Blocking Igor...

So, you've seen my most excellent sketching, and you're thinking how could it possibly get better than that, right? Well...then do I have a treat for you! Here's the "blocking" for the igor walk. "What the heck is blocking?" do you say, well, blocking is simply getting keyframes in place to see how it's all working. It's not finished, just "roughed" in so to speak. About every third or fourth frame, depending on the situation, and then you manipulate the keys back and forth in the timeline to optimize the timing and spacing, refining the "performance".

Click on the image to the right to see the animation.

Reference and Sketching Igor...

Week 1 was a real test. The idea was to apply the principle of overlapping action to a spine and neck test. Basically, overlapping action is a HUGE part of what makes something look organic and not a robotic. Overlap is what happens as things move. Not everything moves at the same time. Soemthings are attached to other things that move first, then pull the next thing and so on. Like a tail. The tail movement by itself is not overlapping action, but the fact that the tail moves in response to the ball and doesn't all move in the same direction at the same time DOES make it overlapping action. It's the exaggerated physics of elements reacting to each other that's the key.

So for Igor, the trick is to have the back and neck and then the head moving in reaction to the quick leg movement. Video reference revealed that the there'
s also a twist in the torso and hips the counters each other at the same time. Here are the sketches:

The first page here, is an attempt to find some of the key frames that determine the walk, the overlapping action, the reversals and the movement of the dragging leg.

This second sheet is a further look at the shoulder dip and rotation, and the overlapping timing of the neck and head.

Semester 2, Week 1 New Mentor, Old Subject.

SO! Since you are all wondering and waiting so patiently, I'm ready to divulge the most anticipated news of the day, my new mentor! Drum roll please...

And the winner is: Justin Barrett! Applaud at your leisure.

Justin is a supervising animator at Reel FX in Dallas, and has worked in a number of studios around the country and just recently establishing himself at "Reel". He was recruited by Bobby to join the mentor team, and I think he made a great choice. Justin's a very high energy guy, funny, witty, quite "animated" in his own right, and really great to talk to. He has a very varied and interesting past with some most unusual jobs that I'll refrain from mentioning as a courtesy to our fine mentor.

As for this week's work, it's overlapping action again, except that this time it's all the more intensified. We've been given a more involved character, not quite full bodied, as he has no arms, but the rest of him's intact and must move convincingly. I've decided to try an Igor walk with the one leg trailing because it's one that will very clearly show the principles we're focusing on this week. We'll see how it goes! I've got some sketching done for it, and I think I have a good handle on what I'd like to do! So, I'm off! Next post: sketches and blocked Igor walk! Woo hoo!

Sumo Stomp Angle View

So this is the first look for you of the Stomp that was, in essence, my "Final" for semester 1. I've gotten tons of positive feedback about it, which was really great, because while producing it, I was never totally sure I was going to pull it off. I spent a lot of time just acting it out, focusing on different parts of the body as I moved from pose to pose. The foot, when it lifted off the ground, the leg and hip, how far it rotated, the upwrd arc of the foot and then the knee and foot as it smashes down.

It was a lot of trial and error, and even then, people saw things I could change, and I did. A big thing I thought of that was reiterated by some other students and Warren was that the height of the stomp leg doesn't stay there long enough before it comes down hard. So, I added a few frames to each, and boy, what a difference. So even with all my reference, acting it out, planning and diligence, it still took two weeks to really see it reach fruition.

Anywho, here it is. Sean's last animation from Semester 1:
Click on the image to the left to see the animation...

Last Two Poses for Semester 1

So here are the last two poses, the first is the final for the Week 11 assignment, Balance. Warren said he liked it from a technical standpoint, but didn't see anything unique about it. I agree, it's pretty generic. I think I was just trying to get back to creating something that didn't just totally suck. In that regard, I considered it a success, even if not fresh and new.


This is a revision of a pose I did in week 10, Exhausted. I did away with the props for the most part, I'm not good enough for props. I just tried to focus on finding a clear weightly feeling that I could really sell as exhausted. Warren thoguht this was really a drastic improvement over the squashed bug first attempt, and thought only that the screen left foot could be moved closer to the other foot to make it feela a little less stable. It's amazing watching him draw all over my poses and clarify them by simply doodling. Someday.

Pics from the AM BBQ

Before I get too far into review and looking forward to semester two, here are some pictures from the BBQ!

It was very cool that they were able to set up the web-cam so that students that couldn't make the event could still be there in some fashion. They even had a second webcam set up in the lobby with sound, to just take in the experience. I tried a virtual hotdog experiment, putting a hotdog really close to the web-cam to see if they could smell or taste it out there in cyber-AM. I've yet to collect any results.

Bobby! Our fearless leader has a moment to share with yours truly, I finally get my picture with the MAN! Thanks for everything Bobby!

Warren Trezevant (left) and Ken Hatch (right). Warren was our amazing mentor this semester. Great guy, very good animator in his own right, always gave us fantastic crits and QnAs. Ken's a fellow AM student, never would have guessed he was, like, 6'8"!

Our tireless staff, grillin' and chillin'.

Just a moment at the BBQ. Taylor tried really hard to escape the camera's eye. He FAILED! BWAAHHHahahahaha!

Give me a week, I'll take a...

So the semester's over, and you'd think that maybe I'd be able to keep up with this blog, here. Nope. So far, my break between semesters has consisted of lots of work-work, a 3-day stint at the Space 2005 conference in Long Beach, where I met Bill Russel (If you don't know who he is, google it.), got to wrangle penguins for a 45 minute period, met some really cool people from "Mad Science" (you can google that too) and about 300 kids, some of whom knew more about the work I was presenting to them than I did. My wife and I are also working on preparing to sell our house and last weekend we and Emily went up to San Fran with another AMer Brad Bradbury to attend the AM BBQ! It was a TON of fun, and good networking as well. My mentor Warren was there with his daughter Talula (sp?) who was a real sweetheart and very loving towards Emily. I got to see in person quite a few of the students I've only ever seen by web-cam, and to my surprise, they were much bigger in real life :) . I gave a quick thank you to Victor Navone (again, google) who's site was where I first saw AM, got some really great time with Bobby and some inside scoops of upcoming stuff (sshhhh! Can't tell!) and was literally surrounded by tens of some of the most amazingly talented animators and artists in the world. I had a blast!

So, here I am, back on the 'puter, ready for a new semester! All jazzed up and ready to go, got some really great final thoughts from Warren as I go forward and even a big unexpected pat on the back from Bobby "Boom" Beck himself which was really inspiring.

Ooh! I can spill this one, TOMORROW I find out who my new mentor is! Yipeee!!! I've decided to not try and predict or have any biases, so I plan to simply be thrilled with whomever they deem worthy of our educational direction.

Next up, recap. I've promised you a lot of stuff, so it's time to anty up.