Today this popped up on my Facebook feed, Animation Methods. It's an animation contest, mainly a body mechanics type of animation piece. To enter the competition I must animate a 3D biped character lifting a heavy object and placing it on a table. This competition sounds like a really good opportunity to do as a side project. Even though I have a lot on my plate work wise, as I am a couple of weeks behind but hopefully I can get this done in 2 weeks along side all my university projects.
Hopefully the next post about this competition I should have recorded a reference video and have some blocking animations done.
Wednesday, 18 March 2015
Inspiring CG trailers
Today I stumbled upon these great CG trailers which I found inspiring. Door Guardian Trailer (no subtitles in trailer) and The Leviathan Trailer Yes even though they are both completely different in style. That one is fully CG and the other one is Cg but mainly VFX type. The trailer for the Door Guardian looks pretty amazing!
Door Guardian Trailer
The Leviathan Trailer
The company Light Chaser Animation that are producing this feature film is dubbed as 'Pixar of the China'. The animation company is based in Beijing and was founded by Gary Wong in early March of 2013. On their website they explain that their 'goal is to create world-class animated films with a Chinese cultural touch' Which I find really exciting as at the moment in the industry the top animation companies for CG wise are Pixar, Disney, Blue Sky and Illumination Entertainment. (That audiences know of) It is nice to see that there is new animation company from a different country that are going to create and give the big animation companies a challenge. It is also nice to read that they wanted to create animated films with a touch of Chinese culture, which I thought was an interesting thing to read.
I also found this trailer really exciting is because of the style of animation. It is so exaggerated, even though there are only a few shots of some of the characters throughout the trailer. You can see the quality of the characters are close to what Pixar and Disney would produce. I think the main reason (personally) why I am excited for this animated film is because of the touch of Chinese culture that will be shown in this film. It will give an idea/insight in what the Chinese culture is.
The other animation is more VFX based and even though it is a pitch rather than a feature trailer/film. It still looks pretty amazing! Even though it is not fully CG animated. I have an interest in one day working on live VFX feature pieces in the future as well as working on fully CG feature films. I am a massive fan of futuristic and fantasy creature films. Even though I don't have enough knowledge in VFX, I would like to one day be able to work in both CG animation and live VFX films. It's pieces of work like these that I come across everyday, in which I use to help inspire and motivate me with my work.
Door Guardian Trailer
The Leviathan Trailer
The company Light Chaser Animation that are producing this feature film is dubbed as 'Pixar of the China'. The animation company is based in Beijing and was founded by Gary Wong in early March of 2013. On their website they explain that their 'goal is to create world-class animated films with a Chinese cultural touch' Which I find really exciting as at the moment in the industry the top animation companies for CG wise are Pixar, Disney, Blue Sky and Illumination Entertainment. (That audiences know of) It is nice to see that there is new animation company from a different country that are going to create and give the big animation companies a challenge. It is also nice to read that they wanted to create animated films with a touch of Chinese culture, which I thought was an interesting thing to read.
I also found this trailer really exciting is because of the style of animation. It is so exaggerated, even though there are only a few shots of some of the characters throughout the trailer. You can see the quality of the characters are close to what Pixar and Disney would produce. I think the main reason (personally) why I am excited for this animated film is because of the touch of Chinese culture that will be shown in this film. It will give an idea/insight in what the Chinese culture is.
The other animation is more VFX based and even though it is a pitch rather than a feature trailer/film. It still looks pretty amazing! Even though it is not fully CG animated. I have an interest in one day working on live VFX feature pieces in the future as well as working on fully CG feature films. I am a massive fan of futuristic and fantasy creature films. Even though I don't have enough knowledge in VFX, I would like to one day be able to work in both CG animation and live VFX films. It's pieces of work like these that I come across everyday, in which I use to help inspire and motivate me with my work.
Thursday, 5 March 2015
Company Research #4
Part #4 of the company research
The next inspirational company is Blue Zoo Productions. They are a UK based computer animation studio. The studio was founded in the year 2000 by Tom Box, Oli Hyatt, Adam Shaw and Nic Sims. The studio mainly produces content for TV broadcast, but it is also known for creating children's animation series. Their headquarters is located in Soho, London UK.
The reason I chose Blue Zoo is because they produce a wide range of animated TV commercials in different style and formats. So far I have been inspired by mainly animated films and one style of animation (Stretch and Squash style) After seeing a lot of their adverts on TV I really like them and their style and how visually pleasing the adverts are. Here are some examples of the work they produce at the studio....
In the video link above is an Animal Planet, the design and the quality of the models of the animals and the animation is kept very simple. But at the same time it works, the animation is not so smooth but it's good. Simple and effective is the way they approached this Animal Planet branding project.
Here is another Animal Planet branding short Animal Planet Wilderness which I really like because it's something different. It is also short and effective, I also believe that I should not be focused on working in only animated film industry. I should look at what else is out there that is not film related project. That is why Blue Zoo is inspiring because of their short commercials and quick simple and effective branding for other TV companies.
Thursday, 26 February 2015
No Life Drawing Session Today. Guest Speaker Michael Cawood
Today there was no life drawing class, instead we had a last minute guest speaker Michael Cawood who gave us a talk about the animation and the games industry where he had worked at over the years. He provided a brilliant breakdown of working in the animation industry, that building a strong network is a must when you're out there in the industry world. Michael also gave us tips on how to create and structure your own website for what the industry are looking for. The talk went on for a further hour and a half comparing full time jobs and freelance, what to show when you're creating your portfolio on line etc...
Overall I found the talk by Michael Cawood very helpful. It provided a huge insight in working in the animation industry. I hope the university will bring in more guest speakers before the end of the year to encourage us to push to produce animation to the highest of quality.
Overall I found the talk by Michael Cawood very helpful. It provided a huge insight in working in the animation industry. I hope the university will bring in more guest speakers before the end of the year to encourage us to push to produce animation to the highest of quality.
Monday, 23 February 2015
Company Research #3
Welcome to part 3 of my inspirational company research..
It's been a while but for my third company research it has to be Warner Bros. They are an American based animation studio. That makes film, TV series and music entertainment and their headquarters is based in Burbank, California. (Which I wouldn't mind working out there. I've heard it's a really brilliant place to live) Anyway they have several subsidiary companies and I won't name them all because the one I am interested in and will be talking about is the Warner Bros. Animation.
Just because it is animated related to what I want to pursue as a career. But when I was a child growing up if I wasn't watching Disney films. I would definitely be watching Looney Tunes!! Everyone must have at least watched a couple of episode and have enjoyed it thoroughly. Whether you are a child, adult or even an OAP, Looney Tunes was and still is a really good TV series to watch.
Just look at these screen shots from the TV series showing stretch and squash poses..
This inspiration of my love for animation style is the same as I mentioned in my first post about the style of animation in Looney Tunes. It's use of stretch and squash is just brilliant, the animation is so smooth and the use of stretch and squash technique shows brilliant exaggeration of the characters poses. It's so good that it just looks normal like nothing looks out of the ordinary. That's how good and effective they have used these techniques. That is why Warner Bros. is one of my inspirational companies to look at when I was growing up looking to a path towards animation.
It's been a while but for my third company research it has to be Warner Bros. They are an American based animation studio. That makes film, TV series and music entertainment and their headquarters is based in Burbank, California. (Which I wouldn't mind working out there. I've heard it's a really brilliant place to live) Anyway they have several subsidiary companies and I won't name them all because the one I am interested in and will be talking about is the Warner Bros. Animation.
Just because it is animated related to what I want to pursue as a career. But when I was a child growing up if I wasn't watching Disney films. I would definitely be watching Looney Tunes!! Everyone must have at least watched a couple of episode and have enjoyed it thoroughly. Whether you are a child, adult or even an OAP, Looney Tunes was and still is a really good TV series to watch.
Just look at these screen shots from the TV series showing stretch and squash poses..
This inspiration of my love for animation style is the same as I mentioned in my first post about the style of animation in Looney Tunes. It's use of stretch and squash is just brilliant, the animation is so smooth and the use of stretch and squash technique shows brilliant exaggeration of the characters poses. It's so good that it just looks normal like nothing looks out of the ordinary. That's how good and effective they have used these techniques. That is why Warner Bros. is one of my inspirational companies to look at when I was growing up looking to a path towards animation.
Thursday, 19 February 2015
This is what happens when I draw (18/02/15)
Today was the first time I've been to a life drawing class this year! I need to try and go to more life drawing classes as I need to improve my drawing skills. Here are some sketches from today's session which was held at the University of South Wales.
Saturday, 7 February 2015
Creature Performance Animation UPDATE 1
Here is the first update for the production stage of my Creature Performance project. First of all I will be animating a walk cycle using the free Doberman dog rig that I have downloaded on line. It's been a very long time since I've animated a quadruped.
Since I like doing character animation, I struggled to get going from the start as it has been a while since my last quadruped animation. But after being consistently at it I managed to get a good rough blocking of the walk cycle.
Here is my first pass of the blocking stage.....
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