Tsarita

11 Second Club.

2010-12-03T15:55:00.007Z

I did an animation for the last month competition. I'm not totally happy with it but I really wanted to do something. My excuse is I was very rushed, but I think my planning should have been better. And perhaps I should have explored more actiong options. Any feedback is welcome. You can visit the site by clicking on the banner if you'd like to vote. Hint hint.

Flip Animation Festival

2010-11-01T12:49:00.006Z

I'll part of the showreel review panel this week Friday at the Flip animation festival. The festival runs from the 4th-6th of November. Click on the banner for more info! Great place to network and chat about animation. Andy Gent who on the The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Corspe Bride to name a few, will be there as well.

I'm back!!

2010-11-01T12:33:00.003Z

Hello!

I can't believe I haven't posted anything since May. I am ashamed.

Well I'm going to be posting a lot more this month! I will be attending a few animation related events this month. I'll even be speaking at one of them! AND I'll be making a new animation reel! So stay tuned!

Week8_Blocking and Revision

2010-05-23T00:38:00.007+01:00

Oh what a week! Busy Busy Busy.
Well I've finished my blocking for the third and final assignment. My choice, the sword exercises. Initially I had a two character idea but I ditched it. It would have been at total nightmare time wise. My peers tried to gently coax me from doing the two character assignment and my mentor literally said "Don't do it! Bring me something else!" So I scrapped it. Luckily I have a little library of video reference that I was able to dip into. I've been wanting to do this one for awhile anyway. I just love the twists in his body and the force behind the swings of the sword. I think since we have an extra week for the pantomine I might do the two character idea for that as it was more acting based anyway.

Here are my planning sketches

And here's my blocking. I tried to put in as much overlap and twist now than wait for the refining pass. I've started to avoid off setting keys for this and instead just build those elements into the pose. Ha you can see Stewie in his Kill Bill outfit! I also have a little dojo for the setting. Hmm going to have to dust of those rendering tutorials too.

I also managed to hit some revisions for assignment 2. I got rid of the breath out, as it was not working and just did some overall polish.

Week7_Polishing

2010-05-18T01:01:00.005+01:00

Well here is my latest version of the gymnast. Still have loads of polishing to on the arms, hands and fingers which I have not even touched yet. Gosh animation is hard! I got some great notes from my peer buddy and I'll see what notes I get from my mentor later today. I could work on this for ages but I have to leave it soon and start my next assignment. Yikes! If you have any crits, send them my way.

How to avoid twinning....in animation

2010-05-12T22:09:00.007+01:00

I've always struggled with the dreaded twinning of arms in my animation. For my latest AM assignment my character does a lot of gymnastic poses which involves symmetrical arms. So I asked my mentor Jay Davis, who animated on Meet The Robinson's, if there was a way to solve this. His advice was that for certain poses, twinning is unavoidable. He also had a great tip. To avoid twinning in the arms he hides one arm, for instance the left, then he will work only the right arm and vice versa. He said this method can yield some pretty good results and help avoid twinning.

Week6_Refining

2010-05-10T01:04:00.002+01:00

So I've gone into refining my shot a bit more from last week's blocking. I ran into some mechanical problems with the cartwheel that I thought I'd ironed out in the blocking. Damn! Note to self, it's all about planning! Soon as I posted it up I got some awesome crits from my classmates and peer buddies. I have loads of polishing to do on pops and sticking, the arms are basically untouched and the graph curves are all messy. So I'm waiting for my mentor's notes, then I will compile that with my peers notes, address those and onto polishing! I love polishing! :), no really I do.

Flip Animation Festival 2010

2010-05-07T13:04:00.006+01:00

The Flip Animation festival is held yearly at the Lighthouse in Wolverhampton(West Midlands) UK. It's a great forum for animators to showcase their work and network with each other. The Brothers Macleod were there, as well as, one of Scotland's top animation studios Axis Animation , which was really cool. We also made a cameo on the judging panel at the Portfolio review screening. It was a lot of fun to sit on the panel and view all the different styles of animation, as well as give feedback. It was very well received. Hats off to all animators who participated. Here's a short video summarizing last year's event. .

Degree vs. Demo Reel

2010-05-04T23:29:00.012+01:00

I was having a discussion with a friend on the way to work today. We were discussing the importance of a degree vs. the quality of the demo or portfolio, as they pertain to our professions in the games industry.
Lately we have been receiving many reels and portfolios from recent graduates who on paper are more qualified than some of the senior artists we work with. Not more qualified in terms of experience but in terms of education. Masters in Animation, Honours, Firsts etc. Unfortunately the quality of the work on the reels did not match the qualification. Very rarely do we come out of college with an awesome industry standard reel. But most people in charge of hiring know this and instead balance it off with the recent graduate's potential and eagerness to improve.
That said a good reel is what will get your foot in the door. This doesn't mean I am discounting degrees. They are necessary for example, if you wish to move overseas, get into teaching and it does show employers you have dedication and focus. But a Masters in Animation will not make up for a poor demo reel. Make sure the examples on your reel can showcase the basic principles of animation, such as weight, timing, strong poses etc. As you are preparing your reel, you can post WIP's on animation forums. If you know someone already working in the industry ask them to look at your work and give advice. This is the type of animation education you should be getting at school, but for whatever reason some do come up short. Showing your reel to as many other people, preferably other animators and not your grandparents:), will insure you get a more well rounded view of what works well, what can be improved or what can be ditched completely. This hopefully will make your reel stand out and assist you in getting the gig.

Transformation

2010-05-04T23:26:00.004+01:00

Is he searching for an identity or did he wake up on the wrong side of the bed?
Found this video recently. It's insane therefore right up my alley. Enjoy.

TRANSfiGURATion from salquebre emilie on Vimeo.

Headless Studios-Barcelona

2010-05-04T23:18:00.002+01:00

Very cool reel from a studio in Barcelona.

Headless studio reel 2010 from Headless Productions on Vimeo.

Recruitment Advice

2010-05-03T13:23:00.011+01:00

The GamesIndustry.biz and Euro Gamer Expo is great place to shop your portfolio and network with people involved in the industry. Rare Ltd participted last year and I was there to represent our animation department. We should be there again this year, so please come and check it out. We went through loads of student portfolios, gave feedback and met some great people. Here is a video created by the InsideXBox Official Channel showcasing last years event. There is some great recruitment advice given in the video by several professionals in the industry. Yours truly makes a brief appearance as well. Yikes!

I SWEAR my voice does not always sound sooooo annoying (My boyfriend will tell you differently though) , I had a bad cold and was forced to shout because of all the background noise. My voice is pretty embarassing.! Why do I sound like I'm from Brooklyn???

"Ready Able" directed by Allison Schulnik

2010-05-03T03:16:00.001+01:00

A video by one of my new favourite bands Grizzly Bear, introduced to me by my sweetheart.
Besides the music I really the design of the character. He's always melting!
The director Allison Schulnik has a very unique style. Check out her out!

grizzly bear- ready, able from homairaazimi on Vimeo.

Helium

2010-05-03T03:06:00.000+01:00

Here is an awesome short by a former AM student Daniele Zannone. I laughed so much!

Helium. from Daniele Zannone on Vimeo.

Animation Mentor Class3, assignment 2. Planning and Blocking

2010-05-02T22:09:00.000+01:00

I am currently enrolled in the online animation school Animation Mentor. This semester we are studying Advanced Body Mechanics. AM has provided me with a fantastic learning experience. I am learning new things, new ways to think about animation and hopefully it's helping me discard a few of those animation bad habits I've fallen into over the years. That mountain of bad habits. One of which is poor planning.
For my second assignment, I will be animating a gymnast on a balance beam. I decided to keep these assignments simple and really concentrate on the mechanics rather than gags or acting. What I am hoping to do is capture the attitude of the gymnast. Here is the reference I used and some of my thumbnails for planning.

I've actually done a bit more thumbnail planning since then. Particularly on the hands as gymnasts use a certain hand pose that is quite unique before the start and end of a routine. I would advise to always study your reference for anything that could define the attitude or personality of the animation no matter how subtle. Never underestimate the importance of good planning.
Here is my first blocking pass. I was working on the poses. Will work on that hidden arm on the extreme pose before the roll. Getting a good silhouette can be so tricky but I'll keep at it until I get something that works. I'll be back later this week with an update.

Demo Reel

2010-05-02T20:09:00.000+01:00

I'll start off by posting my current demo reel. The first shot I did is a personal dialogue test using a clip from the movie Anchor Man. The other shots are shorts animations I did on the Rare Ltd (where I work) videogame Banjo Kazooie.

Animation Demo Reel 2009 from carla camille on Vimeo.

Banjo was a lot of fun to work on and I was a part of a great team with some super animators! I kept the demo pretty short but now I think it's too short. Perhaps a minute and 30 seconds is a good length to aim for.
I guess it's always the case when you go you look at back at an old demo, you see so many things you want to change. Since creating the demo I've been reading a lot about keeping the character in one pose and phrasing the animation in that pose. At the beginning of my dialogue shot I think I'm hitting the beats to often and the acting looks unnatural. I actually had it in mind to avoid this when I started my shot but it's so hard to do, but it's something I MUST keep in mind for future shots. I took a look at the video reference I shot. My acting was a lot more subtle and natural. I think once I start animating I fall into the trap of always needing to exaggerate something and this led me to putting an accent on every beat.

Cambodia music from the 60's and 70's

2010-05-02T03:33:00.000+01:00

My sister introduced me to this groovy Cambodian singer called SemTouch. She was apparently very popular in Cambodia during the early 70's, but when the Khmer Rouge took over she was killed. They tried to complete wipe out any trace of her. All her music was destroyed and it is very rare to find a photo. Yet four of her songs managed to escape. Her voice is beautiful and the music soulful. She lives on.

Hell and Welcome

2010-05-02T03:27:00.000+01:00

Welcome to my very first blog. I'm so excited to share my thoughts with you. I'll be posting my rambles and rumbles.