A very short story

As I work mainly on my own in either a gift shop or ice cream stall in my summer job, I have a lot of free time between customers and unlike people who just stand there, I have to make the most of it or I'll go mad. So far I've read Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, a good chunk of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (I'm not an atheist but not hugely religious either so it's interesting to hear all the arguments), a biography on the incredibly talented Joss Whedon and most of the Grimm Fairy Tales (been meaning to reread a lot of them lately and some I've never actually read). But another thing I've been doing is trying to get back into writing. I decided, as an exercise to get me back into the swing of things, I'd write about the first thing I thought about. This freewriting practice has really helped and I've been so much more creative since I started so I'd definitely recommend it, even if you're not a writer.

Here's what I came up with if you feel like reading:

In a park just like any other you've seen; an expanse of green grass covering the ground beneath, within a fence of green trees with a sole green bench sat at the edge of it. On this green bench was a woman, clearly a young mother with her hair loosely tied back and a stain of unknown origin on her otherwise clean shirt. She sat by a big pile of various bits and pieces any mother tends to carry around with her; bottles of various liquids and a change of clothes were only a couple of the items at her disposal and on her lap lay a "Big Book of Fairy Tales". She had just finished reading one of them to her child and was now using it as something to lean on, exhausted, yet still smiling with adoration at her little princess.

The child was no older than two or three yet was running around with the greatest of ease. She had clearly set her heart on catching the little bird that had landed a few feet away from her, a magpie that didn't fear the child but actually seemed to have no problem playing along. First they looked at each other and as the little girl began to step forward the bird moved a little through the freshly cut grass with a piece of discarded bread still in its beak. Then stopped. The little girl went running after it with the steps almost as tiny as the magpie's. As she grew close, stopping just short of it, again it made its way through the grass almost teasing her.

Her mother smiled more broadly as the little girl spun around to see her mother, pigtails following and she saw the child's bemused yet gleeful face looking towards her. They shared a chuckle and so she span around again to chase the bird, who was now hopping away. The chasing, stopping, laughing and a chasing again went on for a few minutes and although the child could carry of running forever, the mother knew the inevitable was coming. The bird has eaten the bread and grown tired of being chased by this pink frilly menace and with one flap of its wings took off. The little girl turned to her mother, seemingly for some kind of approval. Hesitant for a moment, she eventually gave her daughter the nod she was looking for along with a cheerful thumbs up and with that, the little girl took off once again, this time soaring through the air after her feathery friend. The mother smiled, thinking to herself, "You have to let them spread their wings sooner or later"

I'd really appreciate any comment you have as I could do with the pointers. I barely have time to sit down lately with 9 hour shifts at work and exercise when I get in but I'll try to do some more blog updates with other short stories soon. For now, I better get some sleep, one more day and I have two days off work. Woo :)

Batman and yet more modelling/texturing

Been very busy of late what with work, exercise, 3D Modelling etc. and now Taekwondo (which is pretty awesome) so I've not got loads of 3D work done but I have managed to model and almost texture something half decent.

I've been watching a lot of Nikita yesterday, which is one of the best shows I've seen in ages. I seriously recommend watching it if you're not already. Anyway, I wanted to do a quick model and get it textured for some practice so I took some inspiration from the spy show by making a part of an upscale hosue/mansion. I know it may not seemed linked, but I liked the look of the houses these diplomats or heads of corporations meet that always seem to be robbed/have an assasination attempt happen there. I'm going to keep building onto it so I can make a nice scene and possibly even do a bit of an animation set there if I can make some appropriate characters. Here is my progress on it, I started last night and worked till around 1am then finished modelling and started the texturing this morning/afternoon. It's far from finished but I'm quite happy with the results so far. Comments would really be appreciated along with any ideas you might have on things to include in the scene, it'll help me a lot.



I'm off to bed now as I'm at work again in the morning. I'll try to do another blog post, along with some more of this 3DS Max work and update you on it tomorrow.

Oh and just because I feel like it's my duty as an animator and a comic fan to share this:

I give you the trailer for the Batman Year One animation. Can't wait to see it

Get More: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog

Bargain buys and a clear out

Today I decided to do something a bit different and headed into town first thing to spend the day looking around the charity shops/second hand market stalls for some inspiration on my project for next year. I had to find anything that was from the fifties and didn't want to spend a lot (I spent quite a lot anyway. I finally ended up at a tiny stall with a woman who sells traditional sweets and random antiques. Odd combination but it looked quite nice really. She told me she had some old magazines from the fifties, which are just brilliant. They're full of ads doe the weirdest things, the best being the front cover which says "Build your own refridgerator!" It's the most ridiculous thing I've seen in ages but great for some real insight into how people thought back then, particularly in advertising. She also took from a table a few items she was selling for much cheaper and said I could have them! They are all different and I'll start modelling them as props for my Gypsy Shop pretty soon.




That was the good find for the day concerning my project but the real find was something much more awesome. Batmobiles! And a Batcycle. I was walking through the market and I saw a stall with a single Batcycle between all of the trains (which I find rather boring) and as I went to ask how much it was, the guy started to pack it away. He didn't have room for it and I don't think a bunch of toy train fanatics thought much of bat vehicles so he offered me it for £10 down from the £20 marked price. Bargain. I had to get it. But no more spending..


Until I turned the corner and saw a totally different guy selling five of the Batmobiles that go in the same set. Half the size but just as awesome. So I had to buy them. Thankfully, my parents offered to give me the money for them as a reward for getting a first in my third year of uni so they're a gift now. And here they are:




After I got home I decided that, as I had nowhere to put the figurines I had to completely reorganise my shelves and room and throw away some stuff, mainly old games magazines. I managed to completely clear my desk too so now I have room to draw, write and use my wacom finally with both my laptop and my PC set up. The (almost) perfect workspace.


Oh! And I found a 1979 Spiderman Annual in really good condition for £2, which is pretty awesome and I really need to upload a picture of the first page that features the members of the Avengers among others all playing instruments. It's brilliant but you'll have to wait till my next blog (should be tomorrow) to check it out.

So now my life and room are sorted out I get to start the mind-numbing monotony of working at a theme park for the rest of the summer. I'm seriously already counting down the days. I'd be absolutely fine working there but I can't stand just standing around doing nothing so I work way too hard most of the time. Plus people there are kind of cliquey and I don't really fit into all of that. But hey, I need the money and although it's full time hours and the breaks are terrible I have to pay off my overdraft somehow..

Enough of my boring summer job, I'm going to read a book and get to bed for a really early start.

Wow that was a lot of pictures. Maybe I was a little excited how much cool stuff I got today :)