Secrets - Part 07 (Beating a Horse Dead)

Click above for animation. Bigger than either of us like.

So did you miss me? For the first week I missed a blog post since I’ve started blogging and that is actually an apt indicator for how ungodly busy I’ve been over the last few weeks. I’ve working at my J.O.B, been putting out a few feelers for jobs since I anticipate quite possibly being on the unemployed line (or couch) by the end of this month and trying to step up my participation in planning my wedding. So what’s been happening with my AM schooling, you may ask? Don’t you want to ask? Fine don’t ask, see what I care.

Oh let’s not fight. You know I can’t stay mad at you.

As it turned out, two weeks ago JasonS was having some computer issues, as are known to happen at the least convenient times and got the crits to us a little later than he would have preferred, but still got them through by Thursday morning. Gladly, I had plans to leave town for the weekend so, sadly, I didn’t have much more time that Thursday day to finish up that week’s effort. But the notes on the shot were pretty minimal so I was able to address them in time and post on Friday evening.

Which brings us to last week when I got even more great notes back on the piece and attempted to address them for the “final” shot this week. Can’t say that I’m supper happy with this piece yet, but it seems to have its plusses. I’m going to take one more go at it and then get some space. I tried to give certain movements of hers more weight, like when she slumps back into the chair, but it seemed to throw off the tempo a touch. I’m not sure I can offer you much insight into what I’m thinking on this piece right now. I think I’m at full saturation and when I give this piece the slightest glance my brain goes all wet noodle on me.

I can tell you that I spent a good amount of time shaping her eyelids and that was the first time I found anything in the process of creating this whole piece to be tedious. I have no idea if I’m doing it “correctly” as well. But I do like having the time to put so much attention to detail, something that doesn’t happen in my workplace nearly enough due to understandable budget and scheduling constraints. So step through it with your arrow keys, dear reader, and notice how her pupils exert the slightest influence of how the lid is shaped. Gasp at how detailed animation can be. Awe at the rivers of patience that pre-requisite such an undertaking. Behold the mightiness of my subliminally noticeable subterfuge.

Meanwhile, I am going to move forward on blocking a new shot in the next week that will take me through the end of this semester. The focus is on creating a multi-character shot, so two characters this time, not one talking to disembodied voice off screen. I have the amazingly daunting task of picking out an audio clip to live with for the duration of the project. Something that drives me crazy with second guessing choices, strategizing demo reels and twirling around in place going dee dee dee laa laa weeeeee, phbbbbbt snort.

Hopefully, I will choose wisely.

Secrets - Part 0M6! (Facial Funtasy)

Click above for animation. About 4MB.

Well, Animation Mentor came through with a near flawless script that popped off that old pesky expressionless head and surgically attached a new and improved Bishop melon that has full facial controls on it. Bravo for AM and namely Taylor Mahony for pulling off such a complex and, quite frankly, daunting task for hundreds of students, so that we can all move our shots forward, twirling into the future. Wooot!

So getting in there and messing around, I got all giddy. The face has a fantastic range, distorting into some of the goofiest mugs I’ve seen in an animated character available in a school. Her brow was completely lost in her bangs and the hair had to be unparented to make the head swap anyways so I decided to move forward with her uber-pig-tails hidden for now. Fret not, dear reader, for they have promised to return. For now, try not to judge her for her shiny golden brown baldness.

The only down side to the head swapping script is that eye direction and blink animation were not transferable. But actually all during break, I noticed how cock-eyed the "Secrets - Part 5" thumbnail is for the video. So perhaps it is a blessing in disguise that I was prompted to go back and rework the eyes. I immediately set to work, recreating what I had previously done while adding in a few tweaks that I was dying to make since last semester. It felt very good to get back on the proverbial horse.

At first I was having a bit of trouble trying to figure out what my approach should be. Normally, I would lay out the animation pose to pose, but I had many poses already and I also had the muppet mouth flapping moves left over from last semester. So it struck me as a bit odd to go in there and start hitting expressions at certain times frames that would only hold for a few fractions of a second. I chose to work straight ahead with the brows first and the eye shapes next. After I had that done, I posted on Wednesday and got some great feedback on my piece from fellow AM’ers, which boosted my confidence a bit and turbo charged me into the rest of the week. I also got a days distance and saw some stuff that I was pushing way too much and other stuff that was timed very wrong. So I went a fixin’ and a tinkerin’ and got the beast beat into shape.

So once I had some of that cleaned up, I went in and animated the (drumroll please)……cheeks!!!! Yes, the cheeks. It sounds a bit stupid, actually, but this worked out fantastic. I really was able to focus on the eyes and brow movement and again I revisited the lids and got all of that working in harmony (I hope, I hope.) By the time I got to the mouth shapes and phoneme shapes, the whole thing was pulling together sans difficulty and it seems all the hand wringing that I was doing was for naught. Silly naughty naught.

So now that I look at it, UGGGH do I want to change some of the body movement. I see all of this stuff that I want to punch up and make more clear and weighty. I can’t believe I can think it is all good one week and come back another and see what I now see. I will never, ever have any confidence to judge my stuff again. I know for a fact know that I don’t know. But hey, perhaps that is a sign of improvement and knowing that I will never be done learning this stuff is sort of a big reason why it drives me so crazy for it in the first place (in a good way.) So I’m completely dying to hear what my mentor says and thinks and crits me for. I told him to go all out and pick me apart this semester as I hope to run with the big boys some day sooner than later. During the Q&A he said something that should be part of his voice box if ever a JasonS action figure was to be made...

"Honesty never has to be brutal."

Ok, so that is plenty of blathering for one week. Thanks again for your interest. You are my only fan.

Honey I'm home!

Did you miss me? AnimationMentor.com's Term 4 : Advanced Acting Techniques began this week. I got a great mentor (again) and I am really looking forward to the next three months. Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce, Mr. Jason Schleifer! *insert fanfare here*



clicky clicky to see whatup in Jason's world


Jason was hired onto New Zealand’s very own WETA as a character rigger for Lord of the Rings. By the third installment of the trilogy, he had moved up to character animator and brought us all the joy and magic of watching Gollum trick us all into believing that
1. even creatures from retched swamps have goals
2. big eyes can still tug on the heart-strings even if they are on toad-esque things, and that
3. in the end, drug addicts really can’t change.

And as if that wasn’t enough, he’s worked on Madagascar and the newest Shrek movie. Not only is he amazingly active in contributing significantly to the online 3d community, turns out he’s a hell of a nice guy to boot, but of course I’m saying that before receiving my first grade, so I will keep you posted.

The other big news about school is that the entire site has been revamped and affectionately named “v2.” It works loads better than before. AnimationMentor.com’s public page has gotten a face-lift as well and even has some students work on it, which sadly, I’m not a part of, but happily, everyone who was chosen is more than deserving. “Climb the ladder, Monty.”

Well, I’m just trying to get back in the swing of things this week. I forget how difficult this school/working business is whenever I get back from a break, but I’m settling down. Turns out, I may be unemployed next month. That would give me all the time in the world for school, but very little else to fill the massive void that is my stomach. It may be time to dust off the old resume and see if I can’t pick up night work as a garbage man.

Thanks, once again, for your interest.