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"