Living animation

The Caveman stop-motion test

2011-03-01T15:48:00.000-08:00

I have been finding teaching myself stop-motion to be one of the more difficult tasks, as well as making time outside of a job and regular life to animate. More on this soon, (I hope!!) but for now, this is my first bit of character animation with plasticine.
The timing leaves much to be desired, I think I find shooting straight ahead to be substantially trickier than digitally manipulating keys.
However, I haven't tried all the recommended techniques yet...

Regular Posts!

2011-01-30T06:44:00.000-08:00

I've been shown the wisdom of the web and have decided to commit to a regular blog, something that will entertain and inform, and provide a dependable platform for my animation journey. Along the way I will comment on my fave blogs and animators, and examine and review animations and books on animation.
And finally, I hope to regularly post my own work - snippets, sneak-peaks, previews and tests.

Coming soon, a review of "Cracking Animation", 3rd Edition, by Aardman Founders Peter Lord and Brian Sibley.

Stop Mo foray....

2011-01-16T04:10:00.001-08:00

My first commercial animation.

2010-12-07T20:17:00.003-08:00

Jar Pixie - Final project submission - Mission being the operative word!

2010-11-23T06:47:00.000-08:00

Team building and new work

2010-10-27T20:56:00.000-07:00

Ejected from school into the work-force, trying to find a way through to employment.

Currently I am volunteering on the short film "Minor Head Injury" for Adam Harvey and Evangeline Than. That is a cool experience. My role is stand-in 1st Assistant Director. This I see as mainly being a team building exercise. I will need skilled, reliable people to create my own projects. Film is a related field to my past (theatre and circus) but this is the first work I have actually done in it. I enjoy it.

My first paid animation work has come through - a corporate client. The first draft was accepted and enjoyed. So I can start to build my Flash portfolio now. This is also a team-building exercise in a different sense. I am not working with these people - more I am a sub-contractor who fulfils a task offsite. I need to satisfy the clients (3 of them - my agency, their client and the client's client - ha). By doing this, I line myself up for further work.

And suprise suprise, teaching work seems to be paying the bills - websites, animation and circus teaching are going great guns. I hope that they will keep me afloat long enough to establish a foot hold in creative work as well.

Wish me luck!! (even as I make it :)

Networking.

2010-10-21T16:57:00.000-07:00

I am now a Wanimate committee member. Wanimate is the peak body representing animators in WA. Part of my plan to be an EMPLOYED animator is to network as much as possible, and see what opportunities it presents. Part of Wanimate's emphasis is examining the employment options for animators, and working to further them. Here is their website: http://wanimate.org.au

Already as a committee member I have been exposed to opportunities that I would not have seen otherwise. Additionally, being in a position to talk to people I respect in the Perth Ani Industry is great. It is very educational for one, and inspiring for another. Educational because greater experience is filtering down to me and I can see wisdom is certain actions (like not being a sole-trader to cover myself legally), and inspiring because these people have years of experience behind them and are still working in the industry (and I keep getting asked about my short film project - so I'd better do some more work on it!).

All in all I am happy with the move. The next week will be very busy. I am getting 1st and 2nd Assistant Director experience with a short film being created by people I met through the animation department at FTI. I have a my first animation job to work on, and the FTI final project to complete. I have potentially 32 hours or more of available time to do these last 2 projects, SO it is "heads down, bums up". (thumbs! I mean thumbs).

Animation work in Perth?

2010-10-13T06:58:00.001-07:00

And now the real test begins. The course has completed but for one final project. And now, will the industry bear us? Can a diploma grad make a go of it in Perth?

On the basis of my student work as well as my previous work in web and visual arts I got my first job today! I feel lucky to be working on a portfolio, and a bit daunted to be in the corporate world already. I found the job online googling animation jobs in Perth. It is Flash based, and was advertised on several popular employment sites. Essentially I am working for a temping agency that fill jobs for corporate bodies in and around the CBD. Which is good because they get the work, then call me, which I like.

I am yet to complete the job, or get anymore work! But importantly, I feel, my foot is in the door. Stay tuned for more on animation, soon.

My 3D assignment submission - The Caveman's Dream

2010-10-08T17:01:00.003-07:00

Caveman wire frame.

2010-10-08T05:29:00.000-07:00

I'll render the video off soon

24 Comic Day, Perth

2010-10-03T07:25:00.000-07:00

Why comics? Comics are often cited as good reference material for animators - each drawing is a story telling pose - like the initial breaking down of an animated sequence into key shots and poses to tell the story the best way possible.

The last day since 10am Saturday morning was drawing flat out with 20 or so comic compatriots. I'm very impressed by the quality of work. There were alot of laughs to be had from reading the work. I thoroughly enjoyed the process and meeting a bunch of really cool and nice people. Today I am totally shattered, and will very much enjoy some sleep, soon... ish.

My comic does not contain many laughs. By contrast it is a existentialist tragedy - but I got alot of laughs during the creative process :) I liked writing the story and plotting it out - I was inspired mostly by
a) The FTI building itself (featured on page 2). Once this was locked in the other pieces fell into place.
b) Books - Holy Blood and the Holy Grail , all about the history of the knights templar, with lots of secrets hidden for centuries in it, and Umberto Eco's Focault's Pendulum, a great book and finally
c) A news article I heard about a discovered underground passageway between an old monastery and a nunnery.

Also I enjoyed nutting out the arc of the story and using elements to help build it - eg repetition, pacing, and reveals. Also the intentional use of graphic elements to represent different things - e.g. gradients represent the 15th Century. It is so short it all flies by and you could miss it all, but it's there.

Like all the comics on 24 Comic Day, the story was created on the day, with no preparation.
If you read it I would like to hear your thoughts on it - just reply to this post :)
My entry is here.

Simon Allen rocks

2010-09-15T08:11:00.001-07:00

Thanks, Simon, for sharing so many gems. I'm sure I'll be learning from these 2 days for quite some time yet. Here are some gems that I picked up, that I hope will inspire others to attend your workshops.

Try to capture the essence of life.
Show one idea at a time.
Get an office with a bar.
To get more work done, workout!

For me the 2 days of workshops cemented ideas that had been sifting in from various other places. For others I know it was simply enough to sit and listen, and soak up the goodness. I, on the other hand, recorded as much as I could. I feel so little and young compared to the ancient giants of animation, and like I need to absorb as much as I possibly can.

But now, there are no more notes to edit. I've read and re-read ( and will re-read more again). But there is simply nothing left for it but to put my head down, butt up and draw, draw, draw.

Simon Allen of Pixar talks to Wanimate.

2010-09-10T09:14:00.001-07:00

Simon spoke easily, practicedly perhaps. Nevertheless the jokes queued the laughs and everyone was enjoying the presentation this engaging fellow from Pixar (from Perth) had to offer.
Key points for me were:
Pixar invest heavily in having high morale - because directly it affects the fiscal return.
That a group like Pixar values ideas as well as being awesome at animating, or editing, or lighting.
That being fit in body and having a fit mind are importantly related.
That the Pixar's art department work the longest on a movie of all departments.
That a lucky break can be enough to get you into the big time.
That top students are pulling 80-90 hr weeks.
That Perth is deemed as good a place as anywhere to set up. If Weta can do it in Wellington, why not in Perth?
That online learning, in particular Animation Mentor, is valued highly in the States as a cheaper but viable (even prefferable) method to learn animation deeply. And you can train anywhere because of that. Some Pixar staff also mentor and teach for Animation Mentor.
That constant learning is highly valued.
There were others, but in a nutshell it was an entertaining talk. I'm looking forward big-time to the emerging animator and masterclass days next week!!

Screenwriting Workshop 101

2010-09-06T18:29:00.000-07:00

The weekend was one big long screenwriting workshop, presented by Ben Young. And it was great.
I suprised myself by taking comprehensive notes and recording as much as I could (with a somewhat unreliable iPhone recorder) and then spent most of Monday compiling them.
I am grateful to FTI for making positions available on the course to the Diploma students currently enrolled. In the end there were 3 Diploma students and 7 participants.
Screenwriting is a remarkably concise, predictable art. Beginning, middle and an end, conflict, twists, comedy and tragedy, the lows and the highs are all formulaic. So the structure is more like maths than art. The effectiveness of the writing? That is the art.
All in all I found it very informative, and an excellent investment of my time.
I'm looking forward to having a crack.

Caveman clock test.

2010-09-03T06:57:00.001-07:00

Flash submission - finally! - Qing loses her magic pearl... Again.

2010-08-25T08:03:00.000-07:00

Flash project draft compile

2010-08-23T11:43:00.001-07:00

Draft video of Qing Loses her Magic Pearl Again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B-w1BeblNU
Grr - aspect ratio compromised..

Background concept art - Jar Pixie

2010-08-18T07:17:00.001-07:00

Tradigital walk-cycle showing secondary action

2010-08-17T04:44:00.000-07:00

This one was from a while ago - clearing out some projects to make way for the final. I got stuck on processing the images in photoshop - I ran into a funny little thing where any adjustments I made wouldn't apply - it put me off it for a while. Eventually I figured out a work around. So this is a pencil drawn walk-cycle, scanned and imported into photoshop, enhanced, bitmaps brought into Flash and vectorised in flash. Backgrounds drawn in flash.

Max Frenkel kobold - Ushan Boyd walk cycle

2010-08-15T06:12:00.000-07:00

This link will take you away from this site. You need the Quicktime plugin to view.

https://www.me.com/gallery/#100050/kobold_walk_loop2

It's Alive!!! harharhar.

2010-08-15T05:39:00.000-07:00

This link will take you away from this site. You need the Quicktime plugin to view.

http://gallery.me.com/ushan#100050/line_ani_wings

My first animation job

2010-08-13T02:06:00.000-07:00

Is teaching high school students animation. I landed at Applecross SHS under the wing of Liz Rankin, following up an email sent from FTI. Applecross are the "Special Art" school - they have a large program of art encouragement. So they are running animation this year and I lucked in. Following in the esteemable footsteps of Steven Grant :)
It's cool, they have dedicated laptops, and programs. However for the first couple of weeks they didn't have tablets (to draw into the computer with). So I started them with plasticine and found objects, and showed them this cat that I had prepared earlier - my own first attempt at stop-motion animation:

And lo, they were inspired...

First Caveman model

2010-08-13T01:11:00.000-07:00

Thats my first proper mouth sans mouthbox. Very entertaining.

Anita Salamanca's Pixie Slug won the day

2010-08-11T17:08:00.000-07:00

I should update to the latest for the course. At the FTI Animation Course, there is a process for choosing one script per 4 or 5 people out of however many scripts (1 per student - in our case 4). The pitching process is the method of elimination. This involves pitching your brilliant idea to a panel of adjudicators and a room of peers. Elimination is used because in order to complete a script on time you need to have a coordinated team going hammer and tongs on it.

Each of our ideas had merit, according to the panel. In the end, Anita's idea was more open and accessible - for instance my idea is fairly locked down - I have a defined a lot of it and it doesn't leave much swinging room. However, Anita's Pixie Slug is cute-as-a-button and with a cast of supporting characters and a wonderland to play in, there is plenty enough for everyone to sink their teeth into.

Heaps, in fact. So much so that we need to focus very hard to be sure of getting the job done in time. I am finding the backgrounds are lingering a bit. They need a bit more work than I initially thought to do a job I am satisfied with. Because this will be shown on a big screen, I need to zoom in while painting in Photoshop ( a skill I'm forever grateful for ) in order to get the accuracy required for smooth lines. And that is just the start.

More updates forthcoming. Animation writers group tonight. I shall make the pilgrimage to Leederville to see what the biz is. Part of the reason why is because I have a few stories I want to develop after this course. I can see one method of gaining experience is to create as many jobs as possible through the funding method - for which you need solid story ideas. But more on that another time.

Backgrounds to complete - horizontal and vertical pans

2010-08-11T02:37:00.000-07:00

The backgrounds must be done quickly, and well. They will be the first completed items, along with the character designs.
We are feeling the pressure of having a small group. Everyone will have to haul hard to complete this project in time.