Joseph Leung - Student Animation Reel

[mttjss]

Joseph -

I can see you are making a valiant effort to learn this stuff. I think if you truly stay motivated and keep learning, you will do awesome at it.

My first recommendation would be to really study the 12 Principals of Animation. If you havent already, get your hands on "Illusion of Life" (http://www.amazon.com/Illusion-Life-Disney-Animation/dp/0786860707) from Frank and Ollie. This book will explain a ton to you about animation principals and basics. Its a really fun read too.

Check out Keith Langos (http://www.keithlango.com/)tutorials. Alot of the principals are discussed in these tuts too. He really explains there meaning and why and when to use them.

Other than that, I would think about going back to school for a strictly animation curriculum, or a few other choices are:
Animation Mentor (http://animationmentor.com/) - really good school - still costly, but worth every penny.
Keith Lango has a Personal Trainer course and his VTS series is really good too - HERE (http://www.klangoanimation.com/store/storeHome.html)
Lastly - Jason Ryan (http://www.jasonryananimation.com/)is coming out with his animation training too - so this may be another option.

Other than those, just use CGSociety's animation and WIP forum and visit www.11secondclub.com (http://www.11secondclub.com/) - just study and use the forums to post your work and these communities are really good at giving feedback.

Good luck man and keep at it. The more you practice, the better you will get.

Matt -

[BubbleB0y]

Thanks Matt. I've bookmarked those pages. As for going back to school, I feel really too old to do that... :shrug: At my age, I feel I work better and faster by reading books like the one you suggested. AnimationMentor.com would be great if I could afford it! But I really enjoy this and feel confident that my animations will get better. And with all those great sites and people here to help out? Hahaha, who wouldn't be able to animate? :thumbsup:

[DWheezy]

I agree with Matt, definitely study up on those 12 Principles. Absolutely key to making things look and feel alive.

The karate chop at the beginning was good :) It made me chuckle.

The biggest critique I have on your stuff is that there isn't enough weight. On your walk you you have a nice squash in there that conveys the weight transfering from foot to foot, but on your "skip" right after that, the weight isn't coming down on the feet when he lands - the body is just translating enough in Y to get the feet on the ground, then coming right back up. The body should be squashing down on the landing in order to get enough energy to push himself into the air again.

Same thing with the splits at the end of the moonwalk. Before he pushes his body off the ground, his body needs to go down further to be able to generate enough energy to push himself back up into a standing position. Right now he looks as though somebody is pulling him up by a string.

Also, I know that life's circumstances are different for everybody, but if age is the only thing keeping you from going back to school I think you're doing yourself a disservice. I went to college once (for computer science, oddly enough) and had a job that I stayed at for two years before deciding to go to school for animation.

I think it was one of the best decisions of my life. It's never too late.

Keep working at it and studying, in my opinion you're off to a good start Joe.

Dan Weiland
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/6125/whynotsignatureih4.png (http://dwheezy.blogspot.com/)

[BubbleB0y]

Thanks for your feedback Dan. Your comments reflect what is in the tutorials on the 12 principles on different web sites. I appreciate it!

As far as school goes, I would take more classes especially with all the great instructors at AET in Santa Monica College. It's not just the age... BAH... it's hard to explain. :sad:

I feel I can animate better than what is on that reel right now... All your comments make complete sense to me too. Stay tuned, I will be working on new animations and will post them here. If you guys don't see any substantial improvement, I will drag my sorry behind back to school!

[BubbleB0y]

Umm... wait a minute, I am still in school. And since I will be finishing up, I guess it won't hurt to add some animating courses including 2D Animating classes. Wish me luck...

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