my first workflow tip... keeping the "feel" of your blocking

Ok fist off... after animating professionally for only 4 months i feel not the slightest qualified to teach others how to animate, but on one of my last acting shots i did in my spare time, i started doing something i never have heard from mentors or someone else, and id like to share this because to me it works pretty well.

Im talking about that well known moment when you come out of blocking in stepped and turn your awesome looking piece of animation into spline (or in my case plateau).

Suddenly everything looks funky, floaty and completely terrible... i used to go back and set more breakdowns but i dont think thats very efficient. Dont get me wrong, i dont get out of blocking without the feeling i have set enough keys to define all my transitions and all the key movements, wich is usually when i have a key on every 4th - 5th frame.

But then it still looks terrible sometimes. So what i did on my last shot was simply, keep a playblast of my awesome looking blocking and have it open during my first few passes of splining. And constantly go over it an check if my animation still feels the same as my blocking. I found this extremely helpful and it was one of these moments where i wondered why i hadnt done this earlier.

I dont know if everyone else does this but no one thinks its worth mentioning but i find this a nice little trick to hold on to if you feel lost when your splines go crazy :-)

Cheers
Luke

The Dark Knight in the cut, Part 1

I actually ama big Fan of Nolan and also the Dark Knight, but this video showed me that awesome (and successful) movies not necessarily have to be great in every aspect. I just keep asking myself if Nolan maybe intended to confuse by breaking the rules of editing or if its really done pretty sloppy.
Since i just started Production for my first own short film, these 20min were a HUGE learning experience.


In the Cut, Part I: Shots in the Dark (Knight) from Jim Emerson on Vimeo.

Demoreel inspiration

On the look out for some new ideas for shots i looked at the reels of a few people who have done AAU and there is some FREAKIN AWESOME Stuff.
If you need some inspiration look at these People:

Lisa Allen


Joshua Slice

Chutinart Warunyuwong

Shaofu Zhang

Louaye Moulayess

Stefan Schumacher 

(Swiss guy btw! And furthermore, his site is in my opinion a sample for the perfect portfolio page)

Inspiration through people

Theres another thing thats currently happening to me id like to write about.

A few weeks ago i saw a character design done by one of our matte painters... and i liked it a lot.
As i was on the threadmill at the gym this character came back to my mind and i thought about creating a story around that character... later that evening on the bus i had a basic idea for an adventure for this character... not a whole story... just the beginning... a setup :-)
I had nothing more for several weeks... but then suddenly (on the bus again) it came to me like a flash... i typed everything down on my phone because i didnt want to loose it and had nothing else to write on me. I almost missed my stop because i was so into it.
I pitched it to my workmate and he liked it... but not just him... everyone at work liked it... another guy (actually my cg supervisor) was totally eager to realize it as well...
So we decided to make that movie :-)

That was probably 3 weeks ago... since then ive drawn out rough storyboards, and developed the story to a really cool point. There are still some gaps, but it will come along... because... and thats what im actually talking about...

We are talking about it a lot... and everyone has great ideas... were also defining the look and feel of the world and of course the character needs some work...
This is so incredibly inspiring... both guys have so much knowledge in how to realize such a project and totally support me in realizing my story idea...
Ive never experienced something like that before... im full of energy, wich i can use not just for that short, but also for the other ideas i have... today i was awake 1hour too early... i dont know why... but instead of turning around and do the lazy thing... i got up and worked on another shot i really love and wich will hopefully be finished till end october...

To come to the point... talking to people who are as passionate as myself about our art, and work together to create something special... thats just... hard to describe... its just one of the best experiences ive ever made in my life, and i wish to everyone that you can make this experience yourself...

am i getting a bit emotional recently? ;-)