Animation Mentor: Progress Reel Class 1

Estamos en la duodécima semana y la Clase 1 se ha terminado. Las críticas recibidas de mi mentora son excelentes, así que estoy muy contenta y con muchos ánimos de seguir aprendiendo. Tengo que decir que Ruth ha sido una mentora excelente, la echaré de menos.

Aquí está el resumen de mi trabajo durante estos tres meses:

This is the 12th week and Class 1 is over. The critiques received from my mentor are excelent, so I am very happy and excited about keeping going and learning. I have to say that Ruth has been a great mentor, I will miss her.

Here is my work during the last three months:

Animation Mentor: week 11

Durante dos semanas hemos estado trabajando en el ciclo de andar con personalidad. El mío fue este:

For two weeks we were working on a walk cycle with character. This was mine:

Hemos estado intentando comprender cómo lograr la ilusión de peso y de vida, y cómo expresar un sentimiento a través del modo de caminar de una persona. Yo creo que al mío le falta trabajo. No tuve tanto tiempo como me habría gustado, porque aunque mi primera aproximación fue buena, mi mentora me indujo a exagerarla más para darle más fuerza. Así que esta semana tuve que rehacer todo lo que había hecho la semana pasada y, además, hacer lo de esta. Creo que con más tiempo podría quedar mucho mejor, pero de todos modos tampoco se ve horroroso, o eso espero. :)

En cuanto a poses, tuvimos que pensar poses en las que Stu tuviese más peso en una pierna que en otra y aún así estuviese en equilibrio, por lo que hemos tenido que prestar especial atención a las caderas y también al considerable cabezón de Stu. :D

We have been learning how to get the illusion of weight and life, and how to express a feeling only through the way a person walks. I think mine needs more work. I didn´t have so much time as I would like, because even when my first approach was nice, my mentor wanted me to push it more to make it more powerful. So this week I had to redo all I had done last week and, also, do what I was supposed to do this week. I think with more time the result would have been much better, but it doesn´t look horrible anyway, or I hope so. :)

Regarding poses, we had to think about poses where Stu had more weight over one leg than over the other and was still balanced, so we had to pay especial attention to the hips and to Stu's huge head. :D

Yin

Este es Yin (tiene un añito):

This is Yin (one year old):

Lo encontraron nuestros amigos Rubén y Alicia abandonado en la calle. Era de un vecino que aparentemente lo maltrataba, dándole patadas y dejándolo todo el día en una cornisa minúscula y además solo. O eso, o encerrado en una habitación. Yin tenía roto el rabito y se le soldó mal, así que ahora tiene como un tropezón en él, aunque lo mueve con soltura. También cojea un poco de la pata trasera derecha, lo que le impide saltar con la seguridad que a él le gustaría, pero por lo demás, está bien.

No era así cuando lo encontraron Rubén y Alicia. El dueño del gato se fue del piso y no se le ocurrió otra idea más genial que abandonar al gato en la calle. Acostumbrado a comer sólo pienso, fue adelgazando y perdiendo fuerzas mientras lloraba en el portal esperando a que su dueño volviera y mientras recibía zarpazos de otros gatos callejeros cuando se acercaba a ellos buscando compañía.

Rubén y Alicia lo recogieron cuando ya no se tenía en pie y estaba consumido por las pulgas y lleno de costras. Lo llevaron al veterinario, lo vacunaron y esterilizaron, le quitaron todas las pulgas y lo alimentaron y le dieron el cariño que necesitaba. Pero no se lo pudieron quedar, pese a que querían, porque su gato, de 10 años, no hacía buenas migas con él y se angustiaba mucho al ver mermado su territorio. Así que empezaron a buscar otro dueño.

Y aquí entramos en escena Emilio y yo que, pese a no tener ni idea de lo que nos depara el futuro, hemos decidido comprometernos a cuidar del gato por los siglos de los siglos. Como dice él en su blog, donde caben dos caben tres. :)

Yin (le hemos puesto este nombre porque es negro como el azabache, aunque el color de las fotos mienta y aparezca como marronáceo, y en el futuro esperamos adoptar a Yang) es cariñosísimo, mucho más tranquilo de lo que esperaba. Creo que está contento de estar aquí. :)

He was found by our friends Rubén and Alicia, he had been abandoned in the street. The owner was a neighbour that mistreated him, battered him and left him the whole day in a tiny windowsill, alone. Or maybe locked in a room. Yin had his tail broken and it didn´t weld very well, so it is not straight anymore. He moves it gracefully though. He also limps a bit, there is something about his back right leg, so he can't jump as easily as he would like, but apart from that, he is fine.

It was not like that when Rubén and Alicia found him. The owner left the house and the had the great idea of leaving the cat abandoned in the street. Used to eat fodder only, he lost weight and strenght gradually while he cried in the street waiting for his owner. He tried to approach other cats in the streets, but they also mistreated him.

Rubén y Alicia picked him up when he couldn´t stand anymore and was consumed by fleas and full with scabs. They took him to the vet, they vaccinated and castrated him, got rid of the fleas, fed him and gave him the love he needed. But they couldn´t keep him, even when they wanted, because their cat, 10 years old, didn´t like him at all and got really upset when he was around. So they started looking for a new owner.

And here come Emilio and me, who, even when we don´t know what is going to happen in the near future, we have decided to accept the commitment and take care of the cat forever and ever.

Yin (we have called him like that because he is black like jet although the colour in the pictures looks brownish, and in the future we hope to adopt Yang) is very sweet, and much quieter I thought. I think he is happy to be here. :)

Animation Mentor is different

A estas alturas tal vez os estaréis preguntando qué hace de Animation Mentor una gran escuela. ¿Por qué tiene tanta fama? ¿Por qué es tan cara? Hasta ahora, todo lo que he mostrado han sido unos ejercicios que podría haber hecho en otra escuela de animación mucho más barata, o incluso por mi cuenta, y que podría corregirme cualquier profesor con conocimientos de animación.

Animation Mentor tiene varios puntos fuertes. En primer lugar, los profesores, llamados aquí mentores, son grandes animadores que han trabajado en los principales estudios de cine y animación del mundo. En este momento, la escuela cuenta con 77 mentores, y además cuenta con más animadores que, sin poder comprometer su tiempo con la escuela, se pasan igualmente de vez en cuando a ayudar a los alumnos con sus críticas o para intervenir en los foros.

Pero la gran riqueza de la escuela no es esta, ni siquiera es que tu mentor te corrija tu ejercicio comentando hasta los más ínfimos detalles para que realmente comprendas dónde has fallado. Ni siquiera es el foro, en el que puedes preguntar todo lo que quieras de animación sabiendo que obtendrás una respuesta.

Ni siquiera es que conoces gente de todo el mundo, animadores, y colaboras con ellos para aprender más y mejorar tu trabajo cada semana con sus críticas.

Lo mejor de la escuela es que cada uno de los 77 mentores tiene entre 10 y 16 alumnos, más o menos, que cada uno de esos alumnos hace un ejercicio semanal, que sus mentores graban en vídeo una corrección como esta y que tú, como alumno, puedes acceder a TODAS las grabaciones y aprender de TODAS las críticas, no importa en qué clase estén. La clase 1 es el primer trimestre (nivel básico) y hay 14 mentores. Imaginad lo que se puede aprender escuchando un mínimo de 140 críticas de ejercicios distintos, poses distintas, errores distintos. Pero es que en la clase 2, que animan ya el cuerpo humano completo (sin la cara aún), hay otros tantos mentores y se podrían ver otras 150 críticas hechas por grandes animadores a sus alumnos. Y en la clase 6, que ya están con animación completa y acting (diálogo y emociones), también tienen su ejercicio semanal, con lo cual tú, aunque estés intentando situar bien el peso bajo las caderas de Stu en tus primeras poses, puedes ir poco a poco comprendiendo más de animación oyendo cosas como "añade más overlap aquí", y darte cuenta de que los principios básicos están en tooodas partes y que son aplicables a todos los niveles de animación.

Para mí, esto es lo que hace que Animation Mentor sea diferente. Y el único problema de Animation Mentor es que nunca se tiene el tiempo suficiente como para escuchar todas las críticas que quisieras.

By now, maybe you are wondering what makes Animation Mentor a great school. Why is it so popular? Why is it so expensive? So far, all I have shown to you have been some exercises I could have done in any other school, much cheaper, or even on my own, and any teacher could make some corrections on it.

Animation Mentor has several strong points. First, the teachers, called mentors, are great animators that have worked in the main film and animation studios in the world. At this moment, the school has 77 mentors, and also some other animator that, without commitment, come and visit our workspaces and leave comments for us to help with their critiques or take part in the forums.

But the strongest point of the school is not that, not even that your mentor reviews your exercise making detailed comments to help you understand where your mistake is. Not even the forums, where you can ask whatever you want about animation being aware that your question will be answered.

Not even that you meet people from all over the world, animators, and you work together to learn more and improve the quality of your work every week .

The strongest point of the school is that each one of the 77 mentors has between 10 and 16 students, more or less, those students make an exercise every week, their mentors record the review in video like this and you, as a student, can access ALL the videos and learn from ALL the critiques, no matter what class they are from. Class 1 is the first term (basics) and there are 14 mentors. Imagine how much you can learn by listening a minimum of 140 critiques of different exercises, poses and mistakes. But in class 2, where they are already animating the whole body (with no facial animation yet), there are the same number of mentors and you could listen to other 150 critiques by great animators to students. And in class 6, where they are animating acting (dialog and emotions), they also have their weekly assignment, so you, even when you are struggling with the weight on Stu's hips in your first poses, can bit by bit be learning more and more about animation, hearing things like "add more overlap here", and realise that the animation principles are everywhere and they are applicable to every level in animation.

That is, for me, what makes Animation Mentor different. And the only problem Animation Mentor has is that you will never find time enough to listen to all the critiques you would like to listen to.

Ninja Fever saca su primer juego a la venta - Ninja Fever has its first game for sale

Creo que estos chicos, que han sido lo suficientemente valientes como para abrir una pequeña empresa de videojuegos en plena crisis, se merecen un pequeño post para felicitarles por su primer juego a la venta para XBox: Dual Zone. Hay quien tiene muy buena opinión del juego, y yo personalmente lo he jugado y, con lo mala que soy jugando a esta clase de juegos, hasta me defendí muy bien y lo disfruté. Si queréis echarles una manita para que triunfen, ¡no dudéis en probar y comprar el juego! Cuesta sólo unos dos euros... :D

¡Mucha suerte, chicos! :)



I think these guys, who have been brave enough to create a small videogames company in the middle of the crisis, deserve a little post to congratulate them about their first game for sale for XBox: Dual Zone. Some people have a very good opinion of the game, and I have personally played it and, given that I am the worst player ever, I even managed to handle it and enjoy it. If you want to help this guys for them to succeed, do not hesitate to try the game and buy it! It only costs two euros... :D

Good luck, guys!

Jugando con Flash - Playing with Flash

Me apetecía relajarme un poquito y salió esto. :)

I felt like relaxing for a while. This was the result. :)

Animation Mentor: week 10 - Poses

Esta semana hemos tenido que buscar poses para Stu en las que le mostremos exhausto. De momento sólo he hecho una, pero es posible que intente alguna más para elegir una al final. No os cortéis en decirme si veis algo mal o raro.

This week we've had to look for poses where Stu looks exhausted. I've done only one so far, but probably I will do some more to compare and eventually choose one. Do not hesitate to tell me something you see wrong. :)



Respecto al ciclo de andar de la semana pasada, a mi mentora le gustó mucho, aunque apuntó con acierto que la cadera está rotando al revés de lo que sería lógico en el eje Z (de lado a lado). Por lo demás, me dijo que puedo exagerar más algunas cosas, pero eso ya lo pondré en práctica en el ejercicio de esta semana, que es un ciclo de andar más complicado: ha de reflejar un estado de ánimo o la personalidad del que camina, o ambos. Lo veréis por aquí pronto. :)

Regarding the walk cycle I did last week, my mentor liked it a lot, but she said that the hips were rotating in the opposite direction to what would be logical in Z axis (side to side). She also said that I could have exaggerated some things, but I will do that in this week exercise, which is a more complicated walk cycle: we have to show the mood and/or the personality in the way the character walks. You will see it soon! :)

Animation Mentor: weeks 8 and 9

Y por fin me pongo al día mostrándoos el último ejercicio, que es un ciclo de andar estándar, sin personalidad ni nada de eso, y visto de lado para simplificar el movimiento de las caderas y ponérnoslo un poco más fácil. La primera semana hicimos la planificación y las poses principales y en esta última semana lo pulimos un poco para que quedara un movimiento suave. Este es el resultado y aún no me lo han corregido, así que espero que a mi mentora le guste. :)

And finally I am updated by showing you my last exercise, a standard walk cycle, without any personality at all or anything like that, from the side view only to simplify the movement of the hips and make it easier for us. The first week we did the planning and the main poses and this last week we polished it a bit to get a smooth movement. This is the result and it hasn´t been checked yet, so I hope my mentor likes it. :)

Y también tuvimos que hacer una pose para Stu. Me encanta hacer poses para Stu. :) En la octava semana tuvimos que mostrarle haciendo algún esfuerzo físico:

And we also had to do a Stu pose. I love Stu poses. :) In the 8th week we had to show him using physical strength:

(El paraguas lo modeló Emilio en dos minutos, que si lo tengo que hacer yo, en dos horas igual consigo algo remotamente parecido a un paraguas...) XD

Y en la novena semana, preocupado. Finalmente, elegí la segunda de las dos que hice:

(The umbrella was modeled by Emilio in two minutes, because if i had done that in two hours, I probably would have done something that would hardly look like an umbrella...) XD

And in the 9th week, concerned. Finally, I chose the second one of the two I made:

Animation Mentor: week 7

Un ejercicio un poco más complicado: combinar todo lo anterior para crear vida en una pelotita con cola. Esta pelotita ha de cumplir todos los principios básicos vistos hasta ahora, ha de haber overlap en la cola, ha de haber squash y stretch y, en fin, todo un conjunto de cosas que hacen de este el ejercicio más difícil hasta el momento.

A slightly more complicated exercise: to combine all the previous stuff to create life in a small ball with a tail. This ball needs to follow all the basics principles we have seen so far, there should be overlap in the tail, squash and stretch and, well, a bunch of things that make this exercise the most difficult so far.

Animation Mentor: week 6

Durante la sexta semana nos centramos en estudiar cómo se comportan los objetos cuando hay otro objeto que los guía (se le llama overlapping). Este fue mi ejercicio:

During the 6th week we focused on learning how an object behaves when other objects leads the movement (it is called overlapping). This was my exercise:

Y aquí mi planificación:

And here my planning:

Animation Mentor: week 5

Durante la quinta semana de Animation Mentor tuvimos que hacer una nueva pose de Stu que mostrara devastación, es decir, una gran tristeza. Por otra parte, tuvimos que hacer un circuito con una pelota, practicando por primera vez en el curso el principio de squash and stretch, que consiste en encoger la pelota cuando golpea contra algo para dar mayor impresión de impacto, y en estirarla cuando coge velocidad para dar mayor sensación de velocidad. Son recursos muy usados en animación, aunque recomiendan no abusar demasiado y usarlos con precaución, sobre todo en animación realista.

Aquí está la animación:

During the 5th week in Animation Mentor we had to make a new Stu pose that expressed devastation, I mean, great sadness. On the other hand, we needed to do an obstacle course with a ball, practising for the first time squash and stretch, that consists of squashing the ball when it hits something to create a bigger impression on the impact, and of stretching it when it goes fast to increase the sensation of speed. It is a very common tool in animation, but it is recommended to use it in moderation, especially in realistic animation.

Here is the animation:

A mi mentora no le gustó demasiado, porque se suponía que la pelota tenía que comportarse como un balón de fútbol y la mía se comporta más bien como una pelota pequeña. Como corregir este problema conllevaba cambiar todo el circuito, no hice revisión del ejercicio.

Aquí mis bocetos para Stu:

My mentor didn´t like it too much, because it was supposed to behave as a soccer ball, and mine was behaving more as a small light ball. As making a review would have meant to change the whole circuit, I didn´t do any review.

Here are my Stu sketches:

Y aquí las tres poses que más me gustaron. Finalmente elegí la primera de ellas. Esta sí le gustó a mi mentora.

And here the three poses I liked best. Finally I chose the first one. My mentor liked this one.

Bye bye, Ninja Theory!

Ha sido un verdadero placer trabajar para esta empresa durante los últimos tres meses. He aprendido un montón de cosas, entre ellas que aún tengo mucho que aprender, y he conocido a gente estupenda y con un nivel profesional impresionante. Ahora este período se ha terminado y ya estoy de vuelta en España, sigo con Animation Mentor y en breve prepararé una reel para buscar un nuevo trabajo en este competitivo mundillo. A ver qué pasa. :)

It has been a real pleasure to work for this company during the last three months. I have learnt lots of things, among them that I still have a lot to learn, and I have met great people with an impressive professional level. Now this period is finished and I am already back in Spain, I am still with Animation Mentor and soon I will prepare my new reel to look for another job in this competitive world. Let's see what happens. :)

Animation Mentor: week 4

La cuarta semana de Animation Mentor nos tocó profundizar en el tema del timing y el spacing que ya habíamos visto con la primera pelota botando. En esta nueva actividad, comparamos cómo se mueve una bola ligera y una bola pesada, en mi caso una bola de playa de estas que no pesan nada y una bola de bolos. Es muy interesante intentar averiguar cómo funciona el timing para cada una de ellas: los botes de la pelota pesada son muy rápidos mientras que los de la ligera son leeentos (esto significa que tienen timing diferente), y la distancia entre los "dibujos" (o frames) de la ligera es casi siempre la misma con pequeñas variaciones, mientras que para la pesada la diferencia es considerable.

Aquí os pongo mi planificación:

The fourth week in Animation Mentor we had to go deeper into timing and spacing, which we had already studied when we did the bouncing ball. In this new assignment, we compared how a light ball and a heavy one move, in my case a beach ball and a bowling ball. It is very interesting try to figure out how timing works for both of them: the bounces of the heavy ball are very fast while the bounces of the light ball are slooow (which means they have different timing), and the distance between "drawings" (or frames) in the light one is very even, while for the heavy one is quite big.

Here is my planning:

Y aquí mi animación:

And here is my animation:

Y aquí la revisión que hice cuando mi mentora, Ruth Daly, me dijo que la pelota ligera se veía aún muy pesada al final de cada bote. Aquel día no lo veía claro, pero ahora, cuatro semanas después, me parece evidentísimo.

And here is the revision I did when my mentor, Ruth Daly, told me that my light ball was looking too heavy at the end of each bounce. That day I couldn´t see it properly, but now, four weeks later, it is so evident!

La revisión tampoco me convence, ahora veo la pelota demasiaaado ligera. Supongo que un término medio estaría mejor, pero bueno, seguiremos trabajando. Al menos sí que ahora parece más ligera, ¿o no? :)

Por cierto, no os cortéis de comentar y criticar lo que queráis. Es posible que no sepáis de animación (o sí), pero de pelotas que botan sabéis lo mismo que yo, y eso es lo que cuenta. El sólo hecho de decir: "yo esa pelota no me la creo" es probablemente una de las mejores críticas que se pueden recibir. Así que ánimo con vuestras aportaciones y a ver si aprendo algo nuevo gracias a vosotros también. ;)

The revision doesn´t look very convincing to me either, now I see the light ball tooooo light. I guess something inbetween the original and the revision would be better, so we will keep on working. At least, now it looks lighter, doesn´t it?

By the way, do not hesitate to comment and critique as much as you like. It is possible that you don´t know anything about animation (or maybe yes), but about bouncing balls you know the same as me, and that is the main thing. The comment: "That movement is not believable" is probably one of the best critiques I as an animator can receive. So feel free to comment and let's see if I learn something new with you. ;)

La importancia de planificar - The importance of planning

¿Por qué es importante planificar la animación antes de comenzarla? Porque evita muchos problemas posteriores. ¿Alguna vez habéis empezado a cocinar algo sin comprobar si teníais todos los ingredientes y al cabo de un rato os habéis dado cuenta de que necesitáis uno esencial que no tenéis? Entonces tenéis dos opciones: salir corriendo a comprarlo o preparar otra comida. Pues con la animación es parecido. Si no sabes de antemano de qué ingredientes va a constar y cómo hay que mezclar esos ingredientes, en su justa medida y en su preciso momento... tendrás problemas. Con la práctica, muchos animadores son capaces de empezar a animar directamente, sobre todo cuando tienen fecha de entrega y les pueden las prisas. Pero es una mala práctica. En animaciones mínimamente complicadas, planificar te puede ahorrar muchísimo tiempo. Yo tengo sólo unos pocos meses de práctica en el mundo de la animación, pero ya he podido comprobarlo sobradamente. Así que:

¡PLANIFICAD VUESTRAS ANIMACIONES!

Why is planning the animation so important? Because it avoids lots of problems. Have you ever started cooking something without being sure that you had all the ingredients and after a while you discover that you need an essencial one you don´t have? Then you have two options: run and buy it or make another meal. Well, with animation something similar happens. If you don´t know in advanced what ingredients you need, how to mix them, when and how much... you are in trouble. With practise, many animators can start animating directly, especially when they have to meet a deadline and they are in a hurry. But it is a bad practise. In animations that are a bit more complicated, planning can save you lots of time. I have only some months of experience in this industry, but I have already realised that too well. So:

PLAN YOUR ANIMATIONS!

Animation Mentor: week 3

En la segunda semana de Animation Mentor ya empezamos a animar. Empezamos con la pelota botando. Primero la planificación:

The second week in Animation Mentor we already started animating. We began with the bouncing ball. First the planning:











Y luego la animación:

And then the animation:


La pelota botando es una práctica básica y estupenda para aprender a medir el tiempo en animación (se le llama timing): ¿cuánto tiempo pasa entre botes? ¿Tardan todos los botes lo mismo? ¿De qué forma pierde energía la pelota? ¿ Cuántos botes da antes de detenerse?

Y también para aprender a distribuir el espacio (spacing) que hay entre los "dibujos" para hacer que la pelota vaya más rápida o más lenta, dependiendo de si está subiendo, bajando o está en la cresta del bote.

Como estas son las principales características de una animación, en ellas nos centramos en nuestra primera animación del curso.

También tuvimos que hacer una pose de nuestro amigo Stu. Pero es una de las que puse en el post anterior, así que os dejo que intentéis adivinar cuál. Una pista: teníamos que expresar entusiasmo. :D

The bouncing ball is a basic and great exercise to learn how to measure the timing in animation: how long does it take to go from one contact position to another? Does it take the same length for every bounce? How does the ball loose energy? How many bounces does the ball do before stopping?

And also to learn the spacing between "drawings" to make the ball speed up or slow down, depending of if it is going up, down or at the top of the bounce.

As these two are the main characteristics in an animation, we focused on them in this our first animation of the course.

We also had to do another pose for our friend Stu. But it is one of the ones I showed in the previous post, so I will let you guess which one. A clue: we had to express excitement. :D

¡Feliz cumpleaños, guapetonet!

Hoy es un gran día: ¡Emilio cumple añitos! :D 28, uf, qué caña, dentro de poco ya me pasas... XD

Muchas gracias por ser una persona tan especial, por quererme y por querer estar conmigo aunque mi perspectiva de vida sea andar saltando de un sitio a otro. Gracias por tu generosidad, tu entusiasmo, tu bondad, tu ingenuidad, tu música y por tu sonrisa.

¡Muchas felicidades! :*

Portrait - Retrato

Este es uno de los últimos retratos que hice. Ya hacía tiempo que no dibujaba retratos, lo echaba de menos. Este es de hace unos tres meses. El retratado es mi novio, o Emilio, o Mars Attacks si se quiere, le vale todo. :D A él le ha gustado mucho.

Tengo ganas de volver a tocar un poco de óleo, acrílicos, pastel, sanguina... A la acuarela le tengo más respeto porque nunca he aprendido a usarla bien, pero a ver si algún día la cojo con ganas y le pierdo el miedo. :)

Ya veréis más cosas por aquí. ¡Besos a todos!

Animation Mentor: Poses

Animation Mentor es un curso de animación. Sin embargo, nuestra primera tarea no es animación. Nuestra primera tarea es esta:

Animation Mentor is an animation course. However, our first assignment is not animation. Our first assignment is this:

Nuestro primer personaje se llama Stu y es el que podéis ver en las imágenes. La primera tarea consiste en crear poses con él. Las de la imagen superior eran poses casuales, de un día en el parque; las de la segunda imagen, son poses de alegría y entusiasmo. Para ello, tenemos que hacer (y mostrar) bocetos como estos. Perdón por la calidad de las imágenes, no tengo escáner y tengo que vérmelas con la cámara del móvil:

Our first character is called Stu and he is the one you can see in the images above. The first assignment is about creating poses for him. The poses in the first image were casual poses, people sitting in the park or similar; in the second image you can find excitement poses. To do them, we need to do (and show) several sketches like these ones below. Sorry about the quality of the images, I don´t have a scanner and I have to deal with my mobile phone camera:



¿Por qué hacer poses? Porque nosotros, como animadores, hemos de ser creadores de emociones. Hemos de lograr expresar emociones con el cuerpo. Por eso es tan importante que Stu no tenga rasgos faciales. Cuando no entendemos el lenguaje del cuerpo tendemos a apoyarnos mucho en la expresión de la cara para entender cómo se siente una persona. Ahora estamos aprendiendo también a interpretar la posición del cuerpo: si el personaje está muy contento, casi todo el cuerpo estará tenso; si está muy triste, casi todo el cuerpo estará relajado... Cosas así. Nos inducen a exagerar mucho las poses, no tanto para animar en plan cartoon como para entender hasta dónde podemos llegar con ellas. Y es que animar se trata de transmitir emociones al espectador, hacer que sienta lo que siente el personaje. Para ello la pose ha de ser clara, legible y atractiva... Cosas no siempre fáciles de conseguir.

Why poses? Because we, as animators, have to create emotions. We have to express the emotions with the whole body. That is why it is so important that Stu doesn´t have any facial features. When we don´t understand body language, we tend to lean on the facial expression to understand what a person is feeling. Now we are learning as well how to read the body pose: if the character is very excited, the whole body will be tense; if he is devastated, the whole body will be relaxed... Things like that. They lead us to exaggerate the poses, not for us to animate cartoon, but to understand how much we can push them. Animation is about conveying emotions to the audience, make him feel what the character is feeling. To get that, the pose needs to be clear, readable and appealing... Things not always easy to achieve.

Enslaved

Os presento el juego en el que estoy colaborando. La siguiente información ha sido extraída de http://www.meristation.com/ (espero que esto sea legal... cof cof):

Ninja Theory y Namco presentan Enslaved

Esta aventura de acción en una América post-apocalíptica llegará a PS3 y Xbox 360.

Namco Bandai Games Europa ha anunciado hoy (29 de septiembre) el nuevo proyecto de Ninja Theory Ltd. Se trata de la aventura de acción Enslaved, que saldrá a la venta en 2010 para PS3 y Xbox 360. Los dos protagonistas poseen personalidades opuestas, pero deberán colaborar para recorrer una América post-apocalíptica y muy peligrosa. El título mezclará combates, estrategia y el aprovechamiento de los escenarios.

Dentro de más de 150 años, en el mundo sólo quedan unos pocos humanos y robots despiadados. En este entorno, los protagonistas Monkey, un hombre fuerte y solitario, y Trip, una joven experta en tecnología pero de procedencia pacífica, acabarán encerrados en una nave de esclavos. Trip se da cuenta de que Monkey es su única esperanza de escapar, y por eso hackea una cinta de esclavos para quedar unidos. Así, el jugador deberá aprovechar las habilidades de ambos para sobrevivir.

El estudio Ninja Theory ha vuelto a recurrir al actor Andy Serkis, que ya participó en Heavenly Sword, y esta vez dará vida a Monkey. Para la banda sonora, el estudio ha elegido a Nitin Sawhney. Completa la lista de estrellas el escritor y guionista Alex Garland, que ejercerá de coguionista.

Animation Mentor Student!

Pues eso, que ahora soy:
So, now I am an:

Animation Mentor is about to start!

After all this time, Animation Mentor is here! It has not been easy. I paid in August and they didn´t receive my payment, so I waited until they asked me for my receipt. I sent it, but they didn´t find my money anyway. And finally, looking into my account again, I found out that the money was back into my account! But 162€ seemed to get lost during that period and I don´t think I will recover them.

I don´t know if it is Animation Mentor's fault, because they changed the account number and they didn´t let me know about that change; maybe they told me and it was my fault because I didn´t find the information about the new account number anywhere; maybe it was the bank's fault, because as soon as they see some money passing by, they take some of it for themselves; maybe it is nobody's fault and it is only that the dollar costs more now. No idea. But I have lost a lot of money, and I am not happy with that.

Anyway. My boyfriend (thanks a lot, darling) made the transfer again (I couldn´t do it without the online banking that I still don´t have) and this time it worked! So I am going to start Animation Mentor. That MAKES me happy, so let's look at the brighter side of our lives. :)

Life drawing classes

The other day I was told that there were life drawing classes not far from the company. Some colleagues were going to take them, so I immediately decided I would go as well.

I only took life drawing classes once in my life. It was for a period of 15 days in Gijón, in a summer course that I enjoyed a lot. In that case, the model was a quite handsome man who posed for us for one and a half hours every time. It must have been terrible for him to keep the same pose for such a long time (with little breaks inbetween).

This time the model was a young woman, quite thin and with very english facial features.

It is nice to go to life drawing classes. When you see the model naked, you don´t see a person naked; you see a potencial piece of art in your empty paper. It is a very nice feeling. I don´t know about the rest of the people, but when I saw her, all I could see was light, shadows and shapes. The room was in complete silence while everybody was drawing her. The concentration was amazing, I loved that. You could hear the sound of pencil, the more agressive sound of charcoal, an esporadic rubber somewhere, a chair changing place to get a better point of view... I loved those little sounds. I loved silence. I loved the concentration. It was like being for two hours in another world. The cost of this trip was 5 pounds.

In this occasion, the poses changed. At the beginning, they changed every three minutes. There was a man there, drawing as well, who told the woman "ok, it is fine" when the time had past. Probably it was this man who decided to practise life drawing and decided to let other people participate to help with the payment due to the model. That is not a bad idea at all.

As I said, the poses changed every three minutes at the beginning, every ten or so later, and the final pose lasted for twenty minutes. So you could practise everything: with the shortest ones, capturing the pose and line of action; with the longest, pose, light and shadows and even the relationship with the environment.

I would upload the drawings I did, but I don´t have any scanner. So that will be another time.

The bad news is that these classes will last only for another week more. Then, they will be interrupted because they have to look for another place: the big room they were using is going to be engaged for something else. What a pity!

Ninja Theory!

As unexpected as could be... There was an offer at Ninja Theory (Cambridge) for some intership positions. A friend told me about that, and I didn´t hesitate to apply, even when I didn´t know anything about that company. I didn´t know that it is one of the main ones all over the world.

It was a surprise -a very pleasant one- to be selected for the interview. This interview took place at home, through Skype, and there were three people at the other side: the lead animator, the principal animator and the assistant producer. The interview went well, but I didn´t feel that I was especial enough to be chosen.

But I was! Today I was called and a nice girl told me that I am suppose to start the 1st of september. This is a great opportunity for me! The only sad thing is that I have to leave Emilio here, but I hope he will come and visit me. Now I have to think of packing my things once more and go to Cambridge this time.

Another adventure is coming! ;)

Accepted in Animation Mentor!

I have just received an email that says:

"Congratulations Fall Student!

You have been accepted into the Fall Term for 2009 for the Advanced Studies in Character Animation program at Animation Mentor! "

So I am in! :)

New challenge?

Still unemployed, even when my reel was liked and I got a job in Asturias... but I rejected it: now I have a boyfriend I have to look after. He is creating a videogames company in Castellón and I didn´t feel like leaving him here and seeing him only at Christmas or something like that. It was a difficult decision, but I finally made up my mind and decided to stay here.

Now I am making arrangements to sign up to Animation Mentor. It is the course I always wanted to do. If everything goes well and they accept me, I should be starting the 28th of September. Let's see what happens. ;)

Encouragement

There is nothing more encouraging when you are pursuing a dream than witnessing how a friend gets hers. It is amazing how determination and bravery can get what fear cannot.

I am so happy that you, Mari, have got your dream. Watching you being so successful, I feel strong and I am sure that your example will be my inspiration forever.

Thank you for being my friend. :)

First attempt

Well, my reel is still not finished, but I sent what I had to a company located in Valencia. This company has an awesome portfolio, and I thought they wouldn´t want me because I am only a junior animator, with so many things to learn and very little experience. But I had to try, because the company is very near from where I currently live. So I sent my CV.

Well, I was right. They where very kind, but they rejected my application. I was not good enough yet. They say I have talent, and I think they are really nice to say that. Nobody forces them to say that, so it must mean that it is true... I guess. It is inevitable to feel a bit sorry for myself, but do not worry, I will keep on trying. Not only this company, of course, but other ones. My reel needs improving, and I have to manage to get better quality in as little time as possible. It is hard if nobody teaches me, but I will do my best. It has only been the first attempt. :)

Preparing the reel

Three months ago I came to Virtual Toys to work as an animator. I really enjoyed working there, my fellows were so funny and so professional at the same time! I learnt a lot, laughed a lot and worked a lot. When you work in videogames, it seems that you are always in a hurry. There were deadlines almost every week, so we had to finish our tasks in very little time. I managed to play my role (even when I was the newest) and they were happy with my work. Unfortunately, the project I was working in was cancelled, so now I am getting my demoreel ready to look for another job as an animator. Let´s see how things come!

;)