Rethinking Emotions

So here we go, the whole purpose for the early sketches and the 4 pose emotion test is to start to refine an approach, a PLAN for the animation. One really great critique I got was to focus on just on concept, and have all of the emotions stem from that. Currently, I have the paper acting as the reason for Stewie becoming alert and then engaged, and the dead animal as the reason he become disgusted. After deliberating on this for quite a while and talking to my buddy Tom and then going over it with my Wife Sara, I thumbed some alternatives like this and this.

When I brought it up in the Class Q&A, folks had a really great reaction, and further enhancements for me, leading to the next version you can see here!

Click on the image to see the animation blocking pass.

Four Pose Emotion Test

Bobby mentioned this might be one that we would end up putting on a reel, so, as if I needed extra motivation, I really worked on this long and hard to try to find what I wanted to do. There were a few scenarios to choose from: Scenario Sheet A, Scenario Sheet B, but the one that seemed to hit the mark of the four emotions most was one where Stewie's lying in a lounge chair, throwing a ball for Tailor, (we'll call him Stewie's pet) and Tailor returns with a deasd animal, which Stewie picks up without realizing it, then freaks out as he does realize it and throws it down, leaping over the chair.

The four poses, what they call "golden poses" (although I'm not sure how golden mine are) are in the movie for this week. Have a look! Oh, at the end , are sketches as well, showing more of the progression. We were told, though, to stick to just the four key emotion poses for this week.

Click on the image to see the poses.

Push Final (sort of)

I'm gonna have another crack at this at some point, but for now, we're done with the push. I learned a whole bunch from this assignment, which in the end, is probably the point, but I'd really like to do something more with the ending and clean up the rest of the animation so I could possibly use it as a piece for my reel. For now though, I'm happy that I was able to catch up and deliver this on time, even though I was REALLY behind after trying to do too much in the first few weeks and realizing I'd dug myself a big hole!

Click on the image to the right to see the final (sort of) push.

One idea for an alternate ending involves a monstrous hand busting through the box as he's pushing, grabbing stewie and trying to pull him inside, poping his huge head off in the process, it bouncing and rolling down the ramp, and off screen left.

Pushing it. Adding more detail.

So ok, the last version quite a bit to be desired. So I went in and tried to flesh it out some more. The direction I got was that the opening poses were much too cliche' and that there should probably be more pushing and a resolution to the pushing in there.

Well, I got as much of that as I could done this week, which was hard, because we went out of town for half the week. But even though I'm a bit behind, I think I'm getting there...

Click on the image to the right to see the second week blocking.

Makin' Stewie Earn His Keep

Yay! the first assignment is behind us, and no time to waste, on to the next challenge! We have this Stewie guy, a box and we need to have Stewie push the heavy box up an incline. Now that I've moved Stewie around and got him to do a character walk, I'm feeling pretty comfortable with him. But now he has to actually interact with another object. Eek! Wha-- how-- oy. Deep sigh, and off we go. Got to learn a few tricks, like parenting the hands of Stewie to the box so that I can use the inverse kinematic controls and the hands will remain firmly planted on the box. Nice trick. Also, I decided in my ultimate wisodom to add a few moments of acting to the beginning. Kind of a "What? You want me to move THIS thing?!"

So, anywho, blocking, first pass. Have a look...

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

Adding Polish To Igor.

Here we are, into spline, and whoa! I think it's not too bad now! Not great by any menas, but MAN have I learned a bunch from this assignment. Not to bad, I think for a guy who's never worked with a complex character before. As a matter of fact, in case you're curious, I think it's ok for me to show you what the rig kind of looks like. Check out all of the controls I'm working with!

Click on controls image to the right to see closeup.

And here's the animation. It doesn't go so far as to animate the fingers, so it still needs polish. But for what we were expected to do for the assignment, I'm feeling like it's ok.

Click on the Igor to the right to see animation.

Igor learns to loosen up.

Here I thought I did a good job on the Igor arms, and turns out, they stunk to high heaven. Looking back on it, they DO stink. What was I thinking? I worked long and hard on those things, and they look stiff and completely unuseful. Well, after a long critique, it became clear I had a lot of work ahed of me. No problem, I'm ready to handle it. So, this was the final week of the assignment, but before I could move into "spline" ( basically animating every frame using MAYAs interpolation abilities to in-between), I needed to fix my problems in blocking. So, that's what I did, and ehre's the results...

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

Guess who got some arms!

Igor! That's who! Yep, the guy's got to move limbs other than legs. Well, the first shot at this was less than inspiring, but hey, I'm NEW to arms! Oh! Plus, we had to add an intro to the walk. We needed to take the first 60 frames and come up with a way to lead into the walk we had already created! Actually, it was really cool and VERY educational, as there was a whole lot to consider. Anywho, it's blocking, but you should be able to get the idea.

Click the Igor to the right to see the animation.

I'M SOOOO BEHIND!!

Ok, you're all tremendously patient with me. I mena, really, I've left for a long time, and yet here you are, reading this. Wow. Seriously. You are one dedicated Sean Graham's animation Mental Blog fan! You might be the only one, too! It's also possible that noone's reading this, and I'm just talking tomyself at this point, but ok, whatever. ANYWAY! Over the last...holy cramolies! Month and a HALF! I've been working long and hard at Animation Mentor. There's been a TON to absorb and then apply and that is the biggest reason I've been absent. I'm gonna try to get some stuff up, though, starting later today. I have the second pass and final of the Igor walk, which came out "ok", and then the second assignment sketches, blocking, smoothed adn refined of a "push up an incline", which was awesome for me, simply because of everything I learned from it! And now, we're into a four-pose assignment which will take us to the end of term! Whew! So! stay tuned, I promise, later today, I'm-a gonna be postin'!