Weekly Animation Challenge

After a bit of frustration this week, decided to take a break from some of the stuff I'm working on to do this cool little Weekly animation challenge, this is two days worth of work. Learning all the time!

The end of the road

I'm determined to finish this 11 second club entry. Even if it doesn't rank high, I've learn some significant things. Finally starting to get a better sense for using held layers! Also some workflow stuff as well. Was down and out for a few days with a jacked wisdom tooth that still needs to be yanked in about a week, so I'm suffering right now so I can finish this.

11 seond club is almost done. Face Animation time!

Not only is it face animation time. It is finish the hand animation time. Finish the arms, double check all the arcs, animate her little bit of hair she is supposed to have. Oh my goodness, less than a week left. I just might have to duck out on thanksgiving.

Scratch that, can't skip all that delicious food, I mean that is a crime isn't it? Well isnt in?
No need to fret, I'm on pace to get what I want to get done by the deadline. This last week is going to be a test of mettle. I'm going to try to put in 6 or so hours a day to get it done.

Sleep is for babies! WHERE IS MY COFFEE!!! WHY AM I YELLING!

11 Second club update! Nearing the end.

Not very many days left, but most of the gross animation ( The larger movement feel good). I need to work out the anticipations in some areas, then move on to lip sync.

This is turning out to be a lot more work than I anticipated, along with working on my MFA Thesis as well. Probably not a smart idea. However like drawing, it's about mileage and experience. So I figure the more animation I do, the better I have to get at it. Right?

If your curious and haven't read any of the other posts and want to know what I using to do this.

Pencil ( Palomino Blackwing Pencil, makes a nice black line with minimal smudging and sounds cool - BLACKWING!)
8.5x11 Copy Paper ( Bought a giant box from Costco, when I run out I think I may upgrade to larger paper)
Animation Peg ( 3 hole punch - www.lightfoot.com)
Simplicity Cam ( To grab animation drawings - it's really a nifty webcam)
X-sight ( Software for grabbing still images
A couple lights ( So images don't turn out super dark, so it's easier to vectorize later)
Photoshop ( I haven't used it yet to  adjust levels so it is easier to vectorize the animation, but it'll be coming up soon)
Toon Boom Harmony ( Timeline, X-sheet, and vectorize tools ) - Im using it to do the pencil tests before I decide to vectorzie, it's also pretty easy to line up your drawings with the internal x-sheet which is pretty convient.
Jetpens- I use brush pens from this company, they have a great selection of Japanese brush pens!
Manilla Folders- HAHAHA ( I also have a giant box of these from Costco, helps keep stuff organized, ALOT!
Colin Johnson Animation Desk - Adjustable light table with animation disc.
Simple Desktop PC- Nothing fancy here.

That's all. Enough typing, sleep then animate some more.

November 2013 11 second club Background test

Doing some inbetweens, cleaning up interactions, almost there, then I'll begin work on mouth shapes and hair overlap motion. I wanted to see how it looks on the background. I'm such a fan of these blackwing pencils, they have the right amount of black without the smudge. Eventually I'm going to be vectorizing all the lines in toon boom to get a cleaner look. Right now I'm directly importing images to do pencil tests. Although the BACKGROUND on this one is Vectorized line art.

11 second club progress

Not much time is left to start fine tuning timing. Right now the timing feels a bit even, and the accents are not strong as I would like in some sections. I'll watch it a few more times and re-work some areas. I've removed a number of excessive poses to avoid too much movement.

11 Second club Pose test numero 3

Running through the logistics of poses and character moving from point a to point b. I need to do break downs and fine tune acting still. Slowly but surely.

11 second club, pose test 2

2nd pose test. There are still some areas that need refinement pose wise, and I like to test before I commit to charting and animating. So after this pass on the posing, it will be on to charting and animation. I'm going to weed out the stuff I don't like. In particular the way it ends.

On a side note, one of the ways that I play with some of my timing is by cutting out the poses and taping them up on another sheet. It saves time instead of redrawing them. Just a little FYI.

More 11 second work - thumbnail synced

Pose test. I'm in the process of refining x-sheet and will post soon.

11-second club nov 2013 - boards first pass rough

I still like the idea of the characters flirting, but the composition I was leaning towards crowded the set, and preventing the characters from having space to move. The concept is still along the lines of flirting/advancements un warranted. Ultimately the guy goes in for a kiss, gets rejected, begins tearing up, then scoots out the shot.

Birthday Cake animation

I love sending people little animated birthday gifts, so every once in a while I'll make one of these little quickies.

Enjoy!