FINISHING FUN !!

Hey Guys!

Line - This is a Cut in shot from the fight scene -

I animated the sweep from dober a bit slower so I could play with the timing in edit a bit......

LAIKA News-

I am 1 week after finishing the shot that I Spoke about in my last post . It was a wrestling match moving the main character through the world......but It worked out.....really well guys . I got a HUGE high 5 from my animation Supervisor

and even got a hand shake from one of the directors......What a great reward after the HARD work.....getting through the shot took.....

Often in animation your eyes will glaze over after a bit and its challenging to really see.....critically if somethings working.......without some time between seeing it.

I wasn't quite sure after the marathon shoot how good the shot was....but with the reaction I got from the guys I was able to go into a peace filled weekend of rest....ahhhh.

One of the coolest things about the scene I finished was animating a station wagon which was a Mechanical marvel......with lots of cool gears and winders inside.......

under the hood I could control the lift or drop the suspension independently for each wheel...this was so cool to work with BUT- the shocks did not go high enough to get the exaggeration the director wanted......so back to the garage tactics for me....

I was shoving my meaty wallet under the car...and pretty much anything else I could find to get the desired posing....Sometimes I wonder if the other guys resort to those methods as well......my gut says yes!!! Even at the Highest level of work - Stop motion always demands thinking on your feet.

After such an AMAZING last week...and a super cool shot to add to my pile....this current week although much less stressfull....wasn't nearly as rewarding . I didn't feel like I performed up to snuff this week and the shots I was assigned were not the most inspiring....

Sometimes you have to do Bridge shots between actions which can be cool

....but these were just ok.....they felt more like SHOTS with marks too hit .....than really a performance.

they all cant be winners....but I sure wish they could.....I try to tell myself that EVERY shot I turn in represents me....so I cant put less importance on the ones that are not as fun....gota put my heart into them all.

....In the next week ahead....I am on more link up shots....but....soon enough I have some more cool REEL pieces coming my way.

also.....my Stop mo TIP of the week.....I have been paying more attention to what I am actually learning at work than just absorbing it.....

and one of the things that has really helped me- In getting to an ULTRA clean animation quality is EARS-

I have always tracked the main body parts with no problems......But taking it to the next level of clean.....I have been tracking all my arcs on the ears of our puppets and it really makes a HUGE difference in my work...

You would think that I always would have......but really only in the most Basic ways...now that my work has to be feature quality.....Its an easy spot even if the face appears to be perfect in the playback the ears will TELL.....if you are off in any way.

so...In short- Track those ears.

jriggity

Most FUN Ever!!

Hey guys!

Line -Here is a Shot from the montage

LAIKA News-

I just had an Incredible week at work guys....In fact the most FUN I have EVER had doing animation in my whole Career!!

Its such a funny thing.....It was nothing but a BLOCK- Just the KEY frames and some breakdowns timed out in preparation for the real shot....But jeeez loooouise...was it FUN.

It was a Fairly complicated shot - 3 NEW Characters -2 NEW vehicles - Nice Acting - serious Comedy and ACTION.....Yeeeeeee Haaawwww!!!!

All wrapped up in a 6 second shot.

I have been doing animation for a good while now ...and I have always loved it....but man.....this latest shot is just PURE MAGIC and FUN.

I was literally smiling all alone in the stage for hours and hours as I did the block. It was sooo freakin fun.....and completely confirms my being in the right place in life.

I am now tomorrow going into the new week....where the shot difficulties will start to come in...I will be rehearsing for 2 days and will be shooting for 4...so I am hoping to maintain the magic through the hard stuff.

otherwise- at the apartment..... I have been doing some cg animation on the weekends to get some pieces for my reel as I return in January to the cg world. I might Post some of them here as well.

Wish me luck guys!

In other cool news- Justin Connolley has done another great character concept for his thesis piece....

.and is posting on it over on his blog...check it out.

Jriggity

Dreams and Nightmares...Half Way MARK.

Hey Guys,

A Shot from Chapter 3- Flea Bends the Rules.

LINE News - Shel and Aedon returned to L.A. .....but we are having our fellow stopmotion buddy Sven create Flea a real Live armature for my return to the film in January.

This is exciting!! ...since Flea has been all Wire armature until this point in the film....Sven is giving us an incredible gift in doing this job and I am excited to see the final piece.

LAIKA news- Here I am at the 5 month {half way} mark

......and I have now animated OVER 1 Full Minute of footage for the new film.....If this is a pace of My output I should have close to 2.5 Minutes when I return to L.A. Not a bad contribution to the Film......and I should have a pretty Nice Stopmotion AND just plain Animation Reel when I get back into town.

I Got through another Monster Shot last week....My longest Yet- Close to 6 seconds of animation with subtle acting- Dialog- and ACTION all in one BIG shot. This was quite taxing to complete but I had a Nice couple days of testing out a new puppet to ease out of the High stress shot.

So Hear I am going into a New week and new challenges.....and I am FULLY INSPIRED!!

I Went to weeklys last week to watch on the BIG SCREEN what the folks have been creating for the film and it was Breathtakingly AMAZING!!

UNbelieveable -.....I feel so Honored to be a part of this production guys....this film is without a doubt the most Amazing Stopmotion animated film EVER- #1 - CHAMPION....Poor JACK.

There has never been acting this good through puppets- there has never been Camera work so amazing - there has never been puppets this expressive before - There has never been ACTION in a stopmotion film anywhere near the Scale of this - WOW!!

HONORED-

I feel so Lucky to be living this Dream here in Portland.

Speaking of Dreams -HA!

- I here in Portland have struggled with sleeping on occasion due to a Mind and imagination running overdrive. This I found out this week is not just a justin thing- I talked with a few animators this last week who struggle with the same thing.....and describe the same symptoms..

for instance- I will find myself Turning in my sleep one frame at a time....and realizing I moved too far in my turn will reset back to my side before starting the turn animation again....Jeeeez!!

I will also Find myself....animating a hard spot In whatever my current animation is Over and Over..and over....all night long....NIGHTMARE.....

I have not found the best way to deal with this yet...ha!

this is one of those things you don't know about until your in the game of stopmotion...

more to come.

Still Havin fun!

jriggity