Victor Navone's Thumbnails
Head over to Victor Navone's site and check out his thumbnails for shots he planned out.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Monday, November 19, 2007
Spring 2008 Class
[YET ANOTHER UPDATE] Got this from the AAU:
There will be no more printed syllabi for on-site classes. Syllabi will be available for students – and yourselves – in the Student Pickup drive.
[ANOTHER UPDATE] So far we will meet in room 805.
CA3D 686.02 MS: Character Animation for Grads, Monday 7-10pm
Sounds like the class is already full, but will have more details soon.
[UPDATE]
For those students who signed up (and if you didn't but know people who did, please pass this message along):
I HIGHLY recommend that you DON'T take this class if you are:
- enrolled in Animation Mentor at the same time
- taking any Pixar class at the same time
- working or somehow too busy to attend and/or complete the assignments given in class
Due to recent experiences with students being too busy because of above mentioned reasons I highly discourage you from taking this class, because it's unfair to the other students if you're taking up a spot and then are not doing any work for that class, while other people would gladly work their butt off but can't because the class is full.
Sorry to be harsh but slackers are not welcome.
Emotion Chart
Depending on the show you sometimes get emotion charts, character studies, pose sheets, etc. This one is just fantastic!
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Critique - Manager
I don't know why I never thought of it, but the "Employee of the Month" doesn't really work, since he's the manager. Wouldn't it be really funny to have "Manager of the Month" instead? Since he's the only manager, he'd always be manager of the month! :)
Posing wise it's all good but the pen click at around x158 looks too deliberate and draws a lot of attention to itself. I would just switch the pen from his right hand to his left in a causal way.
The other thing is the part from x270 on til "I'm sorry". It's just too busy. Keep all the business til then (with the above mentioned change), but after x270 I would keep it very contained, especially during the silence. When I watched it the first time I really wanted to look at his face and his eyes and see how bad he feels. The pen business takes away from it.
I'd try two things. Put the pen behind his ear DURING the I'm sorry part. And then another version with no pen business at all. He just says I'm sorry to the guys. I'm curious which one has more impact.
Good start, love the tie business.
Cheers
JD
Critique - Samurai
Alright, here we go, let's look at it in passes (chest, arms, etc.)
First off, start the walk earlier so that when you cut into shot he's already moving. Right now it looks like "And...ACTION!".
During the standing around moments, make sure to have some keep alive in his body with gentle swaying left right (super subtle, you don't what it to look swimmy and floaty). The body move from x196 to x202 is a bit fast. I would slow it down and mix it in with his upper body movement until x217.
The upper body could rotate back after x65 to x80. There's a very isolated and fast turn on x92 to x94. His head and arms move with it at the same time, make that more organic. What part of the body do you want to lead the rest of the body? The arms will be a bit delayed after the upper body turn. The arm swing around x100+ would influence his upper body, having the arm swing so isolated looks weird. Same goes for the arm movement around x180. Always think about what part of the body gets affected by moving another one. Again during the sword grab around x230 til x270. It gets better at the end.
Bend his arms a tiny bit on x59. When both arms are swinging it feels very stiff. Screen left arm goes up in a very mechanical way and then sticks there at around x79, same with the other arm x84. Delay his arms during the body turn around x90. His arms would just re-adjust or stay in his defiant pose, they wouldn't really swing. The "regret anything" screen right arm swing is way too big and feels a bit over acted. Keep it small. I'm always in favor of eliminating gestures and have it all in the face. But give it a shot with a much smaller arm swing, let's see how much you can get away with. The arm gesture around x175 is very big, very fast and very isolated. Pretty much all the movement is in the forearm. Think about the upper arm, shoulders and chest. Now, the gesture itself is very non threatening, mainly because of the pose around x192. The way he points forward but then brings his arm/hand/fingers back is not very warrior like. He has to be intimidating at all times. The screen right arm move to his weapon towards x205 is also too fast. Fast movements don't work with his voice, he seems very threatening, sure of himself, calm, serious, etc. any fast movement takes away from that. So keep it slow and controlled. Again with the screen left sword handle move at x232. At least the upper arm moves as well, so it's not completely isolated to the forearm, but think of the shoulder and chest, they will have to move as well.
Your sword is moving without being touched at x237. Make it clear that something is influencing the weapon in its movement, keep it slow and threatening.
His head is very fast and stops like it hits a wall at x94. Tone down the movement as well.
Same goes with the whole taking sword (or should it be Katana?) out and fight stance part. You got giant movement from x284 to x288. Keep it elegant, slow, threatening. Find reference of people doing that.
Watch Samurai movies, really study the movements and focus on showing the intensity and threat in his face.
Cheers
JD
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
