pantomime

a big ello!! to those who read this blog and check it all the time.. hehe..( forgive me for talkin to myself!!)
hi been a while after i blabbered abt plannin huh..
so here's wat ive been upto

panto from arien1986 on Vimeo.

my first crack at pantomime.. leave a comment if u feel like..
man all the concepts by you humans ( ok Us humans) is weird!! like for example holidays.. these are the days wen ppl travel the most.. stay out of home most.. do crazy stuff.. get tired the most..
n i thought holidays were meant for rest!!
anyways.. life's picked up pace n ive been doin a bunch of stuff.. sketchin.. life study.. makin maquettes (WOOHOOO).. will put all that stuff online once i feel the world is ready to see such art! :D
in the past week i came across some amazing artists.. will put up a link to there blogs/websites.. m sure uld love the artwork..
anyways enough of my rant..
hav a great time..
n thanx for droppin by.
cya

Planning!

Yup, Planning, Planning, PLANNING.
So many times ive been told to plan things out and its been said in all the resource available over the net, that i thought i should make a mental note for myself. N thats y this post.
Better late than never, i guess. It not that i didnt plan my anims b4. I didnt plan it enough. I was always more anxious to jump in n start animating. And i guess thats why it took me a such a lont time to finish the turn, becoz i myself wasnt sure abt how the final anim should look. I remember gettin up from my chair n turning around in the room, whenever i got stuck. IT HAPPENED SO MANY TIMES!! Dad caught me a few times, turning around the computer, when he woke up at nyt. heh.
Hopefully, i stick to my senses n do more of planning from now on. Pretty soon Planning wud b my middle name.. :D . Its always fun to dream.
k then ive spent enough of my time over this post. M planning to plan my shot now.
-gracious muchachos

Turn Baby Turn!!!!

finally its done.. took a while.. but got there at last.. the splinin on sack helped a lot!
check out CadaCosa aka the turn.. n lemme know wat u think..
hehe funny, howmuch rant Amrit, Prash, Vinod, Nanda, Ratman, Naveen n Ranbir had to put up while i was playing this bad boy.. its definetly the baddest boy ive had so far!!
thanks homies..



k so on to a new exercise now..
its somethin m thoroughly excited abt!
plus there's a deadline for that! coool..
leave a comment.. or else..
ciao..

Noodle Mania!!

m starting to like noodles..
so much so that i took an old anim of mine.. n m splining the bad boy now. m the best part is that it aint that drag afterall..
m almost thru wit this one tho..
will put it up online once m done wit it.. that is in the next few hours..

in the mean time if ya'll havnt checked Eric Goldberg's podcast and Richard Williams splinecast then check em out!!
peace out homies..

Uve been Splined!!

phew.. back from the trip.. which trip?
the trip to the noodle island off the Mayan Coast..
had visa problems so got stuck.
anyways, enough of the rant
here's the sack..


floursack GE'ed!! from arien1986 on Vimeo.

AVI

lemme know wat u think.
ciao

RaTo.. goin under

here how the dude looks ..its still in steped.. so m about to go into uncharted territories of the noodle land, got my passport yesterday nyt.. ive told the search party to b ready, incase i get lost.. ;)
lemme know wat u think..
ciao

RaTo Update

here's an update.. one more change left to b done.. rest are done i thinhk.. will get to know tommorow.. at the moment m too sleeeepy to upload it on vimeo or any forum..



lemme know..
ciao
gdnyt

RaTo

here's the floursack, tentively titled "Rato" , it a tribute to a friend of mine..:D
i know he'll love the name atleast..

Here's the one b4 Amrit gave a crit ...

B4 Amritz Crit from arien1986 on Vimeo.

After doin some of the changes...

WIP... from arien1986 on Vimeo.

the bad boy is still in stepped.. hopefully will get to GE tonyt..
lemme know wat u think..
thanx guys..
ciao

Turn Update

continue polishin from arien1986 on Vimeo.

Here's an update on the turn..
Since, ive been at it for the last two months almost, ive been advised to take a short break n then get back to the turn. So at the moment m doin a floursack jump..
i think ill get to spine once i get the sack done..
watsay eh?

ciao

time to move on?

here's how the turn looks at the moment...
just wondering if i sud continue working on it or start a new exercise..coz there are a few things that Amrit n Prash pointed out are still left to be fixed..
its been an awesome time..two months, learned loads n loads of stuff from Amrit, Prash n Vinod.
so here's the thing that goin on in my mind,
option A> i continue fixing the hip n knee and then get on the spine.
option B> i start workin on the spine.
option C> i start a new exercise.
any ideas??

thanx dudes..
keep rocking..

got something going..

heya guys sorry for the lack of post.. its been a crazy time.. with ups n downs, pros n cons, good n bad, u get the idea..
hav been doing a few things (ahem).. i mean exercises (ahem ahem).. i mean animation exercises!!! (dont get any wrong ideas).
for starters m joining THE Webinar!! (Provided there are still seats left) n then maybe ill subscribe to Keith's vts too!! yay!

first here's a TURN that ive been dying to get a more on for 2weeks i think..

TURN


180_turn from arien1986 on Vimeo.

got great crits on this from Mr. Keyframe aswell as Ratul n the goodfellas at 11sec.. check the thread.

n then i did some practice shorts from Keith's tuts and Mr. Jay's Sneak ramp up
for some reason i cant upload the videos directly so here a rapidshare link for both of them
Keith's Breakdowns can be a Drag Exercise
Just a half hour crappy work. i cudnt understand y i cudnt get the fingers of generi moving.. any ideas? in anyways i sudnt hav done the exercise this way. Ild do a diff one with pjHogan, my favourite character!!

Jason's Sneak RampUp

i think the sneak is wats m gonna convert to in maya once i get the turn fleshed out..
let me know wat ya'll think..
sorry i for the lack of updates, n not loading the earlier exercise. will do some other day..for the moment..
its chow time..
cya

Poses Happy

heyaa unfortunately, m still alive :) .. woohooo feels good to be alive.. trust me..
this has been one crazy month.. on the filed aswell as off the field.. so much happened .. learnt so much..
well ramble abt that in some other post .. this post is for me having fun wit the Tablet.. yeehaw.. since m moving into body mechanics, i thought i should start doing some poses( i know m late).. so each week ill take an emotion n draw a few poses.. n then ummm ... ammm... draw some more poses, i guess.. ill draw some poses for 3days n den ill get to maya n work on that pose the next three days.. n then the next emotion..
so here are the poses for this week.. Happy ...yup the emotion that m trying to show is Happiness..









UPDATE 1st August 4AM..
Heyya been a long day.. here are some more poses.. lemme know which one potrays happiness so dat i can move on to maya.. thanks











so wat do u think abt these n which one do u like (i.e. the one that i sud try out in maya to convey happiness)?

P.S. Alias SketchBook Pro ROCKS!!!
cheers adios..
n thanx

what i've been upto..

its been a while since i posted.. huh... lazy mee.. didnt hit the GE on the walk yet.. n m glad i didnt.. coz Moush took a look at it n found a bug..woohoo... she was so helpful she had a long conversation wit me.. on lotsa stuff.. n solved quite a few of my problems.. she gave me suggestions n corrections on 3 of my exercises :D.. one being the vanilla , the other a side walk n the third one being the half filled balloon jump that i did for cgtantra.. hehe.. m glad she spoke to me.. the balloon looks much better now.. still a long way off but i think the weight's there.. n that was the main aim for me wit this exercise.. cudnt find an appropriate rig ..boy dat was a pain.. anyways.. here u go take a look at the balloony thingy..

lemme know wat u think abt it.. i underestimated this exercise.. thought ild finish it real quick.. m sure the walk n the sidestep wud look better aswell once i m done with these few stuff i hav in mind..
Had a conversation with Mr. Keyframe after a looooooong time... the dude's havin a hellova time.. Imagine meeting James Baxter.. glad that both Moush n Amrit thought that the aim i had set wit the balloony thingy is acheived n suggested i sud move on to the next exercise..
ooh dat reminds me here r the three exercises over at cgtantra given by Dj (the dude).. i plan to do all 3 of em in the month..although ill compete in level 2.. Dj gave sound advise before i started the challenge started.. n thats wat i have kept in mind so far..



Level one : Beginners. - includes concepts of timing/spacing and energy (squash and stretch, anticipation and settle). Topic : A squishy water baloon anticipating and jumping over a few objects before coming to a stop. That is, a squash and stretching ball jumping over a small cube, a cylinder, etc. Two jumps and settle. It has to anticipate, jump, continue the momentum for the second jump and settle. Rigs and scene will be provided.

Level two : Intermediate - Involves anticipation, basic body mechanics principles like balance, weight shift, overlap, etc. Topic : A guy doing two little single leg hops before stoping. That is, a guy will anticipate, hop twice (on one leg at a time) and then settle

Level three : involves showing weight, anticipation, force, etc. Virtually all the body mech jingle bells involved. This includes basics of constraints too. Topic ; A guy jumps from a platform, catches a pole above, swings and leaps in the air (using swinging motion for momentum), and then lands on a platform.



although the last time i touched the balloony thingy was on 8th.. ive been taking reference for the level 2 exercises.. drawing thumbs n yeaaa having fun.. most importantly.. just like Mr. Keyframe told me.. animation is about having fun.. if u arent having fun then how will others hav fun watching it?? i wanna do level 2 a showreel sorta piece so ill spend a lot of time wit it.. hav drawn thumbs on diff sorta hops but havnt thought abt which ones to go with.. lets see ..
ill spend more time wit level 2 than with level 3 coz level 2 is the first time ill b animating a character with spine n the first time ill hit the GE.. so ill give it the time it deserves..n then try for level 3..

the week has been such an experience.. learned so much abt animation... from the dude..Moush..Ratul, Prasad..looking forward to Mahesh's update n Asterias' aswell.. hope DJ joins the party real soooon.... wud b awesome.. also missing are the two idiots (:D) Ranbir n Naveen... both hav suffered the same old WinAttack..
I hope the learnin curve goes up n up from here on end.. N m sure it will coz i finally got my tablet ....YAY!!!!! hurray!!! so now i can pester Jason... will try to get into Keith'z VTS aswell.. wooohoooo.. business is picking up... :) at the moment m just goin thru some stick figure sketching.. had a word with Amrit abt the prob of Weight (or the lack of it) it my anims.. so the dude suggested that i sketch poses wit weights everyday, not only subtle poses..so thats wat m doin.. dat reminds me.. look at the length of this post.. who wud read it till here??

Walk On

hav been thinkin abt a walk since yesterday.. but since the last walk that i did never was finished, a progressive vanilla walk, i am going through articles, tuts n the survival kit since yesterday to get it more into my head.. i think this time ill do a progressive vanilla n once its done ill either change it around to make it an attitude walk or start off on an attitude walk..will decide wen m done with the vanilla one.. july coming up.. awaitin cgtantra's challenge to b kicked off.. will update this post each time i make progress wit the walk..

Update dated 2nd July 4.45am..
pretty happy with the walk so far.. although i havnt uploaded it to any of the forums yet.. not even on vimeo..
Ratul helped out a lot in this one.. wudnt hav come this far.. thanks dude.. its so much fun reading n doing the research work first for ur short n then plannin for it.. clears the mind..n den goin ahead to do it, makes the task a bit easier n way more of experimentation can be done..like i cud do in this one.. wit the movement of the legs..plus this is the first time i think i hav implemented pose to pose ryt according to the Survival Kit..defenetly that made it easier than the last time i tried a walk..here's the final stepped mode..



abt to hit linear on this bad boy..

head over to A's Cap if u wanna see the dude
chillin out wit the ninjas.. got to talk to him after months.. advised to join a studio.. so m stepping up the tempo to get a good workflow n a gd demoreel, so that i can get into a good studio .. :D

cheers adios..

practice

it had been awhile since i animated so i thought ild resume with somethin basic..here's a self jump that i did.. i always had problem wit keeping the weight constant throughout the entire thing.. i hope i am able to do that in this one..


time to walk on...

Monty Python

Hey if u were wondering "what the heck have i been reading these last few weeks?"
here's a part of the answer, ive always wanted to do some programming, so i picked up Melscript n Python n a few other books :)
Went through the Maya Help for Melscript, m glad i know a bit of C.
There are lots of question that i havent got the answer so far, in any case m going through Mel Scripting for Maya Animators, looking for a good book on Python, any suggestions??

Lemme Know, Thankx
Adios

Unhide those Controllers!!

Was doing a bouncing ball for the warm up, so had all the keys in and the timing laid, was abt to do a playblast. When my brain had a delusion that i had a script or knew a shortcut to hide n unhide the controllers on the characters. Looked for it but not a script of that sort on the Shelf so Opened the Hotkey Editor n went through all the shortcuts. Nothing here either.




I thought what the heck, lets make a new shortcut, so under Display in the Hotkey Editor, i found HideNurbsCurvs n to my surprise it didnt have a shortcut assigned, haha how silly of me, so i assigned a shortcut n voila!!
Time to test the shortcut. So i selected the control curves on my character, not that it matters, n used the shortcut. Strangely not only the Nurbs Curves but the Surfaces also disappear. I thought i had done something wrong, opened the hotkey editor once again, checked everything, tried it again. Still the same. So then i thought ild open up the Script Editor and copy the command that comes up in the GREY area of the script editor when i click on the Hide NURBS Curves under the Show Menu. But the command doesnt come up when i click on Hide NURBS Curves.
So i searched in google, on various blogs n asked my friends, if there was a script or any other way to get this done. So then Ratul pointed out that i can used the command that comes on the command line n then add it to the shelf. Been there done that, didnt work. Told him why. Thats when he pointed out somethin called Echo All Commands under the History Menu in the Script Editor. What this baby does is give out codes for any thing we do on the Maya Screen, even a single click anywhere. So with this turned on i got the command
modelEditor -e -nurbsCurves 0 modelPanel4;
This is the code that runs in the background each time we open up the Show Menu n uncheck NURBS Curves.
So i added this to the shelf editor simply by turning of the Echo All Commands option n then highlighting it in the Grey Area and choosing the option Save Script to Shelf under the File Menu of the Script Editor and named it Hide Controllers.
Now to turn the Controllers back on the code is
modelEditor -e -nurbsCurves 1 modelPanel4;
Added this to the Shelf and named it Unhide Controllers.
Now to give the shortcut what we can do is open up the Hotkey Editor, n click ont the NEW button down on the right side and then paste the command n give it a name. Now click on Accept n it comes up at the top. NOw we can assign it a shortcut we like.
But since most of the keys are already reserved for shortcuts for various commands, what i did was make a Marking Menu. Here's how
Since we already have the two Scripts on the Shelf, we open the Marking Menu Editor

Now when the Marking Menu comes up, we click on Create Marking Menu in the middle. We'ld get a big popup called Create Marking Menu window. Now at the top part of the window there are 9 squares arranged like the Hotkey option we get on pressing space. Those squares are the positions where the commands we want wud come.So i middle click on the Hide Controllers script n drag it on the the position i want it in n let go. Same for the Unhide Controllers.And name the menu as Hide_Unhide_Controllers.CLick Save and close the window.When we click on close, the name Hide_Unhide_Controllers comes in the list of Marking Menus. Over there at the bottom under Settings Use Marking Menu In Hotkey Editor. This is important, so make sure you dont miss it.The other option being Hotbox, which wud get these options coming up when u press the space key n the mouse button in the region u select.Now click on Apply Settings.Now lets go back to the Hotkey Editor to add a shortcut to tell Maya to bring up the options.Once you've the Hotkey Editor open, scroll to the bottom under Categories,
uld see User Marking Menu. If u dont have any other marking menu created before then uld get 2 commands, unlike mine, one for the "Name u gave to the Markin Menu" Press and the "Name u gave to the Marking Menu" Release.Select the Press command and assign a shortcut. Uld get a popup which maya will ask to confirm for the Release, just press Accept. Then click on Save n Close the Hotkey Editor.Now press the shortcut key u assigned n the left mouse button,n voila! The two options to help u. This way u can add watever commands or scripts u like n increase ur speed n reduce the no of clicks.

Hope i was clear enough n helpful.Lemme know if u find anythin wrong..
Back to the drawing board..
cheers n adios!!

Lets the games begin!

Heyaa, m back.
Had a loooong break from animation, but now i am gettin into the groove, slowly but steadily.Cant keep DW waiting, ryt!
All this while i had been reading, reading, watching movies, thinking and READING!!

To compensate this 40 odd days break, ill stick to more planning and tighter deadlines. Which means more update at crazy hours of the days n more playblasts!!! Will warm up with a few bouncing balls.
Time to put the blabbering to the sideline n get to animation!!
Woooohooo

P.S. I got a nice surprise from Prasad over at his blog. Lifted my mood. Check it out.
Thanks a lot bro!!

Jason Ryan goes live!!!!

Just got the mail that Jason Ryan Animation is going live this Sunday!!! wooohoooo.... time to pester my dad a lot more..coz i really need to get my hands on those tuts..so i think ill hav to postpone the tablet for the time being..lets see..
pray that i can get my hands on them pretty soon..
god bless you..
adios

sideStep

wooooohoooooooo.. m sooo excited to finally get into this.. hav been thinkin of doin thins since february.. but then i realised that i need to work on the basics before i get into these..Yesterday i decided that i need to put Squirrel in his tree hollow full of acorns, for the time being, though..hav spent an entire week tweaking him..but his tail..oh man..anyways let me not digress..spent the entire evening yesterday looking for a stretchy ball with leg rig.. want to kill Naveen now..he said Lt. Dan is not stretchy, n i took his word..ooh boy..but i got quite some interesting rigs and links..also searched for some reference and good examples of the step..both a cartoony side step and a vanilla one..ill do both in 10 days or less..thats wat i hav decided..Ill start with a vanilla, no fancy stuff from the beginnin..coz i hav thumbnails of it, dated february..although ill make fresh ones after 10mins..will take a vid as reference..had a lenghty conversation abt side step with Moush, n she laid emphasis on weight shift of the hip
moush82: basically just remember that the hip will shift on the opposite side of the foot being lifted
so lets get to work.. but first ill brush my teeth :D..
will upload the 1st shot today..
Steppy Step here i come..

Update..10th May 5 AM
Just woke up!!!left the computer on n fell asleep!! hehe..this is so exciting..i took a reference for this one.. oh boy.. taking a video n then see the poses n then understanding stuff makes its all the more exciting n interesting..loved every moment..apart from watching my life reference i looked a good hard look at Jocelyn Cofer side step..then i sat n drew the thumbnails of ALL the poses , not just the keys..did it twice!!then finally good ol Lt. Dan started moving..even after the reference it took some time..strangely though the reference video that i shot is around 500mb..dont know y..plus i cant convert it using total video converter! Anyways i thought i wud try to stick to a workflow in this one, so i wanted to do blocking of it first..but i cudnt help myself n went ahead n added a more poses inbetweeen..here take a look

side step blockin from arien1986 on Vimeo.
n here's the AVI

Naveen, Prateek, Ratul n Ranbir had a look at it, n almost everyone had pointed at frames 17-18, so i hav added ib's over there to make the movement more natural..anyways that wudnt come under blocking, i suppose, so dat will b there in the next update..Ratul suggested a subtle overlap at the end and pointed an unbalanced pose on frame 27..so ill fix that aswell..
Prasad hasnt seent his yet.. After quite a while i posted my work on a forum..coz m hardly getting any crits from anywhere..donno y..so i posted it on
11 Second Club..
havnt got a reply so far..so i guess ill post it in the other forums aswell..
here it is on
AWN
Strut Your Reel
Cg Tantra
11 Second Club
Animation Lounge

Posted it up on Cg Soceity aswell, waiting review..Still having problem with posting on Cg-Char Animation so now ill get back n finish the 1st pass of the step..

Update..10th May 11.45AM
worked on the side step..added frames to it.. made changes to the rotation of the hip on the ibs aswell as the keys..playing around wit the files made me understand what i sud hav had taken a shot of..i mean wat sud hav been in the reference.. so i guess ill remember that next time..made the micro antic more subtle.. sud it be more subtle??removed a few frames.. n worked on the timing more.. how the arc overall?? lemme know wat u think..
here it is

side step ref from arien1986 on Vimeo.
n here's the AVI
cheers !!!
thanks a lot..
P.S. Time to get some sleep!!

Update..11th May 6.15 AM
Hey folks, this is so awesome.. i got awesome critz over at strut your reel by Marc. He is always been a great help in all my thread over there.. Thanks a lot Marc.. so here is the crit..

Hey Chetan, just saw your updated anim. The overall timing looks good. I've done an exercise like this before and what I found that helped me was not necessarily to have the character on the ground. We had him move from one box to another. Something to consider, but take it as it is. Few things stood out to me, 1. your pre-antic when i look at the screen he moves a little to the right before doing his antic, I don't think is needed. Right now it looks and reads as if you didn't clean up your keys in the graph editor. If you want to keep it, then keep it, but make it more intentional. If you did do the pre-antic you could raise him up and then as he's going to the left dip him down and come up as he is in his antic pose, could give you a nice little arc there as well. You could also push the rotation of the body a bit more too to show the bearing of weight in the antic pose. See image.


2. your arc of the body as he is moving during the step could be pushed more, and you will probably get a better look out of it. Also watch the rotation as he's doing it, right now it seems like there is none at all. See image.


3. As he finishes up and is on the other side when he is getting up and his left leg is bearing all the weight his body should show that with rotation in x. See image.


4. As he finishes up you have him takes what looks like a balancing step with his left foot, I'd make that a bit more intentional, right now it looks a little messy. And you also got some sliding issues at the end where the feet move a bit, just check your graph editor or it might be an artifact of vimeo.
Otherwise that's all I got at the moment.
Good start, keep at it.
Hope that helps

such crits get me pumped up..feel like animating.. n my sleep just vanishes..oh m so glad that i saved the images on my drive, coz wen i checked the thread once again, dis mornin the images had been removed from the thread, i dont know y.. anyways m just glad that Marc was so helpful and made so many points clear.. i hope i do justice to the crits wit my animation..
thanks a lot Marc.

Update..12th May 5.45AM
phew!! Marc critz took more time than i thought they wud.. plus i experimented on my own a bit.. need to get the idea of weight shift clear..made the pre-antic very prominent..checked the arc.. i didnt hav a frame in the middle of the step where he's going down..it made much more sense once i tried it out..thanks Marc..got the weight now?? still not convinced..need to read a lot more on that..any hints or reference anyone?? fixed the sliding issue at the end..

OHH N YES! ALL THIS IS IN STEPPED MODE.. I AM NOT MESSING AROUND WITH GRAPH EDITOR AT THE MOMENT..


side step ref from arien1986 on Vimeo.

AVI

P.S - From frame 51 to 57, u think there should be more frames?? n in those frames he sud be moving down?? will try that out now..once that i hav finished working on Marc's critz..
Note: Vimeo took 2 hrs to upload this!!!

Update..12th May 2.10pm
Daam vimeo!! Another two hours n 15mins..
Got nice suggestion from Nate at 11sec... so i reduced the intentional pre antic n while i was at it, i made the settle more subtle..yippee..wanted to upload it..but vimeo was at it again.. gave this for upload at 12..was getting uploaded till now..man!! check dis out..

side step subtled from arien1986 on Vimeo.

AVI

worked more at it by the time vimeo was uploadin so i made a few more changes..just adding two frames gives it a snappy feel..


Update..16th May Noon
got various comments n crits from the forums..here'z how the step looks now..the major difference this time is coz of Animated Ape over at the awn forums..

sideStep finale2 from arien1986 on Vimeo.

AVI

is it slowin down a bit fast in the end??

keep the comments coming guys..
thanks a lot!
cheers!!

squirrel

hey all.. this is what i am doing at the moment..working on the hops at the moment.. i went pretty much straight ahead on this..n then saw the timing was totally wrong.. so i had to make quite a few changes.. i need to get a perfect blend of straight ahead and pose to pose.. anyways here's the video.. the actual plan is for the character to go out off the screen.. will do that once i am satisfied with the movement till this part..
take a look..

squirrel from arien1986 on Vimeo.
here's the AVI

this isnt the first attempt though, i got valuable crits from Prateek and Naveen

ooh n yea one more the thing.. wat do u think the character is doing? let me know.. wanna see if i am being able to convey the message i want or not..leave a comment.. that would b helpful..

P.S. Naveen got his blog ready.check it out.The link is on the right side.

Here's an update dated 3rd May..

squirrel got weight.. from arien1986 on Vimeo.

And the AVI.
i played around with the squirrel and completed the action of the action of the body.. got awesome support from Naveen..mades changes in all the jumps..added frames to the second jump to slow it down a bit..add squash and stretch to all the jumps..understood quite a few things and about weight..cleared a few doubts in my mind aswell..worked on the end aswell..kept it pretty simple in the end..Thanks to Mr. Stephen Gregory for writing abt Strobbing..And especially to Mr. Cameroon Fielding for the nifty little article n melscript on taping the timing..saved a lot of time n energy..
thanks a lot..


NEWSFLASH... UPDATE...DATED 5th MAY..Ive been trying to add a tail to this fellow.. at the moment.. it looks like a my squirrel's genes came from a feline.. a panther or leopard or a cat!!! hehe.. the tail is moving like a cat.. so m hunting for some reference..n luckily i just hit jackpot..all this while i was going thru live reference.. now ive found scraty SCRAT.. here the vid that m using as reference..SCRAT Music Video Just the stuff that i was looking for.. going thru it frame by frame reveals interesting movement..lets see wat i can do.. will finish this bad boy before midnyt..n get to SIDE STEP.. wooo hoooo...
till then.. sayonara..
over and out

UPDATE.. DATED 8th MAY..5AM..
Adding a tail to my Scrat was a painful task..and maintaining the weight of the tail even more difficult..the two youtube videos helped a lot..but i still havent been able to finish it..the frames where he makes those 3 hopes to gain momentum, is something that is making me go crazy..at the moment i hav done till he lands after the big jump..the weight is constantly changin..i feel i sud get my mind on other animation while i work on it inbetween..coz i need to start the side step now.. so for the time being ill start the sidestep with good ol Lt. Dan..n then, hopefully, ill come back to my Scrat.till then peace out.
P.S. Ice Age 3 Dawn of the Dinosaurs is set to release on the 4th of July next year.. yay!!!

adios..

obstacle

hey guys, i started 4days back .. daamm.. here are two versions of it.. which i did after suggestion n crits from Naveen, Sudip and Prateek. Got wonderful crit from Naveen. Kudos!!
Havent posted these on any of the forums, will do now. Take a look and let me know wat u think. Is the weight of the ball constant now?? Or is it becoming floaty somewhere?
here's the first version:

obstacle from arien1986 on Vimeo.

here's the AVI

And here the version with the corrected jump at the top and wit a slower blast off of the ramp:

obstacle 2 from arien1986 on Vimeo.

here's the AVI

Here's an Update :::
Got crits and suggestion from Naveen and Friends, and worked on it more, m uploading it over here instead of creating a new post.

Untitled from arien1986 on Vimeo.
here's the AVI
let me know what u think..
thanks a lot..
cheers!


Let me know wat u think..
thanks a lot.
Adios.

bammer corrected

Hello, from today ill try my very best to upload an animation each day, wat ever i do in the day, just to keep a watch on how much i animate each day. Yesterday, i got valuable critiques from Naveen, Ratul and Mr. Keyframe, himself.And did this yesterday itself but vimeo as always took a long time to get the video uploaded.So i am posting it now.
Naveen's correction make the hops look more natural, i think, whereas Ratul's ideas of reducing the no of hops make it more compact and interesting to watch. And finally Amrit's idea of makin it adding antic before the big jump gives it the energy and adds a nice polish. Hopefully ill get more critiques on this, till then am off to another adventure with this ball dude..

here the critiques version

bammer got life from arien1986 on Vimeo.

and the Avi

thanks a lot fellows..
adios.

bammer

here's an animation i hav been doin for sooo many days now.. hardly animated since bday..will make up for that now..
so here a punch of 2 of Amrit's animation
Bamm
Ball Play

punched the two an did this..
will work on this more once i get some crits.. thanks to Prateek for makin that valuable suggestion..

bammer edited from arien1986 on Vimeo.

Here's the avi

till the time i get critiques, ill plan out an obstacle course.. so next up Collision Course!!!
ooh boy.. doo leave a comment..thanks .. aaadddiiioosss

self jumps

hey there..didnt upload anythin coz i hardly animated throughout april( but the month is supercool!!)..daaamm.. want to kick myself.. many a things happened..so many memories to cherish..k back to animation now.
here is a self jump, i did, got crits from Amrit as always, also posted it on 11 Second Club and on Strut Your Reel..got helpful critiques from Toutouffe, Marc, Max aswell as from Prateek, Naveen and Ranbir..
here are two versions of the self jump..
let me know wat u think abt them
Version 1

self jump finale from arien1986 on Vimeo.

heres the avi

Version 2

Ryt to left Self Jump from arien1986 on Vimeo.

heres the avi

let me know wat u think abt the two..
thanks a lot

an awesome trip

Beginning


Destination


Dont know how to start..saying that the trip was an adventure wud b an understatement. Oh boy! Here it goes,
Spoke to my mentor on monday after weeks, so we where talkin abt animations n his preparations for his departure.So he said he wud be going to Haridwar the next day. So that rang a bell in my head.Immediately decided to go to Haridwar the next mornin. He said that he would be either in Rishikesh or Haridwar till 17th. Since its a 30-odd hr journey from my place, i had to leave the next day to get there on 17th n then play on my luck. So planned out the event wit help of my cool pals (naveen and ranbir), so as we found out there were two trains from Howrah to Haridwar. One at 12.50pm and the other at 8.35pm. The one in the morning takes at night would get me there at 4am, whereas the one at nyt wud get me there at 4pm. I decided to board the morning one. Slept at 6am, so got at 9am, n missed dad. So cudnt board the morning one.Spoke to dad abt the trip when he cam back home n got the money.Oh yea,i went to see my life.. Ranbir called up and said u get the current reservation when u get to Howrah in the evening. So i said hey dats great, i wudnt hav to run for the ticket now.
So came back home.Asked for permission from the home ministry. So around in the evening, at 6.45 i left home for the station, as usual late. So we went to the ferry, n in a hurry got on the ferry that goes to the opposite direction.hehe. So came back to the same station got on the correct ferry. I was so excited for the trip.Had loaded the ipod wit so many new tuts n podcasts n stuff.Was saving the battery for the journey coz i can only charge my pod using a system, since i dont hav an adapter. So my friend wanted to listen to some songs, so i happily obliged. Lovely wind blowing that day i remember.Perfect to begin an adventure.
So finally 15 mins before the departure i get to the station, no reservation, no platform tickets, nothing. So anyways therez always hope ryt, so i got in the queue for current reservation hoping that ill get the ticket in 10mins, IF they are available.As i was in the line, my frend came n gave me a good news..(no tickets left for Haridwar) phew.. no more standing in the queue.. hehe so got into the station..it was 8.29, 6mins to departure..so i ran towards the reservation bogie, coz the general bogie was ummm lets just say.. that IF i cud get in, i wud b like a needle in a haystack.So i ran upto the TT n spoke to him, told him i got to go n m boarding anyhow, so u temme wat needs to be done. The fellow was nice, told me to talk to one another TT named Kali babu, n get up on any bogie between S1-S5. so rock on m going to Haridwar, lalalalala. So i got on the train n luckily found a place to sit until this stupid unfriendly person started blabering, as if the entire bogie was his.Plus i realised to my horror that my pod was with my friend who was no way near the train.DAAMMMMMM, wat wud i do the entire journey alone, no anim, no music, no tuts , no books!!!! I was like " hey lemme get off the train".
Looked at my other pals faces, bid gdbye n went to another bogie n sat at a place. Was missing life, felt so lonely for the first time in months. Sat at the place for a while after which this stuuupid grumpy fellow starting asking me question abt my ticket. N gave a lecture as if he owned the entire train, was so disgusted but i was talkin over the cell, so just got up gave a smile to the idiot n went to another bogie. Met Kali babu on the way spoke to him. Kali babu gave me a seat, nice fellow. So i met an air force fellow sitting next to me. Was talkin to him. Got to know a bit about Haridwar, where to stay n how to go where. Spoke to the TT again, everyone told me to get a ticket from him anyhow so that in case another TT comes i can show a ticket. Kali babu was nice he got me a berth, but said it would cost Rs. 1000, said that the ticket along wit the fine amounts to Rs.750, n the rest ummm..u know. So i told him to reduce the amt, the guy kept on persisting. He said he'll come back later. So i called up a few frendz n ummm ... umm...and then dozed off. Woke up at 1am, saw the train was at a platform, thought Dhanbad is near, coz the train's scheduled time for Dhanbad was 1.30am. So i got down from the train, asked a few shopkeepers, they said some blockage up ahead, will take half an hour to get cleared.So i roamed abt talkin over the phone. Was feeling great after the nap and the breeze blowing.An hour passed by still no go.Went upto the TT asked him for the ticket, the fellow said "u dont worry go n sit at the berth, ill come up to u in a while". So i called up Ranbir, the dude was waiting for me at Dhanbad station.Gave the news and told him to go home, will inform once i get to Dhanbad.So i roamed around Asansol station, n was amazed to see soo many ppl sleeping here and there in the train, without a berth. Talkin talkin talkin over the phone. Time just flew. So at 2am and the train still stuck at Asansol. I got this annoucement that the train will go via Patna, Gaya. So i immediately called up Ranbir, coz i thought that it would add more hours to the journey. And Ranbir confirmed it that it would add 10-12hours. So i got up the train, kept everythin inside the bag n got off the train!! Roamed around Asansol station a bit more. Ranbir said that there's a train at 9 from Dhanbad that i cud catch.So he suggested that i sud come to Dhanbad n stay at his place for the time n then carry on with the journey.Got out of the station, roamed around and then gave a call to Ranbir who informed that the train is it 9pm not , 9am unlike i assumed. So no chance of meeeting the Man. Then at 3.30am with no either returning back home or goin to Dhanbad, i chose the latter. Was informed that there's a bus to Dhanbad at 4.30, took a rickshaw n got to the stand. After getting there found out that the bus is actually at 6am. Sat at a tea stall all the while, was still excited, dont know why. So 6am, got another good news, the bus for Dhanbad has been cancelled. Called Ranbir, the fellow told me to come to Maithan n from there its very near! So i hunted for a bus to Maithan, got up on the bus n got to know that its Jharkhand Bandh today! yeeeey!! Took an hour of bumpy ride to get to Maithan, nice place though. So from here i was supposed to go meet someone Ranbir had said earlier n he'll take me to Dhanbad. So called up to get the name of the person to meet. Was told to get up on an autorickshaw to Dhanbad. So finally m going to Dhanbad, phew! A really bumpy ride. Now, this rickshaw stoped at someplace i dont know where n told me to get a train from there to Dhanbad, i was like Maaaaan cud hav told me earlier, i wudnt hav come so far. So i got to the station, heard there's a train scheduled for Dhanbad in the next 5mins. Got the ticket quickly. Got to the platform, two trains came n went in 15mins or so.
Me at the station
Go to this link and try zooming in on the Station, maybe ull see my scratching my head.
No sign of the local i had to get up on. Waited there for 1 and a half hours , no sign of single element on wheels..so got up n called Ranbir cudnt get his cell. left a msg. Came to Maithan, then got on a trekker with i think 20 other fellows, man i was sandwitched, on the way to Asansol. Then finally i thought i am done with the travelling, so one last ride to take. Got on the government bus to Calcutta , the City of Roy, oo i mean The City of Joy .. hehe.. Slept more than half of the way back home. Unfortunately the bus dropped me off at Esplanade which is like an hour or more away from my bed!!! So took a metro n then an auto, n finally i was at home sweet home!!
Sat in front of the system n the first thing i cud lay my eyes on was this link
The Reason
The reason for all this!!!

Recent Work

KKKKK so at the moment m hooked to the basics of Jason Ryan and Mr. Keyframe
so ill upload dem once i have some time..
will get back to ya'll..
thanks for visiting.

Past Work

Still having problems witht the layout of the blog..unable to make any changes to the blog apart from posting.. will make the neccessary ones once i am figure out a way..

Here's a quick recap of what i had done in the past, in the last few months..
Many changes, learnt many a great deal of basics from Amrit Derghawen and Dj..And got great inputs from Ranbir, Naveen, Ratul and Prasad.. thanks a lot dude.. hope we all sit together one day over (NOT LITERALLY ..hehe) a cup of cold coffee with vanilla...oooooooh..
Dj's exercise help made me realise how much i should work on the basics and Mr. Keyframe guidance taught a lot.. His work aswell teaches awesome stuff..hehe..
Thanks to both Dj and specially to Mr Keyframe for his awesome critiques..Happy Hunting!!
Here are the videos of some of the work that i hav done so far.Will update this post a lot n talk through till the final version.So if u wanna read then come back every once in a while n leave a comment.Would love to hear from ya!

ALL THESE ARE IN STEPPED!And when i say these are the FINAL versions i mean , m looking for more crits on these.

Dj's Exercise

Djz Exercise from arien1986 on Vimeo.
Dj's Exercise No 2

finale..6 and counting from arien1986 on Vimeo.

hangarooooooo!!! from arien1986 on Vimeo.

Amritz First on Tantra
Will upload the direct final one.. will update the post n get back to the journey thru this..this one was done 2months back aswell..

faster one from arien1986 on Vimeo.

Walk
THIS IS THE ONE I STARTED 2MONTHS BACK
Started the walk cycle along with the jump, usin good ol DAN.. THANKS TO Mr. Matt Ornstein.. thanks a lot Matt..learning a lot using DAN..

walk cycle long from arien1986 on Vimeo.
K so after this i got loads n loads of crits from Mr.Keyframe and Moush..
after the crit..

wherez the drag?? from arien1986 on Vimeo.

THIS ONE WAS ABANDONED ON ADVICE.



One Leg Jump wit Tail
K so this is the one from where the things started to fall into place..posted this on tantra n got in touch wit Amrit..n obviously got awesome crits..heres the original

one leg with tail jump.. from arien1986 on Vimeo.
N here the one after primary crits.

leg jump corrected hopefully.. from arien1986 on Vimeo.
ooh my i havent uploaded the final one on vimeo yet.. will do that.. just leave a comment if u wanna see..hehe its a pay per view..hahahahhahaa

kiddin..here the one that i did after amritz final crit..

finetuned 1 leg from arien1986 on Vimeo.
yesss i know more overlap at the end..will doo..

Self Jump, Dat i didnt know i had done earlier..
Didnt upload dis on any of the fourms aswell ..

LowerJumpnRebounds from arien1986 on Vimeo.

Just a ball falling down the stairs..
did put this on any of the forums.. so leemmme know wat u think.. the rotation in the end is a too much i know..

Untitled from arien1986 on Vimeo.

Bowling Ball
Unbelievable..!! thats all that i will say..check out the awn forums to understand.. i remem i was waitin for some crits on the ball with tail n was getting bored so just did a quick test wit weight and added on the forums.. mann i learned in this one..

bowling ball drop from arien1986 on Vimeo.
will update u all with the direct link to the awn forum..

Ball With Tail
Oh i remember this one, started this to understand overlap, didnt realise that i sud b starting with somethin more simpler at the beginning.. gots lots of crits on this from forums.awn.com.. made lotsa changes.. n its still not goodd.. did this 3months back.. heres are the not so final versions..dont know which one is less pathetic than the other..hehe .. lemme know.
1st Attempt

rubber with tail from arien1986 on Vimeo.

After Lotsa Corrections

made the squash and stretch more subtle.. playblast is way too fast.. from arien1986 on Vimeo.
the playblast is way too fast..
Will try this once again in a few weeks..at the moment m workin on bamm style..thanks to Amritz Work..

Cartoony Bouncing Ball
Posting it here.did it 3months back according to vimeo..lets see now.. havent seen this oooouugly bad boy for months

bouncing ball_cartoony from arien1986 on Vimeo.

Pimp My Blog

Well as always i tried to be oversmart and wanted to customize my blog, so what do i do, simple, google to the rescue.I googled on to a page called pimp my blog or something, n i was so damm glad i found it, i cud make the changes according to my liking and it would generate the code.Then i take the code n paste it in the blog.N wallaaah there we hav it a nifty customised blog!! It all seemed working smoooth till then.
So i wake up the next day n guess what i cant post!! Blogger folks thought my blog is spam n blocked it!!!
So i got emails from them, replied back to them n then they uudid watever they did n here i am..
So first up, get rid of the customisation.Besides i am here to post my animations, ryt so from now on, this is the template i shall b using, if u done like it...DEAL WITH IT.. hehe.. leave a comment n ill change it.
Rock on.. more posts and anims coming up....

Redeemed

Hey there..
Changed the entire layout and deleted the previous posts.Let me know what you think abt the new layout.
Since all the posts are lost.Ill repost all of them.
So gimme sometime ill b back in a while.
Thanks.