Bitter Sweet

I can't believe I never posted some of my early works here. With all the stuff going on with Animation Mentor, I would like to post some of my early animation work. Here is a storyreel I did a while back. It's a simple story that has been with me for quite some time. I'm hoping that I will be able to work on this for my short film piece later on in the AM program.

Here is "Bitter Sweet." The soundtrack is temporary. It is "The Blower's Daughter" by Damien Rice.

Cue the Raider's March!!

In honor of the new Indiana Jones coming out May 22, I would like to present:


"Tailor Jones and the Thing That Would Not Die"

This was a pretty intense week. This assignment really kicked my butt. I have definitely learned my lesson about procrastinating. Hopefully I'll get it right.

Here are my sketches for this week:

The last one was for a one-legged character that was the other option for this week's assignment. It was said to be the easier of the two. As the knight said, "He has chosen...poorly." Oh well, what is done is done.

Next week looks just as fun. We start on a basic walk cycle for the next two weeks. Plus, sketchbook assignments til the end of the quarter. Only FIVE WEEKS LEFT!!!!

Pendi vs. Ballzilla

Pendi lost.

Would you say I have a...pendulum?

Yes, El Guapo. You have a pendulum.

This week's assignment is "overlapping action." The way we demonstrate this is with the use of a pendulum. Now it's getting interesting.

I've been having some trouble trying to get motivated with the work here lately. This program is based on character animation, but we have not been doing much of that lately. I know we're still learning the basics, but it's really testing me. They are wanting us to animate an object and make it look believable. We are not told to give it "character", just make it move like it would in nature. Well, that is when physics comes into play. I've probably ranted on this before, but if you want to make a bouncing ball look real, it has to follow certain rules according to science. It's the science and physics that has been dragging me down!!

So if you have watched the video by now, you will have noticed that I had a bit of fun with this week's project. Finally, FUN!! I've already got fun ideas for next week.

Week 5 - DONE!

Well, Week 5 has come and gone. I feel pretty good about my assignments for this week. This week was the ball thru an obstacle course. Here it is:


I also had to do sketches that convey the emotion DEVASTATION. Here's my final pose for that:



It's been a rough week, working long into the late night...into early morning. I need to get a better system in place. But I made it thru. I will definitely change up my strategy for this week: START EARLY!!

*Revision*

Here's my revison for last week's assignment:

I think I figured out the Translate Z (left to right movement) that had been bugging me so much lately. Well, for this assignment at least. The problem was that the ball was not rolling off the ramp as it should. I had forgotten one of the twelve principles of animation: Slow In/Slow Out. As the ball gets rolling, it eases out of the start position and then takes off. My spacing was all off.

I also fixed the bounces on the heavy ball. The first bounce was too far from the ramp giving it a feeling that it was lighter than it should be. Also, the bounces that followed were a bit too high. So I brought in the first bounce and lowered the rest of them. As or the light one, I just added one more little bounce at the end and lined up the top of the arcs of the curves.

I also think I found the answer to why these past few assignments have been giving me so much trouble. A simple ball bouncing has nothing to do with acting, it is all physics!! I was doing some reading last night in the book "Timing for Animation" by Harold Whitaker and John Halas. This is what I found:

I KNEW there had to be a formula to this!! This tells you exactly how far and how fast a ball of "average" weight should travel if dropped from a certain height. I will definitely keep this in mind next time I have to drop a ball.

Not so much

Well, like I said, last week's assignment was bugging me. I got my e-critique and Chris pointed out a few things I forgot to take into consideration, mainly spacing and timing which is what this week was about. So I am going to revise it this week and keep working at it.

This week's assignment is on Anticipation and Squash & Stretch. We have to put the ball thru an obstacle course. We also have to do a sketchbook assignment on poses that communicate "devestation".

This is what I have so far:

Week 4 - Light/Heavy Bouncy Balls

The topic for week 4 is timing. The assignment this week was two bouncy balls, one heavy and one light. Here is my submission for the week:

And my sketches:

I was really struggling to get it to look JUST right. I think it paid off. We have one more week with bouncy balls. Enough with the bouncy balls already! Next week we move on to a pendulum and dealing with overlapping action.