Wow I'm Behind!

I haven't posted anything since week 5!  That's crazy!!!  I've been so busy with my assignments I guess I've lost track of time.  So for week 6 we did the pendulum swing to practice the principle of overlapping action.  Below is my shot & the planning.

The Planning

The Animation

For week 7 we combined everything we've learned so far into one assignment, which was Tailor.  It's a ball with a tail so you get timing, spacing, squash, stretch, and overlap all in one assignment.  This was tough!  The tail tends to have a mind of it's own but I learned a TON from this.  Below you will find the planning and the animation.

The Planning

The Animation

Weeks 8 & 9 were the same assignment, the vanilla walk.  Week 8 was spent planning and blocking and week 9 was cleaning up and polishing.  This assignment again combined everything from the previous weeks and is the first time it's more than just an exercise.  You'll find my blocking and final animation below.

The Blocking

The Final Animation

Week 8 we also had the pose for physical strength and week 9 was concern.  Both of these were pretty tough as my mentor didn't allow any props or scenery of any kind so you really had to think outside the box on these.

Physical Strength

Week 9 Concern

We're now on week 10 which is the personality walk.  I've decided to do the sneak/tip toe sneak.  I'll post the blocking once it's critiqued.  Overall, this term has been incredible!  I've learned soooo much.  I'm really looking forward to Class 2 in January!

Class 1 Week 5!

So this week we had anticipation and stretch & squash added to our assignment in addition to the timing and spacing we've already learned.  We were challenged to have a bouncing ball move through an obstacle course.  At first this challenge was pretty tough, but once I got the concept down and decided to work in stepped mode and to block with a combination of pose to pose and straight ahead everything was great!  I first blocked everything in, then I added my breakdowns, and finally added in the moving holds.  When I went to splined I was soooo happy to see that all my hard work in blocking really paid off!  My animation stayed exactly the same!  I didn't have any floating or drifting!  After a couple of days of polishing this is my end result.

The Planning

The Animation

We also had to do a pose to convey the emotion "devastation".  Below is my pose.

Overall, I've learned a TON in just 5 weeks!  I'm soooo excited for what my future holds in animation and I'm sooo thankful for Animation Mentor for giving this opportunity to finally follow my dream!  More to come next week!

Class 1 Week 4!

So Class 1 Week 4 is coming to an end, for me anyways.  I have to work all weekend so I had to have my assignment done today because I won't be able to work on it again before the deadline on Sunday.  I have to admit I had a meltdown this week.  I had put a lot of time into my shot and just couldn't get it to look the way I wanted and the more I tweaked it the worse it got it seemed....so I had to bite the bullet and start over on Thursday and I had to have it done by Friday!  I was feeling sooooo overwhelmed lol.  I took the time to redo my planning and just take my time on it and I think it turned out really well, so much better than my first shot was headed!

Here's my planning

And here the actual animation, it's actually really close to my planning

Animation Mentor has been the best decision ever!  I've made a lot of really great friends with similar interests and have learned sooooo much in a short amount of time, it's crazy!  Next week we get to put the ball in an obstacle course, I can't wait!

Class 1 Week 3!

So week 3 has come and gone and what a jammed packed week it was!  We had our first animation assignment along with the planning and we had to convey the emotion "Excitement" in a single pose....whoooooo, how much fun it was!  Here's what I submitted.

Excitement

My Bouncing Ball planning

and finally the actual animation

Class 1 is finally here!

So Class 1 has finally started!  I've completed the first two weeks out of the 12 week term and have been working on my first assignment the last couple of days.  We were to draw some sketches then pose them out using one of the AM rigs.  Here are the silhouettes from my pose.  I'm going to go with the first one after a couple more minor tweaks.  Next week it's on to animation!

Maya Springboard Progress Reel

With Springboard coming to an end today I compiled all of my shots and assignments into a progress reel for my Class 1 mentor later this month.  It's far from perfect but a lot farther than I was this time last month!

Tweaked Final Springboard Assignment

So based on comments from my peers and my trainer I tweaked my final assignment.  In this tweak I changed the arc of the anticipation at the beginning so One Leg travels back in an arc and not a linear line.  I fixed the translate Z axis arc so that One Leg travels in an arc and not half arc half vertical.  I also added in an overshoot on the landing so he lands, dips down further, then comes to the resting position.