Review of Google Sketch Up and Moviestorm

I was recently asked to attempt to recreate a doctors surgery using Google Sketch Up and another program called Moviestorm. Here is what I thought of the programs…

Google Sketch Up:
Firstly, in order to create a desk the first thing I had to do was create the surface of the table. Very simple task using what looks like a rectangle button. Once drawn a rough size I then realise that the current view point was going to hinder the progression of the desk. I change the view a few times to try and get a better
perspective. Once I was happy I then had to keep switching between views in order to check to see if I was creating the legs etc correctly. This was highly annoying and very time consuming, I must have spent more time switching between views than actually doing anything constructive.

In my opinion 3D max/Vue/Carrara would be a much more simpler way to create such a basic scene, for one reason only, you can have multiple perspectives at the same time allowing you to manipulate an object effortlessly. Ultimately this would save a lot of time and allow the user to concentrate on the content.

Moviestorm:
At first Moviestorm looks a bit daunting, it’s like a slightly better version of windows movie maker but with a Playstation 1 feel to it. Rather than creating a scene from scratch I used one of the presets which was closest to a doctors surgery (this turned out to be a front room with a chair in front of a log fire). Once I was happy with the scene I had to put characters in, again you can use preset and then customise them. I
created one that looks closest to a doctor. Now, up until this point the program was fairly straight forward, the prompts are helpful (edging on patronising) and the buttons are clear. But then you suddenly realise that you have almost no control of the animation. It’s very helpful in setting you a generic walk etc but it doesn’t show you how to do it.

In my opinion, Poser would be much more accurate. It would help create multiple patients effortlessly and the animations are far easier to control. Moviestorm was very glitchy which slowed the performance of the pc, the mouse response was delayed by about 1-2 seconds so I was constantly dragging the mouse too far. There are many programs to use which would provide a much better professional experience in animating object, this program felt tacky and cheap. Obviously if on a budget I imagine this is one of the better options.

Degree of Difficulty:
Google Sketch up – Would be very hard for a novice, I’ve been animating for a few years and I found it tedious.
Moviestorm – Simple to use but you sacrifice level of control.

Quality of Final Product:
Google Sketch Up:
The desk turned out to be fine, didn’t really seem to have any life. But as explained in the review the level of control of the viewpoints hindered in creating the legs etc to be proportionate sizes. The chair was a nightmare to draw with the lack of available dimensions. Overall, very poor.

Moviestorm:
The outcome looked like a Playstation 1 game, very tacky and didn’t reflect the current possibilities of today’s animation standards. I plus side is how quick you can create one of these scenes. But the quality is very poor.

More news about Baby P

As I sit here day by day watching the world tick by through the eyes of our major news companies we are being fed effervescent tripe that churns out at an alarming rate. We seem to be going through a stage where the media are picking up a story an running with it, then when the get to the end of this magical race they then run with it a little more, try and get everyone sacked who is involved, then peer around and see who else looks like they fit the criteria for whichever fad the are running with.

Now dont get my wrong the whole Baby P case clearly as we all know doesnt have a happy ending. But when will people realise its not the media’s job to bring these issues up. If people were more aware in the first place we wouldnt have these problems.  I refuse to believe that no-one knew about the baby’s injuries over the course of however long it was.

With this case and recent cases like the Russell Brand BBC incident its as almost as if the media are becoming their own police service, wandering around pointing the dreaded finger at anything which gets the attention of some pompus old fart, cigar in one hand, wine in the other, who sits there with there eager ears aimed at the wireless/internet/tv/police radio/air traffic control/taxi/… you get the picture.

The balance of what is relevant is clearly not there, and recently it has become clear that the media are not giving us the news as it is, they are sensationalising everything, pointing the finger, creating there own big brother state where they never want to be under the spotlight themselves. An interesting note is that very rarely are the newspapers punished for the content that they provide, yet the BBC seem to be getting rogered for their(our) money at every corner, why? because now that one thing has started the finger is having a wander close by peering at every move, every whisper. I hope they enjoy it while it lasts…

Samuel L Jackson

Right, is their anything he won’t do? I strolled into HMV to look at the World Cinema and Animé section and what do i find? Afro Samurai… I went through a phase of watching Samuel L Jackson movies completely by accident. You might think thats not very strange but he is in everything! Its hard not to see him/hear him/ignore him. Granted he is an awesome actor and as Sky News put it Pulp Fiction did revive his failing career, but he’s getting a bit like Mister T the same type of roles with the cocky manner etc. Which we all know i love to watch, some might say dont fix what isnt broken, but surely some diversity would be nice?

Placement Update

So, i’ve been on my placement for a couple of months now. Its going quite well, learning loads of new stuff and playing around with alot of 3D packages. I’ll have to get my website updated and start showing what i’ve actually been doing because even the placement office doesnt believe im doing anything. How they find things is unbelievable.

Anyways, i’ve been given a fair share of good jobs to do aswell as the crappy ones. For instance, i’ve been helping the marketing to try and attract new students into the university by creating 3D structures of the buildings which the medical school use around the 3 campuses. This of course lets me create 3D objects but on an interactive scale something which wouldnt be done so much in a commercial business, mainly because the time we have to do it is much longer than you would expect.

Thats one thing i’ve noticed with working there, the deadlines dont really seem to be deadlines they are more you have to be done by this time, which i know is essentially a deadline but they can be months in advance for a project which could take 2 seconds or actually use the whole time up. with regards to the 3D structure project the timeline is a bit neither here nor there, it also doesnt help that we are working with a completely different section of the University so communication isnt exactly brilliant.

But all in all its going good so far, like i said we do get a bit hampered with the shit jobs but hey we are learning…