Wednesday, June 27, 2012

11SecClub_April_Sound

I wanted to get myself involved with 11 second club. So, testing out the water and animating LowMax character to a sound clip with no Dialog.

I am using the audio clip from April 2009, and my idea was to have this "new intern" turn on an assembly line machine, but did not know he was standing in the path of the moving boxes above his head.

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Update

After 2 months, I finally feel like i am done. Thank you everyone for sticking around to see my work in progress. This was great practice for me to get involved with more 11 sec animations.


I created a Comparison Reel, inspired by Jeff Gabor. He's a talented Animator from Blue Sky.
reference / story pose / breakdown / final render


Reference video

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Lerning Maya - Ball Bounce

Ball Bounce Test done in Maya.
Using this Ball bounce Example from http://www.idleworm.com



http://accanim1.blogspot.com/

Basic Maya


Thursday, June 14, 2012

Monkey Animations


I wanted to study monkey movements, and create animations that will help me be a better creature animator. I found a few clips that I liked from Rhino House website. This is the perfect place for an animator to grab reference clips.

(Members only) - Here are a few clips I like.
First Pass -
Feedback - Add some character to it, give him a purpose to climb the object. Have him walk enter, look up and get excited to climb and explore.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Insperation - Animation Mentor



 http://www.animationmentor.com/campaign/showcase


 
http://undoneanimation.blogspot.com/search/label/Week_102
http://michaelajindra.com/blog/page/2/

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Stability vs Money vs Portfolio vs Badass Game

When looking for a Dream Job you must ask yourself what is important to you?

Is it a company that has stability?
Is it a company that pays really well?
Is it a company that can improve your portfolio?
Is it a company that works on Bad Ass Games?

Its ideal, to work for a company that has all 4. They are rare, but considered to be a game developers dream job. To work for a company that has 3, brings happiness, depending on your situation. Most companies have 1-2, and it becomes a stepping stone for you to reach a company that has 4. Its great to work for a company that becomes a 3-4.

Money comes with experience and good portfolio. Stability comes after that. Fun games can be stable, but are they good portfolio or not that's what you need to decide.

Here is the guide to reach your dream job.

  1. Work for a company that pumps out bad ass games, put all that into your experience.
  2. Work for a stable company, get settled in the city you live in, buy house or build a family.
  3. Work for a company that pays well, Start building a portfolio, and work towards your dream job, use the money to pay off all your debt and create a $$$ nest.
  4. Work for a company that has stability, bad ass games, and an area where you can build your portfolio. Don't worry about the pay, time will come when you become a kick ass employee.
  5. You just landed in your dream job.

Awesome Games at E3 2012








Friday, June 1, 2012

State Representative at Bioware


Just ran into Texas's State Representative "Ken Paxton", he brought in his family to take a tour of the Bioware studio. His son "Tucker" loves games, and wanted to check out how they are made.

Mookie and I did a 10 min show and tell of what happens in the animation pit. A lot of fun and excitement, take a character and give it life. Mookie showed off what it takes to animate cinematics. It was an eye opener on how much work goes into making an animation and using motion capture. Then he showed off a creature and told them about what type of reference they need to animate a creature. It was really cool how he got the kids involved with animating a creatures head to look at the audience. Finally he passed it over to me. I introduced myself and told them my passion for animation when I was a kid, and how cool it was to have a job I have now. I went over combat animations and told them how its very important to rely on reference. And if you can not depend on motion capture, then here are some alternative to animate. "Record yourself" So I demoed the process on what the steps are to animate an idea and you capture yourself.

Record from different angles.
Identify Key poses.
Block out your character with key poses.
Fix the timing and fill in the in between.
Here is the render.

After that demo, I told them about what happens after this point, of teaming up with programers and getting it into game. In the end, I get the satisfaction of seeing my work come to life ingame.

It was a lot of fun. Animation Team REPRESENT !!!