Finally finished my final version for theme 1 (tennis serve) assignment. Turned out ok. It has a few rough patches that if time permits I would like to go back in and fix. The main problem was all the Gimbal lock issues I had. The definition of gimbal lock can be found here. What it means to me in this case. All loss of control over the arms. It is a but that has to be dealt with in cg. You have to go in to every frame and re-position the arms to where the need to be. Sounds easy but it can be labor intensive. With that said I spent a lot of time correcting this problem rather than polishing it up. Part of this problem is I waited too long to go into spline mode. A lesson learned for the next assignment.
Rhinoceroses sketch
Here is a loose sketch of a rhinoceroses I did. It took me roughly 10 minutes.
Animation Mentor Movie Posters
At the begining of each week at AM I try to get out and say hi to fellow student workspaces. Sometimes I don't have a lot to say other than a simple "have a great week". Which is cool, but I felt I wanted to do it with a little more umph. So I started creating mock movie posters using the AM models Stu and Stewie. Between class 2 and 3 I have started to gather a small collection. In the last week I have been hit up by some old and a few new students who did not see any of the previous posters. So I finally got around to creating a gallery. Please note that these are using the rigs owned by Animation Mentor. All other aspects of the posters are parodies and intended for fun . Click Here or the image below to see all in the gallery.
Theme 1 Week 1 story board sketches
Here are the story sketches for class 3's first assignment. I decided to pick a theme involving tennis. I first filmed reference of the action I will be animating. Then I studied the shot over and over. Next I picked out where the key frame poses are in the video. From there I sketched up those poses. Next I will use those sketched poses and the video reference to start the blocking phase.
1st Day of Class 3!
Had my first session for class 3! My mentor this time around will be Joe Mandia. He currently is working in video games but has an extensive film career as well. From just this session it looks as if he has a lot of fun in class. Not to be confused with the quality of work expectations. From his opening lecture I can tell this is going to be very challenging.
This time around we get to pick the actions for our assignments. We will have 3 total assignments. We have two choices. Ani-Jam or Ani-Excersize. The first is selecting a theme for all three from a list provided. One example of a theme is boot camp. We now have props to choose from! So if one was to choose boot camp they can now select obstacles provided to interact with. I have a lot of choices that I need to buckle down on and decide on. Class went smooth and looks like I will have a live bunch of peers. Which is always great because you get to feed off the energy!.
Sketch Vlog: Cartoon Head sketch
Below I have recorded a video sketching up a cartoon head in fast motion. This is the first of possibly many.
Latest Progress reel
Here is the latest progress reel containing all assignments from both Class 2 and 1.
Finished Assignment 3, Back Flip Off A Bench
Here is the final animation assignment for Class 2. This is the first one that I rendered. There are still a few small tweaks left to finish if I get the time. Otherwise it was good to turn in. I learned a ton on this particular assigment. Things seemed to just clicked this time around. Lets hope they stay clicked!
Animating a Celebration...Fist Pump and Punch
I had a very strong start in my first week of blocking. The best so far of Class 2! Something just clicked this time. What ever it is I hope it stays clicked! The only weak part was the ending. After Stewie does his back flip he raises his hands in celebration. It was very generic and repetitive. While I was well aware of it being
lackluster it felt incomplete with out it. The main problem was I added it in at the zero hour and it showed. I do think I was better off leaving it in if nothing more than to indicate to my mentor something needed to be there. So this round I went about doing it up proper by filming reference and sketching up key poses.
New UP Trailer from Pixar
An awesome new theatrical trailer for Pixar's UP has been released via Yahoo. Looks very entertaining. Check it out below. Can't wait!
Revisions for Assignment 3 Blocking
Got my revisions for my blocking portion of the assignment back from my mentor. Got some good praise which is nice because I did work hard on this one. I got some great feedback to work on as I transition into the blocking plus phase. While I always get great feedback for revisions, the mentor's know there is only so much one can do in one week. So the more things you have off the broader sometimes the feedback can be. This time I was able to get more specific feedback with the small things that help polish the over all performance.
However this is only week one of three in the animation portion of the assignment. One thing I have to be careful of is not to muck it up while doing the revisions. It is very easy while adding in keys and changing poses to end up with some unwanted jerky popping motions.
I will now take a breath and admire my progress and then it is back to work full throttle onto blocking plus!
Assignment 3 Planning
It's onto assignment 3, the last one for this class. I decided to choose a back flip off a box/object. Below is one of many for my reference video I found on YouTube (assuming it has not been taken down).
Video has been removed.
Here are my sketches based off of studying the reference video. It is going to be tricky for sure trying to get this to look right. When studying the path of action for the hips and head you'll notice them moving in a crazy way you would not think it should. Trying to nail that and make it look natural will be the challenge for sure.
Assignment 2 - Jump onto then off a box
Assignment two I chose to have an armless Stewie jump onto then off a box. Like the last assignment this was a four week assignment. First week was again all about planning. First thing was to film or find your reference. In this case it was easier to film it myself. Next was to study the reference and start to thumbnail out the key poses. The next week was to start blocking in the rough animation and eventuall move to blocking plus where you start to spline. The last week it should be splined and polished as you can. The arcs kicked my butt a little on the first pass. After some great direction from my mentor and fellow students I was able to get it flowing a bit better. Over all while there are some little things left to work on I am pretty happy with it...for now anyway ;) .
Finished animation
Me attempting to act out the shot.
Me attempting to act out the shot.
Planning Sketches
Disney's 'The Archive Series: Story' Book
I got this book a few months back when it came out and thought I would recommend it by posting a little about it. I have to say it is a great book for any animation/Disney/art fan. Out of the 224 pages in the book there is very little in terms of words. It is all photos of the art pertaining to the story dept. of Disney. The book starts from the early shorts up to around 2002.
I like how many of the photos shown are as the art was used during production. As opposed to cleaning them up by taking out hand written notes or hiding acme hole punches . A way to think of it is like a scrap book and the art is pasted on the page in the book. You can even see the slight imperfections on some of the older art. Masking tape, paper discoloring and weathered edges. This is not to say that the book is filled with bad images hard to see. All the art is scanned in and presented with the best possible quality.
Apparently John Lassetter was involved in digitizing all the art in the Disney archives (or morgue as it was called back in the day). As he was going through it he felt there was so much great art it would be a shame if only Disney artists were to view it. This is the first in a series.
Lassetter had mentioned in an interview that the seconds would be The Archive Series : Animations. This of course will be a collection or work pertaining to all things the art of Disney animation. I was very impressed with the Story edition and am eagerly looking forward to the next volume. I highly recommend this book to animators, artists, animation fans and collectors.
36th Annie Awards Recap
What a year it was for animation. I found it was a lot of tough choices in almost all categories on who to vote for this year. Which is good because if it were easy it would probably mean there was a lot of mediocre animation. Despite all the tough choices there was one clear run away winner. That was Dreamworks Kung Fu Panda. Even taking the top prize for best movie beating out "WALL-E" and "Waltz With Bashir". They took home 10 awards in all! It was a well deserved win for the Dreamworks team. It was a great movie.
Over all the awards ceremony was very entertaining. Tom Kenny was the host. He is a veteran now on hosting the Annies. He did a great job and seemed almost at best when improving. I think a true host/comedian is rated high by not how well they deliver funny jokes, rather how they pull out of ones that tank. Jokes are inevitably going to fail. In Tom's case he was just as funny when he bombed as when his jokes were a hit.
The Night started off with an opening monologue from Tom Kenny.
He even kicked into a nice comical musical number.
Some Highlights were Nick Park getting the Winsor McCay life time achievement award. Director Henry Selick (Coraline) was the presenter honoring Nick.
Nick Park was very humble and charming receiving the award to a standing ovation. Nick Park also took home the award for best short film for "A Matter of Loaf and Death".
Some notable presenters of the evening were Fred Willard, Brad Garrett, James Hong, Seth Green, Donald Faison and Breckin Meyer along with many more.
While Seth Green was a presenter he was a big winner along with his team for Robot Chicken.
I think one of the big moments of the evening was the Winsor McCay award for John Lasseter. Billy Crystal came out to present the award. He had a very funny yet modest speach. He mentioned how he turned down the part for Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story. After the huge success that it became Billy mentioned how he would say yes to a part offered even before knowing what it was. At one point proving the level of friendship Billy called John something along the likes of a Pudgy round faced man who wears loud Hawaiian shirts.
Then came a fantastic clip showcasing John's career and how he changed animation. When John took the stage the audience was on their feet applauding. He delivered a very endearing speech. His one stand out moment of his speech was advice passed onto him from the late Ollie Johnston... "What is the character feeling". That regardless of medium the animation was it always comes down basics.
As the final award for best movie was announced we discovered then and there 2009 was the year of the Panda. Several members of the team were in house and all went on stage to accept the award.
As the evening came to a close I was very happy have been apart of the process and to see the out come live. Not to mention to be in the same room with so many legends and amazing talent.
Just walking in the halls before and after is such a thrill. You turn your head to the right or left and there next to you are some of the biggest talents in the industry. It is a great feeling for one night to share an amazing event and mingle with like minds of animation!
Thumbnail sketches : WEIGHT AND BALANCE
The sketches were part of week 1's assignment to show the planning process for how I have decided to execute my motion test on Weight and Balance. I decided to have the model Ballie do a big step to the side. For this I had to create thumbnails of ballie that represent a thoughtful approach to planning the animation. The whole project spans the course of 4 weeks. I will have a more in depth view of all 4 weeks in the Class 2 blog once the assignment is finished.
101 Dalmatians Platinum Edition DVD
I finally got myself a copy of the 101 Dalmatians Platinum Edition dvd. I have enjoyed almost all the Disney Platinum Series released so far. They usually pack them with great extras. There have been a few duds that have less emphasis on movie making while focusing more on games and songs 
This is the first time in a Looooong time since I last saw it. I certainly was not studying animation the last time. I thought the human characters were animated amazingly well.
I think Disney's animators were in peak form during this era.
Another thing I like about this era was the use of the Xerography. 
The last thing I will mention is about the backgrounds and use of color. There are some backgrounds that create such a great mood and feel.
Many background shots are so simplistic in terms of color.
Like the one to the right...the line work is very busy. However the colors stay very monochromatic to create a sense of warmth.
Disney Full Screen dvd's...The reason why
I want to bring up a topic to shed some light on it. I noticed that the last few dvd editions Disney had been releasing were listed as an aspect ratio 4:3 (1.33:1) only. Which in essence is full screen. My first inclination was to boycott buying the dvd's and hold out until they hopefully release them in widescreen.
I was very disappointed that they would do that since they had been so good on releasing widescreen in the past. After all that is the way the creators wanted you to see them, right? In order to fit into full screen you have to crop off the sides and then pan and scan to get the focal points. Inevitably you can't get everything in at the same time thus loosing some of the image. I finally attempted to do some research as to why when discovering that more of the upcoming films were to be released in this ratio as well. What I found out is in the early 60's Disney actually released these films in the theater as 4:3 (1.33:1) ratio.
What you see on the dvd is actually as it was shown in the theaters and in fact has not been cropped to fit your tv.
While some theaters did show it widescreen, they only matted to appear as if it were. Moving forward from 1961 with the release of 101 Dalmatians all the way to the Fox and the Hound in 1981 most were released in theaters full screen ratio.
So if you happen to be disappointed with all the recent lack of widescreen Disney releases you can now rest assure that you are still seeing all that was intended. I still give a warning to do research first. Make sure there is no version listed either way. If it says full screen then chances are there is a widescreen out there.
Nominations for 2008 Annie Awards
It's that time of year again. Voting for the Annie awards! Packages start showing up at the door with screeners. Being apart of ASIFA has it's perks. Although I do take the voting serious. I actually created a grading list of sorts that I fill out while watching the films. It helps me decide when the films are very close. This year I have to say that Dreamworks has done a fantastic job with Kung Fu Panda. I think Wall-E and Panda are going to be a tough call. I still have not seen all the films in that category as of yet. Hoping to see Bolt tonight.
Below is the list of production categories. See the full list here www.annieawards.org
2008 ANNIE AWARD NOMINATIONS BY CATEGORY
www.annieawards.org
Monday, December 1, 2008
PRODUCTION CATEGORIES
Best Animated Feature
Bolt - Walt Disney Animation Studios
Kung Fu Panda - DreamWorks Animation
$9.99 - Sherman Pictures/Lama Films
Wall-E - Pixar Animation Studios
Waltz With Bashir - Sony Pictures Classics/Bridgit Folman, Les Films D'ici, Razor Films
Best Animated Home Entertainment Production
Batman: Gotham Knight - Warner Bros. Animation
Christmas Is Here Again - Easy To Dream Entertainment
Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs - The Curiosity Company in association with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Justice League: The New Frontier - Warner Bros. Animation
The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning - DisneyToon Studios
Best Animated Short Subject
Glago's Guest - Walt Disney Animation Studios
Hot Dog - Bill Plympton Studio
Presto - Pixar Animation Studios
Sebastian's Voodoo - Joaquin Baldwin
Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death - Aardman Animations Ltd.
Best Animated Television Commercial
Giant Monster - Curious Pictures
Long Legs Mr. Hyde - Curious Pictures
Rotofugi: The Collectors - Screen Novelties
Sarah - Z Animation
United Airlines "Heart" - Duck Studios
Best Animated Television Production
King of the Hill - 20th Century Fox TV
Moral Orel - ShadowMachine
Phineas and Ferb - Disney Television Animation
Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II - ShadowMachine
The Simpsons - Gracie Films/Fox TV
Best Animated Television Production Produced for Children
A Miser Brothers Christmas - Warner Bros. Animation
Avatar: The Last Airbender - Nickelodeon
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends "Destination Imagination" - Cartoon Network Studios
The Mighty B! - Nickelodeon
Underfist: Halloween Bash - Cartoon Network Studios
Best Animated Video Game
Dead Space - Electronic Arts
Kung Fu Panda - Activision
Wall-E - Heavy Iron Studios, a division of THQ, Inc.
Chuck Jones and Me
