Splining The Vanilla Walk

It was time to Spline the vanilla walk ...it gave me problems, as I'm sure it did for everyone. Popping knees and sticky feet aside, it was a fun little project :) After getting Travis' critique (took a page of notes!), I'm going to try and tackle it again to refine it even more and (hopefully) make it much better! Below is the playblast of what I turned in as the spline walk cycle.  We also had another Stu pose this week in which Stu had to convey "concerned". This was pretty difficult as Stu has no face and thus difficult to emote something as broad as "concern" but all in all, I'm pretty happy with how Stu came out :) Enjoy and happy animating!

Super Stu being more super!

 

A (hopefully) concerned looking Stu

Dread Pirate Red Takes His First Steps

This weeks assignment was not only to pose Stu in a manner that depicted Physical Strength, but to also tackle : THE WALK CYCLE. I do believe I've done ... three or four walk cycles before Dread Pirate Red here (aka: Ballie) but that didn't help me out all that much ...I lie, it totally helped me out! This week was just to block the motion in so it looks very stiff and robotic. I also (as per my mentor Travis) added rotation in the hips (hopefully the correct rotation!) to give it a more lifelike appearance. And now ...without further ado ...I give you "Dread Pirate Red"

Also, I give you : Super Stu and his incredible feat of strength! ....hopefully!

Inspired by my main superhero squeeze: Superman (Action Comics #1)

Heads? Or Tails? ...Or Ballie?

So I feel pretty good about how I did last week ....that is, until I got my critique! I don't know what it is about critique day but I see every single flaw magnified after getting said critique!! That being said, I always love how much better my work gets after watching the critique and taking notes from it :) It at least makes me feel like I'm improving and not stuck in a rut!!

This week we are tackling the infamous WALK CYCLE.  This also meant we got introduced to our newest character in the arsenal: Ballie! The deal with Ballie is that he is supposed to represent hips and legs.  This week we're only doing the blocking for the walk cycle (which means it looks fairly robotic).  I have to say, I feel good about what I've got so far :) He isn't just bobbing up and down but also rotating the hips forward/back and up/down... I've done traditional style walk cycles but nothing has been as clean as this one is looking so far :) Hopefully its actually as nice as I think it is! Below is what I've got so far :D Also this week: we have another Stu pose! This weeks pose is PHYSICAL STRENGTH. My basic idea for this pose is from Action Comics #1 ...we shall see if I find any others I would like to do lol Excelsior!

Did Someone Call For A Tailor ?

Here he is folks! Tailor week 7 is in full swing! Now this week we got a choice to either animate Tailor (a ball with a tail) or animate a one legged rig (which I've used in Maya Springboard where he was named Pirate Pete... by me).  As I had already worked with Pirate Pete, I thought it better to sharpen my overlapping skills with Tailor.  The idea for this short work is from Super Mario (on NES).  It's simple (lots of bouncing/jumping) and yet I feel like it has the potential to stand out.  I'm sure the Super Mario Tailor bit has been done before BUT that isn't stopping me from doing it also :D Here it is: Monday, Aug. 8th. . . my first rough animation of Tailor in Mario Land (minus his tail)

I Can't Believe It's Week 6

Week 6! It has come and (nearly) gone. It was a lot less hectic this week trying to work on assignments ....I don't exactly know why last week was so gosh darn difficult but hey, it's in the past and I've ultimately learned from it so that's a good thing :) This week was all about the pendulum swing.  The animation principle being practiced was overlapping and follow through, both very important in giving character believable life versus stiff robotic movements.  I worked on that ...I wanted to make something more interesting than what I ultimately came up with but they do keep telling us that simple is better so ...as long as the animation looks good, right ?? The inspiration for the pendulum swing was from a scene in Finding Nemo: when Marlin is telling Nemo how to swim out of the anemone ("First we go out ...and then back in again. Then we go out ....and back in" ...). The color scheme inspiration should be obvious to NERDS out there :D So enjoy the pendulum swing! ((ps: below that are revisions of the devastated Stu pose and that dreaded obstacle course after putting in tips from my mentor)) Excelsior!!