Friday, August 30, 2013

Reaction - Facial Reference

This was floating around work (sorry, don't know who to credit and what the source link is).

But the different facial expressions are really funny to see:


Thursday, August 29, 2013

You Yoshinari (吉成曜) Sakuga MAD

I will admit my ignorance in saying that I have no idea what the title of this post means. Sounds like a person, but I really have no idea, no offense. I just like the animation.

Take care of yourself



Scary story and a good reminder to take care of yourself. I am myself wearing Gunnar glasses at work and at home, which was immortalized by a dear AM student of mine. :)


Saturday, August 24, 2013

Pose Drawing Sparkbook



I unfortunately missed posting this during the Kickstarter campaign, but the good news is that it was a great success and according to Cedric Hohnstadt you can now preorder the book!

Head over here for more info!

Jazon And The Dead - Official Teaser Trailer - GamesCom 2013

Cool Mike Mignola look!

Fernutz Latino Dancing


FERNUTZ LATINO DANCING - Android Live Wallpaper from Squeeze Studio Animation on Vimeo.

Power of music

I know this is a silly post, but hey. I was about to start a video critique for my online workshop and as I was firing up the animator's sequence the best thing ever happened. I pretty much always listen to music and today I was listening to Die Hard 2: Die Harder - Deluxe Edition 2 Disc Set (I had to write that). And for some heavenly reason, the music and the sequence synced up perfectly! Of course I had to start the critique with that fact and here's the excerpt:


Makes it all already awesome.

Disney Princesses vs. Capcom

Yeah. Love pixels. More images here.



Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 - Clip

SO GOOD! Love the animation! Can't wait for the movie!


Friday, August 23, 2013

Gollum Project

This is supposed to be pure mocap and no keyframe? Looks great! I hope it can be easily incorporated into studio pipelines. There's more info here.


Gollum Project from fab on Vimeo.

"Join the Pork Side" - Angry Birds Star Wars 2

Cool how McDiarmid is voicing the Emperor again! Cute anim too!

Friday, August 16, 2013

Falcon vs Raven in Slow Motion - Reference


‘People of Gotham’ by David Cordero


 Nice render! What I like a lot in this shot is how the head lean is used around the 10 second mark.


Michael Woodside - Reel

I really like the piano player at the end!

"Harrison Ford Angrily Points At Stuff" Supercut

What a coincidence! I was just talking to my AM class on Wednesday's Q&A about Ford's finger acting. He does actually have awesome finger poses, not just pointing.

Richard Lico | Games Animation Workflow


Michal Makarewicz Directing Animator Pixar Studios and co-founder of the Animation Collaborative talks at CTNX

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Anime opening credit sequences

It always cracks me up seeing super cuts of actors or cliches, like the Denzel Washington "Guarantee" and "Tree Point Landing" ones. This one is about anime opening credits. More info here.

Minion Contest with Free Minion Rig




For the month of August there's a cool contest going on with this cute rig! Head over here for all the information regarding the contest specifics, the rig, body picker, etc.

The Blue Umbrella - Extended Clip


Friday, August 2, 2013

Dancing and Martial Arts on Demo Reels?


With my current AAU class almost over and Online Workshops always busy I do get to see a lot of shots and reels, and I answer a lot of the same questions. One of the topics involves dancing and martial arts shots.

Now, this is purely subjective, but here are my 2 cents:


I personally would not do a martial arts nor a dance shot, as those types of shots are not really useful on a reel, if the company you're applying to focuses more on performanes. A dance is just motion. At least dancing really forces you to pay attention to timing. But it's just not interesting to watch. Same with martial arts. It's okay if you just want to learn spacing, arcs, posing and timing. I know, that's a big chunk that you obviously shouldn't skip in your learning process, but when things are just moving around without any thought behind it, I'm bored.

The most interesting thing in a shot facing a character is conflict, or in other words, a problem. When someone is faced with a problem, they have to make a choice and that choice tells us something about her/his/its character.

And that's what this is about, character animation. We want to see thought process, thinking, decision making in a character. For me that's when characters are truly alive.
 
Again, as exercises those two type of shots are fine. Practice makes perfect and both will help you master body mechanics. But when a character is just moving around without any personality and thought process behind it, then I wouldn't have it on a reel.

You could introduce a problem to the character while she/he/it is dancing/martial artsing. :)

Conflict adds a lot of interest, to any kind of situation:



Cheers
JD

Sony Pictures Imageworks - Animation Reel Tips

This is very helpful and I can't agree more with their tips! Watch this!!

Kinnaree - Animated Short


Kinnaree - Animated Short from Dayle Sanders on Vimeo.
"Kinnaree": The animated short is a year-long project created by Dayle Sanders and Andriana Laskari. The story is inspired by Thai Mythology and involves two creatures of the magical Himmapan forest; a legendary forest that lies between Heaven and Earth in the Himalayas. The art direction stems from Buddhist & Lai Thai art as seen on the actual characters and the environment surrounding them.

1981 Disney Animation Special! - The Illusion of Life



There's more goodness if you head over to Carlos Baena's post!

Richard Lico - Show Reel

Ciao for now