Some Traditional Animation

[Amazing Action Ape]

From the past year at Sheridan College.

Hopefully I can embed these from youtube properly.








Animated by me, Clean up - Jon Coit, Layout/BG Paint - Chris Thompson




Animated/Clean up by me, Layout - Jon Coit, BG paint - Ben Thomas





Unfortunately not much here as far as character animation goes, but I'm always looking for critiques.

What do you all think?

[jasonschlossman]

I'm quite impressed, I think your strength is in your timing, good job, I wish my traditional skills were this good

[rattus]

really nice! the first two are fav.

[ashess]

nice movements; espec on the follow-through. you coul even lengthen the rest-points between actions a lit longer I think. (like when the baseball player looks after his ball), and enlarge the diff of his reaction. but that's a bit of a question what the script has the guy doing. I read he's swinging the bat- apparently hitting a ball as he looks after it. (dont see the ball) looks after his ball- which mush be going in a straight line. has a scare (ball hits something? this part is too unclear to me) then turns to whisper to someone behind him (again, a bit too suddenly after the scare. can't read why he's whispering. maybe someone got hit in the face by the ball? then he should first make a pained face to show that..)

[jvdz]

Those pencil tests are gorgeous! The cleaned up and colored versions seem to move allright, but are a bit shaky? Is it a movie-compression-issue or is it intended to be so?

Cheers!
Jan van der Zee

[Maxine Schacker]

First rate! How many hours of classical animation do you get a week? Is this work all "assignments" or are you doing extra stuff because you really have the animation bug? My guess is you're giving it extra.... You are also a very decent guy and my prognosis is a long and successful career.

By the way, it was a good idea having someone else do the layout and BGP.

Come visit our Open house if you get a chance...it would be nice to see you again.

[Amazing Action Ape]

Thanks for the comments and critiques everyone!

Jasonschloslsman, Rattus: Thank you

Ashess: Thank you, I definitely agree with your comments. I still find myself trying to cram in too much into a short period of time. Im still struggling in finding those golden poses, and working through them, making sure the action and the intent of the character is reading clear. Without the rest of the Leica, the animations by themselves dont really hold much merit as far as the story goes, and I think I'd be much more successful if I can clue the viewer in on whats happening even with 1 scene from a reel, be it stronger clearer poses, or better acting or staging.

Jvcdz: Thank you for the compliment. As for the possible shakiness, It might be because I forgot to turn off frame blend in premiere, which is notorious for killing animation. OR it could just be my hackjob at clean up (im slowly getting it), which is killing the life of the rough animation.

Maxine Schacker: Thank you for the kind words, Maxine, I certainly appreciate it! As far as animation classtime goes, this year we had about 2 hours of inclass, and 1 hour lecture. It's been like that every year though if i recall correctly. Most of it is from an assignment, and our group film. The little boy was done on my own time. I certainly love hand drawn animation, so i suppose in my spare time I do fair amount of that. I know others in my year who are far more gung ho (and certainly more talented) than I am, as I prefer to work on my gestures, life drawing, or studying commercial illustration pre 1980. I spend more time practicing my draftsmanship then I do animating.

I agree about having someone else do the layout and the BG painting, it was challenging and fun to work on someone else's layout, and taught my peers and I a lot about communication.

Id love to see what your students are up to this year but Im currently out of country for an internship until september. I will try to make it out to your open house next summer, or if your at Ottawa this year for the film festival, I will stop by and say hello!

[liolev]

That is absolutely awesome! Unfortunately some of the videos don't play for me,
so I guess I'll be back later on, check your work for real and leave a full comment.

Keep it going!(:

[kikindaface]

wow great thread, i love your rough stuff, especially the first one, i also love when the dude is followed by little things ! Great animations, show us more !

[ashess]

AAA, just a thought, you could use storyboarded pictures to explain the story up to the point where the penciltest starts -that way, we all know what's going on. well, hopefully

[Peter Berkovski]

very very impressive animations, love the pencil tests!
cheers

[ArturoPower]

DUde!!! the pencil tests are amazing! very fluid and expressive congratulations

[Maxine Schacker]

Where is your internship? Is it for animation or design? It sounds as if you have a tendency towards illustration or concept art. I'm pretty excited about the CA program. Keep an eye out for our new galleries (should be up by the end of June) and let me know what you think.

I hope you have a great summer.

[JohnnyP]

Sorry to butt in with an off topic post!

Maxine Schacker - Your school looks like heaven. I spoke to you on here a couple of years ago (different account) about my foundation course, and Ive spent the last two years battling to get anything from the university. Ive transfered to illustration and now I rely on self motivation to get any learning done. I hope your students appreciate the support they get in the essential skills! Most of our lecturers refuse to acknowledge any value in life drawing or serious studies!

[vardoburrito]

Ape, I hope your internship is going well & your learning plenty.
Smooth animations & I love the blog also. yumm!

/d

[comixnut]

love the first two and the one of the cliff in colour. Great timing and the movement of the characters is so well done. On top of that the pitcher has a great expression just before that end with the "WHAAAAAAAAAAT...?" LOL Definitely gotta put up some animation of my own now! Cheers man and keep it up!