Portfolio Visit

Today, myself and the one called Steve, visited the lovely little company called Mainframe within the boundaries of manchester. This portfolio visit was my first of the year and even stranger, my first within Manchester, so, exciting in 2 ways.

The company is separated between London and Manchester, with this this one being the smaller of the two. We were met by our contact Chris within their studio which seemed welcoming as well as practical. Due to the stresses of deadlines and work coming in, he could only spare roughly half an hour with us both however, this was enough time for us both to show some of our better pieces as well as getting some critical feedback from Chris. 

I showed Chris my Cross Pathway project, Sky 1 Ident as well as my current piece along with the making of video which accompanies it. I pointed out some of the 'Easter Eggs' within the Sky 1 Ident which are there for fans of the channel and its Sci-Fi programs. I showed the latest piece that i did at the end of the Visit as i thought that this would show a progression and my ideas of experimentation with other programs as well as working through my ideas. 

The feedback that i got on this piece was to go back and edit it so that it runs a lot smoother. This includes things which i already knew as well as some suggestions which i had overlooked. The beginning of the animation, the live action video piece, needs to be edited in order for it to run smoother. My own suggestion was to expand the video as it is larger than the comp, then i can choose a point within this area and make sure that it keeps along the edge of the comp. This will then make the transition between video and animation smoother. This was then agreed upon during the constructive criticism, however, that i should expect further tweaking in order to make the transition even smoother. It is these, little things that professionals will look out for. Even though i can build things in 3D, i need more skills in order to stand out above the rest of the rabble.

This same level of tweaking will need to be done throughout the latter part of the animation, the part which needed to be changed anyway as the change in video length caused the animation to jump. My plans for this is to go back and change the video length within Maya and re-map the camera to this new frame length. This will then cut out the jumping within the animation and hopefully, allow the city to reveal itself the way that i want it to (without the James Cameron style of editing) : )

Whilst at this portfolio visit, myself and Steve both took it upon ourselves to ask some questions about the industry and the work that comes in. This included asking about, whether they, as a company, can see a project from beginning to end due to there size?

As they are a relatively small company compared to ones within London, they have the ability to see the projects which they take on from beginning to end which is something that i like. This is because they are all working on it instead of working on specific areas and not seeing the finished product until the end. This is something, within the industry which i would like to be able to do. This would allow for a wider range of things to be done as apposed to doing the same thing day in and day out.

Is there any techniques which we could use in order to make more realistic camera movement?

Chris told us that, if you want a camera going down a 3D corridor, the best thing to do would be to grab a camera, go and film what you want within the corridor and then, take the footage into an editing program (AE) and track the camera movement. This will then produce realistic camera movement which will look and feel right.

       Another way to do something similar is to hire out a tracking rig and crew for a couple thousand a week/day, something on them lines anyway. I think i may try the cheaper one in all honesty.

Whilst im talking about Mainframe, i may as well throw in their showreel.