Various Updates

AM Update : Class 1.4. This week we'll be going one step further on the bouncing ball animation and add an illusion weight. We'll animate two balls, one light, the other heavy. This week, there are poses due.

Project update : I figured out how to add a gallery page for the Animation Mentor work I've been doing. I'll add the .mov files I've done as soon as I figure out how to put them into a lightbox setup.

I am excited about next week's assignment: On top of the STU poses, we will be animating a ball going through an obstacle course using squash and stretch. It will be a busy busy week.

Class 1.3 - Assignment

This week's assignment is the bouncing ball. I've decided to do this assignment in two major phases (after the initial planning phase of course). First I will do a straight forward bounce with a roll and settle. The second phase will to play around with arcs and trajectories and make the ball bounce down a slope, against a wall, and into a crevice. It should be fun.

The Pose assignment seems to be giving me trouble due to the fact that we shouldn't (not that we can't; but that we shouldn't) use cliché excited poses. I have only been able to find a few excitment poses in picture and video, but they have been in crowds of people.. all of whom seem to be doing the exact same pose (more or less).

Q&A
I really enjoyed this week's Q&A with Victor. He showed us some of his work and even the breakdown stages of some shots in Pixar films he worked on. Very cool stuff.

I'll probably start posting the poses from class so I have a record of my work somewhere besides the AM servers.

Class 1.2 (assignments)

So the assignment for Class 1.2 is done. I now have access to a simple character rig that will help me add some character (not pun intended) to my site. I've had the idea for a while, but haven't had the material (basic character) to do it with.

Hopefully this next assignment will allow me to tie in the idea with the session matierial. Stay tuned!

Class 1 - Update (Session2)

After having our Q&A this week with Victor, I came to the realization that I have a tendency to use a person's outer contour to base my sketches off of. This of course has led me to make incorrect sketches; but now that I know what I'm doing wrong and what I should be looking for instead, I can correct it and improve my work.

This week's assignment is to physically sketch several poses, pick one, and pose STU in said selected pose. I have 3 that I'm going to pose STU in: throwing a kickball, kicking a ball, and a leisure pose.

RANT ALERT
This first version of STU given to us by AM.com is rigged so that one arm is IK and the other is FK. While I realise that it is done this way to get us accustomed to working in both solvers, it irks me that we don't even have the choice to turn switch between the two modes.
END RANT

I have got an idea to create two scripts this week: The first is a render setup for making a solid color background for mental ray final gather renders. Admittedly, I got the idea from a tutorial I saw on AM.com forums. My script will simply be a one-click setup for the same tutorial. The second is a camera bookmark tool, where I duplicate a the current view's camera, name it and lock it in place to allow the user to come back to it.

Q&A 1

I had my first Q&A with Don Kim's class. However, I was unable to speak to the class due to a microphone malfunction. I have also switched classes. I am now under the supervision of Victor Navone.