Seattle Animation Mentor Gathering

A bunch of Animation Mentor ninjas in the Seattle area got together tonight to enjoy a few liters at Feierabend. We had a few folks starting next quarter, a graduate from the first ever AM class, and everything in between. Thanks to Faisal (Fes) Navqi for setting it up!

The Princess and the Frog Video Game Out Today!

Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" for Nintendo Wii, DS and PC, available now! Developed by Griptonite Games.

Click Here or here for more info

Trailer courtesy of Disney Interactive Studios.

John Lasseter checks out my animation (sort of)

A friend of mine just forwarded this photo of John Lasseter himself playing "The Princess and the Frog" on the Wii!

Photo courtesy of Disney Interactive Studios.

Full article available HERE

Where the Wild Things Are: the Video Game

New trailer for one of the more recent projects I've been able to contribute to:

Video Games | Where the Wild Things Are | TGS 09: Max and Carol Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Graduated!

So as of yesterday, I have officially completed the "advanced studies in character animation" program at animationmentor.com. It was an awesome experience all around, and I would recommend the program in a heartbeat to anyone with a passion for learning animation. One of the best parts of the school is the great community of friends and contacts that you build, and I really hope I can stay in touch with all the fun, talented people I've met. Blog-wise, hopefully I'll get around to posting all of the leftover stuff that I neglected to post while the program was going. What can I say? Too busy doing homework : )

Pencil Test Depot

If you're an animator, chances are you've already seen this, but if you haven't, go take a look. It's a blog that collects up pencil test footage by a ton of amazing animators from all over the internet. Head on over and drool.



http://penciltestdepot.blogspot.com/



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New Demo Reel Posted

Link also posted up there, top right.


Nelson Brown Demo Reel


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You've GOT to see this film!

"Who's Hungry?" By David Ochs from CalArts. Proof that dark, tense, scary material can be done effectively in animated short form. Warning for delicate eyes: super dark and pretty violent as far as cartoons go.



audience reaction:

Face Poses

Like hand poses in class 3, For class 4 we found interesting face poses and tried to capture their essence with Bishop. It's incredible how big of a difference little details can make.

Monologue - now complete with facial!

With David's help I made a few alterations to the body animation and then dove into the new world of facial animation.

Class 4 - Advanced Acting

My mentor for Advanced Acting was David Gallagher, a longtime vet of Blue Sky and now splitting his time between Blue Sky and Lumenas.

David's website

Class 3 complete!

Marek and my classmates really helped me grow over the course of this quarter. Here's the latest progress reel:

Monologue

Time really flies, my first AM shot with voice-over! In this class we focused almost completely on body motion with a little work on eyes and jaw, the plan being to wrap up the facial animation in Class 4.

Audio from Reel Big Fish's "You Got to Give it to Me"

Hand Poses

Completed a number of hand poses along with our animation assignments; hand poses that should look interesting, as well as communicate an idea or emotion.

Angry:




Relaxed:



Surprised:

Pantomime

Had to create a scene with two distinct emotional beats. I definitely want to come back to this shot one of these days. As you can see from the video ref, this shot went through some pretty big changes, with Marek's guidance.

Class 3 - Intro to Acting

My mentor for this quarter was Marek Kochout, from Dreamworks. I had a fantastic time in this class. Marek has definitely been one of my favorite mentors so far.

Marek's filmography

Class 2 complete!

Here's my progress reel for Body Mechanics class. Thanks to David Breaux for all kinds of awesome information!

Heavy Weight Pull

Video Ref co-starring Mr. James Lutz (www.lutzanimation.com)

Post Jump

Worked up to a character with a torso. Working on balance primarily.







Worked up to a character with a torso. Working on balance primarily.

The blog that's not a blog...

Soooo, obviously I'm a colossal procrastinator when it comes to this blog (my two readers), so now for your viewing pleasure, I'm going to play a posting game of catch up! Enjoy.