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.