AnimationMentor
Class 6, Week 11 Assignment.
13/06/2010 17:43
And so this is it... the final stuff. Still feel
surreal that just 18 months ago I could barely
animate. Didn’t even know what the 12 principles was.
Class 6, Week 10 Assignment
08/06/2010 20:33
Didn’t have much time this week to work on my
assignment. 
I did have the time to create the DVD Cover:
I did have the time to create the DVD Cover:
Class 6, Week 9 Assignment
08/06/2010 20:31
Sorry about the delayed posting. Since my posting for
Week 8 I have gotten myself a contract animation job
over at Triggerfish in Cape Town and had to move down
and get settled. Without further delay, here’s my
assignments:
Class 6, Week 8 Assignment
24/05/2010 08:29
The end is near! And I still have so much polishing
to do. :-/
Class 6, Week 7 Assignment
17/05/2010 00:28
Another week just zipped by. Here’s the polishing of
the shots I done so far.
Class 6, Week 6 Assignment
09/05/2010 18:56
Damn, can’t believe I’m halfway through my final term
at AM. Feels like yesterday when I started with the
Springboard. Anyways, here it is, my assignment for
this week. The keymaker shot is slowly nearing
completion. There’s a few very subtle things I would
be tweaking and adjusting, shaving a few pixels off
here and there. Starting to focus my attention on the
other assignments so that I can at least have a few
different shots on my demoreel.
Alright, that’s it for this week. Have a good one!
Alright, that’s it for this week. Have a good one!
Class 6, Week 5 Assignment
03/05/2010 17:42
Yup, it’s getting there, slowly but surely.
Class 6, Week 4 Assignment
26/04/2010 17:40
Class 6, Week 3 Assignment
19/04/2010 10:00
And some more polishing done.
Class 6, Week 2 Assignment
13/04/2010 12:32
We have reached the final stretch here at AM. I’ve
compiled all the assignments my mentor wants me to
work on during the upcoming weeks. I will start by
polishing up the most important shot first and then
work my way back. Here’s the compilation:
And for the week gone by, I have worked some on 2 of the keymaker shots. There’s still some polishing to do to them which I’ll work on this coming week.
So many things to work on, so I’m gonna get back to it. Have a good week.
And for the week gone by, I have worked some on 2 of the keymaker shots. There’s still some polishing to do to them which I’ll work on this coming week.
So many things to work on, so I’m gonna get back to it. Have a good week.
First Q&A of Class 6 over.
31/03/2010 21:46
Well, I just had my first Q&A session with my
last mentor here at AM and he’s such a cool guy. I’m
really looking forward to having him guide me through
this polishing stage and getting my demo reel ready.
This is gonna be a fun ride and I’m looking forward
to it.
Class 6 already!
30/03/2010 21:44
Wow, it feels like yesterday when I started with the
Maya Springboard class over at AnimationMentor, and now it’s
class 6 already... the final stretch.
So my new mentor is Jason Taylor. He’s a freelancer now but worked at studios like Blur, Blue Sky, ReelFX just to name a few. We will have our first Live Q&A session tomorrow night. Looking forward to it and cannot wait to get started on really polishing up my shots and getting a demo reel together.
So my new mentor is Jason Taylor. He’s a freelancer now but worked at studios like Blur, Blue Sky, ReelFX just to name a few. We will have our first Live Q&A session tomorrow night. Looking forward to it and cannot wait to get started on really polishing up my shots and getting a demo reel together.
Class 5, Week 11 Assignment
22/03/2010 08:50
So this is my final assignment for class 5. It’s not
nearly finished but it’s getting there. Been
reworking a few pieces and still got to smooth and
polish it. Luckily that’s what the next class is for.
Class 5, Week 10 Assignment
15/03/2010 13:34
Another week gone by, this is starting to look like
something. Still got to work on some minor stuff but
from here on it’s mostly polishing.
Class 5, Week 9 Assignment
07/03/2010 21:52
Class 5, Week 8 Assignment
01/03/2010 18:53
Been struggling this past week with the character’s
personality but I finally got the go-ahead from my
mentor, so here we go!
Class 5, Week 7 Assignment
23/02/2010 11:27
Struggling a bit with getting this assignment to
work.
Class 5, Week 6 Assignment
14/02/2010 22:06
Booya! Another week is gone. Damn, more than halfway
through this second last term. Anyways, here’s this
week’s assignment:
And the facial expression
Have a great week!
And the facial expression
Have a great week!
Tips on getting better ideas
08/02/2010 08:55
Found this little video clip over at Victor Navone’s blog. Thought
I’d share it. Very well done.
Tips for Better Ideas from Andrew 'Big Show' Blodgett on Vimeo.
Class 5, Week 5 Assignment
07/02/2010 22:44
Well, what can I say? This was one of the more hectic
weeks when it’s coming to my assignment. Lots of
planning to do, but I managed to get it all done in
time. So here it is:
The video reference...
the camera layout...
... and the planning thumbnails.
Well, time to take a day off and then dive right back in. Have a super week.
The video reference...
the camera layout...
... and the planning thumbnails.
Well, time to take a day off and then dive right back in. Have a super week.
Class 5, Week 4 Assignment
01/02/2010 14:14
For this week we had to select 3 audio clips, between
12 and 15 seconds, of a 2-person dialogue with two
emotional beats, so here’s mine:
And we also had to think about costumes for all the clips:
And we also had to think about costumes for all the clips:
Class 5, Week 3 Assignment
25/01/2010 12:22
Woohoo!! Finally reached the end of this assignment.
I cannot say I’m sorry that this one is over. I
really need a break from it.
And some more facial expressions
And some more facial expressions
Class 5, Week 2 Assignment
18/01/2010 11:43
Ok, for this week we had to polish the lip-sync. I’m
still not happy with it and will tweak it some more
this week. I think the expression change on the “...
look at me!” is a bit slow and late. Need to fix
that.
And we also had to take two photographs and recreate the facial expressions
Time for another kickass week.
And we also had to take two photographs and recreate the facial expressions
Time for another kickass week.
Class 5, Week 1 Assignment
10/01/2010 16:31
Alright. So we started doing lip-syncing now. And I
got to say, initially it can be quite scary, but you
learn to get the hang of it. This is my blocking pass
at lip-sync for my assignment I finished in Class 4
with.
Here’s some video reference of me acting and saying the shot. Helps to determine the amount of jaw movement, and some blinks, brow shapes and eye darts.
And the thumbnails I made for this:
Off to the next week!
Here’s some video reference of me acting and saying the shot. Helps to determine the amount of jaw movement, and some blinks, brow shapes and eye darts.
And the thumbnails I made for this:
Off to the next week!
Class 5 here we go!
05/01/2010 15:02
So this is it. I cannot believe it’s been a year
since I started AnimationMentor. It’s the
Advanced Acting class and my mentor is Dana Boadway. Looking forward
to what I can learn from her.
Class 4, Week 11 Assignment
13/12/2009 22:13
So this is the final version of my animation for
Class 4. We’re off to a well-deserved 2 week break at
the end of next week. I see it more as a 3 week break
because during this week we would only work on
addressing our mentor’s critiques and then compile a
progress reel. So in class 5 we will start by working
on the facial expressions of this assignment. The
current rig has a very basic rig and we replace the
head with a more complex rig then.
As for the posters there won’t be any. AM made a change to the student workspaces which hinders me in posting the posters. Pity, I was having so much fun thinking them out.
As for the posters there won’t be any. AM made a change to the student workspaces which hinders me in posting the posters. Pity, I was having so much fun thinking them out.
Class 4, Week 10 Assignment
06/12/2009 18:59
I’m a bit early this week, I know. So here we go.
This week we had to do a surprised hand pose:
And then there’s this week’s motivational poster, the second last one:
Have an awesome week!
So here we go.
This week we had to do a surprised hand pose:
And then there’s this week’s motivational poster, the second last one:
Have an awesome week!
Class 4, Week 9 Assignment
29/11/2009 22:06
Yup, another week is over. So here we go, the
assignment’s progress for this week:
The hand pose for this week was relaxed:
And the poster this week, the sound engineer:
Have a kickass week!
The hand pose for this week was relaxed:
And the poster this week, the sound engineer:
Have a kickass week!
Class 4, Week 8 Assignment
24/11/2009 01:01
Sweet, off to the next week. The assignment:
And for this week we also got the requirement to show a hand pose depicting anger. Here’s mine:
And my poster for this week:
Marching on in the new week.
And for this week we also got the requirement to show a hand pose depicting anger. Here’s mine:
And my poster for this week:
Marching on in the new week.
Class 4, Week 7 Assignment
16/11/2009 10:41
So here’s my first pass at blocking. Unfortunately my
mentor got to his email I sent him last week a bit
late and got told that we were not supposed to use a
camera cut. So next week you won’t see it.
And here’s this week’s poster:
Have a great week.
And here’s this week’s poster:
Have a great week.
Class 4, Week 6 Assignment
09/11/2009 11:05
So we started a new assignment. And here’s all my
planning stuff.
We had to select 3 audio clips between 5 and 10 seconds that had 2 emotional beats in it. Here’s mine:
Then we had to act out two of our favorite clips (it’s tough trying to act all female when you’re as big as I am):
And then we had to explore a bit with our thumbnails the two clips:
Then, this is the revision of my previous assignment:
And finally, the poster for this week.
Have a great week!
We had to select 3 audio clips between 5 and 10 seconds that had 2 emotional beats in it. Here’s mine:
Then we had to act out two of our favorite clips (it’s tough trying to act all female when you’re as big as I am):
And then we had to explore a bit with our thumbnails the two clips:
Then, this is the revision of my previous assignment:
And finally, the poster for this week.
Have a great week!
Class 4, Week 5 Assignment
02/11/2009 10:02
Alright, this is the final version of this
assignment. Obviously there’s always some minor
things I would like to improve on.
And this week’s poster:
Have a good week people.
And this week’s poster:
Have a good week people.
Class 4, Week 4 Assignment
25/10/2009 08:32
This week’s assignment:
Sadly, no posters were done this week due to the sad news of my Granny passing away on Saturday.
Sadly, no posters were done this week due to the sad news of my Granny passing away on Saturday.
Class 4, Week 3 Assignment
18/10/2009 22:22
These weeks are just flying by too damn quickly.
Anyways, here’s this week’s assignment and poster.
Class 4, Week 2 Assignment
12/10/2009 08:09
Alright! We’ve begun blocking in our idea. I’ve also
used the IK/FK Snapping tool for the first time and
it’s such a cool tool. Can’t believe we only got it
now.
And this week we have the Layout Artist.
Have an awesome week guys.
And this week we have the Layout Artist.
Have an awesome week guys.
Class 4, Week 1 Assignment
04/10/2009 21:02
Ok, so for my first Class 4 assignment I have the
following idea:
Stewie takes two slices of bread and put it in the toaster. He then pushes the lever down and after a second realize the lever didn’t click in place. So he presses the lever again, and again it pops up. He then starts to slam the lever down in a few quick successions. As the anger’s built up by now he turns away from camera, and brings flamethrower into view. He then proceeds to toast the toaster.
Here’s my video reference. I have taken the bread-smelling out under advisement from my mentor:
And this is the poster for this week:
Have a great week.
Stewie takes two slices of bread and put it in the toaster. He then pushes the lever down and after a second realize the lever didn’t click in place. So he presses the lever again, and again it pops up. He then starts to slam the lever down in a few quick successions. As the anger’s built up by now he turns away from camera, and brings flamethrower into view. He then proceeds to toast the toaster.
Here’s my video reference. I have taken the bread-smelling out under advisement from my mentor:
And this is the poster for this week:
Have a great week.
Class 4 is going to rock!
29/09/2009 00:16
So we just started with Class 4, Introduction to
acting. This is the part I’ve been waiting for. Now
we really get to add to small things that brings a
character to life on the screen and give it
personality.
My mentor for this term is Marek Kouchot. He’s such an awesomely cool guy. Works at Dreamworks and is currently the Supervising Animator on Shrek 4.
And here’s the new poster for this Class:
My mentor for this term is Marek Kouchot. He’s such an awesomely cool guy. Works at Dreamworks and is currently the Supervising Animator on Shrek 4.
And here’s the new poster for this Class:
Class 3, Week 11 Assignment
13/09/2009 00:13
So this is the final version of my final assignment
of this class. This upcoming break is very welcome.
And this is the final poster for this week:
And this is the final poster for this week:
Class 3, Week 10 Assignment
06/09/2009 18:58
Well, we’re getting close to the end of Class 3. I
can’t believe how fast time’s gone by. Anyways,
here’s this week’s assignment...
... and the poster:
Have a great week!
... and the poster:
Have a great week!
Class 3, Week 9 Assignment
30/08/2009 23:51
Man what a hectic week. I’m struggling a bit with
this assignment to show the weight in the sledge
hammer.
And here’s this week’s poster for Class 3:
Till next week.
And here’s this week’s poster for Class 3:
Till next week.
Class 3, Week 8 Assignment
23/08/2009 22:25
Well here’s the assignment for this week.
And the poster for this week:
Have a good week.
And the poster for this week:
Have a good week.
Class 3, Week 7 Assignment
16/08/2009 20:53
Well, it seems like there were some action the past
24 hours at the AM Servers. A malformed file was
uploaded and had all the encoding servers chip in to
try and resolve it, which in turn, queued all the
other videos up behind it. It got resolved but I fear
that some students might not know that some of their
assignments didn’t upload properly. I can foresee a
bit of an upheaval about it this coming week.
Anyways, this is the end of Assignment 2 for Class 3. This is my final version. It feels slightly too fast, might rework that.
And for my last assignment for this class, here’s my thumbnails...
... and the video reference I shot of me acting it out...
Last but not least is this week’s poster, the Brandenburg Gate.
Have a great week.
Anyways, this is the end of Assignment 2 for Class 3. This is my final version. It feels slightly too fast, might rework that.
And for my last assignment for this class, here’s my thumbnails...
... and the video reference I shot of me acting it out...
Last but not least is this week’s poster, the Brandenburg Gate.
Have a great week.
Class 3, Week 6 Assignment
10/08/2009 23:23
Another week just hit me. Did somebody get the
license plate number?
Anyways, here’s my blocking plus assignment.
And the poster this week, we’re in Australia. Had to put something up to compensate for the fact that we beat them in the rugby.
Have a superb week!
Anyways, here’s my blocking plus assignment.
And the poster this week, we’re in Australia. Had to put something up to compensate for the fact that we beat them in the rugby.
Have a superb week!
Class 3, Week 5 Assignment
03/08/2009 10:08
Here we go, another week gone by.
And the poster for this week
And the poster for this week
Class 3, Week 4 Assignment
27/07/2009 10:17
Right, this is the final version of my first
assignment for this semester. I am considering taking
this afterwards and increasing the amount of frames
on it because some bits still feels too fast. But for
the assignment I was limited to 200 frames.
For the next assignment, I had to reshoot some reference video. Here is what I got:
And the relevant thumbnails:
And finally the poster for this week:
Have a great week guys!
For the next assignment, I had to reshoot some reference video. Here is what I got:
And the relevant thumbnails:
And finally the poster for this week:
Have a great week guys!
Class 3, Week 3 Assignment
19/07/2009 22:03
The blocking plus of this week’s assignment:
And the poster for this week is good ‘ol London.
Have a fun week!
And the poster for this week is good ‘ol London.
Have a fun week!
Class 3, Week 2 Assignment
13/07/2009 07:37
Time seems to be flying pretty fast. Here, what I got
for my blocking pass on my assignment:
And this week’s poster:
Have an awesome week!
And this week’s poster:
Have an awesome week!
Class 3, Week 1 Assignment
06/07/2009 13:08
Damn, this has been a hectic week. Apart from the flu
I also have some family over. Here we go. For my
assignment of class 3 I decided to go with the
AnimJam option. I am going to have Stewie walk past a
couple of boxes with a plank on top of them, take a
karate chop at the plank. The plank will not break
and Stewie looks around to find something bigger to
break the plank with. He sees a hammer and drags it
closer. Takes a swing and the plank still doesn’t
break. Then as he rests with his hand on the plank it
will snap in half and Stewie falls onto the ground.
My planning thumbnails:
And some video reference I shot:
And finally, my Where in The World Is Stewie poster for this week:
Have a great week.
My planning thumbnails:
And some video reference I shot:
And finally, my Where in The World Is Stewie poster for this week:
Have a great week.
Class 3 here we go!!!
30/06/2009 20:00
So the campus opened almost 24 hours ago for the
start of the summer term. Class 3 for myself and I
got to say I am stoked to be back. My mentor for this
term is Morgan Kelly. Found out he is a character
animator at Dreamworks and he worked on
titles such as Shrek 2, Madagascar, Over the Hedge, Bee Movie, just finished
animating on Monsters Vs Aliens, and he’s
currently on a new film, How to Train Your Dragon -
directed by Chris and Dean from Lilo and Stitch.
How damn awesome is that and lucy am I!!!
It’s so great to see the old familiar faces and the new ones. Keep an eye here to see what shenanigans we come up with.
It’s so great to see the old familiar faces and the new ones. Keep an eye here to see what shenanigans we come up with.
Class 2, Week 11 Assignment
14/06/2009 20:36
And so we’ve come to the end of Class 2 already! Well
when it comes to the assignment anyways. All that is
left for this week is to compile all our assignments
for Class 2 into one Progress Reel movie clip! I
can’t believe that just 6 months ago I was about to
start Class 1, having finished the Springboard. So
here’s what I have as my final for the assignment:
And the last motivational poster with the final principle, that being Appeal.
Time to crack open the video compositing software and slap all the movie clips into one. Might go back and tweak some assignments and re-render but it won’t be earth shattering changes. Rock on!
And the last motivational poster with the final principle, that being Appeal.
Time to crack open the video compositing software and slap all the movie clips into one. Might go back and tweak some assignments and re-render but it won’t be earth shattering changes. Rock on!
Class 2, Week 10 Assignment
07/06/2009 17:53
Ok, we are getting very close to the final of Class
2. This week has been flying past at an alarming
rate. Here is what I’ve got so far for this final
assignment:
I’m feeling quite happy with this.
And this week’s motivational poster. Have a rockin’ week.
I’m feeling quite happy with this.
And this week’s motivational poster. Have a rockin’ week.
Class 2, Week 9 Assignment
31/05/2009 23:52
Wow, week 10 already. Damn time’s been flying that’s
for sure. Well, here’s this week’s results.
It’s getting there.
And this week’s poster. Have an awesome week!
It’s getting there.
And this week’s poster. Have an awesome week!
Class 2, Week 8 Assignment
26/05/2009 21:29
So this week I’m feeling quite happy with the way my
blocking turned out. And with the awesome feedback I
received from my fellow students I’m quite stoked
about it. Here it is:
Not bad eh? I will still work on the head shaking and maybe tweak some hand shapes. But first I want to see what feedback Steve gives me.
And the motivational poster for this week. Have an awesome week.
Not bad eh? I will still work on the head shaking and maybe tweak some hand shapes. But first I want to see what feedback Steve gives me.
And the motivational poster for this week. Have an awesome week.
Class 2, Week 7 Assignment
18/05/2009 15:05
Damn, these weeks are just flying by so fast!
Here’s my final version of the second assignment:
And my reference video for the last assignment for this class. I decided to go with the back flip off a box option, but I am going to have the box slip out from under Stewie as he jumps and have him fall flat on his face.
And for my planning thumbnails I created this animatic that would have the key poses, and some rough timing:
And finally, the motivational poster for this week for Class 2.
Have a kickass week.
Here’s my final version of the second assignment:
And my reference video for the last assignment for this class. I decided to go with the back flip off a box option, but I am going to have the box slip out from under Stewie as he jumps and have him fall flat on his face.
And for my planning thumbnails I created this animatic that would have the key poses, and some rough timing:
And finally, the motivational poster for this week for Class 2.
Have a kickass week.
Class 2, Week 6 Assignment... Woops! Sorry it's late.
14/05/2009 13:42
Wow, time just went... *swish!* Sorry about that.
Here’s my work I handed in Last week:
Having a bit of troubles with this assignment, and Restarted it from scratch. Blocked everything in again but did my keys better this time after the great Q&A we had with our mentor, Steve Cady.
And the motivational poster. Unfortunately I didn’t have the time to put in the other stuff, like grass, trees, park benches etc.
Ok, off to get the next week’s stuff ready.
Having a bit of troubles with this assignment, and Restarted it from scratch. Blocked everything in again but did my keys better this time after the great Q&A we had with our mentor, Steve Cady.
And the motivational poster. Unfortunately I didn’t have the time to put in the other stuff, like grass, trees, park benches etc.
Ok, off to get the next week’s stuff ready.
Class 2, Week 5 Assignment
02/05/2009 15:15
Ok, so we have come to the end of the 5th week
already. Can’t believe we’re almost halfway through!
Ok, so my revision of my first assignment:
And the blocked version of my second assignment. Had a tough time finding a camera angle that works but I think this one is good.
And the motivational poster for next week is coming up!
Ok, so my revision of my first assignment:
And the blocked version of my second assignment. Had a tough time finding a camera angle that works but I think this one is good.
And the motivational poster for next week is coming up!
Class 2, Week 4 Assignment
27/04/2009 14:08
And so the first assignment for class 2 is over. Here
it is:
For the next assignment I went with the parkour option. Here’s the video reference I gathered and will use:
And here’s my planning thumbnails:
And finally, this week’s motivational poster for the class 2 students:
Well, I sure had lots of fun with this assignment and poster.
For the next assignment I went with the parkour option. Here’s the video reference I gathered and will use:
And here’s my planning thumbnails:
And finally, this week’s motivational poster for the class 2 students:
Well, I sure had lots of fun with this assignment and poster.
Class 2, Week 3 Assignment
19/04/2009 19:32
Wow, this week flew by very fast! Anyways, here’s the
assignment we’ve been working on for the past 3
weeks. It’s just about finished, just some minor
fine-tuning to be done.
I must admit I learned quite a bit about CoG (Centre of Gravity) and timing. Having tons of fun!
Ah yes, another one of the 12 principles of animation. In less than 90 minutes I will start uploading these to my fellow students. Have an awesome week!
I must admit I learned quite a bit about CoG (Centre of Gravity) and timing. Having tons of fun!
Ah yes, another one of the 12 principles of animation. In less than 90 minutes I will start uploading these to my fellow students. Have an awesome week!
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
14/04/2009 23:23
I created this after a fellow Peer Buddy (Chloe Do) suggested she is good and I must be evil. She got to that assumption based on our avatar photos. Silly girl.
Class 2, Week 2 Assignment
11/04/2009 16:05
My first blocking pass at the 180 degree turn. The above version is actually my second version. Here is the first version, also a good lesson to show you how NOT to block in that 180 degree turn:
This week’s motivational poster for the class 2 students. The principle for this week being staging.
Have a rocking week!
Class 2, Week 1 Assignment
06/04/2009 15:50
For this first assignment of Class 2, we had to
choose from a few different options in a pick list. I
decided to go for the 180 degree turn. We had to
shoot video reference of ourselves and also do some
thumbnail sketches for planning.
The reference video.
And the thumbnail sketches.
And the motivational poster for week 2 for my classmates.
The reference video.
And the thumbnail sketches.
And the motivational poster for week 2 for my classmates.
Class 2 here we go!!
31/03/2009 11:13
Yeeeaaahh!!! Class 2 here we go! It’s been a bumpy start with my crappy internet connection but things are going a bit better now. I’m in the same class as Leigh-Ann but the rest of my class are all new people, mostly from the US. This is going to be so much fun.
I decided to continue my motivational posters due to it being in high demand.
So here we go, week 1 of class 2’s
poster. I’m having some problems with the
student site so it’s not rolled out there yet.
Hope they will fix that problem soon.
Now, for all you class 1 students reading this, here’s some hints & tips:
- Eat all your vegetables
- You should have finished reading The Illusion of Life by now.
- The Animator’s Survival Kit should be lying below The Illusion of Life on your desk right next to you.
- Try to watch the lecture just as it’s released (Sunday night for me but yeah, as close after 12PM PST on a Sunday as you can.
- Try and get something up by Monday night. The earlier in the week you can knock the planning stuff out and have it on your PR for feedback, the better.
- Leave comments on your fellow classmates’ workspaces/PR’s at least once a week. Also remember to visit other people that commented on your workspace and leave them some comments as well. Even if they’re in a higher class than you doesn’t mean you cannot say something positive about their work.
- When you leave comments, start off by saying
something positive first, and then give them
critique. It softens the blow.
- Remember to wear sunscreen.
- Don’t take any of the critiques as an attack on you as person, we are all here to learn and there’s no better way to learn than accepting critique gracefully.
- If you’re unsure about something in your assignment, always go with what your mentor say/recommend. He is after all the person that will mark your work at the end of each week.
- And that is it guys and gals. Remember to
ALWAYS HAVE FUN!!!
Class 1, the end is here.
24/03/2009 11:23
And so we’ve come to the end of Class 1. This is been
an awesome ride so far and I simply cannot wait to
get into Class 2 next week. I will have my Peer
Buddies to help guide and support. I am also scheming
something up for replacing the Stu Motivational
Posters I did during Class 1. No idea what exactly
yet but I got a few ideas. Going to let them brew and
simmer for a couple of days. Keep an eye on this
space.
Class 1, Week 11, Final Stuff
22/03/2009 15:39
So we’ve come to the end of the first semester at AM.
Man what a blast it’s been so far. Cannot wait to get into class 2
and dig deeper into this world of animation. So,
without further ado, here’s this week’s
assignment work I handed in.
My thumbnails for the balance pose we had to depict this week.
Final render of the balance pose.
Thumbnails sketches for the walk cycle with personality.
The render of the walk cycle with personality. Ended this semester with our first 3/4 view of our animation assignment. Had to keep all 3 axis into consideration for this week’s assignment.
Revision of last week’s pose. Rotated Stu’s right leg towards the camera a bit.
And the final motivational poster! Man I love AM!!!
Cannot wait to get into class 2
and dig deeper into this world of animation. So,
without further ado, here’s this week’s
assignment work I handed in.
My thumbnails for the balance pose we had to depict this week.
Final render of the balance pose.
Thumbnails sketches for the walk cycle with personality.
The render of the walk cycle with personality. Ended this semester with our first 3/4 view of our animation assignment. Had to keep all 3 axis into consideration for this week’s assignment.
Revision of last week’s pose. Rotated Stu’s right leg towards the camera a bit.
And the final motivational poster! Man I love AM!!!
Class 1, Week 10, Final Stuff
13/03/2009 22:44
Ok, so I got a few things in this week’s assignment
that I consider to be a final version.
The exhausted pose thumbnails
The exhausted pose itself.
My thumbnail planning of the walk cycle. I decided to go with a guy that has a dead leg and has to drag it everywhere he goes.
The playblast of the walk cycle.
A revision of the concerned pose of last week. I moved the hands a bit forward, and also lifted the shoulders up a bit.
The motivational poster.
The exhausted pose thumbnails
The exhausted pose itself.
My thumbnail planning of the walk cycle. I decided to go with a guy that has a dead leg and has to drag it everywhere he goes.
The playblast of the walk cycle.
A revision of the concerned pose of last week. I moved the hands a bit forward, and also lifted the shoulders up a bit.
The motivational poster.
Class 1, Week 9, Final Stuff
09/03/2009 11:19
So this week actually turned out to be hectic.
Anyways, here is my final work for this week's
assignment. We only had to do a concerned pose, and
finish smoothing out the splines of last week's
vanilla walk.
The thumbnail sketches I did for the concerned pose.
The final Stu render. Got to say I loved doing this week's pose a lot.
And this is the walk with the splines smoothed out. I actually reblocked everything on Saturday because I didn't like the way it felt. It turned out to be easier and faster to just reblock it from scratch than trying to fix the current mess.
And this week's motivational message. Bat Stu is giving the Master Sergeant quite a hard time.
The thumbnail sketches I did for the concerned pose.
The final Stu render. Got to say I loved doing this week's pose a lot.
And this is the walk with the splines smoothed out. I actually reblocked everything on Saturday because I didn't like the way it felt. It turned out to be easier and faster to just reblock it from scratch than trying to fix the current mess.
And this week's motivational message. Bat Stu is giving the Master Sergeant quite a hard time.
Class 1, Week 8, Final Stuff
28/02/2009 14:56
Ok, time's flying way to fast now. I barely get time
to blog. Can somebody apply some slight braking to
time? Thanks. So, here's my work for this week's
assignment. We had to create a blocked version in
stepped key mode of a vanilla walk cycle. 48 frames
long. We will go into splining it out next week. And
also pose Stu in a pose depicting physical strength.
My thumbnails for planning out the walk cycle. Might not be the best thumbnails but they work for me.
And the walk cycle created as a result.
Planning thumbnails for the physical strength pose.
And Stu doing some hard manual labor for a change.
And the motivational poster
My thumbnails for planning out the walk cycle. Might not be the best thumbnails but they work for me.
And the walk cycle created as a result.
Planning thumbnails for the physical strength pose.
And Stu doing some hard manual labor for a change.
And the motivational poster
Class 1, Week 7, Final Stuff
21/02/2009 22:32
I can't believe it's the end of week 7 already! Time
flies when you're having fun. Ok, so here's my assignment for
this week. We had to animate a bouncing ball
with a tail to practice overlapping motion. Take
a look.
My thumbnails for this assignment.
And my final version of the assignment animated. I'm pretty happy with it.
And this coming week's motivational poster.
Ok, so here's my assignment for
this week. We had to animate a bouncing ball
with a tail to practice overlapping motion. Take
a look.
My thumbnails for this assignment.
And my final version of the assignment animated. I'm pretty happy with it.
And this coming week's motivational poster.
Class 1, Week 7, Tailor being refined... and he gots his tail!!!
20/02/2009 15:35
My first pass at working on his tail. I'm feeling
like I'm slowly but surely starting to grasp the
whole concept of overlap, successive breaking of
joints etc.
Class 1, Week 7, Tailor Blocking
18/02/2009 13:04
Class 1, Week 6, Final Stuff
15/02/2009 14:23
Ah yes, it's that time of the week again!
The revised version of my devastated pose of last week.
My planning thumbnails for this week's overlapping assignment. Was not as easy as it looks here.
And the final version of my overlapping assignment. I decided to stick with the easy version and make sure I nail the overlapping action down properly.
And the motivational message for the coming week 7.
The revised version of my devastated pose of last week.
My planning thumbnails for this week's overlapping assignment. Was not as easy as it looks here.
And the final version of my overlapping assignment. I decided to stick with the easy version and make sure I nail the overlapping action down properly.
And the motivational message for the coming week 7.
Class 1, Week 5, Final Stuff
08/02/2009 00:04
Yup, it's that time again. Here's my final stuff for
this week's assignment.
My thumbnail planning for this week's obstacle course. It was harder to do in 3D than this planning looks.
My devastated poses. I decided to go with number 5 in the end.
The revised version of last week's assignment.
This week's assignment.
And here is this week's motivational poster.
My thumbnail planning for this week's obstacle course. It was harder to do in 3D than this planning looks.
My devastated poses. I decided to go with number 5 in the end.
The revised version of last week's assignment.
This week's assignment.
And here is this week's motivational poster.
Class 1, Week 5, Devastation Thumbnails
02/02/2009 21:23
These are my final devastation poses I drew. I really like number 5 and would like to thank my Maya Springboard mentor, Alex Samouridis, for giving me that idea.
Class 1, Week 4, Final Stuff
01/02/2009 16:55
Alright, this is my final entries for this week's
assignment:
My revision of last week's pose.
My thumbnail planning for the two bouncing balls. One should show heaviness, and the other lightness.
And here's the movie clip of the heavy and light bouncing balls.
And now for a little side project. I will upload this to everybody's workspace after the deadline for the assignment to encourage them for week 5's assignment:
My revision of last week's pose.
My thumbnail planning for the two bouncing balls. One should show heaviness, and the other lightness.
And here's the movie clip of the heavy and light bouncing balls.
And now for a little side project. I will upload this to everybody's workspace after the deadline for the assignment to encourage them for week 5's assignment:
Class 1, Week 4, Refining Pass Work In Progress.
30/01/2009 12:51
My previous post confused a few people. They didn't seem to understand that I kept the splines/tangents/f-curves linear so I'm posting this to try and stop the confusion from spreading. I have worked on the cannon ball and feel quite happy with it's timing and weight. Also worked on the splines/tangents/f-curves *sigh* so it will look better. My question is how does it *FEEL*?
Class 1, Week 4, First Blocking Pass
29/01/2009 17:29
This week has been a bit hectic so I'm a bit late with my work. This is the first blocking pass of the light vs. heavy bouncing balls. Just trying to get the timing right before I continue to work on the tangents.
Class 1, Week 3, Final Stuff
24/01/2009 21:26
Ok, so here's my final work. Let's start with the
planning stuff:
My planning thumbnails for the bouncing ball. And here's my final submission:
Those planning thumbnails came in very handy when I was roughing it out. And now on to the excitement pose.
Couple of poses I drew, and I liked the dynamic feel of pose number 14. And here's the final render:
I'm feeling quite happy with how things turned out.
And the poster for this week:
Well, time to take a break tomorrow and rest for the next week's work.
My planning thumbnails for the bouncing ball. And here's my final submission:
Those planning thumbnails came in very handy when I was roughing it out. And now on to the excitement pose.
Couple of poses I drew, and I liked the dynamic feel of pose number 14. And here's the final render:
I'm feeling quite happy with how things turned out.
And the poster for this week:
Well, time to take a break tomorrow and rest for the next week's work.
Bouncing Ball
21/01/2009 16:52
This is my Bouncing Ball assignment for this week's refining pass. It's almost there. Some minor fine tuning and I'll be happy with it. We don't have to do squash & stretch for this week so it's a basic timing exercise. Also helped in planning out the scene.
Excitement Pose Thumbnails
19/01/2009 15:48
Class 1, Week 2 Pose Revised
18/01/2009 17:41
I received my first e-Critique today. Thanks Mark! Some very neat tips he had for my drawing skills to improve them, and also how to make my pose a little bit better. So here is the revised version. Moved the hips slightly to screen-right. Brought the character's left arm out slightly to leave a gap between the fist and the torso. Also tweaked the hip-rotation a bit so the character's right leg seems better in the crotch area. I'm truly happy with it now. This way I learn what small things to watch out for.
This week’s poster:
Off to sketching and animating the bouncing ball, and also find some excitement.
Final pose is here!
17/01/2009 14:49
This is what my final pose is. It has been a very difficult choice between this one and the beer drinking one (pose 11). I'm pretty happy with my first real assignment for Class 1.
Ah, my first real Stu poses are out!
15/01/2009 16:53
I chose the top 3 from the previous sketches and posed Stu. So far I'm really pleased with number 9 and 11. But, number 11 might win by a fraction to become my final entry for this week's assignments.
Week 2's Q&A went well
15/01/2009 09:57
Got to say I think this week's Q&A was quite
interesting. It was the first "real" Q&A we had
pertaining to animation and our assignments for this
week so a lot of good questions came out of it. And
Mark's work showing us examples was just spectacular.
Awesome stuff from an awesome man. Time for me to
toddle off and go pose Stu. Will post my work here
soon for you all to enjoy.
Week 2 poses so far
13/01/2009 22:33
So far this week has been off to a good start. Our
assignment this week is to sketch general everyday
poses, and then choose one of those that has the best
potential of being a strong pose.
This is my first set of poses I drew. After confusing the hell out of my fellow students I promised to redraw the popular poses using the body shapes of the character we use.
After getting some wonderful feedback I chose the top four poses and redraw them. Here they are and I know I can still improve on pushing some of the poses to more extremes. however that is something I would definitely do when posing the character.
Will keep you guys updated as to which 1 (or perhaps 2) pose/s I would use for posing my character.
This is my first set of poses I drew. After confusing the hell out of my fellow students I promised to redraw the popular poses using the body shapes of the character we use.
After getting some wonderful feedback I chose the top four poses and redraw them. Here they are and I know I can still improve on pushing some of the poses to more extremes. however that is something I would definitely do when posing the character.
Will keep you guys updated as to which 1 (or perhaps 2) pose/s I would use for posing my character.
Ready...
12/01/2009 08:38
After having done a dry-run of my workflow for the
weekly assignments during last week, I'm ready to
rock this joint and churn my assignments out on time
(or rather that is what I hope).
The assignment for Week 2 of Class 1 is just sketching some quick poses of people in everyday life. Living in a really small town with no park and just 1 coffee shop makes it quite hard to do so. I have been considering driving somewhere to a shop and sit in the car and sketch people.
Easiest would be to fire up a movie and just sketch people from that. The option to pause it and have a good look at it is enticing but I think the whole idea is to be able to take a snapshot with your mind and then draw from that snapshot. I guess I will have to hide the mouse in order not to hit the pause button. Will post the sketches soon.
I’ve also been thinking about creating some posters to post on my fellow student workspaces. So here goes the first one:
The assignment for Week 2 of Class 1 is just sketching some quick poses of people in everyday life. Living in a really small town with no park and just 1 coffee shop makes it quite hard to do so. I have been considering driving somewhere to a shop and sit in the car and sketch people.
Easiest would be to fire up a movie and just sketch people from that. The option to pause it and have a good look at it is enticing but I think the whole idea is to be able to take a snapshot with your mind and then draw from that snapshot. I guess I will have to hide the mouse in order not to hit the pause button.
Will post the sketches soon.
I’ve also been thinking about creating some posters to post on my fellow student workspaces. So here goes the first one:
Top 10 Ways You Know You Live With An Animator
09/01/2009 08:14
Michael Taylor, who is an alumni over at
AnimationMentor, posted this list that his
girlfriend, Jacquie Gouveia, posted on
her blog. I found it quite
brilliant and hillarious and decided to post it
here.
This list goes out to my counterparts in the animation world. Enjoy!
This list goes out to my counterparts in the animation world. Enjoy!
- “The Illusion of Life” is on your bookshelf. There is a yellow glow around it and you hear angels sing every time it’s opened.
- A trip to the toy store isn’t for the kids.
- When you hear the word arc, you know it has nothing to do with Noah.
- They strongly believe (and you must agree) Wall-E should be nominated and win an Oscar for Best Film. In fact, the academy shouldn’t even waste there time nominating any other films, why bother?
- “When She Loved Me” by Sarah Mclachlan makes them cry.
- Lasseter, Stanton and Bird have become the guy friends who won’t leave.
- You have some sort of Star Wars paraphernalia in your house.
- There is often a video camera set up in your bedroom, but it isn’t for kinky reasons.
- They have convinced you that the pot of gold at the end of every rainbow is a myth. It’s actually Pixar.
- All the love and passion they express for their craft, is nothing compared to all the love and passion they express for you.
First Q&A of many to come
08/01/2009 10:06
So we just finished our first Q&A for Class 1. It
was an introductory one where we got to meet everyone
as they were put on live cam to chat about themselves
and briefly tell us who they are, where they are
from, why they want to animate etc.
Mark is also a really cool guy. Loved the work he did on Garfield and Garfield 2. Working at Weta must also be a blast. One day when I'm big I hope to be able to work for a big studio like that.
Seeing as this first week's assignment was really not much I decided to start working on next week's assignment already. Got a few poses sketched out and I'm busy posing Stu.
Mark is also a really cool guy. Loved the work he did on Garfield and Garfield 2. Working at Weta must also be a blast. One day when I'm big I hope to be able to work for a big studio like that.
Seeing as this first week's assignment was really not much I decided to start working on next week's assignment already. Got a few poses sketched out and I'm busy posing Stu.
AM Support still rocks!
07/01/2009 12:56
Last night I downloaded the AM menu with tools and
installed it as per their instructions. Only to
find that it didn't want to communicate with
their servers to download the latest codes for
all the tools. I logged a ticket and Kevin
replied with a few things to try and tell him
what the results are. Which I did and he
couldn't understand why it would happen. He then
scheduled an remote support session with me at
1AM his time! How's THAT for customer support?
So we connected and he started to remotely troubleshoot. Turns out that it seems like my ISP's proxy is to be blamed for the problems. Kevin then proceeded to compile a license for my PC, and then proceeded to download all the latest code for the tools to my machine. I'm now the proud owner of the grease pencil tool and other wonderful tools and utilities. Now just to create a shelf for it.
So we connected and he started to remotely troubleshoot. Turns out that it seems like my ISP's proxy is to be blamed for the problems. Kevin then proceeded to compile a license for my PC, and then proceeded to download all the latest code for the tools to my machine. I'm now the proud owner of the grease pencil tool and other wonderful tools and utilities. Now just to create a shelf for it.
The Support Staff (Yes Jay, that's you) at AnimationMentor rocks!!!
06/01/2009 21:19
So the campus opened up and the thundering noise of
the students rushing in could be felt over the
internet (and Facebook for that matter).
Having done the Springboard semester end of last
year I felt comfortable immediately. However, a
few (and that is quite a few) new content was
added. We gotten access to Stu, which is the
basic biped character. And then there are some
more Tools that got added (like the custom
AM shelf for Maya) and also some more
training videos.
And almost immediately messages from fellow classmates and other students in higher semesters started pouring into my AM Inbox. And with me being notified of every incoming messages, so did my GMail Inbox also start to fill up with notification emails. However, there was a problem. For every one message received in my AM Inbox, I got two notification emails in my GMail Inbox. Also in my workspace the notification box for messages showed every message notification twice. But the actual messages was only appearing once in my AM Inbox. So I quickly hopped onto the Technical Support page and logged a ticket. It was not even an hour when I received a reply from Jay thanking me for informing them of the problem, and that they will investigate it. As the day progressed I started noticing that I only receive one notification email and after a few hours, my student workspace notification area also only showed the messages once.
As I was busy trying to watch my pre-recorded video lesson for the week stream to my PC, it would stop every 30 seconds or so and wait for the streaming buffer to catch up before it would continue to play (thanks for the telephone line Telkom that I cannot get because the area I live in is not in your planning for this bookyear or the next bookyear to get a telephone line, even though we are surrounded by houses that does have your monopoly-telephone lines and there is an exchange less than a kilometer down the road!)
So anyways, again I logged a support ticket explaining my problem to the support guys and lo & behold... two hours later Jay responded saying that they have disabled the no streaming option for my account and that I can buffer up the video first for a while and then hit play to watch smooth, uninterrupted video! Isn't that just the best? I am so stoked about the support guys. And the rest of the school are the same kind of people that doesn't have the word "cannot" in their vocabulary.
That's it for me for now. Peace out and see you guys on the flipside.
And almost immediately messages from fellow classmates and other students in higher semesters started pouring into my AM Inbox. And with me being notified of every incoming messages, so did my GMail Inbox also start to fill up with notification emails. However, there was a problem. For every one message received in my AM Inbox, I got two notification emails in my GMail Inbox. Also in my workspace the notification box for messages showed every message notification twice. But the actual messages was only appearing once in my AM Inbox. So I quickly hopped onto the Technical Support page and logged a ticket. It was not even an hour when I received a reply from Jay thanking me for informing them of the problem, and that they will investigate it. As the day progressed I started noticing that I only receive one notification email and after a few hours, my student workspace notification area also only showed the messages once.
As I was busy trying to watch my pre-recorded video lesson for the week stream to my PC, it would stop every 30 seconds or so and wait for the streaming buffer to catch up before it would continue to play (thanks for the telephone line Telkom that I cannot get because the area I live in is not in your planning for this bookyear or the next bookyear to get a telephone line, even though we are surrounded by houses that does have your monopoly-telephone lines and there is an exchange less than a kilometer down the road!)
So anyways, again I logged a support ticket explaining my problem to the support guys and lo & behold... two hours later Jay responded saying that they have disabled the no streaming option for my account and that I can buffer up the video first for a while and then hit play to watch smooth, uninterrupted video! Isn't that just the best? I am so stoked about the support guys. And the rest of the school are the same kind of people that doesn't have the word "cannot" in their vocabulary.
That's it for me for now. Peace out and see you guys on the flipside.
Class 1 starts tomorrow!
04/01/2009 19:04
Ah yes. The silence before the storm. After having
gotten my feet wet by attending the AnimationMentor Springboard
class, I feel so much better prepared for the
full course. I have gotten some hands-on
experience with the website tools. To me, that
is golden. Now I know if my system and internet
connection is ready for what I can only explain
as the most incredible 18-month learning
experience I have ever attempted. I will also
update my gallery weekly showing my progress and
final submission for the weekly assignment. I
might even post some blog comments about my
thought process.
