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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

I'm walking away...

So I've decided to stop working on this test and render it. I'll make a confession here, this really was my first time doing a test of this nature. Ultimately it was and is intended as a learning experience rather than my "masterpiece". Yea, I know there are things I could do a lot better with it (like the lip sync), but I've learned a ton and I just want to take what I've learned and move on to the next one, rather than continuing to mess with a bad foundation.

At any rate I don't think it turned out too bad, I'm mostly pleased.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Finish your damn work!

Raise your hand if you're like me and have started many of animation test only to get bored, distracted, laid off, injured, married... or any other number of reasons and never finish your personal animation. It's really hard to find the time and energy when you get home from your job... animating all day. Doubly so when you have a noisy cat that wants your attention after being gone all day.

Well I am pleased to say that after torturing such a dialog animation test since... longer than I want to admit, I'm just about done. I'd thought I post up the playblast and get any feedback ya'll might have. I'm not looking for any major re-works at this point, I've made my bed and now I have to sleep in it, plus I want to move on to the next animation to torture. But yea, any thoughts, comments, complaints (actually you can keep those to yourself), and suggestions to tighten up and improve it are welcome before I go off and render it.


***UPDATE! Click here to see the newer playblast/version.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Tips from Don Bluth

First off just wanted to say that I have recently received a lot of support and e-mails from people who have been reading my blog and seeing my work. Frankly I really didn't think anyone actually read it besides my Mother (hi mom). But yea, thanks for the words of encouragement, you all have no idea how motivating it is.

I also want to give a shout out to Jean-Denis Haas. Not only has he linked me a couple of times in his blog, but more importantly he is an incredibly talented animator and a blogging machine! Seriously, the dude has like four sites, all of them tasty and useful. Check them out: Spungella , his portfoloio site, Animation Buffet, and Swench.

On to the title of this entry, how about some animation tips from Don Bluth? Not sure why it has taken me so long to come across his website, but he has an "Online Animation Academy". While calling it an "academy" may be a bit of a stretch, he does have several pages of good animation reading! Check it out. I found his tips on dialog particularly interesting.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Ralph Bakshi Just Called You Lazy!

I came across this video of director and animator Ralph Bakshi speaking at Comic Con. Someone in the audience asks him how he witnessed and survived the collapse of studio animation in the late 60s and 70s. While I don't %100 agree with him with on his angst towards the big studios, he certainly tosses a bucket of cold water on your face to get off your ass and create something... bad or good, anything! Just stop talking about what you are going to do and do it.

Ralph Bakshi at Comic Con

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