Feb 19, 2023
Aug 5, 2017
Back at it!
Hi everyone. It's been a long time since I posted on my blog. Many things have happened since my last post. Mostly good things, so it's all good. But onto animation, illustration, films, comic books, tutorials and conversations about all things related.
Something new that happened was that I went to my first Florida Supercon as an exhibitor. Well, I never been before at all. It was great. I shared a booth with my friend from college, Carlos Donoso. He goes by the name Inkone, here's a link to his website. INKONEART.COM . He has great work and all his illustrations are available on t-shirts.
For my first comic book convention, I did pretty well. Better than I expected. I went to sell prints of my illustrations and original. And I got a lot of great attention and feedback. I'm now hooked. I'm preparing for the next!
Another thing that is new. It's my new website. JUANCARLOSVALDEZ.COM I made it to be constantly changing with updates and news. I created a page for tutorials, so keep a look out for the new ones soon.
That's all for now!
Later animators!
Aug 11, 2014
Animation Speed Challenge 01 - The Purple People Eater
So I decided to create a challenge for myself. The challenge is what I call the Animation Speed Challenge. In which, I challenge myself to create everything in an animated short as fast as possible and at the highest quality possible. The purpose of the challenge to is to improve my skills and to create new content for my demo reel. What I've learned from this challenge is that I was able to cut corners and come up with new techniques in creating this animation. I also learned that I have to win and lose certain battles. Meaning that in order to complete the project I had to prioritize what's important and what can be sacrificed. This is a great way to deal with freelance work or working under a tight deadline.
The animation is I created here was inspired by the song The Purple People Eater. It's a silly song, and when I heard the other day, I thought of doing this animation. I didn't have much time, which then lead me to creating the challenge.
The entire animation, models, UV layout, textures, rigs, and weight painting took a total of 16 hours. Render time not included. I hope you enjoy.
The animation is I created here was inspired by the song The Purple People Eater. It's a silly song, and when I heard the other day, I thought of doing this animation. I didn't have much time, which then lead me to creating the challenge.
The entire animation, models, UV layout, textures, rigs, and weight painting took a total of 16 hours. Render time not included. I hope you enjoy.
Jul 2, 2014
Watercolor Illustration Ariel
This is a watercolor illustration of Ariel from the Disney's The Little Mermaid.
Apr 11, 2014
Jan 18, 2014
Frozen Review - It's Great!
I know this extremely late and it's quite obvious by the audience reaction to the film... but Disney's Frozen was AMAZING! I absolutely loved the film!
I have somethings that I want crazy about. Like, I felt the music wasn't consistent in style. I, however loved the song Let it Go. I wish the music and overall art style had a more Norwegian/Scandinavian theme. I was hoping that the music in the intro was used more. I didn't like the trolls at all... they were useless and unnecessary, except to be the deus ex machina in the story. And lastly, there was no real villain.
Other than that... it was great! The story was nice and heart warming. The animation was great. The design was superb. It was funny, clever, and fun. I want to see it again... can't wait for the DVD! Go see it!
Here's the video to one of my favorite parts of the film. Probably everybody's favorite!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moSFlvxnbgk&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Jul 13, 2013
Jun 14, 2013
Animator Assistant - Maya MEL Script
1. Animator Assistant
This MEL script is a shortcut to some of the most used functions when animating. All these functions are found when you right click on the timeline and select the function you need.
This MEL script will eliminate the need to need to constantly right-click. You can keep the UI window above your timeline and your productivity will increase. Just place the script in your script folder and source the script through your Script Editor, the script will automatically run.
You can download the Animation Assistant MEL script HERE
May 4, 2013
Feb 26, 2013
Going Green
I'm not referring to going vegan or environmental friendly.... although I am environmental friendly and I will never be a vegan... I'm a carnivore. But I'm going green in support of my fellow animators, VFX artists, and all the other artist that do the majority of the work to create a film but get no money, nor credit, nor respect. Enough is enough. We deserve better.
Feb 7, 2013
Animators are NOT actors - Part 5
This is another post about my personal opinion that animators are not actors. To recap on some past post about this topic, you can click on the tutorials tab and read the older posts. But I want to make sure something is clear about what I'm saying. I encourage all animators, especially my students, to always record themselves when preparing to animate. The animator should rehearse the scene and act out the parts that he will animate. This will help the animator understand how the body moves and behaves in certain motions and expressions. Also, recording yourself is a quick and easy source of reference. The animator should and must use theater, staging, and film techniques as they produce believable and natural character animation. The more we know and practice out these scenes, the better we understand what to animate.
However, animators are not actors. At no point do most animators get in front of the camera or go on stage and act in front of an audience. We don't have that experience. We don't have that mind set or training. That is not what we do. We, like Ward Kimball has said, as animators observe and then we recreate. Or in other words, let's get as many references as we can, use our own judgement, use the principles of animation, and we animate. Animators cannot depend on their own acting skills to be the main source of acting references. What tends to happen, is overacting.... in a very bad way. (Before I continue, never make the confusion between over acting and the principle of Exaggeration. As Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston said in the book, Illusion of Life, the principle of Exaggeration was to remain true to reality, just presenting it in a wilder, more extreme form.) The animators, unfortunately are not good at acting, therefore the animation suffers due to a bad performance. Also, the animator may overact in their video recording because they are trying to add exaggeration to their live performance so that it helps them in creating the animation. The can be a very big problem. If the animator acts out the scene with exaggeration and then try to exaggerate it more in the animation, then they crossed over the line into overacting. And thus, created good animation with bad acting.
Another thing that can happen, is that the animator's gender may show in the animation of a character with the opposite gender. Since a lot of animators rely on their personal acting choices, they then add unconscious mannerisms they have to the animation. They also use their gender behavior archetypes that do not belong to the character with the opposite gender. For example, they way a male animator moves will not work for a female character, no matter how hard he tries to act like a woman. If any my students are reading this, they have heard the next example many times. It's one of my favorite examples on this topic and it always make people laugh when I tell it. Here's the example: I animated a commercial years ago of children playing. One the children was a little girl skipping along the side walk. I tried to animate this little girl skipping, so I used a reference video. I recorded myself skipping. After all, I only needed to know how the skipping works and then I can simply adjust it to make it look like a little girl... right? Well, it wasn't that simple. Every time I animated, the little girl looked like big adult man! Haha... I tried to exaggerate the skip when I recorded myself. But no matter how hard I tried, it didn't look right.... until... I asked my niece to skip for me while I recorded her. And Eureka! it worked! That's when I realized I was doing this all wrong... I needed to know how the skip felt and recording myself helped... but the look of the animation depended on a better source and a more accurate source. That's why I needed my niece's help.
To further support my idea that animators are NOT actors, here is a video from the behind the scenes of classic Disney films. The animators and film makers used the voice actors, dancers, models, and other actors as the live model references for the animation. These live models, who perform in front of an audience on either stage or screen, who have been trained to act, who have the experience of acting, and do nothing but act are the best source materials that any animator could have. That is why some of the best character animation ever seen are in these films. Take a look below.
However, animators are not actors. At no point do most animators get in front of the camera or go on stage and act in front of an audience. We don't have that experience. We don't have that mind set or training. That is not what we do. We, like Ward Kimball has said, as animators observe and then we recreate. Or in other words, let's get as many references as we can, use our own judgement, use the principles of animation, and we animate. Animators cannot depend on their own acting skills to be the main source of acting references. What tends to happen, is overacting.... in a very bad way. (Before I continue, never make the confusion between over acting and the principle of Exaggeration. As Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston said in the book, Illusion of Life, the principle of Exaggeration was to remain true to reality, just presenting it in a wilder, more extreme form.) The animators, unfortunately are not good at acting, therefore the animation suffers due to a bad performance. Also, the animator may overact in their video recording because they are trying to add exaggeration to their live performance so that it helps them in creating the animation. The can be a very big problem. If the animator acts out the scene with exaggeration and then try to exaggerate it more in the animation, then they crossed over the line into overacting. And thus, created good animation with bad acting.
Another thing that can happen, is that the animator's gender may show in the animation of a character with the opposite gender. Since a lot of animators rely on their personal acting choices, they then add unconscious mannerisms they have to the animation. They also use their gender behavior archetypes that do not belong to the character with the opposite gender. For example, they way a male animator moves will not work for a female character, no matter how hard he tries to act like a woman. If any my students are reading this, they have heard the next example many times. It's one of my favorite examples on this topic and it always make people laugh when I tell it. Here's the example: I animated a commercial years ago of children playing. One the children was a little girl skipping along the side walk. I tried to animate this little girl skipping, so I used a reference video. I recorded myself skipping. After all, I only needed to know how the skipping works and then I can simply adjust it to make it look like a little girl... right? Well, it wasn't that simple. Every time I animated, the little girl looked like big adult man! Haha... I tried to exaggerate the skip when I recorded myself. But no matter how hard I tried, it didn't look right.... until... I asked my niece to skip for me while I recorded her. And Eureka! it worked! That's when I realized I was doing this all wrong... I needed to know how the skip felt and recording myself helped... but the look of the animation depended on a better source and a more accurate source. That's why I needed my niece's help.
To further support my idea that animators are NOT actors, here is a video from the behind the scenes of classic Disney films. The animators and film makers used the voice actors, dancers, models, and other actors as the live model references for the animation. These live models, who perform in front of an audience on either stage or screen, who have been trained to act, who have the experience of acting, and do nothing but act are the best source materials that any animator could have. That is why some of the best character animation ever seen are in these films. Take a look below.
I know that some animators will disagree with me and I know that they'll show me books, videos, or whatever to dispute my point. However, I am telling you that everything I said is true. Take a look at the video that I posted here and then look at the animation. Search for "animation progression" on youtube. You'll see that some animator do what I'm telling you not to do. You'll see that the animation isn't bad... it's most likely great! But look at the acting... that's the point of all this... the acting is where it's weak. I hope this helps you in your future animation projects and to better develop your animations through many accurate source references.
Jan 25, 2013
Breaking Bad Illustration
I just started watching Breaking Bad on Netflix.... I love that freaking show! Great... that's all I need another show to be hooked on. But it's a great show! I love all the characters and the narrative. The story development and the structure is awesome. It feels like watching a short movie every episode.
Jan 20, 2013
Early Pencil Test of Celeste
This is a little sample of a project I'm working on. The following video is a rough animation test. I'm missing a lot of inbetweens, but it's coming out nice and I'm really happy with the results so far.
Dec 9, 2012
Wreck it Ralph/Paperman - Review
I know it's a little late for a review on Wreck it Ralph. But I was finally able to go see the film and I really liked it. I thought it was great!
Great story, animation, direction, designs, GREAT EVERYTHING! There's not much I have to say about the movie, but other than I really liked it. Normally, there is a thing or two that I don't like about a film. But this was done very well! I loved trying to catch all the little hidden gems with the background characters. Ralph and Penelope were really interesting and well develop characters.
I think my favorite thing about the film was the designs. I always prefer the styled look over the hyper-realistic. I can't wait to own the DVD when it comes out!
Paperman, the short before the Wreck it Ralph was cool. But, as I mentioned in a previous post, I am very disappointed that it wasn't done in Traditional Animation. Let me start off by saying what I liked about it. First, the animation was great. Very smooth and cartoony. Second, the designs was great, it had a very traditional animated look. Not that far off from 101 Dalmatians. And third, I thought the story was cute and heart-warming. That said, I did not see any reason why the short had to be done in CG animation made to look like Traditional Animation. The environment could be done in CG but keep the characters in Traditional. I still haven't seen anything CG animated film that moves as smoothly as Traditional animation. I'm saddens that the big studios are not using Traditional animation more.
Great story, animation, direction, designs, GREAT EVERYTHING! There's not much I have to say about the movie, but other than I really liked it. Normally, there is a thing or two that I don't like about a film. But this was done very well! I loved trying to catch all the little hidden gems with the background characters. Ralph and Penelope were really interesting and well develop characters.
I think my favorite thing about the film was the designs. I always prefer the styled look over the hyper-realistic. I can't wait to own the DVD when it comes out!
Paperman, the short before the Wreck it Ralph was cool. But, as I mentioned in a previous post, I am very disappointed that it wasn't done in Traditional Animation. Let me start off by saying what I liked about it. First, the animation was great. Very smooth and cartoony. Second, the designs was great, it had a very traditional animated look. Not that far off from 101 Dalmatians. And third, I thought the story was cute and heart-warming. That said, I did not see any reason why the short had to be done in CG animation made to look like Traditional Animation. The environment could be done in CG but keep the characters in Traditional. I still haven't seen anything CG animated film that moves as smoothly as Traditional animation. I'm saddens that the big studios are not using Traditional animation more.
Dec 8, 2012
Animators are NOT actors - Part 4
I came across this video yesterday and I was very happy with the what was said by Ed Hooks and he confirms what I have been saying in my Animators are NOT Actors posts. Ed Hooks is the author of the fantastic book Acting for Animators. If you haven't read or if it's not part of your personal library, make it so immediately. Here is the link to the book on Amazon. CLICK HERE
Here is the video:
Here is the video:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)