Aug/101
Hello World
I sure have fallen behind in posting my daily images. I think I’m almost three weeks behind, ouch! I’m taking a summer class, Color & Design, and it has been extremely time intensive. Last Thursday I was painting one of my finals, this one a landscape, for almost 13 hours straight. It has been hard to make the time for my personal drawings, so I’ve been doing a lot more sketches, rather than paintings.
I’m almost done though and while I had initially had no interest in this class, I’m very glad I took it. I’ve taken color theory before and so the thought of retaking such a class sounded like a drag. This class though ended up being more of a painting class and we just applied color theory to our projects. I like that.
I have a few work related projects that are really coming together, I’m having fun drawing in my style, but for others projects.
My main computer got hit by a virus of some sort yesterday, so I’m in the process of getting that taken care of. I really hate it when my computer goes down (for whatever reason). It ends up being a splinter in my mind that I can’t really forget about until I’ve fixed it. Luckily there’s a lot of scanning time involved so that’s allowing me to step away and get other stuff done.
Some exciting news, last Friday I got an email that I had been accepted into one of the Pixar animation classes. This class is taught at the Academy of Art, but has instructors from Pixar coming over to work with us and run the class. I’m looking forward to really nailing down my core set of animation skills and building out from there. A good goal for myself is to do more animation “studies”. The same idea as quick sketches in drawing, I need to be exercising my animation skills in smaller, easier to finish, projects. My drawing skills have been really benefiting from that type of exercise, it’s really time I applied that to animation as well.
Dec/090
Time to breathe
I’m on vacation now, yay. I finally had time to back post a chunk of my daily images. There are still a few (I think from late november) I have to find, I’ll see where they ran off to.
Now that I have more time again, I’d like to start putting at least an hour into my dailies. I have some illustrations I’d like to work on, so I was thinking of using my daily images as a way to explore what I might want to do.
I also want to be animating at least a little each day. I want to start with some simple exercises to get warmed up, then start doing some longer pieces. I want to tackle a physical and action oriented piece as well as some more dialogue tests.
Dec/090
The semester is almost up
This is finals week at school, my last day of classes is on Thursday. Today I had my last day of animal drawing class, I got out an hour and a half early, so now I’m at home getting ready to work on my animation.
First, a cup of coffee and some relaxing in bed, I feel so tired! I have a lot to get done still, but I feel okay with where things are going. My animation is the farthest along I’ve gotten on any animation project, although even there I see how much better I could have done. Just shows me where I can improve!
For this piece I need to finish the lip sync, smooth out some awkward movements, finalize the arm motions, finalize the ending and then polish, polish, polish!
This animation is for my Lip Sync Animation class; I find it funny that it’s only in the last week I’m tackling the lip sync side of things. When a character speaks, the actual lip movement is such a small part of the whole. I’ve been so much more focused on body language and expression changes.
Beyond my animation class which finishes up tomorrow at 12, I have both my Character Design and Clothed Figure classes on Thursday. For Clothed Figure, I have to choose 12 of my in class pieces and snazz them up a bit. For character design I have to get all my model sheets together in a portfolio, get together my sketchbook and mainly I need to finish my maquette of the Great White Giraffagator.
There shall be much posting of school projects in the next week!
Mar/090
Getting work done
I”m in the animation lab at school preparing to get lots of work done on my two 3d animation projects; a lipsync and a dance sequence. I have the lipsync pretty well laid out, I need to add some breakdown poses here and there and then move onto finaling. I have the first few key poses of the day sequence laid in, but that’s it.
Both projects are far from where they should be, according to our class schedule. I’m hoping that over the next eight or so hours I can get caught up.
Mar/090
Sketchblog
Hello blog, justin here. I know it’s been a while since we conversed, I’ve instead been showing you my sketches on a regular bases. I’m on spring break right now, time to rest and get caught up on my backlog of projects.
Today I’m jumping back into my lipsync animation. I had been behind schedule on it and have until next week to finish it. Considering I have only four days off for spring break, I’m getting started now!
I’ve been getting a lot of art supplies recently. As mentioned earlier, I got a marker set and then today I bought a few oil paints. I got a black, white and a burnt sienna. They’re water mixable oils, so I don’t need any turpentine, no fumes sounds nice! They take a while to dry though, I was told two to three days. There are different mixable oils you can add, one of them speeds up the drying process. I’ll see if that’s necessary.
I’m going to be going to the S.F. zoo this week, at least twice. I want to get a bunch of sketching done while there.
I’m going to be changing my site structure around a bit. Originally I was setting it up as a portfolio, but my focus recently has been more on the sketch side of things. So until I’m actively job seeking, this site will be a sketchblog. What does that mean? Not much as far as the presentation you’ve seen so far, but more how I think about the site.
Feb/090
A simple walk
I’m considering doing a “daily’sh” animation project. Along the same lines as my daily illustration project, but geared towards simple animation exercises and without the strict daily regiment I’m trying to do with the illustrations. For now I’ll keep it as an un-official project.
I think this will be a nice opportunity to practice various motions; lifting, pulling, throwing, jumping, walking, running etc., outside of a film environment.
Today I started with a basic walk cycle. I need to figure out the overlap for the antennae (it’s looking funky at the moment) and I need to offset the arms. I wasn’t sure how to offset them though in a 24 frame cycle, I’ll have to look into that.
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Jan/091
Ready set go
Week one of the new semester is behind me and it already looks to be better than all the previous. I ended up dropping down to three classes. Four, along with working, was just too much. I didn’t have enough time to put into my projects and it showed.
Every so often I start to rethink whether or not I’m on the right track at school. When I’m at home, I’m much more likely to draw than anything. Looking back at my 3d origins, I was always into modelling and texturing. So where does animation come in? My thinking was that I had the least experience with animation and based on my research, it was not something I’d easily learn on my own. I also have a desire to bring my characters to life and animation seemed like the way to go.
After my Thursday animation class, Character Development, it was reaffirmed I’m where I want to be. I am so incredibly excited by the projects I’m starting and what I’ll be learning. I am so inspired by my instructors and the experience and knowledge they’re passing along.
I have a decent amount of homework for the first week. I’ll be doing two lipsync animations, one in my 3d class and one in my traditional 2d animation class. I’m very interested to what the similarities and differences will be in both mediums. I have to choose my dialogue for both classes, I’ll be gathering a handful of possible options to bring. I also have to start designing characters for my dialogue and film projects for 2d animation. I already have some of those done for the film, as I’m continuing my Stitched Together project from last semester, but I’d like to flesh out the character some more (and I still need to design the dog).
I have to do four “flour sack” drawings for my clothed figure drawing class. I have to show realistic compression and stretch of the sack. The samples our teacher showed us looked really cool. This project is going to be very helpful for my film, as the main character Elwyn is a sack himself.
Dec/080
2d Animation test
I went into the lab yesterday to start on my pose test for my final project (Intro to Animation 2d). Two hours and 42 drawings later, I had something to show. I didn’t quite finish the pose test, I still need to draw out the last sequence in which the dog springs to life, frolics around and then runs off screen. There are also some sections where I skipped some drawings, such as elwyn entering screen right and sweeping as well as a few of the walk sections.
Some of that was due to time constraints. I wasn’t sure exactly how to approach those sections or exactly how I wanted him to walk. I’d jump to the next section so I could keep the action moving and then I’d approach the walks later.
The timing definitely still needs work, but I like the overall feel. There are some areas where I wanted to have a pause and I just didn’t space out the drawings enough for that to come through (such as when he first checks on the dog. His hand is supposed to hover above the dog for a moment and then he quickly taps it).
So far this is my favorite part of 2d animation, the really rough figuring things out stage. I only have 13 more days until this is due and I imagine I’ll only be in the lab for a handful of said days. Lots to do! I’m hoping to make it in on Sunday, Monday and maybe Tuesday as well. But of course I need to put time into my other projects as well. I’m looking forward to finishing up this semester and having time for my own projects, but I’m having fun.
Nov/080
Wushu animation update
I opened up my wushu animation for the first time since midterms. I had gotten it about 85% finished by the time it was due. As usual, once I had it turned it, I felt burnt out on the project and didn’t much have the energy to finish it. Our teacher has really been encouraging us to keep bringing him updates each week so he can help us refine and finish the animations.
Today I felt the excitement again and jumped on in. I have some sections I need to refine and polish, but overall I felt something needed to be done about the timing. Where I had left off, both jumps felt the same as far as the beats are concerned. There was variation in height and action, but I felt they didn’t have enough contrast. I started playing with the timing of the first jump to see how it would feel. I really slowed things down going into the jump and then went back to “real time” as he comes out of the apex of the jump.
I really think it’s an improvement. Now when I watch it, I think both jumps stand out. Slowing down the timing of the first jump is going to give me a nice opportunity to play up his expressions in that section (now that you can see them!).
To do:
- Work on the first pose and anticipation. Possibly a transition A to B pose of him getting ready to move (cracking knuckles, stretching sorta thing).
- Fix the intro/outro of the second jump. The timing feels off a bit.
- Work on the last “hop”. Doesn’t feel right yet.
- Refine expressions and hand poses.
- Offset keyframes after everything else is done!
Here’s where I left off:
wushu midterm
Adjusting the timing of the first jump:
wushu refinement 01
Hmm, a bit of funkyness with PodPress. I’ll have to get that sorted out.
Oct/080
Final touches
I’m in the computer lab at school putting the final touches on my wushu animation. I need to work on my timing a bit, touch up some of my key poses and add in the facial expressions. After that I think I’ll be ready to start offsetting my keyframes. I have a bit of a back log of animations (2d and 3d) that I haven’t posted, I’m going to try and get those online in the next few days.
Oct/080
The times, they are a changin
Well I’ve been rather lax in making blog posts. I don’t feel that I’ve had any free time between school, homework and work and I typically feel like I need time to feel I can sit down to write.
So the triple-boot didn’t work out. I could get both MacOS and Ubuntu to cooperate, but Windows wouldn’t play with the others. I ended up going with a MacOS and WinXP dual boot, that way I get my productivity and gaming covered. Ubuntu was going to be an experiment in alternate, and interesting, operating systems. Well, another time.
School is going well, I feel like I’m learning lots. I spent six hours working on my 2d animation yesterday (we’re animating the flour sack character jumping off a crate). I’m keeping mine really simple so I don’t get distracted. I got about 80 frames drawn yesterday, I’m going to shoot it tomorrow night and see how it’s looking. There are some sections that really looked promising and others I’m not sure about.
Far Cry 2 comes out tomorrow, I pre-ordered it last week and I’m hoping Kimi can pick it up for me while I’m at school. Or I’ll just get it on Thursday. Now hopefully I’ll actually find some time where I can play it!
Not much else I feel like saying at the moment, just wanted to give my blog some love.
Sep/081
Homework at Home
This weekend has been the first in some time where I’ve had two days off in a row, I feel like I’ve finally had some time to rest. During the week I always have two days off from work, but then of course I’m at school those days.
It’s tough, I really wish I wasn’t working at all so I could put all my energy into school, but I’m enjoying work so much, I’m getting to do lots of things I’m really interested in (baking, food prep and soon I’ll be getting training on the line). Bill keeps joking that Kimi and I will probably take over the Bread Workshop, that really caught me off guard. I’ve always had a dream of having a bakery/cafe/small restaurant. I’ve no idea what the future holds for me, and there’s no way I want to stop pursuing animation and art in general, but all of a sudden it seems like that dream has much more of a chance than I’d have thought. Interesting.
I have a lot of homework to get done today. YCON starts this weekend and lots of friends will be visiting. I’m starting with my 3d animation homework as I find it a lot easier to focus and get started on computer work.
I just ordered a new 24″ iMac, I’m looking forward to getting that setup. I had thought of getting a new tower instead, but the iMac includes a gorgeous monitor and has such a small footprint (I should be able to get rid of both my g5 tower and pc box), that I couldn’t resist. My work area at home isn’t ideal at the moment, I have the aforementioned two towers next to my desk, two keyboards and mice on my desk and it’s just too much. I can’t wait til it’s simplified, I think it’ll work much better for me.
I’ll still be using two monitors, so I won’t lose that functionality. I forgot to order the mini dvi to dvi adapter though, so I’ll drop by the apple store before school sometime this week.
Sep/081
Everything Must Fall
Hmm, I had a lot to blog about … yesterday, but now it all seems so in the past. And forgotten. Mostly forgotten.
Between work and school, and the rare attempt to sleep inbetween, I’ve been keeping quite busy. I’m so incredibly excited by my classes this semester and feel that I’ll be leveling up by the end of the year.
In my advanced animation class we’re starting out with a martial arts routine. Last night we went over how to do the first pass blocking, I was surprised by how simple it ends up being. I feel like any complicated character animation is doable at this point, I just have to break it down into the most basic poses.
I turned in the falling leaf project in my intro to 2d animation class yesterday. I felt it ran a bit fast, but my teacher really liked it. The main focus of the animation was ease-in and ease-out, having the keyframes get closer and closer as the leaf comes into a curve and then the opposite as it leaves the curve. I had such a hard time finishing the animation. I kept wanting to wrap it up, but I’d have the leaf moving too fast and so I’d have to add another curve to try and slow it down.
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Sep/081
Thirty To Go
Thirty minutes before I’m off for my pastry and break baking shift. I am exhausted. It’s not so bad at all when I’m moving around, but now that I’m just sitting and waiting, the exhaustion has set in. I’ve just about been up for 24 hours, which is rather rare for me, I typically can’t go that long without sleep. I’m confident though that once I’m moving and out in the crisp air, I’ll wake up again.
On top of everything else I feel emotionally drained. It’s been a long day. I look forward to sleep, only five and a half hours to go and I can lay down!
I’m doing decently on the homework front. I finished my figure drawing homework earlier, that felt nice to get out of the way. I’ve a few supplies I need to pick up before class, but I otherwise feel ready. The only homework item left is for my 2d animation class. We’re doing a falling leaf animation this week. I need to finalize my background layer and path of action for the leaf and then onto animating it. After work I’ll sleep, then I’ll head to the animation lab to get that all finished. I hope it won’t take more than a few hours.
Wednesday evening I need to check in with the court house and see if I need to report for jury duty on Thursday. I decided to not try and get out of it this time (I know a few tricks). I feel ready to finally give it a go, but the downside is that my initial report in date is a school day. Because of that, I’m hoping I don’t have to report in, at least on Thursday. I only have each class once a week, so missing a single day cuts out a lot of instruction.
And now fifteen minutes have passed. Time to brush my teeth and put myself together. I feel the pastries calling me!
Sep/081
The Bake Shift
I’m working the bake shift this evening/morning, Tues from 4am to 8am. It’s going to add up to a long day, but I’m excited to be baking pastries!
I’m working at getting some homework done at the moment. I’ve been pretty busy this weekend and hadn’t really gotten a chance to get much done in that department. On Saturday I helped cater for a wedding, that was a lot of fun, I hope to post about that specifically in the next few days. On Sunday maiki and I took a nice walk around Berkeley, sampling many treats along the way. Much conversation was had.
I had a simple exercise to do for my Advanced Animation 2 class, a basic ball (of the heavy variety) bouncing in place and coming to a stop, using the techniques learned in the last class. I did it pretty much as he wanted, but in the end I opened the graph editor and adjusted the curves so the ball had more apparent weight. Specifically, I broke the tangets of the curves to make the adjustments I wanted, though that wasn’t something he showed us. He had mentioned that technique can lead to problems when scaling an animation, but I didn’t really know of another way to get the same effect, without overloading on keyframes.
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Sep/081
Back In Blog
Well I’ve been MIA for a while. Yo, welcome back.
I started back to school last Thursday, I had my Intro to 2d animation and my 3d animation (advanced animation 2). Both my instructors are very inspiring, I’m really excited by both classes.
I went in to the 2d animation lab after work this evening and did my homework. I had two pieces to get ready for this friday. The first is a circle bouncing in profile, the second is a circle bouncing in perspective. It was a really interesting process.
I sat myself at an animation table and set my paper into the peg bar. On my first sheet of paper I did a rough of the whole animation. That included the background and all the main key poses I knew I’d need. I pretty much use that as a template that I can reference back to (I keep it under all my other sheets, with a flip of the light switch, I can see it decently).
I found that I could only see through about 8 sheets of paper (to see through to my reference sheet). I ended up needing to cycle out the older frames, to be able to use my reference. I really just let go and animated one frame at a time. Meaning I didn’t think about it too hard and tried to let it flow. I knew this first pass wasn’t going to be perfect, that wasn’t my goal, but instead to get familiar with the process. Success!
I look forward to doing more!
justin_o_ballprofile_tk01_sm.mov
justin_o_ballperspective_tk01_sm.mov
I’m trying out the WordPress media uploader for these videos. A test to see if I shall use it in the future.
May/080
Animation Final, A Work In Progress
I’m just about done with finals week, I’m finishing up my perspective piece tonight (a three page comic) and then I’ll be done!
I turned in my animation project on Monday and got some nice feedback. It’s still far from finished, I unfortunately got way distracted by Lord of the Rings Online. I like where it’s going though and I’ll be finishing it up over the next week. In fact I’ll be working to have all the animations I did over this semester polished by June 30th, the deadline to submit demo reels for the Fall ’08 Pixar Class.
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The premise for this animation is a businessman sits down at a park bench to eat his lunch, when he notices a group of pigeons watching him. He gets nervous and transfers to another bench, for a moment feeling safe, until he realizes there are even more birds in that area.
I have the first section blocked out, I need to add in the second bench section and then refine all the keys (as well as adding the pigeons and lunch box).
Apr/080
Rooftop Jump [wip] update
I’m just about done with the blocking stage for this animation. I still need to block in the character kicking open the door and also running off screen. Then I need to add a few sections, him scanning around, making the decision to jump the gap etc. I also need to tweak the run cycle so he has a bit more weight.
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