Movie Theater continued...

This is a deceptive shot for sure. Trying to make the hand/head relationship believable and authentic is confusing along with selling that she's falling asleep. There are a million ways someone could fall asleep with their hand resting on their face - it's a matter of finding the right one for her.

Earlier in the week - I lost my decisiveness when animating which caused me to slightly derail. (the above image is a representation of me this week) While I could add a snore, spit falling out of her mouth - it's not needed and is muddying up my intent and creating more questions than answers.

When this happened to me (yes, I admit - this shot is based from experience) - it was a lot more simple. My eye lids were heavy, REALLY heavy (which I need to sell more) and I didn't go into a full blown sleep, it was more of me catching myself and realizing someone had just walked by.

 Here's the shot as it stands right now:

Today, I'll do a "fuck shit up" pass (as Jim called it) where I'll spend an hour playing with my curves and seeing where I could add more interesting elements. :)

Movie Theater Take In Progress

Here's were I was last week:

Throughout this week, I've been addressing a variety of notes I've gotten on this shot to make it read clearer. It's deceptively hard trying to sell that my character is ACTUALLY falling asleep. I'm also struggling with my shot set-up relationship between the Left hand and her head.

After genuinely struggling, I'm finding myself going back to the drawing board, (something I learned from Jim's class - the importance to step away from Maya and draw out shot) 

Below is some process drawings where I'm trying to figure the progression of the shot from asleep to awake. I'm trying to elevate the entertainment and push the thought process.

Below I'm trying to understand logically how the head will move around the hand (thinking of the hand as just a box):

I also decided to reshoot reference - this version really starts to capture some elements I'm going for:

Quick Recap

It's been a while since I've posted on this blog. This blog will be seeing a lot more action from me as I'll be dedicating this blog for the purpose of showcasing my animation process both for my BFA class and my own enrichment as an animator.:)

I noticed the last time I posted was in Spring and a lot has happened since then. Throughout Spring semester at SJSU, I took "Intro to Acting" with Michal Makarewicz at Animation Collaborative. It was incredibly eye-opening, learning about all the thinking involved when approaching (and animating) a shot. That class was a great motivator, showing me all that I didn't know and giving me a close look at all the hard work/dedication needed to pursue animation.

Once Mike's class was over, I decided to enroll in another AnimC class. Mike suggested Jim Brown's Body Mechanics class for me since I was struggling with moving my character and showcasing weight. It was such a great experience! The class was formatted where each week we covered a principle of animation and doing a shot per-week. The idea was to get as far as you possibly could on a new shot, which REALLY tested my planning, execution and overall time management since I work part-time at Camera 12 (movie theater in downtown SJ). Jim was super helpful and even offered draw-overs mid-week!

Below is a compilation of some of my work starting from week 1. It's cool to see the progress from the first week to the final week (which was a mock- 3D stop motion test, where we took a shot we've already done and start over working in a straight-ahead method)

Here's my 3D stop motion test from the final week - it was the most challenging test, posing the character one frame at a time:

Jim even took us over to Pixar in celebration of the last class!

Once Jim's class was ended, I wanted to keep that momentum going and couldn't imagine stopping. So, I enrolled in Mike's 8 week polish class which ends next week. I decided to fix up my Dive (since I've enjoyed working on it so much) and continue working on my "Get To Know You" shot from my previous class.

I still have some adjustments for my Dive I hope to address, but it's pretty close:

Dive from Diana Martinez on Vimeo.

My "Get To Know You" shot is becoming a headache since I was in a different point when I started than now. I've been fighting earlier Diana more than ever.

Here's where it is so far (without the bg and guy character she's talking to):

Facial Pose Studies

Below are some mainly facial pose studies that I've done in my SJSU animation class. Doing these have been incredibly helpful in learning about the rig.

Unfinished Ballet Dance

Over winter break, I started animating a ballet dance, it's still in progress but I'm hoping to get back to it someday. My thought was to practice a little more before my Animation Collaborative class started as well as live vicariously through my rig. I've always admired dancers and wish I could be as graceful and flexible as a ballerina. Maybe I'll take a dance class one day... but until then... I'll dance through my animation. :)

Using the Jill Rig from Body Mechanics Rig Pack by Joe Daniels

Unfinished Ballet Dance from Diana Martinez on Vimeo.

Studies from Last Semester

While each week, progress on shots were due, these smaller assignments were used to exercise good animation habits and/or try out new work flows. These studies are meant to be quick and I gave myself an hour time limit for each. I love these studies because, while they were assignments, they also gave me the liberty to test myself on areas where I could use improvement.

Poses

Below is a pose depicting "Feeling Small"

Below is a pose of someone acting like a monkey.

Below is a pose of someone accusing someone else of something bad. 

Quick Studies

Below is a study of overlapping action of a head turn, which I attempted a layered approach.

Quick Study - Look up from Diana Martinez on Vimeo.

Quick 3D studies

Quick studies are usually small shots done in between larger assignments. I try not to spend more than an hour on each so I learn about the most essential controls to be used and not waste time in Maya. I love doing quick studies because it takes a lot of the pressure out of animating for me. It allows me to make my mistakes and test out different work methods while studying the principles!

Below, is a moving hold from the pose study I did

Below was a hand grabbing a frying pan study

Here's another hand study done super super quickly in class. I'd say it took about 20 minutes

Below is a "cushion" study in a simple head turn.

Below was an overlapping study and I felt like adding a little character to make it fun to create. hehe!