Something different

2009-07-13T14:54:00.003-04:00

Super reference!

Milt Kahl (Mowgli) from Victor Ens on Vimeo.

2009-05-28T21:14:00.006-04:00

Short film animatic
This is one iteration of the animatic for my short at AnimationMentor. I am now moving into the layout stage. I'll post that when it is more complete.

2009-05-07T16:48:00.009-04:00

Animation Mentor: Class 5
A couple classes have passed since I've updated about my time at Animation Mentor. It's just been busy. It's hard to focus on anything but the deadline most of the time. Basically I have one more class before graduation. (if all goes well)
I thought I'd start posting my concept art for my short film. This is "The Janitor". He's my lead character. The working title of the short is Head Over Heels...at least until I come up with something better.

2009-03-04T15:35:00.006-05:00

Quick turn around
These were some characters I was asked to come up with...with a couple hours to spare. They were used as art to promote four personality quizzes for USA TODAY's Better Life section online.

2008-07-16T10:33:00.004-04:00

Class 3 begins...
...or I should say began. I am now 3 weeks into Class 3 (Intro to Acting) at AnimationMentor.com. This class is where I start to put all the basics to use. The last 6 months have been devoted to the fundamentals of animation. Now it's on to telling stories convincingly. To help me get a handle on how to do this I have Greg Kyle as my mentor. He spent 7 years with ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) working on the 3 most recent Star Wars films. He now works for Laika, a smaller feature film company, located in Portland, Oregon. I am excited to be working with him especially since I have been following Laika's progress over the last year or so.

2008-06-26T22:46:00.006-04:00

Project 3 final
This is how I finished up the 2nd term at Animation Mentor. As I said in a previous post. This was a very challenging term. I learned so much and realized that there is much more to absorb. Technical aspects of MAYA set me back to a degree. My 3rd term begins this coming Sunday evening. I am anxious to see who my next mentor will be.

2008-06-20T22:50:00.006-04:00

Project 2 Final
This was the final render of the box jump exercise. I am a complete novice at lighting scenes so it may be a bit over lit.

2008-06-20T19:16:00.003-04:00

Project 3 planning
Well it's been almost a full month since my last post. I did not plan for that much time to past. And in that time— another term at Animation Mentor has come to an end. The last couple of weeks was incredibly challenging. More so than I could have ever expected. Not only creatively but personally as well. The birth of our daughter and the responsibilities of fatherhood introduced a completely new set of challenges. But ones I would never trade for the world. It has been a blast! So, here are the sketches of the last assignment as I promised.

2008-05-28T19:09:00.004-04:00

Project 2 continued...
This is just a playblast (a simple render with no shadows or other details). My biggest fan wanted an update and I thought I'd put this out until I have a final render. All the animation is final except for the last few frames. I need to make an adjustment there. We have started project three and I'll post those sketches shortly.

2008-05-06T12:19:00.003-04:00

Project 2 planning
These are my sketches for the next shot I will be working on. This is a shorter turn around this time. 3 weeks. Yeah, I know it sounds like an awful long time as far as deadlines go but, believe me, I'll need every second of that time to make it. People I work with in other areas of the creative field look at me with a silly grin when I say there is that much time for a project that is only 5-7 seconds long. That's ok. I was there 4 months ago. It is really amazing when I look back to January and think about how much I have learned in such a short period of time... and I am only (nearly) 1/3 of the way through with the program! What lies ahead?

2008-05-04T14:28:00.004-04:00

Class 2 Project 1
So this is a month's worth of work—roughly 4 seconds of animation and 110 frames. It's been fun and difficult at the same time. Even now I know there are spots that aren't quite right. I have to chalk these up to my level of experience at this I think. I'll hopefully look at this a month or two from now and say "Ooo! I know how to fix that!". Click the image to play the clip.

2008-04-06T13:59:00.006-04:00

Illustrator—Keith Lewis
A super talented and long time friend of mine, Keith Lewis, has brought his blog back to life. He is scanning and posting much of the artwork that he did when we were in college and when he had a freelance illustration business. I find his work stunningly luminescent. At the left is a detail of a piece he did of Barry Sanders of the Detroit Lions. If you look closely through Keith's blog you may even spot me. Like finding Waldo...where's Dave?

2008-04-01T00:21:00.021-04:00

Class 2 Mentor
Today I learned who my mentor will be for class 2 at AM. When I logged into AM and went to my workspace I saw the name Pete Paquette. I thought "Gee I haven't heard that name" then I clicked on his profile and said to myself "SWEET"! Turns out Pete has been with AM before but he was on a break partly because of the crazy deadlines he was under at Blue Sky Studios. The makers of Robots, the ICE AGE series, the No Time for Nuts short and the new Horton Hears a Who film. I can't tell you how stoked this gets me. I've admired Blue Sky for some time now. Back in school as an illustrator I had looked at Peter de Seve's work. I learned a while back that he had gone to Blue Sky. So this became the studio I most admired. SO... to land a super opportunity to have one of their gifted animators as my second mentor at AM. Well... I just feel lucky. The next 12 weeks are going to be tough but fun. Wish me luck!

2008-03-29T12:34:00.007-04:00

Class 1 demo reel
It's a start. I can't believe that one term is done! This has been an incredible experience. I've met so many great people both students and mentors. We get this weekend off. It's the first since Jan. 7th. Have to take advantage of this and get out with the wife and enjoy the weather. It's spring and it's beginning to warm up.

2008-02-10T17:10:00.002-05:00

One month of Animation Mentor
Wow! It's been one month at Animation Mentor already! I could go on and on all day about how amazing this school is but I don't have enough time. I did want to post my work for the month. But I am still figuring out the best way to post video. When I do figure it out I'll get it up. Until then here are a few poses that we have had to do as exercises to describe emotions.

2008-01-11T22:17:00.002-05:00

It's finally here!
My first week of Animation Mentor is coming to a close. This is going to be a very fun and challenging next 18 months. Check back to see some progress. I'll be updating from time to time. I experimented with our first model and did some posing with it in MAYA. His name is STU and he is giving me a round of applause. (after I get better at this I might not feel like I need to explain my poses)

2007-12-21T23:54:00.000-05:00

My final Corcoran classThis is my last Corcoran class post. The model was this guy who reminded me of the actor Wallace Shawn. You might remember him from the movie The Princess Bride. His character's name was Vizzini. It was fun trying to capture the character within his body. If you can't remember him google him. It will help you visualize.

2007-12-21T21:27:00.000-05:00

Class numbers 11 and 12
Going back and trying to figure out which drawings I did in week 11 and 12 was hard. We had the same model over a two week period. I really enjoyed trying to capture her moments on the stand. I look at these two collections of drawings and am actually able to see improvement. If I look back at my first post I can see I am beginning to understand the form as a 3-dimensional form rather than a collection of shapes that make up the whole. I only wish I had time to continue the classes at Corcoran... perhaps when I am done with animationmentor(AM) I can get back into some formal drawing classes. I do know that AM will be pushing my drawing ability too so I guess that's good. I do feel I was just beginning to grasp some concepts though. Well... onward and upward as they say.

2007-12-15T11:25:00.000-05:00

Class number 10
Class started the same way — with 2 minute gesture drawings (on the left.) Then we really focused on breaking the figure down in to the simplest shapes. Even more so than the previous class. This helped me to think in a almost a 3-D way. It forced me to not just think of the form facing me but also the back side of the form. I noticed this makes me think more about what the form is doing in space. It gets me away from thinking flat and 2-dimensionally. As goofy as these drawings are I think it really sunk in.

2007-12-15T10:55:00.001-05:00

Class number 9
As I look back on it now I think something started to happen in class 9. We did alot of fairly short poses where the instructor asked us to concentrate on building the form with simple shapes first...then start to add detail. The two images on the right where the shortest poses at two minutes. I like that my lines were becoming more deliberate. The middle top drawing and the bottom left have many lines from the instructor. This helped immensely in the coming classes.

2007-12-15T10:20:00.000-05:00

Class number 8
I need to get this back up to date. In class eight we had a different instructor fill in. And with a different person came a different perspective. We stayed with a long pose most of the day. We did warm up with some gesture drawings but a majority of the class was spent on the long pose. We finished up with 5 or 6 thirty second poses drawn right over top the previous one. I think I started to get it on the 5th one. I think it's the pose that stands out the most.

2007-11-01T22:29:00.000-04:00

Class number 7
From left to right. I started the drawing on the left and my instructor offered some suggestions. He did the smaller sketch to show me the most important lines of the pose. He stressed rather than just drawing the model—look closer and draw more. (not just what's there) So my attempt is the one on the right. I understand what he is talking about but translating it to paper is a dang challenge! I don't think I was all that successful. It was a tough day.

This drawing is one of the 5 minute poses from the same day. I felt better about this one.

2007-10-26T21:29:00.001-04:00

Class number 6
I'm finally posting the previously mentioned long pose. I haven't had a chance to even look at this drawing since I did it. I have to say I think I did some good things with this one. Class 7 was a bit on the demoralizing side though. I really don't have anything that I can post and say "this is mine". My teacher spent a good amount of time showing me what I am "not seeing". I will post them though because I think he is aware of what I want to achieve and he's pushing me. Which is a very good thing. But it is tough!

2007-10-10T00:01:00.000-04:00

Class number 5
I really have so much to learn. The final two drawings from class 5 show some promise. But you know it's only been a few days and now that I look at them I am reminded "I got lots to learn!". But I suppose when I actually reach the point I picture in my head I'll still feel I need to learn so much more. I guess that's what drives artists. The constant need to improve.

I just came from class tonight. Saturdays are my normal days for class but I will be away this weekend so I dropped into a weekday class to make up the time. We had a long pose. After the initial warm up gesture drawings the instructor said "Lets focus on one pose for the duration of the class". I think I had some success. I'll post it at some point this week.

2007-10-09T23:30:00.000-04:00

Class number 4
Yes. I've fallen behind in getting these posted. I'll continue with posting one nice gesture drawing and the final drawing of the class.

The instructor demonstrated some points in the final drawing for week four. I feel a need to mention it because I don't feel I can say it's 100% mine. Though I do feel it is a great help to see him draw directly on what I have started. Hopefully as I progress I'll pick up some of these helpful hints.