Animation with a moustache

The animation with a .... je ne sais quoi!

Category: Animation

Sketching with Jason Seiler 0

Animation / Character design / Drawings / Painting

 by 

Sketching with Jason Seiler

The jury is still out there on the importance of being good at drawing for CG animation but to me, being able to quickly convey my ideas through rough sketches or a series of thumbnails is one more tool to a CG animator toolset therefore acquiring drawing skills should be one of our goals. It is also a great party trick! 😉

I lived in West Africa for a while and there were many circumstances where I couldn’t pull out my camera but no one minded when I fired up my pens and pencils. My skills weren’t that amazing at that time but once I have a bit more experience with watercolours or maybe gouache, I am hoping to travel again for a month and fill up an entire sketchbook.

This brings me to great video I just found on Schoolism.com:
“Sketching with Jason Seiler”.

There are thousands of free sketching videos on Youtube but they are always too short or not exactly what I am looking for so $25 for looking over Jason’s shoulder and listening to his process is a bargain. It is also a great introduction to the great training Schoolism is offering.

The video is a bit less that 2 hours long and you see him sketching in the street and at his desk, demonstrating the importance of breaking down the subject into simpler forms and shapes, thumbnailling, crosshatching, digitally painting on a TabletPC, ballpoint sketching and applying watercolours.

On a minor note, each artist has their own style and I prefer cleaner lines to the more fiddly Jason uses when sketching, in the watercolours section he didn’t really explain his thought process and how he selected his colours however, I would still highly recommend watching those videos if you are trying to develop your sketching abilities.

You will probably need to register to access the website but don’t worry it is really quick.

Related posts:
My drawing category

ESMA 11

Animation

 by 

ESMA

For the past few years some new animation schools have emerged in France and competing with worldwide famous Gobelins and Supinfocom. Among them is the ESMA, a school based in the south of France.

Here is a shortfilm you probably missed last year: Oedipe. Ok it is a student film and the animation is not quite in par with Dreamworks or Pixar but the production values are very, very impressive and unlike other french student short films it is not just about wild chases, there is also a fair amount of acting so it is interesting they still felt the need to make fun of Gobelin’s 2009 Oscar nominated Oktapodi in one of the shot. It was quite unnecessary but well, this probably tells about the fierce competition between the different french schools.

http://www.oedipe-le-film.com/


Oedipe
Uploaded by Esma-Movie. – Watch feature films and entire TV shows.

You can find more shorts from last year at the following address:
http://productions.esma-montpellier.com/ and you might recognise Hugh, Tong and Exit but keep your eyes open for this years ESMA best short film http://www.mytho-logique.com/

Related post:
You want to be a rigger huh!

“Listen Philbin” 0

Animation / Animation Mentor / Portfolio

 by 

“Listen Philbin”

While polishing the spine of Bishop in that shot I realised that I had completely lost the original acting idea and I would probably be better off restarting from scratch but I still think it is still worth posting it.

Yes the right forearm intersects with the body and the left hand is still really rough, I have never said it was finished! 😉

“Tangled” new official trailer 1

Animation

 by 

“Tangled” new official trailer

Just to make things even more complicated, Disney just posted a new “Tangled” official trailer.

I am not a big fan of Princesses stories but the action packed sequences and gorgeous animation are making me very excited! The arcs are a bit overstylised in places but no one will notice.

Great character design, lighting, rendering, animation, that movie surely will be a hit and I can’t wait to see it!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycoY201RTRo[/youtube]

Use Keepvid.com to download the trailer in .mp4 HD format

[edit]
Well here is an other cut….. soooo confusing…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxY35VkI0NI[/youtube]

Related post:
Applying painterly concepts in a CG film – Bolt

Applying painterly concepts in a CG film – Bolt 1

Animation / Education

 by 

Applying painterly concepts in a CG film – Bolt

Bolt painterly effect

I was doing some research on rigging and more specifically Pose Space Deformation (PSD) when I came across a bunch of really cool papers published on the Disney Animation website.

Among them was a very abstract paper I was looking for but also a much more appealing one for the artist and keen painter in me.
Applying painterly concepts in a CG Film – Bolt

In that paper, the authors discuss the shortfalls of traditional CG Renders and how they applied the traditional painting concepts of Edges and Massing .

I now understand why the various trailers and teasers from “Rapunzel/Tangled” look so appealing. If only I knew how to apply this in Maya….

Josh Burton’s Morphy rig 3

Animation / Education

 by 

Josh Burton’s Morphy rig

Animation Mentor students got a very sweet surprise this summer with the release of Bishop 2.0 but if you are not part of those privileged animators don’t despair! Squirrely Rig’s creator, Josh Burton, is working on a very very promising character, Morphy, Josh Burton’s morpheus rig.

If you have never heard about it, let me embed some very impressive videos that will certainly make your mouth salivate!

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/14077119[/vimeo]
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/14165154[/vimeo]

This is seriously impressive I must say and it is amazing how much the rigs keeps its appeal despite the crazy amount of transformation.

I did a very quick test as a tribute to my friends who just wrapped Megamind and I am very pleased with what I was able to achieve in only few minutes.

Great job Josh!


Related post:
Animation Mentor 2010 showcase