Animation Mentor: Week 601

Week 601

Well..I've made it to the final Class of Animation Mentor! WHOO HOO! This week means the start of the last push on my short film. I started the week with discovering who my final mentor was going to be. And the winner is...GREG WHITTAKER!!! He's an animator who has been at Dreamworks from the start, I believe. I'm super excited to get on with this term and to learn from this fantastic mentor.

This week we needed to take the first third of our film and get it blocked out. Since my previous mentor had pushed us to really get our films blocked out during Class 5, I had most of my ideas in there. I really had to work on the entrance of the boy character, as well as him walking through the shot in the second shot. I also fixed some issues from my final Class 5 notes on shot 3. This was the first time our new mentors had see our films. Greg told us in our first Q&A that he didn't want to know anything about our films before he gave us our crits, that way he would have a fresh view of them.

here's what I handed in for the blocking of the first third:

Animation Mentor: Week 511

Week 511

Last graded week of Animation Mentor Class 5!! Here's the "final" layout/"roughest rough" blocking of my short film "Snowfight of Fancy". Man, have I bit off a ton. I've still kept it basically at around 30-40 seconds. Some of that "over 30 secs." is because of my end credits. All the main animation ends around 30 secs. But I've packed in a TON to this little ol' short. I really REALLY can't wait till I get in the "real" blocking into these shots, but for the most part this is more then what was basically required for this class. But from what I've been told by many people who have been through the course already, I should be doing as much as I can over the next three weeks before my Class 6 starts. I guess it flies by fast!

without more ta do...here's my film in it's latest state:



Until laterz!

Animation Mentor: Week 508-510

Week 508-510

Hey loyal followers! My lack of posts the last few weeks is because I've been working on the layout phase of my short film. Back in Week 508, our assignment was to create the layout for the first third of our film. For me, that meant creating the set and building a snowman (along with some other props that have been deleted now from the final version) and figuring out how to create "kids" outta the Bishop rig I was going to use. After all that, I then had to figure out my cameras in 3D space and then begin to block out some really rough poses. On top of that, my mentor pushed us to really start to think of our performances and basically begin to block out our shots.

In week 509, we had to create the second third of our film. We weren't suppose to go back and do any corrections on the first third, unless it effected something in later shots or was a massive correction effecting our film. I also started working on the scarf aspect of my film. An AM friend volunteered to have a go at rigging a scarf up for me. I'm still working out the kinks with it but hope to figure something out with it soon. It's really only a big deal in one scene. But I still need to figure out all the technical aspects at some point. This week, I also was able to add a scratch track of audio. I have a buddy that is a music producer who is helping me out with this area of my film.

Then in week 510, I finally got to clothing my two characters and then getting the last third of my film (which actually is just one extra long shot) laid out and started blocking. Once again, we weren't to really get to fixing the first two thirds of our film till week 511.

So here's the film I handed in for week 511. Most of the first parts are terrible poses and even worse blocking, but hopefully in the final week of the term, I'll make all the fixes from my mentor and even push it a tad further.

but until then, here's the film:

Animation Mentor: Week 507 — Final Animatic

Week 507

Hey loyal viewers! I'm trying hard to keep you all current with where I'm at on my short film. This week our assignment was to take all our mentor notes and finalize our animatic and storyboards. I was really struggling with my boards. That being said..I really have done WAY more then would be required to do for my animatic. Many other people are doing fast thumbnails and they are really clear. I put in the time on my boards for two reasons:

ONE, to get a chance to just draw. It's been so long..and yeah..I'm extremely rusty, but it was still great to grow stronger in my digital drawing skillz!

and TWO, I was trying to work out my performance ideas now, so I had a head start on what was working and and what I might need to adjust. For me, that meant putting in some extra time to make everything read.

Then I also just really like having nicer boards. I wanted the viewer to really get the feel of the film. At least for where it is at the moment.

All that being said..I am feeling way better about my film and animatic then I did this same time last week. I had some amazing (although tough love) help from a couple close AM buddies. And in the eleventh hour, I had some awesome help from my director/film maker roommate with figuring out some better ways to work the last couple shots together. As of this post, I haven't gotten any crit from my mentor, so all this great feeling could be premature, but whatever. I feel good about it.

Next step is starting our 3D layout of our short film. Next week will be the first third of our film. Should be fun...whoot!

For now, here's the final animatic for my short film "Snowfight of Fancy":



until next time, loyal readers!

Animation Mentor: Week 506

Week 506

Last week's e-crit was a little tough to take. Mark, my mentor, really ripped my animatic apart. It was all for the best, but I'd be lying (and those that were around me this week know the truth) if I said I wasn't a tad frustrated. But it's part of the industry. So, picking myself up, I made the adjustments to the first half of my storyboards and then started in on the second half. The second half was actually a little firmed up in my brain, but I had to take into consideration some of Mark's comments from the first half. But in the end, I got it all done and handed in.

Here's the full second pass of my short film animatic:



Next week, finalizing the storyboards and animatic!

until laterz!

Animation Mentor: Week 505

Week 505

Having taken the feedback from my last e-crit from my mentor about my video pitch, I started in on my storyboarding. Our assignment this week is to create an animatic of the first half of our short film. The animatic is suppose to help figure out the timing and pacing of our shots and to help us plan out everything we'll do with our short film. I've been looking forward to this part of the process for a long time. I decided to use Toon Boom Storyboard to help me produce these boards. Then I use After Effects to create some motion and any needed effects. I'm still working on music to go along with it, but hopefully my composer will be able to get something together soon!

Here's the first pass of my animatic:



Next week is onto the second half.

Until laterz!

Animation Mentor: Week 501-504

Week 501-504

Class 5 of Animation Mentor is fully dedicated to the pre-production of our short film. This is the part of AM I've been waiting for. I had a few ideas even before school started, but still was trying to come up with more. Some of the ideas were a little too long to get completed in the six months given to doing the film. The first four weeks are all meant to narrow down our ideas to one. We then take a few weeks to create our storyboards and animatics. Then we spend the last few weeks working on our layout of our short film.

We had to write out three short ideas for our films. The school pushes for our shorts to be just that, short. A 30 second max time limit is pushed, but by the end of school, many people's short films have gone much longer. The whole goal was to get my shorts to fit into this limit. I worked my ideas down to as far as I could and submitted what I thought were the best three. From my mentor's notes, I decided which two ideas to do video pitches. And then after taking my mentor's notes based on those two video pitches, I picked the short I thought would be the best choice to both be great on my demo reel, as well as keep me engaged for the next six months.

Here's the pitch for the short film pitch I'm going with:



With the story idea figured out it's on to the storyboards...

until laterz!

Fall 2009 Demo Reel

Here's my latest demo reel for Fall 2009

Animation Mentor: Class 411

Week 411

Two months ago, I began my most complex animated shot I've ever done. At that time, I didn't know how complicated it was..it seemed rather simple. Oh, the things I've learned in the last two months...and the loss of sleep! 8 weeks ago, I started work on my 2 character dialogue animated shot. The goal was to have a complete, mostly polished shot within those 8 weeks, with lipsync, facial animation and smooth body mechanics. A few things made that goal a little tougher then it should have been. But all in all, I'm really excited for where I got this shot. I will continue to work on this shot to get it demo reel ready, but for now...I need a break. For those of you that either are animators or have an eye for picking out problems, you will see where I'm still needing polish and smoothing (especially in the second shot). But...over all, I think I done well, but why don't you decide for yourself.

Here's my "final" shot for "Twice in every song":



well..there you have it in all it's slightly polished glory! thanks for all the support these last few weeks!

next stop...SHORT FILM!!!

until laterz!