Fire Alarm Guide 101So this evening, once again just as we were cooking dinner, the fire alarm went off. This is the second time so far, and we're beginning to suspect it will be a regular occurrence. So I'm laying down some info for any students hoping to attend here next year and if you are lazy like us you want to assess whether or not it's worth going out in the cold. 1. The rendezvous point is really close by, but the alarm has gone off at night both times and during cold weather, so its cold and dark out there. 2. The floor on which the fire alarm was triggered will flash with bright white lights on the ceiling which can be seen from your window if you have a view of the building. Which means you can asses which floor it is. In this case it was a floor below us so we didn't go. But if you can see any smoke or fire, regardless of the floor, leave. 3. So far on average it takes about 30 minutes for the fire engine to arrive and turn off the alarms. So if you can put up with the noise for that long you should be fine. 4. While the alarms are loud, normal headphones block out the sound as efficiently as the ear plugs you get for free on the plane journey over here (tested and proved by yours truly). 5. If you use headphones you can play loud dubstep through them and the alarm becomes part of the song! Problem sorted! 6. 30 minutes of alarm doesn't damage your ears as long as you use headphones/ ear plugs. 7. Finally, no one takes a register or checks your rooms so you can stay in and no one has to know. Disclaimer: In no way am i encouraging you to stay inside during a fire alarm, that's up to you, I'm just giving you the facts so you can make an informed and educated decision. I strongly suggest you obey the law and leave in an orderly fashion to where it's safe. Plus you get to see big American fire engines and they're super cool.
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Coursework UpdateSo if the title didn't give it away, i've lost count of the academic week. I want to say 3? Anyway this is just a short recap of my work progress in case you are interested. Video Ok so on Thursday (Current day: Tuesday) i have to have my video ready. For you folks at home who are just tuning in, my first hand in for video is a short documentary type film about a personal experience I've had. For the assignment i thought i would kill two birds with one stone and pic a subject i can also use on a portfolio, so i chose to do the story of how i got into animation. And here it is. Now if i learnt anything from my year 7 music class back in secondary school, its what my music teacher used to say. You can always do bad on the first attempt, that way people have a low expectation of you so that next time no matter how bad you actually are, it looks like you've improved. I like to think i've captured the essence of that teaching in this production. Either that or i'm telling myself that as a physiological crutch in the event that i fail so i can say i did it on purpose and make myself feel a little better as a fall back. Anyway here it is and while it's not that personal per-say, its as personal as im willing to get for a bunch of people i have to share a room with for 5 months only to never see them again. While i have yet to learn anything from this project, it was a good way to warm up and re familiarize myself with the editing software again. And just between you and me, it was kinda fun remaking the long lost animations i made as a kid. I haven't animated in power point for about 8 years.
Trip to Noodles & CoI know right, aren't i romantic? Well on the 26th of October 2015, Vasilena and i started dating. Ever since then every month we do a little something. It's become somewhat of a tradition, even this long into dating. So on our 15 month anniversary we decided to start our task of trying all the restaurants around our building, and the cliche american chains we need to experience. Up until this point we hadn't gotten around to it because of either work, exhaustion, or just our love for night ins. So today was a good push in starting our perilous task. And the first stop on this journey, Noodles & Co. A noodle shop not 2 minutes away from the flat. And honestly, it as delicious. I had the Caesar salad, Vasilena had the spaghetti and meatballs, and for sides we had BBQ Korean meatballs and garlic bread. Not very noodley eh? Well Noodle & Co don't just do noodles, they offer about 10 different bowls of food from around the world which you can mix and match.
The portions were big, the food was, as i said, delicious. And the customer service was very good. A lot better than some places *cough* Dominoes down the road *cough*. Price wise it was ok, we spent $29 as a whole for the food, which you can see below. So it's not the cheapest place available for what you get, but not the most expensive either. ...Excluding FridayWhat a busy week. And by busy i mean not very, but compared to UWE where you need to turn up to uni like once a month, going everyday will take some getting used too. So i refrained from putting a post up everyday about each individual class since there's still not much to report, so i thought i'd compile it all into a single post by the end of the week. Tomorrow (or as some people call it 'Friday') all i have is independent study, so i probably wont have anything to say about that unless anything groundbreaking happens. Stay tuned. So to begin with;
So i spent the next few days thinking about what i could do, i didn't want something too personal but i also didn't want it to be too generic. So i finally decided to do about how i ended up doing animation. I thought this would be useful as i could overlay it with animation footage i have done and double it up as a portfolio too. So i did the rough recording and today i put it into the editing software Premier Pro to show i knew what i was doing and that was it. Now i just need to do it for real by Tuesday. 3D COMPUTER ANIMATION II I have 3D class almost immediately after Video, and for the two lessons this week we have been learning how to rig a dog Maya. For those of the audience who are less animation savvy, I'll explain below. If you know what i'm talking about or don't care about the specifics, go to the easy to see 'DONE' to skip the mini lecture (aren't I nice). So, rigging involves making and putting a digital skeleton inside of a body which has been digitally created using the 3D modeling software called Maya. This is how special effects and fictional characters are made in the movies to make them look real. But it's also used for any kind of 3D animation, so it's really important for us to learn it. Rigging it up means making this skeleton which can then be used to move the body parts of the model so we can animate them. It may sound a little complicated, and it really truly is. And very fiddly and complicated too, and more often than not it ends up going horribly wrong causing us to have a love hate relationship with Maya. And no, its not just me! Rude. If you ask anyone working with Maya, even the specialists,they'll all agree with me. but that 's just how its DONE. See what i did there. But it's the class i'm enjoying the most here at VCU, as it actually involves the stuff i find most interesting. We've been working on this rig for the past three lessons, and with just the legs and sine completed, will probably be working on it for the next few weeks too. As soon as i get the file from the Uni computers, i'll update my blog with the progress. But for now here's a hideous preview. Aside from that, all we need to do is read an interview about an animator we will be looking at, and writing a small essay on what we thought for next week. SOUND I Finally, for my sound class which i have on Monday and Wednesday, we've been learning how to use an audio mixer called Ableton, and how to create audio loops and remixes on it. It's actually a lot more complicated than it sounds unlike Maya, and as someone with no music skill whatsoever, its quite a challenge. But that's why i chose to stick with the class, because i didn't know anything about it after all. Our project for the next few weeks is to create an audio soundtrack consisting of loops of audio in order to turn it into something that's at least a little listenable. But on my Wednesday class the weather was so nice and sunny, our professor decided we should all go outside for an hour and try recording some ambiance recordings to add to our track. This could be anything from street noise, construction, coffee shops, etc. Everyone paired up and set off. as the exchange student who doesn't know anyone, i was with myself. So i took the opportunity to go to my flat and meet Vasilena so the two of us could explore the city a bit more while i recorded the audio. It ended up being fun, and we got to see some places and explore some streets which we had yet to see. By the time i had to go back we had recorded some street noises, bikes, groups of people chatting, and i was finally able to find an alley way quite enough to hear birds chirping. So that is my sound class so far. Again, once I have finalized my project i will post it here. INDEPENDENT RESEARCH As i mentioned above, i have yet to have an independent research class, but i can quickly explain what i'll be doing for those of you interested. As if this post wasn't long enough amaright? Anyway in order ot get into independent study, one has to send a 500 word document explaining an animation idea i have, and an additional paragraph saying why this is something i cant do in normal classes. I have had an idea for an animation in my head for a while, and have also completed some animation tests about it too, so i pitched that and got accepted. Now every Friday we i will meet with the tutor aigned to me along with the other students doing independent study and discuss our progress which we must conduct ourselves. For tomorrow i will bring my test footage, and if i complete it tonight, a rough script. In short my idea is a hybrid animation detailing the power animators have in creating their own world. Here are the animation tests i did of green screening and a simple walk cycle for the characters:
Now you can judge these all you want hopefully i'll finish and you'll see what i have in mind now by the end of the months i'm studying here. Then you'll see what i was trying to do all these weeks ago. And That's It FinallyThis was an exhaustively long post so well done for getting to end, unless you just skipped down here because you saw some pretty videos. In which case shame on you. But i'd totally do the same if i were you so i forgive you.
And that's my studies so far. I'll update any other progress as i go on, but hopefully it wont be as long as this post as there will be less explanation required. Also i'm about to upload a personal post separate to this above, so dont go anywhere and after the breaks you can read about my exciting personal tales. Almost Uneventful
However, that was until me and Vasilena came to cooking our food. (typical). Just as we were finishing up a mouth wateringly nice plate of pasta, fried onions, and special sauce of Vasilena's own invention, the fire alarm started screaming at us. And when i say scream... i mean scream. Turns out fire alarms in the US really do work at getting people to leave the building, because i'm pretty sure if anyone stayed, their ears would fall off. Anyway we slowly start making our way to the meeting point down the road, already missing our food that's lying there waiting for us, when suddenly 3 big ol' Amercian fire engines roll past along with a cop car. To our surprise the fire was real. A floor above my own. Long story short nothing was burned down, but we did have to wait outside for about half an hour, so our meal for the night was cold pasta. But it did give us the opportunity to see real firefighters in action, and get these cool shots of their rides. Certainly something to post about if you ask me. ClassesSince it's been the first week of uni, a lot has been happening. As such I haven't had a chance to update the blog (I did warn you this would happen). So I'm going to do a review of the whole week right now. Starting with my classes. I came to the US already knowing what classes i had because i had to pick before coming, but the first week of university is what they call drop week, which means anytime before the 23rd we can add and drop classes depending on how our first class goes. So it's probably a good job i wasn't updating my blog everyday otherwise it would have been a big hodge-podge of what i liked what i dropped what i picked up etc. But now the week is over, i can safely say these are my classes: Video 1 - Tuesday and Thursday Sound Communication 1 - Monday and Wednesday 3D Computer Animation 2 - Tuesday and Thursday Research/ Individual Study - Friday Now the first week consisted of nothing but introductions, so I can't exactly explain what we did because well we didn't do much but listen. But as the weeks go on i will probably update my progress in each class weekly to show what i'm up too and my progress in them. For now though, I'll leave it at that. Have a great weekend. Game JamOh but before i go, there's this event that happens every year here called Global Game Jam. It's an event that if you sign up for, you get put into a team of artists, programmers, animators etc. and you have to make a functioning game within the next 48 hours based on their secret theme.Any skill level is welcome as they put you in an appropriate team based on your level. It's not my kind of thing but Vasilena has signed up so i tagged along at the beginning of the event today. Before it began there was even a Q&A with the founder of Newgrounds, Tom Fulp, which was pretty cool. Anyway it's really great experience so if you plan on coming here to study and game creation interests you, definitely give it a go!
Belle IsleWith the weather being so nice and the weekend being so weekend, me and Vasilena decided to take our first tourist trip. Belle Isle was recommended to us by my previously mentioned buddy Jessica, as well as few other people native to this city. And we can understand why. Only a 30 minute walk away, it truly was a lovely place and experience. First off, the walk getting there was pleasant. We got the chance to see the typical rural houses you see on TV, and to our surprise there was this magnificent memorial building on the way which we stopped at for a while.
Once we made it to the other side of the isle we were about to leave via the actual bridge this time, but then we were stopped and treated to some 'facts' about the isle and its 'lost civilization' by a real estate/ history enthusiast who was passing by. Now i'm not saying he was crazy, but Vasilena definitely thought so. He told us about how you can see shapes in the rocks such as frogs and Pegasus' which were carved by an undiscovered civilization which no one would bother investigating. He had all these maps and charts and even a website about it. He was a nice guy and told us a lot about his research and theories, and while they may or may not be true, it was an experience listening too him. We even checked out one if these alleged statues although all we could see was a rock possibly resembling... a rock.
All in all it was a great day out, we actually spent about 4 hours there in total which is a lot considering how small it was. We absolutely plan on going again. InductionSo the day has finally come. The day we leave the comfort of my flat and have to venture out into the unknown. And by unknown i mean the lecture room downstairs. Today was the student exchange induction. It was actually a pretty fun day. First off we had the lecture, which was the routine information of what we pay, signing forms, what we need, etc etc.. There was a super interesting part where an on campus cop came in and informed of us of all the security measures they have. It's actually incredible, the amount of safety measures they have in place makes this feel like the safest city ever, and no they're not paying me to say this at gun point. For starters, there are on campus police always close by. Secondly there's this magical app that lets you stream your walk home to a police officer just in case, a button to report a crime incognito, and even a button that sets off a tracking signal for police to come to your aid. Lastly there is this system in place on campus called RAMsafe. It's basically this free bus service that goes around campus super late at night which you can call to pick you up instead of walking home. There are a bunch other safety stuff too which i wont go into but this place really does feel safe. Which you know, is always nice.
After that we were taken to the campus food hall, which was super nice all you can eat. The first visit was free but usually you need "swipes" to get in, which you can purchase with a food plan from the VCU website. So sadly I doubt i'll get a chance to again as the swipes seem too expensive to invest in for me personally. Once everyone was all full of free food, we took our last trip of the day. The 18 or so exchange students all piled into two minivans and set off towards Target, a 20 minute drive from the campus. The ride was actually rather interesting as we got talking to the people sat with us since it was so cramped. It was a little awkward at first but by the end of the trip we were all telling jokes to each other and discussing the ins and outs of greasy restaurants available in town. The actual walk around target was interesting, me and Vasilena shared a trolley but we didn't get much since we'd already been to the big Walmart when we arrived, but what we did get were the absolute necessaries, Mountain Dew Original and coat hangers. I was hoping on getting a laptop, more specifically the Surface Pro 4 since it said online they had them in store, but apparently not this store, so I've ordered one online from Amazon. So anyway the day was pretty good, but we're both tired out now so sorry for the wall of text with no pretty pictures. The next big day will be the 17th when we start uni for real. Opinion Of Richmond
The amazing thing though is that the campus is like an alternative universe where VCU owns the world instead of the Disney Corporation. Seriously. VCU is branded EVERYWHERE. Almost every building has their logo on, even the Walmart. Not only that but if you actually go into the shops, they have merchandise for everything. T-shirts and hoodies? Yes. Hats and mugs? Sure. VCU nail stickers, number plates, flags and even neck ties? Why the heck not! It sure beats UWE gift shops.
As for the city itself, the people seem friendly enough, its clean and pleasant. Sure there are some homeless people and preacher around but they're not hurting anyone. And hey, its a city what do you expect? I guess I'll have to wait a few more weeks before judging it entirely, but so far Richmond is a pretty pleasant place. Arrival
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IntroductionHello! My name is Harry, a 20 year old Animation Student from Bristol. Archives
June 2017
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