Moving on over ...

I am going to move all my blogging and file hosting over here. chad moore dot net.

Come have a look see.

Assignment 3

So assignment three had two aspects to it. First off, pose the provided character in an excited pose. Of course we were to seek out and observe the real world and sketch to use as reference. Second was to animate a bouncing ball. I have animated about 5 bouncing ball exercises in the past. The bouncing ball is probably the most standard animation practice exercise. It sounds easy, but it really lets you concentrate on timing and other principles.

I'll post up the assignments later, there on another computer.

Session 03 - planning

So session 03 is starting up and I am eagerly anticipating these lectures, comments and critiques. You see I want to improve my drawing and eventually my 2D animation skills.

Also I know from my own experience that the more you plan your animation before touching the computer the better end result is. I want to learn to plan better. I can't wait to watch the lecture. More later.

Updating the pose

I received some great feedback about this pose from some of my fellow mentees. Thanks all. I guess I was trying too hard to math the pose that I drew, and not "Run with it". This is what using reference (drawing, people watching, video reference, films) is all about. Take little bits of info, and "run with them". Get to the heart of them, sell them. As for how this really translates to animation, this will yield a greater Appeal in your characters, and help you walk the delicate line of exaggeration.

Below are the edits, I included a silhouette of each angle as well. The silhouette allow for clear "Reading" of poses. Can the viewer tell what is happening in the pose, simply by seeing a shadow? If yes, good pose. If not, tweak pose.








This is why its so vital to have all kinds of people look at your work. Most people can tell what's wrong with an animation. We all (knowingly or not) understand human and animal motion on some unconscious level. Most folks can't say whats not right about an aimation if it is flawed, but they can tell its just not working. Things like animation mentor and posting up your wip's to cgtalk and cg-char are great ways to get feedback, but ask your non-animation friends and family. Or that guy walking down the street.

Wow what a ramble.

Assignment 002

The focus of the assignment was to go out and sketch some poses of people doing what they normally do. The emphasis was to capture the pose, not render a beautiful drawing. "Gesture drawing" is a common way for artisits to start thier work, and a great way for animators so capture a pose. BTW - I start a gesture drawing class in a week - i'll be posting a lot of the drawings i attempt therein.

One of the great tools in an animators arsenal is the power of observation. We record little bits of information about people. How people walk, hand gestures, eye movement, etc. We are to store it away in our minds filing cabinet, and call it up later to really help create convincing characters. Drawing and people watching really help an animator tuck all that info away for later.

My drawing skills have a long way to go, but you have to start somewhere!

Let me know what you think about the pose.

Cheers.

Video chat 2

We just finished up video chat number 2 with our super mentor - Bret Parker. Bret covered some tips on the 12 principles of animation. Squash and Stretch, Solid Drawing, and Appeal mostly. The class was lively with some very good questions and tips.

IMHO memorizing these 12 principles isn't enough. They are so intertwined it is hard to separate them at all. I am glad Bret refreshed my memory about considering force(s) in animation. If you can understand the physical forces of an object you should be able to "see" where the individual principles come into play.

Bret also showed us some thumbnail drawings. Thumbnails are a way an animator plans out what is happening in his/her shot.

Here is a example I found from the cg-char web forum. Scroll down a it to see the image. Cg-char is a must see BTW. These thumbnails are from Shawn Kelly, animator at ILM and animation mentor co-founder.

Those drawings communicate the action, and are simple and quick to do. My own drawing skills are a long way off from this, but it's just a matter of time and practice. I have to learn to stay "On Model". In due time, in due time.

Here is an image I am thinking of using for our assignment...

Animation Mentor on Variety.com

OK, for all of you who are asking whats this Animation Mentor all about? Check this out. It about sums it up. The energy at AMO is making my head spin.

Variety.com - Mentor program animates hopefuls