AM 502 - Facial Animation, 2nd Pass

Not too much to discuss here, just a second pass on the facial animation after receiving some notes.

AM 502 - Facial Animation, 2nd Pass from Jason Fittipaldi on Vimeo.

We also worked on a few face pose tests (still imagery):

501 - Facial Animation Blocking

Here's the first pass on the facial animation for my dialogue shot. We really got into understanding the sounds and mouth shapes that happen when you speak.

AM 501 - Facial Animation Blocking from Jason Fittipaldi on Vimeo.

Some of my old reference for this clip with a couple of new tests:

AM 501 - Facial Reference from Jason Fittipaldi on Vimeo.

Planning drawings for the lip sync and facial expressions:

Class 5 - Advanced Acting

It's been tough updating on account of a ton of life changing events occurring over the past several weeks.

Long story short: I'm leaving my day job to focus on animation and training full time. We'll see what happens, but it should be an interesting year ahead!

A few weeks back I started my 5th class at Animation Mentor - Advanced Acting. my mentor for this term is Ethan Hurd who I have heard nothing but great things about! So far I would say they're all very accurate. He's proving to be very knowledgeable with great critiques and a great personality!

Check out some of his work experience or his blog.

Animation Progress Reel - September 2009

My current progress reel for my work at Animation Mentor (classes 1-4).

Animation Progress Reel - September 2009 from Jason Fittipaldi on Vimeo.

You can download or stream a quicktime version as well.

The Dialogue shot was animated with minimal facial controls and we will be doing full facial animation on it next term.

AM 411 - Dialogue "Final"

AM 411 - Dialogue Shot "Final" from Jason Fittipaldi on Vimeo.

Here is my "final" pass for my dialogue shot test. It's always hard to believe, but another class has flown by already! In our next class we will be taking this shot and working on facial animation for it. Fortunately, this thing has been a ton of fun to work on and I think the facial animation is going to be even more fun!

Time to rest and enjoy a weekend off for once! =D

AM 410 - Dialogue Polishing

AM 410 - Dialogue Refinement from Jason Fittipaldi on Vimeo.

I moved into the nitty-gritty polish phase this past week. I also changed the lame hand and how he was posturing it thanks to some good suggestions from a classmate (thanks Jeff!).

One more week left to super polish everything. I know there are a few spots where I want to tweak the timing and the arcs.

AM 409 - Dialogue Refinement

Not too much to discuss this week. I've moved out of my blocking stages for my dialogue shot and have begun to refine the actions and ideas.

AM 407 & 408 - Dialogue Shot Blocking

I've spent the last 2 weeks working on the blocking for my dialogue shot. I chose the "Words are evil..." line and based on my first pass on the reference where he is walking around in front of a chalk board (my wall).

First blocking pass


After my first critique and some feedback from my peers I decided to get more away from the reference and incorporate some other ideas I had. I had a chat with fellow AM student Daniel Klug about utilizing the outdoor/bird noises into the setting. He said it would be cool if the class was outside in the quad or something.

I took it a step further with the whole crazy factor I'm going for and turned it into a lecture in the middle of a forest. I think I might add some audience members too. Perhaps a squirrel, some twig people, propped up animal carcasses or some other inanimate objects for this deranged guy to be talking to. He's really taking on a personality all his own and it's quite fun to see it develop!

Second Blocking Pass (Blocking+)

Am 406 - Dialogue Shot Planning

It's finally here! The first dialogue shot :)

After a very difficult process of narrowing down our audio to clips, I chose these final 3:



I tried to imagine several scenarios for each one before acting out the reference. Each scenario is explained in the following video reference takes.

PRO TIP: A great way to act your audio over and over again is to make an mp3 file for each clip. Make a playlist on your ipod for each clip with the mp3 of the audio, a short mp3 clip of silence, and a mp3 clip of some kind of beep. Put the playlist on loop and have it. This will make acting it out easier and keep your fiancee from murdering you when she has heard "Words are evil..." for the 700th time! It's also nice to be able to use the video reference without the audio of me whispering words on top of the shot dialogue.

Video Reference & Exploration



Here are my planning drawings exploring ideas for each of the 3 audio clips:





I truly like all 3 ideas and I'm going to have a hard time choosing which one to do!

AM 401-405 - "Underage" - Pantomime Shot

It's been a whirlwind these past 6 weeks and I'm very much looking forward to an uneventful weekend. Someday, perhaps.

Since I've been gone I "finished" my first acting shot - a pantomime test involving a bar, a fake mustache and some semi-successful underage drinking. The main goal for this shot was to show a change in the character's mood or disposition. I wanted to have a character with a cocky, confident personality walk into a bar and pass himself off as legitmate, of-legal-drinking-age type guy. Once his disguise fails, he needed to transition into a panic or frightened state and bolt the heck out of the bar.

Since I'm about to slam you with a wall of text & media, here is that "finished shot." (Disclaimer! I'm unhappy with some of the animation - particularly the left arm/elbow - and hope to revise this sucker later).



While I feel like that main goal was fairly successful, I had some rig limitations when it came to pinning the character's elbow on the bar. Some day in the future, I hope to transfer the animation over to an updated rig I now have where the pole vector & IK elbow controls are fully functional and I can clean up the messy left arm animation I currently have.

Here comes the chronological decomposition of this shot...

Video Reference & Initial Exploration of the Idea







Refinement of the Idea

Clarity is something you need to keep in mind when working on an animation shot, especially one that relies on pantomime actions to tell the story. After my first take on the project idea it was clear a few things were not reading too well.
1) The "sexy" gesture where he runs his hand through his hair. It wasn't necessary and it was confusing people more than it was adding to establishment of the character's personality.
2) The way in which the mustache was coming off, or why it was coming off, was not reading well for most people. The addition of the mug seemed to improve this part a bit.



Animation of the Shot - From Blocking to "Final"
I like putting the "final" in quotes. It reminds me that I need work on my revision whenever I find some free time!

The video titles are self explanatory, but they are a progression of my shot from its first blocking pass to its final pass. Enjoy!

Class 4 - Intro to Acting!

You know you're on the right track when you can't wait for school to start again and finding out who your next mentor/teacher is feels like Christmas morning at age 5!

After a much-needed break, I'm super excited to be starting my fourth class at Animation Mentor today - Intro to Acting w/ Mike Belzer.

It's always great to study under someone who's work you admire and at AM this has been the case for all 4 of my classes now!

I had the pleasure of attending a Q&A event Mike hosted last term (for Bolt) and it was awesome!

Mike @ imdb
Mike's website

So Long Class 3!

Keeping this short & sweet... Here's my updated AM Progress Reel (Classes 1-3). Time to enjoy my short break before diving into "Intro to Acting"!

Animation Mentor Questions

So, I was recently asked a few questions about Animation Mentor, and since this has come up before I thought I might as well share that Q&A here.

....

I graduated with a BS degree in "Digital Arts & Science - Engineering" in 2001. I went in hoping to become skilled with computer animation/art with some programming to back me up. Needless to say, the program was pretty awful and left me w/o much of anything to show for it.


> Firstly, did you find that the online classroom setting worked well? Did you get enough one on one time with the mentors?

I think the online class setting works amazingly well! As far as I have seen, you never have more than 16 people to a mentor...some classes end up being as small as 8 people. On top of your weekly live class, you also have a prerecorded (and awesome) video lecture every week on specific topics, an assignment, and a recorded video critique of your previous week's work.

There are also a number of other live Q&A classes that happen quite regularly, like guest lecturers (I've attended ones with Pixar animators, one with the lead for The Watchmen, some game animators from Valve, etc).

They also have a weekly tech Q&A class, a Saturday makeup class where they cover a broad range of topics from beginning to advanced depending on who shows up and what questions get asked, and they've started to incorporate alumni tutoring classes (live Q&As with AM alumni).

Personally, I make an effort to attend everything! It's all such useful information!

To add to all of that, the school campus is essentially setup like a MySpace or Facebook. You can easily browse other students' work, see their critiques from their mentors, chat with people on the forums, post your work in progress stuff to get feedback before handing in your weekly assignments, etc.

I've never been so active in any other type of education setting. It's awesome being able to post a WIP project and get feedback from your peers, and then take another pass at your project.

You know, I almost failed to mention it, but the networking is absolutely the greatest asset. At AM you get to know your mentors on a personal level, and these are people who are working at the places you would likely love to work!

To top that off, a large number of my classmates and peers are currently working in the industry (or have in the past), and of course I'm sure most of my other peers will be working in the industry at some point in the near future as well.

AM is a breeding ground for building your animation network, just as any great school should be!

> Secondly, did you have prior animation experience before starting the program?

I had very, very little animation experience prior to starting at AM. Don't get me wrong, I've dabbled and had some horrific experiments come out of it, but my animation experience was extremely limited.

> Thirdly, were you familiar with Maya before starting the program?

I have spent some time with Maya on and off for the past 8 years. Never anything too crazy...there's far too many facets of Maya to really master it. I picked up a number of the Gnomon and Digital Tutors DVDs some years back and they helped me get refreshed when I started AM.

The springboard course is probably a personal choice, but AM is 100% focused on JUST character animation, and with that in mind you really don't have a lot to learn in Maya. They have a number of excellent prerecorded training videos on using Maya, as well as videos on using their character rigs, etc.

Throw in the school forums where everyone is exceptionally helpful, and the weekly tech. Q&As and I think you could probably skip the springboard program.

NOTE: This question might be better answered by someone who took the Springboard Program!

> Fourthly, what's the work load like? Is it feasible to work part time and still have enough time for the work assignments?

I work a full time job (45 hrs a week), live with my fiancee, and am trying to plan a wedding, but I've been making AM work for me.

It really depends on how hard you're willing to work and what sacrifices you think you can make. I spend anywhere from 20-40 hrs a week on animation related stuff. This time is spent watching lectures on AM, watching other students' critiques (you can watch any student's critique of any class level...really awesome), or working on my school projects.

Don't get me wrong, I've had to make some sacrifices... less social outings, little to no video gaming anymore, etc. However, I feel like I get better and better every semester with managing my time and as a result having more time for those things. It helps that my fiancee is super supportive and understanding as well! :)

> And lastly, do you have any advice for someone taking this program? Things you might have done differently or wished you had known going into the program?

Honestly... AM is the best decision I've ever made! I don't think you'll find a better place for learning animation. All of your classmates and mentors are highly motivated about the art of animation.

I wouldn't change a thing, other than wishing I could have skipped out on the 4 years I feel I wasted at college and gone straight into AM. What I wouldn't give to have 4 years to dedicate to studying animation w/o a dire need to work a day job to support it.

Oh hindsight... who knows if I would have ever ended up at AM though? :)

Class 1 - It Has Begun!

After flooding the AM student site/online campus for a day and a half, the doors finally opened this afternoon. I've been pouring over all of the orientation and introductory materials and my first, live Q&A session is this wed. night! Which brings me to mentor for this term...

My mentor's name is Elliott Roberts. He has worked on the movies Robots and Iron Man (to name a couple) and he is currently working for Double Fine Studios on a new video game project called Brutal Legend.

I'm thrilled that my first mentor will have the experience of working in both of those worlds, since I love them both so much and am curious about the workflow and day-to-day differences between the two.

Stay tuned...Lots of exciting stuff ahead!

Animation Mentor!

Hello! My name is Jason Fittipaldi and I am an animation student who will be attending Animation Mentor (AM) this Fall - 2008.

AM is an online-only education program that offers a certified diploma in "Advanced Studies in Character Animation." The really exciting part is that the school was founded by professional animators and with every course you take, you are assigned a professional animator who serves as your mentor!

Like many AM students before me, I plan to track my progress and experiences as I go through the program. I look forward to all of the new challenges and people I will get to meet!