Tumbleweeds and Dust Bunnies

Seeing as my animation work is on hold while I work on short films for Scour Studios, I thought I'd post this blog to inform those that pay attention or follow what I write the info for my other blog I'm doing under Scour. Also I could never get the finalized version of my 'Office Nag' animation to work on this blog site, so I uploaded it to my Youtube profile and you can watch it there if it tickles your fancy. Just check the Youtube links on the right-hand side. Here's the link to my other page if you wish to see the film work being done and keep up to date on it:

http://scourstudios.blogspot.com/

More animation to come.

It's a Wrap!!

Well, this is it! Just finished with my last assignment at Animation Mentor and definitely feels like a weight has been lifted. I still want to fully render my TON animation and ideally my whole demo reel/progress reel. I'll be doing that before my trip to SIGGRAPH next month so I can burn it to dvd when applying for jobs then. I included 2 more rendered screenshots below as well as the final 'playblast' cut and working AM progress reel below. This may be the last time I write on this blog for a piece of time as I will be starting another blog dedicated to the short film I'm currently working on and is in the pre-production phase. I'll put a link to that once I get it up and running so fear not. Come to think of it, I think I may just use this blog as a continuation of my monthly activities in general instead of quitting it altogether. So keep checking here if you are at all interested in the goings-on in my life and work. Cheers!

Next post will be of the Final Short...for now..This!

A few teaser pics of some props being used in a short film I'm working on. I'll be posting a lot more as well as test footage once school is over and I start focusing my attention on pushing my writing for it. Also I included 2 pics of how my animation looks when fully rendered. Much better wouldn't you agree?! And lastly my playblast of my short animation in its refined form. In a few weeks I'll post the final and if time permits the fully rendered version of it. Enjoy and as always provide feedback if you can. Cheers!

Prop#1

Prop#2

Prop#3

The Office Nag - 01

The Office Nag - 02

T.O.N. - Refined Playblast

Halfway there...and Derby Mamas!!

So I'm a little past the halfway point in class now and working on my 2nd 3rd point of my animation doing the refining. Also last weekend filmed and took some pics of the Sun City Roller Girls derby bout and last Weds submitted my latest board design for the EL Paso Skatpark Organization's Deck Art Fundraiser show. ALso a random bigfoot truck came by the house and tackled Peanut. Cheers!!

To Do is to Be and to Be is to Do...so DooBeeDooBeeDooo

Sorry for the delay, but here's the super rough blocking I've done. It's in 3 parts all mashed together and you can see where changes were made as it progresses. But hey, this is also educational right?! I also posted a few pics from the Roller Derby that I am affiliated with, but if you follow me on Facebook, you already are aware of this.

Happy Zombie Jesus Day!!!

So yeah. Easter. Not a big fan I must say. Then again I'm not religious. However I am satirical
and I like the whole Zombie Jesus thing that's been sweeping the interwebs as of late. It only makes sense that if someone comes back from the dead, they'd be a zombie, right?! If you're curious you can check out this website for a little info on that: http://www.zombiejesusday.org/ And also I found a little snippet on the mythos of the Easter Rabbit and what it's all about, which is below. Also after the short read there is a picture I'd like to share of my personal experience with the Easter Bunny. Enjoy!

The Goddess Ostara and the Easter Bunny

Feeling guilty about arriving late one spring, the Goddess Ostara saved the life of a poor bird whose wings had been frozen by the snow. She made him her pet or, as some versions have it, her lover. Filled with compassion for him since he could no longer fly (in some versions, it was because she wished to amuse a group of young children), Ostara turned him into a snow hare and gave him the gift of being able to run with incredible speed so he could protect himself from hunters.

In remembrance of his earlier form as a bird, she also gave him the ability to lay eggs (in all the colors of the rainbow, no less), but only on one day out of each year.

Eventually the hare managed to anger the goddess Ostara, and she cast him into the skies where he would remain as the constellation Lepus (The Hare) forever positioned under the feet of the constellation Orion (the Hunter). He was allowed to return to earth once each year, but only to give away his eggs to the children attending the Ostara festivals that were held each spring. The tradition of the Easter Bunny had begun.

The Final Stretch...Again.

Today was the first day that I got back to AM after my little LOA I took for a few months. I'm psyched to get things rolling, but also wanted a little feedback before I turned this animatic I did yesterday into the full blown animation. I'm in the process of collecting the 3d props and sets I'll need, so I can at least have the layout done by Friday and for Sunday I'll have to do at least 1/3 of the 'blocked' portion of the animation. So lots of work to come. If you are able to leave comments for this blog, then by all means let me know what you think of this as it it so far.

I'm Back...and with a quick update!

Well I guess I slacked it at the end there in December when things didn't pan out the way I had hoped and planned them to. I ended up just barely 'not passing' my final AM class, hence me not ever posting the final animation. At that point I just stopped using Maya and animating altogether.

You could say I was a bit disconcerted and distraught at the turn of events, feeling that I was judged rather unfairly by my Mentor and even protesting with him as well as the school about him not passing me in class. For better or worse I didn't graduate either as a result and went into hibernation or LOA as it is called at the AM school.

I ended up buying a PS3 and immersed myself in my old habits of a whole lotta gaming and watching movies, skating more often and just generally taking a big ol' break from all things related to creating an animation (still watched abundantly though).

So now at the end of this month I'm going to start Class 6 once again and re-take it, hoping for a different Mentor of course, and am just now getting back into the swing of things. I am not going to use the same animation as I had prior for class, but a whole new idea that will show my other strengths and also using a different character rig that isn't as troublesome as the one I used prior.

I'll be posting my new idea storyboards soon enough (next week hopefully) as soon as I finalize the idea. For this short 30-second piece it is going to end up being a tiny part of something much bigger I'm planning on doing beyond class and possibly turning into a series or creating a whole back-story with it afterwards.

I don't have any new pics or vids to share really, so here's some doodles I have done at work during our meetings. Very spontaneous and odd, but here they are...