One Down, One to Go

Alright! Shot 2 is ready for facial work! ^-^

Week 9 Shot 2

Lol

Yay, for the cra-ha-ppy render done at 2:07am!

Cool Program

Hey guys. One of the AM upperclassman told me about a cool program that allows you to draw on your desktop. It's called Annotate Pro. I just downloaded it and it's really cool! This completely eliminates my need to transfer my work from my laptop to my pc simple to draw on the screen to track arcs. I highly recommend getting this program as it's quite useful. Not only does it help with tracking arcs, it lets you see your spacing better if you plot little points along whatever body part you want to check. Plus it's only $20. :D

Pressure

Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So much pressure! There's so much work to be done and not enough time to do it in! I need to finish implementing my mentors cried from last week, implement his cried for this week, implement my friend's cried, and block out all the facial animation for the entire scene. >_< There so much to do! I dont know which to do first. I had planned to spend this week blocking the facial animation since I really need to start working on that. At the same time. I want to get the body animation working well. Now I know that I can and normally do spend insane amounts of time fixing and tweaking the smallest things, so I'm not sure if I should do the crits first. The things my mentor pointed out have the potential to become all day projects. I'm afraid of fixing everything only to find out that it's Sunday and I haven't done anything to the face. I've sent my mentor a message asking him which he thinks I should do first. Hopefully he'll respond soon.

Hurry Hurry Hurry!

Hey guys, I'm still trying to catch up with my shot. I guess that technically I'm not behind since I'm basing all of this on a time frame that I had created in my head. Those things to do on my list were/are my requirements. So it's not like I'm behind according to AnimationMentor, LOL. That's good, but I still want to catch up. I just "finished" refining Leo a few minutes ago. It really shouldn't have taken me this long to work on him. I attributed that to the fact that he's doing a lot of physical stuff rather than simply staying in one spot. Anyway, that shot's coming along nicely. The part where he assumes his exasperated pose after looking at his watch is awesome! I'm so proud of the body animation there, LOL. I wish I had more frames for the watch arm though.

Week 8 Refining

There are still some areas that I want to work on before 3pm tomorrow. I want to get more overlap in frames 61-80. I also don't like how softly his arms go into his "vacation" pose. I think there some hitches in various places during the walk. I'll get to those when I start tracking arcs. First and foremost though, I need to implement my mentor's critique on my second shot

Behind Again

The more I attempt to work on Leo the faster things go downhill. -_- I am now three days behind where I need to be because of him. I abhor being late and being this behind is extremely aggravating. What makes things worse is based on my progress one would think I haven't been spending time on the shot, when in reality I've spent two(soon to be three) whole days on him. When I say whole days I mean it. After breakfast I work on my shot until I go to bed, yet I'm not making any positive progress. Right now I wont even be able to get to the polishing stage for either character. I was supposed to have started that yesterday, but I hadn't and am still nowhere near finished refining Leo. -_- I just don't understand why I can't work any faster. I'm following my mentors advice and I'm following the Survival Kit's "How to get a shot done" workflow, yet I'm still excruciatingly slow. This doesn't make any sense at all. The upperclassmen were able to polish and finish their shots on time AND go to work everyday. I don't have a job, I'm at home all day. Why cant I do the same thing??????????

To Do...

Progress so far...

Things to Do Today
1. Finish refining the counselor in shot 1 *done*
2. Restart and Finish refining Leo *failed* :(
Things to Do Before the Week is Over
1. Make the counselor's move transition nicely over the cut. *almost done*
2. Impliment my mentor's critique for shot 2
3. Take the counselor's fingers out of stepped in shot 2
4. Polish shot 2
5. Polish both characters in shot 1

I have a TON of work to do. That may not seem like alot, but it is and I'm slow. Plus now that my mother is back I'll have to do whatever dumb stuff she wants me to do. -_- I wish I had the ability to stop time for everyone but myself and any object that I wanted to use. That way I'd be able to get my work done on time at the highly polished level that I want it to be on.

Rat

I drew a rat today. I have no clue why he's holding the rope or what its attached to. I've decided that he's not pulling the rope since he's not exerting enough force on it. I don't know, I guess he's just holding on to it for someone.

WoooooooHoooooo

I just found out that one of my friends at AnimationMentor just accepted a job offer at ILM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Huge congrats man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D

Oh man, talk about inspiration! People are getting jobs like mad! Ahhhhh, I wish I didn't have to go back to SCAD! I want to be one of the people getting jobs in feature too!!!!!!!!!! Oh well, I keep telling myself that once I finally finish with SCAD my chances of getting a job in feature will have increased even more since I would have had two more years worth of practice. It makes sense in theory but boy oh boy do I wish I could get a job now! I can practically feel the job offer letter in my hands! :D This is so cool! I feel super hyped about animation! It's even better because I was feeling awfully lazy earlier, LOL. Let me go work on my scene before this hyper energy wears off LOL. :D

Refining and A New Lecture

Hey everyone. I've decided to go ahead and post what I turned in yesterday. It's in the refining stage right now. I haven't gotten to the facial stuff. My goal is to spend the last three weeks on that. Anyway, I'm having problems with IK/FK blending between frames 177-181. This is the first time I've used switching on such a small move so I'm still trying to get rid of the pop that's there. Other than that I guess this shot is coming along. I need to spend the first half of the week getting the first shot to this stage and the second half polishing both of them. I've got a lot of work to do. >_< Week 7 Refining

This week's lecture was on Advanced Entertainment by the legendary Doug Sweetland! I feel like I've learned a TON of new stuff in regards to acting and such. LOL, I feel like I should reanalyze my assignment based on what I've learned. In fact, I think I'll do just that. The first shot still needs a lot of work so making some changes shouldn't be too time consuming.

The more lectures I watch the more I realize how huge acting is. I feel like by now I should have body mechanics and "how to animate" down pact. It seems like I should really be focusing on acting choices and such rather than the specifics of how to animate whatever the character needs to do. In some ways I feel like I'm there and in some ways I don't. I still have trouble with arm swings and what to do with arms that aren't doing anything. Animating Brussels turning around in my first shot was very challenging as well. I'm sure I could benefit from doing some more body mechanics tests. I hope to do some of those next quarter since I'll be planning for my short rather than animating shots.

This Week's Assignment

Hey everyone. I just submitted my assignment for this week and decided to upload my pictures before I forget.



The second image was quite a challenge. I think the guy in the photo is a bit cock-eyed and I'm not sure if I should make Bishop the same way. I've asked my mentor so I should have the answer later today.

I'm still debating on whether or not I should upload the refining pass that I did on my second shot this week. It would be cool to just show the finished product, but at the same time I know that I benefit from seeing people's w.i.p shots. Hmmmm, maybe later. Right now I need to go help my grandmother before she becomes even more upset. She doesn't understand that I am doing my homework when I'm on the computer. I think she sees the computer as a small tv or something and thinks I'm playing as the result. >_<

Pictures

Hey guys. I've been so busy with my assignment that I'd forgotten to post a picture that I had drawn on Sunday. Sorry about that.



Week 6 Sketchbook Assignment:

Ugh...

Wow, I do not feel well at all. I spent literally all day on the arms of my character and they're still nowhere near how I want them to be. I don't know what's wrong with me lately. My character doesn't even seem that frustrated/angry in my shot. The arms are killing me, and I haven't even gotten to the second half of the first shot, let alone the second character and the second shot. I seriously wish I wasn't so slow. I don't have a lot of time left and have a ton of work to do.

I saw the AM student showcase reel, it's OUTSTANDING! None of my work was on there of course. I can't even animate angry arm swings (-_-) so there's no way my stuff would be on there. Maybe next time...

It Just Gets Better and Better

Man! First the two Victor Navone lectures, now a lecture on polishing with Andrew Gordon, a special frame grabbers session with Michelle Meeker and now this! I just found out that one of my friends from AM got an interview with ILM! Oh man, AnimationMentor is so awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All of this has happened already and it's only Monday! This just keeps getting better and better! I am SO glad I signed up for this program! I feel like I'm overflowing with inspiration! I want to animate for hours now! Sadly it's after midnight and whenever I work late at night I tend to have to redo stuff in the morning. I'll just review the recoding of tonight's Frame Grabbers session tomorrow to rekindle my flame. ^-^

Incredible

I just finished watching The Incredibles and Jack Jack Attack and I discovered something astounding...I can now analyze Pixar animation! I was able to see their subtle use of squash and stretch, overlapping action, follow-through, etc. Not only that, but I understood why they used what they did. I was able to analyze the acting choices that were made for the characters and how they responded to things. I noticed the animators use of eye darts and understood why/how they were used. I noticed jaw arcs, the timing/spacing on the eye brows, and the shaping of the character's eye lids in relation to the eyeballs. It was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!! Obviously I've been unable to actually analyze Pixar animation up until now. I would always be blown away by it (I still am) and left it at that. I never really noticed things like that before in their work, let alone understand how much and why they were used when they were. That Victor Navone lecture really opened my eyes to how things are done and why they're done that way. If he and everyone else at AnimationMentor were here I would kneel before them and thanks them profusely for the knowledge that they have imparted upon me!

Sadly, it's almost 10:30 at night and thus too late to start refining my shot. I'll try to bundle up all this energy and use it when I wake up tomorrow! :D Hopefully this new found knowledge will be applied to my shot, LOL.

Redwall

I'm reading a book from the Redwall series and have become inspired to draw animals. The characters in the story are so adorable. It would be really cool if one of the feature studios made a film about one of the Redwall stories. It would be even cooler if I am working there when they do it! I would love to help bring Brian Jacques' character to life on the big screen!

Anyway, I drew one of the otter characters from the story. You can probably expect more/better character drawings in the future.

Blocking Pass

Here's the blocking for my new assignment. I would have posted this on Sunday, but I spent yesterday and up till now today tweaking and revising things. I really like it, I think this will turn out to be a nice scene.

Blocking

Also, here are my sketchbook assignments from the past few weeks. Sorry about forgetting to upload them.

Week 5


Week 4


Week 3

Best Lecture Ever cont'd.

I just finished watching part two of Victor Navone's lecture...It was mind blowingly good! I feel like I've literally watched him bring Bishop to life rather than simply animating him. My deep respect for Victor and his peers has increased a hundred fold. After taking pages upon pages of notes, I will now try to implement what I've seen into my shot. :D

Best Lecture Ever!

The Victor Navone lecture is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Busy Week

Hey everyone. Sorry for the lack of posts. I've been very busy this week. Sadly, that business wasn't because of my work. It's been a rough week emotion-wise and as a result, I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. I've got to learn o deal with it though...I know it'll happen again. On a happier note, I now have access to the entire Victor Navone shot walkthrough and will spend the next four hours absorbing information. :D