Ninja animation WIP2

An update on the animation.
I did a few changes and just generally put in a few more hours to polish the poses a bit more.
Check it out here, by clicking the picture:



I gave the lighting a shot as well.
Still a lot to tweak, especially in relation to the characters which are underlit, but I'm trying to keep rendertimes way down which is going great so far. Rendering with Maya Software render at around 1 minute a frame in 1280*720 at production quality (no motion blur, though).

Ninja Animation

It's been a while to say the least.
I finished first year of animation school, and 2d animation is now history - at least for now.
I can't wait to start on 3d!
I think 2d has been a perfekt background and starting ground, and I feel blessed I got a chance to learn animation this way.

I'm still busy with my shortfilm, but after modeling characters for a few weeks I just really need to do some animation, so I started this shot yesterday.
It only a few hours into it, but I think it could be a sweet piece if enough time gets invested into it.


Also first time i try to embed quicktime into a blogpost, so hopefully it works :)

Have a nice day

animation shelf

Hey guys.

A non-animation update... sort of...
I have an animation shelf in maya, that was populated with a bunch of standart maya shelf icons, for opening different animation related editors, and a few neat commands.

There is really NOT much to it, but maybe someone can find it usefull.
The icons looks like this:






Probably not the prettiest icons you'll ever see, but they are better than the standart maya ones.
It's for Playblast (last settings), toggle on/off playback rate display on screen, open graph editor, toggle on/off frame count display on screen and open dope sheet.

You can download the full pack here, plus the icons, and even the psd in 320*320 so you can edit whatever you want and scale for your self.
I trust you know where to put what ;)

Link

Hope you can find some use to it.
Oh, and the base of the Framecounter was found, I believe, on the 11secondclub.com forums awhile ago.
I just modifed it, added toggle on/off, and based it on the playback speed script.

Cheers

Bernard at bar

Another animation created about four days with lectures and such.
This time around I chose Bernard from The Rescuers to animate.
I had a hard time keeping it on model, I guess my 3d preference came through pretty clearly ;)

anyways, the story layout was, that the character is sitting in a bar waiting. That's it!
And it HAD to be five seconds. Nothing more, Nothing less. I added a few frames after it was done, just to hold that last pose a bit, so it ended at 125 frames or so.

I had a great time working on it, and got a chance to do some more subtle animation, which I absolutely love to do!
I had focus on not doing to much pose to pose animation. Hiding the keys is probably the wrong way to put it, but floating smoothly through the keys rather than key-hold-key-hold.

'Nough said, here it is:

Bernard at bar from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

temporary animation reel

So here is the reel as it looks so far.
It's not finished yet, even one shot in there is only blocked in.

The finished reel should be finished around april.

Temporary animation reel from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Midway test

This is the first test we have had at school.
No teachers to guide us, only our peers.

The rules were that he should lie down across the door, change mood from sad to determined/angry, get up and try to open the door.
The whole thing should last no more or less than 120 frames (five seconds).

It was quite a challenge, first of all to hit exactly 120 frames, but later on the room we were given, was very small and a big challenge to get him in an interesting way from one side to the other, as there wasn't really enough room for a run.

I shot some reference of my self, and based a few important pieces on that (the was he gets up, and the slide in the end).

he are my initial thumbnails:















And here is the final animation, created in one intense week:

midway test from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Quadroped

A couple of four legged shots I've animated in my sparetime.
I've never touched (studied or animated) four legged creatures before, neither their anatomy nor their movement, so this was a pleasant break from the usual biped stuff.

These are done in my sparetime.
I take only credit for the animation.

The rigs can be found on creativecrash.com

Running dog, final version from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Scared deer from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Get Up old man!

The next animation assignment I'm giving my self, is an old man getting up from laying down to standing.
I shot some reference, tried to analyze it, find the weight, the force, the motion, the timing, all the small subtle stuff that makes animation come to life.
Find the keys, the breakdowns and so on.
Here is a chart of my Keyframes:

















I have set up my maya scene, so it's ready to animate with!
Hopefully I can start blocking my animation tomorrow. We'll see.

Cheers

Oh! btw!
I've open a blog for my everlasting short film project: "Deep".
Check out some pre-prod. stuff here:
www.deepfilm.blogspot.com

cheers again

Dog runcycle

Okay, so I found a rig of a dog that's way better than any wolf rig I could find, so I ended up making a dog runcycle, which fits perfectly, 'cause the poses were actually taken from a dog and not a wolf. I just figured a wolf would be more badass :D
Rig credit goes to: Sudeesh S (http://www.creativecrash.com/users/sudhi3d)


Anyways, here is the result of the 3d animation so far.
It lacks a bit of weight, and the head movement is not as good as it could/should be.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the four-legged animals, how they walk and run. There is a lot to understand and keep and eye on.

Dog runcycle from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

I hope you like it, though :)

Cheers

More wolf planning

Not a big update here.

I just erased my comments on the thumbs, and put 'em one on top of each other, and imported it into a editing app. 

Here is how it plays on ones.
I have a feeling it goes at bit too slow, and it is a bit mechanical.
When I pose it in 3d, I will have to push each pose a bit to make it more dynamic.

Anyways, here is the animation test of my thumbs:

run cycle thumbnails from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Wolf animation

Hi guys.

I've focused my spare time animation on creature stuff atm. and I'm struggling with the challenge.

A LOT of weight distribution is happening all the time, but with some practice I should get the basics, I hope.
The assignment I've given my self, is a running lion, wolf, dog, tiger, or four legged creature of that kind, what ever nice rig I can find :)

Besides this, I've been working on a deer animation, but it's giving me some trouble, so I've desided to move on, learn some more, and get back to it.

Here are the thumbnails for the run.
As I arranged the page in photoshop, I realised I've probably drawn a bit too many, but at this stage, I thinks it's important I don't think I can make up stuff as a go, and prepare myself as good as possible.
Check them out and leave a comment if you please.

I'm not really sure about the 12 frames for the entire run. 
So far I've focused on the poses, next up will be the timing of them.

Cheers

Drunk Goofy

Drunk Goofy from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

A lot of "new" things where tried out in this week.
I decided to do the whole animation in a 3/4 perspective, which ment for the first time, to try and do a walk in perpective.

I also tried to work a bit differently with my drawings.
Instead of focusing on one principle at a time, I tried to incoorporate all animation principles into each drawing, while I did them, thinking of flow, arcs, anticipation, follow through, drag and so on.

Most of the scene is animated straight ahead, but with my initial keys as a guideline for where I wanted my character to go. For this animation, straight ahead animation felt like the best choice, because of the constant weight shift and the extreme drag in the limbs.

The whole animation is done in about 4 days, and just as with the weight lift exercise, with the great animator Meelis Arulepp as teacher, guide, mentor, animator-dude :)
-Always a pleasure.

Cheers

Goofy lift

This week we worked on a goofy animation.

The focus was on weight, as he was supposed to lift a heavy stone.

Here are my thumbnails of which I based my key drawings.

And here is the final animation.
It took about 4 days.

Goofy Lift from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

I had, besides the weight, focus on contrast. Contrast in timing and contrast in posing.
Even though I had some major ups and downs with this project, the end result i satisfying.

Design

A couple of weeks ago I had a design class.


We talked about abstract design that could give a universal feeling of something, without being too specific, and thereby not as open.


The first picture is a abstract representation of Strawberry Icecream:














The second one is a abstract representation of Dark Chocolate:















It was all very interesting and super usefull for all design purposes :)


Cheers!

Pink Panther assignments

Hi there.
Here is a collection of the latest school assignments I've done.
They feature the lovely Pink Panther character.

They shouldn't be considered final animation pieces, but as the animation studies there are.
Because of time/skill constraints, they all have severe lacks in different areas, but work okay in the areas of focus :)

Pink Panther Table hit from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Pink Panther Standard Walk from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Pink Panther Attitude walk from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

I aplogize for the lack of preview image.
Hopefully Vimeo will add it soon!
Cheers!

Hello mr. Flour Sack

Time for another update, another school assignment and another go on 2d animation.
This time I've scanned some of my planning drawings, which I'll share with you guys.

First off, here is the animation:

Flour Sack from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

We got a storyboard handed out from our teacher, and the storyboard was timed out, and obviously we were supposed to stick as close as possible to the staging, acting and timing suggested by the board - that was a part of the challenge.

First off, we sketched out a couple of poses for our character (the famous Flour Sack), just to get to know the character and how to draw it.

After that I started planning and thumbnailing. Drawing the background and the motion of the character. Both to figure out some of the key poses but also to make sure they are within the framing.

Here is how they look:

Scene 1:

Scene 3:

Scene 4, part 1

Scene 4, Part 2.

Scene 5:

After that, it was time to put down the keys, test them and time them out, acordingly to the motion and the preset timing.
I added time charts on all the keys, so could sort out the spacing before I went on with inbetweens. Constant changes were made in the timing during the "production", but I really tried to work organised and "by the book".

For now, I guess it's so simple, that I could just start at frame 1, and with a clear image in my head, just animate ahead without planning. It might even get more loose and free, but I strongly feel for getting the organised workflow into my system as quickly as possible, so when some more advanced stuff comes along, it will be second nature.

After that, breakdowns were added and finally inbetweens.

A lot of hours were invested in the shot, and most days were from 9:30 AM to 02:00 AM, so looooong days, but when it's as fun as this was, it's all worth it.

In the end, I think it got a little messy, which I'm regretting a bit. I keep telling myself to keep it simple, but somehow simplicity seems to be the hardest thing to achieve.
I tried to stay loose and sketchy with my drawings, and I think it worked out alright - drawingwise.

Anyways I don't think I've forgotten anything. If there is any questions what so ever, or if you just feel like saying hallo, or have a comment on my animation, please feel free and welcome to comment on my posts :)

Cheers and have a good evening!

Christoffer

Robber Ball

Another school assignment.

I think this turned out okay. It was hell to inbetween the drag of the money bag, but other than that, I felt good about it all the way through.

RObber ball from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Croquis and first 2d animation

Hi guys.

So, little progress on my short film. I simply don't have time atm.
On the other hand, I get to do a lot of drawing and animation all day long, so I guess it's pretty cool anyways.
Today we showed our first 2d character animation.
It's been quite a pleasure to work on this, although it was some looooong hours in the end.
A LOT of things are wrong, but here goes for nothing:

Fly and Frog from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

I also got a chance to go to croquis after school for the first time since march, so I'm more than rusty, but I collected a bunch of them, to show here anyways. Some of them works okay, others have something that works, but figured they'd be interesting to look at.

Rainy august

Figured it'd be time for an update here on this rainy sunday, in the beginning of august, in the lovely country of Denmark - yay!

So, no pictures today, just words. I'm in a pretty creative process right now, working on a short film. The designs are coming along, after a couple of months of agonizing and frustration.
I've started on the storyboarding which I have a pretty ambivalent feeling about. On one side, it's such an amazing tool where you are forced to think about even the smallest detail in a very visual and concrete way.
On the other hand though, it's just so extremely difficult and tough. There is no cheating, no short cuts no nothing. Everything has to be crystal clear and figured out.

But at the end of the day, you just gotta do it. There is no way around it, and a nicely fleshed out storyboard is just invalueble for the rest of the process.

That was it for the short film. On another note, it just got very official that I'm accepted into the bachelor line at the Animation Workshop, so as of september I'm officially a animation student. To celebrate my self (lol!) I decided to buy two books, that I really think will help my.
They are both titled Drawn To Life, one about humans and one about animals. They are based on the learning material that was made availble for the disney animators in the 1980'ths and still today (I think). I cannot wait to get my greasy hands on them, and learn a bit about how to draw for animation.

That's it for now. I might post a small teaser on the storyboard later on, but for now, I'll keep it all off web.

Cheers.

Final Weight lift exercise

Here is the final rendered version, animated in maya, rendered with mental ray, with rendertimes around 30 sec. on a super crappy laptop.

I've really tried a new way of animating (the Jason Ryan way), so I feel I've learned a lot, which is probably the most important thing.
I'm fairly happy with the results, although I see troubles a couple of places. I can't really be specific about it, so I can't really make any changes.
Maybe in a couple of weeks I can see all the flaws :)

Weight Lift exercise from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Cheers