Long-Hai Artist/Animator Blog

So its been a whirlwind 12 weeks. Thus far the program has far surpassed what I expected it to be. And I had a bunch of expectations. First off, my mentor was GREAT! Martin Hopkins gave the class and myself great critiques and laughs at the same time. He show’d us his workflow, shared stories of his time at school and several glimpses of the industry, and even shared a very personal side of himself as well. ( hes a new dad!) Nothing but praise for Martin.

Secondly my classmates were a great inspiration. So much spirit, inquisitiveness, and enthusiasm from all around.

I’ve learned a lot and trying to keep the mug from overflowing will be a challenge. Hell, I’ve even seen myself applying stuff I’m learning here at my current job! And its only been the first term! I think my walks need a DRASTIC improvement for one, but we have a week off coming up, so I’m gonna try to do a walk or two to practice before term 2.

So here goes nothing. My progress reel for term one. Click on the QT above.

I came into this movie a bit skeptical. A lot of Dreamworks movies contain great animation, character design, and ideas. But sometimes some of their films fall short of being the “holy grail ” goal of being a complete film. Kung Fu Panda has the legs below it to become just that. Po( the panda) has a definite sense of empathy that just flows from him in droves. And if you’re a student of Chaplin, you know thats where it all begins for either great audience to character identification or comedy foundation. Animation was nothing short of amazing. Character designs by Nico Martlett were awesome to behold. Voice acting, although bloated with stars was decent. I liked the turtle and the mantis. Both my favs. But i have an odd habit of liking the oddball characters.

here is my pose for EXHAUSTED.

So last week we finished up our walk cycle. Which i’ve never been good at, but have learned droves in the process of trying to create one. Needless to say, the critique from my mentor Martin Hopkins was invaluable and I plan on doing a revision this week for a re-submission.

Here are a few jpgs of our pose. CONCERN. It was a particularly tough assignment this week because it was a pose that had a high potential to resemble something else like sorrow or remorse or like the pose we have to do this week. EXHAUSTED. So I had a tougher time than usual. So coupled with a walk cycle i was pretty much at wits end.

Here is also a planning pass of my personality walk for THIS week.

And the QT at the top is my blocking for week 10.