Starting the BreakDown pass

Started the BreakDown pass last Friday, but because I came down with a chest cold over the weekend. I have been too busy trying to get over it to work. This week and little of the week to follow before the animation is due will be straight ahead animation.Working in Linear now with the major BreakDown poses. The rest will be getting the spacing to respect the timing I am going for. And trying to get as much character in the animation as possible. We will see what happens.

"Always Keep your Head in the Clouds"rtq

Blockout 2nd pass

I finished the Blockout Phase second pass. This is the animation with all of the storytelling poses, major keys, and anticipation poses. Spending a lot of time working on poses to try and ensure that my foundation for the animation is a strong one. I will be moving into linear now. I am going to work on some charts and thumbnails for the breakdowns. Than really starting to get into the animation. You can check the video out here Blockout 2nd pass

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1st Blockout Asset 2

Just started working on my new asset for this month. It is a 15 second lip sync, and is my asset two for the finals department. The month before last I had tried a new workflow that in theory was sound. But, ended up blowing up in my face. So I was sent back to ANP to do pre-production for a new asset. I am now back in PCC-2 and working on this one. I would also like to mention that rather than spreading myself thin again and working on numerous side projects I am going to be dedicating myself to the task at hand which is PCC-2 (portfolio content creation) and the assets that will be going on my demoreel. With that said, I cannot really comment on what will be happening with my 2D projects and the other self appropriated assignments. I am solely focusing on the demoreel assets.

With that said Check out the 1st blockout pass of asset two. Storytelling poses and a couple keys

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New Demo Reel Rough Cut

Well, I have not been on the blog lately. Reason being I have been back in Animation Pre-Production to get together another asset for my demoreel. None of my assets are finished but this is a new version and a preview of what the reel will be once the shots are animated and rendered. Hope you enjoy Demoreel Rough Cut

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Werewolf Scene Submitted

Well earlier I mentioned that I was working on a Werewolf animation. The Werewolf rig was provided by my rigging friend Derek McAtavey. He asked me to do a scene to show off the capabilities of the rig. I had a short amount of time and many other things to juggle at the same time. So, this is what I submitted to him. It is not the greatest piece I have done, but I have also not done that many scenes. I am still learning, and fundamentally I think everything is there it just is not finished and polished like I had planned. Sometimes the deadline is more important than the work. Well take a look and tell me what you think.
Werewolf animation

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Asset 1 Finished

Well, as far as finished I can not testify to the validity. But, I must be honest that it is the best piece of animation that I have ever done. I do not say that pride. It is just, this is the best scene that I feel I can do right now. Hopefully this month I will ascend that. I will most likely revisit this asset after a few exit critiques and if time permits. Right now I have to finish this Werewolf animation and the Team Barracuda project (which is the 8 bit type game project), as well as all the 2D projects that need to be more than well underway by next week, and sooner or later I will have to finish some other stuff that I have not even mentioned. Exhausted just thinking about it all. Well got to get to work. Here is the link to the final video of Asset 1

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Asset 1 Final Passes -1st Pass

Just a quick update on asset one, nothing major or long winded. No real problems or anything as of now. Just working on final passes and trying to plus the animation as much as I can. Now I am going to be adding some blinks and eye darts. Than it is on to moving holds and texturing the animation using some animation layers.
As far as curves go. I will be most likely taking the curves into linear from spline and than tweaking them to respect the keys and poses that I had already set.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8BenBIt0Ik

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Asset 1 Update Last Passes

Alright, so this here is asset one ready for final passes. At this point I think that the animation is about done (as far as poses go). At this point the major things to do is make sure that the slower walks for the little spiderbot are reading properly. From there I will be adding the plusing type material to the spiderbot like eye darts, blinks, and cannon overlap.
After those major things are hit, pushed, and polished. It will be going into animation layers and seeing if there is any texture that can be added. I will do this on animation layers so that I can turn down the mix on any little extra polish type material that might be over the top or distracting.
And than the part of animation I hate the most, curve cleaning. But, thanks to Eric Luhta and his book I am confident that I will have that under control. The animation is due next Friday 8/27/10 (my 21st birthday actually). So I have until than to get this thing polished and shipped so to speak. I think I can make it.

Here is the link to the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LZjWEfDJeM

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Asset 1 Update Working for Final

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgG30G6UAqo check out the new playblast on my Channel

I am now working for final with this last redo of asset one. I did a lot of scrapping and trashing of animation, as well as many start overs. But, this is the one that is working and therefore the one to be finished. I was very nervous about going into my scheduled critique today with Sean Springer and Barry Temple. Considering how many times I have started over and how many problems I was having with my original story. But, to my surprise they told me that they loved it and that it was great. Barry told me that I had reached another level because rather than focusing on the action and a bunch "video game animation" (which would be the cannon launch and kicking) that I was more concerned with their emotions and their character. Sean went on to say soon after that he was glad to see me more focused and putting in more of the time to thinking about the acting and the interaction between the characters. As well as who they were and how they interact with one another ( my heart about stopped when he mentioned "...you can tell that in the future your going to be really great at that [referring to the acting through characters]). Hearing all of this from the two of them was nothing short of amazing.

I was prepared to be eaten alive and reassured that all the impossible heights I had set to achieve were just that; impossible. But, they had a lot of positive things to say. Some plusing notes to push some acting when I break it down later. But, that was it. I don't want the tone taken from this to be that of teasing. But, the celebration of someone on death-row who was just given another chance.

Who knows? I might just make it. I might just be able to pull it all off. I might actually be an animator. Now wouldn't that be something? If I actually was an animator? Am I an animator?















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A Brief Mention of other Work

I am waiting in school for a scheduled critique on my Asset One animation and I realized that I have not yet posted any of my other work, such as sketches or photographs. So, if it is not going to create a stir if I go on a momentary hiatus and post some not aforementioned work. I would like to share some rough work.

A quick note about my photography. I tend to consider my techniques in photography the same as those in drawings. More focused on gesture and color, and than considering composition.















Here are few Sketches and drawings of mine. I just wanted to include some stuff on my blog that is not considered pre-production.








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Update

This is an update on Asset 1 and the Werewolf animation.

I restarted asset one again earlier this afternoon (8/17/10) and using some earlier notes from prior critiques and some notes from even earlier this afternoon. I scrapped things that weren't working no matter what I did, for instance: the cannon launch. I toned down a lot of actions and brought a few things back that were exaggerated too far and were not reading.
I think that this one is working a lot better. I feel that I have a better chance in the scene working and having a lot more character now that I have a bit more direction.
Tell me what you think http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlKAFpyoOos


Now as for my side projects. The game project will be on hold for a quick minute until I can find some time to dedicate the quality that I have in mind for it. Right now my main focus is on completing asset one and completing it the quality level that I am expecting ( which to be honest is well beyond the reach of my experience and skill set). I have the rest of this week to complete any and all remaining poses (plus things that can't be fixed in curves). And next week for tweaks.
And as far as the 2D work goes, I have decided to make that the focus of next month and the month after. The 2D and the actual reel assets will be my only focus.
Moving on than, the Werewolf project is at a priority since it for someone's reel. And I have revised the thumbnails that hopefully will work with the model proportions. And I will begin posing it out before the weekend. Here are the thumbnails for the animation.




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Side Project Update

Okay, so Yesterday was an even busier day than the last post would infer it to be. I actually also spent a lot of time working on the side projects mentioned before.
I had a few problems with the Werewolf project. There are some poses that are too extreme for the actual proportions of the model to achieve. Despite how good the rig is. So do to this set back I am going to have to rough out a new set of thumbnails to hit just the poses of his proof board. So the animation has gone from being 8 seconds to an estimated 4 seconds. Where I will just be doing the best animation I can within the poses that he had in mind. Short and sweet.
Hopefully the quality of the animation will make up for the lack of quantity.
I also spent quite a bit of time working on the Game Project for Team Barracuda. The game development students I mentioned earlier. I was working on some extremely rough concepts for the characters that they wanted. Nothing to brilliant or artistic. Since all the animation is top down view. I just wanted to draw them in three quarters to get a better idea what they would look like from above. And than started working on some roughs for a walk cycle for one of the characters. FYI the game is zombie themed.
Here is a link to their facebook for the game http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Barracuda/144752552209950

On the next Side Project update I will be sure to include some images and/or links to some animatics.

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Asset 1 Update

Okay, so Friday the 13th (08/13/2010) I deleted all the animation for this asset. In doing so I drew out new thumbnails for all the poses that I wanted to hit. Which I ultimately thought would tell the story. I took a tip from Eric Luhta's book "How to Cheat in Maya 2010: Tools and Techniques for the Maya Animator," (http://www.ericluhta.com/)
which if I may say is a great book. It has totally given me the confidence to tackle Maya's multitude of tools and learn how to manipulate them.


Anyways, I laid out all of my thumbnails (which were marked keys or breaks), and began to poses them all out sequentially. This work-flow is to help keep you focused on the task at hand which in this case are the poses. By posing out the action sequentially I am focused only on the poses and not the timing. This way I have more control over the spacing and the readability in the poses. And on a side not, when your working from boards or thumbnails it is the perfect merger of Straight Ahead and Pose to Pose.
My thumbnails are acting as the keys that are posed out first, in which I go in order via the drawings. But, while working to these poses I am Straight Aheading which I did a lot of. In one motion (over two days) not only did I completely block out my entire animation from scratch. But, by having the opportunity to Straight Ahead I added virtually all of my breaks and other spacing poses.
Now, it is about tweaking the timing to make sure that all the actions are reading and I am adding more frames to actions that will need to be broken down further. The timing is a bit rough now. But, for the most part I am happy to know that this new work-flow was/is not only affective and quicker, but produced the results I was hoping to get out of the new process.

Please take the time to check out Eric Luhta's page, and grab the man's book. It should be apart of every animator's library along with the other founding father volumes. And if you want you can check out my youTube channel to see the playblast out of Maya that has all of my finished poses ready and waiting for timing tweaks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0RHrwkLPMc





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Update on Side project work

As I mentioned previously I am working on many side projects as well as my assets for demoreel. So this is an update on that work.

This first image is a frame taken from the rough 2D animatic I did to work out the timing and the poses an animation. The animation is for a rigging classmate/friend of mine Derek McAtavey who rigged a werewolf model. He has asked me to do some animation with it for his reel which ultimately is to prove the production value of the rig. You can see the animatic on youTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQkfaMiyVsc

This next image is a frame from another rough animatic that I am working on for Kallel Samonte classmate/friend of mine who is studying compositing. He asked me to help him out visualizing his shot. So, I did some layout and concept sketches. Than he decided on the version and pieces of what versions did best to capture his vision for his comp shot. And I layered it and pieced it together in Photoshop. Than took the layers and roughed out a rough camera move and a sample of the parallax by animating the layers. As far as my participation on his project is concerned; aside from the previously mentioned. I am doing some storyboarding and the animation of a griffin that will be leading the camera through his shot. You can see the rough animatic on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joHFL520oZo

This last image is the final design for my logo. I would like to take the time to thank Matt Smith. A very talented and insightful graphic designer and Associate Course Director of the Animation Pre-Production course at Full Sail University. For his help in helping me understand more sophisticated principles of graphic design. And how to develop branding package that reads well.
Thanks Matt.







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Some Samples

These are the final storyboards from my pre-production. The storyboards are in order of asset one,two,three as discussed in the previous post. The first board for asset one is a bit different now. The asset has been turned over completely recently. But, I am still working on the new frames/spacing and haven't begun to work out the timing. By the end of next week I should have some playblasts of the new animation for asset one (well the keys and a few breaks for the most part). Will post soon.


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Introduction

Hey,
My name is Robert Quintana and I am an Animation Workaholic. Whoops, wrong introduction.


Moving on; I am studying to become a Character Animator at Full Sail University. I am currently in the finals department and working on the 3 required assets for my Demo reel. In addition I am also working on several other side projects. That I am sure will help in my experience and understanding.
The three required assets are: Action with a purpose, Dialogue, and an Interaction.
My action with a purpose, will be two little robots interacting.
Dialogue is a sound bite from Good Burger of two characters interacting
The Interaction will be three characters interacting.
So, I have taken on quite a bit, considering that is about three extra characters total being animated in comparison to the standard character animation reel at Full Sail. I am hoping that taking on this challenge will be something that will help me not hurt me.

As far as side projects go;
I am doing a 2D animated sequence to introduce my demo reel, and doing 2D animated lip sync to close my demo reel. Outside of material to go on the reel; animation of a wereworlf for a rigging friend of mine, some concept work and animation work for a compositing friend of mine, as well as some 2D animation and art direction for work on a student video game project for game development students.

Wow, a bit exhausted just thinking of all the work that I have to do. I really hope that I can get it all done. Especially considering how I only have 4 months left to accomplish it all.

On this blog I will be posting all of the updates on this work.

Oh and by the way all of the 3D animation assets for the demo reel have been cel shaded already so they ready to render when the animation is done. The shading and lighting (cel shading) was also done by me. I really hope that this works out, I would love to meet these challenges.


"Always Keep your Head in the Clouds"rtq