Class 3 Week 2

Already done with week 2! It's been a rough week filled with lots of stuff. But after a couple nights of no sleep I finally got my blocking done for my T-ball animation. :o)

I hope you enjoy!

Class 3 Week 1!

So I'm already done with the first week of the new term! I'm now in Class 3 - Advanced Body Mechanics and my new mentor is Pete Paquette from Blue Sky (creators of Ice Age, Rio, etc). Pete is a really cool guy and tells it how it is. I like that and really like that he will grade my work hard and make me work harder. You can find his website here.

So this term starts out by giving us a choice. We can either do what's called an "Animjam" or Anim Exercises. The Animjam is basically a series of 3 cut shots that will flow together to either make one big shot or a little short story. The Anim Exercises are basically the same 3 shots but each have a different theme, character, and point. I'm actually going to do the Anim Exercise. It took me a while to decide, but I want to have the ability to do different types of shots to change up the characters I can work with. 

My first exercise is going to feature a little kid playing T-ball. Here is the character design and description of the shot. 

Also below is my planning sketches for the shot and my video reference also for the shot. A couple things that I think can really sell this shot is making sure to show the weight of the bat and the looseness of his helmet on his head. 

That's all for my planning. My blocking for this shot is due by the end of this week and I'll be sure to post it up here. Also remember I'm on twitter if you want to follow. 

Class 2 Week 12 - Progress Reel

WHOO! Its the end of the term! It's a happy time and a sad time at the same time. I'm glad that I've finished Class 2 and am ready for the next term, but I'm also sad to leave Kevin as my mentor. He was definitely a great guy and great teacher. I've learned even double what I learned in Class 1. There were a lot of "Ah Ha" moments in this class and there wasn't an assignment that I didn't learn from. I'm definitely starting to become more confident with body mechanics and definitely can't wait to see what I can come up with for Class 3! So after some hard work and rendering, I've got my Class 2 Progress Reel up. Enjoy!

Just a recap, this is a compilation of all of my animation from Class 1 & 2. 

Also if your a fan of Twitter, you can follow me at http://www.twitter.com/chaseanimation

I will be continuing to post up all of my assignments week by week up here on my blog! :o)

Class 2 Week 11

So I'm a little late posting this, but I've been working hard on my progress reel that you'll see in my next post. But here is the finished version of my Dance assignment after 4 weeks. :o)

Class 2 Week 10

We're already in week 10! Whoo! I've polished out a lot of my shot this week. On the other hand, I've also learned a ton of stuff that I wish I knew before this assignment. This week's lecture had Rick O'Conner speaking who is the lead animator for ILM (creators of Rango, Star Wars, Spiderman, etc.). He really gave me a new way of analyzing video reference and exactly how to block out a shot. This realization along with my attempt to actually learn how to dance like in my animation, helped me see that part of my animation was wrong and didn't feel right. So next week, I'll be "reblocking" some of the beginning and the end so that, mechanically, it works and feels better.

That being said, here's my assignment so far this week :o)