Cat personality animation and thoughts

Hi guys, the last week or so has been quite unusual I guess, as I have to slowly revert back to my normal routine. Balancing part time and animating has not always been easy but I feel that ever since my time off, I have that much more fresher approach as I'm able to focus a lot more on the task ahead rather than getting distracted.

I have then been able to finish an animation which I have unfortunately kept closed doors on but don't worry, it's down there below. I feel that this animation means so much more than just adding an extra few seconds to my showreel, the reason for this is because like I said from my previous post, that I started to get the feel of the creature which I never understood from the books, interviews that I had listened to. Until now.

My creature personality animation

Sure they're mistakes that are found from the video, like when I asked my brother on his thoughts, his initial answer was that "there should be a pause for when the creature sees the ball that is floating in the air", just this simple answer had so much volume and it really triggered my thoughts onto the next animation which I will work on next. 

However with that said, I can look forward to my next upcoming project and take into account all of these intricate details that would make a whole lot of a difference, when I show it to another person. 

Before my trip to Hong Kong, during my stay there for the month and when I arrived back; I knew that I had to start getting out of my room, to start applying to jobs or positions that would hopefully make me one step closer to achieving my goal for this year, which is to leave home. I had contemplated for far too long and after so many animations hiccups from this year, I knew that I can't give myself any more chances to delay this thought of mine. I will indeed be doing another animation or so but, I can't afford to waste anymore time. 

I will therefore start applying by the beginning of August and continue to hold my head up high but keep my head down to continue improving my animation skills. This will also mean that I will have to learn other skills like Mel scripting, Python and rigging. 

So, I'll see you guys next time. 

Creature personality animation and updates

Hey guys, I have returned from Hong Kong last week and I must say, it was a welcome break as there was no worries of work, animation or putting any further strain to my wrist from the RSI. I was there to relax and enjoy living at a place which I have not been to for the last six years. I was then able to look at my life with a much more positive attitude.

I miss Hong Kong

I did however miss my part time job as in a way it's part of my social life where I'm able to work alongside a team that enjoy working with. However, after working a shift or two, I now have a much greater desire to move on and to focus on the career that I would like to have.

I have then got back to working on an animation which I had not yet shared before I had left, something that I wanted to keep down low at the time, as I didn't want to have to show up empty handed or forget to post updates on it.

This animation below is about halfway done as I have yet to complete the rest of the poses. Progress was slow when I started on this project but one of the things that I have started to notice was that, I was able to animate the creature with a lot more feeling towards it. What I mean by this is that the movements from the Nico creature has that sparkle of life, weight and personality which I have never really seemed to grasp from previous projects; something that has eluded me and constantly puzzled me what Ollie Johnson and Frank Thomas (Walt Disney Nine old men) was talking about "feeling".

With this, I hope to implement this technique in future projects where it'll make my animation much more appealing to watch.

I'm currently happy with the progress so far and I'm predicting that I should have this animation completed by the end of the week or so. After that, I will then start to polish up my CV and begin to get out there of the job market because quite frankly, I can't keep thinking the old way, to keep improving my showreel content. I have by the way uploaded a fresh new showreel here: Andrew Mo Animation Showreel 2014

Anyway, I got a lot to do today, so I'll leave it as that and see you guys next time.