Term 3 Ends!

Great term, great mentor, enjoyed a lot, and am kind of satisfied with the results, but honestly i need a job out of this country, so will be polishing some more maybe while eating my hallacas on christmas. :). Below the final shot for this term semi-polished. Halfway through AM :)

Bottle Lift (Blocking plus)

This is a traditional weight lift exercise, i wanted to do something more entertaining than this, but at least i'm really enjoying working on this one, my mentor is pretty happy with it and that's a good thing. I just discovered with this exercise the power of putting a good amount of effort in the planning and blocking, everything else flows much smoother, hitting the spline button was not painful at all with this one.

"Horror Book" Semi-Polished

Still have to do some corrections my mentor addressed, i think i'll try to do them after the term ends. This animation was very difficult since i didn't have a side video reference, but it came out ok i think. Still needs more polish. Btw, don't ask about the "whatever that is…oh…a convenience piece of furniture he has on his house" as my mentor said". I'll work on it when i get the time, it's not absolutely necessary though.

"Horror Book" (Blocking)

Can't believe i forgot about my little blog, this past few weeks have been the hardest, but also the ones i've enjoyed the most. I did some bad crappy blocking which i had to redo 2 times, but finally i have something i like, still rough of course, it's rough until refined, so as you see i've been failing a lot, and that means i'm learning, wohooo!. I love animation a little more everyday. Oh and there's a blooper somewhere in the shot haha.

Kung Fu Shot Splined

This is the final version of my Kung Fu shot, at least for now, it still needs some work but i ran out of time unfortunately, at least i think it's looking decent, but still needs a little more life, more dragging in some areas, more exaggeration in the poses and maybe some more contrast in timing. Maybe a nice render too, and of course fix the horrible knee pops, but for now i have to move to my next assignment, my "horror book" shot :). Let's see how that goes, i really really want to make this one look awesome.

Shaolin Kung Fu (blocking)

This is my new shot and my first post for term 3!, still very rough, i didn't even put as many breakdowns as i'm used to, but i think it's enough to sell the idea and i got the major keys and breakdowns in there, i'll add more breakdowns and will try to make the poses stronger and refine the timing and spacing more as my mentor pointed out. Overall satisfaction for this blocking = 6.5/10, that means i'll have to work harder this week :).

"Spanish Stewie" Final Render

Here's my "Spanish Stewie" :), like "Spanish Buzz" from TS3, but way less cooler, lol!, this is the final shot rendered, i'm about to start the 3rd quarter and wanted to make a few improvements, and to make Stewie more like a flamenco dancer. Too bad i have to move on, there are still some things i wanted to improve, but i guess that's it for "Spanish Stewie", i really enjoyed working on this assignment.

12 Amazing Short Films

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These are my 12 favorite short films available on the internet, it was a hard task choosing the best ones from over a 100 i have bookmarked, so they're the favorites from my favorites, :D. I kept big studios short out of this, they've been well promoted, and you've probably seen them already. These shorts were not chosen because they have great animation, or awesome storytelling, or kickass lightning (which most of them have), i picked them for just one reason without overanalyzing, i love them.

There are 2D, 3D and Stop Motion films in here, some have tons of awards others not so much, some are made by just one person others by many people, i even picked one with bad animation, but has a great story in my opinion (i'm not saying which one xD). It's a shame i had to leave a few others out, but i wanted to keep this post down to just 12, maybe i'll post some more later.

Short films are my best source of inspiration and this is my little tribute to them.

Enjoy!.


Skhizein




Jojo in the Stars




The Forest




Anchored




Alarm




Distraxion




Helium


Helium. from Daniele Zannone on Vimeo.


Les Dangereux




The Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello 
Versión en español (3 partes) Aquí




Reach




La Maison en Petit Cubes (click the image to go to the site)

Delivery

Flamenco Animation [Update] Class 2 - Week 10

This term is about to end, i have to say that for me it wasn't as fun as the last one, but this has nothing to do with AM, or animation being fun, it's more like some life drawbacks thing, it's getting better though. The important thing is that despite all this stuff, i still want to do this because i love it, and because it's a commitment with myself. I still have this week to make little changes and refine more areas, so we'll see how that goes. Here's the last update, still needs some life on it, maybe i should watch Pinocchio or something, lol.

Flamenco! - Class 2 - Week 9

Booo! i missed my weekly post last week, this is still a blocking phase (blocking plus) from my flamenco animation, it's been hard and fun at the same time, the bad news is that the rig is defective and when i spline the feet act really weird,  many people are having the same issue so we'll see how it goes. I foresee stressful times :S, there's so much to do in this 2 weeks!, but i'll try hard to end up with a decent animation :). Flamencooo!!! weird stuff, i'm appreciating flamenco dance with this project.

Stewie (no arms) Final - Class 2 - Week 5

Here's the final animation polished. I feel this shot taught me many things, for instance, don't try to counter animate controls to fix other messed up ones, that will end up bad in the graph editor, i'm really terrified to look at the graph editor from frames 135 to 160, that's something like bad script in a web site, it could work but inside it's a mess, it's good because i finished it, but bad if i need to make changes afterwards. I'm satisfied in the sense that i think i applied and pushed consciously those animation principles, also because this is my first semi complete character animation (no arms), at the same time unsatisfied because i'm not totally happy with the final result, so i'm gonna have to live with it, or maybe i'll try to push it a little farther later, i really lost objectivity from watching this animation so many times, i don't know if the swinging feels real or fake, or half way there, i just lost it.

I went a little bit coo koo with my idea for the next assignment, a 10 second animation, with a full biped character and...dancing flamenco? yep, dancing flamenco, this is not really my thing but i liked this guy doing this crazy moves in this scene from a spanish movie (from 1:50 min to 2:03), i think somehow Toy Story 3 has something to do with this, it's going to be definitely a challenge, but i'll try my best :)


 

Stewie (no arms) Update - Class 2 - Week 6

This is the "blocking plus" pass, well, it's a little more than that, i started refining a few spots, a lot of changes have to be made, but i have to confess that i really want to finish this animation, it's a little frustrating to redo 50 frames =S, but i'm really not satisfied with that boring ending, also i got to a point where little details are taking forever!. I'll start tomorrow and we'll see how it goes. 

Stewie (no arms) blocking - Class 2 - Week 5

This is last week's blocking, it's still rough of course… it's blocking!, it needs a lot of work for what i have in mind, specially the spine, but i like the starting point i have, i want to push it as far as i can in terms of overlapping, timing, arcs and exaggeration, let's see how that goes. So i'll be waiting for today's eCritique from our substitute mentor for this week, Greg Kyle http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0477379/, to start working on it right away!

Ballie Finished Animation and New Assignment - Class 2 - Week 4

This is the final animation, it's polished, refined etc. I'm not sure about the spacing, my eyes betray me at this point, so i'll have to wait for today's eCritique. I wanted to put some lightning and render this out, but i think i'm going to wait till the quarter is over. Below the animation is my planning for the next project, it's not the final idea, but it'll be something like that. The idea is for "Stewie" (the new character) to be jumping... i don't know what...yet :), i know, seems boring, that's why i'm trying to spice it a bit, there were more fun options to pick, but also difficult, and since this is a new character, (it has like 10 more controls than Ballie, including spine, neck, shoulders, head and eyes), the graph editor can become a spaghetti puzzle, so i think i'm going to stick with this idea which is not as demanding, but the good thing is i can build up from here as time passes and challenge myself in a healthy way. DETAIL is going to be the key word for this new assignment.

Ballie Splined 3/4 - Class 2 - Week 3

This past week we had to do a second blocking pass, or blocking plus, which means we had to come out from stepped mode into linear or spline mode, i went into spline mode all the way, the refining is fairly advanced, in fact i don't know what else to refine/change/add, so let's see what my mentor says about it, i still think it needs something, so i hope he comes up with some great ideas or corrections.

I really think this assignment has been the most structured and organized i've done so far, i put a lot of time into planning (video reference, visualization, thumbnailing, observation, etc.) and as i mentioned in the last post, the blocking lectures have been very useful, and it all paid off very well, so thanks AM! Next week is the final week for this assignment, and i have to start planning my next animation with a new character!!! finally! this one has spine, head and no arms. So here's the splined animation.

Blocking "Ballie", Video Reference and More...Class 2 - Week 2

Finally here it is, my first animation assignment for this term (this is a 4 week assignment, 2 more left). We have had two lectures in a row of blocking methods (and there are more coming), i feel those have helped me tremendously, i've cut off my blocking time a lot, with the little tips and tricks, and the previous experience of a few months i feel that i'm taming the beast, at least for this kind of animation. I'm starting to believe that i'm getting good at this stuff, at least from my own personal point of view, i look back and now i can see all the progress i've made, throughout this blocking i could see more clearly what i was doing and could apply the principles mindfully.

One thing i feel i'm having trouble with is exaggeration and squash and stretch. I wish i could make things a little more cartoony but it's a little difficult for me at this point, and i strongly believe that it is for anyone at this stage of learning, what i mean is, to break the rules you have to know them first, (or something like that my mentor said), i mean, if i want to achieve a more cartoony feel, i prefer to nail down the physics first by studying a lot of video reference, shorts, movies, life action etc. and when the time is right then let's break them, and of course this is a little more obvious to me when i remember now that we haven't received an in-depth class on exaggeration or squash and stretch. So to sum up, first things first.

Two misconceptions i wanted to clear up, two relatives and some friends made me write about this, one of them is the "does it take a long time?", the answer is yes, well structured, polished animation takes time, my father saw me shooting video reference the other day and after a few hours he asked "did you finish the animation" lol, and with my experience and knowledge no way (poor dad)! it takes along time because this is almost like 2D, drawing by drawing with some help from the computer. The other thing is the video reference, we tend to think at first that animation is an automatic thing that comes instantly with talent, i know i thought like that!, my brother saw me watching some footage and said "that's cheating" lol, and that's ok, i think everybody thinks like that at first, but the truth is that video reference is an amazing way of learning animation, i mean wow, what a great teacher is a piece of .mov file. And as Bobby Beck said, "after a while you won't need to rely that much on video reference because you'll know how things behave" <--or something like that, because animation comes from observation.

A New Term begins!, Class 2 - Week -1

The second term just started! and just like the last term, this is a more relaxed week, we had to shoot some video reference and make some planning sketches in order to make an animation with "ballie" (the character we used for the walks), we have a month to finish this animation, i foresee some "happy animating", and i can't wait to start blocking my stuff, i just have to wait for my mentor's approval in order to start. And speaking of mentors, the one i got for this term is Dave Vallone (imdb here, which btw is incomplete), a really nice happy guy with 25 years of experience, that of course means that he has a classical 2D animation background which is awesome. But i'm not going to get carried away with emotions because of his resume and a first impression, i'll tell you how it went when the term is over, i know why i say this ;), but i really feel a good vibe from Dave, he seems to really love teaching.

In my new classroom there are 3 classmates from my previous term, which is somehow comforting, since the rest of the class is made out of US and Canadian guys, oh and one australian guy, but in my mind there are just 2 foreigners in the class, one from India and me, that's like coming from outer space and landing in a human classroom lol!, i guess it's the normal transcultural barrier feeling that you get when you move to another country, which i'll have to get used to if i want to find a good job overseas. Btw, this feels a lot like the real world somehow, so i think this is a good practice, i'm sure everything will be fine.

Again, i'm really grateful to be here, this so far has been a great experience, i've learned a lot throughout these past months, and i´m not just talking about animation. So let's keep on rockin' \m/!!!

Progress Reel Finished!

Finally, i finished my progress reel from Class 1, i improved some animations and also rendered out everything. In just a few hours we'll start class 2!, let's see who will be my mentor and classmates :).

"The Cool Walk" 2/2 - Class 1 - Week 11

It's week 12…3 months!!! wow, that was fast. I'm happy because the term ends, but i'll miss my class, this is a strange thing to say 'cause i really don't know them personally, but well, it's true.

So here's my final assignment, the completed walk splined, with a little hop added in the middle, and in a 3/4 perspective, it took a long time but i really enjoyed this, i couldn't stop tweaking those tangents!.

This is my final Stu pose, the theme this week was "balance", i never did one of these poses so fast, it took me like 10-15 minutes!!!, that was crazy, 'cause i've been like 10 hours tweaking other poses, i don't know, i just stop when i'm really really happy with it, luckily that saved me some extra time for the animation. :)

Walk Cycle Completed

Stu Pose "Balance"

"The Cool Walk" 1/2 (Blocking) - Class 1 - Week 10

Really? week 11? wow!, it seems like i started AM a few days ago, again, somebody is messing with time, oh wait! i saw a black cat, i think it's a deja vu, yep, somebody is changing the code. (<- if you didn't understand you don't deserve to read my blog). Ok let's get serious now. The two languages in my blog… yep, that's killing me, so i'll have to say goodbye to...the spanish version, sorry, but it's too time consuming and i know you all out there understand english, i think it's close to 100% of you people.

We had to do the blocking for a personality walk cycle this week, it was fun, but at times frustrating, i wasted several days trying to decide which one of the 4 walk cycles i had in mind i was going to do, shot some video reference which helped immensely, but i ended up with the most boring one, this time i was a little reluctant of taking risks, but i was right, i was not going to be able to finish if i'd chosen one of the others, i'm not a super duper experienced animator, and this time we had no Bobby Beck to rely on, so in general the feedback i received was great, but i'm not satisfied, so i'll have to push it this week.

Also we had to make a pose with Stu showing exhaustion, i had to make two of them, again i was not satisfied with the first one :(, man, this week was tough for me!, i can feel it on my neck.

The lecture was a lot of fun, watching Carlos Baena do this crazy walks and explaining important concepts was very interesting. And that's it see you next week!. Below is the animation blocking, sketches and Stu pose.

Personality Walk Cycle (Blocking)

Exhausted pose (Sketches)

Stu Pose "Exhausted"

VSB-30 Sounding Rocket by Orly Wanders

This is a great 3D animation a good friend of mine did, and since it's so cool and well done, i though i'd post it here!. Enjoy

VSB-30 Sounding Rocket from Orly Wamders on Vimeo.

Walk Cycle Completed 2/2 - Class 1 - Week 9

Hi everyone, i had a great time last week splining things out for the walk cycle, overall i feel satisfied with the results, i achieved almost exactly what i wanted, i had to watch lots of reference for this, in fact, i started again from scratch, i redid the blocking to make a better foundation, which saved me a lot of time in the graph editor.

The lecture was about Exaggeration, really fun lecture. Exaggeration is a very essential principle, it's one of the things that makes animation more appealing, it's useful to draw the attention of the audience at any given moment, to make things clearer to read and to make what we see in the real world more interesting, and since we lose bits of information when putting something on screen, this is principle becomes vital in animation. So exaggerate your poses, your timing, your ideas!. I know i will be doing that this week! ;)

This week we had to do another Stu pose, this time the theme was "concern", here it is along with the completed walk cycle.

Hola a todos, ésta semana fue realmente excelente, la pasé de lo mejor refinando la animación para el ciclo de caminado, en general estoy satisfecho con los resultados, conseguí casi exactamente lo que quería, para eso tuve que ver bastante referencia una y otra vez, de hecho, comencé otra vez de cero, rehice el blocking para tener una mejor fundación, lo cual me ahorró bastante tiempo en el graph editor.

La clase fue sobre Exageración, bien divertida. La exageración es un principio esencial, es una de las cosas que hace a la animación atractiva, es importante para llevar la atención de la audiencia hacia un momento específico, para hacer que las cosas puedan leerse con mayor claridad y para hacer al mundo real más interesante, ya que buena parte de la información que se coloca en pantalla se pierde, por esto la exageración se vuelve vital en la animación. Así que exajera tus poses, tu timing y tus ideas!.

Esta semana tuvimos que hacer otra pose con "Stu", ésta vez el tema fue "preocupación", aquí la dejo junto con el ciclo de caminado.

Walk Cycle Completed

Stu Pose "Concern"

Blue Sky's "Rio" Trailer

Though i'd post the new Blue Sky movie "Rio" trailer in here, first because it's really great, but mostly because my mentor for this term (which is about to be over) works on that movie, and it's a way for me to say…thanks? yes, thanks Scott for that wisdom, and congrats!.

RIO - 3D - Official Trailer from Ed Zerati on Vimeo.

Vanilla Walk 1/2 - Class 1 - Week 8

This past week we animated a walk cycle (vanilla walk) in stepped mode. Stepped mode is a method of working in 3D softwares which means that the animation has no in-betweens, this is very useful in the blocking stage, what does blocking mean i hear? blocking is the simplest way to convey the idea of an animation, and it's not the animation itself, that's why it looks unfinished or rough. It was really not that difficult to do, the problem came when i tried to make a different kind of walk just for fun, and that's what we'll be doing next week!. I also learned that little changes sometimes makes huge differences, that's why i struggled with the other test animation, so i'll have to study more walk cycles.

We also had to make a Stu pose that showed "strength", i spent a lot of time on this one but got a little disappointed, too many critiques from my mentor :(, also reflected on my grade (which was not bad at all btw), but anyways...i'm always aiming high.

This week was not as stressing as the previous ones, so i had some time to "rest" on the weekend. This week is similar, so i'll try to make some revisions. And yeah, i know i'm boring this week, that's because...i'm not having a good one :(. I'll try to cheer up and make a stupid joke next week! :).

La semana pasada tuvimos que animar un ciclo de caminado, (vanilla walk) en modo escalonado (stepped mode). Stepped mode es un método de trabajo en programas 3D donde no existen inbetweens o dibujos intermedios (a menos que la animación se haga en su totalidad cuadro por cuadro) este modo de trabajo es útil en la fase de blocking, pero qué es blocking? blocking es la manera más simple de comunicar la idea de una animación, pero no es la animación en si, por esta razón pareciera que la animación está incompleta o cruda. No fue particularmente difícil, pero el problema surgió cuando traté de hacer un ciclo un poco distinto. Allí es cuando la experiencia entra en juego. También aprendí que los pequeños cambios a veces hacen grandes diferencias (por eso sufrí con la otra prueba de animación).

También tuvimos que hacer otra pose con "Stu" que reflejara fuerza, pasé bastante tiempo en ésta, pero salí un poco decepcionado después de ver mi nota (la cual no es mala), pero bueno...siempre estoy apuntando alto.

Esta semana no fue tan estresante como las pasadas, así que tuve tiempo de descansar un poco el fin de semana. Esta semana es parecida, así que trataré de hacer algunas correcciones. Y si, se que estoy medio aburrido ésta semana, eso es porque...no es muy buena que digamos para mi :(. Trataré de animarme y hacer algún chiste tonto en el próximo post :).

"Ballie" Animation Assignment

Stu Pose "Strenght" (Revision)

Stu Pose "Strenght"

Animating Tailor - Class 1 - Week 7

I'm so in love with animation, that i think i never liked something that much in the past, i mean, this is it, this is my holly grail, and i'm grateful i found it and have the opportunity to be in such an amazing school as Animation Mentor, everything is so wonderful that it'll be a shame if i have to leave it, and unfortunately there's a possibility.

Now let's talk about last week, i know i say this every week, but this has been the hardest one, assignments are getting harder and harder every time, i now need not just one but two more days a week, that's three sundays, one to finish my assignments the way i want to, one to do things i'm leaving behind and i have to do, and one to rest. Can we do that? please?!. I know, i'm a little nuts but that's the lack of rest.

This week we had to animate "Tailor", yes our good friend tailor, this is an advanced overlapping assignment (check my last post for further info), it took me about 25 hours to finish, and i'm not counting the planning, lectures, reference study, maya training, etc. If i have had 5 more hours to polish, i would have been completely satisfied, but i'm happy in general. Take a look at the video and leave a comment, we rely on feedback a lot!

Update: now that i have fresh eyes again because i haven't touched maya in a few hours, i'm not happy with he results, lol! that's how animation works.

Amo tanto la animación, que no recuerdo algo que me haya gustado tanto en el pasado, me refiero a que, esto es, éste es mi santo grial, y estoy agradecido de haberlo encontrado y de tener la oportunidad de estudiar en tan increible escuela como lo es Animation Mentor, todo es tan fascinante que sería una lástima tener que dejarlo, y desafortunadamente existe esa posibilidad.

Ahora hablemos sobre la semana pasada, se que digo esto todas las semanas, pero ésta ha sido la más dura de todas, las asignaciones se ponen más y más difíciles cada vez, ahora necesito no uno sino dos días más a la semana, uno para terminar mis asignaciones como yo quiero, uno para hacer cosas que estoy dejando de hacer y que debo hacer y uno para descansar. Puedo tenerlos? por favor?!, Lo sé, me estoy volviendo coo koo! eso es la falta de sueño.

Esta semana tuvimos que animar a "Tailor", sip, nuestro buen amigo tailor, esta es una asignación avanzada de "overlapping" (para mayor info chequea mi post anterior), me tomó cerca de 25 horas completarla, y no estoy contando el planning, las clases, estudio de referencia y maya training. De haber tenido 5 horas más para pulir, creo que hubiese quedado completamente satisfecho, pero en general estoy contento con los resultados. Échale un vistazo al video y deja un comentario, realmente dependemos mucho del feedback!

Update: ahora que tengo "ojos frescos" otra vez porque no he tocado maya en algunas horas, debo decir que no estoy contento con los resultados, lol! sí es como funciona esto.

Hypnotized by the pendulum!, Class1 - Week6

Last week was the hardest since i started, i mean i was freaking out because i had no time to finish the animation, man this is really weird but even after i submitted my animation for revision, i wanted to keep animating the frigging pendulum… on a sunday… after almost 19 hours with 5 hour sleep in between, god i miss that tail, lol!, although I wish i had one more sunday just to rest, the lack of time is starting to affect me, officially i have no spare time, and i have to do something about it, but i'm still happy anyway :).

The lecture was about the overlapping action principle, that one is a difficult one to grasp, i had a hard time understanding the physics for this animation. To explain it easily, it's when one joint moves after the other and makes this wave motion caused by a force, like legs moving in a walk cycle, or the motion of a squirrel's tail, i mean, it's not that difficult to understand the concept, but not easy when animating a pendulum!, that's when you truly get it, or start to get it. For example, what happens when the pendulum changes direction in x or y? how will the joints move? what about the timing and spacing? , i think i will be asking myself those question as long as i animate, and i'm happy for that!, i mean isn't it nice to be learning all the time?

I leave you with the exercise, for which i didn't have enough time to polish :(

La semana pasada fue la más difícil desde que comencé, estaba bastante estresado porque casi no tenía tiempo para terminar la animación, carajo, esto es bien raro pero después de subir mi animación quería seguir con el pendejo péndulo, un domingo… después de trasnocharme animando casi 19 horas con solo unas 5 horas de sueño, Dios extraño animar ese péndulo! xD!. Aunque quisiera tener otro domingo más para descansar, la falta de tiempo está comenzando a afectarme, oficialmente, no tengo tiempo de ocio y tengo que hacer algo al respecto, pero sigo contento de todas maneras :).

La lección fue sobre el principio de "overlapping" o "superposición", este fue difícil, tuve problemas entendiendo la física para poder hacer la animación. Para explicarlo de manera sencilla, es cuando una articulación se mueve después de la otra y crea este movimiento en forma de ola causado por una fuerza, como cuando las piernas se mueven al caminar, o el movimiento de la cola de una ardilla, me refiero a que el concepto no es difícil de entender, pero si lo es cuando se anima un péndulo! ahí es cuando realmente lo entiendes, o empiezas a entenderlo. Por ejemplo que pasa cuando el péndulo cambia de dirección en x o y? como se van a mover las articulaciones? y que hay del timing y el spacing? Creo que me estaré preguntando esas cosas mientras esté animando, y me alegro por eso!, me refiero a que, no es cool estar aprendiendo todo el tiempo?

Aquí los dejo con el ejercicio, para el que no tuve suficiente tiempo de pulir :(.

Obstacle Course Class1 - Week5

Really…it's time accelerating or what? i can't believe how fast this is going, must be what people say about time passing by too fast when we enjoy something too much :). This past week we had a lecture about squash and stretch, and this is easy to explain in letters:, here i go, normal state of a ball: o, squashed ball: _ stretch ball: | , wait, no, not so easy, there's a lot more!, squash and stretch seems easy but it's a little more complicated than that when used in animation, it can be used in many situations (and not only with a ball) to give an animated character an organic feeling, S&S is a reaction to a force, and it's a natural thing but it can be exaggerated and has to be applied very carefully in animation in order to get entertaining, fluid , believable and appealing animations.

This week's assignment was to make a ball run through an obstacle course using Squash and Stretch, also we had to create another pose with the theme "Devastation", and this is what came out of all this talking :), see you next week, hopefully, if you're not already bored with my posts! xD

En serio…se está acelerando el tiempo o que? no puedo creer cuán rápido va esto, debe ser lo que la gente dice siempre de que el tiempo pasa volando cuando uno disfruta algo mucho :). Ésta semana pasada tuvimos una clase sobre Squash and Stretch (aplastamiento y estiramiento) y es muy fácil de explicar en letras, aquí voy; estado normal de una pelota: 0 aplastada: _ estirada: |, un momento, no es tan fácil, hay, mucho más! Squash and Stretch parece fácil, pero es más complicado que eso cuando se usa en animación, puede ser usado no solo en una simple pelota, sino en muchas otras situaciones para darle a un personaje una sensación orgánica, S&S es una reacción a una fuerza, es algo natural pero se puede exagerar, y tiene que ser aplicado con mucho cuidado para así obtener animaciones entretenidas, fluidas, creíbles y atractivas.

La asignación de ésta semana fue animar una pelota a través de una ruta de obstáculos usando el principio de Squah and Stretch, también tuvimos que crear otra pose con el tema "Devastación" y esto es lo que salió de toda ésta habladera, nos leemos la próxima semana, espero!, si ya no se aburrieron de mis posts! xD

Planning Process

Devastated Pose

Devastated Pose Sketches

Class 1 - Week 4 (2 Bouncing balls)

Hi there!, week 4 huh? yes, weeks are flying by! This past week was a lot of work, at least for me, the electrical cuts in town and other stuff took a lot of time away from AM, luckily i uploaded my assignment on time. I really enjoyed last week, it was a lot of fun getting to see the improvement of the animation throughout the week, working on details it's fun also, i could get lost in time doing that :). That reminds me of the many people who believes that animating a bouncing ball is a piece of cake, well...to get decent results as a beginner, it's hard work, and this time we had to animate two of them!, one lighter than the other.

The lecture was an introduction to timing and spacing, timing is a large concept, it's what gives realism and meaning to motion, take for example the bouncing ball, if there was no timing or spacing it would only be motion from point A to B, no acceleration, no gravity, no physics, no nothing, and it applies to almost everything.

I leave here the assignment video. By the way, we're not focusing on great graphics for the moment, just animation, i'll deal with fancy stuff and renderings later :).

Hola! semana 4 no? si, las semanas están pasando volando!. Ésta fue de mucho trabajo, por lo menos para mi, los racionamientos eléctricos y otras cosas me quitaron mucho tiempo para AM, por suerte subí la asignación a tiempo. Realmente disfruté la semana, fue muy divertido ver las mejoras de la animación con el pasar de las horas, trabajar en los detalles también es muy entretenido, podría perderme en el tiempo haciendo eso. Eso me recuerda que mucha gente piensa que animar una pelota rebotando es super fácil y rápido, bueno...para obtener resultados decentes como principiante, es bastante trabajo, y eso que no es mi primera animación de una pelotica rebotando, par rematar tuvimos que animar dos!, una más liviana que la otra!, pero como dicen "sarna con gusto no pica" ¿no? jeje

La clase fue una introducción al timing y spacing, timing es un concepto muy amplio, es lo que da realismo y significado al movimiento, tomemos por ejemplo la pelota, si no hubiese timing o spacing, solo sería puro movimiento de un punto A al B, no habría aceleración, ni gravedad, ni física ni nada, y aplica para casi todo.

Aquí dejo el video de la asignación. Por cierto, no nos estamos enfocando en gráficos bonitos por los momentos, solo animación. Los adornos y renders los dejaré para después.

Class 1 - Week 3 (Bouncing ball and excitement pose)

This week we made our first animation assignment, and as i said before we're starting from the most basic concepts, so the first animated assignment was to animate a "simple" bouncing ball, i have to say that it was a lot of fun, and kind of... obsessive? yes obsessive, i couldn't stop working on it and trying to make it better, but it was also difficult, in terms of getting the correct timing and spacing to get a natural feeling with a limited amount of frames, and in top of that i added a degree of difficulty with a ricochet, i didn't really know if it would turn out good, since i have very little experience, but i believe i did ok. I'll wait for the eCritique to see if my mentor has the same opinion :)

The other assignment was to make new sketches reflecting excitement, and later, as we did on week 2, choose the best and then pose it in the 3D model (Stu).

Last but not least, the assignment was about planning and blocking methods, really fun, my brain is like a sponge right now.

Ésta semana hicimos la primera asignación de animación, y como dije antes, se comienza desde los conceptos más básicos, así que tuvimos que animar una "simple" pelota rebotando, debo decir que realmente fue divertido animarla, y de alguna manera...obsesivo? sí obsesivo, no podía parar de trabajar en ella y de tratar de hacerla mejor, pero también fue difícil, en el sentido de lograr un buen timing y spacing para dar una sensación de naturalidad con un número limitado de cuadros, en tope de todo añadí un grado de dificultad con un rebote en una pared, no sabía como iba a salir realmente ya que no tengo mucha experiencia, pero creo que lo hice bien. Ahora esperaré a ver si mi mentor opina lo mismo :).

La otra asignación fue hacer nuevos bocetos reflejando excitacion, y luego (como en la semana pasada) escoger una favorita y posarla en el modelo 3D (Stu)

Por último pero no menos importante, la clase trató sobre métodos de planificación y "blocking", bien divertido, mi cerebro es como una esponja.

Bouncing Ball

Stu Poses (Excitement)

Class 1 - Week 2

This past week we had a lecture about the 12 principles of animation, basically an introduction of the tools necessary for great quality animation, which we are going to be studying more in-depth as weeks passes , created by 2 Disney animators, Ollie Jhonston and Frank Thomas. The assignment for the week was to make "life drawing" sketches, essential for good posing, appeal and good entertaining animation.

La semana pasada tuvimos la clase sobre los 12 principios de la animación, básicamente una introducción de las herramientas necesarias para animaciones de buena calidad, las cuales estaremos estudiando con mayor profundidad a medida que pasan las semanas, creadas por 2 animadores de Disney, Ollie Jhonston y Frank Thomas. La asignación para la semana era hacer bocetos de "life drawing" <- (que no se como traducir en 2 palabras), esencial para buenas poses, atractivo y animaciones buenas y entretenidas.

Animation Mentor First Week!

First week is over, and i never though an online school could be so amazing, i don't know about the others but i'm very grateful to be here, because it's more than an online school, it's a community of people who share the same excitement and enthusiasm i have for animation, it's so much fun that i almost abandoned my twitter and facebook accounts, with no regrets! :).

The study system is very well structured and organized, we have video lectures, assignments, live Q&A sessions, video chats, forums, guest speakers, video training, eCritiques by mentors from the greatest animation studios around the world (Pixar, Disney, Blue Sky, Sony, Dreamworks, Weta, etc.) and other bunch of useful tools. Mine is Scott Lemmer from Blue Sky Animation Studios, and he's just great. Everything is so well thought that it really amazes me, we have support on everything from technical to student care, they even help you organize your time better. Wrapping up, i don't have a bad thing to say about Animation Mentor...worth every Bolivar!

There was no assignment for this week, but i'm already working on my first sketches, which i'll post at the end of the week.

La primera semana terminó, y nunca pensé que una escuela online pudiera ser tan increible, no se las demás, pero estoy muy agradecido de estar aquí, no tienen idea cuanto. AM es más que una escuela online, es una comunidad de personas que comparten la misma excitación y entusiasmo que yo tengo por la animación, es tan divertida que casi tengo abandonada mi cuenta de twitter y facebook y sin arrepentimientos! :)

El sistema de estudio está muy bien estructurado y organizado, tenemos clases en video, asignaciones, sesiones de preguntas y respuestas en vivo, chats de video, foros, conferencistas invitados, entrenamiento en video, eCritiques por profesores de los mejores estudios de animación alrededor del mundo (Pixar, Disney, Blue Sky, Sony, Dreamworks, Weta, etc.) y otro montón de herramientas útiles. A mi me tocó Scott Lemmer de Blue Sky Animation Studios, y es simplemente estupendo. Todo está tan bien pensado que de verdad me asombra, tenemos de todo, desde soporte técnico hasta atención al estudiante, hasta te ayudan a organizar el tiempo mejor. Para resumir, no tengo nada malo que decir sobre Animation Mentor, vale cada bolívar.

Ésta semana no hubo asignación, pero ya estoy haciendo los primeros bocetos, los cuales publicaré al final de la semana.

Meet Meline!

I had been anxiously waiting for this short film to come out to the internet for a while, very nice display of 3D, lightning is excellent!, completely made by a married couple, and what a couple!

Había estado esperando ansiosamente la salida de éste cortometraje a internet por un tiempo, muy buen despliegue de 3D, la iluminación es excelente, completamente hecho por una pareja de esposos, y que pareja!

MEET MELINE : THE 3D ANIMATED SHORT FILM (by Sebastien Laban & Virginie Goyons) from Sebastien LABAN on Vimeo.

Character Animation Test

This is a character animation test i did for fun. I really don't know what i'm doing, there's no timing study, no anticipation study, no nothing. If anything is correct, it's pure intuition. Real animation will start this next monday at Animation Mentor. :D

Éste es un test de animación que hice por diversión. Realmente no se lo que estoy haciendo, no hay estudio de timing, no hay estudio de anticipación, no hay nada. Si algo es correcto es meramente intuitivo. La animación de verdad comienza el próximo lunes en Animation Mentor. :D

Character Animation Test from fpixels on Vimeo.

Hemlock

This amazing short film was made in just 3 months by only one artist, Tyson Ibele from New Zealand, it was made for the "Steampunk" CGSociety Challenge and won the "Individual Video Master Award". Enjoy!

Éste sorprendente cortometraje fue hecho en solo 3 meses por un solo artista, Tyson Ibele de Nueva Zelanda, fue hecho para el reto "Steampunk" de CGSociety y fue el ganador del "Premio Maestro de Video Individual". Disfrútenlo!

Hemlock from Tyson Ibele on Vimeo.

Puzzle Animation

This is a very simple 3D animation i did for a client.

Ésta es una animación 3D muy sencilla que hice para un cliente.

Puzzle Animation from fpixels on Vimeo.

Here I Go!!! …or Still Going, but Faster!

As many of you may know, i've been having this innovative, creative, awesome idea! which nobody has ever had, of creating a blog for some time now, wow!!! that's a reality now.

For many years now i've been struggling to change my path towards CG and Animation, the shift has been slow, but this will change radically as i'm only a few days away from starting a year and a half of intense, committed and long awaited studies at Animation Mentor!!!. That was the final push i needed to make this blog.

I will be posting my progress on the school, cool animated short films, animation/CG related news etc. Many of you may be thinking…why in english?, well, easy, i can practice my english (many of you too), i'm not gonna re-write the bible in here, most of the people that will read this i'm sure knows at least 95% of what i'm saying, and finally because i want to make this global!!. I'm flirting with the idea of writing in both spanish and english…but we'll see. The design will change and the name too :S.