Term 2, Assignment 3, Week 3

Here's the Blocking Plus of my dance from the previous weeks!





Still rough around the edges, but that's why this week is for polish! Yaaaay!

End of Assignment 2 and Beginning of Assignment 3 -- the last!

My final sneak! I am generally pretty happy with where I got it. If I have time this week I may do a revision.





Here's the reference and planning for the final assignment of Term 2! I chose to do a dance, and I'll be working on it until the end of the term. (Warning: The sound is a bit loud on these.)

The song is Run Devil Run by Girls' Generation (SNSD).

Here's my blocking with and without the music (because I couldn't resist):

Sneaky Walk! Week 6

Okay! Back to normal! Since the shenanigans with my laptop, I've been flipping through three different computers and it has taken a toll on the organizational system I had in place. I had been waiting to update until I got everything back where I wanted it, but then I figured I should just go ahead and post things out of order.

So this is my current assignment. It's a sneaky walk! It's our first assignment moving away from Ballie and it's been great.




I am pretty happy with it. It was originally way more cartoony, as I've been wanting to experiment with that, but my mentor is right in pulling me back in. There's time for that later; this class is about body mechanics.

Overall, I'm excited to finish it up this coming week and move on to the next assignment! :)

Term Two! Weeks 1 and 2

The second term of Animation Mentor started on the 2nd and it has been awesome. My mentor this term is Ray Ross who works at Blue Sky (Horton Hears a Who, Ice Age, etc). He is kind of amazing. I've gotten both e-critiques back on Sunday so far (zomg) and he answers all the questions he can. So happy. :D

Our first assignment this term is actually due in Week 4. Last week we shot reference and did planning, this week we blocked. This coming week is for roughs, and next week... we finalize. I really like this method of animating. I feel like I've finally gotten a hang of blocking in stepped mode, and the extra time makes me feel like I actually am doing my best, rather that the best I could do in the amount of time given.

Without further ado... my assignments:

 

I'll post my reference later. My laptop decided that it needs a new DC in port, and so Dell is having me ship it back to the lab to get it replaced. Thank goodness for warranties, but it's still a pain. I'm using my boyfriend's laptop for most things now, but my reference is still on my broken computer. ;-;

This week's assignment was blocking!

Ray is a bit tougher on grading than Anthony was, but he still really liked it and gave me some helpful tips. Looking forward to this next week. :)

Woops! and a whole lot of updates!

So... apparently I'm dumb and have been clicking save instead of publish for the past couple weeks. That's what comes of stress, I suppose. Instead of posting them all as separate entries, I've consolidated and added new info to make one long super entry. So here we are! I just turned in my last assignment for Term 1 and it's been a hell of a ride. We have one more week of feedback, then two weeks off for Christmas. I'll be starting Term 2 in Santa Barbara, hopefully with an apartment (just made some calls cross fingers!).

On we go to the past month of updates!

For poses we've had to do...

Physical strength:

My main note on this was to give the hands more shape and to make the weight come straight down, rather than at an angle.

Next was concern:

Anthony liked my poses a lot this week. his only note was (again) more shape on the hands and to turn the kid's body a little towards the camera.

Up next was exhaustion:

He told me to straighten the leg, but that he really liked the shoulders. :)

And finally, balance:

Haven't gotten feedback on this on yet.

On to animations!

Last post, I went over my obstacle course revision and my pendulum.

So here's the pendulum revision (not required, but I had time so I did it anyway):

And the assignment for that week (with our fancy substitute mentor) was the ball and tail! I used reference of a sugar glider with stereotypy. Just kept doing backflips over and over.

Next was our first biped animation! We had to do a vanilla walk cycle. No bells or whistles, just good body mechanics. This was a two week assignment. The first week, we blocked it out (stepped), and the second week we refined it. I forgot to upload my blocking, but here's the final revision:

Much more difficult than anticipated. I managed though!

The same week I did my final revision for that, I blocked out my personality walk. That is, a walk that has character. I found some awesome reference from the Dean Martin show (will be included later).

We did the blocking in side view:

This one was probably the hardest I've done so far. It was not working and not working and I started over three or four times. I finally went back to incremental save 14 (out of 37) and started over one last time... and it worked! I don't know how, but it did.

So here is my final final personality walk, with reference and in side and 3/4 views:

I believe this sums up my experience the past two weeks...

This next week I get feedback on everything I've done so far. It's been a good term. Busybusybusy. But good. I have learned so much and I think I ended it on a really high note. :)

Week 6

Apparently I was a week behind in the titles of my posts! I don't know how I managed that.

Anyway, week 6 has been quite excellent so far. I still haven't gotten a good schedule down (in that I do most of my work Friday/Saturday/Sunday, because that's when I have time), but I'm definitely improving.

This week, I did the pendulum and a revision of my obstacle course.

Here they are:



The platform gave me so much trouble. It was insane. I spent 45 minutes on the pendulum bit, and two days on the platform. Does that seem right to you?



I realized too late that I followed the first set of instructions my mentor gave me instead of the revised set. It still looks leaps and bounds better, though, so I hope it'll be okay.

And, as a special treat to myself for making it halfway through Class 1 of Animation Mentor, I put together a compilation of the animations I've done so far!



I have been improving and it's amazing to see.

Week 4 & 5 - Obstacle Course & Pendulum

Week 4 was craaaaaazy. The last IGF crunch for CvZ and Halloween and a difficult assignment. I am ashamed to say I know I could have done better on this one. Thank goodness for revisions.

Here are my sketches and final pose for "devastation":

Anthony said to make it less profile/symmetrical, but overall that it was good. I keep on putting too much stock in silhouettes, apparently.

And my 'final' obstacle course ball:





It's not amazing. The bounces are a bit jumpy and the timing is off. The ending doesn't hold to proper physics either. I need to revise it for next week, so expect to see something prettier sometime soon.

Onto Week 5! A better week, a happier week!

This week... we're doing overlap! Woo! Not to toot my own horn all Mazeppa-style, but this is one of my strengths.

And here we are, my wonderful planning for this assignment! (I would show my reference video, but I didn't put on pants before filming it.)

And there we go. Next week is Tailor, the bouncing ball & tail!