Calling it DONE

And I am pretty pleased with the results. Did some minor tweaks to the animation, did some major tweaks to lighting and had a shot at rendering with Motion Blur.  ANIMATING IS FUN. Did a walk and a run cycle with Lars (that's this guy) as well that I will get posted here soon.

enviromenting

The assignment was to take a photo (one that taken by yourself) and turn it into a medieval/fantasy scene.

Kent Station from the roof of the parking garage.

Original underdrawing

Mostly 'finished'. I wanted to keep this piece as simple as possible, looking  more at designing the shapes, value and composition rather than worrying about rendering.

"Done" ..... I really need to figure out how to do color correction on my monitors. Each one of the three is slightly different than the other. The textures as I am looking at them now are way harsher than if I look at this image on my main screen. Weird. Time to figure out  a good way to fix that.

Mind the gap Final

This is the final version. Crappy lighting and everything.... I need to play around with mental ray in Maya some more. I did quite a few test renders and thought I had everything working well. Oh well, live and learn.

All in all I am pretty pleased with how this turned out. My second [real] animation in 3d. Certainly not perfect, but quite a leap from the first. Next thing to tackle in my animation is to get the character to loosen up a bit. Mechanically I am feeling confident. Technique-wise I am much more confident (building poses in 3d is not like drawing out a pose-test in 2d. It requires a more deft touch at times). Acting still needs great improvement, but that's part of the process. SO! Get some more life into the character!

Also, I am thinking I need to gussy up this blog. It's pretty bland. If I am going to continue updating like I have it needs to be more "me."

Further refining "the gap"

I am going to get one final round of crit's then it's ready to render.

figures

Mind the gap Process

Here's a step by step

Blocking

Now with the sword

Same, with auto tangents (letting the computer automatically inerpolate between frames)

Refining, cleaning up the curves 

Nearly "done" 

That's all for now folks.

Mind the Gap planning

Some process work.

 Character Analysis

 Animation Ideas

More idea exploring

 First pass at planning the animation

 Really didn't know where to go with this, so after some class input and help from my instuctor I did a 2d animation pass in flash with the new, more concrete idea

First (real) 3d animation and then some other stuff

This is some of the process gone through for the animation. Bits of Idea, staging, character and video reference analysis. The real meat of the planning was a quick walk I animated (pose test) traditionally. I have to find those pages and scan them....Also not shown is the actual video reference.

This is the first stage of the animation. Basically a pose test blocking out only the major keys of the walk (contact, down, passing position and up). Felt like I had a good sense of weight, arcs, timing, overlap/ follow-through and all that in this phase....

This is after some changes have been made. Refining some poses, adding breakdowns I was still working mostly in step tangents here... Then I went to auto- tangents to start diving into the curve editor. What a mess

Guh. What the fuck!? It was hard for me to work past this point. Really, I hated this thing. So much broken, I had a hard time to know where to start in fixing it. Beyond just getting it technically to work it was decided that the bit of acting (with the hand) was unnecessary/ distracting/ poorly executed and it would be best to eliminate it. Among a small handful of other fixes. The mechanics were there. That is really nice. In all the struggling with the animation, at least I wasn't fumbling with the animating itself, just the acting.

and here is the final(ish) version. At least, the final one for class. This can probably be taken to a real finish, polished up and put in my portfolio... perhaps. What I was really struggling with in this whole process was some seriously screwed up poses. Working in step tangents I felt like I was able to just work from pose to pose with relative ease. Turns out there is some posing etiquette that needs to be adhered to to keep the computer interpolation from going bonkers.

What do I want to fix? Those arms are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too stiff. I need to get them thangs more dangly. The timing/ spacing overall needs to be cleaned up. The general feel is there, but there's not much texture (on top of some popping going on). That trip needs to be refined, as well as make the object he is tripping on more obvious.

All in all I learned a ton. Next animation is Mind the Gap. Fun fun fun.


Here's some drawings from other stuff:

 Open figure drawing. Need to do this more.

 Cafe sketching. Starting to feel this a bit more.

I am teaching a thing!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151234163271388&set=a.10151053009656388.485475.21787386387&type=1&ref=nf



And boy do I feel incredibly outclassed by some of the other presenters (Andreas Deja, Ryan Woodward. Not to mention some of my freaking teachers!). It's an incredible opportunity, great exposure.... Now I just wish I had a damned portfolio and some business cards. Shit.

Ryan Woodward's art: http://ryanwoodwardart.com/

Andreas Deja: http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/
I am stoked to go to this guys talk, it's going to be awesome.

Instructors;
Alecia Rossano: http://aleciarossanosculptress.blogspot.com/
Peter Moerhle: http://happybrush.blogspot.com/
Suzanne Kaufman: http://www.suzannekaufman.com/

SKETCH DUMP (school edition)

Junior year go! 

 Some thumbnail focusing on balance. These were for my intro to 3d animation class

 Observational sketching

 More observation!

 For my Backgrounds and layouts class: One point interior

 2-point exterior. These are really just for the teacher to see

how bad we are at perspective.

 Tree! For the BG class

 Trees! Same class

 Tree again! Still BG's

 Environmental sketches for Storyboards

Same as above.

I am taking a reduced class-load this year, switching over to the ever-despicable "5-year" plan. There are a couple of motivating factors behind this. Mainly I want to be able to maintain my workout program, and having finally gotten back into Taekwondo this is very important to me.  Furthermore: I have some serious confidence issues that I am trying to work on. This does not prevent me from being outrageously busy.

It's close. The feeling that I get when I am doing TKD, I can almost reach that with drawing. It's a feeling of hyper-focus, almost zen-like. Everything in the world and life but that very moment ceases to be, leaving no anxiety, fear, apprehension... Nothing to really hold me back. Of course I get frustrated when I screw up, especially right now during this period of getting back in shape. But that feeling is fleeting, It flashes by and is gone in an instant. That is what I have been striving to achieve in these past two years at DigiPen, and it is close. 

Fear... That is what has been my biggest enemy. Fear of what? Failing? I know I am just a student (will I ever be anything but?), all of this is practice. Every mark on every page is just another step up on this never-ending climb. Once a drawing starts that fear resides, not entirely, but with every new drawing it does a little more. It's the start that kills me. Sitting down and staring at blank paper or computer screen, ideas buzzing about with all the other noise in my head... Even when drawing from observation, especially when drawing environments. All that visual information becomes noise, it's difficult for me to pare it down to it's most essential shapes and forms. That's what practice is for, right? Learning how to to filter through that clutter and grab a hold of the essential?

Is it an unfamiliarity with the process? I do get bogged down by each step. Too reluctant to move forward with confidence, too impatient to not skip steps along the way. How frustrating that is.

It's not all so bad, though. Some switches are being flipped on, others off, in my head. The Way is being more and more well lit for every walk I take through it.

Kick combo pose test (and some figure drawing)

Oh look! More animation! Did in flash, not nearly done.

You know what's terrible? I have 7 years of taekwondo under my belt (7 years in my adult life, mind you, not some long-gone time from elementary and junior high) and for whatever stupid reason I had to redraw the poses for these kicks about a billion flipping times each. I guess that's what happens when you don't do any real prep work for the animation.


Waitwaitwait. What the hell am I doing updating this blog so frequently? I don't draw this much in my free time... do I? Something is going on here, I'll get to the bottom of it! But for now,  naked people!

These were from photo's on the internet. I know, I know, a travesty! Drawing from photographs! On a computer! How dare I?

Rough animation test

Animated in Flash.


I think my brain has made a breakthrough flip-switching. Just in the past few days I have stopped feeling an internal guilt and pressure to practice art. What has replaced that is a genuine desire to practice, to draw, paint and animate. A major source of this change I think is from a simple alteration in the way of thinking about art.

Previously, like said above, there was an internal guilt, as if I was trying to wrestle myself into submission to sit still and practice. Instead I would waste time, dicking around on the internet for hours as I tried to convince myself to work. I had to sit and think about this, it was a real issue. Why did I have such a hard time practicing? I know it is necessary, it is good for me and when I actually sit down to do it I enjoy it greatly. The short answer: I was going about it the wrong way. My approach to practice was too regimented, too strict and rigid. Changing the plan from "work X hours on X number of studies from such-and-such book" to " I am going to get my sketchbook and [whatever book] and draw. I don't care how long, I don't care if it's from the book. I know what I need to practice, and I will start with that, but if I wander, let's wander."


I have to credit a couple people with helping inspire this as well. My wife, her work ethic is amazing. The incredible thing about her is that she loves being lazy. She loves being lazy so much that she will work her ass off to get work done (well) early so she will have more time to be lazy, guilt-free.  The other person is a classmate of mine (well, technically he is a year ahead of me, but goes to the same school and pursues the same degree). Just looking at his DeviantArt page [ http://irvingbrew.deviantart.com/ ] and seeing how much work he has put in in the past few years, how much fun he has on paint-chat and doing random doodles... I know that other artists do this, but seeing it from someone that you personally know makes a big difference, makes it seem that much more real. At least, for me it does.

Well, let's hope I can keep this mindset.  A breakthrough has been made, let's not rest on my laurels and watch opportunity pass me by.

Animations!

Bite and chew done my freshman year. This is still one of my favorites

This was my final from Freshman year. I animated the Samurai, partner (TJ Lamb) animated the ninja.

The walk was drawn on paper and colored in photoshop. This was for a game team that I worked with in my sophomore year. The team dissolved and the game was never finished so this is the only animation that ended up getting done for it.

Some drawings from DP

Figure drawings done at DP and Gage

S

This was my Sophomore animation project. I animated the fat guy, my partner animated the lady. I did the original line art for the background while my partner did the painting.

I'm moderately happy with it. The motion works in spite of the wiggle-vision. I have had to really deal with learning a ton while working on a long project..... it makes the later stages of the production difficult to stick with. I see so many things that I did wrong, or could have done better at the early stages but have had to push forward with it because I had a product to deliver. It's an important lesson, but a frustrating one. It's funny, though, I was talking to my uncle recently (a long time software engineer)  asking him if this was common in his line of work; It totally is. So, I am pretty sure I have that to look forward to for the rest of my life. C'est la vie.

It's Character Driven

Stupid fun assignment in my character design class sent me here: http://itscharacterdriven.blogspot.com/ .

Beautiful
Stoned
Mystic
May or may not be an alien

Pencil test

This is the current state of my animation for sophomore projects. I am working with a partner on this who is animating a separate character. Unfortunately we have not recently shot the two together. More updates as this goes through it's phases to completion.



And this is the background painting I did for it. The final animation will be vectorized in toon boom and then colored. The original drawing for the painting was mine as well.

My partner did her own painting and they both turned out good enough that we don't know who's we want to use yet.... we'll have to duke it out I guess.

Pencil test

This was an animation project assigned to help us get to know the characters we are working with for our sophomore projects class. The assignment was a take followed by a run in perspective.

First semester 3d model

Process. Top are the original drawings. Middle is the wireframe. Bottom is rendered with textures and lighting.

ACTION!

This was from the first semester of my sophomore year at DigiPen. The class was my first real foray into 3d and I love it!

Character design for 3d

           Rumors say that he was once a great hero. A living legend in his time, the man responsible for saving his homeland from a despotic tyrant. But... He was betrayed. Every story is different, his lord took his wife for a lover. His brother-in-arms was bedding with the enemy. It was all for money, power, lands, women or wine. The details don't matter, what matters is his rage. He is now broken, more a force of nature than a man. He roams through the land killing every person he comes across; men, women, children.

            For every person murdered he takes a bone and decorates himself with it, then he throws the bodies in a pile and burns them. For every body burned he makes an incision on his chest and arms and rubs the ash in.

I will post some renders of the 3d model soon.