Visionfest Recap (part II)

[continued from Visionfest 2010 Recap (part I)]

The animated shorts were inspiring enough on their own, not only because of the quality of the work, but also because we got to see exactly the kind of competition we’ll be facing in the near future. However, the one thing even more invigorating than that was the two-hour “master class” led by veteran animator Mark Pudleiner. He’s worked for Don Bluth, Disney, and Dreamworks, among others, and we were extremely fortunate to have him at the festival (special thanks to IUPUI’s animation guru/my drawing professor, John Brian Ludwick, for that).

On Friday, he gave the keynote speech which was pretty great. It was mostly motivational and he offered some great insight into his own experience getting into the business. On Saturday, for the master class, he gave us, essentially, a crash course in the core principles and techniques he has used for a number of storyboarding and animation gigs. Believe me, he dropped some real gems.

Visionfest 2010 Recap (part I)

Last Friday and Saturday, IUPUI’s School of Informatics held its third(?) biennial Visionfest Student Animation Festival. There were professional speakers, alumni presentations, and a whole slew of student shorts. Unfortunately, only one of the shorts was from our school – and it wasn’t even from New Media (where I’m getting my degree). The student was the very talented Marcelo Meijome, from Purdue’s Computer Graphics program. Congratulations to Marcelo, but I have to say I’m extremely disappointed in my fellow New Media students. Come on, guys! Of course, I include myself in this critique.

But there’s always the next one! Two years away…

Anyway, it was an extremely inspiring event. Here are some favorites from the 2D animation category:

^This one is so up my alley. There’s a definite nod to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre in there amid all of that perfectly paced, beautifully crafted Hansel & Gretel-ness. I’m also in love with that charcoal look. Click here for some more info about the short and its 23 year old CalArts creator, David Ochs.

Bouncy Ball #2 (test)

This stuff is moving at the speed of thought, now. I was planning out keys and timing for the Lipsack animation, when I suddenly got this image of the bouncy ball frantically trying to escape that giant square. Shot from a low, extremely cartoony angle, it would look really cool, with the buildings rolling into the background at an extreeeme perspective.

I stopped what I was doing and started drawing it out in Flash and voila! It actually worked. The effect was pulled off, immediately. I guess all that Animator’s Survival Kit study time is really starting to show some results.

So not only will this be an exercise in squash & stretch, speed, and weight expression, but I’ll also be able to play with some dynamic camera angles. The finished product will be up soon…

First Steps

Learning to walk. Isn’t it precious?

Bouncy Ball #1

**Note: Don’t worry about not hearing sound. There is no soundtrack.**

My first completed Flash animation. Just a simple bouncing ball exercise with more emphasis on depicting weight and speed variations than keeping the forms tight. This was all drawn straight-ahead, at 15 frames per second, to get quick results and see how it felt to work with Flash CS4. I haven’t used it since Flash 5, back when it belonged to Macromedia.

This felt very, very good.