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chowgood

Robbie J. Reid
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If anybody who follows me is interested in learning animation, I've recently uploaded 19 HD video tutorials to Youtube that tackle how to create effective animation Adobe Flash. I call the series 'Learning To Animate In Adobe Flash' (How ironic) and you can find all of them in this playlist:

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=…

The series was created for use in the course I created, developed and teach at Curtin University 'Animation Design Introduction 191'. But I pass the knowledge on to you guys free of charge! I hope it's beneficial and actually helps you learn something. If you have any suggestions or feedback feel free to drop me a message here, on Youtube or my Tumblr (chowgood.tumblr.com/)
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Man, I never update my DA account. But I always update my Tumblr with things that I do!

chowgood.tumblr.com/

Check it out if you want to see more of the random stuff I do, included inane sketches, animation and 3D rigging. I also post similar on my Facebook page. Give it a like if you want, no biggie.

www.facebook.com/robbiechowgoo…

In other news I'm currently working on structuring an entire unit for online submission to Curtin University, encompassing animation history and an introduction to animating in Flash. I've taught this unit twice before, but I'm actually officially developing it this time (Which means this time I actually get paid for the work I've done on creating it now) So while I said in my last journal I'd be popping my 3D tutorial online for people to download, looks like I may have a series of Flash tutorials instead on the horizon now.

This and I wan't to churn out a smallish, 2D animation...hopefully pretty soon. You better hold me to it, otherwise I'll never get it done!

- chow
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I currently work as a tutor for Curtin University. I take two first year Digital Design classes, one called Design Prac 171 that serves as an introduction to Digital 3D work. The class was designed by myself from the ground-up and encompasses a broad overview of 3D as a medium.

I've currently been reworking some tutorial PDFs that I made for this class last year. The PDFs have been done in my own time, I don't get paid for them. I do them because I know how complicated 3D software is, especially Maya, and it pays to have something to refer to at home later on. But as I've been working on them for about 3 weeks now, the fact they don't have much use outside of my classes and I don't get paid for them, they're starting to seem like something I've spent a lot of time on that hasn't been extremely beneficial to me.

So I've been thinking about releasing them to the public on my website, as a sort of basic tutorial to get people interested in Maya and working with 3D in general. The PDFs encompass things from pre-production, modelling, advanced modelling, lighting, camera work, rendering and so forth.

Of course, you won't get the full benefit from them that my students do. I teach based on the content of the PDFs each week, showing how steps are done on a large monitor, outlining their uses and using examples to further establish concepts in their mind. I feel the best way to teach is to show how its done, and explain as I go. The PDFs serve as a re-count of what we learned in class, that go into tools and concepts in detail but not so much in the practical sense. They mainly serve to jog students memory and help them remember how concepts and tools work.

But still, I think they would be good to showcase and I'm wondering if anyone would be interested? Good idea? Stupid idea? Lemme know what you think
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2011 In Review

5 min read
Sup guys. I finally got around to finishing my portfolio website today! Well it's been finished for months now, I just wanted to sort out a few minor design issues before I gave it an 'official' public release. But I consider it complete now so here, go, spread the word!

chowgood.com

And since I'm releasing it in the New Year I'd thought I'd give a bit of a retrospective of what, along with the website, I got up to in 2011.

So by far the most amazing, awesome and rewarding thing I accomplished in 2011 was securing a job tutoring Digital Design students at Curtin University. I absolutely loved teaching. Being able to teach people about Flash, animation and 3D modelling has been the most appealing job offer I've ever received. But a lot of the joy from teaching came from my students, who are some of the most talented and enthusiastic people I've met in my life (Besides my friends who were in the same year of Multimedia Design as me, of course). It was easy to teach and go the extra mile for people who were as genuinely interested in the things you were teaching, especially when you love the things you're teaching yourself. I consider a lot of them to be more of my friends now than my students, but I'll always remain their teacher in my own eyes. I'll be keeping a watchful eye over them in the coming years, mark my words. I've been given the offer to teach the same units this coming semester which I'm eagerly awaiting confirmation of. Hopefully this next bunch of first years will be just as skilled and enthusiastic as the last.

I nearly landed a job doing visual effects in Beijing with an ex-tutor of mine which unfortunately fell apart at the last minute. In retrospect this was probably more beneficial to me personally, as I worked on personal projects and managed to travel in place of the job. I managed to get overseas twice. To Japan in October to see my high school friends Kotoha and Naoka. And to Scotland at the start of December to see my relatives and family friends.  

The big personal project I worked on was for a competition with 'Keep Australia Beautiful'. It resulted in me completing my first full length 3D animation titled 'This is Kevin' (I don't count the 'end of semester compilation' show reel crap I did back in University as something complete). I spent a solid month working on the modelling, texturing, rigging, animation, rendering and post-production for the entire 30 second ad, and I was fortunate enough to end up taking home the grand prize. The ad has been playing at cinemas across Perth, before some pretty big name movies as well. And although I did walk away with $1000 for winning I'd say the exposure is the real prize. Besides this, there's nothing more amazing than being told by a friend that they saw your ad on the big screen…nothing more terrifying as well. Especially when they say how much they like it. Eeeek.

In terms of my artwork, 2011 has been surprisingly fruitful. Especially with the inclusion of 'This Is Kevin' I've got a lot of finished work that I'm, at the very least, satisfied with. I mean true, as per usual I have a tonne of unfished artwork, both drawing and 3D models. I'll probably upload them as a sketch dump in the coming days. But I genuinely surprised myself as to how much personal work I actually got completed. My DA/Tumblr has been updated a lot more than past years, and I find myself not hating the work as much. I'm actually starting to gain a better understanding of drawing women and painting digitally, two things I've wanted to do for ages.

However even with all this stuff though mentioned above, I found myself bored through far too many stretches last year. There were times where I just gamed constantly and achieved next to nothing, and I don't want this happening again next year.

So these are the thing I want to work on artistically in the New Year to keep myself occupied and focused:

- Draw each and every day to keep my skills up
- Do some life drawing to improve my knowledge of human anatomy, both male and female
- Improve my skills with shading and form
- Improve my skills in digital painting
- Explore Z-Brush and look at creating more characters in 3D for short animations
- Animate more stuff in Flash…just anything really. It's sad how little I use it these days

So thanks for sticking through the wall of text guys. I realise a lot of you probably won't read it all, but I find it helps me stick to my plans when I actually type out things for others to see. Gives me more incentive to follow through with what I say. Expect more stuff soon!

- chowwers
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I have just been informed today that my entry to the 'Trash My Ad' competition has won first prize. My short 3D animation entitled 'This Is Kevin' can be viewed here (trashmyad.com.au/) or in glorious hi-def at my Vimeo account (vimeo.com/27232841)

I'll post some renders for my crab character Kevin here soon, I just need to have access to a version of Maya that will not distort my geometry after painted weights are applied to it.
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Featured

Flash Animation Tutorials by chowgood, journal

Where the REAL updates are by chowgood, journal

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2011 In Review by chowgood, journal

I won a competition by chowgood, journal