Before and Afters:

Recently I started going back to old shots and reworking them, in some cases re-animating them, partly to add some of my games work to my overall reel but also to take what I learned the last two years and apply it to shots that I struggled with in years past.

This is one of my shots from God of War, actually it was a staple of my old reel but as you can see from the original that I was weak and lacked confidence as an animator at this point in my career. Pose was just a word and I seemed to have had no problems breaking poses to get around problems rather than taking the time to get it all anatomically correct. The timing is sticky, and the work is not what it could have been, although in-game with all the other stuff going on it still worked.

This is the new version. The poses are clear, the spine's timing is broken up, the arcs are clear, there is weight in the movement. It is still not perfect but it is a major improvement. Now I can see what all the effort the last two years got me...

Additional note: I remember when I did this in production it took me about two weeks from start to finished. This time around, re-animating from scratch took me a day for blocking and timing then about three days of polish going at it part time. I have gotten much faster that's for sure.

Back in the Saddle Again...

Back to animating after an almost two month long break. I never knew how much I worked in the last two years until I stopped doing it for a while. I am cleaning up old work and posting it as it comes out and starting to think of a next shot. Not sure if it's going to be acting or some really cool physical test, we'll see what inspiration will bring.

Newest reel is posted...

Employed!

Forget the last post for now, all shots are off!

I have been picked up for a 3 month contract at Sony Pictures Imageworks to work on The Green Hornet coming to a theater near you this June!

Off to New Mexico

N

Real Time Shot Walk Through

This week is the first week in a long time that I don't have anything to do. Animation Mentor has wrapped up and my time in the program was amazing. I have grown so much in the last two years as an animator, I am so thankful for the program!

Of course I will be sending the reel out to prospective employers but as we all know in the animation industry the wait can be long so in the mean time I decided to start another shot. Must keep practicing! Must keep learning!

At the same time I was trying to find a new first animation oriented post for my new animation centered blog and thought a great idea would be to do a Real Time Demo of my shot. I will post on every stage from conception through to polish.

My disclaimer: There are many ways to skin a cat! I have my way of working which is never to be claimed as the "absolute right way" to work. Everyone has their own way of working and I have mine that I have developed over the years. It works for me, it might work for you but you will probably add your own twist to it which is recommended. Never let anyone tell you how you have to work but at the same time, never ignore advice, critique, or tip. Your working style like you work should always evolve and improve. Go out of your way to find a new way to work faster, smarter, and more efficiently.

Note: All frame references in my posts will be assuming you are working at 24 frames per second.

Here we go:

My Chosen Audio:

This clip is from Sabrina

This clip has a short musical intro which is partly why I chose it. I like the score and think it would make a great entry point to my reel (if it's good enough) where the title will appear over the first half of the music then animation will start. Really it's just for some interesting editing. Hey, I just stumbled onto another tip! Always think where you're reel is headed. I will post more on that later.

My Goal: I am anticipating that I will be busy in the next couple of weeks so I wanted to choose something simple that I can get through quickly but will have good entertainment value. I had this clip in mind for the last few months after hearing it in the movie it came from. Have you ever been watching a movie and heard a line and thought "it's perfect for animation"? Well, you should write those down! The best animations come from clips that inspire you from the outset. Not to say that you can't get good animation from a random line but knowing where you are going early on is a great thing.

My thought process when choosing audio for a shot:

Avoid Cliche' at all cost! There are quite a few audio dumps out-there with lots of movies to choose from but I avoid them like the plague. Why you ask? Because I want to be original and it's hard to be original when someone else is cutting the clips and thousands of people have access to them! It is also worthy to note that the people that contribute to the clip site might not be animators and won't be cutting your clip with animation in mind. Does the shot have at least 6-10 frames padding the front before the character speaks? Does it have enough in the back end to give you a nice settle at the end? You always need that buffer in your shot so the viewers eye has time to acclimate to changes in the shot and it's not jarring as the action starts. Don't paint yourself in the corner before you even start!

Also, don't cut clips to support your performance ideas. Try to use the long breaks between spoken lines to add interesting breathing or eye acting beats, use what you are given. In a studio you can't cut audio so might as well get used to trying to invent ways to support the audio. As well, never animate before or past your clip length. It's always distracting and degrades polish when the audio cuts out mid animation. If the clip is not long enough to support your whole animation chances are it is not going to work for other reasons too. The right clips are easy!

Another tip for avoiding cliche is to not use "iconic" lines. You don't want people watching your fantastic animation to only associate the line with Al Pacino and totally miss your performance which might not be as good as his. One thing I have started doing is trying to find a line from a supporting character or even a bit player in a film without even considering the lead actor.

Important Note: Never, ever, ever use a line from the movie Dumb and Dumber! Ever! I have heard the same lines from that movie in Animation Mentor and other reels and it's completely cliche', overused and almost never animated well. There are just so many better lines too!

I also like the line to say a little about me since prospective employers are my target audience and one feature I like to show is having a basic knowledge film history and what better way for them to get that point than hearing clips from great films. It is my opinion that any animator that wants to work should be well versed in his or her chosen medium so my pet project has been to download the AFI Top 100 list and see every movie on it. I'm almost there! Mind you there are tons of really great movies not on that list but it will at least give you a starting point and you can pick the directors and actors you like and explore in your own time. This is not to say that the latest blockbuster or cheesy movie shouldn't be used, there are some really great and entertaining lines out there but I just like to emphasis what I am interested in.

I used to wring my head when planning a shot by trying to redefine the context of the shot. It is great when you get a new idea on how to present a shot but to be honest my shots are just about trying to get the best character performance I can in the most clear presentation possible. I am not writing a movie, I am just trying to show some good acting. I think it's great if you work gets a chuckle but I think it's better when your character has life because the performance is grounded and efficient. Don't get your head all screwed up over trying to be funny because in my experience the more you try to be funny, the more unfunny you become. When you animate a character in honesty, the character becomes funny, not the line and that's where you want to be.

Timing is key! When I screen audio for a shot I listen for interesting contrasts. Timing should have at least three speeds. Victor Navone has a great post on his blog about speed and timing in animation which I have come to live by. Other things to think about are change of thought or intention in the audio, contrast of pitch and mood, and above all simplicity which will be it's own post in the future.

I have rambled on far too long so I am going to star researching and planning. See you in the next post!

A New Start!

I think I'll start blogging again. Most of my readers have abandoned me since I stopped communicating two years ago.

Lots of things happened since I went to Australia:

1) Got there.

2) Worked a really challenging project, with a great team that in hind sight had little hope of making it on time and on budget due to scope and schedule.

3)Got moved to a new project

4)Decided to do Animation Mentor to improve my skills.

5)Economy collapses

6)Pandemic Studio, me employer, shuts down it's Australia studio leaving me jobless in Australia.

7)Got new but-not-what-I-was-looking-for-job.

8)Aunt Lisa passes after a year long but unexpected battle with cancer.

9)Loving Animation Mentor experience, going from just wanting to improve my skills to wanting to see how far I can make it into film realizing a life long goal.

10)Quit my job, convince my wife to move back to US even though she loves Australia. (sorry honey)

11)See New Zealand for two weeks with the wife in a Jucy Cruiza and it is the best trip of my life.

12)Sell almost everything.

13)Move back to the US mid-Animation Mentor term.

14)Aunt Linda passes.

15)Slog through Animation Mentor working harder than I have ever worked and loving it.

16)Graduated Animation Mentor

17)Put together reel and tried my luck on the market.

18)Nothing happened

19)Now I can hear crickets which means my reel still needed some work.

20)Came to the conclusion, in my quest for perfection, that my reel still needed work and decided to do one more Polish and Portfolio course at Animation Mentor.

21)Worked as hard as I could for three more months under the tutelage of Mark Oftedal.

22)Came out with what I think is a pretty sweet reel.

I will be sending this stuff out soon and posting on the internet and see what kind of reaction I can get. If it's nothing this time I am taking up a life of mediation at a Shaolin Monastery.

-Nick

Tale of Two

Two Randoms from Around the House...

While You Were Sleeping...

Can't decide which one's i like more...

Portrait of the Working Woman

The love of my life...

More 450D fun...

Cat Shots with the 450D

Sun Rise

Hey,







Again, with the lack of posts... I know, I know...





One of my favorite parts of living in Queensland is the mornings. I get up really early most days and let the cats out on the deck while it is still cool. Usually this is about 4:30 or 5:00 am so it is nice and still out and the sunrises tend to be spectacular...

Clouds

Hey Guys,

Sorry for the lack of posts. Leading up to the Christmas break I was a busy beaver with lots to do at work. I am also enrolled in Animation Mentor and that has been keeping me plenty busy. Between animating at work and then animating for AM, you can understand that in my downtime I am resistant to turning on a computer.

I will try and post more now, with shorter but intersting posts.

Here are some clouds I shot from our balcony the other day. That is one of the things that amazes me the most about Australia, the clouds. Being in South East Queensland, we are techincally part of the South Pacific and the cloud fromations are typical of that. I get up at 4:30 am to go surf and the sunrises here are amazing, puffy clouds that make the sky look like it is on fire, the sunsets are just as spectacular. This is more evedent in summer when the humidity and heat creat big storms in the afternoons that when mixed in with a sunset give remarkable results.

Manyana

Vacation has started off with a bang. Drove down to the Superbank yesterday to log in some surf time. I found gold at the end of the rainbow in the form of medium sized, mechanical rights, spinning off down the point at a rapid clip in warm, emerald, waters. I bypassed the crowd at Snapper and drifted down to Greenmount to sit with a handful of guys and get slotted on some fast rights breaking in shallow water. The fish loves him some Greenmount, fast, and zippy, slippy in the tube.

I managed to film a few seconds of it before giddiness took over and the drool train had to leave the station...

Tomorrow promises more of the same.

Choo-choo!

American Evolution

Doctor Evil...

Whats Your Palin Name?

The Palin Name Generator...

I am Chase Rooster Palin.

What are you?


http://politsk.blogspot.com/2008/09/sarah_13.html

Holy Freakin' Jesus!!!

I got this in an e-mail at work today... yeck!

Photos of a mammoth spider devouring a bird in a Queensland backyard are sweeping email inboxes — and according to experts, it's all real. The photos — which are reported to have been taken this week in Atherton, west of Cairns — show the spider clenching its legs around a lifeless bird trapped in a web.

Head spider keeper at the Australian Reptile Park at Gosford on NSW central coast, Joel Shakespeare, said the spider was a Golden Orb Weaver.

"Normally they prey on large insects… it's unusual to see one eating a bird," he told ninemsn. Mr Shakepeare said he had seen Golden Orb Weaver spiders as big as a human hand but the northern species in tropical areas were known to grow larger.

Queensland Museum identified the bird as a native finch called the Chestnut–breasted Mannikin. The bird, which appears frozen in an angel-like pose, most likely flew into the web and got caught, according to Mr Shakepeare. "It wouldn't eat the whole bird," he said. But the spider would probably prepare a liquid soup with the finch — as it does with insects — and discard of what it doesn't need. "It uses its venom to break down the bird for eating and what it leaves is a food parcel," he said.

Greg Czechura from Queensland Museum said cases of the Golden Orb Weaver eating small birds were "well known but rare". "It builds a very strong web," he said. But he said the spider would not have attacked until the bird weakened. "They blunder into [the webs] and their feathers get entangled," he said. "The more they struggle, the more tangled up and exhausted they get and they go into stress."

The Golden Orb Weaver spins a strong web high in protein because it depends on it to capture large insects for food, unlike funnel web and wolf spiders that actively hunt their prey. Another species called the bird-eating spider does not actually eat birds.

"If a spider gets a bird, it's a very lucky spider," Mr Czechura said.

More Powell Goodness...

Colin Powell laying it out like it is supposed to be. It is too bad this man never ran for office although I can sure understand why.

In two minutes and fifty two seconds, he summarizes what is wrong with politics in America and the GOP, smear machine.

You don't have to agree with policy, you don't have to agree with social values, but when it comes to questioning the patriotism, the faith, and the humanity of another American for the sake of cheap, political gain, then it is an abomination to the tune of McCarthyism 2.0. To me it is not only calling the candidate anti-American but every supporter of the candidate anti-American.

Powell Endorses Obama

Colin Powell formally endorsed Barak Obama today for President of the United States. In seven minutes on Meet the Press, unleashing a volley of clear, concise, and blunt language, Powell eloquently and methodically divorced himself from the wayward, ever increasingly xenophobic and racist GOP.

He was honest and direct and respectful of both candidates and spoke from the heart. He spoke well of Obama but it seemed that his statement was just as much a rebuke of the Republican Party than of an endorsement.

He mentioned the Ayers diversion: "I think this goes too far, and I think it has made the McCain campaign look a little narrow. It's not what the American people are looking for."

On the Palin Pick: "I don't believe she's ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of vice president... that raised some question in mind mind as to the judgment that Sen. McCain made."

On the GOP in general: "It has moved more to the right than I would like to see it." "Over the last seven weeks, the approach of the Republican Party and Mr. McCain has become narrower and narrower."

To me the most important and poignant portion of his statement was when broaching the issue of Islam in America: On some senior Republican Party members who "drop the suggestion that [Obama] is a Muslim and he might be associated with terrorists": "What if he is [a Muslim]? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is no, that's not America." And then he eloquently told the story of Kareem Rashad Sultan Kahn.

As a liberal Democrat, I would like to think that had Colin Powell ever made the run for the White House, I would have voted for him without hesitation. My respect for him is limitless...

For the Birds...

Last weekend we were invited over to some friends house for a BBQ. They own a nice place outside of the city near Mt. Nebo ( I think) in a really pretty area with lots of open spaces and trees and the like. When we got there we saw these three Cockatoos in the back yard and the guys were feeding them. Of course I wanted a go at it.

After feeding them for a few minutes Steve told me to look up and then I noticed that the trees were literally filled with them. There must have been thirty or more hanging around.

They are a little skittish but not very afraid of people or anything for that matter. If you hold up a cup of seed they come right down.

They hung around for a while afterwards hoping for an encore.