My teacher told me to change a few things in my layout today. He said to push the line weight so we can see the background, and to make it clear that it's a hill in the middle ground instead of a moss covered wall. Here's my edited version:
Three of the layouts in my class were AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wish I were that good at drawing backgrounds. I wish I could post them so you guys could see how fantastic they are.
I just finished my assignment for Animation Layout class. We had to draw an animation flatview depicting the location that 18th century mice would have a secret meeting. I chose the graveyard since I thought it was a cool idea and because I don't like drawing buildings.
I suck at drawing backgrounds. >_<
Our Tarzan assignments were due today and were critiqued by the class. For every assignment people said things like "thats amazing...hahahahaha...thats excellent....hahaha....great job". When my assignment was played the room was completely silent. I sat there waiting to hear some input from the class and recieved none. My teacher pointed out two areas that he thinks should have more slow out, but aside from that nothing was said. After class I approached him about this and he said that he couldn't find anything wrong with it. Later he said he'll try to find something to write about on the grade sheet. While I was annoyed that I didn't get a "thats wonderful/excellent" from my classmates, my teacher's "I couldn't find any errors" made me feel much better. Sure I didn't have time to have my character eatten by a crocodile, bounce off of fish, backflip in the air, or pole vault. You know why that is? Because rather than spending time adding a bunch of extra stuff, I worked hard to make my assignment great. I'd much rather have a great assignment without a bunch of fluff, than to have a bunch of extra stuff with crappy animation. Anyway, my version was complicated enough since I did two extra swings and had to sell the idea of the character really wanting those bananas.
Sorry if I sound arrogant in the above rant, for thats not how I ment to sound. I just get pissed when people cheer for crappy animation with extra stuff that has NOTHING to do with the assignment instead of for good animation. -.-
Alright, this will also be a short post since I have Animation Layout homework to do. I apologize for all of the short posts recently, I've been quite busy.
Here's my second assignment for Animation I:
Tarzan Swing
Here's my week 3 AM assignment:
Refined About Face
Hey, I haven't posted in a while because I've been working all day! I just got back from Monty since the 3rd floor closes at 3am. I'm almost done with my Tarzan assignment and my AM assignment is going well. I was in a foul mood earlier since I thought I wasn't making enough project with my work. I feel better now since my friends were praising my animation and saying how I inspire them. I should finish my Tarzan swing tomorrow and will post it if I do.
Earlier I e-mailed some Dreamworks animators and told them I plan on interning there over the summer. I asked about their experience there, and if they could look at my work and give me some tips on what to improve. When or if they respond I'll probably post about whatever they said.
Alright everyone, here's my final version of my blocking that I turned in a few minutes ago.
Blocking Final
I finally have some blocking that I'm ok with. For my assignment I'm doing an about face and its turning out to be harder than I thought. My peers have provided a great deal of help and I really appreciate it. One student even gave me links to some video ref and a detailed description of how the about face should be done. Right now Ballie is doing a "sloppy" about face for two reasons:
1. The guy in the ref video was doing a "sloppy" about face
2. Ballie doesn't have a control that allows him to pivot on his toes.
As a result, Ballie will be rotating on his heels until the rig is up-dated.
Anyway, I showed my blocking to a friend last night and he really liked it. He pointed out some places where the arcs needed work and reminded me to watch the weight on the turn. He told me that I'm going to be an amazing animator and that I'm improving rather quickly. Reading that made my day! I was very unsure about my blocking and it was wonderful to hear that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was. So without further ado, I give you my blocking:
About Face Blocking
Hey everyone! I've finally finished my bouncing ball for animation 1. I'm pretty happy with it for now. My teacher said it was excellent, so I'm really happy about that, LOL (he's a hard grader). I don't have time to make a long post right now, cause I have to plan out my next project and then spend the rest of the day on my AM blocking. I have less time for my next assignment, so I can't afford to be lax with my schedule.
Bouncing Ball Final
Oh, I've deleted all of the previous wip versions of the bouncing ball from my webspace. I found out the other day that I had used up all of the memory. From now on, when I post a new version of something, it will simply up-date the older version, rather than having multiple files.
Okay, I'm kinda annoyed since I had a nice long post and my browser froze, causing me to loose everything. Because of that, I'm just going to post some animation let that be it. I have work to do anyway and it's getting late.
Bouncing Ball
I've decided to up-load some drawings that I did during the week. Why? Because I don't really feel like opening Maya and doing work, LOL. Rest assured that I will do some work after posting these pictures though. I may be lazy, but work is important and must be done!
Anyway, both pictures were drawn in but not for my animation layout/character design class. I'm trying to get away from my boring, default drawing style. I don't think I'm getting very far, LOL.
I have another up-date on my project for animation 1. I like how everything is going so far, except for the last bit. I don't really like how I animated his face when he jumps up at the end. It doesn't seem as clear as I had planned for it to be. I'm going to work on it some more tomorrow, so hopefully it'll be better then.
Bouncing Ball up-date
Sorry for the short post today. My stepfather is being a jerk about AnimationMentor, so I'm not in the mood to type right now.
I've worked on my bouncing ball some more and have some new animation to show. It's going very well, and I'm quite pleased with it so far. It's so great to be able to watch it and know that everything that happens was intentional. I remember when my animation would look ok by pure luck and chance. But now, I feel like I know what I'm doing and can consciously create nice quality work.
Bouncing Ball WIP
I have some animation to show today. Plotting out the eyes gave me a bit of trouble, but they look ok I guess. The tail presented even more problems since I realized that the ball would have to rotate back in the air to prevent him from landing on his face. I studied the whip principle to determine how the tail would move. Tomorrow I will plot the tail and animate it if I have time.
I don't know how long I'll have at Monty, as I'm going on location in my Animation Layout class. I might go after class if I reach my goal for my layout assignment. If not, I'll animate the tail over the weekend.
Here are some more thumbnails:
Here's a link to my WIP animation: Bouncing Ball
Alrighty, its time to post some work, yay!
AM Stuff
Here are some thumbnails for my first assignment. We had a choice of animating Ballie kicking a ball, making a big sidestep or turning around. I chose to do the turn around. My roommate helped me out by demonstrating an about face that she learned in ROTC. I taped it and used Rick's guidelines from the lecture to pick out my key poses.
Animation I
For animation I, we are starting off with a bouncing ball (of course). I've decided to spice mine up by doing it in perspective and by giving the ball eyes and a tail. Today I picked out some reference of a squirrel running and used that as a basis for my timing. I've added a few extra frames with the brown pencil in case my original ones aren't enough. It'll change the timing, but I think it will probably look better with more hang time. Sadly, I was unable to start animating today, because I had to leave Monty earlier than I expected to. It's no problem though, you can expect to see some animation tomorrow.
Original Thumbs
Thumbs with Squirrel Ref
Hey everyone! It's official, class two has begun! I've watched my video assignment and lecture and am ready to work. This week's lecture showed us how a shot is done from start to finish. It was GREAT to see the way a professional animator uses his reference and picks out the key poses. I finally feel like I can use video reference correctly and I have a much better idea on what to look for when picking key poses.
This time we are able to pick our own assignments to a certain extent. We've been presented with a list of three possible exercises and they've been given a technical difficulty rating. Of course, I want to do the most difficult assignment, LOL. This weeks hardest exercise is a 180 degree turn with Ballie. Already I'm feeling challenged by it and I haven't even started yet. I'm trying to think of an interesting way for Ballie to turn around and I'm not coming up with anything. I'll have to get in front of my digital camera and make a bunch of test videos. I'll also ask my roommate to help me by doing some 180's herself to use as ref.
Speaking of which, she just got off the phone, so I'm off to shoot some ref. I'll make another post later!
I just found out who my mentor is for the winter term. It's Pixar animator Doug Dooley!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited to have a Pixar mentor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D I can't wait for class to start!
I have returned to SCAD. Class starts tomorrow. I've downloaded my syllabi. I'm going to be busy as I don't know what. I'm SO glad I started AM in the fall. Without my animation knowledge that I gained from AM, there would be no way for me to take animation 1 AND character design/animation layout at the same time! At one point I have to draw 36 thumbnails at River Street...36!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Granted, they are just thumbnails and they could have been 36 actually drawings. But still! That'll take FOREVER! I wish I didn't draw so slowly. Plus it's winter time (obviously) so it'll be cold on River Street. >_<
Now, you could say "Jocelyn, you didn't have to take the layout class in the winter quarter..." and be making a true statement. But, this is the best time for me to take it. The recommended schedule that SCAD created says to take it along with Animation 2. Some seniors have warned against taking the class with animation 1, but I'm pretty sure it would be even worse to take with animation 2 or any other future (and more advanced) class.
Anyhow, thanks to AM, I dont feel worried about animation 1. Sure, I'll continue to work as hard as I can and push myself as far as possible. But I'm not dreading it (thats what the layout class is for!) and worrying about how I'll have time to get the assignments done. I am pretty confidant that my work will be among (if not) the top in the class, simply because I have knowledge that my peers haven't learned yet (Thank you self training, various animation books, and now AnimationMentor) and because the professor knows how serious I am about this and will help push me to a higher level. I hope I didn't sound arrogant just then, and if I did, I appologise for that was not my intent. I am simply striving to be one of the best. Afterall, it's my goal to be one of the exceptional students who get hired at a major studio right after, or maybe even before graduation!
That seems like a nice place to stop for now. As I said, class starts tomorow and I know that from then till March I wont have any time to play my new xbox 360, so I'd like to get my fill of it today. I want to join xbox live, since it has a whole bunch of cool features and I would be able to play with my friend from home. Sadly, it would be a waste of money because, as I said, I won't have time to play. Plus the dorm won't let me connect anyway. The MTU (or something like that) isn't high enough for xbox live to work. I'm going to take that as a sign rather than going out and buying a router, per the suggestions of people on The Hive. I wish for all of my fellow xbox players at SCAD to have fun playing online with a bunch of friends. And would like for them to know that while they're sitting around playing games I'll be doing work, work, and even more work. Yay for insane, work-a-holic, animation majors who are hell-bent on being at the top! Lol. Bye for now.
P.s. AnimationMentor resumes on Monday.
