Animation is about Possibilities and the Choices

11 Second Clubin'

2010-09-07T11:21:00.000-07:00

I submitted an animated peice for the 11 second club last year and I told myself that I would stick with it every month. And I didn't. Not 'but' I didn't. I don't want the implied 'being sorry' held in that little word 'but' overshadow the lack of integrity in failing to meet a goal. Not that there's anything wrong with that, and that IS the point. Once 'something is wrong' is taken out of the equation, then I can address the why as to that thing not being done, instead of the implied morality around making mistakes. But (joke) I DID enter it in July and August 2010 and I've started the September contest.

My little Bipshere project featured a line from 'Defending your Life'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydCqJKdsBWs&feature=related

For the July2010 11 Second Club animation challenge. The clip is from ' Requiem for a Dream' , one of the most depression films of all time. Coming out of splines mode I deleted a small walking section and threw off some of the timoing. I didn't feel comfortable uploading it for the contest. This is a playblast. I may tweak it and do a final render pass.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1Wd9-W3V9E

The power of being

2009-11-19T14:41:00.000-08:00

I've wasted so much time trying to do things. Then I beat myself up for wasting time. When the truth is that time is not mine to waste, if time exists anywhere besides in the minds of humans, I am here when I am and I'm gone when I'm not. But marking my passage and holding the universe accountable is inauthentic to an infinitly expanding universe. There is no time, only being. The idea of 'now' is equally as pointless a concept in infinity, because there can be no other thing. Now does not exist in infinity, and it is all that there is. I've never tried. I've only worried; fretted, considered, and sought consensus. I call it trying to feign progress. Thinking about doing is a waste of...infinity? In infinity all moments shrik to nothingness, and in nothingness all things are possible. Freedom to create comes from the ultimate blank canvas. But this damn cause and effect thinking is a rusted trap. If I could just get beyond the effect and just be cause, leaving the effect in the past instead of in the future. Move ahead of result or leave it for those trapped in time to consider. To be cause and being in one quintessential point of infinity, leving effect to shrink into nothingness with the rest of the universe that is always expiring. Never to strive. Never to try. Just being.

Power in Observation

2009-06-15T16:45:00.000-07:00

Probably the most underrated skill an animator possesses is his powers of observation. Its all of the subtly of life that give us the character and personality that truly great animation possesses. We all basically walk the same, eat the same way and share language, but it’s in the small differing ways that we west about doing these things that make us individuals. Those are the parts of us that our loved ones know about us. It’s our flavah. And it’s the subtly of animation that the audience can connect to. ‘I know THAT guy’. The who, what, where, and why are important ingredients to the events in a story. But the ‘How’ of an issue is what makes it interesting.
When I am in public drawing, it’s not enough to draw what I see. I must capture the ‘how’ of the thing. And do it until it is a part of my way of seeing. Until I spend my more public times in a natural state of observation.
Today I noticed a mother flip her long hair back over her shoulder before the squatted, heels high, to lift her toddler from the play structure. I noticed how erect she held her head so that her hair would not flip back to the front of her shoulder. Had she leaned forward she would have to make her hair adjustment with arms full of baby. My impression was that this was a young mother who still found herself quite beautiful and was at the opposite of the mom who cuts her hair to accommodate her maternal lifestyle. She was natural and adept at her style of mothering and posturing amongst the other moms.
Animation Mentor’s Shawn Kelly says in his tips and tricks e-book, that when you’re out in public drawing, don’t forget to wear sunglasses so you don’t creep people out! Of course that e-book is so much more than a treasury of tips. It’s a look into the inner working of how an animator thinks, feels and views the world. His powers of observation are inhuman, and the information contained in his e-book is so casually presented that it’s easy to forget how difficult this stuff all is. He breaks it all down like Einstein explaining physics. It takes a true master to make the impossible sound easy.
I'm trying out a few poses for the 11 second club in June. Not sure that it's readable yet. I'm trying out this new rig named max too. He works great, but I'm not used to the chest controler. I need to act this out a few more times and refine the concept. I used the entire character training packet from AM, laying out this charater a a prisoner who is digging his way out of the prison, but he pops up in the wardens office by mistake.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjMVIG13xhU

E3 2009

2009-06-03T17:52:00.000-07:00

I went to E3 at the LA Convention Center. Not the madhouse it was in the past. I was there to promote MojoMediaCSI llc. on behalf of Thor, Dan and myself.

www.mojomediacsi.com

LIFE AFTER PEOPLE, THE SERIES DEMO REEL
http://www.mojomediacsi.com/reel.htm
History Channel's 2008 Emmy Award nominated special

Fiiinal

2009-05-31T20:51:00.000-07:00

I crashed at my friends house last night and saw my animation on youtube with a fresh set of eyes in the morning. I was mortified and had to rush home to fix the horrible way that this guy was sliding down his chair. Then I didn't like the sliding hands, then I didn't like the popping elbow, and then and then and then...I got it into the competition with 15 minutes to spare. It refused to acept my .mov, which it had before, but finally accepted an .avi after I lost a little hair. There are still a couple of areas that I need to smooth out but this one is in the bag.

In the previous version, the body started of rigid as he layed back in the first 2 sec, and the right arm was resting on the bar. But the additional body contortions moved the rt arm forward so that it was floating. So I moved the hand to rest on the right thigh. As he adjusts his body in the first 24 frames I made the hands really wrap around the leg as is slides up his thigh. I also played with the reverse curvature of his spine. I calmed down the return of his extended rt arm after the point too. I turned it in with 20 minutes to spare.

Although there is some smoothing to do in a couple of places before it's reel ready. Not to mention lighting, a reaction shot, etc. Film Director Dan halprin has offered to assist me with the cuts and has alredy made some great suggestions o keep it natural and story driven. This exercise was a estament to the words of Brian DeMetz who told me that in CG it takes 10 percent of the time to get 90 percent of the work done. The last 10 percent of the work takes the remaining 90 percent of the time.

www.jgibsoniv.com

First final to 11 second club.

2009-05-30T02:06:00.000-07:00

My first FINAL submission. Nice workout. I did manage to get a day o surfing in this Tuesday at Sunset beach. Water was a tad icy and I broke my zipper suiting up, but I had a relaxing session. I saw UP today with the fam. I wept. The story gets to me and also I marvel at teh artistry of the Pixar clan. I just cant believe that storytelling can be so wonderful. I feel myself going down the emotional path , I'm aware of every device that they use and I jus cant help but be swept awy. Live action film seldom moves me like they do. Pete Doctor spoke at my graduation ceremony and he said to persue my passion. I am. And HE has a monkey!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKHMWospgm4

day 3 of Barfly

2009-05-28T23:36:00.000-07:00

I took the recomendations of the online community and added a few frames to the beginning. I also removed some of the center poses for more acting opportunities. I might back down some of the head movement but I need to move forward. next is to offset keys, do facial animation, adjust the eye target. Thanks to PhelanS and KeithE for your input.

://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LaINfPTaVE

www.jgibsoniv.com

11 Second Club - Barfly

2009-05-26T19:55:00.000-07:00

Second full day of animating and I think that I made pretty good progress. I wasn't going to add any blinks but months ago Sean Sexton showed me a pretty sweet way of adding them quickly so I threw them in. I am next going to soften some of the hand movements and add eye brow directions.

www.jgibsoniv.com

11 Second Club

2009-05-25T00:22:00.000-07:00

This is my first pass at the 11 second club May 09 contest. The 11 Second Club provides an audio clip and all participants who choose to take it on animate that same clip, which levels the playing field. This is also my first ever submission to the The 11 Second Club. I srtarted this at the end of the month so I might no get a polish pass in, but i like where this is going. i might move the camera for a more interesting angle and add a second character.

2D and 3D Animators group on Linked-In

2009-05-13T16:26:00.000-07:00

I posted the following to the Linked In Group for animation. I'm hoping for crits and job leads ...

Demo review requested

Hi guys! I'm tweaking my character animation demo and would love to have some feedback. I graduated from animation school last year and finished my first animation gig a few weeks ago. Demo, Web site, CV...do I need anything else to find work?
-John

Demo
http://www.jgibsoniv.com/JG_Demo_60Sec-sfw.mov

Web Site
www.jgibsoniv.com

CV
http://www.jgibsoniv.com/JG_CV_CA_V02.pdf

We are all interconnected

2009-05-04T17:35:00.000-07:00

So I showed my final resume to Phelan and we had a good ol time fine tuning it. We also decided that I should have a version for games animation and a separate version for film animation, a different version for being a chef! And a different reel for each too. I humbly take the coaching. And in keeping with my newfound commitment to reach out for help comes the added commitment to give something back. I am committed to donating time to ASIFA. A few months ago I had it that it was all about me. But it aint. I am here for others and it's about tiome I started acting like it. Not that there was anything inherently wrong with the way I conducted myself before. But I assisted in a workshop for the last 9 months that ended about a month ago and it changed my perspective in what it means to be of service. The ultimate reason why I want to animate characters and 'bring them to life' is because I want to make a difference in peoples lives. I could make a cartoon full of cynacism or resignation, but that woudn't be satisfying. Life is hard enough for folk. But making them laugh. That's a noble diversion. Or touching a piece of humanity that lets people know that they aren't alone; that we are not alone, that would be an endeavor of a higher order. Because after all, we are all profoundly connected.

ASIFA HOLLYWOOD
http://www.asifa-hollywood.org/

REEL
http://www.jgibsoniv.com/JG_Demo_60Sec-sfw.mov

CV
http://www.jgibsoniv.com/JG_CV_CA_V02.pdf

I'm Baaaack!

2009-05-03T22:10:00.000-07:00

Wow, has it alread been a year since my last post. The world has happened. I got an animation job and that job ended. I've opened and closed an office. We got a new shiney President, the economy turned upside down, and still love animation. I saw Monsters Vs. Aliens and loved it. Revisited Horton Hears a Who and was amazed at the apparent complexity of the rigging for those bad boys. I saw Mulan again for the first time and marveled at the sheer beauty of the designs. That snow scene is incredible. And PIXAR!? I am not worthy

So I've completely revamped my resume and I'm afraid that it's better than my demo reel. My resume is smoooth. My reel is, well...not. More pops than Orville Reddenbacher. I'm going to take my guru, Phelan...aka Gilgamesh's, coaching and join the 11 sec club to move forward, and find some way to give back. Well, I've got my chamois ready. Time to get to polishing.

CV
http://www.jgibsoniv.com/JG_CV_CA_V02.pdf

Peace out
http://www.jgibsoniv.com/

2008-02-27T15:14:00.000-08:00

On our pitch in Austin, the story was told in a convincing manner leaving the client motivated and excited to move forward. On a sales level, I don't think that the door was left open for F360 to charge more per service because we wern't promoted as a value, but rather an experiment. But enough enthusiasm was created for the client to request several versions of the video. Each video edit, reshoot, etc, needs to be addressed as a separate chargeable entity.

I got back from Puerto Vallarta yesterday. Amazing time of year here. In the water all day withot a sunburn. Puerto Vallarta is a creepy n wierd place. I stayed in a tiny burb called Rincon de Guayabitos, which was in the rich white 'green zone' but we walked into the local village of La Peñita for night time fun. The condos are 100% populated by whitehaired seniors with chocolaty leather skin who love to show it off. These hot lil' grannies have names like Kitten and Roxy, and can be best described with the adjective like fireplug and moxie. This is a community of jet setters who have 'left the rat-race' so that they can be free to do that which comes naturally. Wife swapping. Being under 60 I was naturally treated like a vestil virgin. These GILFs were licking their lightly white furred, Samsonite-brown lips- painted with flourescent lipstick - with their beef liver like tongues. I literally saw a Conga line with somebody's grandma leading the dancing train while keeping rythm with a bottle of Viagra. What moxie!

Ah, but what about my people! Next door, the young boys aren't allowed alone with chickens, young ladies are escorted everywhere they go, and the only reason a woman would stay with a man in this nation of drunk, toothless Danny De Vito look-alikes because it's mandated by a Catholic God. Everyone relys on a water delivery service, because the toilets don't work and someone somewhere made an extra half peso by dumping the sewage directly into the water supply without wasting a buck on that ol 'clean the feces outta the water' step. 'Cause that's where the real cost comes into play. The locals think that the rich Gringos overload the system and there's the rub.

later

juan

organizing After Effects

2007-10-05T12:44:00.000-07:00

I was having an issue organizing the sound files in after effects. I had all of the sound files in a separate layer, the image files in another and the music sound track in yet another. But everytime I adjusted a movie clip I had to readjust every sound file that followed it in the timeline. Now that I'm separating each shot into it's own clip I'm adding the sfx files into each nested composition along with the avi's. I'm leaving the music file as an overlay over the whole thing.

Over the Line

2007-09-13T12:19:00.000-07:00

A. I'm looking at adding a shot at the end to give the audience the 'best seat in the house' . Specifically, to ensure that the camera perspective shows off the right silhouette of the characters, an angle that matches the body position of Ace.

B. I'm also concerned that after Ace crosses in front of Yogi in shot 12, ( f 815), it MOVES the 180 line. I should position the camera to show Ace shushing and leaning to the right, instead of the left (f 990), and on shot 15 (f 1050) have the camera shot more from the right so that Yogi is looking more to the left side of the screen. That way, when the leap comes (f 1150 ) it will look more natural moving to the left.

Contiguous Sequences in Time

2007-09-08T18:33:00.001-07:00

So I read In the Blink of an Eye by Murch, On Directing Film by David Mamet, and I'm in the middle of Story, by McKee. So that should cover my 'M' authors. I'm laying out the final third of my Angry Yoga 'thesis'. My production experience in TV, storyboarding, and game Cinematics finds me with a most satisfying semester. That and training handed to me by the best animation professionals in the world.
There are 5 characters in The Angry Yoga animation which is pretty freakin intimidating. However, and these may be my last words, I have a plan. All of the characters are doing the exact same thing, so I could transfer animation from one character to another. Additionally, only one character will be moving at a time.
I hope the rigs are similar enough for me to do this. Otherwise this will suck. I'm already working crazy hours on this thing. The poses are pretty simple, but it would be nice to be able to transfer a set of polished animations rather than having to spend all that time on each one. On the flip side, since each character in the yoga class is in the same position, I'll be 'working the poses' smoothing movements that by their design will only occupy contigous time sequences. The order of each subsequent movement will guide the eye of the audience. Specifically in the final pose. This seemingly ambient movement is carried across a cut AND it will be the first singular movement preceding the other ambient movements. Perhaps I can take the same approach with head turns. During animation 'resting' times the characters could qickly steal glances towards the yogi(and always in the same sequence, like Rook, Ace, Bishop, Otto, guiding the eye in a clockwise circle around the sceen and alwys ending on yogi for his response and authority. This way, when the aniation gets to the punchline, the audience will be looking for the visual cues they inadvertatly learned in the first 19 shots.
That is tomorrow. I have til Sunday to pose 5 characters in 2 shots and 2 characters in 2. That's 12.
If I had a great story with just one character I would have rather done that. Thats right! But I guess the Story is King. I ain't gonna learn nuthin being an animation wuss anyway. The story needed a full class for the joke to work.

Labor Day BBQ

2007-09-01T02:11:00.000-07:00

I got a good jump on building the yoga studio setpiece. I still need to light it. The GI Joe is a good jumping off place. I can use some dramatic lighting in a couple of spots and the rooms filled with can lights. No windows though. But the night is young. The first 2/3rds of the animatic are rendered. The final third is still drawings. All 5 characters and the set and props exist in the scene as references so there's a major victory right there. Murdock's eye controls stopped working, but I ran a script by Taylor Mahoney from the AM Forum. Painless.

lighting
costumes
final audio-- String Theory
rendering--sequential uncompressed targas
compositing-- After Effects.

Animation is my work , my schooling and my hobby. I turned in my Animation Mentor assignment 2 days early so I could focus on my passion. Working on my animation final. My wife asked if there was another woman and I yes, her name is Rook and we're in love. But seriously, I have to go to an engagement party on Sunday. I would rather be animating. And when Mark and Kelly come over on Labor Day to BBQ I hope they don't mind me pounding away on my keyboards. But i'm not addicted to animation. I can quit anytime.

I never dreamed that I would find myself feeling so engaged by my short film. AM has given me more than a handful of tecniques on the computer. I feel confident about contributing something substantial to a feature length project. I feel good about putting my reel together and presenting myself as a part of team.

My whole family makes sacrifices to accomodate this animation program. They tell me that I've never been more alive and empassioned about anything. They tell me it's worth it and that they're proud. It's astounding that semester 5 is half over.

Coffee and my story

2007-08-24T03:07:00.000-07:00

Been working at home on my animation for what? 8 weeks now. It ain’t getting to me staying at home with the 3 year old while my wife goes out and works. I thought I would miss going into work at the office, human interaction and all, but not really anymore. Had a pretty busy week. I matched all of my Tupperware to the lids. No renegade tops on MY watch, lemme tell you. I had to keep my eye on that woman across the street, too. She had her housekeeper push her moped out so she could ride it up and down the street one time, then she has her lil’ slave put it back for her! Man, get a life! And ya know silverware can never be clean enough. My secret. I presoak before the dishwasher. Just a little soap and bleach. Some say I’m compulsive. I say detail oriented. That’s how I know I’ll be a good animator one day.

Slash and Burn

2007-08-22T10:55:00.000-07:00

Like Shermans march to the sea I hacked 60 seconds out of a 120 second animatic leaving all of the flavor and non of the fat. PRAISE GOD that Animation Mentor added a peer buddy program. Now the peer buddies (mostly AM Grads)offered some good suggestions, some that will be implimented, but mostly what I got was support in knowing that I could confidently take a chainsaw to it (as my mentor ,Cal Brunker, succinctly put it). I felt it was running long but I would have tentativley shaved seconds off of it, if left to my own devices. One suggestion that I'm resisting is to reduce the number of characters. I need to suggest a yoga class so having 2 characters would feel like cheating to me. I'de have to close in a a placecard in the scene saying 'private lessons' or some other excuse for the low turnout. I'm relying on the fact that in a classroom situation, everyone will be doing the same thing. Copying animation and adding in variation later is my saving grace. For my first layout I loaded a file with all of the characters in position and the cameras for my first 7 shot cameras. I used the lighting and camera controls from th class 5 toolbar and I must say it looks pretty sweet. Can't wait to dig in. Thank you peer buddies.

I'm Baaack!!

2007-08-08T16:18:00.000-07:00

HEY HEY HEY!! Yes I've abandoned this blog for a while. But I'm now in AM class 5, preproduction for my short film. My mentors have included Sean Sexton and Cal Brunker. In the meantime I worked for EA as a portrait artist for the Lord Of the Rings: Middle Earth title, and I finished the Spiderman 3 Game for Treyarch/Activision as an Environmental Artist. Although I like to surf when I can, my life is all about Animation Mentor right now. I know that there are a butload of links that aren't working on this site and I'll tend to that later. But I have a walk cycle to do at the momment...watch this space.

FRUSTRATION

2005-08-06T20:06:00.000-07:00

Blogging is good because I can rant about my AM experience and NOT bother the spouse. If things are going great then I of course should and will go to her and the rest of the family. My turn to put a pretty picture up on my fridge. But the last week or so don't fall into that category. My Maya wouldn't boot up all weelk. I thin that when i outputted some DVD's it flooded some temp files or cache files or maybe I messed somthing up when i tried to get Premier to work. My mom has been in intensive care for 8 days now, the budget was cut on my Sony gig, I blew the 5-X-B interview, my car broke down and my After Effects is on the blink. I need to redo my push animation because it sucked horribly. I misread the assignment from last week and did the wrong thing as well. (what a maroon) I see others soaring in their animations, making friends, networking...and all I seem to do is waste time. So I will go back to the original footage because that can't be wrong. My interpretation was what was askew.

Horrible Push>.

I never did meet up with any of the other mentees as mentioned in previous posts. A group of us were supposed to meet up in Venice, but the loctions kept changing so it didn't work out for me. This week was the Bird of a Feather event at SIGGRAPH. It was great to see the panel discussion with all of the mentors exchanging ideas and anecdotes. But again, when I tried to connect with the other students I could sense their eyes searching for a getaway. WTF? I'll just move on. I'm here to learn something. The good news is that I had a good interview at EA and I'm doing a test for them. So now to regroup. Tonight we're having seafood alfredo. Perhaps a new 'smokin' avatar will do the trick \m/

Message in a bottle

2005-07-09T12:22:00.000-07:00

I'm getting sick on this steady diet of coconuts and bananas, and I'm too weak to fish. But I need the protein, so I'm again in the water sustaining myself on will alone. I stand half naked, spear in hand, staring at the reflection of the blazing sun on the water, making it difficult to discern fleeing flounder from stones. I lose all sense of time as the steady rthymic lapping at my knees send me into a trance. I'm back at Animation Mentor. Rick O' Connor is guiding my hand in the ways of the Animation Ninja. "Put all of the keys for each key pose on one frame, that way you can change the spacing easily...Get feedback from a Mentor (animation Ninja) before you adjust your keys, so that you're not tweaking mistakes." Why didn't I listen? I'm sending this message in the hopes that other wayward seamen can avoid the rocks that I've crashed upon. Movement snaps me out of my daydream. A Red belly pacu! I cast my spear. I live another day.

Carlos Baena in 3D Word Magazine

2005-06-27T16:47:00.000-07:00

This months 3D World Magazine has a blurb from Carlor Baena on page 20. Carlos and Animation Mentor go head to head with James Huggins from Escape Studios. Carlos is defending the Online learning experience. James Huggins is from their marketing department. Nuff said. Go Carlos Go!
My assignment this week was a real train wreck. I feel like I am told what to do without being shown exactly how to do it. Is there a basic 'how to animate' instruction that I'm missing? I've been shown how to animate a walk cycle, so that is what I did. If that's the hard stuff (walk cycles) then how the hell do I do the 'easy' stuff? I have all of the tools. I know what I want to animate and I've found a little reference and I videoed myself doing the action. But if I was a surgeon, given all of the right tools, the patient is still dead. Where is that spleen?
Well, I'm going back in. Gather Stu's family and loved ones.

Doug Dooley: QnA numero uno

2005-06-22T22:57:00.000-07:00

Clear Staging. If I stopped right there those two words could, on some Zen level, have a profound impact on someone desiring the masterful influence of Doug Dooley. I hope it's me. (do you capitalize 'zen'?) This genuine and humble fellow was most emphatic "It's all about the poses" he said. He also stated that our 'Avars' must "...communicate your idea.". Who are these Avars? Are they like lawyers? =P The subject of acting came up again. Am I serious enough to take an acting class? AM I serious if I don't? Ah shit. That's all I need. Anthea, AM mentee, shared with the group info about a mime class on the West side. (mime's don't get caps...they're French!) What a better way could there be to learn staging and acting. I hate mimes. They mock me. Doug Dooley admired the work of Doug Sweetland, I'll have to check out his work. When talking about Art Directors looking over demo reels, DD felt that it was important to entertain them, but not necessarily with a narrative in the reel. He felt the at the staging of the characters should be engaging enough to hold the AD's attention for the duration of the reel. Drop any 'filler' shots. A+ only. InkTank, mentee from Medford, asked about storyboards as a side door into the company, feeling that one could transfer over to the animation department later on. Super question right after my own heart. Man, I could work the rest of my LIFE in their storyboard department.
It was really great to see all of the mentees from last semester. I'm planning my weekend around meeting some mentees on Saturday somewhere in Venice. Brian Nicolucci, mentee Antioch, will be simulcasting his AM mentee Bay Area BBQ! I traded tickets to the Disney Music Hall from Sat to Friday. (my first time, I'm stoked). I'm going to watch a the Onidance dance troupe that I referred to in a previous post.
I've been doing some sketches for the next assignment, but I really haven't jumped right into the mix. Hmmm,What about now... ?

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Class 2 Week 1, AM is the drug of choice

2005-06-19T19:02:00.000-07:00

In 'When a Man Loves a Woman', Andy Garcia and Meg Ryan's seemingly perfect marriage shatters like porcelin as they both struggle through the consequences of her alcoholism. Straining to hold onto something tangible and genuine, Meg Ryan tearfully relays the tale of her lifes lesson to the understanding faces of her fellow alcolhics and enablers at her 3 month meeting. She gushes, "At least I have this chip". I think that there was silence. Then one person clapped, then another, until everyone goes berzerk with sympathetic hysteria. Then they all went out for a smoke. Oh, and oh yea...AM is like that. It's the chip that I hang onto when I try to get clients to call back. If I get flipped off on the 405, I go home and pour myself a tall glass of AM. No checks in the mailbox, Sour words with the family, I retreat to my AM hidey hole. When Shaq missed the championship this year, AM was the fair mistress who offered her supple shoulder for me to...uh, right. Okay then, AM.
The first semster has ended and I'm about to open the first week of the second class. My new mentor is Doug Dooley. Lets Rock!!

If ignorance is bliss then this is paradise!

2005-06-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

I was speaking to my good friend Gilgamesh, and we were commenting about the amazing improvements that everyone has made over this first semester. Looking forward to what the next semester holds she asked, "How deep does the rabbit hole go?" It occurred to me that I didn't know how little I knew. And I can't wait to see what I don't know next semester! I work on the homework until the wee hours, as I'm sure most do. I try to NOT do anything cutsy with the assignments as 1. I think that the mentors find it annoying, and 2. if the work isn't spot on then I'll just look foolish. The ultimate goal is not only to entertain, but to learn a trade and provide a service to clients. Te effort has to be in the lesson, not in the fluff (because I'm not that good). But god bless those that can do both. I completely changed the spacing and timing of Hoochie Mama. I've learned plenty, and out characters don't even have arms or faces.
Jeremy Cantor’s is back online doing QnA’s and I’m glad. I think that because we’re relatively close in age I missed his demeanor, professional attitude, and no nonsense approach. But it was good to get some training from Bobby about spacing. It's when he actually takes the reigns and turns the camera on his screen that I seem to 'get it'.
I’ve reuploaded the latest Hoochie mama. I need to go bathe, start a BBQ, kiss the loved ones, and do some other stuff that keeps me from doing my real passion. (just kidding guys)

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Harsh Mistress

2005-06-05T20:43:00.000-07:00

I added a new category for the accumulating animations for the various AM lessons. I would like to add more Stu Poses a little later. 'Posing' is the key to expressive extremes.
I went to a rehersal for a professional dance troupe performing at the Disney Music Hall next month. I was there to draw the dancers and man those guys can't sit still for a minute! It was good practice to help develope a 'photographic eye'. I remember Glenn Vilppu saying, "It's okay to make sketchy motions with your pencil as you search for the form, but you don't have to touch the pencil to the paper". If I was to put down just one line to represent a torso or a limb, I wanted it to carry all of the intention of the movement, with no superfulous scratching on the page. Just the 'right' line. Plus I knew that eventually the dancers would come over to see how I was doing and I didn't want to embarra myself. This was a modern dance piece and it was an intimate peek into another world. I guess it went okay because I was invited to draw at a ballet class where several train. I would be so Honored.
This week I animated the assigned Character Walk. My girlfriend suggested that I do a Hoochie Mama walk for the fun of it. I wanted to do a standard cliche character ie. Brute, Smart Aleck, Hero, Heroine, so a Hoochie Mama was copecetic. I thought I planned it out pretty good but HOLY SCHMOKES...what the hell was that on the screen? All of the paper planning didn't yield the expected result and I ended up with a convulsing, gyrating creature from The Thing! I really had to reel it back to what is at least passable as a, well...first pass. Yikes!

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Email the Important stuff

2005-06-03T10:20:00.000-07:00

I think that we can all agree that we could sit at home without AM and do this stuff and it won't mean squat without the Mentors. Yes, I'm psyched, yes it's totally (gulp) awesome. (Okay, I have a problem with the word awesome. The school is amazing, unique, stupendous, exciting, etc...but genuine 'awe' leaves one speechless. Yet people who utter the word are usually behaving just the opposite, they're...well, animated) Mentors are the heart and soul of the school. They are why we come from around the world to be here. And I love the message that the word 'mentor' conjures. Lincoln said that, " A man is never so tall as when he stoops to help a child." So with that understanding in mind, I cannot comprehend why is it that I' have to scour the forums to find out where and when my mentor is having a QnA. I re-listened to the latest Video News and there was mention that there was a new forum but it didn't know that it was to be on the player page. Yea, I see the button up there, now. My QnA was on Tuesday. And I missed it. I'm so desperately afraid that I missed an epiphany inspiring moment or that a lack of QnA involvement affects my grade. So pleeze, email the Important stuff.

I've spent hours drawing and redrawing the timing for my character walk. I did the same thing with the Vanilla Walk assignment. But this is different. I could just copy what was taught in the lectures and do it over and over until I memorized the poses and timing. But this new assignment requires research. I video taped myself, my girlfriend and I looked at movies for my sexy girl walk. (I looked marvelous). I also looked through animation books. I wanted to do a character walk that was challenging and a definable, useable, cliche. On a goofey walk there is more room for error. I think that women are more difficult to animate because there is so much more subtley to their movement than say in a 'brute' or a wiseguy character. All characters pose their own set of challenges, but I'm here to challenge myself and to learn.

But Did I learn Anything?

2005-05-26T12:10:00.000-07:00

Frustration aside, I practiced drawing the key poses for Ballie a dozen times before I actually posed him in the computer itself. I repeated it until I could do it from memory. I can recite by rote where the keys, breakdowns and extremes are in a 24 frame cycle. Not that I want to become stiff and formulatic (is that a word?), but just like playing Jazz ...like Louis Armstrong said..."If you gotta ask, then you'll never know". I've definitly learned to cut down on the number of keys to use and I mark the hell out of my screen with a dry erase sharpie trying to get the curves right. But not just with the animation, but in the curve editor as well. I've found myself setting keys on my character to get the movement right, then going into the curve editor I then trace over the new curve with the dry erase. Then I delete the new key and tweak the curve until it matches the dry erase marks on the screen.

This weeks assignnment is to draw in our sketchbooks our approach to a 180 degree turn of The character, Ballie. I held the sketchbook and spun around 180 degrees while staring at my feet, tryig to feel what was happening, see what was happening and understand every nuance of weight shift. When I got dizzy I jotted a note, then repeated the dance. I drew out Fred Astaire footsteps for Ballie to Follow. Amazingly complicated proceedure for a simple 180 turn.

I was watching an iPod commercail directed by Mark Romanek and I was thinking that it would be fun to animate those extreme hip hop dancers with Stu. Talk about biting off more than I could chew. But that is the question. I nned to take small bites that I can digest, but I have to really push myself to grow. I'm so afraid of being mediocre. But here I am.

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Spinning My Wheels in the Dark

2005-05-26T10:56:00.000-07:00

I just had all of my work for the last couple of weeks kicked back to me, so I redid everything from scratch and my mentor did not noticed. My mentor is so caught up in his own internet problems that he doesn't acknowledge anything in the sketchbook section ever and seems to address the revisions as an afterthought. He hasn't even done our QnA's for the last 2 weeks, relegating that to BBB which could be a good thing, except that last night, the make up session was a Global QnA which meant that instead of 20 of us in a room it was 300 and hence NO PERSONAL CRITIQUES. Every day I work towards something unknown and mysterious. I'm not suggesting that this is a good thing. I really don't know. I checked my grades and no matter how hard I try I come up with a B+, which ain't too shabby. But I need to compete for a job at the end of the day. The revisions are supposed to give us an opportunity to improve on the grade so I find this particularly frustrating. There is so much top shelf talent out there and I feel that only the 'A' students are the ones who will eventually end up with work. Not to mention the competition coming out of the gaming schools, art schools, and universities around the world.

2005-05-16T19:00:00.000-07:00

I am posting links to the life drawing that I did in the first semester, which incidentally is drawing to a close. There is a new AM chat window which allows the students in a class to see whoever is asking the questions as well as the Mentor conducting the session. This is Luis answering administration questions for the weekly tech QnA.

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The one leg animation was a challenge but I learned an important lesson about the entire process. Most of the learning is done in the second week of an assignment. The first week I dio what I think or know to be right. Although there is dscovery along the way, this dosen't change the way I think. In the second week, the critiques from the mentors and fellow students come in and man, these guys are PUMPED! Every aspect of an animated shot is exmined, deconstructed, and challenged.

Week 6 - I Struggled...

2005-05-10T20:50:00.000-07:00

....with the character "Tailor". Maybe because I missed the video about using the T puppet. Perhaps it was that I waited too long before I elicited the help of Gilgamesh ( I waited my whole life to say that) . Could be the real
Miss Taylor Rae making my life crazy. (Those who know her know what I'm talking about) . But mostly, it's those wacky Maya shortcuts that I was unaware of. Such as holding down the shift key and successively selecting the controls in a hierarchy to enable an
animator to deform the curves simultaneously and view them all at once in the graph editor. You see...I have a confession to make. I am ...a 3dMax guy. That's the best excuse I have. Some people fall right into this stuff. I need to get to work. As Richard Williams said...Animation is Concentration. Anyway. Thanks G for the M tips and I'm off to massacre the next assignment.

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Spillover Inspiration from Animation Mentor

2005-05-03T11:42:00.000-07:00

I found an article in 3D World Magazine about how to make realistic looking skin on characters. I'm particularly interested in the application of animated bump maps and their application in facial deformation of wrinkles. I'll need to do some tests. I have plenty of meshes from old jobs and it'll do me a world of good to retexture them from scratch and strive for realistic skin. Painting the maps, creating the sliders, subsurface scattering, it'll all come into play when doing characters for either myself or for a client.
Last week I completed a 3D model for the Ritz-Carlton that is actually being made into a piece of furniture to go into their suites. I'm especially proud of the project because the entire thing from design, to approval, to 3D construction took 2 days. The contracting company said that it was a "smash". My homework suffered due to the time it took...okay, going to Vegas didn't help.
I set up my Easel and I'm cleaning my oversized mahogany pallete to do a portrait of the late Uncle Nate. The kindest man to ever grace a Harley Hog.
It's a pleasure to do the weekly sketches in my sketchbook. There's so much to see at Venice Beach in the way of visually interesting characters. And they're doing things. Restaurant drawing is fine but very limited in the poses department.
So much more that I have to do, now that I'm inspired. I love it.

Hey Stoopit !!!

2005-04-24T17:23:00.000-07:00

Well thanks everyone at AM for making me feel like an idiot. yea, it's all yer fault. I've been cruising the campus and the work from the other students is so good that I just feel like a big poser. NOW I have to work even harder. Stupid bar always getting raised and all. But seroisly, I've been going to evey student website that I come accross and I've beem genuiny impressed with the caliber of artist partaking of this grand experiment. There are many working professionals out there. I paid off my first semester credit card so I'm ready for phase II.

I had a bouncing ball critique with my mentor, Jeremy Cantor, and he does something pretty special. He has us mail to him our Maya files so that he can crit our work both visually and technically. No room for pride here, the good doctor is checking up under the hood.

We've been focusing on bouncing balls for a couple of weeks and I think we're gonna stick with the principals surrounding them until we nail 'em.

Week 4- AM Update

2005-04-22T20:29:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've felt like taking my sketchbook out and did the deed. Bt AM changed all of that. They've taken all of the control away from the computer and put it back into my hands and the key to that feat was in the emphasis on the importance of posing. The keyframe is everything in terms of expression, acting, connecting to the audience, gesture, intention, and so much more. The finest actors of our day convey the subtlest of emotion with a glance, the deepest of desire with a minute nuance of expression. And that my good reader is all keyframing. Carlos Buena said that you need to know what you want before you start animating. That comes from observation and study. And what we want is good acting and the key pose is the way, the truth and the light. There is no time in animation for a game of cherade, where the audience tries to guess what we, the animators, are trying to say. The message has to be clear, with the sound off, in silhoette, and it has to grip the viewer. I want to affect people. I am affected.

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Crit on static Stu

2005-04-17T21:42:00.000-07:00

I received my critique from my mentor, Jeremy Cantor. He said that although my character was balanced and solid , he would like to see it more off-balance to make it more interesting. To make 'Stu' more commited to the action. I know he's right because everything that he said sounded familiar. Ironic.

Settling in...

2005-04-17T12:02:00.000-07:00

The quality of people involved with AM is astounding. Thier work and industry stature far exceeds my expectations. I'm still trying to work around all of the bells and whistles on the AM site but I seem to have a pretty good handle on it now. Two of the unexpected discoveries is first, how valuable AM is as a networking tool (and potentially how effective it truly is) and within the ciriculum itself, that great acting and performance are not replaced by good software. It seems kind of obvious, but it's like the understanding that knowing how to swing a hammer, does not make you a carpenter. But you still need that hammer. An Animator is what you are. Maya is what you use. Passionate observation plus knowledge is how you breath life into your characters.

Meeting with Carlos Baena

2005-04-05T22:40:00.000-07:00

I was invited to meet with this guy in our Q&A section and what a friggin' blast it was. The technology allowed us to feel genuinly connected as we fired off questions and watched Carlos on the Web cams. The rest of us, about 20 I guess, chatted simultaneously while he 'monologued'. I was impressed at the passion and energy that Carlos exibited and I could tell that the other students were fully engaged. There was a heap o learning going on. I'm looking forward to future interactions when the studentswill be able to see each other during class. A true 'virtual classroom'. Oh, and who knows...we may even learn how to animate

Providence

2005-04-05T22:01:00.000-07:00

I responded to a mass email from an old workmate and, long story short, my resume is in the hands of an Activision Producer whom I used to work for at the now defunked New World Computing/3DO. I was also just emailed a pdf of a script that a director friend of mine recieved partial financing for this week. This will the first full length feature that I storyboard. Up to now it's been all shorts and game cinematics, my bread and butter. This year is starting to shape up. I will be able to totally focus my attention on Animation Mentor and endeavors that directly relate to the tools used there in. I will continue to work my j.o.b. until those manifest. I won't have to do any laborous work on Thursday, so all day will be devoted to AM and surfing.

Week Numero Uno in Da Bag

2005-04-03T15:04:00.000-07:00

My headhunter wants for me to interview for a CG position over an hour away. That won't work with AM so I started working a J.O.B. with my friend who is a master wallpaper hanger who can gaurantee me hard labor every week. Plenty of buckets of paste and staircases. Who needs a gym? So it's construction in the day and AM at night. My meeting with my mentor has been problematic with connection problems on the AM side. Postponed twice. The global meeting with the founders was also full of hiccups, but I'm confident that the AM techs will sort it out. This week has been for reserved for troubleshooting and reading assignments. We're reading he animators bible, The Illusion of Life. I'm in this for the long haul and no one said it would be easy. This is all cutting edge stuff and I'm honored to be a part of it. The lesson plans and videos all work fine so there's plenty to do. The chat areas are also in full swing and students are throwing up wonderful pieces. I'll try to post more frequently my good droogies.

Master Mentor Jeremy Cantor

2005-03-27T17:22:00.000-08:00

Wahoo!! My mentor is Jeremy Cantor – Animation Supervisor – Sony Pictures Imageworks- Author of Inspired 3D Short Film Production. This guy is a wellspring of information and is a "Mentor" in every sense of the word. He teaches EVERYWHERE: Cal-Art, MIT, AFI, GNOMON, etc. A real juggernaught. Tomorrow the adventure begins.

2 da zoo

2005-03-27T09:18:00.000-08:00

Animation Mentor has me STOKED! I'm exited, nervous, ambitious and scared. Biggest commitment I've ever made without giving a ring. Yesterday (Saturday), I loaded the family up and renewed my membership to the LA Zoo. It was incredibly crowded and many of the exhibits were closed for renovation. I wasn't the only one there with a sketchpad. My favorite animals were the giraffes. They were active and seemed friendly to the crowd. The rest of the animals in the zoo seemed freaked out by them. But the giraffes and I kinda dug it.

The world is changing

2005-03-25T09:40:00.000-08:00

So I'm engaging in a great animation learning exeriment to propel my self back to the forefront of an industry. After years of making games I've found myself drowning in a stagnant tide pool of homoginization. I'm am the jack of all trade and master of none. But I'm a clever little monkey and confidence is high. I heard about Animation Mentor while working at a game company in Irvine and my gut tells me to run to it. I've bet the farm but I still need to go out and milk the cows, which means that the job in Irvine has ended and I need to go get another one. "If you build it they will come." right? It's all faith baby.