Action Analysis

The long awaited first take of my first fully coloured, finished piece of animation. Of course there were issues, and at 4 in the morning they were acceptable. The characters colour is missing on 2 frames and the pole is missing on one, and for some reason when the final was rendered, the fire layer had these weird red squares. I don't know where they came from, but I shall someday.

AA Character Design

Here's a finalized character design for action analysis. Colour might still change a little.

AA Colour Test

Here's an update of the action analysis scene, a colour test for the background. I'm pretty happy with it, now just have to decide if I should paint it digitally or the old fashioned way, which I'm much better at.

Stop Motion

Here's some of the work I've done in my stop motion class this year. We're working up to doing a full walk cycle with one of the good puppets, but here's my first attempt using an old Power Ranger toy.

Reno 911! Caricatures

Here's some caricatures I did towards the end of the summer, found them as I was going through life drawings.

Action Analysis

Here's my workbook sketch for how my Action Analysis shot is going to work. Definitely trying to challenge myself with this one, but I'm sure I'll get it done.

Action Analysis Working Reel

Here's the working reel for the action analysis. Some shots need some serious attention, that will come in time. Still got 9 weeks.

Action Analysis Rough Design Pack

Here's my design pack for my action analysis shot. I'm liking it so far, just got to figure out how to pull of the actual shot itself. 

Frankie Four Fingers

Here's really the first finished piece of work from this year, and weirdly enough, its from the one class I have that has nothing to do with animation. 

More Life Drawing

Here's some (kind of) life drawings. All of these were done from photos, as unfortunately I don't exactly have a live model on hand for the summer. Maybe next summer I'll have to get a mail order bride. While obviously this is not as helpful as live figure drawings, it has helped stave off the rust. And one good aspect is that I have the advantage of picking and choosing poses, and the time I want/need for each. 

But doing these has made me notice how boring and average almost every model hired for us is. I can think of three who actually seemed like some sort of character and weren't just a puppet being posed. These photos at least have a sense of either story or character, something that I think is very under served in life drawing classes. I get that these models are paid much better money, but given the amount we fork out for tuition, I'm sure they could spring for some better ones. I mean if 200 photography students can each find their own models (just to take close ups of their eye), I'm sure with the resources the college has, they could find better ones for us. The fact that I can go through a years worth of life drawings and find the same model in the same pose in almost ten different drawings is kind of ridiculous. 

I also understand that when models are as attractive as those I've drawn here, or are better actors, they can probably make better money for less hours. But I guarantee if you asked all 400+ students in our program if they would chip in an extra $500 in tuition for the best models/actors, you would get a unanimous 'yes.'

But for now I think this method is a good alternative. I know that I can't find the same variety of body types, but the variety of interesting poses that actually suggest a setting or character more than makes up for it.

Life Drawing

Class by class, I'll start posting work from the rest of year two at Sheridan. First up is life drawing. A big thanks to Robin Muller (google him!) for saving us from the administration, and pointing out a whole bunch of things I can do (and started to do) to improve my life drawing, which in my opinion has always been my weakest class.

The Summer of George

So I've started a second blog, dedicated to my summer work. My plan is to watch at least 1 new movie each day, and then do some caricatures, layout studies and maybe some story analysis in preparation for 3rd year. 

I proclaim it to be "The Summer of George!!"

See it here

Beak Sync

Newest animation, the beak sync. Clip is from Will Ferrel's cameo in Wedding Crashers.

Muzzle Sync

The product of reading week, my muzzle sync animation. Once again the dialogue is from Dogma, this time from Jason Lee. Tried something new with this one, no light table use at all. Still used the disc and pegbar of course, but all done with flipping. I think it turned out pretty well, so I think I'll keep doing it that way for the time being. 

Human Sync

 

Here's the latest animation assignment, the human sync. The line is from the movie Dogma, original character design. Pretty happy with it, considering I started from scratch two weeks into the assignment.

And if history repeats itself, Ben Affleck has two days to live.

Mouth Sync

First assignment back after Christmas break, the mouth sync. Very fun to do, mainly because I got most of it done early and it gave me time to add the extra stuff like the lip cuts/stitching and the video/sound at the end.

And I have to mention that it was done and handed in a full two days before Ledger died. An eerie kind of tribute, I guess.