Dont know if I mentoned it before but I finally got a PS3 had it for about a month now and no it wasnt the one I payed £210 for on play.com, I ended up going to Argos and getting a 120GB one for £250! Luckily two days later I got a refund from Play so everything was dandy. As for games well I got games in advance thinking my Play.com PS3 would arrive in a couple of days... So I had bought Metal Gear Solid 4, Ninja Gaiden (only £5!), Super Street Fighter 4 and Final Fantasy 13 and then I got Heavy Rain for my bday so as you can see quite alot of games.... however nothing to play them on! Well anyway thats all over now as I have it hoorah! By the way, Heavy Rain is a masterpiece in terms of stroy telling and as a game itself so I usher you to try it! However one runthrough isnt very long, but technically there is alot of things to do as you still have 18 different endings. I completed and have 3.... only 15 more to go! :D


Anyway unfortunately my family received some badnews last week while my mother was away, her father; my Grandad had passed away which is very soon after my nan had done the same (Around March time). My Grandad had altimers and his home contacted us saying he had become quite ill and was finding hard to feed him, etc. And as my mother went onto a school trip for a week with the school she works at, grandad passed away that night. The sad thing is we couldnt tell mum until she came back on the Friday, as if we told her over the phone she would be with Primary school children feeling awful and very far away from home, she also happened to be the bloody mini bus driver. So we just couldnt tell her and as you can imagine when we did she was devastated...

Anyway heres better news I have a commission! Thanks to my friend Jodie I am now animating parts video on democracy for the youth group 'Open'. I dont know a thing on democracy but luckily all I'm doing is animating what they want me to animate so thats fine lol I'll post more on that at a later date when I got something done lol

To be honest not much has happened in my life at the mo. Literally I wake up ridiculously late, get up, try and do some work mostly personel stuff, reading comics or playing videogames and if I am not doing that stuff; I'm at work! WHERE IS ALL MY FRIENDS AND PARTYS AND GET TOGETHERS!!! Oh well its technically only the start of the summer holidays... hopefully it will pick up soon lol

Oh and before I go I have just started my blog on Wordpress for my Third year project at Uni. If you wanna just check that out that would be sweet heres the link...

http://benecilinthirdyear.wordpress.com/

Anyway til next time :D

Ventures, Drawings and Projects!

Still not much to report, just been so tired all the time... most likely because I have'nt been doing anything lol. And when I am not at home being tired I am working at "mey local Budgens" so a bit bored at the mo. Half of it is to do with the fact that the summer holidays have'nt officially kicked off yet So half my friends who live here in the village have'nt arrived yet while my friends at Uni have basically all gone home. So I am in friend pergatory right now... HA! That's great I'll write that down.

Now at some point this week I will start sorting bits and pieces out for my third year Animation (I mean we have all summer but I thought I better make a start) which I believe will entail me to start writing up a story, etc. Anyway I will post information on that project in it's own personel Blog on Word Press (so my Tutour can view it and not get bombarded by stuff she really doesnt need to read like the first paragraph for example.... or even Shit, Bolloks Bastard I mean did you really want to read that?

Although I have'nt done any work for this project those of you who know me will know that I have been attempting to create a comic book seires about a man from 1950s America brought back to life to fight monsters and baddies in 21st century England. The character was a skeleton in a black slim suit simply called Smith, but unfortunately the character design was too similar to an already exsisting character; Skullduggery Pleasant. Now I was quite disappointed by this as I felt I put so many ideas into this story and I thought it was over because no matter how much diferent the characters were they still had a very similar appearance. So finally Smith has gone through a slight redesign. One that will hopefully distinguish him as a very different character.

Now the original design is on the left and the new design is on the right. I may have been influenced by Nightmare Before Christmas' Jack Skellington and DC Comics Dead Man but I don't really know as well I did the first drawing on a back of a receipt at work so... Anyway he has become more of a living corpse than a skeleton and I have now started creating all the recurring characters using my Cintiq Screen Tablet so it should be good practice!

But apart from that not much has happened a couple of friends and I have just been drinking and playing old videogames like Streets of Rage, original Super Mario Bros, Mega Bomber man and Road Avenger on the Mega CD. Also I gave a cartoon that I heard of and have seen parts of a go. The show is called Venture Bros and I love it! Granted it isnt for everyone, it's basically a spoof of old adventure cartoons like Jonny Quest and there are also alot of super hero and comic book refrences so if your into all of this then you'll be fine. However I got my friend Chris into it. Sure sometimes he doesnt get it but hey neither do I sometimes. Well I knew of this show since I went to Newyork as we went to the studio (thanks to my friend Alex who was a massive fan) but I didnt have a clue about the show. Now nearly a year and a half later I now own season 1 on DVD and season 2 as files from iTunes. Well anyway I recomend it...

Basically the whole month of May!

Well a post about a month late nevermind, hey.

So my second year at University is over... it's kinda sad really knowing that next year is the big final year, I mean I felt I only just got here! So as its over the summer holidays have started and I have FOUR MONTHS. I am already bored lol (nah I am sure I'll find something to do)

Although I have one big task to do over the summer and thats to sort out my project for the third year. More on that later. As mentioned in the last post I was sorting myself out for the assesment, obviously that's now over and I got my results. Although I did well I still feel I could have done better as in the last test Assesment thing I got a First (This time I got a Two-One) but its not the mark that got me down, it was the negative feed back that came with it. I don't think there were any positive points. But then again I obviously didnt do shit otherwise I would'nt have been close to a First. Anyway after talking to Susie (my Tutor) once again I feel I just need to put it behind me but of course keep it all in mind and get that damn First next year!



The next day after getting my marks was my birthday, 25th May. It was good fun. That night we all had lots of drink, especially me as I think I payed for only 2 of my many drinks lol. although I didnt get that drunk as a couple of friends and overdid it at the chinese buffet before.... regret that ever so slightly. But it was just so good! So now i am 20, or Twenteen as I call it.... I am still a teen right? As for the birthday with the family we went for a great meal at a local pub.... Nice! And I received a very special gift.... well special to me anyway. It was the oversized hardcover edition of Batman Hush. With art work by Jim Lee, one of my favourite artists. I have only read a chapter as I got distracted by other things but I will read it as the book itself looks fantastic and it was one of those books I always wanted to get as an Absolute Edition. At the moment I am currently reading The Walking Dead volume 5 (finally) and the Manga 'Pluto' which is by my now favourite Manga writer/Artist (Besides Hayao Miyazaki and Katsuhiro Otomo) Naoki Urasawa! wikipedia it, its awesome! May have a post on it later as I am about to start volume 3!

Jesus I have lot to talk about. It would been easier to have it all in small weekly blogs like I am supposed to do! Anyway that weekend (May 29th) three of my fiends and I went to the MCM Expo in London. Now I never been to a Expo or convention or whatever, so this was very different for me. I really did like it, I was amazed by people who really went all out on their costumes (although Huw seemed uncomfortable lol) and what they had come as. There was a transformer and a Gundam Wing robot there! And they didnt look cack! The costumes looked good lol. I also spent all my birthday money there on books such as 'The art of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney' 'The art of Steve Ditko' and DVD's such as Futurama season 2 for £6 and Ghost in the Shell 2.0 for only £1! Bargain! But the best thing I believe is the Hardcover copy of "Elephant Men volume 1". Now I always heard of Elephant Men but never thought about trying it as I read alot as it is. But when I saw the creator at his desk with the books I thought mother of god get it!!! So I did and Richard Starkings (The Writer) signed it and drew the hippo character behind the front cover and Boo Cook (The cover Artist) also signed it! So definetly the best time to try Elephant Men and I hope they're there next year as I am sure I'll wanna get volume 2 and 3 and I might aswell get them to sign them to! Anyway sucsess so as I said I will be going next year if all goes to plan.

But not much animation related to post this time but I will start work on the third year project so they'll definetly be some posts of that either here on a seperate Blog. Oh and in my last entry I mentioned getting a PS3.... well I bought one.... but it still isnt here and I bought it online on the uuuuurrrr.... on the 26th May... so uuurrr.... yeah....


Anyway heres a bit of Bottom! Skip to 0:33 Ritchie's face is priceless! :D

I know what I said....

Screw you! :P

I'll start making frequent posts from now on (I am talking weekly or whatever...) Anyway! alot has happened since my last post, not suprising really considering the gap. Mostly good rather than bad.

Anyway in my last post I mentioned the BBC project that has been on the BBC Norfolk website. Anyway the animations have recently been shown on the "Big Screen" in Chapelfield and I was one of the few animators interviewed by Stephen Bumphrey of BBC Radio Norfolk. Well I say interviewed.... I did less talking than everyone else lol!

Also I was doing a competition brief involving a rat in the city (it was in my last post) well I started of ok with the project but then it just got less interesting and I had to stop. Although I still need to finish a storyboard and make that into an animatic by the assesment... not long now :S.

And now I am working on my self initiated project. It is a chance to do whatever you want, with in reason of course. Some not even doing an animation or animation related stuff! I am creating small bits and pieces for next year's all year project, mainly because I already have an idea plus I wanted to try the technique; Rotoscoping Rotoscoping (check it on wikipedia)... which I gotta say is a bit of a bitch. But looks good even though I only drew it rough.



As for personel life, well I gotta say nothing's really jumped out, but three friends and I have decided to move into the city so we're closer to Uni, etc. We found a really nice one thats only like 4 minutes away from the Uni and 2 from the city centre and 3 from my mother funking comic shop!!!! ok calm down.... Anyway we obviously agreed to nab it and we are just waiting to get back to them. Unfortunatley they dont work at weekends and its Mayday on monday so we wont be able to put the deposit down until Tuesday... which sucks balls... but at least this way no one else could grab before us anyway and once we've done that we get to move in at about late July.

So I am gonna be very careful with my money although I am ok anyway so I am just going to work shit loads over the summer and (although I didnt want to) get a job in Norwich. But any big things I wanna get... better get them now when I have money (and of course I have a birthday coming up!) I dont mean I am gonna by a lorrie load, I am just saying... well I do want a PS3 :D

Well anyway gotta dash lots of work to do... about 2 weeks to go... gulp!


Oh and before I leave got a Bloody fantastic artbook just come in the post today... took bloody ages to get here though...

BBC Project Finishedey!

Ok I REALLY will try to keep a weekly blog... I will...


Anyway Been a while since my last post as I finished the project I started in the previous post. In fact the Animation is up on the BBC Norfolk Website. So thats good news me thinks :D

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/norfolk/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8527000/8527133.stm

Well alot has happened since my last entry, so much I really can't remember.... sorry. What do we think of the remaking of films, huh? I saw the Wolfman about a week ago and seemed really good (obviously that was loosely based on the 50's film of the same name) films like these I feel need to be made as some films are just too old. Now I am not talking about say a remake of Dukes of Hazard.... That was a terrible idea. I mean films as old as say King Kong, now that did need a remake. There are also rumours of a Creature from the Black Lagoon remake. Which is why I went on Play.com and bought myself the DVD for £2 (aswell as the original Wolfman, dunno thought I'd try it) but after that I have suddenly become hooked with Play.com. What's the point in HMV anymore, huh? Anyway I went bonkers and bought those two DVDs aswell as Hot Fuzz, Clash of the titans (also been remade, and looks awesome), Ghost in the shell 3, The complete Tintin (which is 10 discs) and I payed just under, thats right under £20! What the hell! Screw you HMV!!!

Anyway in other news, I got my Cintiq screen. And it seems really easy to get ued to. If you want to see any of the drawings I have used my Cintiq on check them out on my Flikr or Deviant Art account, however they are only cintiq coloured not drawn. But it still doesnt seem that hard as I am creating a webcomic using all Cintiq made illustrations, I mean something small like just a one page comic at a time designed for the net, hopefully the first issue will be up real soon.... Unlike Smith!

Right better be off I am working on a new project involving this little fella, have a good one ;)

Hey... Sorry I'm late!

First Blog of 2010! What a huge gap. But hopefully I will be making it a sort of regular thing from now on...

Anyway I am just sitting here having a break from work and watching Being Human. I probably shouldnt since my tutor and the person from the BBC want to see our work so far tomorrow at 2pm and I only have a sketchbook of some sketches and about a page and a half of storyboarding and they want a complete storyboard, Mood board (which shouldnt be too hard) and a line test by Thursday! HOW AM I GONNA DO THIS! Oh well I like to think I always pull through.

The Project for the BBC is about "Objects" and how important a certain item is in history. I am creating an animation on the Stone Mason's Mallet (partly due to my father being a Stone Mason) and the animation involves a stone mason from the 16th century working on a sculpture and as he works on it time passes and he changes from a 16th century man to an 18th century man and then finally a modern man and finishing the sculpture of an angel. And all the way through this each man uses the exact same wooden Mallet. This is because even today Stone Masons still use that same tool they have used for thousands of years. Hopefully this animation highlights that the tool is still important today and has created important buildings and sculptures for a very long time.

Also I will be investing in a certain product which should help with my work... alot! A Wacom Cintiq screen. Something that allow me to do which I could never do with a Graphics Tablet :D

HOLY CRAP!

Its the 22nd and I have bought one present..... ONE!

I better get on this.... only three days til Christmas :S