X-men was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I highly recommend seeing it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want to talk about it but I don't want to spoil any of it for anyone. The Phoenix was so tight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nightcrawler is now my second fav x-men character, lol.
Anyway, here's an up-date on my animation:
Blocking
I've repositioned the match towards the end so that it's between Bishop and the bear. I've also adjusting the matchbox toss so it doesn't happen so quickly.
Yay! My blocking is coming along!
Blocking
It still needs some work, but the animation's getting there. Everyone seems to find the shot very amusing too. That's always a plus, lol. :D I would continue working on it, but it's 3:26am. I've noticed that as I get tired, my animation abilities start a steady decline, lol. I might as well stop now instead of continuing and ending up making crap. ^-^
Oh! I saw a trailer for Ratatouille(sp?)!!!!!!!!!!! The animation is mind blowing as usual!! Fantastic job everyone at Pixar! I can't want for the film to come out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D I would post a link to it, but I dont think we're supposed to see it yet. The site I originally found the trailer on has removed the file. I know of another place to find it, but I dont want to get in trouble. :P
I can't wait to see x-men tomorrow! I only wish Nightcrawler(my fav x-man) was in it. :( My best friend went to a midnight showing and said it was tight. I can't wait! :D
I've recieved my critique from my mentor. He said the only major changes I should make are:
1. Move the match away from the bear, he's supposed to threaten it, not catch it on fire
2. Move Bishop's hand to the bear's shoulder so he doesn't seem so aggressive.
3. Adjust the position of the head in the last pose
He says that what I have now is funny and that it'll be solid once I start animating. I hope he's right. :
I expect to have an up-date sometime today.
Uh-oh, it looks like my mentor likes my original blocking better...
http://studentpages.scad.edu/~jcofer20/C3week7Blocking.avi
That really sucks, cause I liked my new version more than this one. My mentor says it needs more work but the original is much more interesting than the new blocking. I'll do as he says, but I dont look forward to rigging that teddy bear. :(
Hey guys. My original blocking was raising too many problems so I decided to redo it. Many people said that the huge move that Bishop made in the original blocking would cause his match to go out. Others suggested lifting the bear and putting the match under it's rear. I liked that idea, but to do that Bishop's left arm would be crossing his face to hold the bear up. I really like this version, but I just found out that my mentor really liked the original. Hopefully he'll like the new one just as much or possibly even more. Some of my peers liked the fact that the bear would be lit on fire. I asked if I should include a pile of bears in the background and have Bishop's match fall on them. If any of you guys like that, please let me know!
New Blocking
Hey, it seems like I've uploaded my blocking everywhere but here. Sorry about that.
Blocking
That's the blocking that I turned in this morning. I'm still not happy with it. I'm feeling quite lost since my mentor said to make Bishop more arrogant than aggressive. The beginning is fine, but when the character starts shouting he seems kinda threatening/crazy to me. I'm going to trust my mentor's words though since he knows more than I do. ^-^
Sadly, I wont really be able to up-date the animation today. I need to go to Monty and work on my Digital Form, Space, and Lighting project. -_- Darned non-animation SCAD classes taking away from animation time.
I saw Over the Hedge today! It was wonderful! One of my favorite talking animal films so far, excellent job Dreamworks/PDI! :D
Anyway, sorry about the previous post. I was upset but I'm alright now. I heard what I needed to hear. I know that your school doesn't really matter and its up to the animator to raise the bar, I guess I just needed to hear it from somewhere else.
Once I got back from the movie, I continued to work on my blocking. Here's pass 2: golden poses and some keys...
Pass 2 Blocking
Hey guys. I'm very angry about SCAD's animation program right now. I seriously wish someone had told me how bad it was before I applied. The school focuses on creating generalists rather than character animators. None of the animation that SCAD proudly displays is anywhere near the quality of work that one would need to get into feature. Our best animation teacher is leaving when this quarter is over. We have a Disney animator as one of our teachers, but he's way too nice, even when asked for a tough critique.
I've looked at the CalArts website and saw that the only way to transfer into their character animation program is to pretty much start over as a freshman. In the fall I'll be a junior at SCAD and am wondering if I should start over at CalArts. I am insistent of getting into feature animation when I graduate from school. I know that's a rare occurrence and requires a ton of work, but I am prepared to spend all of my time working (I do it already anyway, lol). Anyway, if that's what it takes to get into feature animation, then that's fine. I know that SCAD will not help me reach that goal at all. I know AM will help me out a lot, but was wondering if I should even bother continuing at SCAD when AM's over.
Oh, I'll be done with AM in the 2006 winter quarter and plan to return to SCAD as a junior in their spring quarter. Because of my decision to take off from SCAD during AM's short film classes, I've pushed my SCAD graduation back by two quarters. Do you guys think it's worth it to start over completely at a FAR SUPERIOR school?
Hey everyone. Here's my first pass at blocking out my dialogue shot, it's just the golden poses for now.
Blocking: First Pass
I would continue, but it's 2:21am and I'm tired, plus I have to get up early tomorrow to go to the Vilppu session. I'll try to work on this and have an up-date tomorrow evening. Hopefully I'll have sufficient time to work. After dinner I'm going to see Over the Hedge and I can't wait. The animation is superb and the characters are adorable! I love talking animal movies! :D I also want to see the DaVinci code, as the book was quite cool. I don't have time to see two films though and since Over the Hedge is animated it has priority.
Here's a render of the first frame in my new AM assignment. My mentor said the Playing with Matches clip is better than the Crazy World one because its shorter and has a larger emotional change. Thats fine with me, because I had fun making video ref for that clip. I'm thinking of pulling the camera in closer to Bishop. I didn't really want to see his legs in this shot. What do you guys think?
It'll be cool if I somehow learn how to use dynamics well enough light the match on fire and keep it burning successfully throughout the animation. That would be tight! Sadly, I'm pretty sure I wont be able to do that, and the animation is more important anyway. I'll probably end up just making the head of the match glow to show that it's been lit, lol.
In case you're wondering why Bishop's expression is so bland, it's because we are allowed to use any facial controls. Next quarter we'll animate his face fully. I think thats cool since it forces us to think about body language.
Ok, I have to keep this post short because I have to leave in 9 minutes to go to class. I've reworked my baseball pitch from Body Mechanics and have posted it in the AM gallery under class two. Here's a link to it as well:
Baseball Pitch
There's still quite a few things wrong with it and I wish I had more time to fix them. Sadly, I had to stop working on it last night to do the final preparations for my Disney reel so it could be sent off this morning. The reel itself is alright, I guess. I don't feel like its anywhere near good enough for Disney. My day was boosted though when I logged on to AM and found a post about it from Shawn Kelly. He said he liked it, so that's a HUGE plus. :D Alright, I've got to go, I'll talk to you guys later!
Hey guys, I've put together everything I need to begin blocking my new AM assignment next week. I've chosen three sound clips, shot video reference, and drawn out some thumbnails.
I've grown to like all three of my ideas and would like to animate all of them. For my assignment I will probably animate the crazy world sequence since I have the most info on it in my head right now. Over the break I plan on animating the other two shots. :D
Wow, I just found out that Benjamin Willis got hired at Dreamworks. That's extremly inspirational for me since it wasn't that long ago that he graduated from SCAD. He's the first SCAD student that I know of who's been accepted into feature. Hopefully I'll be added to the list soon! That would seriously be a dream come true for me, I know Benjamin must be really excited. Huge congrats Benjamin!!!!!!!!!!!
Alright, I've done some thumbnails for my new AM assignment. They're really rough and I plan on redrawing them later.
I also tried to come up with a good camera angle for my shot. I imagine the main character went to her friends house for comfort after finding her mother with a jiggalo(sp?). The last pose has the character looking at her friend, so I thinking about making this an over the shoulder shot. I'll show it to my mentor tomorow and get some feedback.
Last week in 20th Century Art class I found myself drawing a new character. He's supposed to be a pirate but I'm not familiar enough with pirate clothes to be able to draw them without any reference. Sorry about the piece of eraser on his pants, lol.
Yay! I've finally finished my first assignment for AM's Intro to Acting Class! Here's a link to it:
Spoiled Brat
I also did some gesture drawings on Thursday that I liked.
