Tahoro Walk Cycle

Here's a quick animation walk cycle I worked on to test the Tahoro rig. I'm planning on animating a fight scene with him and another character that update should be up soon. If anyone's interested in animating with this rig just follow the link. http://www.3dfiggins.com/gallery.php?id=38&item=128

My 11 Second Club February Entry

Well, I finally entered the 11secondClub competition. The voting period is over, and now I must find a constructive way of spending my time while I wait for the results. I'm planning on entering every month from now on for practice as well as for the incentive you get in the forms of positive feedback and critiques that come along with having other participants view your work. I wish I had been more involved in the competitions earlier on. The forums alone are helpful, I recommend this site to everyone interested in improving their work. It's a great way to get involved in the animation community.

Where To Find Free Animation Rigs

If you're an aspiring animator and are in need of some character rigs, I recommend visiting these websites. They are free and well done. creativecrash.com and animationbuffet.blogspot.com have been great sources for character rigs and are frequently updated with more rigs. If anyone knows of any other sites that can help please share.  

Parkour Animation

Here's something I've done recently. Couldn't have done it without first sketching out the poses and looking through numerous references.

Attack Animation For Games

I made this animation in order to get an understanding of what it takes to make a successful attack animation for games. The base pose is ideal for establishing a characters personality or attitude as he transition into the attack. All the characters movements will derive from the base pose so it has to feel strong and balanced as well as natural since all the characters movements will derive and return to it. The anticipation, hit frame, and recovery poses are also needed to make up a successful attack animation. Because the animation will most likely be viewable to gamers from all angles, it's a good idea to check the silhouette of each pose before committing to it.

Quadruped Run Exercise

Here's a quadruped run cycle I just finished. I was able to find a lot of useful resource material to help me through this project. Edward Muybridge's side view of a horse in full stride helped as well as Richard Williams explanation of his own approach. I'll be using animation layers to add to all the cycled animation I've done so far.

Storytelling Poses

I thought it would be useful if I spent some time dissecting a scene from one of my favorite movies (Ratatouille) by determining which poses in each shot were the "storytelling poses" Each one of the images above were selected because I felt the posing in each most clearly communicated the important idea of each characters actions and reactions to one and other throughout the scene. These aren't necessarily the most extreme poses rather they are the poses that encapsulate a feeling or expression. Although the scene is devoid of any sound that would telegraph the significance of the interactions between the characters, we are still able to clearly understand what the emotional response is to their unexpected encounter.