#and concludes the villareal round!!!

[exhabigou]

               this pesky puberty and high school crushes! trying to give up and forget ... but hugo learns the heart isn’t that easy to sway. 

[eitcrosskicspain]

The Spanish Group of Innovation and Knowledge Communities Leads Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Europe

These six Knowledge Innovation Communities (KICs) participated today in “Challenges of the Bioeconomy”. This is an international conference organized by the Royal Academy of Engineering of Spain (RAI), on the occasion of the presidency of the International Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences (CAETS) it currently holds. This year, Spain took over the presidency of CAETS, an international non-governmental and independent organization that brings together the world’s most prestigious Academies of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

The Royal Academy of Spanish Engineering held the CAETS 2017 annual meeting, bringing together leading international experts to present and discuss the latest advances related to bioeconomy and its challenges. They addressed food security, new genetic engineering solutions to ensure food for humanity in the coming decades, eco-friendly use of marine and ocean resources, the transition to renewable energies, and the new innovation models to handle all these challenges and their importance.

The experts talked about several topics including the main problems that humanity will be forced to face in the coming decades, and the reflections and solutions that Engineering and Technology can provide for a better world –the motto of this meeting.

During this two-day conference, cross-cutting lines related to ethics, diversity and equal opportunities in engineering were proposed, as well as emerging models for the promotion and management of innovation in multinational spheres.

KICs –  NEW MODELS TO BOOST INNOVATION

With specific regard to the proposals mentioned above, delegates of five European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) KICs in Spain took part in this meeting in a round table to present these communities of knowledge as new models to promote innovation.

The round table was moderated by Juan Antonio Zufiria, General Manager of IBM Europe. Participants included José Luis Muñoz, General Manager of EIT Climate-KIC Spain and Coordinator of this EIT Cross-KIC group, Jesús Contreras, Center Manager of EIT Digital Spain, Begoña Pérez Villareal, Director of EIT Food CLC South-Spain, Marco Pugliese, General Manager of EIT Health Spain, and Mikel Lasa, CEO of EIT InnoEnergy.

Mikel Lasa from EIT InnoEnergy stated that despite the similarities among them, the accelerators of the KICs have a different relationship with start-ups when it comes to achieve sustainability. Jesús Contreras, in charge of one of the most transversal KICs, EIT Digital, highlighted the way in which the United States has such a different and fast way of bringing innovation to the market compared to Europe. However, with the EIT’s initiative to bring all parties to work together, this gap will not be so wide. Pugliese from EIT Health also remarked that innovation, progress and research are fundamental for the health sector, but this is precisely why it requires fast implementation.

“All the sectors represented in Spain by the EIT are of great economic importance in our country and the rest of the world, but food is the top manufacturing sector in Europe with 4.4 million workers”, said Begoña Pérez-Villarreal of EIT Food.

What everyone agreed on what motivated them to create this pioneering Spanish EIT Cross-KIC group, is the panorama full of opportunities that arise by creating synergies and sharing experiences. Muñoz, the creator of this group initiative, commented on the KICs objective “in the EIT model, it is extremely important that all the actors involved in these sectors work together, to take advantage of the opportunities presented to us in this new socio-technological framework”. He added, “it is necessary to transform the existing knowledge and talent into new products and services to face the challenges of society. This will allow us to compete internationally while generating sustainable economic opportunities and quality jobs.” This philosophy, which is already being developed by the KICs to integrate the knowledge triangle into the innovation pyramid, has been transferred to this working group in order to create synergies and opportunities.

In this block and prior to this table S. Sarma, Vice President for Open Learning, Department of Mechanical Engineering of the MIT, gave a truly inspiring speech in which he stated that unlike what others think, technological advances and automation can make us more human because it will lead us to enjoy life more, or the intervention of Professor Charles Wessner of Georgetown University, which concluded its presentation with some recommendations. “Fundamentally, what is important is to embrace the need for change, and adopt and adapt politics and successful programs by others.”

THE ORIGIN OF KICs

These innovation platforms were created by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a European Union body that promotes innovation and entrepreneurship in different topics of interest to society.

Specifically, in 2010, the Climate Change Centre (Climate-KIC) was launched at European level, with its Spanish centre based in Valencia, the ICT Centre (EIT Digital) based in Madrid, and the Energy Centre (EIT InnoEnergy) with its Spanish headquarters in Barcelona. In 2015, the Health Thematic Platform (EIT Health) and the Raw Materials Platform (EIT Raw Materials) were added to this in addition to the Spanish Healthcare Platform in Barcelona. The food company began its journey just a year ago and will soon establish its headquarters in Madrid.

The EIT is entrusted with the task of contributing to Europe’s competitiveness through sustainable economic growth by promoting and strengthening synergies, cooperation between businesses, educational and research institutions. For this reason, Climate-KIC Spain has taken the lead in presenting and creating this Spanish group, for future collaborations in the Spanish framework and with other European groups. In this sense, the Vice-president of the Governing Board of the EIT, Bruno Revellin-Falcoz, attending this meeting in Madrid, was pleasantly surprised by this initiative since there are no precedents in the EU of other transnational groups belonging to the EIT, which is why he praised the work that the EIT Cross-KIC Spain has initiated and that will be transferred to be replicated in other European locations.

[cameron-ashurst22]

Week 21- Weekly Summary

Day 1-Mystery Box 

Today I continued with the mystery box brief but took a different approach to the walk cycle. As I was unhappy with the outcome of the previous iteration I decided to start the walk cycle again.  Found that the difficulty of having splined and stepped key frames was too challenging to create the correct spacing and timing for the walk cycle itself. By having splined and stepped keyframes the animation was jittery and didn’t offer the flow a stepped keyframes animation would give. In addition I found that limbs would twist and be in positions I didn’t place them in meaning It would take longer to fix them than just starting the walk cycle again. 

    For the new walk cycle I used reference from the animation survival guide with the tip toe sneak as I felt this best suited the character I wanted to portray. I found it easier after the practice of the previous animation to place the character in key poses. Instead of doing the separate parts of the character moving I focused on every aspect of the character. For instance instead of just animating the legs I focused on the legs and waistline together. This is because the waistline would dictate the position of the legs. With the walk cycle itself I found that the top part of the body would arch forward which intern would push the shoulder up closer towards the ears.This meant that little animation is needed on the arms due to them being held in place by the character as he is sneaking.

     When creating the walk cycle I decided to use the heel roll and to roll functions. This complicated the animation as I was using the toes as reference when interacting with the floor. This led to the character feeling weightless and lacking consistency when he walk. There was no weight to his steps and he appeared to float across the screen. To fix this I began to remove the heel and toe roll as well as the rotation of the foot. By doing this I made sure the foot was firmly planted onto the floor this added weight to the step. To develop this I can now add the heel roll which will then emphasise how the foot hits the floor and how softly the character is walking. 

    In addition I realised that on the upwards pose on the step the characters body would have to lean back to emphasise the greater step. This would push the knee higher and up towards the mid stomach. By changing this from the previous iteration it gave a more realistic walk cycle. This is because the body now moves with the waist and drives the legs forward pulling himself along to emphasise the sneak.

    To conclude, the animation needs improvements through the heel roll and the spacing and timing between actions has to be offset. I will continue to take reference video to ensure that this is presented accurately. In addition I will begin to change the position of the arm to emphasis where the wight has shifted on the body and ultimately move the head to complete the walk cycle up to the box. I am looking forward to completing the walk cycle as I feel like I have grasped the main aspects of Maya in this process. Furthermore I am looking forward to creating a believable interaction with the box itself as I feel like this will compliment the walk cycle itself.

Day 2- Media industries: Roles and practices lecture

Project overview

6 weeks project researching media roles and practices giving a 10 minute group presentation on your work. Working in groups , you will research areas within the animation industry and the potential jobs available to you.

Research blog needed in the area I want to look into . Also including contacting a practitioner in the industry about research area. My early thoughts are to contact Ben Su a Pixar animator who I had made contact with earlier on in the year.

Project deliverables:

10 minute group presentation using video clips and supporting text.

Everyone in group must contribute and speak during the presentation

Research portfolio 

Blog has to contain what the degree can go into. Further study , independent filmmaker or working for a company.

500 word statement that summarises research findings.

Must include bibliography for the presentation.

Project aims

-Employability 

-By researching into the industry it familiarises yourself with the job roles and studios that I can apply to after my degree.

-using areas of interest as a starting point. Begin to locate creative practice with a wider range of knowledge

Group 1

Rachel Selby 

August Abrahamsson

Tan Sriwongwaew

Zayrick Villar

Sam Abbot

Myself

Weekly Breakdowns

Week 22

Working in your groups, discuss and chose an area of interest on which to focus your presentation research.

Group task for the following week

-Prepare a 5-minute, 3 slide presentation profiling your chosen area Job role you are profiling 

Week 23

Career presentation from Daisy Morgan 

Week  24

Career presentation Helen Schroeder 

Week 25 

Internship presentation by Oyku Baskin

Career presentation by Indigo Illusions

Animation industries 2d, Cg, Motion graphics , stopmotion

Content producers 

Studios( Laika ,Pixar ,Aardman)

-Hire creative talent 

-create the content

Production companies(aspect film/not scale)

-Manage logistics and finances

-Distribute the film 

Examples

Animated features (stop motion)

Kubo 

Fantastic mr fox 

Shaun the sheep

Animated feature (2d)

Ethel and Ernest 

The illusionist

Animated features 

Toy story

Paddington 

Pre school/ children 

Twirlywoos

Peppa pig 

Gumball

Tv series: Adults/ teens

Adventure time

Rick and Morty

Tv specials 

Shaun the sheep 

Watership down 

Motion graphics 

Advertising

Title sequences

Idents

Artistic 

Education

Good books example for motion graphics

Blink productions and blink studios- Stopmotion

Day 3- Mystery box 

Today I fixed the foot placement and the timing on my mystery box placement. With the placement of the feet I made sure that they were firmly planted on the floor before emphasising the heel roll. This was the best way to ensure that the foot would plant against the floor and not sink into it, therefore adding weight to the characters walk. After watching the reference videos again and trying to walk myself in the same way I realised that when someone sneaks they are on there tiptoes and then place the rest of the foot down when they take a step. To complete this in Maya I used the heel roll on impact and then proceeded to straighten the foot up. This helped emphasise the walk. 

The next step for todays session was to adjust the timing to emphasise the step up and act of the body. To do this I spread the key frames out on the graph editor and began tweaking each of the poses so the emphasis was placed on the line of action of the character. I am pleased with the result of this as it adds to the weight of the walk. However there were difficulties with he legs as they began to pop and create a disjointed walk cycle. To amend this I tried to adjust the position of the waist but this would cause the leg to bend in the complete opposite way. I realised that there was something wrong with the knee controls and began to straighten that out to ensure that the leg remained in the right position. This then allowed me to bend each leg and create a realistic walk cycle. 

To improve further on this walk cycle I feel like I should improve the movement of the arms as they remained fixed in a position for the entirety of the walk. In addition there are certain parts of the cycle where the movement is nominally quickly and this detracts from the overall smoothness of the cycle itself. To fix this I will have to look at the key frames in the graph editor again to ensure the timings are correct in both the legs and the waist.

Day 4- Mystery box 

Today I removed a large amount of key frames from my walk cycle to fix the balance of my character as he walked. The previous walk made the character become off balance on the passing pose.To fix this I moved the waist back therefore arching the the back and making the character balanced. To further the animation and walk cycle I will have to fix the in-betweens of the character and the positioning of the feet as they begin to become sucked into the leg when the cycle is placed on spline.

I also looked at how to light and render my animation to give a polished feel to the animation. The position of the lighting intrigued me and also helps to develop the visual narrative being portrayed. I decided to place one light infant of the box so the shadow passes on the face of the character and two behind him. This gave the character a roundness and showed that he was three dimensional.

Overall I am happy with the progression I am making with Maya as due to me starting over again multiple times I become quicker in key framing. Also by starting again I begin to see the benefits of repetition and the ease of which I can now produce walk cycles more rapidly.

[exhabigou]

but the night is not wasted, because he met another girl who is alone as well. she said her name was luna, but she giggled when he asked who she was. apparently ... he was too busy with the pretty girl with the red hair to notice they are in the same class.