Session 112

End of Class One.
It's kind of sad to split up with all my classmates, but I guess we're gonna see each other during the next five semesters :). I don't know if any of you read my blog, but anyway - thanks a lot all of you guys for an awesome quarter, it's been fantastic!

I feel i've been given the best possible start to this animation journey by having Greg as my mentor. He made us feel welcome to the school and totally relaxed and comfortable. He sure knew what we as beginners was going thru and he has an unique ability to tell us the right things to help us improve our skills - always kind and always encouraging. Thanks a lot Greg - gonna miss have you as mentor!

The very last assignment in Class 1 is to gather all the assignments into one movie-file. So here it is. Any comments and critique on my work this first semester are very welcome.


Revision Session 111

Session 111

Physical movement mainly generates itself from the hips - that has been the focus this week - hip angel, hip movements and hip rotations. When switching from side view to a perspective camera, tons of new stuff suddenly pops up that you have to think about, especially in the hips...and the legs...and the knees - actually, especially in everything - nobody said it was going to be easy :)

Since it's only a 2d image once it's on the screen, even if it's created in 3d, it is more challenging to track the arcs and get a smooth motion when animating to a camera, but adding the third dimension also makes it feel like "more real" character animation - which is kind of cool.

This is the last assignment for Class 1, a personality walk in 3/4 perspective view and a Stu pose that communicates "Balance".




Revision for Session 110

Session 110

Less frustration, a lot more work and tons of fun - that sum up this week with walks with personality. Planning is really essential and shooting and studying videoreferences, sketching thumbnails, and block out the main key drawings took up almost the whole week, but that made it possible to get a clear vision and get the actual animation done a lot easier and faster.

The assignment this week was to make a characterwalk, a walk with personality and to pose the Stu-character in a pose that communicate "Exhausted":




Revision for Session 109:

Session 109

Week 9 and many many long hours with walks are over - for now. This have been the toughest week so far. My blocking was approved by Greg, but to go from blocking to refining was really really hard. There's so much going on in a walk and because we see it everywhere all the time, it's so easy to spot if it's wrong.

But, to get over the frustration of not understanding and to finally start grasping the concept is a huge feeling and totally makes all the effort worthwhile. Big applause to Bobby, Shawn and Carlos for putting this learning process together so well!

Session 109 assignment and pose communicating "Concerned":




Revision from Session 107 based on Gregs critique:

Session 108

Walks! An ordinary vanilla walk - that's what this week was all about. Lots of work and studying, but superfun as always!

The q&a with Greg this week was great. I had a really good time and picked up lots of nice tips about walks. On sunday we went to Oslo Central Train Station to study people walking up close - that was an amazing experience! There's tons of cool walks out there if you really start looking, everybody walks differently.

The assignment this week was to plan and block out an ordinary vanilla walk and submit it as stepped keys (just the main key drawings). We also was asked to draw and pose the Stu-character in a 'strong' pose:






My revision for Session 107:

Session 107

Another great week at Animation Mentor!
Arcs and Path of Action was the concept this week. It's cool because now I start to see all these things we're learning, in movies and cartoons - really noticing them. That makes almost everything a tremendous source of learning, reference and inspiration.

We had a q&a with Justin Barrett this week. He walked us thru a shot from videoreference to blocking to final. Awesome! He also was my campus mentor and gave me some really good help and nice tips on my assignment.

They introduced us to a new character this week, a little cutie named Tailor, and here's my Tailor-animation for this weeks assignment:


Revision for Session 106:

Session 106

Half way through class 1 already! These six weeks has simply been awesome! AM totally redeems the expectations and way beyond! It's soooo great to be a part of this amazing community. I love it!

It was about Overlapping Action this week. Much much harder than it seems. It was a real struggle! Bobbys class was great though and next week overlapping action continues along with arcs.

We had several q&a's this week. First a great Q&A with Greg. Got some very useful references for overlapping action. Then a Q&A with Weta Digital animator Kenny Roy (King Kong). A great guy with tons of useful tips! Last there was a two hour q&a with Bobby about the school and stuff thats coming etc. In other words, an amazing week.

The assignment this week was to animate a pendulum.


And here's my revision for the session 105 assignment:

Session 105

It's been an awesome week! Squash & Stretch and Anticipation really adds life to the bouncing ball. It's been hard, but totally fun and it's more and more obvious to me how important feedback from fellow classmates are. I've been lucky to have made some friends that I feel gives me totally honest critiqe and comments on my work. Coolio!

This week we was going to animate a ball bouncing through an obstacle course and also sketch and pose the Stu-character in a devastated pose:

Session 104

Timing and Spacing is HUGE! I've read about it before and I've even practiced it in my early animation attempts before AM, but only after watching Carlo's lecture this week and tons of ecritiqes, I feel like I begin to really understand the concept.

After animated close to 30 different bouncing balls , I saw balls bouncing everywhere. Then I took a day completly off from bouncing balls, got back with fresh eyes and...wow!! That did it. It was fun again :). It's kind of obvious, but when you're trapped in the "maze of tweeking" it's hard to get away! Anyway, lesson (hopefully) learned and here's my assignment this week:

Session 103

Week 3 - time to start animate! The bouncing ball - it's not as easy as it sounds..... I'm still sketching like crazy, trying to come up with an interesting excitement-pose. The Q&A with Greg was great, got lots of tips on thumbnailing and planning.

The community is awesome, feedback is crucial to grow and in this school you get a lot of feedback from fellow classmates and mentors - it's amazing how I just after a few weeks have a desire for people to comment and critique my work! It's supercool!

The assignment this week is to animate a bouncing soccer/basket-ball and to sketch and pose Stu in an excitement pose.

Session 102

Now it starts :) Our first real assignment. It's all about observation and the animation principles this week. That means a lot of sketching. Inbetween all the sketching, I read the Illusion of Life and practice the principles with a simple bouncing ball.

I started the week sketching like crazy from magazines, tv and movies (without pausing), just to practice. Then I went to a shopping mall. I had a hard time sketching in public, but I got some poses that I took home and pushed and refined.


After a lot, A LOT of sketching I started to pose Stu in Maya.
Here's my poses for the assignment this week.




We had a Q&A with Bobby Beck and Shawn Kelly this week. That was great! The energy and enthusiasm that those guys have are incredible. At the end of the week we also had a great Q&A with Michelle Meeker. She animated on Lord of the Rings and Shrek!

We also get to see all the critques from all the mentors in all the classes...every singel student in the school. This is a learning source beyond anything I ever imagined before I started! It's awesome!

Session 101

The first week at school is all about getting to know the website and my classmates. We have no particular assignment, but watched a introduction lecture by Shawn, Carlos and Bobby. We also had a Q&A session with our mentor, Greg Kyle, who is a really nice guy! AND he worked on Star Wars :)

I have mostly surfed around the campus, watched the lectures, made some contact with other students and practiced my drawing skills as well as made some poses with the character Stu.

So far my impression is.....WOW!! This school is awesome! Next week we get our first assignment. Looking forward to that!