EazySafe, located in the Digital Hub facility in Dublin.

An ‘online’ safety training company, with offices in Ireland, France, and Poland

–

day 1:

16th Feb 2011

In at the deep end, after the initial ’50 cent tour’.

I was asked to come up with some sketches, for a new ‘Office Safety’ animation caricature for a companies internal training animated test course.

The remit is to have a friendly office worker to match and interact with the preexisting ‘Sam’ animation.

Day 2:

17th Feb 2011

With half a dozen potential models designed and submitted, four have been okayed and rendered ‘roughly’ in ilistrator and photoshop, for review by the client.

Day 3.

18th Feb 20011

Working at home, after I hand in some paper work to the college, (oh and get back from the ‘Airsoft Soc game’)

Note:

(I like this group, a friendly relaxed atmosphere, you defiantly feel the need to pitch in)

Part 2

Week (2)

Day 4: (Monday)

Started today with developing ‘Photoshop’ renderings of a new ‘office safety model’, which I am calling ‘Kris’, short for ‘Crysis’.

There are 8 different base models for the client (sounds like Pie Marks) to review and decide, hairs, dress styles and so on to be sketched.

I ‘Wonder’ if they will they take my dress designs and market them?

Day 5:

Backgrounds, sketches and Preliminary car park for basic new working safety video, 9 other backgrounds, Kitchens, Factories, Warehouse, Corridor, Deli, Retail Shop.

Day 6:

Carpark finished, starting factory(2). 1 is a pan&track the other has motion componants, and ‘ikbones’.  Fixed the office chairs, now have somewhere to sit!

Day 7:

Fatory finished! both versions, corridor laid out and I have the first kitchen objects done, all saved as griphic items, this seems to work better when working with cs4 to cs5 conversions, fewer skips in timeline.

Day 8:

Working at home, fixed issue with the factory IkBones animation, also the exterior travel shot of buildings, found the stray frame causing the skip and deleated it!, ‘A pain in the …’ , looks good , for now..

Week (3)

Day 9:

Starting Retail shop, most of the other ‘backgrounds’ done to first fix, will be making changes I am sure, if it’s not one thing it’s another with the factory IkBones, but I fixed it for good this time!, fingers crossed.

They accepted the ‘backgrounds’!, I was sure I would be asked to make major changes, but no, they like them!  Ho they do want an additional ‘corridor seq’, a paralax scene, alla ‘schoobi doo’ running down a corridor.

Day 10:

Client likes Kris, but want more clothing options!?, cleaning up the final corridor, so they are waiting for the go ahead for some internal reason, (not in the loop, so do not know).

Day 11:

Client meeting, no decision, loves the new stuff, may have to draw straws.  Scaffolding model and animation, took all day!

Day 12:

Falling seq, added to existing animation, looks good, but took a big chunk of the day..

Day 13:

..Very foggy morning, but did turn into a nice false spring day, great day to take photos of the staff for the website, oh and a group shot for the office wall..

Week (4)

Day 14:

Spent the day with Photoshop retouching images, and adding an errent employee to the group shots.

Day 15:

Air brushing and touch ups, long tedious and subject to the whims of the ‘Recipient’.

Thank god for COFFEE!!…

Day 16:

Printed test sheets, once again, ‘Change this, is that Me?!’, (Photos for the company online profile pages), the usual, plastic surgery on the cheep thanks to Photoshop..

Starting ‘revamp to the ‘Chemical Safety Course’, a balls up due to cs4/cs5 compatibility, not my fault!!!, this time..

Day 17:

Starting to add the revamped backgrounds to existing ‘Fla’ files, ‘I love what I have done with exploding Sam’, Claire loves ‘Chemical burning Sam’, Niamh Likes, ‘Sunburn, the throbbing vain’, and Dave has asked for a few changes!

Day 18:

Finished the ‘Solid, Liquid, Gas states’ fla, the original made no sense in the context, oh and added a little more to ‘Sunburn Sam’, he really gets angry now..

Week (5)

Day 19:

Finished the first set, minor changes, add a line here, loose a color there, add fade..

Second set of fla meeting, next 6 for the revamp chosen.

Day 20:

After reviewing the work I have done, so far, I have been given another dozen or so ‘fla’ to fix and update.

Day 21:

_BUST_

Fire alarm goes off and we are stuck out of the office, so I go to ‘Starbucks’ and work there for the day, don’t worry, thats what the rest of the office did too!

Day 22:

‘Paddy’s day, why should the irish be blamed for ‘him’!, He was Welsh!! ‘

Day 23:

In hospital this morning, I am there the doctor is not!, they have to reschedule, depressed now..

Week (6)

Day 24:

Just what I need, I am the only one in the office, the rest are in Cork or Paris (France) with the parent company.

Four of the nine big animations done!

Day 25:

St Paddy day I could kill you 48hrs of work dropped on my desk and only an afternoon to do it in!…..PC acting up…

Day 26:

Killed myself but did the ‘Systems Food Safty fla.’ The deliveries Safty is a bit of a lost issue.  It is badly in need of something, but what?

That issue with the cashe Memory is dragging out the changes…

Day 27:

Meeting with supervisor, could you make this do that instead of what we agreed on? I know it sounds as if I am being dumped on from a great height, it is just that after veiwing some fla, they need a little tweeking!  Nothing ever looks as good as in your own mind..

Day 28:

Finally got back to ‘Roland the Rat’, have the timing sorted, what a mess to start with, if I had known I would have junked the whole thing and started from scratch!

Building the props today, new milk, new boxes, new tins, maybe a can opener?

Week (7)

Day 29:

Have completed two versions of deliveries, one with the packages going out, another with them coming in, I know, why not just run the first one backwards, I wish I had thought of that before I added reactions and frost escaping when the open doors of the van!

Day 30:

Finally tracked down the Irish food standards color coding for storage, and it is a guideline not a hard and fast rule, which is why there are so many different lists available.

The original was for the french market, and it was wrong as well!  The images are ‘bit-maped’, but not crappy looking, so I will use them , for the most.

‘Salt and Soap’ needs changing a quick fix that will take all day!.

Day 31:

They did not like the first revamp of ‘Food Color’!, so I am junking everything but two images, the rest will be little animations, within the fla itself, oh and and another set of changes to ‘Salt and Soap’ Loose the brand name, and add more bubbles!!!!!

Day 32:

A day of paperwork today have a lot to catch up on, oh and the next set of fla for revamp are being selected today,’Bomb disposal !?! ‘.

Again The ‘Client’ has ‘failed’ to make a decision on which ‘Kris’ to use, that is two weeks late and the deadline is fast approaching, if I go and animate one I know they will choose one of the others just to ‘piss me off !!’

Action stations!!, all crew to Action stations!!

The New BIG Client has dropped a new internal training course in to the pot  ’night staff safety and security’, and they need a proposal, with  three major animations for the board meeting at 2:30pm.  tomorrow! CRAP!!!!

Day 33:

It killed me, I had to work into the wee hours to do it but I handed over the flas done and dusted, now half my brain is shut done from it and ‘Hugh’ is on his way in, coffee I need coffee!!!

Week (8)

Day 34:

Skipped going in Friday, partially from exhaustion, partially it’s ‘fools’ day and I was ‘warned’ that the pranks verge into the insane for the ‘New guys’, best to avoid!

Was told this morning the Fla’s were well received, so feeling quite good about that, I did muck up on a set of headlights but it was caught and added by Niamh, I did them just covered over that layer later, sleep  depravation.. thats what I am claiming, not my own stupidity…

‘Billed the Client’

Day 35:

Got back to building Kris’s body, still no word on the final touches, still I can create a walk cycle of the animation.

Day 36:

The body is right, a front and side view completed, just the 3/4 view, make the walk cycle more lady like, mouth shapes and a range of expressions and hopefully ‘They’ will have decided on the clothes and hair by then.

Day 37:

Copy and paste from yesterday, the walk cycle has to include different speeds and objects or hand positions to enable carrying things…

Day 38:

Stop the presses they have made their decision, and I do not have to throw out half the work I have done so far!!!

They have chosen version ‘D’, so from now on She is Kris ‘D’ (Crisdy) short for ‘Crisis actions model D’, I know a mouth full, so ‘Kris’ does fine..

Week (9)

‘Billed The’Client”

Day 39:

An Hour late and everyone is off to a meeting, I have the 3/4 to finish so I have enough work until they are back..

Day 40:

Animating Kris in a scene today, Welcome to the ‘company’, ‘There are a few things you need to Know!’, it is the first whole scene for the new training course. All the work to date were general motions which get strung together into separate actions later.

Day 41:

Two Fla down just swapping Kris for Sam

Day 42:

Copy and paste for the next four days, there are a lot of Sam Fla’s that we can recycle, thank god I took the time to build a good figure to scale with the rest..

Day 43:

Walking in to shop revisited, she is skating over the floor?, oh a frame rate issue!

Week (10)

Half way through the list and they are asking for time spent working on this stuff, now where the hell will I get that from?

It sure would of helped if I had kept some kind of log!!

Day 44:

Under the Knife this afternoon, good I am starving. Only time for clean up this morning

Day 45:

Spent the day recuperating, Why does hospital food alway taste like it has been pre digested?

Day 46:

Out again and my futures so bright I got to wear shades!, well at least until the my doctor says my eyes are okay!

Day 47:

More cut and pasting of kris into Sam. Oh and they are giving some of my backgrounds to this other guy, so there are three major course fla that I will have to wait to do!

Day 48:

Easter

Week (11)

Day 49:

Easter

Day 50:

Spending my time tiding up the fla, oh and redoing another set of walk cycles for Kris, the 25 frame rate of her walk messes with the 12 frame setting of the flash 8 player, so I have to redo the walk again!…….

Day 51:

Copy and paste again. though this time it is a flash 7 player the client has!!:), why not just upgrade???

Day 52:

Late in today had to hand in ‘college project’, now perhaps I can get to bed at a reasonable hour!!!

Day 53:

Sick as a dog, You’ll be happy to know I have lost my voice!, still work is getting done

Week (12)

Day 54:

Yet another Bank Holiday, and I did not know about it!  Yep, I showed up for work and no one was here!… I wish you guys would tell me this stuff!!

Day 55:

Work all done early, more switching Kris for Sam, and quite a bit of xml programing, god I hate xml,  am not a web designer!! no matter what the ‘credentials’ say

Day 56:

‘Busy’ work for the next three days, little things the client may wants, the usual ‘wogs & weenies’ stuff, and a translation for those of you not born before the turn of the century ‘patches & quick fixes’.

Day 57:

Cut and paste previous day

Day 58:

Cut and paste previous day

Week (13)

Day 59:

Cut and paste, but I am skipping out on the last day, it is friday the 13th after all no way am I tempting fate.

I have permission.  In any case everything that has been scheduled for me to do has been done, and more.  I think they had to scramble once or twice to find stuff for me to do!

So I have been sitting here twiddling my thumbs for the las two days!

Please do not think I am leaving them high and dry, ‘So long, fare well, ad-veder-zane, goodbye’, no I have promised to poke my ‘head’ in after the exam and help if it is needed for an additional week.

‘Ain’t I a nice guy’, answers on a post card please….

Day 60:

Free at last!! Now I just have to stay out of texas motels and that street, outside of the State Book Depositories!

Not that I think any one is out to get me I just have the feeling there is a big bulls-eye is pasted on my back!

The clients name has been removed to protect the ‘Guilty’!

Will that do Niamh?

EazySafe, located in the Digital Hub facility in Dublin.

An ‘online’ safety training company, with offices in Ireland, France, and Poland

–

day 1:

16th Feb 2011

In at the deep end, after the initial ’50 cent tour’.

I was asked to come up with some sketches, for a new ‘Office Safety’ animation caricature for the ‘Primark’ companies internal training animated test course.

The remit is to have a friendly office worker to match and interact with the preexisting ‘Sam’ animation.

Day 2:

17th Feb 2011

With half a dozen potential models designed and submitted, four have been okayed and rendered ‘roughly’ in ilistrator and photoshop, for review by the client.

Day 3.

18th Feb 20011

Working at home, after I hand in some paper work to the college, (oh and get back from the ‘Airsoft Soc game’)

Note:

(I like this group, a friendly relaxed atmosphere, you defiantly feel the need to pitch in)

-Times up and I am not sure its done yet-

We have all the scenes, and we’ve split up the remaining editing.

I love the interview room scenes, they tie the episode better then my narration idea, still Tom forgot (again) to mention his working for a cleaning service, how else do you explain his working in both a night club and a public library.

The final render has been saved as an mp4, which is of a very poor quality, but that was just a setting error..

Crap the ‘Website’ is not up!, Crap!!, Crap!!!, Crap!!!!

Paul

Back in class, and editing the footage, not much else to say, yet.

Still have some scenes to film though, thought we had them, but thats what the shot log was for, to catch the mistakes.

Web page is up, and it looks ‘good’, but why have I been singled out in the ‘blooper’ reel?

I have been adding effects and sound to the film, Tom and Jayme both think the symble effect is ‘cheesey’, you know what their right

‘Obi’s’ voice is impossible to distinguish from the background, going to have to dub it in later, this is going to look very bad, I have no idea how to do it right, or even if I can do it at all!

Good I hope I pass this year!, I would hate to repeat next year! :{

Paul

• Helping hand to the film society -

I screwed up our presentation this week, but at least we were well dressed!

What works in one room may not work in another, what works on one computer almost never works on another.

I wanted to show off some of our work, so as my part (the middle) I talked about the story, what was going on, and what we are going to do.

To my shock, only two of my scenes would play, this left me flat footed and with major egg on my face, so I lost my place in the script, waffling on until handing the mess over to Jayme. :{

At the start of the Holiday

Jayme and I have been in the campus helping with the filming of the Student Film Society ‘Zombie’ flick, and yes it was fun!, especially when they decided to keep hitting me with pool ques! , maybe I am a masochist, or was still feeling guilty.

They reciprocated by playing customers in ‘our’ night club, or maybe bribing them with three crates of minerals had something to do with it.

We did get a lot of the night club and pick up scenes done , Thanks ‘Obi’.

Paul

The plans of mouse and men are oft to go astray, I have not been able to send these up to wordpress, the password to my account has been changed, and I did not do it!

Still the ‘blogs’ have to be done.

I will post this as soon as I can

20th March

• Half the film in the can, and we have to give the camera back -

We have been busy this week, I went out and bought props, costumes, and Tom, Jayme and little ol Me have been filming some more scenes. And re filmed part of the morgue scene, my walking out a set of doors scene (Meltdown can be seen on the site).

I’m pissed at the ‘Twins’, I signed out one of the HD cameras, for ‘three’ days, handing it over to Jayme for and it was kept out for nearly a week and a half, and Danny gave out about this.

Bit of luck, Currys were selling a ‘JVC Everio’ camera, without a battery, Jayme has a similar model, so we can do more of the film without having to get everyone together, when we might not have a camera or time.

I have another problem, ‘Final Cut Pro’, can read ‘Final Cut Express’ Files, but not the other way around, this has forced me to render some scenes and re importing it back into F.C.E.

Paul

The drama project has begun filming the primary scenes, and re-filming on HD camera the scenes from the ‘online’ promo.

Though there has been some scheduling conflicts and confusion about the use of a room, not anyone’s fault, just bad luck, anyway we will have it for filming later, so alls well that ends well.

Okay on to the daily grind.  We started writing out a shooting log during lunch Tuesday the 16^th, laying out the needed shots for Tom’s, Jayme’s and my scenes.

Wednesday 17^th Acting was never really my strong point, I am playing the strong silent bad guy type, at least for the first episode, in the shooting I repeatedly walk out of a set of double doors, shot from many angles, simple yes? And it made me feel stupid.

Jayme’s scenes were basic set up on his ‘Persona’, in this we tried to show the frustration of a less then successful session musician.

We changed the opening sequence slightly giving Tom a longer scene where he discovers the book, which leads to the exposition, which we filmed in the library.

And yes We were ‘very’ quiet.. J

Thursday 18^th we did a few pick up shots, just things we forgot, or just did not get to the day before, and I handed over the HD camera to Tom and Jayme to let them do some of the location shots, but not before making a backup of the filming, oh and I took the chance to film my concept for the ‘1 in 6 ‘audio visual tutorial.

Friday the 19th was a bit of a wash out for me as we were, or at least the guys were doing casting for two of the primary cast and three of the support cast, though I was not available on the day.

That is pretty much it for the moment, so I guess I will leave you with some of the sets.

The Morgue:

The Nightclub toilet:

The Hospital entrance:

See you in the funny pages…

I guess this must be the ‘Creative’ part of  the course.

Everything else is just a matter of bying, in the case of scrubs, building,  as with the book, or scrambling around my attic, for a tiny TV(Don’t ask)

This is a record of what I discover about creating a drama for an online project for ‘Creative Digital Media’.
I guess this must be the ‘Creative’ part of  the course.
As this is tobe a record of the personal experiances, what I have learned and any stray thoughts, you are going to have a lot of stuff to get through
–During the last, 3rd semester:The group project, were more about the paperwork involved, and you have no idea how much I hate paperwork.
And ‘Our’, Tom, Jayme, and Myself, our decision to develop a drama along the lines of the RTE Storyland (http://www.rte.ie/storyland/) competition has generated a lot of documents, many I still do not understand.

For this semester:Now that We have begun the 4th semester, we get on with the first week of production, yep we started ‘filming’.
Which means I had to gather up all the Costumes, props and camera equipment and bring it in!
one of the things needed for the filming was a book, an old book! I had to fall back to clockwork effects for this, tea dipping pages to age them, olive oil to age the brown stained paper, giving the impression of bound leather, and of course sowing the pages together.
My biggest problem is the gurney, for one of the first scenes, I have spent a month trying to ‘borrow’ one from the local hosipital!
Everything else is just a matter of bying, in the case of scrubs, building,  as with the book, or scrambling around my attic, for a tiny TV(Don’t ask)

Okay that it for this week I will post more next week, I will include some photo’s as well, it might help you imagine the stupid little things that take up all the time!

Science Museum

… 

            The only way to demystify science is to explain it in a way that shows the fun that can be had with the quirks of physics.

This is exactly what the Pierce Street Science Museum and their light exposition has attempt.

Rather then stoic tours through fenced off exhibits, the curators of the Science museum go out of their way to give a tactile experience, from the ‘props’.

Showing kids and adults that science is not restricted to labs or corporate research.

 Being one of those ‘kids or adults’.

‘Do not ask me which I have not figured it out yet’

I found the experience entertaining, and as a by-product educational.

 ’scintillating’

Trust me a particle physicist would smirk at that!

The exhibits and props are meant to be played with, showing how the world works.

From the moment you step into the lobby, with the ‘box universe’ and the inverted cone, which the entire group could not figure the reason for it being there.

Actually it’s purpose had to be explained, and not one of us had it right.

It reacts with the movements of the tectonic plates of the earth to display their movements, yep an earthquake detector.

The only drawback was the delay in starting the tour, which had more to do with the lack of people to guide the groups.

Where to start, well most would say start at the beginning.

 ’Sod that I’m starting at the sonic lights, everyone like that one

Imagin, a darkened room with globes hanging on strings from the roof or just laying about on the floor. 

These globes, if you made a sound would light up reacting to the sound with strobing effects. 

Of course the lights were rigged to sound sensors and set to flash differing colors, very entertaining and a good example of external stimuli effecting the world.

            Ever wonder how your brain works?, does it  work?

One of the first interactive ‘toys’ on the top floor is a representation of a brain cell, using plasma arc coils traveling along copper wires within a converted household water boiler.

Then there are other things to play with and learn about, like getting power and light from dirt, or recording the particle wave signature in polymer crystal matrices.

Perhaps you would like to be followed by lights as you move through a series of tracks.

Or would you rather see the southern lights, no not the southern cross, (I made the mistake of confusing that one!), but the southern hemisphere’s version of the Aurora-Boer-Allis.

Of course there is a lot more there to see, to play with, and ‘god forbid’, to learn from, but I m not going to tell you any more, your just going to have to go yourself!

… By the way this was the only place visited where I was allowed to use ‘My’ Camera, so here are a few that were actualy in focus!, Enjoy.. 

…

Nestled behind the garden of remembrance off of Parnell Square is the Hugh lane Museum of modern Art.

One of the oldest Museum in Dublin, though this has not stopped them from displaying some truly interesting pieces.

Ranging from the installation ‘Francis Bacon’s Studio’, replicated down to the overturned paint can, to projects the man had been working on up until his death.

To the installations of Derrick Hyde, as well as paintings by one of the ‘Goya’s', (I don’t know if they were the father’s or the son’s work)

Added recently, an interactive display by ‘Ican’… thats how ‘He’ spells it… , installed beside ‘Bacon’s’ Studio. 

Has outfitted with a series of information kiosks to display ‘gibberish’.

 Maybe as an attempt to define the value of the information we are receiving in the multimedia inundated present as apposed to the quality of discovering something for ourselves, as in the ‘pre-flush toilet’ times of yester-year.

‘Or’, the whole thing had broken down, and I was assigning weight to a  ‘ghost in the machine’?

Either way it was an entertaining way to spend an afternoon.

Trying to comprehend the machinations of artists. 

Who for the most part were as confused and confusing as the people they were trying to reach!

Rather then spout details and facts, which I could not remember without looking them up on line.

I will leave that to ‘You’!

I would rather like to discribe some of the art it’s self, weither or not I liked it.

Starting with the huge geometric squares painted in muted reds blues, browns and dirty yellows, all intended to draw you into the details and textures of the surface.

Though most of the group singled these ‘paintings’ out as simplistic, idiotic or just stupid, I freely admit to liking them!…

…So, I have no taste, never claimed to have any!

If I were to choose a more traditional art work on the wall of the ‘Lane’, I would pick ‘the Journey’, a pastel painting depicting a ‘white horse’ racing through a tropical tree covered road leading to a plantation fronted house.

It is a small canvas tucked away in a corner, beside a fire extinguisher, though that might have been another instillation, its’ hard to tell in the ‘Lane’, anyway blink and you would miss it.

It is a painting, (of course) in the impressionist style, where it is the depiction of light that builds the image, not an artist’s attempt to replicate in the smallest detail.

There are other artworks of interest, and some absolute,

(‘Expletive Deleted’, sorry could not resist editing my self!),

 hanging on the wall and laying about waiting to be discovered.

I’ll leave it up to others to make their own choices as to which is which.

…

…I will just say, I may not know what is art, but I know what I like…