... wow. Seriously? Over already?

Regardless of the amount of complaining, whining and general lamenting towards the amount of work I've had to do, I'm actually surprised that the year has flown by so quickly. Granted, the school year started late in September and is ending in the middle of May so that shortens the year in comparison to my previous years of education (which basically calls doody on what my sixth form teacher said- that my previous summer would be the only long summer I'd ever have) but thats beside the darn point.

Anyhow, as this is the last week, I obviously have a lot of tying up loose ends to do, starting with this blog. This will be considered the last entry of the official school year, although I intend fully to update throughout the summer, discussing things that I have found inspirational and also to reflect on the summer project that has been lightly discussed: to create a script and initial character designs that can be about anything we want. But I digress.

I have been a little lax with sharing my time plans on the blog, although I have been making them; they've just been elsewhere. However, I think it will help to discuss my plans in more than one place, so that I have somewhere else to reference them from. Not only this but I have since separated the tasks, choosing what ones to do at college and what ones to do at home. For example, I am more likely to do my writing up tasks at home, while working on the rigging and animating of my model here.

MONDAY

At college- Finish blog with festival research. Once this is done, continue with rigging and possibly start moving character. Otherwise, begin putting colour on the character.

At home- Writeup of onedotzero and animex.

TUESDAY

At college- 500 word writeup of CAAD sessions. Once this is done, continue with rigging/colouring/animating.

At home- Finalise 3D 1000 word research essay. Most of the info is on the blog already, only needs to be typed neatly.

WEDNESDAY

At college- Should be focusing on moving the model now.

At home- Get storyboards completed and organised.

THURSDAY

At college- As well as animation, work on show reel during CAAD session.

At home- Blast on with completing written accompaniment and have everything organised and ready to bring in tomorrow. Disc, writing up, Character sheet and so on.

FRIDAY

At college- Hand work in.

At home- Boogie on DOWN! Or collapse in a happy heap, whatever comes first.

*****

Now that I have  a solid plan, its time to get cracking. Writing about the festival shenanigans shouldn't take too long, am I right?

Well, as its included on the list, I might as well mention the E4 Esting website, encouraging people to animate/film something featuring the logo and send it in. I seem to be having problems sending mine in. For some reason the site says it has my entry but there's no sign of it anywhere on the site and I haven't received an email telling me they have it so thats a tad confusing. But I'm rambling. Basically, every year, E4 holds this contest and the winner receives a cash prize and for their winning entry to be shown on the telly. Not too bad, eh? The site is located here: http://www.e4.com/estings/

Here is another site I am familiar with. As I mentioned earlier in the blog, I went to Berlin the previous month to attend the Pictoplasma Animation Festival for 2011. The festival is held every year and to tide them over, they encourage people to send in entries to show in a big screen! Check out the website here: http://pictoplasma.com/

This site I am not too familiar with but I liked looking at it even so and it might be a possibility for me to enter in the future. They seperate their entries into shorts, features, TV series/special features and cross-media so that your entry can have a specific length and target audience in mind. Their site is here: http://www.annecy.org/home

One I would consider a possibility, yet haven't seen much evidence of animated entries is the Bang! Short Film Festival. They have since had their festival but are right now taking entries that can be up to 12 minutes in length. They seem to encourage you to think outside the box and try things that are very conceptual. Many animations I saw at Pictoplasma had that same idea and it helps to expand your mind and create a whole new world of ideas. The website for Bang! is here: http://www.bangshortfilmfestival.com/

And finally, the British Animation Awards look very intriguing. They have a variety of interesting animations which fit into many genres. I wish I was able to see more of their entries though so that I would have a better idea of what to expect from this conpetition but I think its worth more investigating. Website is here: http://www.britishanimationawards.com/

This has given me a very slight idea of what festivals I would possibly want to enter my animations into in the future. Pictoplasma seems the most likely although thats probably only because I've visited the festival in person and therefore have more of a personal connection. I shall look into other websites as well in order to expand my ideas and opportunities.

*****

Well, as this is something of a special entry, considering its my last 'official' entry for the year (any I'll be making during the Summer will be development for the second year... well, I'm probably gonna discuss timing issues using my latest project but until then) I'll be signing out with this cute little gif from Rio to get you in the Summer mood. Enjoy the adorable dancing baby Blu!