Smapdi says...

Moving on over ...

2005-10-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

I am going to move all my blogging and file hosting over here. chad moore dot net.Come have a look see.

Assignment 3

2005-10-09T20:09:00.000-07:00

So assignment three had two aspects to it. First off, pose the provided character in an excited pose. Of course we were to seek out and observe the real world and sketch to use as reference. Second was to animate a bouncing ball. I have animated about 5 bouncing ball exercises in the past. The bouncing ball is probably the most standard animation practice exercise. It sounds easy, but it

Session 03 - planning

2005-10-03T21:59:00.000-07:00

So session 03 is starting up and I am eagerly anticipating these lectures, comments and critiques. You see I want to improve my drawing and eventually my 2D animation skills.Also I know from my own experience that the more you plan your animation before touching the computer the better end result is. I want to learn to plan better. I can't wait to watch the lecture. More later.

Updating the pose

2005-09-30T21:17:00.000-07:00

I received some great feedback about this pose from some of my fellow mentees. Thanks all. I guess I was trying too hard to math the pose that I drew, and not "Run with it". This is what using reference (drawing, people watching, video reference, films) is all about. Take little bits of info, and "run with them". Get to the heart of them, sell them. As for how this really translates to

Assignment 002

2005-09-29T22:52:00.000-07:00

The focus of the assignment was to go out and sketch some poses of people doing what they normally do. The emphasis was to capture the pose, not render a beautiful drawing. "Gesture drawing" is a common way for artisits to start thier work, and a great way for animators so capture a pose. BTW - I start a gesture drawing class in a week - i'll be posting a lot of the drawings i attempt therein.

Video chat 2

2005-09-28T20:59:00.000-07:00

We just finished up video chat number 2 with our super mentor - Bret Parker. Bret covered some tips on the 12 principles of animation. Squash and Stretch, Solid Drawing, and Appeal mostly. The class was lively with some very good questions and tips. IMHO memorizing these 12 principles isn't enough. They are so intertwined it is hard to separate them at all. I am glad Bret refreshed my

Animation Mentor on Variety.com

2005-09-27T22:07:00.000-07:00

OK, for all of you who are asking whats this Animation Mentor all about? Check this out. It about sums it up. The energy at AMO is making my head spin. Variety.com - Mentor program animates hopefuls

another oldie

2005-09-26T22:33:00.000-07:00

Amazing what you find when you check your back up CD's. Lets see, this lil' diddy was done in mid 2003. It's a silly walk. Enjoy.

Getting down to the basics

2005-09-26T17:30:00.000-07:00

I just watched Animation Mentor lecture 2. Its all about the 12 principles of animation. These principles were coined by the nine old men of Disney animation way back in the day. There so very relevant to yesterdays animation, what is going on today and in the future of animation. Regardless of Medium they help to create styles.I work in the games industry. Our department works mostly on "

More site tweaks

2005-09-24T21:44:00.000-07:00

I had some problems with the links to the anims I have posted recently, so I fixed that. Then I messed around with the sidebar and added links to my classmates. There are many more AM students blogging, but to keep it simple I just included my (Fall 05) class. If you have a burning desire for more AM bloggy goodness, check out the webring at the both of the page.Also do check out the tagcloud.

oldies but goodies

2005-09-23T18:42:00.000-07:00

This is quite possibly the oldest cg animation I ever did (and still have backed up). Since my last post about looking back a year from now got me all nostolgic, I decided to try and find some old anims. This was done in Softimage 3.x Its the artist not the tool, but I just wanted to show you how old this anim is. Maya was still powerAnimator then, and Softimage ruled the 3D animation

New design

2005-09-23T17:29:00.000-07:00

Free polls from Pollhost.comHow do you like the new layout?Nice - keep it Eww - Go back to the old one Try something new

first pics from the "superSampler"

2005-09-22T18:01:00.000-07:00

Sweet!

wip - sophisticated - post blocking

2005-09-22T17:25:00.000-07:00

Well, Here is the post blocking pass. It feels linear and mechanical to me. But overall its OK i guess.I extended the "push" forward on the "very" part and mucked with the hand. I think my acting choices are a bit cliche, especially the hand at the beginning. I am looking forward to coming back and looking at this file in a year or so. Just to be amazed at how far I have progressed by then.

wip

2005-09-22T12:24:00.000-07:00

Here is a work in progress animation I have been fooling with off and on for a couple of weeks. Its still in the rough blocking stage right now. After I tweak out the body motion I will add the facial anim. Coments critiques and critism are appreciated.Oh yes - Credit where credit is due. This is a free model and rig provided by www.cramer3d.com. Thanks!

1st chat with my mentor

2005-09-21T21:05:00.000-07:00

Man this class is going to kick some serious ass. Bret Parker (animator at Pixar - voice of Cari in he Incredibles and Jack Jack Attack) is our mentor. She seems very down to eath and quite positive. Which is very refreshing, who wants to be taught by a negative person eh?My classmates all seem crazy eager and pumped for the class, and are from all walks of life. Some are total newbies, some

New camera!

2005-09-20T22:36:00.000-07:00

My wonderful wife gave me this new camera as a birthday gift. I am pretty excited to try it out in the daylight tomorrow! It is from The lomographic Society International so you know it kicks the kraziness. This particlar model shoots four exposures on the same image, either in .5 second or .05 second intervals. This should make for some interesting animation refrence, and other cool motion

Animation Nation Bulletin Board: N.Y. Times article on Disney Animation

2005-09-20T12:16:00.000-07:00

Animation Nation Bulletin Board: N.Y. Times article on Disney Animation: "The box office numbers show how far the sky has fallen. The studio reached the height of its most recent popularity with the 1994 release of 'The Lion King,' which brought in $764.8 million at the worldwide box office. By contrast, the last nine animated movies Disney either made or acquired took in only $758.3 million

Animation Mentor - video Chat 01

2005-09-19T22:48:00.000-07:00

I just wrapped up the first video chat/class of Animation Mentor. Bobby and Carlos are very inspiring indeed.Aside from some glitches and hang ups in the chat, all things seem to be functioning well technically. The hiccups seemed natural with over 100 people chatting and a live video and audio stream going at the same time.The web site is a bit odd to navigate, but its OK once you get the hang

Animation Mentor

2005-09-17T13:51:00.000-07:00

Well it is official, so I guess I'll spill the beans. I am now a student of Animation Mentor!I start Monday the 19th of September and needless to say I am pretty fricken excited. I'll use this blog as a way to keep myself on track and post my work from the class. I guess I'll have to turn this into an Animation Mentor Blog and join these folks..Animation Mentor Blogs

Master Class Notes

2005-09-07T20:49:00.000-07:00

If you were at the Motion Builder Master Class I (Chad) co-presented this year at siggraph and are missing the final notes, let me know by commenting and I'll see what I can do to get them to you.Cheers,Chad

underground - a photoset on Flickr

2005-08-16T21:59:00.000-07:00

With the advent of social bookmarking and higher bandwidth it seems animation is taken on a new life on the web. Animated gifs have been around for ages, and flash animation is really cool, but check this out... Photographers are using web based slideshows to create animation. This one is especially interesting considering the photos were taken a week before the despicable and cowardly attacks

Siggraph Recap

2005-08-11T22:56:00.000-07:00

"Bring your Brain" - That was this year's slogan for the conference. It should have read "Bring your Brain - and leave it somewhere in LA". Between the all day learning and all night partying, one's brain does hurt at the end of a good siggraph. Siggraph rocked this year, although I missed some friends who couldn't come for reasons related to babies or a bearded and flanned lunatic driving

Siggraph 2005

2005-08-01T08:24:00.000-07:00

Ah Siggraph. The nerdiest place on earth. This is the middle of day 2 for me. Day one was as it has been for the last several years. Check in, meet up with friends (old and new) and head to the Alias Users Group. Good fun was had by all. I am in the hotel doing last minute preperation for our presentation, and ready to go. I think it'll turn out well. More later, back to work.

melGeek(s)

2005-07-25T22:06:00.000-07:00

We have 2 new contributors to help keep melGeek up and running. Please welcome Josh Carey of the Animation Farm, and Ian Jones. I am looking forward to more posts and general mel goodness.huzzah!