Mariya's Animation Blog

11 second club - June 2011

2011-07-04T14:41:00.002-04:00

Grr so I entered the 11secondclub again, but a bit late. I ended up having some 10 days left to finish it, and then my sister came to visit me from Australia (yay!) so this entry was a bit of a lost cause.. ah well. Lesson learned! I need to practice :P
I think I'm taking a month off animation though, I'm starting a new job (will post when I can) in August, so I better save all my animation concentration for then and get some sun and air while I still can!

11 second club

2011-06-20T18:40:00.003-04:00

I'm trying to enter the 11 second club for June (not much time left and only started half way through the month). But I realised that I never put up my finished entry from last June, 2010. I got 8th place! A lot better than my previous (pre-AM) entry of 44th place :P
Here it is (the lip sync is crazy bad):

Stephen Silver Character Design course - week 01

2011-06-20T18:37:00.003-04:00

So I'm doing this character design course with Schoolism & Stephen Silver. It's really neat so far, minus that I'm not a great draftsman/woman. But I'm learning :) And practice is key right? Well I need to do a lot more of that. Our first assignment was to gauge or level, we were given a set character to draw and here is my result. Hopefully he will be a lot better by the end of the course :)

No2 - GO CANUCKS GO!

2011-06-05T03:06:00.004-04:00

Great game tonight :) Vancouver going crazy! Such a good time to be in this city, the atmosphere is insanely contagious. I'd never really watched hockey (other than the Olympics match of Canada vs USA) before I got into this Canucks fever. So I can officially say they are the first hockey team that I support :) And hopefully I'll get to stay in Vancouver long enough to see them through many a battle!

So today's picture is the worn and weary Bruins..

No1 - Jeff Smith

2011-06-04T02:56:00.006-04:00

So I signed up to do a Character Design course on the Imaginism website, the Stephen Silver one. Mostly because I never draw anymore, and I feel like I need to get a lot better at it if I'm to continue in this field called animation.. hmmm, so to get the ball rolling (the class is only days away) I picked up a pencil and started to draw. Here is drawing no.1 Let's hope I can do at least 1 a day :)

This is from watching a documentary about Jeff Smith. For those of you not in the know, Jeff Smith is one of the most popular and famous comic book artists alive today. He, by himself (and with a lot of financial, moral and hands on help from his wife) managed to write, draw, think up, and publish an epic comic book called 'Bone'. It took him 13 years I believe to finish it, and if you've never read a comic, go to the library, pick it up and start reading.. it is the best, in many people's opinions and also happens to appeal to a very wide range of people.

In the AM newsletter/Showcase

2011-06-04T00:56:00.004-04:00

Sorry I haven't been posting very much. I'm happy to say that I have a lot more time for it now that Smurfs is over. I thought I might post this up before I forget.. I never posted about it but one of my shots made it into the Animationmentor.com showcase for 2010! Which for those of you outside of animation education, is quite a big deal :)

I was interviewed at the last AM BBQ to talk about it and my brilliant opportunity to work at Sony Pictures, and that interview made it into the AM newsletter! Pretty darn cool :D And a bit embarrassing but I should get over that, I still have to watch myself act a LOT in reference.. one of these days I won't squirm :P

Pudding pancakes :)

2010-12-25T18:04:00.003-05:00

My Christmas pudding didn't work out this year (so sad, it didn't stick, probably not enough breadcrumbs) so I used the mass of fruit and pudding batter to make pudding flavoured pancakes.. and you know, they were delicious! And really tasted like pudding. I made a little pot of sugar syrup to go with it since we don't have any maple syrup.
Merry Christmas!

Sony :)

2010-10-14T00:18:00.001-04:00

Sorry I am such a bad blog-keeper in case anyone still looks at this :P I promise to actually start posting now that I have a bit more free time. I just wanted to cheer and say.. I recently had the good fortune to get a job at Sony Pictures Imageworks. I'm currently working on 'The Smurfs' Movie.

Yay!

11 second club - June

2010-06-03T23:14:00.002-04:00

I've decided to enter the 11 second club this month.. I haven't done it in 2 1/2 years so it will be interesting, on top of crunch time at work :P But here goes! Here is my rough boards.. I am going to do it ghostbusters themed :)

Quick Tiger Run

2010-05-20T09:38:00.003-04:00

So here's a quick run excercise, pretty rough, but I'm just 'sketching' it out to get a feeling for tigers, and running four-legged things.. Trying to get practiced up with these quick tests before starting a real tiger shot. Just hope I get some time after the overtime next week. For now.. a nice weekend in Canberra.. oh how I do love saturdays without work.

My first quads walk

2010-05-17T09:07:00.003-04:00

Maya crash! Just finished the first few hours of my first ever quad excercise :) The head is super wobbly but didn't turn out as bad as I thought it would. The rig's a lot better than I'd previously anticipated, although the shoulders are slowly going to drive me mad.
I'm using the animal motion show DVD for reference, which can be found here:
http://www.rhinohouse.com/web-rhino/volume01/volume01.html

And the awesome Frank Thomas puppy walk on p204 of 'The Illusion of Life'.
http://www.amazon.com/Illusion-Life-Disney-Animation/dp/0786860707

Rig can be found here:
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/character-rigs/c/tiger

Tarzan pencil test

2010-02-10T04:25:00.002-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted in AGES.. soon AM will be over and I will be posting all the time like a good little posting animator :P
But here's something awesome I ran across...

Tarzan rough Pencil-Test from Victor Ens on Vimeo.

Thanks to Victor Ens for the pencil test!

Lou Romano Inteview of Toon In

2010-01-20T04:44:00.003-05:00

Was looking through old Toon In posts and never noticed this Lou Romano interview.. wow!
Here's a link:
http://tooninanimation.net/wordpress/?p=167

And if you haven't yet check out his blog for sure, a place I always go to when I need some cheering up or inspiration.

http://louromano.blogspot.com/

Rain place

2009-12-22T19:41:00.003-05:00

Just a quick post of a blog one of my friends (Nomis Streatfield) pointed out a long time ago and has brought back to my attention. A beautiful, thoughtful, spiritual approach to animation by Mike Nguyen. It is called Rain Place.

http://rainplace.net/

The Guardian is junk

2009-12-11T22:19:00.004-05:00

Just wanted to place something public about what I think about this. Pathetic and disgusting, if you're going to call an article 'the People who ruined the decade' at least make it constructive.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/series/the-people-who-ruined-the-decade

I thought the Guardian was half decent but I guess they didn't fire the right people during the recession.

2009-12-10T23:34:00.002-05:00

Wow it's been a while since I posted.. and a lot has happened since. I took 6 months off AM after class 4 - advanced acting.. Which was well worth it since I was totally burnt out and didn't want to animate ever again. Thankfully I fell back in the groove after about 3 months and started a little ninja animation project that I'll put up later.
For now I wanted to share the short film animatic I've been working on for class 5 of animation mentor.. short film. Now this class isn't part of the curriculum any more so these might be the last few short films coming through AM.. we'll see. But I hope you like it, I'm currently doing the layout and will have to start animation in January.

Mowgli by Milt Kahl

2009-04-22T11:32:00.002-04:00

WOW!!! Getting my Jungle Book dvd out ASAP now... I've forgotten just how crazy amazing this stuff is, especially considering how much harder all this stuff must have been back then.

Milt Kahl (Mowgli) from Victor Ens on Vimeo.

Thanks to Victor Ens for posting this video up.

Daito Manabe and Electric Stimulus

2009-03-27T13:07:00.003-04:00

Can I say WOW.. Is this fake.. well I'm trying to find out but looks pretty real.. check out this guy's (Daito Manabe) site:

http://www.daito.ws/works/smiles.html

Tetsujin 28

2009-01-22T20:25:00.003-05:00

If you'd have shown me this when I was 8, I would have been over the moon.. I might have even built a robot out of cardboard in the backyard.

http://www.imagius.com/t28/web/index.php

Hmmm don't know if I feel the same now that I'm all grown up.

303-- PANT-omime

2008-10-19T16:15:00.002-04:00

Here is my work in progress 'pantomime' shot for week 303 of Animation Mentor.
I'll update here when I've gotten past the blocking.. It's been pretty crazy. I've changed my idea and acting choices a couple of times, had to refilm and refilm reference footage :( And just generally have been learning a lot.

Hoot

2008-10-19T16:09:00.004-04:00

Hello world.. I'm sorry i'm so lazy.. so here are TWO posts.

I flicked through with shiny eyes the work of one Pietari Posti today.. which inspired me to draw this:

Check some of Pietari's awesomeness here:
http://www.pposti.com/personal/giants/

Ponyo by the Sea

2008-08-25T21:15:00.001-04:00

What am I excited about?? PONYO BY THE SEA of course!! check out the trailer for Miyazaki's next film which has already enthralled Japanese audiences.

Beaker sings Ode to Joy

2008-07-25T21:33:00.002-04:00

Meep!

I'm not procrastinating.

203 - The Turnaround

2008-07-20T16:07:00.002-04:00

Haven't posted anything from AM for a while.. so here's my blocking plus submission for the 180 degree turnaround..

Harry-Hawesome.

2008-07-17T14:17:00.004-04:00

Oh my goodness.. this is phenominally cool....
A library of all of Ray Harryhausen's creatures and little film clips of what they do best :)
http://www.chinesejetpilot.com/index.php?ID=202

Found on Jeff Pidgeon's blog.. which contains a wide collection of other amazing links and info: http://www.jeffpidgeon.com

Plus if you're in a Harryhausen mood, check out this hoosiers song about the very same Ray.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPQ8JYuQCdk&feature=related

4!!!!

2008-07-16T21:03:00.001-04:00

Neal has shown me the way to a crazy fantastic video of two of my favourite things combined.. muppets and Feist!! hurrah!!

Beirut in a Tower

2008-07-14T17:42:00.003-04:00

I can't get enough of Beirut lately.
Here's a small sample of how music could be enjoyed if people felt free to wander about and sing :)

Totoro Forest Project

2008-07-10T22:21:00.001-04:00

WOW!! this blows my mind.. only because I LOVE totoro, as Simon can tell you, I should have gotten a good photo of the totoro I made for him.. But what a totally cooool idea :)

http://totoroforestproject.org/

Bert & Ernie play the clay

2008-07-10T21:30:00.003-04:00

Check out this article then cheer!!! claymotion + bert & ernie. Big smiles all round.

http://www.animationmagazine.net/article/8580

Magnetic Ink and Piano

2008-07-08T20:30:00.001-04:00

COOL, and simple. I am easily amused by visual zang.
That's all I got to say....

Magnetic Ink, Process video from flight404 on Vimeo.

Mike Belzer & 'BOLT'

2008-07-02T07:04:00.009-04:00

Well after not knowing anything about it, and expecting something I have to admit 'wall-e'-ish (only because a lot of Hollywood seems to release in pairs), I am thoroughly impressed by this BOLT trailer. The script looks good, the animation looks good. Speaking of which, the real reason I'm REALLY interested is because my new class 2 Animation Mentor mentor is Mike Belzer, who has an AMAZING animation history. Starting from stop motion in 'Nightmare Before Christmas' and going through Pixar and onto Disney, this man amazes me already and I've only had 1 class with him so far. Anyway he is currenly working on finishing BOLT. So again, go see the trailer here.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1631243518/bctid1631227711

Welcome Welcome!

2008-07-01T14:55:00.002-04:00

Welcome Welcome New students!! yay. Glee. This is a picture I made for the new class 1 students at Animation Mentor this month :)

The End of the First Leg.

2008-06-20T07:36:00.003-04:00

Well it's the end of the first class.. pretty crazy stuff. It's been an amazing and an almost completely out of control first class. A lot of excellent information given out but more importantly a lot of subconcious and pratical learning going on as well. It's been amazing. Most noticably every time I look at any animation I find myself being able to see more and more of the secrets behind its creation. Sorry for my dumb grammar and manner of speaking, I'm crazy tired, slept 3-4 hours a night for too many nights this week.
But mainly I want to say, AM is totally worth it, worth whatever you're willing to sacrifice for your career or just learning path in animation.
I've given up or rather changed a lot in my life for this course, but i'm not going to go into that right now, I'm too tired to talk properly. I just want to say thankyou for Bobby, Shawn and Carlos and all the very much amazing staff at Animation Mentor for creating and nurturing this course into the brilliant thing it has become.
I also want to thank my mentor Martin, he's an amazing animator, teacher and overall cool dude. I want to thank my class 1 class, good people with that awesome crazy fun energy that I've come to expect from great animators. I want to thank the other guys from AM as well, out of my class, because many of them have been equally as important in their opinion and friendship to me. It's an amazing place with a great collection of amazing and talented students, mentors and staff.
Thankyou for an amazing class 1 and to everyone, best of luck :)

Pleasures for the intellectual animatory eyeballs

2008-06-11T22:51:00.003-04:00

Well, Dave should put this up and not me since he found it but.. yeah this is amazing and should be shared as much as possible.

I've read it twice already and plan to read it again when I've stopped stressing about this last assignment. It's amazing how much more interesting reading about animation is than anything else for me.. MAYBE except comics, and Harry Potter :P

Anyway it's on Carlos' site.. check it:

http://www.carlosbaena.com/resource/anim_DonGraham.html

Dolk Wars

2008-06-11T20:50:00.002-04:00

YAAY!!! I love it.. I'm not a dork, I've just misplaced my creativity.

There's a whole Dolk flickr group here.. check it!
http://www.flickr.com/groups/_dolk_/pool/

Call Me Ishmael.

2008-06-09T22:48:00.003-04:00

Ok this isn't new news but I'm so excited about this I have to say it again.
BONE. Greatest comic of all time? Quite possibly for this girl.
I have to say the only words to describe how excited I am for this movie (and how much it better fricking be good or I'm gonna be knocking on the door with pitchforks for the dear brothers of Warner) is that I very much self-indulgently always wanted to be part of making this film. Oh well since that's never gonna happen.. let's just hope it's a good one.
http://www.boneville.com/2008/03/13/bone-to-warner-bros/

Week 10 has ended!! The End is NIGH!!!

2008-06-08T16:17:00.003-04:00

END OF WEEK 10!!
And just to show you that I don't just wander Montreal taking photos of my feet... Here's my blocking for my 'character walk' and my exhausted pose.. yeah sort of crap this week.. but had an off week, weird sleeping patterns and moods..

Bum bum bum ba ba bum ba ba bum

2008-06-07T22:56:00.002-04:00

Woah! My dinner looks like a death star.. groovy!

So by now you probably all realise I'm quite mad and aren't gonna come back here again :(

Oh well... my Death Star egg will incinerate your planet!

Flickr and grass and green things.

2008-06-07T21:48:00.007-04:00

Yay! Beautiful walk in beautiful Montreal...

this time I'm actually gonna put stuff up on my flickr account instead of being a lazy bastard.. right now there's just a few photos of montreal, crazy sydney lights and heaps of me photos (um just skip over those they're sort of scary close).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12465138@N08/

walkin' on the nets

2008-06-07T11:05:00.003-04:00

I think perhaps my feet don't get to hang out on the net enough.. here they go! :P
My shoes are very sad however and full of broken bits and holes. But alas between paying for AM and saving for Siggraph.. I cannot afford the kind of shoes that don't have holes.. a bit icky in muddy weather, it's been quite pleasant lately however.

Oh well.. they're globe trotters and I love them anyhow :)

Dyrdeeeee

2008-06-05T12:27:00.004-04:00

he he he he AWESOME.. my favourite is the dog's nose. Thanks to Jacques for sending it.

But go to http://dyrdee.de/ and check out the rest of dyrdee media's awe-inspiring work!

Viva Calaca!

2008-06-04T09:56:00.003-04:00

I love the design and energy of this simple yet beautifully designed clip. I do very much love mexican day of the dead designs and illustration.

Here's the site name in case you're still lost and confounded:
http://www.vivacalaca.com/

'Birds' from the Pleix universe of brain goo

2008-06-02T22:29:00.005-04:00

Just posted this on someone's AM WS, haven't seen it in ages.. simple and weird/fascinating short film/clip.. why is that as soon as something is in hyper slow mo we can't look away..
My favourite is about 1:45 in.. he he he

birds from Pleix from andrew on Vimeo.

Goldfrapp...

2008-06-01T22:30:00.001-04:00

Listening to lots of Goldfrapp tonight.. so here's a quick sketch.

Class a la Martman

2008-06-01T20:34:00.006-04:00

I'm probably gonna change this when I can get pics of the rest of the class.. I'm only missing two people so :) Here's a big "Great Class", class!! Cuz there's a new one coming in July. Martin's a great mentor(psst he's the guy at the top in the middle with the huge grin)! I 've learnt so much just from his e-critiques. The man is a gold mine of animation knowledge! I'm gonna miss him.. I'm sure we're all gonna miss him.

So far all I'm hoping for with the next class is a Q&A time I can attend cuz I have no idea who the mentors are.

Class 109!! Only three weeks to go :(

2008-06-01T20:10:00.002-04:00

Well here is my final walk! I'll make it better when I get some critique from my Mentor.. one groovy recently daddified Martin Hopkins.. Till then...

And here is my 'concerned' stu.. i'm not really happy with it, ran out of time trying to fix the walk..

Boy do I feel sheepish..

2008-05-31T11:12:00.002-04:00

Ever wanted to see me go crazy.. well I just found out we CAN Squash & Stretch the legs on our walk.. stupid me.. great.. now with one day to go I'm gonna have to tear this little sucker apart again.. and JUST after I frame by framed it so the knees weren't popping :( argh words cannot express my frustration except in aaargggghojoisaufijosidufahsdfuh!!

Anyway here it is so far..

Do Your Strip!

2008-05-30T21:33:00.004-04:00

Check out the new Drawn! article about Do Your Strip!!
Sounds really super fun... I should do my own version which would of course be an owl.. or perhaps an owl-man :) yes? yes!

Mr. Ellis and his Bag of um.. pixels?

2008-05-30T07:20:00.009-04:00

Thought I'd point out this new portfolio by one of the most creative people I have amongst my friends, one Neal Ellis.. Of course it's far cooler than going on about youtube stupidites. Go check it out.. Then come say hi at this year's Siggraph :)

Invisible Drum Kit

2008-05-29T13:39:00.003-04:00

OK okay so I watch too much youtube in my lunch break.. but hey Here's Rowan Atkinson playing invisible drums and he's not too bad..

Dragons and Paper Cuts

2008-05-29T13:26:00.003-04:00

If you haven't seen it this little ad is super cool.. AND not really 3d.. no it's actually stop motion. Brilliant huh?
They were made by Jamie Caliri, the same guy who did those great Lemony Snicket credits... check his stuff out here:
http://www.jamiecaliri.com/

A Hero's Journey

2008-05-29T13:25:00.003-04:00

Ok so everyone's seen it but just because it makes me happy and I want to look back and remember how exciting it was waiting for the next Pixar movie here's the Wall-e Featurette "A Hero's Journey".

Disney, Pixar, Phillip K. Dick & some Knee-Popping action.

2008-05-29T00:33:00.004-04:00

Ok Just thought I'd post this up because I'm sick of showing it to people. This is a nice little article about all the Pixar and Disney films coming out till 2012...
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/36330

But honestly I'm so excited.. mostly about a possible Disney retelling of a Phillip K.Dick story (big fan of the man).. though I guess not so much excited as confused and curious.

AND a Pixar film directed by a woman?! Glory be the day! Let's hope it's a good one.

Oh and here's my VERY VERY knee-poppy walk so far.. still got till Saturday but GOD do I not have the time or stay-awake power.

Fry it up and serve my brain as Okinomiyaki

2008-05-28T23:19:00.008-04:00

Ok so I've been having a bad couple of days.. between being too tired and these walk things being incomprehensible to my feeble brain, I need some break.

So here's a picture of Optimus Prime and Revy dancing. Check out more fantabulous pictures (esp the ugly dolls ones, they're really good but not as dorky) by revlimit at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/revlimit/

Just couldn't help myself with putting the second one up as well.

Introducing the Simpsons

2008-05-25T19:00:00.003-04:00

Pretty cool... every simpsons intro.. sort of dizzying to watch.. Do you remember them all? I don't.
:)

Vanilla Walk Blocking

2008-05-25T14:55:00.002-04:00

The first clip is the final blocking of my vanilla (meaning character-less) walk. The second video is the file I started out with before all my Animation Mentor peers helped me out :)

I promise to post more fun stuff in a few hours when I'm not stressing about this stuff any more.

Llama llama

2008-05-25T14:54:00.001-04:00

Here is my final image for "STRENGTH" still a few things to work on but I ran out of time working on my walk.. too bad.

108 - Walk Cycle Blocking

2008-05-23T01:13:00.004-04:00

Here is my first pass for the first 24 frames of my first ever walk cycle. Yeah. That's all.. i'll update it when it gets better. For now i'm really tired.

If you have a sec.. feed me feedback!

Rendering Doodles

2008-05-21T00:23:00.005-04:00

I've been rendering and baking occlusion maps a lot lately.. so gathered up quite a doodle book.. decided to upload a sample.. the stars are courtesy of Suzanne :)

We The Robots...

2008-05-20T22:44:00.004-04:00

I thought I'd introduce you to my new favourite comic strip if you haven't already seen it.... Awesomeness I just love the simplicity.

Go check em out here...

http://www.wetherobots.com/

Final Squirrel Bash

2008-05-18T23:27:00.003-04:00

So here is my final piece for week 107... I'm pretty jazzed with it, because personally it's better than anything I ever did at uni from my point of view.. I've never made anything so finished and full of animation :P
I'm pretty happy.. I've learnt more on Animation Mentor in 7 weeks than I did in my entire 4 years of Digital Arts degree. Seriously if you're seriously thinking about going into character animation and considering Animation Mentor.. stop considering. Just do it. It's very much the most impressive animation school i've ever seen, and I've seen a few..

Mind twisters on walls far far south of the border.

2008-05-17T02:26:00.003-04:00

Well this is for the 5 or so people in the world who haven't seen BluBlu's work yet.. Get set for you jaw to DROP and give you 50!!

And while you're down there.. check out blublu's site..
http://blublu.org/

That is all.

Sleeping behind the wheel

2008-05-17T02:16:00.005-04:00

Here's the rough blocking for my Tailor piece.. argh a week is not enough.. Ignore the green guy who I've barely started with. I've unfortunately started, restarted on a brilliant new idea, and then realised that was bullocks and went back to the original. Getting nowhere fast and sleeping behind the wheel.

Minilogue/hitchhikers choice

2008-05-14T16:52:00.000-04:00

Found this on David Walden's blog... (http://davidwalden.com/)

107 - Tailor Paths of Action

2008-05-13T20:14:00.002-04:00

Here's my updated plan for this week! We'll see how it goes. One of these days I'll put a post up with some real words and not just pictures :)

More Squirrels!

2008-05-12T20:48:00.002-04:00

By far I think the best reference for squirrel animation is the squirrel sequence from Disney's The Sword in The Stone. Brilliant stuff! Youtube is a bit sad with quality so go grab the DVD :)

Obstacle Squirrels

2008-05-12T20:33:00.003-04:00

So week7! I'm animating 'Tailor' who is sort of like the bum part of a squirrel. So been finding some pretty neat reference on youtube.. like this obstacle course for squirrels! nice..

106 Pendulum final!

2008-05-10T15:36:00.002-04:00

So here's the final animation.. gone back home for mother's day.. but will hopefully get some good squirrel footage for next week's assignment!!

106 - Pendulum

2008-05-07T23:57:00.003-04:00

Here's my 'pendulum' swing animation so far.. a few things I know that need fixing, but if you have any ideas please give me feedback!!

'Surf's Up' or another reason to move back to the warm part of the world...

2008-05-04T23:02:00.007-04:00

I just watched 'Surf's Up'. And can I just say it is REALLY much better than I imagined. I just wish it came out some other time than this close to Happy Feet.
Overall, I mean it just works, all the subtle little animation jokes are glorious, the art direction is brilliant, and I mean it just works as a great entertaining movie. The messege is simple and doesn't hit you in the face pretending it's the next 'An Inconveniant Truth'. It's just good entertainment. Nice. And sure is worth a watch.
I'm not great with words so here's someone who can do a much better job.. Director Chris Buck:
http://surfsup.awn.com/?type=article&artID=9

In Character : Actors Acting

2008-05-04T16:13:00.007-04:00

Here's an awesome book I found:
http://calitreview.com/topics/theatre/133/

In Characater: Actors Acting.. it's quite brilliant.. Howard Schatz has asked a good number of prolific actors to do what they do.. act. These are great for reference.. I can't talk it up enough.

TIME has also released an excerpt of the book here:
http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/2006/in_character/

DEVASTATED stu again.

2008-05-04T16:12:00.002-04:00

Here's Stu again.. and he's still DEVASTATED.. it's a bit sad. But the shot looks just that LITTLE bit better.

105 - Obstacle course ball

2008-05-04T16:10:00.004-04:00

Here is this week's animation of a ball bouncing through an obstacle course. Yep gripping stuff.. But pretty hard for me, not too good at this physics thing. But getting better SO fast.

104-REVISED!!

2008-05-04T16:03:00.005-04:00

Revision of last week's two balls with the help of Martin my MENTOR!! woot.

DEVASTATION!!!

2008-05-01T22:45:00.001-04:00

Well the theme of the week is DEVASTATION bum bum bum bum!!!! scary stuff... I drew A LOT and will upload all that when I can use something that doesn't make my stuff look shit (like a scanner!). For now here is stu...

106 - draft numero uno!

2008-05-01T01:25:00.001-04:00

Ok so this week we have to take a bouncing ball through this obstacle course. Now I am having trouble. ONE I went all wacky and did this crazy anticipation, I probably shouldn't keep it. But I want to. TWO, yuk that physics needs a heluvalotta work.

The Chipmunk Adventure

2008-04-30T21:42:00.000-04:00

A certain little chubby critic from youtube has inpsired me to watch one of my favourite childhood cartoon movies.. "The Chipmunk Adventure".. which can be wholly found on youtube!

Hark! those songs bring back memories :) Plus that dance in Rome was so totally awesome back in the day.. can't wait to see if it still is.

Oliver and Co.

2008-04-30T21:32:00.000-04:00

Watching one of the few Disney films I don't own. Oliver and Company... you can find a crazy amount of stuff on youtube.

dum dum

2008-04-29T20:38:00.001-04:00

hee hee just keeping myself smiling :)

Sheridan 3rd Years Amaze Yet Again!

2008-04-28T13:36:00.001-04:00

The amazing work of Sherdian third years. It's a good thing I didn't go there because I'd never be able to compete with these amazing students!

Thanks to Frank Macchia for post this link on his site and check out his awesome work here:
http://frankmacchia.blogspot.com/

Brilliancy with Sherlock + Russia

2008-04-28T00:30:00.000-04:00

If you ever have time check out these amazing new Russian animations (I say new but I mean new since I left the soviet union which is a fair while ago).
Hilarious stuff!! reminds me a bit of Mark Baker humour. Just glorious stuff.

It's totally worth waiting for the ending.. so WATCH IT!! NOW!

105

2008-04-28T00:28:00.001-04:00

ha ha I just read what the assignments are and checked out the obstacle course file.. and can i just say SUPER EXCITED!!!
devasted stu is gonna be awesome fun.
Re-watched an old favourite for bouncy ball in obstacle course inspiration...

And found out about a new one!

Two Bouncing Balls.. feel the rush

2008-04-27T23:05:00.000-04:00

Ok so here is my assignment for week 4.. I'm not really happy with it, I sort of ran out of time before the weekend but I will try to revise it for this week and make it that 500% better that it should be :)

Cannonball arcs

2008-04-24T23:03:00.001-04:00

Oooh here's an even better one.. which supports my claim of cannonball arcs being straight from the thrust... THEN falling pretty fast.

Arcs and Paths

2008-04-24T21:52:00.000-04:00

Ooh K so after hours (ok ok minutes) of google research into 'cannonball arc path' type stuff.. I found loads out about why things orbit the earth.. ??? confused... so am I. Apparently people think a lot about throwing cannonballs into space.. I'm down with that.

BUT I did find this nice little picture.. thank you google.

In fact this whole site seems to be on arcs.. a nice little ball bounce shown also.. awesome!

Class 104 - To Toon or not to Toon?

2008-04-24T21:42:00.001-04:00

Well I was in quite a fix.. here is my planning for my double ball bounce.. well just a timing test really.. the staging is completely off.

So here's me trying it out in Maya.. but here's me again thinking wait a minute that's not how this stuff works in the real world.. which is true.. the arc is REALLY off.. but I like it. I mean it looks like the ball realises it is heavy in the middle of the shot. Cartoony? I think so!!
But yeah I asked my mentor and he said to keep it real.. ok ok gonna be keepin' it real.

Class 104 - CANNONBALLS!!

2008-04-24T21:35:00.000-04:00

Ok I think I'm gonna put all this stuff back on my old blog so that all my stuff can live together when I get a chance..
For now CANNONBALLS!!! well we have to do a ball bounce with a light and heavy ball (bringing to mind old luxo & sesame street clips anyone?) so I thought I'd stick up some nice research material I found.

Ball bounce

2008-04-21T21:40:00.000-04:00

Well nothing tra la la but here's my ball bounce for my first ever AM animation :)

Class 103

2008-04-18T13:26:00.002-04:00

So this week our assignments were to do some 'excited' sketches and then turn them into a stu pose.. and to make a little basketball bouncing animation. When I figure out how to upload .movs onto here I will put mine up. For now here are my 'excited' poses.

Sadly though I didn't have much time to do either assignment since it's only my second week at work! (which makes me hate Maya even more, working with it at home and at work) and I'm going away this weekend, so no weekend to work on AM. Ah well!!

AM Class 102!

2008-04-18T13:23:00.002-04:00

Since class 101 was just used to introduce us to the whole Animation Mentor experience, our first assignment came in class 102 in the form of sketches and poses... so here are my sketches of people off the street.. and my stu poses. The one in the middle was my original but after some VERY helpful feedback from my peers I ended up with the one on the top.. nifty huh?!

Well so far the whole other people who are crazy about animation thing is still ridiculously cool and exciting.

The Adventure Begins!!

2008-04-18T13:06:00.000-04:00

So I have officially been bad and not started my Animation Mentor blog even though I'm nearing the end of my third week!!
Well since I've moved city, gotten my first 'full-time' job and all to pay for this here expensive online (and well worth it!) course.. I've been a bit busy. The crummiest thing was setting up internet.

So here I am... I will post HEAPS in the near future, I know, because this is a bad habit of mine. But for now.. I'm just excited to be doing this.