rolling stones music breakdown

This is pretty fascinating

we've talked a lot about interlocking, overlapping rhythms and how it pertains to pacing. All this and more...

(link from Steve McManus)

The Proposal: the final assignment

I made a blocking of the final assignment. This is that the guy proposes to his girl friend, and she jumps in joy, runs and falls down. I'm wondering how to make the camera angle good poses. I appreciate if you'd give me any comments. :)

Jazz Piece Final

I've made a few more changes to kind of loosen him up a bit and fix the problem areas. Let me know what you think?

CTN Expo diaries

Hi Jeff! First I need to thank you for teaching us a lot of good stuff this semester - many animation demos at CTN told almost the same things we learned in class. Things beyond the survival kit, things that can only be understood through a demo and practice.

CTN was fun! I made the big transition from attendee to exhibitor this year, and it was very encouraging to see people buy the artwork/toys at our desk. Jerry Beck (Cartoon Brew) offered to publish an exclusive review of my short film after I finish it.


At the same time it was a big reality check from some studios when they'd look at my portfolio and say "This is great but it's not what we're looking for" or "Well, try more" or sometimes straight away "We are sorry". I got to know what exactly each studio was looking for (stuff beyond the things they mention on their website) - so hopefully I'll be able to tailor my reel/portfolio by next year.

I got to meet the amazing 'Moebius' (Jean Henri Gaston Giraud) and talked about his method of posing the characters in his art.

Dean DeBlois (Director of How to Train your Dragon) gave a few tips on 'How to be a good director' when I told him I was passionate about direction.


Sergio Pablos shared his contribution to 'Despicable me'
Del Carmen talked about storyboarding on 'Up'.

Andreas Deja gave some really helpful Animation tips like using the eyeblinks and darts to anticipate other body action and the huge importance of hand gestures. A lot of the things we're learning in this class were also mentioned - like when you said toes pointing straight forward and hands like pancakes make the characters look robotic..

The thing Andreas pointed out very well is that when we're drawing, the flow of lines force us to automatically pose the whole body different each time and maintain the flow and rhythm of animation. Even before getting to the point of thumbnailing/blocking the shot - he would just draw the character in different poses and study the anatomy and construction in and out. This way when he's animating he knows exactly how the character would move/behave.

He said that in CG animation, we assume there is no model sheet or no need to practice the character before we get to animation. But in fact, CG characters also need to stay 'on model' not in terms of the consistency of drawing (because 3d is already defined shape-wise) - but in terms of the character and personality. Which is why it helps to just pose the character (still frame) a few times and try to define the attitudes. Though thumbnails could be very rough too, I couldn't stop noticing the beauty of Andreas' thumbnail drawings. It's practice!

Tony DeRosa gave a small animation demo, and he was so fluent I want to steal his hand! Looking at his demo it seemed very easy, but his 30 years of practice and experience made it look so flawless! For some reason, watching someone like him makes me want to quit CG and go back to pencil and paper!

There was more stuff that I couldn't see because of managing the exhibition desk. It was all together very inspiring to see so many talented artists under one roof.

The competition is very tough, every other person had an amazing portfolio/reel to show. But I guess finally who we are matters more than what we do. Staying humble helps!

ctn

hey..how was it?

Something interesting I found on deviant art

Zombie Robot by ~JonathanEdward on deviantART

Which one is better?

I like these two references and I am trying to decide between the two.  One has a bit more acting and the other shows more weight.