Animated Life

workin

2011-08-25T13:17:00.003-05:00

What I'm doing currently.

2011-07-18T18:31:00.000-05:00

Well, looks like another bust on the game project. I went away from the internet for about a week and came back, everyone was doing other things. I can't carry a project by myself, so off to do some work for my demo reel. Currently working on a little scene idea I had of an angry man. Using the very nice Cartoon Guy by Michael Edewaard in Blender 2.58. I've planned out the shot in my head and have begun working my "straight ahead magic", as I like to call it. I like to start on a project with the freedom of a straight ahead workflow. You often aren't allowed such creativity in the usual studio. But I'm working for myself this time, as usual haha. At any rate hope to get it done soon.

Goblins and tiger and bears, oh my!

2011-04-18T14:06:00.000-05:00

So I've got my copy of 3d-Coat just about broken in. Still quite a few things to learn but for now I can use it to make assets. I've painted my first normal map and specular map. Hopefully it doesn't look terrible. I've also been informed by google video that they are removing all their videos. I imagine it's because they own youtube now. Not really sure though, so some of my videos will disappear from my blog. I uploaded a turntable view of the Goblin to my vimeo channel as well. You can check it out here, Goblin turntable. I've not forgotten about my short film, I just have 2 projects going on right now.

Storyboard complete!

2011-04-07T17:47:00.000-05:00

Veet, texture test.

Well, the first complete draft is complete. After almost 4 years of floating ideas around in my head I've came to some decisions. It's been tough for me as my main concern has been: what message do I want to convey to my audience that they will understand. This has been the motivation for my short film Untitled for now. I think it's a bit humorous to refer to it as Untitled. Anyways, a little history is in order as I've only sketched it out on paper and have no easy way to transmit it to the computer. I was doing some sketches one day and came up with a everyman character that I really like. My idea was a cosmic hero with humility and wisdom. Someone everyone can look up to and relate to. Well it was perfect to me when I first designed him with hollow eye sockets and a basic mouth. After joining Animation Mentor I realized I should make a short film, and what else than an original short? I decided I could use my character 'Veet' which is actually part of his name, which was made by jumbling the letters of "question everything" around. As my animation skill progressed I decided to change Veet because his blank stare just wasn't enough for the audience to relate. Having no eyes really limits the emotional attachment as I've learned. I started drawing, and drawing. Then I began modeling in Blender. I ended up trashing it and starting over in Wings3D. After much tweaking I ended up with what you see here. (Not final textures, just a test to learn 3d Coat.) He's came along way with the same basic idea from the beginning. But the story, that's the important part now isn't it? What's a character to do? These thoughts ran through my head off and on for years. Finally the other day I was thinking on one of my story ideas and the whole film played back in my mind! This was it, I was so excited I picked up some paper and began drawing non stop until I'd fleshed out the entire storyboard. Today I've been going through it refining it into more panel, adding detail descriptions, thinking about the audio and sounds I'll want. Camera moves, lighting changes, etc. I'm only on my 6th panel out of 54 but it's much more detailed. After this I'm going to make an animatic. Is anyone interested in the storyboard, or just the animatic?

Messiah:Studio

2011-03-02T16:36:00.002-06:00

Finally got Messiah:Studio installed. Expect moving pictures soon.

Still working on this little guy..

2011-02-21T11:11:00.003-06:00

Is he ever complete? Am I ever happy with the design? Am I getting close?

UVW mapping woes

2011-02-13T20:21:00.000-06:00

So UVW mapping is a long boring process. Albeit you do learn somethings, it's such a headache. The basic theory, if you are unfamiliar is to flatten out a 3d object into 2d space, like origami. The technology for it has gotten better but it still seems far off from having an artist's sensibility. It still feels very computerized. Of course UV's have usually been my "weak" point. As I dread them and try to avoid them. I should probably learn more about them, perhaps there are easier ways. Perhaps my technique is really old. Maybe even my understanding.

See for yourself, this is what I have right now. I spend lots of time on it but it still could use a ton of work. I'm not sure if I should optimize my 2d texture space or keep the shapes? Oh well, I'm going to texture this little guy and get to the fun stuff, like animating.

Animation software deal

2011-02-11T15:51:00.000-06:00

http://www.projectmessiah.com/x6/shop.html

So Messiah:Studio is on sale right now through a viral marketing campaign. You can purchase the basic version for $10 usd or the pro for $40. I picked up a copy of pro for myself, as it has the Point Cache Animation Module and a few other things like a nice renderer. Project Messiah, or Messiah:Studio as it is more commonly known know has been around for awhile. It started as an animation plugin for Lightwave 5.5. In 2000 they created the standalone Messiah:Animate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_messiah Visit wikipedia for more information if need be.

WIP Dino again.

2011-01-30T16:55:00.000-06:00

This time I've decided to build a strong base mesh before sculpting. I'm not confident in my sculpting skills like I am in my box modeling techniques. So I will be building a nice mesh in Blender before sculpting details. I also think I'm just going to sculpt fine details, not the major features like I was doing. I'm not used to sculpting enough for that. I can control the mesh much better with faces, edges and vertices. I guess it gets to a point where the detail becomes too small, that's when I'm going to sculpt. That reminds me, I think sculpting is loosing a bit of the classical modeling in 3d. Sure we have used nurbs, polygons, voxels, and vectors (perhaps others that I'm not familiar with) but to me we need to keep control over the basic blocks of form. I dunno perhaps I'll write a better article about it.

Game Development Stage 1

2011-01-24T13:19:00.001-06:00

So Romulo and I are finally making a game. This time we have a solid idea and are going for it. His engine is nearly complete so my job has to be kicked into overdrive. I wanted to outline some of our development progress here, so that I can at least see how long it took us and some of the obstacles that we've faced. Right now I haven't decided if sculpting high poly models is a good idea or not. True it's becoming a standard, but my skills in texturing/modeling aren't what they could be. I've spent the past few years animating and not really modeling anymore. However I am trying to sculpt. I'm currently using Sculptris to see if I can do a nice rendering of one of the dinosaurs. Discovering the sculpting workflow is also messing me up, see back when I was in college for 3d (2002-2004) sculpting was unheard of. The main issue I remember was nurbs or polygons. Of course we know polygons won that battle! Now I was going to model the low poly mesh, then do a high poly sculpt and normal map it to my original model. But I found out that many people model a basic mesh then sculpt then do a retopology... Well, I guess I'll jump in the crowd and do the same. I just hope it looks good and I don't have to trash all of my work.

Figuring out the workflow of building a game is one of the biggest issues to me. But it's something that I have to deal with head on. Luckily for me Romulo knows almost everything I don't and I know almost everything he doesn't. It's a good team setup, although I'm afraid we may need someone other than I to texture our models. I'm not confident in my painting skills. Of course I will do it if we don't find someone else. It may be easier after all to split up the money we make from the game between only us 2. Also since this is our first game, I not sure high production value is that important. Don't get me wrong, this will be a quality game. I just don't think we are going to spend eternity working on it. The end of January is approaching and we've got basic designs for 3-4 characters. This gives me something to work towards, but I feel we should have designed more before I began modelling. Only time will tell I guess.

First person floaters more like it

2011-01-07T21:51:00.000-06:00

I've been playing first person perspective games since I first bought a shareware copy of Heretic from a friend for 5 dollars in elementary school. It was a unique experience, here I am holding a weapon in a game, with my hands in front of me, walking around. It's like I really am playing this role. Which made Heretic scary as well. OH NO A MUMMY! Run away, who turned out the lights.... Fast forward to 2011. I've been playing some amazingly thought provoking games, like Amnesia: The Dark Descent. In this you still have a first person view, but it's still a hand tacked onto the screen. You look down towards your feet and you see either a floating shadow or the floor. Where is my feet? I've lost the connection with the camera now, it can't be me. I'm not playing this person, I'm a camera floating around with invisible arms and weird hands like Rayman... Now another game, Mount & Blade:Warband does the opposite. When I look down I see my chest, my legs, the arrow sticking out of my legs. This is better, I think to myself. This is me, inside another person. I see from his point of view, I see my arm swinging the sword around, and I can stare at my feet the entire time if I so feel inclined. So, why is it one of the only games to take this approach. Why has first person view been riddled with floating camera? Because of the inherent problems with having a game model attached to a camera I'm sure, like FOV, clipping, polygonal limitations, etc.. But with all this if Mount & Blade, an indie game can do it so can others. It's something I find really missing from my FP experiences. Sure I love the physics interaction in Frictional Games' Penumbra and Amnesia but floating around with no legs..... If I saw my player bleeding or my leg was visibly wounded I could tell with said attached player model. It would connect me to the avatar so much more.

Taking in all this rambling, I plan on using this first person modeled view on any first person games I make.

rabbit punch

2010-11-11T11:34:00.000-06:00

So the rabbit I posted a while ago was built in wings 3d and rendered in 3ds max. Well, I don't have max, my college did. I finally found someone who owns max to export the model for me. So now I get to rig it in Blender! I have also discovered the use of Z-Brush matcaps using GLSL shader in Blender. Here's a short video tutorial: eat3d's matcaps in case you want to use it. I've got a large selection of shaders now and it really helps to quickly visualize your model with substance. Anyways, I'm working on the spaceman animations for a game. I've started on the idle today, jump and run are coming along nicely also. I'll tweak it once I get it into the actual game engine. Not sure how it will look. Also I'm going to need to fix much of the weight paintings. Low poly stuff can be more picky than high poly when it comes to armature weights. You can get some funky creases. I'm glad I've picked back up actually animating. It's getting me motivated again. I'll update with some videos and images in a day or two.

Spaceman and such

2010-11-10T13:29:00.000-06:00

http://vimeo.com/16651083

So yeah I'm still around. More like this to come

when I used to model more and didn't know how to animate I made stuff like this

2010-01-17T05:46:00.000-06:00

writing, writing, writing.. rawhide!

2010-01-13T12:26:00.000-06:00

I have started scripting my first episode. I finally have the character figured out and some of the stories and experiences I would like to share in my animation. The hardest thing to me is getting my ideas that I want to share into a concrete form that I can then weave into a story. Metaphors and the likes. I guess it's kind of like writing poetry. What I'm planning on doing is let the character tell the story mostly with body language and actions. I might do some voice acting but I will probably have to hire someone because my voice is not so great. I'm also learning how to setup a nice rig as I go along and settling on a style is a hard choice. All of the choices I have to make at the beginning means I need a good road map and to plan ahead. So I'm not going to worry with the modeling or rigging really until I get the script in a final draft and the storyboards started. Any tips guys?

Alive and living

2009-11-27T17:25:00.001-06:00

So here is some more teaser footage. This is just a test render and animation. I’m still working on the rig. The scene was rendered with some node setup I have been testing. Not sure how I will render it out when it’s done. I maybe use a good amount of post work to allow me to do less detailed textures, this allowing me to turn this into webisodes.

Still alive

2009-10-16T12:38:00.002-05:00

So I'm working in Blender again. Doing some game work for a friend. Also working on my secret project still and I'm working on a 2d game! I'll post some teaser images or something up soon.

Instead of making a new post, I've just added to this one.

Revelation of Pi

2009-05-18T16:42:00.004-05:00

Life has been interesting to say the least. Much thought has gone into consideration. I have came to the decision that I want to create what I want! Much as any artist does. What format shall I choose? As many as I can.

On the animation side of things, all is looking on the up and up. Still struggling with still poses, but I just need to loosen up a bit. I did some straight ahead animation for practice this weekend and I must say it felt good. I enjoyed it so much. All this pose to pose nonsense has been making me feel like a machine. I broke out Dick Williams' book Sunday and brought it to work with me to read over for another time. Doing so I rediscovered his section on straight ahead and pose to pose. Using both of them to there advantages. When I originally read this part I didn't quite understand using the mixed type. Now I do. So here's to you Richard, thanks for reminding me that the wisdom of past and great animator's should be devoured over and over again!

I also forgot to say I built a new PC. This time I have a quad core! Specs are as followed, q6600, 4GB Ram, Nvdia 9800GTX. Very nice system, a great upgrade from my single core AMD 64bit 3000+! I've always been an AMD man until recently. A few reasons; 1) I got a deal on the Intel, traded most of the parts for an Amiga 4000. 2) Intel is now faster and the price gap is really close. 3) AMD now owns ATI and I've always been a Nvidia man.

New AM assignment!

2009-02-11T00:17:00.006-06:00

For this one I choose to use Blender as my animation software and the Mancandy rig as my characters of choice. This is my initial blocking stage. Mainly rough story telling poses with facial expressions for a more final feel.

Been a while

2009-01-21T23:57:00.002-06:00

Ok, it's been a while. I took two terms off from school. But I'm back. Here is a light pass I did on my last shot. The timing of the mouth is still way off and I've got a lot to fix. But I have fresh eyes on it and it should be better. Expect more updates soon! I will show you a sneak peak at my side project.

more progress on facial animation

2008-04-06T22:21:00.001-05:00

Here it is. Latest progress on my shot. Still got a good bit to learn, and to work on.

here is my latest progress reel

2008-04-03T00:37:00.003-05:00

As you can see, I am improving. But I still have a long road ahead! BTW, loving OS X!

Mac and Me

2008-03-29T23:41:00.003-05:00

Ok, so I decided to give Mac OS X a try. Boy this sure is a nifty operating system. It's pleasing on the eyes, which means the interface doesn't get in the way. It's easy to use. I think I've figured out everything I need to know now after a few days. All my software I need runs natively on Mac as well! Maya works great, Blender, etc. I even get to try some really new peachy keen applications. Overall my experience has been nice. I also ordered another gigabyte of memory, which will bring me up to two gigabytes! That will be very helpful for multitasking and animation in general. I will post my progress reel real soon. (haha, reel real, hahah!! :O )

Updated Harvey Animation

2008-03-18T21:07:00.002-05:00

Here's my progress. Still needs plenty and we don't have full facial controls yet!

Jimmy Stewart Talkie

2008-02-27T20:43:00.001-06:00

So this clip is with youtube, sorry it's just easier. just blocking out my first voice shot , or a "talkie" as I like to refer to it. Lots of work to do, but this is the general idea of my shot. Some of it will be removed, some will be change. You will have to see the next update!

Time for a wordy update

2008-02-10T17:00:00.000-06:00

So as you can tell, most of my posts lately have been just videos. I haven't typed very much. The reason is I've been pretty busy. I have moved to a new place, getting a new job, and working on side projects. The most recent project has emerged from a good friend of mine. We are slowly trying to work on a large animation project, but we've been busy with school and work so we've not put too much time into it. Well, he has a small freelance web design thing going on besides his day job. He is needing some coding in php. I have a bit of experience in programming qbasic and C, among trying out others. My most successful being a C game engine. Which got as far as being able to move sprites around and some crappy collision detection. I do however understand functions and how computers work, thanks to a book Write Great Code, which is an assembly book at heart. It goes in to great depth to explain how a computer works (thinks). A great buy even if your motives are not to program, just the information about how things are managed by a computer can help you in your everyday use.

Now for my real reason to update. I'm working out a webisode type animation. Format is unknown right now. But I've been doing tests in 2d and building a 3d set. I think I might change the medium per different episodes. This could possibly strengthen my techniques and my demo reel. I of course want to do stopmotion too. So, I am to model a 3d set, draw a 2d world, and build a real set. I just hope I can keep the look consistent enough. I know minor changes will be good. I'm not exactly sure how the stopmotion pipeline will work. So it will be new to me. I really hope to get into stopmotion professionally. Adding some stopmotion pieces should help me land that kind of job. Well, hopefully I will upload some teaser images of some concepts soon. Till then, happy animating.

Newer update

2008-02-06T22:36:00.001-06:00

latest stage on 1s

2008-01-26T15:22:00.000-06:00

Ok, so here is where I am now. What do you think? Still got lots of work to do.

Latest Blocking

2008-01-19T22:48:00.000-06:00

This week's WIP

2007-12-09T01:34:00.000-06:00

Not finished. WIP. What do you think?

2007-12-08T21:25:00.000-06:00

Since I've gotten the new mouse, I have been using my wacom more. How ironic is that? What I want now is probably a Wacom Cintiq 12WX. Which is a tablet lcd screen, if you didn't know. I think it would be the best and allow me to do 2d and 3d work faster with it. Still debating on whether or not I will get a new pc or this Cintiq first.

I got a new mouse and I love it.

2007-11-24T20:27:00.000-06:00

I have been using the brand new apple mouse and keyboard lately but the mouse has been bothering me. It has these side squeeze buttons that I accidentally use all the time. It is very frustrating. So I decided to buy a new mouse. So I buckled down and purchased this Razer Death Adder because it was cheap at BestBuy (openbox). I bring it home and hook it up. Wow. This is the best mouse I have ever used. I have gone through many mice. This one takes the cake. It glides smoothly with its teflon feet, the feel of the plastic is warm and inviting, the precision and smoothness hasn't been matched by a mouse I've come across. I highly recommend purchasing this product.

This week's blocking

2007-11-24T15:33:00.000-06:00

Ok, so here is the blocking so far on this weeks assignment. I'm not really happy with it. It seems wrong but I am not sure what. So I can't wait for my critique!

2d animation

2007-11-23T18:18:00.000-06:00

CLICK THE IMAGE TO VIEW ANIMATION
Messing around today. I might finish it some more, rough blocking today. Was fun. What do you think?

Body Mechanics of jumps.

2007-11-10T16:27:00.000-06:00

So from my experience and from what I've been told jumps are not easy. Here's my try of the "blocking plus" stage.

Long time no see

2007-11-03T17:24:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I haven't updated in a while. I've been real busy. It happens. Here is my latest, blocking in my shot and last weeks sidestep that still lacks but I'm moving on for now. It needs curve tweaking and that annoys me. I should have layed out the breakdowns better.

Standing up stop motion

2007-10-21T20:58:00.000-05:00

Here is some stop motion I did today. It's just a test of the armature. I haven't made a set yet so i've just used my desk for now. It's looking decent imho.

side step/jump

2007-10-20T22:02:00.000-05:00

Here's my latest.

my workstation

2007-10-15T20:43:00.000-05:00

Here is my current workstation setup. I thought someone might like to see it. I know I am always curious of other's systems. I just got the apple keyboard and mouse which are really nice. Yes I have Windows XP. A powermac will be my next big purchase. But for now my 24" lcd with custom built pc will do. Notice my new armature in a zombie pose!

my armature

2007-10-15T00:34:00.000-05:00

I finally made an armature! Now I need to drill some holes in wood and begin. I can't wait.

This weeks assignment

2007-10-11T21:28:00.001-05:00

So this week is the blocking stage. We are focusing on body mechanics. I hope you like it.

UPDATED. I changed a bit of it before I turned it in.

Shnookums & Meat!!!!

2007-10-11T21:19:00.000-05:00

So, the other day I went by Reed's Books which is a really awesome used book store downtown. I was browsing the children's section when I saw a plastic box thing that said Shnookums & Meat on it!! Score! I remember waking up early before school at maybe 5:00 am just to watch it. It was a cool cartoon. It was Disney that took a hint of Ren & Stimpy. Well what the box is , is a promotion pack for the local tv station. Awesome. I scanned a few of the picture items to show you.

random

2007-10-07T21:25:00.000-05:00

Me looking over at Liz tonight. Doing some drawing/sketches for the short film project i've been working on with Brandon I. I will post a few of my sketches so you people can check it out in a few days.

This week in review

2007-10-07T11:33:00.000-05:00

So this week at AM we have just done reference filming and sketching. They want us to plan out our shot very well and get it done to the best of our abilities. I'm glad it's a bit slower paced right now. I've been researching making stop motion armatures all week. As soon as I get my paycheck I am going to order some wire and build a puppet. I need to pick up the laptop and such from Robert's house so that I can make sure I can get my webcam and the framegrabber software working properly. I was doing a bit of animation in Blender last night and this morning. I still like Blender better than 3ds Max! It's not bad to animate in at all. Maya is still better, but Blender is production worthy.

small update

2007-09-24T20:29:00.000-05:00

I'm currently updating my reel. Working on some of the earlier stuff, putting polish on them and fixing hideous problems. I don't want any of my work to look bad. But I still want to post my learning progress on here. I guess that's why it's here! Just wanted to keep you guys posted.

final week 12

2007-09-21T23:47:00.000-05:00

This is my final reel for my very first semester at Animation Mentor! It's terrible. The only thing I like is the vanilla walk! I think it looks production quality. Well the basic bouncing ball is ok to, if not bland. Next week we get a week off. So this time I should practice my drawings skills, setup a stop-motion set, and refine all of my reel material. These don't have to be finished during this one week period but it would be nice. I don't think I have enough time in the day. All I can do is try!

More toys

2007-09-10T19:06:00.000-05:00

So I got a really cool Jack Skellington figure that was apparently a prize item in japan from sega. It has poseable arms and legs. Limited movement mind you, especially the legs. But much better than the bendy figure of him! Better than a picture, I give you a test animation. I was so excited I did this. Now I need to plan a little animation out. Very limited so I won't be able to do much but practice spacing and timing.

A bit of modeling and rigging anyone?

2007-09-10T00:37:00.000-05:00

I was thinking perhaps I should still keep up my other skills, modeling and rigging. So thinking today I was like *light bulb* my girlfriend gave me a cool Felix the cat wallet the other day. Why not model (which should be simple) and rig (which should be harder) a Felix! That way I can get a better feel for Maya. I'm not very familiar with it, so I need to learn. I am very familiar with Wings3D and 3ds Max. I know Blender pretty well, and can do the basics in Mirai, XSI, Lightwave, and Maya. Maybe a few others too. I have used many and owned a few of these softwares. I am quite partial to Wings3D. Blender is pretty freaking awesome for free, and XSI's sub-d's are superfast. Lightwave is just weird. It looks really cool, but it's so awkward. Mirai is an also dead application that still has things other software dream of. I can't see why it's still hard to do these things with today's applications. I mean 3d paint, auto-ik, and a morph system so powerful you wouldn't believe me if I told you. Bay Raitt is one of the few people who know how to make it shine. If you have seen Gollum from the Lord of The Rings you know what I am talking about. He created the facial shapes or expressions for Gollum. Quite impressive and really realistic. He captured Andy Serkis' perfectly! Anyways enough rambling. I will post up my latest progress later this week. I will also try to post more stuff here. Like side projects and maybe a bit more personal stuff. Who knows. Comments are appreciated. But if you aren't registered, sorry but I don't think it's allowed. That's to keep spammers off of my comments.

Oh yeah sketch time

2007-09-09T01:34:00.001-05:00

Here are some of my recent sketches that I have managed to forget to post. No particular order. Mainly idea's for animations and poses.

AM Week 10

2007-09-09T01:27:00.001-05:00

This weeks pose is.....
Exhausted for those that can't read my pose. This week we are blocking out a personality animation. Here is what I have so far. The timing still needs tweaking but I need some more poses (breakdowns) or some splines before I can tell how I want it. Lots of curve editing for the timing of this one I think. I took most of this personality from one of my girlfriend's chihuahuas. It can be quick and a wiggle worm. Enough blabbing, animations speak louder than words in this industry.

POV Challenge WIP Blocking

2007-09-09T01:15:00.000-05:00

Here is my blocking WIP for a POV challenge. Go check it out! I'm in the process of laying out the keyposes and setting up the timing for everything. After I get that done, going to block in the breakdowns then off to diddle with splines! What do you think? I will post my AM Class stuff on another bloggins!

Off Topic, got a Wii

2007-09-06T21:24:00.001-05:00

I got a Wii today!!! I've been wanting one for a long while, my friend Robert called me today and said the local Wal-Mart had eight, count 'em eight in! I've never seen one in. So I just happen to be leaving work because i'm sick (I really felt terrible) but I fought the pain and made it to Wal-Mart to purchase a Wii! I'm stoked! I am ready to play Resident Evil 4 and The Legend of Zelda.

week 9 revision

2007-09-03T20:47:00.000-05:00

Here is my revision of my vanilla walkcycle. I put a bit too much bounce with my final and needed to fix the feet a bit. I did do it in one day with sleep deprivation! I had a lan party the night before. All week I have been going crazy with stuff and didn't have time for much of anything. Also here is my pose for the week. It's Concerned. This is my revision of the pose.

starting week 10

2007-09-02T22:33:00.000-05:00

Life's been a little bit crazy lately. With my car being broken down for over two weeks, I haven't been able to make much money at work. (For the ill informed I am currently a runner for a law firm, i.e. I drive for money.) It also cost big bucks to fix, which I didn't have. Well, now I have my car albeit with a problem but at least I have it. I didn't get to put much time into my animation this week or anything else for that matter. I've also moved (moving) in with Liz, my girlfriend. She's great! Plus this will save me some money. Which can really help right now. Tonight I got my computer setup and started going back and fixing my old assignments. I have left them hanging for quite some time. Really waiting till I figure out what's wrong and how to fix it. Slowly but surely I am getting better. Well off to animate. I will post some more stuff once I get everything setup. Toodles.

Week 7

2007-08-18T20:57:00.000-05:00

This one I am proud of. I did a ton of planning and I think it really paid off! What do you think? I might massage it a bit more after I get graded on it, but I think I have improved tremendously. Here are my 'final' sketches for it.

I also got Windows 64bit installed and up and running. Everything works except for Quicktime inside of web browsers, well most of the time. Sometimes it works. Very odd, but then again QT is 32bit software. Darn Apple! Release QT 64bit for Windows! I also partitioned my 2nd drive and setup my virtual disk space on a 2gb partition and am using the other space to store all my work. That way I can use my main harddrive only for applications. It should speed things up. Also been tweaking my system by disabling services and the likes. I use Black Viper for a nice guide to tweak services.

Week 6

2007-08-12T14:51:00.000-05:00

This week was pendulum week, where we learned about overlap. I experimented with a few different movements and couldn't pick one I liked so I had a few actual animations I worked on. This one looks the best though and it's what I turned in. Next week should be fun!

Week 5

2007-08-12T14:45:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't kept up to date. Been very busy with many things. My car broke down in 105 degree heat! Not cool! Anyways here is my work for week 5. Devestation was the pose and an obstacle course was the animation. My timing was terrible on this one. I am going to fix it this week. Fun and challenging none the less.

stopmotion experiments

2007-07-30T18:56:00.000-05:00

I picked up some sculpey at wal-mart today, here is my first experiment with stopmotion.

old blender animation

2007-07-30T14:22:00.000-05:00

This is an older animation I did in blender. I created the simple base mesh and rig just as a test of blender's character animation tools. I think it turned out ok.

week four

2007-07-29T11:25:00.000-05:00

Ok, so this week I have slacked much more than I anticipated. With my current status as vacation, I have been lazy with everything. Next week will pick up back at full force. I must not lose sight. This week's assignment was put off too late in the game for me to get working on it properly. The problem with it, is plain and simple bad planning and rushing. I will spend more time on it this week, perhaps even re-sketching out my ideas. Now week five looks like a great assignment! On to squash and stretch! I am happy, now we get closer to actual character animation.

week three

2007-07-22T20:58:00.000-05:00

So this week we start working on a bouncing ball. Our pose of the week happens to be excitement. Here are both.

week two

2007-07-17T18:45:00.000-05:00

So one of my first assignments at AnimationMentor was to create a pose from real life. the point I believe is to get you to be able to read all the attributes for animating really fast from real life and always be observant. Well, this week I get to animate a ball! Lame some of you may say but it's great. Learning the basics of animation is needed if I am to go anywhere. Be sure to keep a look out as I will be posting some of my stuff up here.

Goodies for the postal service

2007-07-03T21:59:00.001-05:00

Look at the goodies I received in the mail today! Maya, Combustion and Cleaner XL. I ordered Maya student version and received the other software free with it. Awesome huh? I thought you would agree. I have been browsing around the campus at AM and watching videos there. Very cool stuff. I like the way they have it setup. They also have lots of stuff for me to do. I am ready for the Q&A session and to start ANIMATING!!!!!

My mentor is.....

2007-06-30T11:23:00.000-05:00

So I have found out who my first mentor will be at AM: Elliott Roberts! He has worked on Robots, Ratatouille, Pirates 2 and some others. I am excited. Q&A session is Thursday. School starts monday. My shipment of Maya 8.5 should be here soon too! I am ready to begin.

starting school soon

2007-06-13T19:57:00.000-05:00

I start Animation Mentor in July! I am so excited. That's all for now. Stayed tuned for heavy updates when I start school.

Still going

2007-04-28T03:21:00.000-05:00

Wow, I have been testing out different linux distro's and I finally found one that does everything I need. It runs nvidia drivers, blender, gimp, my wacom, maya, and countless other sound and graphic softwares. The main thing is maya and my wacom. Soon I will be able to delete Windows completely, as long as I can function within Animation Mentor with linux, I will be deleting M$ stuff off. I have been animating, and setting up linux on my roomate's and little brothers computers. I just got mine setup with everything today. Most of the animating I have been doing is going through walkcycles from Animation by Preston Blair. I will not bore you with them just yet. Let me get a decent one first. I need to figure out how to use the curve editor.

Short update

2007-04-15T19:24:00.000-05:00

I haven't made any posts not because I haven't been busy. I have been studying and working on my zombie animation's story. I also moved out of the loft! Oh well, it was a good run there. I am amassing a nice collection of books now. I even got an original copy of Animation by Preston Blair. I am waiting to hear back from my Animation Mentor application. Let's hope things pan out well.

Zombie Walk-cycle

2007-03-27T19:46:00.000-05:00

Today I started work on a zombie walk-cycle in order to experiment and practice for my upcoming short (working with a friend of mine on it). I haven't start on the arm movement yet and a few other things. The legs and hip area is what I have worked on the most so far. Everything else needs much more work. On another note, I hope to get into Animation Mentor this summer class. I am really excited about it.

I have also been sketching more lately. I have even been able to sketch much better than usual. I think The Animator's Survival Kit is really doing me wonders. Not only are my animation skills rising, my drawings skill are as well.