How to Train Your Dragon Podcast Promo

Head over to speakingofanimation.com on Monday for their 6th podcast (thanks for the tip Jacob!). This time their guests are Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois! Sweet! You can watch a promo for it below:

How to Train Your Dragon Podcast Promo from Speaking of Animation on Vimeo.

Noodle Woman - Critique

I'm putting all the feedback posts up on the Spungella Feedback page, so it's more centralized for the Workshop takers. I will still post notices here, but the full text can be found here.
Of course if you prefer to not have your work online, just let me know beforehand.

Feelings - by Nathan Glemboski

Awesome! Thanks Vaughan for the tip!

Salesman Pete Trailer

Thanks Uri for the tip!

Great trailer by the students: Anthony Vivien, Marc Bouyer and Max Loubaresse.

Love the style! How about a movie like that???

Salesman Pete Trailer from Salesman Pete on Vimeo.

Cycle by Denis Briant

Cycle from Denis Briant on Vimeo.

Spungella Animation Contest Winners!

Alright, the votes are in for the first Spungella Animation Contest and the numbers are:

• #1: 0
• #2: 0
• #3: 10
• #4: 2
• #5: 1
• #6: 0
• #7: 0
• #8: 2
• #9: 0
• #10: 0
• #11: 0
• #12: 14
  
• #13: 3
• #14: 1
• #15: 1
• #16: 6
• #17: 2
• #18: 2
• #19: 2
• #20: 0

So the winners are:

• 1st place: #12 - Nanda van Dijk

• 2nd place: #3 - Lukasz Burnet

• 3rd place: #16 - Hung-Chun Lin

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!

Well deserved, nice work everybody. My runner up for 4th place would have been #4. His expression after he drives over the guy cracked me up. But I agree with the votes and thanks again for participating. Let's do another one!

Spline Doctors Walk Challenge

Head over to the Spline Doctors and watch the entries for the Walk Challenge! Great work!

100 frame exercise - Fall 09

I know, I know, a bit late to post that one, SORRY! But here we go, the theme for that round was "Chase".

100x Exercise Animation - Fall 09 from Jean-Denis Haas on Vimeo.

Thomas Grummt - Animation Portfolio

Here's a really well done demo reel! Find out more about him at thomasgrummt.de

Thomas Grummt Animation Reel 2010 from Thomas Grummt on Vimeo.

Animation and Visual Effects 2010 Ten Second Reels

A lot of very talented animators are posting best-ofs of their reels for the AAU. Head over here to watch them and make sure to website the artist's website in order to see all of their work. Here a few samples of the strong work!

10 Second Reel - Lisa Allen - Animation from AAU ANM + VFX on Vimeo.

10 Second Reel - Joshua Slice - Animation from AAU ANM + VFX on Vimeo.

10 Second Reel - Stefan Schumacher - Animation from AAU ANM + VFX on Vimeo.

10 Second Reel - Chutinart Warunyuwong - Animation from AAU ANM + VFX on Vimeo.

10 Second Reel - Shaofu Zhang - Animation from AAU ANM + VFX on Vimeo.

All of CalArts' Character Animation Student Films of 2010

Thanks Louaye! Watch the clips here.

When The Time Is Ripe from Shion Takeuchi on Vimeo.

11 Second Club March Competition Winner

Head over there and watch the winner, nice work!!

Critique - Slide and push-up

First, the push up:

- it looks great! The only thing that stands out a bit, are the feet. The roll in a bit late, way after he goes down. You can start that earlier and ease more into that change, so it feels like the feet are reacting to all the leg changes. Then you can offset the foot roll by a frame or two.

The girl:

The first clip is definitely more layout style, which is good for overall ideas, camera orientation for framing and the time it will take her to do everything.

The blocking_more is quite longer but works given her actions. You could break it up with different camera angles, but for now I'd concentrate on separate moments.

Running up to the ladder is definitely one, then getting up there another one. Just don't forget the emotion behind all the movements. Is she happy? Happy clumsy? Happy experienced?

Does that make sense?

For the run, you could break it up and not have her just run in straight, but she could enter frame walking backwards, waving to her parents and then turning around to the slide. It would break it up nicely and when she's up there, sitting, she could give another look to her parents right before she goes. Kids love an audience, so you could bring that aspect in.

Hope that helps!

Cheers
JD

Bouncing Ball - Jim Levasseur - SO Workshop

Jim Levasseur sent me a funny bouncing ball clip he did while taking a break (done in After Effects). It's nice to see an entertaining twist on such a "boring" exercise. You can watch the clip on his website by clicking here.

Jim is currently taking my SO-Workshop and if anybody is interested in seeing the work that people do for this workshop, head over to spungellaworkshop.blogspot.com and if you have time, leave some feedback. I'm sure they will appreciate it.

Animation Progression Reel

The Animation Progression Reel blog is fantastic! Found it via @atsbomb

Here's the latest post, head over there for more animation reels:



... like this one:

We Women - Critique

Nice rig mod and eye anim, thought I'd share my 2 cents and see what you guys think:

Looking good!

The only thing that stands out a bit is the move at the last "are". It's a bit
big and more of
a take, like she's surprised. Plus it's a bit big for the last move with her
hands out. I'd keep it quiet and subtle for the last "are" part. Maybe she can
lower herself as if she's really trying to look at the other girl's eyes, to get
her attention. Then she goes back to the last move. I think something like that
will work better contrast wise and be more in tune with the tone of the audio
clip.

Critique - Bar guy

Hey,

I like the idea, but I think you could push a few things.

The sniffing and the "disgusted" part are a bit simple. I think you could push the acting in those areas in order to give him more character. It's a bit generic right now and given the long pause, it's a great opportunity to do something very character specific. It doesn't have to be something crazy, but just a specific, original way he sniffs it and reacts to it.

You could maybe also involve the bartender more. What if, after he puts down the last drink, he leaves his hand at the edge of the bar top, and then taps his finger(s), something that shows he's slightly annoyed, since the customer is taking so long.

What do you guys think?

Cheers
JD

How to Train Your Dragon's Directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois - Interview

"There are some similarities," Sanders admit from his hotel room in Miami, "but there are also some huge differences. This is really an action film, where Lilo & Stitch was more family. I mean we never had a film that started out with a war. We do here. The second act is all set in a gladiator ring."

Continue reading @ associatedcontent.com

Azo - one kick ass animator

Shaofu alerted me to this clip and this guy is awesome! Check out those two clips:

Elk Hair Caddis

Peter Smith and three fellow students at The Animation Workshop finished their graduation short Elk Hair Caddis (thanks for the tip Peter!). Peter's thoughts on their project:

One of the goals with this piece of animation was to investigate the some of the limits of the 3D media, and how close we could bring it to a 2D feel in terms of broadness and flexibility.

One of the very important inspirations that made us think along these lines was the work of the swedish company Meindbender. Particularly the short "football vs. rabbit" was a very helpfull source of inspiration.

For the animation we used maya and blender (anisculpt) and for comp we used Fusion.

...

The animation Workshop is also responsible for the two shorts "Out of a Forest" and "Vegeterrible" from this year, which you might also want to check out.

(very shortly they will also publish "stop mother f*cker")

The short is really cool and I like the style a lot. Neat to see how the CG is blending in with the real sets.

Elk Hair Caddis from peter smith on Vimeo.

There's also a making-of clip available:

MakingOf_ElkhairCaddis_peter smith from peter smith on Vimeo.