Rockin Some Blockin

Refreshed and at it again.  Here is my first pass at blocking my 'lift and throw' assignment. No critique from peers or mentor yet.  Overall I'm likin it.  Few hitches and such but I'm definitely getting my head around a solid workflow and orchestrating the body.  

Another one down

This was perhaps the most hideous animation I've ever done.  The finished result isn't bad, and with another week or so of polish it could be something I am proud of but I royally botched the blocking.  Many, many, mistakes were made but just as many lessons learned.  Hopefully I'll knock the next one out of the park.

I have been revisiting a lot of childhood / teenage memories recently and decided to watch "Katedra" again.  It's an animated short by Platige Image and Tomek Baginski.  I saw this when I was 13 at my first real introduction to the 3D medium.  I went a 'project fun' summer workshop at Cogswell in Sunnyvale. At the end of the week our teacher loaded up the best short films of the year as decided by the academy and on it was the aforementioned short. It blew me away, many of the images and stayed with me for years to come and it is a large reason for my interest in special effects. 

Without further words, here is Katedra.  Enjoy.

Triple Jump

This current term is broken into 3 assignments that each take 4 weeks. Each one having a successively more complex rigs, ending in a (drum roll) complete bipedal human.  I know, impressive right?

The first one is now finished, and was a triple jump, which you can see below. 

Max script: planes of light?

I have been working my way through the MIT OCW introduction to programming class.  I have found that I enjoy programming.  I get a chance to use mental muscles long dormant, rust covered, and cobweb laden.  I gave myself a few tasks to do with this information.  One of them was an attempt to get planes to be created above an image in a regular grid where more planes will be created the brighter pixels.  I felt that "The Scream" by Edvard Munch would be a fun choice.

Below is the result. 

I think the result is fairly interesting, even if I can't really think of a practical application for it. 

1 term down

Many changes are afoot and I have decided to take this blog more seriously (if only a little) and attempt to update it at least. Meaning that should that week suck and I have Nooooothing to say. Update at least once a week.  Luckily for me I've got some backup stuff to throw up here to ensure that I can keep this up for at least 1 week. 

I finished my first term of Animation Mentor and below is the progress reel as hard proof.  I'm not that happy with much of it in retrospect, though I will admit I had a honeymoon with about 3 of these shots. Then woke up one day and wondered where the love went and why I decided to marry them. But such is life.  

Whoops

Missed a few weeks, mostly balls bouncing.  Nothing all to interest but finally we get to add life to objects and not just motion.  The final ball bounce was with Tailor, which is a ball with a tail.  They think they are witty.  

 

And the week before that we animated a pendulum.  I like some of it though fought gimbal lock the entire time.  That was unpleasant.

And then there was a pose to be had. 

Week 2

The second week has come to a close.  Week 2 brought some drawing, gestural sketches to be specific.  That was painful.  Loud screeches of rusted cogs coming to life. Regardless of them being very quick drawings it's obvious I am strongly out of practice. 

 

 

Clean slate

Here we are, this is the first week, of the first class...of the rest of my life?

This blog exists to catalog my work, experience and growth during the next 18 months and maybe longer. By observation of the world and by much more blunt words from those of my peers, it would seem blog has become primary way in which we digital artists keep an online portfolio and interact with the world on a personal level.  As opposed to part of the media machines that collectively we make up.

Backing up a bit, I have recently begun Animation Mentor. For those of you who are unaware it is an 18 month online program teaching animation via a system of mentors and pre-made lectures.  You'll note the duration I estimate to use this blog corresponds in a 1:1 ratio with the duration of AM.  Nifty eh?


First Impressions:

My first week of Animation Mentor is rolling to a close and while the assignment for this week consisted of uploading an avatar and filling out a personal profile I have a strong feeling of how the program feels.  The experience is not unlike joining a social network with the difference being 2 fold.

A) You don't know anyone ahead of time
B) You all have a very similar and shared experience, and passion.

You are also, throughout the entire curriculum recommended to, with the incentive being grades, to go through and post critiques on 5 peoples assignments a week. This program, and the videos they have published to their students have seemed to create a very strong and self propelling social machine of critique, inspiration, emoticons and exclamation marks. Many exclamation marks. While I am innately anti-social and shy, I am entering this environment with an open mind hoping to reap the benefits of this system.

The program also seems to recognize and embrace its internet bound medium.  There are many interviews with some of the industries heavy hitters, tutorials, student interviews on their workflow, tools for download and the amazing ability to view every single students every single assignment and the accompanying  "e-Critique" from their mentor during each term.

I think I will like it here.

Here we go.