Marc Godfrey Animator

Monday 29 April 2013

More Scorpions!

Hello! Here are the final videos for my Scorpion animation.

I really enjoy creature animation. I'm wondering if that's "my thing". I always saw myself as a character animator, given my theatre background. But it would appear that my art background is helping my observations of creature movement?

 



I've also started a new blog. I've decided to publish all the art from my sketchbooks! I've really enjoyed doing it, I feel like I'm archiving! So please have a look, and don't forget to sign up to receive updates to your email address: Marc Godfrey Sketch Blog

Oh yeah, and always, don't forget to leave me comments :)

Thursday 25 April 2013

I've Been Animating For a Pregnancy!

Don't worry, no one's pregnant. I just logged into my Animation Apprentice account, and I've been a member for just over 9 months - that's a pregnancy! ...and it does feel like I've been reborn, in some sort of cheesy, cliche way.

I've learnt so much. I feel that I'm using my creativity, and I feel very satisfied for it. Before, it was like I was stuck, somehow. I knew where I wanted to be, vaguely, but didn't know how to get there - and because no sails were in motion, I just spent a lot of my time just treading water.

Now, I'm training in a field that sparks my interests, working with like minded people, learning from my peers - I certainly feel more fulfilled than I have done in a very long time. It feels good.

Here's one of my latest animations. I've still got work to do it, but it's getting there. What do you think?


Wednesday 17 April 2013

Spider!

One of my latest animations has been a spider. I wasn't too keen when I first got the rig, this beast brought out an irrational arachnophobic feeling in me. So, immediately I turned him bright pink, and that was fine!

The assignment was to animate the spider on a walk cycle and add some sort of performance. I did two. Weirdly, and most interestingly, the two animations are very similar. One appears more playful, one more vicious. It's amazing what colours and additional set items can do to tell a story - or rather change a story.

Here's the first one, Playful Spider:

 

...and here's the second, Vengeful Spider:

 

See what I mean about them both being very similar? The only real differences are colour, lighting and "prey".

You should also be able to see how much more professional the second animation is? This is because it was the first animation I did as a proper render! From trawling various animation forums, I found a link to this really smart app called "Zeitraffer". Basically, it takes images and puts them together a your desired frame rate, and makes a movie clip. It's so simple. Best thing is, it's FREE!

Righty...off to do more animation now. I love receiving comments, so please let me know what you think...or just say hi!

Thanks :)

Monday 8 April 2013

Run Horsey, Run!

We had the Grand National at the weekend (thank you very much TeaforThree and Oscar Time), so thought it was a good time to post my latest animation, of a running horse!

I've really enjoyed doing the creature cycles. I find them quite straight forward, surprisingly, I mean they look really complicated right? As long as you have good thumbnails, they're really not that bad!

What do you think...?


I'm getting to the stage where I need to start putting together my show reel, which I'm really excited about. If anything, I'm excited to have a professional looking, quality reel. Playblasts (which this is, a kind of moving screen shot) are good and all that, but the final render is going to look super cool!

Tuesday 2 April 2013

My Trotting Horse

Here's the latest installment in my Animation learning. My 22nd assignment with Animation Apprentice was to take the horse rig, and make him trot. We've done the walk cycle, so now it's time to make him move a bit faster.

What do you think?