Another hand pose... See the previous post if you're wondering why I'm all stuck on hands lately.

    I wanted to do a test where i could focus on some nice hand animation, so i through this together the other day.

    This is my first Blocking pass. I block in spline rather than stepped (perhaps I'll talk more on that in separate post) and this is probably a little more detailed than I would typically go for in a first pass. Because of the subject matter and subtle movements in the hand, i felt it'd be better to do my blocking pass straight ahead, so i probably put way more keys in than i normally would. The result however, puts me in pretty good shape going in blocking plus, and is already looking pretty close to what I'm going for.

    This is about 6-8 hours work so far. Feedback is always most appreciated! Thanks for looking!

Another Hand pose today.

I'm currently working on a test that's a close up on subtle hand animation. Seems like a good reason to work on some hand poses!

This was done with the AnimSchools free rig Malcolm. Probably just about the best free rig available. Get it at the AnimSchool's website.

Another Bonnie Face Pose.

Another Day, another Bonnie facial pose!

The Bonnie rig by Josh Sobel is available free on his site here: http://www.joshsobelanimator.com/#!bonnie-rig/c1k6j

Today I started playing with the Bonnie Rig by Josh Sobel. I've got a couple audio clips with female dialogue and was looking for a good rig with exceptional facial ability (that isn't BISHOP!)

The rig is available for free on Josh's site here: http://www.joshsobelanimator.com/#!bonnie-rig/c1k6j

Josh's rig is freaking amazing and i really can't thank him enough for sharing it FREE with the animation community. Anyone familiar with the Malcolm rig from AnimSchool (josh actually also did the female Malcolm mod) should be able to jump into this rig pretty easily. As with any new rig I'm thinking about doing a shot with i like to spend some time playing with it and getting to know it a bit, which the Pose-A-Day is perfect for.

At the moment my focus is on facial poses. Remember, Pose-A-Day doesn't necessarily need to be full body poses. It can be anything you want, including face or hands... anything you want to work on. Here's today's Pose-A-Day

    What a year it's been. I arrived here in Portland just over a year ago and so much has happened. We moved to a new city on a whim, I started my career in the animation industry, and we welcomed a new member to our family; my beautiful daughter Eliana.

    I've had the opportunity to work with amazingly talented people on some pretty awesome projects and everyone's made me feel at home and part of the family. I can't say enough good things about this place. It's a hidden gem, and i hope it stays that way.

    Busy as I've been, or perhaps comfortable in achieving the first on a long list of career goals, I've gone a bit stagnant artistically. I haven't been drawing as much as I'd like to be. I haven't been working on my own animations as much as I'd like to be. When i first got here i was still working on some personal stuff, and i did manage to get a new reel out that included some new personal and professional work, but since the birth of Ellie, I've been pretty lazy artistically.

    I know, I know. 'You just had a baby!' you might be thinking. But here's the thing. In my industry, there's always room to learn and improve. It's a competitive industry too so if you're not always pushing yourself to get to the next level, you might be passed up on the next contract.

    Recently I've been in touch with a great studio that sounds like they may be interested in me. The very fact this studio has contacted me is crazy and lit a huge fire under my ass! In some ways as an animator you always feel like you're tricking people into thinking you know what you're doing, but it's not even that. It's this; If this studio is even willing to entertain the idea of investing in my artistic potential, then it's my responsibility to live up to that. It's my responsibility to keep pushing myself to be better.

    So I'm going to. I'm going to start drawing again everyday. I'm going to start up the Pose-A-Day stuff again. And I'm going push myself to be the best animator i can be. EVERYDAY.

I've been trying to be quicker with these lately. One of my rules is to not spend more than 20 minutes. Almost like gesture sketching. I'm just trying to get the essence of the pose as fast as possible. I've noticed I'm going a lot faster this week (10-15 minutes per pose tops) but that might be because I'm anxious to work on my current shot. Today i think i should've spent a little longer on the pose.... It's close enough, but i see some weight issues that could've been fixed pretty quick if I'd just slowed down a little. oh well.. practice is just that!