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!