Liz's Thoughtfully-Named Animation Mentor Blog

AM 201

The second class of Animation Mentor is off to a start! This term, I’ve been blessed once again to have Jon Collins of Pixar as my mentor.

The title of Class 2 is “Psychology of Body Mechanics”. I’ll be improving my ability to depict convincing weight and balance, as well as learning many other concepts - the importance of the hips, perfecting arcs, clear blocking, etc. Time to get to work!

Fall 2008 : Animations

Here you will find, in chronological order, my actual animation assignments from Class 1 of AM. The thumbnails and poses from the previous posts are assigned to help us learn how to integrate posing into the keyframes and breakdowns of our animations. This term, the assignments were mostly about communicating weight and realistic physics, with little emphasis on character, emotion, or acting (except for the Week 10-11 assignment). Note: You need to have Flash installed to view these embedded videos.

AM Class 103 : Bouncing Ball

AM Class 104 : Bouncing Ball with Weight

AM Class 105 : Obstacle Course

AM Class 106 : Pendulum with Overlapping

AM Class 107 : Tailor Character with Overlapping Tail

AM Class 108 & 109 : Realistic “Vanilla” Walk Cycle

AM Class 110 & 111 : Character Walk

Fall 2008 : Poses

Each week in Class 1, after sketching out some thumbnail poses, we would use the fully-rigged “Stu” model provided by AM to model our best sketch. Here they are, in chronological order. I’m still figuring out which lighting setup I like best.

AM Class 102 : At the Supermarket

AM Class 103 : Excitement

AM Class 105 : Devastation

AM Class 108 : Physical Strength

AM Class 109 : Concern

AM Class 110 : Exhaustion

AM Class 111: Balance

Fall 2008 : Sketches

Here are all the thumbnail sketches from Class 1, in chronological order. Every week or two, we were asked to doodle some various poses expressing a certain emotion or physical state. We would then choose one sketch to pose out using Maya and the “Stu” model provided by AM (see following post).

AM Class 102 : Various poses from the supermarket

AM Class 103 : Excitement

AM Class 105 : Devastation

AM Class 108 : Physical Strength

AM Class 109 : Concern

AM Class 110 : Exhaustion

AM Class 111: Balance

AM 101

Hello World! I will be using this blog to document my assignments in the Animation Mentor online program. I will not necessarily be updating weekly, but I do plan to post all of my assignments in some way or another.

I’m also using this blog as a way to test out Tumblr as an alternative to other blogging sites. So far so good!

As for Class 1 Week 1 of AM - very exciting! Everyone is enthusiastic and thrilled to be in the program. My mentor is the fabulous Jon Collins, a current animator at Pixar. Very much looking forward to the next 18 months.