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Tag: humor

Posted
October 18, 2013
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Batter Up!

Last week’s posing assignment was similar to the first one: creating poses with Stella that show movement.

I was casting around for some cool inspiration and I came up with….baseball!

Damn girl. Throw that.

Damn girl. Throw that.

Swing, batter batter, swing!

Swing, batter batter, swing!

I’m pretty happy with the poses and I’ll post up my sketches for these poses later. For now, here are the before poses and the critiques I received:

Before

Pose 01: Plant the screen right foot and pay attention to the twist and arch in her back.

Pose 02: Lean her back more as she is in the sketch and really twist her upper body. My peers also gave me reference images to help with the angle of the bat. Thanks peers!

On a side note, my cool German friend Al liked my work and he mentioned me on his blog, so I’m gonna do the same and throw a shout out back at him! He has fantastic animations and his blog can be found here:

http://alexdiestel.tumblr.com/

– and his website is here:

http://www.alexdiestel.de/

Danke!

Posted
October 14, 2013
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New Title FAIL

I’ve been thinking about it for a while now. I’ve realised my website is more bloggy than portfolio website-y, so I would like to create a more professional website with my name as the URL and no posting, and keep this website as more of a blog format. The only problem is that I would need a new name and URL for my blog and I’m kind of stumped/indecisive when it comes to picking a new name.

Going about my normal troubleshooting ways, I Googled “how to name a blog” and got onto SpinXO, a name generator that spits out variations of keywords you type in. Some of the best (and by “best”, I mean “most hilarious”) ones it spit out included:

Thug Animation

“Thug Animation”

Genius. It reflects my thug life in the projects as I animate illegal movies (eg. Donald After Dark).

Steph Stewbum

“Steph Stewbum”

Brilliant. This has nothing to do animation and vfx but EVERYTHING to do with my cannibal cooking adventures.

NameFail_shatsteph

“Shat Steph”

SERIOUSLY!? In what fields that I entered (steph, vfx, animate, visual) is this solution warranted?! And who (outside of Star Trek fans) ACTUALLY wants a blog that includes “Shat” in the title????

It doesn’t even sound like it’s about “Steph”. Moreso, it’s about the aftermath of someone eating me and passing me through their bowels, whereby my being eaten created enough dilemmas with their health that it warranted a whole blog.

Thank you SpinXO for your hilarious (but failed) attempts at naming my blog. Guess I’ll have to think of a new name the old fashioned way – rip it off a movie.

Posted
October 8, 2013
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Term 2

Here we go……….again…..

Oh yeah, I forgot to say I’m in my third week of Animation Mentor Term 2!

The aim of the class is to use the fundamentals we learnt last term to nail basic body mechanics.

My mentor is Leigh Rens! He’s a really nice animator originally from South Africa (eek! Springboks Rugby team!) currently working in the pre-viz department of the Disney Toons Studio. The awesome thing about his career journey is that he’s pretty much self-taught, and so he can offer some insights to animating that don’t come with having taken a degree.

Some of the assignments this term involve using a dog, which I’m really excited about! Last year for my graduate film, I learnt how difficult dogs are to animate, and so I’m glad I get a chance to learn the basics of quadreped mechanics.

Can’t wait to see how the term pans out!

Posted
October 8, 2013
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STELLLLLLAAAAAA!!!!

In a previous post, I had talked about how Animation Mentor was rationing out the limbs on characters (rigs) we get to animate. First we only had a ball and tail (Tailor) and then we had a ball and legs (Ballie).

Well guess what the cat dragged in???? That’s right – A TORSO COMPLETE WITH ARMS!

The rig’s name is Stella (hence the Streetcar Named Desire reference) and she’s amazingly flexible with her controls and body manipulation. Our first assignment with her was to create poses expressing ‘Movement’.

Woo! Parkour!

Woo! Parkour!

I chose Parkour references because let’s face it – anything that involves flipping around buildings AND the French language slots right into the ‘cool’ chart (just above Lenny Kravitz and just below walking away from an explosion).

REVIS_stephanie_tomoana_movementpose_01

REVIS_stephanie_tomoana_movementpose_02

Catch ya on the flippity flip!

I think the revised poses turned out pretty well, although the first pose was quite difficult to make appealing while remaining true to the mechanics of anticipating a flip.

AM T2 Initial Movement Poses

These images were what I initially submitted.

Critique (Pose 1): Have her weight thrust more over the front leg, bend the back knee, revise the arms.

Critique (Pose 2): Her eyes should be looking more towards the ground (where she’s going), add some tension to the top foot.

Can’t wait to show you guys the walk that I have going with Stella!

Posted
September 11, 2013
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Sketches: My Concerned Exhaustion is in Balance

You know what I learnt (besides sketching is faster in Photoshop)? Drawing concern ain’t easy, mostly because you kind of need two characters: one to throw a pity party and another person to attend said party.

Concern. I could have sketched a lot of politicians for this one. Or celebrity fathers.

Concern. I could have sketched a lot of politicians for this one. Or celebrity fathers.

Exhaustion – now that’s something that comes easily! Drawing these poses was just about channelling my time at University and Japanese train commuters falling asleep while standing up. I have to say, even though I chose the first pose, I’m particularly fond of pose 3 slamming his face into the step:

Probably sketched from life. My life. Around 2pm in the afternoon.

Probably sketched from life. My life. Around 2pm in the afternoon.

No joke, that was a pose based on an image of a polar bear. HA!

Drawing balance was definitely the hardest to reference yourself. Normally I like to try a pose out myself so I understand where the body feels pressure and weight. Unfortunately I’m no Yogi or ballerina. In fact, when I tracked my Center of Gravity on Wii Fit once, the image it drew looked like a Pollock painting.

Enter Google Images!

Ahhhh balance. 'Karate Kid' at sunset anyone?

Ahhhh balance. ‘Karate Kid’ at sunset anyone?

Next time I post about emotions, it’ll be for my final renders!

That, or I’ll have watched ‘Atonement’ and need to throw a pity party on the internet. You’re all invited.

Posted
August 26, 2013
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Week 8 Sketches

Work those abs!

Work those abs!

Here are my sketches from Week 8 showing “physical strength”! If only it had been “mental strength”, I would have been able to do a pose of Professor X from X-Men with two fingers on his forehead while he uses his mind-voodoo.

The pose I chose (woah, Dr Seuss moment) is so horizontal because it’s based on this amazing cross-fit chick. She makes me wanna eat about a kilo worth of chocolate feelings.

Posted
July 23, 2013
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Week 3 Sketches and a Question Answered!

Excited Sketches

We’re up to emotion poses in Animation Mentor! Week 3’s emotion was “excited”. I wanted to do something like my previous post:

Pixar_mentor_02

– but I think the CG model doesn’t have 3 elbows and 2 knees, so I chose a subtly girly version of excitement.

I know what you’re thinking: “Steph. Don’t torture us with these preliminary sketches. Give us what we lined up for in the bitter cold. Show us your final emotion poses. Show us animation. Show-me-the-moonnnnneeeyyyy!” You know what, you’re right fantasy audience. I shall give you a show!

But only at the end of the term, when I know the work is as good as it can be 😀 For now, you’ll have to put up with sketches.

On another note, blogger The Byronic Man TOTALLY featured my question in his segment ‘Sexy Stalin’! Check out the article for his advice to my query. Have a great week everyone!

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