Long blogpost coming up... just so you know ;) I’ve just finished second year of animation school, an entire year focused on taking what we learned last year in 2d and apply it to 3d, plus building on top of course.
It has been a great year in many ways. 3D is really my area of interest and expertise, so this year has been more of a joy and less frustrating than last.
After the summer holidays we start our Bachelor year. An entire year focused on creating a five minute short film. After that it is out in the industry - proper scary! I feel I have so much more to learn befoere making it a living.
Anyways, related to that I applied to a few animation studios this summer, looking for an internship.
I was lucky enough to get through to interview callback with Cinesite in London.
Unfortunately they ended up choosing someone else, but it was a great experience to be interview by them, and just to be considered for the job.
I landed another summer job though, doing cg and a bit of animation at a studio named Tumblehead, founded by two former students at my school. They are great guys and it is a fantastic place to spend the holiday.
I figured I might take this opportunity to upload a number of animations I’ve done lately.
First up is a rework of the action shot. I made a proper ending and got it rendered out.
I do like this shot, but I always felt it lacked a fade off. I just ran out of frame and time when I animated it in class, so I took the opportunity to fix it.
One of the last things we animated before finals at the school was commercial as part of second year. I worked mainly on storyboard, digital layout and animation – a whole lot of fun. Unfortunately I am not allowed to show you the final result just yet, but I can show you two tiny playblasts.
That was fantastic experience, and I worked with a teamed of extremely talented guys and girls, and I think it ended looking stellar! I'll post it as soon as I can.
Next up was the exam animation with reviews by former Pixar animator David Tart.
I have gone in and tweaked the animation since delivered, to accommodate his notes.
But besides the few tweaks, the whole animation is done from brainstorm to final result in a week. Pretty tight deadline, but that seems to be how we do things around here.
Take a look if you please:
A render will follow. I still have a few tweaks to do, then render.
This summer we went to the Animation Festival in Annecy, France as part of a school tradition for second year students.
This is a picture of me, after 22 hours of continious busdrive, being exhausted and hungry. Here I am, just outside the main entrance to the big theatre where the majority of the screenings took place.
It was a really great experience. Besides the film screenings, there was a conference house, where I spend a lot fo time. listening to talks from Disney and Pixar. I got to watch Pixars new short “La Luna” – stunning work as usual.
At the Disney booth I met John Kahrs (John on the right, me on the left) long time Pixar animator and Animation Director on Tangled, as well as Animation Podcast host and Disney Animation Director Clay Kaytis.
They talked about using the things we know from 2d animation, and use it wisely in cg.
In addition to that, they showed off some of the rigs from Tangled, and explained the process of dailies where Glen Keane would draw ontop of their playblasts and suggest stronger line of action, arcs and stuff.
Very interesting indeed.
I also found a Framestore booth where I had a chat with a recruiter who seemed really into my work - a huge motivation boost for sure.
All in all it was a really inspirational week in France, and I would love to return sometime in the future.
Alright, reckon that should do it.
Feel free to comment if you feel so inclined
