – hopefully they’ll be willing to go for it once they see them… I thought I’d do this even though it’s only a speculative project right now because Science photo have only just started thinking about video stock and I want to encourage them as much as I can.


Over the weekend, I had a little time to think. And I think it’s about time I did some charity work…. Not sure what yet, but some ideas are emerging…..

Managed to get two chapters of the book off to the publishers yesterday – that means I’ve got three more to go – and I’ve got until the end of the month to do it….

The google adds seem to have really kicked off now – I got someone calling yesterday who wants a children’s book illustrated – something I’d really love to do – especially as the guy who wrote it is an artist himself and has some great visual ideas in the story.

It’d be really good to do it, but I have a feeling it’s not going to happen – he’ll need 30 or so illustrations and I don’t think the publisher will have the budget to get me to do them. I’m offering them a discounted rate because I’d like to do it, but he wants detailled realistic renderings of fantastic characters and scenes on every page (effectively what you’d see in a pixar movie– and I think they’ll have a budget for nothing more than watercolour sketches.

Oh, well, never mind.

Another call came in today from someone doing a scientific study and wanting pictures they can judge children’s emotional state from…. In contrast to the previous one, these images have to be completely without character or emotion. I have to try to create characters that are ambiguous in almost every way! Again, I’m not sure these people have much of a budget for what they’re proposing either, but the pictures aren’t quite so taxing, so this one might be doable.

On top of that, I got a call last week from someone who took some photos on Christmas day and found the images were full of “spirit orbs” – they want me to see if I can get them any clearer… I’m still waiting for the disk to arrive, so we’ll see what that turns up…

I’ve now got the investment fund animation job and I’ve spent most of today getting stuck into that. The idea for the animation is quite a challenging one to achieve – lots of animated light beams and movement going on everywhere…. There’s even a bit of motion capture involved and because it’s an ethical investment fund I’ve thrown in a few dolphins too… it’s beginning to look really good, but it’ll take a while to get everything in place.

Once finished, I think this will be one for the showreel – and re-editing that to give my website www.darkin.demon.co.uk a better range of work is another well overdue job.

Let’s just add that to my huge list of well overdue jobs, then shall we?

I am, getting used to the one or two days a week of looking after George. I’m taking on more work, so it’s a bit of a strain having to take a day a week off (not that I begrudge doing it – he’s lovely most of the time – and it gives me time to get a bit of perspective).

I am able, when he takes his naps to leap onto the laptop and get a few minutes of answering emails and doing other non-intensive work done, so I don’t fall too far behind.

I don’t actually plan to get anything done on these days, so it’s useful to be able to snatch the odd half hour when he’s asleep to catch up – or at least get things prepared so that the days I am at work aren’t continually interrupted by bitty little jobs like invoicing, emailing and doing bits of research and corrections.


Another new project
Jobs from the Google advertising I’m doing aren’t flooding in, but they’re coming at a steady rate and when they do come they’re substantial jobs…

Another new one turned up yesterday from an investment firm. They want to explain a new ethical investment product to potential investors and need some graphics to do it. They’re not sure if they need animated or still pictures and like a lot of people who are now looking for graphics work, they spend most of their time doing other things, so I’m going to give them a rough version of a few different concepts with different budgets to help them work out just what they need.

It meant spending most of the day doing work that might not actually turn into a firm commission – I think you’re supposed to call this “pitching” but I don’t think I will.

It’s worthwhile doing this sometimes because it helps to clarify what’s needed from both sides and if you’re both working on very different notions of the job, it will all fall apart sometime anyway! in addition, most of the time, clients are surprised at just how much is possible – and by offering it in a visual form, you often get the chance to apply your own ideas which would probably be rejected if you tried to simply explain them.

meanwhile - I really want to get back to my documentaries - it's looking like the next couple of weeks are going to be too busy - but hopefully after that, I can organise some interviews with experts on Trex and the Raptors....

weddings and dimetrodons

Weddings and Dimetrodons

Today I managed to get most of the next video newsletter written and finished off another chapter of the book… Strangely, both pieces of writing featured tutorials on how to shoot a wedding video….

Hopefully the book will be done ahead of deadline which will be great because the advert – which I’m supposed to be making for Maltese TV is going to be a big rush. The person dealing with me has been off for a few days and is now sorting through a mass of emails before getting to mine – and I really need some info and photos from him before I can do any more work on the add….

The end of the month will be tough at this rate so if I can get the book finished early it’ll be very useful.

I’m also still trying to make some prehistoric missing links for science photo library – Dimetrodon was my project for this afternoon and he’s coming on well (although he still needs some realistic skin textures… oh, and some teeth: