Website Coming Together

We been given our first deadline for the class; 1st November 2007 - we have to have our websites uploaded onto the server. So what are my chances of making the deadline? Obviously we don't have to have the whole thing populated, but the structure has to be there.

So far, I've finished the "Home" page and the "Story" page. That's only another 19 or so pages to go :-). I've created empty placeholder pages for all the other pages. So the full site structure is there. I should be able to knock up something for the "About Me" pages (Bio, Resume and Contact Info) fairly quickly and the rest will be empty. Since we're still on the pre-production phase none of the production or post-production pages will have any content yet.

I've tried to structure the site so that you can go to any of the pages from anywhere else. The navigation bar appears on all pages. The nav bar has sub-menus which roll-out when you roll over them. I felt that it was important to make this a CSS only menu, in case anyone has JavaScript switched off in their browser. This was good in theory, but much harder in practice. My knowledge of CSS was fairly basic and I would have struggled without the help of the examples at cssplay.co.uk (thank you Stu Nicholls - I must get round to making a donation).

The Home page is working ok. Although, sometimes it loads slowly due to the newsfeed coming from my blog. I must investigate ways of speeding this up, if at all possible. If anyone has JavaScript switched off in the browser, they are met with a message which supplies a link to the blog.

I need to tackle the pages that will effectively be image galleries. I have a structure in mind for these but I need to try it out tomorrow.

Also we have some introductory videos on ZBrush which I need to get around to watching soon. Zak (the main class tutor) made an interesting comment about ZBrush being good for concept art - I had been planning on pencil and paper, but who knows - better watch them soon.

Updated Web Page Design

Here is the latest version of the website design. I've reduced the width of the page to allow for viewing on a 1024 pixel wide display.

I plan to make this into a real web page this weekend.

Other jobs to be tackled urgently:

1. Make a plan/schedule for the short
2. Turn the story into a script
3. Start working on developing the visual look of the film

My Maya 2008 activation code still hasn't arrived, despite me emailing my activation request on Monday (15th Oct) evening - the online activation just wouldn't work for me. Autodesk managed to mess it up, so I can't get going with that until they email me with my activation code. They blamed it on a "change of database", but it's ok because they've escalated it as a problem. Hmm, we'll see ...

Web Site Idea

After much agonizing about how I was going to come up with a website design to chart the progress of my animated short, I've finally come up with an idea.

I was trying to achieve a look that says ancient (bronze age-ish), Scottish/Celtic folklore and watery/aquatic. It's not easy avoiding the cliched shortbread-tin images of Scotland (tartan, thistles, bagpipes, etc.). I hope that the web site suggests these things rather than slapping you in the face with them.

Hopefully, the navigation bar will have pull-down sub-menus so that you can navigate straight to any page in the site with one click.

Any comments on the web site design are appreciated.

A Beginning

In this blog I'm going to try and document my progress through an online animation class; "Mastering Maya: Advanced Digital Production" being delivered at 3dbuzz.com.


The class is a six month course, but will probably last longer knowing the value for money these guys give and it's the first time this class has run. The students must create a short CG animation; right from generating a story idea right through to a final video. I've opted to take the full class, where you have to stick to strict deadlines and maintain a work-in-progress web site (they supply web space for this). In return you get feedback on your work and advice from the tutors. Others can audit the class, where they get the class materials (videos) put don't get feedback or advice; allowing them to do things at their own pace.


My Current Task: The course officially started on 1st October and the first set of videos to watch was on web design; to help us with the design of the work-in-progress website. I'm about two thirds of the way through watching these videos (there's 46 of them). I'm fairly confident about putting together a website, at least from the technical point of view, the design will take a little more work. Our web space hasn't been made available yet so I'll post a link to it here, when it becomes available.

The Story So Far: I've been concentrating on getting a reasonable story for my short. I'll post the story on my website when it becomes active. I think I've come up with a good idea, but the question in my mind is whether it is doable by me in approx. 6 months. For instance, there are 5 characters in the story; do I have time to model, texture, rig and skin all of them in the alloted time? The story is a fairytale about a girl's encounter with a Kelpie: "a supernatural shape-shifting water horse from Celtic folklore that is believed to haunt the rivers and lochs of Scotland and Ireland."

More Videos: Last night (8th Oct) there were 4 new videos awaiting download in my drop-box. They were mainly about how the course is being conducted; planning the web site and (the biggie - nearly 2 hours long) an overview of the CG animation process. It really brought home the enormity of the task ahead. It had me shaking in my boots (well ... slippers actually), but it wouldn't be worth doing unless it's a challenge - right?

Tasks For Tonight:

1. Watch the rest of the web design videos
2. Make a start on my web page design
3. Consider whether my story idea is too ambitious

Not much then!