Orangutans Are Not Monkeys.

As a kid I used to always draw monkeys. When I lived in the Philippines I even had a pet monkey. His name? Monkey. That's before I knew about the Department Of Redundancy Department. Anyway, I WACoodled an orangutan, which is not a monkey. Orangs are apes.

I finally got a chance to watch Victor Navone's lecture from last week and all I can say is wow! I'm not sure which I was more impressed with, Victor's animation talent, his skill with the graph editor, or the fact that our school rocks for having this kind of stuff in the curriculum. Hopefully I'll get a last chance to watch at least part of it again. I think it's 2andahalf hours long!

Since Maya was giving me grief I took a break from 3D and was messing around in Plastic Animation Paper 4.0 beta. I had clicked over to AM classmate (though currently on a leave of "AMsence"...isn't that hilarious?) Robert Casumbal's blog and was inspired to do my own flour sack test (QT h.264, 50k). Okay, I copied him, but my test is way different. I've done one other sack test before this one--I tried to do a walk--and I am still confused about how a character with no legs should be drawn walking. Better look at some reference. This test isn't a walk, it's just sort of a hero sack going from a one-arm-up, semi-relaxed state, to a "super" pose or something. I didn't do much planning at all and it shows. I should get that Wayne Gilbert book Robert mentioned soon. Looking at the test you will likely see that frame 9 is lame-o. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do there, so if you have any suggestions on that drawing or any of this let me know.

The rest of this blog is unrelated to animation. Feel free to skip it.

I contacted someone at a senior resource Thursday to try to get help with my IHSS share-of-cost/income tax fiasco. (Incidentally, as big a fan I am of the game smush I haven't come up with a smush that combines tax and fiasco in a way that pleases me or I would use it here. Probably has something to do with their meanings.) The lady told me outright that one of the possible avenues I was hoping to explore would be a dead end. Sounded like she was speaking from actual experience, too. But there is a completely different route she told me about that, if she's correct, will resolve the tax problem. The share of cost will not be relieved, but solving the tax thing is huge. It's a somewhat exotic idea, but its oddity isn't gonna stop me from trying it. Friday I left a message with my mom's IHSS caseworker to get this plan rolling. If not for all this complication and nonsense I'd probably already be enjoying my tax refund.

Oog and Slim and the Polishing Lecture

Somehow I didn't manage time to watch last weeks Animation Mentor lecture video, which is part 2 of a shot walk-thru by Victor Navone. Luckily, the previous week's lecture is always viewable so I'll have to fit it in this week. It's long!

But I did check out this week's lecture on polishing by Andrew Gordan, another awesome PIXAR animator and one of the Spline Docs. It too was a long one...an hour and a half. I'm not complaining about the length, btw, they're always packed with tons of great learning. Just as with most of our lectures, I was super motivated by "Dr." Gordon's* lecture, and if it hadn't been 2am by the end of the viewing I would have just jumped right into Maya and started working on my assignment! But really, I've done waaaay too much staying up until past 3am lately and I've gotta try to get back "on track". I've got appointments to go to (or take my parents to) and phone calls to make and the rest of the world operates approximately 8 to 5. But yeah, I was super inspired by watching Gordon tweak his example shot in the graph editor, watching it from side view to check out how he'd need to adjust the spine. So far in our lectures we've got to see numerous animation pros working through examples, and it really, REALLY makes a big difference to specifically see the many different ways each of these masters works. One thing Doc G. said helps him out, and advice often given to us, is breaking the shot down into sections or phrases. Work on one bit at a time, then go on to another spot. You work up to a certain point and then go back through all of 'em and make another pass. It was striking how many problems Andrew kept seeing in his shot while he'd work. Obviously, he has extensive animating experience, 'cuz I know many of us students often wouldn't notice some of those things he did until we get feedback from someone. Then it's always, "Oh, yeah, how did I not see that?", and kind of a "duh" moment. So when I get into the scene I'm doing I'll be focussing on one shot to start off with, which Ike also recommended. I already know which one I'll do first.


Here's another of my "WACoodles". This one is a scribble of my character Oog minus his usual spots, and a new character I just made as of this sketch, Slim. Whatever Oog is saying, doesn't appear Slim's buyin' it. Or something.
*He's not a doctor, but he plays one in 3D.

WACOM Doodles (Or "WACoodles")

Seems it's customary when getting a new tablet to post some doodles. Having finished my Animation Mentor homework, I took some time out to play around with the new WACOM and ArtRage2. The first doodle is this crybaby guy. While not as elaborate and feature rich as Painter, ArtRage is nice for quick scribbles.

Incidentally, how do you pronounce WACOM? Long a as in way and com like in comedy, or like the a sound in cat and then come as in "...All Ye Faithful?" Or are both of these wrong? :D

Sunday I cancelled an appointment because of a live Q&A we had with Animation Mentor prez and co-founder Bobby Beck. (I'd thought it was 1-2pm but it was actually 2-4!!) Among other things Bobby talked to us about concerns many of us seniors have about our upcoming classes 5 & 6, wherein we will each be making our own animated short films. The details are not important here except to say that most of our reactions were of the "yay!" and "cool!" variety. We have a reputation of seeming over-enthusiastic about our school, but for those of us who've been there from the beginning--and just about everyone else who has enrolled since--the enthusiasm is pretty well placed. It is truly the intention of everyone at AM to give us the best animation education possible. Occasionally, new announcements are made, details are revealed about what's in store, and it's usually exciting and sounds like a lot of great fun and great challenges. That and we're kind of an excitable bunch.

In my assignment for week 6 I made the changes Ike asked for and though I was struggling with it while in the thinking stage, after the first hour or so of actually working on it I really felt myself getting into it. I kept wishing I'd not been falling asleep or had another day (don't we always want more time?) because I was so excited (remember what I said above?) that I just wanted to finish the whole thing, polish it and get a final. Of course, that was just wishful thinking, given that I'm only now in reblock status on the scene. Plus Ike specifically said he wanted us to be in refined blocking until next time. He said at places like PIXAR it's very important to wait for your director to buy off on your blocking before you start refining things. So I took his notes from the eCritique and Q&A, and resisted the temptation to refine the scene further (okay I was also in need of sleep by that point, too). Since it's still in stage where it looks no more finished than the one from week 4, I'm not gonna bore anyone by posting this version. Maybe next week.

Ten Years and 1 WACOM Later

After waiting nearly ten years, I finally upgraded my small 4x5 WACOM ArtPad II this week to a 6x8 Intuos3! Yay! I never had any complaints about my 4x5, which is part of the reason I didn't rush to get the ArtZ, or Intuos1 thru 2. But I was having trouble with accuracy in some apps; I could barely draw at all in Plastic Animation Paper, for example. With the Intuos I immediately noticed the difference in it's much higher resolution and pressure sensitivity. These suckers are kinda pricey and I wouldn't normally plock down nearly $300 for a "mere" input device. This was an item on my list for a very long time though, and I did just "get" a small "raise". Since starting AM I've learned many animators use a WACOM in their 3D apps, not just Photoshop, Painter and Flash. I experimented with my 4x5 in Maya and found I like using the tab and pen in 3D, so I'll continue to practice. I don't know if I'll completely stop using the mouse in Maya and max but the tablet might turn out to be more efficient.

So far so good with the new assignment. While I'm hoping I'm not speaking too soon, many previous semesters by the 5th or 6th week I start falling way behind. So far, I'm doing ok this time, despite the recent difficulties managing my mom's health. Of course, in last week's eCritique Ike asked for a change that's gonna be quite a bit of extra work. Luckily, doing a re-block for the coming deadline is not an issue. There's still a good deal of time before this mulit-week assignment has to be turned in polished, too. I'd prefer getting out of blocking this week, just in case I run short of time later, but for now it's okay.

For those not following my IHSS and income tax fiasco, feel free to skip the next section.

I am still--very slowly--sifting through information on the Net that might help my tax problem. Some of what I'm finding is "almost" good news. For example, there was a bill introduced in 2002 (Chan, AB 969) that would have probably eliminated my mom's Medi-Cal (and thus IHSS) share of cost. According to the text of the bill Medi-Cal recipients who's familily income is just $1 over 133% of the Federal Poverty Level face a "massive" share of cost, while those at or below it have no share of cost. Unfortunately, that bill died in Senate appropriations. (http://www.pai-ca.org/Newsltrs/Issue82/PublicAffairs.htm)

I found some senior advocacy groups I might get help from. This problem is rather complex. Though it affects my income and tax situation as an IHSS "provider", the problem stems from my mom's IHSS share of cost, which makes it an IHSS "recipient" issue. Being as I'm not having unusual difficulties with my AM assignments, I think it's this tax problem that's giving me insomnia.

There is some good news, though. My mom seems to be responding well to the latest change in her meds. If this trend continues I cannot begin to say what an enormous relief it would be, as dealing with her illness often eats up at least an hour or three every day when the meds aren't effective. Keeping fingers crossed.

Got a FINAL!

Sheesh. At least classes are going well so far! The tax seminar turned out to be a bust...next to zero help for my situation. When a representative from the IRS who's worked there for 20 years has no idea how to help you you know you're in trouble! I have maybe a few other options but this tax situation, and IHSS complication is looking grim at the moment.

For week 3 I got a "FINAL" on my assignment from Ike. He had very little in the way of notes, seemed to enjoy the last-minute changes I'd made, complimented my ability to be flexible (I assume rather than argue the change he requested), and he actually shouted "FINAL" just like they do in real life at PIXAR in those behind-the-scenes extras on the DVDs. Of course, I'm sure he noticed some things still need work--heck, the whole section from frames 44 through 82 is brand new and could use some more polish. But, just as in a real life situation, the deadline had come for the shot to be "put in the film" so that was that. The version I've included here is the rendered version, not the one I turned in for the assignment. (I felt it a bit presumptuous to turn it in as a final render without actually having the director [mentor] sign off on it.) If you watch it more than once you'll begin to see quite a few places yet to be refined. I will definitely revisit the shot as soon as I can. See how many boo boos you can spot, and if you have any notes let me know.

AM Assignment 403 - Rendered (QT H.264, 2.3MB)

Week 4's assignment was to block out a new dialog clip. The assignment expands on the previous ones by requiring interaction between two characters and at least two separate shots. Some people have indicated they would like to see the handcuffs in one of the close ups. Someone even suggested an acutal shot of the hands in the cuffs. While it's probably important we see that his hands are cuffed, I'm trying not to be too literal or obvious. For my tastes, when the Green Bishop says, "...with my hands cuffed behind my back" and lifts his shoulder, pointing to his hands using his head and eyes, that is enough to "know" that he's wearing cuffs.

Ike seemed to like what I'd done, and he also suggested a way of showing the cuffs. A few classmates seemed to really like my opening wide shot, but Ike prefers a tighter shot. I'm thinking that a tighter establishing shot can satisfy the need to show the hands in cuffs, thus eliminating pointing them out so directly during the rest of the scene. What do you think?

I was a bit confused about whether we were supposed to just do layout or rough blocking, but luckily I put in some blocking anyway. I should have labeled it with the status of "blockout" (isn't that hysterical??). Ok, here's what I turned in:

AM Assignment 404 (QT H.264, 780k)