Going Nuts

Another challenging assignment this week. We had to come up with a scene and then animate Tailor (the ball with a tail) performing at least 3 bounces. This builds on previous lessons, particularly overlapping action.



Here is an HD version rendered in RenderMan. First w/o motion blur, then with motion blur - then repeats.

Overlapping Action with a multi-link pendulum

Week 6 is now complete and here is my final animation for our assignment. In this assignment the focus was overlapping action. Most of the animation was done by a selective breaking of joints and then copying the curves and offsetting them for each segment. After that I manually changed some of the offsets to better approximate the final parts of the settle.

Enjoy!

The wait is over. Week 5 final assignment for your viewing pleasure

A few comments on last week's assignments. The assignments consisted of animating a ball going through an obstacle course while factoring in anticipation and squash and stretch. The second part had us showing Stu being devastated.

Initially I posed Stu hunched over sitting on the ground, head buried in his hands. This pose looked pretty good, but I didn't like the silhouette with him wrapped so tightly. His huge head made that even more of an issue. So mid-week, I went in a completely different direction. I chose to push this new pose and knew that it probably would be too much, but I wanted to see how the pose would read and get feedback on something out of my comfort zone.

Next, the obstacle course. This was the most difficult assignment so far by several orders of magnitude. Most of my peers expressed similar sentiments. I had a working rough version up by Monday, but as I began to refine and adjust the animation it became a huge undertaking. In the end, after about 60-80 hours of work day and night, I finally completed the assignment Sunday morning before it was due at noon PST.

So here they are. By the way, the note Stu is reading that devastated him, informed him that his head is entirely too large :)

Almost there

This is most likely going to be my final version of the two bouncing balls assignment for this week.

I got some great feedback including a review of my animation with a mentor this morning.

Here it is, let me know what you think.

The final stretch of week 4

I am now just polishing my animation assignment for this week. Two different bouncing balls with different weights. Basketball and bowling ball.

Let me know what you think!

Two are better than one

This week's assignment is to show two balls bouncing that have different weights.

Here is my first rough version.

Comments are welcome.

I have discovered a new Law of Physics

All balls, regardless of composition, bounce the same height!

This week we are to animate two different balls of similar size but of different weight (i.e. basketball and bowling ball) to demonstrate how weight is conveyed to an audience.

I decided to go out and get some different balls to do my own reference shots this week. I found two balls of similar size but very different weight. First, a tennis ball; lightweight and large bounce. Second, a lacrosse ball; heavier and ... large bounce. In fact, they bounce almost the identical height. My animation will be pretty easy ;)

So, if anybody needs to identical bounces with different weight balls, then there is your solution!

PS I have now confirmed West's 1st Law of bouncing balls. I found an old rubber ball that is about the same size as the other two. It's weight was also different than the other two. And...wait for it...they all bounce the exact same height and pattern.

Any universities or academic societies wishing me to come speak, please contact me for my rates.

Bouncing back

Sorry for the lack of updates last week. Our assignment to animate a bouncing ball (soccer or basketball) as well as create a new pose for Stu that showed excitement, took a lot more time than I anticipated.

Since I am sure everyone has been holding their breath waiting to see the results (and who wouldn't?), here is my final animation and pose that I turned in yesterday.

First revision of Stu looking excited

Please leave feedback here or internally at AM.

Thank you all for taking a look!

It's time to be a poser!

Ok gang. These are my sketches for this week's assignment to create a pose that shows excitement.

Please leave me comments on which of these (or maybe a combination of some) read as excitement for you. Any comments on the sketches themselves are welcome as well.

PS AM folks all of this is up on my Public Review so feel free to comment either place.

Whoa ... where has the week gone?

Somehow, it is already Wednesday and I am just coming up to breathe. Last week's assignment went well and I got my critique. My mentor offered some really good suggestions and it was no surprise that my sketches need some work.

This week the new pose is to show excitement. This should be fun on a character with no face! I have been practicing sketching every day and I am playing with several different pose ideas (examples to come later).

The second assignment is our first animation! The quintessential bouncing ball that is part of any animator's foundation.

I used a video reference of a basketball bouncing off of YouTube (gotta love YouTube). Most of yesterday's animation work was analyzing and planning my bounce sequence. I am probably being way too meticulous as I measured and timed every keyframe (height of bounces and hits) and matched those to frame numbers.

Here is my first pass at the animation so it still needs work.

Animated short worth checking out

This is a 9 minute short in 2D that I found mesmerizing. From YouTube:

Official animated movie of Tim Minchin's 9-minute beat poem Storm.