New Blocking Pass

This is my latest blocking pass for the Hippie/Businessman pass. I wanted to clarify the characters a little bit more. One of my main concerns which I also tried to address was in keeping the characters’ actions distinct enough so as not to distract from one another. For that I tried to play with pacing and timing of the overall scene. I think I still have a ways to go in playing up the business man’s frustration. I will go back and reshoot reference for that soon. I hope to get this portfolio ready in the next few weeks (if not sooner!)

DreamWorks Q&A, Gallery Show

Yesterday I had a once in a lifetime opportunity thanks to my professors. DreamWorks is having a gallery show at school called “DreamWorlds: The Inspired Concept Art of DreamWorks Animation”. Tuesday night was the opening and I was given the chance to interview Production Designer Kendal Cronkhite and Head of Character Animation Rex Grignon from PDI/DreamWorks. It was so amazing! The interview took place in front of almost 500 people in a filled auditorium. I have to admit I was nervous, but I felt comfortable knowing that my friends were in the audience as well. I asked Kendal and Rex about their past and present in the industry and touched on their trip to Africa to research Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. Overall it went well and I will never forget my experience.

Hippie and Businessman - Updated Pose Test

So I got some great feedback on the last pass of my pose test and reshot some reference before going back to posing. I think it’s stronger but I know I can push it more. I was recently watching the Spline Doctors “Bale Contest” tests and I really saw the power of pushing poses. I would like to get that into this test before I move on. At the same time I’m also gearing up to work on my demo reel to polish up my current tests. With all the other projects going on it’s getting busy but also exciting!

Hippie and Businessman - New Pose Test

Back from London and back to work. After getting some good advice, I reshot some reference, and reblocked my characters (I’m also now using referenced characters which will make modification much easier later). I like the direction this is going in now. The businessman’s attitude is now in line with what I originally intended, and the hippie is more fleshed out. Right now I need to take step back and get more eyes to look at it to tell me if it’s going in the right direction.