Teri's Animation Mentor Blog

Close Shave - 606

2010-05-10T12:04:00.001-07:00

Close Shave - work in progress 5-9-10
Originally uploaded by Teri Shellen

Here's my work in progress, submitted 5-9-10. My mentor had some awesome notes - so I added an insert shot to show the razor saying "never nicks" - which I think really helps. :)

Now I'll be reblocking a couple more shots - but for the first section, I should be moving in to splined :) Woo hoo! :)

Close Shave - week 604

2010-04-28T00:28:00.001-07:00

Close Shave - work in progress 4-28-10
Originally uploaded by Teri Shellen

Here's my week 4 posting. The part of the short that's desaturated is the part I didn't work on this week.

I'm finally getting caught up from being out of town...this Sunday I should be back on track and all good to go. *phew*

That's all for now. :)

Close Shave - First Stage Blocking

2010-04-26T11:36:00.001-07:00

clsh_compile_v009_export
Originally uploaded by Teri Shellen

Well, here's the first pass of the whole short. Even with cutting out a shot, it grew...haha.

Feeling meh about shot 90 - still struggling to get my idea across in that shot. Not sure if it's that I'm trying to tell too much in too little time, or if I should just simplify it?

Now on to addressing notes from my mentor! :D

2nd stage, blocking plus, here we come! :D

602 - Blocking 2/3

2010-04-11T22:53:00.001-07:00

clsh_compile_v006_export
Originally uploaded by Teri Shellen

So here's my most recent pass of blocking for my short. The scenes in color are the ones that I worked on this week (my mentor wanted the hook up shots - so they're in gray)

2/3 done - 1 more week and then all the blocking is complete. :D

Ummmm....ok?!

2010-04-06T14:26:00.001-07:00

Haha - looking for vampire music, and this one popped up. It's just too good to not post. :)

Term 6 - Week 1 - Mentor: Kevin Koch

2010-04-06T12:59:00.001-07:00

clsh_compile_v005_export
Originally uploaded by Teri Shellen

Wow - ok, been forever. :)

So I'm finally finishing my last term at AM (yeah, I'm on the two year program.) :)

Here's my week 1 progress. Basically - I have the story flushed out, now I'm just working on my short with blocking.

Layout is done on all shots (but I'm sure things will be tweaked along the way). Blocking was done for shots 10 and 20 - but I'll be changing quite a bit next pass (my mentor gave some really good comments).

But anyways - here goes. :)

Term 4 - Progress Reel

2009-09-18T13:55:00.000-07:00

teri_progressReel_term04_5_export
Originally uploaded by Teri Shellen

Ok - so here we go - here's my final reel for term 4.

I wish I was part of the polish class - because this work needs some major love. haha Especially the first shot of my 2 person dialogue. Oh well, maybe I can go back and polish it up on my own, when I'm done with school.

Enjoy. :)

Here's where I'm at

2009-08-29T11:19:00.000-07:00

So here's what I submitted for homework last week. I'm working all day today and Sunday morning to try to make this better. It's been a difficult few weeks with being out of town, work, life, etc. - so AM has fallen a bit to the wayside - but hopefully the next 3 weeks I can kick it into gear and get this piece working :)

The stars are aligned....woot woot

2009-08-29T11:12:00.001-07:00

So I've been battling catching up since going to SIGGRAPH and then vacation at DOC's parents' house (let's just say they're still on dial-up - nooo homework getting done there). But I'm feeling strong today - and then I saw my horoscope - woot woot:

August 29, 2009
Capricorn (12/22-1/19)
You're unstoppable right now. To-do lists disappear in the blink of an eye. Mountains get moved with the simple touch of a finger. The stars have taken your natural industriousness and multiplied it, so if there's been anything exceptionally big on your agenda that you've put off tackling, now is definitely the time to address it. You have so much energy that needs to be put to use!

Behind on my postings

2009-08-26T10:56:00.001-07:00

But I had to share this - wow!!!!

Final Monologue

2009-07-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

Here's what I posted for my final monologue - I'd love to keep working on this, but time never stops. haha :)

Term 4 - Back in action

2009-07-14T00:28:00.000-07:00

Hey there!

So I'm back from a leave of absence - with moving ourselves, and my mom - I figured it would get waaaay too crazy with work and school - so thought it might be best to take the term off. BUT I'M BACK!!! :)

So term 4 is amazing so far - I love having Jon as a mentor - I can already tell that this is going to be a huge growing experience for me. :)

Here's what I've submitted so far. It's been an interesting experience with the project being broken up into two terms, and taking a break between. The first pass is basically a pass only done before I left, and the second pass is a pass I did for the second week of term 4. There's a HUGE difference (at least I think so). It still needs some love, but it's exciting to see the change happening to it. I'm totally blown away at how helpful it is to take a break from your work, and look at it with a fresh pair of eyes. :)

Pass for week 1:

Pass for week 2:

Ok - on to week 3 (final week of this project). :)

Work in Progress

2009-02-08T16:21:00.000-08:00

Here's my work in progress for the 1st assignment. It was supposed to be our final submission this week - but I still feel like I need to polish it more to smooth things out and take out the pops. Waiting for crit - then I'll give it one more good solid pass, and hopefully things are a go. :)

We're moving onto dialogue this week. I need to come up with three dialogue pieces (between 5 and 10 seconds) - then thumbnail out my ideas.

It'll be a lot of work - but I'm so excited - we finally get to use BISHOP! He's not fully rigged (facial) - but it's just exciting to have something a bit more 'human' like. :)

I'll keep a list of movies I'm thinking about in the meantime (I'll keep updating it as I go):

Groundhog Day
Superbad
Dan in Real Life
Roxanne
Peggy Sue Got Married
Modern Problems
National Lampoon's Vacation
Young Frankenstein
Swingers

Gearing up for the next project

2009-02-04T09:34:00.000-08:00

So we're doing our first dialogue piece for our next project. I'm super excited. We have to pick a few clips of audio (due in 1 1/2 weeks) - so here are the names of some actors who's voices I really like. My mentor suggested picking a movie that I've never seen before (so that I don't have issues with tying the dialogue to the performance of the actor). So I thought I would look for some movies with actors I like. :)

Here's my list so far:

Paul Giamatti
Will Ferrell
Lily Tomlin
John Goodman
Ricky Gervais
Bill Murray
Billy Crystal
Steve Buscemi
Ellen DeGeneres
Tom Hanks
Tim Allen
John Ratzenberger
Holly Hunter
Jason Lee
Samuel L. Jackson
Peter O'Toole
Seth Rogan
Steve Carell
Carol Burnett
Jack Black
Dustin Hoffman

Inspiring video

2009-02-03T00:58:00.000-08:00

wow

Work in Progress

2009-02-01T14:00:00.000-08:00

Here's my work in progress on our first assignment for term 3. I have one more week to polish stuff up - still need to work on arcs and phrasing. :)

Term 3 - Assignment 1 - 2nd Pass

2009-01-28T01:13:00.000-08:00

Here's my second pass at animation for my piece. We moved into linear keys, which is something I've never done - it feels a bit "robotic". But it was really helpful - it showed me that my timing was REALLY slow - so I had a decent amount of time to add some more depth to the character - give the magician another magical swish with his wand. Overall, I like it a lot more - but I still have posing and timing issues to work on.

Forward march!!!! :)

New Mentor - Mike Belzer

2009-01-20T01:46:00.000-08:00

Woooo hoooo! Term 3 is in full effect - I originally had Jay Jackson for my mentor, who was amazing, but I had conflicts with work and class - so I swapped into Mike Belzer's class (Thanks Ben!).

I'm just starting week 3 - so here is what I have so far. The first assignment is a pantomime project - basically with a change in emotion.

My idea: magician who pulls a rabbit out of the hat - only to be surprised by what happens.

It's cute, and short, and I'm really excited to be working on it. :)

Here are my week 1 and 2 drawings / reference / blocking. The blocking needs a lot of work (which I've already spent a few hours changing after crit - so I'll post up the new pass soon. :)

Reference Footage (god I love my boyfriend) :) :

Sketches from Footage:

First Blocking Pass (aka - the poo pass):

YAY!!

Starting Term 3 Tomorrow

2009-01-04T22:44:00.001-08:00

YAAAYYY!!! I can't wait to see who my new classmates are, and meet my mentor. :)

hee hee hee

Term 2 - Better Late than Never

2009-01-03T22:49:00.000-08:00

Well - here's my reel for term 2 - we worked on 3 pieces total for the term. I had some family emergencies happening during the last project - so I couldn't devote a lot of time to it, bummer, but a-ok - I'll just work my butt off next term. :) Hope you enjoy.

white_christmas

2008-12-01T23:49:00.001-08:00

white_christmas
Originally uploaded by Teri Shellen

Gotta take time every once in a while to enjoy what's going on around you. :)

Inspirational Video

2008-10-25T08:32:00.000-07:00

Hey there - here's a new music video from Psapp. It's a bit gory, but fabulous. I hope you enjoy!

Psapp - The Monster Song

Here's their information about the piece:
Description: The Monster Song is our brand new single, released on November 3rd in the UK and Europe. It is the first single taken from our forthcoming album, The Camel’s Back, released through Domino in the UK on October 27th.

We worked with Stephen Irwin (http://www.smalltimeinc.com/home.htm) for this animation who kindly and skilfully turned our scribbles into moving images. Be warned, it’s our most violent video to date with LOTS of blood, gore, dancing teeth, fishcakes and exploding mammals.

Here’s the press release bit:
The Monster Song is a sad song about loss and depression; it’s the morning after the big night before, when the green eyed monster is lurking around every corner, just waiting to pounce. Despite its dark and uneasy lyrical content, The Monster Song has an uplifting and playful pop edge due to Psapp’s trademark use of found sounds and Galia’s harmonising vocals. The Monster Song is a taste of what to expect from The Camel’s Back, Psapp’s most starkly beautiful record to date.

Term 2!!!

2008-10-16T11:32:00.000-07:00

So term 2 has started - my mentor is Matthew Russell - amazing animator! I really enjoy my classmates so far too.

This semester is working on Body Mechanics - like weight shifting, pushing, pulling, jumping, etc. I'm so excited about what's to come.

dipity / animationpodcast

2008-10-16T11:29:00.001-07:00

This is amazing - it makes me want to watch all the animated movies on here in order.

Between Terms

2008-09-22T17:34:00.001-07:00

So in my effort to post fabulousness about my AM experience, nothing really happened. But now, we're on a week hiatus, so I'm going to go back and post up all of my work in progress and revisions - it'll be nice to get it all in one place - plus, it's a good use of time on my week off. Sooooo --- soon to come --- updated work.

In the meantime - Here's my term 1 progress reel with all of my finished work on it. I still promise to upload the sketches and the original submitted works as well. :)

105 - Obstacle Course / Stu Pose: Devastation

2008-08-03T12:10:00.000-07:00

This week we're focusing on a ball bounce in an obstacle course. Finally we're introducing squash and stretch - woooo!!! :)

Sketches:

Animation:

Our Pose assignment this week was Devastation - here are my sketches and my final pose for submission.

*REVISION* Final submission for Obstacle Course:

*REVISION* Stu Devastation Pose

104 - Submitted Work

2008-07-27T11:52:00.000-07:00

Here's are my sketches and the video I submitted for review.

Sketches:

Animation:

*REVISION* Final Render of 104

104

2008-07-20T23:33:00.000-07:00

So this week we have a break from Stu - and we're focusing on another ball bounce. We need to do something heavy, and something light - so if any of you out there find any reference of a bowling ball, and a ping-pong ball bouncing - let me know! :)

I'll be sketching the action tomorrow - posting hopefully that or Tuesday night.

:)

- t

103 - Ball Bounce / Stu Pose: Excited

2008-07-20T23:24:00.001-07:00

I'm sorry I didn't post work in progress - it was kind of a hectic week. But here are my final submissions for review by my mentor. Sorry again, I'll try to be better about posting during the week.

Here's my final ball bounce. Nothing too exciting - but I think it works.

And here are some sketches and my final Stu pose - our assignment for week 3 was excitement. I think I probably could have pushed it a bit more, but again - I think it's ok. :)

Ok - off to bed with me. :)

*REVISION* - Here's the final render for the assignment:

102 - Random Stu Pose

2008-07-13T14:11:00.000-07:00

So with the help of my classmates, I picked the pose to use for Stu. Here's what I turned in today - hopefully the pose reads clearly - I guess we'll see when the crit happens. :)

This is the pose that everyone seemed to like the best

Here's my pose of Stu.

Here's the silhouette. :)

*REVISION* Here's the revision from mentor comments:

102 - Sketches

2008-07-11T12:43:00.001-07:00

So we're focusing on sketching people we see - just quick sketches - then we need to select one and pose Stu in that form.

It's been FOREVER since I've drawn - so it'll take some getting used to again. :)

My Animation Mentor Blog

2008-07-05T12:37:00.000-07:00

So here it is - my Animation Mentor Blog. I've been meaning to start one up for a few weeks, but just haven't had much time. So we're officially ending our first week of Animation Mentor. The first week was pretty mellow - no real assignments, just getting a feel for everything and everyone.

I'm super excited about my classmates and my mentor, Peter Kelly. :) We all met this past week, and introduced ourselves, and it seems like everyone is really cool. :)

It should be a great term. :)

Next week I'll have some sketches a pose of Stu to show (YEP, I get to work with STU!!! YAY!) :)

Yay Animation Mentor! :)