Animation Mentor Term 4 Week 8

In-progress.

I'm not going to lie - I'm really not liking the direction this is going in. I've disagreed pretty significantly with some of the feedback over the past couple of weeks because I feel the scene's being steered in a direction that a) isn't what I was after and b) has changes in it that make little to no sense to me. Feedback I had on this dilemma suggests that most people agree with me. The choreography of dialogue and action just feels diluted and less effective now, and I'm going to have to make even MORE changes based on the feedback I got. Consequently I'll be doing two versions of this scene: one version for the mentor/course and one for my progress/demo reel. I don't even bother to look at my grade any more.
I'm trying to be philosophical about it, as this is a scenario that can happen in a job. Your supervisor will ask for changes that you don't agree with and you just gotta do it. My irritation comes from the fact that it feels like I'm animating to satisfy one person and that I'll look at the final version and just want to leave it buried on my computer. And if I can't understand the reason for the changes, then I can't steer this ship reliably; I'm just following a set of instructions.

Facial poses (to become more familiar with the controls):

Again, I don't get it. Changing the mouths has now altered the sound she'd be making, so it seems like a confusing and needless change.

All in all, frustrating.
Wah wah wah.

Animation Mentor Term 4 Week 7

In-progress.

Animation Mentor Term 4 Week 6

Thumbnailed out a new scenario:

Shot new reference footage:

Blocking:

Poses:

Animation Mentor Term 4 Week 5

Mostly planning for the next assignment: animation with dialogue.
I picked three lines of dialogue from which one'll be chosen as the one I'll animate to:

Some thumbnailing for each scenario:

And, embarrassingly, my reference video. I suck so bad at acting.

Two facial expressions from my reference video, along with the adjustments made after mentor feedback. I was trying to get a "sh" shape to the mouth on the second one, but I'm not sure the mentor realised that so he indicated a change that now takes away that phoenetic-related shape.

Animation Mentor Term 4 Week 4

Here is the final animation I submitted.

Mentor has given me some further refinements so I'll be working on that concurrently with my next assignment.

Animation Mentor Term 4 Weeks 1 to 3

Sorry, I fell behind with my AM posting.
First assignment (stretched over four weeks) is a pantomime shot.
Planning:

I did a rough animatic in Flash and realised I had to change the idea somewhat due to frame constraints (max of 192fr):

Blocking from week 2:

After feedback, and having gone into spline in week 3:

Got one more week to implement some changes and refine further.

Animation Mentor Term 03 Progress Reel

And there went term 3!

Animation Mentor Term 03 Week 09

I've been a bit slack updating this blog, but this is where I'm at with my 3D animation. Only the first scene has been rendered out; the others are just playblasts.

Animation Mentor - Term 3 Week 4

Been struggling to do anything art-related except study lately.
Here's the first scene for my Advanced Body Mechanics class. The set is only temporary.

Animation Mentor Progress Reel

Showing work from an02 and an01 modules.

Animation Mentor Term 2 - Week 12

The last four weeks of term were for working on our piece of animation, so this is what I ended up with.

I will have a progress reel to upload, but it needs to be put together in AE and I have to rely on a very busy aeronik for that!

For now, a week's break and then term 3!

Animation Mentor Term 02 - Week 07 After Feedback

Animation Mentor Term 02 - Week 07

Final dog walk cycle (until after feedback, of course!)

Reference video for next assignment. There are jumps in it as it's several takes patched together.

I did my planning by using Flash, as I've found it easier to both adjust timing and change the animation rough keys. As my time frame limit is 250fr, it seemed best to have the character leap over the back of the chair rather than walk back around it. Since I couldn't do that without probably injuring myself, I Flash-ruffed it instead to see if it'd work:

Animation Mentor Term 02 - Week 06 After Feedback

  Comparison with submitted version:

 Comparison with submitted version:

Animation Mentor Term 02 - Week 06

I was unable to progress as far as I would've liked on the walk refining as I had to travel interstate for a wedding and thus had to hand in my work 3 days early.

Animation Mentor Term 02 - Week 05

Animation Mentor Term 02 - Week 04 After Feedback

 

Comparison with submitted version:

Tricky thing with this pose was making sure that the paws didn't line up with each other, which another student pointed out to me prior to originally submitting. It was hard to incorporate the changes without that alignment happening again!

Animation Mentor Term 02 - Week 04

Animation Mentor Week 03 After Feedback

I've got to spend some time making changes to the walk cycle submitted last week, but here are the changes to the poses based on feedback.

Overlaid with last week's pose as a comparison: 

Overlaid with last week's pose as a comparison:

Animation Mentor Term 2 - Week 03