Filmed some more reference video yesterday...

OK, so I got a lot of feedback and went back out there yesterday. I'm so out of shape. So here is the reference I got.

More Video Reference

And look at what I found on my way home from work!!!! :-)

My Hoboken Neighbor

Reference Video Footage for week 4's Assignment

OK, I feel like a crazy man! haha I was on my way to the ferry yesterday and missed it and since I had half an hour to kill and found an empty construction site with some nice poles to jump on I decided to shoot some reference video footage for my animation. It was really funny because it was rush hour and all the people walking by kept on staring at me... They must have been thinking, "What is that crazy guy doing???" haha... Check it out:

Pole Jumping Video Reference

The bad thing is that there are some things I don't like about this ref so I will probably be filming again today... oh well...

Animation Mentor Assignment - Class 2 - Week 3

This week was awesome! Learned all about advanced overlapping action in the human body. Overlapping happens in the
1) spinal column and head
2) shoulders, elbows, wrist and fingers
3) and in the hips, knees, ankles and toes

The lecture was very instructive. We saw several overlapping examples that we analyzed, such as a bull rider, a wakeboarder, a soccer player. We studied concepts such as reversals, the wave principle, breaking down reference, and putting all the concepts together into a shot.

In addition the second part of the lecture also covered advanced anticipation. One of the main points I took from this part of the lecture is that animation is all about communication with your viewers and one of the best ways of doing this is with anticipation... it is the lifeline of communication with your audience. We also learned about when to use it and when not to use it.

Our assignment was to start polishing our kick. Here is the kick in a more polished form. I should have it finished by next week end. Then we will start with a full body character, Stewie. :-)

Blocking Plus Kick

My First Video Blog!

They added a new tab to the AM website and we are now able to post video journals! I made this one for this week. :-)

Animation Mentor Assignment - Class 2 - Week 2

Wow, after all that work I got to my critique this week and my mentor suggested doing something a little less complicated... so I went out and shot some new reference video footage. Check it out:

Reference for Kick

I also had to do the first round of blocking this week so here is my first attempt:

Kick Blocking Pass

Animatic for the Turn and Kick Planning

I had a lot of fun doing the planning for this project. I did this little animatic for fun based on my thumbnails. It is not perfect of course because I was not planning on animating my sketches, so the feet and ball and body don't match perfectly, but at least you can get a feel for the timing.



Pretty cool huh!? :-)

Animation Mentor Assignment - Class 2 - Week 1

This week was really cool. We are starting with a pick assignment and had to choose between a side step, half turn or kick. I really like the kick idea so I decided to do some nice soccer juggling... and since I suck at soccer I looked up some nice reference on the BBC Motion Gallery online. This is what I'm using as my reference.



Then, based on the reference, we need to do some really good planning of all the key poses of the animation. Good planning helps a lot when it comes to blocking your animation in the computer. So for the first week we have not even touched Maya to start animating. It's all been pencil and paper.

Here is my planning so you can see how the reference was transfered to paper.



I'll be posting my blocking next week. :-)

And my new mentor iiiiis...

Just started Class 2 in Animation Mentor! How exciting! This term we will be studying Body Mechanics so we will be doing animations that show weigh, pushing, pulling, jumping, kicking, etc. How exciting!

We were also assigned new mentors. My new mentor is Raquel Coelho and she is from Brazil originally. She has lots of experience and has worked at companies such as Blue Sky, PDI/Dreamworks, Wildbrain and Laika Entertainment. She currently works at Tippet Studios.

I can't wait to start animating! :-)

Animation Mentor Assignment - Class 1 - Week 12

OMG, it's hard to believe we are at the end of class one. This program has been a blast so far. Very time intensive but I've learned a lot. For this last week we compiled all of the work so far into one long video. Plus, I was able to pick Amber's brain a couple of times to get some last tips on my cartoony walk. So here is my work for Animation Mentor, Level 1, Basic Foundations.

Animation Mentor Assignment - Class 1 - Week 11

Sorry I'm posting this a little late. For week 11 we worked on polishing one of our walks and rendering them in perspective view. I chose the cartoony walk from last week.



In the lecture we covered some of the most important aspects of animation we've covered so far... at least with biped characters. It was all about hips, hip angle, and common mistakes. And our focus was on balance and and shifting of weight. Therefore for this week's pose we sketched and then posed some ballance poses.