Class 2 - Animation Boogaloo

Class 2 has started, and my new mentor is Rich Fournier. He works at Blue Sky and is friends with my last mentor Scott Lemmer. How 'bout that? Few guys from my last class are in here with me as well, so it's a cool mix of new & familiar faces.

Tree Swing - 2D Animation Test

This is a little 2D test I did the past few days to get me back into the animatin' swing of things. I wanted to do a 2D animation (my first one really) and spend some time on it. Off model, poor lines, volume change, questionable timing and force, yep, this has it all! But, it was a really fun test to spend a few days on, so there's that.

iPhone Animation

Hah, I made this little animation on my phone one morning with an app called iNim8. I was lucky enough to get a free version from the creator, but it's totally worth the couple bucks! Go grab it if you have an iDevice that supports it.

Class 1 Wrapup

Class 1 is a couple weeks over now and Class 2 starts up here tomorrow. I can't wait. The break was nice but I was ready to get back to things here last week.

A few quick thoughts on Class 1? A lot of technical fundamentals of animation. It was a good thing to go through to be honest, even if the assignments did seem at times mind numbingly technical with little creative to them at all. I do have to say it got me thinking more about each of the principles and even though I put thought into poses before, I do so even more now.

Other than some technical things with the AM website (pretty minor stuff really), I really don't have any complaints about AM Class 1. Not all mentors are made equally, but that's life (I thought my mentor was great, just some other classmates with other mentors were not totally happy.) Alumni Q&A's were still some of my favorite things to do ...

Lastly, personal keys to success in Class 1 were participating in the community, posting my work as early as I could, and time management. It was all about using my time the best as I could and giving / getting feedback. Pretty simple really.

Alrighty, Class 2 starts in about 18 hours, maybe I'll post more frequently next class (doubtful, hah).

Class 1 Progress Reel

Aaaand here's everything for my Class 1 Progress Reel. No fancy rendering, titles, or music here folks.

Week 10 & 11 - Personality Walk

For my personality walk I did a little sneaky sequence. I didn't want to just do a cycle so I varied it up a bit. Fun times.





Week 10 Exhausted Poses!


Week 11 Balance Pose!

Week 8 & 9 - Vanilla Walk

The blocking on this was really easy. Getting the final version to not pop and be smooth is much more of a challenge. Especially during Thanksgiving vacation while traveling.







Here's some Week 8 Strength Poses:


And here's Week 9 Concerned:

Week 7 - Tailor

And this was a really fun assignment. The first non-100% technical assignment. Focus was on overlap. Get the body working first and then just straight ahead the tail really.

Week 6 - Pendulum

These buggers are tricky. Good tip for the settle, the timing stays the same going from left to right and back, only the distance changes.