Saturday, February 09, 2008

Charlie bit me!

Matt came home the other day, and he showed me this clip. So CUTE~~~!

New journey

It's been a while since I've updated.... since the last post, I started animating a big character, so I can feel the weight more. Mike suggested that once I can animate the weight in the big character, it will help me to feel the weight better in skinny characters. So I decided to animate a big Hawaiian lady ( I once saw a DVD clip of a big Hawaiian lady dancing with so much energy, and I wanted to animate the energy) Here is a character sketch I did....


One of the assignments that Mike gave students was to animate a character dancing in order to practice the delayed parts.( How every part of body is linked to move and it causes the delayed parts at the end of the link) Which I always tend to forget....so I thought it will be a great way to practice the delayed parts. And here is the first pass I did,



One of the major points of feedback from this was her stomach area. And Mike mentioned how the stomach area is made from fat, but it has skin over it, so it moves differently from cloth. Which is very important to think how the material is made from and how it feels, and here is the final one,



After the test, Mike mentioned that my animation tends to be so soft. He suggested to animate something where the energy is very sharp and strong, which I haven't really done. So I animated the character doing an exercise dance,( I have seen the clip before, and it is amazing how Hawaiian dancers can move so fast, even though their body is heavy)

My first struggle was I was not sure where the force was coming from in her body. I was thinking the force for her to put her body down was from her arm. But, at the same time, her body was also leading the energy to put her body down. So there were 2 forces at the same time, and it looked very awkward. Mike mentioned about the force, and it made me clear that I really have to know where the force is coming from. In the end, I found out that at first her stomach area is where the force starts, and when she goes down, the force changes into her arm to push down more. So here is the final one,



I still see many problems of changing volumes and so on, but Mike mentioned that he can see the energy coming from the character, so it is good. I was also working on one more test, but never really finished. And I started my training program at Disney this week.(hand drawn animation!) It's has been great, and I know that I will miss Mike and July very much. I cannot explain how much I have learned and how inspiring it was for me to be there. I am very excited about this new journey, at the same time I am very scared. I hope I will learn more and more, and grow as an animator who can bring life to characters. So far, I love all the people who are in the same program. It is fun to be in a group full with so much talent. So much energy...and I am looking forward to this new journey...