The Local Fowl

The studio is on a Farm. There are chickens right outside the building. They are entertaining to watch. I'd like to run around doing some more studies of them after we're done the current project.

Alternate Solutions to a Problem in Perspective

Paige was animating a wolf, and having troubles with it's arc of action in perspective. She came to realize that the problem was that the silhouette we wanted for the pose ultimately meant that, for the angle she was working at it from, the wolf would be landing in a handstand.

I oh-so-helpfully came up with some completely and utterly viable solutions to the problem that don't go out of character or offshoot from the action even a little bit.

...

Ehm...

Finland Plant Studies

Our director, Sunna, came prepared with a fantastic selection of photos of local landscapes and plants (this turned out to be lucky as we found ourselves with limited internet access after the first half week). Having volunteered to animate the plants growing, I had the fun task of scouring through these photos keeping my eyes peeled for what might be different stages of life of the same plants, and improvising for the ones that only show up in one form. I've been trying to cross reference some of the plants' growth with local shrubbery where I can and the plants are similar enough. It's been an interesting puzzle to piece together. C'mon grade 10-11 biology! Don't abandon me now!

Reindeer Walk Study from Video Footage

We're animating our reindeer as cutouts, I didn't worry too much about the head movement as
1: reindeer are surprisingly stiff from head to tail,
and 2: Our puppets do no have moveable heads.

The walks came out quite well.

Cat Gestures

Gestures of a bengal cat named Sage. Spritely fellow.

Developing a New Character

I've got this idea for a character... but... it's weird... I have a ton of ideas for how he acts and hold himself, how he gestures when he talks, etc... I have no idea what he looks like. I've got some basic back story, some basic life goals, an idea of what he sounds like... again... no clue what he looks like. I think this is how one is normally supposed to develop a character... but it's the first time I've actually gone about it with any sort of commitment or intention. I'm thinking I might actually find a character designer to finish up the look... because I know from past experience that I can spend forever redrawing a character in different ways and never be happy enough to just stop and go with it. I've a project in mind for this guy... I'd like to get to the point where I can actually start animating it sooner rather than later. Eh, well, finish up the current project first, then see where I go with this I suppose.

Self Reference Sketches Sans Mirror or Camera

Also describable as the "balancing the tablet game".