Adrian Shaugnessy & Tony Brook D&AD Lecture: Unit Editions (Research)

I recently attended a lecture at the the Printworks in Manchester the organised between Thoughtful/Stockport College/D&AD. The speakers were Adrian Shaugnessy and Tony Brook. I was attended this lecture as I had previously heard of Shaughnessy and have read critical text written by him and have used in my work so I was interested in what he had to say. Shaughnessy and Brook talked about them coming together to start a publishing business, they reviewed their history andand talked about what they have achieved and they had never done publishing so they thought to give it a go. They discussed the publications that they have already published and about how technology is impacting on the industry mentioning the internet and the new iPad. They talked about the whole process of the company and it proved to be a very interesting experience.

Maya VS Cinema4D (Issues & Practices Eassay)

Maya VS Cinema4D

The use of 3D animation applications; Maya and Cinema4D has in the past few months greatly intrigued me. What intrigues me is that through visits to commercial design studios and my own contacts with the industry I have found that many of them are using Cinema4D and on my degree course I am using Maya when I create 3D design. Companies such as Double Negative who work on block buster movies such as 2012 use Maya where as companies and practitioners such as We Are Seventeen, Ian Macklin and Frank The Plumber who I am arranging an internship with have advised me to learn Cinema4D in place for me to work with them. It is curious as to why students are not being educated or the industry with industry standard tools in some respects, as Maya is a great industry tool and is extremely powerful but a more common Cinema4D. Whilst discussing this with my tutor I found out that Maya can do everything Cinema4D can and more, which makes it a sensible choice for using in education. Also, my tutor mentioned to me that a lot of 3D applications all work in the same way so learning Maya lays the groundwork for other 3D tools. Another point my tutor made was that price was a huge factor as Cinema4D is a lot cheaper than Maya so it is more attractive to companies and practitioners who have to handle a tight budget. From an educational point of view Maya is a better choice for those reasons.

Researching into forums I have found that Cinema4D has great integration features with other design tools such as After Effects. I found this extract in a forum. ”Cinema 4D will output multiple passes to After Effects, Combustion, Apple Motion, eyeon Fusion, and FCP as native project files, which you’d have to build up and render out manually in Maya or other 3D apps. Cinema 4D is a bit easier to get up to speed on and grasp, but Maya is the king out there, so Maya experience makes you very employable” http://toolfarm.com/phorumNew5/read.php?4,1523

The full highest priced Maya package is $4,090.00 which is very pricey and in the forums many are saying that Cinema 4D is about half that price which can be appealing especially as some student prices come to around £130. Another argument in favor of Cinema 4D is the workflow that I quote from the CGTalk forum “I prefer C4D mainly because of the smooth workflow. Comparatively, Maya can feel clunky at times. This is really a testament to how refined the C4D interface is.” I can agree with the user experience of Maya not being very attractive but it is no reason to not choose it over any other. It’s quite clearly the tool you get in the end for the job you want it to do rather than the user experience but there if you purchase all the extras to give Cinema4D more capabilities is closely rivals the price of Maya. I think that Maya gives a good start covering all areas of 3D as the quote said earlier that Maya is the king and it should be rightly the first choice to use in education for all of the reasons above.

My own personal view of Cinema4D and Maya is a little biased as I have very limited experience with Cinema4D and it is for me a totally different experience but has some excellent user features mainly in the interface, there is less mess in term of windows being open everywhere all over the place. Maya feels very comfortable, but this is down to nearly 3 years of using the application. I felt more intimidated the first time I used Cinema4D than the first time I used Maya.

EDITZ (Research)

Whilst researching render farms and their prices my search led me to EDITZ a Manchester based design and post production company. This company according to another website has render farm facilities for rendering out big projects. EDITZ has been established since 1988, which in my view is an amazing stint. Their abilities are quite wide as they have experience using many sorts of techniques to get the job making them very desirable. Such desirability has led them to be on the BBC's approved supplier list which is shared with 30 other companies. They have a huge range of clients, which include Coronation Street & Manchester United, works and showreels available on their website.

http://www.editz.co.uk/

Avatar Behind The Scenes (Research)

Whilst researching Maya 2011 3D software and its features, I came across this youtube video (below) of how the movie Avatar was made. The video is presented at the Avatar Presentation at Autodesk University. The video gives great insight into how the movie was made and the technologies used. The behind the scene footage makes out that the filming process was easy thanks to the technology but I imagine its a lot more difficult.

Practitioners Response Essay (UPDATED PRACTITIONER)

Here, I am going to compare and contrast the processes and practices of two of the visiting lecturers I have been into Stockport College this past academic year. I am going to talk about Ian Macklin of Goodies Corp. who is a moving image designer who came in October to deliver a talk to the current second years primarily about storyboarding but he also included other elements of his projects in the talk. I am also going to talk about Lauren Moriarty who is textile/product/industrial designer and recently came in at the beginning of March to give a lecture to the entire HE design students about herself and her work.

The reason why I am comparing the two are that I found that Ian Macklin was incredibly interesting because he works with making concert visuals for major music artists such as Kylie Minogue. This proved to be very useful to me as I am extremely interested in this area of design. My reason for choosing Lauren Moriarty is because it was possibly the most interesting lecture that I have seen since being on this course, she told a great story.

Listening to both Macklin and Moriarty I was able to conclude that in the design industry it is crucial that the delivery of a piece of work to the audience has to be done correctly so that there is not confusion and that the right message has been put across. An example of this from Macklin’s experience was whilst he was designing concert tour music visuals for Kylie Minogue’s show was faced with the issue of controlling his moving elements on screen so that it firstly, wouldn’t cause harm to the audiences eyes the screens at concerts are so big that anything that moves to q

uick could be too much for an audience member to take in and so that the attention isn’t drawn away from the performing act that would be Kylie by what is on screen. Moriarty recalled as similar experience about audience perception; where she had designed a piece of work for a product design show that was a massive print that went on a large window outside the show that depicted a white firework exploding, but it was seen to look like a large bird mess on the window. From this Moriarty had to change it by giving the window graphic some colour.

http://www.meandyoustudio.com/kylie-x-us-better-the-devil/

How both Macklin and Moriarty get work is very different as Macklin told that he has to usually pitch work to clients or is approached to pitch work. Macklin talked about turn around storyboards, which is a very fast presentation of designs and ideas to the client. He once again recalled the Kylie concert visuals project as the project took just under a week from start to finish and presenting it to the client, which in my opinion is an amazing achievement. Whereas Moriarty got work and got her work out by going to trade shows with her products for sale. Moriarty like Macklin pitches her work to companies such as Habitat, who have took on a number of her pieces, which includes a successful butterfly lampshade that has had Habitat asking Moriarty to produce a bird version of the lampshade which is layered to create a motion of the bird’s and butterflies’ wings flap when the lamp is spun.

http://inhabitat.com/2006/02/02/fluttering-butterfly-lamp/

Both Macklin and Moriarty rely on their contacts in the industry and recommend it to students for when they get into the industry. Macklin told of a contact that got him and his company into designing concert tour visuals including the Kylie project. Macklin started as a freelancer and mainly working in broadcast until his contact took him into new grounds, which is now a major part of his practices. Moriarty’s contacts on the other hand are of a huge array talents and skills. Moriarty mentions contacts such as students who she collaborates with that bring different materials and methods to creating products such as how she collaborated with a student that was able to share with her a thermo ink that she implemented into one of her lampshade designs that changes colour with the heat of the lamp to reveal an image of the London skyline.

http://mocoloco.com/archives/004405.php

Moriarty also has many contacts in the industry with stockists and suppliers as she uses a vast array of materials for her products. Macklin wasn’t really able to outline any contacts or collaborators other than his wife, which he runs the company with. The nature of Moriarty’s practice depends on her collaboration with others especially suppliers of the materials she uses.

From this analysis I can take a number of issues discussed and implement them into my own practise especially what Macklin’s response told me about how he designs around the audiences response to the work. This is because in my major project I am to designing concert tour visuals and I am using many small elements rather than a few large, which is more likely to distract the audience. Moriarty’s contacts base is quite inspiring and is some thing I would keep in mind and utilise, as her work proves the old saying ‘it’s not what you know it’s who you know’ as this assists her and her work and generally gives her a wider knowledge of her practice.