The Model that almost was...

So last Friday I got to work with Jessamyn Rose from Australia... SUPER talented model. I told her about the drawing class and she really wanted to pose for the class... buuuut I guess either the semester was one week too short or her trip to Hawaii a week too late. :( Really one of the best models I've worked with... I was DYING to edit these photos but had to focus on the demo reel/port.... so it was pretty much the first thing I did when I walked in the door after class today... I'm such a photo nerd... LOL. She'll be back in February though if we're still drawing models at that time... she loves anime, even went to an anime convention in Japan as a teenager... and not too bad at Rock Band 2 either. ;)



Oh and if some reason anyone is actually reading this even if this class is done, I'll let you in on the secret of how I got the images in my final animation that crisp. Step one, shoot with a Nikon D80 or any camera that can shoot in raw format. Step two, make sure there's even light and use a tripod. Step three, use the timer on the camera... even on a tripod if you're on a low shudder speed just pressing the button can blur the image... I also had cardboard behind each frame so the underneath drawing didn't appear. Step four, open the files in the camera raw box of Adobe Bridge/Photoshop... convert to grayscale, bump up the clarity, kick up the light and midtones to white, enhance the blacks and shadows, crop to the right size, and save as jpegs in the according size of your video. For me at least its faster than scanning and the results are pretty good... and you can scroll through the shots in the camera like a pencil test.

Kind of like a viking ship....

... not very pretty but at least it floats... wait... we don't want floaty animation.... CRAP. It's 2 in the morning... more frames will be added for the demo reel... it's still generally too fast as is.

past 11 seconds, 3 scenes left

most concerned about just getting it done... but having it done and being GOOD would be nice.. OOO Drinky Crow is on!

mooooo

was going to make a "don't have a cow" pun... but not enough energy after hours of working this

So I kind of know the current Miss Hawaii

... if something "unfortunate" were to happen to the winner and second place Miss Hawaii that is... ;) Blake will win for sure next year! This wasn't at Miss Hawaii, but if you see this magazine on store shelves pick it up if you want to read a 3 page spread about me and shooting naked models in the art building.

the first 3 seconds... of GLORY

well not really... but I figured I would get all the non-lift animation out of the way first... starting to figure out the whole "slow in" "slow out" thing

teaching an old Ryan new tricks

run spot run

If Bones can do it... so can you!

Driving home last night I thought of the ending credits of Wolf's Rain... they make it look easy right?

I'm not worthy...

Okay I'm definitely going to hire this kid to time my stuff!

when they're not raping or pillaging...

turn sheet and expressions

The Norse Whisperer? You can lead a Norse to Water...? 2 Vikings, a cow, and a Fat Lady? Still working on the title...

still doesn't feel right

Was hesitating on posting this until I got some feedback... but here's the story idea. Two vikings cross paths, but rather than some fight sequence they have a test of strength. I know a big guy and little guy in a contest is basically the same thing as my 11 second club... I guess because I feel like that could have been much better if I really used the principles I wanted to tackle this again... but with the 12 principles in mind. I also haven't animated a lift yet, so this is as good as a time as any... squash and stretch can be used on the bodies as they strain to lift something heavy... there's follow through as the shoulders come up but the arms are still grasping and stretching... definitely dramatic arching and exaggeration with lifting very large objects... I'm just still a little spooked about the amount of detail. I'm working on character sheets right now with the design suggestions from Linda. Originally I was thinking of having them lift a bunch more different objects... but 4 lifts will be MORE than enough to keep me busy.

Time warp?!

Had these up on Thursday but that blog post has mysteriously disappeared... was I haxored? server props? forgot to hit the "OK" button? not sure... but here they are again. I also have a lot of great photos I hope to edit and put up sometime soon

the norse mythology school of design

It seemed like when I found out I had an extra day to work more on the 11 second animation... really all I wanted was to just get started on something new... it was like a building where the foundation wasn't built correctly so it's going to fall over regardless.... with that being said here's the page of designs that I settled on. I don't think I went wrong on the designs last time... I just need to work from key pose to key pose, use arches, and just make something that looks a little less amateur.

I was playing around with animal characters... but then this little Marvin the Martian-esque viking character just sort of popped out of me... and lately I've been on this kick of pairing up a little guy and big guy. Maybe it's just using scale as an element... not sure if these guys are going to fight or be friends... they just have to be doing something that incorporates with 12 principles and isn't overly complicated... the designs might be a little too detailed already.

I don't plan on using these animal character designs... or at least not for this.

I had my first animation related nightmare...

... and I'm not talking about stuff going wrong (although yeah a lot went wrong)... I actually dreamed that I was animating and my arms stopped working... I don't know if that kind of subconscious involvement is a good or bad thing.... but here's what I can do with about 4 weeks worth of animation time. Too much movement on the small guy... gotta just work on arching from pose to pose. Now if only I can figure out how to animate during my sleep for the final project instead of having nightmares about it....

snot makes pages stick together

being sick forces you to stay in bed and just draw.... but the bodily fluids don't really jive with the whole process. Really focusing on the "on and on" in the middle... beginning and end are still very rough... probably still need roughly double the amount of frames I have right now... which I can manage in a week.... this might actually work!

timing... you sassy mistress

scanning takes a lot of time

... and my time is being spent on timing... so this isn't the time for scanning.... but photos for now

grey matter buffet

So when I listened to the 11 second club clip... I think of some kind of competition. Then I had to think of a contest where "there ain't no winner".... so I thought of a brain eating contest! I know that there really are competitive eating contests for this kind of stuff... so then I had to think up of some characters. So that's Billy Bob, the skinny guy rocking the mullet, and the big guy just goes by "Bear". The zombie kind of came as an afterthought and I think I might have painted myself in a corner by introducing him... but I thought it would be funny when Billy Bob is saying "well somebody has to win" and they have their eyes closed... the zombie is running up and scarfing down on the brains.... composition wise maybe I'll just put a table of brains in the background and have the zombie go at it... or maybe no zombie at all... but zombies are funny!

Cat in the hat... or is it the other way around?

Charcoals don't go full on black on pastel paper as I just learned....

Pastels are messy...

... and there's really no punchline here... they really are damn messy!

Waiter... check please

So was thinking about dramatic irony and did this sketch... basically a large breasted woman (inspired by that dance animation we saw) that's at a restaurant eating roasted garlic soup when she's bitten by a vampire.... garlic on a date is just generally a bad idea anyway.

Kick... punch... it's all in the mind...

Sorry bad Parappa the Rapper joke... anyway fun little project. I tried to portray Betty as the calm type that seems to always get everything done with a kind of zen like patience.... and since Gabe is always talking about plots that involve a guy and girl... I took some liberties and kind of portrayed him as a lady's man on the prowl.

A whole cartoon based around Dramatic Irony

Mr Magoo was the first thing I thought of when we got into Dramatic Irony... just using the concept of an old man with some kind of degenerative retinal disease and laugh at him when he thinks a lamp cord is a piece of spaghetti. Of course our Dramatic Irony has to be less comical.....

grrrrrr

It's getting late so I'm posting this in "fast motion" I had the timing nice and slow using the time stretch feature in after effects... but it doesn't render at that same speed. So just scrub through this to get the idea...

So I added some ears and frames.

"I hate mondays..... I guess I'm like that fat cat that likes lasagna"

"Come to think of it... I hate cats and I hate lasagna"

"It's not like cats or lasagna have ever done anything to me... it's just I really hate that comic strip!"

"Jim Davis raped my mother"

"Hey there's a box over there... let's take a look"

".... it smells like lasagna...."

"a.... a.... cat caught in a mousetrap... baited with lasagna?!"

heh.... heheheeh..... HAHAHAHAHAHAH

AAAAAAACHO.

"oh yeah... and I'm allergic to cats and lasagna"

It could just be a very persistent knife salesman...

How come when Tom and Jerry do this it's considered cute?

Wataaaa! almost....

still trying to work with a somewhat small scanner and somewhat large drawings...

Anatomy of a laugh

This is going to be hard to animate... but at the same time I think it's going to be extremely fun to animate... if that makes sense.