Dark Souls 2 Trailer - Great work!!!

Really great trailer.  I really like the subtle animation leads to some powerful moments.  Great work all around.  And a kick-arse DRAGON!

How much work will you do if you go through the Animation Mentor Program?

HOLY COW?!!!! Yes, I managed to pack 152 GIGs of assignments, 3D files, sketches, notes, etc... into my 2 year awesome learning experience of AM's Character and Creature program.  It has been one of the most enjoyable rides of my life.  And better still it's just beginning.

AC2 - Refine Pass 2 Double Creature Shot

And here is my refine pass 2.  Getting closer. Still have to go in and do a lot of polishing.  Also, not sure if I like the way the second ogre comes into screen, so I might redo that entire animation, we will see.

AC2 - Refine Pass 1 Double Creature Shot

Here is my Refine Pass 1.  I have some crit notes to add (from my rough block and spline pass) but will do that in a day or so - I'm too tired to add them now.

AC2 - Rough Block Double Creature Shot

Here is my first rough block pass.  A lot has changed since this first pass but everything was built of this foundation.

AC2 Backplate - Shot this for my project with my 7D

I took a day and drove to Arches National Park to shoot an interesting backplate for my current project.  Shot it with my 7D used my JAG shoulder rig.  Really amazing and inspiring place to shoot.  I then tracked the shot in Syntheyes and exported the track to maya- You can see how good a track it is by the watching the ogre rig being placed in the shot midway through the above QT.

AC2 - Planning My Two Creature Shot Pg 3

Planning pg 3.  Also some notes that I added just to keep them in my mind as I begin.

AC2 - Planning My Two Creature Shot Pg 2

This is pretty much the section I will be doing.  It takes approx the amount of time that I have been given - 7 seconds.

AC2 - Planning My Two Creature Shot Pg 1

So here is the first of 3 pages of planning.  I realized that I only have a limited amount of time so I only went with the section in which first ogre swings the dead cat and strikes the ogre running in to camera(upper screen right).

Ever want to see how a cheetah runs? FEAST YOUR EYES ON THIS!!!

                                      Shout out to my wife, she dug this up while online. 

New posts on my last and most current creatures shot coming soon(incl: video reference, thumbs, rough block, refine pass 1 &2, last polish) ! I promise.

Animator Quote Of The Day

"No Quit!"

                    ~me

Pixar's 22 Rules For Storytelling

Animator Quote Of The Day

"The Fantastic needs roots in familiarity"

                                     ~anonymous

CG Monk Site

CG Monk site.   The creators of Morpheus 2.0 and also --->Some really great tools for animators.  A must click.

Morpheus Rig v2.0 by CG Monk and AM to work together!

This is great AM is going to work with morpheus to design it's very own AM Only rig.  Music to my ears.  Just a heads up anyone can contribute to the morpheus 2.0 project and be the first to beta test the public morpheus 2.0.  I became a contributor, so beta here I come and AM its going to be sweet with what they com up with.  Super excited!!!

HALO- Forward Unto Dawn Series

Just came upon this web series promoting the new Halo 4 game by 343.  I was very surprised at the level of production and story.  Really well done, both loyal Halo fans and  new viewers can really get into this series.  The series is produced by Lydia Antonini and Josh Feldman (digital content producers) and backed by 343 studio.  The idea to go with live action is a good one here, building on the old Halo live action spots years ago, as long as the production value stays where it is I totally understand the emotional level trying to be reached. A new episode premieres every Friday, click on the image and catch up on the 4 episodes already up on the MachinimaPrime channel on YouTube.  Good to know there is some quality animation jobs out there in digital content.  

AC2- Matchmove Dragon Flight Into Tunnel

Feedback:  This is very important, get some eyes on your work.  Here are my mentor's notes on how to get this guy in the right direction:

1. Whats my story as to why my dragon is flying down this tunnel  and landing on the ledge?  Dont just have him fly in and land. This is huge, I want to tell a story!!!  So, my idea is that this dragon is landing on the ledge and getting ready to take off and land on a lower ledge out of camera view below.  The tunnel is the dragons home, he knows this tunnel like the back of his wing.  Therefore the we see a really quick entry into the cave, he comes to a landing somewhat cautiously and instantly looks to the next ledge below, ready's himself and gets ready to land on the next lower ledge.

2. Have him come in from the top of the cave, also upon entry have him rotate where we can see a silhouette of the dragons topside and top wings, he'll rotate and turn down.

3. F14, we need to see more tail, also tuck wings more and lose edge so slightly rotate wings so that we can see a better wing silhouette.

4. F25, we need more tail showing path of action and again eliminate the edge of the wings and show more silhouette.

5. f30ish, Get wings tucked more also push the dragon more screen left.

6. F44, get wings out at their fullest extension.  Pull wings back, so their not so forward.  The wings come out this is the BRAKE!  Body is going to swing out and down, while wings lift.  Overlapping action here.Push character closer to camera on this wing extension, so he's moving deeper in Ty here closer to camera he'll overshoot and settle up.  We want to hold the wing extension for 3-4 frames and then go into the flap, but before I flap, anticipate this flap by raising the shoulders and chest a bit.  Always anticipate the change from glide to flap.  

7. On wing flap, F51-54 have flap be more up/down instead of forward/back.  Also really get his wings to curl under him on down flap.

8. F64, fingers too strong, bend them.

9. F74, have one leg outstretchedwhile the other is more tucked.

10. F74, reduce the forward/back and make it more up/down on wings.

11. F107, landing have him land and instantly be looking at next ledge below.  so his head would be low and looking while his body is adjusting to take flight.

12. F18, and all the flight path of action, make it curvy.  Straights are boring.

A ton of great points to hit on my next pass, so I'm off and getting to work.

AC2- Final Vanilla Dragon Flight

My Final Vanilla Dragon Flight Cycle

AC2- Blocking Plus Match Move Dragon Tunnel

So here I should be in blocking plus, running a little behind so it's catch up time now.  There is still a ton of work to do just to get this into Block Plus.  But as is I can see the overall path and move through the flight and land. Keep going...!!!!

AC2- Creating Camera Track For Match Move Dragon Tunnel

Usually if you work for a bigger studio you'll have your plates camera tracked and ready to go.  But a lot of smaller studios will expect you to do this yourself.  So it's a good idea to learn how to get good tracked plates.  A good piece of software is syntheyes - it's easy to use and after little practice you'll be up and running.

AC2- Reference for my upcoming shot

Here are my reference pieces for my upcoming match move assignment where I will be animating a dragon flying through a tunnel and ultimately coming to a landing.

Birds In Flight - Slow Motion brought to U By Smarter Every Day

Here are some really great video clips of birds in slow-mo.  All of these clips are from Destins Youtube page Smarter Every Day.  I am just showing the great bird reference clips here for animation sake.  But I recommend his page, he's got some really great stuff.

Graphite9 Plugin AMAZBALLS Award!

Wow, this plugin is really great.  Just watch the video and drool.  Then download and send a thank you to the creator, Brian Horgan, for creating this amazballs plug!  Thanks much to my mentor, Nicole Herr, for pointing me to graphite9's site.

Animals Creatures 2 - WK 2 planning prt 3

The last planning page for my proposed match moves.

Animals Creatures 2 - WK 2 planning prt 2

Plan Plan Plan!

Animals Creatures 2 - WK 2 planning

Here we go again with planning and some notes.  I really didnt get into posing because I just wanted to nail down the concepts first.  I'll see what my mentor thinks.

Animals Creatures WK 2! Match Move and References

Ok. week 2 in AC2 and we are getting into match moving and backplates.  Here are my choices and also I have attached all my large bird references

Animals Creatures 2 - Final Dragon Vanilla Flight

So here is my final Dragon Vanilla Flight cycle.  There was a lot of fixes done on this bad boy.  There are some tweaks I'd like to clean up but right now I'm sick of looking at it.

Animals Creatures 2 - Dragon Vanilla Flight

OK, here is my first pass on my Vanilla dragon flight cycle.  I will post my mentor's crit notes on this puppy shortly - as soon as I have a second.

Large Bird Reference

ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS get your butt some reference!  Good sources are FramePool, BBC, YouTube, and Pond5.  Also, make sure your referencing birds/animals that are the right size for what your animating.

Animals Creatures 2 - Dragon Flight Cycle Thumbs 2

Here is more work on what is happening mechanically in bird flight but from a side view.

Animals Creatures 2 - Dragon Flight Cycle Thumbs

Do your work b4 U touch maya.  Thats what this is.  I have gone in and began to understand the mechanics of flight.  This was a doozy.

Progress Reel

Oh man, time is flying.  Here is my current Progress Reel.  I still haven't had time to go in and polish all my pieces.  Animals and Creatures 2 is kicking my butt!  But here it is anyway.

Learning ZBrush 4

Finally getting down and really learning ZBrush.  Actually following Spencer's Intro To ZBrush.  The tutorial is great so far, just learning the standard workflow right now.  And with this image I am just beginning to rough in the ear, still a ways off from finish with this piece, but I'm happy with the results so far.

Intro Animals and Creatures- Final Polish

Revised and finished.

Intro To Animals and Creatures - Wk 11 Polish

Just cleaning up and polishing.
Mentor's Crits:
1.  Shake from f45 to 65ish could be bigger and more dramatic.
2. offset the hands a bit to just break up and add some difference in takeoff and landing.
3.  Push the landing from f62 to f72 another 10%, slightly quicker and larger spacing.
4.  Knuckle readjustment f169 get the right hand to show more disparity through the pickup and rotation at beginning - by 2 frames, right now its moving too similar to the left hand.

So on with the revision, I'll post my final final polish shortly.
See you soon!

Intro To Animals Creatures - Polish prt 1 WK 10

Here's my revised Block Plus, took care of the major mechanic issues from my crit notes.  It's coming along, still have some minor tweaks, but we'll see what my mentor says b4 I go into polish.

My mentor's crit notes are:
1. f41, the push up- we need to feel more weight pushing down through the hands.  So f41-f43 we will see the knuckles stay in contact with the ground - add subtle rotation forward as well - emphasize the weight!
2. On arms coming up out of roar, make the spacing larger really swing those arms back.
3. The ease in on the arms needs to be tighter, right now it starts to soon - so  have them start to ease in further back and cover a smaller "ease in" before easing out.
4. The reposition on the knuckles at f183ish we need to see more offset at the beginning and at the end of the move with both hands.

Thats all the notes.  Things that will also happen in polish are:
1. Cleaning up my arcs and spacing in some spots
2. Recheck my contacts.
3.  A pass on the head animation - mouth cheeks eyes and brow shapes.
4. Adding some muscle shake and chest breathing.
5. Adding some tremor shake in hands and head
6. Experiment with adding some added camera movement.  Maybe some subtle handheld movement with some reactive movement with what the ogre is doing.
7.  Oh yes cant forget the overlaps on the loincloth and his ponytail.

Cloudy 2: Revenge of The Leftovers!

Intro To Animals Creatures - Wk 9 Sketches prt 2

Page 2 of my sketches.

Intro To Animals Creatures - Heavy/Light Sketches

Wk 9 assignment sketching weight poses both Heavy and light.

Intro To Animals Creatures - Wk 9 Block Plus Rev

Revised Block Plus of my Ogre Attack Behavior.  Mentor Crit notes are:
1. I lost some of the weight, get it back, poses need to be checked against block and thumbnails.
2. We want it to feel nice and fast AND HEAVY.
3. Add a little more time to make it feel heavy - the anticipation at beginning needs a few frames as well as the anticipation from the start of his roar, when he's down on all fours.
4. Spacing on the hips needs to be like a bouncing ball, so spacing close at beginning then tight at top then large spacing down to the hit at ground, with some close spacing for a recovery.
5. The start f11, we want him tighter - building up more anticipation, so curl his spine in and rotate body and hip con accordingly.  Also, f12 keep his body low up until he plants that foot then explode up.
6. Get more of a 'slam' into f23, so those hips down with the rest of the body, Bouncing ball, add more frames to recovery to get feel of nice weight to get to f27 pose.
7. Lead with the head with every action - makes it feel more imposing and fierce.  So f34 sequence we want to lead with head.
8. Coming down at f70, bigger spacing, lose the ease in on the right arm, add the weight with arms.  Reverberation with the chest as well.
9. F74, again we want to lead this motion with the head.  Leading with the head will make it feel more aggressive.
10. F82, with right hind leg, good idea just reduce the amount of movement, it's distracting from where we want the audience to look - at the arm sweep.
11. F96, we want to really feel the weight of both arms come down.  The left front arm is easing in too much.  So hands come down make contact, then we see the arms push the chest up.
12. The arm wipe, f115ish, feels like a human gesture.  Make it more creature.  Get head posed so that we dont mistake he's looking into camera, he should be looking more screen right.  Also, add more into the wipe, get some head and body movement into it.  Dirty it up a bit. 
13. f145ish, on the final hand/arm plant (left arm).  plant it with purpose, no ease in open up the spacing, BUT also get the ogre to move/shift weight over this arm so that he's coming forward over both arms - showing more aggression/intimidation.

I really dig these detailed crit's.  It's always an eye opener that I stop "seeing" everything that's gone wrong.  Proof again that getting critiqued really is a very important step in animation.  Especially when the crit is coming from someone who knows more then you.  So on to the revisions!!!

Intro To Animals And Creatures - WK 9 Block Plus

Here is my first pass on Blocking Plus.  Still have a lot of work to do, want to make sure and get all the weight in on the settles and transitions.

Intro To Animals And Creatures - WK 8 Blocking

Here is my blocking for my Ogre Attack behavior.  Here I want to give the weight and mechanics like a gorilla but make the performance a bit more humanistic - example the roar with the arms down at the side and the face wipe more like a human would wipe his face.  I stay away from iconic "gorilla" actions like the chest beat because those actions are too gorilla and I think would be too noticeable.  My mentor liked the direction but did add some notes on the anticipation before the roar, get him headed down a little more(rather than just forward).  Also, make sure we really feel the weight in the hips as he stands and also at the end when he settles to his last pose.

Intro To Animals And Creatures - WK 8 Thumbs

Here are my basic thumb sketches, going through and gaining a better understanding of where my poses are showing a good line of action and where the force is most evident.

James Baxter - Spirit Roughs

 Not much to say other than enjoy.  More to see on Jamaal Bradley's Blog!

Intro To Animals and Creatures - OGRE Charge wk 8

Here I've been able to work with the rig, just getting use to the controls and such.  Also, I've gone ahead and posed out what my Ogre will do through my new shot.  Looking at these I really need to push the poses even more, so doing small thumbnails just showing a good line of action and where the force is will really get me where I want to be.

Intro to Animals and Creatures - Reference for OGRE attack behavior

OK week 8, OGRE Attack behavior, I filmed myself doing what basically I want to animate.  Next I pulled in some gorilla reference since what we are to do is treat the ogre as a knuckle walker - gorilla, chimp for the actual mechanics and timing of how my piece will actually animate.  I still need more charging footage from the gorillas and chimps.

Intro to Animals and Creatures - Final Tiger Walk To Run

Here is my final for my Tiger - Walk to Run assignment.  Overall, my mentor liked what she saw, a few notes on the transition at f39 - the rotation of the hips and shoulders could be worked out and the right front leg during its passing pose could be raised in Y, to get rid of the annoying squareness of the shoulder but other then that things look good.

Sivlerbacks in battle

Lines of action, weight, clear strong silhouettes, mixing curves with straights for contrast showing movement and big time appeal.  Nature is sweet.

Rich Fournier's Super Cool "Groper" - Coming Soon!

Yes, very cool - click on the image to go to Triplikid Blog and see where this spanktacular character calls home.

How To Train Your Dragon Flight School

Time to get flying! This is a really great piece presented at CTN 2010, Sumida will discuss his collaboration with Simon Otto and other animators at DreamWorks as they developed the real-life references for the flight of dragons in “How to Train Your Dragon”

James Baxter - Sinbad Tests

Was doing some wandering around and came across Kevin Koch's Blog and these great tests that James Baxter did for Sinbad.  These are incredible, truly inspiring - the acting and timing are REDONKULUS!

Getting use to AM's OGRE Rig with a pose

I think this guy is going to be fun to animate!  Thanks AM!

Tool developed at Harvard turns animated characters into fully articulated action figures

Really cool, click and be amazed!

Quote Of The Day

"Balance reality with artistic license."

                                         ~Jim Brown

And Now a Word On Greatness

Conviction, dedication, perseverance and hours of hard work - its no secret how one reaches greatness.  Go get it.

Intro To Animals And Creatures - WK 6 Blocking

OK, just got my first blocking pass complete and turned into my mentor.  Notes to revise are really getting in there and making the clavicle and scapula feel and move as one.  Right now there is too much separation, so raise the clavicle and get it right.  Also, the foot flip poses need some work, rework the pose to not turn at the wrist too soon.  Still have to add all the tail animation - gulp.  Add in all the foot contact toe poses, ear poses, mouth/facial work and add some nice overlap of head and body.  Overall decent start but still need a butt load of work to finish this guy up.  PUSH ON!!!!

Intro To Animals And Creatures - WK 5 Reference

Again, gather as much reference as you can to build your shot.  Multiple angles help you get to the mechanics of whats happening with your cat and also reveal gems of crazy "no way I had no idea it did that moments.".  A great site for reference is Rhino Animals, pay for the service its worth it. Happy referencing!

Intro To Animals And Creatures - WK 5 Planning

Now on to my next shot: A Tiger Walk To Run.  Planning out my Keys and BDs, foot placement, and addressing any notes on how I want to add to performance.  It's really great to have this planning but remember to never be locked in to exactly whats on this sheet. 

Intro To Animals And Creatures - WK 5 Refining

So here is my first pass on polishing up my Walk To Stop.  I went in and refined foot contacts, added tail animation, and adjusted some slight breakup in the ear rotations.  I also tried to break up the overlap on body and head.  Speaking of tail animation - it's tough, too much it looks distracting not enough its frozen, just right you shouldn't even notice it.

Intro To Animals And Creatures - WK 4 Blocking

My first pass on blocking out my Walk To Stop.  Here I really pushed the rotations and ups/downs, making the hips and shoulders really feel like they are working together.  I also added in some performance with subtle head rotations.  Definitely a big improvement from my vanilla walk.

Intro To Animals And Creatures - WK 3 Reference

Here is my reference that I was able to put together on my Walk to a stop shot.  I got my reference from BBC motion gallery.  I  was able to find pretty much all I needed in 1 reference, so I was really lucky.  But still it is good to have different angles showing the same moves to give you more to look at.

Intro To Animals And Creatures - WK 3 Planning

Planning my next shot, here I want to show a Cougar sized cat walking then stops.  I try to keep it simple, so that I can really concentrate on the mechanics and performance of the shot.

Intro To Animals And Creatures - WK 3 Refined

So here again I took my mentor's notes and made the corrections she suggested.  This pass is still lacking in a lot of the qualities that need to make this cat feel alive.  It's always better to over do it and bring it back, then to just inch worm it to where it should be.  I still need to push this guy big time. I will updat this walk when a get a breather in class.  Learning, learning, learning....

Intro To Animals And Creatures - WK 2 Blocking

So here is my first blocking attempt, things to see where I need to push things are in the rotations and weight distribution of "each hip".  Also, I want to make the scapula and clavical feel as one, here it's not so good.  Also really pay attention to the hips and know the anatomy and why they are a lot more movement in Ty and Rx(the hips are fused to the spine, unlike the shoulder which is connected by tissue).

Intro To Animals And Creatures - WK 2 Planning

My first Quadruped Vanilla Lateral walk.  Here I am planning out the major poses - Keys and passing while also paying attention to foot placement and total frames.  Important to understand that we are dealing with 2 sets of "hips" - relating it to our own hips.  So what we have is as 1 set is contacting the other is passing.

Intro To Animals And Creatures - WK 1 Posing prt 2

Pose 2 - silhouette, appeal, line of action, external/internal action.

Intro To Animals And Creatures - WK 1 Posing

Working on posing and getting use to the cat rig.  Again, silhouette, line of action, appeal, external/internal reasons all playing a part in making the pose the best it can be.

Intro To Animals And Creatures - WK 1

Week 1, observe and sketch quadruped animals.  These were fun.  I mostly grabbed images off youtube, BBC motion gallery and framepool, and used them for my reference to sketch.  It's really crazy how much these animals are able to stretch and move. Trying to pay attention to appeal, line of action, and of course weight!

I'm Back

Wow, time to update with some work and get this blog flowing again!  Just graduated from AM's character program and jumped right into their Animal's and Creature's program.  I really had a great time with the character program, have some great alumni and mentor's.  I have a ton of cleanup and polish to do on my character pieces for my reel and at the same time trying to understand animal's and creatures.  So it's been busy understanding quadruped locomotion and performance at a pace that is a lot faster then the character program.  So on with the post's, I'll be posting mostly the beginning work from my animal's and creature work off the bat but will add my character pieces in when i start to cleanup and polish them.  Also, going to look for the next Inspiro Award winner and looking forward to adding in segments on what I learned about workflow and animation.

Acting reference for new shot

Working on my acting skills, building the reference for my new shot.  Look out Shakespeare.  Tried to get some subtext in the shot, while trying to stay away from the literal broad obvious gestures.

"I'm a jet pilot?"

So here is my setup for my new shot for polishing and portfolio.  He's a hardworking clown and she's not excited about the fact her dads a clown.

Custom Chucks! Sweeeeet!!!

Blocking in my current shot.  Just thought I would take a snap of my sweet work on Bish's Chucks.  Ahh, shame they wont make it in the shot, but it's gonna make the shot better regardless!

Still in Polishing

And still more polishing...

WIP Polishing

Getting closer...

My friend Eli Guerron's great short - It Gets Better

It Gets Better from It Gets Better on Vimeo.

All of Eli's work is always top notch, so I'm a little biased even before I see his new work. But this short really delivers a beautiful message. This is art, the connection of visual and audio to let the viewer "see" and feel their own story. Really inspiring, thanks Eli.

Currently polishing these pieces for part of my reel

As the title mentions these are my current picks to polish up and include in my character animation reel. Also, there are some of my current picks for a new dialogue line at the end of the QT. Still narrowing the choices down

Animator Quote of the Day

"When one man, for whatever reason, has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it to himself."

~Jacques Cousteau

On to Polishing!!! Class 6!!!

I thought I would upload my current WIP, still some mechanics need adjusting also sharpening up my choices and getting some nice spacing in there.

Great Visual and Sound Design: Resonance The Film

Andrew Stanton on Great Storytelling

Ok, I'm back and what better way to reintroduce more blogs with a great piece on the clues to creating great story. This is an awesome talk by Andrew Stanton while at TED, so sit back and relax and get ready to be inspired. Oh, and yeh there will be more of me and my blogs real soon.

Great Interview about CONTEXT!

Thanks Eli, for the find!

Advanced Acting - Blocking Out Multi Dialogue

Just did a first pass on my multi dialogue shot. Just mapping out what I'm going to do with this dialogue.

Advanced Acting - Emotion Pose

Sweet Zeus' Underwear!!! AVENGERS!!!

Yeah, yeah but the Animation and VFX are better than Chuck Norris.

Animator Quote Of The Day

"It's not what we know, it's what we do about what we know."

~Accidental Creative

Why We Over Complicate

Just listened to a great podcast on the Accidental Creative, and have a few notes from the podcast to share. So I'll just start with that we struggle to avoid whats on the surface as too simple or too obvious. We try to prove how accomplished we are by adding unnecessary complication into our work confusing the relationship of value and complexity. As an animator/modeler/VFX artist our main goal is to get to the heart of it - the very simple, reducing everything to its most simple elements. This approach will give us the most elegant and appropriate solution. The obvious to us signifies inherent lack of value, so it's natural to dismiss quick insights, this is our paranoid self saying get ride of this cliche! cynicism pokes its ugly head up and knows exactly what to say if we saw this execution by someone else - seen it before lacks any creative genius, yada yada... We worry about everything except about the value we are creating to our audience. For me as a budding animator I know that value is established through story and the way it is executed. Keeping it simple(keep it simple stupid K.I.S.S- my mantra) clear dynamic posing, following the forces of Acting and Action, thinking leads to emotions, emotions lead to actions and actions lead to objectives all the while paying as close attention to the principles of animation through these processes. What I strive to accomplish with the audience is for them to ultimately relate with my characters - empathy, empathy creates big value. Now it's good to question our quick insights, because often they are cliche and not the best solution BUT they are there for a reason. It's our mind telling us something our Ego doesn't want to hear. Hardheaded, yup that's what we are we aren't going to do something that a ton of others have already executed. We are unique, creative genius', searching for the "needle in the creative haystack". We thrive for recognition, that we are valuable - to our team, our clients our peers! We are trying to get "Above The Noise" by over complicating our work. The narrator of the podcast says, "creativity requires humble curiosity and this requires that on occasion the best solutions are the most obvious - those hunches. It's not what we know, it's what we do about what we know." Our goal is to simplify, simplify to get to the very heart of a problem until we have a solution that best fits our audiences/clients expectations.

Just want to give a shout out again to the Accidental Creative for offering a great insight to why we do what we do. Thanks.

Building Geometry Using Photofly and ZBrush

Joseph Drust using ZBrush and Photofly generating really amazing geometry. Game Changa!!!

Jason Schliefer at TEDx

Great info on what process goes into story, emotion and character.

Advanced Acting - Emotion Pose

My AM Advanced Acting 2 Person Dialogue Picks.

So, the first 3 are my top 3. Followed by other possibilities. Believe I got some good stuff. Whichever I pick, this is going to be fun.

Animator Quote of the Day

"You can't wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club."

~Jack London

Advanced Acting - Emotion Pose 4

This guy is HAPPY! I like the angle of action from the screen left ear through the characters eye line and jawline, it really opens up the appeal. Could of got more angle on the upper teeth and would have been nice to have more control over the mouth corners and feel of the upper lip really flattening out over the teeth but u work with what you got.

Advanced Acting - Emotion Pose 3

That's better a focal length of 90 is good, thanks goes to my mentor, here i intentionally brought the eyes in and down. Also, added a slight head tilt up. I like the rhythm of the top and bottom eye curves here makes him MORE scared.

Advanced Acting - Emotion Pose 2

Again, maybe a bit to much distortion. But there's clear emotion.

Advanced Acting - Emotion Pose 1

Yeh, the focal length is a bit short causing some distortion, go with 90 to kill it. But none the less this guy is ANGRY!

Latest Version Dialogue Work

So, here's my latest version on my first dialogue animation. There are still some tweeks to be made, hopefully I will get to those soon.

Victor Navone Blog Great Resource

Just cruising through Victor Navone's Blog, he's got some really great resource for animators. Click here and see for yourself.

Advanced Acting - Facial Animation Prt 1

A lot has changed with the body animation since this post, just want to show the beginning of blocking in the mouth and early facial animation.

Dope Sheet Work For Facial/Mouth Animation Prt 3

Just showing some mouth and facial planning. Always good to know where your going.

Dope Sheet Work For Facial/Mouth Animation Prt 2

Dope Sheet Work For Facial/Mouth Animation Prt 1

Animation Mentor to Add 10 NEW CHARACTER RIGS!!!

WHOO-HOO YEH!!! Cool, this is going to be fun.

NEW PROGRESS REEL - AM 1 thru 4

Here's everything so far while at AM. What do you think?

Class Starts Monday!

Really excited to begin this class.

How To Train Your Dragon Interview with Directors

Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois talk about what it was like to film this epic movie. BTW, I think the screen shot was part of the animation my mentor, Mike Stern, completed. Sweeeeet.

Accidental Creative

Really great site for all artists to visit for keeping the fire burning. Please click image and enjoy the articles and podcasts.

Animator Quote of the Day

"The source of whats not working, isn't always what we see that isn't working."

~Wayne Gilbert

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Here we go, a New Year, new goals, new perspective, new vision, new direction, let the plan begin!