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