AM Tips and Tricks from June/July 2012!

Great tips and tricks about Overlap and Follow Through from the Animation Mentor Newsletter.  If you don't subscribe already, really, you should.  Great info, interviews and tips!  :D

Two Character Dialogue - Blocking Plus

Here's my latest playblast for my two character dialogue.  I added some little nuances based on Mark's eCritique (i.e. - "Rarely do you pick anything on your body and not take a look at it." HA!) and then stumbled across some things as I went.  It's still making me laugh, so that's good!

"Hey, look, I found something squishy..."

Here's a bit of advice, and it's easy to take at this stage of the game (blocking plus instead of polish!)... If something's not working, feel free to save a version, wipe out that section of animation and try again.  In the fourth shot, the businessman turns to the homeless guy and berates him.  I had something that was ok, but it just didin't feel right.  So, I did what every mentor's been telling me for my entire time at AM... bookend the animation with keys, kill it and start new.  It works, trust me.  I acted out what I thought might work, tried some quick ideas, and after a few tries, it seems ok now.  It's better to delete a section than to keep working a dead animation.  Plus, it keeps the frustration levels down and motivation up!

Looking For A Job Dressed Like That?!

I feel like someone's going to say that to me when I try to get my next job... hehe... ANYWAY...

I'm having far too much fun with this shot.  So many ideas, so few frames.  HA!  Here's a quick movie of the breakdowns I did for my assignment this week.  I have a few things to adjust, tweak, add, subtract, but in general, I'm really enjoying it... and so is Mark, so that's good!

Facial Poses.... FTW!

Not to brag, but the facial poses are really working for this shot.  I hope I can bring the magic all the way to the finish line with this one.  Something tells me Mark won't have it any other way.  HAHA!  (P.S. - He's an amazing mentor, in case you wanted to know.  Something about those Canadian animators!)

I'll be posting the updated movie this week with the few tweaks, some of which will make me laugh (and hopefully anyone who watches it!).  Either way, I'm having fun, and that's half the battle.  GO JOE!

Are You Employed, Sir?

... I am, but not in animation!  But that's not the point here.  What is important is my newest assignment and the big slice of pie at AM, the two person dialogue shot.  Here's what I have in mind...

The Dialogue - The Big Lebowski

The dialogue I chose comes from the Big Lebowski.  I really wanted something where the contrast between characters wasn't because of gender or anything "shallow", but because there was something a little deeper inside the characters.

With a little help from a friend, I thought it would be funny to switch this up to a homeless guy and a business man (not that far off, really!).  The ending came to me when I did some research for homeless people and I started noticing a lot of the people were pictured a ton of things like electronics, pets, etc.  I found myself saying "You have no home but you have items that are not necessities in life...".  The punchline of my animation was born (to be shown at a later date.  STAY TUNED!).

Characters - A business man and a homeless guy meet on the street...

Here are my initial character setups.  Somewhat of a stereotype, but I needed them easily recognizable because the entire shot is only 15 seconds!

The Businessman.  Props will be shown later.

The Homeless man.  Props to be shown later.

Keep your eyes peeled.  I'll be posting my layout soon.

Facial Poses - Part 3

Here's another...

...

Ninjas vs. Pirates...

There was a Ninja v. Pirates competition on the Animation Mentor Forum this past week and, glad to say, the Ninjas won.  Of course, is there really a loser when these two battle it out for the crown?  Anyway, here's a few awesome clips I wanted to share.  GREAT animation and seriously inspiring.

Pyrats - Great 2D/3D animation.  Lots of really fluid overlap and squash and stretch.  Pretty funny too.

Ninjai - Oh man, this is great 2D.  I remember watching this forever ago.

Bad Drawing - HAHAHA!

And, last but certainly not least...
Kung Fu Panda - Skadoosh.

Out With The Old...

So, this was the last week to work on my line of dialogue with one person.  I'll be honest, I'm not happy with it from a body mechanics point of view, but the lip sync and facial expressions are definitely getting there.  Eventually I'll go back and make it the way I want (ditch all the acting and do the shovel idea I spoke about in a previous blog post).

Side note: It's amazing how much you can see when you're refreshed and not burnt out anymore.  There's so much about this shot that I cringe at, but it's good because I at least know what to fix!  I feel like Neo in the animation matrix (... *sigh* oh boy).

Pointy pointer...

Coming up... two person dialogue.  WOO HOO!