Class 504 - One person dialogue final

Finaly!!! I was really staring to feel sick with listening to the same sound over and over and over and over..... for the last few weeks. I'm happy to say that it's finished :)

This was submitted to my mentor last week, and today I had my critique

There are even more things that need to be improved :(

My hand shapes are working nicely but could still look more feminine.

There are also a few weight shifts that could be refined and well as some of the facial shapes that are not strong enough.

I will probably have a extra refined version for my final reel.

Any thoughts are always welcome

Going to heaven Finalized from Krzysztof Boyoko on Vimeo.

Class 503

Here is a revision of my shot with most of the suggestions applied to it.
The lipsync is a bit better but still needs a lot of work.
The eyebrows don't really feel connected with the rest of the face.
I'm still being told that the gesture for "honest " feels late. This will be corrected in my next and final version of the shot.

Going to heaven - Lipsync refined from Krzysztof Boyoko on Vimeo.

Lipsync blocking

The serious stuff has finally started :)
Last week we were busy with the facial animation blocking of our shot.
I tried to have all of the basic shapes working, but haven't really started to animate the eyebrows.
Here are the main things that I still need to change :
- My hands still feel masculine. The character rig has big hands, so I was suggested to avoid to show them in a completely open position
- My hips could be moving a bit more, especially when she says
- The breathing at the beginning doesn't look natural at all. What I did was just scalling up the upper part of the spine, which isn't really what's happening when somebody is breathing.
- My mouth shapes are a bit exagerated, especially with the "o" sound. Toning them down by not rolling the lips so much will probably help.
- I think that changing my last pose so that it doesn't look like the first pose in the shot will work better too.

Those are the main things that I'll be refining for my next version.

Going to heaven - Lipsync Blocking from Krzysztof Boyoko on Vimeo.

Class 5 started

Last week I started my 5th class at Animation Mentor. This term we ll continue with our previous shot and add the facial animation to it, and we ll have to animated a two characters dialogue.
My mentor for this term is Michelle Meeker, and she is seriously awesome. I really hope that I ll be able to push my boundaries even more for the weeks to come.

Small update

I've worked a bit more on my last shot, and here are the main things that I've updated
- I've refined the fingers a bit more to make them feel more alive
- Reworked the timing in some parts, especially where she says "....because you're honest ?... ". I had many comments about the gesture happening a bit late, so I had to review that.
- The hips part have also been refined to feel more natural.
- The most difficult has been to have the left arm a bit more 'present' in the shot but without distracting the main acting. Hope this works better.

I'm sure that there's still a lot that can be done but I'll keep it as it is until I start working on the face.

Going to heaven - Extra polish, no facial from Krzysztof Boyoko on Vimeo.

End of Class 4

Woooow.
This is becoming very alarming!!! Where is all the time going? A few posts earlier I had just started my 4th class and now it's finished. This class has been the hardest so far.
What I learned before was like a small warm up session compared to the acting class. All of the animation principles have become a lot harder as well.
Depending on the mood of the character for example, the arcs, overlaps, settles and everything else have to be used in a certain way. Too much of a gesture or not enough of it makes the animation feel unnatural. That is where most of the great animators advice are to look at the world around you and observe all the time.
I've posted below the final submission of my acting shot, without the facial animation.
Right now I'll be relaxing a bit and in one week from now we'll start our next class where we'll be continuing with the present shot and add the facial animation to it.

Going to heaven - Polished from Krzysztof Boyoko on Vimeo.

Still a few things to fix here and there. Not particularly happy the the "... because you're HONEST ? " hand gesture. I'll probably post another update before I start the facial on this one.

First AM dialogue shot

Well, after the pantomime shot, we started our first dialogue shot. That's what I've been waiting since I started the course, and one of the main reasons me taking the course.
This time we're animating a fully rigged character with facial controls, although the facial animation will be done in the next class.

I've already experimented with some dialogue animation before with the 11second club monthly competition, but that was way before starting AM and I really needed to learn the basics at that time.  Right now I don't even know if I'm ready, but I'll need to dive in to get the answer :)

For this assignment we're free to animate on any sound as long as it doesn't contain any profanity and isn't from another animated movie. My final choice went for a clip from the movie American Gangster, with Denzel Washington.

Below can be seen my blocking as well as my blocking plus version of the shot. For the blocking plus I decided to go into splines a bit early to be able to clearly see the subtleties of the animation. I also made the arms invisible to focus on the mechanics a bit more , particularly in the spine area.

Going to heaven - Blocking from Krzysztof Boyoko on Vimeo.

Going to heaven - Blocking plus from Krzysztof Boyoko on Vimeo.

Pantomime shot

(I've updated this post and added one more version of my shot at the end )

In the past few weeks at AM we were busy animating a pantomime shot, which is an acting shot without any dialogue or sound.
I've really learned lots of things again, but I also realised that there's still so much left to become an awesome animator.

You can have a look at my previous shot below. I've posted the different stages of the animation process until my final submission. There are still a few things to refine like the hands which I think are a little stiff, but that will probably be done in a couple of weeks.

Hiding Stewie Blocking 01 from Krzysztof Boyoko on Vimeo.

Hiding Stewie Blocking 02 from Krzysztof Boyoko on Vimeo.

Hiding Stewie Blocking Plus from Krzysztof Boyoko on Vimeo.

Hiding Stewie Refining from Krzysztof Boyoko on Vimeo.


Hiding Stewie Refining 2 from Krzysztof Boyoko on Vimeo.