PART 2

Finally… Sorry it took so long… The summer has been busy… I am currently teaching the 2010 animation interns and they are lots of work… Hopefully I will get back in the game of making some new podcasts. I am going to be doing one with Lee Unkrich, director of Toy Story 3.

Some other cool stuff that has been going on…. There is a cool class that myself and Matt Luhn are teaching in Vancouver on September 24th and 25th.

Also in the current issue of 3d World I did a little article on Walks. Hopefully I will be able to post all the info on the site with permission from the Mag. Stay tuned for that. Thanks for still following the site. I’m trying to keep it alive…

Download the short podcast here ts3roundtable_part2

-Andrew

Finally, a new Spline Cast!!! This is part one of a two part animation Roundtable with:

Doug Sweetland, Andy Schmidt, Jessica Torres, Cat Hicks, Carlos Baena, Kc Royer, Aaron Hartline and Myself, Andrew Gordon. Aaron thought it would be cool to do a Spline Cast talking about Toy Story 3 so we made it happen. Hope you enjoy it and the Film which opens this Friday. Expect it on itunes soon.

-Andrew

ts3_roundtable_part 1

Recently someone at work asked what some good software there is out there for kids for doing animation. Here is a list that someone came up with. Please feel free to add to the list in the comments section.

1) Scratch ( http://scratch.mit.edu )
2) Cosmic Blobs ( http://www.cosmicblobs.com )
3) Kid Pix
4) Pencil animation ( http://www.pencil-animation.org
5) Anime Studio Debut ( http://anime.smithmicro.com
6) Claymation Studio and Istopmotion for claymation
7) Sam Animation ( http://www.samanimation.com

Winner - Pier Pressure - Drew Winey

Thank you all for entering the 2010 walk challenge. I think we really had some amazing entries and I was personally inspired to start doing a walk myself. The whole reason for doing this challenge was to get people to think about character through their walk. Often, when a reel contains a walk cycle, it is often bland and out of context. It tells you nothing about the character. I think that every one of the walks we judged had character. Myself, Victor Navone, Scott Clark and Travis Hathaway judged the entries.

Best Overall Walk – Drew Winey – Pier Pressure

2nd Place – Tyler Kakac – Disco Walk

3rd place – Eleanor Dayton – Kid on Moms Leg

spline doctors walk challenge 2010 from andrew gordon on Vimeo.

Congratulations to all the winners. First prize will be receiving a signed poster from Toy Story 3. The other winner will receive some other  Pixar schwag as yet to be determined.

Some of the walk entries

Thank you to all the contestants. They will be judged over the weekend and the winner will be announced this Monday or Tuesday. We have some really great entries and again, thanks for taking part in this. For me, a good walk says everything about the character and a lot of people really nailed it. I will be posting all of the walks on the site for you to see. Good luck.

-Andrew

I have extended the deadline one week since I have not been getting many entries, so keep working on those walk scenes. The winner will be sure to get some cool stuff and potentially be featured in a 3d world Article. Please email your entries to splinedr@gmail.com

Good luck!

Andrew

Animate a one of the following walks: (in 2d or 3d)

A character with a physical limitation (ie a man with a ball and chain, or limp, etc… use of props ok)

A period character from the Victorian era (do your homework. Many to choose from)

An 8 year old kid on his way to or from school (think about subtext)

A confident character from the early 1970’s

Ok, there are the choices. Obviously you will need to show the cycle. Please include a rough and final pass. Its best if the character is in an environment. Obviously, no stock rigs.  You will be judged on originality, execution,  and entertainment value. Good Luck!  Contest end May 14th. Email walks to splinedr@gmail.com

-Andrew

Summertime is coming. I had the best experience after I graduated high school in 90 at a summer arts program. I’ll be helping teach a course their this summer along with the Kroyer’s. Here are some cool summer classes going on for animation this summer.

Please post links to more or email me (splinedr@gmail.com) any other programs you think are good.

-Andrew

http://www.csusummerarts.org/courses.shtml

http://www.csssa.org/

http://www.gobelins.fr/~summerschool/en/informations.php

http://www.vanarts.com/courses/character-animation-intensive

https://secure.vfs.com/summerintensives/

http://www.cca.edu/academics/precollege

The class in London went great. Matt and I wanted to thank all that attended. All the students asked great questions and everyone who helped put it on did an amazing job! London is such an amazing city with so much to do and see. We had all different types of people came from all over Europe for the class. Students, Game Artists, Independents, VFX artists and animators, feature animators, etc… Thanks again and we hope to return to the city one day. Matt and I are hoping to have time for one more class in Canada this year if time permits. Thanks again to everyone.

-Andrew and Matt

A while back I did a lecture for the CTN animation expo in Burbank on the successful traits of an animator. For the lecture I asked a bunch of people what their thoughts were on the subject. I was unable to get this into my lecture for lack of time so I wanted to post this snippet of gold from Brad Bird. Big thanks to Brad for taking the time to do this. Brad is always so knowledgeable and inspirational. I hope you enjoy this short clip…

The question was: “What are some traits an animator should have?”

-Enjoy…Andrew

bird_traits