The End of the Term is Nigh

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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.