Fix8Group

I went to visit fix 8 a company based in stockport that does visual productions and event management. and create complex live environments incorporating projection and LED mapping, 3D interactive Design, immersive presentations, production lighting, video design, programming and operation and content creation.
They have different sector within the studio that specialise with the different technicality that they approach such as the lighting and electronics team and the digital creative team, which is who i went to meet up with for my work feedback, and then events organisers and managers.
I met with Directing manager Neil and head of 3D design filipe.

Some of the projects they have worked on:

 FIX8 were asked by Iain Whitehead of Production North to come on board as lighting and video programmers for LD Peter Barnes, for the Girls Aloud 10th anniversary tour.
They explained that for this project they built a 3D model of the visuals in 3ds Max which allowed them to build lots of looks and basic cue structure for the show. Matching lighting colours to the graphics on the LED screens gave them a head start in creating a more polished look so that when the girls arrived for rehearsals on the second day after load in, they already had a good first draft of all the lighting. Of course things changed and a few late nights were required but the hard work was worth it and a dynamic pop performance was created.

They also worked of the sett up and lightings for Eurovision and Michael Buble concerts:

I brought some of my work to them to get some feedback and advice for improvement and showed them my show reel and some of the clips from my most recent project at the time that i had finished.
i was told that my show reel was interesting and kept a good pass with keeps it interesting and that the song that i have put with it works well as it is upbeat and lively and the lyrics relate to the desired effect of the message for a show reel.


They said that some making off clips inside my show reel could be effective.

I also showed my silhouette animation which i was told was very aesthetically pleasing however would have been nice to have more of a narrative in it and some kind of climax which is the kind of feedback i have been receiving on this piece from a lot of designers that i have shown so far. One thing they did mention for this piece was to maybe cut it shorter or add a spoken narrative story to give it more depth and have the voice lead the story, so that it is still enthralling but does not take too much time to add too as i have already moved on from this project.

After having this meet up i was also offered the chance to start going in for some work experience with them which i agreed to go in for two days a week there.

I started off by being given tasks such as modelling practise in which i would be given a physical object in front of me to model with filipe helping me if i needed it or got stuck.

some of the first tasks i was given to work on was to try modelling certain objects that i was given, such as a light box, and i would model it digital from looking at it in real life. I also had a ruler that i took measurements with to try and create an accurately sized model.

This is another object i was given to model that was a bit different to give me experience with all types of shapes:

 I also did some lighting and materials exercises:

This is another model i was given to create focusing on the helix shaped mesh on the from of the speakers as being one of the things to work on. I used alpha channels in the texture to do this.

I made this texture on photoshop and used it to make the helix mesh for the speaker using the alpha channel option so that on the part of the model that i placed it onto, only the black shapes were present:

 I also had a go at experimenting with dynamics and some animation and made this dripping paint style shaped animation which the string falls from the top of the frame then folds and overpass itself once it hits the ground.

 This was based on one of the centre pieces they made for a previous job they had done to give me some understanding and testing with uv mapping. I had to create the helix shape for what would have been the centre piece at a show they were working for and then there would be lighting animations running down the sides of this helix shape, meaning that the uc mapping layout had to be correct in order to do so. Doing this gave me a good practise and understanding with the uv mapping tools and techniques indie cinema 4d:

I worked on my own project work quite a lot while here as well which they would help me with if i got stuck or needed advice with anything.