/headdesk

I hate that shot so much! I’ve worked on it for a month and a half! UGH! This is truly a test of tenacity.

First pass:
[qt:http://animation.redforty.com/uploads//2009/01/justbringit_411r40.mov 640 480]

[qt:http://animation.redforty.com/uploads//2008/11/justbringit_381lg.mov 640 480]

Not much to say…

Except I hate it. Blegh.

Here’s the Hand Pose of this week. ANGRY.

This is just blocking. Basic attack.
I’m not sure if I like it. It seems kind of dead without the screen left< ->right movement.

Here’s the first blocking pass. By the way, I’m getting faster at this. This one took about 6 hours and 4 revisions. I won’t post the revisions here; just the major milestones. Little revisions are too small to notice. Like the way his arm moves would be the cause for a revision.

So here’s the first final blocking pass:

[qt:http://animation.redforty.com/uploads//2008/10/freesamples_321lg.mov 640 480]

[qt:http://animation.redforty.com/uploads//2008/08/thelift_01_640.mov 640 480]

And here are the sketches:

So, this entire last week, I’ve been trying to come up with a more interesting scene. I needed a schtick. A thing. Because the more we get into the lessons (and I’m talking about the practical application in the workplace), we learn that our work should always carry personality and appeal. It must be at least somewhat interesing. So, screw the “pick up the box and put it on the shelf”. We want something at least halfway decent.

Enter the TV-Thief. This is the schtick, “Guy tries to steal a TV that’s too heavy for him”. Lol! It’s that easy!

This idea and execution is fueled by imagination more than reference (I’m not going to pull over a bigscreen tv). So the reference is super, super basic. But it gives me the essentials. Form, weight, nuances of movement, direction of hips, etc… All the poses are pushed/exaggerated in the sketching and even further in the blocking.

Here’s the simple reference:

[qt:http://animation.redforty.com/uploads//2008/08/thelift_02.mov 480 360]

And here are the [hastily done, over simplified] sketches:

And here is the first blocking pass:

[qt:http://animation.redforty.com/uploads//2008/08/heavyobject_281_lg.mov 640 480]

The keyframes go from this: To this:

And after much, Much, MUCH wrangling of the spaghetti in that second picture, it’s resolved into this:

[qt:http://animation.redforty.com/uploads/2008/07/turn_blocking_235.mov 480 360]

. . .

Further refining the blocking pass with more sensible keyframes and breakdowns before I spline it.

[qt:http://animation.redforty.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/turn_blocking_234.mov 480 360]

. . .

Taking in account what I learned from Michelle Meeker, I went back to the drawing board (blocking). I put in way more keys than before. A helluva lot more breakdowns to hold those long poses. It’s not as easy as it seems, because in the world of the balancing act, there are no “real holds” – only living holds that need drift in them. For example, when Ballie gets up on one foot, he’s not entirely in balance. He’s swinging his weight from up on the foot back to the other. He just does it slowly so that it looks like a balancing act. Either way, here’s the blocking-plus pass:

[qt:http://animation.redforty.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/turn_blocking_005.mov 480 360]