Monday, December 27, 2010

HAPPY HOLIDAYS


I haven't had the chance to do a Holiday post, and I've been needing to work on caricature so I decided to kill two birds with one stone. In case you're not aware, or my caricatures are too terrible to recognize, these are a couple of my favorite Griswold characters from National Lampoon's Christmas vacation.
I was rewatching this movie recently and realized just about everyone in it was perfect for caricature. So, where better to start. I know these are still a little stiff and there are some twinning issues going on, but I'm working with shapes and likeness first. My next round of caricatures will also be from this movie, and I'll do my best to make their poses express their personality more. I'm thinking the two neighbors in their jogging gear. I'm doing these as a break from internship work, so it might be a little while before I do those ones, but I'm hoping they'll be even better than these characters. Enjoy!

Saturday, December 25, 2010

JAMES'S ANIMATION FESTIVAL 2

So I know everyone looks to my blog for the most ambitious and up to date animations of our time, and I'm quite sure my fundamental exercises won't disappoint. I'm presenting you with three featurettes titled "Walk Cycle" "Side Step" and "Step Up." The final feature film is titled "Jump, Drop, and Run" This feature comes complete with a new fangled background drawn with the rarely used blue cole-erase pencil. So sit back and prepare to be awed by these masterpieces.

On a serious note, though these videos are of a small file size they may take a moment to load, so please be patient. Also I'm aware that they're not perfectly executed exercises, and I could fix a lot, but you have to move on to new exercises and understandings at some point. I'm sure I'll be animating many of these again in the future . . . over and over and over. Getting better each time ;)

-James


Friday, December 24, 2010

JACK THE GIANT KILLER: ROUND 2







This is the second round of perfecting my characters for the Jack the Giant Killer fairy tale project. Even though I'm quite pleased, with these designs, I think I may have to go further with them at some point. Even though I more than fulfilled the requirements for this project there are some expressions and details that I feel could be further fleshed out and explored.
A lot of people might not realize that behind the designs I've posted here, there are at least twice as many pictures that weren't working that I had to perfect to get these to the point that they're at. The day a design comes out perfectly formed on the first round is the day I should probably stop working on art, because in my mind it'd mean that I've stopped trying to learn and perfect my craft. One of my teachers said it best when mentioned that "Struggle is good, if you're not struggling, then you're not learning." I couldn't agree more. I've struggled with my work long enough to know the truth in that statement. So keep working hard, never stop questioning, and as always, enjoy!