Boss Walk... doodle

Hey everyone!

I've been reading The Illusion of Life and studying/observing some walking styles. It's a character walk and I like to call it "Boss Walk". This guy is the boss around here! heh... I remember, I've seen this kind of walk in the movie "Flushed Away", where in one of the shots the frog guy (the gangster king) starts walking this way.... and I really loved the style.
This kinda shows over confidence (maybe!), arrogance, leadership, anger, experience, and a very narrow and fixed view. And for this kind of walk you always tend to favor the "up" position, stay there for a while and throw a leg up. The guy really feels at the top of the world and thus, spends more time near the "up" pose. Its really fun to watch and especially to animate! I showed it to Jason. I'm glad he liked it and gave me some great suggestions to improve this walk. As Jason said, its just little stuff but I think I'll do it all over again and I'm trying to find some time for it. I'll post it here as soon as I'm done with my new walk. This time it will look more organic with some opposite actions and better balance. I will also be doing some acting stuff in CG and will post the blocking as well.

Anyway, here is the boss walk...

FlipBook doodle...

Just a quick little test with flour-sack.
Program used: Digicel Flipbook

2D Magic Tool : FlipBook!

Very soon I'll be doing Jason Ryan's upcoming animation course where he will be teaching his cool 2D-3D approach, cartoony acting, and a lot more! So, I'm really excited for it. YAY!!
A few days back I asked Jason, to suggest me a 2D animation software and he suggested me to purchase the new version of Digicel FlipBook, version 5. Finally, I've managed to purchase it and I love it!
The pressure sensitivity works great and the lines look very smooth and flowing. There is also an option to pick different types of pencils and they all work great. It really feels and looks like I'm drawing with a real pencil. The line quality is so good that I can even do life drawings in FlipBook. hehhe.. Though for my life drawings, I like to use Alias SketchBook Pro.

In FlipBook, you can directly import your drawings/frames from Maya and then you can time it there in FlipBook, and draw better poses and finally export everything (timing, etc) back into Maya. It's really cool! Timing is also very easy in FlipBook. I can play my animation in loop, adjust my timing and watch the results in real time. I think that's a huge plus point. Also, I love the new "Light Box Option". This makes it very easy to work straight ahead and pose to pose. COOL!!

Check out these doodles I made in FlipBook.

Rabbit Run Cycle


Tug of war


Yeah, I know my drawings are horrible... but don't worry, I'm working on it. heh..

One more thing I would like to discuss here. A lot of folks ask me this same annoying question over and over .... "Hey! Why the hell do you spend so much time in 2D? Are you scared of working in 3D?"
Scared?? NO! Not at all. Why would I be scared of working in 3D? I don't get it. I know, I can work in 3D and 2D both. I'm learning animation, and I like exploring things. 2D gives me a freedom to explore things which I can hardly ever dream of doing in 3D (unless I'm a technical nerd, or a kickass rigger). In 2D, I'm not dependent on CG rigs and I can experiment freely and figure out things much quicker. Drawing a pose with a stick figure takes me about 10 seconds or sometimes even less. And posing a CG rig takes not less than 10 minutes or sometimes even more. So, its really very fun, easy and quick to experiment in 2D. :)

The best thing animation students can do is to get familiar with 2D animation. It teaches you the basics very quickly and really helps you understand the process. So, purchase a copy of FlipBook and have fun with it. C'mon you kids! There is no need to be scared of 2D. Its not mathematics, you know! hehe.... Once you know the power of 2D animation and realize how much it helps you in your 3D animations... I bet, you'll take its help wherever possible . And of course, no doubt, soon you'll be found miles ahead from the rest of the crowd. They will struggle and you'll chuckle! :)

-A

Robbery

Robbery... Just a 'time-pass' doodle. Inspired by Jason Ryan! ;) The animation is 99% straight ahead.

Turn on your speakers!


Software used: Digicel FlipBook

Another doodle : the Pitcher

Just a pass-time doodle. Maybe I'll do a 3d version of it. Lets see!
Yeah, he is Jason Ryan's stick figure character. I call him Stigi! :) You'll find him here on my blog quite often.

FlipBook doodle...

Sometimes, when I get tired of animating in CG, this is where I end up. Its really great to see your pencil drawings come to life. I believe that pencil drawings/lines do have some kind of magic. They look alive and more organic. This is certainly not a good animation but still I'm excited to see my pencil lines moving! Software used: Digicel Flipbook.

-A

Golf play

I couldn't stop myself from making this simple animation in FlipBook. Maybe, I could have pushed my drawing a bit more to make it more toony...but thats okay I have the idea. It took me about an hour to make it. Yeah I know, I'm taking my break from animation... Animating is so much fun (especially in 2D) that its hard for me to stay away for long. I feel like I'm addicted to it.. If I don't animate, I feel uneasy. heh.. I enjoy 3D as well, but right now I wanna stay away from all the technicalities of 3D. Sometimes its enough to drive me batty. This two week break is enough to recharge me again. Yep! Now NO MORE ANIMATION for two weeks!!!!

-A
Colored: This one looks okay but the colors are distracting...and especially those white clouds. Don't you think?



Black and white: This one looks much better.

Ball Play, PAP

Hi! I'm gonna start one animation. Before I get into 3d, I wanted to plan it out in Plastic Animation Paper. So, here's a rough test animation. Now the problem is... which rig should I use for this kinda animation? I wanted to have a short legged character, so I'm planning to use Bloke (by Jason Baskin). The rig looks pretty good. Though, I'm not too sure about its squash and stretch abilities. I know its quite stretchable, but I wanna stretch the character horizontally. Sadly, I can't do that with any of the free character rigs available. Of course, I can easily create that horizontal squash and stretch effect with my Norman rig. However, I don't wanna use Norman for this type of animation. So I'll just use Bloke! Any suggestions guys?
Anyhoo, here's the rough planning...



Oh yeah! I had to delete my last Harry Potter parody post because some Harry Potter fans (my harry potter loving friends) had problems with that. In the parody movie, Harry Potter really looked like a BIG schmuck. And they didn't like that! It was hurting their feelings. Well, here you go guys! Now you're happy? Common! Its just a parody! And for god's sake, stop worshiping Harry POTHEAD... ummmm.. I mean Potter.. I like Harry Potter too, but I don't worship him! lol....

later,
-A

....Back to action!! .........

Pencil test with plastic animation paper.

Pencil doodle (PAP)

Doodling on plastic animation paper....Just having fun! I've updated the animation, and now its in the QuickTime format, so you can now see its every frame! Have fun!

More with Plastic animation paper

GooseBumps
Uploaded by amritrd

Howdy folks!

I'm just having some good time with plastic animation paper. I really wanna spend some time away from maya and do some sketching and 2d work. Well, don't worry, I'll soon get back to 3d. I remember when I first saw Jason Schleifer's PAP tests....I was like drooling all over the place! He considers himself a bad 2d animator!..but as you all know, he is not! He is someone I can call "disgustingly talented"! No wonder, I always try to animate like him!

-A

PAP fun!

I was really tired of working and selecting those NURBS controls and tweaking them all day to produce 2 seconds of animation. Today I wanted to stay away from Maya and all its complexities. I wanted to draw and animate. Here's something I doodled on PAP (plastic animation paper).