Well hello,

I haven't blogged in a while but here is just a quick update of what I'm up to on my road of animation, I will also try and write this without using the word awesome.

First of all I am having a blast at Ianimate, I have to say that I was a bit nervous to begin with as I was brand new to animation, being a fan of animation and actually taking on the task of animating was exciting if not a tad scary, but I can now tell you that its the best thing I have ever chosen to do and IA is a great place to do it. I also cannot actually believe how much I have learnt in just one month, going from knowing nothing to something is very exciting.

I was lucky enough to get Stephen Melagrano as my tutor, a great tutor who has an amazing knowledge and experience in animation. His work is......well awesome (dam it!) and the way he gets across answers and his past experiences to the class is just awesome (dam it again) You may also know Stephen from speakingofanimation a great site with podcast interviews with some of the best minds and talent in the business.  My favourites have to be with Jason Schleifer which is also quite funny and How To Train Your Dragon one of my favourite animated movies.

This is the week of the first simple rig character which you can see in the above image. The class is having great fun with this little guy, he has very puppet like qualities. I have a class of brilliant new animators from all over the world, who take their time to help others in the course which I should really thank them more often for. It is extremely helpful and inspiring having critique from fellow international students to help push our work and where else in the world can you do this :)

Well that's what I have been up to since my last babblings, feel free to follow this blog and add any comments or questions. I will try and blog more frequently but animation comes first.

Thanks

Adam B  

Character Blocking

Finally got round to doing my first attempt at blocking a Character sequence, Any comments or critique is of course welcome to help me improve this and future work, you also may recognise the ninja character :)


Thanks


Adam B

Some of the best and most useful examples of animation from my childhood

In the clip has to be some of the best heavy lifting and posture animation I have seen, the lines are fantastic as well as the great squash and stretch in the character, and its Goofy possibly one of my favourite characters of all time.The scene where he struggles to carry the package is spot on and the weight lifting is priceless.

I first saw this clip along with many more on a Goofy all star Olympic video that I got when I was a kid (which I still own). This gem covers many different sporting activities and history of the sport, which are great for reference and it just shows how comical animation works with the focus just on one single character for 45minutes.

If you ever get the chance check out some of the Olympic footage on youtube you won't be disappointed and may even find use for them in your current work. As we know the principal of animation stays the same from 2D to 3D and who best to study than Disney's finest.

Enjoy

Adam B

Ianimate Workshop 1

I am so excited to say that I have been accepted in to Ianimate's workshop 1, I know it is going to be full on especially for a newbie like me, but I have to say I haven't been this excited in along time. I can't wait to meet fellow students and create a much richer connection with the online animation community, which I can see is such an important role in today's animation world if not the most.

See you out there in the digital world and beyond.

Adam B

Bouncy bouncy

Here are some of my animated bouncing balls to help become more familiar with Maya's animation tools, the last scene is only rough and I accidentally deleted the squash and stretch tool somewhere along the workflow and could not retrieve it, but I will start a fresh one with all tools intact.

Any comments and critique to help me improve these or my future attempts would be greatly appreciated

Thanks for watching

Adam

My first animated ball, I welcome any comments

This is my first attempt at animating a bouncing ball, I know it's only short but it was just to get familiar with the tools, I welcome any comments and critique to help me improve.

Thanks

Adam B

I need a reel to apply for Ianimate this August, I better get started!

I have finally made a decision!

After pestering many people from both sides of Animation and VFX (you know who you are..) I think I now know what to do. First of all let me thank the people who have given me advice to date, it truly is amazing how helpful the animation community is and I can't wait to be a part of it.

 I have chosen to try and take part in workshop1 at Ianimate to get a real taste of what animation is about and see if its for me, if it isn't then I'll be on my way. Although I don't have to much time to be jumping from course to course, I already wasted my uni days with architecture then realised later it's not for me, although it gave me a stronger love for the 3D world.

I was thinking about studying VFX at escape then get my foot in the door of the industry before working my way over to Character Animation, but I'm not sure if this is a good idea or even feasible, does anyone know or have an opinion on whether this is a good idea?

Let me know what you all think

Thanks

Adam