Oktapodi!!!

I know I post this a little late but I think it's better late than never.
Here's a short animation which was done by the excellent french animation school - Gobelins, and was also presented on SIGGRAPH,

Enjoy!

Class 6 - Session 608

Well it has been another crazy week. Since I do most of my work during the weekend, like most people in AM I guess.
I've finished working on the first polish phase and even more, so hopefully this upcoming week, my last 1/3 would be a little easier.
I feel I'm beginning to get there slowly... I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it would turn out ;)

The New AM Summer Student Show Case Is Out!

It looks so great!

Watch it here:

The Hulk 2 - Previsualization

It's nice to see the stages involves in the productions of a feature like this.
I didn't go to see this movie and decided to wait for the DVD version to come out instead (same goes for the first Hulk movie, which apparently was a very smart move ;)

Watch it here:

Class 6 - Session 607

So, finally we got around the first polish stage...
Here's my first 1/3 of my polished version (not final yet) and I think the last shot of it might be a golden shot (which I would put on my reel later on).
This coming two weeks I'm about to change a lot of stuff, some of it maybe I'll have to go back to blocking stage (like the part when he would look at the camera before the second hit in his head) but I'm not sure yet.
Anyway, Hope you'll like it!

A Special Thank You From AM Graduates

Here's a short clip with all the guys I know from earlier classes (7-8) graduates!
And Even though I'm not a graduate yet, I couldn't agree more with them.... Bobby, Carlos, Shawn and all the other people of staff and mentors - THANK YOU!

Watch it here:

A little something to get you inspired!

On the lecture of class 5 we've had a walk through with animator Michal Makarewicz which is an animator on Pixar's.
The lecture was AMAZING and was about the last 10% of polish (hell, it looked so great before the polish phase, I didn't know in the beginning what's else to be done.... oh boy was I mistaken :) and on this week's live Q&A my mentor had told me it was online on youtube. So naturally, your's truly was going to look it up - and here it is!!!
See how much he had gotten out of it! I really believe a great animator needs to be a good actor. Check out the reference to see what I'm talking about.

Eric Goldberg's Lecture In Israel At The Animation Festival

We are having in Israel an animation festival once a year. Last night I've been to the lecture of this years special guest - Eric Goldberg.
Eric is on of best classic animators I've ever seen, and he's been in the field for many many years (he had the chance of working with Art Babbit, and even Grahm Netwick!) .
He also responsible for the best part (in my opinion) in Fantasia 2000, when he animated and directed the amazing animation piece with the Flamingos and the Yo-Yo, and also Rhapsody's In Blue! The man is such an incredible super talent, it's hard even to start to describe how many amazing things he had done during his years working in Disney.
Of course his most famous character he had ever animated was the Ginni from Aladdin! And he told us so many amazing stories about how he always loved to animate, even as a little boy, making flip books (I could relate to that :) and up until now days.
He's so extremely nice and positive, it's amazing just to be around him.
I had the pleasure of introducing my self to him before and after his lecture, and found out he knows my class 5 mentor - Eric M. Bour and also. After the lecture was over (it was pass midnight but still he had time to answer people questions - what an amazing guy!) I've asked him about the many different styles he use to work in. He's unique curves is what I've come to love so much and you can see it in the way the Ginni is drawn, and the same goes to Hercules and Fantasia 2000. He told me he was always after trying other people styles, to keep on learning and evolving.
It was a great privilege to talk to him and it was so much fun I wish I could do it again :)

Another lecture, Another drawing

Here's another drawing I've made while listening to this week's lecture about the importance of sound and music in you short (hey! this is also a good way to practice in splitting my attention to listening and realizing stuff while thinking of the next stuff I need to draw/color, etc).
Well, I've decided to keep on working on the harder way for me to draw, since I'm an old school kind of guy and there never was something better for me to work with than just a simple pencil and a piece of paper.
So, I tried to make a quick sketch straight into the computer, using my Wacom tablet and then start working on the most important strokes, then the colors, then the highlight and shadows.

Here's what I came up with...

Class 6 - Session 606

Wow! This was an tidies week, since I had a lot of work to do and I'm pretty happy with most of my changes I've made (let's just hope my mentor would approve them as well ;)

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

It seems we are about to see a sequel for the first transformers movie, done by Michael Bay (which is a great move by the studio since the first transformers he done was awesome, and the guy knows how to make great action movies with comical reliefs).


Read more about it here:

MVA - Finally, the first trailer

It seems Dreamworks finally got it together, first Kong Fu Panda and now Monsters vs. Alien.
Ooowww, I can't wait!!!

Class 6 - Session 605

Sadly, I must admit I didn't get the chance of getting all that work done (and believe me, I tried) since there were so many things I had to re-do and other stuff to fix, I just couldn't get all of it by deadline.
Well... I would have to work my ass off during this week instead in order to finish working on my blocking plus.