Busy busy busy times

Hey everyone! Last weekend was the Animation Mentor Job Fair and BBQ! I had a crazy awesome time out there. Animators are just fun people, plain and simple. I managed to get the new shot done before the job fair, which I was really glad of. Anyone who wants to check it out can do so here as always any thoughts or comments are more than welcome! I start a nice just under a month gig at Framestore NY tomorrow. Can't wait to be back there, I know I've said before and I'm sure I'll say it again but everyone there is just so freaking awesome. It's this collection of just amazingly talented people who are also just incredibly friendly, and welcoming.

For my own personal stuff, I'm going to try and re-do the walk in my last dialog shot. It's one aspect of it that I've never been happy with, and after what I've learned from working on the Boxxy shot I think I have a much better idea on how to approach it.

Hope to have an update of new walk blocking for you guys in a couple days, it really depends on what time I get home from work over the next couple days.

Catch you soon!

Florida is awesome.

Hey all. I just got back late last night from spending a week in Florida for a little family vacation. Was a freaking awesome time all around. I got to snorkel a living coral reef which was mind blowing. The water there is just so crystal clear (I was in Ft Lauderdale). When the boat got to the coral reef, it was about 20 feet deep and you could see straight down to the bottom. I also got to spend a couple hours hanging out with my mentor from class 1 of Animation Mentor, which was a killer time. I spent a lot of time in the sun and finally have some color to me. Overall just really relaxing and a great time, I just wish I could have gotten my laptop to open my new shot cause then I could have gotten some animation done while I was there as well.

Working on a new shot

Hey to all those out there. I know I haven't updated this in a long time. Some how I loose track of it easily. I am working on a new shot. I'm trying to really push myself with this one and go for something snappy and a little bit more cartoony. The character is meant to be a young teenage girl, and I'm purposely kind of over acting with it, just trying to give her that over hyper, kind of quality. At the end of last month till the start of this month I got to spend some time at Framestore again freelancing. That place is just full of so many talented people, always amazes me every time I'm there. The commercial I got to work on is going to air before Transformers 2, so if you go see that you should see something I got to work on too!

In the second week of July Animation Mentor is having it's regular BBQ and Job Fair. My goal is to have this shot done, and to clean up and polish my The World shot before then. Here's a link to where the current shot is at, I'm gonna start posting links instead of embedding the video. Just try to save some bandwidth and such. Well I hope everyone out there is doing well, and like always feel free to leave a comment if you like.

Its been a heck of a week.

Hey to everyone out there. The last week and a half have been a little rough on this end. Last Friday evening, Saturday morning I came down with a pretty nasty stomach virus. It left me pretty much out of commission till about Thursday evening.

I suppose in some ways I'm still like a kid when I get sick, and I'll kind of latch onto one or two things and watch them over and over again until I'm feeling better. This time it was Dr Horrible's Sing-Along blog. I saw it when it first came out and I've been a huge huge fan of it since then. If you haven't seen it definitely check it out, I mean it stars NPH, you know it has to be good. There are some rumors that they're working on either a sequel or a movie and I hope those rumors are true.

Friday was awesome, got to head into NYC and spend some time with two really good friends of mine. We spent a few hours in the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art) which was amazing. The Egyptian section most of all kind of blew me away. We found this small little room with all these small treasures that had been buried with people. There was a display of necklaces and they looked like necklaces people still have today. There were also these paintbrushes that looked strikingly like paintbrushes of today. There were just so many little trinkets and other things that reminded me of things today. Don't even get me started on the small rope that was on display. Kind of made me wonder how much has the human condition really changed in the last few thousand years.

Saturday things were not as awesome. I ended up not feeling to well again, and ended up in the ER. I've ended up there for similar reasons in the past. It feels like my stomach is going to pop, its a weird sensation. Its not so much how painful it is but the fact that it just doesn't go away. In the past they just gave me painkillers and a de-gaser. This time though they did some tests along with it and finally figured it out. It turned out to be enteritis, though of the non-infectious type. Which luckily for me means that it wasn't caused by any virus or anything, though that means it could have been caused by any one of like a million other things.

Thankfully I'm doing much better today and not so much out of commission as I was last week. I have like two or three ideas for new shots. I just have to decide what order I want to tackle them in. I think I'm going to do another dialog shot and then do a pantomime. I'd like to ask everyone out there to send some good vibes my way. Before I got sick I sent out a couple applications to some internships, and such out west. I'm not expecting anything but I'm hoping. I really want to move out to California right, though I kind of need a job first for that to happen. So here's hoping!

Oh I'm peer buddying again at Animation Mentor. This term I have the advance acting class, which is nice. Its kind of a win win, I get to crit and help up others and by doing so I continue to learn more and improve my own eye.

Well that's mostly everything I've been up to I think. I need to start fleshing out my ideas and doing some planning to start these new shots. I just have to keep critiquing, animating, and getting critiques. Its the only way to keep learning and keep getting better.

I hope everyone out there in blogger land is doing well and I'll hopefully have some work to show you guys soon.

Cheers.

Quick Update and Monsters Vs Aliens

Hey everyone out there. I know I haven't updated the new shot in a bit. The last few weeks I've been working on a little side thing for a friend. Which should hopefully be done by the end of this week or middle of next week and then I can get back on top of this new shot cause it still needs a bunch of work.

So on the 21st I got to go to an early screening of Monsters Vs Aliens at an Imax in 3D and it was AWESOME! I'm still not a fan of seeing movies in Imax though, specially not 3D ones. Unless you're sitting really really far back the screens just too big. Hopefully I can get a group of friends together to see this again in a regular 3D screen, in fact I'm really excited to. I may go tomorrow even if I can't find anyone to go with. The movie just has these amazingly endearing characters, and I really want to see it again. It was one of those rare times when I walked out of a theater and thought, wow ok I want a sequel to that like ASAP.

Major congrats to the team at Dreamworks, they did an awesome job all around with the movie and they all should be really proud of it!

Wow totally forgot to update this.

Wow so its been awhile since I updated. That kind of sucks. I got really caught up in this shot and some other things and totally forgot about this blog.

Here's an update to the shot, its in its like second pass of splinning, and the lip sync is splinned. It still needs some work though and some polish. I also changed the camera angle after a crit session. I think the face stuff needs some work, and it needs some polish and little touches added to it.

Just thought I would throw this up on here for people to see how its coming along.



As usual any comments are welcome!

Lip sync and blocking plus.

I meant to update this yesterday, but totally forgot. I have a first pass of blocking on the lip sync done, and most of blocking plus done. I've always felt like lip syncing, like a good walk, is one of the hardest things to do in animation. It's not just about making it seem like the sounds are coming from the character, its much deeper than that. You need to show the emotion, to form the shapes in way that character would, to give it texture and contrast. Lip sync to me, like a good walk, needs to be tailored to each character individually, and to that particular scene.

Totally forgot to update, more defined blocking

Hey everyone, I forgot to update everyone. I did my golden poses, and now I've started my refined blocking. I've gotten some really good critiques from my friends and peers that I need to still work into this. I thought I would share where its at so far, next final blocking pass will also have the lip sync blocked in, which I hope to get done this weekend and post it up here on Monday or Tuesday of next week. As usual any thoughts or comments are always welcome.

Superbowl Commercials!

So hello out there in blogger land! I am still like WOAH because last night 2 of the commercials that I had the insane honor and privilege to get to work on at Framestore NY aired during the Superbowl! Just let me say they have an amazing group of just insanely talented artists over there, and I can not describe how honored I was to get to be a part of such a talented, and overall amazing group. I not only had a hugely fun time working on them but I learned just so much. So with out futher ado here are the two commercials. If anyone out there gets a chance to vote for the Superbowl commercials vote for one of these two!

Rough layout and timing

So I did a pass of just roughly laying in the timing, and kind of where I want certain beats to be. This was just to get an idea of the acting beats, and really rough timing. I haven't touched the faces or really gone crazy yet with posing. Moving on to rough blocking now, and I'm probably going to need to shoot video reference for his step over to the guy on the chair. The box in this video isn't the camera edge but the safe action edge. Some TVs have a bit of overscan, and the safe action edge is used to make sure that none of the big actions, or anything important is happening on a part of the image that might get cut off.

Placement and Camera done for new shot.

Ok after some really good feedback, I decided to go with Idea number 1. I've gotten some more feedback on layout and camera stuff and I think I have my camera how I want it, and placement mostly done. Figured I'd share where it's at. As always I'd love to hear what anyone thinks.

New Shot time!

So after struggling with my 2 character shot for a bit, I've decided to just move onto a new shot. I've learned a metric ton since I did my two character, and I found myself just wanted to completely delete huge chunks and re-do them. I figured let's just go to a clean slate.

I spent a good chunk of yesterday searching for clips, and came across one that just cause a bucket load of ideas to spring forth. I sketched out all of those ideas and took the 3 best ones and did kind of rough storyboards for them.



I can go 1 of 2 ways with this, I can go serious and make the character menacing and evil, or I can go funny with it and make the character over the top. Ideas 1 and 2 are going for the evil, menacing character, number 3 is going for the over the top funny one. So far number 1 and 3 have the most votes. I kind of personally like 2 just because it would be quite a bit of subtle acting which is what's hardest for me.

Though everyone feels idea 1 shows the best acting, and has the most opportunity to really make this guy menacing and evil. So I may go that way with it. If anyone out there in blogger land has any thoughts on it feel free to share!

I'm really excited about this shot. I also have a nice group of friends that are all starting new shots and we're going to push each other, and stay on top of each other to make sure everyone finishes their new shot.

I have a big dinner for my Aikido Dojo tonight, but once I get back from that it'll be time to make a decision on this and then start layout!

Woooaaahh it's been way too long!

Hey everyone out there. I can't believe it's been almost 6 months since I last posted anything.

So much has happened since I last posted lets see where to start.

I graduated from AM on Saturday and it was AMAZINGLY awesome. The AM guys put on just an awesomely fun graduation ceremony, and AMers know how to party. I managed to get about half my shots of my short into starting polish. I plan on going back to it and really finishing it all up right.

Right before going out to San Fran for graduation I finished up a nice month long gig at Framestore NY working on a really really awesome commercial. I can not wait till the superbowl airs so I can post it up here for everyone to see!

I never finished that new character dialog I was working on, class 5 and 6 just got way too busy. I've learned so much since I started it though that I kind of want to go back and redo some big chunks of it.

There's been a tons more but I just can't remember it all. Now that I have alot more free time though hopefully I'll be posting more.

Hopefully by the end of the week I'll be posting up a demo reel and then getting a start on redoing that new 1 character.

Awesomeness (it's free you know)

So being that I was all caught up in post-siggraph work overload I totally missed the fact that one of my former teachers Nick Bruno did this month's crit for the 11 second club. The winner Leow Chan Ghee, whose animation is awesome by the way, is super lucky to get that. I hope everyone jumps over to the 11 second club and checks it out!

Nick is an amazing teacher, and artist. I feel honored to have had him in class not once but twice. I can only hope to one day repay him in some way for how much he's taught and helped me with this crazy animation stuff.

Everyone also head over to Leow Chan Ghee's blog. There is some really really killer stuff on there. Ninja artist in full effect!

Update to new dialog shot coming soon

Hey everyone, I've fallen a little behind on the new dialog shot mostly due to Siggraph and work I have to do for class. Worry not though in the next few days I'll have an update on here for everyone to check out.

Siggraph was awesome by the way. I got to meet, and see again, some really awesome people. I also was really lucky to get to tour Dreamworks, which was AMAZING. It's absolutely beautiful there. I can't even imagine working in a place like that every day. The best way I can describe it is that it reminded me of a 1600's Italian Villa. Very Mediterranean, lots of water, and oranges and off whites, just simply a beautiful place.

Hey Blogger land!

Hello out there in blogger world, how's everyone doing?

I'm now in class 5 over at Animation Mentor, and loving it. In class 5 we come up with an idea for a short film, and then we storyboard it and begin to block it. Since there's not a whole lot of animating going on right now I've decided to start working on another 1 character shot. I need to keep practicing. This is my early blocking for it. Comments are always welcome.

Wow another class done!

So how's it going out in blogger land? I'm doing freaking awesome! While I should be heading to bed I decided to post this up no idea why. Anyway today was crazy for 2 reasons it marked the end of my first week Interning at Framestore NY (which has been insanely awesome) and it marked the last day of what was probably the best animation class I've ever had.

I just want to give a huge thank you to everyone at Framestore. Everyone there is super nice, and friendly and its already been an amazing experience. I'm sure the next 3 weeks are only going to be even better!

I figured I'd also post up my progress reel, my 2 character shot still needs just a crazy amount of work though.

http://www.artofjohn.com/examples/class4progreel.mov

Ice Age 3 Teaser trailer is up!

Just thought I would let everyone in blogger land know that the Ice Age 3 teaser trailer is now up on the main Ice Age site.

http://www.iceagemovie.com

Looks really good, and definitely interesting, looks to have land of the lost type thing going on.

Class 3 is done!

So I handed in my last assignment for Class 3 at Animation Mentor.Com today. It's crazy how fast time is flying there. Nine months down and nine more months to go!

I decided I'd post up my progress reel here.

http://www.artofjohn.com/examples/progreelclass3.mov

Horton Hears a Who!

Just to let everyone out in blogger land know, Horton Hears a Who is out in theaters today so make sure you go and check it out! I've been lucky to have been taught by a couple of the amazing artists that worked on the movie, and fair amount of them are past graduates from both Animation Mentor and NYU CADA. So this movie deserves like quadruple support. I'm heading off in about 2 1/2 hours myself to go see it with a big group of people, so all the rest of you out there in blogger land make sure you go as well.

Hellloooooo

Hello out there in interweb land.

So its been a long trying month. In trying to keep up with my thesis and my assignments at AM I've given up sleeping much, and I think its finally taking a bit of a toll on me. For the last week or so every day around noonish I get a killer headache and neck ache. I need to come up with something in the next week or two to do that I can blow off some frustration and keep myself from burning out too soon.

I have definitely hit that stage of worry, not for getting my thesis done, but for finding a job. When I got out of undergrad I was lucky to land an internship at a local studio that was doing a direct to video series. Unfortunately for me the studio a few months later cut down its animation crew. For years it was a struggle trying to find some thing and my biggest fear right now is having the same thing happen.

I feel like I know so much more this time around though. I've grown as an animator in giant leaps and bounds, mostly thanks to the amazing curriculum and community at Animation Mentor. I'm just afraid that I'm still not where I need to be. Here's hoping though that this time around things are different.

I'm gonna go grab my ipod listen to either the spline doctors or the animation podcast and hopefully catch some sleep tonight.

Animation Mentor back in effect baby.

So Monday marked the first day of classes at AM for the Winter 08 term, and tonight I had my first QnA with my new mentor, which was freaking awesome. He said he's gonna demo some re-timing stuff and overall timing things. Also said a lot of his workflow comes from a 2D background so its a lot of poses instead of layered style animation. I really need to pick his brain about that, I think that just works a lot better for me. I played around a LOT with workflow in class 2 and the one that seemed to work best for me was to treat everything like a 2d drawing.

I don't know how they manage to do it over there at AM but some how every term seems to just get better and better. This 2 week break between classes for the holidays felt longer than it really was and I'm so glad to finally be back. Even better 3 of my good friends from NYU started AM this term! Can not wait to see what they come up with.

Here's to what will hopefully be an awesome 08 with good times, good friends......and hopefully a job animating some where!

I wanted to take a moment to speak about Animation Mentor.

I know I don't post often to this thing, though I suppose that's a good thing, it means I'm busy animating. Earlier tonight I was talking to one of my friends from Animation Mentor, Alexiss Memmott, and she brought up just how much she loved AM, which is actually something we talk about fairly often. I think on the surface people see the awesome mentors that are there, and they see the truly amazing rigs that we're given to use, but what they don't see is the community. The greater majority of the people at AM are beyond passionate about animation. Not only that though, they're beyond passionate about helping their fellow students. There's an energy at AM that goes beyond the 1's and 0's that flow through the main thousands of miles connecting all of us, and permeates everything about the site. In my life it's been rare to see a group of people so dedicated, passionate, and energetic all about the same thing. I was amazed during my first few weeks there during class 1, and I am continually amazed as I finish up class 2.

With that said I wanted to give a thanks to Bobby, Shawn, and Carlos for creating AM, I also wanted to thank Leif Jeffers and Nick Bruno for opening up my eyes and showing me that I had so much more to learn. Of course I also have to thank all my friends at AM which there's far too many to list here. I don't know if anyone reading this has ever had a dream that they've pursued for the majority of their life, but when you finally get to a point where you begin to see the piece of that dream come together, there's no greater feeling in the world.




*Side Note*
This post was written at almost 4 am, I've been awake for almost a good 20 hours at this point (doing 2 schools at once will do that to you) so if it doesn't make any sense I apologize. Though no one reads this blog anyway so I don't think it'll make all that much of a difference.

Wow I never remember to post to this thing

Seriously I just forget it's there. I'm now in week 2 of class 2 at AM and I'm sooooo freaking loving it. I can't recommend it enough for anyone who wants to go into character animation.

I also have another blog up that I do post at regularly, mostly because I have to. It's a journal for the pre-production of my thesis animation. You can find it at http://johnpvthesis.blogspot.com/

so stop by leave some comments and let me know what you think of it all.

Animation Mentor begins.

Hey hey all. Animation Mentor started this week! I just had my first QnA with my mentor and I'm loving it all so far.

Rock on out there in blogger land.

Wow it's been like a month.

Hey out there in blogger land. Well it's been like a month since I posted on here but not much is going on lately. Just thought I would mention that I start Animation Mentor on July 2nd and I just can not wait.

Here's to an awesome next 18 months.

Posing Norman

Just thought I would try making a thoughtful pose with Norman.

Hello out there

Hello out there in blogger land. I got my email today saying I was accepted into the AnimationMentor.com program. I'm really looking forward to it, everyone tells me I'm crazy for doing this along with grad school but hey, I'll sleep when I'm dead right. I just feel if I'm going to make my dream of being a character animator happen this is the path I need to take.

I also joined up with the school animation project and got 2 scenes to animate for the short film they're doing. I've been spending the last 2 days just planning them out and really thinking about them and how I'm going to approach them.

I'm excited, for two reasons YAY!

Reason number one is that my website is finally up and running. www.artofjohn.com check it out let me know what you think. The other reason is because my demo reel is the featured animation on Mytoons for today. This is the second time I've had an animation featured on the site. Hopefully this means today will be a good day.

Got a Wacom Tablet!

Last week, or maybe the week before, thanks to a Comp USA near me closing down I was able to get a nice Wacom Graphire 4 6x8 for much less than they usually go for. I've always wanted a Wacom tablet, just never wanted to spend the price on what they go for. Now that I have my own I finally sat down with it and tried to really draw with one. This is the first drawing to come out of that. I did it using Sketchbook Pro, which is just an awesome program for drawing on the computer. It took quite a bit of getting used to, it's strange to not be looking at your hand as you draw, was a new experience for sure. Though I really like some of the freedoms working on the PC allows you. It's so quick and easy to make big changes, add in color, erase something then bring it back and compare the two going back and forth between them.

Wow it has been awhile since I posted.

How's it going out there in blogger land, hope everyone is doing well. I'm going to try and update this thing more often I'm now in the last month of my second semester at NYU, going for my masters in animation basically. This was my last assignment in character animation, I still have so much to fix on it.

Check it out here.


I'd also like to link people to an awesome site that doesn't seem to get the love it deserves. It's www.mytoons.com It's kind of like myspace meets youtube with a major animation slant.

John