Hey guys,
I'm going to adjust my portfolio website. I'm going to get rid of the list of updates and just replace is with my demo reel. That way my reel will be the first thing visitors see. I'd also like to make my website more compact and appealing but I don't have time to do all of that at this point. In the spring I'll be taking Animation Portfolio and a website is one of the projects in the class. I'll work on redesigning my website then.
I can't believe I have rough animation for half of my film already. I really hope this pace continues!
Truly knowing who your character is really allows you to work fast! Lol, it took me the entire winter break to get to know my character and now I'm finally able to animate quickly and (hopefully) with character. =D
Rough layout for today's scene. I've decided to go with my new idea for the orange bits in my previous post. I think adding the element of character will be worth the time spent redoing that middle section.
Now that I've used tires and a pipe with wires as framing devices, I'll have to go back and add them to the scene one layout for continuity.
I've added some new scenes to my senior project progression reel to see how everything looks together. I'm really uncertain about the tvp scenes (the orange ones). A couple of weeks ago I rethumbnailed most of my project and the orange scenes were done before that. They dont have any character to them and just look like a cat trying to pull itself out of the door. The bit I thumbnailed to replace this has more character to it. I'm not sure how long it will be though. I do know the new idea condenses those three shots into one, which is good. I'm just not sure if I should try to animate the new idea or if I should just leave what I have for now and move on. It sucks though because I dont like the orange scenes anymore.
Plus, SCAD doesn't have tvp so I'd have to lug my computer back and forth to Monty to work on those scenes, whereas the black scenes were done in my new version of Flipbook. I know they were talking about replacing Flipbook with ToonBoom last quarter but hopefully that hasn't happened yet.
Could it be? Animation that I actually like that I produced with a tablet?!?!?!?!? What's this, an entire scene roughed out in one day?!?!?!?? This is unheard of!!!!!!! Lol, after an entire winter "vacation" of struggle and strife, I've finally got a scene for my senior project that I actually like. I don't know what happened but I hope it continues so I can get the rest of the film done! =D
Hey guys,
I think Bolt's been out long enough for it to be ok for me to post this. Here's the walk cycle I did while I was at Disney.
I also have access to my scanner again! Here's part one of all the drawings I've done over the break. There will be much more to come in the near future.
Here's a really rough version of scene 04 from Cat Flap. I've found that one problem that I keep falling into with doing this digitally is adding more and more drawings before I time everything out. More often than not, this results in soft, squishy animation. I've tried to get rid of that here, but I still don't think the pull has as much force behind it as it could. At the same time, I don't want this to be her hardest pull since, she isn't expending all of her effort yet. That will happen once the garage door starts going up. Then she'll be trying as hard as physically possible to escape from the cat flap.
As usual, all comments and crits are greatly appreciated! I hate working on this alone at home since there's a huge lack of feedback. I miss my professor and mentors. =(
That is what trying to animate my senior project digitally has been so far. I feel like I don't have nearly as much control drawing wise using a tablet. I've drawn thumbnails of exactly what I want in my sketchbook in a mater of minutes, while I spend hours trying to redraw the same thing in Mirage. It's really aggravating since I know what I want, I just cant seem to draw it unless I'm using the good old paper and pencil. I've asked for a cintiq for Christmas since I figured it would help me significantly, but it doesn't look like that will happen. I would really like to just animate traditionally, but I don't have a way to capture my work to see how things are going.
I'm really having a hard time with this. I'm hoping it'll get better if I keep trying to push forward. It's really upsetting though. I feel like I would be much farther along by now if I were animating traditionally or in 3d, but neither of those are options now. =(
Hey guys,
Hey guys,
Here's the rough animation that I did today. I was having a pretty frustrating time with this. I'm still reacquainting myself with drawing/animating via a tablet since I've been working traditionally for over a year now. I still greatly prefer it to digital 2d but right now I don't have a choice since I'm no longer at SCAD. Not having to capture my work before being able to watch it speeds things up significantly though.
Anyway, on to my main issue of the day. I have pages of sketches and thumbnails in my sketchbook but I'm still unsure of whether or not my scene is being done properly. I need the cat to step through the cat flap and take a few steps before being stopped by his fat. The problem is, I have no idea how many steps he can/should take before getting stopped. I also feel like the overshoot for that part can be pushed but each time I redraw it, it ends up being too much. I'll continue trying to work this issue out. In the meantime, any comments, crits, and or ideas on solving this problem are greatly appreciated!
Here's one of the rough layouts for my new senior project idea, Cat Flap. I think I'll clean it up during senior II (which is clean-up and color) and move forward into thumbnailing my scene, since I don't have much time.
Here's a kuzco update. This is due on Monday, so I highly doubt it'll be nearly as finished as piglet. I think I'll try to polish up the Tibo scene the most since I like his acting. Right now Kuzco needs a lot of work. I think he rotates his torso too much when he says "yeah" but I'm not sure if I'll have time to change it.
There are still a few tweaks that I would like to make, but I really need to move on. I'm really happy with the scene regardless though. =D
It's almost done! I just have to fix his ears on "toilet", add a blink after "hey" and finish inbetweening "at the" and "store". I'm really happy that I continued to work on this even though it was due weeks ago. I'll be resubmitting Piglet on Monday with a 200% improvement over the original. Once I'm finished, I'll upload a small progression of the scene from start to finish. I looked at a couple of older versions of this and was surprised at how far the scene has come. Piglet will definitely be on my demo reel.
I'd like to say I'll have this finished by the end of the day tomorrow, but I highly doubt that would be true. I have to go to the open model session as well as run a bunch of errands relating to graduation. I don't know if I'll have very much time to work on this, but I'll do my best to try as I'd like to be finished within the next day or so. It's turning out to be a nice scene and I'd like to put it on my demo reel. To do that I'll have to make sure it's as perfect as possible though.
Hey guys,
Here's a piglet update. I'm working on his eyebrows now, trying to make the changes in his expression read better. I think the brows can come down faster before he starts to say "where". I also need to animate/fix his ears and decide what I'm going to do about "at the" and "store". It seem like "at the" works when the dialogue is played, but when the sound is off it looks like that section should be toned down. I'm still trying to work out my spacing on the transition from toilet to store. I'm not sure how I feel about it at the moment.
Here's a quick look at my next assignment. I dont have very much yet, but hopefully its enough to give people an idea of what I want. I'm trying to be really rough this time around. Last week, my prof. said you should be able to get a rough pass of a scene done in an afternoon. I'd like to have a really nice rough version of this scene by Monday. That way I'll be able to spend the rest of the time working on drawing the characters on model.
Right now I'm really leaning towards animating my senior project really rough digitally and then printing out the frames and drawing them on model traditionally. This should allow me to actually animate my film at home without having to worry about how I'm going to capture my scene every so often. My goal is to return to SCAD in the winter with at least some of my film on model. I've decided to go for a rough colored pencil look for the final film, so I wont need a bunch of clean lines. Once everything's on model, I'll go over each frame with colored pencil to finish it off. At least, that's the plan. Time constraints my force me to just paint bucket everything in Photoshop. Then again, that would require clean, smooth linework...
I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.
Hey guys,
I've been thinking about my senior project and I've decided that I'm not sold on my Morning Stretch idea. I like the concept of a cat getting stuck on a garage door, but I don't think Morning Stretch was the best execution. In anthropology class I thought, what if a cat gets stuck going through the garage door? That way we can see his face rather than his back the entire time. I threw together a rough animatic and I like the new version 100% more than Morning Stretch.
My only problem is, I wanted the cat to respond to the fact that the garage door is about to open before it actually does. That way he'll already be struggling to escape as it starts to life him. My other problem is the fact that the garage door sound starts a bit before the cat actually starts to go up. Once I figure out what tips the cat off on what's about to happen, I imagine I'll be able to just move the garage door sound back to when he starts to lift from the ground.
Does anyone have any ideas of what the cat can respond to that will cause him to struggle desperately in preparation for the door to open?
Last week, I submitted my demo reel for Blizzards visit to SCAD. I'm applying for their internship since I'm still in school. I'm not sure if I'm actually eligible for it anymore since I wont be returning to SCAD next year. We'll see what happens.
Hey guys,
Sorry for the lack of Piglet updates. I'm reworking the entire scene to incorporate what I've learned last Wed. It's taken me all weekend but I finally think I've got a solid handle on how to (hopefully) use squash and stretch on the face successfully. I understand the principle and the concept behind it and I can see how it's used . I'm just having trouble applying it to my scene. I think it's because I'm not used to doing so much at one time. In 3d, squash and stretch is something that I add towards the very end, but now I have to think of how I can use it (along with everything else that's going on) as I draw each frame.
Another thing I'm working on improving is drawing really rough. My prof. told me when he was pressed for time, Glen Keane had a scene of the Beast approved which was little more than dotted eyes and a squiggly line for the mouth. I've also seen how rough some of the animators at Disney work from looking at their scenes from Princess and the Frog. The thing I'm struggling with is drawing that rough while still maintaining volume. I imagine that's something that will improve with time and practice.
I wanted to have my Piglet scene finished enough to put on my demo reel for Blizzard, but the deadline for those is Friday and I know I wont be able to have Piglet 100% finished, completely on model, and somewhat cleaned up by then. I'm wary of putting a rough scene on my reel since all of the 2d reels that I've seen have had the characters fully on model and cleaned up. I wish I could put my Bolt work on my reel, but I have to wait until the film comes out first.
Man, animating a character doing nothing is very hard! Everything I did today messed up my piglet scene. I was so afraid of my scene looking "posey" that I kept trying to over complicate/add small things that weren't in my original performance. I told my prof. I felt like I had to add small recoils and more opposite action in an effort to keep him alive. I told him I didn't have this problem with my Moley soup scene since the character was always doing something, whereas in my current scene Piglet is just relaxing on some bleachers.
My prof. laughed and said "animating a character doing nothing is hard isn't it?". He told me I was on the right track and that it should just be a series of simple arcs rather than a bunch of elaborite action. After class I had a long chat with my prof. and after an awesome demonstration, I feel like I should be back on track. My prof. liked my version from the other day, so I'm going to return to it and continue from there.
I'm going to try to loosen up Piglet's face throughout the scene as I go along. During my prof.'s demo I realised he goes about animating a bit more straight ahead than I do. I think this is why I was having so much difficulty creating a nice organic feel to the face. I'm going to try out his working method tomorow and see how things go.
Here's an update on my piglet scene. I still have quite a bit of work to do before I turn it in on Wed...
I just realized I posted my golden poses pass on my Piglet scene on the wrong blog. As the result the golden pose pass and yesterday's pass will be uploaded at the same time.
Golden Poses
Yesteday's Pass
Alrighty, here's what I turned in to class last week. I finally finished redrawing everything with the (hopefully) correct volumes. I'm going to make sure the first frame of my piglet scene will be 100% on model so I wont have the same problem. I could have inbetweened a lot of this if I hadn't spent the final week redrawing everything to match the first frame. There a lot of things that need to be broken down more and I have pages of things to tweak/fix.
Hey guys,
I've started preparing for our new assignment in 2d character II class. We'll be animating a dialogue scene with Piglet. Thankfully the clip is short and is about 125 frames long, which is much better than my 400+ frame soup scene. Anyway, here are the thumbnails that I've done for the piglet scene and a few drawings from the model sheet that my prof. gave out.
I'll save the most recent version of my Moley soup scene after class and will upload it once I get back.
Hey guys,
I was preparing to burn my work from each year at SCAD onto separate DVDs when I came across my folder of work from my 2d character class. I don't remember posting it before and I think it was because it's really unfinished and doesn't flow together very well. In my usual fashion, I over complicated all of my assignments from that class to the point of not being able to finish. I would say I've gotte better at that, but my Mole assignment is 28 feet long when the assignment said it should be at least 7 feet, lol.
Anyway, I've decided to post my old 2d character work anyway, since there are tiny bits of the piece that I like.
I've added a few more breakdowns to the scene to see how everything is working. I have a long list of things to adjust and I'm going to rework the timing on some of the arm movements to offset them from the main action a bit more. I wanted to make the swallow more subtle but I was having trouble drawing a convincing squash pose without reversing the spine. I'll talk to my prof. about that on Monday.
Hey guys,
Here's an update on my soup test. It's over 100 frames longer than the previous version but the acting is much better. My prof. and I really like it and I was told to just get as far as I can by Wed. I wish I had known how rough I could have drawn everything though. On Monday my prof. showed us some Andreas Deja examples from Hercules and told us to draw loose like that. I knew the varying degrees of rough that the guys at Disney work, but my mentor wanted me to work on keeping the main volumes in my roughs. Since I was used to working that way that's what I had been doing throughout this project. Now that I know how rough my prof. wants us to work, things will go much faster.
I'm just worried about when it's time to start tyingdown my drawings. I know I have volume issues gallore and am expecting to have to spend quite a bit of time fixing them. My prof. wants me to tiedown my main keys and some breakdowns to make sure the acting is clear. He said the inbetweens can get rough as long as they maintain the proper volume.
I'm really enjoying this assignment and I'm learning a lot. Now I know a better workflow for me may be to blast through the scene working super rough and getting all of the action in there working and reading. Then I ca spend the rest of the time working on volume issues and tyingdown the character.
Hey guys,
My soup scene is getting way too long. The full version is well over 400 frames now, so if I'm going to be able to finish this scene I'm going to have to start cutting. I've already cut out the part where the Mole looks around. My next question is does the scene still work/read if I cut out the shudder at the end? I've uploaded a version with and without the shudder for everyone to see. Which one do you guys thinks works better?
The point of the scene is for the Mole to not like the soup he's just tasted but not want to let the nearby chef know he doesn't like it.
Whole Version
Cut Version
I had to redraw a lot of my previous poses because of volume issues. Unfortunately, the new version of the poses don't feel as good as the originals. I've still got a lot of work to do...
Hey guys,
Here's an update on the two projects I'm working on right now. The cat scene is for my senior project and the soup scene is for 2d character animation II. I must say that I'm enjoying the soup scene much more than my senior project. Both are very long and will require a ton of work to finish but the soup scene seems way more fun to do. I'm concerned about my senior project, so that might be why I'm not enjoying it as much. So far, what I have is 28 seconds long and it's just the first third of the film. The entire project was supposed to be 30 seconds total. I see I'm going to have to stop breaking things down and finish roughing in the rest of the film so I can get an idea of how long it will actually be.
Hey guys,
Here's what I have so far for the first third of my senior project. This was supposed to be the first 10 seconds but it's already grown to over 17 seconds (not including the sleep cycle). I'm not entirely sure what to do since there's supposed to be another bit to the scratching after the cat pulls down on the door. I was going to have him claw at it for a moment before he finally turns to leave. I feel like I should add that part since it's what cats actually do, even though it'll make this segment even longer. I'm not entirely sure though. I really need to keep this as simple as possible, but I still want to maintain proper feline behavior. What do you guys think?
Sorry about the weird jump after the sleep cycle. I captured the part separately from the rest and just realized the camera fielding is different. I'll correct this when I recapture the scene.
Alrighty, here are the thumbnails I have so far. The ones in blue are for 2d character animation II and the ones in gray scale are for my senior project.
Hey guys,
My senior project II professor likes my cat idea. He suggested having him scratch on something other than a chair to add more humor to the film. After much thought, I've decided to have the poor cat get stuck on a garage door. My professor started laughing as soon as I said that, so I guess that's a good idea. I have some thumbnails and will upload them when I get home after class. I also have some thumbnails for my first 2d character animation II project that I will upload as well. =D
Hey guys,
I've changed my idea completely for my senior project after talking to some of the amazing guys at Disney. My new film will be about a kitten who gets his claw stuck in the chair that he's scratching on. It's about 30 seconds and is one shot, with one character. I'm not sure how much 2d animation I can do a week, but I know I can finish a 10 second 3d shot in two to three weeks so I'm pretty confidant that I can finish my new film, animation-wise. The thing I'm worried about is clean-up. It seems like the most efficient thing would be to hand over each bit of animation to clean-up as soon as it's finished, just like they do at Disney. I'm just not sure how much time my friend will have to dedicate to my project each week.
I'll work all of that out within the next few days. Anyway, here's my really rough animatic for my film.
Hey guys,
Here's an update on my Jake pose test. I am learning a ton from doing this scene! This is my first time doing dialogue in 2d, so that alone is a huge lesson in itself. I just went through my Rescuers Down Under clips and drew a bunch of Jakes mouth shapes to use as reference. Right away I saw that I'm not pushing my shapes nearly enough. His fat cheeks hardly have any squash and stretch on them at all, which needs to change. I also noticed that both corners of Jakes mouth are usually indicated to some degree in the film.
Overall I think my scene feels really stiff. I need to go through and loosen him up. I'll make a few areas broader and I'll add more anticipations. I also need to do another arc pass on everything. His hips need work as well. They loose volume in a few places and they could use some more bounce. Jake's ears and hat need much more drag and overlap.
I tried to keep things subtle but all I've ended up doing is making Jake feel very rigid. The Jake in the film has quite a few flamboyant, showman moments and I don't feel like that's being captured in my scene. Needless to say, this wont be finished by our Thursday review but I'm going to keep working on it regardless. I'll continue to work on it once I get home up until it's finished. I'd like to make this a nice scene with an on model character. I've got quite a ways to go.
Today my friends and fellow interns went to the Getty Museum to see the Bernini exhibit. I've been to every museum in Washington DC and none of them come anywhere close to the sheer beauty of the Getty Museum. For those who dont know, it's a white marble open air building with contemporary architecture that sits on top of a mountain in LA. You can see the city, the ocean and obviously the surrounding mountains from the balconies. I was in awe by how beautiful the place was. Everything was spotless and the greenery was trimmed immaculately. I felt like I was in a palace. When you visit LA, the Getty should definitely be on your list of places to see, it's amazing!
The Bernini exhibit was pretty cool. We all wished there had been more full figure sculptures, but we had fun anyway. I filled quite a few pages in my sketchbook with gesture drawings and drawings of some of the sculptures. I don't have my scanner here, so I'll have to post them when I get home. I can show you the pictures that I took of the area though.
that I know next to nothing about animation. My education from AM has been marvelous and I wouldn't be here without it, but yesterday I saw how little I know about real feature animation. Yesterday evening I was privileged enough to have Ruben Aquino (the supervising animator for Jake from Rescuers Down Under) look at my scene. He liked it and said the acting feels like Jake, which was great news for me since I was convinced that it was all wrong.
I asked him to take a look at my timing charts and thats when he pulled out his awesome knowledge. Ruben spoke about the extreme importance of breakdowns and spoke about how he treats them like keys. Originally, I thought breakdowns were the drawings that indicate how something will arc. Sure I knew about using them to create overlap and drag, but Ruben just took the breakdown to a whole new level. They really are just as important as your key drawings. He also pointed out how useful they are when determining the timing of an action. Ruben warned me not to get too set on the numbers I had given my drawings because they might change based on how much ease in/out each pose will need.
I figured that much, but I didn't know how important the breakdown was to determining this. I thought I had added a good amount of breakdowns but apparently not. Now I am able to go through the amazing Princess and the Frog pencil tests and pick out which drawings are keys and which are breakdowns, to try to get a feeling for just how many breakdown drawings an animator might use in a certain circumstance. Ruben also told me the faster the action, the more fluid the breakdown needs to be. He warned that a breakdown thats too fluid in a slower action will make the action feel "noodley".
Ruben also revolutionized the way I view timing charts. He likes to put his breakdowns in their own charts rather than having one chart from key A to key B. Instead he'll chart from key A to the breakdown and then from the breakdown to key B. This was great because I had been confused by the fact that some animators would chart from key A to key B and place the breakdown in the middle, even though the breakdown drawing isn't the middle drawing.
More on that later, class is starting up again.
Hey guys,
Here's an update on my pose test. I'm going to start putting timing charts on the drawings and will begin inbetweening soon. I've adjusted the timing using the dialogue reading I received, so now I can also start adding the proper mouth shapes on each drawing. I also need to check the volume of Jakes legs and to track my arcs.
Right now I'm very pleased to be working on a 2d scene at Disney, and this time I can show my work to people. Here's my wip scene of Jake from the Rescuers Down Under. I need to finish the pose test today since this is my second to last week at Disney. As the result, I'm going to start drawing looser than what I have been. My mentor asked me to draw Jake the way I have, but for the sake of time I'm going to make it rougher. Once things are working I'll add more volumes like what I have now and then I'll show it for feedback.
I really want this to feel sincere and I'm not sure if that's happening yet. I want Jake to feel cool and confidant. I know cool characters are in control, so I wanted to keep Jakes movements minimal. They should be reduced mainly to head and small hand gestures. I'm not sure if his performance is sincere though, so any and all comments are greatly appreciated!
Hey guys,
After talking with calarts animator and fellow animation intern Jesus, I've decided to change my senior project. I really like my squirrel story, but there's no way I'd finish 30 shots in 10 weeks to my desired level of quality. With all of his short film experience, Jesus was able to read my shot list and strip the essence of the story down to a simple six shot idea.
The theme of the story is still letting go, and I think I'm going to keep the same title. This time, it's about a guy walking through the cemetery to visit his wife's grave and the obstacles that he passes along the way. We start with him walking and he sees a couple standing together comforting each other. He's assaulted with mixed feelings of sadness, longing, melancholy. He continues and is approached by an attractive young woman. He hastily hides his wedding ring as she gives him a flirtatious look. He returns the glance and watches her pass by. When he brings his ring back out he remembers his wife and is ashamed by his behavior. The guy turns and continues to the grave. When he arrives he places the ring on the grave and walks away.
I really like this new idea since every shot is a great opportunity for acting. There's no dialogue and all of the characters feelings will have to come through via acting choices and glances. It's going to be all about what the character does and more specifically how he does it. Jesus mentioned the Milt Khal scene from Lady and the Tramp where Tramp wakes up in the train yard and stretches before getting a drink of water. That scene is 100% pure character, and having something like that on a reel should make you desirable for studios.
Since my ultimate goal with this project is to provide new reel material to help me return to Disney, I don't need an epic 30 shot long film. All I need is great acting and that can actually be done in one shot.
Hey guys,
The teaser for the Princess and the Frog is up. Check it out:
http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/princessandthefrog/
I watched a screening of the film a few weeks ago and it was really fun. I'm looking forward to it's release and hope it does well. It's also really amazing to be able to watch and study pencils tests for the film as it's being made. Mark Henn pencil tests are astoundingly simple yet filled with sincerity. I cant wait to get a chance to talk to him and learn as much as possible!
Wow, a hour ago a 5.4 earthquake hit CA. I've never been in an earthquake before and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. In my mind an earthquake means buildings being torn apart, the ground splitting, fire, screaming, death. Thankfully there wasn't any of that today. I didn't know what was going on at first. It felt kind of like being in a boat as it rocks back and forth. It wasn't nearly as violent and jarring as I expected a quake to be. I guess the feature animation building has and awesome earthquake proof design or we were simply saved by all of the Disney magic. The only damage done was a light fell from the ceiling not too far from my office.
The sad thing is, while people huddled under desks and stood in doorways I rushed back to my computer and hit save. Lol, we all may fall into the ground and die but at least my animation would be saved. XD
Once it started to die down people started cheering and clapping, lol. I wonder how the people in the ABC building across the parking lot reacted. When I went over there for lunch all of the business people were walking around as if nothing had happened, whereas everyone in Disney building had stopped working and was wondering around laughing, talking, and cheering.
Hey guys,
Everyone on the AM alumni site is working on an awesome collaborative short film project. I'm going to be working on my shot after work and on the weekends. Here's a rough scene that I threw together in an hour to start blocking in my staging. I'm not happy with the giant post that goes through the middle of Bishop and his wife. I'll see what I can do about getting rid of that later, cause now it's time for bed.
In my scene, Bishop will be struggling with not being able to fall asleep. A ball will come in and bonk him on the head, knocking him out cold. I'm going to have him look at his clock and see that it's an ungodly hour in the morning. He'll be upset and try to take more sleeping pills only to discover that he doesn't have anymore. Then the ball will come in, hit him, and then bounce off screen.
BEST BATMAN MOVIE EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker was phenomenal! I'm going to stop right there to prevent any spoilers. If you haven't seen The Dark Knight yet, drop what you're doing and run to the nearest movie theater to get tickets for the next available showing right now!
Hey guys,
After some great advice from my mentor at Disney, I now have the shot list I should have had back in Concept Development class. My mentor made some changes to all three acts of the film to make things read clearly. He also gave me a wonderful ending, which is awesome since my ending was discombobulated and crappy. If I keep all of these shots I'll have to finish three shots a week. I'm not too sure about that since I'm at work all day.
If there are any shots that you feel can be cut or reduced in some way, please let me know!!!!!!!!
Letting Go Shot List
1. Establishing vertical pan down to Larry’s front door. POS: Establish where we are. No Anim. (done)
2. LS Horizontal pan through Larry’s disheveled house. POS: Show how Larry’s grief has caused him to stop caring about the upkeep of his home. No Anim.
3. LS Larry sits at his bedroom table looking frail. POS: Introduce Larry and his state of being. Very little to no anim.
4. MS Larry’s looking down at his wife’s wedding ring and sadly looks up to the picture of them on their wedding day. POS: Establish that it’s his wife’s ring.
5. CU Larry puts the ring in the box and lowers the lid. POS: Clearly show the ring’s new position.
6. MS: Larry gets up and leaves the room. POS: Establish that he’s no longer in the room.
7. LS Larry trudges out into the living room and dozes off. (wip)
8. ECU Larry’s eyes POS: begin dream sequence. (done)
9. MS Larry and his wife are having fun at a carnival. Fade to white. No Anim
10. MS Larry’s at his wife’s hospital bed. It turns out she has pneumonia. Fade to white. No Anim. (done but want to redo)
11. LS Larry visits his wife’s grave. It’s under a small weeping willow sapling. Fade to white and end animation-less montage. (done but want to redo)
12. ECU A crashing sound startles Larry from his memories. (done)
13. MS Larry’s disoriented and confused from the jolt back into the real world. Another crash helps him remember where he is. Larry gets up and goes to investigate the sound.
14. LS The thief hulks in the foreground. He hears Larry coming and takes off. Larry enters the doorway a moment later. (wip)
15. LS(Over the shoulder) Larry sees the thief’s tail disappear out the broken window. He looks over to the jewelry box. Very little anim.
16. CU The jewelry box is broken and empty. No Anim. (done)
17. MS Larry is horrified and runs to the window.
18. MS Larry squints as he looks out into the woods sadly. He realizes he’s in the light and steps back into the shadows.
19. LS Larry sulks for a bit within his gloom before deciding to go after the ring. He runs for the window and jumps out.
20. CU The thief’s feet tear through the grass with Larry a bit behind him POS: Establish how close Larry is to catching the thief. (done)
21. LS The thief comes to a dead end. In a ditch effort to save himself, he throws the ring into the nearby lake.
22. LS Larry spots the ring as it falls into the water and changes course immediately. He dives into the lake. (done)
23. LS He drags himself out of the water. Larry lifts his hand to look at the ring. (wip)
24. ECU Larry’s hand opens to reveal his wife’s dirty ring. Very little anim.
25. MS Relieved, Larry proceeds to wipe the ring off. The sound of happily twittering birds interrupts him. He looks up and realizes for the first time that he’s actually outside.
26. LS Pan of the wonderful outside world. Stop at the weeping willow. No Anim.
27. MS There’s something familiar about that tree, but Larry can’t place it. He goes closer to get a better look.
28. ECU Larry pulls back the leaves to reveal his wife’s grave beneath the branches. Very little anim.
29. LS Larry approaches the grave, in awe at the size of the surrounding tree. Has it really been that long?
30. MS Zoom in on grave as Larry approaches it. Allow time for its inscription to be read, as if Larry is reading it. No Anim.
31. MS Larry smiles fondly at what he’s read. He looks down at his wife’s ring and tenderly places it on top of the grave. Larry notices his own ring as he brings his hand back. He considers it for a moment, before sliding it off. He reaches forward to place it on the grave.
32. CU Larry gently places his ring beside his wife’s. He waits a moment before slowly turning to leave. The camera zooms in on the rings slightly as his shadow moves away from the grave, indicating that he’s leaving.
33. LS Larry emerges from the willow tree. He takes a deep breath, smiles and walks down the sunny path before him.
The End
Hey guys,
I was able to animate a shot for my senior project today. I think I would have gotten further along if I had used a different program. I spent at least three hours changing and adjusting things to get my frames from flipbook to work properly in Pencil. Once I was somewhat happy with the animation I tried to export it out as an image sequence since the movie function doesn't work on the Windows version of the program. It looks like that doesn't work very well either. All of the frames came out negative and at random sizes. I wasted more time fixing them in PS so they were visible, only to find out that the save function doesn't work on the windows version of pencil either.
To my horror, the shot I spent all day working on wouldn't open. I had to import each frame individually and then register them properly despite the resizing. I tried again to save the project without any luck. So I finally went over to the mac side and redid all of that. Thankfully the save function on the mac version works, lol. I don't think I'm going to use Pencil anymore, but if anyone else is thinking of trying it avoid using it on Windows!
I think I'll try out Plastic Animation Paper next. Anyway, here's the rough animation. I'll do a polish pass on it later.
I really like this version of the shot MUCH better than the original. While working on my Disney assignment, my mentor kept telling me to push my poses further. I kept that in mind while I animated this shot. I think it's a 200% improvement from the original.
For some reason blogger has cut out the last few frames of the shot. I'm going to have to add more time at the start and end anyway, so hopefully that will be resolved after I do that.
Yesterday was my first day at Disney, and man was it amazing! We got a tour of the studio lot and got to see the original animation building. We also went through the ink and paint department and learned about the cell creation process from blank to fully painted. At the end of the day we went to the famous wizard hat topped building...
I was blown away by the gorgeous artwork that was all over the place. You literally couldn't look somewhere and not see beautiful drawings. I know I'm going to love working there. During lunch a clean up artist spoke to me about his experience at Disney. He had been there for 20 years and loved every minute of it. He said its such a great environment that 10 years will go by without you even noticing. Lol, I really wish was here for a job rather than an internship. I'll have to make sure I get a call from Disney when I finish school in May!
I wont go into more detail due to NDAs but believe me when I say Disney's feature animation studio is an outstanding place. Being here is really a dream come true, and that was just my first day! =D
Hey guys,
I just got back from seeing kung fu panda...it was amazing!!!!!! I think it's Dreamwork's best 3d film so far. Everything about the movie is gorgeous. I especially loved the art direction, the color and lighting choices reminded me of golden age disney films. Everyone should see this awesome movie! Huge congrats to everyone at Dreamworks for a job very well done.
Hey guys,
I got an amazing phone call today during class that left me stunned and unable to focus for the remainder of the lecture. It looks like I won't be sitting at home this summer after all. Instead I'll be spending the summer at this wonderful place of magic and amazement...
Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I still can't believe it!
Hey guys,
Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been plugging away at my senior project. I have to start over on some shots and I need to add some more. I also still need to finish what I already have. I'm having a hard time believing my acting choices. Everyday I have to move on to a different shot and I'm having difficulty with remembering the specific emotion(s) for each shot. Now everything feels like a big amorphous blob and none of my performances feel sincere as the result. I feel like every drawing that I makes suck and that my project as a whole is failing.
Lol, in short, I'm not feeling very positive about my work. Oh, I can give you an update on my internship status. It looks like I'll be going home over the break. I've been rejected from every place I've applied to so far except Disney. I was supposed to hear back from them today at the latest, but I haven't heard anything. I'm going to go ahead and assume their answer is no.
Hey guys,
I finally have enough shots roughed out to put together a rough version of my senior project. It still doesn't have all of the shots yet. Last time I mentioned the fact that the story has been revised. I'm still working on ideas for how the story should end. So far I'm going to have him start to put on the ring and then hesitate. Larry will realize he's finally made it outside and will enjoy how nice it is by running off into the distance in a gleeful manner.
That is so true. I've been so caught up with trying to get my senior project done as quickly as possible that I seem to have forgotten that. I've been really unhappy with my work all quarter and now I know why. I've been focusing on drawing as fast as I can rather than really thinking about what I was doing. I even brought my ipod to Monty a couple of times and listened to music while I worked, which is something I usually never do. Big mistake! I think that made my problem even worse. The beat from the music was distracting from my imagined timing of my shots and displaced me from my work even more.
Sure I planned my shots and had my usual trouble with keeping things simple, but I wasn't 100% completely THINKING about each and every drawing. As the result my work has been crappy. The sad thing is, I know what needs to go into each of my poses, but I've been so distracted and flustered by having to finish all of the animation this quarter that I haven't been able to sit down and think clearly about it. This weekend I pulled out my copy of the Animator's Survival Kit and was once again amazed by the amount of information that it contains.
I've read the book from cover to cover many times, but every time I open it I realize something new I believe this is because my level of animation understanding has improved and now I really get what Richard Williams is talking about. Pretty much everything that
I learned at AM is in that book, it's just that now I really and truly understand what's being said.
I've also been inspired to try to slow down and spend even more time planning. I was looking at the example drawings from Milt Khal's strut and was really inspired by how much information he included in each drawing. There's no way my drawings had that many levels of intricacy, and I resolved to sit and make extremely detailed plans about what each drawing will have. I figure the more time I spend on that, the less time I'll spend fixing things and my work is much more likely to come out the way I want it on the first try.
Hey everyone,
I finally have a title for my senior project. It will be called Letting Go. The main character is no longer a germaphobe and is instead so depressed about the death of his wife that he's become a recluse. I'll see if I can post some updated animation later today.
Hey guys,
I received the first rejection letter of this year's internship time. Not surprisingly it came from Pixar. My reel needs a major revamp. I don't really have any acting on there. I'm trying to put some subtle acting in my senior project, but I'm still unsure of my 2d skills.
The two remaining studios are Disney and Sony. I high doubt I'll hear back from Disney. I think they're still having issues with whatever's going on there. I dont know about Sony, I applied to them last year and never got a response either.
Next year I'll be able to widen my search since I'll be finished with school in March. I'll be adding Tippet, ILM, July Films, Dreamworks, Rhythm&Hues, and Blizzard to my list. Hopefully I'll hear something positive back from one of them or Pixar, Disney, and/or Sony.
Hey guys,
I know I haven't posted an animation update within the past week. This is because I'm making some changes to my story. I've spoken with Prof. Webber here at SCAD and he suggested making the squirrel afraid of facing the outside world, rather than being scared of germs. He said that will have a greater emotional impact whereas being a germaphobe is more of a comedic situation. I met with my Senior Project I professor and he agrees. Luckily, changing the story will allow me to remove eight shots while adding one completely new one and making some simple changes to others. I know my friend who's doing my fx animation will be pleased since there wont be a need for disinfecting spray anymore, lol.
Prof. Webber also made some awesome lighting suggestions for my film. He said to keep everything outside bright and happy, and to make the interior of Larry's house gloomy and dilapidated. That way I can have a shot of Larry slamming windows and closing himself off from the outside world. He also said to make sure the raccoon jumps through Larry's window into the light to push the contrasting locations. These are all awesome ideas and I'm very happy that friend who is an equally awesome painter and layout artist has offered to color my backgrounds. =D
The only super challenging part is the shot where Larry has to decide whether or not he will follow the raccoon outside. I have to really sell his internal struggle as well as make it clear that he fears facing the outside world, rather than simply being afraid of going into the light. This will require some major acting skill to pull off, and I'm unsure whether or not I'll be able to do it successfully. I'll have to find a balance between keeping it simple yet still conveying the proper emotion in a sincere manner, which is something I've been struggling with all quarter. I'll do my best though and hope everything works.
Hey guys,
Here's this week's progress. I wont say too much about it since it's almost 2am and I need to hurry up and go to bed. I'll comment on the shots tomorrow. Some of the videos are missing, since I just realized I forgot to put them on my flash drive when I was at Monty. I'll get them at some point tomorrow and will post them then. Sorry about that.
Shot 2 (Revised)
Shot 5
Shot 9
Shot 14
Shot 17
Shot 20 (90% unhappy with)
Shot 21 (unfinished)
Shot 24
Shot 25
Shot 29
I think my interview went well. The representative from Blizzard really liked my work and said she'd show it to the lead in the pre-rendered cinematics department. The Blizzard internship program is starting for the first time this year, so they're only accepting students in southern California. The HR rep wants me to keep in touch though and has urged me to apply for the program next summer which is when they'll be accepting people from all over.
I'm glad I went to the interview and enjoyed being there. The HR rep got me all excited about working in their award winning cinematics department, so I was pretty disappointed to hear I won't be able to go this year. I'm definitely going to apply for the program next year though. The WOW cinematics are beautiful and I really look forward to contributing to them in the future.
Hey guys,
I watched my demo reel today and was displeased with it, which is awesome. I've liked my reel for about a reel now and I think that was way too long. I'm really happy to say I no longer feel is represents my best work. I cringed when I watched my two character dialogue stuff. As much as I would like to have an internship this summer, I wouldn't be surprised if I don't get any responses again. The work on my reel is just not up to par. I dont even like my scare tactics shot anymore.
I feel like the acting in my first two shots aren't nearly as good as they could and should be. Lol, I actually feel ashamed that I sent my reel out. It's not an accurate representation of my work at all, and it truly is great to feel that way again. I can't wait to have a chance to animate to dialogue again. In the mean time, I'll have to settle for making the money shots in my senior project as good as possible. I definitely plan on having a 100% new reel by this time next year, cause my current one isn't cutting it.
Hey guys,
Here are all the shots I worked on this week. I'm really unhappy with some of them and need help with figuring out how to animate to camera moves. I also need help figuring out how much a character should grow/shrink when moving in perspective. Unfortunately, my senior project I teacher is a 3d guy and cant really help me with those particular issues.
Shot 2 (500% unhappy with)
Shot 3
Shot 16 (50% unhappy with)
Shot 23
Shot 26
Shot 27 (need help creating camera pan and zoom, need help figuring out character's size in relation to the camera move and perspective)
Shot 30
Shot 31
Hey guys,
I figured I might as well give you all an update on the Pixar opportunity in case any of you were as excited about it as I was. After standing in line for two hours I got to the booth only to find out they didn't have anything to view reels with. I was extremely disappointed since that was the whole reason I went to the job fair. I did meet an awesome animator who won an award for her work in Ratatouille which was awesome, but not even having a chance to show my work has really put a damper on what originally was a very happy and hopeful day.
Tomorrow will be either one of the happiest days of my life or a normal day with disappointed undertones. Why? Tomorrow is SCAD's career fair and Pixar will be there accepting reels for their internship program. We were told that if Pixar likes our work they will call us later that day for an interview!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited! Most of me knows I wont get in, but I still hope I have some kind of chance at actually obtaining a position in the program. =D
Hey guys,
Every week I'm going to upload all of the shots I've worked on thus far for my senior project. Please feel free to tear them apart, lol, in fact I encourage it! So far there are definitely some shots on here that I am 100% unhappy with and really want to redo. I'll be sure to point those out. I'm not working on these in chronological order. Instead I've arranged my schedule so I have a mix of shots with different levels of difficulty every week.
Shot 4
Shot 6
Shot 7 (100% unhappy with)
Shot 8
Shot 10
Shot 18 (100% unhappy with)
Shot 19
Shot 22 (need help with animating shadows)
Shot 28
Hey guys,
I sent my reel and paperwork off to Disney and Pixar today. I was going to wait untill later in April but I can see now that I'm not going to have anything from my short finished enough to put on my reel by then. Everything's good though, I'm on schedule and am doing a little over 1-00 a day. It feels awesome to track my progress/improvement.
I would like to get some really nice shots from my short though. I watched my reel today after burning it to a dvd and everything feels really old. Even my Scare Tactics shot doesn't look nearly as good as it did back in the summer. I'd like to create enough quality work to completely redo my reel by this time next year. At that point my short will be finished and I would have taken 3d character animation, which should give me some nice new 3d work. If I'm able to get an internship, I hope to be able to put some of the work I do from that on my new reel as well.
Speaking of which, after getting a bunch of awesome advice from my fellow AM alumni, I've decided that I wont be able to apply for unpaid internships. Since I'm a full time student I dont have a job which would have allowed me to save money that I could have used to pay for my stay in Cali. I dont have any relatives in the LA area, so I'd have to live on my own, which without money is impossible. I asked about working a second job but that wouldn't do. I'd want to put 120% into the internship and wouldn't be able to do that if I have to go off and work another 40 hours a week. Plus whatever job I'd have wouldn't be very good anyway and wouldn't pay enough to live off of. Lol, I doubt working a cash register for a few hours a day pays enough to afford rent, transportation and food.
As the result, many if not all of the smaller studios I've applied to/were going to apply to will no longer work. It's back to hoping on Pixar, Disney and Sony. I certainly dont have a problem with that, but this will be my third and in some cases fourth time applying there for the same position. I don't mind being persistent, but this is the last year I can do internships and I doubt my work will be good enough to get a job there this time next year, especially if I can't even intern there now. On the other hand, I'll be able to apply to the studios I had to skip because of the unpaid internships, since I'll be looking for a job instead...
Hey guys,
Here's a look at the production schedule I made for my SCAD senior project. It's a LOT of work but with luck and strictly sticking to the schedule, I'm hoping I'll be alright.
Hey guys,
I just found out the SCAD career fair is coming up soon, and this time I can actually participate! Last year I found out about the fair on the day it occurred and thus didn't have time to burn copies of my reel and submit them to studios for possible interviews. This wont happen again though. I'm going to make sure I have a good number of reels burned and ready for submission by the end of this week. Pixar will be there and will be accepting reels for their internship, which is an added awesome bonus, I can't wait! =D
Quite a few AM students and alumni have been hired by Dreamworks over the past couple of weeks. I just wanted to congratulate all of them for achieving their dreams. All of you guy's hard work has definitely paid off. Congrats to all of you!!!!!!!!!
Hey guys,
I sent my reel off to three more studios yesterday, Pendulum, Tippett, and Radical Axis. When I got back I received an email from Tippett saying they don't have an internship program. I was pretty disappointed since I had been looking forward to going there. I'll just have to save them for next year.
Despite that, I can't wait to start hearing back from the studios that I've applied to and will be applying to soon. I really hope I get in somewhere this time, especially since this is the last time I can apply for internships. I'd really like to get some production experience before graduation.
In other news, I'm still working on layouts for my senior project. Yesterday wasn't a very good day and now I have 10 done instead of the scheduled 12. I'll have to make up for that today. While I can't wait to start animating, I find myself missing working in 3d. Lol, this seems to happen whenever I spend a significant amount of time working in one medium, I always end up missing the other.
It's too bad though, cause there's no way I'll have time to do any 3d animation this coming quarter. In fact, I dont really see myself doing any 3d work from now till winter unless I get an internship over the summer. If not I'll spend summer vacation finishing up the animation for my senior project and starting to clean it up. Then my fall quarter at SCAD will be spent continuing nd finishing clean up for the film.
In the winter (my final quarter! =D) I'll be taking portfolio and 3d character animation, which I look forward to. So yeah, it'll be 2d from now till winter unless I get an internship. Either way, my drawing skills will get a major workout, lol.
Hey guys,
Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been busy working on my demo reel and drawing layouts for my senior project. So far I've finished 8/21 backgrounds. It's pretty fun and it's making me excited about starting production soon.
Anyway, as I said before, it's internship time! So far I'm sending my reel to Disney, Pixar, Sony, Tippet, Radical Axis, Pendulum, and possibly ReelFx. I have no idea whether Tippet and ReelFx are offering internships, but I hope they are. They're working on some really cool projects that I would love to be a part of.
Here's a look at the reel that I sent to Sony and will be sending to everywhere else save Disney and Pixar. I'm holding off on them because their deadline's are towards the end of April and I might have a shot or two from my senior project to add to my reel by then.
Hey guys,
Here's my last shot for my Gary Goldman classes. I've learned a ton abut 2d animation this quarter. I have an effective workflow now and I feel 100% comfortable about creating my senior project in 2d. I'm extremely happy that I was able to learn from such a legend.
Hey guys,
Here's a look at my wip shot for my 2d production class. This character was really difficult for me to draw for most of the quarter and I put off my shots with him until all of my Banjo shots were done. Now I have to finish this by Monday in addition to creating a flatbook, a webpage and finalizing the animatic for my senior project.
There is some good news though. Gary Goldman liked my Banjo shots so much that he requested dvd of them. I also feel like I'm getting better at drawing Dirk the Daring, which is helping me work much faster. I'm also improving on drawing with less hairy lines which is also speeding up my workflow.
Hey guys,
Here's a look at my updated progression reel for my senior project. Please feel free to comment on anything you feel stands out.
Larry Progression Reel
I think this version works the best so far. I really like all the green and feel like the main character will really stand out since he's a red squirrel. You guys can take a look at Jennifer Hager's film here http://film.calarts.edu/main/streaming/2005/charanim.html if you'd like to get a feel for the style I'm trying to achieve. I really love how simple her layouts are but I felt like I had to put more shading on mine since my professor pointed that out in class today.
I went over the layouts in class to see if I could add some depth without having to completely redo everything. I think they look much better now. I hope my teacher will like them enough to let me keep them this way. I'd still like to loose the dark outlines though. I didn't bring the painter file with me so I wont be able to fix that until I get home. The shading will also improve when I get home since I had to make the lighting changes with a mouse.
