Sooo, journal journal journal. What's been going on?

• Quick summary. Uni started last week, but I forgot. So I missed a class. Harde har har .


• Been trying to keep myself busy on weekends, as those are the times I think the most. I've been to my parents a few times, and I'm trying to do little projects.


• I went back and looked at some of my older work today, and thought some of it isn't too bad. You may or may not see new (or old) work up sometime, it just depends when I get around to it. There are a couple of flash things, a vector piece, and some pixel art which need some work.


• I'm moving back home in a month, and I'll be saving as much cash as possible to attempt to go to England at the end of the year.


• I've decided to try and make myself a more disciplined, healthier and happier Thomas.


• When I mentioned projects before, I mean I've taken up origami and knitting. No fucking shit.


• I watched every stage of Le Tour and now I'm so tired it's not funny. D:


• Ming, my crazy neighbour, wiped a muddy broom over the bonnet of my car last week. I was pissed. D:


• While my mood has been quite erratic, it's calming down. Helped to no end by seeing people. Who woulda thunk it?


• On the topic of seeing people, Scav Meet was great even though I was tired. I still can't believe I gave $20 to a choir to sing She Bangs.


• I need to see people more often.

Off the top of my head that's all I can think of. I'm sure there was a lot more when I originally thought of writing, but it's always the same isn't it? Once you start writing it it becomes less spontaneous and more boring. Oh well.


So, enlighten me dear people. What have you done recently that can be summed up in list format?

First up, more important than anything, I want to thank everyone who commented on the last journal, told me about movies and stories and iPhones and everything. On the day I needed it the most, you succeeded in moving my mind on, cheering me up and helping me feel less helpless and more positive. Thank you so very very much.


Currently, I'm doing good. I'm coping a lot better than I expected, although the empty house is still niggling at me. Gemma is home safe and sound at her Dad's place after spending three days in Singapore. She's got herself a sim card that I can text to - although calls are a problem at the moment - but it lessens the distance considerably.

What am I going to do? Well, I have just over one month left here. After that, I'm going back to Macedon. It will make both work and Uni hard to get to, plus it will add a lot of extra travel time and so forth, but it will enable me to save money. Hopefully a few grand by December. My aim is to go to England for as long as I can afford - see the sights, the people, and the country. That's the target, and hell it's a target that will give me drive. And everyone needs a drive.

Now, after reading `zacthetoad's journal and wondering how the fuck he saw it today, I discovered that Chris Nolan's new Batman film didn't come out tomorrow - it came out today. Here I was planning to see it tomorrow after work and it was already out!

So I jumped in the car, headed down to Highpoint and got myself a ticket for the 8:30pm screening. And boy, am I ever glad I made that decision.

I loved it. I came out with my mind full of thoughts all about it. There's so much I enjoyed about it; the story; the depth of the underlying themes; the truly amazing Joker; the darkness; the fear and suspense. I just wanted to go see it again.

I won't spoil anything. You just have to see it. Form your own opinions. But I haven't been in a completely full cinema completely transfixed, silent and tense in a long time.

So.


Empty house. With just my belongings and a few left over tidbits. Silence. Cold.



Gemma will be leaving on her flight about now. I've been home about an hour. We've spent every day of the past year and five months with each other, bar a couple of days when she went down the ocean road with her dad. Every day.



If you have my number, give me a call. Tell me a story, or about your day. Tell me about the last movie you saw, or some weird dude on the train. I desperately need the distractions. There's just not enough to occupy me in this house without Gemma.




Quite sad Thomas.

I said in the last journal I'd put up some of the stuff I'd been working on throughout semester. I took `thespooks awesome advice and signed up to Vimeo as it's quality is made of forty versions of win.


First off:


For 3D, we had to develop an attic space, along the way learning how to model, texture, light and animate in Maya. I thoroughly enjoyed the process, and I think it paid off. My marks back for this final aspect of the project were wonderful; I only lost half a mark out of 65 - that was for some texture dropout. I'm ecstatic!

Secondly:



This was done for my Video subject, a subject that is interesting in it's own right but my impressions were dented by a pompous lecterer for the first half of semester. I learnt that the production process is a long one that requires a hell of a lot more planning than I put into my projects. Oh well!

This assignment was the final group one. Our brief was to make an ad for one of three things: the Creative School, my course - B Design, or for a community service announcement. We went for the middle one because it was the easiest concept.

The basic story in the ad is mine, I did the camera work and the 3D post in Maya.



Just in case you missed them, the links are in the huge text sections. I might put up some renders of the Attic and submit them, you'll never know!

But for now, opinions would be greatly appreciated!

Who knew rendering a 15 second 3D animation could take so long?

Currently, it's done about 160 frames out of 375, and taken 30+ hours. That's over double what I estimated. Sad Thomas.

However, it is looking quite snazzy, so I will try and post a low res version on somewhere like youtube so you folk can have a gander. I'll also put up my ad (!) and maybe my programming animation.


How are you folks?