Dog Lightning!

Just a little update on the clown. Fleshed out all of the rough inbetweens and I'm running it by everyone I can find before I tie it down. Should be done soon!

Another test for the genie animation. I'm pretty proud of that lightning.

So, I went to an animal drawing workshop in New York this weekend (taught by Joe Weatherly). It was pretty awesome, I got a lot out of it. I'll probably be posting some of the sketches up here soon.

Animation Weekend!

So, I guess I'll be update frequently with all of the animations I'm working on. This weekend was nice because all I really had to do was animate. Got a bit done, too!

I made the throw more clear in the clown animation. I still haven't inbetweened that part, so it's a bit choppy. Just wanted to make sure it read. I also tweaked some stuff in the other parts. Made the run in faster, and made his legs scramble at the end. Overall I like how it's coming.

I finished the puppet tests for that genie animation. pretty excited about how flexible they turned out to be. There are parts where it's a little obvious that they're symbols, but overall there's chance for more life than one would think.

I also got a chance to do more of that sprite animation. It's for the credit sequence of a 3D short some friends and I have been working on. I'll be sure to post it up once that's done

Spritely Clowns

Hey guys

Just figured I'd update with a little side project I've been playing with to keep my head on. It's still in it's beginning stages and there's a lot I need to fix (he throws a pie in the middle there...people don't seem to read that, so I'll need to make it clearer), but overall I'm happy with how it's coming out.

On another note, we just wrapped up animation on this one short, and we're in the middle of rendering and special effects now. It's looking pretty cool. I'll let you know when it's done. But here's a taste for now:

While this is all happening I'm in pre-production for another short that should be finished by the end of September. It's a flash animation about a genie who's master is a toddler, and he has to figure out what the baby wants so he can go grant the wishes and go on vacation. Here's a sneak peak at that:

it's not a lot, but it's really just a test to see if the flash puppet for the genie is working properly.

I'll probably be updating more as next quarter progresses.

Best wishes,

Marty

Animation galore!

So, here's the project I was working on. There were a LOT of changes made since I last blogged about it. Most noticeably the switch from hand drawn to symbol animation. I'm not a fan of symbol animation, but we had to scrap it half way through and I ended up doing all the character animation myself in 5 days. Do I want a cookie? Sure.

So, my friend Fenia and I are planning to do a stop-motion piece this summer. I've been playing around with it, trying to get a good workflow, and used to the medium in general. This was my first attempt.

Note: Duct-taping the camera to the table does NOT keep it steady....

Funny story. Originally at the end something was going to fall on the coil and kill it (as seen in the next one). My camera decided not to take the last couple pictures and stopped right after the crawl. It didn't ruin it as a study, but it did take away all of the entertainment value. The camera stole my punchline!

I then ordered a tripod. Which Came today!

Here's my second stop-motion experiment. I was testing out a way to use props and remove them in post. It didn't work out that great because the focus was different from picture to picture. Gotta find a way around that.

Anyway, next time I'll probably show some CG animation.

Till then

And by tomorrow I mean next month...

So, hopefully I'll post some of my stuff more frequently. I have more to show than you'd think

Long time no see...

What have I been up to?

I'm currently heading up animation on this little project a group of students at my school are putting together. Here's a pencil test of one of my shots. I'm hoping with the cool coloring technique in photoshop this piece is gonna look bangarang.

I'll probably be updating with other stuff I've done recently tomorrow...and the next day....expect a post a day....

We built an Animation Desk

So, my friend and I built an animation desk! I got the idea to do it after stumbling upon this blog a couple months ago. Of course, with no tools or experience with wood I never thought it's actually happen. That's where my buddy Chris came in. He had both! And...did most of the actual building while I was the one who deciphered the blueprints and dictated the measurements.

Anyway!

Here are some pictures


Here's the finished desk in it's collapsed portable form. It was awesome because a lot of the measurements we did were based on guesses and it worked out perfectly!


We actually had to completely improvise the legs in the back that lock into the dowels, and it turned out to be the most sturdy part of the whole thing. But cutting that hole....was a pain....


The light fixture was really hard to find for cheap. I had just so happened to bring this gooseneck clip-on lamp with me and we decided to give see how well it would work as a backlight and:


SHAZAM!

SHAZAM!!!

So psyched!


Now, here's some technical stuff:



This is the blueprint we used to build it (found at the Hand-Drawn Animation Equipment blog)

One thing I wished it had come with when I was out buying stuff was an actual supply list to build that thing. So, here's what we needed.



24 x 48 (3/4 in. thick) piece of Aspen
From which we cut:

• 1 24 x 34.5 in. sheet (for the desktop [A])
• 2 9 x 1.5 in. pieces (for the part that you put the dowels in that the back legs rest on [D])
• 2 21.75 x 2 in. pieces (for the sides of the bottom structure [C])
  

3/4 x 6ft x 6 in plank of...I don't remember what kind of wood it was...but it doesn't really matter...it looked similar to the aspen
From which we cut:

• 2 15.5 x 1.5 in. pieces (for the back legs [B])
• 1 32.5 x 1.5 in. piece (for the bottom part of the back legs that rests on the dowels [E])
• 2 34.5 x 2 in. pieces (for the front and back of the bottom structure [F])
  

1/2 in. dowel rod
2 1.5 in. hinges
2 3 in. hinges
4 corner braces
4 regular braces

Tools, and such
Jigsaw
Table Saw
Wood Glue
Clamps
Drill


That's it, really.

All of the parts cost me $50 in total. As opposed to buying one for $300-$500. The most expensive thing I had to buy was the disk which was $102 (which includes shipping).

The Hardest part, obviously, was cutting the 16.5 in. hole in the desktop. We actually cut it a little too big (...and lumpy...), but the disk fits and spins well. It just has a bit of wiggle room.

Till next time,
Marty