Animation Mentor Assignment - Class 1 - Week 7

This week was the hardest yet. We learned how to set up an animation pose to pose. Bobby explained how to do it with OneLeg, our one legged ball boddied character :-).

As an assignment we had to pick between doing a jump animation of OneLeg or doing an animation of Tailor, our ball with a tail (like a squirrel) jumping a couple of times. Being the overachiever that I am I decided to combine both characters into one animation. I started on it early so I was able to finish a first draft by Wednesday (I practically didn't sleep). I got lots of comments and feedback from lots of classmates, other advanced students and mentors and was able to really work it. Hope you guys like it.



I also worked on the pendulum assignment from last week. Oh... this one was hard. I thought I had done such a good job and after listening to my mentor's comments I realized I had a lot to change. I put the before and after animations so you can see the difference. The changes are mostly in the timing of the swings. There are also spacing changes at the bottom of the swings of the pendulum.

Animation Mentor Assignment - Class 1 - Week 6

This week we had to do an animation displaying the concept of overlapping action. This can be seen in the motion of all living things since nothing in this world moves without it unless we are looking at mechanical motion. Examples of overlapping action can be seen when you see a flat waving in the wind, the grass as it is blown around by the wind, a dog wagging its tail, or as you will be able to see in this animation, a pendulum swinging from side to side.



And here is the revision for last week's work.

Animation Mentor Assignments - Class 1 - Weeks 2-5

These are the assignments I have had so far:

For week 2 we had to go out and sketch people and pose our 3D character Stu based on a pose that we liked. Here are the poses that I chose and the revisions that I did after I received critiques from my mentor:



For week 3 we had to sketch excited poses and then pose Stu based on our favorite poses. We also had to animate a bouncing ball based on correct physics. Here are the poses I chose and the revisions that I did, as well as the revised bouncing ball and the reference footage that I based it on.



For week 4 we had to animate 2 bouncing balls. One that had heavy characteristics and one that was light. Here is how the animation turned out. I added some dynamics for fun as well. Dynamics are physics that can be added to objects within Maya to create special effects. These are realistic but don't have the animation techniques that we are learning in class.



Week 5 has been the most fun so far. We had to animate a ball bouncing through an obstacle course. In this animation we are using the concepts of Squash and Stretch, Anticipation, Timing and Spacing. Squash and Stretch and Anticipation are two of the twelve animation principles developed at Disney. We also had to sketch poses showing a person that was devastated and pose Stu based on our favorites. Here is what I handed in. Still pending revisions. My mentor's crit is this Wednesday.



Let me know what you think about these. Just add a comment to this post.

Kenny

Finally joining Animation Mentor

I've finally started Animation Mentor and I'm loving the classes. It's a little hard to balance with work but I'm managing. I'm meeting a lot of new people and learning lots about animation techniques. The classes are excellent.

My mentor is Amber Martorelli and she has been animating for a while. She worked on Ice Age 2 and Robots while she was at Blue Sky Studios in NY. It's incredible to be learning first hand from so many people that work in the industry and having a mentor with industry experience is a must. Just this week we were having a Q&A in which she showed us scenes from the movies she worked on and was able to answer lots of our questions about how things worked at Blue Sky and what it was like.

And it's so much fun to finally be working in something that I feel so passionate about. It is so interesting to read about animation, and learn about the industry, and animation techniques. How amazing will it be once I'm working at one of these companies. I'm really looking forward to it.

So every now and then I will be posting some of my animations in here so you guys can check them out. Feel free to leave comments about anything you see.

Over and out!

My First Post

I finally started my Blog. I've been meaning to do this for a while but now that I am at Animation Mentor and everybody has one I can't put it off for longer... So, here goes!