Reanimation

Week 3 ... Another video blog?

2011-07-12T13:13:00.001-05:00

Hey all,

Week 3 at AM in Psychology of Body Mechanics and as part of a new trend (if two entries makes a trend), I present my video entry for the week. This week I explain my blocking shot of a backflip while showing the shot I submitted and I also demonstrate how I analyzed one of the reference videos I used.

Hope this provides everyone with a little more insight into the process of how we are working on our assignments week to week.

Enjoy!

Video update from yours truly

2011-07-05T10:34:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone,

So it is already week 2 of my second term at Animation Mentor. This week I decided to make a video update for you guys and I am also posting my progress reel that shows all my work from last term.

Thanks for stopping by!

Whoa! 3D animation and a Mr. Limpy goes for a stroll - Week 11

2011-06-21T16:20:00.000-05:00

Week 11, we are in the home stretch, with only this animation and a pose, we will have completed our work for class 1. Now, to cut down on confusion with my next post, we did still have another week of class, but you will see the fruits of week 12's labors soon enough.

The animation this week finishes off our personality walk and adds a new twist. For the first time this term we are animating "in 3D." In other words, rather than a side view like all other assignments, this time we show our character walking with the camera providing roughly a 3/4s view.

And a quick message: Kids. Eat your vegetables, floss your teeth, and DON"T PROCRASTINATE.

This is my revised version of the final walk (you wouldn't want to see the walk I turned in. Did I mention waiting until the last minute?)

So here is Mr. Limpy

And this week's pose - balance.

Here is my pose entitled "Don't look down"

Long time, no walk - Week 10

2011-06-21T16:11:00.002-05:00

Ok. I've been remiss in posting updates. I'm sorry for that. These last several weeks were incredibly busy. So without further delay, here is my work for Week 10.

First we have our animation assignment. Simply put, in contrast the the vanilla walk cycles from the last two weeks, we were tasked to come up with a walk that showed personality. For me, this meant agonizing over what to do most of the week. Kids don't try that at home - just commit and start working on something. Also, shoot video reference of yourself or someone so you can figure out the walk. These are HARD!

For week 10 we have the blocking for the walk, which to remind everyone, means that we are only hitting key poses in the animation and basic timing.

Mr. Limpy

And for this week's pose we needed to show exhaustion. Turns out I am pretty familiar with that pose in real life.

Who knew walking was so hard?

2011-05-31T17:31:00.000-05:00

It is now week 10, which means we only have 3 more weeks before this term ends.

I am posting my work for Week 8 and 9 now, partly because I got lazy and partly because week 8 & 9 were both dedicated to animating a basic (vanilla walk). The first video shows the blocking of the animation, which means we only put in the most important poses but have yet to work on the walk on the in-between frames. The second video shows the final walk after everything is complete. These walk cycles are really challenging.

We also had two pose assignments: week 8 was strength and week 9 was concern.

For the next two weeks we are going to be animating a walk that shows personality.

Here are the poses:

Week 8, blocking for walk:

Week 9, final walk:

Going Nuts

2011-05-15T17:38:00.002-05:00

Another challenging assignment this week. We had to come up with a scene and then animate Tailor (the ball with a tail) performing at least 3 bounces. This builds on previous lessons, particularly overlapping action.

Here is an HD version rendered in RenderMan. First w/o motion blur, then with motion blur - then repeats.

Overlapping Action with a multi-link pendulum

2011-05-09T09:54:00.000-05:00

Week 6 is now complete and here is my final animation for our assignment. In this assignment the focus was overlapping action. Most of the animation was done by a selective breaking of joints and then copying the curves and offsetting them for each segment. After that I manually changed some of the offsets to better approximate the final parts of the settle.

Enjoy!

The wait is over. Week 5 final assignment for your viewing pleasure

2011-05-05T08:46:00.000-05:00

A few comments on last week's assignments. The assignments consisted of animating a ball going through an obstacle course while factoring in anticipation and squash and stretch. The second part had us showing Stu being devastated.

Initially I posed Stu hunched over sitting on the ground, head buried in his hands. This pose looked pretty good, but I didn't like the silhouette with him wrapped so tightly. His huge head made that even more of an issue. So mid-week, I went in a completely different direction. I chose to push this new pose and knew that it probably would be too much, but I wanted to see how the pose would read and get feedback on something out of my comfort zone.

Next, the obstacle course. This was the most difficult assignment so far by several orders of magnitude. Most of my peers expressed similar sentiments. I had a working rough version up by Monday, but as I began to refine and adjust the animation it became a huge undertaking. In the end, after about 60-80 hours of work day and night, I finally completed the assignment Sunday morning before it was due at noon PST.

So here they are. By the way, the note Stu is reading that devastated him, informed him that his head is entirely too large :)

Almost there

2011-04-23T22:24:00.000-05:00

This is most likely going to be my final version of the two bouncing balls assignment for this week.

I got some great feedback including a review of my animation with a mentor this morning.

Here it is, let me know what you think.

The final stretch of week 4

2011-04-22T18:08:00.000-05:00

I am now just polishing my animation assignment for this week. Two different bouncing balls with different weights. Basketball and bowling ball.

Let me know what you think!

Two are better than one

2011-04-20T14:02:00.000-05:00

This week's assignment is to show two balls bouncing that have different weights.

Here is my first rough version.

Comments are welcome.

I have discovered a new Law of Physics

2011-04-19T15:54:00.000-05:00

All balls, regardless of composition, bounce the same height!

This week we are to animate two different balls of similar size but of different weight (i.e. basketball and bowling ball) to demonstrate how weight is conveyed to an audience.

I decided to go out and get some different balls to do my own reference shots this week. I found two balls of similar size but very different weight. First, a tennis ball; lightweight and large bounce. Second, a lacrosse ball; heavier and ... large bounce. In fact, they bounce almost the identical height. My animation will be pretty easy ;)

So, if anybody needs to identical bounces with different weight balls, then there is your solution!

PS I have now confirmed West's 1st Law of bouncing balls. I found an old rubber ball that is about the same size as the other two. It's weight was also different than the other two. And...wait for it...they all bounce the exact same height and pattern.

Any universities or academic societies wishing me to come speak, please contact me for my rates.

Bouncing back

2011-04-18T11:37:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the lack of updates last week. Our assignment to animate a bouncing ball (soccer or basketball) as well as create a new pose for Stu that showed excitement, took a lot more time than I anticipated.

Since I am sure everyone has been holding their breath waiting to see the results (and who wouldn't?), here is my final animation and pose that I turned in yesterday.

First revision of Stu looking excited

2011-04-15T13:50:00.000-05:00

Please leave feedback here or internally at AM.

Thank you all for taking a look!

It's time to be a poser!

2011-04-14T14:37:00.001-05:00

Ok gang. These are my sketches for this week's assignment to create a pose that shows excitement.

Please leave me comments on which of these (or maybe a combination of some) read as excitement for you. Any comments on the sketches themselves are welcome as well.

PS AM folks all of this is up on my Public Review so feel free to comment either place.

Whoa ... where has the week gone?

2011-04-13T13:08:00.000-05:00

Somehow, it is already Wednesday and I am just coming up to breathe. Last week's assignment went well and I got my critique. My mentor offered some really good suggestions and it was no surprise that my sketches need some work.

This week the new pose is to show excitement. This should be fun on a character with no face! I have been practicing sketching every day and I am playing with several different pose ideas (examples to come later).

The second assignment is our first animation! The quintessential bouncing ball that is part of any animator's foundation.

I used a video reference of a basketball bouncing off of YouTube (gotta love YouTube). Most of yesterday's animation work was analyzing and planning my bounce sequence. I am probably being way too meticulous as I measured and timed every keyframe (height of bounces and hits) and matched those to frame numbers.

Here is my first pass at the animation so it still needs work.

Animated short worth checking out

2011-04-11T17:59:00.000-05:00

This is a 9 minute short in 2D that I found mesmerizing. From YouTube:

Official animated movie of Tim Minchin's 9-minute beat poem Storm.

Cool Cars 2 Poster

2011-04-10T11:11:00.000-05:00

Awesome retro poster for Cars 2.

This image comes from a post at 2719 Hyperion.

And I'm done!

2011-04-09T09:19:00.000-05:00

Here is the final pose and the sketch that I am turning in for my week 2 assignment.

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to give me great feedback and support. This is a huge improvement over my first versions early on. Here is the first pose for comparison.

Nearing final version of the Stu slouch

2011-04-08T10:26:00.000-05:00

I made a couple of adjustments so that his shoulders match the slouch (thanks Roy!). I'm dropping out all background elements to keep it as simple as possible.

Let me know what you think. I am about ready to freeze any further work to prevent me from dabbling to the point I start to screw things up (thanks Jeff).

Stu slouching version 3

2011-04-07T19:19:00.002-05:00

In the time since I posted the alternate version of Stu slouching on couch, I have tried to read up more on line of action and also using the silhouette to check how well the pose reads. With that in mind I offer a new version that I would really appreciate feedback on. This is the pose I want to turn in for my assignment and would like to tighten things up as much as I can within reason.

One other note, after our Q&A this week I decided to revert back to only the default light for this shot, which is why it looks darker. I might play around with some techniques to change, but the shot and pose are what counts. (Click images for larger versions)

And for comparison here is the previous shot:

The laptop goes flying

2011-04-05T18:46:00.001-05:00

I started wondering how I might make Stu's pose on the couch into something more dynamic so I just through this together for fun and to keep practicing using Stu's rig and getting faster and more comfortable with how to get him into the pose I want (IK/FK).

"Cars 2" viral ad campaign has started

2011-04-05T05:50:00.001-05:00

Check out this article on "Cars 2" first viral ad: http://mashable.com/2011/04/03/cars-2-faux-ad/

You can go directly to the ad on YouTube by going to http://cars-n-deals.com

UPDATE: At 57 secs into the video the link that is revealed is chromeA113.com where you are redirected to a cool video with new footage from "Cars 2."

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Stu slouching alternate pose

2011-04-04T17:40:00.001-05:00

I took some of the feedback and altered Stu's pose slightly. His right hand is now closer to his side and is in a relaxed fist (which I noticed is how I do that when sitting). His legs have changed with the left leg more outstretched and the right at more of angle. Finally I lengthened his neck slightly.

Thanks for all the suggestions and feedback. Let me know how this one works.

PS I changed the color of the couch so I can quickly keep track of which version is which. So you can call this the blue version and the other the red version.

Side view of Stu slouching (by request)

2011-04-04T12:35:00.000-05:00

A lot of you wanted to see the pose from a different angle. Here is a side view.