So I got my Masters results this week, and I passed with commendation. I'm so chuffed. I learnt a lot about myself and my practice this year, that I can apply to any aspect of future working pipeline. I probably wont update this blog anymore, but I will have my own website up and running soon at www.imogentaffs.co.uk. Keep checking it for updates! Thanks for following this blog for the past 4 years, its been really cool to keep from knowing nothing to knowing something. Take care all and goodnight! xxx

Just thought i'd post my summary video on here. Just working on some text to accompany it now, and im done. MA finished. Wow.

Summary Video - Imogen Taffs from imogen taffs on Vimeo.

So finally, it's here. I'm done, and its a very bizarre feeling. This is my first proper little short, at just over a minute. I am so happy with it at the moment, animation wise. There are little niggly things that I would have perhaps done differently, and i would have loved to be able to get some foley in there, I think i may do that at some point anyway. Its nice to see how much my animation has come along, and to have produced something portfolio worthy. I've learnt so much about the way things move, their weighting, and the balance between object emphasis (keeping its chairness, lampyness etc) and anthropomorphism (in the sense that can show human emotion and thought process) to create a good performance thats interesting to watch. Here it is anyway, critique and comment all you want...

The Office from imogen taffs on Vimeo.

Finished texturing yesterday, I decided against keeping it white as it was all looking a little flat and lifeless. So everything is textured, all be it simply, but its fine for the purpose. Rigs are all working fine, so i'm happy about that. File size is usable, I think im going to acost the computers in Waverley at the end of this month and let the whole lot render while im away in Egypt 27th-4th. Work and play at the same time, yes. Want to get animating tomorrow hopefully, meaning i'll have 2 weeks to get all the animation done before I can set up to render. Here are a few renders anyway, lots still to do on the lighting front as im not happy with it yet, i want a much more sultry, evening, night time sort of lighting. I'll figure it out...

Most of the models etc are in now, I just need to add the other black chair rigs and i'll be ready to start animating. I cant wait to light it as its looking so vile at the moment. File size is getting quite high though and i've got visions of the file crashing whilst rendering, so ill probably do a bit of a cull when it comes to it and see what i can get rid of, or change to make it a little lower. To be fair i'll probably be a bit cheeky and anything that is out of camera shot, delete it. That will save a lot of space. Today i'm going to carry on texturing and lighting, and draw up my Expo plan. Here's a quick render anyway...

So i realised something interesting today when greating the morph targets for the little plug socket guys. I didnt want to change the geometry on the targets so that both of the faces would change at the same time when animated, as it would look super weird :/ but then I remembered that when using the morpher modifier, it only looks at the changes in geometry. Therefore I could do a few versions just editing the top face, and a few versions just editing the bottom face, low and behold when I combine them together using the sliders, I can manipulate each face on the 1 object simultaneously. That may or may not have made any sense, probably not the best way of explaining it, but hey ho. Here are some renders/screenshots to show you a little better what I am getting at...

Quick render to show the chair rigs. They are both fully articulated now with a full set of morph targets, and i've created the rig to move the rest of the chair and the legs. 1st image shows one of the chairs and its morph targets, the other two show the controls, and the rendered image. Here they are! More to come tomorrow...