Week 4 Animation - Strike

"Free Time" is a rare bird these days. Every time it's with in my grasp it scurries into it's secret nest and mocks me from a far. This week's animation is not complete, but I'm posting anyway because I feel it's a success due to the illusive aforementioned "Free Time". I'm looping this weeks animation three times (Seems fitting considering it's subject matter) so you won't have to keep clicking on the play button if you feel the need for multiple viewings. I may continue to do this looping, and then again I may not! I really have no idea.
Cheers.

Week 3 Animation - Bad Take

This week was so busy that I didn't really have time to do much. I'm not too proud of this piece as much as I'm proud for sticking with it this week. I tried a couple of things, like a different frame rate (16fps) compared to standard film rate (24fps). I also tried some crazy blur frames. Honestly, I feel like I throwing spaghetti against the wall here. I'm not sure if anything is sticking yet. (Add long exhale here.)

Animals and Creatures Master Class

I wanted to post this sooner, however I haven't had time until tonight. Animation Mentor, on Tuesday, made public their new class series called the "Animals and Creatures Master Class". Some folks and I over at Tippett Studio along with animators from ILM and Sony Imageworks, among others, worked with the amazing team at Animation Mentor to create a curriculum that will not only teach animators how to animate creatures but how to animate them in a Visual Effects world. My description at this hour is not doing it justice so head on over to Animation Mentor and get a better idea of the amazing classes that have been created:
Animation Mentor

Plus you can read about it in these articles:
Animation Magazine
Animation World Network

It's an awesome opportunity to learn from the people in the Animation/Visual Effects business.

Week 2 Animation - Super

You have to love Preston Blair's book "Cartoon Animation". It has some great ref and inspired me to do this piece. I learned a LOT doing this exercise. Scale and volume are very difficult to keep consistent. I'll try to post more interesting bits as the weeks go on, but for now here's this weeks animation.

Happy 2011!!

With 2010 in the books it's time to come up with a new New Year's Resolution. I've put a lot of thought into this. I had to consider what's realistic as well as what will push me to learn. My answer!?!?

An Animation A Week!

Yes. A little crazy, but I'm not limiting myself here. It can be a flip book on a post-it pad or some stop motion or especially Flash animation. My goal is to get better at animation as a whole. However do not expect to see anything work relate or anything "CG" for that matter(even though Flash is technically Computer Generated, but that's a whole other debate for another time). There is no frame limit or mandatory subject matter. I'm hoping to leave this open and see where I go. Wish me luck. Oh... Here's the first week's animation:



Update: Embedded YouTube Video for higher resolution.

Day 364 - Stick Figures

This is it. A YEAR! A year spent looking to improve. A year spent drawing everyday for the full 364 days. A year of fun and frustration. What a year. And this last drawing is what it all came down to. HA. Gotta love it.



Thank you to everyone who has been checking in. Thanks for all the kind words in the comments section. You all kept me going. Thank you to Brian Mendenhall for being my editor. Thank you to Blair Clark for lending me his Wacom tablet. And thank you to my wife, Wendy, for being cool with me spending most of our evenings together drawing and asking her, "Is this funny?".

So what's up with 2011's resolution? Well there is something in the works. I've made it, but I'm not quite ready to share it just yet. I'm going to take this weekend to relax and not draw for a couple of days. Check in later in the week. Thanks again.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Day 363 - Almost There

It's amazing to think I'm almost there. I just need to take that last couple steps. And then I go on a trip and forget my sketch pad. However, I made do with some old school lined paper and a ball point. It really reminded me why I love drawing so much.