First IF (Illustration Friday) post
FLYing_illustration
So here is my first submission to Illustration Friday. I am so happy to have been able to post this week. I created this in Illustrator. Its the first Illustrator piece I have ever shown publicly and can’t wait to show more. I hope to have many other posts to IF as the weeks go by to help build my illustration skills. I hope you all enjoy.
An update with an updated reel-in-progress
I’m back and have some new work with me. As I have posted in previous posts, I am working on my short film at AM, which takes up a lot of my time, and I am also working for Scott Easley over at Dream Machine Studios. I am starting to put together a reel, which I will be continually adjusting for the next few months. I have placed the reel below. Right now the “Animation,” and “Blendshapes” labels are temporary until I can figure out a better way of displaying them. Also, all of the rigs are from Animation Mentor, Dream Machine Studios, and Sudeesh Chathanoor. When I finish this reel, I will have an official shot breakdown for it, which will show who provided the rigs. Well, here it is. I hope you guys enjoy it.
http://jamescditmer.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/spring2009gamedemoreel_1_web-desktop.flvPast Projects on a New Day
Well, I am finally posting some older work that is not organic character animation. One is a logo animation for Imagitorium Studios and the other is a stapler animation I did for a freelance test. I had a lot of fun with these as I tried to finish them in short periods of time and give them as much entertainment value and as close to personality as I could. I hope you like them.
New for November
Well, I thought it was about time to post again. I am still pushing through with my Animation Mentor work. I can’t believe it, but I am actually half way through class 4! This is unbelievable that time has gone by so fast. Class is really getting good now. We are discussing a lot of film procedures and story telling elements. We have now covered some camera cuts and discussed keeping continuity through the camera cuts.
I am currently working on a shot invovling two characters. I am using an audio clip from Knocked-Up. I am very excited about this piece as I believe it is going to give me a real challenge to create an entertaining (hopefully funny) shot while having to rely on subtle movements, and lots of upper body and facial animation as opposed to the broad full body animation I have been used to.
While I have been working on this primarily, I have been making sure to hang out with my lovely wife as much as possible and still help out with Imagitorium. At this point for Imagitorium the animation is very minimal, so it has not been a ton of work for me so far. It is at this point, that at times I wish I could help out the guys in modeling as that seems to be the focus of the work currently. Oh well, my turn with animation will come soon enough, and from the way things look, I will be animating some very cool looking characters, which of course gets me super psyched!
Anyway, outside of all of this I have played around with simple animations, such as walk cycles. I sometimes just need a short-term project to keep up my interest in everything else and I find little animation cycles to be quick and a lot of fun. They are a great contrast to the long planning and story-telling that I am doing for the rest of my animation work. Below you will find one of the cycles. It is just a small little walk cycle I created with this roboter rig constructed by a guy who identifies himself as NoLeftovers from Highend3d.com. The model was created by his friend, Aimbiz. I just have to say thanks to these guys for creating such a nice rig for which us animators can play with.
*Other news (on the political side) is that we have a new president elect — Soon to be President Barack Obama. I look forward to seeing the direction, we, the United States, now move toward.
Class 3 Progress Reel
Well, once again I have finished another class at Animation Mentor, which continues to help me in my animation growth. This class was a ton of fun learning more about acting and subtle movements, like in the hands and eyes. My acting animation has definitely seen the benefit of going through AM. I am now half way through the AM program. I am loving every minute at the school and can’t say enough about the instructors. This class, I worked with Ryan Donoghue, who has helped me so much, especially on paying attention to detail and little movements. I will definitely keep him comments about keeping the body alive as I animate in the future. Well, enough of my run-on statements. Below you will find my newest progress reel.
First time with Bishop
Hey all! I am back after some time away from this page. There is some good news though. First, I have completed my first dialogue piece with Animation Mentor and the Bishop rig! You can watch it below. Although this animation by no means is spectacular, but I am happy with the outcome.
Now for the other good news. I have recently been hired by Sam Gebhardt to help start up a 3d studio in Columbus. All of us involved (along with my wife because it means that we do not have to move) are very excited about the opportunity that this presents to Columbus and us! We all have high hopes for the future of our little shop, which is entitled Imagitorium. Check out the animation below and be ready and expecting some very cool things from Imagitorium in the future!
http://jamescditmer.com/wordpress/wp-content/fgallery/animation-mentor-works/rightsFinalPost.flvMost Current Animation Mentor Progress Reel
Below you will find my current work completed in Animation Mentor. This area will eventually have its own location on this site, but for now you can find it here.
Flash Version:
http://jamescditmer.com/wordpress/wp-content/fgallery/animation-mentor-works/Class2_progressReel.flvQuicktime Version:
Whats been going on?
So, It has been quite a while since I posted an update. I really was hoping to keep updating more regularly, but I’ve been really busy with my wedding stuff and my friend’s wedding and Animation Mentor, that I have been unable to update for a while. But, I am back and will continue to stop in and update this little journal of mine. So, enough about why I have not been around. Lets get into what has been happening.
I just got back this weekend from having a great bachelor party that my brother organized for me. It was great! It was the first time I had been in a real casino. I know, can you believe I’m 25 and have just now gone into one! We went to the Argosy Casino down on the Ohio river. We had a blast! I ended up in the positive after the weekend was over so that’s always good. We also went to the Hofbrauhaus for dinner and a few drinks. That is always fun. If you’re ever in the Covington/Cincinnati area, I suggest stopping in for a few drinks there on the Newport levee. They brew their own beer, and it tastes quite good. The food is good too. Anyway, it was great fun and a great weekend!
Now, for animation info. I have now finished my second class at Animation Mentor. I look forward to the next one. We are starting into acting. It should be a ton of fun! I have learned a lot while at Animation Mentor. Mike Walling was a great mentor and I learned so much from him. He seemed to be able to make me see things so much easier while I was animating. He did a great job pointing out movement choices and explaining why I should change the way I move the character or a limb. My last animation is a great example of this. It is much more entertaining because of Mike, and my fellow classmates. I have included my last progress reel below. Please feel free to take a look at it.
/wordpress/wp-content/fgallery/animation-mentor-works/Class2_progressReel.flvJumping Post to Post
I’m back again. Here is what I have been able to accomplish in the last two weeks. This is the post jumping animation exercise I have been working on. It is at the blocking plus stage. This week I will be refining and polishing the animation to hopefully bring out its shine. We’ll see where it takes me and hopefully its a piece worth sharing when I’m all done.
I want to plug one other thing while on here. Those of you who enjoy animation, which I assume most of you do, you should check out the Animation Podcast. There are some wonderful interviews with some animation greats, such as James Baxter, Glen Keane, and Milt Kahl. There is a wealth of knowledge out there for all of us students of animation and I hope you all take advantage of these resources.
Ballie puttin’ on the moves finalized
Hi all,
I finished up my animation of Ballie doing the Maradona and kicking the soccer ball. Right now, I 0nly have the quicktime version, but I will be adding the flash movie version soon enough. I am fairly pleased at the moment, but I think that this one definitely deserves some attention later in order to keep tuning it and making it better. Well, the video is below.
Before I sign off for the day, I have been reading my friend Jacob Gardner’s blog and about his process when making his 11 second club entry. I suggest jumping over there and having a look. He has made some very insightful comments. You can check it out by going to wjacobgardner.com/blog/
Class 2 Blocking so far
Hi again everyone. I have begun class two at Animation Mentor and I am into the third week. The first week we started with recorded footage of us doing either a turn, kicking a ball, or doing a side-step. I chose to do a turn. Originally the turn was supposed to be 180 degrees, then it became 360 degrees, and then I added a ball kick to the end. Below I have posted my latest blocking pass. After receiving some criticism from my mentor and some classmates, I need to play with some of the timing and poses of this shot. One example is that I need to speed up that turn by possibly removing a few frames. We’ll see what I come up with. I’ll post more when I get it more refined. Right now, its back to work.
/wordpress/wp-content/fgallery/animation-mentor-works/TurnBlocking004WithLogo.flvFinished Up My First Class at Animation Mentor
Hello once again everyone,I know I slacked off as far as keeping this place updated. I want to make it up by posting my current progress reel, which I just turned in today at AM. Below is a compilation of the assignments I did these past three months at AM. I have to say that I am sad to leave this class. I will miss working with T. Dan as my mentor and seeing the same faces at my Q&A. Even though I am sad about moving on, I am very excited to meet and work with new people and get different feedback. The next class is body movement. So, to finish up this little piece, I simply want to say I am having a tremendous experience at AM and can’t wait for it to continue!!!/wordpress/wp-content/fgallery/animation-mentor-works/Class1_progressReel02.flv
Onto week 7 and Tailor
After making some planning drawings Monday after our power went out for the fourth time in 2 weeks, I decided last night to lay out some planning and blocking in maya for my Tailor exercise. I am excited about this one, because it is our first “official” character in AM. If you’re wondering who Tailor is, she is our little squirrel-like friend with the tail, get it, Tail - or. Oh, the people at AM are so creative and funny. Well to explain my idea a little, I am having Tailor try to jump across the gap between two limbs. She finally makes it over to the right limb and it flings her back over to where she began, to start all over again. Below is my planning and blocking in maya that I did last night.
/wordpress/wp-content/fgallery/animation-mentor-works/TailorJumpPlanning01.flvEnding of week 6 (Pendulum Assignment)
Well, week 6 came to an end Sunday. I am now over half-way through my first course at AM. It is so wonderful attending this school! I have an update to the assignment I worked on last week - the pendulum. I’ll tell you what, these assignments all take up more time and end up being more difficult than I originally expect. Anyway, I’m pretty pleased with what resulted from this week’s constant animation work. I have included the quicktime and flash movies below./wordpress/wp-content/fgallery/animation-mentor-works/PendulumFinal.flv
Week 6 Pendulum Blocking update
Here is a quick update on the blocking I’ve uploaded. I changed the timing a little and added some breakdowns.
/wordpress/wp-content/fgallery/animation-mentor-works/PendulumBlocking02.flvContinuing with Week 6
Hey everyone. Here is my blocking stage that I worked on tonight. This is my attempt to keep all of you up to date. I had a great Q&A tonight with T. Dan. He showed us a few workflow tricks and explained some blocking techniques. I love these Q&A’s, they give me so much energy and excitement to get to work on my animation. Well anyway, below is my assignment so far for the week, in its blocking stage.
/wordpress/wp-content/fgallery/animation-mentor-works/PendulumBlocking01.flvWeek 6 begins (half-way point)
So, week six has begun. I am half-way through my first course at AM. I cannot believe it. It has gone by so quickly. I have had so much fun so far and cannot wait to start this week’s assignment, which is why I have started it already. I spent tonight planning out the shot of a pendulum. We are studying overlapping action and follow through this week and showing it by using the pendulum. I have posted my plan below in, as usual, Quicktime and Flash formats.
/wordpress/wp-content/fgallery/animation-mentor-works/PendulumPlanning01.flvWeek 5 is over
So week 5 came to a close this Sunday. I had to rush to get everything in. This week was a jump in difficulty and required a little more thought. I did get this all in just in time thankfully. Check it out below and I will keep you updated as to the critique from T. Dan.
/wordpress/wp-content/fgallery/animation-mentor-works/obstacleFinal02.flvAnd Devastation by Stu (the rig).
Ball’s obstacle course
So here in week 5, we have to put Ball through the obstacle course and make its movement believable. Here is my blocking pass.
/wordpress/wp-content/fgallery/animation-mentor-works/ObstacleBlocking001.flvFinal Weighted Ball Bounce
So, here is my final for the week. It is two balls of varied weight. I had a little fun with it the more I worked with it. I think it came out pretty well. Check it out below.
Final Simple Bouncing Ball
I have finished my bouncing ball and received a good critique from T. Dan stating that it worked. I have posted it below. Now, onto two differently weighted balls!
/wordpress/wp-content/fgallery/animation-mentor-works/BouncingBallFinal.flvUpdate for week 3: Three Poses to choose from and my Ball Bounce
So its Saturday and my homework for this week is due tomorrow. I’ve been up all day working on all of this. The following video includes this week’s sketchs, three poses from which I need to choose one, and my ball bounce excercise. What do you think?
Week 3: Drawn Ball Bounce Planning
So, here is what I have been working on so far this week outside of the sketches of Excitement. I spent a day observing, drawing out, and planning how the bounce would work. Then Tuesday and Wednesday I spent drawing out the ball in frames. Using the sketch as a foundation I drew in the placement of the ball. I did the 2d animation in a beta program called Pencil. Its pretty cool and very simple. I think drawing this out and making a 2d animation is helping me understand it much better. I think I am going to continue to try to do both 2d and 3d during this course as much as possible. It can’t hurt. I have included my work on this below. I do both Flash files and quicktime because quicktime is often blocked, as it is with me at work.
(Flash Player 8.0 required to view)
/wordpress/wp-content/fgallery/animation-mentor-works/AMdrawnBallPlanning.flv(Quicktime required to view)
AM Week 3: Excitement and Bouncing Balls
Hey all! I started week 3. Our sketchbook and posing assignment is to display excitement. I went to a Barnes and Noble yesterday and did not find much excitement, so I had to watch some television to catch some. It appears that there are not too many people that are excited in Ohio during the cold, wet wintertime. I did get a few sketches so I posted the early sketches below. Check them out and let me know what you think. I will post the other drawings and bouncing ball sketches as I work on them.
comboQT.jpg "early excitement sketches")
