Class 3

Finally got around to rendering out my 3 shots from Class 3 at Animation Mentor during the break week between classes.

Three months of work in about 30 seconds! I have lots of planning sketches, blocking/blockingplus for each shot, but it would take a while to get it all posted!

I'm halfway through AM now, just started class 4 and getting into acting shots!

show & tell

Back at the beginning of April, I participated in the 49 Hour Film Competition created by MG Collective. I was lucky to get to work with a professional team for the competition, and we were able to make something pretty cool in 2 days.

All the 49 hour films were recently screened, so now I can post the full animation here.

I haven't gotten around to posting any of my shots from class 3 at Animation Mentor yet, but I am almost done with the term. I will put up all 3 shots together since each shot is a continuation of the one before it.

ballet

Just finished my last AM assignment for class 2 this past week. Have been working on this shot for about the past 4 weeks. I knew I kind of wanted to do a ballet dance for this last one after watching Black Swan. I actually got some of my reference footage from the actual Swan Lake ballet.

Here is the final rendered version. I tested out a little bit different lighting for this one to try and create stage/theatre lighting.

Here's the original blocking pass.

Here's the blocking plus pass.

And here's some of the planning thumbnails I did for this shot.

You can see the shot came a long way from the first blocking pass! So class 2 is done and there is no break between classes. Straight into class 3 starting on Monday!

windy

Finished my second assignment in class 2 at Animation Mentor a few weeks ago, but just now getting around to post it. We had a few things to choose from for this one, all relating to how the body reacts to external forces.

I went with the walk in heavy wind.

Here's the first blocking pass for it.

And here's the blocking plus for it, stayed in stepped mode this time.

And here's some of the original planning sketches.

Working on my last assignment for class 2 now, doing a ballet dance! Finishing it this week, should have it up soon.

turn & shift

Finished my first AM assignment for class 2 last week. We had a few different options of what to animate that we could choose from, but most of them dealt with doing balance and weight shift in the hips. I went with the 180 turn.

For most assignments now, we do planning one week, blocking week 2, blocking plus in week 3, and turn in the final in week 4. This lets us get lots of feedback from the mentor through the whole process and really refine the animation.

Here's the initial blocking pass for this assignment.

Here's the blocking plus, where I started splining. Will probably stay in stepped mode for blocking plus on my next assignment.

And here's some of the initial planning sketches.

Started working on my next assignment for class 2 as well, walk through heavy wind!

AM Class 1

Finished class 1 at Animation Mentor earlier this month and finally got around to rendering out the assignments and doing some revisions over the holiday break. So, here is my progress reel for class 1. It goes from my last assignment back to the first assignment, and then all the poses.

Will try and post the work as it is in progress in the future. On to class 2!

catch

Was up at Art Institute and got to mess around with the Cintiqs! First time really sitting down and using one, so got a quick painting in. Would be hard to go back to a regular tablet after using these for a while!

(This is what happens when you realize why everyone on your team is yelling and pointing at you.)

Also, almost done with class one at AnimationMentor. Have been pretty busy and haven't gotten around to posting anything yet, but will try to post some work over break!