Third Dimension Animation

Really excited for this class.  Last semester, from what I heard, 3D Animation I here at CCA was a bit generalist, had modeling, rigging and at the end they got some animation.  After some suggestions though, starting this semester, it's all going to be animation from the get-go ala Animation Mentor. The school does offer more technical classes though, like a gaming workshop that really goes into modeling. The current prof (Daniel Burwen) of that class even has a forum up which I think is
A W E S O M E : http://www.gamestepper.com/forums/

So, here's the first assignment, naturally:


regular ball bounce from Michael Barquero on Vimeo.

Final Animations

Animation I finals with Lyndon were all about the flour sac. Got a couple of things in here, the 1st one is the final for the class. For whatever reason, when I composited in After Effects, the video just rendered very oddly putting in frames where it didn't need to and taking frames from where it should not have. I might down shoot this again (soo many frames), but for now, I did my best to cut out the bad frames using quicktime's frame cutting function. The other videos are just the raw pictures I took (no holds) and a jump cycle for the little dude.

Combined Flour from Michael Barquero on Vimeo.

Small Flour Sac - raw from Michael Barquero on Vimeo.

Big Flour Sac from Michael Barquero on Vimeo.

small sac jump cycle 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.

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.