Kung Fu Panda moving hold

I think "the kung fu staring contest" in the new Kung Fu Panda 2 teaser is an awesome example for a moving hold. What do people think?

final assignment

A couple of things in this post...

1. The final assignment.

• 2 Characters.
• Fixed Camera.
• 10 seconds max
• topic: pass a box from one character to another in the scene.

My instinct is to give you a set, 2 characters and a box, but please comment if you feel strongly about using a custom rig. One thing I don't want is a week to go by, and you've modded out your character at the expense of animation. Oh, and no wrap deformers. I'll let you know tomorrow the exact parameters.

2. Playblast your music pieces for tomorrow and friday's class with the following parameters.

• 800x450, quicktime h.264, maximum quality
• show polygons only in the playblast window
• name your shot "Shot#_name" so we can put them together and see how they look.

3. Tips from you guys

I took a look at the teacher reviews, which had some pretty low scores in both sections. As we're in the home stretch, I'm putting it back to you guys as to what you feel would help you get what you feel you need out of this class. The ones that concerned me were

Does the instructor teach the skills and content listed on the syllabus?

Does the instructor clearly explain the main points of each demonstration?

Does the instructor create a class environment that makes you feel he or she is actively engaged in the class?

These were areas that had ratings of 1/5. It is a challenge to teach this many students in a 3hr session, and it seems many of you feel you aren't getting what you need. I actually structured this syllabus so that each exercise fed into the next. cycles to get character movement. the turnaround, to get weight. moving hold to get a sense of characters being alive in space, then onto a music piece to use what we've learned to explore hitting the important beats of a scene, then wrapping up with a pantomime acting piece, using what we've learning about emphasizing key moments, combined with good weight to make for an entertaining final piece.

So, I'm kicking it back to you guys...how can I make the remains of the semester more effective? Which areas of the syllabus do you feel I haven't taught, or could be more effective with. What would make you feel more engaged in the class? Any help you can provide me to be a more effective teacher would be really welcome.

relink from Sonia

great timing/beat ref

JGallant_11secondclub_Feb.2010 from Jamie Gallant on Vimeo.

inspiration for the home stretch

things to come

A couple of quick things.

Friday class...next week you will be moved to Thursday the 11th. If you can't make it, you can come the following tuesday, but let me know. For those of you that missed the class due to lack of info, don't worry about it.

Assignment.
Our final assignment will be a pantomime exercise. Get excited, because this is going to roll all our knowledge gained so far into a bit of acting.

I'll roll it off next week. It will be similar to the last 2 assignments in that I'll set up a set for you, but I'm going to keep some of the interpretation a lot looser. Stay tuned

How to feel miserable as an artist?

Thought of sharing this, thinking it would help us overcome our fears in animation :)

Keri Smith (author of several books on creativity) wrote this a few years ago - and it became a hit with many artists who go through the frustration of 'not getting it perfectly right' or 'good is not good enough'. I'm guilty of quite a few points!

As a closeup