Update and TRAILER!

So just a rough update of what I have been up to recently. My time with Reel FX has officially ended. It was a really great place to start out and I got to work on two really cool projects with some really great people. But budgets and whatnot meant that they couldn't afford to keep me around for the next project. So I am on the hunt for my next home at the moment, no idea where I will end up, but we shall see. Life is an adventure and it is time for the next stage.

As far as the movie that I worked on, it is called the Book of Life and the trailer came out today! So everyone check it out, it was a great project and I am incredibly happy to have gotten to work on it. I am so proud of everyone who was part of it. I think all of you are going to be super surprised when you see it in theaters in October.

Reel FX

Hey everybody! So, I have a big announcement. I landed an apprenticeship position at Reel FX in Dallas Texas. Not a whole lot more to say than that. I am really excited to be heading back down to Dallas where I will get to see some of my old college friends. I am also excited to work on Reel FX's new movie Turkeys. I am prepping for my move right now and will be starting at Reel FX in early September. Landing that first animation gig was really tough and took a long time but it finally happened. I have to give a huge shout out to all of my instructors and friends over the years who encouraged me and helped me improve. Special shout outs to Randy Hayes, Angelo Sta. Catalina, Tal Shwarzman, and the ever incredible Mike Walling. These guys really gave me their time patience and energy to help me improve and answer my dumb questions. I cant thank them enough.

Daffy Duck Walk Cycle

Hey guys so I thought I would go ahead and give you an update with whats been going on with me and why there was Pandas Animation Tricks video this last month.  But first! I want to share with you one of my favorite looney tunes walk cycles, honestly there are a lot of really great ones.  This one in particular has always been a personal favorite though.  Why I think this cycle is amazing is because of the wonderful angles used by the animator.  Daffy is off balance the entire time even as he steps forward he is never quite catching his weight correctly which gives the feeling that he isn't as strong as he would like us to think.  But we not only get this wonderful forward facing angle but some great straits in the arms and hand which provides some great contrast to his puffed out chest.  The other great thing about this walk is the timing of the steps.  I love how the feet slowly pull up off the ground then snap forward into the front position.  It is a wonderful visual gag that really sells the spirit of the whole short in just this walk.

So, about the video for last month.  I am sorry about not getting one up for you guys.  I got really busy dealing with some personal stuff this last month and only now am I coming out of the crazyness.  So I am planning on having a really nice video for you guys late next week.  I have a couple of really good ideas and it is just a matter of picking one out and prepping anything I may need.  Anyway guys until then, have a good one and keep animating!

A Ball and a Horse

Hey everyone.  I have a couple of test to share with you guys today.  The first one I have is a flipbook test that I did.  It has been years since I have done any kind of 2d work and I was never very good at 2d.  If you guys have seen any of my drawings you can guess why!  But I took a shot at making a bouncing ball test.  I ended up doing a quickie bouncing ball in about 20 minutes.  I think it turned out OK.  I am gonna keep trying my hand at flipbook tests and see if I can manage anything that is decent in 2d. 

The next test I have to share is my first cg animal test.  I had found a decent horse rig about a year ago and I had always wanted to do a test with it.  When I was at CTN this last year I got a Rhino House dvd at the Rhino House booth.  For those of you who don’t know Rhino House is a reference site for animators, they have dvds and an online component.  Check their site out it is pretty great.   I ended up deciding to do a horse gallop and it turned out pretty good I think.  The rig has a few problems but for a run cycle or walk cycle it is more than good enough to get some decent looking work.  I had a lot of fun doing this animal animation and I plan on doing some more in the future.  It just goes to show once again that the work you create using reference is always better and more appealing than the work you just try to throw together out of your head.  

CTN

Hey guys! I know I haven't posted much of anything for awhile now, been busy. I got a few things in the works though. In the mean time I thought I would share with you all my adventures at CTN! I am not much of a shutter bug but I did grab a few pictures so I figured I would go ahead and share. I did a lot of really cool stuff at CTN. I think I could have done more cool stuff but I had a lot of fun just seeing a bunch of my fellow ianimate students. You guys are AMAZING! I had a lot of fun meeting you guys in person, it was a long time in coming. I also met a few ianimate instructors around CTN and got to say hello which was amazing. They are all great guys. Beyond that I got a few reviews, had my soul crushed. Did a lot of talking. Met a ton of really cool people from all over the world. Bought some art, and heard a couple of really great talks. So, let me go ahead and share the few pictures I took.

I got a bunch of pictures of these little statues which were pretty cool looking.










So this is a bit of a story. The ianimate booth was about 30 feet from the glen vilppu booth. After awhile Angleo Sta Catalina, Darrell Vasquez and I decided to go talk to him. We went over and started asking him about his work and his process for doing his AMAZING figure drawings. He opened up a new document and talked through his process as he drew us an example. It was pretty amazing. We also saw a few original pieces of his. I got a couple pictures right after that happened...



That is Angelo, he is standing in front of glens booth making a crazy face (as usual). You can see glen in the background, he is the older gentleman, he is a great guy by the way, very pleasant to talk to.



This is Darrell holding one of Glens books that he had for sale. Also making a crazy face...seems to be a theme here.



Finally the last picture. This is Me with Ron Clements and John Musker! I had just been to their panel where they had a lot of amazing stories to share and just a lot of behind the scenes info and art to show. After that amazing panel they ran off. I started walking around the booths again and went outside to get out of the crowds and they were just standing outside! I was like OMG! So I asked them if I could get a picture, they were super nice about it and I am very grateful they were willing. Needless to say this is my favorite picture by far!

Pandas animation tricks #12

In this video I talk about using locked cameras. Basically I talk about the advantages of using locked cameras and how you lock your cameras so you don't accidentally mess up your camera set up. Pretty simple stuff. Hope you guys learn something. Oh and as always if you have any questions please feel free to ask. I always make sure to get back to you guys about any questions.

Random Update: So I am officially going to CTN. If you guys are going to CTN let me know I would love to meet some of you guys. In related news I am trying to get my reel ready for CTN so I am going to be pretty busy for the next month or so. Which means there may not be any videos for a little while.

Andreas Deja's new blog!

Hey guys, I just found out about Andreas Deja's new blog. So far not much going on with it since it is so new. It looks like he is going to be posting up a lot of animation work from his own personal collection so I am assuming we are going to be seeing a lot of stuff we might not otherwise ever get to see. Should be quite fun to watch and I am glad that at least one of these amazing animators from the Disney Renaissance/ new golden age are getting into social media if only a little bit.

Compare your life to pixar.

I found this awhile ago and it is a bit old. However the message is still very relevant. Its good to remember that a lot of the people we look up to didn't become rock stars or masters overnight. It took them years of practice and study to get to where they are. This is a reminder to myself and everyone else, take it one step at a time and eventually you will get where you want to go.

One of these things is not like the other.

Even though I never draw I got into the mood today and did some bird drawings....and a squirrel. I just thought it might be fun to share some of my sketches since I almost never do that. As for other stuff. ianimate workshop4 is over but I have a ton of work to do on my shots. I have a to do list which is a mile long but what else is new? As for next workshop I have 3 weeks to settle on the piece I am going to be slaving over for 14 weeks. I have a clip which I really love but I figure I might snoop around a bit and see if I cant find something that speaks to me more. It is an unlikely outcome but you never know. Sometimes these things just scream ANIMATE ME! Anyway I am going to try to finish up these workshop 4 shots in the next couple of weeks and do a really nice render for each shot. At that point I will make a video of my shots and post it up for all to see.

Mountain of Dreams

What makes us happy? As people what makes us happy? I would suppose that for every person it is different. Some people want more than anything to be financially well off, others just want to be loved. I have found as time goes on that money cant make me happy. It can place me in situation in which I can be happy but it in and of itself is unable to make me happy. I could understand how some people just want to be loved, it feels great to know that there are people out there who truly care for you, and want to make sure you are alright. I can understand and have no qualms with that at all.

For me though, what makes me happy is the mountain that is my ambition. I am most happy when I am climbing a mountain fighting with everything I have to achieve a personal goal. Each mountain is different, each has its own hurdles, its own peaks and plateaus, its own weather and own emotion. Working towards my dreams basically is what I am saying here. Working towards my dreams is what makes me happy. I will admit at that many times it can be frustrating and depressing finding just how far you have to go in order to achieve those dreams to, reach the summit. But my god when you hit the peak and look back at how far you have come, how much you have endured, how much you have suffered. The feeling is the greatest of all, it makes me beyond happy, elation would be a better word for it. Ambition in my mind is an extension of love, and a physical manifestation of who we are as people. Whatever you drive towards, whatever it is you work and love for is very telling about who you are.

I am not a man who believes in any kind of god or deity. I don't trust that there is any higher purpose than what we create for ourselves. This post is a reminder, for myself and for anyone else who may be reading this that time is short. Find your love, and your ambition and start climbing the mountain that is your dream. Don't let bills, or the problems of the moment, or yourself! Keep you from working, and climbing, and wishing, and dreaming. Don't let life slide by, don't let time creep up onto you and say "gotcha". Keep your dreams alive, keep your love alive, and find your mountain whatever it is, and climb, climb until your hands are broken, and your legs are sore, climb until you feel as though you are going to fall apart. When that time comes I promise you, that through all the pain and sacrifices you will have more love and happiness in your heart than ever before. Because you made your own destiny, you blazed your own trail, and most importantly because at the summit of your mountain you will be able to see the next mountain, your next big adventure.

Pandas animation tricks #3

Ok, a 2 parter this time. I break down here how I go about doing a ball bounce. Now please note the important video is the first one, the good information is all in that video. The second video is all technical crap and me sort of just moving stuff around in maya. If you actually are new to animation and maya watch both videos. If you are more experienced you can skip the second video, but give the first video a watch, I think you might get something out of it. Oh I am also doing a bunch of these because I have a feeling once I get going with ianimate that I am not going to be able to make very many of these so that is my excuse for the excess of knowledge sharing.

NOTE::: This video is about a realistic representation of a bouncing ball, However you can adjust this work flow to do just about anything. Timing yourself doing actions is also a very good way of finding your timing. I know a lot of people like to work on Bouncing balls with "character". To those people I would tell you to act out whatever you want your ball to do and get your timing off of that. Take video reference of yourself, or just use a stopwatch but get solid character based reference for your character ball.

On a personal bullshit note I just spent two days searching for audio clips to use for my upcoming animation for IA. That was a bit of hell, trying to figure out how to rip audio off of a dvd, I finally managed it but I dont know why it had to be that hard. Another thing I noticed was the strange thing about AI and IA. what do I mean? Ok I am from Iowa which abbreviated is IA, I went to school at the Art Institute of Dallas or the art institute AI, and I am now going to ianimate, which of course is being called IA...strange, no?

quality vs speed

So I thought I would throw up a post. I haven't done all that much the last few days other than play and beat red dead redemption. The main reason being is that I find it very hard to sit at my desk and concentrate anymore and beyond that it has been so hot recently that sitting at my desk for more than a few minutes is torture. But even when I am not working I am thinking about animation. I have realized that on the animation spectrum of quality vs speed I am listing WAY too far towards the quality side. To clarify I am not saying that I need to get less quality into my work but what I am saying is that I strive for quality of work above speed and have done so for quite some time. The problem with that is that my body of work hardly ever changes. I am thinking that I need to take active steps towards getting faster at animation. I can do shots now to an alright quality, not amazing, but good solid stuff. What I need to do is try and work towards making my shots just as good but do it a lot faster. It is something I have just realized, and its so important. If I did get a job right now I would be hard pressed to meet the regular production deadlines that I would have to meet because I am just not used to dealing with a schedule like that. The shot I have done so far with the fastest turn around was my April 11 second club entry which was 11 ish seconds of animation *not finished by the way* in 7 days. Now to finish that shot all the way and get it looking really nice would require another 10-12 hours for all the pretty subtle stuff. That just isn't cool I need to be able to blast through these animations far more quickly than I am working right now.

Sub idea - dashing my hopes

I read an article today from a guy online who was talking about looking at animation reels and hiring people and he basically said this. I don't care where you went to school and I don't care who taught you what I only care about what you have produced outside of school and how good that work is. Now on one hand I can appreciate that. On the other that SCARES THE SHIT OUT OF ME! I mean I have NOTHING at all to my name besides school stuff. If the basis for landing that job is my reel plus what I have done after school I am royally screwed.


OHHH and I LOVE this video!! so great!

New shot under way

So I have started a new shot, spent last night doing the set up, have a background and stuff so I had to actually build a couple of things in max. Which took awhile because I had to access a rusty part of the old brain organ. I actually was thinking about making a short film there for awhile and I think I have decided against it. However I did storyboard it out and there were a few panels that I really loved and thought would be really cool to do so, I decided to shelve the short and just do those couple of shots on my own. They should work out of context and be pretty cool to boot. I posed out one of the main poses so far and decided it was worth sharing just to give you a flavor of what is to come.

Finding the love

I came to a realization the other day that I had come to not like working on animation. I still liked watched it and I still read up on it and studied it but I wasnt having any fun at it, in a word animation had become work. I realized that and just stopped. I put my mouse down and said "this isnt right" and went outside to sit down. I sat and thought that I still watched animation but I wasnt engaged in it. I wasnt being entertained I was disecting it, and examening it, learning from it. I read up on animation not because I really was curious about the process and because it was fun to learn I was trying to find ways to improve my process. Animation had become a job, it was work, it was cold and it was technical. So I have stopped. I got into animation because I really loved it, I had a passion for it and enjoyed just the thought of getting to be a part of the animation world. Through all the stress and the sweat and the axiety I wasnt getting anything more than stress and axiety. I wasnt gaining anything more, I wasnt growing, and I wasnt developing into anything more than a tool, a machine that animates. So I have decided before I animate again I am going to find my love of animation. I am going to watch animated films and just be entertained by them, I am going to go back to the shows of my childhood and love them again just because they are funny and should be loved. I am going on a hunt to ignite my passion and my love for art and animation and stop myself from becomeing an animation bridge troll before its too late.

11 Second club cont.

So I am getting along, Animation always takes longer than I anticipate which is annoying. Its just the fact that the little things take longer than you think they should so I am getting bogged down by that. At this point right now I have 44 hours left to finish up my piece, which includes not just animation but lighting and rendering and uploading the final video and all that. I am going way slower and I would prefer and at this rate I wont finish on time to the quality that I would prefer. Of course I started significantly later than I should have but I knew what I was getting into when I started this thing. I think this entry is going to get a better rating than the last one that I uploaded to the competition which got 70th out of 204 which is alright since I did it in about 3 days, and as more of a lark. This though I am actually investing some time into I am really hoping for something more significant. I dont anticipate winning this time around though since the quality just isnt going to be there, the acting is going to be there, the movement isnt going to be there, the rendering wont really be all that impressive, and compared to what I have seen win in these other competition I foresee a few dark horses coming out of no where to nab up a pretty big victory. I didnt get any of the emotion or subtext that I was looking to get into my shot but I am hoping that somehow it will still manage to radiate through by the time I finish but I just dont know, anyway wish me luck I could use it.