Week 6 : The hard life is just begun :P

First thing to notice - Where the heck did week 2, 3, 4, 5 go ? well I mentioned it earlier in week 1 that I am gonna be busy with intro to acting shot for a couple of weeks which was until last week. That should pretty much explain - "Where the heck did week 2, 3, 4, 5 go ?" :P

Anyways it was fun these couple of weeks... I didn't put in much time on the shot as I should have been and I am not at all satisfied with the final output. But still feel it turned out pretty decent at the end. Though I do need to actually re-block the shot again (certain parts at least) to make the timing read even better with a lot more polish to it :P see that's why I said, am not totally satisfied with it. Any ways trying to keep my rant's short here... here's the final of the shot I had worked on recently - The Silly Ninja :D

Now week 6 has already begun and it's time to dive into some dialogue animation... I am so excited to start on with it... but before anything else, got to find decent dialogue clips to work on, so I should probably get back on to it and will be offline again for couple of week from here. And definitely will be uploading the shot once I am done with the final. Until then have great time animating everyone, God Bless!!!

- A :)

Term 4 : Already Begun :P

Well I am late in writing this post... But as I say... better late than never :P

So I am now in 4th term and already started with all the fun :D It's Introduction To Acting - the long awaited term... Ahh!!! Ok, not so long :P but definitely awaited. Being at AM, I really didn't come to know how time went so quick. I've already been here since 9 months and I don't remember if I felt the time moving so quick ever before I started with AM...

Well as I said it's Intro to Acting and currently week 1... So definitely it's a week to come up with ideas and thumbnail planning etc etc... And I am already done with my assignment :D though it took a while to come up with the idea but I'm glad I could think of something at the end... The idea is kinda crazy (at least for me) and I also tried to have fun shooting the video reference for that :P I am not disclosing anything about the idea or the video reference at the moment (actually don't have time to upload everything at the moment :P) but will surely upload the reference sometime later, may be after the shot is done, as I feel, I won't be getting time to get back here and write something or upload the video ref. or planning being busy with the assignment for a couple of weeks...

Well till next time I guess my blog will have to miss me :P and If anyone read's this just wanna say... Have fun and God bless.

- A :)

Term 3 : Final Week :)

Finally term 3 is near it's end. It's last week for the term followed by a break and then I start with the new term for which I have been waiting anxiously...... "Introduction to Acting" I am so excited for the new term. Term 3 has really been fantastic in terms of education and fun as well. Learned a tons of things this term and had equal fun trying to apply what I learned into my animation. I do not say that I have been totally successful in utilizing everything I learned, as that is an on going process and It will take time to get better at things. After all no one can be perfect at everything neither can  a great animator in just a couple of months or years or decades :P We being animators have to keep learning through out our life OR until LIFE exists around us. Anyways my thoughts may not make any sense to many... as I am not so good with words :P but I prefer throwing them out as it might be sensible to a few rare breeds like me.

Anyways here's my final shot for the last assignment of term 3. It isn't absolutely amazing shot that I could animate by any means, but I had fun animating it and learned lot of things during the process. It's really amazing how one can learn tons of things while just animating a simple 8 second or even a second of a shot. Even professional who are best at there work who can project out their imaginations to the best in couple of seconds will agree to me that they learned so much on every shot they have ever worked. Oh!!! well sorry for the ramble :P here's the final...

 

The Progress reel will be up in a day or two which will include all the shots I have done since term 1 to term 3. Hope everyone enjoy it. Till then take care, have fun and God bless.

- A :)

Term 3 : Week 4 Final Shot :)

Almost after 3 weeks i have something to write or must i say to upload :P Well, actually have been working on the shot below since last couple of weeks as a part of our assignment, every week bit's by bit's and finally it's done and time to get it up here :) So here's my final shot. Hope everyone likes it.

Already have started with planning on a new shot so will be again busy for next couple of weeks and actually have nothing to write back here. So will be back when the new shot is done, till then have fun and God Bless.

- A :)

New Term : New Challenges and Ton of Fun.

Well I haven't been around since a couple of weeks :P as i didn't actually had anything to post here. It was a break time from AM, and i must say i didn't enjoy the break except for just one thing and that's Toy Story 3. Not to get in details or review of the film just wanna say it was "Pixar" Well I say it Pixar because I run out of words when trying to praise the film :P By that I mean, every words i use to praise it all together conceive in the term PIXAR :D

Now for whats going with me :P Well, I am already in my second week for the 3rd term at AM. And its getting much more fun with every week and term as i move ahead. This term my mentor is Royce Wesley and i must say he is a fantastic mentor as well i won't say, why. Better have a look at his website http://roycewesley.com/ and his imdb profile : http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2189584/

As i already said I am now in week two so already have my 1st week assignment done. I won't be uploading the assignment for the 1st week as it's just a srapy planning for the shot that i am gonna be animating next 3 weeks :P but next week i will definitely be posting the blocking for the shot :) Until then have fun and God Bless.

- A :)

New Progress Reel :D

Ok Finally second term is near it's end, Just a week to go. So i just got a bit hurried with this and put everything together. All the shots from 1st and 2nd term :D The best thing is that i have learned tons this term and so much that i can still catch lot of places in my shots where i can refine and work on things to make it even better. But Hey it's better to move on to some new stuffs :D and get even better :P Anyways there's my Progress Reel for 1st two terms, Enjoy!!!

Week 11 - Adding the Final 10%

Well, Last week was the final assignment according to me. But as you can see the title says "Adding the Final 10%" This week would be the final shot for the assignment :P I literally never thought about the last 10% but trust me when i say it that this last 10% is the most crucial phase that make your animation better than the 90% which according to most of us is the Final shot. Well i won't be able to explain what exactly is adding the Final 10% at the moment as i just have started to learn it for myself and i think that i ain't even good to understand it for me yet, Let me get experienced with it and surely i will talk about it in future :)

Well Here's my final shot :D

Week 10 : Finally the final shot :D

Well, I didn't have much to post since last few weeks, As this blog will contain only stuffs that I'll be working on at AM and there's usually a week for every assignment from planning to blocking to blocking plus to polish. And i usually skip posting up my  planning or blocking plus stages :P Anyways here's the final shot as for week 10 assignment :)

Week 8 - 9 : A bit late on posting this :P

Well, Its already week 9 and have been working lately on my new shot which i planned to work on from the new pick list that we got in week 8 as new assignment :D I am not uploading the planning for the new assignment as it really looks crap hehehehe, Already done with the blocking and my Mentor was pretty happy with that But i myself wasn't :P I also got very awesome notes on posing from my mentor, I will share those thoughts someday or may be once i am done with AM and be a professional in the industry, i could start writing up guidelines which would help newbies in particular :) Well that's a plan i have thought off, let see if it turns to be true later. Well here's the blocking for my shot.

Week 7 : Parkour Shot Final :D

Finally I have completed my Parkour Shot for last week, that was Week 7 and already started with Week 8 now, got new assignment planning done will upload that in the next post, For this post Here the final submission for Parkour :D

Week 5 : Blocking

So Week 5 is gone and i have blocked in my parkour shot. Am not totally satisfied with it, as i still need to figure out how to make the spine work good, I definitely am gonna have hard time working with the spine in further stages, But anyways, still looks like a good start. Here it is my Blocking pass.

Week 5 : Time Running Too Quick I Guess :P

I really don't believe how time is passing by so quickly. Frankly Speaking when i started with AM i thought oh God i Still have to wait for a year and a half to be working some where as a professional. That doesn't by any mean that i am not enjoying AM. As i have already said AM is the far best School i have ever heard of and i have ever been to :D By the time running too quicky, Now i mean is i feel like "Darn There's only few more months left for be to be at AM :( " That kinda make me sad Actually. I wish that i never get out of AM even after my graduation. This place is like heaven for me, Perhaps for every student, even mentor or staff's who are or have been part of AM. And trust me when i say that, If you really want to experience it, I say go for it. Definitely that will take few thing that you might have to work out, Particularly Funds  :D But Whatever you invest is Worth more than the investment you make throughout your life :D That's what i feel and have experienced, so far being at AM.

Well It's already week 5 of the second term, Things are getting tough but interesting and exciting as well day by day. By Tough i mean to say is - The type of assignment is definitely an increase in the level at which we are gonna make our brain work. And excited because I am finally gonna Animate Stewie :D Long awaited Character, Almost by every student :D

Previous week we had been given a few, exercise in a pick list and every one had a choice to select one out of them and shoot a reference or definitely use internet resources to get some reference and then plan out the shot on paper. I really admit that planning is a very essential and key stage every animator must go through if he/she wants to get the final animation as he/she imagines in his/her mind.

Well, from the pick list i have opted to go for Parkour. Hell yeah!!! I really wanted to animate this crazy sport, Infact I would be really grateful if i can learn it and perform it myself :D I love these kinds of activity "Freaking Crazy- You Know". But until then i have a very artistic medium to do what i want to "ANIMATE " :D

Here is the Planning for my shot, That according to me gives a clear idea what i have in my mind.

I am not uploading the reference i have collected as its free floating on youtube :P and i have used quiet a few different clips and planned out my shot.

Well that's pretty much for this post and I should probably get back to Maya and start blocking out the shot,

So till the next Week, Have fun Animating OR Learning :)

God Bless!!!

Final Submission for Week 4 :)

It seems like i haven't posted something for a few days, but actually there wasn't much to post :P as i have been working with the same assignment as you can see in the older post than this, That was a blocking stage and I had to work on the same thing in these 2-3 week and bring it to a final polished version, so here it is :)



For this week, We have got a new pick list to select any one exercise from. It's been divided from easy to hard level but i think there isn't any easy level of exercise :P everything get difficult at times, Still i have opted to go for a harder level exercised Just to challenge myself and see how do i get through that. BTW i have opted to animate a Parkour sequence always wanted to do that, as personally i might never be able to run and jump like crazy, Though i really love it and want to do it :D

So the planning will be up soon for the parkour shot.

New Term Has already Begun :)

Have been a bit busy lately so couldn't get time to update something here. But anyways back again to work :P

Well It's already second week of the second term and having fun at school :D Not taking much of time in rambling things, i get straight to the point :P i mean post my updates so far. Before posting my stuff's, i just wanted to say, that this term My mentor is Dana Boadway, And i must say she is awesome and brilliant. Here is her Demoreel if anyone wants to have a look.

Ok so now for my stuffs :)

For the 1st week we had to select an exercise amongst the list that we were given and then shoot or get some references for the exercise and make a thumnail planning for the shot. So I decided to go with "Kick a ball" Exercise. I collected some references for a bicycle kick from Youtube and then planned my exercise accordingly. Here is the planning i did for the shot.

So that, Was for the 1st week assignment. :)

Now for the 2nd week, I had to jump right in to Maya and block in the shot according to our planning, Not compulsorily as I planned in the thumbnail drawings, I definitely am free right now to work and make it look as much better i could. Blocking is really a very crucial stage, And i feel that good blocking leads to a good polished animation. I have heard this a lot of times "More time you spend on your planning and blocking, The better and easy your work gets later" Well not i am experiencing this to be True. Very well then i ma almost done with my Blocking for the shot, and  i think i can upload whatever i have got so far, So here it is.

Week 12 : Compile everything and Relax :D

Ok so this is currently week 12 and in fact the last week of this term. I really had lot of fun this term, whether it be working on the assignments or making friends, Q&A's. Giving review's and feedback's, Reading feedback's that i got and analyzing them. In short the whole term was wonderful. I seriously admit that AM is definitely the best place for schooling in the whole world. There's so much of energy here, Whether it be the mentors, the students, the staff or i can say even the sites :D yeah AM site is also a big and important part of the Family. Everyone is so passionate about animation and so eager to learn at every moment and soak every bit of knowledge people get from anywhere. Like, Animation being an art form, that will always require learning throughout a person's life, I feel AM is exactly the kind of place a person will love to be with throughout the entire life. Its Simply Awesome to be part of AM family. I really am thankful to my This term's Mentor (Ruth Daly - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0198505/) and my classmates for being such a wonderful mentor and classmates respectively.

Well next term is gonna be awesome too, as we will be starting with Body Mechanics. Just can't wait to get started :D

As far as this week assignment is concerned, we just have to compile all of the assignments we did in the 1st term and submit it as a Class 1 Progress Reel. Well i already have my animation posted up here but still am posting the compiled work of everything i did so far :) so here it is...

Week 10 & 11 : Blocking a walk with Personality and Polishing.

Ok So i have been a bit busy last two weeks, with other stuffs too along with the assignments, so couldn't post them up during the particular week. And therefore i'll post everything i did in previous 2 weeks (10 & 11 respectively)
So here is the blocking for the personality walk, that was assignemnt for week 10, I chose to go with a stealth type of walk :P



And this one is the final polished version as the asignment for week 11.


Here are the sketches and pose that i had to do for week 10 and week 11 respectively.

Week 10 Sketches : Exhausted

Exhausted Pose with Stu.

Week 11 Sketches : Balance

Balance pose with Stu.

Sorry for the small size images compared to previous once, i'm getting bit lazy to render them again :D And yeah that's pretty much i did in last to week as far as concerned with the assignments.

Week 9 : Walk Refining & Concerned Pose

Its already Week 10 at AM, But have been a bit busy with stuffs so couldn't post the week 9 assignments :P So am posting it right now.

Final Walk Refined.


Here's The Sketches for Concerned pose :)

Final Pose i came up with Stu...

This one's after my Mentors Critique :)

As far as Week 10 is concerned, We have to Block out a personality walk and sketch some Exhausted poses. So i should probably be back to work :D Will post the final next week :P

Week 8 : Walk Blocking and Strength Pose Assignment.

Sorry for the delay in uploading the final assignments for week 8, Have been busy with other stuffs along with the assignment so couldn't get things up at time, still better late then never :P For week 8 we had to block a 4 step walk from a side view, We also had to do some thumbnail drawings showing the planning process for the walk, and also had to draw some sketches showing strength in the pose and then select one of them and pose it in 3D. So here are the assignments i completed for last week.

Walk Thumbnail planning....

Walk Blocking....


Sketches...

Stu Pose in Maya...

Finally completed with the assignment for this week. This week has really helped me a lot to understand overlapping movements and how to get texture and rhythm in your animation with help of spacing and timing. Here's the final thing i came with, this does includes some revision after my mentor's critique :

Week 7 : Assignment Using Tailor :)

This week, We had a choice for the assignment, either make a one legged ball character jump or work on Tailor (a ball with a tail - kind of a squirrel), I chose to have fun with tailor, really love this little character, fun to work with. Basically this assignment is test out our capability to use everything that we have learned in last 6 weeks. I am really having fun pumping up my brain to get hang of everything i have learned so far. Down below is a planning version for the assignment, I've rendered with lighting and environment :P i couldn't stop my self having fun with lighting and Environment too, Just wanted to look how the final assignment is gonna turn out :P Anyways hope everyone like it :P



I don't know why but Youtube is cutting out frames at the end and this is not good :( i think i might have to shift to vimeo :) let see, not sure what to do...

Week 6 : Overlap Final Assignment.

This week has been really fun to work with the Pendulum. I have learned a very important thing during this assignment i.e. Thinking about the flow and level of energy throughout the motion of any object. There are definitely some forces acting upon objects (Internal OR/Either External) making objects to move in a certain way, It's difficult at times to figure that out, but i think it ain't impossible, the best way to learn all this is observation ofcourse :D And also Use your brain its all simple physics :P that we actually notice and watch in our day to day life. Any ways, i hope i made sense to what i said and if i didn't ignore to what i said just use your brains :P

Here's the final version of the assignment.

Week 6 : Overlapping Assignment.

Last week was fun with the obstacle course, really enjoyed planning out the overall physics of the ball :P Week 6 is here and this time we have to work with a Pendulum showing some overlapping action. This has really been a tough one to understand. But i think i am getting a hang of it. Here's a very rough concept planning for my this week assignment, I hope this turns out well at the end :)

Week 5 : Obstacle Course Final

And Here's the final assignment of the Obstacle Course for week 5.

Devastation : Stu Pose

Here's My Stu Pose for this weeks Assignment :)

Week 5 : Devastation Sketches...

Here's my Devastation Sketches for the assignment this week. I really Suck at sketching, i know :P But still feel its looking good than what i expected.

Week 5 : Obstacle Course and Devasted Sketches

Today i got an e-critique for the week 4's assignment. I was lucky enough that there wasn't much to critique on, As per my mentor :) So that means i can concentrate totally one my Week 5 assignment. Anyways this week we have to concentrate on very important principles of animation and use them in our assignment.

1. Squash and Stretch

2. Anticipation

I am not going into detail about the principles, just remember to use it in right place at right time and at right amount, Getting these two right will make up your animation and screwing up the two is gonna screw up your work even more, that's my thought in simple terms :)

Well this week I got to animate a ball using both the mentioned principles, going through some obstacle course and coming to a stop. There is a limit in number of  frames, in which we have to fit in the whole animation. I really like this concept of giving us limited number of frames to work in, this is really a great exercise that will prepare me to think for, and work with assigned number of frames for a particular shot in future :) The assignment seems to be simple but it isn't by any means, Such exercise makes me feel and reminds, that this is why planning is so important in order to get the performance that we need. Seriously, Planning is a great life saver for animators. The more you plan your Shots before diving into the 3D package you use, The best output you at the end.

I have planned out the scene of the obstacle course and will put in here for everyone to see it later, that might be helpful to someone and some can definitely give feedback to me too :) I am done with the sketching assignment already, but will be leaving the posing in 3d part for the end as right now i got to work with Maya for the obstacle course.

Will get back here once am done with my assignment till then...

Ciao

- A :)

Week 4 Assignment : Different ball with different weights.

Currently i am in my week 4 at AM. The assignment this week is to animate 2 balls showing different weights. I opted to show a bowling ball and a beach ball. I must say that Ball bounce is real hectic to study, even 1 frame makes a huge difference in showing the weights, Now i know why are beginner animator suggested to start with a basic ball bounce. Basically this helps us to study the methodology of understanding weights in our animation also it helps in understand the technical side of animation particular using Graph Edit :) Atleast this basic ball bounce exercise helped me to understand graph editor quiet well. Anyways here it goes this week's assignment.

Week 3 Assignment : Ball Bounce and Excited Pose

In week 3 we had to do a basket or a soccer ball bounce and additionally, make some sketches of people showing up their excitement in different ways. You know what ? if you just think that you will draw some cool excitement poses in your mind that will look great or say convincing, You will definitely end up with some Cliche's, yeah that's true, that is because you are so lazy to get out and look the world around you. There are uncountable ways by which people show up their emotion, you just need to capture them in your memory bank and get away from the cliche's.

BTW here's what i ended with.

The pose is a revision after my mentor's critique so its definitely going to be a bit different to the sketches :)

Here's the Final Ball Bounce.

Week 2 Assignment

Everyone might be thinking where the heck did week 1 go :)
Well we didn't have any assignment for week 1, it was a time to just get familiar to the the AM community, look around everyone's work and be familiar to stuffs that we should be on the AM site. So there isn't any assignment that can be uploaded for the week 1.

Week two, We were supposed to do a thing that i never have always been very bad at : Sketching,
yeah that;s right i really am scared with this stuff , we were asked to get our arse up and see the world around us and make some sketches of people in different poses that might interest us. This was like a nightmare to me but well what else could i have done, Assignments need to be completed once assigned :P So i did it. I din't actually took a sketchbook and pencil along me, just went out and kept looking around and just memorized the pose that looked interesting to me and, sketched it out in the sketchbook, BTW i must say watching people moving around, studying their behavior is quiet a fun, Oh BTW i did a Stick figure drawings for my sketches as you can see in the image itself. But my mentor asked me to add volume to the figure as that will help me understand how human body reacts to weights and forces etc. And i tell you this point is really important to me :) BTW once we were done with the sketches we had to make a choice of one sketch that we liked among all the one's we drew and pose it with the character in 3D.

Here's my sketches for the Week 2 followed by the Pose.

 

The pose in 3D doesn't look like the one i have drawn, but that's what we have to do as an animator make things more interest to look at. The 3D pose is the final output that i had done after the critique of my mentor for this term, BTW my mentor for this term is Ruth Daly, she is such a sweet person really love being in her class :)

The journey begins.....

Hey Everyone,

Thank you for stopping by. I will try to keep my blog interesting as much as i can, But i can't assure you about that :p Its a bit late than the time i actually started my schooling at AM but still "Late better than Never"... So Here i go.

I have been so anxiously waiting for my classes to begin at AM,  I don't know why but almost everyone at AM or wanting to start with AM seem to be as excited and anxious as i had been, as a matter of fact not only me but many of us who were (STILL ARE) or are at AM, do not know a perfect reason that can explain, Why people are so excited about being a part of Family. Yeah thats right It's like a Big Family. Whether it be people working behind the scene or on the screen, Mentors, Students, Staff Members, We all have a one common feeling apart from ANIMATION is that we all are a member of the same family and not just a family, a Big, Happy, Fun Loving Family. I am really grateful to God giving me a chance to be a part of AM.

I have already completed my two weeks at AM and I tell you, there's no such school or place like this. I enjoy every moment being here, People being apart from everyone, all scattered around the world never feel that they are different from the others. I don't know how do i express my thoughts as i am a bit weak in that, but i guess you will understand me by just reading, whatever i have mentioned till yet :)

Currently i am in week 3 and am almost done with the assignment for this week, I'll be uploading my assignment soon for everyone of you to check it out and i will also like to hear some feedbacks and comments from you guys so, keep checkin in :)

- A :)