Week 4 Animation Mentor - Basic Foundation

Hello Blog readers!

So this particular week was quite interesting, we had to animate another bouncing ball, but this time we are doing two! Where one has to look heavier then the other. So as a challenge for myself I thought I would add a collision, and made it so that the heavier ball will collide with the lighter ball, you will see this in the animation. It was definitely tricky for sure, and I was having a hard time getting the timing of the beach ball (Which is my lighter ball). You see the tricky thing I was going for, was that the lighter ball is going to be larger then the heavier ball, so I had to really make sure that is portrayed well in the animation.

Also this week we got a different mentor, a substitute, but he was just as good :). I learnt lots from him in terms of planning, where he felt they were more like guidelines to be fixed when you are actually animating, I am still having a hard time figuring out frames in the sense of time in seconds, but I think I will pick it up as I do more animation :).

Anyways thank you again for visiting, and will be posting again next week.

Week 3 Animation Mentor - Basic foundations

Hi there,

Ok so again last week was really week 3 :), I keep forgetting to post on the correct week, but anyways this particular week was our first animation assignment! Wohooo! Of course its nothing fancy but just a normal bouncing ball, but its definitely not easy getting it right, but it was lots of fun, and learned lots about timing.

I think the biggest lesson I learnt from week 3, was not to depend too much on the computer to work out the timing for you, I think in the past I dependanted too much on the computer to work out my breakdowns and inbetweens, and I think that's what made my animation very robotic in areas. Another important lesson was "Planning", I think this was something I never did in the past, and is something I am definitely going to adopt, it just seems to have outlined my animation a lot better, and I feel I can animate faster once I have everything put down on paper, and roughing out the timings.

We also had to do some "excitement" poses, I really tried my best to avoid doing the cliche jumping for joy kind of pose, and didn't quite hit the mark, so the mentor told me to do a revision, which I did and I also did some extra poses just to put some practise in :). Please have look at the pictures and my bouncing ball.

Cheers and see ya next time,
Meng.

Week Two of Animation Mentor

So it was really week two of Animation Mentor last week, but it was a interesting start! I went out and looked at some people, and studied their movements, it was really interesting how people move and the types of habits that people get into it seems. The most fascinating thing I noticed was how people twist and torque their bodies in very irregular ways to stand in a comfortable position when they are standing in line waiting for something or simply just idling, but to them this was just a normal stance that people took.

So I have attached the drawings I did of people, I am still not good at it as some of the drawings are very plain, and the last pose that I chose to hand in for my assignment, demonstrates this crazy twist that people do.

Animation Mentor Begins!

Wohooo!

First day of Animation Mentor, man I am so pumped, I feel I could animate all day :), but I think I have to ease my way in, or I start doing things waaaay over my head. Looks like the first day is pretty much introduction to things, meeting your class mates, and testing out webcams and such, but I am enjoying the introductory videos, Animation Mentor does a very good job in inspiring students, just watching the video and hearing these amazing animators talk about the things they went through, and how its similart to how alot of students started is really inspiring, and leaves a very warm welcome, can't wait to start animating!

Hang in there as the course progresses I will be adding more posts :).

Siggraph 2009 Animation features DVD

Hi fellow bloggers,

Sorry for not posting recently :(. I am really going to have to get into the habit of posting more on the blog :), but I am guessing once I start Animation Mentor, I will be posting things once a week, actually as many things as possible, as I will have more interesting things to post up.

I just recently watched the Siggraph 2009 animation feature DVD that people get when they go to Siggraph every year, it was very cool! I enjoy watching these animation features, it gives me a lot of motivation and its good to see how small groups of people can also do work just as amazing as any majour animation studios out there, and I think Siggraph is a great way to show off there efforts. There was two particular ones I liked that was on this DVD (there is actually more then one DVD, I have yet to watch the other two) and they were called "French Roast" and "Alma", both very well animated with a great plot.

Someday I would love to visit Siggraph, just to see how its like, but I bet you anything you probably can't just waltz in :).

Click on the images below and it should take you to the videos, definately have a look at them, because they are just awsome!

Life Drawing classes

Hello fellow blog viewers,

I have recently taken life drawing classes again :). I never actually did life drawings classes in my life until I took my 3D animation diploma at Media Design school. I loved ever minute of it, and learned so many things from it. I started drawing since I was little and found I had a talent in it (As you do when are around six years old ;) ), I thought I knew everything there could be about drawing, and of course I was terribly mistaken on the first day of life drawing, I still remember what my life drawing teacher said "We are not drawing robots here!", and he was definitely right.
He was a awesome mentor and I learnt so much, before life drawing I always thought my drawings lacked something, which I could never figure out, and life drawing classes gave me that answer. I finally understood that everything had a flow, even when you are drawing a person sitting down, they aren't sitting down dead straight, their bodies curve into positions, and lay down their weight on certain parts of the chair, and that is what makes the drawing very life-like and alive.

Of course I still got lots to learn, and there are still some areas I need to work on :). So here are sample of my work, I am still having trouble drawing faces when they are small, I find I can draw faces much better if I draw them big, its so I have more room to add details.

Now you are probably wondering why I would mention life drawing in an animation blog, well I believe that life drawing is very important for animation, because not only does it teach you to draw, but it develops the ability to notice little details in things that people normally would not take heed, and its these understanding of little details that I believe helps make a good animation, in understanding the movement of things in this world, whether it be animate or inanimate objects.

Again thank you for taking time into reading my post, and will update again soon, stay tuned :).

My First Blog

Hello fellow Blog readers!

This is my first Blog ever! Never made one before, and it was recommended by Animation Mentor that I started one. A little excited and hope to update the blog as often as possible :).

I handed all the necessary things to Animation Mentor, really excited and yet nervous and to be honest a little scared, I guess its something I thought I would never end up taking, but thanks to my co-worker, I am now in and ready to animate!

I have a little bit of 3D animation skill, but I don't think anything that amazing, lets just say that I still need "lots" of work. I took year after University and studied in Media Design School, I received my 3D animation diploma, however the course wasn't really a pure animation course, but it was really good in that it gave a good general skill level for 3D, so moving around in Maya is not something new for me :).