Ball Bounce preperation

The main focus of this assignment was all about preperation. They teach you should spend almost as much time planning as you do in animating. Below is a diagram charting out a ball bouncing to a stop. As easy as it may seem I saved a lot of time sketching it out first.

Here is the animation.

First Animating assignment in Class 1 Basic Animation

Not perfect by anymeans. It actually slows down too fast at the end. Part of the problem is we are limited on how many frames we can use. So I was trying bring it to a stop before frame 100. I should have had the bounce start to loose energy sooner. The other part of the problem I was fighting the graph editor while attmepting to learn how to use it. I did not quite grasp the in's and out's. While I still have a lot to learn in the graph editor, things did finally start to click while working on the next assignment!

Halloween Class

Heh heh, Our teacher has some spirit! Here we are the Wednesday before Halloween and our mentors web cam comes on. But wait...Wes is not there. Just an empty background. Then from the side slowly comes a Ninja head! Well we could not let him be the only one! So a few of us grabbed our costumes and did our class that way...or attempted to. I am Jack on the left and as you can see the head phones don't fit around my head. So talking was a little tricky. I missed a couple other class mates costumes before I started doing screen captures but I got most. 

Happy Halloween Every One!

Halloween Tale

Animated By: Zane Kohler
Medium: Flash

Stu Pose

Here is the first pose of Stu the model based on the drawings in the previous post.

First Assignment

First assignment has two parts. The first is to sketch people in public while in various poses.  The second part is to look over those sketches and pick the best one.  Then use  the sketch to arrange the Stu model in the same pose.  Below are my rough sketches. Since Stu is more of a cartoon style model I decided to sketch out an exaggerated version to help translate how I am going to pose Stu.  

The Pumpkin of Nyefar Via Cartoon Brew

It has been a good month for finding some great animation. Felt I had to pass this one along as well. This new one I found on CartoonBrewTV called The Pumpkin of Nyefar (2004).  A fantastic fairy tale story Narrated by June Foray.  I think the use of color  is fantastic and fits perfect for the story. The style of the character designs are very appealing as well. Below is the brief description from Caroon Brew about the short. Head on over there to read more about it.

The Pumpkin of Nyefar (2004) is a short directed by Tod Polson (El Tigre, Another Froggy Evening, Poochini) and Mark Oftedal. The story was co-written by Maurice Noble (1911-2001), who began his animation career at Disney in the 1930s, and eventually designed many of Chuck Jones’s classic Warner Bros. cartoons including Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century and What’s Opera, Doc?. The film is narrated by June Foray (the voice of Rocky in Rocky and Bullwinkle).

Class Begins

The term for Class one has officially begun.  I have my first Q&A This Wednesday. My mentor for the class will be Wes Mandell. So far everybody in the AM community have been very kind and giving lots of warm welcomes. It is great to see the energy and to feed off of it.

Animation is complete on Babaloo

I have finished the animation for Mr. Babaloo. It has been tough while being in class as well. I now have to do the audio. I need to record balloon and vacuum sounds. The balloon should be easy in theory. Take a balloon and slide my hand accross the surface and or bumping into it. I am looking for that hollow POING sound that balloons make when they hit another object. The vacuum will be a little tougher. I have recorded some sound down...and not bad. But not great either. It is missing something. I think it needs to be more comical or cartoony. I have purchased a Kazoo for the job. I have yet to record anything to see if it will work. I think it should sound better than a real one. We will see. 

Oktapodi

I feel I have to pass this one along and talk about it. I added it to my festival page.  A great animated short. This is the first in a long time aside from Pixar where I feel I can just watch it over and over again. Great story, great charater design, beautiful set.  I have to mention what an amazing job having an eight armed character walk/scuttle and look natural.  Tough to do just two legs let alone more. 

When watching take note of the expressions on the octopi.

They convey so much emotion through their eyes alone. There are two or three shots where all they do is just stair and you can't help but laugh. Very entertaining and I am looking what else this team will come up with next!

Springboard Is Over!

The Maya Springboard is over. We still have a week left before the semester is officially done but as far as classes go it is over. I am very glad I took the Springboard class before going in. While part of me still feels like I hardly know Maya I have to step back and think about what I HAVE learned.  I can't imagine going into class one not know what I have learned. Our peer buddy AnthonyTravieso has done a excellent job making sure we understand all the basics (plus more) needed to move forward. Will post more later but wanted to give a shout and a sigh. One down and six more to go!

Basic Animation Assignment 1

Week Five begins the first taste of why we are all here. Basic animation! The assignment this week was to just make a sphere move. Not to focus on the quality or motion but on how to use the actual controls for animating. I ended up Animating a snowman which is essentially 3 spheres stacked.  I thought I would keep it simple and have him sliding on ice.

I had a lot of fun finally being able to animate in Maya. It is a very complicated beast. Even working with the limited experience I can tell the amount of hours (maybe years) of thought that went into this programs user interface.

Video Blog : Test

International Comic Con 2008

The 2008 San Diego Comic Con Comes to an end. A total sensory overload! I was there all day Saturday. This year was casual as I stayed away from the big attractions that were drawing crowds.  The lines to get into panels were incredibly long. You could waste a third of your day just waiting. If you are a single day patron that's a lot of time. 

I was able to hit up the Stuart Ng Booth that held the  Eric Goldberg book signing. He has a bran new book out called "Character Animation Crash Course!". So far I have only thumbed through it but what I have seen looks great. I am very interested in the Disc that comes with it. From my understanding it contains movies of animation examples that you can play, pause and rewind for study purposes.  The line for the signing was relatively short yet stayed consistent in length. It moved pretty fast as well. When I finally got up to see Eric and I did the usual greetings. He was very nice and out going.  It would have been awesome to site and talk to him longer... but I did not want to be "That Guy" who held up the line. He was very nice to pose for a picture. We had a small discussion about me attending Animation Mentor. He had a lot of good things to say about the school!  I can't wait to start implementing the book to use.

I spent a bit more time hanging around artist alley.  I was picking up a bunch of artists printed sketchbooks.  Unfortunately there were more books than bucks in my pocket. I am thinking about making one for next year so it was neat to see what everybody is doing. So much inspirational stuff. To name just a few... Stephen Silver, David Coleman, Erwin Haya, Javier Guzman, Patrick Morgan. Also I picked up a neat book called Depth Charge by Donnachada Daly. It is a stereoscopic 3d book that does not need glasses. You stare past the images until you see three images blurred. You then focus on the middle one and let your eyes relax. The image in the middle then starts to have some depth.

 To describe the rest of the day... Big crowds, Random celebrities and cool displays. With a pedometer we were able to track  the distance of 8 miles. Some of that was coming from and to the car a couple times but it does show you how much distance can easily be covered going up and down the isles. I have to add that we still had plenty of undiscovered territory. Till next year. 

Me and Stephen Silver

Comic-Con

I will be headed out the the Comic Con this Saturday. I have a pretty busy schedule laid out with a bunch of meet and greets planned. While I am going for the name sake of pleasure, the con is an amazing place for networking.  I have been going enough times where I am starting to create friends and  acquaintances. I now have a tradition of booths to stop at each year. Some artists are just so popular it does not matter how many times you stop by. There are just too many fans  that pass through to remember.   I am usually slow to upload photos and what not but hopefully within a few days after I will have some updates. 

below is a couple of photos from recent years...

Tom Sito, Me and Bill Plympton just kicking it.

Chris Sanders and Me

 

Maya Springboard weeks 1-3

I am now in the third week of Maya Springboard class for Animation Mentor. The first 5 weeks can be considered orientation and grace period to buy and get all supplies needed. Each week we have new access to some part of the site. First part was adding your profile informtion. Second week was to buy a webcam and test it out on the site. I ended up getting the Logitech 9000. A pretty sweet camera. Has all the bells and whistles. As well as the camera I finally purchased the tool of tools that will be used. I have my Maya 8 Complete in the mail and on it's way. On top of that I ordered a book that is highly recommended by the AM crew called Learning Autodesk Maya 2008, Foundation . Since I really have never used Maya I will need all the help I can get.

This week we finally got assigned to a class and a Peer Buddy as they call them. They will be the ones teaching us Maya. I also got to meet fellow students yesterday while attending my first group Q&A. I got to hear fellow studets ask questions about what is expected for the course. Seeing the school in action is very exciting for what is to come. Week 6 though 12 is the portion of the class for Maya training. Once that begins we will have two tasks to complete each week.

The Animation Show year 4

A couple of weeks back I went down town to see the Animation Show festival year 4. A great year with almost a perfect line up of shorts. There was a set of shorts titled Yompie that was less than stellar. I did find the first few funny but ran old quickly. It was a choppy claymation about a character that befriends someone then bites them in the crotch. Also the sound seemed to be on the low quality side. Outside of that I highly recomend seeing it if and when it comes to town. Below are a few reviews for some of the top of my head. If I get time I may review a few more later.

 
Operator
Directed by Matthew Walker
A fun little quirky short about a man calling God on the phone. It has a very simplistic concept that makes up for it with humor and a good feel. After the show I found myself analyzing the story which added more humor and depth to the film. You as a viewer never hear the answers to the man's dispensable questions. This I think possibly leaves some viewers feeling gypped. However I think this ends up being the films strongest angle. It leaves your mind running to try and interpret what possibly could God have said. Try as we may to fill in the answer, the humor comes from the fact we as the viewer will never know for sure. Only that indeed an absolute answer exists.

This Way Up
Directed by Smith and Foulkes
A very interesting misadventure of two undertakers. The art direction is beautiful. The use of a muted color pallet helps set the mood of the film. Even under grim circumstances the story is able to find humor within the situations the characters find themselves in. Smith and Foulkes successfully create a connection to the film and characters in an otherwise uncomfortable situation most try to avoid even thinking about. Even with a dark tone the film leaves you feeling higher than when you started.


Hot Dog
Directed by Bill Plympton
I have really loved this series of shorts by Bill Plympton. I have been a huge fan of all the short films he has created. In particular I find the shorts from the late 80's to be amazing. The first moment I saw "one of those days" at a festival I was hooked on his films. I played the vhs tape Plymptoons till it was barely watch able. Thanks to DVD's I get to see them clear again...but I digress. When Guard Dog played at the Animation Show I got that same feeling as I did many years before. Each one in the series has delivered. We have a dog who only wants to please by doing his job. In doing so he repeatedly screws up with the end result in loosing his job. In Hot Dog we find him applying for the position of fire dog. While interviewing for the job, an emergency call comes in and he rises to the occasion and tags along to help. From there comedy ensues and delivers. Hot Dog is a great short and will sit nicely along side with the previous two.

Wall-E Screening

 

I was invited by ASIFA to go see a Wall•E  screening, where else but on the Disney studio lot in Burbank. I was totally geeking out at all the iconic sites that I have seen through out the years on the Disney shows and or photos. I got to see the famous studios street sign as well as the very animation building where some of the greatest animated films have come to fruition. Had a great time. The movie was great. Had a lot of heart. I can't say movie wise it will beat the Incredibles as my favorite...but I think Wall E as a character will. I think he was a great character to watch. I have seen the movie twice as of writing this and each time was mesmerised by his range of emotions.

Just for fun I figure I would try and rate all the Pixar films in order
of what I think is Least to best. Even the one that is last is like saying what is your least favorite ice cream. Still damn great and I am not going to say no if I get offered a dish.  Also I might add that if you were to ask me this again next week I guarantee it would be different. With that said, here we go....

• 9. A Bugs Life
• 8. Cars
• 7. Ratatouille
• 6. Finding Nemo
• 5. Toy Story 2
• 4. Wall E
• 3. Monsters inc
• 2. Toy Story
• 1. The Incredibles

If you feel so inclined to mention what your favorite rankings are go ahead and click the comments and post them!
 

NEW BLOG

I have created a new blog on the site. Why, you may ask? As I start the Animation Mentor program I am going to be neck deep in the world of animation. Or at least that is what I am planning on. Immersing myself to eat, sleep and breath animation. So this blog is to talk about all things animation.  I plan on posting reviews, sketches, stories, and yes animation samples from class. The more I talk about something, the more I start to understand it. Thus the blog is more for me. However I am pleased to have anyone stop by and read.  All posts about a classes will also be posted into the other new blog. The AM Blog. Since a lot of my class posts will also contain notes it seems better to sort them out on there own pages for easy access.  Once Mr. Babaloo is complete the production blog will go on hiatus. Since I will post sketches in here more than likely the sketchblog will go on hiatus as well.