Class 6 Week 9: Refining Po

Spent this week really trying to nail down the face.  Reworked a lot of the lipsync and found some new expressions.  Also timing of a few beats around.  I was a bit too "on the nose" with a few of the actions/timing.  Also some some great feedback this week from Drew Adams at work - who besides being an Animation Mentor mentor, also worked with Po on Kung Fu Panda 2.  So, lots of notes to address between him and Sean.  I think it's really coming together, it just needs some passes adding in the details.

Now working on "Peabody & Sherman"

After a few quick weeks on Shadows I'm moving on to our big screen version of Peabody & Sherman.  I'm a huge fan of the old Jay Ward stuff so I'm excited to be on this one.  Also, it's a chance to work cross-site with all my ol' co-workers up at PDI.  Looks like it's gonna be a fun one!

Also, the movie is actually coming out Nov 8th, 2013.  They've moved up the release date since this promo image came out.

Class 6 Week 8: Face and Hands on Po

This weekend I was able to add the hands and face animation onto Po.  Also took him out of stepped mode - this is where the extensive (and tedious) new blocking method REALLY paid off.  I just cleaned up the curves a bit and the animation was fully functional - I didn't "lose" much like you often do transferring from stepped to spline.

The biggest change I made was to Po's arms.  I had them to turned out before, he looked like he was always posturing strangely, and didn't fit with the mood of the shot at all.  Referencing some Po stuff at work I was able to get a better idea of keeping the arms "on model" during this shot.

Class 6 Week 7: Po Blocking Begins

So, my first full blocking pass with Po.  Only got to the first half this week - and that was a long Saturday up at work!  My mentor suggested his workflow - which consists of keying every 2 frames to match the reference.  It's time consuming as hell, but I think it has great results and also makes sure that when you switch to spline mode everything gets preserved.  Just have to keep going on this one and get the second half done ASAP.

Switching to DreamWork's 2D/3D "Shadow" Movie!

I've officially wrapped up my time on "Turbo" - and now moving onto our awesome 2D/3D mashup movie "Me and My Shadow"

I'll be helping out Crowds to benchmark some different cycle concepts for a few weeks.  They've got some really fun ideas on this one, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Class 6 Week 6: Halfway Point

Well, it was a crazy week wrapping up a bunch of snail cycles on Turbo.  This left me only Saturday to go in and work on Po...so I decide to polish up the lipsync before moving on to full blocking.  It's really coming together, can't wait to finally get the rest of Po moving!

Also did one more pass on the Vampire shot.  Had some notes on a few little things that really end up making a big difference to the feel of the shot.  Funny how some of those things you're not aware of, but you miss it if it's not there.  Hopefully this is the last pass on the Vampire, and I'll move to another reel shot to polish this coming week.

New "Turbo" Image and Last Day on Show

Today's my last day on "Turbo" - appropriately enough I'm rushing to final one last snail cycle.  So that's a wrap on my first film as a full-time animator.  Now enjoy a new promotional image of Turbo that has made it's way online.  It gives just a sneak peak at the crazy crowds we're producing for this movie :)