Boy vs Squirrel Thumbnails

sketching

Back to Basics

I like to think I'm a decent artist, not great, but decent. I've taken a few drawing classes and have always been pretty good at copying other people's work, but I have never been able to draw something from my mind and have it look very good. I realized that none of my art teachers have actually taught me how to draw. They've taught me different techniques to improve a drawing, but I've been missing some of the basics.
In an effort to improve my drawing abilities I bought a drawing course by Riven Phoenix from www.alienthink.com called The Structure of Man: Learn to Draw the Human Figure from Your Mind. I'm not too far into the course yet, but I'm already seeing some improvement. I would recommend this course to anyone who wants to learn how to draw the human figure.
It's amazing how much it helps to go back to the basics; not just with drawing, but with anything (dance, music, animation ...) When you review the basic fundamentals, you can be reminded of important principles that over time you have forgotten; you might even learn something new that you didn't realize you had been missing. When you find you are struggling with something, go back to the basics; the answer to your problem may be simpler than you think.

Run Cycle for DART

boy vs squirrel update

     I finished putting in the poses for the boy! I still need to fix a few things with the boy and animate the squirrel. Here are some more images from this project (the ball is there as a place holder so I know where I want the squirrel to be.)

     I haven't had as much time to work on this particular animation as I would have liked, so it probably wont get done in time to enter into the competition. I've learned a lot from this project so far and whether I am able to turn it in at the end of the month or not, I think I'm going to try to finish it.

Boy vs Squirrel

Here are some images from the animation I plan on entering in the 11 second club's May competition. It's turning out to be more complicated than I expected, hopefully I can get it done in time. :)

Demo Reel, Spring 2011

This demo reel contains pretty much all of the stuff I've been working on this semester in my Animation 1 class at UVU.

3D Essentials Final

my friends Timothy, David and I decided to do a joint project for our 3D modeling and animation essentials class, here is my part. I modeled, rigged, animated, rendered and composited everything you see (except for the ball, I animated it, but I didn't model it).
The animation isn't as smooth as I would like it to be, I blame it on the rig; I am obviously not meant to be a rigger :)

Full Stomach

This is my final animation for my Principles of Animation1 class at UVU. The dialogue is from A Knight's Tale.

3D Essentials Progress

This is what I've been working on for my final for my 3D modeling and animation essentials class. We have to create a 10 second animation from scratch. I spent the last two weeks modeling, texturing, and rigging. I'm going to work on animating this week.



Treasure

This is my first animation to dialogue, I used a sound clip from muppet treasure island.

Push

This animation was an assignment Aaron Mann gave to my Principles of Animation class. We were supposed to have a character turn around, react to what he sees, then take a couple steps pushing a heavy box. This is also the first time I messed with the facial controls.

Step onto a Box (CG)

Here it is, my first animation using Maya. I ran into some gimble lock and didn't get it fixed completely, so the left arm is a little messed up still, but it's time to move onto the next project.

Pig Rig

Here's my pig after I rigged it. I didn't have too much fun putting the joints in, but I actually liked painting the weights, and of course, I loved putting my pig into different poses. I'm really pleased with the last one, I think it really does look like it could be a stuffed animal. :)

Step onto a Box

For Principles of Animation 1, we're working on having a character step onto a box.  Again, my timing is a little slow at the beginning. I want to change his right arm so it moves up faster, right now moves at the same speed as the leg so it looks like a marionette. We're going to animate it in Maya now, so maybe I'll just fix it there.

Pig Model

I modeled this pig for 3D Modeling and Animation Essentials. I think the model turned out pretty well (it kind of looks like piglet), but the UV mapping on the body could use some work. I know I can make it look better. We're working on rigging our pigs right now, then we'll eventually get to animate them!

Poses

Here are some poses I did using the Moom Rig.

Flour Sack Animation

I did this animation for Principles of Animation 1. It's kind of choppy because I didn't inbetween it; it's all key frames and break downs.  The timing is off, it's a little too slow. If I ever find the time I want to go back and fix the timing and maybe finish all the inbetweens?

Snowman Model

I modeled this snowman scene for my 3D modeling and animation essentials class. The first picture was what I turned in at first. We critiqued each other's scenes in class and someone noticed that I had a chimney, but there was no fireplace inside like there should be. I fixed that in the next picture.

Puddle Jumping

For our final project in Survey of Animation, we had to make a character jump over a puddle. When I was about half way done I realized that I should have added a lot more squash and stretch. I wish I would have had time to fix it. On the bright side: I finished it on time, and I think the timing and spacing worked out nicely. :)