In Need of Feedback

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

Update

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...

Double Time

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.

First Third Blocking

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.

Thumbnails

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.

Senior Project Adjustment

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

New Rough Animatic

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.

Bernini Sketches

Hey guys,

Here are the sketches that I did at the Bernini exhibit in Burbank...

Update

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.

The Most Beautiful Place I've Ever Been To

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.

At Disney I have learned...

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.

Update

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.

Jake Dialogue Test

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!

New Idea

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.

Princess and the Frog

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!

Earthquake!

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.

Coming Soon

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.

The Dark Knight

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!

Letting Go shot list

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

Letting Go Update

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.