After all of the votes had been tallied by the software the results were posted and I found out that I placed 43rd in the March contest. There were 390 entries all together so I am very pleased to have placed in top 50 and received my first green ribbon. I know I have a lot to work on yet but this was validation for me that I AM improving. I am already hard at work on the audio clip for April. My goal is to crack into the top 25!
Side note: one month today until iAnimate begins!
Saturday 7 April 2012
Sunday 1 April 2012
April progress thread
This month I am going to post lots of updates as I work. From planning to polish I really want to document the steps that I take to complete this piece. It's not because I think people care what I'm doing, it's because if I make myself post regular updates then it forces me to take the proper steps rather than skipping over some of them. So, below is the link to the thread that I have started on the 11 Second Club's website.
My thread
My thread
What I learned this month
So this month I completed an entry into the 11 Second Club for the first time in almost a year. It took me almost 60 hrs and in the end, it still didn't turn out as I originally planned. However, I have learned from it and I hope to improve.
The biggest thing I came to understand is that acting choices are key. You can have the best animation in the world but if your poses and acting don't fit the audio, it won't matter much at all. This is where proper planning, a good storyboard and strong blocking comes in. This month I allowed myself to veer away from my original blocking. As a result my piece felt disjointed.
I also came to realize that I still have a lot to learn when it comes to moving on from the blocking stage. I have yet to develop a good workflow to help me push on and improve the work. Instead, I seem to get lost and end up stumbling through my frames from pose to pose until it's done. I am getting stronger at body mechanics, but still need to learn a lot to produce good pieces of acting.
With all of that being said, I have decided to once again enter the 11 Second Club in April. I have purchased a 3 hour lecture/demo by Ken Fountain that I intend to watch right now. I am going to get new cables for my camcorder so that I can get video reference this time. I will plan my shot in 2D and then and only then will I dive into Maya. Hopefully with a solid base to work from I can cut down my time spent in Maya and produce a piece much stronger than the one I did in March.
More to come soon!
The biggest thing I came to understand is that acting choices are key. You can have the best animation in the world but if your poses and acting don't fit the audio, it won't matter much at all. This is where proper planning, a good storyboard and strong blocking comes in. This month I allowed myself to veer away from my original blocking. As a result my piece felt disjointed.
I also came to realize that I still have a lot to learn when it comes to moving on from the blocking stage. I have yet to develop a good workflow to help me push on and improve the work. Instead, I seem to get lost and end up stumbling through my frames from pose to pose until it's done. I am getting stronger at body mechanics, but still need to learn a lot to produce good pieces of acting.
With all of that being said, I have decided to once again enter the 11 Second Club in April. I have purchased a 3 hour lecture/demo by Ken Fountain that I intend to watch right now. I am going to get new cables for my camcorder so that I can get video reference this time. I will plan my shot in 2D and then and only then will I dive into Maya. Hopefully with a solid base to work from I can cut down my time spent in Maya and produce a piece much stronger than the one I did in March.
More to come soon!
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