Protected: BA (Hons) Animation Production
Natalia Altavilla

Let me start by introducing myself…

Hello I’m Natalia and I’m a second year student studying Animation at Ravensbourne. I’m one of the many students who made the move over to the new building, and I have to say that I really like it. It has a much more professional atmosphere and let’s face it, so many more facilities.
On a more personal note, I’ve been really busy this term. A combination of course projects, creating my Student video and also independent work outside of Ravensbourne. I’ll start by telling you a bit about what I’ve been up to on my course, starting with a quick recap of my first term of my second year and how it followed on from the first year.
Let me take you back to October, the start of a new academic year, new term and new projects. I was looking forward to starting the new projects as they would be much more advanced and exploring completely new areas. In the first year you are introduced to the principles of Animation, learning how to create walk cycles, bouncing balls and lip syncing. The main difference being that you are supplied with ready made models which are already rigged, so you are really just focusing on animation. But not so much this year… Now we are the ones creating the models and sometimes the rigs. I’m not going to lie but the second year was like a huge wake up call, but one which I really took in my stride. I don’t know about the other students but I feel that I’ve really grown and advanced my skills this year. Modelling has been a huge part of this year, and the tutors weren’t joking when they told us that it would help if we carried on using programs such as Maya during the summer holiday. It really did. The projects we were set involved creating a digital environment (group work) and completing an Industry brief. As well as modelling, we were also introduced to UV mapping and texturing, which is the process of adding designs, colours and textures to your model. As I want to specialise in environment modelling, I couldn’t be happier with what we have been learning.
If you want to get more of an insight into the type of work involved in the projects then feel free to check out my Unit specific blogs:
Digital Environment
Industry Exercise 1
Now on to the second term… This time around I’ve focused more on the area of Post Production. Our main project was to create a group short film which incorporates CG elements in a live action environment. I’ve never done anything like this before so it was interesting to see the process and learn how to edit CG elements so that they ‘sit’ in the scene and don’t stand out. You probably noticed that I adopted a similar approach for my Student video. I figured that it would be the perfect opportunity to put into practice what I’ve recently learnt, including the use of green screens.
It doesn’t sound like I’ve been up to much, but you have to believe me when I say that a whole lot more work went into it than it sounds. Connected to the Post Production unit, we also had to write a tutorial about a subject of our choice. I chose to write about Photorealistic Modelling as it’s linked to my specialist area, environment modelling/texturing. The model I created is probably one of the best I’ve made to date so I know that my skills are constantly growing and that I’m being challenged… otherwise let’s face it you’d probably get bored if it was easy and simple work.
But working hard really does pay off. Last week I got a call from “one of the world’s leading post production facilities” offering me a two week work experience placement in June, and I really can’t wait to experience how a post production company works.
That leads me on to the end of term… and two weeks to recuperate. Not quite… I’ve already got two mini independent projects in the works. I’ll be working alongside a fellow animation student, testing my skills in environment design whilst they focus on the animating. Nice.
Next term I’ll either be helping third year Animation students with their BA film projects, working on the Ravensbourne Degree Show or undertaking a brief from an external client.
Watch this space!

Thank you,

Natalia