Hello! My name is Jason Fittipaldi and I am an animation student who is attending Animation Mentor Fall 2008 - Spring 2010.
I will be tracking my progress & experiences as I work towards becoming a professional character animator!
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!
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.
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!
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!
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!
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!
