You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July 2008.
Damn…where is the time going? It’s already week 3!
Animation Mentor is no joke that’s is about as plain as I can put it. If you don’t put the time in, if you don’t study, if you don’t practice…don’t expect to breeze through. Animation in general demands your utmost attention and if not given it will show.
And that folks is why I have not been blogging. I have been busting my arse going through lectures, filming video reference, emailing campus mentors for extra feedback etc etc. The only reason why I even have a moment now is because I’m waiting on feedback from my main mentor. I really need to get started on this weeks assignment.
All in all this is sooooooo much fun! I love this stuff and just cant get enough of it.
Ok, so the first assignment for class 2 was a pick list of several choices. I decided to go with the 180 turn. Below I’ve posted my video ref and my current blocking pass. Originally I had thumb-nailed about 40+ different poses. Then I earlier in the week I blocked those thumbnails as my first pass.
As the week progressed I started to get some really good feed back and ended up cutting out quite a bit. What remains is the what you see below…I actually had the toe tapping and extra side to side stuff going in the original one.
Bottom line was that the assignment was to turn the character around. I had way too much going on for just a simple 180.
On another front, in my limited spare time I’ve been teaching myself After Effects….friggin awesome…my head just wants to explode hahaha. Love the tool…anyone want to buy my copy of Mirage? LOL…serious. I’ll let the license go for dirt cheap too.
Ok, I know I said I was going to be more active this semester so let’s get cracking. First of all I’d like to just give another huge congratulations to Alexsis who is now a AM Alumni and just got hired at Blue Sky Studios! WOW…she is going to be working on ICE Age 3! How cool is that?
Check her out over at http://www.alexissdawn.com/blog/ and wish her well.
For class 2 my current mentor is David Breaux who just finished up working on Speed Racer and is now the Sacred Road TV Series: Animation Supervisor. Here is a link to his website http://www.siliconriot.com
Based on the Q&A from last night, David seems to be a real stickler for making sure you understand the mechanics of the action and nature of force. I’m really looking forward to getting a lot out of his class and seeing how I will improve. He truly enjoys the teaching the Body Mechanics class and wants to prepare us for acting. We’ve been warned in a round about way that towards the middle of the semester he will make us work to get that grade. This is good because having someone constantly pushing you is great!
This week right off the bat I’ve noticed a difference in the vibe in the work for Class 2. My first assignment is pre-planning phase to animate a 180 turn. We are required to film some video reference and start thumb nailing out “key” poses only. Emphasis, on planning as this is a four week assignment. Gotta remember so much like weight shifts, hips, center of gravity, lead and follow etc…thank God for good notes!
Later tonight I’ll try and up load my video reference just to give those interested an idea of what I’m doing…you would not believe the amount of thumbnail poses I’ve done already and I’m only half way through. Hopefully I can use the thumbnails as a jumping off point in Flipbook to see if everything is working. I’ll post the 2D animation too when I get the chance.
