Box Jump - Blocking

Here's my blocking for my new assignment, jumping on and off a box. I decided to keep this one "simple" (quotes because it's sooo not!) and just get the basics perfect. Steve gave me some great feedback, taking to heart that I asked him to be brutal. He liked the side step and settle on the top of the box, a lot of my reversals (C-shaped poses that start one way and then switch - see the jumps) and how I led my actions with the eyes. Other than that, he let me know where I was going off course and I think his critique was dead on.

Key poses from my sketchbook

Planning the animation

Why would he walk around the box?

Gap Jump - Planning and Blocking

Here's my first assignment. This one will span 4 weeks (planning, blocking, blocking plus, polish) and I'll turn each step in for Steve to review and give me feedback. So far he's liked what he's seen but has also given some great critiques such as not doing two things at once. For example, I had Ballie stopping at the edge of the gap on one foot and, as he gained his balance by sticking the other foot out, he shot upwards to help himself out. Steve suggested I have him shoot up and, at his peek, shoot that leg out and move in to a hold. Man, that little difference was huge. But I guess that's why he's the mentor and I'm the student!

So far so good. I'm in the Blocking Plus stage and I've adjusted the timing a bit so the jump is faster, some holds are a touch longer or exaggerated and some other tweaks. I'll be posting the splined animation soon but here's my blocking and planning stages.

Quick sketches, notes and detailed doodles.

Planning out specific poses that I wanted to nail.

Gap jump Blocking

Stu - Balance

Final pose assignment of Stu balancing. One thing Mark told me throughout the class and made a final suggestion to was to push my poses. Squash them more, accentuate the angles, anyting to really push the idea I'm trying to portray. If I've taken anything from my first class it's that I'm conservative. Yep, you read that right... me... conservative. Hehehe.

Sketches for balance pose.

This is what reading Tony Hawk video game reviews does to me.

Weeeee! Nothin' Like a good manual!

Much to View at the Mall

I have an assignment every week in my newest class at AM, Principles of Animation, to go somewhere and sketch people. I wanted to go to the park, but I feared mothers would call the cops on me and I'd have some serious explaining to do. So, not being interested in having mugshot online, I turned my attention to drawing at home. I had decent results, but I was staging everything so it wasn't natural. Every pose looked like I planned it that way and I wasn't discovering any nuances of movement. Where was the character? The life? The interesting "stuff"?


Well, I had the opportunity to find all that and so much more when my wife asked me to go to the mall with her one night. I love to crack jokes about the people where I live, but, let me tell you, observing them in their natural habitat and really watching them... well... let's just say it's given me plenty of ideas if I want to create some funny animations. For example, there was a dude who was obviously not interested in being at the mall. He was there to push the stroller and wait, "patiently", outside the stores while his wife apparently bought nothing. I sat at a table and observed him, trying not to be too creepy and found that this guy had an odd stance. He kept his weight balanced from left to right, and even front to back, but he arched his spine so much it looked like he was sticking his crotch out as far as possible (and I was worried about sitting at the park sketching... ). It was bizarre to me. Was it comfortable? I suppose for him it was, but when I tried to reenact it, my lower back was shot in seconds. Hm. Maybe he had heavy stuff in his pockets pulling him forward... aaaaanyway...



So I came out with some great sketches and felt like posting them here. I admit, I have been doing graphics on my computer so long, I have lost my edge with drawing... but I'm getting it back more and more each day. I took a character AM gave us, Stu, and translated the drawings to 3D. It was pretty fun. I kept finding myself thinking about the people I was posing and what they might be thinking at that time... I quickly passed by "Heavy Pocket Guy" with a shiver.