[ p l a c i d c h a o s / A M ]

It appears that this thread on CGTalk will be well worth following, especially if you're like me and really need to work on your drawing skills. It's an ongoing series so I'll post the links to the new threads as they are created.

Rumor has it that Shawn's mom religiously reads all of the mentee's blogs. In case this is true, Shawn's mom, this one's for you! Thanks for visiting!

Scary...

This week marks the start of the second quarter of AM, and ugh, we definitely took it up a notch. Our class this week was on advanced overlapping action. Last quarter I initially struggled with the overlapping action assignment quite a bit, and so worked on it a lot to try to get it down, which I thought I did. Now working on this assignment, I'm not so sure...

The assignment this week was to block out a personality walk with spine and head overlap using the new character, No-Arm Stewie.

Here is my first blocking pass.

I really tried to work on reversals in the spine, but I am not sure when to put in the bulk of the overlap between the spine and head, during the blocking stage or later. I'll make changes to the blocking after receiving feedback from my mentor so check back for updates.

Now presenting Mr. Mark Behm, my mentor for the second quarter of AM.

He doesn't really look anything like that, but maybe he is in the witness protection program and they gave him a new face. That would explain why he is now sporting a beard; it's to hide the scars...

Regardless, he's an animator that now works at DNA. Before that he worked on "Robots" at Blue Sky, "321: Penguins" at Big Idea, and before animation worked as an illustrator. You can check out his supa-cool work here.

This being our last week of the first class, we didn't have any homework, and thus I have no pretty pictures to post for your viewing pleasure. But do not fear... in celebration of the start of the 2nd Class of AM next week, I have two 1600x1200 wallpapers created by Stu Jones for your downloading pleasure!

Don't forget to visit Stu, and best of luck to all who are either starting or returning to AM!

This week we took an in-depth look at the hips, which are one of the most important, misunderstood, and ignored areas of the body. The hips require a lot of observation and study because they can move/rotate in every possible axis, which is pretty cool if you think about it...

Ok, well now that we've thought about it, on to my work. Our assignment was to add 3/4 perspective to one of our already created walks and apply all of our new "hip" knowledge.

Here is my attempt.

We were also asked to create a single pose of Stu "in-balance." Hips are crucial for creating a pose that is balanced.

Mr. Miyagi would be proud

In case you haven't seen it yet, check out this awesome thread that has erupted over at CGTalk.

Jason is incredibly talented, extremely helpful, and just an overall nice guy. If you are interested in a career in animation be sure to check this thread out as he gives out some really great insight and advice.

Sony just released the first peek at their next animated feature, Open Season.

Too early to tell, but it looks like it could be good, though I'm holding out for Surfs Up. Hopefully they'll take long enough in the pre-production of Surfs Up for me to acquire the skills at AM needed to get my foot in the door at Sony to work on it. Wishful thinking? (que Cake) Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps...

Most classically trained artists know the importance of drawing the nude figure, and how difficult but also rewarding it can be. Unfortunately, in most locales there aren't many opportunities to draw the nude figure outside of academia and since I am just starting to repay the millions of dollars my "higher" education cost me... enrolling in another drawing class isn't in the cards.

Luckily I found this nifty little program, Virtual Figure Drawing Studio, from Cloudstars.

Some elitists may scoff at it but I think it's a pretty sweet little set up. Some of the features include the ability to switch poses automatically on 30/60/90 second intervals, the choice of block, x-ray, and regular viewing mode, as well as a fully maneuverable camera and customizable lighting.

The only real complaint that I have is that there is only one model, so there is no chance to draw a bodybuilder one day and an overly obese person the next day. Oh, and the male and female models are in two separate programs that you have to download and install. Hopefully there will become a big enough demand for this software that they will integrate both the male and female models into the same package, as well as several other models of each sex. If anyone from Cloudstars is reading this, please heed my suggestion, and while you're at it, give me a free copy as a thank you for this lovely plug; I'm tired of the pop-ups on my trial version...

Wow oh wow, these walks are hard. This week our lesson was an introduction to "walk with character." Our assignment was to create a new walk with a personality and also a single pose of Stu that communicates exhaustion.

Here is my first pass at a personality walk.

I tried numerous different wacky and double-bounce walks and I just couldn't get anything to look even remotely correct. I think this has a kind of nice jolly fat man stroll, but it's not exaggerated enough. These walks are something that I really want to master but they are mighty challenging. Expect more walks to be posted in the near future

Here is my Stu pose. He's pooped.

In case you care, or even know what I am talking about, I have added RSS syndication capabilities to this site. Now you can be automatically notified when I post an update, all you have to do is click your flavor; RSS 0.92, RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, Atom 0.3., and use your favorite aggregator/reader. Might I suggest RssReader...