Mrs Middleton character

We're approaching the final submission date and the final production is getting there. MY favorite scene to work on in the last week was Mrs Middleton.

Mrs middleton has a very outgoing and motherly personality and her sequences were a challenge for being a brand new character to animate, however, to keep her on model I created a character sheet to adhear to while animating.

and heres the final outcome, (note: I know that not much of the animation has clean and crisp line work, but im working to a deadline and im concentrating on the feeling and thinking of the character and for me, that comes through more in sketchy lines. Motion and emotoin are at high regards to me when animating.

At first the animation was not going well, I wanted a nice bobbing of the head, but this didnt feel right in the initial run. So remembering what Samy Fecih said in This interview with animator island said that you should shoot video reference if your struggling. So I did and this really helped with the momentum and movements of the character which I hadnt seen before, From this point on I decided that I should always strive to create video acting reference to make the performances more realistic. 

Heres the reference and finnished shot. 

Some late concept art.

Here are some late peices of concept art I forgot to put up, hope you like them.
The first one was a test into what cpt Nathgugs big character costume could looke like, trying out different proportions.

and the lower one is a character turn around on toned background because it looks more appealing than white.

Video Demo

Video Blog, Thought Id try something new, with doing blog posts, so heres a video of me talking about a scene that I'm animating and a few other things. If this is a good idea im going to incorporate this format on future posts.

Demo Reel and Blue skies internship

Ive been thinking alot about life after University. The most important thing that i want to get out of this last year is to build a strong portfolio of character animation.

Its going to be tough and ive already started iterating on the old Demo reel I showed to Zach at animex! I've complied all what I consider are the best peices of new work into one video here.

Jack Stollery Animation Demoreel 2.1 from Jack Stollery on Vimeo.
Im hoping to really improve upon this current one at the moment, as I still think that it needs improvement. as it stands.

Also, this Demo reel is going to be sent off to blue skies studios, who are looking for interns at thier studio.

March Update

Two recent developments have happend in the last week. Both good and Bad.

Bad.

I've been looking at the progress of the animation. and its looking like I'm not going to make the deadline for the finished film at the rate of the animations being completed. So Ive made the decision to create a short trailer of the film that creates an idea of the story and to showcase my 2D animation skills.

Im both somwhat relieved and slightly annoyed with myself.

But in order to excel in what i want to get good at in the future ive dedicated the time to use this to practice animation.


Good

New scenes. Nathgug looks up at the interviewer just realising hes being spoken to.
inbetweening on this particular scene was a nightmare, every stroke exactly the same as the previous frame. but the end result was worth it.

Jill gets stunned in this next scene when Blazer looses control and without any provocation shouts at Jill for sucking on the pritt sticks.

Primary aim: Make Jill the complete opposite of Blazer; As CUTE, ADORABLE, INNOCENT and SWEET as possible.

 

And on the last one, scorch being bored and flicking a peice of snot off his fingers without a care and no regards for interview etiquette.

 
Thats all now, more to come on the progress of the trailer very soon...

Creating the very first Scene

In the very first scene, the orcs have stodged back from battle, dirty and tired. Only to find a huge bill waiting for them. This is the first scene to really make an impression so its got to be striking. The doors burst open to reveal some very angry and tired orcs.

Obviously starting off with a storyboard we have to get the composition right.

Animating a Door opening forcfully is a very difficult task without a guide. So I made a 3D mockup in 3D and tried to line up with the perspective.

It was very challenging but in the end I ended up with this which im using as a frame of reference to animate over the top to save on figuring out the perspective. The reason they are different colours is so that its more clear which door is which

And here we have the plate on top of the already existing sketchy animation. To properly match it up with the background I used a warp tool to fix the points so it match the door in the background. Only problem is that when the red door falls it gets horibbly distorted. This can be easily fixed when comming to the final frames.

Character sheets and tests

So over the past few days I've been working on final animations for the film, overall going really quite nicely, But what I realised when animating Karen the hair dresser is that I needed frame of reference from this character. So I created a character sheet for her.

Now its much more eaiser to bring her quirky, bright character to life.

Not only for the face but for the body proportions aswell. Labeling the height in heads will help keeping the character "on model"

Here's the latest animation Test for Karen.