NEW BOOK!!

I got the e-mail this morning that my order has arrived. WOOHOO!!

"Character Animation Crash Course" by Eric Goldberg. I have been waiting for this book ever since I first heard about it on The Animation Podcast. Luckily, it wasn't that long of a wait. Eric Goldberg is one of the modern greats in character animation. Some of his most notable characters are the Genie from Disney's "Aladdin" and Phil from "Hercules". He is also a very talented director. He was the director of "Pocahontal" and two sequences in "Fantasia 2000", "Rhapsody in Blue" and "Carnival of the Animals" (the flamingo with the yo-yo).

I was fortunate enough to meet Eric Goldberg in 2000. He was a guest speaker at the Disney Institute 3rd Annual Animation Event. It was such a treat to hear him and his wife talk about directing "Carnival of the Animals." He also talked about his career in animation and what it was like animating the Genie. When I heard he was going to be there, I packed up as many of my animation books I could into my little suitcase. I think I needed one suitcase for clothes and another just for all my books.

A funny story about this autograph session. Theye both signed my Fantasia 2000 book along with a lithograph (pictured above) from the movie. Their daughters, Jenny and Rachel, were also there signing autographs. Eric said that when they started production on "Rhapsody in Blue", their youngest daughter Rachel looked just like the little girl from the film. So they named the character Rachel. Her older sister Jenny was also included in the film. If you watch "Rhapsody in Blue" when they do the montage of the little girl doing everything wrong, there's always a blue haired girl doing everything right. They named that character Jenny Blue. When the girls were signing autographs, Jenny had blue streaks in her hair. When it came time for them to sign my book, Jenny could not find a picture of her character. But I did. I pointed it out to her that her character was in the same shot as Rachel. She was so excited to find out she was in the book.

One of these days I'll have to upload all the pictures and autograph of all the animation celebrities I got to meet at those events. They were so much fun and inspiring.

Also, go to The Animation Podcast and download the latest podcast. It is an interview with none other that Eric Goldberg. This is part one of his interview and it chronicles his early days working with Richard Williams and Pizzaz Studios in London. He also tells the story of when he was a young boy and on the game show "To Tell the Truth". This guy is a joy to listen to. He has one of the greatest laughs I have ever heard. A close second to Burny Mattinson.

Polishing - Take 1

I've taken plenty of the ideas from fellow students and my mentor, and put most of them into this take.

Time to Spline

Here's my first pass at splining. It went a lot easier that before. The thing that really helped, I think, was that I animated on two's and one's. I did the animating and did not let the computer do too much. When I did my walk cycle in the first semester, when I splined I had the right foot drop way below the floor plane. It took me forever to fix the problem. This time, not so much.

Minor changes

I received a pretty thorough e-critique from my mentor this week. She liked the look of the scene, but I just needed to touch it up here and there. The one thing that kept coming up was overlapping in the arms and torso. I think I fixed it up a bit but we'll see when I spline it later this week.






The whole scene is blocked out on two's, one "drawing" for every two frames. I found this the easiest way for me to have the most control over what the character is doing. This way I control the animation, not the computer. It also reminds me of when I used to do traditional 2D animation.

I also have been experimenting with lighting and fully rendering the scene. I also found a way to create a Quicktime video using After Effects. This is a LOT easier than the way I was doing it before.

Rendered

Here's my scene fully rendered and with shadows.

Blocking Plus

Here is my pass for this week. This week was "blocking plus." That is where we take last week's scene and fill it out a bit more.

Lately, I have been listening to The Animation Podcast a lot. I have been hearing from James Baxter and Ken Duncan over and over again. Every time I hear something new and try to use it to inspire my work.

This week I focused on overlapping action and timing. There are a few kinks I still need to iron out but it's coming about.

I also built a little set for my scene. I sculpted a ball return machine, a keyboard, the alley and gutters, and used a chair from the Animation Mentor Library. I LIKE IT!!

Next week: We SPLINE!!!!

Coming Soon... (part II)

BOOKS! BOOKS! BOOKS!

Working at a bookstore certainly has its advantages at time. Especially when awesome movie books are published. I recently picked up "The Art of Wall•E". This is the art book with all the conceptual drawings and illustrations that inspired the movie Wall•E.

I also recently picked up "Tales of Colosus" by PIXAR artist Mark Andrews. It's his graphic novel and is a re-do of his earlier work "Colosus". It has a forward by Brad Bird himself! I'm in the middle of it and so far so good.

The book I am waiting for is the one from Eric Goldberg. It's called "Character Animation Crash Course" Apparently this book is filled with his notes from lectures he has given. It also includes and CD or DVD with examples that go with the text. He was signing copies at SIGGRAPH but it won't be available to the public, well...ME, until early August. Grrrrr!!!!

More books and reviews to follow soon.

Coming Soon...

MOVIES! MOVIES! MOVIES!

I've been to the movies a lot lately and I'll talk about them soon. Here is what I've seen so far:

• Horton Hears A Who!
• Iron Man
• Kung-Fu Panda
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls
• The Incredible Hulk
• WALL•E
• Get Smart

I've also seen a few on DVD:

• No Country for Old Men
• Enchanted
• Tekkonkinkreet
• I Am Legend
• The Golden Compass
• Cloverfield
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Dan in Real Life
• The Brave One
• Beowulf
• Death at a Funeral
• Driving Lessons

I've been meaning to post my reviews of many of these films.

It's been a while...

OK, it's been a while since I have posted anything. There's so much that has been going on. I made it to class 3. It is week three already and it is going pretty good.

My scene is a bowling theme. It is a change between two different emotions. I'm going for timid/nervous to confident/cocky. I also constructed a little set for background ambiance. I'll be showing that later. I'm also thinking of adding a few more Stewies in the background to fill in the crowd. Let me get the main one down first, THEN I'll work on the background characters.

So here's what I got so far. This is BLOCKING PLUS:

Class 2 Is DONE!!!

Class 2 of Animation Mentor is finally done!! This has been a long 12 weeks and I feel I have learned a few more things about animation and about myself. I got involved with other hobbies and plans which took time away from my studies. The scenes suffered because of that. However, I polished them up as best as I could and that is what I have submitted here.

The next term begins on June 30th and I am not sure if I will be moving on to Class 3 or not. I had a passing grade for the term but my mentor feels I would benefit from taking Class 2 again. He says I need to really nail down body mechanics before I can move on since it will only get more difficult from here on out. I can see where he is coming from, but it was still painful to hear. I don't really mind taking the class over again since Inow know what I need to work on. My main concern is that my student loan will not cover me to get into Class 6 to finish the program. I don't know what is going to happen but I will figure it out when I get there.

But for now, my Class 2 - Body Mechanics Reel: