Worst. Week. EVER.

Wheeew!

It has been awhile! Poor neglected blog :( Anywho, since the last post I have finished up the pantomime shot and moved on to the one person dialogue shot.  Actually, at this point in time I'm almost done with the dialogue shot but there is a little progression reel below.  I decided to use a line of dialogue I had thought of last go around at Class 4.  It's Jimmy Stewart from The Philadelphia Story.  My thought with the line was that the character was a zombie who is reluctant to eat human flesh :) And you know that I love when my teachers agree with my off the wall ideas :D It makes me haapppeee! So! Here we go:

Finishing up the pantomime shot :) Not too shabby

Blocking for dialogue: first go around!

Revised blocking! ...nearly time to hit spliiine :/

Trucking Through

Last week was the first go at the pantomime shot! The inspiration for my shot was a nervous fellow waiting for his date.  He thinks he spots her, but alas no... until he looks over his shoulder and there she is!! He waves excitedly and prepares himself for her arrival!

This first video is the initial blocking of the shot with just enough info to get the message across.

This next video has added breakdowns as well as hitting some of the mentors notes (it also got moved from the static stepped mode to clamped mode)

Not With A Fizzle, But With A BANG!

It has been a little while since my last post! Nothing terribly exciting to note other than there was a break from school for a week then it was back to the grind!! Below is the final dialogue shot I ended up turning in. It's definitely better than the final of the pantomime Stewie, but still not really "final" material. Nonetheless, enjoy the Blue Shield!

Now onto this new class!! My mentor is Marek Kochout and he's worked for Disney Television animation and Dreamworks (where he currently resides). He's really fun and (what for iiiit) animated! It's a nice little inspiration boost I'll need to get through this class (more acting!!).

Epiphany! ...maybe!

Last week was blocking plus on our dialogue shots.  This is also the week we transitioned to spline in the graph editor (which, quite frankly, I ALWAYS hate because that's the moment where everything I worked for usually gets blown to smithereens :[ )After hitting mentor Ray's notes, the action become more understandable and simple.  But there was still lots to work on! Things I had missed in the blocking plus turn in: overlap! follow through! anticipation! So, you know ...only some of the most basic and important of the animation principles :/ But its okay... the whole point of this journey is to make mistakes and learn from them!  And I've had PLENTY of learning so far :D Here's last weeks blocking plus shot:

This week I had a mini epiphany that I hope I will remember in the next classes coming up.  On Q and A night, one of the other people in my class asked mentor Ray about how to get better control on your animation.  And what did Ray say? More breakdowns! And it then occurred to me: holy crap! THATS part of all the trouble I have when I move to spline! friggin not enough breakdowns! Instead of fighting the graph editor to find just the right curves, I needed to physically put all those little nuances and slow-ins/slow-outs in my actual blocking! It was so simple and yet has sadly eluded me since I started! Well after that, I went to town on my shot trying to refine the movements by adding actions where I sought fit.  It definitely helped :D There's still plenty to do (there always is!) but I'm actually feeling good about where I am with this shot.  Usually by now I feel tired and kind of defeated... no more I say! More breakdowns, that's the ticket!

And lastly on this Sunday morning: there was a special Q and A held for us at Animation Mentor.  It was a Q and A about The Avengers movie and some of the difficulties that came about when animating earth's mightiest heroes! It was hosted by none other than my old mentor Travis Tohill!  He gave a lot of great information on his workflow and tips on demo reels (when the time comes!).  It was great seeing him again and seeing all he has accomplished! And, lets be real here, it was great nerding out with the other fanboys and girls :P

...Awkward Silence...

Wow. It's not even 10pm on a Saturday night and I've turned my assignment in :/ This could either be a really good sign that I've hit the notes of my mentor and managed my time wisely or a OMG WHAT CRAP IS THIS assignment :/ I have to say I'm kind of nervous! Who gets nervous about turning work in early?!  In all honesty to myself, I DID work on it this week instead of leaving it all for tonight ...its just weird breaking out of that habit (even if it was only for one week!).  Hopefully I can keep the momentum going and don't get too freaked out by this!  But I digress ...this weeks assignment was to start refining the animation for our dialogue shot.  This included (for me anyways) adding more breakdowns, playing with the eyes and mouth and hitting all of the mentors notes.  I think I did pretty well, if I do say so myself :)  This shot is really starting to flesh out and I am beyond stoked to finally feel like I'll have something worthy of a demo reel ... *gasp!* DEMO REEL! It's nearly that time! And only a year ago I was starting Maya Springboard .....

Oh Noes!

Where have I been this past month?! Oh that's right! I was in Hawaii for two weeks :P The beginning of class 4 and its first shot (pantomime eewww) were riddled with problems.  Not to mention that that awesome Hawaiian vacation definitely took a toll on that assignment.  I'm not happy/proud of it AT ALL but it was a learning process (I learned not to take vacations during crucial weeks of work!).  So the first video will just be the refined blocking of AbracaStewie.  The backstory is that Stewie here is a magician about to do the oldest trick in the book: pull a rabbit out of his hat.  But lo and behold when he reaches into the hat, no rabbit! He panics a bit and shuffles off stage.  The idea for this assignment was to be able to tell a story through body language (pantomime) and make it clear and readable.  I think I did that for the most part (it was the spline that killed me =C )

Next assignment (and the one I'm currently working on) is *drumroll please!* DIALOGUE!  I think I can safely say all students wait for this day... the "holy grail" of animation!  Below is my FIRST dialogue blocking: the story is The Blue Shield (tentative name) is an aging superhero who thinks he's relevant ...but maybe he isn't.

Mentor Ray gave me great notes (along with fellow classmates!) to make this shot stronger.  I feel like its got a solid base right now and can only go up from here! ...please tell me it can only go up from here :/ Till next time: excelsior!

Let It Begin!!

Whew!! What a whirlwind last couple of weeks at AnimationMentor! After reblocking the baseball swing shot, I really feel like I got a sense of what was missing (especially after hearing encouraging feedback from past mentor Arnie and Saturday mentor Sandy!).  I'm very happy to say that despite the hiccup RIGHT before finishing up class 3, I proudly moved on to class 4: Intro To Acting!! This is the meat and potatoes of character animation! The actual act of ...acting! Up till now it has been all about body movement and mechanics of the body.  We finally get into the internal (and eventually, external) dialogue of a character! What motivates your character from the inside that affects the action on the outside! It's only the start of week 2 in Intro To Acting, but I can already feel livened up by the prospect of being able to REALLY give the character life and thought!

First, the video is of the "polishing" of the baseball swing.  Still needs tuning here and there but overall, I'm pretty happy where it turned up :) Especially since those arms were literally spiraling out of control a couple of times!

Second, my awesome new mentor is Ray Chase: this guy ...this guy is amazing and I am extremely pumped up to be learning from him! He's on YouTube so I FULLY encourage you all to check out his demo reels.  I had been holding on to an idea for the first pantomime shot of Class 4 (pantomime: Express or represent (something) by extravagant and exaggerated mime) and am really juiced to finally get to try it out!! The idea is that a overly confident magician (...I always wanted to be a magician lol) comes on stage to do the "Rabbit-Out-Of-The-Hat" trick.  He shows the hat to the audience and after a couple of "hocus pocus" and "alakazam"s, he reaches into the hat to find .....no rabbit! Panicking, he feels around the inside of the hat, brings it up to his face to have a look inside to see no rabbit ....looks at the audience and then runs off stage!  Blocking will be coming soon!! EEEPPP SO EXCITING!

Dismal! ...Oh Wait, Comeback!!

The week of March 5th was a dark week in my short AM history.  I received a grade and (more importantly) a critique that were really, REALLY below par.  I was very upset, pretty much the entire week.  The good that came out of this is that my mentor suggested to Student Care that I take an extra class that Saturday.  I had the option to not go to this extra class, but let me say: I am seriously happy I did.  My Saturday mentor was Sandy Christensen and she's worked in video games as well as at Pixar.  She helped me hone in on what my animations were lacking and let me kind of vent about my frustrations with this class.  I think it was exactly what I needed to really break out of my mold and get things done right :) This isn't to say I won't have tough times ahead, surely I will, but at least I know that when the tough times come I'll be able to handle them and learn from them!!

This first video is the dreaded blocking plus I did.  Mentor Pete had told me to change the camera to 3/4 so you can get a better sense of whats going on.  I wanted the walk up to the base to still be in front camera but was told in the critique to keep the camera 3/4.  The swing was also not working for Pete and he gave me a lot of pointers and quick sketches to explain what he wanted to see in the next assignment.

This next video is of the assignment I turned in at the end of bleh week (after having that extra Saturday class).  It obviously still needs some work but a lot of things are working better here.  Everything my mentor told me helped make this piece so much better.  It was worth having a really crappy week to transform my work.

Theres still a long road ahead of me but I'm feeling a little more confident about it now :) Good things to come hopefully!!!

Excelsior!

Buy Me Some Peanuts And Cracker Jacks!

Last week I finished up my shot of Stewie Vs The Big Balls.  Overall, I'm happy with it, although it did lose a little sparkle once I got into splining it.   All in all, a success :) Hey, I'm still learning!! The biggest issue with it (and actually the blocking for the last shot of Class 3) is TIMING.  I'm having a real issue with making all my timing too even, a comment I not only got here in class 3 but also got in class 2 with Travis.  Talking it over with mentor Pete at this weeks Q & A, he gave good advice on recognizing/alleviating some timing problems.  The best example he gave was thinking of timing like a heartbeat: the beats aren't exact from the beat before it.  Its this variation in timing that makes what we see on screen more interesting.  Definitely good advice and I can't wait to dive back into my latest shot and play around with the timing :)

Speaking of my latest shot, I've titled it Stewie Strikes Out.  As you can imagine, this will be a baseball shot!! Swing batter, batter! Below is my first blocking pass.  I think I need to have better/longer holds before actions and speed up that swing!! Onward and upward!

 One more thing I should add: Sunday was OSCAR NIGHT and I'm weirdly proud of my previous mentor Travis Tohill and his work on Rango, which won best animated feature this year!!! Excelsior!

It's ....A Work In Progress

I'm not going to lie ...I'm pretty pleased with myself this week :) Although I don't think my blocking (or rather, re-blocking) is fully FULLY complete, it's close enough that I won't be stressing about it tonight/tomorrow morning!! Its a good feeling ....I need to have this feeling more often lol Time management people!! Gotta keep it going :D Below is the re-blocking of Stewie versus the Big Ball! Comments here or on Facebook are always more than welcome! Thanks!!

Ya Know ...Crashing

So last week was an utter fiasco.  Poor time management plus an error in the saving method sadly left me last week with pretty much no assignment to turn in :( It was most definitely a low point so far here at AM.  I'm not proud of the little bit of work I was able to salvage and turn in, and my grade totally reflected that.  But you've got to keep moving forward! The mistakes are what help make you a stronger person: learn from them and don't repeat them!

This week, however, went fairly smoothly.  I'm excited about this next shot based off of the game show Wipeout. Stewie versus the Big Ball is currently underway!! Blocking pass is done and turned in, and now I wait to hear how horrible it is ...hopefully it isn't as bad as last week! I don't know if I can handle another blow to the ego like that :/ In the meanwhile, enjoy the blocking:

Stewie! Watch Out! The Continuing Saga

Well I was pretty pleased with what I had turned in last week as my blocking for Stewie getting hit by a dodge ball. But after watching my critique, it was clear that the boss (aka mentor Pete!) wasn't as enthusiastic about it as I was.  After retooling the blocking to try and get more of the flair he was looking for, I have to say (again!) I'm pleased with the direction its going in.  I was definitely a little bummed when he asked me to change nearly the whole thing but after the new blocking pass, I can see that its much more interesting to watch.  So lesson of the week: listen to your director/mentor! The school technically lets you work on your own ideas BUT the mentor still acts as the director.  If he doesn't feel its working, then its gotta be changed.  This was a great lesson in the realities of work and I think I took it pretty well :D Below is the second blocking of my shot.  Still needs work (of course, right after its turned in I can see a million things wrong with it) but its definitely more interesting and appealing and I thank my mentor for making me redo it :)

On another note: I'd also like to write something a little sentimental for me to remember as I continue this journey.  A year ago I wasn't a happy camper with how life was going.  I was bored at work (although a little less so as I had been promoted to the sales floor and finally got out of the box that is the cashiers desk) and very discouraged with school.  After the fiasco that was private college, I found myself wondering what to do with the rest of my life.  Animation has been something I've always loved, albeit not something I had always considered as a viable career option.  In the later years of high school (thanks to Ms. Sanzberro!) and throughout community college (shout out to Donivan Howard!) I came to the realization that this was something I loved and felt like I could really see myself doing.  So when I searched online for animation schools, one popped out among the rest: AnimationMentor.com.  I watched the student showcases and was completely convinced that this was it ...this was the place that would push me to my potential and really let me prove that this is what I wanted.  Since starting this amazing journey, I've met some incredible people and have had the most excellent adventures.  I can honestly say that I never imagined that I would have as many new and amazing experiences that have come out of this last year.  Animation Mentor, its amazing staff, the wonderful AM students that I've had the honor of meeting, my friends and family ...you all truly make me feel like anything I dream is possible and for that I am eternally grateful :)

Stewie! Watch Out!

Here it is! The first assignment of class 3 has officially been turned in :D All in all, I'm pretty happy with the blocking pass ....except for the arcs on the dodgeball (which is ironic, no?!).  Not to toot my own horn or anything but I'm really, REALLY liking the ball to the face reaction part the most :D This next week will be blocking plus (more tweeking will be done I'm sure!).  I'm excited and kind of scared to see what mentor Pete has to say about it :/ Oh well! Until next week :D Excelsior!!

Class 3 ...So It Begins!

Ah! Back at AnimationMentor.com and back on the computer!! The winter break was just what I needed to get a little relaxation in and rejuvenate my creative skills... Ironically, in the absence of AM work at the hardware store has become more ...colorful and full of creative projects lol I had to have an outlet for all that pent up energy! So tonight completes the first Q and A of Class 3!! I can hardly believe it really ...It seems like just yesterday I was learning how to use Maya. I feel like I've come along way in only a few months but I know I have so much more growing to do! My new mentor this class is Pete Paquette. He's worked at Blue Sky for quite a few years until just recently making the switch to video game animation.  He seems really fun and creative but also very honest, which is good as it may hopefully help me thicken my skin to critiques! I can't wait to start up animating again :D Excelsior!


http://petepaquette.com/