Will Kistler’s AnimationMentor.com Experience

As promised, this week there’s a fully animated version of last weeks walk. The poses aren’t quite the same, due to Scott’s sage wisdom and adjustments that had to be made during the animation process. So without further delay…

Ballie’s Smooth Walk

Also, a new pose for this week. This time, the pose is concern. This one was a little trickier, since everyway I could immediately think of to show concern were in the face. So this one’s a little more subtle than usual, but I may have done it allright. Here are some thumbnails along with the finished pose.

And finally, adjustments to last weeks pose. Nothing huge, but Scott pointed out a good way to add a little more interest with an arc through the arms.

I’ve been slacking on this blog this week, on account of taking a test for a company. Who knows what will come of it, but I figured I’d post the clips I generated, for posterity if nothing else. So here they are:

Test 01: Locomotion

Test 02: Demonstrate knowledge of the principals of animation

I realize these could be better, but it was a timed test, and time goes quickly. I probably won’t work on them any more, but I’d still like feedback from anyone who feels like giving it, so I know what to do (or not) next time I’m working.

Here’s week 8. This week we had a couple things. First was to block a walk in stepped mode, using the character “Ballie.” The instructions were that the walk was supposed to be “vanilla,” and devoid of personality. Here’s the planning, as well as the clip, in all it’s jerky glory.

Ballie’s blocked walk.

Next week, that will be smoothed out.

Also, we had the pose. This week’s pose was supposed to communicate “strong.”

Finally, revision of last week’s clip. Scott challenged me to make the jump much more cartoony, so I pushed it as far as I could, perhaps too far. You judge.
One leg jumps again.

I finally got around to throwing something up on threadless. This is for the Beyondthepit.net contest. I understood it to be vaguely rock-themed, so I came up with the Stance Power-O-Meter

Register and vote for it, and I will be thankful!

Oh, and this weeks AM stuff will be posted soon, but I’m in the middle of an animation test for a company, and I’m focusing on that. New post with last weeks stuff, soon.

Keep Rocking

This week we were to animate a one legged character with a ball body (appropriately named “one-leg”) jumping and recovering, using all of the principals we’ve learned so far and paying special attention to arcs and the path of action.

I had been lucky enough to find time (on planes and waiting for Siggraph sessions to begin) to plan this weeks animation, but It was only today that I was able to watch this weeks lecture and animate the darn thing. I finished the jump in a few scant hours, and well in time to get it turned in. Unfortunately, I didn’t really have time to get the quality feedback I’m used to recieving from the Animation Mentor community, which I credit largely with the success of my animation exercises so far. So this one, I did on my own. Here’s the planning and the clip.

One leg jump’s and recovers.

Speaking of feedback, I got some for last week’s clip of Tailor, so here’s a revision for that one:

Tailor, the ball, jumps around, revision

I’m finally home from Siggraph 2005, which was rocking. It was one of the best experiences I’ve had in a long time, although no one fell to their knees, tears of joy welling up in their eyes, at the sight of my demo reel, demanding to hire me on the spot. The trip did, however, give me renewed hope for the possibility of spinning this animation thing I enjoy so much into a career.

With my jetting across the country, and trying to absorb every singly aspect of the conference, I failed to post last weeks assignment. So here it is, a week after I actually finished it.

This week we learned about overlapping action by bouncing a ball with a tail at least 3 times. Here’s my planning and animation:

Tailor, the ball, bounces around.

I was pretty happy with the results, but a tweaked revision will probably be posted before too long as well.

In addition, a slightly tweaked version of last session’s animation of a ball in the obstacle course can be seen here:

Ball in the obstacle course, revised.

Turns out, Siggraph is super cool. I was expecting as much, but it’s nice to see it in practice.

There’s a ton of amazing animation in the Animation Theater (and some mediocre ones, too, but they’re worth sitting through to get to the ones that are really good.)

First thing this morning I hit up the job fair. It was everything I imagined a job fair could be! I went up to people and asked “Are you accepting reels and resumes?” and they answered “Yes.” I didn’t have to explain what it is that I do. I didn’t have to try to convince a poor bored HR person that their company might need someone like me. And best of all, there were people hiring for jobs, I wanted. Totally different from past job fair experiences.

Needless to say, it went pretty well. I got some good feedback on the reel from Shawn Kelly, ILM animator. It really made my day when he was impressed with part of it! AN ILM ANIMATOR!!! And for the rest he had absolutely great advice. Really cool. I also may have gotten an animation test from a video game company. The art director of another company may be sending me an animation test, and a couple of booth staffers told me that they’re getting ready to hire a bunch of people, so I’m pretty excited.

Tomorrow I’m hitting the electronic theater and returning to the exhibition floor, which is crazy. So much loud noise, and flashing lights. It’s like punishment for epileptics, but it’s pretty cool for me!

Final thought, I met a guy today who not only had reels to hand out, but his reel was on PSP, so it was easy to show to people on the spot. Genious!

New animation sometime coming over the weekend. In the meantime, Summer 2005 Demo Reel is up on my website. Critiques welcome.