So. I could update with some stuff from my film. BUT INSTEAD I AM GOING TO DENY YOU THAT. Because I'm more interested in this chap here.
Say hello to Grant, the heroin-addict drug-overdose ghost who towers over Logan at 6 foot 5 inches. He's got a penchant for schemes involving anything with hamsters and has a bit of a paranoid side. He's very touchy-feely. Logan does not approve.
Slowly. But surely. I am conquering understanding Maya.
I've still only got down animating in the program, but I'm finding it easier to do things I want to do, and navigate to certain aspects in order to fix the hooza-whatsits with the thing-a-ma-bobs.
I have 31 minutes left to my birthday. =) It has been an amazing day, unlike any I have had in a very long time. THANK YOU EVERYONE! for being so wonderfully kind and sweet to me, and giving me loads of hugs! Good bye, April 13th! =) Come again next year! haha.
(edit) Okay. So I have been dying to review this film for a couple months now. Then I got home, my mind buzzing, and breathless from spewing out a stream of incessant praises to a more than patient friend on the car-ride home at quarter to 12 in the morning. Finally I sat down to write a review, and nothing but the above statement could be written. Nothing. So, upon calming my geek-freak-out down a bit, I have returned to reiterate this:
GO SEE IT NOW.
Folks. I can sit here and tell you the finer points of why the lightning and atmosphere is wonderful, about the moments in this film which ensnare you, but no matter what I say, whether you go see it or not is up to you. But this is one film, that if you go see, you will never want your money back.
I will relay this, however. I had a moment, well several, but one in particular that I found myself just clutching at my mouth, astonished, fear-ridden, hopeful, and immersed entirely in this film. And around me most of the audience, adults and children alike, held that same expression. And that is exactly what a film should do: Capture its audience.
I just wanted to drop a quick word about a few websites that I'm adding to my sidebar because of their downright usefulness.
Animationmeat, ThinkingAnimation, and Don Bluths Animation Academy all have really, really wonderful pdf's (except the Bluth one, copy-paste, folks) on just so many topics regarding the more technical aspects of animation. The Nine Old Men series featured on both Thinking Animation and AnimationMeat is one of those gold mines you don't want to miss!
They've even got a great pdf on Planning and Timing your animation by Glen Keane- not that I have the seven essentials taped to my desk, or anything *ahem*
Also- DON GRAHAM NOTES! His Action Analysis classes were a huge factor behind Disney's characters becoming more solid, more believable in weight and volume.
I might be a little bit on the late train in posting these up, I usually am the last one to realize what great resources are available, but better late than never!!!
Feel free to send any more interesting finds to me, I'm always looking for more of these great tidbits!
Wow hey folks. It's been almost a month since I posted last! Not very cool, on my part, especially with my promises of the "Reflecting on Greatness" series falling so far behind.
I've actually been feeling really tight and generally having a bad spell with my animation, but I'm pulling myself out of it, with the help of the great support and wonderful friends and artists I have here at CalArts. Plus some good old buddies, too! (Audrey you rock my socks).
So, in lieu of all this bad-feeling-ness, I decided to share two pretty awful pencil tests I've done on the side, to try to loosen up/ feel better. Sometimes, just messing around and allowing yourself to make the mistakes helps you feel better, because the pressure for perfection is off.
This girl started out fun, then I got too serious on her, and I ended up getting too tight with the drawing and the animation, and stopped paying attention to really what the feeling is... which threw my proportions and facial construction out the window! Haha. Well, it's bad, but I learned. Live and learn!! ^_^
And this guy has his own timing problems, but it was fun, because I was just loose. I forced myself to be loose-- Had a stack of papers on the floor for every tight drawing I did, to get thrown away. This one's a straight ahead, which is a little different from what I usually do. I usually straight ahead the keys and Bd's then pose-to-pose the inbetweens, with a straight ahead pass on any flow-y bits. It's a nice change of pace.
Soon there will be more bits of my film up. Style frames will probably be posted sometime tonight, or Monday.
I'm working on a research project /paper too, which is keeping me busy but has been a blast. Basically it's about character personality animation at Disney, exploring the pathos of those characters. I've always been a huge nerd and factoid, but delving into acting, narrative theory, and the animation of these people who inspire me is enough to just blow my mind. Intimidating, yes. Inspiring, heck yes.
