What it is and what it does.

Prolonging the Devastation!

Had a great video Q and A with Derek Osborne today. He talked a little about the bouncing ball and contrast. Basically he broke down the bouncing ball and it came down to everything is based on the principles of the bouncing ball. The hips and the shoulders move like a bouncing ball. I think one of my fellow students, Ed Sutherland summed it up nicely though, just keep in mind what it is and what it does. I think that can be applied to anything in drawing and animation! Thanks for the inspiration.

La la la

Finally had a few free minutes to post the cleaned up version of the Preston Blair style squirrel frolic!

(click to enlarge!)

The devastation continues

Devastation week!

This weeks theme for Stu poses is devastation!

Here's last weeks excitement submission.


After spending time looking at it after the deadline, I'd like to try the shadow in a few different ways, although I feel it highlighted the line of action in the pose. Also I would like to see if there might have been another option to add even more negative space between the back and the legs. Overall I think this pose shows a lot of energy and has a very Ron Burgundy feel!

Even more excitement!

Last day to work on excited Stu poses!

A new pass at a bouncing ball in using Maya.

Keep it short, Keep it simple!

Trying out a different approach to an excited pose, using Animation Mentor's Stu rig.

More of the Bouncing Ball!

I'm gonna try to do a hand drawn animation for everything I do in Maya.

Here's the bouncing ball using the same flow of motion!

(Click to enlarge!)

Original concept sketch with timing and spacing notes.


Another Excited Animation Mentor's Stu Pose using Maya.

Cleaned up!

Got a chance to cleanup my rough excitement sketch from a few days ago!

Tried out a second ball bounce. For some reason the Z tangent in the graph editor really threw me for a loop!



Had a few minutes to try out some more poses using Animation Mentor's Stu Rig





On these ones I tried to use directional lights to highlight the lines of action!

Today's inspiration provided by the great art styling of Mike DiMartino. I just started watching Avatar, the Last AirBender, and I instantly fell in love with it. It reminds me a lot in both the drawing style and the way they treat the story and the characters of Hayao Miyazaki. I can't wait to find the time to watch more of it. Thanks for the inspiration!