Progresion to Class 2 recommended

Okay this should have been posted last Friday, but I was having a break away from the computer.
one last thing I had to do in my last week was to gather all my work and submit as a progress reel.
Although its a cut & paste but It gave me an idea of how much I did improve in the last 3 months.

here's my Class1 progress reel



As for the Class assessment from my mentor:
My last assignment was great, a breakthrough, the personality walk really shines, the CG pose has a nice sense of graphic design,good sketches,the poses are getting stronger,
Great improvement in just one term,
I need to work more on my first assignments, specially the overlap(Tailor), sometimes my animations could be choppy, so I need to work more on the timing, spacing, overlap, and arcs in class 2.

It was a great term, great learning experience, looking forward to start Class 2 on Jan 4th

Assignment 10

The last graded assignment for Class one, I can't believe how fast the class went by...
Here's the "Balance" Pose sketches and 3D pose




And the final personality walk, or the happy walk animation bellow plus some revisions on past assignments

Week 11: In-depth look at the hips

This week lecture is all about the hips, the hips movement, angle and position of the hips vs. balance, how much its important in making our animations more believable.

For the assignment Its to finish the personality walk, polishing and refining. And another pose requested for Stu, this time its to communicate "Balance".

here's some revision on the happy walk, I had to exaggerate it more as most of my fellow students and my mentor noted.

Assignment 9

Personality walk and Exhaustion pose assignment submission

Week 10: Introduction to Walks with character

2 more weeks for class one...
This week lecture was about walks with personality, really nice references and a variety of walks.
Carlos is so funny when acting out the walks, the fact that I myself have to act out some walks for this week assignment...too much stuff to try out and experiment with a walk, playing with age, sex, weight, mood & emotion gives a different personality walk, then comes the challenging part, to exaggerate the walk.

This week animation assignment is on two sessions, this week is blocking the walk cycle in stepped mode. And the other part of the assignment is to create a " EXHAUSTED " pose

So far I started with a happy go lucky walk attached bellow

Week 9:Exaggeration and Weight

This should have been posted last week
As for the lecture It was as interesting as all past lectures so far, they really put an effort in gathering it in such an entertaining way...

It was all about exaggerating poses,weight & timing.
Those are three main factors that add life to your animation, we have to exaggerate but not too much, while copying real life reference to CG, you lose some realism in the process for which we have to exaggerate our animation more than what happens in real life.

And for the assignment we have to continue work on smoothing the vanilla walk, splining the walk. Also we have to sketch another pose for Stu that communicates "CONCERNED"

Here's my final submision

Assignment 7

Here's update on the vanilla walk and the Strength pose

Week 8: Introduction to Walks

Another late blog update,
This week's lecture is about walks, pretty cool stuff...
The video lecture mostly covers basics of walk cycles, Keys, Extremes & Breakdowns,video references on different walks,interesting lecture...as usual
Finally I get to apply what I've read in the Animator's Survival Kit, I've always wanted to do that

This week we unlock a new character "Ballie"
This week animation assignment is a two session assignment. This session I will block out the shot and next session I will complete the animation. Stepped mode for this week.
Add to that another pose for Stu is requested, Strength pose or physical strength

I started with some sketches for Stu's pose and the Vanilla walk blocking
I need to work on the rotation of the hip, and decrease the Ups and downs, too much for a vanilla walk.

Here's assignment 7 work in progress

Assignment 6: Tailor

The tailor assignment so far is the hardest one, I usually submit my assignment on Saturday night and enjoy my Sunday... but I didn't sleep last night to finish this up, and when I thought I was done, I found out that the contact should have been on 2 frames, I tried fixing that but instead got more problems!!! so I had to submit this one.

My eyes got used to the animation and couldn't notice that, until I had a break away from the computer, and another thing that maybe it should have been slower, I'm waiting for my mentor's critique and students feedback to see what they will say about it

Yazan hit me with a critique, my eyes still need more training

Week 7: Arcs and Path of Action

This week's lecture all about Arcs & path of action, very interesting video reference, tips from animators on that topic, and last but not least the common tip to follow your arcs with drawing o your computer screen, with dry/erase markers of course not sharp-e.

Having interesting Arcs can push a Good Animation to a great one.

As for this week's assignment, We have two new characters; Tailor & 1-leg. Its like playing a video game the more you advance in class you unlock new characters.

We have an option to either animate the "1-leg" character doing one single jump, landing, and then coming to a settle, or animate tailor with a minimum of 3 bounces, showcasing the overlapping action of the tail.

Assignment 5

Late updates for last week assignment,
Its been a hectic week at work, have been working since last Tues, and my next day off is this coming Fri... & One of the Night shift Job side effects is "Major Sleeping Disorder...
Here's my last week assignment wip & final submission

Wip


Final

Week 6: Overlapping Action

Alright!! Halfway through the class, & yeah Obama won the elections...

Late post this week, unfortunately no days off at work,& I'm trying to work on my assignment for this week, not that hard one, but still not that much time to put on this one.

For this week's assignment I have to animate a pendulum starting from a stopped position, then have it come to a rest with overlapping action on the pendulum.

here's my first trials, finally I successfully installed the AM menu for maya, really helpful stuff

Assignment 4 Submission

I spent the Halloween night partying with Maya 2008 unlimited, STU, and the bouncing ball.That's the price for working full time and purchasing dream in character animation.

Finally no more maya ple stamps all over the work, I had bought Maya 2008 2 weeks ago, but haven't opened the box so that I can return it and get the 2009, unfortunately there's no perpetual licenses for 2009, which means I have to buy it again after 14 months while the course is 18... So 2008 will do.

Here's my week 5 assignment last updates, now waiting for todays new lecture and assignment.

Assignment 4 WIP

The Sketches















Half way through class1, I wish I was a full time student, there's so much to learn!!!
So far I'm doing fine...
The devastation pose needs more tweaking and I'm not sure if this one will make it to the final submission.
I myself like pose 7 & 1 , no reference for my sketches, mmm Its hard to have a pure devastation pose. I think its associated with either anger or exhaustion...most of the time

Also there's my planning for the ball animation. I haven't tried if it works yet, I only started with a couple of keys.
more updates soon

Week 5: Anticipation and Squash and Stretch

WOW!!! Week 5 already!

This week's lecture is about Anticipation, Squash & Stretch one of the most basic and important foundations in animation, I'm just about to watch the lecture presented by Shawn Kelly...

As for this week assignment, we have to animate a bouncing ball going through an Obstacle Course. And to mainly use the principle of Squash and Stretch as the ball moves through the obstacle course. The weight of the ball as it bounces should maintain the timing of a basketball/soccer ball as it moves through the Obstacle Course, and then come to a stop.

That is the animation part, but still we have to doo a series of thumbnail drawings showing planning process for your Obstacle Course assignment. Also to sketch different methods of a human character communicating DEVASTATION. Finally to create a single 3D pose with Stu that communicates devastation.

And Here's the final submission of Assignment 3,

Assignment 3 WIP

Test 1


Test 2




Here's the second bouncing balls assignment, one light ball and a heavy ball
and I also attached the graph editor curves.

light ball
heavy ball
I just keep tweaking and tweaking with the curves, maybe in the end I'll have a perfect bounce
Bonq.....Bonq....Bonq...

Week 4: Intro to Timing

Alright, Week 3 is over... Another lecture & another assignment.

As for the lecture Its mostly about Timing and Spacing, basically what animation is all about.
Although it seems an easy task to animate a bouncing ball, but believe me Its not as easy as it looks...
Timing and spacing is crucial here, and one mistake turns all your efforts to a bad looking animation. Maybe not bad but not as good as it should be.

here's the bouncing ball assignment that I submitted yesterday



I had some comments about the animation from the AM community, mistakes which I didn't notice before, and I'm working on it to submit with the next assignment revision section.
I have to fix issues in the ease ins & outs, ball rotation at the end... A couple of tweaks in the graph editor.

As for the new assignment, there's no pose for Stu this week, we're going to concentrate on the bouncing ball, this time weight will play a big role in the animation. We have to animate both a light ball (soccer, beach ball) and a heavy ball (bowling, cannon ball) that bounce then come to a stop in the same shot. Plus the thumbnail drawings showing the planning process for the assignment.

Assignment 2 WIP

Here's the first Excited STU Pose, I'm still working on other excitement pose, and right now I'm redoing the bouncing ball. Feedback from my mentor, Yazan, and more AM student comments on my workspace, I realized what I need to fix.

Bouncing Ball Animation WIP

Here's my first Bouncing ball, I need to add some rotation

Week 3: Planning & Blocking Methods - Assignment 2 WIP

For Stu's excitement pose I have to pick one of the sketches, and I might pick one of 22-24.




As for animating a bouncing ball, I took a video shoot reference for a soccer ball bouncing on hard surface floor, Analyzed the movement of the ball and marked down the main contacts/extremes in relationship with time in frames.

Week 3: Planning & Blocking Methods

This week's assignment is to animate a bouncing ball with the weight and bounce of a basketball or soccer ball. from a side-view only.
So tomorrow I will shoot a video reference for a bouncing soccer/basketball and draw the thumbnail for the bouncing ball, and send it to my mentor before the Live Q&A session.

The second part of the assignment is to sketch different methods of a human character communicating. This time its EXCITEMENT then I have to Pose Stu communicating excitement based upon one of my sketches. I'm almost done withe sketches and will scan and upload tomorrow plus I will try to also finish posing STU.

A lot of work to do, a lot of video tutorials, so many student work/critique, cruise the campus and forums,too much for the short time I have; working full time 6 days a week, & I didn't get a day off since last Tuesday. Anyways Its ALL GOOD & AM ROCKS

Week2 feedback

Today I had my first eCritique from my mentor Anthony Wong.
I agree that I lost my idea of the pose sketch in the 3D pose of STU.
What happened is that I had difficulties using Maya for the first time, and not going through all the maya video training was a major mistake that I'm catching up with for the next assignment.

First I was trying to pose one of the girl sitting poses, but I didn't know where to get a chair and table from, I also thought I shouldn't waste time modeling and exporting to have a table and chair so I decided to camera photo snap pose, and I didn't have a camera!!!

So far I'm not satisfied with the first pose, but I think Its OK for a maya newbie.

Week 2: The Principles of Animation - Assignment1 WIP

Assignment 1 wohoo,

Using a physical sketchbook, I have to go to a public place & do quick sketches of what I see. to sketch simple figures that communicates ideas of posture, attitude, weight, balance, etc. Once I decide my favorite pose I have recreate the pose using STU (AM character) and Maya.

I went yesterday the millennium park downtown Chicago, and here's my observation sketches.
first page is at Penera Bread where I had breakfast, then the other pages at the Park. The Big Bean is always crowded.

3rd page I tried to catch poses for children but its almost impossible, so energetic, next time I'll take a camera with me.

I think I'll choose one of the Photo Snap Poses. Now Its time to practice Maya

here's the sketches

Week 1: Introduction to Animation / Anthony Wong

The first week of my AM journey is almost over.

I'm so excited for today's lecture & assignment " The principles of Animation".
The first lecture was more of an assignment-less introduction to the world that we are about to enter through AM, interviews with animators telling there stories, & turned out that I'm not the first or only architect to switch to animation.

My mentor for this class is Anthony Wong, he worked for 10 years for Disney feature animation as a character animator (Hunchback, Mulan, Hercules, Fantasia 2000, Tarzan, Emperors New Groove, Treasure Planet, and Home on the Range) and working now as an animator in PIXAR, with credits such as Ratatouille & Cars.

My class is 16 students including me are from around the globe, each with a different background and experience, the fact that got me scared at first. We all meet weekly in a Live Q&A session every week, and I was the first one to start introducing myself to class in our first session.

The online school campus is just perfect with so many cool features that combines rich learning resources and interactive community. Its definitely a unique learning experience.

Let The Journey Begin

Welcome to my Animation Mentor Journey blog

My name is Ameer, and I just moved from Jordan on Jan 2008...
After I settled down in Illinois I had to choose between two pathways; to either get my architecture degree accredited and become a licensed architect or follow my dream of becoming an animator at Pixar or Disney animation studios.

I have chosen to follow my passion and dreams, and work on what I enjoy the most,so here I am so excited to start Class1 at ANIMATION MENTOR so excited to meet all of you out there, I'm just a small fish in a big pond.

Thanks to Null Studios / Institute, the place where I got introduced to AM. After graduation from college I started to work as an architect, but I got into the 3D visualization so I took a year long 3D course at Null Institute while working to enhance my 3D skills, your work was one of the examples for us students to have an idea about what field of 3D we want to get into. I remember I was on the edge of my chair each time AM showcase or short was out.

Another "Thank You" Shout to AM STUDENTS, its your work; showcases which gave me the push I needed to switch my career. Looking at your work in progress and 3D shorts I said to myself " That's it that's what I want to do " THANK YOU AGAIN ANIMATION MENTOR & AM STUDENTS.