"First Date" Rough Blocking

I wanted to post my "rough blocking" of my short with a low res version of my character Simon in place (modeled by my friend Caius Wong). This posting is in stepped mode (meaning only important poses and no fluid animation inbetween). An important note regarding this posting is that I have yet to address Ethan Hurd's (my current mentor) notes to the shots. This is unedited at this point. I hope to have all my blendshapes for the face done this week so I can add some facial expression. Feel free to leave comments on what you think.

Thanks!

Team Fortress 2

I had to add a post about this game just because of how incredible it turned out. I was a HUGE Team Fortress 1 fan years ago on my PC and I have been eagerly waiting the return of my favorite online multiplayer game. I had really high expectations and when my former mentor Matthew Russell told me he was leaving DNA and going to Valve I knew they were working on something wonderful. Everything from the writing, character design, animation, texturing, lighting and art direction are so refreshing and creative. The game isn't just pretty, it's addictive.

Sketchbook Update

I have finally added some new images to my sketchbook page. It takes so much work to update that particular page, that I rarely do it. I added 11 pages of newer work. It's still not 100 percent up to date, but it's getting there. Above you will see one of the new drawings (click on it to see a larger version). I did that on the subway on my way home from work. It's one of my favorites because it's the drawing that has kick started me to draw the entire character and not just the head. My plan is also to ink and color this drawing as my first full illustration in a long time (since "Nunja"). I am really making an effort to draw more and draw full body drawings. I have always been afraid to, but since my run it with the AMAZING Alberto Ruiz (I will explain in a separate blog)...things have changed. I am no longer intimidated by full body drawings! Well enjoy!

Here is a link to my sketchbook page of my full website:
http://www.ricardovicens.com/sketchbook.html

Stash 37

Just wanted to post this great bit of news. The Bioshock launch trailer has made Stash 37! It's alongside some other great work (like the amazing Pysop Coke spots). Apparently it features a "behind-the-scenes" look at the making of Bioshock launch trailer. So check it out because we all worked really hard on making the final trailer.

Enjoy!

Keep Truckin' Kid

IT has begun. After a long hiatus, I am finally back to AnimationMentor.com to finish my last class and complete my short film "First Date". What's great about this last quarter is that I just found out who my mentor is and I am extremely happy with the outcome. I'm lucky enough to have Ethan Hurd to guide me during the animation stage of my short. I love the work coming out of Sony Imageworks (especially Surf's Up) and Ethan was an animator on that along with a bunch of huge titles at Dreamworks and Pixar. I plan to pick his brain as much as possible and get the most out of my last quarter at AM.

Now that all sounds great, but sometimes things don't come easy. This first week is one of those "sometimes". It all began with Simon. As you may or may not know, I decided to create my own character (Simon) instead of using AnimationMentor's characters for my short. I knew this was a risky move, but I wanted my short to be completely my own content. The AM characters are great, but they aren't mine. If I am serious about making films one day, I need to keep true to my vision. So how did things go wrong? Well, this past Sunday was my own deadline for having my character rigged and ready to animate. Caius (see link on right) and I were cutting close but we on schedule. I started to create a temporary rig for Simon when I quickly realized that the proportions I had created for him were wrong! That meant having Caius rework the model and get it back to me...which also meant i was starting on day 1 behind schedule. Tuesday came around and I still had no idea what to do. I was ready to give up on Simon and use the AM character instead. I didn't want to risk making a bad impression in my first week by not being up to speed. So I called Caius and told him to forget the model. It was going to be too complicated to finish and be able to animate a portion of my short by Sunday. I was really bummed out, but Caius was really persistent and truly felt that he could have the corrections for me the next morning. He felt we could do it. Its Wednesday morning and sure enough Caius comes through strong and makes the necessary changes. I get to rigging right away and I am happy to say Simon LIVES! He's ready to go! I may have lost a couple of days of animating, but I am more driven than ever about getting this done. First thing tomorrow morning....ANIMATION TIME! Hopefully you will see the final version of Simon soon. Caius is making some minor adjustments to him, but nothing that preventing from rigging a proxy.

It has been a stressful couple of days, but it was worth it! Like my dad always tells me "Keep truckin' kid!"

"First Date" Animatic

(EDIT: Just in case you are new to blogs, just click on image above to see the "First Date" animatic play.)

I just finished having an intense week of work over at Stardust (nyc location) and its not over yet. After getting a moment to breath, I quickly realized that the beginning of my last class at AnimationMentor.com was coming fast. Less than 2 weeks until I start full production on my animated short "First Date"!

For the first time (post high school), I am going to take off 3 months to completely focus on my school work. During my time at AnimationMentor and School of Visual Arts I have always been working and going to school full time. This lead to a lot of complaining on my part regarding the quality of work (or more like lack of quality work) that I produced while going to school. I always felt that every instructor/mentor I have had, has only seen a fraction of what I can do. They never see my full potential. Well this is it. The "time to put money where my mouth is". This is the time to challenge myself. Thanks to my wonderful and supportive wife, we have managed to save enough money to allow me to do what I have always wanted. It's not going to be easy. I really want to show my upcoming mentor and the AnimationMentor community what I'm made of. To add to this all, I decided that I wanted to use my own character "Simon" to tell my story. Most students opt for the characters provided by AM, but I want to finish this short and submit "First Date" to film festivals. I want the short to be entirely my own conceptual content. At this moment I have an awesome friend who helping this happen by modeling Simon. Caius Wong is this talented modeler who is giving me a helping hand in bringing Simon to life.

In light of my upcoming class, I thought it would be cool for anyone reading this to get a look at my animatic that was created while under the amazing guidance of Shawn Colbeck over at House of Cool. Its a simple story with a modern twist. One important note, the character in the animatic is property of AnimationMentor.com and is not Simon. He was simply used as a stand in. I am sure the short will change somewhat when I start to actually animate it. Some shots will probably need more time and maybe others will get cut down. I am really trying to stay well under a minute in order to finish in time. For those of you new to animation and reading...you did read that correctly. It will take me 3 months to finish LESS than 1 minute of animation.

Enjoy and let me know what you think.
Rick

Simon

So I decided to post an image of the character (Simon) from my upcoming AnimationMentor short titled "First Date". I will be taking off 3 months to complete the film and I plan to post the ongoing process of completing my short film. So I hope to post expression sheets soon. I drew this a while back (before even writing my short film) and when I started to think about designing my own character for the short I went back to my older sketchbooks to see what was there. Low and behold...I found this drawing that I had done about a year and half ago.

That being said, any feedback on the design would be great and very appreciated. Love it or hate it? Drop a comment.

Thanks for passing by.