It's been a long time

Sorry it's been so long. Everything has gotten so busy this last year. Animation Mentor has been a blast, been able to keep up with it barely as you'll be able to tell in this latest demo reel I put together. There are 2 sequences I didn't include in it due to them not being good enough I feel, like that fugitive animation from my previous post (that leads into the running and sliding down the cliff animation.) It and another of a guy trying to wave down a bus hit the cutting room floor this time, though I would like to polish them up 100% and include them.

My edited demo reel for May 2011. from Matt Long on Vimeo.

Currently I'm working on a 2-person dialog test, it's 350 frames long and features a clip from Something About Mary. I'm just in the blocking phase right now. This will be my final animation for Animation Mentor. The next class is the polishing and portfolio class so I'll just be making tweaks to these old ones to make them better and maybe do my own animation as well, we'll see.

In other news, Miyuki and I are expecting our first child in July so I'll have a bouncing baby boy to take care of as well. He can help keep me company while I animate at 3 in the morning.

Also my first hiatus at work begins in June (hence the premature demo reel,) it's been a fun 7 months since I started as a storyboard revisionist, I've learned a lot since then. Hopefully we get a 4th season, it looks promising especially when Activision just announced the Generator Rex video game.

So if it's another 8 months until I post again, you'll know I'll probably just be changing diapers, working, animating and trying to find time to sleep somewhere in there.

Fugitive Animation - First Blocking Pass

Fugitive Animation - Blocking from Matt Long on Vimeo.

Here is the initial pass at my fugitive animation for the 1st assignment for the 3rd class of Animation Mentor. It's part 1 of 3-4 scenes that will tell a little story about this fugitive who survived his prisoner transport vehicle crashing and in the process breaking him free of his restraints.

I gave him a limp/sleepy foot to add some interest to his movement.

As for this term, my animation mentor is Martin Hopkins who has been a long time Dreamworks animator going from their older 2D projects into their 3D films. So he has a lot of experience to pull from and I think he will be a great mentor this term like Drew was last term.

In other news, I have a new job. I am no longer a Production Assistant, I'm now a Storyboard Revisionist for Generator Rex. So now I get to draw all day for a living, finally! Now I can keep improving my 2D drawing skills and 3D animation skills without any of that paperwork stuff getting in the way, I'm looking forward to it.

See ya next week.

Animation Mentor Class 2 recap

Animation Mentor Class 2 Reel from Matt Long on Vimeo.

I'm back in town and caught up with everything so I finally had time to try to figure out why Vimeo kept dropping frames on my class 2 reel. So here it is, hopefully it's running smooth for everyone. Now fully rendered. Ooooh colors.

Class 3 began last week, and I've started planning my next scene. This time we can link up all the scenes this term to work as a mini short film if we like. So I'm going to work in the junkyard scene from class 2 to make it 4 scenes long and hopefully make a nice little sequence out of it.

Meet Stewie, the escaped convict. He'll be running from the cops, so we'll see how that goes for him.

Class 2 - Final Assignment

Run and Turn - Final from Matt Long on Vimeo.

Here is how my run and turn animation turned out (sorry, Vimeo added some frames from the end to the beginning for some reason and made some textures pop at the end for some reason.) I want to add a head turn in the run before the slide so that he's looking around then notices the dog and then anticipates into the slide. Also I want to animate the dog fully.

That's it as far as assignments for Class 2 of Animation Mentor, now it's off to Class 3, more body mechanics all with the same character.

1 Week Left

Run and reverse direction - refining from Matt Long on Vimeo.

So here's my animaion as it currently stands. I have one more week until it is due, and a little under a half week after that to make any final adjustments for the end of term progress reel. So this week is going to be pretty much getting in there and getting the beginning all splined and polished up, and fix some spacing issues in the run and then really refine the movement and timing of the slide and run at the end, that part is still pretty rough. This week I've shown it in a few different views to see it from static camera, the first is the one that matters though.

Run and turn - more blocking

Run and reverse direction - Blocking+ pass from Matt Long on Vimeo.

Not much to say, just making progress.

Double update!

Run and reverse direction - Blocking pass from Matt Long on Vimeo.

This is my latest animation, still in the blocking phase, with and without the extra stuff. The assignment was to have Stewie running, and reversing direction. So I set up this junkyard scene for it. The dog poses are just stand-ins to sell the idea, and the BG elements are going to be desaturated and slightly out of focus in the final render so it will be easier to read the action. The run spacing is temporary as well, the strides should be closer and faster but it didn't read well at-speed in blocking like that, a bit too Benny Hill looking, so I spread it out to help at this stage. It's also my first time animating to a moving camera, it's a welcome addition I think.

Walking in a heavy wind - splined from Matt Long on Vimeo.

This is the spline pass on my heavy wind walk. It's not really polished, more just cleaned up and somewhat presentable. Life took priority that weekend, I'm going to finish it off for the end-of-term progress reel though.

See ya next week.