Holidays are here

2 months.. Wow. It's been that long since I last posted anything. Well, my exams are done so I should have 3 months or so of the holidays to create some uninterrupted animation exercises (assuming some part time job doesn't get in the way). Following the advice given to me by the folks at 11SC, I will try to do simple exercises that can be done in 40 frames or less till I can get that nice level of polish into my animations. Last week, I made this zombie walk cycle for a friend using the Goon rig. Today, i added the forward motion and thought this would be worth putting up.
 

MC 28 and jungle scene finalised

I've completed the animation for the jungle shot and I'm now considering whether to light it or not. I've gotten better at lighting but I'm a little discouraged by the high number of frames in the shot.



I did this for the 28th 11SC mini-challenge. I actually got to light it. :D

Jungle shot progress

This is where am at with this shot. I've done some in-betweening, i re-blocked more than half the animation that I felt wasn't working and also dealt with some other issues. I'll be blocking in the 2nd character next; A ball with a tail that will scare the main character and get kicked off screen.



When i look at where i am now, am kinda happy i no longer suffer from things like gimbal lock and floating poses. Am still a long way from where i want to be as an animator but i feel like I'll get there some day. Onward.

Jungle shot rough timing

After reading the post i put up yesterday, I realised i was whining so I slapped myself in the face and got back to maya (True Story). My life right now doesn't give me the luxury of being sorry for myself and lamenting. It was nice but now i have to get back to my shots. Also, I watched "Cowboys VS Aliens" That helped motivate me too. I decided to take my new shot to the rough timing pass. Next up will be posing breakdowns, inbetweens, 2nd timing pass, animating the 2nd character, the camera move, splining, polish passes... Yea..that doesn't seem like a lot. (cough! cough!) Onward!!

In a slump

I've been feeling a little down lately. Nothing's going wrong but I just feel like I'm not making as much progress as I should be. A lot of work's coming in from the university and I have to put my self-taught animation aside till it's done. Problem is there's so much of it. I always get to a point where I ask myself if I'll actually ever get to work in a big games studio. Maybe this is all because I'm working on a long shot this time. I really want to be able to upload my simple body mechanics progress reel soon but am starting to feel like am doing something overly ambitious (You see.. my plan is to do about 8 shots on my own.. no critique, no help, no guidance. and then upload them for critique at once) I know this isn't the animator way but I feel am at one of those points where I have to ask myself if i actually understand the simple stuff like weight shifts, anticipation, overlap and staging. Everything is only made more solemn by the fact that there are no animators in Uganda. Literally! I only get critique from the 11SC. Am so happy to know there are people somewhere willing to put in the time to help me out. I hope it works for many others like me. I felt like if i wrote down everything am feeling right now, maybe I'll be able to look at it later and see how far i came from where i am today.
Peace,
The black bird
Arnold.

Another body mechanics shot

Another shot I did over the weekend. I call it "Bright Feet" The rendered ersion will show why.

2 walks and Side step

Here's a bunch of shots i did this week to analyse my work flow and better understand body mechanics. I used the lt Dan rig for it's simplicity and despite it's own limitations, i think i can use it for my level of experience. Most rigs have limitations and you have to learn to look past that and get the poses you need.

Vanilla walk:



Character walk:



Side Step:

Fight shot

This has been my most ambitious body mechanics attempt so far. To be honest, it helped me gauge the things am not quite ready to do: 2 characters and slow-mo. I actually needed to use vfx for the shot to make any sense. Hopefully, the things I've learnt in this shot will be able to carry forward into my next shots.

Jump and roll

Here's a simple mechanics shot i did this week.