Ted Stapletons University Blog

  I think this is one of the toughest projects I have ever undertaken in my time in education. I have felt both scared and stressed out believing I will fail this whole course if I even remotely submitted anything subpar and thus fail at having a career in animation. Not helping was the Covid pandemic which has greatly affected the university, my mental health, my course, my family, among much more. While I think I am likely to pass the course now that I have submitted all the necessary components for my major project, needless to say there is quite a bit I wish I could have done better. The reason I believe for a lot of this was simply time. Some was out of my control other times I feel I could have done something to help myself give a better outcome of the project. I cannot help but feel that while it could've gone a lot worse my project could've been a lot better if I had a bit more time such as having better time management and stopping myself from procrastinating as often.

    A Viking's Tale The goal and concept of my film called A Vikings Tale sees the story of Gorm. He sits in the tavern in front of an audience telling his tale of how he singlehandedly demolished the Saxon defenders of England during a raid. The story is one of comedy as we see that Gorm only survived his encounter with the Saxons because of dumb luck. It is revealed at the end of the short that he was simply rehearsing in front of a bunch of dolls. As he checks the proper pronounciation of 'England' the door to the tavern opens up revealing the true audience much to Gorms dismay.  The outcome of this short film was to create a character focused animation with influence from Slapstick comedies and stop motion animation. Due to factors some of which i think i could of done better I didnt get the whole film completed with maybe a little over 50 percent of it animated. However, I did get my Production Bible and demo reels of my two main characters completed while demonstra

 

  Gorm at the tavern. I used area lights to get the lighting I wanted along with subsurface scattering being showcased on Gorm. 

  The Saxons readying themselves for attack.