Back in the Saddle again

Hey guys, schools over and I am back home, beginning the job hunt, working on the demo reel and eating lots of fatty, sugary, salty American food that they just don't understand how to make in Vancouver.
I would like to direct you to my brand new blog that I now have the time and resources to dedicate to. You can find it at: http://davincioped.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by,

DaVinci

more animations

Well it has been a good week of rest.
I thought I'd upload a few more animations before I start 3rd semester.


hammer

throw

End of 2nd semester

Well the 2nd semester is finally coming to an end, and I've been working like crazy trying to grasp the finer points of animation. I have not had much time to post anything lately but here's one of my more recent animations:

cliffhanger


More words later. Right now, sleep.

Sculpting

Well the fall has come to Vancouver. It's pleasant here, leaves falling, not too cold, that still settling over the city.
I finished painting my sculpture, at least for now. I would like to paint it more later, or do a digital image using a photo of the sculpture as the base but there's no time for such pursuits right now.
I have been focusing on animation around the clock. Animating for hours every day watching cartoons before bed and while I'm eating. Analyzing Pixar and Disney films in slow motion or frame by frame replays. I think its helping. I seem to be improving.
It's kind of a funny thing. I've been working so hard to grasp the animation. This character I made just by following along in class a couple hours a week and I think it came out pretty good. Maybe I'm going into the wrong business!
Anyway here are the pictures of my sculpture. I will try to post some more animations soon.

The Walk cycle revisited

Well it's back to the old walk cycle. This is one of those basic things you have to get down. Here is one of my better versions of the walk cycle:

walk cycle

Then you can just turn the animation up a little and you get mister peppy:

peppy walk

And here's a guy stepping up to stand on a box. Easy in life, actually pretty hard to animate:

stepup

sculpture pt 2

So the sculpture that I showed a while back that was just a skeleton has now been turned into a character.
Some of you might recognize him as Darkseid an enemy of Superman and others. I added a few pictures from the comic books for reference for those that don't know what he looks like.
I think that I got a pretty good likeness.
Next step, baking (which I've done) then, priming and painting.

more work

Here are a couple more animations I've been working on and a color picture of my character for character design.

fighter

slam dunk

Metmorphosis

Well I think its finally kicking in. That subtle beginning to change where you realize that you are becoming whatever it is your trying to obtain.
I was standing at the bus stop when it happened. Waiting... impatiently as usual. We've been working on walk cycles and everything else at school and I was anxious to get home and back to work. Suddenly I realized there was just as much to learn right where I was standing. Across the street a bus going the other way let off a crowd of people and I began to watch them as they disembarked. They were walking. I looked for the little kick we all give before or front foot lands in front of us and watched to see how straight each individual's back leg became as they pushed off of it. I watched to try and see how much difference their is in a person's height at their highest and lowest points.
I saw one man leaning forward somewhat stiffly, his arms taut at his sides, and noted how it made him look determined and or angry. I filed that posture away in my memory banks for when I need to make someone walk down the street angrily, or with great purpose.
I was standing there still when the bus pulled up. I could have stood there for hours, just watching people and I thought to myself, I may never be bored again.
Anyway the hard work continues.
We are doing portraits of our characters for character design class. First in black and white and then in color. Above is the latest on that. We all had to do the same thing. Jack the giant killer. But we each got to do our own take on it. I decided to make mine into a Western.


We have a number of drills we do in Animation class but every weekend I try to attempt something a little harder. I posted the last two here:


Basketball

Man Versus Monkey



They are not close to done, but I doubt if I'll ever bother to correct all the timing issues they have. I just do what I can each weekend and then move on to next week's class. They were both fun to try and I learned quite a bit on each one. I can't wait till I can really start doing some more impressive work.