Summer assignment 1: Jump ( pencil test )

I thought I was done when I got the motion down, but I decided to push myself further and put an actual character on the motion. I animated the main body in sync with the Flash test I did earlier. Then I went back and animated the tail and whiskers straight ahead to get a more fluid and natural looking motion. I think it turned out alright. I might even decided to finalize it with ink, we'll see.

Tell me what you think.

More to come

=Nathan=

Summer assignment 1: Jump

It's been another long while but I'm back.

I've been distracted with school and the girlfriend.
I'm currently going to school for graphic design since there are no animation schools/classes near me and it's the next closest thing.

Anyway, I found a free "DIY" online class by Brian Lemay and decided to jump into his lessons to get my animation fundamentals going again. I'll try to throw a few of my own things in there as well. I'll be practicing 2d and 3d and my plan is to post something twice a week.

I skipped to semester 2 of Brian Lemays lessons I feel pretty confident with the semester 1 stuff (fundamentals). The first assignment was a simple jump:

I spent about 2-3 hours on it. I feel rusty.

Anyway, looking forward to a summer full on animation!

=Nathan=

Walk 1

It's been a while. I've been thinking about walking. I hear lots of people do it to stay active and healthy, So I decided to get this blog going again with some walk cycles. Everyone knows them, every animator has to do them. I only spent maybe 15 minutes with this initial walk cycle, it took me another 30 minutes to add the other elements and render 2 videos using them all, but I think it's a nice start. I've got the Richard Williams book titled "The Animators Survival Kit" (...thanks mom ;] ) in which 70% (practically) is about walk cycles, so I think this task could last me a while (I know what you're thinking, but I'll get back to that dance when I'm ready for it). So look for many more walk cycles coming soon!







[These videos are also on my youtube: ncox27, where I will be posting all rough animations]


=Nathan=

Using live-action video reference, I decided to try my hand at animating a dance. I originally started near the middle, drawing everything straight ahead. My teacher then suggested I go through the animation once through with the line of action for the key poses so I could really emphasize the characters attitude.