Sunday, February 15, 2009

Animating time!

I have a lot to recap since the last post.

Our department received a visit with Dead Man's Bones to collaborate on a music project with them. I hope I will be able to because their music is really beautiful and soulful. I want to work on this during the summer after my short is done.

The James Baxter lectures were great. I'm sad I missed the last one because he explained how to animate four-legged animals. And I think everyone at the lecture will remember this line at 1:59.


Shells!

Shane Prigmore and Shannon Tindle gave a character design lecture. Everybody had to do the characters Fagin, Oliver, and Dodger from Oliver Twist.

For Dodger, I wanted his sleeves to barely be able to roll up. He uses clothes pins to snap them up. I tried to model him after James Cagney.



My Fagin was the least successful. They suggested he was closer in mannerism to Dodger. I need to make him more grotesque.



They said my Oliver was the most successful although the patches may look like a pattern. I wanted Oliver from the start to be emaciated. I looked up starving children with their rib cages exposed.



Both Shane and Shannon were character designers on Coraline. Their designs were translated beautifully in the film. I went to the panel at Nucleus Gallery. I didn't get to see much because it was so crowded, but I did get to meet the artists. I'm embarrassed they posted pics on the gallery's website. I'm in some of them with my friends lol.







I'm finally animating my short. Ahhhhhh!!!! I'm beginning to realize I love animating, but I'm really slow at it. My short will be around a 1:12. I want to avoid the 90 second mark so I can have more time to polish the film.

3 comments:

E.A. said...

I'm in complete agreement that your Oliver is your most successful character design. But this is not to put down the previous sketch pics that you've posted, since they are miles better than ones I would turn out if presented with the challenge.

Hey, I'm sad too that I missed the James Baxter lectures--and I didn't know they existed until reading your post! (And, I have not been nor will likely ever be a CalArts student, so chances were slim anyways that I would catch him.)

It's getting harder and harder to ignore the progress you're making as an artist Melon. I can't wait to see stills from your short when you can get the opportunity to post them!

Arythusa said...

Ne, tell me if you hear back from the Dead Man's Bones guys! I haven't heard from them in a bit. :X *nervous to start*

I want to watch the full version of Some Like It Hot. . . .

Ellen Yu said...

It was quite a surprise that James came. If I find out earlier next time, I think you can come. Our campus is pretty open. Sometimes random people walk around here.

My short is a scary beast right now. I think when it is finally finished I'll post something. ^^