system upgrade!

Updated site today. Woo hoo!!! Green lantern content will be posted as soon as the film is released. You can read my old posts if you wish but this marks a complete restart as I attempt to keep somewhat up to date here.

... and now for something completely different

oh the memories... manny, jake, chris and I logged so many hours playing this game over the network at Interplay it just brings back all those warm fuzzies. Although not the huge hit of a halflife, this is quite possibly the most enjoyable video game ever created. (allow me the exaggeration) If you've played it you know what I mean. If not... well... go rent Death Race 2000 and you might get an idea.

lesson in body language...

Check out the video, its a pretty powerful statement that got me to thinking. As an animator i'm constantly captivated by movement of nearly everything around me and find myself analyzing even the most mundane action. As a parent I'm realizing my new son is doing the same thing, only he's learning so much more from his mom and me.

Tex... nuff said.

(i'm leaving this post for now, but sadly the shorts I had linked to are no longer available)
Most of my posts these days are less descriptions about my day or thoughts, but rather a record of something cool i've found on the web. Something i want to remember. These shorts (click image) i found over on youtube.com are perfect examples of that. Results from a Tex Avery search. It seems someone or some-many have ripped and uploaded nearly a hundred classic movies i loved as a kid.


As a growing animator I often get into discussions about inspiration or what might have been the one thing to truly inspire your chosen career. For me it was the movie TRON, without question. However when i think about shorts, its undeniably the Tex Avery work for MGM. My favorite by far was Deputy Droopy. I still remember rolling around with laughter as the characters swapped heads to enable the other to scream away from the jailhouse. (you'll know that if you've seen it) These shorts simply were it! Yeah I liked Looney Toons stuff too, but they didn't compair to the entertainment I got out of the many shorts on this link. Sadly they still have yet to release a comprehensive Tex Avery DVD set in the US.

John Lasseter's student film...

No wonder Disney hired him out of Cal Arts, he founded Pixar, and is now the head of feature animation at Disney Studios. There's such fantastic character and appeal in this short, not to mention all the other great animation mechanics going on. Have a look. (click image)

notes from masters...

holy crap there's a butt load of great information here. thanks walt, Glen, and the gang of ground breakers...

Walt on drawing the Disney way

Glen and more

Nine old men (i've often wondered how they felt about being refered to as 'old men')

great short...

...this is freakin awesome! (click image) I'm sure i say that often, but with so much media available today its often true. often often often...

simply put, this is a fantastic little short, and a great example that you don't need terribly complex characters to make them compelling. The lead character is a box with legs, no facial features, but the acting makes him believable.

pixar's way...

interview with Ralph Eggleston speaking about pixar's development process. Questioning is from a younger audience, but the answers and overall information is interesting none the less.

Glen Keane speaks

Nothing more than a cool inspiration link from a cool and inspirational man.

Glen

...it begins again

... my third term at Animation Mentor, Intro to Acting. At long last I've finally gotten around to posting again. Its been a very busy spring for me professionally, as well as personally, but i'll spare all none of you that read my blog from the booring details. Anyway, I really just wanted to post some of the work I completed during this past term of Animation Mentor, Body Mechanics.

CLICK HERE to view ( image uploads to my blog weren't working today)

Each week I continue to learn and grow as an artist beyond my expectations. I'm even finding that the information i'm absorbing at AM often transcends animation and has already made me a better artist on the job. bla bla bla... i can say this kind of foolish crap over and over but i'm sure it gets old.

and now for something completely different... do you like comics? Check out Batman Year 100. I've been reading more of these for art reference related to my work and this story/art stood out. Pretty cool take on "another" Batman 100 years after his first sighting in Gotham. Can't be the same guy, can it?

aaah... good music

Nothing AM related. But I'm a bit drunk, and we just returned from an Imogen Heap show at the Great American Music Hall.

For a one woman show it was pretty damn good. I'm a fan of the recent album, and many of you have probably heard Imogen on the song "Let Go" that was released on a previous album (frou frou), and on the Garden State sound track. Although Della and I are moving out of the city I can't get away from music. I'm sure we will continue to come up an see shows regularly, simply because that just who we are. We love music, and consume it like its going out of style. Guess thats just one of the reasons I love my wife Della. :D

Oh... I made some progress on this weeks assignment to finalize my 180 turn. Here it is

just watched...

3:52 am: just finished the third lecture of term 2, focusing on advanced overlap and anticipation and am getting sleepy, but i had to get something down. I love being an animator! Each day I make something come to life at work, and each night I learn more and more about my craft with AM.(not a bad thing) The vibe with the school is infectious. Bobby, Sean, and Carlos along with so many other animators like Rick O' Conner, Kevin Martel, etc. have this undeniable enthusiasm, passion and inspiration for the art of animation. My fellow students have been equally as... well... AWESOME!!! Great critiques, input and unending inspiration in each of their assignments. Great stuff all around...

Now i have to sleep. Gotta work tomorrow. I'm animating the character and special fx for a thug villain character wielding dual micro uzi's. He pulls the clip out of his left gun, tosses it at his foe and shoots it in the air creating a powerful attack and rather large explosion. fun stuff at work too. hope some of this made sence... sleeeeeeepy.

Metric - Live It Out - cool album from cool band.

turn turn turn...

as I said in the earlier post, I haven't slept too much in the past day and here's why.

assignment, pick one of the following actions to animate. each with a perceived level of difficulty.

1. Have a character kick a ball (legs, spine and head only) Difficulty: *
2. Have a character take a big step to the side (legs, spine and head only) Difficulty: *
3. Have character turn around 180 degrees (legs, spine and head only) Difficulty: **

... during the first week we began planning, thumbnail sketching and shooting of reference video if able. One of the MAJOR things stressed here at school IS to plan thoroughly. So much so that I identify my timing, key poses and overall action prior to ever sitting down at the computer. All I can say is they're ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!!! The more I plan the faster I'm able to complete an animation, and the better it will become.

Now in this the second week we were supposed to go through what is kind of like a first pass of our animation, THE BLOCKING phase. (movie above) As the first time you enter your broad strokes of an animation, your main goal is key poses and timing. Which is why it appears choppy. Think of it as cell animation style without the inbetweens. Again this process that has been suggested to us mirrors my methods (although with less planning) over the past few years as a professional. Although with much more pre-planning and more thorough understanding of how to make a better pose. Yes posing, the subject of this weeks lecture.

Ok... enough work for now.

cool link for today...

mentor

I went to sleep last night at 6:30 in the morning, its the end of the second week of my second term here at Animation Mentor, Body Mechanics, and more late nights to come. My Mentor this term is Charles Alleneck from ILM, here's a little bit from his bio.

"He worked briefly as a traditional animator on the television show The Simpsons before coming to ILM to learn CG animation. Charles has worked at ILM for almost five years, with credit on seven feature films including The Mummy Returns, Hulk, and Star Wars: Episodes II and III. He has served as a Directed Study Mentor, and has lectured on animation both in the U.S. and abroad."

He seems very cool and I'm excited to see what insight he is able to offer us throughout the term. Again, this school continues to impress me with their knowledgable professionals as mentors.

back again...

della and I have returned from our holiday trip to Massachusetts, and things have gotten back underway. Animation Mentor term 2 began this week, so sleep time will be a bit scarce for the next 12 weeks. No matter, I love it!!! Its so fantastic to be passionately working on animations of my own, and to be a part of an amazing group of equally passionate students and mentors. I'm excited and scared.

Work has also been fun lately. Just last week I finished up on animations and Fx for one of our signature villains, Lord Recluse. He's this evil master with 8 crazy spider legs coming from his back. (a few more images) He was a lot of fun but also quite a challenge, as he's a full bipedal character PLUS 8 additional appendages with 4 bones each. Simply put, thats a lot to keep track of. Ok, gotta go. The Patriots second playoff game is about to start.

lately i've been listening to: The Arcade Fire - first EP

pose this...

Throughout the first term of Animation Mentor we were often asked to complete a pose that specifically illustrates a predefined emotional state. This is pretty tough without the use of facial expressions. Anyway, here are mine. (below) Each of these is the result of many hours of planning, sketching and research. The fundamental goal for these exercises, and really any animated acting piece, is to deliver information to the audience as clearly as possible. If we are capable of conveying meaning in a single pose, without expressions then we're well on the way.

animation mentor class 1 assignments

Ok, class is done, City of Villains is on the shelves and I finally got around to posting the work I completed in my first semester of Animation Mentor. Images below link to assignments. (if any of them refuses to load, try hitting refresh a few times. I can't figure it out, but sometimes they chose not to load correctly.)

Assignment 1 - Planning: Animate a ball that behaves like a soccer ball or basketball. The first assignment given to us designed to accomplish two things. 1. allow our mentor identify the level of experience each student. 2. begin exploring planning, timing and spacing.

assignment 2 - Timing: Create two balls in the same shot that illustrate different weights.

Assignment 3 - Anticipation and Squash & Stretch: To create the feeling of anticipation by having a ball begin to animate from a stopped position. Continue through obstacle course and come to stop on screen.

Assignment 4 - Overlapping Action: To convey overlapping action and followthrough through animating a ball with a tail.

Assignment 5 - Arcs and Path of Action: To animate a single legged character completing a single jump on a path with an arc, and coming to a settle.

Assignment 6 (7) - Intro to Walks: Through the course of two assignments we were to first block out, then refine the animation of a character with a basic walk in a side view.


Assignment 8 (9) - Character Walks: To create a walking character with personality.

kong is KILLER

ok, so I finally got around to posting some of my assignments from this first term at Animation Mentor. I will be adding more explanation on each assignment shortly, but I just had to write somthing.

GO SEE KING KONG!

fantastic fx. They did a beautiful job making you empathasize with the big fella, and i couldn't get enough of it. One of the most amazing sequences had already been released online. have a look: KONG

12 principles...

Our first session outlined and explained the 12 principles of animation, as defined in the Illusion of Life. Again, I had discovered this information many years back, but it would have been golden to start my career with this knowledge.

In no particular order
1. Squash and Stretch
2. Anticipation
3. Staging
4. Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose
5. Follow through and Overlapping Action
6. Slow In and Slow Out
7. Arcs
8. Secondary Action
9. Timing
10. Exaggeration
11. Solid Drawing
12. Appeal

I've also found books that expand on these with lists of greater information, however this is the list we'll focus on for our first term at Animation Mentor. The Principles of Animation. Each of the following assignments are specifically designed to explore one or more of these principles.

Man... I'm bad at this.

With the start of Animation Mentor, and the pending trip to Italy for Della and I on the horizon, I thought a blog would have been a great idea. Daily animation journals could be logged, as well as our journey abroad. As you can see... Its many month since my last post, and that hasn't happened.

Anyway, about Animation Mentor. Although taxing at times, my first term has a far greater learning experience that I had expected. Weekly we're thoroughly examining animation as the art form that it is. Although I am currently an animator, and have been working in the games field as one for nearly 10 years now, I never really dove this deeply into my trade. Yeah, I did take animation courses in school, 3 or 4 of them maybe, but have always believed my own personal development, experience, and books had taught me most of what I now know about the process of animation. Of course this current term, Class 1 Foundations, did cover many concepts I have learned over time, but in a fraction of the time it took me to discover these concepts. The Class also continually presented me with validation to my "impressions," (of what hips do when you move for instance) while regularly providing nugets of golden advice from more accomplished animators. Heck... it took me until 4 years ago to realize the connection with acting and animation. Since then I have taken an acting class and am back in school to study "the trade." All that said, I can't wait until I get to the acted performance, and further development at Am.

Now I'll try to post my assignments for the Fall of 05 Foundations class.

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Listening to the Pixies right now...