Making it

Here's an article on animation addicts well worth reading for any aspiring animator out there:
http://www.animation-addicts.com/2012/09/17/making-it/

"Long ago, when I went to school for traditional animation, it was expected you could/would spend 3 to 5 years either in the clean-up department, then work up to the breakdown inbetweener ranks, before become a fully fledged feature animator."

Take the time you need and stay determined!
Also, might be worth thinking about the equivalent of clean up and inbetweener in a 3D industry. How about aiming for a tv show as a starter?
Lots of work, working with the same characters throughout a show, high output rate... Sounds good to me.
Might not necessarily be all demoreel quality animation you'll be doing, but after a while you'll surely know how to animate quickly with a solid quality and have a bag full of tricks, plugins, are used to a studio environment and whatnot. I think this might be a possible way for a student or recent alumni for easing into the industry.

Or you could always just go all in:

hihi;)


take care
c

Knights Of A Bold Republic

A little something I felt like sharing. After playing a lot of Sword & Sworcery lately, I thought it would be interesting to play around with minimalistic 3D Designs.
I find the results pretty interesting, and I'll make sure to play around with that style some more in the future.

Take care
C

Light your shot

I recently took part in the Light Your Shot Workshop at Animation Mentor. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to participate as much as I wanted, so it took me a while to catch up and get the vader scene to shine. I still think I learned a lot during the workshop and I can't wait to get to work on the lighting of the rest of the reel. 

Et voilà:

Take care

C

Starting out in Animation? Workflow!

I can't stress enough how much a good workflow will help you in your animation. It will speed up your work, your scenes will be easier to manage, the animation's going to look better and you'll just have plain more fun during the process.
I found it one of the most difficult things to develop a workflow I can rely on. There's a ton of tips and tricks on the subject out there, it's kind of an overload. When I was starting out I had so much input from the Animation Mentor lectures, I didn't really know which pieces I should adapt in the first place.
In the end, your workflow it going to be your personal workflow. You'll design it after your needs and preferences and you'll be tweaking it depending on the kind of shot you work on. It will be an organic process and you'll keep adding new pieces and drop others on your way to become a animation ninja (or pirate, which ever you prefer). But it's hard to find a place to start.

With that said, let's take a look at what I would suggest for anyone starting out in animation.

It helped me when my mentor in class six, Kenny Roy, pointed out to me that I should be aware of the phrases in my shot. Take a look at the smokers shot:



If you take a look at the second part, the phrases are:
run in - come to stop - look at cigs - grab the box- grab a smoke - put it in mouth - hop on desk - grab the lighter - light the smoke - lean back - smoke..
That looks like quite a lot but in the end, breaking down a complex shot to manageable pieces is key to keep the process fun and smooth.
Once I'm clear about the phrases, I start making a checklist. Each phrase needs certain ingredients, so a typical phrase list would look like this:
(This is taken from another shot I worked on, so don't get confused by the naming of the phrases. It's just an example for the general approach)

I'm using Notebook for all my AM related business by the way, it's a great note taking app for the mac.

Every phrase needs it's own Anticipation, Action, Overshoot, Settle and depending on the shot a Hold. Sometimes and overshoot might blend into the anticipation of your next phrase, but it helps to keep your animation clean if you make separations as clear as possible

So once my planning is finished and I start blocking my scene, I simply have to follow this list and I can concentrate on creating great poses. It's hard enough to keep all the principles of animation in mind and the character under control when you're starting out in animation. With this workflow it might just get a little easier.

I should point out that I wouldn't have got to this point without the help of my former mentor Kenny Roy. He runs a website where he offers more information and lectures on workflow related stuff. Be sure to take a look around and get your workflow fix. Check it out HERE!

Take care
C

Interactivity and Newsflash

Gee, everytime I come back on my blogs site I feel kind of bad for being lazy with updating and posting...

But anyway, quick newsflash: I officially graduated! Went to beautiful San Francisco at the the end of January to receive my diploma and had an absolute blast over there meeting all my fellow AMers. And I fell in love with that city, what a beauty!
So my Animation Mentor journey has officially come to an end, but my journey as an animator is just beginning. As we speak I'm sending out tons of applications all over the world, got New Zealand, Canada, America and England on my list so far.

And here's another thing I'm really excited about: Recently I started picking up on Unity3d, a game engine that allows you to create your own video games. So after a bit of playing around with it I came up with the idea to create sort of an interactive music clip.


So this is a screenrecording of a test I've been working on for a while now. The idea is to move the passive music video format to an interactive experience and by enhancing the music's mood with a visual and interactive layer create a more immersive connection between music and audience.
Software used: Unity 3D, Cinema 4D and zBrush
Music: The XX, Fantasy. The music is only temporary for this test, final version will work with a different song.

Thanks for reading and watching
Take care
C

Newsflash!

Wow, it's been quite a while since I made a post here. I've been mostly enjoying my break, so there's not a whole lot to tell just yet. But I'm slowly gearing up and getting in shape for the big job hunt. So here's a quick news flash about what I've been up to in the past weeks:

Website! 
First off, I've got a brand new website! It's not the fanciest one, but hey, it works! Check it out and let me know what you think!

Monster Bash! 
Recently I've participated in a contest hosted by the Greyscale Gorilla blog. I've been following the blog for a couple years now, as it sports great Cinema4d related tutorials and tricks. If you're a C4d user, I highly recommend checking it out. So the idea of the contest was to create a five second piece of animation which has to do with the theme in some way. The theme was: Monster Bash! This sounded like a lot of fun and I saw it as a great chance to get my mind off doing animation only. It was good to complete a 3D project from concept to rendering all by myself. Even though I do want to specialize in character animation I think it's important to step through the whole process every once in a while to keep an overview. It makes you want to become a faster animator so the guys at lighting have enough time to let your shot shine. Literally, ha! And it's just plain fun to create something from scratch.
So enough of that blabla, here's the clip:


I already have ideas for a little short, maybe someday I'll have the chance to actually make it happen! But first:

Plans!
And what about plans?
Well first off, I'll start to complete my demoreel next week. I want it to be ready by the end of November, so I can start sending out my reel by the end of the year.
And... I have applied at Oktobor Animation in New Zealand! Now, that would be an adventure, hm? Let's see what's going to happen there, I haven't heard back from them just yet.
They're are working on great projects like The Penguins Of Madagascar and Robot and Monster. Now, I haven't heard of that show before, but when I saw a first picture of the characters on facebook I instantly fell in love. The early designs look drop-dead gorgeous! 
So Oktobor would be my absolute favorite company to step into the world of professional character animation. Wish me luck!



Ok, guess that's it for now. Thanks for reading and take care
C

Animation Mentor: Over And Out!

Took a while to get this post up, I know. My Animation Mentor studies have come to an end last week and I guess I had to relax and reflect a bit before writing down anything.
It's been a great journey, fun times, tough times, a ton of input and inspiration and I've met so many great people along the way. Congrats to everyone who finished the program! It's hard to describe the collaborative and supportive environment AM provides for their students. I'm certain without the ongoing support of fellow students and mentors I would never got so far in a mere 18 months.
So here's a humble 'thank you' to everyone, be it at school or in real life, who kept supporting me through my studies, provided feedback and encouragement.
Well ok, this starts to sound like a cheesy oscar speech, lets better move on...

Lets briefly talk about news and plans instead:

First off, I've updated my homepage with resume and demoreel. Feel free to check it out HERE! (This is an order!)
My Reel is still not entirely finished, I need to polish different parts and especially the last shot needs some more love. So I'll plan to finish my reel by the end of the year; add a couple new body mechanic shots to it and refine the ones I already have.
However, the unfinished reel didn't keep me from applying at Disney Animation, ha! It's not like I seriously expect anything to happen, but the goosebumps when I hit the 'apply now' button felt great!

Oh yes, so here's the reel:


Ok, so I think I'll leave it with that for now. I didn't post often during the last three months, so I hope I can make up for it in the future. Thing is, that when you're polishing your shots, there's not much to show or tell. So I hope I'll be able to finish up the existing shots and then come up with some new shots to show very soon.

Ok, thanks for reading & take care
C