FINISHING FUN !!

Hey Guys!

Line - This is a Cut in shot from the fight scene -

I animated the sweep from dober a bit slower so I could play with the timing in edit a bit......

LAIKA News-

I am 1 week after finishing the shot that I Spoke about in my last post . It was a wrestling match moving the main character through the world......but It worked out.....really well guys . I got a HUGE high 5 from my animation Supervisor

and even got a hand shake from one of the directors......What a great reward after the HARD work.....getting through the shot took.....

Often in animation your eyes will glaze over after a bit and its challenging to really see.....critically if somethings working.......without some time between seeing it.

I wasn't quite sure after the marathon shoot how good the shot was....but with the reaction I got from the guys I was able to go into a peace filled weekend of rest....ahhhh.

One of the coolest things about the scene I finished was animating a station wagon which was a Mechanical marvel......with lots of cool gears and winders inside.......

under the hood I could control the lift or drop the suspension independently for each wheel...this was so cool to work with BUT- the shocks did not go high enough to get the exaggeration the director wanted......so back to the garage tactics for me....

I was shoving my meaty wallet under the car...and pretty much anything else I could find to get the desired posing....Sometimes I wonder if the other guys resort to those methods as well......my gut says yes!!! Even at the Highest level of work - Stop motion always demands thinking on your feet.

After such an AMAZING last week...and a super cool shot to add to my pile....this current week although much less stressfull....wasn't nearly as rewarding . I didn't feel like I performed up to snuff this week and the shots I was assigned were not the most inspiring....

Sometimes you have to do Bridge shots between actions which can be cool

....but these were just ok.....they felt more like SHOTS with marks too hit .....than really a performance.

they all cant be winners....but I sure wish they could.....I try to tell myself that EVERY shot I turn in represents me....so I cant put less importance on the ones that are not as fun....gota put my heart into them all.

....In the next week ahead....I am on more link up shots....but....soon enough I have some more cool REEL pieces coming my way.

also.....my Stop mo TIP of the week.....I have been paying more attention to what I am actually learning at work than just absorbing it.....

and one of the things that has really helped me- In getting to an ULTRA clean animation quality is EARS-

I have always tracked the main body parts with no problems......But taking it to the next level of clean.....I have been tracking all my arcs on the ears of our puppets and it really makes a HUGE difference in my work...

You would think that I always would have......but really only in the most Basic ways...now that my work has to be feature quality.....Its an easy spot even if the face appears to be perfect in the playback the ears will TELL.....if you are off in any way.

so...In short- Track those ears.

jriggity