2 weeks already! 22 November, 2006
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Has it been 2 weeks already? That’s a long time since I’ve posted! I’ve been working! Yep, we all need to make ends meet ( unless you’re a student, then you can enjoy the good life. ) Not much happend these last few weeks. Work, eat, sleep, cuddle with my girlfriend, busy to make my apartment my own. Watch out Debby Travis!
On a sad note: my dog died last week. She had a hernia wich couldn’t be operated. So the last three years she was getting more paralized. But as long as she didn’t suffer, there was no need to put her down. Last week she fell down and couldn’t get up anymore, so we had to put her to sleep. She was eleven years old, wich is very old for a big dog. I miss her very much and the house seems very empty without her. I loved her very much. I’m just glad she never sufferd. I was taking my evening classes when it happend. Maybe it’s for the best I wasn’t around when it happend. I think I might not be able to take it.
Speaking of evening classes, here’s a drawing I did yesterday. The foot is disproportionate, but I think it conveighs the general pose very well. Better than my previous sketches anyway. The quality of the picture isn’t that great, I took it with my cellphone. Enjoy!
Old stuff 7 November, 2006
Posted by compositor in Animation, Compositing, Drawing.add a comment
Here is some old footage I did a while back. It is the compositing for a children’s series about the Grimm Brothers. I’ve been wondering if that stuff can go on my demoreel… I can do much better now. Unfortunately I never have the chance to prove it since they don’t ask to many compositors for corporate films. You can give critiques, but please be sincere and constructive.
A bit of explanation with the clips:
001 – RATS : I did the matchmoving and compositing for this shot. I’m not satisfied with the result because they wouldn’t give me separate renderpasses for the job and the shading and shadows look crappy. I DID NOT ANIMATE THIS!
002 – CLOUDS : I did the bluekey and the mattepainting for this shot.
003 – PSP : Did the matchmoving of the live footage onto the PSP. There is a better version out there somewhere, but I haven’t been able to find it on the servers. I’ll post this as soon as I find it.
MSN Avatar 1 November, 2006
Posted by compositor in Drawing, Illustration, Miscellaneous.add a comment
Not much going on lately. The apartment is coming along nicely, I should be moving in next month. I’ve painted some walls and after that I’ve painted an avatar for a colleague. I promised her a few months ago. Just did it today. Shame on me! Here’s the avatar. Hope you like it!
Some funny stuff 30 October, 2006
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A friend showed this piece of video to me. It’s brilliant! If you have five minutes time and need a luagh… watch this! I’ll be posting again soon, but I’m very busy with my new apartment.
Finally! 25 October, 2006
Posted by compositor in Drawing.2 comments
Yes finally! In my post this morning I told you about the “artsy” approach my tutors take on drawing a model. Today I finally got somewhere! The discussion was on again about how drawing a model should only be used as an expression of your inner self ( BARF! ) and that I shouldn’t do model drawing just to get better poses and animation. But during the break I slammed a book down on the table that has effectively shut them up. The book I’m referring to is a book about Norman Rockwell.
A very famous American painter/illustrator well known for his realism as well as the humor he puts into his work. I LOVE this guy! Anyway, we went on about why he shouldn’t be considered art. Not one argument they made stood up to my point of view and the goals I was hoping to achieve. I left with a good feeling! Of course I’m not the sort of guy to question years of drawing experience, they teach really well. I just can’t stand people convicting somebody else’s goals. The rest of the time in class I was really quiet and concentrated because I’m a good boy!
I’ve started laying down keys for my animation too. The drawing keeps going better and better. I’m pleased! I don’t know how much I will be able to do tomorrow; I’m going on a house hunt . Yay! I’m cutting it short today because nothing really happened today. Downloaded version 2 of Mozilla’s Firefox. It’s nice.
Here are some drawings I did today. ( I need to get my proportions right. ) Enjoy!
Warming up and bringing out the old. 24 October, 2006
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So after a day of foodpoisoning ( I’ll spare you the details ) I have made a recovery. Time to get all my things together and go animate!…Or so I tought. I haven’t been keeping up with my drawing lately wich of course translates itself to crappy poses. So I’ve thrown myself on to some finger practice and some fast sketching. I always wonder how much time an animator spends on a drawing. If you see Glenn Keane ( or any other studio animator ) draw a pose for an animation you would think they could have made “The Lion King” or ” Tarzan ” in a year or so. It’s very inspiring to see them draw, but also a bit intimidating. Is it talent only? Or does practice have a great part in it?
Okay, I can hear you say:” You should stop whining and start drawing! “. But what if I am? It’s true, I haven’t had that much figure drawing and I really suck at drawing poses. But I’m working on it! I take evening courses now. It’s a lot of fun, but they seem to emphasise the artistic a bit to much. In other words, they look down on animation, storyboarding, visual storytelling in general. I don’t care. Animation IS art, it’s a craft for wich you have to study all your life long. Same goes for anything in the biz. We ARE artists and I curse those arty-farty types who claim otherwise! I think we reach more people in doing what we do ( who doesn’t know Tex Avery, Walt Disney Classics, etc… ) then they do flogging of their paintings at their weekly garage sale. I respect them for doing it, but they have to respect us too. It works both ways.
So far my ranting. I threw myself on some quick sketches yesterday. I wanted to get some dynamics into the poses ( HUGE weak point of mine ) as well as get a good silhouette. I did better then before, but I’m still nowhere. Progress is a harsh mistress. With a whip. And a leather suit.
I’ll try and post some things from my figure drawing class tonight. Doesn’t always have to be peeing monkeys to make you laugh.
What Time??? 22 October, 2006
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I got up at 3pm in the afternoon and I’m still tired! But can’t stay in bed all day, there’s work afoot! I’ll just boost myself with some coffee and get cracking on that new assignment. Something tells me that this will be a race against time. Didn’t have time to sketch yesterday. My girlfriend had one of her cleaning-moods and I was sucked into doing dishes, doing laundry en mopping. How this will affect my status as a superhero, I don’t know. How would you feel if you saw superman folding underpants in a laundrette?
Enough banter, onto sketches!
UPDATE: I’ve tried to do some stuff today, but a bit of foodpoisoning had me chained in bed all day. Sucks to feel this weak. Anyway, in between my naps I tried to sketch out some motion for the walk. I found it really hard to make him slouch in his walk. Maybe it’s the lack of experience. I need to find some better reference material. Hope I feel a bit better tomorrow, my head isn’t that clear today. I swear I’ll never eat THAT greasy again!
2D Animation: It’s been a loooooong time, my old friend! 21 October, 2006
Posted by compositor in Animation.1 comment so far
I started preparations for a new assignement today. A whole set of 30 second animated shorts. It’s been so long since I’ve made some genuine 2D animation. Lucky for me that the characters are close to my own style of drawing. The only thing that bothers me is the fact that they need it in Flash. I never imported hand drawn animation into Flash before and I don’t want to make seperate parts for animation in Flash. Looks like I’m in for a whole lot of experimentation.
I was going to try out for a compositing job in feature animation, but I never heard anything from them again. I don’t really mind, but it sucks that they made false promises. Anyway, I’m supermotivated to get a job in the industry so I’m really busy creating a good concept for my demoreel.
This may take a long time, but first, my 2D assignment. I’ll post some sketches later on.
Update: I called a friend who works on those two features and he said I’m still in the running for the second feature. I’ll also keep you posted on how it works out.
