Assignment Two: Soccer Ball Bounce

So the other section of this weeks homework is to animate a soccer ball bouncing. The whole lecture was about timing and spacing, and observing the world around you. Below is the thumbnail planning of my animation. I was nervous about this at first, because I haven't taken basics in over 2 years, and I had to pretty much relearn the way I do everything. They showed us arcs that I've never even seen before. It was very eye opening.

So after all my planning, I animated my soccer ball. It comes in pretty fast and then bounces, then rolls off the screen. So I went out and bought a soccer ball, and shot numerous reference videos of it bouncing around, and the way it settles on the floor. I probably looked like a crazy person throwing a ball around, then chasing after it. But when I started to animate in the way they taught us, it was unbelievable how easy it was, and I realized how hard I was making everything for the past 2 years. I also had to learn everything about the graph editor. I've never used it before, and it's literally the only thing I used in making my animation. So, starting from ground zero, here is the 

soccer ball bounce!

I got a lot of great feedback from my mentor and other numerous people. One of the great things about Animation Mentor is that all of our work is up for anyone in the school to see. Not only current students, but alumni and other mentors as well. The CEO commented on my ball and gave me a critique on it too! It was such a pleasant surprise, and great to get feedback from someone that has been there.

Assignment Two: Excited Pose

For this weeks assignment in Animation Mentor, I had to do a pose with Stu that conveys excitement. It was so difficult avoiding cliche. Either jumping in the air, or having a fist raised high, everything I tried seem to be overdone. It didn't help that when I googled excited poses, literally image that popped up was from past Animation Mentor assignments and blog posts. So for the first part of the assignment, we had to sketch out poses. These are the drawings that I did.

 I really liked the top left one on the first image, but it was tough getting a nice silhouette with such a big head of his. So the one I decided to do is circled right next to it. That seemed like it showed excitement and still was an interesting take on it. Below is how my finished pose turned out. I already got my critique back, and my mentor liked it quite a bit! There are a few things I need to though.

and now this is my final render!

Animation Mentors First Assignment!

I got my very first assignment with animation mentor! I had to go out and create sketches of people, and then fix my character into one of the poses that I liked. It was pretty tough drawing people in public, and finding a person posing interesting enough to replicate. Most people were just sitting on their phones and hunched over. I even got desperate and went out to UCF's campus, and sat by the giant fountain expecting some greatness. But nope. just more people sitting around on their phones. These are some of my sketches, and I circled the pose I decided to replicate.

I got some great feedback from my mentor. Like pushing the right leg over a little more to balance him out some, and to twist his hips with the body a little more. But other than that, I think it came out pretty good for my first assignment! I am pumped to get my grade and critique for the next one now. 

and now this is my final render!

I have 3 other classmates from UCF that are in this program with me. They all post their Animation Mentor assignments as well. It's pretty cool to see how each person has a specific style, and how they bring that into their animations. We are all critiquing each others work every week before we turn assignments in. It's nice to get some feedback from others. Especially after staring at the same thing for so many hours, a fresh eye always helps. If you want to check out some variety their blogs are: 

http://justjoshinart.blogspot.com 

http://cstewart-art.blogspot.com

http://posetopost.blogspot.com

http://falconeanimation.blogspot.com 

Goodbye Sony, Hello Canda!

Well, it's official. Sony Pictures Animation has officially announced that they are moving the American branch to Vancouver. It's going to be rough growing up in Florida. I guess this means I'm going to have Canadian children now eh?

 I went this past fall and worked at SIGGRAPH,  in Vancouver. I fell in love with the city the second I got there. SIGGRAPH is a computer graphics convention. It's a week long, and there's all these different talks daily about movies and processes. For example, I saw the How to Train Your Dragon 2 talk, and they showed their character concepts, rigs, storyboards, and talked about specialized techniques used throughout the production process. It took place in Vancouver, and everyone that attended worked at big studios. It was so eye opening to be just completely swallowed in the media, having all these great accomplished people talk to you, and even give you feedback on your reel.

There was an event one night called the Studio Crawl, where a bus would take you to all the different big studios in Vancouver. Just to name a few there was Industrial Light and Magic, Rhythm and Hues, and of course....Sony. So naturally, I had to go to the Sony studios. As soon as I walked in, my eyes lit up. It was like a dream come true just being in their vicinity. Every person I met, I treated like a movie star. I was taking pictures of everything there, i loped like such a tourist.

One of the best parts though? Getting a render man teapot from Pixar!

Animation Mentor

I got accepted into Animation Mentor!!! I'm so pumped to get started and continue my studies in the field. I'll be posting my assignments up here, to see the progress I make overtime throughout classes. All of our teachers work in the field at different big name studios, which is awesome to get direct insight from. My teacher for my first class works at Sony, and worked on Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2. Clearly I was biased in choosing my teachers. =]
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0829256/ is his imbd, and you can view his reel at http://animationfreelance.com/3dreelv2.html