Adiós 2009

Here's the last post for the year 2009, so excited to start 2010 (Year 3 for me in the united states) hopefully more achievements, adventures, & good times to remember...

Looking forward to start Class 4 (Advanced Acting ) this Monday, & like every class excited to know who's my mentor, classmates, & finally learn how to add the facial performance, & how to deal with multi-character dialogue shots...Awesome stuff
Also looking forward to move to California hopefully this coming spring, I'll be counting the days...
And hopefully make it to Siggraph, ComicCon, & AM annual BBQ its going to be a great summer.

I'll end up my post with the final shot I had at the end of the class, not satisfied with the result, I'm still weak in the polishing phase, but I feel I gained more confidence & skills after redoing the class.




HAPPY NEW YEAR :D
CHEERS

AM307+: Zero "Blocking"

Here's the first blocking pass for my dialogue shot "Zero"
hope the the staging is simple & clear for the purpose of this shot.
I still need to add more breakdowns for different parts of the shot specially the hands swing for the part where he says "wax off"
and the zero threatening gesture which is only the extremes now...

I just noticed that I'm moving the hips at the beginning maybe too much!

Hope its looking good for a start...

Cloudy with Chances of Meatballs

I went to see this movie yesterday, too bad I missed it in 3D but good thing I was able to catch it at the theaters before Its no longer available, I really enjoyed the movie, the story is not that great though, you can see how's it going to end, good enough for children though... I love the character stylization, my favorite characters were his Dad, the monkey & the Cop...awesome characters
Plus the animation was so different than any other feature I have seen, reminds me of Chuck Jones cartoons, It was really cool.

And I also saw the trailer for a feature movie that will hit the theaters sometime in July 2010, DESPICABLE ME, this is a must see movie, make sure you click on the HD tab,

here's the trailer I saw yesterday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpM7c0uGTes

and another one, pretty cool

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf9ngjUsThI

AM306+: Animating Dialogue "Zero"

Alright Alright,
so here I start with my second assignment, animating dialogue part1. with focus on the acting itself, while in next class we add facials & lipsync...

Here's the lines I gathered for this assignment,

7 audio lines, lines (4-7) were the first lines I picked & I was excited to animate, but I had a lot of negative feedback when I posted it on my public review page at AM, that these lines have no change in emotions, monotonous, & lacking contrast...
I guess I was afraid of having a strong line that my animation won't be strong enough to carry it, since the audio line I had for the previous class was really strong but my animation was poor comparing to it...
I was excited about line 6, I was thinking of a spooky villain character, 5 was my second choice the change of the voice & the gag is what I like...

now the first 3 lines are the ones I had to dig up later, and I think they are a stronger than 4-6, and for these 3 lines I shot my video reference also uploaded bellow.

Audio line 1: Greg Pikitis
A detective interrogates suspect named Greg Pikitis (off-screen), with his profile in one hand and an empty cup of coffee in the other, with an attempt to scare the suspect, with crazy swing with the empty coffee mug as he makes the impression of spelling the hot coffee on Greg's face, then breaking the mug into the floor...

Audio line 2: Who did this!
A teacher calmly tells his student that he graded the exam and decides not to tell them how they did, until he knows who did this, I couldn't think of anything but having a funny poster for the teacher, which is why he gets mad...

Audio line 3: Zero
MY FAVORITE ONE
The teacher again, threatens to fail his class, with a funny emphasis on the word Zero, then he calmly takes out his favorite student Toby out of the zero equation, which is funny in my opinion, contrasting the rage at the beginning...

After my last eCrit, my mentor also liked line 3, take 2, working on the staging right now and will post my first blocking pass this coming sunday.

AM305+: Architecture Student WIP

Since I'm retaking the class, I decided not to post a weekly update, instead I'll be posting the progress at the end of each assignment...this post should have been up 2 weeks ago, but I've been busy running back & forth between work & Animation Mentor.

I feel that retaking the class was a wise decision after all, I'm getting more in control over my work flow yet I still have problems that I need to work on fixing.

Here's the Architecture student progress, the final shot at the end still needs to be tweaked, the dance part is not reading that clear yet, lots of elbow pops, need to work on the arcs too, so many things to be fixed later...

anyways I'm hoping its a step up, maybe half a step! I'm not happy with the final result, but not giving up on this, my next assignment will turn out good.

Week2:



Week3:



Week4:



Week5: Final "I HATE IT" I like the fall at the end though ;D

AM301+: Architecture Student Blocking 1

I've been working on this rough blocking after my q&a last night,
pumped up to take this shot & my animation skills to the next level...
I worked basically on the poses, so timing needs to be tweaked later when I put all the main poses,
I also need to add the suddle dancing while making the model, then the drastic dance that will knock him down,
As for staging the scene, I'm still looking for a headphones prop, and will have more models on the table, but I'm leaving that to later when I'm waiting my mentor's critique.

AM301+: Introduction to Acting / Acting Overview

Just wrapped up the first week assignment for this term, In this assignment we have to think of a simple scenario for an acting test without any dialogue, this test should consist of two distinct and contrasting "beats" that tell a basic story contrast in ideas, such as: Patience / Anger, Confidence / Insecurity, Hopeful / Devastated. I came up with 3 situations,


















































My first idea, is somehow complicated, I had to use online video reference for that, my 2nd idea is the most convenient & I like it because It reminds me of college days, I can relate to it more than the other 2 ideas, the 3rd idea is cool, but after I did the video reference I felt like I lost the contrast of emotions, so I'm personally excited about Idea #2, thanks to Yazan for helping me come up with this particular idea and developing it, I uploaded below idea #2 with its final video reference pick, and a rough 2D blocking using flipbook,





Thumbnails,


































Finally I end up with my other ideas & the video reference, now waiting for my mentor's feedback.

Class 3 Again: Introduction to Acting / Jalil Sadool

Back in business, I just had my first live q&a for this term, retaking intro to acting again.

This time my mentor is Jalil Sadool, currently an Animator at Weta Digital cranking through James Cameron's "Avatar" and A. Adamson’s “Prince Caspian”. Before that he worked at Rhythm and Hues as an animator on “The Lion, the witch and the Wardrobe”, “Garfield 2”, “Charlotte’s Web”, and “A Night at the Museum”.left for Weta in 2006 and was part of the team on “The Water Horse: Legend of the deep”.

Thinking about my pantomime shot, not sure what to do yet, I was thinking of doing the tennis serve, a change of gears from confidence/insecurity , starts with confident tennis player, but somehow at the end he loses grip of the racket and it bounces back at him, something humiliating.

Still searching & thinking of more ideas, now thinking of a Samurai sword master who wants to cut an apple on the head of his assistant, after he successfully do that he wave with sword in celebration and accidentally cuts off part of his assistant... I think this one could be nice
but still brainstorming & looking for reference, any ideas are most welcome.

here's my latest Reel update, no tweaks on the animation itself, just made it more presentable, fixed the shot titles, its order, got rid of some shots & added some music using garageband.

LOA Week 10: Tennis Serve 2D

I just finished the 2D planning for my next shot...

Getting ready for AnimationMentor, I'm refreshing my skills with a tutorial by Jason Ryan, I just finished the 2D animation(planning stage) using flipbook, should've been just a stick figure but I got dragged with my passion to draw... I really enjoyed it... I just love to draw more than fixing curves in the graph editor!!!

I also feel I understood the principles of animation more after this exercise... squash & stretch, overlap & follow through, opposite action...etc

now I'm ready to start blocking this shot in Maya, I have 4 weeks before I start AM, so its gonna be 2 weeks of blocking, 2 weeks of polishing, pretty much like most of AM's assignments...



This image bellow shows the simple sticky figure for this tutorial

LOA Week 9: Tennis Serve WIP

Continued working on this Tennis serve animation tutorial by Jason Ryan... some clean up & added inbetweens for the first part bouncing the ball before the serve...
Its taking me more than It should, I guess because I decided not to follow the tutorial's sticky figures & have the character more closer to the 3D rig I'll be using later in maya...
It was tempting for me to spend more time giving it some nice rough render than having it just lines, which for future planning purposes I will keep it simple & without any shade or shadow...

more inbetweens for the second part tomorrow

My First PEARL JAM Gig

Not an animation related post, but It's one dream I had since I was a teenager & last night I had it come true... & since this blog is a record of my journey to make a bigger dream come true, I felt like posting this.

Yeah!!! Last night was so GREAT that I will never forget, It was my first time to see Pearl Jam live, "bless the day I moved from Jordan to the United States". The biggest events back home were Sting & Bryan Adams, and the funniest thing I remember when I was ushering for Bryan Adams show, people were so dumb they thought the guy tuning the guitar was Bryan Adams himself...

so since I've moved here I've been trying my best to see all my favorite bands live, I've seen Metallica, Slayer, Coldplay, No Doubt, but PEARL JAM had the best vibes... my soul was about to take off :D
I enjoyed the show & can't wait to see them again.

they played so many good songs, long great show I remember playing Corduroy, Black, Alive, Even Flow, State of Love & Trust, Better man, Daughter, Yellow Ledbetter, Porch, Nothingman, Do the evolution, Crazy Mary... & more

here's a sample that I found on youtube, I wish I can find betterman

Black


Alive


Nothingman

LOA Week 8: Tennis Serve

I'm trying to get back to my animating routine, warming up to retaking class 3(which I passed but I don't feel I'm ready to start class4 so I'm retaking the class again)... school is on the corner, should start again end of september.

I stopped working on the walk cycle, I feel like starting something from scratch & I have this Tennis Serve tutorial by Jason Ryan, which I think is cool & exciting, both the rough 2D animation planning the shot for 3D,

This is just the rough key frames, tomorrow I will work on some clean up, then start the inbetweens...& the timing is not final yet... once I get this done then taking it to 3D

LOA Week 5: Walk Cycle WIP

I have added the breakdowns to the walk, this is not the final blocking, I need to tweak the poses, add more details & make sure everything is good before taking it to splines.
here's what I have so far in perspective,side, & front view.
Comments & critique most welcome

LOA Week 5

Finally started some animation practice, YAY!!!
while going through one of the Gnomon Workshop DVD Tutorial
( CHARACTER ANIMATION: FUNDAMENTALS with Chris Kirshbaum )

which had some good reviews in 3DWorld magazine, I decided to work on a walk cycle, basic & important task that I'll need to practice, try out the different & unlimited options I have in creating a walk cycle.

So far the tutorial is good but comparing to what I've learned in AM there's so many things missing, unless he he left it for the refining phase, at AM we tend to block it from the beginning, for example the hips rotations! so far nothing on the hip rotations.But I learned some new Maya commands which is very useful.

I only blocked the contacts & pass position & will work on the breakdowns tomorrow...



btw this tutorial won't provide any rig to work with so I'm using Bishop

LOA Week 2

Alright...
Its hard to spend enough time animating when you don't have any deadlines arrrrrggggg!!!
I come back from work & just chill, so tempting specially with the summer activities all over.

I was planning to start my animation practice with the basic bouncing ball exercise, both in 2D & 3D, I want to have a rough 2d planning to my shots as part of my work flow just like Jason Ryan's tutorials (check out his website)...but I ended up with 2D for this week.

you might think redoing a bouncing ball exercise is a waist of time, for me It was so helpful, I only did this exercise at the beginning of AM & back then I was trying to understand Maya & the basic animation principles in a bouncing ball, with redoing this I understood things more, & practiced flipbook a bit...

here's a simple my 2D bouncing ball & at the end I added tail to the ball for some overlapping action



hopefully this wee will be more constructive

Away for the Summer

Alright... Alright !!!
I'm currently on Leave of Absence (LOA) from Animation Mentor,
I have decided to take a break for a bunch of reasons, mainly to go over what I've learned so far marking half way through this great journey, practicing animation polish more, enjoy the summer & charge my batteries for next term, which might be a retake of class 3, I'm not sure yet...


Anyways here's my progress real at the end of class 3

AM 311: Sincerity: A Conversation with Mark Henn

here's the last assignment for this term, there's still some parts that need to be polished
lots of pops, timing & spacing issues, arcs not that smooth, lack of overlap,ease ins & outs & counting!!! specially in the parts where I had gimbal, each time I want to slide move the keys to edit timing & things like that twists appear again,but it looks better than last week.

AM 310: Hands

This week I had my eCritique done early on sunday night, which gave me the chance to spend my only night off work that week on this assignment... one of the main issues I had was the hands were the gimbal happened looked weird plus some pops in the head & spine that I had to refine, so I refined the hands & showed the progress to my mentor on the q&a, turned out that spent too much time with refining the hands, while it should be the last, so I had to go back and start with the character root, then spline, neck, head, then if I had a chance shoulders,elbows & hands...
but not necessary for this week, so I kept bumping back & forth between the root,spine,neck & head until I reached what I got here, didnt touch the arms yet...
so here the pre final refining pass & the surprised hand poses

AM 309: An Introduction to Entertainment

Unfortunately I'm posting this update late on week 11 instead of 9... Its was a crazy super insane 2 weeks for me, going out of blocking into splines and for the first time ever to face the GIMBAL LOCK monster ;) if I may call it...

I just discovered how painful fixing gimbal issues specially when the euler filter fails you, & having to go frame by frame tweaking this crazy wrist twists that I had when I moved out to splines,
of course I've learned now how not to get in the gimbal trap again, two important tips :
rotate each axis by itself & check every once n a while with switching the curves from stepped mode to linear early in the blocking stage, that will save you from such a disaster.

here's my first look at the gimbal, then my final assignment submission plus the relaxed hand poses.


































you can notice the gimbal in the wrist crazy twists



final first refining pass

UP

Finally the wait is over... I just got back from the opening of Pixar's latest feature " UP " simply a continuous amazing & breath taking story & picture, everything is AWESOME everything, It's just the boost I needed before going back to finishing my animation assignment for this week. I recommend this movie to Everyone & Enjoy it in 3D ;D


There was also this pretty cool short film at the beginning... amazing


Next on the calendar Toy Story 3, June 18 2010, we have to wait another year but it's gonna be amazing... the new teaser is out now & brings back memories of their first success

AM 308: Eyes & Blinks

Here's last week's assignment submission,
After the feedback from my mentor, alumni q&a, peer buddies...
I had to take out & simplify a lot of unnecessary poses & gestures, cropped the scene a bit to get rid of some negative space & here's the shot & the angry hand pose which is the second part of the assignment

AM 307: Assignment Submission

This is it, first pass of dialogue blocking
The feedback from AM's community helped me a lot
comments & critique are most welcome.



for a higher resolution here's youtube link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVJy-nlBRSg

Reference footage & planning process

Here's a great article about reference footage & planning process from Spline Doctors

http://splinedoctors.com/2008/07/reference-footage-and-the-planning-process/

and an awesome example for a scene similar to my scene, thanks for Edward Villegas one of my peer buddies, but this one is the final shot with facial expressions & lip sync, great stuff

AM 307: Intro Dialogue Walk Thru Part II

Here's some work in progress for this week assignment.
I added some extra video reference I took yesterday, & worked on staging the scene so that the situation is more clear. & started with the first pass of blocking.

the situation:
Art dealer behind his desk, mad at the person he's talking to, could be someone who works for him, someone in the cleaning crew, or the delivery boy...whom accidentally spelled something on the paintings, and now the art dealer has to apologize to the artist or the art collector, and that's what he HATES DOING...

Video Reference II



& first blocking pass

AM 306: Assignment Submission

Half way through class 3 ... It's almost half way through AM's journey !!!
here's this week's submission...
In the video reference I'm acting out a different scenario from the original scenes the lines were taken from, I'm sure I didn't give the lines the acting they deserve ,I just suck in acting , anyways
here's the thumbnails for the 3 situations & the video reference.
Now I'm waiting for my mentor's critique in order to start the first pass of blocking.

AM 306: Intro Dialogue Walk Thru Part I

It's half way through class 3 & finally the assignment I have been excited for since I started at Animation Mentor, Animating Dialogue ... wooo hoooo

Introducing a more complex character rig "Bishop"
For this week our assignment is to pick up 3 lines from a movie or a series, & shoot some video reference acting out a different take from the original scene, then planning out the shot that I will be working on for the next 6 weeks, no facial expressions or lip syncing yet, that's for class 4 first assignment.

Here's the 3 lines I have picked, I personally like them all but I think line 3 is my favorite.

AM 305: Phrasig

Here' week 5 assignment handout, final polishing pass for the first assignment this term

AM 304: Secondary Action

Here's my work progress so far, I have 4 more hours of refining tomorrow
one more week on this assignment then we start with the Dialogue assignment...

AM 303: Gestures & Body Language

My favorite subject, behavior & body language, awesome lecture as usual...
two books highly recommended for this subject, the first one is out of print but I found one at amazon, huge & rich in context ,the other one is handy perfect for lunch breaks, on train...etc




I just submitted this week's assignment...& now waiting for my mentor's critique to move to the polishing part....after my last assignment mentor critique & notes,
I worked the build up of the shot rather than the jump, bumped into several walls with the choices I had for the simplify my animation & work on the build up just before the YES victory jump

here's my blocking plus pass... two more weeks for this assignment then DIALOGUE woooot

AM 302: Assignment Submission

AM 302: Assignment WIP III

Today's update, still looking a bit funky specially the part in the middle, but I think It's better than what I had yesterday...

AM 302: Assignment WIP II

This playblast is what I've worked on today, I think the timing is OK
but the poses can be pushed more, I can say it's still rough & poppy blocking
I still have two days to work on before the deadline.

AM 302: Assignment WIP I

I think I got off track here,
so instead of building into the excitement, growing from that leaning forward pose,
I had him react to a missed scoring opportunity get disappointed then excited again
now I have 3 beats instead of two...
so I'll go back to the nervous/excited idea & build up the excitement... sheeeeeeeeeesh

AM 302: Pantomime

This week's lecture was about pantomime, the hardest thing to animate.
It's all about expressing a character's emotions or thoughts without dialogue. You can find a great & rich examples on that just looking at Chaplin's work. In different AM lectures they bring up a lot of good scenes from Chaplin, It's full of clear poses, good acting choices, fun & entertaining, so many things we as animators look to have in our shots.

As for this week's assignment,I need to pick one Idea from last week's exploring phase & start with blocking the shot out, main keys & breakdowns...
After the feedback I got from my mentor's critique & feedback from other students. my main concern was to simplify my acting choices so that it can fit in the frame range given.

So far I have blocked this initial shot, I need to add more in the middle part anticipating the change of gears from nervous to relaxed,excited ...
here's the blocking that I have so far




A helpful reference to look at pointed by my mentor was this scene from Seinfeld

AM 301: Assignment Submission

Just submitted this week's assignment,now sleeping time wooooot

Video Reference Analysis



Selected Cut Video Reference



Original Video Reference

AM 301: Assignment WIP III

So I've been going through my video reference, & I have decided to tackle my first take
Lost vs. Victory (Nervous,Angry/Excited,Happy)
In the first two shots I've tried to cut the original takes to something closer to the frame limit for this assignment, & the second two is just a mix of both takes, Now I'm not sure which one to pick! so any suggestions would be helpful

now back to sketching more poses & studying the timing

AM 301: Assignment WIP II

Just Studied take 1B from my video reference, and did these rough sketches for the main poses
I still have to cut this take to the frame limit, to be continued tomorrow...

AM 301: Assignment WIP I

Just studied take 1a yesterday, drew some rough poses & I have edited the video to something close to the frame limit
Not my final pick yet, just exploring my options

AM 301: Acting Overview

Just kicking it with the first assignment for this term,
In this assignment we have to think of a simple scenario for an acting test without any dialogue, this test should consist of two distinct and contrasting "beats" that tell a basic story
contrast in ideas, such as: Patience / Anger, Confidence / Insecurity, Hopeful / Devastated.

I just uploaded the final selection from several takes I did yesterday,I feel that this theme I can relate to, not sure which take to tackle yet, the contrast makes it hard to pick, for me both are entertaining to work with, but so far I'm thinking of take1: Angry/Happy
next step I'll start studying the poses & timing, then start with the thumbnails

AM Class 3: Introduction to Acting / Nick Bruno

Awesome, Back to AM world, I'm so excited for this class... can't wait to start with my assignments.
I had some problems this term with my class q&a times, but I did a swap with another class & just had the first q&a session.

My mentor for this term is NICK BRUNO, he's a senior animator at Blue Sky Studios he worked on Ice Age: The Meltdown, Horton Hears A Who! he was selected as one of the character leads for the generic Whos in Whoville, & just wrapped up Ice Age 3: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs ...

So far I had my first mentor from Pixar, then Disney, & now Blue Sky, that's just AM's pure awesomeness.

AM 210 & 211 Assignments

I haven't updated the blog on week 10 because I thought my shot was bad comparing to my blocking stage earlier and I thought I'll post it with week 11's entry, I thought It will turn out great...and cover that one
But unfortunately I screwed up in the polishing part, it's better than what I had on w11 but still the final shot looks choppy & robotic, with this assignment to wrap up class 2, I need to focus & concentrate more on the polishing part which is my weakness so far in all the assignments this class. Overlapping action too, I'm still weak in this part which can take a shot to the next level...

Now that we're in week 12 we get our mentor's overall critique & with no assignment due next sunday,I need to start some planning for next class, which will start next week, I need to have better ways to balance between my full-time job, sleep, Animation Mentor & a bit of life.
plus I'll have to go through the dvd's I just got from The GNOMON WORKSHOP,fundamentals, mechanics & emotions by Chris Kirshbaum.

Here's W10 assignment


& W11

AM 209: Assignmate wip II

Here's the last blocking pass before taking it into splines

AM 209: Assignmate wip

AM 208: Assignment Submission

AM 208: Assignment wip

AM 207: Video Reference Update

I had to reshoot my video reference for this week's assignment, I had to remove all the docking part and throwing stuff, too much action, makes it complicated & hard to follow, kind of distracting... So I kept the urgency of the action, being chased by something and the door is the only way out. here's the update

AM 207: Assignment Submission

Here's the final shot for Stewie with no arms jumping & balancing from post to post...
I still have some problems that I shall fix hopefully & submit as revision for this week's assignment
some parts is floaty and there's crazy things going with his foot from x47-55



As for the second part of the assignment, in which I have to plan for my last assignment for this term, two things, shooting a video reference & drawing thumbnails showing main keyframes & breakdowns.

PICK LIST:	DIFFICULTY LEVEL:
1. Balance on a beam	*
2. Dive off a diving board	***
3. Throw a ball (Baseball pitch)	***
4. Pull or push a heavy object	****
5. Open a sticky door	****

I have chosen #5 for my last assignment for this term.here's the reference video & thumbs

AM 206: Assignment Submission

AM205: Assignment Update

I have uploaded the latest blocking pass on my public review at my AM profile,
I hope the animation is more entertaining now
I guess I was copying the reference which made it look a little bit boring...
I still need to add more break downs before I take it to splines, specially in the last two jumps, and in every time stewie bends down then up, & work on the overlapping of body/head...
too much work, but I have a feeling it will turn out good...

I'm trying to have a confident personality in him, hope it's working out,

Tonight I shall get more feed back from my mentor's Fri mini critique.

Shot Re-Block


Dasvedanya

AM 205 Assignment Submission

Here's my first pass of blocking for this new assignment, It was really fun working on this assignment.



Yesterday I went to see CORALINE, great movie, I loved it, everything was awesome
The story, the characters, the soundtrack, everything was perfect...
make sure you go & see it in 3D, I have been waiting for it & I would love to go & see it again...
here's a banner add for the movie, amazing Bobinsky



Dasvedanya ;DDD

AM 205: Animating Physicality

This week's lecture was presented by Dovi Anderson
Ratatouille (Animator) Charlotte's Web (Character Animator) Son of the Mask(Lead Animator)
Constantine(Lead Animator) Hell Boy (Animator) The Matrix Revolutions(Lead Animator)
walking through animating a shot where Stewie jumps through an obstacle course and does some gymnastics, from planning stages, through blocking until finalizing the shot, pretty cool stuff.

As for the new assignment I have gathered more reference video, and I'm ready to start with my first blocking, I have chosen the jump from post to post over the 360back flip I was thinking about earlier.

Here's the update on my video reference.

Week 4: Locomotion

Last week's lecture was presented by Dave Mullins,
UP(Directing Animator),Ratatouille,Cars,The Incredibles,Finding Nemo,MonstersINC(Animator),
All about Human movement, weight shift & balance,line of action, plus examples and analysis of movements such as standing up or sitting down, walk,run, lifting or throwing objects with different weights.

As for the assignment, I have to finish my shot (the 180 turn), and start planning for a new animation assignment, new characters unlocked for the new assignment and list of assignments to pick from:

1.Animate a run. Animate three full cycles and the character move forward, ("Ballie" with arms)
2.Have a character leap over a gap ("Ballie" with arms or Stewie with no arms)
3.Jump up onto a box and off the other side (Stewie - no arms)
4.Jump from one post to land and balance on another post (Stewie - no arms)

With a difficulty level of 1 start for the first option, 2starts for the 2nd,3rd option, and 3 start for the last one.













here's update on the spline of my shot then the assignment submission





And the video reference for my next animation, and some study sketches, I had a hard time analyzing some poses because of the bad quality of the ref video.I'm still not sure which one to animate the 2nd or 3rd pick, must collect more video reference to reach for a decision on that.

Week 3: Advanced Overlap & Anticipation

In last week lecture more about overlapping action & anticipation, some great examples and analysis...I'm learning so much from this material... Great stuff

The assignment last week was very frustrating, I kept working on re-blocking my shot, I finished the blocking stage on Saturday almost midnight which gave me a little time to work on the splines,(assignment due sunday noon) where all the problems start to show up! but I managed to pull it up and fix some of the problems, but yet I have so much for this week to finish up the animation.

Here's my progress from re-blocking phase to my assignment submission

Week 2 Assignment Submission

Since I decided to use flipbook (First time ever)to plan my animation which stole some time from me,I had to block the part were ballie get scared and turn around then run, I wanted to focus on the 180 turn and get it done first
so I didn't have time to finish the intro were ballie looks to the side and see whatever the thing that scares it away... the intro which was finished in the 2D planning...

last night just before I went to work, my animation blocking in maya was terrible, So when I got back this morning I spent a couple of hours finishing up & tweaking, and now after I have submitted the assignment Its time to go to bed!!! So tired

here's the assignment

Week 2 Assignment Update

Slight Update on the 2D blocking, Its taking me some time to get used to it
So I jumped to 3D blocking in maya, It's still not finished, I need to finish the 180 turn and the jump run out of the frame then go back to the intro where Ballie get scared...I'll post the finished assignment tomorrow.

Week 2: Basic Posing

Half through week two, pretty great lecture as usual, all about posing in terms of composition,Line of Action,Silhouette,& Negative Space plus more... great examples too

First Critique on assignment was good, some tips about what to wear when shooting video reference, and about framing my shot in the thumbnails

a late but an awesome discovery, FLIPBOOK, what a great software Thanks to a tutorial I bought from JASON RYAN ANIMATION website, great stuff, I bought flipbook and It will be part of my planning for animation in 2D before jumping to 3D. Amazing
here's my first test, timing is off but and still more to come

Week 1 Assignment Update

I have decided to work on the 180 Turn/scared1 the second one which my back is to the audience. I have recorded more reference video for this pick & will breakdown for animation reference.I will start working on the thumbnails once I have something to eat.
I have also updated my Class1 Reel, just added some music and titles
here's the videos

Week 1: Walk Through a Shot

On Monday got back the precious access to the AM site, I first checked who's my mentor for this class, I was so lucky to have my first mentor from Pixar, then my second from Disney... Its just Awesome.

The lecture was so interesting , with Rick O’Connor (Industrial light & Magic’s lead animator) go
through an entire shot from beginning to end. Explaining many “secrets” of animation and some hilarious jokes added more excitement to the lecture... Its FUN to learn here in AM.

Now Its time to apply what Rick have revealed in the next assignment(4 sessions long ), for which we have to pick from a list of:

1. Kick a ball
2. Take a big step to the side
3. Turn around 180 degrees

1&2 with difficulity level of one star, while 3 level of two.

Using Ballie as the character,
We have to submit a video reference acting out the assignment alternatives, & we have to submit thumbnails showing the planning/breakdown of the action .

Here's my video reference,



I think I'll go with the 180 turn/scared1 , the one with my back to the audience but I will have to face it toward the audience in my animation. I love the Opened zipper take, but I'm not sure If I can tackle that one at this stage.

more updates soon

Class 2: Introduction to Body Mechanics

Belated Happy New Year & Blog Update

It was 2 nice weeks away from the computer, unfortunately I had to work new year's eve & 9 nights afterward...Finally I got my week off. Great start for 2009, my second year in USA...

Some News I haven't posted before now, Our Fall 08 Class got divided into two pathways as a result of the new curriculum AM starting in Winter09... 4 Classes Continued on the original curriculum (The Short Film Path) vs. 12 Class ( The new Portfolio Path)

I decided to follow the short film path, It was the main reason why I joined AM. The last AM Short film generation ;)

My mentor for this class is Marlon Nowe,currently working under Glen Keane's wing, on Rapunzel at the Walt Disney Animation Studios. He finished 4 years of classical animation in Belgium, after which he worked in Brussels for 2 years on commercials. In 2000, moved to LA where he worked at Blur Studio for almost 7 years. After a year at Rhythm&Hues, working on Golden Compass, he started at the Walt Disney Animation Studios. With credits on BOLT and now working on Rapunzel.