Finalizing Weight lift

Okay, so I've continiued to throw down breakdowns, untill I've got the motion I want.
Now I have let the computer fill in the blank frames with inbetweens and I have polished the motion a bit. I can still smooth out a lot, but I'm also afraid it will get too soft and smooth, and end up looking floaty and cg, which I why I did all the breakdowns in the first place.

So with all that said and done, here is what it looks so far.
I can probably still iron out kinks here and there, but overall I'm pretty happy with the result.
Here it is:



At a later point, I will upload the final version and a nice rendered version as well.

Stay tuned for more.
Cheers

Weight lift exercise

Hi there.
So between character design, storyboard and frustration, I decided to take time and do, what I really love to do: ANIMATION.
I actually havn't really tryed any of the known animation exercises, such as bouncing ball (just few for fun), lifting heavy box, and so on, so I thought I'd try that out.
I've been reading and studying animation, way more than actually animating, lately, so I figured an actual animation exercise would do me well.

First I did some video reference, of me lifting a somewhat heavy box. It's captured with my super awefull mobile video camera, so the quality is horrific. But it gives a good idea about broad posing and timing.



Next I choose the most important poses, and sketched those down on a piece of paper.
I havn't got a scanner with me, but once I'll have that, I'll scan it in for you.
Then it was basically just a matter of taking those poses, and put them into maya.
I roughly used the timing the video reference gave me, but as you might notice, the timing changed a bit from the reference, to the blocking and into the breakdowns - guess you could call that refinement ;)



Then it's time to do the breakdowns. This is - to me - the most difficult part. Going from the keys to the final animation is very hard. I struggle with keeping the life and snappyness throughout the breakdowns. I've really tried to work with as many breakdowns as possible to minimise the risk of floaty/bad computer inbetweens. I've keyed on every second frame, througout the first half of the animation, and it's pretty clear when it stops.

It's still a bit rough though, but once I get it refined and let the computer fill in the blank frames, it should be all smooth and nice.




So this is where I'm at now. Hopefully I'll find time to finish it, and add in breakdowns for the last half of the animation, get it refined and smoothed out.

So far I've worked about 5 hours on it... on and off, but with msn and facebook, that's a lot off ;)

Btw: the rig is from this dude named Jason Baskin. Make sure you check them out, they are AWESOME!
LINK TO HIGHEND3D

Cheers and have fun!

Concept sketches for Departure

Okay, I guess I should update again with some more concent from my short film project.
This is a nother quick drawing I did yesterday with a black marker on some cheap-ass paper, slapped it onto the scanner and threw in some faster colors.

It's basically four different elements from the film drawn into one page/composition/whatever.
I hope you like it, and that it gives a small clue on where I'm going with this one.
I'm still working out the designs and stuff like that.

During juli I hope to get the storyboard completed, so I have a clear idea about what it will look like, and what obstacles I will face.
I guess I'll post a board or two when I'm done.





















Cheers

Departure first glimpse

Hi there.
Since my last acting shot, I havn't really shown anything, but that doesn't mean I've been lazy :)
I have started production of a new shortfilm. I feel the story is better than any other I've come up with, so hopefully if I can find time to finish this off, it will be pretty decent.

I'd like to share a concept picture of one of the scenes, to get you into the right mindset, and then write a little bit of the story.














The story is about an old man and his loss of his lifelong wife, how he copes with being alone and his desire to meet her again - on earth or beyond.

Happy face

So, a big happy face huh?

Yep, a great big one indeed!
I just found out, that I'm accepted into a animation school here in Viborg, Denmark.
It's called The Animation Workshop and it has an amazing rep. throughout scandinavia and europe.
The line I was acceped at is officially labeled:
"Bachelor of Arts in Character Animation".

I simply can't wait to get started. The teachers here are amazing. They come in from all over the world to teach us for a couple of weeks, then they leave again. This maintains a up-to-date level, which is important in a business like animation, and it gives us a lot of cool contacts to a lot of the cool studios all across the globe.

On another note, I slowly started pre-production (storyboard, concept art, sketching, reference gathering and so forth) of a new short film. I'm pretty excited about that as well! Stay tuned for more...

Ohh, and a final note. The acting piece I did not that long ago, ended up as no. 65 out of 191. I guess that's alright considering the vast amount of noobish mistakes I did during the production.

Cheers