Dylan Hunter's Animation Blog

Siggy Shenanigans and Bish 2.0

2010-08-19T15:23:00.000-07:00

Wow! Well Siggraph was indeed a blast, I have the great fortune to have my reel reviewed by both Disney and Nickelodeon, and they were able to lead me in the direction to where to take it next to push it to the next level. I've never felt so close at this point, however juxtapostionally still far away. My lack of industry experience is still a hindrance, but that's just another hurdle to overcome. I also moved downtown after returning from Siggraph and moved in with my belle, a bit of an exhausting month but back at it.

My new shot is still a work in progress, but after watching a documentary on the world's tallest man I felt inspired to try and animate a guy with crutches. This was also a good excuse and first test with Bishop 2.0. A bit of backward working, but I chose an audio clip from Firefly that I thought made for an interesting character; A physically weak man and yet quite clearly powerful. we'll see how it comes along in the next few days but as it is...

For Some Reason I'm Being Commented With Japanese Erotica

2010-07-07T11:39:00.000-07:00

And for that I sincerely apologize so do not click on those links. I have no idea why I've been targetted for this, but I'm at a lack for not caring enough to astutely do anything proper about it. Maybe later, but I have bigger fish to fry and more important concerns.

My biggest accomplishment for the last couple weeks was revamping my demo reel, updating my resume and format of my website. I can start to reapply to studios I have applied to before in the past, but largely this is all in preperation for Siggraph. I will be down there for 4 days, mostly for the job fair, so I'm making sure I am absolutely prepared. Feel free to check it out at www.dylanimation.com. I would like to get one more shot that I'm happy enough with to put on my reel so I will work on that. The later half of July is becoming increasingly chaotic, but I'm sure I can make it all work.

These Pretzels Are Making Me Thirsty

2010-06-17T08:09:00.000-07:00

Soo I've decided to tackle a new dialogue piece and over the past week and a bit it's coming along quite nicely. I chose a clip from Best in Show that I became obsessed with and decided to use Kyle Balda's rigs from 3D World for a change of pace. All in all, I quite like them, tho no rig is perfect, but it will add some nice variety to my reel as well.

Blocking:

Splining:

The shot still requires a fair bit of finesse, that's where I'm at now and will be a fair bit of fun to add. At present, it's my plan to finish this, my werewolf shot, polish my other dialogue and short film pieces and create a new reel lickety split, as even though my old reel isnt that old, my quality is improving beyond what I think it accurately depicts. A fair bit of work left to get this done, but I'm motivated and working hard at it so indeed it shall!

Updates, Updates

2010-06-01T17:21:00.000-07:00

Where to start. I worked on the Kools for about 3 weeks and did my best to bang out 5 shots. Unfortunately Lightwave did not like running in particular on my computer and I was suffering from many graphical errors. I made good progress on those shots, but I wasn't able to polish anything as it was literally impossible to add that kind of finesse. I know Lightwave is a frustrating piece of software to begin with, but Newtek could only offer upgrading to a better graphics card as a viable solution and I wasn't prepared to do that. Nonetheless, it was much fun and Mr. Bazley was an excellent director to work for.

I moved on to another NDA project which helped get me my XSI legs back. Unfortunately, scheduling problems may call for them needing me in the future as to right away, but I'm rather stoked about that project, it's very neat. On top of that, this gives me the opportunity to go back to completing my short film. With those other two projects, I got distracted and neglected to finish my submission for the spline doctors contest, I did spline it, but I didn't give it that level of polish I wanted and thus, did not enter it. I will wait for the next one. Sooo thusly is my plan to really finish my short film now. With a few months hiyatis from it, I've come back with a set of very fresh eyes and am able to apply the new things i've learned from the new shots I've accomplished. Progress so far is promising.

This is my immediate plan: finish short film, accomplish new dialogue piece and polish a new reel for Siggraph at the end of July, not necessarily in that order. I feel rejuvenated and, although the job market is less than ideal at the moment, I just have to keep pushing forward and something will come my way. Every week I can feel my eye and skills improving just a little bit, so at least I know I'm moving in the right direction.

In terms of the new dialogue clip; I wanted to do something Fred Willard at first, but in my search, I came across this awesome piece from Best In Show:

Since I have legit copies of the Kyle Balda rigs from that issue of 3D World Magazine, it would be so rich to use them for this piece and offer a lil extra diversity to my reel. A nice little bit of more subtle acting, I can't do the whole thing obviously, but I am in the process of narrowing it down. I will let you know what I choose.

Platitudes and Shenanigans

2010-05-08T12:45:00.000-07:00

A super busy couple weeks as I keep pushing forward and honing my skills. So far, I've done 3 weeks of alumni tutoring, and results have been much better than expected. Far more students in attendance and classes go far in overtime, it's been a great experience. As well, the Werewolf shot evolves and somehow gets somewhat closer to completion but so much more work to do on it. I changed the ending since I didn't like him jumping down a cliff so now it's over a crevice. Since the whole thing is a quadraped body mechanics exercise, it's a little more suited, but I can't explain enough how much I've learned from doing this shot. More polish yet to comes, I stress THIS IS NOT FINAL:

As well I started working on a new shot for the Spline Doctors competition, and I have 6 days to whip that off. It's far more achievable so I'm sure I can do it, but still quite challenging. Basically it's a stylized walk, and there were many different themes to approach it with, I chose the 1970s theme and decided to go with a pimp strut. Lot of fun pimping up bishop and managed to get a pass done on the blocking, I'll see what I can do to finish it lickety-split.

More importantly though, I'm on a project!! Yea that's right, I am working for Bazley Films in the UK on a Kool project (The Kools) for the next little while. It involved learning Lightwave and so far so good. It's been and interesting experience, but I don't have too too much to report yet, and doubt I should release any WiPs from that so I won't. Progress! :D

Also super recently I was able to attend GDC Canada with an awesome press pass courtesy of VancouverAnimation and the work I do on the webcomic for that site. I guess I have somewhat of a fanbase but GDC was an amazing experience. I'd like to think I did a lot of good networking, but only time will tell, hehe.

Hello My Nugglets

2010-04-26T17:31:00.000-07:00

So started P9oX last week, sticking with it and feeling great, exhausted but great. This is exactly what my sedentary lifestyle needed at the moment, I could literally feel my legs atrophying. If anything, it's entirely possible it's helped my focus a little more too, but maybe that's cuz i'm also eating healthier or seeing some things animationwise I hadnt seen before. Either way, it's progress baby! And that's all I can do at the moment, is really hone my skill.

With that said, I've decided to start working on my creature shot finally; now that I've managed to become solid on an idea. At best this is really a body mechanics test, but nothing beats a nice wolfie run through the forest. Some mild humanoid elements but I think they shall be minor as I learn some of the limitations of the rig. So in the blocking phase and really trying to understand the mechanics of quadrapeds, it's simply a fantastic exercise for that, if not daunting and occasionally mind bending, but I have good hope on my success with this.

Progress continues on the development of my new super live action/CG short film; I forgot how much the conceptual phase could be; and sooo thankful I actually decided to read McKee's "Story" book. I did my second proof of concept test simply to have a better understanding of the technical challenges I'll be needing to overcome, as I've never really done any live plate animation before. I can't thank my wonderful girlfriend enough for allowing me to shoot her and use her as the subject matter for this test. 3D matchmoving, marker removal and animating to a live camera... mostly successful.

And in other slightly related news, I had my first alumni tutor session last week... that's right, as a tutor! Yes, the powers that be deemed that I am mature enough to aid the students once a week via webcam with my own hour of awesome QnA, and all I can say is that it was a blast. It went on for 3 hours and there were 15-20 people that stayed for the whole length of time... who knew. Maybe the current students are just really really bored but I'm glad the alumni sessions are growing in popularity and it's definitely a nice way to give back to the community that helped me out so much. :D

The Cherry Blossoms Are Out!

2010-04-16T15:36:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update; it's been a month of computer problems, sprained wrists, emergency family trips, apartment relocations and new girlfriend so I guess I got caught up with life. With that said, I did manage to enter my animation in the 11second club for March, though not quite as polished as I would ideally have hoped, but here it is;
Made the 22nd percentile, woowoo! Had I put a little more TLC into it who knows how much better it might have done. I've decided though, not to do the 11 second club this month and instead spend my time testing out new shorter acting pieces I've been wanting to try. First up is a Sammy Davis Jr. piece that's still in blocking.

Also, considerable work and development has begun on a new short film (I know, what about my old short film) but this will be a live action/CG hybrid in conjunction with an actor friend of mine. The nice part also is that I'll get to try a bunch of things I've never really done before like animating to a live plate, etc. Without going into detail, I've had some good fun doing some rudimentary concept sketches, here are but a few.

The Days Are Longer Again!

2010-03-21T09:23:00.000-07:00

What an interesting couple weeks of ups and downs and not as much progress as I would like to have hoped for, but oh well, these things happen. I wiped out on my bicycle in some morning snow and sprained my wrist, not a serious sprain, but enough to hinder my animation progress to be sure. As well as suffering from a few computer related issues which will lead to a backup and reinstall as soon as this blog entry is done. So in terms of animation, I guess my greatest accomplishment was really hashing out, modelling and blocking my shot for the March 11 Second Club competition. I was able to give it a few passes and get a nice block-plus going and will begin splining early next week. If you're curious, feel free to check out the video below:

Other than that, I was able to experiment with the new werewolf creature rig and test it out to see it's limitations and how the controls really work. Basically just a run cycle but it was pretty eye-opening as to how to approach the real shot I want to do. So this is a gallop run done with the werewolf, admittedly it's meant for a lighter dog, but as I mentioned, it taught me an awful lot about the particulars of the rig and quadraped mechanics in general. I've been archiving footage from Twilight, Underworld, National Geographic etc to help narrow down a solid shot I want to do with this and I'm getting ever so close to finding the perfect one, will keep you updated.

This is the close to gallop test, and I stress it was primarily a test.

Game modding work has slowly picked up again, with the transition over to Unreal, I've finally gotten my hands on the rebuilt rigs and have been testing out their limitations as well. Also, due to my apartment being put up for sale by my landlords, I am moving into a quainter place across the bridge at the end of the month. As long as I can get my 11secondclub entry done, then I will be more than satisfied.

February Schmebuary

2010-02-28T11:37:00.000-08:00

Wow, pure insanity with the Olympics in Vancouver; it's been a very distracting couple of weeks. I haven't really done much Olympic persay except observe from a distance, I didn't feel like standing in really really long lines, but it was still pretty amazingly cool. I also just finished and submitted my 11second club entry, so I'll be interested in seeing how I do on it. I don't expect to win but it's not really about that anyways. I tried to go heavy on body mechanics with this one and learned alot from doing it. Not really sure if the idea makes sense, but hey, my gut told me to go with it. Here is what I submitted, if you vote, please still vote fairly and accordingly, I have the utmost respect for this competition.

I also chose a werewolf rig from Arconyx as part of my prize from Kenny Roy, I'm bouncing through a few different ideas for that at the moment, but that's my next project, as well as getting back to work on my short film. My Hiatus from it was perfect to give me the fresh eyes I need. Age of Chivalry has decided to switch over to Unreal from Source, in the big picture I suppose it's worth it, but it also means the animations I did for them are useless. Ah well, new models have to be rigged so I get some time off from that. It's all about the best end product and this seems to be leading towards that.

Vive l'animation!

2010-02-06T09:01:00.001-08:00

The last two weeks, though officially graduated and currently looking for work, has been busy and hectic, so that's fantastic. I could use this, and I've been tempted believe me, as downtime for a job well done, but I refuse to let that happen for two reasons: a) I'm in a productive routine that might be hard to get back into if I get out of it and b) this animation stuff is really fun anyways. There seems to be lots to keep me busy and keep me working on my skills and the more practice I get in, the more refined my skills seem to get; I guess it's a testament to the never ending learning curve in this industry and I have to admit, nothing excites me more.

I spent the majority of last week working on the uber shot for Mass Animation, which constituted of 16 characters, a bus and 7 seconds, most of which was bullet time. The payoff for this was a substantial reward, but more importantly to be a shining portfolio piece. Sad to say, I didn't win, but that's ok, I won for a game cycle in Phase 2 and already a trailer shot in Phase 1, so it will still compliment my resume nicely. It's funny as the reason I did the game cycle was to have a taste of the gratification of having an animation in game that is used by players, and to be quite frank, I didn't think I'd win that one, so the world works in mysterious ways. Since the competition is officially over, I'll post my uber-shot that I grueled over, as I'm fairly pleased with it, and I imagine I must have been close to winning, hopefully I'll finish polishing this regardless.

It's also been a good week for busting out cycles for Age of Chivarly; I managed to get all my sprint cycles done for the crusader character wielding a flamberge as well as an idle cycle. I'm fairly happy with those too, but I will come back and polish those, for the meantime, it's something to test their functionality in game. Next up on the list is attacks and parries (woo woo!) should be interesting as they are torso only animations, but regardless should be alot of fun. I was hoping to start work on those already, but there was a lot of backend stuff I had to learn (even deconstruct and rewrite code) to get these animations to import into the game properly, a fun challenge to be sure.

And more recently, I've spent the past couple days on and off working on my entry for the 11 Second Club this month. The audio clip this time around is so... unique, it provides such an interesting challenge. I thought of a few different ideas, but I kept coming back to one in my head so I went with my gut instinct on it. At a glance it seems rather weird to me, but with refinement and a properly modelled set, I think it will all come together. Regardless, it is a chance for some super fun and polished animation, but here's my first pass blocking thus far. I plan to spend time this weekend going back and pushing the poses and checking my arcs to see they are on track.

Graduation Blues? Hardly

2010-01-21T15:21:00.001-08:00

Well Graduation just happened this last weekend and the only word for it really is... speechless! So many elements of it was fantastic and surreal it's hard to know where to start. The actual ceremony itself was creative and entertaining, done in the style that only Animation Mentor could pull off, but on top of that, meeting most people for the first time that I've only met before through webcam or even text was an amazing experience. Especially being harnessed as such a global community and knowing how far people travelled, just... wow! There was also a career fair the day before in which I was able to introduce myself to numerous recruiters, I consider that to be the most important element rather than simply prospects of finding work, though that plays into it as well. And being able to do all the touristy things that San Francisco offers with friends from literally around the world was just as exciting. 5 days was not long enough.

Although I was nominated for 2 student choice awards, I didn't end up winning either, but I wasn't disappointed, as both people who won them were entirely deserving of those awards. I did however, get to meet up with my last mentor, Kenny Roy who's an awe inspiring individual, but having won his class award, I received a 3D maquette of one of my film characters. All I had to do was send him a pose in a maya file and the rest was his; I plan on painting it, but it was an honor to receive it.

So I guess it's official, I'm now a full fledged alumni, but the work doesn't stop there. After graduation, a group of us got tours of ILM and PDI Dreamworks and both places were just amazing. So many good vibes that I definitely feel rejuvenated on finishing my short film, even sooner than later. So I've begun work on that as well as continued to bust away work for the Age of Chivalry mod I'm part of now. Mostly working on Sprint cycles at the moment, and I'm realizing how challenging cycles can actually be. It is definitely a good test of... well darn near everything and a really good learning experience. Hopefully I'll post something soon.

Also, one of my shots for the new Mass Animation contest was chosen as a finalist and I had a skype call with the director Yair Landau earlier today. Offering me some feedback on how to improve it and getting me set up for working with ReelFX to push it up to finalized production quality. It's a very exciting prospect and I can't wait to start to finish it (sounds ironic I know). I've decided to do one more entry for the DCUO contest, this time a game cycle. If it gets chosen, it would be an interesting sense of achievement seeing some of my animation in game being used by players and NPCs alike.

So all in all, even tho becoming alumni would seem like a bit of a denouement, the animation wheel keeps on turning, and I'm glad I have enough to keep my plate full until the next studio job comes my way. :D

A Whole Decade Later

2010-01-08T11:11:00.001-08:00

Huzzah! It's a new year, new decade even, and even better than that, I can proudly display this awesome new logo! That's right, I've graduated, and I am officially an Animation Mentor alumni woohoo! Well, to be fair, the actual graduation ceremony is next week, but barring some absurd technicality, I'm feeling pretty confident I'm a graduate. It was a pretty mad push up to the end, but well worth it's weight in learning and goldness. Though my short film is not complete, I'm feeling happy with the shots I worked on and feel now I have something far more competitive than I did in the past. Plus the relationships I've nurtured over the last year and a half are practically worth it on it's own, socially and otherwise.
The Xmas break was good, but ultimately too short as per usual. I got to go home to see family and also use that time to enter the new Mass Animation DC Universe Online contest. I wanted to challenge myself with one shot, a hard one at that to prevent getting rusty and really, it was the only time I would be able to work on it, as I have quite a full plate going on at the moment. Anyways, working on a laptop for a change was quite the experience, and though I don't feel my shot was complete or as good as it could have possibly been, I gave myself a time restriction and handed it in. I'm not hell-bent on winning, I just wanted to participate as it was a chance to animate Batman, that in itself was worth it to me.
On another front, my work with the Age of Chivalry dev team is ramping up and I'm busy creating cycles for them as well. It's a very exciting project and a fun crew to boot. Already I'm learning alot, including quickly mastering (I'd like to think) 3DS Max, so even another piece of software under my belt. Not sure if I'm allowed to post animations from that, I imagine it's ok, but I'm going to check first.
If you haven't noticed, also I've manage to compile a new reel together on the main page, updated to the max! Unrendered as of yet, but I'll get around to it; I've also had some dynamics simulation problems, mostly with the software crashing, but I'll overcome that hurdle as well.
So in the very least, I guess I can say I'm glad I'm keeping busy in the new year and not allowing myself too much downtime; one resolution I've stuck to so far hehe. Now if I can just keep up more regular blog postings. THE FUTURE IS NOW! :D

I'm Not Dead I swear

2009-12-04T10:27:00.001-08:00

I realize it's been a while since my last post. This is largely due to the Class 5/6 phenomenom I've noticed, that most students choose not to publish short film works in progress in a public domain and I'm adhering to that as well. It may come back to haunt me in terms of film festivals if it actually does become a festival piece who knows. With that said, it's been an amazing learning experience, that is absolutely no lie. As of now there is only 2 1/2 weeks left of class 7, then I will be ready for the almighty and scary class 7! (Class 7 being a colourful euphemism for the real world industry). Exciting and a bit scary at the same time, but mostly exciting.

Against my original plan but not against my better judgement, I will not complete my short film this term. At the start of class I made a verbal contract with my mentor that I would only tackle 30 seconds of my short film, so I can make those 30 seconds as best as I possibly can, instead of 1 minute 17 seconds of less-than-awesomeness. At most CG film studios where 3 seconds / week is expected, that's about right on par, plus I'm still a student learning and more than polishing out my animation also polishing out my workflow mistakes. That has been the real power of this class so far, I've really developed my workflow into something very functional through experimentation and trial and error. On top of that, I've also increasingly developed my eye into seeing finessing on an even more detailed level as well as a series of "aha!" moments, which are so gratifying.

Sooo much more to learn I feel incredibly humbled by how much there is yet to know, but that's also the very exciting part of the whole industry as well, I will keep growing and learning and pushing myself, and I freakin' love that! With the end of AM so nigh, I will gratefully look forward to my xmas downtime, but much work to be done before the actual graduation in mid January; namely polishing up other shots and compiling a new and improved demo reel. I don't want to jinx anything too much but many new extracurricular projects coming up as well; namely Mass Animation 2, 11 Seconds Club and some Crysis game modding so much to stay busy with.

Also, this week marks the 26th issue of Andy-Mated, my webcomic I'm doing for www.vancouveranimation.ca. In other words, that's 6 months of drawing a web comic and everything that entails. Not only has it been a great commitment but a great way to keep my creativity flowing and improve my artistic and photochopping abilities. Each week it grows slightly stronger so I hope to keep this up.

Musings From Within the Time Cube

2009-09-28T12:56:00.000-07:00

First day of Class 6! I just found out my mentor is the wonderfully inspirational Kenny Roy and I'm quite pleased. He's got a great enthusiasm about him and seems quite knowledgable of cartoony style as well, which will be unbelievably helpful for me this term in particular. Woo! Pre-production and layout of my short film is complete, and you can see the more final version below:

In other updates, PAX was great, although I caught the infamous PAX flu, and at least was able to poke fun of it with my webcomic. There is a very real possibility that it was H1N1, but I was advised not to get tested and stay away from public unless it starts to affect my respiratory system in a serious way. Regardless, it surely knocked me down on the floor and recovery was slow. Well over it now, so that's great and now I can go forward out into the world with my super-human immunity.

I finally was able to get my Art page on my website pseudo-functional, tho the proportions are still funky and I apoligize for that. At Siggraph, I had the privelage of having Disney review my reel and they're predominant suggestion was that I plaster my website with drawings of all sorts. And thusly I've been trying to draw with a passion, including weekly life drawing classes. One of the most amazing things is that life drawing has become substantially more enjoyable than before. Anyways, examples can now be seen under my art section, and I hope to categorize them soon appropriately (ie. Quick Sketches, Creative, Longer Studies, etc). Nonetheless, content should be progressively added. Right now though, it's all about getting into the grind, Class 6 goes by fast I'm told, the first day's not over but it's going fast already!

Gimme Sum PAX Plox

2009-09-02T11:41:00.000-07:00

Another week and another update. Short film pre-production continues smoothly and relatively unabated so far. I've progressed from the 2D animatic to the 3D layout and am just beginning some first pass blocking. Ahead of schedule but my film's a bit ambitious, so I want to try to get what I can done early to give me more time for polish in Class 6 when it starts. Here's my 2nd revision of my 3D Layout for your viewing enjoyment; poses are rough and I combined some of the shots, but it tells the story, more to come soon. It's missing the AM logo, but the rigs are property of AnimationMentor.com so I'm not taking credit for that. Possibly unnecessary but just in case.

Also, the Penny Arcade Expo is this weekend and I've had the good fortune of attaining tickets for Saturday and Sunday before they sold out. With 50,000 expected people in attendance, it should be a gamer/geeker's paradise. I'm not 100% sure what to expect, but I'm very excited and it should be a fantastic amount of fun. I should be meeting up with other AMers on the Sunday, so hopefully I'll have pictures to update with shortly thereafter. PAX ho!!

Siggraph was a Fulfillment of my Nerdlinging Wishes

2009-08-19T08:11:00.000-07:00

Well as I've suggestively indicated, Siggraph was amazing! Got to see the amazing town of N'Awlins to begin with but on top of that, the conference itself was simply mind blowing. I think one of the most prominent events that transpired for me was the Gamejam! competition, a 24 hour video game asset creation challenge, and challenging was an understatement. This was the first year running of this event, so it had it's bumps in the road, but I'm grateful to have been a part of it, completed it and have a Siggraph themed video game to show for it. Specifically, the challenger was to design, model, texture, rig and animate a character with an idle, walk, jump and Special cycle. I created whom I have dubbed Zorgath, a Pikachu-esque slug creature with unknown backstory (little time to develop one) that uses his clawes and "slugness" to crawl up walls. If I do this challenge again next year, I'll be sure to avoid a special power that involves interaction with the environment, this proved to be an extra added difficulty on top of an already packed and complex itinerary. Anyways, there were some drastic rule changes throughout the contest, but as I said, basically bugs being ironed out. If you, the reader, has any inkling to waste endless hours playing this groundbreaking sidescrolling machinima you can download it at this link http://www.megaftp.com/92122 (PC only, sry).

Recently, AM came out with these wonderful badges to show our school pride. I am in full endorsement of this, as I've made obvious numerous times this school's one of the most exciting and amazing communities I've been fortunate to be involved with, and the learning is unparalleled. I'll figure out how to properly append this onto my website shortly but in the meantime it's here for all to see. A bit behind the ball on this one, they came out with the badges about a day after my last post.

And speaking of school, shortfilm preproduction is well under way. 2D storyboard finalized and 3D layout beginning as we speak. I'm trying to get ahead of the curve here, as my story is getting longer than I intended, but necessary to be sure. I think I'm running at about 43 seconds right now and it will be a wee longer, tho most of that is just to let the acting breathe. Very exciting stuff, I forgot how nerve wracking working on a short film could be, as it's all form the inner depths of my mind. And with that, I decided to go bizarre and hopefully not offensive in the religious context. A light hearted story of God babysitting Satan's child. I've heard someone say that I am not held responsible for what my mind comes up with; at a glance that seems totally false, but I'm inclined to believe it :D With that said, here's the 2D animatic in all it's embarassing glory (no sound yet).

Birds of a Feather Flock in Relative Proximity of Each Other

2009-07-24T10:10:00.000-07:00

Another quick update. I attended CG Con this weekend and it was simply fantastic! The animation masterclasses were full of gold nuggets that I am looking very forward to implementing. I was also able to have my reel professionally reviewed by Matthew Russel of Valve and Charles Alleneck of ILM. Both experiences were humbling but positive; some definite tweaks to make, so much more to learn but overall they thought it was rather strong, which is a good sign as I certainly can't judge my own worth. One thing they both mentioned was that I could use a full body, body mechanics shot and so I have started one. It's only in the blocking phase and a short test, but hopefully I can get it polished up by Siggraph.

I've essentially finished the subtle acting piece I've been working on, and decided to cut off the ending, I felt it drag on a bit too long for the purpose it was trying to serve, which was to demonstrate a context between text and subtext. It was understood at the reel review so that's a good sign to be sure. I've compiled it all together in what is now my current reel, but only for a couple more weeks, as I have to go back and tweak other shots. But here it is for the time being:

CG Con is planning on coming to Vancouver in the next few months for a smaller road show, they've asked for my assistance so I'm seeing what I can do to make that a reality, not much mind you. It will be great if they come, a lot of local talent and interest to be sure. So yea, it's largely just the mad rush to get ready for Siggraph, GameJam, and mostly just finish tweaking my reel as many studios this year it seems requires a pre-submission to be talked to; rather smart but kind of annoying hehe. A test of endurance, can't stop now! :D

Et Tu Bay?

2009-07-03T10:36:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update, it's been a week off between terms but I still managed to keep busy. I started a new monologue shot that still needs a lot of finess but it's well on it's way. I decided to go with an clip from the original Frost/Nixon interviews as the authenticity of the piece really sung out to me and presents an interesting challenge in what's being said and what the subtext actually is.

My new mentor for Class 5 is Jason Taylor and I feel very lucky to have him. This term is all about story and I'm very excited, also nervous to come up with a short film idea that I will be happy with as I will be spending the next 6 months on this. I've had a few good brainstorming sessions already, but I'm not letting the cat out of the bag yet, too early.

CGCon is only 2 weeks away holy schnikey! Part of my reason to do a new animation was just to bulk up my reel for this event as there will be an impressive job fair there, to which I will get an opportunity to hand out some reels and more importantly receive feedback to make them stronger for Siggraph, the theory seems sound anyways. Also there will be some excellent animation master classes and a chance to meet some AM mentors, alum and mentees, it's going to be a busy week.

I saw Transformers 2, I shall refrain from comment on that one as I want this to be a short blog post. Also saw Ice Age 3, and that was excellent stuff. Great for kids, but the animation in that was supersolid, I feel really inspired right now and I gotta keep that feeling. Also with any luck there is a new twitter widget on my blog as I recently found out I can combine the two, feel free to follow me if you wish.

Instant Coffee Offers a Different Sort of Caffeine Sweats

2009-06-18T10:18:00.000-07:00

This is the last week of class 4 and just wrapping up one of the most challenging assignments of my journey. There are still minor fixes, but my two person dialogue shot is practically complete and what a learning experience has this been. It's amazing how much I really started learning this last month, hard to quantify but certain elements really started to click into place; namely the amalgamation of body mechanics and acting choices. To some this may seem trivial, to others non-sensical, but having the marriage of both work with each other rather than against was a big breakthough in the annals of my mind. Term break next week, but I'm already beginning work on a new monologue/acting piece so I can have something to pad my reel a bit more, no rest for the wicked or socially dis-inclined it seems.

In other news, my Andy-mated Webcomic strip has finally gone live on VancouverAnimation.ca and so far response has been positive. It proves an interesting challenge to come up with content as it's weekly and industry related, but it's one I am happy to go about as it will definitely help keep the creative juices flowing. You can view it at this incredibly loooong link: http://www.vancouveranimation.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=52&Itemid=127 Partially related, as an incentive for my efforts in swinging this together I was honored to receive a ticket to Rob McKee's 3 Day "Story" seminar which was a fantastically amazing, yet thoroughly exhausting experience. Not a single regret from the 35 hours of his lecture, as I really look forward to apply his concepts to make a powerful piece in term 5 for the development of my short film. This is the same man who taught Pixar how to do it and his book has become the staple of screenwriting in Hollywood as well has led to numerous academy award winning movies, it was truly an honor.

Also, Siggraph is ramping up, and I cannot wait to attend it in New Orleans this August. I have already made time to accomadate my Gabriel Knight photo tour, simply as it was one of my favorite all time games growing up, and still for that matter. I made it tho, I am an official contestant in the GameJam! competition which is a 24 hour collaborative experiment to make a theme based game. Although I have no clue about scripting and game engines, it should prove to be ample fun and my 3D skills should come into play very well. I also just recently found out about CG Con in LA, which is a new event, but having a great job fair and Animation master classes, so I'm looking into the rationality of being able to attend.

April Anuerisms bring May Dopamines

2009-05-12T08:48:00.000-07:00

Well a fair bit to update on this one. First and most notably, Pixar is opening up a studio in Vancouver! Asides being exciting in general, the launch of their studio sort of coincides well with myu completion of the core program at AM. I know realistically, my odds of getting hired there are small, but I also know that they don't always go for the best quality, they like to see a certain... panache I guess. Anyways, long shot, but exciting.

My charitable project is now very much complete, and reception has already been quite promising. For those who wish to view it you can here. It was an amazing plethora of technical challenges and creative design; occasionally drove me nuts, but I think that's the nature of the work. I feel much accomplished for having done it and am glad it's serving a good purpose. If you're reading this and live in the lower BC mainland, I highly encourage you to donate as well; the cause is quite just.

Also, through networking at a rather unique CG/Steampunk event a couple weeks back, I have an opportunity to start a webcomic for a local animation related website. This is very exciting and nerve wracking at the same time. A weekly publication that would run for about a year, but now that I've ironed about a bunch of the lumps, I think it's quite achievable and am really grateful for this opportunity. I had to be proactive and pitch my idea, which was liked, so hopefully next week on www.vancouveranimation.ca my work should be published weekly! Also a great way to gain some recognition and just generally be creative. Here's the first prototype issue; rather relevant to current local media:

New assignment has been going on for school the past couple weeks as well, the all encompassing 2 person dialogue shot. After sifting through near half of every movie ever produced, I narrowed down my choices of audio clips and after a long deliberation of determining what I wanted to achieve with this shot, I ended up choosing a clip from The Wedding Crashers. It's highly emotional and shows good anger and fear; plus I was able to throw it way out of context and do (what I think) is a rather original take on it. Still in it's base blocking stage, I am definitely hoping I'm not getting too far over my head, or that I inadvertantly offend someone or come off as a masochist or pervert :P but I think I'll be fine and this is just how the story evolved.

2009-04-24T09:55:00.001-07:00

Once again long overdue for a blog post. The monologue shot has essentially been finished up, here's the final version posted. Working on the facial details took more time than I would have imagined, but was a very exciting and promising learning experience; amazing how the slightest of changes can really affect the emotional state of the character.

Also, due to a faulty windows update on a macintosh computer, I have switched over fully to OSX as getting Windows to work again work require a full reinstallation through bootcamp. It will happen, but it is not a viable option for the next couple weeks at least. With that said, I'm getting quite comfortable on the mac side of things, but definitely a huge stretch of the imagination to call myself a fanboy. A lot of it is in part related to the final touches to put on my video for VWSAC, which is essentially complete; just some minor revisions.
The new assignment is a 2 person dialogue shot and I'm quickly narrowing down my choices for audio clips and creative scenarios. Much more to consider than I would have originally thought, it's a matter of what I think I can reasonably finish and polish, what challenge I want to take on and ultimately what I hope to accomplish with it. Will update soon with what I end to choose and base blocking; in some senses this is the most challenging part, the commitment :D

Pantomimes, Monologues and Voice Replacements, oh my!

2009-02-26T09:03:00.000-08:00

About time for another update. The pantomime assignment went well; I definitely learned a ton from it and I was amazed as to how much time I spent fixing mistakes in blocking when transitioning to splining. It helped me greatly with my workflow and I'm adapting it all to the next assignment to something that I feel is a better fit for me (eg. building in offsets in key poses rather than doing it after the fact, personal preference but it seems to vibe.) Here's the final version, tho a revision is still in the works.

Things are really beginning to click. After obsessing the past 3 weeks over the last assignment and the new one, I'm beginning to have a series of "Ah ha!" moments which is boosting my sense of self confidence but I'm still remaining very humble about it all. I've definitely reached a new echelon in my personal development for which I am grateful, but there's so much more to learn. It also just occured to me why at AM we spend so much time on so few assignments; spending 5 weeks on an 11 second clip seems absurd at a glance, but in retrospect it's brilliant. It forces me to push my work and see what's wrong with it at the finest levels of animation and subtleties, instead of producing a massive repetoire of so-so shots, as I'm particularly used to.

In terms of the new assignment, it's our first dialogue piece, a monologue rather, so one character, a new rig and the challenge of real acting. After sifting through many many carefully picked clips, I chose one and shot more video reference than I ever have previously to test out different ideas. I decided to go with a serious, emotional clip as most people tend to go with something humourous, but I figured I could get more out of it with a solidly conveyed piece. With that said, it has it's risks and rewards as I'm learning; far less forgiving over a funny shot, but I believe in myself I can make it shine. Here's my first pass blocking attempt at it, halfway through the second pass, but I won't post it yet.

Further development on my charitable project, have many rendered shots and the base of it is complete, a lot of fine tuning still yet to do. The script has undergone some serious changes to increase the length and overall power of it, so a lot of things are being reworked and reshot. Also an amazing learning experience and one I'm not soon to forget. As an additional test and personal curiousity, I did a little experiment with multi-channel sound editing. Largely because I haven't tried before and I wanted to see if I could. By and large it seemed to work and proved to be more challenging than I had previously thought; no copyright infringment intended this is simply a test but I successfully removed Robert Downey Jr's voice and replaced it with my own. Victory!

2009-02-04T09:29:00.000-08:00

Here's the near polished version of my first acting (pantomime) assignment, it's been quite an evolution. I rendered this out to test the lighting and occlusion, all in all worked pretty well. It's down to the last 10% of polish to put that often imperceptible oomf into it; if you ask me, also the trickiest part.

In lieu of Ironman and my seemingly undying interest in visual effects as well, I messed around with making a HUD much like the one featured with Tony Stark. Much of it was done through the aid of a tutorial, but the experience was all together new and I learned some invaluable tricks and techniques. Here's basically what I got. I want to reshoot the footage and splice myself into Ironman, but after rewatching that sequence, I'd have to be really crafty with the audio... if I can get the music on it's own track then I'd say it's possible and totally worthwhile.

Coraline comes out this weekend, very exciting, and new Monsters vs. Aliens posters are released. If you have no intention on watching that film then shame on you! It should prove to be thoroughly enjoyable for all ages. Dreamworks has finally learned from past mistakes, all the power to them. March 27th, mark it down.

Many other things in the works, but I don't feel obliged to talk about them right now; they're not in any real state of public displayability, so I'll hold off until my next post.

Actimating

2009-01-19T11:01:00.001-08:00

Long overdue for a post, but Term 3 has started and it's just great so far. I've switched over to a new computer as my old one was on it's last legs and this has helped endlessly. In terms of Animation Mentor, we've delved into learning about acting and pantomime. This assignment is incredibly challenging and I'm already a bit surprised the amount of time I've put towards it (technical complications with constraints not-withstanding). It's criteria involves an emotional change, leaving the playing field very open. I decided to try and go unique and, during it's evolution, it actually progressed into something that made more sense.
From the original video reference and thumbnails, all I can say is that so much has changed, and by next week, so much more will also.

I've also started reconstructing a new logo for myself and rebuilding the Julio model I was creating in Maya, well rerigging and reskinning mostly. A timely prospect, but my progress has been good and I decided to spend a little more time now to save time later. This is largely to save me from some insane compositing that I would have had to resort to in a couple weeks time. I did this screenshot as a test to see how it might unfold, the environment still needs a lot of work but it answers a lot of questions for me.

Wow, it's cold out. And other irrelevant blog titles

2008-12-19T10:56:00.000-08:00

It's the last day of term 2, and I'm excited and sad at the same time. I've finished the last assignment and updated my progress reel, which is this:

In retrospect I think the music is a tad obnoxious, but I have changes to make to it anyways like finessing the intro and properly rendering out all my assignments; but I can do that over the break. I also feel that ol' Betsy here is dying on me, it's official, my DVD drive crapped out, and she's approaching the end of her upgradability. She shall be missed when the time comes, tho I may keep her as a render mule. I feel as if my mind has been all over the place lately and slowly lamenting into insanity... of sorts. So many side projects for one, it's hard to stay focused, especially now when I really should. For example, I started messing around with SDKs for the first time, predominantly Half Life 2 Source and my personally beloved Orbiter. The former I've made more progress with writing and creating my own addon, but so much work left to do. In my nostalgic geekiness, I'm trying to create some nuclear-esque rockets from the Buck Rogers universe; being one of the coolest retro concepts ever! This photo shows my first attempt/test of different parameters and model importing.
That pathetic shadow on the landing pad of the Brighton Beach moonbase is telltale of success, believe it or not, because at first I was skeptical if I could even get that much to work. Ideally, come soon, I should be able to have a fully functionary nuclear rocketship that would behave ideally like that of Buck Rogers' Maelstrom Rider; complete with cockpit and animated controls. As far as the Source engine goes, I'm still learning the (sometimes) frustrating inner workings of the tools it comes with, but will hopefully be able to update my progress with that. The Julio project is partially slowed down due to some technical and personal issues, but should be back up at full force come the new year; Evidentally I still have many lessons to learn in rigging.

2008-12-04T09:28:00.000-08:00

The latest of assignment nears completion and I'm feeling somewhat comfortable with it's progress. I have learned from many of the mistakes from the last assignment and thoroughly analyzed the process on this one from a new perspective. Here's a more updated version with an incomplete first pass splining; the latter half needs much work and looks extremely floaty, whilst the first half simply needs more polish. With this term almost over, I really look forward to next term.

My other project is progressing the animation blocking phase, this is a recent shader test and roughly blocked run cycle, just to see how things deform and what still needs tweaking, animation aside. As well, here is a vfx shot that I wanted to try to see if it was possible; it wasa great learning experience and generally a lot of fun, if not challenging.

2008-11-22T08:30:00.000-08:00

Well the final assignment has been handed in, and work has started on the new one. I still need to polish the last one up a bit more, based on my newest mentor notes, but it's getting there. The whole area with the balance on the first candy cane, I've never been super happy with, and slowly I'm beginning to figure out how to change it. It's not so much a matter of me not being able to decide what I want it to look like, but more a matter of having what I want translate properly with my keys and f-curves into the computer.

Much work has been accomplished on the next assignment as well: Video reference, thumbnails and first pass blocking have been more or less completed, tho many changes yet to come I'm sure. I Desperately need to fix the set, the lighting's been tricky, and I just decided to scrap the secondary character, as he's too misleading with the eye and distracts the audience from the focus of the animation. I may spend more time working with the actual struggle with the sticky door, as that is the crux of the assignment, however it was great fun to throw in some acting choices as well.

My Julio character for a side project progresses very nicely also. fully rigged and skinned now, I've done a lot with set design for this piece and am kind of finalizing the look of the character. Here's a little test of face shapes and facial hair; still using base textures at this point.

Why Can I never think of a Title?

2008-11-13T12:46:00.000-08:00

Once again an overdue blog update. School keeps trucking forth and I with it. In the final stages of polishing this latest assignment after countless revisions. This is not the final version but close to it. I had a lot of fun attempting some dynamic simulation in Maya as well, not my forte. Still a fair bit of finessing to do, but it is ever closer to completion.

I've also been heavily involved in a project I took on in good ol' Softimage, so I had to refresh myself in all that joy as well. I have a character under construction and nearly animatable for this project, who has been rigged and UVs layed out for texturing. Here's a screenshot as a teaser. Weighting and base textures should be done by the weekend and proxy animatics done sometime next week. I'll try and keep updates on that as well.

Personal progression during economic depression

2008-10-29T09:58:00.000-07:00

The assignment was finished, and countless more changes, subtle at this point, made. Yay for me; I'm quite happy with how it turned out, and only a couple minor notes from my mentor on the knees, but all in all, the TLC that went into it really paid off. Here's the final version, with the box overlap added as well:

I aso began to develop a good and new pipeline that made my production a lot more efficient, particularly when coming to splining. That's part of the interesting phase of school, it's a lot of experimenting with different methods to find ones we're comfortable with and able to excel at, some work better for others.
In other exceptionally cool news, the revered Richard Williams, Animation director of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and author of my personal bible "The Animator's Survival Kit" came to town on Monday and gave a small lecture and QnA session. It was amazingly unbelievable, and his humility was something to behold. It was a fantastic pleasure to meet him, have him sign my book and take a quick photo. This man was able to learn from the "Nine Old Men" (the animators from Disney who constructed the rules behind successful animation) and help pass them along to the next generation of people, because noone had done that at that point.
Video reference, thumbnailing and blocking is also underway with the next week's assignment, this one involving a pole jump (ie. jumping from pole to pole with a character with no arms). Below is a sample of my blocking underway, no timing or spacing has been done yet, simply just working on posing; I chose a xmas theme, I don't really know why, hehe.

2008-10-22T10:38:00.001-07:00

Well it's been long overdue for me to update this, and the real challenge has been with this last assignment. Essentially 3 weeks to do one 200 frame assignment, I didn't fully understand why but now I do. The learning curve is huge! It's amazing and nearly infathomable how many times I've reworked this shot and made changes; the detriments of learning body mechanics but it's really paying off. So I totally changed the idea, and reshot my video reference at the end of the week, as with this

Keep in mind the point of the assignment is to make the character do a 180 degree turn around. This idea however was well received by my mentor so I trudged forward with this

Which was a little less well recieved by my mentor, and many changes were made. Numerous iterations later, there was this

the shot nears completion and next week I will post the ultimate finished version. In the meantime, there is this shot, which I have excluded the box, but will have overlapping movement and fall off his head when he runs away. As well preconceptions for the next assignment, video reference and thumbnails shall be ready and well thought out.

Twice the terms, twice the challenge...

2008-10-02T15:24:00.000-07:00

I've had a week off and Term 2 has begun, the bar is set high and I'm sallying forth full steam ahead. There isn't much to show yet, this is the follies of trying to post a blog mid-week, mid-assignment. I may change this up to provide something with a little more sustenance, I don't usually get to post everything I do all week. Anyways the first assignment of this term involves a turn-around but also the proper thinking and planning of a shot, starting from reference and thumbnailing to final production. Some fantastic tips and tricks, strategems and time-savers have been learned already and the excitement ensues! Here's some walk reference I've come up with already, tho there may be many changes yet ahead and even before the end of the week.

In the past two weeks I've also co-started a local video game developers group, in which we met for the first time last night. It was a great meet up and not so much in the ways of video game development, but it was a great start to get to know some of the other people involved; I very much look forward to the next class. I've as well found my niche to learn Flash, with another pro-bono project that I'm doing for a good cause in which I get to characaturize an aquaintance of mine. I can't give away too much on that yet, but new news to follow I'm sure. Definately exciting and busy times!

The End of the Term is Nigh

2008-09-17T12:50:00.000-07:00

I had a minor interruption last week but was able to get all my assignments in on time. This is the last week of the first term at Animation Mentor, and it's an opportunity to do revisions on past assignments with what we have learned. Also, we have to make a progress reel at the end of each term so other students can see it, and so they can get archived. I've been having a fair bit of fun with the progress reel part of it, and now that the template is laid out, all I have to do is make some minor polishes to past work and replace the footage. As well as render out some of my past poses just to add some more aesthetic appeal; I would really like to include ambient occlusion into these shots to give it more of a clay-y look, it does wonders. This is the meat and bones of it, the final version, will be nicer, but I'm quite happy with my progress so far. Bring on the second term! I can't wait to start fun-filled yet devastating weeks of body mechanics.

The LHC has NOT destroyed the world, so the work must continue...

2008-09-10T09:43:00.000-07:00

This last week's assignment incorporated a stylized walk. I went through many ideas from a moonwalk (an astronaut on the moon) to a classic Charlie Chaplin. I also contemplated a war of the worlds three legged walk, but it was suggested I stick with bipedals. So after much deliberation, I decided that I wanted to do something I hadn't seen before, so I chose to do a ballerina, not quite knowing what I was getting into. This turned out to be quite a challenge and long, intense study of reference, plus multiple changes throughout the blocking stage. So far not so bad, my review went better than expected. I lost perspective on it, that's fair enough to be said.

Also, with last nite's failed destruction of Earth due to CERN's LHC working in accordance to scientific postulations, it seems as I will have to continue polishing this walk and do the current week's assignment. :) The other part of the assignment was to research and do a pose that represents exhaustion well. This was the weaker part of my work, it was hard for me, but it worked satisfactorily, I received some fantastic feedback as how to really push it and add appeal. Thus it will be tweaked for revision.

The ponderings of a kidult

2008-09-03T10:30:00.001-07:00

This last assignment was to polish up the vanilla walk and find some pose that really captured the feeling of "concerned". As far as the walk goes, I was fairly happy with it, learning the hardway how subtle tweaks and fixes here can grossly affect another control in the body there. But I finally got something decent, my critique went well, although I will have some definate changes to submit this week and get looking good, the feedback was incredible and hard for me to see; tho there was some varying in opinions, which is something I'm also learning. There isn't always such a thing as solidly right or not right; it can be wrong, but if it works, then wrong is right. Pretty cathartic lol.

As for my concerned pose I drew out many ideas and found one that just spoke to me. It worked well as far as composition and portraying a mood went, so I'm quite exceptionally happy with it. It was hard to avoid crashing in places, especially with the characters' gargantuinely huge heads, but it did work out in the end. Again some minor changes to boost the look even more.

The Ministry of Vanilla Walks

2008-08-27T11:08:00.001-07:00

This last week we delved into the wondrous world of walks, and all the heartaches that go along with it. It's become more than evident time and time again that walk cycles are one, if not the, trickiest things to do in animation, as every part of the body moves in conjunction with everything else, stemming from the hips. So that's why I'm glad that this assignment has become a two parter, the first for timing and posing, and the second for splining and finessing. It really helps a lot to be given the time to study a walk in thorough detail and understand the mechanics of it all, or at least begin to lol. This was my blocking stage for last week of a standard walk cycle, the crit went well.

As well there was the pose assignment to show physical strength. I took many interpretations on this at first and that more than anything frustrated me, as I was ideally trying to show this without the aid of a prop. Other than flex poses nothing was really working well for me, so I sucked it up and began using props, although minimally. Many different variations, but I was happy with my final product. I also got a bit confused with strength as opposed to effort, and there should be a balance of both. Some minor tweaks to come.

Siggraphitti Vidi Vici

2008-08-19T15:18:00.000-07:00

Returning from Siggraph, I can't begin to say enough great and amazing things about it. Not only did I learn an ample amount about the current industry and the future of where it will go but also it was great for career networking, as I got to meet many people in the flesh. Animation Mentor in particular, it was fantastic to be able to shake someone's hand and vocalize that was otherwise done through text. I also got an opportunity to meet the infamous Bobby Beck, Carlos Baena and Shawn Kelly; the founders of the school and essential and inspiring celebrities as far as I'm concerned. There is so much to say about last week, the experience was incredibly profound and useful.

Last week's assignment was relatively light in comparison, which worked well with my gallivant down south. I wasn't able to complete it while in LA but managed to get it done yesterday. My only regret is that it is the sole assignment using the "Tailor" rig which was an extraordinarily fun rig to work with. Needless to say I didn't have much of an opportunity to be creative with this assignment, but I think I faired well on it, crit is yet to come.

Overlapping Fantasipaction

2008-08-09T16:03:00.000-07:00

This week's in depth struggle revolves around overlapping action and the different ways to approach it. I had a lot of fun with this assignment, and tried to put in a little liveliness as well. I spose the most important lesson I learned, or had reiterated and drilled solidly into my head is the entire importance and necessity to "offset the keys as the LAST step." I was able to try different methods to prepare for overlap, some I liked more than others, but all ended with a very similar and likeable result. I finally think I am not so overwhelmed with how to apply overlap, use it effectively and be able to do it far more expediently than I have in the past. Truly amazing the things I'm learning, feel free to check it out.

Also, I head down to LA for the almighty Siggraph tomorrow, and I can't begin to explain how thoroughly excited I am. A small part of me wishes I was further along in Animation Mentor so I could show even stronger work, but I realized that at next year's Siggraph, the timing will be poetically perfect. Plus, it's also entirely possible an incredible job offer or internship with one of the many prestigious studios may arise with the countless character animation reels I have comprised for distribution. Wish me luck; and stop asking me for swag! :D

Ball-Worthy

2008-08-05T07:36:00.000-07:00

More balls! And this time a ball through an obstacle course. Trying to think of something different and creative, I managed to be fairly successful. The pain of this assignment, or my creativity, was putting a fast spin on the ball such that it would land a certain way and continue to roll in that fasion. Coupled with the ideals of squash and stretch it became quite challenging, but ended up working out in my favour. It was a fun challenge, and they do seem to be getting more fun, which is thoroughly exciting. It's astonishing what I'm learning this time around, the things I never picked up on before, being able to feel the weight and appropriateness of a movement or action for example... simply stunning.
The other part of my assignment was to portray devastation in a pose; to show how a body itself can give the impression of this emotion. Also a challenge, particularly to avoid anything that might be overdone or cliche. This is the other real power of this school; it does a good job of forcing originality; well not so much force but strongly enourage. This also makes it that much more difficult hehe, but it works. All these of course start with sketching real life examples and then working towards replicating and exagerating that with a 3D rig as seen below.

Also next week is the beginning of Siggraph, which I do have the good grace and fortune to attend. Also very exciting, I'm busy throwing together reels for handout, so it shall progress to be a busy week in preparation. I can't wait to attend, my nerves are shot already hehe. A most exciting event indeed! The things I shall learn are unfathomable as of yet; well I have sort of an idea.

On going Jedi Training

2008-07-28T09:53:00.000-07:00

Another week another not quite a dollar. Our last assignment required to bounce two balls of various weights to contrast (ie. one heavy one light) so I thought I'd see what I could do to push the envelope on it by adding a symmetrical cantilevering device commonly known as a teeter-totter. This was a fun one but more challenging that I would have originally have imagined. There still needs to be a tiny bit of polishing on it but by and large for the most part, I'm happy with it. This was a really good lesson in timing and how important it is in the overall product; if not THE most important attribute. It will make or break a shot, acting wise or more generally making the shot read unclearly; this is also one of the continuing strengths of the school. The receival of continuous feedback if I put my work out there really helps as it is really difficult for me to know sometimes if my idea in my head is being understood by someone who's never seen it before in the way I want it to.

Also another fascinating things I'm learning and more importantly finally understanding are how there are rules of animation, but at the same time there are no rules. What rules need to be applied, what rules can be bent and even more crucibly when these rules can be broken. I very much didn't understand this concept in the past, it seemed so incredibly contradictory, but it's finally beginning to sink in. I think this comes from an intuitive understanding of the rules and foundations, because without that there is no way to know when to have the flexibilty of creative design within a shot and style of shot.

In other news, Siggraph is two weeks away! And I have to compile a new demo reel because I might as well. If I was to land a possibility of of an internship or the like with a big name company, Siggraph would be an excellent stepping stone for such an opportunity. Plus public awareness and social networking is key; and it's been about a year since I made my last demo reel anyways, a lot more new stuff to add; let's hope I can impress!

2008-07-25T17:21:00.000-07:00

The first post of a new blog! I figured it would be a great idea to start a real blog as opposed to the one I have on my website www.franticrabbit.com; as I'm forever redesigning the layout of that. This way it'll be great to stay on top of how my week/work progresses as Animation Mentor, and this is the onset of my new and revamped Character Animator career. The 3D generalist angle was fun, but I know what I really want to do deep down inside; animation is such a wonderful industry, always changing and constantly fun! I'll post my first animation assignment of a regular bouncing ball which went over better than expected; it's just a bouncing ball, but even that can take quite a while to finesse. That was my real learning experience with this simplistic but perfectionist assignment; to help develop that eye and make those micro-changes that add appeal and believability to a shot. Likewise with the pose assignments which I will also post. A very exciting and appealing school, hands down, one of the best decisions I've made in the past couple years. I luv it when dreams are coming true!