Crawling, Walking, Running

Tests peek a boo

2010-04-29T02:31:00.000-07:00

Here are some tests of some parts of peek a boo.

Peek a Boo

2010-04-28T16:49:00.001-07:00

Here is a work in progress for my next animation. This is a cycle-able interaction that so far is going well. I will be going back through and fleshing out the actions but this is the basic blocking timing I want.

head shots

2010-04-17T13:46:00.000-07:00

Pretty well done

2010-03-29T00:26:00.000-07:00

I feel really good about how this turned out. I may want to add some follow through and overlap with his crown... hmmmm...

Updated animation

2010-03-27T00:18:00.001-07:00

Cage match! Some more touches and I will be done with this one.

There is gong to be some final touches put into the costumes so that it completes the setting but I fell really good about how this looks.

More flash

2010-03-26T01:54:00.000-07:00

Here is some more flash fun. Messing around with and spacing.

2d animation basic form

2010-03-24T18:54:00.000-07:00

Nothing special but I learned from it!

I am going to work a bunch with timing charts on my animations, must get a better understanding of timing!

Axe throw refine

2010-03-04T16:17:00.000-08:00

Animation and art

2010-03-04T14:18:00.000-08:00

I have made some break through on both my drawing style and animations. (Ignore the background characters int he animation not quite done yet.) As for my drawings it finally feels as though they have volume and have a different feeling to them.

These were a lot of fun and resulted in my understanding of what I call the face within a face. All that means is that I took more note of the front plain of the face bringing it forward and pushing the cheeks and the ears behind giving a boxier more dimensional form. My next step is to some how understand how to give the feeling of the unseen features or parts of the body that are blocked from view, although adding more personality through pose and expression would be a great thing to look into as well.

Video game reel

2010-01-11T11:07:00.001-08:00

Video Game:

Shot 1: Audion from "The Office" - Responsible for animation
Shot 2: Excitable walk cycle - Animation
Shot 3: Action attack Upper cut to slam - Animation
Shot 4: Bruiser character walk cycle - Animation
Shot 5: Heavy lift - No dialog - Responsible for animation

Another animation

2010-01-03T19:59:00.000-08:00

^ Final animation. comming soon textures and background.

Here is something i have been working on... Yet another new approach to this. I went with trying to hit the lip sync first before going in and doing the actions. So far so good.

Finished

2009-12-06T11:17:00.000-08:00

Clocked in around 8 hours.

how do things go wrong

2009-11-16T00:12:00.000-08:00

Put in a hour or so, cleaned up the beginning and middle but still have to work with the back to neutral at the end of the attack.

It's weird how much things seem to be working while you are working on the animation but after you take a break it just sucks...

Game animation trials

2009-11-08T20:10:00.000-08:00

Some clean up work to my animations.

Storm copyright by Marvel

rigs and textures by Dream machine studios.

Some hints on whats to come

2009-09-29T23:32:00.000-07:00

All the keyframes are there.

2009-09-27T22:21:00.000-07:00

All I have to do now is go add some breakdowns and clean things up. I really like doing the straight ahead and no stepped when working on action shots, to me working from what i need to imagine and what is visibly needed makes things a lot easier. Timing was also something that was much easier in this approach.

More Animating

2009-09-27T01:45:00.000-07:00

just a bit more to go and the basics will be down.

New ideas

2009-09-25T00:15:00.000-07:00

Here is the start of a new idea.

The idea is he is going to toss the axe in the air, book it towards the zombie guy, jump on top of him and smash his head in with the axe... Let's see where this takes us shall we.

Thumbnailed out on paper and I am going to try straight ahead.

Onward and upward

2009-08-23T00:30:00.000-07:00

There and Back Again

2009-08-14T01:07:00.000-07:00

My adventure into splines

2009-08-12T23:15:00.000-07:00

More and again

2009-08-09T21:44:00.000-07:00

More color.

And again

2009-08-06T00:58:00.000-07:00

Finding time to work one some art, a little here and a little there adds up after a while.

continued

2009-08-05T00:48:00.000-07:00

continued...

It's a start

2009-07-31T10:07:00.000-07:00

Looks like I will have to playblast another video of it timed out since it wont allow for scrubbing or frame to frame.

Its a start, just basic key frames right now so I need to start going through another pass. The plan is to try something new in building this animation. Take control of everything and let the computer do as little as possible. Plus I am using a tablet to see how that effects my posing, right now it feels a lot more sculptural than just moving parts around.

2009-07-31T10:01:00.000-07:00

Down but not out

2009-07-01T13:17:00.000-07:00

So i did a little project for my brother to keep progressing and to see where I bring a drawing within a set period of time. Also all the while under a time limit.

I really like the way that this turned out, so far this is the most polished drawing I have done. The original concept was suppose to be Henry the 8th but transformed into this quite hilarious running king. I will post them up again when i finish... i was asked to modify and make a scene

On to new animations

2009-05-17T22:17:00.000-07:00

Still going to add facial animation to the male but i want to move past this one.

render

2009-04-27T01:01:00.000-07:00

WIP

2009-04-26T23:01:00.000-07:00

Here is a new animation that I am working on there is still a bunch of clean up I need to do but its all there.

Crazy Times

2009-01-20T15:45:00.001-08:00

Sorry it has been so long since the last update but things have been pretty crazy. I just graduated from my animation classes, had the job fair and celebration which was a great experience. Also got an internship which will help me continue to develop as an artist.

Now to re-watch all of the structure of man dvds and get back to the basics.

New Demo reel:

Back

2008-09-18T23:40:00.000-07:00

I have been caught up in the my animation classes. I found out i really knew nothing about composition and staging which makes things particularly difficult since this term was all about it. I struggled a lot but learn equally as much if not more. Where would the fun be if nothing was challenging. Chin up, eyes forward and mind open.

Continued

2008-09-03T03:27:00.001-07:00

New

2008-08-19T17:51:00.000-07:00

Trying to give my drawings a more polished look.

Been a while

2008-08-17T03:02:00.000-07:00

Been mentally gone for the past while. Placed my face behind a bunch of books and am trying to learn some new things about animation process. It all has taken some tolls on thought process and added a bunch of stress on me because of how many things I don't know and am trying to learn.

Also I have been trying to learn how to paint.. well digitally. Starting out with the basics again, nothing to complex and really nothing spectacular. Started with learning tones, gray just to get a handle on things. Hopefully a movement towards color will be more successful when I get to it.

Much ado

2008-07-29T02:48:00.000-07:00

Nothing new

2008-07-28T02:24:00.000-07:00

Been hard at work getting my short story ready for my animation class.

Another

2008-07-23T10:51:00.001-07:00

Back to the grind

2008-07-22T03:13:00.000-07:00

Drawing using only pen has brought some goo things to my work, at least thats how it feels. It has given me more confidence in my lines and a better grasp on thinking before doing. One thing that I really wish I have are peers that I can bounce ideas off of and to help develop each other work. Frank and Ollie esque.

Back to basics... again.

2008-07-14T23:54:00.000-07:00

Back to the beginning to start again.

Easily distracted

2008-07-12T02:11:00.000-07:00

The word of the day is distracted. I came across a book on drawing animals, one of many things on my to learn list. There are a lot of pictures in the book and the author seems to like horses the most... Then again I didn't get very far in the book because my imagination was already putting things together within the first couple of pages. With inspiration buzzing through my mind I took up residency in front of the TV... bad idea. As someone who can be easily distracted the flickering box quickly grabbed my attention, only to let go during commercials. Progress was slow and inspiration drowned in the ever mind numbing drivel pouring from the screen. The more I watched TV the less I was able to see shapes and imagine things. Below is a great example of that.

I started out drawing middle top, then to right, bottom left and finishing with what can only be seen as a whale wearing a top hat. That was all I could imagine after watching for a couple hours and even that was hard to bring into existence.

Reminded

2008-07-10T19:59:00.000-07:00

It's funny to think that a cartoon stylized drawing can remind you of people you use to know. For some reason while I was drawing the girl, she reminded me of someone. I am not sure if it is the likeness or just the specific care taken when developing the drawing after it had taken shape but for some reason it hit me.

Keep going

2008-07-09T01:36:00.000-07:00

Keep trying to push yourself to the full extent you can do and then take it further. Not quite to the point where frustration takes control of everything but right before, right when you have to be creative to solve the problems at hand. An idea is the start of something not the completed work. The times when I feel the most frustrated is when I thinking about the final polish more than dealing with the problems at hand.

The more I draw the more I realize that texture is a very important thing but what makes up a texture? Is texture even the right word to use? hmmm... I want to know patterns and how materials react in the light. To me this feels like it's something important to start learning. Also I think now would be a good time to revisit some anatomy dvds to see if anything was over looked or if anything else can be absorbed.

Texture

2008-07-07T02:41:00.000-07:00

So I have been having issues with understanding what it means to bring a piece of work into polish and final. What if, instead of obsessing about the meaning you just move onto the next phase of learning how to draw? Okay, how about just giving the characters something to do? Like an action pose? Ya, that would be cool... hmmm this still looks kind of bland, I mean they are still naked. I know lets' try giving stuff some texture. You know, try to make things look like they feel and react differently.

This seems to add polish or at least take the drawing to the next level.

Varied style

2008-07-06T13:03:00.001-07:00

Using the circles allows me to give more thought to what the character looks like. It is kind of freeing to have the height and a break down of the section already done but is best used as a loose guideline rather than a law.

The circles

2008-07-04T13:27:00.000-07:00

For some reason, before starting a character, if I map out their height in circles (or heads) next to where it is going to be drawn I can finish the piece faster and just looks better. So far it is working really well on cartoony characters but soon I will try it on more realistic characters.

Dimension

2008-06-24T14:42:00.000-07:00

Does it have to exactly match (the criteria of drawing, painting, animation, etc.) for you to be able to learn something from it?

The fear

2008-06-22T00:32:00.001-07:00

I call it the fear of finishing, if I finish the drawing and it isn't good then I can't say it's not finished. Fearing a blank page and not feeling like you know where do go, I could only hope or wonder, that it is something that everyone feels. I don't know if anyone else gets this feeling but as I am up walking around the house imagery and ideas fill my mind to the point where i rush back to my sketch book only to sit down and not know where to start or how to even get past this block to get to the beginning. Maybe there is just a step missing, maybe the concept isn't developed well enough in my mind to be able to bring it out on the paper. Hmmm, i should try that and see if it makes a difference.

Learning

2008-06-20T14:13:00.000-07:00

Notes are just scribbles if you don't actually believe or understand what your writing. A couple months ago I turned in a couple sketches for some feed back and I didn't just get notes back on how to fix or improve my drawings but I also got a couple notes on, well, my notes. The reply being "Upon reading your notes I don't feel that you actually believe them, they are just there." This struck me pretty hard, I realized I was going through the motions and doing what I thought would be acceptable but there was no fun being had nor pushing the drawing for all that it's worth. No time was really being put in to understanding what they meant or really for how they could be incorporated into the process. Just a feeling of understand, only to realize there was and is a much bigger world out there to explore.

You know as boring as reading a book can be the benefits that later come from its kindling is well worth the time you put into it.

Animation

2008-06-15T18:32:00.000-07:00

Last week of working on my animation for class. Another great term behind me and on to the next.

I have heard

2008-06-12T03:00:00.000-07:00

I have heard all about the general to specific when drawing and I always thought that I understood what that meant... Nope, I have realized that pose, or gesture as some books like to call it, is one of the most important thing to get down. It portrays the attitude, the thoughts, actions and other things needed to fully develop a drawing to its end... It seems as though keeping an open mind to whats going on around you and to information found in books, even if they don't specifically apply, will ultimately benefit the progress of your work. It's these important connections and thought processes that, for me, improve the work produced.

There are many things wrong with this drawing but the important part was drawing the whole figure and it being clothed. This being Hellboy, and it was on Tv a lot today.

Having some fun

2008-06-10T00:29:00.000-07:00

I am really trying to push the way things look and having a lot more fun with my drawings. It really seems like the more I relax and try not to push or take it too seriously things pan out better.

Back to basics

2008-06-09T03:32:00.000-07:00

The kind of art that got me into art in the first place.

Style

2008-06-05T19:17:00.000-07:00

I have always wondered what my drawing style was/is. So today I refused to let my self try to emulate other artist, no tv, no web surfing, nor any reference and here is what came out.

Really what I should be doing is building a portfolio of what I am capable of for animation but this was rather fun to do. Hopefully more to come.

doodles

2008-06-04T10:45:00.000-07:00

Daily drawing sharpens the skills.

Doodle and sketch. I should say that the The Secret of NIMH character was from a character sheet I was referencing.

Continued

2008-06-02T14:17:00.000-07:00

What my animation looks like for the last turn in. Also some drawings, daily drawing is a must, they don't have to be good but there should be something you are trying to learn or figure out while drawing them.

Daily

2008-05-28T17:19:00.000-07:00

Here some more sketches.

Update

2008-05-27T15:01:00.000-07:00

Been a little while... Here is my newest WIP for Animation Mentor.

Also i figured out a way to get some 5 - 30 second gesture drawing in while at home. All you need to do is take a bunch of picture from the web and place them into a slide show. Select the amount of time to display each image, grab some paper and go. I am also trying something that i hope will help me see the basic shapes that make up a person. Take some portraits enter them into a slide show and then try to name off the first shapes and defining characteristics of that person in 30 seconds or less.

25 a Month

2008-05-13T15:11:00.000-07:00

So I was working my way through the CGtalk forums when i came across these open figure drawing workshop where you take 25 of the 50 - 100 reference images and then try to copy them in the media of your choice.

Here is what I ended up with. The cartoony looking characters are from my mind, also the figure with notes written on the parts of the body.

With each completed (or completed to the extent I can) drawing is another step forward.

Animation

2008-05-09T18:48:00.000-07:00

The next animations that I will be posting will be up to date, week old - WIP stuff.

I have had a hard time with figuring out what really has been my driving force for art. As it is most of my family has come around to not quiet understanding what I want to do but they are being very encouraging... I know what you think, that should be a good thing right? In many cases I would say yes but I have found that what really drove me is adversity. Yes, that's right! The less someone believes in me the more dedicated I become. Failure was and is not an option when you try to prove people wrong. Do not limit what you can do or believe you can.

I have always been or at least felt as though I am in that position of being pushed aside/ no hope/ let him slide because he is "struggling" kind of thing, since the advent of me being diagnosed with a learning disability. But what really is a better driving force? Being told you can't do something then proving them wrong or being constantly told that everything you do is great? No talent and talent, I believe that if you have talent it's only a head start and that eventually with great effort someone who is believed to have "no talent" can catch up and maybe surpass them. The limiting factor is not the people around you but you yourself. Find what it is that you love about the form and have fun. If you feel you can't draw then look into why, do you know anatomy? Are you looking and seeing(not just looking)? Do you understand the process? (everything made by man has a process of building) Fundamentals!! Do you get too caught up in the how? How should this line look, how do I draw, how come I can't do that!? What you should be doing is what the early philosophers did, question what it is that you are drawing and why the lines(forms, contours, shadows) would be/are doing that. Don't worry about style, worry about structure and what is, not what you think there is or assume there is but the reality of it. Look and see, give reason, purpose, and meaning behind those bumps.

Well this turned into a rant, I get caught up in ideas sometimes and a lot of the time they end up with a life of their own. I hope something makes sense.

Nothing really

2008-05-09T01:04:00.001-07:00

no reason. Painting definitely something to work on..

More Art

2008-05-07T10:58:00.000-07:00

Artastic!

^Goblin directly above, Center and top right were referenced from Blizzards WoW art book. Left, bottom left and bottom right was me seeing if I could continue the art style in different poses and views

Tooney

2008-05-06T13:57:00.000-07:00

It wouldn't let me upload another video so I will post another tomorrow, something of my first animation from AnimationMentor.com.

^This was a quick 2 hr animation, Forgot to tweak the splines^
*Character is Copy Righted by AnimationMentor.com

Some Stuff laying aroun

2008-05-05T15:21:00.000-07:00

Here is some of my work.

My first animation, simple but I still enjoy watching it. This is what got me addicted to animation a couple years ago.

A couple random drawings.

Coming soon: More animation and some cartooning

Welcome to the show!

2008-05-01T15:38:00.000-07:00

So I have been told that every artist needs a blog or at some place to off load some work and point of view. Well, point of view is not particularly necessary but seems to be a result of being who we are. I never really thought about art as being a career choice, it was something that I did and was very bad at but for some reason people kept encouraged me. I went through college only to learn that of all the art forms I loved animation. True it is tedious mind numbing work that isn't understood in any normal environment but to give life to something that effects people in an emotional way makes every bit of effort worth it.

The reason why I am really creating this blog is to figure out who I really am and to understand what it is I actually know. The posts will contain anything from a discourse to current or past Art work. Hopefully beyond anything else anyone viewing this will be able to see a noticeable increase in the quality of work.

Out-