For our last few days I went along with the Visual Inquiry group to a sauna. Finnish saunas are a lot different than the ones in Ireland, they had big round cages in the centre full of hot rocks. We then left after about 10 minutes, ran outside in -6 degrees weather and into the pool....awesome.
I also went shopping for Moomin merchandise and took note of what was sold when it comes to additional income from animation, characters and series. We also used our last bit of time to go ice-skating outdoors , and this was my first time. We also finished our time with some very nice burgers with the animation group, and had ice-cream and plenty of laughs at the Visual Inquiry groups place. During my stay here, I learned so much about airports, foreign culture and feel my ability to work as a team has improved greatly, and for this I am grateful. -Matthew
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Well we are coming to the end of our stay in Finland. Overall this was an amazing experience. The first week felt a bit slow as we were just getting into the swing of things, and being introduced to everything but after that it flew by so quickly. I wish we could stay here for a bit longer. It felt very liberating to live in a place where nobody knows who you are.
The apartments were amazing, especially for the cheap price that they are. The snow here is so nice but the ice could get annoying because I kept slipping when I was trying to walk. When the sun came out, a lot of the snow would melt and the ground would get so wet which was comforting. When we arrived we were told to make a 15 second animation using a software called Toonboom. We were given a quick introduction to the program but after that we were left to our self's. It was very complicated to figure out on our own which is why I mostly drew artwork in photoshop. I also wish we got to see more of Raahe as we didn't really see all of the fun things to do here. I'm still ultimately happy with my stay in Raahe and would like to return someday in the future. I think this was a great experience and would recommend any future students to go on this journey. -Dale My animation is almost complete....for the snowfall I made a blanket of white spots and moved them down a little for every 0.4 of a second (Standard frame-rate) and looped the frames once I was happy with the end result. After I've added the final 2.5 seconds of animation out of the 15 second total its onto improvements and tweaking, hopefully I'll have enough time to polish it up nicely.
On Wednesday I got to the final part of my animation and its a little longer than 15 seconds now. I managed to fix a transparency problem and added a blinking animation. With this experience I feel I'm ready to take on the 30 second animation we're assigned at the end of the year and delighted I'm getting my very first level 6 module. Since its got warmer here there's been a lot of ice, slush and puddles around making navigating on foot more of a challenge. -Matthew The weekends here have been pretty warm. I did some shopping and bought some souvenirs for my friends and housemates at home. I've really settled in now as i've learned the basic ropes. One funny thing that I have noticed is that the weather is quick dry and makes us all very thirsty! Back home when it's cold, it's very damp, but here it's dry. Another funny thing is that keep making the mistake of filling up my glass with yogurt instead of milk at the cafeteria since the cartons look very similar. The Finnish have been very friendly and helpful and I'm going to miss them. Finnish bread is delicious too and so is their chocolate especially the "Kismet" brand. It has been such an experience trying this new food.
I'm looking forward to working on my animation in Lybecker and I have been using the weekend to practice sketches and come up with ideas for it. I'm hoping I can get a copy of ToonBoom myself for free when I return to Ireland and make animations in my spare time. It would be great to put those new skills into practice. To this entire experience I say "Kiitos!" -Matthew We've all been working hard on our animations the last few days, I have to admit it seems to be going beyond my presumed capabilities, but being challenged to meet a deadline which at first seemed like an impossible task, really brings all your skills to the forefront, especially the ones you forgot you had. I also learned that the Moomins original creator "Tove Jansson" was Finnish and and that she passed away in 2001, so my animation is Finnish based and a tribute to her.
I'm going to miss this place when we leave, the snow, the chocolate, the tutors and classmates, but i'm glad that I was given the opportunity to live and work here and I would hope to come back sometime in the future. Overall it was a good day and our animations are progressing well. -Matthew My first week in Raahe was a great experience. It has been really refreshing staying in a new country and meeting new people. It feels liberating to live in a place where no one knows you. I have felt a little bit home home sick once or twice but overall I am loving my stay here.
The project we're working on is very interesting. it wasn't exactly what I was expecting as I I thought we would be working in a studio or a gallery so it's been a fun experience. We have been working on an animation project in the college, where each of us have to produce a 15 second long animation in what ever format we want. Today I finally got to use photoshop again for the first time in ages. I have used it on a mac before but this was my first time using it on a WACOM drawing tablet. It was so much more fun to use it this way. I could honestly spend hours drawing on it. I started doing backgrounds on my animation with photoshop. I love digital drawing but actually animating can be incredibly frustrating and complex. This experience has highlighted that I think that would prefer to do the artwork for an animation rather than actually animating which has been interesting. -Dale The weekend thankfully wasn't too cold, I checked out the local amenities for something to do but came up short. It makes me wonder what the Finnish do to pass the time here, or maybe I need to be more open to opportunities. It also explains why they have slot machines littered around random spots as there's no casino around or public swimming pool. We also had problems trying to get the washing machine working and now that we are entering our second week we are also a little homesick.
I also came across the Finnish series known as the "Moomins" which appears to be a cartoon show about hippos. I often see them on many of the products here. I'm tempted to check the show out myself and draw some fan-art though I'm probably a little old for that. I was hoping to use my creativity and build something with the snow but it falls apart easily because its so dry. Dale has been very easy to live with. I also heard Paul (our tutor) made it to Helsinki and I am looking forward to getting to know the capital a little better in a few weeks. On the flip-side I'm looking forward to what Pekka has in store for us at the college and looking forward to more of that delicious, nutritious free cafeteria food. Lunch today. It snowed quite heavily today and we can expect temperatures to drop as low as -18 degrees this Thursday. As for the work we did this week, we have to come up with a 15 second animation using a winter theme. I've been doodling ideas and trying to settle on something, hopefully I can come up with something and complete it in time. -Matthew Over the last few days we did quite a but of shopping, and we got a chance to visit Pekka's place and got to experience more Finnish cuisine at the cafeteria. I also learned that 'Maito' is milk and 'Appelsiini-juoma' is in fact orange juice. We also met the softest and fuzziest dog in existence thanks to Pekka! "Salmiak" is a type of salty liquorice candy thats a very acquired taste much like Marmite, and will leave you very thirsty if you don't drink water! It has been a week of experiences!
Jack has already been a victim to slipping and falling on the ice, something you have to be very careful of here. Dale and myself have had numerous of close encounters too, the boots I bought for this type of weather and terrain really have already paid for themselves, thank you!! We also met Riikka, who is a tutor who added us on WhatsApp and recommended activities for us to do. One of the students was kind enough to help order food for me, since I wasn't sure how to so in Finnish. I also learned the Finnish have a sense of humour similar to ours. It has been hard to adapt to things at times, so i've been meditating every night and it seems to be working though it was hard feeling a little homesick yesterday, but a nice Irish fry for breakfast this morning brought me back. Not sure what the weekend will bring but I'm looking forward to it and also some rest after a busy week. -Matthew Today was an interesting day. I started sketching some storyboards for my animation short. I also did some character designs. I was sitting in the canteen of the college at 9 in the mourning drawing in my sketch book when a lady came up to me dressed as a unicorn and offered me a lollipop. Turns out it was just a staff member celebrating valentines day.
I also got a bit more practice using a wacom drawing tablet. We where using an animation software called Toonboom. It's really confusing and frustrating to figure out how to use but I'm sure if I stick at it and keep practicing I'll eventually figure it out. I also went for a walk around Raahe alone for the first time today. I'm starting to figure out what places are where so now I can comfortably venture out with out fear of getting lost. I've spoken to a phew Finish students here. They all seen so nervous at first but once I stay talking to them for a while they eventually get more comfortable with their English. This was a good day and I look forward to proceeding with my animation. -Dale It was -11 degrees Celsius today according to Google weather! We headed off at about 8.30am, and got a little bit lost for about 10 minutes, but eventually found our way. We even managed to take some photos of icicles on the way! We used "Toonboom" to animate a bouncing ball for Pekka, and it was interesting to note their approach to some of the things we would have completed at GTI. Our lunch today in the cafeteria was very healthy, salmon and potato stew, carrots and tomato's, the milk was "Rice milk" and tasted very sweet. The coffee i've had so far has been pretty good, too despite what people have told me .
We animated a bouncing ball that rolls off the screen, of which my one had a smiling face. During this time, I also read a book called "The illusion of life, Disney animation" by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, I found it very insightful and referred to it as "The animators bible". We left at around 3pm and went and did some shopping. We also checked out some of the local scenery (Including a frozen pier) and went for coffee and cake together after checking out a local bookstore. After getting to know each other a little better, it seems we all like video games, similar music genres, and art that tells a good story, rather than art that lacks more meaning. The Finnish really are great people who'll come to your aid even if they barely know you. I look forward to exploring the place more tomorrow. -Matthew |
Animation 2018-19Matthew Horgan Map of Raahe |