Back To Basics -Horse Studies 3

More horse studies  I haven't drawn the horse's skeleton before until now..  This helps me in taking  notes on the proportion and rhythm of it's skeletal structure. The body usually fits inside a square.  I've also animated it's basic walk cycle using Clip Studio Paint Ex, while the rest of the sketches were drawn in Artrage 5. Jack Hamm's, Ken Hultgren's,  Gottfried Bammes', Eliot Goldfinger's, Famous Artists Course books were used as my study reference books.

Bunny Rabbit's New Look!

        When I designed the original Bunny almost 4 years ago, I was just starting to learn digital painting in Photoshop.  I wanted to see if I could animate a single image without having to draw the character multiple times.  And so, based on a single fully rendered image,  I edited it by cutting, distorting and pasting the character's body parts to create the different poses of  the action. Any additional drawings needed was kept to the minimum.  I achieved what I wanted at the time. 

   

New cleaner design

      Since then, my understanding of the built-in timeline have improved and so is my character design sense. It's been awhile since I've animated in Toon Boom that I have already forgotten how to use it.  Photoshop is not my ideal animation application to use, but it can do simple animation loop like this well enough that can be exported to GIF easily.   So I decided to use Photoshop instead.

New lighter color with some pink added.

     

         So last weekend, I decided to give Bunny Rabbit a new look and new animation.  The old version was a 10-drawing cycle.  This time, I added more drawings, cleaner lines, and a more streamlined design.  I drew the face and body with a more feminine look.  The head is more triangular, reminiscent of  Kisses chocolates. The eyes are also triangular to complement the overall shape. The eyebrows are thinner, the lashes longer and more pronounced.

        Instead of the skipping animation cycle of the old version, I animated the thumping foot from one side to the next, reminiscent of Thumper's foot thumping in the Disney classic film Bambi. This bunny is inspired by Thumper after all.

A 26-drawing animation cycle.

A more feminine design

The animation is a bit longer now with 26 drawings. Instead of editing from a single fully rendered image, I did it just like how I would do it if it's done traditionally.  Line key poses were animated first, then in-between drawings were added after. Once the timing of the action  was done, colors were added in.

FX and Drop Shadows added

        I kept the original theme of the blue bordered box to contain the bunny, for continuity reasons. Who knows, this might still evolved in the future.  I added some FX and Drop Shadow elements on top of the finished animation to help it pop out more from the blue background.  This wouldn't be complete without the Pixie dusts, so I reused the old dust animation cycle but changed its timing. It's now a bit slower and dragging a bit. 

        And so.... here's the new, improved animated icon of this blog.

Bunny Rabbit Pixie Dust logo

A Short Cat Animation

Although I've animated some 4-legged animals in the past as a traditional animator, however, I don't think I did them that well back then.  Achieving subtle acting and performance in hand-drawn animation was, and still is very difficult. Not that it's any easier to do in CG,  but it is achievable and believable.

It's been a much-delayed interest of mine to at least try to animate quadrupeds in CG.  And so, I decided to take a realistic creature course at Animation A Team with Rob Hemmings, to learn some new approach and techniques of how to do this.

This is the thumbnail sketch for the story idea of "Gotcha!", ( originally called Cat Chase), which I consider my first successful attempt in animating a realistic quadruped animal as a 3d animator.

click to enlarge

So below are the final  results. Enjoy!

                 

And here's the same animation with  fur render.
   
                 

                 

Kung Fu Panda -Legends Of Awesomeness

Here's some of the shots I did for Nickelodeon's Kung Fu Panda - Legends Of Awesomeness TV series.

 Enjoy!  (Password: KFPDemo)

  

Robot And Monster!

      Last year had been a busy year for me . One of the projects I worked on at Oktobor, was for Nickelodeon's ROBOT AND MONSTER new TV series.  Here's some of the scenes I've animated  from the episode "Cheer Up, Mr. Wheelie".  Enjoy...

(Password:  RBDemo)

  

2D, Or Not 2D, That Is The Question....

Young Nicholas

      In the early part of 2010, when I was again out of work as a 3D animator, I had a chance to work in a 2D feature film  Santa's Apprentice.  I was desperately looking for a job at the time and heard from a former Disney colleague, that a team of my former Disney friends in Sydney Australia, were involved in this project and that it's possible for me to get some freelance work, because the Animation Director had a few software licenses available to enable someone to work off-site.  The production had been ongoing for 6 months or more already, and only have a few months left before the animation period finishes, so I didn't know if there was still a chance for me to do some off-site freelance work for them. I took my chances and sent a message to the Director anyway, whom I've worked closely before at Disney Australia, of my desire to do some freelance work for him and if he would allow me to do it from home here in NZ. Once he knew that I'm equipped to do the job off-site, he accepted me to join them on the condition that I fly over there in Sydney for a couple of weeks to get some in-house training on how to use Toon Boom Harmony, which was what they were using for this project.  I agreed and thought that the best way to learn any program was to be there in person and see how they do things, learn from my mistakes while immediate technical assistance was available. During that period, I tried my best to learn as much as I can about this 2D animation software, so that once I work from home, I won't be bogged down with solving technical issues about the program because there won't be any immediate assistance.  And for this reason, I decided to extend my stay for another week just to make sure that I learned what I needed to learn.   A friend animator was kind enough to let me stay at her house during those period, as I can't afford to live in a hotel for 3 weeks. This wasn't a big-budgeted movie, so there's no free flight nor accommodation for me to do this. But hey... I rather work than do nothing, so....

Felix

      That was also a good chance for me to travel back to Sydney where I've lived for 7 years. And an opportunity to work with some of my former Disney animator friends again. For a short while, it felt just like how it was when I worked at Disney. I was very comfortable with them and realized that we worked really well together as an animation team.  The animating experience were both familiar, yet new to most of us.  We all knew how to animate but now we have to do it digitally. There were a few young, new animators, who we bothered a lot with our technical Toon Boom questions and other basic computer questions, that have not had that similar animating experience as most of us did using traditional medium of pencil and paper.  So they probably have no understanding of how difficult it was for some of us animators to learn how to use this digital program or even the computer and probably thought how were we ever going to get anything done.  And yet once we all learned how to use it, we were very efficient and were managing very well. I found myself very appreciative of the program for it's digital tools that made the animation process much faster, compared to if we were using the traditional medium. The program eliminated the process of pencil test shooting, which is a crucial and an important part of the process to check the timing of the animation.  When we were at Disney, line-testing means waiting in a long cue of animators wanting to do the same with the limited available line testers.  Having the instant playback ability built-in into the program, enables us to check our work instantly, thus making changes immediate as well.  Also, we can now animate to the dialogue audio track more because sound files can be imported into the program. It was just like animating in Maya for 3D animation. It used to be that we'd listen to the dialogue track from a cassette player and looked at the exposure sheet for the correct framing of where the actual sound of the dialogue would be. But now, it's very convenient and faster.  It has many digital tools like camera moves, cut and paste, enlarge and reduce abilities, skew, perspective, color and more, that made the process faster.  No more wasting a lot of paper and lining-up to use the photocopier machines either. It really is a complete 2D animation program.

Grincroch

     There were a few of us animators allowed to work from home. Actually, the producer, whom I've never worked with before, was naturally a bit worried if  I would be able to deliver on time, and  preferred that I work in-house over there. But it was impractical for me to move there, so I promised I wouldn't let them down. They had a really tight schedule and I was reminded by the Director that this production was unlike Disney and missing the dateline would have serious consequences for them.  And my oh my...  I sure worked hard and unbelievably long hours at home just to fulfill that promise.

      It was a 3-month gig for me. I knew that in spite of the benefits of using digital program like Toon Boom, animating in 2D was and still a tedious process of drawing the character and action one frame at a time, which made this style of animating really very unique, charming and special, but at the same time more difficult.  During this period, I worried and doubted myself a lot, if I could really reach and get through the weekly quota, knowing that I'm not known to be a fast animator and using a digital program for the first time without much immediate assistance if ever I encounter any problem along the way.  But I know that I won't get paid for the week if my scenes were not approved by the director, so it was crucial that I get through the scenes quickly daily for the director to review.  I was communicating with my Animation Team Leader over Skype everyday to make sure that I get my feedback notes immediately as well.  Not having drawn for a long time since I developed RSI and quitting Disney, it became really painful physically to draw again. I was risking getting that injury flair up again by doing this gig but had to do it for I assured them of my commitment to finish the work on time.  I just prayed that the pain won't last and was really wanting this project to be over soon.  My feet swelled up due to poor circulation I think, having to sit for long periods of time working.  

Little boy kisses Nicholas

      In the end, the director and producer were really happy with my work and I managed to keep my promise. After that project, I'm not sure if I ever wanted to do anymore 2D animation and go through working like that again.  I realized how more difficult, painful and still slower it was to do any traditional or 2D animation, compared now that I'm animating in 3D.  However, the irony is..... my life now as a 3D animator have not been much different either.  Animating in 3D is also hard and tedious for different reasons, but that's another story. Such is my life as an animator, whether it's 2D or 3D. (sigh.....)

      So here's some of the scenes I've done, using Toon Boom Animate Pro, in rough line test, without the in-betweens.  Enjoy...


   
 

Penguins Of Madagascar....

           In May of 2010, I started working for Oktobor Animation Studio in New Zealand. It's been a busy year, and one of the things I did was animating these characters, from Nickelodeon's PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR  Season 2 TV series.    Here's a few scenes I did, from the following episodes: " King Julien For A Day";  "Love Hurts";  "Operation: Breakspeare";  "All Tied Up With A Boa".

           It's been fun animating and getting to know these characters.  Enjoy...

(Password: PNDemo)

Penguins of Madagascar Animation by Jocelyn Sy from Jocelyn Sy on Vimeo.

Santa's Apprentice Trailer in English

      Last year, I did some freelance work as a 2d animator at Flying Bark  in Sydney Australia, for an animated feature film opening this 10th of  November in Australian cinemas . Here's the trailer in English.

Jungle Rhythm

          Sometimes after working long and hard on a scene, the director would decide that a particular scene isn't necessary anymore.  Or he would have another idea or he just simply doesn't like it.

(click to enlarge)

        This scene that I did for Jungle Book 2 was one of those that didn't make it to the final film.  Even though it's a short scene, I enjoyed doing this.  This was for the big musical number part of the film with a lot of characters doing the Jungle Rhythm, I got to do just Mowgli for this scene, and he was to be composited together with the rest of the characters later on.  Unfortunately, this bit didn't make it.

        Always a heartbreak for any animator, and I just have to accept that it's just part of the job.  Anyways, I'd like to share this here.

Santa Claus Is Coming to ... Australia!

          Last year, I had a chance to animate in a 2d feature-length movie called, Santa's Apprentice.  Also known in French as

L'apprenti Père Noël.  A co-production  between the French studio Gaumont-Alphanim, Avrill Stark Entertainment in Australia, and Cartoon Saloon in Ireland.This movie is slated to be released in Australian cinemas this November . It was released in France last year. I was told this movie won the prestigious UNICEF award at this year's ANNECY International Animation Festival in France.   And  there are now talks for a sequel. Cool.   I have yet to see the final film.

          Instead of animating with paper and pencil, like I used to do , I was quickly trained to animate in a 2D animation software called, Toon Boom Animate Pro.  It was a very fun software to use, I must say.  I also had the opportunity to work again with some of my fellow animators and director from the now defunct Disneytoon Studios Australia.

  

    


     This trailer is the French version of the film, with  French voice actors.  Glad I didn't have to learn French, because our team animated the Australian version of the film, which had Aussie voice actors.  This is about an Australian boy and is set in Sydney. Some well-known Australian landmarks can be seen in this movie.

All Together Now....

My 2D and 3D character animation demo reel for 2010.  Enjoy!

    ( Password: 2d3dDemo ) 2D/3D Character Animation Demoreel (2010) from Jocelyn Sy on Vimeo.

Singing Vegetables

Bob The Tomato

( Password: veggiedemo )

Here's some of my 3d animation work - Big Idea's Veggie Tales. These were done under the facilities of Huhu Studios in NZ.

These are for the Veggie Tales:
-  Abe's Amazing Promise;
-  Minnesota Cuke And the Search for Noah's Umbrella;
-  St. Nicholas and the Story of Joyful Giving;
-  Pistachio The Little That Woodn't.

3D Character Animation Demoreel from Jocelyn Sy on Vimeo.

When You Wish Upon A Star....

          I became an animator because I love Disney animated cartoons, especially the classics.  Who knew that I would be given an opportunity to be able to do that.  Here's some of what I did when I worked at Walt Disney Animation Studio Australia.

            Here's the rough pencil tests , with no in-betweens yet.

Traditional Animation Demoreel in Pencil Tests from Jocelyn Sy on Vimeo.


   
      And here's the final version.  (Password: disneydemo )
Traditional Animation Demoreel from Jocelyn Sy on Vimeo.