Oh! Mighty renderer, how I hate thee!

I'm currently rendering out some shots. I'm using an IBL, and a 90 frame shot has taken 5 hours to get half way! Ouch! Why, oh why, did I decide to use an IBL?

I've been to a couple of meetings with animation studios, and things are looking promising. I've been given some great feedback from the directors, and am currently in the process of adjusting my reel, according to their critique. Hence, my reignited relationship with the mighty renderer.

Hopefully over the next couple of days, I'll have my reworked reel ready to send back to them. It was really nice to hear positive things from professionals in the industry, who aren't my tutors or classmates. Happy face!

Oh, Happy Halloween by the way. Here's the article with my screen shot of my animation from the musical Wicked (bottom right, in the article).

And so, here's a reminder of the work in progress shot I did (in its rough form)...y'know, as it's Halloween and everything :)

Animation Updates

Hi there, remember me? I know, I know, it's been a while since I last blogged but don't worry I'm still here.

In between applying for entry level positions in studios across the land, I've moved house and relocated, been on Jury service, been working, been animating, lost 2 stone...and amongst all the excitement of getting my latest Showreel onto my website and sorting through boxes that I haven't gone through since I was at school...I came across this book!

This was my very first animation book I got when I was about 10. I'm not sure of the exact age, but I was at Primary school - I remember having it at my desk in year4, so I may have been younger than 10. Aaaanyway...it reminded me about why I'm doing what I'm doing, and why I'm applying for animation roles. It's strange how my career choices have gone full circle. From wanting to animate, to wanting to work in theatre, to wanting to be an artist, to wanting to work in the corporate rat race...to wanting to fuse together theatre and art to return to my career choice: Animation.

Whilst you breathe a sigh of sweet nostalgia with me, take a peek at my latest showreel, it's pretty cool, even if I do say so myself: www.marcgodfrey.com/

Showreel #1 - Done!

I've done it! I've finally finished my first showreel. I'm really pleased, and relieved. It's taken a year to get to this stage...

To see it, check out my website: www.marcgodfrey.com

I would really love to know what you think.

I'm in the process of getting my 2 other showreels completed too. I've done my Animal and Creatures, I still need to complete a Games and Character reel...I'll keep you updated :)

Animating a Flap Cycle

My last assignment with Animation Apprentice is to animate a flying bird. The flap cycle is surprisingly straight forward, the only complication comes when studying the actual motion of a bird's wing and making sure it's doing what a bird, does!

The rig isn't the best to use for close ups. It's quite geometric and low-poly, but the overall effect is very pleasing if the camera angle isn't too close.

Since the bird looks like a crow, I figured it was appropriate to go gothic with my shot. My murder of crows swoop in, and swoop out towards the moon. What do you think?

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 :)

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?

Horsey Horsey

On the Animation Apprentice course we're learning about Horse locomotion. At first, fear careered through my body, it looked REALLY fiddly and complicated, but I'm pleased to report...Tweren't at all bad, twas it not!

Once I got my head around the rig and understood the controls, it was really about making sure all the curves looked good and the cycle was working smoothly.

Here's my Walking Horse. What do you think?

My mind is constantly drifting to the dreaded question: How am I going to get a job? The end of the course with Animation Apprentice looms, which means I need to get my showreel up to scratch and good enough to show to a studio, and prove why they should take me on. Lots to do. CV and Linkedin profiles to sharpen!

And above all else...I need to come up with an idea to cohesively put a showreel together. Watch this space!

My Popular Post...

It's been a while since I posted anything, mainly because I've been working on this.

It's not quite finished, but here's a playblast of a lipsync exercise. The extract is Louise Dearman, singing "Popular". All comments welcome :)

When Facing Fear, get Inspired!

Animation Dreaming

My last official day in my post at work is drawing ever closer. The anxiety and sense of fear that is starting to creep up on me, is getting louder. Am I doing the right thing? Should I be working full time whilst fixing up my showreel? Is it sensible to be giving up work without another job to go to?

Who knows! Well, I'm not leaving work completely, I am going back, but in a different role, and less hours. It feels like a good idea. But it also feels foolish. I guess I'm scared about not being good enough to make it in the world of Animation, and not being able to get a job. I'll get there though, I know it. I can feel it. Secretly though, I'm scared.

Our course at Escape finishes on Tuesday too. I'm scared.

So, um, yeah. Happy Friday everyone!

Reunited with an Old Friend!

 

 

Vintage Garfield T-shirts - circa 1988

Whilst clearing out a load of long forgotten junk, I stumbled across these little beauties; my treasured Garfield t-shirts I used to wear as a kid.

I used to be obsessed with Garfield. I had all the books and comics, spent hours drawing out my favourite Garfield characters and making cutouts for my bedroom wall. I used watch Garfield and Friends repeatedly on TV. I.was.obsessed.

I couldn't let them go to charity, had to keep them and thought I'd share here. Garfield's creator, Jim Davis, really inspired me to draw when I was kid...so perhaps if it wasn't for him and his beloved Garfield creation, I might not be where I am today, vying for a career in Animation. Garfield rocks!

Getting an Animation job!

I'm not yet at the stage where I'm job hunting. I still have a lot of work to do on my showreel. I'm very excited about what the future holds though.

Escape studios posted a blog by HaZ Dulull, offering his advice about getting work, in what is, a very competitive arena. You can get to the pearls of wisdom through the Escape link, or through here: Part 1: The Showreel, Part 2: Finding the right approach and lastly Part 3: Networking

An excellent read - jammed packed with really useful tips and advice. Big thumbs up!

I'm famous!

I forgot to mention...I'm famous! Well, that is, my tutor Alex has blogged about me.

A few years ago, I got a job working on the West End musical, Rent. I told Alex about it, and he was so impressed by how I got the job, he blogged about it.

You can read the article here: The animation student who created his own job



...I'm also celebrating 7 years with my other-half today...so hurrahs all round :)

How's the Animation Training going?

Me, where the Animation dream got
reawakened, back in 2009.

Things have been moving on for me at a nice pace! I must say though, being honest, for anyone that doesn't have a lot of experience in VFX, doing the Maya course with Escape Studios and doing another course with Animation Apprentice is a lot of work...especially juggling a regular job at the same time.

I've nearly finished with Escape Studios now (it's flown by), only 4 weeks left, but still have a good few weeks left with Alex at Animation Apprentice. If I had to do it all again, I would probably start off with Animation Apprentice, and maybe do a self-learning online Maya course, in my own time to up my skills.

The tutors at Escape are really lovely, and incredibly talented. However, some classes at Escape were, dare I say, I tad boring as we were learning things that bared no resemblance to anything I actually wanted to do with my career (of course, they were useful things to know about, but felt like teaching a drummer how to play the guitar)...but more recently, at Escape, we've been looking at Animation, it's not a patch on what I'm doing with Animation Apprentice. I recommend the course with Alex at AA, 100%!

I'm not phased by what the future holds...yet. I know jobs are few and far between in Animation, but I'm positive and optimistic. I really enjoy Animation, and feel that I'm being true to myself by taking the bull by the horns and retraining to do a completely different career in something I longed for as a child.

I'm leaving work in a few weeks...eeeek...although I will be back and forth, and doing some hours to tide me over, until a job opportunity comes up... I need to take the step and spend more time on my animation and show reel and really focus on landing that dream job! Very exciting! Kinda nerve-racking! Definitely fulfilling!

I love this Show Reel!

Whilst browsing show reels online, I came across this gem by animator, Erica Pinto. It was really the first scene that caught my attention, as I'm a massive fan of TV show, 30Rock. I think Erica has captured the characters beautifully - I love the attention to detail, such as the little glasses bounce.

One day, I hope to be as gifted as Erica. Check out more of her work here.

Week 12 of Animation underway!

Gah! I can't believe it's been a month since I blogged last! Sorry!

My mind is bursting with ideas for animations and my showreel. I'm not quite half way through the course with Alex Williams and Animation Apprentice yet, so there's lots of time for more ideas to marinade.

I've been working on weight shifts, jumping, showing weight in animation and overall getting a feeling of reality into my work, by how weight and balance works in an environment. Here's a simple weight shift that I animated (note, everything I'm posting currently is still in rough, and not showreel ready...still lots of work to do).

 

The rig is by Raveen Rajadorai at Creative Crash. It's remarkable how more observant I am becoming. For instance, when someone switches weight from one foot to another, I never really considered the two steps often used, I thought it was just a case of switching the hips. I look at people walking too, in a new way, I'm thinking "How are they carrying their weight? How much do they bend their knee? Is their chest rotating as they walk? Is their head still or moving with the motion?". Doing this animation course has given me new eyes!

Here's another weight based exercise I have done. The suicidal flour sack! I enjoyed animating this, although I found the rig quite tricky to work with. I love how you can get so much character into a relatively ordinary, plain and every-day object. This rig is by key_framer at Creative Crash.

 

A Proud Piece of Animation

I am bloody loving animating! I've created quite a few small pieces, but none of them are really showreel yet - still lots of tweaking to do.

Here's something I'm working on - it's still work in progress, so still some work to do - but I'm happy to show it at this stage.

I took a rig of a big "heavy" character, that comes armed with a machine gun - so typically this is the sort of character you would expect to find roaming the darkened streets killing everyone in sight...so, I decided to turn the character on its head - and give him an effeminate twist. Let me know what you think :)

An Animator's Life for Me...is a Busy One!

Apologies I haven't been on the blog much...the work at Escape and Animation Apprentice is keeping me very busy! If I'm not at work, I've either good my head in a tutorial, or book about animation (...or watching the latest episode of the British Bake-Off...obviously)

I was hoping by now I would have something to show you, that would be show-reel worthy...but alas, I'm not THAT good yet. I have a couple of walks that are proving a success, but still need a bit of tweaking.

I keep seeing trailers for animated films...needless to say, it starts me fantasising about working as an animator in a studio one day. This one in particular caught my eye, Wreck-It Ralph...the latest Disney, and it looks amazing...One day.

3D art? How do I become an animator using THAT?

Someone asked me: how do you become an animator ...which I thought was a very good question...and inspired discussion, that I thought I'd share. 3D art and animation is everywhere, so how do you get to train how to work with it? But firstly, let's get one thing out of the way, can you believe it's the end of August already? This year is zipping by. It also means that I have now been training in animation and learning animation techniques for about 2 months now. I'm at the stage where the software I'm using is getting very familiar and I'm feeling almost to the stage of it becoming second nature. Of course there are more programmes to practice animation techniques than just using Maya, but I'll stick with the one programme for now!

Click here for Image Credit

I used to ask myself "How Do I Become an Animator?", and end up getting lost on Google with articles telling me "to become an animator write letters to production companies and ask for experience", I think it's a good idea, but I don't know how much that would help in the long run. I wanted a solid training foundation, particularly in 3D art and 3D animation as that sparked more of an interest with me rather than traditional animation. One thing is for sure, I wanted to make sure I would be equipped with the animation techniques that I would need to know before I even attempted to approach a studio or company to take me on. The best piece of advice I was given (and I believe is paying off) is to network, network, network.

I didn't study Animation at uni*, so at the age of 30, I felt at a disadvantage - I didn't have a clue about any of the latest animation techniques or how to work in 3D art other than traditional sculpture. I've known about Escape studios for a while - I had a friend who studied Compositing there, and I had been to a couple of open days - so it automatically popped up in my mind. As I'm sure I've already explained, Escape couldn't help me with my dream to become an animator because they pulled the course, just as I was ready to sign up...but they did introduce me to Alex Williams...so a course in learning Maya with Escape, and a course learning Animation techniques with Alex followed.

I felt confident with Escape, the 3D art they created blew my away. But not only had I been given a personal recommendation from a friend, but the work their students is excellent - knowing Alex had connections with them, and seeing his showreel, I knew I was in the right company with him too. The animation techniques I'm learning are brilliant and easy to understand and follow (however, mastering them, is another matter). If I hadn't found either, I guess I would be looking for more schools or colleges with good reputations, good work to show for what they do and a good feel for their connections with the industry...THEN I'll approach a studio with my "let me become an animator with you" approach. Escape will help you find work when you finish a course, but I understand that they would charge a finders fee to the studio-potential-employer, which studios don't like, for obvious reasons! So, the networking approach is one I hope to explore to its full potential! It's still early days, but it's always good to be prepared!

*Some great uni courses for animation and working with 3D art, as I understand, are at Bournemouth University and the University of Kent.