Today, I present the crowning glory in the recent “improvements” to the network at college. Yes folks, the TMC firewall has just blocked the TMC’s own website “in accordance with organisational policy”.
I give up. I’ve obviously fallen through a hole in the space/time continuum into a parallel universe, where galloping insanity is the norm.
Funnily enough, only a couple of weeks ago, I was on the Aardman website, looking at their self-proclaimed World’s Smallest Animation, which was made using a microscope attachment on a smartphone camera.
This is a tiny animation
Pretty teeny-weeny stuff, I’m sure you’ll agree. But it seems that the world of animation is no more a stranger to the unstoppable march towards miniaturisation than the rest of the world of gadgetry. And so it was that last week, I came across an animation so tiny that it would fit eleventy-billion times over into the Aardman one above. For boffins at IBM have put together a stop-frame animation using individual molecules of carbon dioxide
You call that a tiny animation? THIS is a tiny animation!
Pretty whacky, eh? –but don’t you lot be getting any ideas…
“My animation was 640 x 480 molecules wide and I’ve lost it!” won’t wash as a valid reason for non submission, I’m afraid.
Those of you who are remotely interested in the ins, outs and quite possibly back-in-agains of academia may have witnessed Alex and me swimming against a tide of paperwork, even higher than normal, over the past few weeks. The reason for this was that we were re-writing the Animation and New Media foundation degrees with a view to getting them validated by University of Salford.
Well, last week, wearing my best bib’n’tucker and even clean shaven in deference to the occasion, I attended the validation meeting with some top bods from the University of Salford and I’m pleased to say that [subject to a few minor tweaks to the paperwork] they’ve agreed to validate the new course.
So, whilst it won’t affect any of you lot currently enrolled [you’ll still graduate with your FDs in Animation or New Media Design, validated by MMU] from the next academic year, our shiny new students will be enrolling on the equally shiny and new FD in….. [drum roll!] …. “Animation & Moving Image” and will graduate with their FD validated by University of Salford.
By now, the smart boys and girls amongs you will have noticed that “Animation & Moving Image” abbreviates nicely to “AMI”, which is French for “friend”. That’s pretty nice I think and a vast improvement over the current abbreviation for New Media Design, “NMD” which is apparently the French word used to denote that one has just been kicked in one’s knackers.
I’ve written in a previous post about macHeist and their software bundles, so I won’t bore you with all the background info again. If you’re interested, read the previous post
Suffice to say that the current nanoBundle 3, available for a [yankee] tenner might be of interest to some of you stop-frame animator types, as it includes iStopMotion [usually $50]. Also of interest in said bundle are xScope [which is a handy tool for creators of in-screen graphics] and Path Finder [which is like Apple’s Finder, with most of the annoying crapness removed].
As to the value of the rest of the bundle, your guess is as good as mine.
For the delight and delectation of those who attended Part 01 of my sessions on iOS Prototyping yesterday –part two at the same time next week!– here is a summary of the bits’n’bobs you’ll need set up, if you want to ‘try this at home’.
As this is part of the Creative Suite, you should have this already –provided you’ve stolen bought the rest of suite.
This is the application framework and builder that allows you to dump a Dreamweaver Library exported from Fireworks into it and turn it into a clickable swipeable app prototype. Download it here
You’ll need to use a browser to initiate the TAP build process. Safari is recommended, as it’s the same browser used in iOS, but in reality any decent* browser should be good to go
*[which obviously rules out Internet Exploder!]
The Apache webserver is built in to OSX. On versions prior to Mountain Lion [ie. pre-OSX 10,8], enabling it is as simple as going into System Preferences > Sharing and making sure Web Sharing is ticked. For OSX Lion and above [10,8+], the procedure is a bit more involved, as Apple have removed the System Preferences option. You can find out how to do it here
This is the programming language which TAP uses to generate the app prototypes. It’s also built in to OSX but not enabled by default. To enable it you have to uncomment a single line in Apache’s configuration file. To do so, you’ll need to use a terminal and dig into the Command Line. If you don’t know what any of that means, you’ll probably want to ‘ask a grown-up’ to do it for you. If you’re happy playing in a terminal:
sudo vim /etc/apache2/httpd.conf
..then uncomment the following line:
#LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so
You’ll need to toggle the webserver off and on again to reload Apache with PHP enabled, either by using the aforementioned Web Sharing system preference or, since you’re in the terminal already:
sudo apachectl restart
The iOS Simulator, which allows you you view your prototype apps in a virtual iPad/iPhone is available as part of the OSX Developer Tools, aka Xcode. The current version is free to download and is available here, but may not run on older versions of OSX. If you’re running an older version of OSX and need grab an older version of Xcode, you will have to register as an official Apple Developer in order to access it.
There you go. You’ve now got everything in place to start building iOS Prototypes.
Fresh from suffering a twat-ful of overpaid Hollywood superstars crying into their onion-filled hankies at the weekend, the world of showbiz was again rocked to its very foundations yesterday, as the who’s who [or should that be who?… who?..] of animation gathered in The Manchester College’s infamous Room 222 for the inaugural Golden Doll Awards.
From the outset, controversy was in the air, as plucky South African cheerleader Zack Esterhuizen led a people’s revolt, clamouring for the awards to be renamed the stíobharts, in honour of the world’s greatest living half-wit. However, a shocked audience looked on in dismay as this democratic voice of the people was rejected outright by ceremony host Alex Jackson, plainly outraged at the burgeoning popularity of her co-lecturer.
Altogether, five awards were up for grabs:
Winners to be voted for by the audience, during a marathon screening of all first and second year work this term to date.
As well as the adulation of their peers [for what that’s worth], each winner would take home a Golden Doll stíobhart –a statuette hewn from finest gold which is then, for insurance purposes, cunningly covered in a thin veneer of crappy looking wood and a hastily applied coat of yellow paint.
With the stench of prawn cocktail and cheese’n’onion flavoured popcorn in the air and the tense air of expectation punctuated only by the burps and farts of a roomful of fizzy lemonade slugging students, the screening began. The audience were treated to a range of animations in a variety of styles and formats and the almost three hours passed by quickly, borne on a sea of appreciative applause.
Screening over, the audience votes were collected in and carefully collated by the compères, who then repaired to the pub at the invitation of a small group of the award nominees, in the [vain as it turned out] hope that alcoholic bribery might ensue.
Whistles wetted, everyone reconvened at Room 222 once more to witness the award ceremony proper. Proceedings got off to a horrifying start as a clearly drunk and disorderly Vikki Roberts flung her handbag at the chest of the people’s hero, stíobhart matulevicz. Fortunately “Old Iron Balls” was able to avoid ‘doing a Schofield’ by dint of using his genitalia to deflect the incoming missile and, with the aid of a cattle prod, Ms. Roberts was ushered back to her seat to sober up.
Order restored, the awards were er… ‘awarded’ as follows:
Best Newcomer –Andrew Green
Andrew Green accepting his award
Example of Andrew’s work
Most Entertaining Animation –Christophe Richards [Christophe is currently undergoing treatment for Marmite addiction at the Betty Ford clinic, so his award was accepted on his behalf by Wojciech Wanczyk]
Wojciech accepting the award on behalf of Christophe
Example of Christophe’s work
Best Looking Animation –Vikki Roberts
Vikki accepting the award for ‘Most Lethal Use of a Handbag’
Example of Vikki’s work
Best Storyline –Rehan Hussain
Rehan checking ‘there’s gold in them thar statuettes’
Example of Rehan’s work
Team Award –Scopemotions.
Unfortunately the task of taking the photograph of the victorious Scopemations team fell to rival team captain, Zack who ‘completely accidentally’ managed to not manage to frame any of the Scopemations team members in the shot. Instead, here is a rendition of the team, taken from their animation.
All in all, a fun day was had by all and this will hopefully become an annual event. The management at Mancol Towers thank you for your participation, wish you a safe journey home and bid you remember this is a residential area, so please keep the drunken celebratory singing to a considerate level, on your way home.
