Monday, July 30, 2007

ANIMATION EDUCATION - run lola run

shel here: took Lola out for a run.....working on a cycle.




ANIMATION EDUCATION: LOLA RUN TEST from handmadeheroes and Vimeo.

i plan on running her again in the next few days to see if i can incorporate some good feedback i got from justin (not like she needs the exercise, but i sure do!)

also, i was really happy to find some green goggles laying around, they so suit her. i think they came from GI Joe but he's welcome to come try and get them back.....if he dares!

Sunday, July 29, 2007

VISITING THE LISTENING TREE


...we recently had an delightful vist to shelley noble and her husband paul's lovely home and halfland studio. so amazing in fact that's it's been hard to find the words to describe it....but here is my feeble atempt:

first of all shelley's studio is disneyland for someone who likes to make stuff.....anything you can think of that you might need (yellow feathers you say? any color of raw wool? the tools to make it into felt material? tools, in fact, for any function you can think of....beads, strings, armature stuff, mold supplies, glues....inspiring pictures, notes and objects everywhere you look, (and behind that stuff as well) the place is oozing with creativity and everything you need to make what ever you want to make...and even more amazing than that, it's all organized! (wow.)

and the halfland set is even more impressive in person than it pictures on her blog, so exciting to see how committed shelley is to her process and the superb quality of all that she makes. the set details are mind blowing, from the tiny bread she has cooked and green beans, garlic string, and other veggies she has fashioned; the bottles, jars, and baskets to put them in; the material she has dyed to sew clothing out of; a wooden table she has made from scratch; the handmade tiles, flooring, molding, beams, windows and doors; the tree! the leaves!! the puppets!!! the list goes on and on and on, it really, truly boggles....

and best of all the day was about hanging out with AWESOME PEOPLE shelley and paul are kind, generous, funny....they gave us yummy food....and, well, these words i'm writing feel so ineffective to describe their hostpitality and good people-ness....

i guess our daughter aedon, who is 5, summed it up best when she said as we were getting in the car to leave "mommy, can we go back to shelley's house again on another day?" i hope so sweetheart, i hope so!

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Sucesses and Failures


well....at about 5:30 last night I crawled out of the garage with a feeling of confusion...I finished a short shot which Makes me happy {usually}....but I wasnt sure if It was good or not. The whole shot didnt flow from my mind like most shots do. It was a real struggle and my excitement wasnt there the same way it is on others.I just wasnt clear about what my character was going to do besides walk over to the far side of the cage....{always a mistake to start this way} I went to bed for a couple of hours then got up for work....After lunch I finally snuck a peek at the finished frames.....Hmmmmm?

It wasnt magic...{Dammit} struggle .....with wanting to move forward...but it isnt getting across what the shot requires...{Its a simple shot but I have a clear intention I want to get across to the audiance} and I failed to do it....

so...I show shel at the end of the day....and she with no hessitation says {RESHOOT!}

Allrighty then.....schedule a reshoot for Wednesday....this time with mistakes understood and lessons learned.....Getting the shot right will be much easier this time around.

So this reminded me that I am keeping all of the shots for the film hidden untill I finish the film.....{for maximum impact} but I dont mind shareing the shots that FAIL ....other than being a little shy about showing the mistakes....Im cool with it.

so..... This is my new policy.....Fails are public domain.....and just about every 3rd or 4th shot requires a reshoot....I imagine there will be plenty to look at for the remainder of the film.....

keep on truckin!

jriggity

Thursday, July 19, 2007

LOLA

shel here....i want you to meet LOLA....


she's the first puppet i've made by myself all the way through, from design to finish, so i've got a special fondness for her. (though i feel like she had more to do with the "design" than i did.....i just followed the clay and then the paint.)


she's foam latex with a wire armature and i even put wires in her hairs, so that might be fun to play with. i made her dreads short enough though that hopefully i won't have to animate them if i don't want too [i have enough issues just keeping track of 4 limbs, 8 fingers, a spine, a head, eyebrows, eyeballs, etc!].

her hair was tricky to figure out how to mold (cuz i didn't want to worry about deep tubes in my mold to have to dig the clay out of or to figure out how to get the foam into) so i just pushed her dreads all straight up and molded them together and then after they were foamed, cut them apart and pushed wires through them (with the pliers) and down through her head so they would stay put when i pulled them back down.....risky......i really had no idea if it would work or not......but it did!!! that's one of my favorite things about this whole stop mo obsession, is getting to come up with hairbrained (in this case literally!) solutions for strange problems.

LOLA feels a bit spunky to me.....i'm curious to see what happens when i start pushing her around (and to see why she's wearing a bright green super suit with silver boots!).

Friday, July 13, 2007

Stop mo Shamus!

Hey Guys,

Shamus our younger boy.....decided to do stop mo skits for his year long personal project at school.....He aniamted and compiled all these shots using Monkeyjam and my dv camera. I was very proud at what he put together when he showed us the dvd. He's a big fan of Robot Chicken ............so here it is.



justin

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

X - MAN

Hey ,

so.....Vacation is over....I {met} and Exceeded my goal of 3 finished shots. I ended up with about 10 finished shots ...POWERFULL!!! This came out to about 39 seconds of new Character animation. This officially puts me over the halfway Mark!! Im sitting just a couple seconds shy of 3 minuets. Crossing those Xs off my storyboards is really satisfying!
I also was able to edit my first couple of sequences together and It was really really exciting!!
Whats been in my head for 1 year and a half is Taking shape.....and Its so magical to me! Now I have to do my best to make sure the audiance likes it too.Thats the hard part???
I must now reestablish my flow at my day job then will go right into a new series of shots....which show Geralds ever decreasing excitement in seeing the new visitors to the pound.....More challenges ahead but I go into this next set less anxious than normal...I feel

I can see the shots already....just have to jump in and make them happen.
this week will go slow till I'm back on my feet at work....geting ready for a next big push.


jriggity

Friday, July 6, 2007

I'VE BEEN TAGGED: 7 THINGS ABOUT SHEL (ubatuber got me....so here goes....)

1. I’m an extremely lucky girl. (In large part proven by my AWESOME man, three AMAZING children, SUPPORTIVE parents, and deeply LOVELY friends).















2. The best present I ever got was a unicycle when I was 10 (which I got to totally relive when Justin surprised me and replaced my long lost unicycle a few years ago).













3. I did a lot of my growing up barefoot in Berkeley.



4. I’ve always danced and made dances. Sometimes I've gotten to travel to cool places to do it.


5. I teach Contact Improv dance at UCLA. I also have a private practice as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and an Alexander Technique Teacher, which means I get to help people let go of trauma, pain and muscular tensions that get in the way of moving freely in their bodies (cool stuff).









6. I was a die hard tomboy until my daughter showed me the amazing feats that can be done in princess dresses!




7. I recently fought in a Jiu Jitzu, No Gi, Grappling Competition (this is humorous to people who know me for some reason--they roll their eyes and snicker). I decided, as I was slamming this girl down on her back (and instinctively put my hand under her head so she wouldn’t get hurt when her head hit the floor), that I am a mother, a mover, a healer, but I am no fighter--it was a totally cool experience though....and hey, I won a medal!!













I tag Brian Oakley, you're up CRAZYWALRUS!

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Batteries not included!


So....I am taking all this week off to concentrate on my Film. I hope to make a big PUSH forward which at present is going to very well. I have Finished 2 {Challenging}New Gerald Shots. This was an additional 18 seconds of character animation...and I am very pleased how they came out.

Before most shots on this film I have had a small preformance anxiety. I want really great shots and diveing into the total unknown of a NEW shot is somewhat terrifying! I know that once I start it always turns out fine ...The shot reveals itself as a mortal physical being....and I let my hands do the rest.

The First shot I finished is the {RichGUT Drop Shot} - This was a problem solver and a Classic case of {HOW COOL IS STOP MOTION}....I have a situation that requires my dogs belly to be released ploping to the floor....This means I have to somehow increase the girth of a puppet that has limited and set mobility. I didnt do anything fancey in the endI just sliced a line in the puppets side that was off camera and stuffed it with double AA batteries till it looked like it was falling.

and it worked!!!!I was happy and the next morning shel watched it and gave it the thumbs up!!YESSSSS! 11 seconds right there.

On to my Next finished shot....The {Hair fix and GutSuck Shot}

This wasnt as scary of a shot....but it didnt go great. The first problem was my puppet....The armature we created for this latest Dog had 3 thin wires instead of 1 thick.We figured this would make the puppet last longer.....but instead the thinner wire wasnt strong enough to hold the extreme poses needed.So After spending A super HOT day in the garage under the Hot lights....struggleing to maintain shape of my clay heads...it was a depressing fail.....almost acceptable....but not good enough.My son said {RESHOOT!}

So I reshoot......and I am so glad I did..It came out great!....you can also see another solution for making the dog thinner...A big ole Clamp sqeezing his gut making him look trim and thin...Ha!

on to the next one...{Toughguy DOG} This one is GONA BE FUN!}and of course scary!

jriggity

Sunday, July 1, 2007

7 Things of Taggage.

So .....Me and shel were tagged by Ubatuber with the 7 things.....so....

1. I was a Competitive Freestle Bmx Rider in my youth and into my colledge years.It was a true passion and somthing I enjoyed and wanted to do more than anything.


2. I grew up in Miami Florida in some ocassionally Nasty neighborhoods with some
occasionally Nasty people....and had some some occasionally Nasty altercations.

3. I am MADLY In love with my Wife!!!!!!we met at a rock climbing gym in Santa Monica ca.



4. As a defining part of my artistic youth the Film {The Secret of Nimh}{Land Before Time} and the video games {Dragons Lair and Space Ace} were MAJOR Inspirations in becomeing and Animator and Artist. {Don Bluth}

5. I had my first son Nicholas at 18 in Hartford Connecticut....I have 3 children 2 boys, {Nicky, Shamus and a Daughter....Aedon}



6. I always wished I could become a super hero.... a bouncy hyper kid... I worked hard at all the skills involved in becomeing a Comic book hero.Gymnastics and Stunt training were part of my daily do...ha!....still is in some cases.



7. I am by nature very shy and Hate large Crowds.


thats it .....shel will drop her 7 in a bit.

jriggity