Blocking Plus update of short film...

Howdy all. Sorry bit late on posting something, skipped last month altogether. I've uploaded the 'blocking plus' phase of the assignment for you to perview so you can see the steps it takes to get to the final product. Lots of issues are evident and I am fully aware of them, this is more the 'see how its done' type of upload, so stay tuned for more. The next upload will be of the 'almost finished' product and will look substantially different. My final fully rendered production copy may not be finished til late December or possibly even late January, depends on the help I receive or if I can figure out Maya a little better. After this assignment is done, I'm going to immerse myself in books again!! I just bought the collection as seen below, and intend to read them all within just a few months before attempting to finish the whole dang series. Cheerio!

Greetings...from Beyooonnnd!!

Ok, so its been a few weeks and I have a few things to share from my 5th class at Animation Mentor. This whole class was pretty much pitching/storyboarding and then laying out the idea that will become a newborn cartoon short in the next and final class. I was trying to think of something else to share, but nothing crosses my mind at the moment. At times I feel vain just for writing on here since I don't get many replies or comments on my work or entry's, like being out in the wilderness and talking to yourself out loud...hmmm.. But at any rate, thanks Kelly and Mayra for leaving me some notes, hopefully FAMILY will take the time to do the same someday as well!!
:p !!YOINKS!! d: Here's the goods, tell me what it makes you feel after watching it, first reaction. That to me is usually the most helpful for giving anybody feedback on work they've done than anything else.

At last, I am back with some goodies from Class 5!!

Helllooooo once again (speaking to the void that is the interweb), I have been neglecting my 'blog' recently until I had something somewhat substantial to put here, so I present you with my 'animatic' and storyboards for my idea I've come up with currently in my 5th class at AM. I'd love anyone that views this to leave me any comments/feedback they may have on ways to strengthen this piece as far as camera angles/cuts/etc. I'm going to begin the actual animation portion of things during my final class, so this is the time to get things cleaned, clear and concise. I've also included a few pics from the Cali trip in July. I went to L.A. to become the Godfather of my little brother at the Baptism. While there I also enjoyed some wine tasting courtesy of my Pa. Anyway, enjoy.











Here are the Cali trip pics:

Some things to share...

Well, just finished up Class 4 at Animation Mentor and also got back from my trip to France. Due to several factors going on with the trip, I wasn't able to finish my final assignment the way I would have liked to, but was able to get a passing grade to advance to Class 5. Upon arriving in France, my grandfather passed after a long battle with Cancer and half the time spent there was with family and going through the funeral preparations. Near the end of the week, my mother and I drove up to Annecy to spend a few days at the Animation Festival before driving back and wrapping up the trip all too quickly. I've included some pictures from the trip below as well as the final assignment from Class 4.



Final Class 4 Animation



Canal in Annecy, France


Mother & I at Lake Annecy


Bill Plympton, Spike and I


Grandpa and Grandma Santana


Countryside seen from Puycelsi

Oh Happy Days...Week 7 in Class 4 at AM!

Ok. Let's play ketchup. A new line of dialogue with my crappy vid ref and my first pass-through with the set I'm using is now viewable here. Also posting my most recent face studies and a little extra treat waaaaaay down at the bottom down there, my submission to the local skate deck art charity event. I have been neglecting my art for awhile now, so this was good practice for me and for something beneficial as well. Hopefully soon I'll be doing more art projects when I make time between homework, work and lolligagging about when getting home. Enjoy!


AM Class 4 Face Studies:
















AM Class 4 Video Reference:



AM Class 4 shot set up and pass through:




Finally, some new artwork to display:

Title: Rorschach Process




















And last year's submission:

Title: Reach










And something to inspire fellow Python's:

Final Facial animation from Advanced Acting - (non-rendered)

Hello. Been a piece since I posted here, so thought I'd put up my final rendition of my facial animation assignment from my current Advanced Acting class. It looks like my last posting(s) except for the face. This assignment focused on animating in detail the mouth, brows and eyes more in depth. Also tried to smooth out the physical animation and make it less 'robotic'. Of course, as always, any feedback is more than welcome. Would be nice to hear from 'Family' for once too. ;) Also put up my facial studies from this last week and the week prior.

AM Class Intro to Acting Progress Reel.....meh!

Ok. Here's the latest version of my progress reel. My audio isn't synched the way I'd like it to be, but it still works nonetheless. After viewing a few peers PR's, I'm getting a better idea for what I will eventually like mine to look like. For now here's a rough copy as it were. This class has definitely taught me a lot concerning the minute details that lie within a successful animation and what to pay more attention to in the future. Such as 'Body Mechanics'! I really need to loosen up my animating and work more on my anticipation and overall flow of movements, hopefully this upcoming Advanced Acting class will allow a little more time for me to focus on that. Anywho, cheers!

Final draft for Intro to acting class Bash 'em!

Ok. So here is the final shot for this class of my first acting scene. It's not fully complete of course, due to the facial movements being very limited in thie particular character rig. But next class session 'Advanced Acting' I'll be carrying over this scene to a more advanced rig and finishing up the shot then. So just ignore the puppet mouth for now and any comments or criticisms please feel free to tell me, seeing as so many are left already (sarcasm). Thanks Kelly for being the only one to do so thus far. : ) Ok. Enjoy.

Dialogue Acting shots...Pick your fav!!

Oh wait...no one ever friggin' comments on my damn blog! Well for this time around, we (being the student) had to pick a few dialogue scenes that we liked that met the criteria (5-10 secs/variable shift in tone) and then act them all out, very rough-like, but putting forth the best effort nonetheless for them all. The end result will be choosing just one dialogue piece and animating it. So here are my choices. If you want to comment, go right ahead, be my guest, make my day, JUST DO IT ALREADY!!!

Intro to Acting Pantomime

Well after several weeks of working on this piece of animation for my Intro to Acting class, I have the final product ready to share. I think I'll be adding some background scenery soon (clouds, gradients, grass, trees) but for now I'll show this since I've had some friends inquiring as to how it looks. Any comments are of course welcome as always.

Final video ref for 1st acting assignment

After at least 5 different video referencing shots, I decided to do this final one. The point of the assignment is to show contrast in emotional output via a pantomimed acting sequence. The time should be at the most 11 seconds so I had to figure out how to cram in some duality within that timeframe. This is what the animated shot will look like or near enough to it, so check back in a few weeks to see the final result.

The perfunctoriness of a creative thought stifled with subconscious disturbances - An Aside

To change things up a bit and actually write an honest-to-goodness blog, I am writing as I think. Oozing onto the digital domain with buttery ease. I am trying to brainstorm my assignment for my class (Winter Acting Class3) and am finding it difficult to picture my contrasting ideas I've come up with. So I decided to draw randomly and see what comes of it. I find it rather relaxing to do so and have sometimes come up with the most bizarre little doodles when doing so. As you see below, it is nothing to oggle about, unless I were already a post-humous artiste with a name that could sell chicken-scratch for thousands. Anyway, the whole point of this is to actually utilize my current situations and then be able to animate them. It will be a pantomime since no monologue/dialogue will be used and it needs to have a distinct contrast in form going from one idea to an opposite. Due to a recent demise of a relationship that went sour quickly, it has come to me that I should animate this as a way to administer self-therapy. Mind you I am in no need of any, that I consciously am aware of, but do need to rant and bitch about it in some manner. Point of fact I am rather pissed off about how the other party has handled the whole situation and this is a perfect opportunity to rid myself of these negative feelings. So then, onward and upward as it were. The results will be seen above once I've captured something concrete that can be represented visually in 250 frames or less. In the meantime enjoy the oddball doodle and if you actually read up to this point, please comment. It lets me know that someone out there gives a whit and can actually digest my garbling. Cheerio!