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Animation Mentor 2010 showcase

Posted on September 1, 2010 
Filed Under Animation, Animation Mentor, Friends | Leave a Comment

Well it’s out! Some really really nice work from my fellow graduates and ex coworkers.

http://www.animationmentor.com/showcase2010/

Some of them have already landed top animation jobs and others will very soon.

And while we are at it, let me introduce you Bishop 2.0, the latest version of my favourite Animation Mentor rig. I haven’t had a chance to test it yet but this looks very promising and I have to mention that my friend the awesome Keith Ribbons helped out with the facial rigging.

YouTube Preview Image

Related post:
Dan Carey “Shower Power” short film

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Pako Bagur showreel

Posted on April 14, 2010 
Filed Under Animation, Animation Mentor, Friends | Leave a Comment

My ex-classmate Pako Bagur just uploaded his work from “Planet 51″.
http://www.vimeo.com/9207163

He also redesigned his website which looks really cool! Check it out!

Related post:
Eduardo Martin Julve showreel

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“Shower power” short film

Posted on March 30, 2010 
Filed Under Animation, Animation Mentor, Friends, Video Games | 4 Comments

I just realized that I never featured my friend and (ex)coworker Dan Carrey!!!

Here is his short film. “Shower Power”
http://www.vimeo.com/9982267

You will also find Dan’s showreel on his website
http://www.bluepencil.org.uk/DanCareyShowreel09.mov

We definitely had a bunch of top animators at Rare. Here is also Peer Lemmers showreel if you didn’t know his work:
http://www.chicop-animation.com/demoreel.htm

My current animation lead, Neil Parkinson, is also a very inspiring animator/modeler/rigger/concept artist. Don’t be surprised about the crazy amount of skills, all my coworkers are Jacks of all trades at EA which can be a bit overwhelming sometimes.

Neil is currently finishing rendering his short film so in the meantime check out his reel:
http://www.neilparkinson.com/

Well while I am at it. I think I should also feature our local concept artist Burt Ross. Ross is a crazy Scottish guy who can be pretty loud when he plays Fifa at lunch. He also happens to be really talented at what he does, namely Concept art and Storyboards.

Ross is also the creator of the Astrofunk comics. Number 2 just came out by the way!

Check out his blog:
http://rossburt.blogspot.com/

Ok, that’s it for today but I will soon create a new post feature the other crazy artists surrounding me.

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Weight shift

Posted on December 15, 2009 
Filed Under Animation, Animation Mentor | 1 Comment

The principles of animation have been laid down by Disney Animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston in the “Illusion of life ” in 1981.

Some more concepts have been added over the years and one of the most important addition, or clarification, is the concept of “weight shift”.

When standing straight, our weight is equally distributed over both legs, so to be able to lift up one leg, we need to transfer that weight in the opposite direction of the leg being lifted up.

If a character were to lift up his left leg and did so without shifting his weight from the centre to the right, he would immediately fall to the left as 50% of his weight wouldn’t be supported by his left leg anymore.

Animation is about stylised motion but no matter what style of animation you are going for,
weight shift is a concept you should always keep in mind when animating a character lifting up one of his legs. Successful weight shift is what separate the boys from the men!

Here are several examples for you, a good one I just made in Maya using the great Animation Mentor rig Ballie and a very average one that is still on my showreel :-) {examples coming soon}

{my reel, bottles lifting up his leg}

Ballie Step to side

I am not too fan of Kyle Balda’s splined animation workflow but he has a great weight shift demonstration on the trailer for his Masterclass .

kyle

http://www.kylebalda.com/

Related post:
28 principles of animation

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“Rhapsody with James” short film

Posted on December 8, 2009 
Filed Under Animation, Animation Mentor, Friends | Leave a Comment

My ex-classmate Rok Andic posted his great shortfilm online. It is quite refreshing to see an AM shortfilm done with a custom rig and a customized soundtrack. The idea is very original which makes it delightful to watch.

Check it out!

http://rhapsody.rokandic.com/

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Chinese Animation Mentor

Posted on November 17, 2009 
Filed Under Animation, Animation Mentor | 4 Comments

Chineese AM

Chineese AM

AM expensive? Try the Chinese branch!

The 8 minutes Chinese flavoured AM showreel should convince you how good the teaching is!

Marsera.com

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“She has the voice of an angel”

Posted on October 10, 2009 
Filed Under Animation, Animation Mentor | Leave a Comment

Disney behind the scenes

Disney behind the scenes

If you missed that exclusive “Disney’s behind the scene” Animation Mentor podcast, plug your headphones and head toward the AM website for a great interview between Animation Podcast Clay Kaytis and 5 artist who joined Disney after going through Disney’s internship, the “Talent development program”.

… Read more

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Shot 08 Work in progress

Posted on September 18, 2009 
Filed Under Animation Mentor, Portfolio, Short film | 5 Comments

Following Mike Stern’s tip on the latest Animation Mentor newsletter, I have decided to bring all my shots to the same level of progress, then focus on the polish. That one was one of the most advanced ones but I have tweaked the camera slightly and might end up cutting it in two for the last part.

Anyway, I am posting this as it is right now and will do the editing once I have all the other shots.

shot_08_opens_the_doorswip

shot_08_opens_the_doorswip

Link Name

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Shot 01 refining

Posted on September 17, 2009 
Filed Under Animation Mentor, Portfolio, Short film | Leave a Comment

shot01_01

shot01_01

here is the first shot from my shortfilm. The elbow is very jittery as I can’t remember where to find the IK elbow. Hope you like it though

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Shot 12 final

Posted on September 16, 2009 
Filed Under Animation Mentor, Portfolio, Short film | 3 Comments

shot12_v02

shot12_v02

Well that’s it for now. Here is the final pass for that shot. The long chair will still be tweaked later (the design is still WIP) but I am now moving to the next shot. Hope you like it. Shoot any comments

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Shot 12 work in progress

Posted on September 13, 2009 
Filed Under Animation Mentor, Portfolio, Short film | 3 Comments

shot12_003

shot12_003

This is one of the shots from my short film. Our little guy is a vampire who fell asleep and wakens up realising that he is burning. The shot is still in step (well most of it is blocked on ones anyway)

I have reframed the shot compared to the original version I did during Animation Mentor but something is bothering me. I am gonna keep it this way for the time being and we will see how it works in continuity with the previous and next shots.
I haven’t yet worked on the legs/steps once he lands as I am still unsure about how long he will stay in the air. Do you think this is too long or just enough?

Also the combination of legs/arms flalling makes it a really busy silhouette, should I just animate the legs and keep his arms frozen forward? I will check some old Warner Brother cartoons and try to find some answers tomorrow.

I will also do a proper rig for the long chair tomorrow just so I can give it a more organic feel to it (think Gobelins short films)

[update] looking at it with fresh eyes, I think I will start the shot a bit later and keep the take for the previous shot. The framing will look better.

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“The Contender” lip sync

Posted on September 12, 2009 
Filed Under Animation, Animation Mentor, Portfolio | 2 Comments

If you are wondering what was the idea behind my latest Bishop mod, here it is ;-)

It is a quick lip sync animation, just to try some lip sync, facial animation and rendering with Mental ray/SSS/displacement map.

Don’t worry I don’t have the pretension to compete with Marlon Brando. For some reason I just thought it was funny to have Shrek saying that line.

The contender

The contender

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Give this man a job!

Posted on September 3, 2009 
Filed Under Animation, Animation Mentor, Friends | Leave a Comment

Turf planet

Turf planet

This is just crazy, my friend Ales Mav still hasn’t found a job after nearly one year looking for work in London! I just don’t get this!

For a start Ales is one of those very nice and humble chaps you seldom meet. Ales and I were classmates at AM and he had been one of those rare A+ student from class1 to 6.  Several of his shots got featured on the animation mentor showreel, his short film “Daphne’s new broom” got selected and awarded at several festivals, he keeps adding great new shots to his showreel month after month, he won last month 11 seconds club competition and he even started a new shortfilm “Turf Planet” , quitely, by himself.

Please! Give this man a job!!!!!!

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“The increasing role of character animation in games”

Posted on September 2, 2009 
Filed Under Animation, Animation Mentor, Video Games | Leave a Comment

The increasing role of character animation in games

The increasing role of character animation in games

Several month ago, with few other Animation Mentor graduates, I was asked to write some clever thoughts about the increasing role of character animation in games. My name got misspelt few times but the article is still a very good read.

You can find the article here on Animation Arena.
http://www.animationarena.com/character-animation.html

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Splinedoctors on Demo reels…. ouch ;-)

Posted on August 18, 2009 
Filed Under Animation, Animation Mentor | 4 Comments

As a confirmation of what has been said by one of Pixar senior HR staff in Annecy, here is what Pixar artists have to say about demo reels.

http://splinedoctors.com/2009/08/more-on-demo-reels/

I must admit that I still don’t know what to think about the 4th bullet point:

“4) Don’t use those free Internet models. I cant tell you how many times we see the same 4 or five models. Yes, we know its hard to rig and find a good model to animate, but seeing the same rig for all these years is getting old. If you are gonna use a free rig, alter it so much so that you cant tell that its the norman rig or the animation mentor rig.Using the stock rig is just boring.”

Do they expect people to learn how to rig? I don’t have any problem with technical stuff like rigging or modeling but I am not sure everyone is really inclined towards that stuff so how much customization do they think is necessary when using “stock rigs”? Do they have any successful example?

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AM summer 09 showreel

Posted on August 4, 2009 
Filed Under Animation, Animation Mentor | Leave a Comment

AM summer 2009 showreel

AM summer 2009 showreel

AM just posted the new Animation Mentor showreel. Few of my friends were featured which is really cool and funny enough 3 of them are ex Blue Zoo staff from London.

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“Walt Stanchfield”, Don Hahn Webinar

Posted on July 22, 2009 
Filed Under Animation, Animation Mentor, Character design | 3 Comments

Animation Mentor just posted a great conversation between Disney producer Don Hahn and Bobby Beck about the life of Disney’s life drawing teacher Walt Stanchfield. Walt Stanchfield was a keen tennis player but more than anything an immense inspiration for everyone at Disney. His family also released his famous notes if you didn’t get the previous pdfs

http://www.amazon.com/Drawn-Life-Classes-Stanchfield-Lectures/dp/0240810961

Check it out

Drawn to life

Drawn to life

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Animation Mentor not yet world domination

Posted on July 17, 2009 
Filed Under Animation, Animation Mentor | Leave a Comment

Animation Mentor

Animation Mentor

Few weeks ago I spoke with a friend of mine who happened to be a production manager in Paris, working on some really big features, and he didn’t know about Animation Mentor! He did recognise the AM rigs when I showed him the Animation Mentor showreel but didn’t know about the school!

Few animation students I work with in Angouleme were amazed when I told them I had been taught animation through an online school for 2 years. They had never heard about AM! Crazy isn’t it? Well it is even more crazy when you take in consideration that there was already an Italian AM alumni in the company.

Here is a good read for people who never heard about AM: Bobby Beck’s latest post on his blog!

“Animation Mentor had 51 mentors, students and alumni who worked on Ice Age 3!”

I think I will have to post the link to the AM student showcase again actually. No no that’s not because my friend Hichem’s short is on the cover ;-)

http://www.animationmentor.com/students/student-work.html

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New project “The Contender!

Posted on June 4, 2009 
Filed Under Animation, Animation Mentor, Portfolio | 7 Comments

contender

Here are some renders of my new Bishop mod. This is a new project I am gonna work on when coming back from Annecy. Yes I am a Dreamworks fan boy but there is an other reason I chose Shrek for inspiration.

Wireframes after the break
[...] Read more

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Welcome to my new blog

Posted on May 24, 2009 
Filed Under Animation Mentor, Drawings, Graphic design | 5 Comments

Old and new design

Old and new design

I have finally been able to work on the design of my website.

People will probably scream when looking at the code but why would I spend 10 hours pulling my hair troubleshooting some nasty CSS when I can just do the same job in an hour using HTML?! [...] Read more

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