Cars

So much fun!!! There are lots of things that can be done with this assignment.

Here is what we had to do for each car:
1. stops screeching
2. runs out of gas
3. jumping
4. collides with the wall

3D Bouncing Ball

It's totally fun!!!

Simplicity Example: POCOYO

If you haven't already checked this, you should do it now.
http://www.pocoyo.com/

You can watch a lot of videos on youtube. Here is one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjkBxBkXJww

You really don't need complex characters to create compelling animation. Be simple, do more.

First Character Animation

This was an assignment for my Animation-I class. We had to start from one attitude and go to second attitude in 4 seconds. I went for curious to shocked/scared. I worked on it for continuously two nights without much sleep, so I fell sick after working on this assignment. I redid a lot of drawings to get better and conveying poses and to get timing right. I learned a lot of things in this assignment, especially timing. I still wish I could rework on few areas especially when the bean bag jumps.

2D Flag Animation

I kind of enjoyed the assignment, but I did not do well. The middle part is kind of boring with the same size waves in the flag. That takes away the believability of the material. But anyway here it is.

New 3D character (Almost there)

We are creating a 3d character in one of the animation classes. The same character we are going to rig and animate in the end. I dragged the modeling part a lot to make it as good as possible within given time. But I am happy with what I have so far. I wish I could do better with his hair. But never mind considering the time we have. I still have to texture his short.

Invaluable Notes

This comes from a guy who has been in Animation industry for quite a long time and writes regularly about storyboarding, film making and art on his Blog. One of the greatest resource for knowledge. Here is one of the most important note I read on his Blog. Oh his name is Mark Kennedy.

This is so true!

"Simplicity is a wonderful thing and I believe simplicity lies at the heart of making something appealing. The ironic thing is how hard it is to be simple. We resist it because it seems too easy, that nobody will like our work unless we smother it in layers of complexity, and that way if it's bad, at least nobody will be able to tell because they won't be able to penetrate all of our layers of complexity!"

excerpt from his post Splashing Around.

Invaluable Notes

I have decided to post some thoughts and notes I read/hear which I feel are invaluable and will help me improve myself a lot. Hopefully it will also help other people.

I was watching Ratatouille bonus features. There was an interview with an American chef Thomas Keller. Following is a paraphrase of what he said in one of the scenes.

"It is not about the perfection, it is about the quest for perfection."

So true and ironic.

Character Design for a Project

For the 3d-character setup project we had to design a character for following projects. This is what I came up with. I had some other designs too and it was confusing. But finally I decided to go with this. I may model and rig other characters later on. The hair in the side view is not drawn well, I had a hard time visualizing it. I am currently working on modeling of this character. I will post some 3d work once I have progressed well.

Back to Cooking

After I watched Ratatouille, I got my spirit for cooking back. I was thinking to make "bhaji" (an Indian dish with mashed veggies) for some time. So finally just yesterday I cooked it. It might not be the tasty one you find in famous food places in India, but it was tasty for me :)