Chess Animation - Final

Here is the final version of the chess animation piece I've been working on. Any comments or critiques are welcome!

Latest Animation - Change of Emotion - Blocking

A somewhat more subdued piece of animation, I wanted to show a change of focus and emotion in this piece.

What i have so far is the blocking.

New Animation - Weight Excercise

Latest peice of animation for the demo reel. My intent was concieve and portray a sense of weight in a 3D. Pretty happy with it! Comments and critiques are more than welcome!

Update

Well, i've finally finished the animation of my short film!!! Hooray!!! I composited it all together but its all just playbasts at this point with a sprinkling of rendered scenes here and there. Its essentially a ruff cut of the shots with the music, no sound fx yet. Im going to take a week or two off and let my mind regroup, then come back and decide if theres any thing extra i want to add. The plan after that is to render over the break and put the film all together in January, when i have access to the schools programs again. Then after that its off to film festivals!

I was fortunate that the animation department head, Becky Wible Searles allowed me to spend this whole semester working on the character animation, rather than spending weeks worrying about the rendering. I was able to make a much better film this way and i truly appreciate it.

So in the meantime, check out my brand new website! I plan to update it as often as i can with new sketches and animations and definitely the short film sometime in February!

seancolemanart.com

Short Film Update

So alot has been going on with the short film, i just havent updated in a while. First of all, some small story changes: Jack(purple guy) is now going to hook Clyde(green guy) into playing with his car keys rather than his pocketwatch. It just seemed like a more plausible reason to risk all of your winnings. Plus it gives Clyde a desire to play, setting him up for a perfect character flaw...greed. Next, ive decided to rework shot 35 where Jack shakes Clydes hand and looms over him. I want to break it up into multiple quick cuts to improve the pacing of the sequence. Also, a lot of shots have been lengthened to allow time for some solid acting. Alot of my shots worked in the animatic, but when it came time to animate, more time was needed to fit in the acting that was necessary to make these characters seem alive and to be thinking about what the're doing.

Special thanks to Eric Stallard, Erik Westlund, Gav Gnatovich (spelling?) and Becky Wible-Searles who have really helped me this semester so far to push every shot to be better than i had in mind. Keep it up!

Any and all comments or critiques are extremely appreciated!

Scene 37 Animation


Scene 29 Animation


Scene 28 Animation


Scene 10 Animation

Scene 10 Update - Ruff Animation

Here is the latest with scene 10. All of the Ruff animation is completed, except for some tweaking on some of the pool balls. I think the scene is working pretty well. The pacing feels right and when played with the music, its hilarious.
Im open to comments, critiques or suggestions though. Anything to make this shot better!

PS. im considering using this shot as the opener on my demo reel. Any thoughts?

Scene 10 - Ruff Animation

Scene 10 Blocking

Well, its finally time to tackle this scene. I purposly put this scene off until i was more comfortable with the rig and the characters. Here is my work from the past 2 days. Only the blocking and ruff timing of key poses and breakdowns at this point but im likin the main action.

Any comments or critiques?

Scene 10 Blocking

Scene 41 Final Animation

So here is the latest with scene 41. Pretty much ready to call it done but as always, comments and suggestions on how to make it better are welcome.

Scene 41 Final Animation

Scene 36 Final Anim / Scene 41 Ruff Anim

Finished scene 36. Im likin' the way it came out!
Just a little past ruff blocking for scene 41. Tangents are still linear and it looks great. I might just leave em that way and not use clamped.

Any comments or critiques?

Scene 36 Final - not rendered yet though


Scene 41 Ruff Anim

Scene 36 Ruff Animation

Its been a little while since my last post. I got sick for a while and ive been working extra shifts in the lab but now im back on track. Ive done a few scenes since my last post so here's a couple of them. Soon enuff ill post an updated animatic with the scenes inserted. Also, that way you'll be able to see the scenes with motion blur, which sometimes makes quick movements look more believable, particularly in scene 35. Enjoy!

Comments and critiques are more than welcome.
Scene36


Scene35

Scene 27 Update

So here is the latest for scene 27. Erik Westlund, the new 3d professor at our school has given me some great advice about tilting the head a little and adding some assymetry in the face. We also discussed his method for going about animating in 3d and im very excited to try it on my subsequent scenes. Its very similar to the way you would go about animating in 2d. Essentially you start with all your keyframes on consecutive frames, no frames in between. From there you start to seperate them, looking for the appropriate timing, then add some settle into the frames. From here, you add in your breakdown positions. Then, you go in and add keys where necessary, attempting to stay on 2's whenever possible, switching to 1's when necessary. The dopesheet can get heavy, but it is much more organized and you are in control of arcs and spacing, not Maya.

Scene 27 - Update

So im only 5 scenes into my short but ive already realized something ive been doing. In my attempt to strive for better animation than i have ever done, ive been looking at each scene individually and trying to make the most out of them. Pushing every pose (appropriately...none of the unnecessary posing Erik Westlund so accurately pointed out in his observations regarding "A Gentlemens Duel"), adding in those blinks that breathe life into the character, and in general, really trying to understand the character and how they would react. All well and good except...i have been forgetting to look at the bigger picture. I need to remember the scenes in the context of the whole.
Crystal, you were more than 100% correct when you mentioned a shaking of the hands. You touched on something that went much deeper: My character was accurately reacting, begging for one more game. But in the context of what had just happened to him, he seemed not too upset. I sat there and said, 'this guy has just lost a dozen games in a row and all his money...but my animation doesnt suggest that he really wants that last game to make up his losses.'

Therefore i went back and pushed some expressions and added in some shaking in his hands to really get you to feel that this character is desperate. Im getting closer but i know i can push it more...

Your thoughts?

Scene 27 Ruff Animation

Here is the scene i did today. Jack is begging Clyde for one more game.

Scene Eleven Animation

This is the ruff animation from shot eleven in my short. There is still a degree of finesse animation i have to do before i will call this scene done, but its at a point where i wouldnt mind a little input. Does the timing of the actions feel right, is the pacing of the poses smooth and appealing, is there anything that feels odd? Any comments or critiques are welcome. PS. Clyde is taking money from Jack in this scene, but i havent added in the money yet, so just use your imagination.


PS. I know the video is a little dark. the only thing i was able to upload was a playblast. For some reason my AVI's arent uploading properly and i dont have access to After Effects to composite frames for another week.

Scene One Test Render

Here is a low Rez render of the first scene of my short. I wanted to keep Clyde's movements somewhat low key to fit his character. He really isnt the type to do any kind of unnecessary movement-he just tries to look as cool as he can. I really had to restrain myself not to push any of the anticipations or takes too far. Let me know what you think!

Portfolio Animatic

This is the animatic for my senior portfolio animation. Essentially its the storyboards filmed and timed so the viewer can get an idea of what will happen in the short.

As you'll find, i decided to only have music and no sound effects. I did this because i really feel it evokes that 20's feel, just before sound came into movies, when all there was to drive the story and mood were the actors and the in-theater accompaniement.

Let me know what you think!

Portfolio Update - Jack and Clyde

Decided to finally post the characters for my portfolio animation. They've been finished for quite some time now and are fully rigged, including facial animation (except clyde, the shorter one, still making blendshapes). Also included a shot of the room work in progress.

Im now in the process of creating a more suitable environment for them to live in, as the other pool hall simply didnt fit the style i was going for.

Hopefully ill get to do some test animation within the next month, but first, the animatic and finishing the environment!