As I mentioned, over May I attended a course in Aberystwyth, Mid Wales on Freelancing. We covered pretty much everything involved in going Freelance, from Taxes, to Networking, to seeing your Strengths and Weaknesses. For me, it was a brilliant course, funded by the good people of Go Wales, as I learned so much about everything. The tutors were really helpful, with a wealth of knowledge, and I’m really happy I attended.
A couple of weeks after the course, I was contacted by Go Wales, asking if they could do a wee interview with me about the course, what I enjoyed, and if I got everything I wanted out of it, and here it is!
Hello. Over May, I headed back to Wales, as I was attending a very good Programme about Freelancing, down in Aberystwyth. It was good to spend nearly the whole month back home, as I got to do a lot of things that I wanted to do, and meet up with some good people.
One evening, after a pretty awesome storm, the sun came out, and lit up the dark clouds so beautifully, I just had to go out and try and shoot one of my favourite spots, Llyn Nantlle. The panorama is my biggest yet. 16 photographs make up this beast, and I’m really happy with how it turned out.
Llyn Nantlle
The view is quite beautiful, as on your right, you’ve got (Grib) Nantlle Ridge, and on the left, you’ve got one of my favourite mountains – Mynydd Mawr, and in between the two, in the centre, you’ve got Snowdon peaking through the gap.
The site is mentioned in the Old Welsh Manuscripts, Y Mabinogion – as Gwydion searches for Lleu Llaw Gyffessee here.
A painting of the same view was done by the Welsh Landscape painter, who I studied a lot in school, Richard Wilson in the 18th century titled ‘Snowdon from Llyn Nantlle’ which is on display at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, which I’ve always like:
Richard Wilson's 'Snowdon from Llyn Nantlle'
Edit: I seem to be getting a lot of traffic to this post from people looking for the Richard Wilson photo above – please check out the new Google Art Project image, where you can zoom in to reveal so many awesome detail about this painting here – Google Art ‘Snowdon from Llyn Nantlle‘
'Intro' Anturiaethau Syr Wynff a Plwmsan (Hanner Dwsin)
Pam roeddwn i yn hogyn bach, roedd ‘na ddau gymeriad ar S4C roeddwn i wrth fy modd gyda. Dwi’n cofio eistedd yn rheolaidd o flaen y teledu i wylio’r ddau gymeriad, ac yn edrych ymlaen i weld syt fath o drwbl roedd y ddau am am fod i fewn ynddi, y ddau yma oedd, Syr Wynff a Plwmsan.
Syr Wynff a Plwmsan
Syr Wynff, Fi, Plwmsan a Celfyn (fy mrawd) - Eisteddfod yr Urdd 1990
Hyd heddiw, dwi’m yn meddwl does na dim byd gwell wedi cael i ddangos ar S4C, (‘C’mon Midffild’ yn agos ) a wrth ddweud hynny, does na ddim llawer o gyfresi yn y byd sy’n dod yn agos i faint roeddwn i’n mwynhau gwylio antics y ddau yma. Hyd heddiw, mi dwi dal i fwynhau eistedd yn ol, a ail wylio’r rhagleni. Mi gennai gasgliad go lew o’r Anturiaethau, ond, wrth ddweud hyny, mae’n hen bryd i Sain (neu rhiwyn) rhyddhau fwy o’r anturiaethau ar DVD.
Ma bron iawn i bob bennawd yn ymwneud a Syr Wynff yn cael syniad gwych o syt i fod yn Filiwnydd, ag yna yn mynd ati i drio llwyddo hefo help ‘i ffrind, Plwmsan. Wrth gwrs, bob tro, mae’nt yn methu gyda canlyniadau catastroffig. Maen’t yn gyfrifol am ddod a llwythi o ddyweddiadau gwych i’r Iaith Gymraeg, fel ‘Râslas bach â mawr’, ‘Slepjan’, ‘Oh hysh y sŵnyn’, ‘Oh Wynff be?!’
Fi a Wynford Ellis Owen
Fi a Mici Plwm
Dyddiau hyn, mi dwi’n ffrindiau da hefo’r ddau, ag yn cadw mewn cysylltiad yn aml. Mae’r ddau’n ffantastic, ac mae’n bleser cael wedi dod ‘i nabod y ddau drost y blynyddoedd. Mae gennai hefyd bob fath o femorabilia dwi wedi ‘i gael gan y ddau drost y blynyddoedd, o hen lyniau, i crysa-t Plwmsan, lyniau wedi ‘i fframio ag, Y motorbeic:
Fi a'r Motorbeic
Wel! Ar ôl 22 mlynedd o heb fod ar y sgin, mae’r ddau yn ol – hefo Syr Wynff a Plwmsan 2. Dyma linc i’r trêlyr ar wefan y sioe newydd ‘Ddoe am Ddeg’:
Syr Wynff a Plwmsan 2
Mae’n wych gweld y ddau’n ol, a dwi’n rili edrych ymlaen cael gweld be sydd yn mynd i ddigwydd yn y sketches newydd ‘ma. Os di’r trêilyr rhiwbeth i ymwneud a’r peth – allai’m disgwyl!!
Mi dwi hefyd am drio gweithio ar broject bach yn ymwneud a’r ddau gymeriad yma, ac yn yr wythnosau dwytha, dwi wedi bod yn gweithio’n galed arni – mi wnai bosdio fwy o wybodaeth yn y man.
Os dachi ar Twitter, yna dilynwch fy nhudalen Twitter Syr Wynff a Plwmsan yma: @SyrWynffaPlwmsan
@SyrWynffPlwmsan
Ddraig Twitter Cymreig -gan Geoff (Foomandoonian)
Mi dwi hefyd wedi dechrau arni i rhannu fy wybodaeth ar Wicipedia am Syr Wynff a Plwmsan. Darllenwch amdanynt yma: Syr Wynff a Plwmsan Wicipedia
I’ve just created an online gallery at the awesome looking site – Behance.net. It’s a gallery full of my Panorama’s that I post here – but all together, which is really nice to see. I will be updating it quite often I imagine, I have tonnes of panorama’s I need to finish stitching, and I’ll be going up Mountains very often, so there will always be some pictures to take.
Whenever something new come out the Animation Workshop, you’re always in for a good short. I was pointed in the direction of quite possibly one of the best shorts I’ve ever seen, The Backwater Gospel.
The Hobo
The film is visually amazing, the style reminds me of Luis Cook’s ‘The Pearce Sisters’ that came out a few years ago, but this has taken it to a new level. It’s a nice fresh look, beautifully stylised, all the characters are textured in a way that makes the movie look like an illustration, and they’ve kept things simple, in terms of the mouth shapes, which adds a lot to the appeal. They’ve also used Flash to animate some things, such as the blood, and some major animation, such as the crowd fighting at the end – and the way they’ve managed to compile it all together is simply awesome. Check it out:
Their blog has a lof of their artwork on it, but also kicking around on Vimeo, there’s a couple of ‘Making Of’ videos, and it very interesting to see how they’ve managed to do some of the stuff (the way the Hobo was modelled really impressed me). Check out the blog here -:
I’d just like to share, that I’ve recently bought myself the awesome ‘How to Cheat in Maya 2010‘ book by Eric Luhta – and I’d have to say, that it’s simply awesome. He’s got some pretty kick ass work flow methods in there, and some bad ass tips ‘n tricks. If you get yourself a chance to buy it – or want to improve on your animating workflow, I highly recommend it. I was quite happy with my ‘old’ workflow, thinking that I would never change it, but Eric’s book has opened my eyes to a simpler – yet more effective way of animating, and I think it’s already improved how I approach a shot, and the quality of the animation. He uses tweenMachine to create the inbetweens etc – but I’m much happier using FunHouses’ TradigiTools – as it’s incredibly easy to use, and I know the guys behind it :) (If you don’t use either – check them out – great plug-ins.)
So! With this new knowledge – I decided to follow one of Eric’s tutorials on a short animation, of a Ninja doing flips and some subtle acting. It’s been an awesome experience working on it, and so far I’m very happy with the way it’s turning out. Here’s my current version:
(The Ninja and House was already on the DVD)
My next pass will be cleaning up some bits here and there, and perhaps a quick render – but I’m really happy with how things are turning out so far.
Here also – is a compiled video of my animation progress – from Blocking in Stepped mode, through to adding more inbetweens, copied pairs, then splining – with the refining pass at the end. I hope you enjoy the progress – and check out the book!
Today, I went ahead and updated my Gallery on CGSociety. Right now, all I have on there is my Term 1 Animation Mentor Poses that we had to do. Those were super fun exercises, that I’m going to bring back into my workflow. I never felt more inspired back then, so as a part of getting myself more into animation, it’s something that I really want to do.
