Week 12 (Week 24)

Wow, so this is the final week of class 2! I had a great time continuing to expand my animation knowledge and get to know some great people along the way. I want to give an extremely big thank you to Morgan Kelly for his immense amount of knowledge and being a great overall mentor. The wisdom he imparted on me was priceless and I cannot thank him enough for all his expertise and direction. Also, I want to (this is starting to sound like a catch phrase) thank all my fellow classmates of both the past, present, and future. Without them, I would be nearly no where as they continue to inspire and urge me to do the most I can and achieve that ultimate goal. In typical week 12 fashion, we were to compile all our shots from the term, as well as the previous term, into a sort of progress reel. In my end of the term critique, it was essentially the same as the previous class: it has entertainment value, but the fundamentals are lacking. Got to work on those principles more!

Anywho, time for a week break and then onto Advanced Body Mechanics! But not before I put up my progress reel. Onward and upward!

Week 11 (Week 23)

It's the final furlong as we draw close to the end of this term. This class, we had Kenny Roy (thanks Kenny!) take an actual students shot and add what he felt was that final 10% to the shot. This final bit of polish was that extra spit shine on the shot that made it really stand out, like drag and overlap.

This week was the final week of homework. We were to add our own final 10% on the shot as we saw fit. Fortunately for me in this crucial time, I was on vacation. So I got to work on the shot and try to upload it from a boat, which didn't work out too well but it worked out eventually. (Don't get me wrong, the trip was awesome, but the waning of internet was kinda stressful when the school is based online.) I had been trying to learn some basic lighting and rendering techniques so that I could make my shots look more pretty, as well as make the fire actually look like fire and not green blobs. I got some very helpful tips from classmates and tutorials and in the end came out okay.

Week 10 (Week 22)

In this session, Shawn and Carlos went into further depth about the importance of having clear arcs and paths of action. Having smooth arcs can do wonders to a shot and make it look really smooth and pretty. So it is definitely a topic to touch back upon and look at in more detail.

As for the homework shot, I took it out of stepped and into splined mode. I tried to capture the initial timing of my blocking phase as well as incorporate some some other principles like drag. The arms were definitely feeling a little stiff though and needed to be addressed in the following iteration. Also, the end of his freak out needed to be held longer as it wasn't really reading.

Week 9 (Week 21)

In this session, we had Pixar animator, and apparently the voice of the babysitter in The Incredibles (I'll have to check that out) Bret Parker (thanks Bret!). She went through the differences in how forces can affect the timing and spacing of a shot. Also, how timing and spacing changes as it goes from a more cartoony to realistic form of animation. She went through some of her awesome shots from Wall-E (probably my favorite Pixar film) and showed how internal and external forces influenced the timing and spacing of the shot.

For the combustible Stewie shot, I took the time to re-block the shot since we had 2 more weeks to work on it (rather than the usual 3 total weeks). The overall starting pose was changed and the head scratch was taken out. I played around with the timing a little more to make it snappier and added a few more breakdowns to it.

Week 8 (Week 20)

This week, we had Carlos go through the all important arcs and paths of action in a shot. It makes movements much more fluid and not jittery and all over the place.

So, in usual fashion, we took our sketches from reference and blocked them out in Maya. I discovered this nifty little dynamic flame tool in Maya that made the fire on Stewie's foot practically for me! It was pretty nice find, but that didn't change the fact that my blocking had some problems with it. The overall pose was too not casual and all the hopping around was a bit slow. See for yourself, first without the flame dynamic, then with.

Week 7 (Week 19)

This session, we watched AM graduate turned DreamWorks animator Mike stern (thanks Mike!) go through his process of tackling a shot. It was rather unique as he didn't go with reference as he just used his principles to map out a very cartoony and good shot of army Stewie storming the beach.

With the parkour shot, we were to finish it up with some final polishing and then move onto our next, and final, shot for the term. I fixed most of the concerns for the shot, like the speed he comes out of the head flip, his overall speed to the run and a settle at the end. Morgan made a good point that the shot was rather linear and two dimensional. There was not much outside of Stewie running in a straight line through the course and was no breaking of that path of action. Definitely noted, have character move in the three dimensional space.

For the final shot, I have no clue where it came from, but I went with the idea of Stewie (now with arms!) just chilling and waiting around. Suddenly his foot spontaneously combust without his really noticing. Then, he realizes that something is up and sniffs around and sees the alarming situation and falls over as he attempts to put out the flames. Though you get the joy of seeing me do it first.

Week 6 (Week 18)

This week, we got to watch Ethan Hurd (thanks Ethan!) take us through how he would go about completing a shot. He gave some awesome tips about how to move into splined and give some great animation tips for getting in the mind frame for a shot.

For homework, we were to move into a blocking plus phase of the animation. Basically take it from stepped mode and into linear or splined. Also, more breakdowns were needed to make the motion more fluid and add drag and other principles into the shot. Since I put it through Flipbook, all the poses I moved into Maya seemed to work pretty well coming out of stepped mode and into spline. Some things I had to address were his head moving around on the head flip and the speed that he comes out of the recovery from the head flip.

Week 5 (Week 17)

This week, the lecture covered staging and composition in a shot, how to place a camera and set a shot up nice and in an appealing way. Hosted by the very humorous Carlos Baena, he went over how to best set up a shot and have your scene be the clearest as possible. Because what would a scene be if it is unclear? Nothing. And even though this might be more geared toward the later, more acting oriented classes, it is always good to be thinking about when starting any shot and how the composition of the shot is working.

(A million thanks Carlos!)

For the assignment, in typical fashion, we were to take our reference and thumbnails and block out the shot. As an added bonus, I tried out DigiCel's Flipbook application and I must say it is very nifty and pretty easy to get around. This helped out a boat load when planning the overall shot and before moving into Maya.

Week 4 (Week 16)

So, week 4...week 4...Ahh, so this week was an in-depth look at hips and how they operate, hosted by the one and only Bobby Beck! The interesting thing is that most all movements begin at the hips and then travel out to the rest of the body for the motion. So it is very important to get a good hold on hips as it will dictate the overall movement and positioning of the character.

(Thank you sooo much Bobby!)

With the assignment, we were to finish polishing our shot and then move into reference for the next shot. I added more of a stomp to the end as Ballie regains his balance and comes forward, but, as always, could use more work. Also, Morgan suggested that I add some sort of turn around to look at his close shave. I added one, but it feels very linear and needs more breakdowns in it to smooth out the motion.

Also, with the new assignment, we were given a new character, Stewie! This is a more complete character, with legs, torso and a head, but NO arms yet. This is for the better as we can get a better hold of just getting down how to use his essential controls for a physical performance. We were also given a new set of choices for a shot from a pick list. I read through them and they were all pretty interesting and good. But as I came to the bottom, the last one read "Parkour". Instantaneously, my brain went "DING" like brownies were ready and my eyes lit up. Parkour is awesome, so given the chance to animate some would be that much more sweet! So we had to get reference and as I can undoubtedly do none of the death defying moves that they do, I resorted to my good friend Youtube to compile the shot.

Next shot:

Week 3 (Week 15)

This is going to be a major catch-up/ even more overhaul of animation as I will magically try to recollect what I did those months ago and in a semi-intelligent manor. Writings will be noticeably shorter as I attempt to get back to the present.

Week 3 was about further exposing us to different approaches to doing animation by professionals. This week was Dimos Vrysellas(Thank you Dimos!) and how he went about his business. His workflow was cool, treating computer animation more like traditional, pencil and paper, but digital. It was very cool! Again a strong working of the fundamentals in his work.

With our assignment, we were to bring it out of blocking into splines, it was starting to get there, I redid the attempt to catch his balance, but as he came back down, his touch is way soft, hard to believe I did that now!

Week 2 (Week 14)

Alright so it's week 2 (not really though, it's really week 7 at the time of writing) and there is more stuff to cover from last time. First, my new mentor. His name is Morgan Kelly and he's an awesome guy! (His blog can be found at http://www.morgankelly.blogspot.com/) He currently is an animator at Dreamworks and has worked on practically every CG movie they have done so far! The amount of knowledge and insight that he has is remarkable. I'm really glad that I have him as a mentor, though I'd be happy with anyone probably, although the class time is a bit odd, 11PM-Midnight! But whatever, I'm usually up anyways. There are a bunch of new people in my class, 2 from my previous class, and they are all great and super helpful in feedback. We all feed off each others' excitement and enthusiasm and it makes the class really fun and entertaining. I'm really looking forward to see how everyone progresses and what great ideas they will come up with for shots!

Right, now on to the meat and potatoes. This weeks topic, getting the most clarity out of your blocking phase. Hosted by Brian Mendenhall (thanks Brian!), he went over how much is enough to get across your point in just blocking, which is essentially just the key poses and maybe a breakdown or two. There needs to be enough information in your shot, but not too much as that it will probably be changed around with the notes received from the mentor, so you have to find a happy medium. After which, we were to apply this new found knowledge to our blocking of the shot that we planned out last week. As I moved into Maya, I had to consider which poses were essential to the shot and which I could forgo at the moment. In the end, I pretty much used all my poses from planning and it came out alright. I had some difficulty trying to figure out how to show Ballie off balance, since he has no arms to help steady his balance, so I gave it a shot, but in the end, had to change it.

Week 1 (Week 13)

Ok, so I haven't been writing for a few weeks, I wasn't away in San Diego for the whole time or anything. I just got sorta lazy, and sorta felt that there wasn't much to show yet. But now I've had time to let the experience absorb. So let's get on with it...

(side note: I've nearly finished reading eBook 1 of Shawn Kelly Tips and Tricks and I must say it is very awesome! His topics are both invaluable and hilariously written, a must read, which can be found at: http://www.animationtipsandtricks.com/, which is also the blog for the ongoing series =] )

(Shawn, if you ever see this, THANK YOU!)

So, wow, it's class 2! The title: Psychology of Body Mechanics, the focus: to learn how the body operates and moves and how to take the fundamentals learned last term and apply them through our work. Also, we start to use whole body rigs! Which I am both very excited and nervous to do. But not yet, we are still using Ballie for this first assignment. This time we were to pick a theme/action from the , well, "Pick List" and animate it out. Rather than write them all out, I'll just say what mine was. It was "Jump up and turn 180 degrees in the air and land/settle". It was labeled a 2/4 on difficulty, so I figured it to be a good starting point. So first things first, I had to obtain/study reference. The best way to get it, film yourself.

(This is partially why I didn't want to post till a few weeks down, because who really wants to watch me jump around? But I figure, gotta get used to it, gonna be doing a lot more of it in the future, hope everyone else is ready for my future "actings")

Anyway, what I finally decided on as my idea was a 180 jump, obviously, and at the land, there would be a loss of balance and stumbles back a few steps and then rocks back and then back forward, finishing with a few steps, plus settle. Then, I studied the poop out of it and made up a planning of key poses and their approximate timing.

Holy moly! I haven't even said what the subject of this week was yet! Well, it was "Weight and Balance", hosted by the hilarious and great Rick O'Conner (thanks to Rick too!) Because what is a character if it's all floaty and broken-looking and gumby-like, unless it was Gumby? Something heavy has to look HEAVY and light has to look light. Sound easy? Not at all! It could easily be one of the most desired, yet ever so eluding, aspects to achieve in animation. Also, how weight effects peoples' movements and how to maintain a proper balance in the shifting and addition of weight.

(This is starting to turn into a Shawn Kelly-esque article, can you tell I've been reading it?)

Anyway, here is the reference and the planning, there is more to talk about, like my new mentor and classmates, but that can wait for now...

Post upload I noticed that the leg lines make it look like a thong =p

Week 12

Dang! It's already the final week of class 1. I'm very sad, yet excited to leave this class and proceed onto the next class. As a last sorta 'assignment' we were to compile all of our work through the term into a sorta progress/demo reel ordeal for them to archive. I want to thank my fantastic, local mentor Anthony Wong for all his guidance, enthusiasm, and inspiration! Also, my awesome classmates, past, present, and future for their pointers and advice! With that, for your viewing pleasure, my progress reel thus far. (And now, a certain someone is San Diego bound for 'Spring Break'!)

Class 2: Body Mechanics here I come!

Week 11

Only one more week to go after this one! Well, at least for class 1. This is the final push of the quarter and for our final assignment, you guessed it, was to refine our character walk and make it all pretty and nice. So we basically change the curves from stepped (for blocking) to flat tangents and from there, smooth out the curves accordingly as the great Victor Navone showed us in lecture. "Clean splines beget clean animation" as he states and it holds very true. Some very simple problems can be solved by just fixing the curves and making sure that they don't run all over the place. Having smooth curves gives you smooth animation, in a nut shell. So with that, I proceeded to smooth out my lurch.

Also, for our last posing assignment, we were to pose out STU in a way that communicated "balance". As usual, we sketched out poses and brought the most pleasing one into Maya to be posed out with STU.

After some good pointers from my eCritique, the walk and pose have been cleaned up and revised.

Week 10

Wow week 10, 2 more weeks left of class one! This week we were to take what we learned from the bland vanilla walk and spice it up with some character. This could be practically anything, the imagination was the limit. But, like the prior week, this week we were to just block out the animation and get the essence of the walk captured in it. Of course, the best way to do this is to first film reference and then study it extensively. So in comes handy-dandy webcam. Following my love for the undead, I went with a sorta dead leg, lurching kinda walk.

On top of that, we had to pose Stu out again, this time it had to communicate "exhaustion".

On my eCritique, I put up my revised pose of "concerned", yet my mentor took it as both of them being "exhausted"....(good?)

Week 9

Week 9, Week 9! So, continuing from last week, we were supposed to take our blocked out walk and smooth it out and make it look more presentable (NOTE: My original blocking was a little wonky, as odd as that sounds, so I revised it, so the two walks are a bit different). Smoothing out all the curves in the Graph Editor is rather troublesome, and after receiving my critique, I definitely have to go back and revise it.

On top of that, we were to pose out STU communicating "concern". As arbitrary as that sounds, it was a nice challenge trying to figure out how to show it with just body language. I will most likely also be revising this pose since I have received my critique on it.

Original:

Final:

Week 8

Wow time certainly is flying, week 8! Now, we're jumping into the world of walks. This is arguably the most difficult aspect to animate, it dictates so much about a character, age, weight, mood, and overall personality. Yet, we are not going into character walks quite yet. First, we must master the "vanilla walk". The aim of this is to just get the mechanics of a walk down, without trying to add any sort of personality, just a ho hum bland ordinary walk. So, for this week, we are just supposed to block out the shot, basically just putting in the major poses so that the essence of the walk is there. Next week we smooth it out and make it all pretty.

Also, we were to pose out a position that communicates "physical strength". I went through a number of poses, I thought I had it nailed from the beginning, but soon found and learned that the first idea is not always the best. So with that, I changed around the original pose some but in the end, ended up scraping it entirely and starting over, I'm rather pleased with the end result, and even did a little fun one afterwards.

Final:


Fun!:

Week 7

This week we continue our quest of overlapping action. But now, we move ahead of the mechanical-ness of "pendulum" and move toward a more "living" character, enter "Tailor". "Tailor" is a cute little guy, basically a ball with a squirrel-like tail attached. We were supposed to build upon the knowledge of last week and implement it into something new. This was definitely difficult. I never knew how complicated the movement of a squirrel's tail was. All of this changing the tail shape from "C" curve to "S" curve to reverse "C" curve was pretty complicated. The first attempt at it, my timing was way too fast. The tail looked all jittery and frantic, like he drank a gallon of coffee beforehand, not a smooth, waving pass as he moved around. After some refining, his tail has finally calmed down a little and looks sorta normal, but still might need some further tweaking in the future.

Week 6

Week 6, mid-term already! This week we're looking at overlapping action and drag. This is the individual breaking of joints and offsetting them in time so that it looks like and secondary action follows through once the primary force has stopped. To capitalize this point, we got a simple character, a block with an attached "chain" which was named "pendulum". Basically, when the block comes to a stop, the chain continues to swing with the residual force of the block. I must admit this was some hard stuff to grasp. My first attempt looked pretty garbage and took some much needed advising on how to salvage it. I guess I'll stop trying to explain and just show.

Week 5

Oh! Now things get interesting...! This week, we are supposed to add "life" to the ball and give it some squash and stretch. This new, improved ball is to be then placed through an obstacle course, living up to its new found squishiness while still keeping the consistency of about a normal soccer ball.

Also, we were to pose another STU character, this time a pose depicting DEVASTATION. Once again, I turn to sketches for planning and Maya for execution.

Week 4

So now that we have gone through a normal ball, it is time to move on to the two extremes. This week, we are to animate two different ball types, a heavy and a light ball. These must be convincing as to what weight they are and also maybe have some creativity thrown into the mix. Thus ensued an initial idea and then more thrown on top of it. Again, first on paper, then to Maya.

Week 3

Now we start getting into animation! This week, we were just to animate a simple bouncing ball, no squash or stretch, and have it the consistency of about a basketball or soccer ball. Sounds simple enough right? Wrong. There is a lot more than you think about when considering the type of material it is, it determines the spacing and timing as well as height of each bounce. It needs to be carefully planned out in sketches so that it can, hopefully, easily translate into the computer.

Also, we were to pose out another STU character, but this time it needed to communicate EXCITEMENT, starting with sketches and then bringing it into Maya.

Each went through some rounds of revisions so hopefully they achieve its highest potential.

Week 2

This weeks assignment was to just get our feet wet and pose out our character STU in what ever manner that we see fit. We had to practice drawing from observing live-action and any other pose that may be of interest. I went with a Kung-Fu type stance, it looked neat.

Animation Overhaul

Welcome to my animation journey as I venture through the exciting world of AnimationMentor. I am currently midway through my first class and am loving it. I will try to post up all my older work and have it be up-to-date with my current work, and maybe even a few random blabs or stuff I find interesting. With that said, happy trails and viewings.

-Justin