Walk-through: Spline Editing

Week 7

For this week I had to animate a one-leg character, using all the principles I have learn so far.

First I had to create some reference of the jump. So here it's a very long video of me... jumping!

Then I worked on my storyboard:

After many hrs of preparation, here's my animation!

Overlapping Action

This kind of action makes the animation feel less robotic and more alive. It breaks up the parts of the character and moves them at different times. Pretty much everything in nature moves this way.
This is my assignment of a side-view animation of a pendulum starting from a stopped position, then coming to a rest with overlapping action on the pendulum. Enjoy!

Obstacles Course

For week 5, I had to animate a ball bouncing through an obstacles course.  Here it is for your entertainment.

Desvastation

devastation

Pronunciation: /ˌdɛvəˈsteɪʃn/

noun

[mass noun]

1great destruction or damage: the floods caused widespread devastation

2severe and overwhelming shock or grief: she spoke of her devastation at his death

Oxford Dictionaries 

I have never paid much attention to the world devastation until last week, when as part of my assignment I had to draw and recreate a pose that portrayed a sense of devastation.

My first thought was to Google search for a "devastated" image. I was a little bit shock to see that the word had been wrongly used by the media in so many occasions. I found large numbers of images of celebrities with the captions like "Devastated by divorce after a two weeks marriage". 


Obviously I was on the wrong path to find some devastating images, and then it clicked! I had to search for the names of the events that devastated entire cities in order to find what I was looking for. Am I the only one that thinks that this is ridiculous? I really don't think the Kardashian divorce is devastating, in the same way as the Tsunami in Japan or the Earthquake in Haiti. 

I believe the media should choose properly the words they use when reporting something. So they don't undermine the meaning of the words. Words can be powerful, but only when they are used correctly.

With my rant out of the way, here are my drawings and final pose of a devastated person.

 

Bday cake!

Last week was my bday and I got a "decorate-it-yourself" cake. I loved it! I even dedicated a space to the bouncing ball! Check it out!

Balls, balls, bouncing balls!

I'm already on week 5 of the program so I will have to be very short about what has happened so far.

Week 1: It was all easy... watch the welcome video, set up your account and make sure you don't miss the Q&A at your assigned time ( my case Tuesdays 8pm) Easy peasy!

Week 2: Go out and draw people on the streets. (seriously??? It's freezing out there!! I just drew from pictures :P) Then choose your favorite drawing and using the popular 3d character called Stu recreate the pose. 

Easy peasy!! ... not really! I spent little time on it and it reflected on my grade! :-o Be for sure that it was a wake up call! This is not going to be like GSA! (I'll tell you about that horrible time of my life someday). So here it is, my not so good pose of Stu.

Week 3: Animate a bouncing ball with the weight and bounce of a basketball. 

This time I did spent a lot of time looking a bouncing balls. I even took out my calculator and applied some physics when I was animating. It went well, but I had to make some changes the following week, cause animation is not just physics. You have to feel the movement. This is the revised version of it.

 

Week 4: Animate both a light ball and a heavy ball that bounce then come to a stop in the same shot. 

I loved this project! It was incredible difficult!! I spent so much time watching at balls! Light ball, heavy balls, little balls, big balls... It paid off!! My grade improved on this last assignment!! So, now for your entertainment I present to you my bouncing balls! :-)

Typing again

Hey there! This is Claü and I had been encouraged to start a blog where I can update about my latest animation projects.

So here I am, back to the keyboard and the words... away from the virtual brushes and 3d environments. 

As you guessed I am an animator! I am an artist! I am currently studying Basic Foundations on animation at AnimationMentor.com, this is my 5th week on the program. I am excited to tell you all about it and how it will help me get closer to the job of my dreams!