Class 1 - week 12 - Progress reel

Then class 1 is done.. here is my progress reel. Showing what I have done.. not so happy with the overlapping assignments.. have to improve that. But at least im showing progress :-)
Would like to say thanks to my classmates and my mentor for 3 great months.. class 2... here I come!

Week 11 - Class 1.... soon class 2, crazy

Here is my result for the week11 assignment. Polished my marching walk from last week.



With the Vanilla walk, I really struggled with the "after blocking mode", when I entered spline mode. Everything looked really messy, and was floating all over the place.
This week I have read a couple of articles and watched Keith Lango's videos about this stage in the animation process, and learned a lot.
So this week I added much more information in to my blocking stage, than last time. And it looked so much better, and I only had to clean up my curves.
So you have to take your time to add enough information in to your blocking. Do not stress!

Soon it's class 2, this was the last assignment in class1. If I look back, I have learned so much.
I also see a dramatic improvement in my drawings. Since we are sketching out poses every week, I have got stronger poses, and cleaner lines. That's so nice to see.

We are going to have a break between the terms, but i'm planning to do a new walk in the break, so would probably upload it here.
Wonder what type of walk I should do? Starts to get really fun now!!!

Week 10 - Class1 - Walk with personality

Hey, been quite hectic here. Been sick, and had a long weekend in Iceland, so again, sorry for the lack of updates.
But here is my blocking of my week 10 walk, walk with personality.
Marching marching.. lalala..
This week (week 11) im going to polish this walk.. so hope to upload it here on Sunday :)
Soon summer term is over, the time just flies away.. going super fast!

Soooooon class2 :-)

Class 1 - Week 8 - Walk blocking

Hey all.. sorry for the lack of updates lately. My daughter had her first birthday, so has been quite hectic here. But super fun! She also started in kindergarten today :-) This year has just gone super fast!

Back to Animation Mentor. Week 8 was about Walks. Finally! I have been looking forward to walks for a long time now :-)
This week we blocked out our walk, next week we are going to polish it :-)

Class1 - Week6 Pendulum

My assignment for this week... pendulum - overlapping actions :)

Class 1 Week 5 - Obstacle Course...

Then the assignment for week5 is done. Obstacle course.. starting to more and more fun now :-)
Also a Stu pose.

Pixar's "UP"

This looks great! Really looking forward to this. It looks like it's another classic from Pixar.

I'm still waiting for Wall-E here in Norway. Why why why does every good movie has to come sooooo late to Norway. Stuff are out on DVD when we can see it on cinema. Can't believe it!

Class 1 Week 4 - Animation Mentor

More bouncing :-) This time a light and a heavy ball :-)

Class 1 Week 3 - Animation Mentor

Here is my bouncing ball & "excitement" pose for week 3. I feel it is a bit slow, so I will probably do some refining on it this week, but will first see what my mentor has to say :-)

Week 4, here I come!

WIP - Showreel 2008

Week 2 - Animation Mentor

Here is my pose for week2 at Animation Mentor. Looking forward to get some feedback from my mentor.
I went to a golf course and a shopping mall to sketch my poses.
So fun to finally do stuff. Soon week 3 already! :-)

Class1 - Animation Mentor

Yeah! It has started.. can't believe it!
So much to check out! So much inspiring information. I'm going to stay up all night!
And my birthday is tomorrow, so this was a nice birthday present :-)

My mentor for class 1 is Raquel Coelho. She has worked at studios like Blue Sky Studios, PDI/Dreamworks, Wild Brain and Tippet Studio. Isn't that some cool studios to have worked for? Yeah, it is!

I'm going to post more regular, so will keep you updated on my way to become a animator!

Cya soon!

Animation Tips & Tricks

It's been a long time since I posted something here. So here is a little update:

I'm working hard to prepare myself for Animation Mentor, I'm starting up 30th of june . I have bought all the basic videos from Jason Ryan Animation. This is some super nice information!

Also discovered that Richard Williams is releasing his MasterClass The Animator's Survival kit "Animated" on 16 dvds! Time to save some money, this is a must have!
You can read more about Richard Williams here.

Shawn Kelly has started up a new blog, more stuff to my RSS feed! Nice inspiration and information.

And finally... I'm going to get a boy! So now we have a girl and a boy. SUPER COOOOL!

Waiting for Animation Mentor to start

While I'm waiting for the summer term to start, I'm doing some preparations. I bought a copy of DigiCel FlipBook after watching some tutorials from Jason Ryan. This is a great software to do some fast line tests, and animation in general. It also has a good connection between FlipBook and Maya.

What I like about FlipBook is that it is so fast. You really get the feeling that this is made with the animator in mind!

I also got a tip from a current Animation Mentor student, that they use PEK at Animation Mentor, so I will check that one out as well, to see witch one I like the most.

Visuelt 08

This has been a day packed with inspiration! The yearly seminardays about visual communication "Visuelt" is going on these days (24. - 26. april) in Oslo, Norway.
I joined day number two, with the theme "My professional integrety". The day was about you as a person, and what are motivating and inspiring you.

It was a lot of great speakers:
Fred Deakin & Nat Hunter - Airside (UK)
Erik Kessels - KesselsKramer (NL)
StormStudio
Kjell Ekhorn - Non-Format (NO/UK)
Adam Burke - Pixar Animation Studios (US)

Overall it was very good. But my favorite speakers was, Erik Kessels and Adam Burke.
They really had passion for what they worked with, and showed a lot of really good stuff.
Erik talked a lot about of cool projects they have done for clients, and own products/labels they have created in house. He also pushed that it is very important to have a good idea.

Adam showed us a lot from Ratatouille, and talked about how Pixar work, and that you can't rush art.
I'm going to Frame by Frame tomorrow, he is going to speak there as well.

After a long they with great stuff, I got so inspired that I bought myself some new books.
Timing for Animation
Animation, The Mechanics of Motion
Animation, Writing and Development
Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery

So this weekend is hereby dedicated to reading :)

The Making of Burning Safari Short

Burning Safari from a group of talented French Students, has a really cool visual style. This is good inspiration!
Found this making of, check it out.

The Making of Burning Safari Short

The Disney Company on Ollie Johnston

Ollie Johnston, one of Disney's Nine Old Men, and the last living member passed away April 14th 2008.

Here you can read the official Walt Disney Studio press obituary, released to the media.

Some information about Ollie Johnston from Wikipedia:

Oliver Martin Johnston, Jr. (October 31, 1912 – April 14, 2008) was an American motion picture animator. He was one of Disney's Nine Old Men, and the last living member. His work was recognized with the National Medal of Arts in 2005.

He was a directing animator at Walt Disney Studios from 1935 to 1978. He contributed to many films including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Bambi and Pinocchio. His last full work for Disney came with The Rescuers, in which he was caricatured as one of the film's characters, the cat Rufus.

Johnston co-authored, with Frank Thomas, the reference book The Illusion of Life. This book helped preserve the knowledge of the techniques that were developed at the studio. The partnership of Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston is fondly presented in the documentary Frank and Ollie, produced by Thomas' son Theodore.

Boby Beck's Webinar - April 30th 7PM PDT

Meat AnimationMentor.com CEO and formar Pixar animator Bobby Beck & animator on Horton Hears a Who! Aja Bogdanoff April 30th 7PM PDT.

Hear Boby Beck share how he got started as an animator and the work he did on cool projects like Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. Bobby talks about how AnimationMentor.com really works, and he will interview one of the graduates of Animation Mentor, Aja Bogdanoff, about her recent experience working on Horton Hears a Who!

Click here to sign up for this super cool webinar

Frame by Frame #5 - Saturday 26.april

Its time for a new Frame by Frame gathering. This time on Filmens hus in Oslo, Norway.

The schedule of the day:
12.00-13.45
Welcome!
Visuelt screening
Latest news from Qvisten Animation

13.45-14.15
Break

14.15-15.45
Before You Animate - Adam Burke, Pixar

15.45-16.15
Break

16.15-18.00
Filmforbundet
A presentation of Animation Conversation
New, Norwegian animation

18.00-18.30
Break

18.30-19.30
Tomm Moore / Cartoon Saloon

19.30 >
Party & lottery

Price: kr 150,-
Location: Filmens hus, Dronningensgate 16, Oslo

Animation Mentor - Here I Come!!!

Moving to a new apartment!
Been long time since I posted something here. Been moving to my new apartment, so much packing and unpacking. Didn't knew we had so much stuff!

Animation Mentor
Finally got the answer from Animation Mentor, I'm in! So coooool. Can't wait. So since I don't have so much animation experience yet, I'm going to start practicing so I have some work under my fingers before I start there.

I got a seat in the Summer 2008 class. So this is going to be 18 super exciting months with hard work!

I have for a long time wanted to go there, but since Lånekassa (Norwegian financial support for education) didn't supported Animation Mentor, I had to save for it myself.

So after some hard saving, I'm finally there!

I'm going to keep you updated here on my blog.

Free e-book from animator Shawn Kelly!

Downloaded my copy of the free e-book with a lot of animation tips & tricks from the award winning animator Shawn Kelly. He is currently working over at ILM, and is the co-founder of Animation Mentor.

Get your copy today!

Friday Night Sculpt #3 - Demon

Its friday :-) Time for some Friday Night Sculpting over at 3dhue.com.
This time the theme was Demon.
Here is my result after 2h.

More ZBrush doooodles!

Time for another head done in ZBrush, just love that program!
This time an African man...

My daughter - 6months!!!

The time goes so fast! My daughter is already 6 months!
So as a little "birthday" present, I did a quick sculpt today.

Friday Night Sculpts #2 - Robot

Hi, Fridah Night Sculpting day over at 3dhue.com. The theme this week was Robot head. Did this quick 1 hour speed sculpt of a half human and half robot.

I started out with the provided Ztool, just a very simple base head. After some quick sculpting of the foundation on the head, I masked out the different "metal" parts, and extracted them as new subtools.

Was fun to do some "hard" surface sculpting in ZBrush. Haven't done that to much. I think I will try to do it more often. Was fun!

Gnomonology - New releases!

I bought two of Rick Bakers timelapses from Gnomonology yesterday.
After spending 5 hours watching them, I must say they are great inspiration. Its supernice to watch how Acadamy award winner Rick Baker works!

So I strongly recommend to buy this timelapses:
The Biker - Rick Baker
African Woman - Rick Baker

Friday Night Sculpts

So its Friday! Joined the Friday Night Sculpts over at 3dhue.com today. They post a theme, and we have 2hours to finish something. Today it was Alien.

We finally got the keys to our new apartment today :) So this weekend is going to be a color full weekend with painting :)

ZBrush doodle

Long time since I posted something in my blog, so I'm uploading a quick sculpt I did tonight for fun.
The texture is also done in ZBrush...

I have now finished my last real job over at Modul Interactive, redesign the Think.no site (cooming out soon) so now I'm closer to take the step to Hyperlinkto... This is why I haven't had time to post something here :)
Have already helped them with 5 characters for a game for Byggmakker.

My girlfriend, my daughter and me are moving to a bigger apartment this Friday, supernice!
Just have to sell our old one :) Give me a call if you are looking for a 70m2, one bedroom, with a nice view on the balcony in Oslo, Norway :)

Headus UVLayout

After watching a learning dvd from Gnomon, I tested out Headus UVLayout. This is a nice little stand-alone program for the creation and editing of UV coordinates for 3D polymeshes and subdivision surfaces.

I have been looking for a stand-alone program for laying out the UV's, think I found my favorite so far.
The price is also really good! Check it out!

Hyperlinkto here I come!

After 5 super nice years at Modul Interactive im changing directions. Im moving to Hyperlinkto, in Oslo, Norway - to work as a lead 3d artist / designer. Im currently ending all my current projects at Modul, and will soon head over to Hyperlinkto...

ZBrush Time lapse- Head Speed Sculpting

Did some speed sculpting today. Recorded a timelapse of the prosess of creating this head from a basic mesh to the finished result.

Here is the time lapse:

Speedsculpting - ZBrush & Maya

I did this Ant for a speed modeling comp on a 3dhue.com. We had to sculpt a Bug within 90min.
So this is my result. Basemodell in Maya, detailing in Zbrush.

I would like to finish this up with textures and some more fine details, but this was what i delivered for the comp.

ZBrush - Detailing my character

Started detailing my character today. This is the part I love.. just bringing everything togheter.. Still a lot left, but posting a quick update here...

ZBrush Topology tool

Finished with week 4. And here is my result with the topology tool in ZBrush. This tool is one of the best in ZBrush 3.1. I'm now ready for the fine details, and I'm also going to lay out my UV´s this week.

Here is a small guide on how to use the topology tool in ZBrush 3.1:
1) Go to "3d edit" mode on your model
2) Draw out an ZSphere from the Tool menu on to the canvas.
3) Go under the Tool menu, here you now see a section called "Rigging". Press "Select" and select the model you want to create new topology on.
4) In the Tool menu, there is also a section called "Topology". Press the "Edit topology" button.
Your are now ready to draw out new topology on your model.

Good luck!

ZBrush Sculpting Digital Characters Week 4 - CGWorkshops

We have had two weeks of now in the Holiday Breaks, so it's time to finish up my week 4 homework in the ZBrush Sculpting Digital Characters course/workshop I'm taking over at CGSociety.org. Here is a link to the course details.

This is a 8 weeks course in creating digital characters in ZBrush. We also look into anatomy and the philosophy and ethics of the production world.
Our instructor is Cesar Decol Jr. He is a Modeling Supervisor and TD. Cesar Dacol Jr. has worked on films such as Journey 3-D, 300, Barnyard, The Wild and Fantastic Four.

Week 4 was about refining our character and do some retopology with the fantastic topology tool in ZBrush 3.1. If you haven't checked it out, do it now! It's just super nice!
We have created our characters from ZSpheres, so I had to do some cleaning up in my topology.

In the next week we will start with the fine details on our character. The weeks until week 5, we have focused on the foundations. Bones & muscles.

After the course is finished, I will add some accessories and cloths to him. The reason I'm not adding it now, is because we focus a lot on the anatomy and foundation.

Looking forward to texturing and pose him... will post some updates... so stay tuned :)

Three Seeds - My Short Movie

I'm currently working on my first animated short movie called "Three Seeds". Would like to keep a diary kind of thing here on my blog, to keep track on my progress while I work.

The picture you see in this post is a testrender to check out my light set up. I still have a lot to do on this scene. Modeling and texturing. I have applied some basic maya shaders to get a better read on the light.
This picture is from scene2, the first official scene after the opening title.

Whats left to do in this scene before animating

Main House

• More details like roof gutter
• Table and a chair on the terrace
• Some elements on the small wall where the wood are. (Hammer and a handsaw?)
• Grass that sticks up in between the road and some other places
• Lay out more road
• Mailbox?

Chicken house

• Same kind of details on the wall as the main house
• A door
• Elements inside the chicken area

In general

• More details on the tractor
• Some new trees (not sure if I should keep them as simple as they are now?)
• Texturing
• Light tweaking
  

I will post more information about the project and the story when I'm a bit more in the process.
I have a finished storyboard, and some progress on the main characters..

Get ready for a new year!

It's time for 2008... and I'm starting my own blog. Probably going to blog about digital sculpting, animation, design and more..

I got some pretty nice presents for christmas. More than I thought I would get. Probably the best present was the male anatomy figure:version 2 that I got from my girlfriend. It was much taler then I thought, it's just super nice. Love her!

I also got "The digital maquette, volume two" from The Gnomon Workshop.
And I got an Ipod Touch, 16gb from my job. How nice is that?

But you really feel after you got a child, that you are not the center of attention when it comes to presents.. My little 4 months old girl got like 100 times more presents then me.. so this is how its like to be a grown up.

So, happy new year! See you soon...