Attitude - Acting Clip Animation Test

Acting Test from Jonathan Li on Vimeo.

Acting Test Process Breakdown from Jonathan Li on Vimeo.

Same thing, breakdown and the actually clip itself. Total time spent on this clip:


Total Time Spent - 31 Hours
Planning - 1 Hours
Blocking - 7 Hours
Blocking plus - 9 Hours
Splinning Pass - 6 Hours
Facial Pass - 8 Hours

Rig courtesy of Animation Mentor. All animation by Jonathan Li

Jump 2 - Animation Test

Jump 2 - Body Mech Test from Jonathan Li on Vimeo.

Jump 2 -Process Breakdown from Jonathan Li on Vimeo.

Ok so what happened here was I was little worried that the previous clip might come across as a tad 'cartoony' so just wanted to make sure. This clip was modified off the 1st jump clip so it took a much shorter time to complete. Mainly kept and adjusted the runs. Total time spent on this clip:

Total Time Spent - 12 Hours
Planning - 1 Hours
Blocking - 4 Hours
Blocking plus - 2 Hours
Polish Pass - 5 Hours

Rig courtesy of Animation Mentor. All animation by Jonathan Li

Jump - Animation Test

Jump 1 - Body Mech Test from Jonathan Li on Vimeo.

Jump 1 - Process Breakdown from Jonathan Li on Vimeo.

Ok so here's the breakdown and the actually clip itself. Total time spent on this clip:

Total Time Spent - 27 Hours
Planning - 1 Hour
Blocking - 6 Hours
Blocking Plus - 8 Hours
Polish Pass - 12 Hours

Rig courtesy of Animation Mentor. All animation by Jonathan Li

Sparky Animation Co-Production

So here's a little bit of some local news. Sparky Animation in conjunction with Japan's Duckbill Entertainment, Baku Enterprise Inc. and Bandai Visual Inc. is set to produce a new CGI animated television program based on the best-selling Japanese book series, One Stormy Night. This deal represents Singapore's first animation co-production with three Japanese partners. Recent works that Sparky Animation has done include Dinosaur Train, with US-based The Jim Henson Company, and Mr. Moon with Skaramoosh (UK) and Title Entertainment (Canada).

The Last 10%

So what exactly is this last 10% a.k.a the polish phase that most animators refer to. Well it's the same thing that's been keeping me busy since the start of this last term of AM, hence a lack of presence on the blogs >.<
In any case it may be a little misleading calling it the last 10% as most of us tend to get the impression that it's simple cleanup house keeping etc. In reality, it can be anything from minor tweaks and cleanups to major overhauls and massive changes in your shots. Remember that feeling you got the last time you looked at your shot and went, "Geee...i wish i had changed how he got to that pose" or "hmmm he didn't looks quite like that was what he was doing". Yeah this is the time to make those changes.
I guess it's important to get yourself used to making big changes as working in the industry is no different. Director or supervising animator wants a change and bam you've gotta make that change. Don't be afraid to blow away large chunks of your animation, as this is all for improving the shot as a whole. Simple easy ways to manage the "bleeding" when you decide to "re-open the wound" would be to key all keys on the first pose just before the area of change and the last ok pose of that change, then WHAM delete everything and start fresh. This would mean doing the same things as before, blocking with nice solid poses splinning and pretty much the works.
You don't always want to re-renovate everything, at times working it through might prove to be the better option. Becareful however of "noodling" your shot to death (Reworking and adjusting things) You might end up losing important timing, accents and beats.

Was She Deaf (Polish Phase)

Alrighty so here's that Deaf clip that I was working on in Polish phase. Still have a few things left to tweak but the dates due so, what the heck.

Was She Deaf (Spline Phase)

Sorry i'm a little late again on the update. This is from last week's progress of the latest clip that i'm working on. Here we have it at the spline phase. Just smoothed out most of the important areas and refined most of the timing work. Facial is still in stepped, added in very rough lip sync.

Was She Deaf (Blocking Plus Phase)

So here's the Deaf clip in the Blocking Plus phase. Just trying to get more poses in at this point to make sure everything is working well and to see the flow of the action.

Portal 2 Investment Opportunities: Boots

Really awesome clip from Valve's Portal 2 Investment Opportunities Series. The whole packaging of the clip really sells well and has a really feel good thing going on.

Was She Deaf (Planning Phase)

Ok, so here's the planning phase of my latest bunch of shots that i've been working on.

Nutz...err final again - Final Facial Pass

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't been posting up anything new in the last few weeks. We recently started a new clip and I was going through the planning process what with thumbnails and shooting reference. Not much to show but here's the final with finishing touches on the facial animation of the last clip. This is the most up to date version of this clip but I suspect I may be revisiting when i hit class 6 next semester.

Nutz Final

Ok so here's the last clip for the end of the term.

Thunder Cats Remake

For those of you who were excited at the He-man remake, here's the latests on the anime-ish remake of Thunder Cats...looking quite cool.

Latests Cars 2 Trailer

Spy movie of the year. Always looking foward to the next Pixar movie...just because all their work tends to be AWESOME!

Nutz Clip - WIP 03

Alright. This here is the polish phase for this week. Pretty much smoothed out all the kinks in the arcs and poses. Locked down the facial plus lip syncs. You'll probably want to add in all the little bits here and there and the small ideas you had along the way during this phase. Next week is the final for this clip where we will finese whatever parts that need to be finesed.

The illusionist

Nominated along with Toy story 3 and How to train your Dragon for best animated Oscar.
Very very nice animation. Most impressed.

Nutz Clip - WIP 02

Alright so for this week it's the Spline phase. Almost everything gets smooth out and the graph goes from step to linear...mostly. Sometimes you'd want to keep certain parts in stepped but for the most of it, linears normally the way to go. Refining arcs and making sure you don't lose your poses are key here.

Nutz Clip - WIP

Here's last week's progress for my "Nutz" acting clip. The phase i'm in shown above is blocking plus. You'll want to try to nail down all the poses and as much of the inbetweens as possible to get a smooth transition into the spline phase later. Everything is still kept in stepped mode, as you'll want to get as much info in there before the big jump into linear.



This one shows the Blocking phase. It's key to nail down ALL the golden or story telling poses in this phase. Think of it as a comic strip. In a comic all you get are poses that tell a story. The audience needs to draw that connection between the pose and what's happening in the shot. You may also want to include breakdowns to remind youself in the next phase how you want each action to flow.

Animation Reel 28-02-2011

So here's my latests updated animation reel. I'm still currently have an acting clip coming up which is still WIP. I'll post those up as soon as possible.