AM-Animals and Creatures 1 Week 3-6

Our post walk cycle assignment was to animate a type of quadruped locomotion be it walking. running, trotting, leaping etc.  I decided to do a smaller cat, because I thought it would be fun and the majority of the other shots being done were of bigger cats.

I watched a LOT of cat videos on youtube and found a bunch of this adorable little kitten.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYk07KFWPZ8 (the part that I referenced starts at about 2:08)

Then I did a bunch of thumbnails.

I wanted to tie in this shot and my third shot is a sort of anim-jam with the cat/kitten walking over and sniffing a sleeping ogre, then end up playing around the ogre and jumping on him-waking him up.

I blocked out the cat prancing/trotting over the ogre (which would be added later).  The tail was also hidden in this pass so that I could focus on the rest of the body.

I did a couple of more passes on it and ended up with this more refined version.  I also added in some tall grass to make the high steps the kitten is taking more believable.

Blind Contours?!

In my mountain of old life drawing I also found these ridiculous blind contour drawings.  

This first one looks like it's terrified and maybe in a strait jacket.  My friend Kendall thinks that the face looks like a mushroom cloud.

Most of my blind contours seem to end up having 'elephant feet'.

I really enjoy how this guy's fingers seem to be turning into root vegetables.  He seems totally relaxed and fine about it though.

Old Life Drawing Pt2

Here's some more of the life drawing that I found while sorting through a bunch of my old artwork.

For this one we did a bunch of continual gestures as the model moved around in one spot.  I kind of like how this one turned out.

We used ink and nib pens one week, which was very different for me.  It has a neat kind of graphic novel feel to it though.

Remember when I said that I would sometimes get bored and add 'backgrounds'...

This model was always difficult for me to draw because he had a tendency to look RIGHT INTO YOUR EYES as you were drawing him.  He looks so forlorn with his broom.

This was the same model.  He became a ninja.

And welcomed butterflies into his hands.

This model often looked down at the ground, so I decided that he was thinking about flooring samples.

This one turned out looking super sassy.

We did some anatomy studies as well.

Graphite is also something that I don't use very often, so this one was a bit of a challenge.

I really like how the last one turned out, especially in the foreground hand and the foreshortening in the face.  

I found a bunch of ridiculous looking blind contours as well, which I will try to post soon-ish!

Old life drawing Pt1

I was going through a bunch of my old artwork and found a bunch of life drawing that I did back at my old animation school and through the USCAD program.

Getting ready for the big race.

Sometimes I would get bored during class and add 'backgrounds' to my drawings...

This one turned out a lot better.

One of the very few color drawings I did.  I was using watercolor pencils, which like watercolors, are hard.  I also enjoy that she looks sassy even while sleeping.

And now for a gaggle of hands.

AM-Animals and Creatures Pt2

Our first assignment actually animating, was a basic quadruped walk cycle.  Here are the thumbnail sketches.

And the walk cycle.  

It's still a bit 'hitchy', but I learned a lot from it!

Threadless 'Original Monsters'

Hey y'all!  I recently submitted a design to the Threadless 'Original Monster' design contest, and would love it if you could score it (preferably a 5), like it, share it etc. to help it get picked!  It would be amazing if Threadless actually printed one of my designs on their shirts! Here's the link.  I think that scoring is open for the next 9 days. Thanks! :)

AM-Animals and Creatures Master Class Pt1

I started taking the first of two animals and creatures master classes from Animation Mentor at the beginning of January.  I thought that it would be a good addition to my character animation skills, and although I wasn't sure at first if it would really be my cup of tea I've found that I actually enjoy it.  I've always loved animals, and learning about their anatomy, how they move and why they move the way they do is pretty cool!  My mentor for the term is John Nguyen.  He's a pretty awesome guy, and has worked for a number of impressive studios and on some pretty awesome projects/films.  He's currently working for Disney Interactive Media Group.

Our assignment for the first week was to do a bunch sketches of different types of animals to start honing our observational skills.  I made sure to include both a teacup pig and a unicorn in mine.

We then had to take the cat rig and do two dynamic poses with it.  It was my first time ever using a quadruped rig, and it definitely took some getting used to.  Looking at both poses now I can already see a bunch of thing that I would fix.

This last one looks more than a little drugged...