Heavy and Light Bounce

Week 4: Animate a "bowling ball" and "beachball" drop, bounce and stop in the same scene. I'm still trying to figure this out.

Bouncing Ball

This is the second part to week 3's assignments. Here we were to animate a ball (provided by AM) bouncing like a basketball or soccer ball. I think the last part of the tiny bounces at the end was a little too much . . .

"Excited" Pose

Week 3: This week we were to capture "excited". Problem is, it has all been done before so we can't do the typical "hands flung wide as the person is jumping in the air for joy" pose (as in sketches #6, 9 & 16). So, as I was sketching, I came across this photo of a woman with a contained excitement.

I sketched it, then tried to get the Animation Mentor "Stu" character in the same pose. It kinda worked . . . but not quite.

One thing they teach us is to exaggerate the gesture to get maximum impact. To get maximum impact, we have to keep all parts clear and distinct. You find this out by looking at the silhouette your pose creates. If the silhouette has any overlapping parts, it's hard to read. No matter how I turned the camera, I never was able to get all the parts clear. Thus the pose was tweaked . . . Enjoy!

Class 1 - "Basic Foundations" Has Started!

Actually, this is week 2. The first week assignment was to get familiar with the online campus, set up our profile and photo.

Sooooooo, this week, our assignment was to go out and sketch people in motion. We were then to choose one, take the figure (provided by Animation Mentor) called "Stu" and pose him in the same gesture. As I worked on his pose, I tried to tighten him up a bit and make it a little more dynamic than in the sketch.

One Legged Hop

This was the final assignment for the workshop class. We were to take Animation Mentor's one-legged robot and make it hop. It appears quick because I kept the hop to a second in length at my mentor's request.

Robot Arm

This includes assignments 9 & 10. Originally, this Animation Mentor provided scene had a can and a block, but keeping to my "little king" theme, I replaced the can with the king and the block with the horse.

Assignment 9 was for us to take the provided robot arm and animate it "picking up" a can and placing it on a block on the other side within 4 seconds. It appeared to go through the motion as if it had picked it up.

In assignment 10, we actually learned how to "pick up" the object. This is the final product of both assignments.

Double Circle

This was assignment #8. It involved having a sphere going in a circle, importing a second one and changing its path. I had fun with this. It was interesting to hear my mentor, Kristina, particularly like it because it reminded her of an orrery . . . I had to look it up to know what she was talking about . . . now, I understand.

Circular path

This was assignment #7. The objective was to make a sphere move in a perfect circle. After doing that, I did a second one including my "little king". I thought it was fun, but the "thumbs up" and head turn animation were really rough because I didn't know what I was doing.

Little King in Space

This was our first animation. We were to take a sphere (ball) and move it around in space . . . in my mind . . . "little king" = sphere.

Lighting and Shading

Workshop Assignments #4 & 5. For these two assignments I decided to combine them into one. The first half of the week we learned how to color (or in Maya terms "shade") our character and scene. The second half of the week we learned how to add lighting and control the shadows.

These pictures are snapshots from different camera angles I set up in this scene. If you look at assignment #3's images, you can see the camera representations indicated in green.

Making a Scene

Workshop Assignment #3. In this assignment we were to take the character we had created and place him in a scene.

Since he was a king, I placed a crown on his head, a sword in his hand and a faithful steed to carry him through the woods.

I absolutely loved creating everything in this assignment.

Little King Occupies 3D Space!

This is the second assignment I had with Animation Mentor's Maya Workshop. The purpose was to create a stick figure from scratch with working joints.

Instead of doing a stick figure, I thought it would be fun to create my little king character I posted earlier in a Daily Sketch (Card Design).

When you initially create (or in Maya terms "model") something in Maya, the default color is gray.

The first assignment is not posted because it was not interesting enough to post. It involved placing shapes on a bookshelf Animation Mentor provided.

Hippo Hummingbird

Daily Sketch - create a creature combining a hippo and a hummingbird.

PC vs. Mac

Daily Sketch - draw a scene capturing the "PC vs. Mac" commercial characters.

Fire Elemental

Daily Sketch - create a character from the element of fire.

This actually is the second version of this subject. The first one I did in 2008 was a lame matchstick character - this one I liked much better.