Ice Scream... blocking (LOA animation)

hey there,
wow the end of the world came and gone... and this too was a bust... sad but i can say i lived through 2 end of the world one in 2000 and now in 2012...

ok guess i am going off track... lets get back to animation business...
its LOA and it means BREAKkkkk time!!!!! but its class 6 and that means its time to hunt for a job... so no break for little old me...

looking at all the stuff i had... I felt like i needed something a bit more cartoony... so started working on the iceycream shot... (the 2d test i posted a while back... http://vimeo.com/54201745 )



the blocking for now is just the kid... havnt concentrated on the ice cream guy... (didnt wanna make it a 2 person shot mostly cause i am lazy and didnt wanna add moving holds :P but officially its "cause i want to give all the screenspace to the kid" )...

hope to get it to some semblance of refining pass... so i can polish it up in the coming term...

well hope to have it up next week...

thats it for now...
CHAO!!!

multiChar Dialogue Close to final (class 05 Week 12)

hey there,
Its week 12!!! HOLY MOLY ROLLY POLLY DOLLY COLLY MOLY... oh wait I typed  moly already... end of class 5 and onward to class 6!!! this was a really fun term!!! JD was just Awesome...
gonna miss his awesome qna... speaking of which heres how JD ended his final qna...

an armed phyco dino riding a killer shark... thats pretty much sums up the awesomeness of his qna's :D

as usual to every term i made a quick thank u animation for my mentor

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36593087/thankuJD.mov

and finally my progress reel...

onward to final sem... bet wait... its almost xmas... that means instead of the just 1 week off between terms looks like we gonna have 2 weeks off O.O... last year during the 2 weeks i dissappeared to mumbai... but unfortunatly i dont have any plans to go this time... so maybe i concentrate on my reel... gonna work on trying to convert that 2D test into a 3D test... hopefully if all goes well and i dont get too lazy by end of the week i might have the blocking up on this blog...

well thats it for now...

chao

multi character dialogue Close to final (Class 05 week 11)

hey there,

wow its already week 12... time flew by... its been almost 18 months ago that i joined AM and started my journey... I look back and see the progress... and I am happy... I am more confident with my abilities as animator then i was before... (not bragging but just saying :P ) there are still alot of things that i need to learn... need to try out... need to discover...

here is my upload for week 11





this week will be rendering time :D and then onward to class 6 YAY!!!


that's it for now

Chao

Multi Character Polishing (class 5 week 10)

hey there,

not much to write this week... things are going on... just 1 more week left... time to stare right into the monitor and try to get the arcs working... (and also time to curse the eternal GIMBAL LOCK :D )




well thats it for now...
chao

multi character Dialogue Polishing (class 05 week 09)

hey there,
this time i have a genuine reason to be posting late :) and funny thing is its not because i am lazy.... (well I am lazy but that isnt the reason this time)

soooooooo heres the long winded explanation... home renovation... PC dismantled cause room needs painting...
think that was long enough...

wow its almost week 10 now... and i have been working on this dialogue for close to 8 weeks (week 01 dont really count cause i was only hunting for a dialogue that week :P ) and have about 2 weeks left (not really counting week 12 since i wanna step waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back from the shot...

some things i am happy with some things i KNOW need to be worked on... but quite happy with the progress learnt some really new things... (like make the  BISHOP's #!@#*&^%!@#%!!! hand smaller)... a really nice lecture by JD about hands and how not to make them IKey... was funn... the jist is this... remember how the knee always follows the foot... the same can be said about the relation of palm and elbow... always keep in mind that any movement on elbow affects the plam of the hand (when the hand is resting on something i.e) the reverse is simple since when we move the hand the elbow reacts but one tends to forget to move the hand when the elbow moves (due to body movements ofcourse :) )

btw this is a bit late in post but a fair waring this is gonna be a fairly longish post... since I had other things beside my assignment this week...


now anyway back to the main animation... to me I have done as much as i can and gonna spend the next to weeks just polishing and try to get more arcs in there as i can...





ok apart form that i kinda got a nice idea for a small pantomime... again this was inspired by a the talks with my mentor in the qna...

I was looking at my work and saw that there was not much variation in the style... (or for that matter age :) ) so i wanted to try out something different (maybe during the break week :) ) something more cartoony... was watching Horton hears a who and i kinda noticed the character mortan so i got around to frame by frame his movement and I LOVED IT!!!! ( i wish i had genndy's hotel Transylvania too but the movie isnt relesed in india till late december and no clue when the dvd comes out!!!)...
so i did a quick 2d test on the weekend...





now i am hoping to try and get the same in 3D... and here is a quick character sheet of little timmy

since i got the animation down to 4's (some places 2's and in the big move on 1's ) in pencil test itself it would be intresting to see how i can translate it from 2D to 3D... I was always impressed on how Jason Rayne (founder of Ianimate) did it when he used to slove his animation in 2D itself...

hopefully if i dont get lazy again i should be able to put out atlest blocking + by end of the break week (which starts in about 3 weeks from now) that i can work on in my next class which is ALLLLLLLL about demoreel...

well thats it for now...
CHAO

multi char Dialogue Polish (class05 week 08)

hey there,

ok i am gonna assume that i made the previous post a week ago rather then an hour ago... but thats the fun part about internet...

ok this week has been fun... i took a couple of days off and looked back at my work and found that one of the action wasnt working for me (its the placing of the glass :) ) felt it a bit weird that someone would SMASH the glass on the table in excitement... i went back to my references and kinda found out how i got there... (lesson to learn here... keep watching ur original reference so u dont stray too far while making changes) i decided to have the glass on the table from start itself so that i still have the freedom to more really fast without worrying abt the glass and its contents spilling around (and no i dont think i will add any fluid simulation)...
so thats the major change from last version apart from that its just tightning up some of the arcs making things smoother and stuff... still got 3 more weeks of polish so hopefully i'll get things smoothed by then :)




well thats it for now
Chao

Mulit char polishing (class 05 week 07)

hey there,

seems like i forgot to make a post for week 7... SILLY me... maybe it was the aftermath of over-awesomeness of Wreak it ralph... went to watch it on sunday (thanks to miracles of time travel aka i am gonna talk as if its monday last week :P )...

All i can say about the movie is "DISNEY's BACK BABY!!!!!!!" I thought tangled was really really good i doubt disney can outdo itself... boy was i wrong... for some weird reason i thought it would have been more fun if there were some live actors in it too when outside the arcade... it would have made the contrast of being ingame and outside more contrasting... right now i kinda felt like the world inside arcade (especially game central) looks really similar to outside world... maybe that was intentional maybe not but i thought it would have been fun if some real actors were involved too...

and no this is not gonna be a movie review post... i dont do movie review and this is not a blog for it :D (there are lotta other ppl who can do a better job reviewing... just wanted to put me thought out somewhere so i dont lose it :P )


ok back to assignment and submissions... here is my playblast... coming along slow and stedily... 4 weeks more to go...







well thats it for now...
CHAO

Multi char Dialogue Refining shot 03 and 04 (class 05 week 6)

hey there,

late post... man I am getting lazy man...
got around to splining the rest of my shot... still need to do lypsync but shot is coming along slowly and steadily...



well thats it for now...
chao

multi Char dialogue Refining shot 01 and 02 (class 05 week 05)

hey there,

things are progressing slooowly... got my shot 01 and 02 up from step to spline... very little to report... so just make a quick post here :)

well thats it for now

chao :)

Multi char Dialogue Blocking plus (class 05 week 04)

hey there,

wow weeks just disappear... cant believe its already week 4!!! (starting into week 5)

luckily a minor inspiration hit me last week and i had more progress then i could hope for but still lagging behind (i was hoping to get all my shots off blocking and into blocking plus but sadly i only got 3 shots in)
got 7 weeks to finish the whole thing... LOooooooooooooooooooooooooong way to go and soooooooooooooo little time...

heres the video i uploaded...




also this week the assignment was to have facial expression of the 2 beats using our video reference (yes yes iknow the last sentence dont make sense but i am trying hard to make it as confuzing as possible :P )

on the side... i seem to have fun a batmobile (1992 animated series one) model and got around to set up some rigging with it... getting some ideas for a seprate shot that would be intresting to put on my reel but lets see if i get time to do it...


well thats it for now...

chao

Multi Character dialogue Blocking (class 05 week 03)

hey there,

week 3 has been quite uneventful actually, the progress is really slow, and i would have liked to have added more details into the shot but being a bit unsure of the action causes me to hesitate a bit... right now what i have can be classified as rough blocking (story telling pose) hopefully i will be struck by an inspiration and the coming weeks can go a bit smoother then last one :)



here is my assignment video





this weeks assignment required me to take 2 beats from my shot and pose the characer's face accordingly (to understand the subtly ways to push the facial pose i suppose) here my my submission :)

apart from that on weekend i found a rig on batman in creative crash...
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/character-rigs/c/batman-rig--2

so i had fun trying to push the rig to see how much of a "BAT" feel i could get... it really is a nice decent rig... if i get time gonna try some animation test...

i do wish the cape had more controls (it has only 3 vertical controls and i wish it had 5-7 so i could cheat and make it such that the cape covered the front part too... )

well thats it for now...
chao

Multi character dialogue Video reference and layout (class 05 week 02 )

hey there,

        Week 2 already man time is flying away... its that time of the term where i have to shoot video reference, not that i dont like shooting reference its just that i dont like seeing myself on camera seeing

the fat tummy jiggle *ugh* ... i know i know i need to loose weight... but thats the funny part... i realised something about myself i am an extremist... either its everything or nothing... when I was working I rarly felt the need to eat... now that i am at home, i pig out all the time...

right now back to my assignment... the reason i make theres posts...

here is the layout i created for the dialogue... its the 2nd choice the 1st one mentor didnt like and the 3rd one is black adder so its a bit too famous that most people recognized it as rowan atkinson... i didnt want to compete my pathetic acting skills with my idol :) (though i would have loved to make an homage to him... oh well :) )

and my video reference

and some of my planning

well thats it for now...

CHAO!!!

multi character dialogue clips (Class 05 week 01 )

Hey there,

so finally back into animation mentor... This term my mentor is the AWESOME Jean-Denis Haas ... Had my 1st QnA with him and it was mind blowing... (maybe I am lucky or something but i got one awesome mentor after another or maybe... AM is full of awesome mentors :D )...

well this term (thanks to some great changes in the syllubus) i get to spend 10-11 weeks on one shot (or rather sinces its got 3 cuts it may be classified as 3 shots but 1 dialogue... 2 characters over the length of 15-25 seconds)... i think it will be a nice challange...

here is a video of the 3 clips that i've picked out... hopefully one of them would be chosen for me to do for next 11 weeks...

the below are some quick Sketch/notes explaining what I had in mind when i was listening to the dialogue... the drawings (as usual super crude) arnt the final composition but just a  hint/suggestion on what I am going for...

well thats it for now...

CHAO!!!

LOA (Week 4 to 12 and break week)

hey there,

It's been AGES since my last post I know... unfortunately the constant crunch mode I was in while working in Tata made me unable to post anything...
so heres a quick update on my status...
I am now unemployed (again) so I can get back to finishing Animation Mentor...
unfortunatly my SUPER SECRET project is on hold since i wasnt able to continue during my time at work

While I was in employment I learnt quite a bit and had quite some fun (mostly thanks to an awesome Lead and great team mates)

here are some of the things I learnt over time which i feel might be useful to other (if any one is reading i.e :D )

Caution The following post can be lengthy and boring... readers discretion is advised... unsound is not responsible if the reader falls asleep as one is reading the following... the reader is amply warned (i think)

CHOOSE The 1st shot Wisely...
Alot of the time in a production environment due to multiple reasons there might not be a training period of any sort... So If one joins a new Studio and is given a bunch of shots to animate, My honest suggestion is to tackle the least complicated shot... From personal experience I can state that in my previous job (at cochin) i took up a complicated shot and I was stuck with it for quite a while... it got my confidence down really bad (i was almost down to tears at one point and thought of quitting... ) but in tata I started out with a simpler shot (a single character with simple acting) and I got onto the track with very little hiccup... I find it always takes few shots to get to understand what Team lead/Supervisor wants...


Build a Good Rappo with Lead...
I know this sounds stupid, But its SUPER important... Having one's Team lead's support... even better having one's team lead's Trust would go a Lonnnnng way...  especially when one is having trouble in certain shots it was good to have lead's support and patience... still remember the horror of the YO YO!!! and raggles wriggle (ok this only myself and maybe my TL if he remembers might get it)


Develop 2 sets of Animation workflow...
There are 2 distinct workflow methods that we as animators should possess... one is Animation in detail and other one is animating quickly...and as an animator we have to balance the two to become succesful in a production environment (atleast in India where the bulk of animation is mostly outsourced work)... it is quite impossible to have only one set of workflow... One cannot only animate fast (cause it then becomes a routine and the animator will start stagnating or worst start hating what he/she/it is doing) similarly one cannot animate in detail all the time (with deadlines its impossible to give the love and care the shot needs/demands)
so its always bests to find a workflow which allows one to work fast but still be able to add some acting/detail into the animation...


Know the whole pipeline
I learnt this the hard way... but its always good to make some friends with people in other parts of the workflow (especially the lighting team) that way u are aware of what they do... I had to revist most of my shots because when lighting they make everything SUPER Smooth and haveing both character and the BG smooth creates a GAP!!! man the irritation of repoening the shot!!!! hoping that the computer wouldnt crash the moment i hit '3' on my keyboard (worst till hoping no fatal error occors when i hit '6')... the angry vibes that literally flooded out of the lighting room, gives me the shivers even as i sit and think about it now.... BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!! (unfortunatly the men's room was in the lighting section and everytime i had to use it I had to go near the lighting section and boy was it scary!!!)



Find Some inspiration in your work
It's really hard to work on something that u find uninteresting... It's easier to think hey this is not mine, I am just paid to do this... but that in my opinion is counter productive both to the show and to the animator... Agreed its hard to find inspiration to all the shots but i found that the shot that i found interesting came out much better then the shots where I just animated for the sake of animation... I belive something similar is said by Mike gasaway in one of his post 
"

We did a little show about a genius boy with a metallic dog.  Did pretty well in the ratings and did even better in the hearts of millions.  I still TO THIS DAY get complimented on a show that was cancelled…er…NOT picked up for a fourth season…what, six years ago?

Anyway, we did this show brilliantly (YES brilliantly) ON time AND ON budget AND had high quality.  Take THAT, triangle.
"

sure the post talks about a totally different subject but it kinda took me on a different track of thought that lead me to the conclusion that if one is truly interested, the external restrictions like budget or time constraint wount affect the creativity, and one can still be creative or even more creative in these constraints then one can be without constraints... confusing I admit it but to me its true none the less


ok i think thats it for now....


oh almost forgot... since i hadnt used my wacom for almost 2 months i thought i'vd warm up before the start of the term...
so here is a quick 2D test
WarmUp from vedanth rajan on Vimeo.


well thats it for now
Chao

LOA Super secret Project (LOA week 2 and 3)

hey there,

yes I know I missed last weeks post,
it was intentionally unintentional... or is it unintentionally intentional!!!  I am not sure :D ... the reason for not making a post was there was little to post about...
the progress on the super secret project is reaaallly really slow... and theres no one but my lazy self to blame... lets see if I can list the reasons (not that it would matter much :P )

1. as I said above... I AM LAZY!!! forcing myself to get onto maya for couple of hours of the day is hard... too many distractions... need to wake up early sit in front of the comp and resist the temptation to load up the games (some of which I uninstalled but still I need couple to wind down after the midnight riding back home)

2. even when I do sit in front of maya... I am too much into experimentation mode... the stage 1 which was supposed to be maybe 200-250 frames long turned out 400+ frames and that too after cutting myself down... I might go in at later stage and build upon some of the idea I felt needed more time/frames but for now its 480 frames long...

3. did i mention I was lazy??? did I mention the long drive back home at midnight??? oh I did but i think it needs to be emphasized ...



ok the reasons arent much I guess but its eneough that I am falling back on my own shedule!!! I needed to be close to finishing stage 2 but as I am posting this I am setting up the shot for stage 2 ... will be searching for some video reference in the night (got to youtube... even though i resemble the character i still cant spin on my back and jump up without making as ass of myself...) hopefully next week i'll be able to put up some posts that will be part of my stage 2-3 reference (stage 1 didnt need reference one of the reasons it went overboard... part of stage 2 dont need too so maybe stage 2 can get out of control too but lets see :D )

well thats it for now again no videos this week :D
chao

LOA super secret project stage 1 planning (LOA week 1)

hey there,

yes I know I didnt post last week... and yes I AM lazy... it was mostly cause I didnt have much to post... I am having Fun in the new job that I am in... got a really cool lead who knows what the series wants and knows how to achive that quality (which isnt high though :( )
the flip side is that I am now in night shift (meaning 3pm to 11 pm) which usually means if i am late or have work... then I am stuck in office till 4am (not a fan of riding my bike in the cold from midnight onward :P )

getting very little time on my personal project but its SLOWWWLY happening... just finished the basic planning (sorry since its top secret my planning and other material gonna stay hidden... :P might put up some of the video referene that doent give out the whole idea in later post when i get around to making the video reference i.e :P )

for now... the project is split into 5 stages... and i basically spent the whole week trying to find some unique transitions between the stages my initial idea had cliche transitions so had to throw them out of the window :P funny thing though most of my breakthrough always happend in the bathroom when taking a shower... totally weird... most of the creative ideas i got was in the shower !!!! makes me think maybe i should waterproof my comp and just sit in the shower and work the whole day... maybe that way i might get creative enough to reach the level of some of my peers :D (lot of creative ppl in Animation mentor that I am SUPERRR Jealous of!!!! and want to reach their level of creativity)

overall this week no video... no video next week either and provided i get the stage 1 done by end of next week i can pose my silly video reference the week after that :P

well thats it for now


CHAO!!!

Progress reel (class 4 week 12) (and some other minor things :D )

hey there,

I am now on Leave of absence (LOA)
took it beacuse of the new job i got in Tata elxsi VCL.... does this mean I'll dissappear from the face of the virtual blogging world???? I hope not :)

I have some super secret project in mind (which came to me maybe end of class 2??? ) that I wanna work on... since its super secret the delima is do i put it up or not??? i really want to save it till the last moment... but then this is supposed to be a blog on my progress... (do u see the problem... :P ) so i think i'll come up with a compromise (funny right compromising with myself and all... ) I'll put up some parts of my planning and some of the video reference that i think wont make much sense on its own... (its a LOOOOOOOONNNNGGGG shot )

gonna start working on planning from next week (i know i know why not this week right???? simple i dont have my video camera and am also in crunch mode in work :D )

so my post for next week will be a little bit on the studio i work for and some of the awesome people i met in there :D (some of the people have already helped me quite alot and taught me some really neat stuff... more on that next week.... )

so chances are next week no video to upload... no sketchbook... just pure text :P


here is my progress reel for class 4
gonna miss nicole's AWESOME qna's though :'(
but am looking forward for this break i didnt know i needed :D





well thats it for now
chao

(p.s the airtel seems to have fixed the stupid vimeo issue... so no more dropbox YAY!!! )

1P dialogue Close to final, LOA and Tata elxis (Class 04 week 11)

hey there,

lot of things to note down this week...
so lets start with Non AM related stuff...

last week I had given a test for animator in tata elxis... on friday to my utter surprise... I wasnt too sure abt the test since i really wasnt 100% satisfied wit the test for many reasons.... I got a call saying they are hiring me as an animator... ME!!!!

the funniest part was I was in the QnA and i tried really hard to talk to the HR... chat in the qna chat and try to listen to my mentor... and looking back (10 mins later :P ) it was one of the FUNNIEST moment of my life... (thats the reason its here... since this is essentially my diary :D )...

so to celebrate (and just for fun) me and my friends decided to catch a movie... one thing though thx to all the online booking thing... the fun of running to a theater and standing in line, or even deciding to watch the movie based on tickets is totally gone... the thrill of trying to get a ticket to a movie which was cheap (its Sunday :D ) and the movie we wanted to watch and have it in a theater nearby comes really really close though...

when i get to the movie i realise OMG its Emraan Hashmi!!!! to be frank i m not a fan of him... but the darnest thing happened... the movie "shangai" had Emraan Hashmi and had kissing scene (which the afore mentioned actor is super famous for... being called "serial kisser" and all) but it was Emraan kissing!!!

overall i really enjoyed the movie... the direction in it was SUPERB!!!! i really love the way the director told the story... the pacing felt a bit slow intially and till intermission the story was all over the place (i.e was'nt having any direction... i wasnt sure who to root for till almost after intermission.... ) the attention to details was inspiring... the acting was top notch (except ofc poor Emraan.... who tried to hard and in the end got overshadowed by other awesome actors...) and the end was mind blowing... the director sure got guts (balls feels vulgur but appropriate) cause he pretty much made fun of ALL political party and the things that happen behind the government (true or false i dont care nor do i know but it was entertaining for sure) and the twist in his epiloge HIT ME like a ton of bricks...

oh w8t I am not a movie critic... and this is not a movie critic blog... damn i m getting distracted....

back on track... right... in short i had A BLAST of a sunday...

so since I am gonna be working, I decided to take a leave of absence (LOA) from AM... I hope to get adjusted to the new workloads and spend the next 3 months to replan how to continue... I had gotten pretty lazy wit lot of sleep so its good I am having this shakeup...

ok that finally brings to the reason i even make this blog... my progress... here is my close to final...



(p.s i call it close to final cause i made some small changes in the end of the shot which kinda affected the hands and elbow so the hand now has a pop... that i am aware of but was too late to change :D )

I hope to continue to post weekly during my LOA!!! maybe get in that 1 body mechanics shot that i really wanted to do...  but wasnt confident i could pull it off... during these 3 months...

well thats it for now...

CHAO!!!

1P dialogue Polishing (class 04 Week 10)

hey there,

wow finally my dialogue is in a spot where i kinda m starting to like it :D ...

i feel the attitude coming out now...

here is my polishing pass... 1 more week to go... and it would be PROGRESS REEL WEEK :D




the airtel connection is still acting up so i m sometime able to view my vimeo and sometime i dont... so to be safe still uploading my work in dropbox




well thats  it for now



oh and I did give a test in Tata elxis VCL on sunday... lets see what happens :D

chao

1P dialogue Refining (class04 week09)

hey there,

its splining pass... the maddness continues... now i think its more confusing then before... the ban on vimeo (among other things) is so badly implemented... some people have access to vimeo and some dont... wow what a mess... for for time being i am gonna continue posting both vimeo and dropbox links (this is me silently protesting againts the ban on vimeo by still uploading my work in it :P )







well thats it for now...

Chao

1P dialogue Blocking + (class 4 week 8)

hey there,

sorry for the delay in the posting... (this time i choose not to use the the internet magic to turn back in time to make the post on sunday...) its delayed cause our DEAR government decided vimeo n daily motion is bad... and should not be used by indians... so I had to find a way around it...
the quikest way was to use the google dns instead of the default ISP one... that helped me out a bit (i.e i can now access my own vimeo sites but i still cant see embedded videos...
as a silent protest I will continue posting my videos up in vimeo... and for all my indian friends who cant watch it i will be uploading a dropbox video too... (which i hope to remove as soon as our govt comes to senses)



and the drop box

well thats its for now and im really sorry for all those who see 2 videos the videos are the same but unfortunatly since vimeo isnt accessable in india i included a dropbox too...


chao

1P dialogue blocking (class 04 Week 07)

hey there,

here is my blocking pass of my dialogue...

chao

1Person Dialogue and Pantomime revision (class 04 week 06)

hey there,

wow week 6 already... time sure flies... i think next week would be officially 1 year since i applied for AM... sooo much has changed for me in the past year... hope the changes are for the good :) (in dark mistic voice "the future is dark and uncertain for u ved" says a voice from within... )

ok maybe im going off topic... so lets get back on topic...
its Dialogue time :P that mean its time for some video reference... alot of crazy things i did in my video reference... i think some day (at end of the AM i might compile a bloopers video... but right now i dont have the guts :P )

here is my Assignment submission

option 01

option 02

option 03

the planning is bare and slighly sketchy cause of the lack of space :) will be adding more planning at end of the week :)

and here is my video refrence




well i finally got my hands on bishop 2.0 had fun with modifying it... will have a character sheet up by end of next week for sure :P

well thats it for now

chao....

edit: woooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh 100th post YAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!!!!

Pantomime Polishing (class 04 week 05)

hey there,

Ok today i am going to cheat a bit... I know today is wednesday and already half way through the week but since this post is to appear on monday mrgn (when the AM's deadline for submission expires) i use the magic of internet and go back in time and make this post....
ok charging time frame matrix...
... *beep*...
.......*beeeeep*...... *beep beep*.......
....*ping*.....

engaging time vortex stabilizer..........
.
..
...
.....
......
time vortex stabilized....

switching my comp to time travel mode...

setting date n time...
...
.....
..........
..............
date n time set... time travel in 10
9
..8
....7
......6
.........5
...........4
.............3
...............2
.................1
*weird time travelling noise*

ok im back in monday....


the reason i had to travell back in time was at this moment in monday in ernakulam had to make a quick visit to ernakulam (left on sunday mrgn reached there by night... left next day mrgn and back to gud old b'lore by monday night :) )

anyway enough reminiscing... here is my submission for this week... atlast things seem to fall together for me... for a couple of weeks i kept thinking that something is not working... its not looking right... but once i saw the final product i was happy (not satisfied but happy :) )


next week is on to new stuff... some dialogue hunting and some video reference :P

well thats it for now
chao

Pantomime Refining (class 04 week 04)

hey there,

time for refining :)

here is my passs



not writing much cause its buzy buzy buzy (graph clean up -.-; )

thats it for now
Chao

pantomime Blocking Plus (class 04 week 03)

hey there,

blocking plus... yay its one of those times when i freak out... (well not as much as i will next week but still some freaking out always... ) its the time when i try to make my ideas work/flow....
this is a very important stage... cause i have screwed up quite a lot in this stage... in blocking plus, its imperative (ok i am stating to use big words just for fun) that u dont lose the essence of the shot... usually blocking is the time where u really concentrate on the essence of the shot like... who is this character what is he doing, what does he what to achive and so on and so forth... in blocking plus i used to get lost in the details sooo much that in then end i would loose the essence of the shot... so to avoid that even though i work on one action to another i still play the whole animation and see how that action relates to others... in the end... i still get to experiment in this stage (so its still fun) but by end of blocking plus... my actions/acting/movement/timing are all fixed...


also its funny how sometimes inspiration hits u... Nicole suggested that when the character gets startled in the starting have him flick the gun holsters strap off.. but after trying n trying n trying (and crying) n trying i just couldnt get it right... (either it looked weird flicking off air or it was so subtle that the movment was totally missed) but in the end as i was staring at my comp thinking "this is it... my Ist comment from nicole and i cant fix that..." an idea hits me... which i think woked... so HURRAYYYY for onspot inspiration what would i do without u :)

ok maybe i am just rambelling for no reason... its time for the reson i make these posts....
my current weeks submission:



still got a looooong way to go... the movements are there but its time to get down to the nitty grittys and start tracking arcs and *shudder* cleaning graphs... (i dono which one makes me shudder more is it cleaning or is it graphs -.-' )

well thats it for now...

CHAO!!!

pantomime Blocking (class 04 week 02)

hey there,

so its time for blocking... YAY!!! blocking is soooooooo fun...

it was a struggle for me... I think i did too much of pencil test and i felt like I cant active the same level of pused poses as i got in the 2d tests (bascially I think i pushed it soo bad that it  got off model but going off model in 3d looks just aweful... )

ok here is my Ist blocking pass (I spaced it out for 5 weeks so this just involves my story telling poses and a few  inbetweens where I am not sure how the transition should happen... )

well thats it for now oh and since I have the power of internet gonna put a sunday evening's stamp :P instead of the day i posted (which will remain secret forever come tomorrow *MUHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA* )

chao

Pantomime Video Reference (Class 4 week 01)

Hey there,

Its time for new class and new mentor!!! WOOOOOHHHHHHHH!!!

Looks like my luck is still holding... and I am getting one great mentor after another... My class 4 mentor is Nicole Herr...

Had my Ist qna on Tuesday itself... (this time my qna timing fell on tue 6 am so its the Ist qna of the week :D ) and it was FUN!!!!
I am so lucky to have a mentor who has experienced different areas of animation from a composing artist in live action films to cartoony animation to mocap animation...

Fun and exciting time... cause now we upgrade from body mechanics to ACTING!!! WOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! well as we all know I cant act... the Biggest proof of that (which i am never gonna be sharing ) is the picture thats on the bottom right corner of the site (with the title "thats ahhhhhh me")... its a snap from my one and only theater performance (the video of which i have but will never be public ) and looking at it I know I cant act... but its ALWAYS fun to try to act... (same with the 2d animation :D )...

well heres my latest attempt at acting :D i might have put on quite some pounds for the past few years but i guess i still act in a cliche manner and it took me close to 25-30 mins of footage to get what i wanted (and most of it were in bits and pieces )




and my planning i Uploaded

sketchbook 1

Sketchbook 2

character sheet

apart from this there has been a change in the syllabus for class 4 students... now instead of doing the dialogue's body in class 4 and doing the facial in class 5 starting (thus spending close to 9 weeks on a dialogue) its compressed to class 4 so the whole shot has to be completed within 5 weeks (which i feel is a better option since i really dont want to listen to the same dialogue for 2 whole months and would mean 1 extra assignment for my demoreel)

well thats it for now...

Chao

Class 03 Progress reel (class 03 Week 12)

Hey there,

WOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!WEEK12!!!WOOOOHHHHHHH
break Week!!! oh wait no break week its just break weekend :D

right so its on to next term next week :D SUPER excited abt it!!!

Had my last QnA with my mentor kenny... as  always it was a bittersweet moment...

here is my progress reel for this term (i realise its a bit sloopy but right now I think I am gonna enjoy my break and worry abt making it pretty later :P)




well thats it for now... next week new mentor new stuff...
ACTING!!! WOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

chao

animJam Shot 3 Polishing (Class 03 Week 11 )

hey there,

week 11 submission...HOLY COW!!! man its been one awesome ride for me... had made some major changes in my workflow (like adding sound effects track to get the timing, journling my workflow) my final shot i tried to make it such a way that i didnt have to touch the graph and for once a miracle happened... when i hit the linear button my animation didnt BLOWUP!!! like it always does... (partly it could be cause i had key every 2nd/3rd frame ) but i did understand how not to have my shot look crap when i spline it :D



(pssssssst... heres a secret......... its still in linear..)

well apart form this i did a quick thank u animation for my mentor kenny :)




well my mentor Kenny roy is trying to get his dream project started called "the little painter" for which he did a 24 hour marathon... it was awesome I wish i could back him up but unfortunatly i dont have the means (cant ask my dad's credit card :D )

here is the kick starter project...

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kennyroy/the-little-painter


I soooooooo wish this project gets a green light.... its almost 80% funded... my fingers are crossed...

well thats it for now... next week I hope to post a couple of repeating videos (well next week im gonna submit my progress rell and submit some of my works for student showcase... since both of them will have the same thing :P i guess i'll be posting the same animation twice :P)

chao


edit:
ok i m just too lazy to make a new post so editing this post...
Kenny has made the maraton video public WOOOT!!! this is awesome cause theres TON's of awesome tips n tricks in there that any and all animators should watch :D
http://www.kennyroy.com/public/24-Hour-Marathon-Video-Download-Page.cfm

theres a catch though... the most awesome part is in the end... and that part stays locked till kenny reaches his goal (and kenny if ur reading this [1 in a million chance] that was a genius move though i might say its cruel :P )

animJam shot 3 refining (class 03 week 10 )

hey there,

sooooo close to end of class 3... its been an amazing journey :) so far... I was lucky eneough to get different style of mentors... and am hoping that my luck holds out :D

This week has been power packed.... It started out wit a BANG!!! with kennys 24 hour animation marathon (chk out the cool video at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kennyroy/the-little-painter and if u can support him plz... this project soooooooo deserves the green light :D )
watched kenny animate for 24 hours stright (well i watched 18 hours of it :D ) and found a lot of polishing tips that i intend to use on my next assignment... In case some1 is wondering "why not on this assignment u foool????" I am trying out a different method on this one so its hard to follow those tips with my current assignment....


speaking of my assignment here's my submission for this week:


its not where i want it to be right now... but i didnt wanna go into polish be4 getting kenny's thoughts on it.... i still need to go in and add proper arcs on the legs in the end... I am thinking of trying out some thing new and different but since thats just a icing on the cake i better make the cake look and taste delicious (and no i cant bake a cake its just a example :) )


well thats it for now...

chao

animJam shot 3 Blocking + (class 02 week 09)

hey there,

ok so i am trying something new am keying every other frame so all my animation is on 2's and 3's... and here is my submission



also i am not really sure on the camera animation but it was something that kenny discussed wit me in his qna so i tried it out.. not 100% satisfiied but then i never did take on the challenge of animating camera's yet (i guess I am just a BIG FAT SCARDY CAT!!! )


also in the starting of the week... I got inspired to do a quick 2d shot after watching an awesome sketch of a zombie getting blasted with a shotgun... by a g8t comic artist (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8DVkBBWIH0 u can chk the video that inspired me here :P )




well thats it for now...
Chao...

Animjam shot 3 Blocking (class 03 week 08)

hey there,

there was some quick changes to the idea and tried to make it more challenging... so made some changes to my original idea and tried a more challenging piece...
here's the blocking :)



and my 2d pencil test



well thats it for now

Chao

animJam shot 2 polishing (class 03 week 07)

hey there,

Wow week 7 things just fly dont they... well they did to me in any case :) cant belive its already end of week 7 pushing into week 8...

in our QnA we had what we call shotgun daliy... and its excatly as the name suggested... the comments on work came in like the shotgun rounds (fast and scattered) it was a fun way to give and get critique since we had only 5 minutes to give our comments (and must give a minimum of 5 comments)

apart from that the week was pretty same same... i found a easier and better way to work on spacing... it involves slightly more keys but i found it much simpler then trying to fight in graph (yes the hatred for graph hasnt diminished over time... I hated graph editor then  i still do now :D but i guess i can tolorate it now a bit more now :) )
the way I tend to solve my spacing problem is to set a key on the point where im happy wit the spacing (say in an action the hand has a weird fast out in middle of the action so i would set a key at the point where im happy wit the movement) then set the key again at the end of the action where again im satisfied wit the movement... go to the inbetween keys and blow them away to kingdom come 80% of the time that would instantly make my  spacing problems go away but some times i have to adjust either the start of the end to get it to flow more smoothly... i realise this sometimes breaks the key pose but I usually try to keep my eye on the big picture.. and as a great man once said... "if it doesnt work... GET RID of it U SILLY FOOL!!!!"

well here is the output for this weeks assignment (the polished version)




also this week we had planning for our third shot (and the final one :D )

'


well thats it for now
Chao

animJam shot 2 refining (class 03 week 6)

hey there,

here is my refining pass for my second shot of animjam...

some major changes from my blocking... hopefully its gonna be better :)



well thats it for now


Chao

AnimJam Shot 2 Blocking (class 03 week 5)

hey there,

alot of intresting stuff happened this week... My mentor Kenny had given us a really nice tip which i thought i'vd try out in this assignment (the tip was given to us in about week 2-3 but it sunk into my head just recently)

the tip is to record the sound of us doing the action (not necessarily full body but just with hands or just imagining the action ) ) and BOY is it useful!!! i didnt necessarily use the sound track in its entirety but it did give me a really awesome starting point...

 the other thing is i've upgraded to a new vimeo beta mode... the new vimeo has a nicer UI... too a while to get used to the new positions but i think its good :)



 well here is the blocking pass of my animjam assignment


 


 I had some nice inspiration for my 3rd shot and having conflicting ideas with new challenges hopefully i'll get fixed on one idea by end of this week :)

 well thats it for now :)
chao

Animjam shot 1 polishing (class 03 week 04 )

hey there,
polishing (-.-)' always been a bane!!! its the point when u realize damn the animation looked soooo much cooler in my head :D

well here is my submission for this week


also have uploaded my video reference for my next assignment.

well thats it for now
Chao

Animjam shot 1 blocking plus (class 03 week 03 )

Hey there,

wow already end of week 3... time sure flies...
after some modifications to the blocking and some changes to the shot here is the refined pass... still having trouble with settle but hopefully solve it by end of the week :)



that's  it for now

Chao

animjam shot 1 blocking (class 03 week 02 )

hey there,

so its time for the most fun part of assignment... BLOCKING yay... there was a slight change in the planning... kenny felt that crawling would be too complicated at this stage so had to make changes...

here is my blocking submitted:



well thats it for now

chao

anim jam shot 1 Video reference (class 03 week 01 )

hey there,

I really cant belive it!!! I got Kenny roy as my class 3 mentor... the Ist qna was AWESOME!!!
and scary at the same time... the talk of failing classes sounds scary to me!!!!

well after some thoughts and 2 weeks of delebration (in mumbai ) i decided to do anim jam :)

here are my planning sketches and videos

apart from that a friend of mine had her b'day few weeks back and cheapskate that i am i decided to make a present rather den buy 1 ;D

heres a quick 2d animation i did for her :)



well thats it for now :)

chao

Break Week (between class 2 -3 )

hey there,

2 weeks of break... and it was FUN!!! got away from computer for a while... felt AWESOME!!! had a neat adventure (well atleast i like to think of it as an adventure)

Went to mumbai to visit my old friends... It was mind opening journey... I learnt quite a lot about myself (16 hrs of travelling alone and u have nothing more to do but ponder :D )

well heres the quick photo of the guys I met (oh and im missing one peron in this pic but thats a different story to be elobrated in the later part of the post)

(From L to R Siddi, Pankaj, Jiggi, Darr and GOSH BABU )

Miss u guys alot :)

and this is what happened to me in mumbai :'(

apart from these guys i met another friend of mine Dapoon Rai Diwan and frankly I am touched by his optimism... dude I dont know if u read my blog but in an off chance that you do... U rock man!!! ur optimism rearranged my perspective dude (and im not talking abt maya :D )

apart from that I am all set for my next class to start...

in the mean time I upgraded my system... I got a new cabinet...
an I5 (3.0) 16 gb ram and GTS 450 with cooler master cabinet and an awesome wireless keyboard/mouse...

got 64 bit windows installed and now my system is FLYING :D

to get back to speed i did a quick 2d test



well thats it for now...
next week i'll know who my mentor is and my class 4 would have started...

chao :)