Class 3 Week 9: Re-Blocking the Pumpkin

Well, once again some big changes.  Got some great feedback last week - and decided I really needed to push the animation a lot more, it had too many subtle things crammed into it.  So, this week was about simplifying and giving enough time to the one or two big actions.

Also, my previous video reference wasn't all that helpful, so I filmed new reference this week.  That also changed quite a bit of my staging.  Really happy with the new changes and direction.

Class 3 Week 8: Blocking Pass on a Pumpkin

So, this week took a bit of a left turn.  I decided to change my project at the last minute (which seems to be a pattern for this class).  I went back to my Mentor from last class, Jeremy Cantor, gave us a list of what shots he thinks every animation reel should have.  This is why my last several assignments have had jumping, running, pushing/pulling, etc.  The one thing on his list I haven't taken a crack at yet is "lifting a heavy object" - so here it is.

There's actually an earlier pass of this one I like better - it just was a bit cleaner, not so much overlap built in...so I think simplifying out the animation curves on this one will really help next week.  I have a big vacation looming on the horizon that will interrupt part of this project, so I'm really hoping to get ahead of the game this week.

Class 3 Week 7: Elevator Final

Last week on the Elevator!  Had some really good comments from our substitute mentor this week, so actually made little changes to just about everything in this one.  The one problem with that is I think I was starting to overwork some things...and I definitely broke a lot of stuff in the process that I had to go back and repose frame by frame.

Biggest change is the feet doing a few baby steps skidding to a stop rather than the big slide I had before.  Really tried to make the timing snappier too, so he falls a bit faster, jumps a bit quicker, etc.

Next week we move on to the last project of the term...right now its a toss up between a guy trying to get a soda out of a vending machine, or stealing the last doughnut sitting out at work :)

Class 3 Week 6: Refining Elevator Shot

The big note coming out of last week was that the camera was too far away.  So I pulled in the camera fairly dramatically - however, that meant that my little running guy was out of frame for most of the beginning frames.  Since I need at least 100 frames of animation for the assignment, my wife Heather had the idea to add a second person in the elevator.  It was a lot of fun to have some conflict added to the shot and play with the personality of the new guy.

One other change that might not be noticeable at first -  the set is about half the size it was last week.  Once I added the second guy (and added elevator buttons) I realized the doors were about 12 feet high.  With their smaller scale and the camera pull in, they look almost the same.

Before the suggestion of adding the second guy, I had just planned on doing a camera move to pan across and follow the run (therefore keeping the 100 frames of animation).  I'm posting that video too, just because I really liked the dynamic the camera pan gave.