Walking in the wind

This is my first animation with a character with a spine; At animation mentor they take it one step at a time; first a ball, then a ball with legs..and now a character without arms....slowly but surely I'll be working with a complete character, ha. Im happy to be learning the basics and getting a solid foundation though. Here's my ROUGH ROUGH blocking of my new assignment.

WindWalk_BLOCKING from Erik Fernando on Vimeo.

180 turn_FINAL!!!

Well, I turned in my refining, and it got ripped up...but my work was not up to par, so i deserved what I got. I took a step back to make sure that I concentrated on proper weight shifts in the hips, and that the feet are reacting properly to the shifts in weight in the hips. My goal in this animation was to have solid gravity in the steps, and to apply the principles of animation.

180_FINAL from Erik Fernando on Vimeo.

Going on a break!

Well, this semester of animation mentor is over...so I'll be back here posting on January 10th. Next term we are going to be doing animation thats a bit more exciting, so stay tuned! Merry Christmas everyone.

Animation Demo Reel 2009

Animation Reel 2009 from Erik Fernando on Vimeo.

Personality Walk_Refining

Im begining to take my animation out of blocking and starting to smooth it out.  My mentor gave me alot of great tips on my blocking to help give the walk more weight.  This seems to be the hardest part of character animation so far...to make the animation smooth but not floaty.  I have just began refining, here's where Im at.  

PersonalityWalk_Refining from Erik Fernando on Vimeo.

Character Design; ChubbyNerd

Im still trying to keep up on modeling, and designing, while Im studying animation.  Here's a character design I've been working on; He doesnt have a name yet, but he's a timid chubby guy..the type of character that thinks about the "cool thing to say," but never conjures up enough courage to actually say it, ha. Generally I like his shape right now...I wanted him to have short stalky legs, but perhaps they are too short right now. 

Walk Cycle- FINAL

Here's my final walk cycle that I'm turning in this week.  I was suprised how difficult animating a normal walk is; My teachers told us to think about it as "A series of calculated falls."  Kind of true..before you stick your foot out catch your next step, all of your momentum is fallling toward the ground.  As simple as a walk seems to be, its extremely hard to animate; Animators say that what makes it difficult is the fact that everybody knows how a walk is supposed to look...so when any detail is left out, it becomes noticable.  Here's my attempt

FINAL walk cycle from Erik Fernando on Vimeo.