Animation Mentor Stuff So Far + Split Screen Acting Madness

I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't updated my Youtube page in a year and a half. I try to update my Vimeo page instead most of the time, but I've got about 500 subscribers and over a million lifetime views on Youtube (admittedly, most of them are Joe Jonas fans since he's tweeted one of my videos twice... and, hey, yeah, Joe Jonas is one of my fans!), so I'd be crazy not to update my videos on there. ...well, I'd be crazy not to update it after all this time, right? So I've made the resolve to start posting the animation progress for my fifth AM semester onto my Youtube page and, naturally, on my blog.

And without further ado, here's all of the animation I've done for Animation Mentor (along with an apology to my Youtube subs).



I'd love to get some critique on my work, I really would. And I actually want to post up a few of the (few) 2D roughs that I've done for other various projects and the 3D blocking I've done for assignments, because... they look a lot better than my "polished" stuff. I already know that the biggest hurdle I'm facing with perfecting my 3D work is my constant battle with splining. I battle with the computer to get my animation to stop looking float-y (it's like all of my characters appear to be hovering in a bacta tank, or maybe I'm just being too hard on myself).

Speaking of being hard on myself, here's a video of my acting reference for my next assignment.



The dialogue is from Ferris Bueller's Day Off (of course) but I'm going to be animating this discussion happening between two gross-out zombie men. I'll post my revised layout after I get some feedback from my mentor, but this is just the straight acting (I'll probably film each individual shot again later).

Excuses, excuses!

Hello world!

It's no surprise that I've been away from my blog for a very long time. Again. With work and side projects and me back from my hometown Chicago and in my fifth semester at Animation Mentor (I have my first class tonight!), I've been incredibly busy and, luckily, fruitful. Tumblr is much easier to update (which is awful: I hate Tumblr with a burning, fiery, disgusting passion for being so easy to use and addictive... it's the digital equivalent of junk food), and that said, you can even check out some of the stuff I've been doing here. I'll post more on this blog later to break out of my habitual reblogging.

But would you like to see the work that I've done for myself? Some of the stuff that I've done in my copious amounts of spare time? You would?! Wow, you've got a surprising interest in my creative mind and it's inner workings. Well, hey, let's take a look at all of my personal work from 2013:

There it is! It's gorgeous, isn't it? It shall speak to the annals of animation and illustrative histor- yeah, okay, who am I kidding, there's nothing here.

But never fear! I've had a lull in creative energy, and thankfully I've been able to furiously scratch at what little opportunities are in my area for artistic practice and expression. I also have a comic and a 2D animated mini-show in the works. And there's always Reinventing the Wheel, where I'll post my newest list of movies/cartoons/games to experience and analyze.

So stay tuned for some late night blogging later. I'll have tons of animations to post!

Animation Mentor Progress - Semester Number Three

Long time no see! Although not as long as usual, thankfully.

Right now I'm in my third semester at Animation Mentor, which is Advanced Body Mechanics. I... well, alright, I got myself stuck with something sort of problematic: I decided that I'd do sports themed animation sequences for my body mechanics theme. Now, apparently, as a beginner of sorts to animation (at least 3D animation) this was the wrong choice, since animating the minutiae of a sports move is incredibly difficult if you don't know the precise way an athlete moves. It's like actually going into the sport without any sort of professional training. ...unless you decide that your character is going to be purposely completely and hopelessly bad at what they're attempting to do.

So, yeah. That's the angle I took.

Here we've got the three basic steps of creating an animation (at least the steps I have to take in my classes to complete these animations): blocking, splining, and clean-up (not the final draft, as it says on the video... there wasn't a "polishing" option and I really, REALLY wanted to finish it). I want to go back and work on this some more, but for now here's my progress.

If you want to comment and let me know what you think of these, feel free to critique!

Also, in case you haven't noticed, my website is old and decrepit. It looks so ugly and disgusting and I can't even bear to look at it without cringing in agony. Right now I'm building a new website to make it look lovely and pristine, but if you'd like to take a look at my temporary graphic design and illustration portfolio, please! Yes! Feel free to do that! Tell people about it! Tell them how great I am! Maybe ask them if I can help out with a project they're working on! No pressure!