Class 4 - Week 5

Final polish for my shot, after recieving an awesome crit from Mike i have gone away and made a few changes to my original. All in all it has helped the shot feel more clear and it is far more readable to what i had originally. The big emphasis this week was to make my poses and gestures more clear and readable, to add to Mikes crit we also had a lecture with Pixar animator Andrew Gordon on body language and gestures. Andrew spoke about how different traits of a gesture or action can mean different things to our audience, also stated the best library for gestures is everyday life...look around see how people act and store what you see or note it down.

A very hard week but one that i have learned alot from, i do expect a few fixes for the shot which i will upload next week...time now for me to find some dialogue for my next shot.

Rock On

Class 4 - Week 4

Week 4 oh man what a week...it has been great and busy and the feedback i have recieved has helped alot. This week we had a relief mentor as Mike was moving to Seattle for work...so Mario Pochat stepped up to the plate and hit a home run, great Q&A and awesome crit given on my work.

Here is my first polish pass of my shot for this week...a fair bit has changed due to the frame range and needless to say i am happy where it is heading...so here is my shot for the week.

Rock On

Class 4 - Week 3

Another week of AM gone dam time is going by quick... It is true what they say at AM the more feedback you give the more you will receive and by doing this you learn a lot more and also pick up on areas you have missed in your shot. My peers and mentor have been a big help this week in helping me address the areas where my animation was lacking.

Due to the feedback i received the characters hat is gone and the animation has changed slightly, trying to portray an emotion change without facial animation is difficult and when you are limiting yourself with prop use it is even harder...but that's where the animator comes out in you.

This week we also had an awesome lecture with Rebecca Stockley about improv acting...a really good insight of how to get into character. It was really great hearing all that she had to say about differnet types of movement which can determine what typ of character you are animating or trying to become.

Ok time to get back to it...this week it is time to spline away!

Rock On

Class 4 - Week 2

Initial blocking for my first acting piece....only have key poses and a few breakdowns to begin with and some rough timing. From the feedback i have recieved i have been told it will be hard to try get the emotion across and story without props...but it is a challenge i am willing to take. I am not going to outline the story here until the final week i really want my audience to understand what is going on without knowing the story.

Next comes blocking plus....so lets get to it.

Rock On

Class 4 - Week 1

So Class 4 here we come.....time to move from Body Mechanics into Acting, needless to say i am a bit nervous as i know my acting choices at times have been a little cliche....so really going to try push myself harder this term.

This terms class mentor is Mike Belzer, Mike started out as a Stop motion animator and has worked on such movies as " Nightmare Before Christmas" and "James and the Giant Peach" from there he gained his first taste in CGI at Pixar before moving onto Disney where he worked for 12 years. At Disney Mike was the Supervising Animator on such projects as "Meet the Robinsons" and "Bolt".

I am rerally looking forward to learning all i can from Mike as from previous students i have heard he really helps you grasp the character you are trying to portray, their emotion and back story...can not wait for this term.

Rock On

Class 3 - Week 11-12

Ok i been abit lazy getting my work up from the last two weeks so i apologize now that Class 3 is finished i been away from my machine as much as possible...time to relax and re-charge for my next AM venture Class 4 - Introduction to Acting" really looking forward to this class.

So back to Class 3 well what can i say about Advanced Body Mechanics....it is worth it, i can not explain how much i have learned by having two classes of Body Mechanics it has been a great experience and now i feel alot more confident when it comes to animating action shots. My mentor Drew and my class mates this term have been great they have helped me out so much and i thank them all for their time and feedback. The pace of the class in general was steady it was not overpowering and with each lecture and Q&A you learned something new, so overall i give AM 10/10 for having two Body Mechanics classes it is well worth it.

So now that the term is finished i have put together my shots in a progress reel below so you can see and if you like tell me what you think. I am generally happy with what i have achieved with my shots and i know now from my experience how important planning your shot out first before even looking at MAYA is...so now it is time to take a break and re-charge for the term ahead.

Rock On

Class 3 - Week 10

Ok so here is my first polish pass of my shot, so far it is progressing in a positive manner although i know from watching it i have a few areas to attend to (Spacing, Arcs, Ease in/out) but they will all come in my next pass.

Had an awesome Q&A this week with Drew it was really cool to hear about other students work methods in the class. Also I really like the AM concept of interacting with student from other classes it is such a benefit to learn so much form each other.

The lecture this week was from Eric Goldberg this guy is a genius, Eric went through a shot in 2d highlighting how he goes about timing and spacing in his shots. The lecture was super helpful for me so now it is time to put all i am learned from it into my final polish pass.

Rock On