3D Character II

So here are two of my finals that I finished for this week. The one is a dialogue clip focusing on the reactions of the non speaking character and the other is another cartoon test.

3D Cartoon

I'm enrolled in a 3D cartoon class this quarter and it is awesome!!! I can believe how many of us overlook the capabilities of different animation styles within 3D, but I love making my animations "cartoony". In this class we have developed and studied the capabilities of stretchy rigs and some are a complete joy to use. Although in fair warning, ALL RIGS HAVE THEIR LIMITS! Regardless, I urge you to give a try and branch out a bit. It is very important to know and be able to do naturalistic animation, but don't be afraid to push it even to the point of looking like a cartoon. My thesis incorporates 1940's Golden Age Warner Brothers cartoons, so I am loving this new development of style.

Also, another assignment I am working on in this class is 100 poses with a character in Maya. I will probably use 2-3 different rigs, but if you want to get used to a rig and develop your posing skills try this assignment. Your poses will become a lot stronger and your animations will get better. Another thing I've learned this quarter is that there is NO MAGIC in 3D feature animation. It's all about practice and experience of creating good poses. So here's one of my animations from this class and a snapshot of a pose that I created.



To be honest this is how I feel walking through downtown Savannah.

BILL PLYMPTON

This past weekend, we had the privilege of going to Bill Plympton's master class at SCAD, because he was featuring his new animation at the Savannah Film Festival. It was a great lecture on many things, but mostly on how to be a successful independent animator. Basically he said keep your films 1.) short 2.) cheap 3.) make it funny. I also agree with his general outlook on animation, in that he loves to make people laugh, and he says you do this through observation in life and taking normal characters and putting them into odd situations. Through my thesis research I have found many others who have the same philosophy of comedy and I hope to explore and develop these ideas myself. Anyway, here are a few pictures of Bill and it was nice to get his autograph a couples times too.

TOKYO, JAPAN!!!

Hey I thought I'd share that my roommate and I have the privilege of going on this wonderful trip sponsored by SCAD to Tokyo. We will be seeing a bit everything by sketching and photographing with some talented guest artists. I will get to fulfill my dream of visiting the Ghibli museum and possibly the studio itself. I will be documenting every minute of this trip and producing a short animation based on this experience. Here are a few images of where we're going and I will hopefully keep up to date with the project based on this trip. Here some shots of what I'm looking forward to seeing.

3D Character II (Fight Assignment)

Sorry I have not posted in a LONG time, but my second year of SCAD has been awfully busy. Anyway, here is the first assignment from this quarter. It was a fight assignment working on two character applying force to one another and make it look convincing. I couldn't help but to think of a hockey fight, although the difficulty was getting the feet to slide convincingly. It's not a great piece, but it got me working back into 3D again after a long summer of not animating. Here it is:

Spring Quarter Wrap-Up

So spring quarter at SCAD has been very stressful, but I have learned many valuable lessons as from theory, critical thinking, team environments, and more. Despite all the stress, I have come very far and I wanted to post my finished acting piece for my acting for animators class.


We basically found a play script and recorded voices with some performing art students then animated to it. It was a lot of fun collaborating and I have a much greater appreciation and outlook towards voice acting.

Subtext

I haven't posted in awhile, but I've been meaning to post this thought. Several weeks ago, we had a great lesson in my acting for animators class, where we talked about subtext within a scene. Our friend Tom Jech has touched on this long ago, but the way we approached it in class, it finally started to sink in.

We were given some lines from a play and then there were two blank lines below each one. One line for subtext the other for revealing actions. So the one character says "You're carrying a heavy load there, Steel." Now Steel just walked in with his suitcase full of heavy dumbells. (He's a strong man for the circus and his ring master is talking to him) Now carrying a heavy load... physically YES... but for the subtext he's really saying, "something's bothering you, Steel." Then the actions could be varied depending upon the character... if he's sympathetic he will stop practicing with his whip and approach Steel... if not, he will continue practicing with his whip and maybe give him a quick glance.

We then did this for each line between the characters, and what I discovered was your strongest moments are when a character will say one thing but really they mean something else. Great characters moments can definitely evolve when one is in conflict with him/herself or a situation. So when thinking about the "SUBTEXT" of your scene, always write down what is my character really saying or thinking. You can start to really consider yourself a successful animator when you can fully get that character to think.

Another quick idea that has been bothering me is what my one professor calls "on the nose acting." The best way to explain it is to look at the moments in Family Guy when they poke fun at the way William Shatner acts. He's all over the place and starts to become very mime like. Now I've had the privilege of living with a deaf roommate and a lot of times when we communicate I do spell out or there is a logical sign for the words that I want to say. However; this is not how you animate. If I were to say, "I'm going to the store after lunch." That line does not need a separate sign for going (making a guy walk with your two fingers), one for store (rubbing fingers together to indicate money), and lunch (eating motion). To me that can all be summed up into one gesture, because that is more natural when thinking about acting and human behavior. Too many times I see gesture upon gesture and it just looks really bad.

My buddy Tom Jech has many other great posts about acting on his blog. So check those out here. Also the one book we have for the acting class is called Acting for Animators by Ed Hooks. By far one of the best books I have read for character animation. I highly recommend it.

3D Character Animation

My favorite class this quarter was character animation. Wow! I learned so much about workflow, hold poses, in-betweens, when to apply the squash and stretch in a full body, or that wonderful whip/ wave principle.

Anyway, I will also be taking an acting for animators class next quarter, and I can't wait to learn more about acting choices and how to apply them. This is my dialogue clip for my final. I'm happy with it but would like to have fixed a few things back in blocking 2 unfortunately. Here it is.

Drawing in Motion

So here's my final for drawing in motion. This by far was one of my most difficult class ever. I learned so much, yet it will take a lot more time to develop the needed skills from this class. If there's one thing I learned, it's OBSERVATION IS KEY.

Here are a few good videos about observation, drawing and animation. It's probably material we've all heard, but it never hurts to reinforce it all. Check them out here.

Anyways, here is my final for drawing in motion. It was a hand drawn animation in flash with photoshop painted backgrounds. I'm pretty happy with it, but there is always things to make better.

Advanced Modeling/ Design

So the quarter is wrapping up and I thought I'd start posting my final projects to share. This is my final from a class I had to take called Advanced Modeling and Design, where you could honestly do anything you wanted for the final, but I decided to throw together a model to break up all of my animation assignments.

This project was a nice "on the side" project. I sometimes find it hard to keep motivated in animation and it does help to have others things to keep you busy. This includes, digital paintings, modeling, drawing, or even reading a good book. There was a great post about this on Carlos Beana's blog (who you should check out... I think he has some great work). But check out his blog here and look for the post titled motivation... it's a good read.



I'll get my other finals posted soon. Hope you enjoy it.

Reaction

It's been awhile since I posted work, so here it goes. We just finished a acting/ reaction piece in 3D character class which I didn't have as much time as I had hoped to finish. It definitely still has issues, but I learned a lot and I can see some of the good aspects of it as well. So here's the final playblast.

Coraline

So just like every other animation website and blog, I must give my review of Laika's latest masterpiece. Personally "I LOVED IT!" I was not thrilled about watching it in the stereoscopic 3D, but I guess I must not judge an animation alone by it's technical traits. In general I don't like the new 3D experience, especially when the movements are so fast. It does just become a lot of material to give on a headache. However; I think they have started to tame it so that it enhances the important aspects of a film and push the scene. I especially noticed this when she walk into the theatre with a flashlight. The old throw things in your face doesn't impress me but the push further back into a scene really does. As far as story goes, I can't wait to get my hand on Neil Gaiman's book and devour it. The story was rich and enticing... I particularly loved Coraline.


They did such a great job in the early scenes of portraying a 7-8 year old girl full of youthful spirit. Her character is absolutely adorable. I say Coraline is a must see even if it's in "true 3D."

Another good article on this new 3D is the review of Pixar's new film Up and I feel they have the right take on the whole situation. Plus from what I've read I believe Up will be another film with a very rich story and wonderful characters. Definitely a film that will blow Wall-E right out of the water. Check out the full article here.

Also for any who read this blog... I've been trying to formulate ideas for my graduate thesis in animation, and I know this true 3D topic is quite big right now. I have a couple other ideas as well, but if anyone has any thoughts please comment or feel free to email me. Thanks!

I Love Running and Animation

I was checking out a previous SCAD student's work and I stumbled on this posting. Here is what you get when you breed two of my passions.


Origami In the Pursuit of Perfection from MABONA ORIGAMI on Vimeo.

The Pull

So the hop exercise turned out to be total bollix, but we've been working on a weight exercise for character animation and I think I've been able to make it 'decent'. It is no where near being really good, but I've learned a lot and hopefully I'm working towards some good 3D character animation.

Yawn

Here's a rendered facial animation that I worked on this past week.

Hop

So I'm also in a character animation class this quarter and I must say I absolutely love it and the teacher is amazing. The first assignment is a hop from one foot. Here's my 'tweened' version. Feedback is more than welcome!!!

Muybridge Study

So here is one of the projects assigned within the first week back at SCAD. A hand drawn study of Muybridge's photographs. Unfortunately I got the horse, which was quite difficult to draw, but I ended up with a funny little animation to laugh at among friends. So here it is, but the sounds are a little harsh so turn the sound up or down depending on how you feel.

Christmas 2008

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but I meant to get this one in particular up sooner. Personally I love when animators literally describe our capabilities as animators. My friends did this in their demo reel to Fjorg I think 2 years ago and it was a hilarious (that and the fact that they're all excellent animators!). If you haven't seen it check it out Fjorg Demoreel. I also wanted to comment on this seeing as Apple did a similar gag in their latest holiday commercial.



I found it to be quite funny, but then again I've always been a 'Mac Guy'. These types of animations are clever and remind us of the capabilities we have as animators. Anyways, don't stop animating and have fun with it.