Blog Hiatus

I have not been updating this blog too often as you can tell, since the last post was over a year ago. If you want more current posts, I update my site and the blog on my site much more often. You can check everything out at http://jamescditmer.com/

Thanks for stopping in,
-James

Weighted Balls Pass 2

After showing my first pass to some friends, one, my friends Andy, suggested adding some acceleration to the balls as they drop and to keep them falling at as close to the same rate as I could. I did this, it helped, and then I added some more dissipating recoil swing to the two pedestals. I did all of this and it definitely makes the test work much better. It has a little more flow and spring to it.

Weighted Ball Pass 1

I have started and finished my first pass at showing weight in two different balls. I think this one is pretty good, though as every test, could use more work, especially on the big ball. I think I also want those flipping pedestals to continue going back and forth longer. Anyway, here it is.

So here we go. I think I finalized the basketball clip. I added more rotations while it is in the initial arc, as my good friend Adam suggested. I think he is right and it helps. So I think I am done with this and will move onto the next excercise - Make two bouncing balls of different weight.

Basketball pass 2

Ok, so here I've updated and re-worked the basketball animation - changing the arc and reversing the movement and rotation at the end in order to have it settle into place.

The Start of my mini AM exercises

So I decided to just go ahead and try to do the exercises that are given to AM (Animation Mentor) students. I figure, why not do the exercises that are helping so many people figure out how to animate well. If it works for them, then it has to work for me. So the first exercise it to create a realistic acting ball. It has to feel like its real. I decided to do a ball shot at a basketball rim. I am close with this pass I think, but still not perfect, of course there is always room for improvement. Well here is the first pass at this basketball animation.

2D walk cycle

So as I said before, this is going to be a place for me to post my work and tests. This piece is just what I created today. It is the first time I tried creating a good, believable 2D animation. For it, I used Macromedia Flash to draw and create the movie clip. It is just a simple walk cycle. The important thing is that I have learned from it and now I am looking forward to experimenting more in 2D while I continue working in 3D too.