Drum Roll Please... Announcing My Progress Reel for Basic Foundations AT AM!

Whew, completed my progress reel. Addressed some issues with my animations as per my mentor's critiques and added them to this stylized 1920's Art Deco feel. The music is Fletcher Henderson & His Orchestra, titled Sugar Foot Stomp.

Just finished my first term at Animation Mentor!

Wow, it's been three months already. And with that I wrap up my first term at Animation Mentor! It has been a great experience and I really would like to thank my mentor Anthony Wong. The QA's were great, mixed with the right amount of learning AND a deeper understanding of why we choose animation. Moving forward I really feel I have a clearer and more motivated direction in my journey to becoming a professional animator. He is a great Mentor AND an Amazing Animator at PIXAR. So Thank you Anthony and good luck on your current animation CARS 2. Also, got to give a big thank you to my classmates, whose critics really made my work jump up a level, so thanks guys and I will be seeing you in term 2! Last but not least, thanks to my beautiful wife Jennifer whose help and understanding has made this possible. No rest though as term 2 starts in 3 days, Bring it!!!

Week 11 STU Pose - Balance

And finally my week 11 STU pose for showing balance, where weight is on one foot. Went with the classic ballerina pose. Should of put a tutu on STU.

Week 11 STU Pose - Balance Sketches

And here are my week 11 balance poses. The assignment asked for a balance pose where one leg showed more weight. I had to include some Disco skate poses. These guys were fun.

Week 11 - Personality Walk Cycle Animation

Yes, made it to week 11 and completed my first personality walk cycle! It was a bit of a challenge to get the passing and extreme ups to "feel" right because of Ballie's big belly. Had to add some leg twist and extra rX to get it to where I liked it.

Week 10 - Personality Walk Planning

Here is my personality walk planning. Takes a bit of info to work everything out before you start to animate.

Week 10 STU Pose - Exhaustion

And here is my STU pose for exhaustion.

Week 10 STU Pose - Exhaustion Sketches

Here are my STU poses for Exhaustion. These were fun.

Week 10 - Personality Walk Cycle Block Animation

Here's my personality walk cycle blocked.

Week 9 - Ballie Walk Cycle Spline Animation

Here is a my Final Ballie Walk Cycle render.

Week 9 STU Pose - Concern

Here is my STU pose for concern.

Week 9 STU Pose - Concern Sketches

Here are my concern poses. This set of drawings has been the toughest so far.

Week 9 - Ballie Walk Cycle Spline Animation

Ok, Whew did my first spline pass on my walk. Still needs tweaking but all in all, I like the result.

Week 8 - Ballie Walk Cycle Block Animation

Here is my first walk cycle blocked animation. Here its all about setting up the proper poses in each of your Contacts, Breakdowns, and Extremes. More mathematical at this stage then art, but still very important.

Week 8 - STU Strength Pose

Here is my strength pose. The angling of the ropes is important so that there is no parallel double arm punch look.

Week 8 - Strength Sketches

Here It is good to show several variations of the same thing ie pulling in a rope. Strength is good for showing a lot of contrasting curves in the character.

Week 8 - Ballie Walk Cycle Planning

Here I built what i thought were the most important thing to know about a 24 frame "Vanilla" Walk Cycle. Again, Planning is everything!

Week 7 - Tailor Animation

Here is my final Tailor animation. Here I pay tribute to the Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote with adding a bit of that familiar desert in the shot.

Week 7 - Tailor Planning

Now on to Tailor, SQUIRREL!

Week 6 - Pendulum Animation

Ok, so I completely removed the small pendulum animation from my planning. Just going with the big guy and his ball.

Week 6 - Pendulum Planning

Ok, so way too much happening here. I need to simplify big time.

Week 5 - Obstacle Course Animation

And here is the finished animation. Whew, I got everything in. Done.

Week 5 - Obstacle Course Planning

Planning this to fit the 120 frames was a dooozy!

Week 5 STU Pose - Devastation

And here is my final STU pose.

Week 5 STU Pose - Devastation Sketches

Here are my varoius poses for Devastation. It becomes clear that without facial features and props that communicating just by pose can really force you to get a clean and quick read on what your communicating.

Week 4 - Light and Heavy Ball Bounce Animation

Here is the final animation. I really liked the way it ended up.

Week 4 - Light and Heavy Ball Bounce Planning

Planning out this guy was a bit of a process. But it saved me a good deal of time when i started to animate.

Week 3 - Basketball Bunce Thumbnails

Planning out my bounce via thumbnailing. Ahh, its good to have a clear idea.

Week 3 - Basketball Bounce

Learn the basics. There was a ton of info taught on what goes on in a bounce and how these principles show up in character animation. K.I.S.S. is big, nice clean easy read. Its all about the Arcs and spacing. Track, Track, Track.

Week 3 STU Pose - Excitement

STU Excited! Again, communicate a clean fast read. This should be the main goal on all your poses

Week 3 Pose - Excitement

Ok, so week 3 brings the Excitement pose, hmm my week 2 was really similiar to this week's assignment. Yeah, yeah so I just have to come up with other examples.

Week 2 STU Pose - Random Pose Pick

I liked this victory "Yes" pose mainly because of the strong line of action. It just had a nice feeling to it. Camera angle and lighting help in giving this a boost to the celebratory read. Its important to communicate these poses to your audience as quickly and as cleanly as possible.

Week 2 Quick sketches in coffee shop and park

Doing some quick sketches of people walking and also some random sketches of action for Week 2.