Class 302

This week we learned more about pantomime, which is something I'm definitely into since I wanted to do my 2d short film all in pantomime. I don't mind animating in pantomime and would actually prefer it to doing tons of dialog shots. To me animation done in pantomime is animation in its purest form. Too many movies lately have been talking heads. I don't even remember what lame jokes those characters are saying half the time, but I still remember how sad Dumbo looked when his mother was locked up.

The Letter Blocking

Class 301

Class 3, Intro to Acting. My Mentor this quarter is Dimos Vrysellas. He has an extensive background in animation and seems to be an all around highly energetic guy. Our first class got right into acting and animation, a lot of good stuff. My first assignment is to do a pantomime shot with stewie having two distinct and contrasting "beats" that tell a basic story. So basically having him change his emotional state in a shot and showing that internal thought process and how it comes out in the acting and animation. The sky is the limit with this assignment. I thought of a bunch of ideas. One idea I had that I wanted to do was having Stewie all anxious and excited about a blind date, but when he finally goes to open the door and sees her he is horrified and afraid by her appearance. He then slams the door only to open it again to throw out the bouquet of flowers he is holding. I thought that could have had some funny business, but decided it might be way too long as well as hard to make the girl stewie look really ugly since the model only has two eyes and a round head. So in the end I choose to do something simple. Stewie is going through his mail and comes across a letter that he never anticipated. He jumps up and runs off excited waving it in the air to show his other Stewies I suppose. So here is my planning for that Idea.

Class 212

Week 12, the last week of Class 2, Body Mechanics. Overall I wish I could have devoted more time to this class I will post my Class 2 reel here once it's all together. I'm really looking forward to the next Class, Intro to acting, sweet!

Class 2 Reel (coming soon)

Class 211

Week 11 our final animation was due. I still feel it's only about 70% there of what I can do to it. This is the version I uploaded as my final. I have since polished it up more and tweaked some timing, poses etc. Once I have my 2d assignment revised I will post my final Class 2 reel under week 12.

Sticky Door Polishing

Class 210

During week 10 we had to refine our rough animation. All along you are getting helpful feedback from your mentor and other students. So it's getting closer to where I want it to be, but still only feels about 50% there. Hopefully it's heading in the right direction.

Sticky Door Refining

Class 209

This week I just worked more on my sticky door assignment, taking it out of blocking and into rough animation. My least favorite part of the animation process is when you start to spline out your shot. I like the freshness of blocking and refining and completeness of the polishing stage. Splining is when 3d animation really feels too technical to me.

Sticky Door Rough

Class 208

This week we had to start blocking our animation. I choose to do the sticky door from the pick list. It was a fun assignment. With this one I feel that I could have used a few more frames. One thing that is hard about these assignments is staying within the frame limits. This assignment had to be done in 250 frames. Some people go way over and do some really epic animations. I'm sure you can find a few on peoples blogs. I'm sure there are some great examples out there.

Sticky Door Blocking

Class 207

So week 7, this was a fun week because we had to finish up our assignment and plan for the next assignment. It wouldn't have been so bad if I didn't have to do like 100 inbetweens while continuing to refine my 2d assignment. So this was what I turned in for my final animation since it was due and had to be done this week. I plan on finishing up my revisions on this in the next week or so and will post it with my progress reel for class 2. I made a lot of adjustments and changes because it feels so clunky in this state now.

Post Jumping Refining

Sticky Door Planning

Class 206

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been so busy. Class 2 was a huge blur. So this was my assignment for week 6, roughing out my 2d assignment more. You can see the evolution of this piece as I went along.

Post Jump Rough

Class 205

Class 205 was centered around weight and balance. I decided to do my next assignment in 2d. Yes good old fashion hand drawn animation! It was liberating to do some 2d animation again and the time I spent animating flew by, always a plus! The hardest part with 2d is making changes. Unlike 3d where I can just adjust something here or there, I have to erase parts and redraw them or even redraw a whole frame. I'm sure it is going to be a lot more work to get this assignment done over the next couple weeks.
Post Jump Blocking

Class 204

This week my final turnaround animation was due. We also had to pick a new assignment to start planning out. I choose jumping from one post and balancing on another.
Turnaround Final

Class 203

Class 203 dealt with Advanced Overlap and Anticipation. This week we had continue working on our animation from the previous week based on our mentor's feedback. Basically it's my rough animation stage.
Turnaround Refining

Class 202

Class 202 was on basic posing. We had to upload our blocking animation. My mentor recommended that I have Ballie walking a few steps in the beginning.
Turnaround Blocking

Class 201

So this next quarter is about body mechanics. This week was all about the importance of planning for animation. Our first assignment was to animate ballie either kicking a ball, taking a big side step, or turning 180 degrees. I choose to do the turnaround, which was probably the most popular choice among students. So I recorded myself acting out many different turnarounds, but ended up choosing a lighthearted skipping turnaround thingy. So this week we only had to upload our video reference and planning sketches.

Where I have been

Hello out there in blogger land! I am sorry I haven't posted for the last month, but I have a good excuse. My wife just gave birth to our second baby boy, Reilly Owen, Monday April 9Th. I will try to regularly post my AM work as often as I can.

Week 12

So this is the last week of the first quarter at Animation Mentor. We had to compile all of our class 1 work into a reel. The topic of discussion this week delved more into personaily and weight of a character. So far AM has been a really fun and motivating experince and I look forward to the quarters to come!
Class 1 Progress Reel

Week 11

Week 11 marked the last real week an assignment was due for AM. We had to finish our personality walks and do the sketches/Stu pose showing balance. The topic this week was on hips and all that the entail. The hips are such a vital part when it comes to creating believable animation. In my own animation I find myself spending a lot of time really thinking about and trying to focus on where the weight is on the hips. If the hips are off then all that you build upon them will look off as well, so needless to say, good hip movement is very crucial to creating believable character animation.
Week 11 Personality Walk

Week 10

Hello to all my faithful blog-goers out there, every "one" of you! This is my 10Th week post, a little late, I know. So this week we started learning about personality walks! There are endless possibilities that could be done for this assignment. I wish I had a few weeks just to experiment with some different walks, but I choose a rugged cowboy type of character for my walk. So for week 10 we had to block out our walk and also do the sketches and pose to convey exhaustion. So check it out and look for the final when I post for week 11.
Week 11 Personality Walk Blocking

Week 9

Wow, It's week 9 already! This weeks lecture was on exaggeration and weight. The assignment was to finish animating our walk cycle that we had blocked out the previous week. Along with that we had to do sketches that showed concern and pick one to pose Stu in. The first 9 weeks have gone by fast for me. I have been really busy with AM and other things lately that time seems to fly by. So far I can say my experience with animation mentor is really positive. I didn't know what to expect at first juggling work and little Logan, but it is easily doable for someone working full time with kids etc. I would recommend it to animators out there whom have experience already as well. I think every animator could benefit from going back to the basics once in a while. I am already wishing I could do the first 8 weeks over again when I look back at my animations. I will reiterate again once I finish this Quarter and give some further incite into my experience with the program. See you all next week!
Week 9 Finished Walk Cycle

Week 8

The topic this week was on basic walks. Sure we all walk the same on a very broad level, but on a deeper level each one of us has a completely different walk. Have you ever noticed someone walking far away and knew who it was even if their back was turned, based on just how they moved. Maybe you've heard someone walking in the room and knew who it was just by the sound of their walk. These are things that differentiate each of us from one another. So our assignment this week was to block out a basic vanilla walk, as they call it on AM. The coolest thing about this assignment was seeing all the subtle variations students did. We also had to do sketches that communicate a sense of strength and choose one to pose Stu out with.
Week 8 Basic Walk Block

Week 7

Hello out there to anyone that is reading this. Week 7 dealt with arcs and path of action. Our assignment was to animate tailor in a shot. This little ball with a tail was a lot harder to animate than I thought. It was fun to see all the different ideas students had with tailor.
Week 7 Tailor

Week 6

So we are at week 6, which is halfway through the first quarter of Animation Mentor. This week dealt with overlapping action. To me animating overlapping action can be both fun and tedious, but can really make an animation more interesting to watch when done well. Without overlap things can feel really stiff and take you out of a scene. On the other hand too much overlap can make it look way too distracting and rubbery. It can be hard to find that spot that feels just right. It's one of those things I spend a lot of time thinking about when I'm polishing a shot. As with anything in animation it's good to remember that rules can be broken.
Week 6 Overlap Assignment

Week 5

Hi everyone, this week dealt with Anticipation and Squash and Stretch. The assignment was to have a ball going through an obstacle course. Adding the new element of Squash and Stretch made for a really fun assignment. We also had to do sketches of people who were devastated, which proved to be harder than I thought once I got into it. Ok see you next week. Week 5 Obstacle Course

Week 4

So, week four was on timing and spacing. Our assignment was to have two balls, one light and one heavy, bounce in a scene to show weight. I decided to use a cannonball and a kickball. I also had Logan help me with my reference video!
Week 4 bouncing balls

Week 3

Week 3 dealt with planning for animation. The assignment this week was to sketch people who are expressing excitement. I had to think a little more about this one because the range of emotion a human can express while excited seems to run from very suttle all the way to very exaggerated, to the point of being laughable. So week 3 marks our first animation assignment, a bouncing ball. I think even some seasoned animators could benefit from this exercise once in a while. In a way you could compare a ball bounce exercise to an artist trying to draw a perfect circle, how many artists can draw a perfect circle, I know I can't? So in the end I think this turned out to be a fun assignment!
Week 3 Bouncing Ball

Week 2

So, Week 2 we had an overview on the principles of animation, which was really good. Our assignment was to do some quick sketches of people, then put the Stu rig and into a pose from our sketchbook. So this week I did some sketches of people playing volleyball.

Week 1

Week one basically consisted of familiarizing yourself with the inner workings of Animation Mentor and getting to know your mentor. My mentor this Quarter is Sean Ermey. He has worked on and off the last 6 years at DNA. While there he worked on Jimmy Neutron as well as the Ant Bully film. He is a really cool guy with a lot of animation experience and I'm glad to have him as my mentor this quarter! Sorry, no assignments were due for this week.

The Animation Mentor Experience

Welcome to my Animation Mentor Blog. This blog will be home to my weekly assignments and hopefully give some insight into the Animation Mentor experience. I am currently on my forth week so I will post the previously completed assignments shortly. Thanks for visiting!

Shawn