Jumpstick

Another project from my Animation I class here at CCA.

Focus here was on anticipation and subtle overlap. The jump is totally wrong since the in bound is supposed to be fully stretched before hitting the ground, but I thought directions were for it to not be stretched (which I did find weird). Anyway, we're getting a chance to revise it, also it has no acting; lame:


Jumpstick 1 from Michael Barquero on Vimeo.

Jumpact

Not very happy with this, except with maybe the beginning overlapping action where I can really get a sense of this weight just coming down, stretching, holding and slowly coming back up and snapping back up into the wobble up top. I kind of copped out at the 2nd over look and just did a a static hold, when I really should've taken a page from cg and gone with some type of moving hold like I had at the beginning, or maybe something Hertzfeldt and have it shakey cam.

I also toned it down a bit from last time. Used to have this exaggerated Tex Avery anticipation (is this possible?) and major jump, but after some critique it maybe was a bit much anticipation, or:

"Most animators will tell you, you never want anticipation for anticipation. If you do that, your tipping off the audience of the anticipation for your action." - Lyndon 

Yo Dawg.

Anyway, here's the final:


Midterm from Michael Barquero on Vimeo.

Overlapping Man

Being at CCA, sometimes you take for granted that most of one's animation professors are from Pixar, if not from Pixar, then Tippett or some other major company (which is totally awesome). It didn't hit me until earlier today that Daniel Gonzales, a CCA alumni who got hired at Pixar straight from school, came into to our class gave us a small assignment and gave us the opportunity to have it critiqued for whoever wanted to show up Saturday afternoon and talk about animation in general; essentially a one on one critique.

Anyway, since we were on the topic of overlapping action, he gave us this character who comes in swooping from the sky, lands and comes back a bit. Our assignment was to draw in the cape and if we wanted to, add the inbetweens wherever we thought the spacing needed it. My initial one kinda sucked a lot but got a few pointers after the critique, so, here's the result:


[note: Don't know why but vimeo cut up the bit where I added the title card: "my inbetweens". So, the first cycle is Gonzales' work, the 2nd cycle with the cape is the addition of my inbetweens.]



Untitled from Michael Barquero on Vimeo.

Almost there

Think I might use this. It's got some nice things in it. Just need to let it rest a bit, more time to think, not just Méliès type-over exaggerated-non stop movement.


Untitled from Michael Barquero on Vimeo.

Animated Bounce

Think this one might go in as the jump cycle before he sees the hole.


Untitled from Michael Barquero on Vimeo.

Animation Scrap

Scrapped this one too, supposed to be in bound, acting, and jump off; didn't like it.


Untitled from Michael Barquero on Vimeo.

CCA Animation Midterm Begins

Yep, this is our midterm.

Basically to get everything we've learned and follow this assignment:

Have this tear drop character bounce, then come to a complete stop because he sees a hole in front of him. Watch your acting beats, what's he thinking? Then make him jump over the hole and jump off screen.

I scrapped this one because I didn't really like it. Still interesting.


Untitled from Michael Barquero on Vimeo.

The Day Buddha Shot the Sun

This is the second animation we were supposed to make, but a crazier version. I think I went too far off; Lyndon was not amused.


Untitled from Michael Barquero on Vimeo.

Overlapping action animation

Focus was on overlapping action, talked about in class a bit on Chuck Jones, Red Hot Riding hood, some looney tunes and how even in The Incredibles we see lots of overlapping action

Assignment was to give these shapes a sense of overlapping action, that one moved, then the other and as the first one is going back the top one is just getting to that side, etc. This was also in after effects.


Untitled from Michael Barquero on Vimeo.

After Effects shape animation

We got a quick tutorial on After Effects and animating shapes. Interesting little program. I had a hard time with the anchor points and trying to get it to rotate right, I really have no idea how I did it, but kind of irked me when Lyndon shows me how I could've done the same thing using the pan behind tool, without having to input all those numbers on rotate/position.

Anyway, assignment was to introduce two different characters, have them interact and have one leave the screen. I did the typical violent cartoon animation...how interesting.


Untitled from Michael Barquero on Vimeo.

Real animation at CCA!

The animation paper begins.

This time was to do what we did on the index card, but incorporating what we now know of squash and stretch.

"Remember, squash and stretch is a secret. You don't want the audience thinking: 'Woah! look how it's squashing and stretching!', you want 'em to think 'Woah! look at it bounce!' " - Lyndon

So, I guess I kind of failed on that part, squash and stretch is a little to apparent for me, and the spacing is lacking in believability, arghhh!


Untitled from Michael Barquero on Vimeo.

Three ball animation

More from the index card sets.

This project is means to show three different types of balls bouncing: bowling, ping pong, and tennis. My tennis ball looks like a beach ball...

Assignment goal was focusing on spacing, trying to get a feeling of weight without focusing on squash and stretch or anything else, similar to the Williams exercise involving a penny, which I did a while back. Hearing it from an Lyndon though made much more sense though.

Anyway, still getting the hang of animation. Guess reading lots of books/blogs/forums on animation doesn't help at all in actual practice, go figure.


Untitled from Michael Barquero on Vimeo.

Feather Animation

Another animation from the index card sets.

Pardon the poor resolution, but for some reason, we're told to render it in a small resolution that's not very clear. I think it's maybe to remove the preciousness of the drawing, and focus more on the animation, or as Lyndon would say:

"You're animating movement, not drawings"

Assignment was three feathers falling, give 'em different spacing, make each one a character, who is he? why is he falling like that? how?



Untitled from Michael Barquero on Vimeo.

CCA Animation - Start!

Finally, some animation loaded in here.

The first video is a compilation of warming up assignments. Mostly focusing on keeping the volume of the shape in mind, logical morphs, et cetera, et cetera.

The second begins a group of animation projects done on index cards. This one is simply dots moving, all same spacing, just focusing on translation and contrast.


Untitled from Michael Barquero on Vimeo.

Untitled from Michael Barquero on Vimeo.

Orange Cut - Story Boards

With beat boards behind and some critiques in mind, it's storyboard time. 

Fleshed some of the characters a bit more, and supposedly, the shots should read for themselves. They really don't, so that means I failed at the job, won't narrate each board though. We were supposed to choose a scene from our beats and storyboard that, I chose the very beginning since I wanted to focus a bit more on the shop keeper and thief dynamic.

After critique though, I realized what another bad job I did at trying to convey the idea I was trying to put through. Main problem was actually establishing that relationship between the orange keeper and the thief. In my defense though, we just got through the montage editing style by the Soviets in Film History, so...I blame Eisenstein.

Seriously though, next assignment will be to do it again, but...better. I have a couple of ideas. Storyboards at the bottom.

S T U D I E S

S T O R Y B O A R D S