Exploring California!

Guys! Burbank is beautiful! The convention hasn't even started and I've seen so much! The trip here on the plane was really cool, everything looked so tiny from way up there!

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 So our first day here our friends took us on a drive by of Disney Animatn Studio and then we stopped to get a picture in front of the Dreamworks building, which if you follow me on Facebook you've most likely seen this...

So that in itself was pretty exciting! Then we went to the Grennith park observatory, which had some breath taking views!

This place is just so cool!

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On Thursday we also we're able to see some amazing things! We started off the day by going to the Hollywood walk of fame with a bunch of my friends, it was so cool seeing the stars/footprints and handprints...

So that was pretty awesome, although I did realise that Hollywood is kind of dirty lol. 

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Later in the day, our friend Sarah allowed us the insane opportunity to tour Riot!

I just can't even explain how cool it was there.  The people were so down to earth and nice, and they have an awesome work environment!

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Well today will be the first day of CTN so I hope to have lots to tell you guys tomorrow!

CTN Week!

Why hello there!  I thought I would go ahead and make my first blog post for this awesome week!  So this week, if you didn't gather from the title, is CTNx 2014 week!  I am just so excited right now and I don't know how I'm expected to go to work in an hour under all of this excitement!  I have also managed to ninja pack everything for this 5 day trip in a carry on bag, I quite impressed myself there with that one too.

So for this grand weekend event, I ordered some business cards from Moo.  Oh my goodness, let me tell you, these business cards are the best quality of business cards I've ever seen.  I just love how they turned out and I recommend everyone using them!  I was pretty excited how my design turned out when printed on them as well.  Here they are!

And yes that is a Corgi calendar in the background of the middle photo, along with a painting of me as a general with a monocle courtesy of one Josh Janousky.

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Last week I also decided to start a test animation using the new Animation Mentor rig, Aia.  She is just really a fantastic rig so far and I am excited to get more work done on this test so you guys can all see it!

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Well my next post on here will be from California!  I'm going to try to make a new post each day of the convention so you guys can all see what's happening.  I'm also going to attempt to use my Twitter and Instagram accounts while I'm there, so you guys should follow me @crstewart24!

New Reel and Stuff

Well hi there!  It has been quite some time since my last post, so I thought I'd make one to let you guys know what's been happening!

So since Animation Mentor ended, I updated my demo reel!  Here it is...

I finally added music to my demo reel too!  I really love the bass lines in most of Cake's songs, so I decided to go ahead and use one of their songs, without the words, in the background of my reel.  Hopefully it's not too too low and you guys can still hear it, I didn't want it to be too distracting.  You might notice that I also cut the ball throwing one short by taking the front end of the animation off too.  I did this because I felt like the beginning had some issues that I didn't have time to fix before submitting it to the Reel FX Apprenticeship.

Which brings me to my next thing that's been happening!  So about a month ago, Reel FX University picked my animation reel to be critiqued by an animator at Reel FX.  Exciting right!  Well I still have yet to receive the critique, but when I do I will definitely let you guys know what they said, if you don't already see it through it being on my Facebook page.  I also decided to apply for the Reel FX apprenticeship!  I just submitted everything for my application this past Friday, and now I just have to impatiently wait until sometime in November to hear back from them.  I really really hope I get it though, that'd be just awesome!

I've also been thinking about partaking in the Riot contest that has started as well.  Might be fun to try out!

Well that's all I've got for now guys!  I'm going to try to be more productive since I've been kind of slacking lately.  I am super excited for my trip to CTNx in a month though!  Can't wait!  Have a great day/week/month guys!

AN04 - Final Reel

My how time has flown!  I can't believe it but it has been a year and I am currently done with Animation Mentor!  

Now I say currently because when I started the Animation Fundamentals program, last September, the course was completed when you finished class 4 and class 5 and 6 were extra classes after the fundamentals track.  I'm going to stick with that frame of mind because it really reminds me of when I was taking my undergraduate courses at UCF where they would try to make you change you catalog year to be current but then it would actually make you stay in school way longer.  

Now I know that class 5 and 6 should be taken at some point because they are very good and useful classes, but honestly I do not have the means right now to take them.  I might take them in the future though, who knows!

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Well here it is, my final reel for both AN04 and Animation Mentor as a whole for the time being...

You may notice this, or not, but I did make a few revisions to my dialogue assignment before including it in this reel.

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I want to thank all of the mentors that I had the opportunity of learning so much from (Anthony Wong, Steve Cady, Steve Cunningham, and Joseph Antonuccio), they have taught me more in a year about animation than I would say all of my undergraduate years.  Thank you also to all of the AM community, they are so very helpful with everything!  I really want to thank my classmates as well as those who took me on as a peer buddy.  You guys gave me so many helpful critiques, were so supportive, and I'm so glad to have met all of you!  Last, but definitely not least, I want to thank everyone else who has supported me through this program as well as those of you who have just read my blog from time to time, it means the world to me!

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Well that was longer than I planned on it being, but I just think you guys are all awesome!  And don't worry, I will still be posting stuff on here even though I will not be in class anymore.  Have a great week everyone!

AN04 - Second Assignment Wk.6&7

Hey guys!  So to be honest, I forgot to make a post last week.  But to make up for that, you get to see both of my polish passes in one post!

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So first up, my first polish pass!  I went through all the channels of all the curves to smooth everything out in the graph editor.  I also cleaned up the mouth shapes and timing for some of the dialogue so that it looks more dynamic.

My mentor also noted that I could go through and make some nicer looking arcs on the arms and head.

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And now for this past week's pass of polish!  This week I went through the mouth shapes again and pushed some of the open shapes even more.  I made sure to go through the tongue animation to add a little extra finesse to the dialogue too.  Also, I went through all the curves again to smooth out any hitches in the graph editor.

All in all I think this assignment turned out pretty good for being my first legit dialogue assignment.  I'm not going to include the dialogue assignment I did in undergrad as being a legit dialogue assignment, that one was pretty bad, haha!

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Well have a great week everyone!

AN04 - Second Assignment Wk.5

Hello everyone!  So for last week we had to submit the second round of our blocking plus/first spline pass.  We also had to submit a dynamic hand pose for our mentor to critique.

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Here's what I submitted for my second blocking plus pass...

This pass was mostly me adding even more breakdowns to the animation.  My mentor also pointed out that he seems to be doing a lot with his hands so I'm going to simplify that this week and start smoothing things out in the graph editor.

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The dynamic hand pose I chose was one that is in my animation...

Again, my mentor pointed out some changes I could make to make this hand pose more dynamic, so I'll adjust it for this week.

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Also this week I attempted to use my Wacom tablet to animate...

Let me tell you, that did not last long, lol!  I was just so slow with it and I needed to be moving at a faster pace so I'm back to using my mouse.  I might try it again when I don't have homework due every week.

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Well I hope everyone has a great week, see ya!

AN04 - Second Assignment Wk.4

Well lookie here!  I'm actually making a blog post on a Monday!  Yay for being productive!  So for last week we had to submit the first of two weeks of blocking plus pass.  Yes folks, for this one they are really breaking down the process and stretching out the assignment for a total of 7 weeks.

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So, for my blocking plus pass I wanted to add more needed breakdown poses as well as get the shot out of stepped mode and into spline mode.  So here is what I submitted...

Now I'm going to be completely honest with you guys.  You can probably tell, but I did very little in the way of working in the graph editor with the splines on this pass.  In fact I just took the whole thing and converted everything to Auto Tangents.  I know!  Some people say it's bad, but for me, I think converting everything to Auto Tangents and then going into each and every channel of every curve and adjusting the tangents from there really helps me get started on the whole splining process.  Don't judge me!

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Alright guys, I hope you all have a great Monday as well as the rest of the week.  See ya!

P.S. - This past week I was introduced to the Crypt of the NecroDancer soundtrack and it is awesome to listen to in the background while I'm animating!  This great soundtrack was composed by Danny Baranowsky who coincidentally composed the soundtracks for Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac, which are also quite awesome!

AN04 - Second Assignment Wk.3

Hey guys!  So this past week we had to continue blocking out our shot and add more key poses and breakdowns.  

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In the lecture for this past week, they talked about important mouth shapes to hit in your dialogue animation.  So that is where I started with this pass of animation...

I still have to adjust some head movements and eye direction things that my mentor pointed out, but after those fixes I can head into the blocking plus/first spline pass of animation!

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Have a great week!

AN04 - Second Assignment Wk.2

Hello everyone!  I'm finally making a post before the weekend!  So this past week we had to submit the first blocking pass of our animations, along with the phonetics of our dialogue and two more of those poses showing the acting beats from our reference.

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I can't remember if I said this in the last post, but I ended up going with clip number two.  To refresh your memory, here's clip number two...

And here is the first blocking pass that I submitted...

My mentor gave me some good notes about certain eye directions that I should change, as well as some head movements that should be altered slightly.  I'll make sure to add those this week!

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I also had to break down my dialogue and write it all out phonetically.  I had to do this because when animating dialogue, you don't really want to have the character pronounce every word that is in the dialogue, they would end up looking very chattery.  What you want to do is animate what you hear.  There's a difference because generally when we speak we don't enunciate every word.  It's also a good idea to make note of what has a stronger emphasis as well as weaker emphasis in the dialogue to help plan out the shot.  So here's the phonetic breakdown that I created for my dialogue...

Also writing that out made me feel a bit like I was in first grade and didn't know how to spell things correctly, haha!

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And finally here are two poses that I took screen shots of that showed a couple of the acting beats...

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Well that's all for now, have a great week!

AN04 - Second Assignment Wk.1

Well guys, I did it it again.  I forgot to make a blog post until almost the end of the week.  I really should make a reminder on my phone or something so this doesn't keep happening...  So for last week we had to come up with a few different options for our new dialogue assignment.  We also had to shoot reference and sketch out our ideas for all of those clips as well.  And finally we had to practice posing our character's face in a two poses using two of the acting beats from our reference.

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First off, these are the three audio clips that I was able to narrow my search down to with the help of my peers...

1. Game of Thrones, 2. Community, 3. Game of Thrones

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And now for the embarrassing part, my reference video.  I do not claim to be an actor so this is pretty embarrassing, but it's for the greater good!  Or something...

Jeez that was rough to watch, haha!  I really did try to get in character though, it can be pretty difficult.  However when I was filming the reference it was pretty fun!

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Here are the sketches of the main story poses that I jotted down from watching my reference...

And here are the poses that I created with the Maya rig that I will be using of two of the acting beats from my reference video...

My mentor ended up telling me that he thinks I should do clip number two for this assignment so that's what I will be working on this week.  

Well this has been sufficiently awkward, have a great rest of the week everyone!

P.S. I will really try to get my next blog post up sooner, haha!

AN04 - First Assignment Wk.3&4

Well hello there!  So it appears I forgot to make a post last week...I'm going to blame it on moving to a new place and going through all of the things that come with that.  For this week I'm going to show you guys my blocking plus pass that I submitted on the 20th and the final spline animation that I submitted on the 27th.

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Alright, so for the blocking plus pass, my mentor wanted us to have the animation turned in converted to spline.  So it was kind of like first pass spline as well.  Here's the animation that I submitted for that week...

There were definite timing, spacing, and weight issues with this one.  Also, the bug was coming into the frame pretty fast and things were happening at the same time so it was difficult for the audience to catch everything that was going on.  My mentor also suggested that I take out the wall scooting at the end in order to give more time to the bug entering the frame at the beginning.

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Now for this past week.  I added all the things my mentor and peers suggested and I think it came a long way from the blocking plus pass.  Taking out that wall scooting at the end was very helpful too, even though I was a little sad to chop off a chunk of my animation, haha!  So here's what I submitted...

There still seem to be some timing and spacing issues, especially when he's getting on the couch in what looks like slow motion.  The bug is a little more noticeable but not quite enough still.  My mentor also suggested I take out the pulling his head back part from the reaction so we'll see how that goes when I revise this one later in the semester.

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Well that's all folks, have a great week!

AN04 - First Assignment Wk.2

Hello everyone!  So yes I'm making this post in the middle of the week, but at least I got it down before the weekend!  Last week we had to create the first blocking pass of our animation.  Here is what I submitted...

I'm going to be changing a bit of the beginning part, based on my mentor's critique, for this next pass of animation that I will be creating this week.  I have quite a busy week ahead of me.  I hope you guys all have a great week though!

AN04 - First Assignment Wk.1

Hey guys!  So last week was the first week of AN04 Intro. to Acting.  My teacher seems pretty cool as well as the rest of the students in my class, so I'm pretty excited!  For this first week we had to begin planning our pantomime acting test or animated pose test.  I chose to do the pantomime acting test because I feel like I could use some more practice with large amounts of body mechanics and I didn't want to focus on facial animation quite yet.  I also have to work a lot in the next few weeks as well as pack and move so I figured it would be best not to take on facial animation while trying to juggle all of that. 

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In the assignment, it said to "have two distinct and contrasting beats that tell a basic story" and to "choose a scenario that fits your personality, something that speaks to you."  Well here's my reference video and sketches for the basic story that I chose...

If you know me at all, you know that I am terrified of cockroaches, so it wasn't too difficult for me to imagine what a terrified reaction to one would be.  We also had to pose out two of the main story beats with our character and set...

Well I hope that I can make this one as entertaining as I'm sure my reference is to everyone!  Have a great week guys!

AN03 Progress Reel

Hey guys!  So I wanted to post my progress reel from AN03 so you could all see the revised versions of all three of my assignments.  I went back and revised parts of them based on critiques from my peers as well as additional critique from my mentor.  This reel will have all of my assignments from all of Animation Mentor so far just because that's how we had to set up the reel, but I think it's cool to see the progress that I think I've made! 

Well I've had a great relaxing week break and am now ready to get back into animation!  Yesterday was the first day of AN04 - Intro. to Acting and my mentor this term is Joseph Antonuccio.  I'm really excited to learn all about acting this semester, I can't wait!  Have a great week everyone!

AN03 - Third Assignment Wk.4&5

Guys!  I can't believe I forgot to make a blog post last week and the beginning of this week.  In my defense, I've been busy with school/work/trying to find a place to live.  Anyway, this post will just have both of my spline passes so far as oppose to one.

Alright, here's my first spline pass...

There were definitely issues with this one.  Some being that halfway though the box stopped looking heavy, and then the box looked like it was sliding, then falling off the table, which doesn't make sense.

Now here is the second spline pass that I submitted on Sunday...

With many critiques from my mentor and, well as the Animation Mentor community, I think I was able to add that weight to the box again.  As well as fix the box sliding off the table issue at the end.  Oh I also submitted a soccer (futbol) pose to an Animation Mentor contest they are having since the World Cup is happening.  The link to the contest is here http://blog.animationmentor.com/the-world-animation-cup-2014/ and here is the image that I submitted...

Have a great rest of the week everyone!

AN03 - Third Assignment Wk.3

Why hello there!  So last week I had a little less time to work on my assignment than I normally do (my family and I had a little stay-cation here in Orlando woot woot!) so I had to get all of the blocking plus pass of my animation done by Friday evening.

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For this blocking plus pass, I decided to follow what I did with the last assignment where I converted the animation to the first pass of spline.  I think it turned out to be a decent first pass at spline.  I was having difficulty conveying the heaviness of the box in some places so that will be something to really focus on this week.  Here's the playblast of what I submitted...

I hope you guys all have an amazing rest of your week!

AN03 - Third Assignment Wk.2

Hey guys, so again I don't have the pose a day challenge poses ready for this blog post.  I think I'll go back and add them to the post at a later time when I actually have more time.  For this past week though, we had to create our first blocking pass of our new animations!

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For this assignment, I wanted to try using one of the imp characters, and let me tell you, they are pretty different!  It was an interesting experience using this rig to create the poses I needed, it might have even been a little easier!  Here's what I submitted for my first blocking pass...

And now I have to continue to make tweaks and create the blocking plus pass!

AN03 - Second Assignment Wk.4

Why, hello there everyone!  For this past week, we had to submit our "final" versions of our second assignment, as well as all the planning items for our next assignment.  And yes, I actually did some pose of the day challenge poses this past week too!

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So here's the final version of my animation that I submitted...

I added some holds to some of the actions and well as fleshed out some of the arcs on the hands/feet/waist/ax and I think it turned out pretty well.  I'll still need to make some changes that Steve suggested in my most recent critique but that will be after I complete my next assignment.

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And on to the next assignment!  This next one will have the character walk in with a heavy object, lift to place the heavy object on the shelf, and then extend the character's reach so that the character can push the object into place.  I'll be using one of the imp rigs for this one so the sketches won't really reflect what the character looks like, but more just the events that will be happening in the animation.  First off, here's the reference video...

And yes, that part where I jump back is the box falling from where it was placed onto the ground in front of me.  And here are the sketches I created from the reference footage...

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This week's pose a day challenge theme was weight bearing.  I'll be honest, I wasn't able to find many photos or videos of this that I liked, I don't know, maybe I just wasn't searching as hard as I could have.  So for this past week I only have 3 poses and here they are...

 And that's all folks!  Have a great week!