Hey everyone,
Here's an update on my shot. I'm still trying to get the blocking done before my meeting with my prof. tomorrow. I think I'm going to make it. I only have one more large section to do and then I'll be working on more detail oriented things. I think I've gotten better with the over animating, but I'm still not 100% sure of myself.
Hey everyone,
Here's my blocking pass so far for my new shot. I'm still not sure if I'm over animating. This is my first really subtle shot, so I'm pretty unsure of myself. I'm not sure about the eye darts in the beginning. I think there are too many of them. He's supposed to be thinking something along the lines of "I dont know...I dont know" and feeling pretty lost. In phrase 1 ("You know, everyone's just out for himself") he's supposed to be troubled/concerned. My prof. suggested having his brows a little angry and intense here and then softening them up as the shot progresses. In phrase 2 ("It was like that everywhere I went") the main emotion is disbelief and the finally hopelessness at the end.
Oh, the 3d blocking is different from the 2d version now. My prof. gave me some awesome feedback today which caused the scene to vary somewhat from the original 2d idea.
I also did a quick test render for my prof. We have a specific mood in mind for the scene and this is what I imagined it would look like. My prof. used the spot lighting in Alice in Wonderland as an example. I went with that idea and made the background really dark while spot lighting the character. Obviously the lighting still needs a lot of work. I have no idea why there are ugly dark shadows under Norman's brows. I think I know how to fix the glowing floor though.
Oh, I heard back about using Bishop on my business card. It's a no go just as I thought it would be since the card is for a SCAD assignment. It's not a problem though because I dont want to use Bishop anymore anyway. Yesterday I came up with a 2d design that I like much better and feel like is more creative than a simple 3d pose. =D
Hey guys,
I just finished my really rough 2d blocking for my new subtle dialogue assignment. I have a really hard time animating small, subtle movements in 2d (which I attribute to lack of drawing ability) so everything is broader than it will be in the 3d version. I also work broader in 3d and then tone everything down once I see the that the motion is working. My mentors have always said it's much easier to go to far and tone it down than to not go far enough and have to push things.
Hey guys,
I'm starting a new 3d dialogue shot! I'm not very excited about using Norman since I really miss Bishop, but I don't have a choice since this is a SCAD assignment. (AM forbids their students/alumni to use their rigs for another schools work) I am thrilled about returning to 3d though. I can't wait to get started!
Here's a screen shot of the staging I'll be using. If anyone has any critiques on the staging or the layout please let me know! Later I'll put a cross and the title on the Bible. I'm not 100% how I'll do it, so I figured that would be one of the things I work on after the animation's finished. This is also the first time I've tweaked Norman's appearance. I'm not completely happy with it, but it'll have to do for now.
Hey guys,
I just wanted to let everyone know that I wont be here for a little while. Tomorrow I'm leaving to go on a cruise for my spring break and wont be back until March 24th. I'll see you guys then!
I'm working on this painting for Mythology class and I think it's pretty clear that I dont know what I'm doing...
This is nowhere near finished. I'd like to make the rocks fit with the rest of the painting better but I don't know how to get them to do so. I also need to paint her hair, some mist rolling out of the cave and the ground. I'd like to get some moonlight on the rocks and the pig. Lol, I have a lot to do.
I hope this will be done by the end of the day tomorrow. My friend won't have much time to color the last scene before Wednesday (when the film's due). I really wish I was faster. =(
Pixar's presentation tonight was fantastic!!!!!! Becki Tower is a great speaker and she was really inspiring to listen to. She told us all about her time in Pixar's internship program and showed some examples of the work she did. Lol, it sucks because now I want to animate but I have to go to bed now. One thing that really stood out to me was the simplicity of all of her scenes. Each one was very simple a very clear. I think simplicity is definitely something that I struggle with.
Becki also uses an emotional chart/graph for each of her scenes. I'd never heard of this before and am eager to try it out. All you do is create a simple line graph to show the highs and lows of your character's feelings throughout the scene. She brought up a great point when she mentioned loosing the initial essence of the scene after you've been polishing for days. I imagine having that chart will be very helpful. I'm going to make sure I try that for my next scene. Now I really cant wait to finish my senior project. I can't wait to get back to 3d again.
Ok, I really need to go to bed. I'll talk to you guys later. Wish me luck! =D
I'm super excited and can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wish me luck!!!!!!!!!!! =D
Hey guys,
Here's another Cat Flap update. My goal is to have the animation done before the end of the weekend, hopefully Saturday at the latest. I'm unsure of myself since I've never animated a 2d character moving with a camera (that's how the door goes up).
I'm also unsure about the length of my credits. They feel too long, but my prof. said the cards should be held with one second per word. At the same time, he also said the credits should be 10% of the length of the film. I'm not sure how I can achieve both of those standards. I'm going to show it in class today and get his feedback on them.
Hey guys,
I realized I had not drawn anything for fun in ages. Before going to bed last night, I decided to try my hand at drawing a night elf moonkin from World of Warcraft. I think it came out pretty nice, I wish I had drawn it in the corner of the page though. I think I did that because I wasn't expecting it to look very good. I'd love to paint it, but I dont have time right now.
Anyway, I love the design of ally moonkin. I'm not a druid myself though, nor am I an ally. I'm actually an orc warlock. I'm thinking of starting a night elf druid though because their moonkin are awesome!
Hey guys,
Pixar's coming to SCAD next week to look at reels! I'm turning in my materials for them today. Hopefully I'll hear something back. I spoke with one of my animation profs. and told him the input I got from R&H about the shot order of my reel. We sat down and reordered everything and cut out a couple of shots. The version can be found on my website. For some reason it kept playing in slow motion and suddenly went from 45 seconds to 1:12 when I uploaded it here.
Jocelyn Cofer 2008 Demo Reel
Scene 03 is having some masking issues, but overall it's coming along. I changed the ending based off of comments I received in my last post. Thanks a bunch for the feedback guys! I hope it's reading clearly now. =D
I cut the ending short since I ran out of ideas on how Priscilla can struggle. I asked my prof. in class today and he suggested simply cutting the time. I was thinking of adding a voice at the end saying "Mmmmoooooooommm, the stupid cat's stuck in the garage door again -_-". Do you guys think I need that? It was in my original plan for the film but I never got a chance to record someone saying it.
Hey guys,
I did some prep work for the painting I'll be creating for my world mythology project. It will be illustrating the Celtic goddess Cerridwen as a "white sow that eats the dead". That was part of her description in our textbook and I figured that would be interesting to try to depict, especially with my limited painting knowledge/skill/experience.
To prepare, I did a few sketches of some pigs and a painting test. For the latter I used tried the technique covered in this tutorial: Color Dynamics Tutorial. Granted, my sphere doesn't look anything like the final product of her tutorial. I did a blending pass over her technique and am pretty happy with the results (except for the reflected light). I've never blended "properly" before, as previously my blending was done with the smudge tool. This was a fun little test and I feel like I learned a bit from it.
Hey guys,
Here's another Cat Flap update. I'm working on fixing a few issues with scene 05 and then it'll be ready for clean up and color. I'm aiming to have that done by the end of the day tomorrow, because I really need to start working on the last scene. It's imperative that I get my part of this project done by this time next week at the latest. I have a painting to do for my Mythology class and I wont be able to spend a lot of time on it if this animation isn't done.
A concern has been raised about clarity in scene 05. My friend saw an ealier version of the scene and said it was unclear that the cat was listening to the car approaching and why she was suddenly happy. She signed off before I got a chance to show her this version, so I'm not sure if those issues are still present. Does anyone feel like scene 05 (or any part for that matter) is unclear?
It's interview time! Today I have an interview with recruiters from Rhythm & Hues for their apprenticeship program. Wish me luck! =D
