Una pequeña demo

Bueno pues he sacado algo de tiempo y he montando un pequeño video mostrando algunas de las funcionalidades del rig en el que llevo trabajando en los huequillos que encuentro entre trabajo y demás. Aún faltan algunas funcionalidades que me gustaría implementar pero la base está ahí. Lo mejor de todo es gracias al scripting todo será aplicable a otros personajes.

Hey there!

Hola chicos, (a los poquitos que pasen de vez en cuando por este foro) La verdad es que una producción como Clanners demanda tiempo y aún iría mas lejos, demanda vida...
Estamos a punto de entrar en la recta final y vamos directos a un crunch time, que promete cobrarse alguna que otra baja. Así que espero que fisico y cabeza me aguanten en este último tirón.
La verdad es que es dificil con semajante panora seguir sacando tiempo para otras cosas que no sean, centrarte un poco en tu familia e intentar no llevarte a casa toda la tensión del trabajo diario.
Aún así es mi objetivo seguir con mis temas de rigging en maya. El sistema poco a poco y algo a tirones eso sí, sigue progresando y vamos poco a poco puliendolo y añadiendole cosas. Os dejo una imagen de un personaje que hice para un proyecto muy bonito que si alguna vez prospera tendrá una apariencia menos futurista y mas steam punk. El diseño es de todo un artista llamada Pablo. El modelado fue perpetrado por un servidor y estoy aprovechandolo para sin prisa pero sin pausa ir testeando el rig que voy implementando, gracias a los últimos conocimientos que adquirí en los seminarios de Victor Vinyals, todo un crack del que aprendí un montón.

So busy these days...

Hi, sorry about the lack of updates but I'm working really hard in our new project at Ink Apache, and in my spare time I'm trying to translate my character setup knowledge in max to maya, and of course take care of my little daugther.

And the Goya goes to...

Jo como hemos empezado el año y es que aunque lo publique con algo de retraso Bruxa fue galardonado con el Goya al mejor corto de animación y claro semejante mención me llena de orgullo y satisfacción ( como al Rey :))) )
En fin el año ha empezado movidito y un poco roller coaster, pero vamos como la vida misma :) Mucho que contar y que espero poder ir actualizando en este blog, que sorprendentemente lee alguna gente (gracias chicos/as!!)


P.D: que hago dandole al Python?

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I take a course of advanced rigging not long ago. Glad to know the school think I was a good student ;)
Recientemente he realizado un curso de rigging avanzado. Estoy muy contento de que la escuela considere que fuí un buen alumno.;)

http://www.animum3d.com/

Blue y Malone : Lanzanos

Este es un proyecto en el que también he colaborado este año. Minimamente (con un solo planito que necesitaba ser reanimado) realmente creo que hay mucho trabajo y esfuerzo detrás de el por parte de todos los que hemos colaborado en mayor o menor medida. Como todo proyecto que implica "parir" un corto, aunque no lo he vivido desde un principio ni mucho menos en este caso, se que requiere de mucho esfuerzo y también tiene un coste econonómico por que no decirlo. Uno de los medios de financiación que se han buscado es a través de esta página, es un método sencillo a través de tu cuenta de paypal puedes aportar desde un solo euro y ya es suficiente, pero es necesario llegar a un determinado número de apoyos, se está muy cerca pero aún falta o si no no se conseguirá nada (sólo faltan tres dias para que se cumpla el plazo). Como diría Alpacino en un domingo cualquiera es una cuestión de inches (pulgadas). Así que aprovecho en nonbre de todo el equipo para pedir desde aquí vuestra colaboración si estais en disposición de darla.

Gracias por adelantado.

http://www.lanzanos.com/proyectos/blue-malone-detectives-imaginarios/

Mortando Malone Animation Test from Abraham López on Vimeo.

Bruxa

I was fortunate enought to be able to animate a few shots in this shortfilm by Pedro Solís. It will be one of the candidates to the Goya Awards this year ( Spanish filmmakers academy awards). Enjoy it!

LA BRUXA from lafiestapc on Vimeo.

Tuve la suerte de participar y contribuir en la animacion de unos planos en este corto de Pedro Solís. Será una de los candidatos a los Goya de este año. Disfrutadlo!

P.D: Señorita Cobos estoy actualizando :)

Happy 2011

So, we start a new year and we have a lot of planes and hopes for it. One of then redesign this blog and keep it updated and with new content (sigh).
One of the things that kept me busy lately (besides work, being dad) was a rigging course I did. Professionaly I've done a lot of rigs. But rigging for games it's not a bit deal especially if you work with 3ds Max. Anyway I feel I always feel I need a boost to really get done I high end rig so I take this course, and well it was demanding and time consuming but I think it totally pay off. Here is the reel we have to create at the end of the course. It a bit rought I apologize for that but I have very little time to make it and my edition skills are a bit rusty.
The next goal will be to finish a rig with my new knowledges and animate it and why not a short film. I would love to animate my own characters and know I can provide them a proper rig (yay!)

And the winner is...

ME

This was my entry for the first animation contest organized by Animun3d school and 3dpoder and I'm glad to say I was chosen as the winner by a profesional jury (what it is especially pleasant for me because of the recognition of my work by people working at maximun level in this competitive industry). It was really hard for me to "finish" in time this piece of animation. Having a new born baby at home and dealing with job, a rigging course and this contest was really hard but the result absolutely pay off.

You can find the result here Sorry folks spanish forum.
I would like to dedicate this award to my beloved Ariadna.

Trabajos finales - Convocatoria Septiembre 2010 from David Alvarez on Vimeo.

Esta fue mi animación para el primer concurso de animacion organizado por Animun3d school y El foro 3d Poder. Estoy muy contento de deciros que fui elegido ganador por un jurado profesional ( lo que es especialmente agradable para mi a causa del reconocimiento que supone de mi trabajo por parte de profesionles que trabajan al máximo nivel en esta industria). Fue bastante dificil para mi el "finalizar" esta pieza de animacion. El hecho de tener una recien nacida en casa, lidiar con el trabajo un curos de rigging y este concurso fue muy duro pero el resultado justifica el esfuerzo.


Puedes encontrar la publicación del resultado aquí
Me gustaria por ultimo dedicar el premio a mi amada Ariadna

Day 2

Day 2 from David Alvarez on Vimeo.

Day 1

Box Day 1 from David Alvarez on Vimeo.

More drawings

No much time this days as usual, but I'm try to keep drawing some.

New scaner

Well I bought a new scanner yesterday, so hopefully I will update often this unattended blog. Also is a good reason to draw more. Hopefully the next drawings will be a bit better.

Some notes and thoughts

I don't usually post about this kind of subjects, because I really feel still a lot to learn about this crafty thing called animation, so I don't pretend to teach anyone the "right way" to animate. This post is just a selfremainder of things that works for me if you find it useful, good for you.
Planning: Some people draw, other simple acted out, record him/herself in video. What is the best? well I dunno, I find pretty useful use videoreference you usually find really interesting things happening in real life, things than won't come to your mind, but fell free to reinterpret, enhance and/or discard the information you get from this.
Drawing, well this is really usefull when you are planning a shot too cartoony or dangerous to act it out for yourself. I find this pretty useful too. Programs like Flipbook allow you to make really rough drawings and explore all the possible ideas. The bad thing is that sometime you will find your 3d character is not so flexible to allow you all the cheating you did in your drawings, well be careful with that.
Sometimes you can't use this method and you start from zero in your 3d program, well here you only have your critic and trained eye to know if it is right or wrong. In the end that trained eye is the most important thing to be a good animator, distinguish the right from wrong. How you developed a trained eye? Well for me worked really well my drawing classes, you learn a lot about shape, gesture and well, an appealing pose can sell a whole shot. So you better learn this stuff ( if you already don't own a copy of the Walt Stanchfield two books you are missing raw gold. Also I'm trying to analyze a lot of material, from classic cartoons to clips from movies or reels of great animators) Also like to read other people analisis Jonh K. stuff is a great source of information and detailed analisis about animation. But don't forget the most important thing ANIMATE and THINK. Just don't do what work for you, try new things don't become a robot just working with your bag of tricks.
What keeps me inspired?, Usually masterpieces of animation (like I said classic cartoons, reels, teaser, excerpt from movies). Try to be that good, usually help me to deliver quality material and also help me to improve my skills and my devolope further a trained eye.
Oh I almost forget, How I dare? Feedback a pair of new, trusted fresh eyes is an invaluable tool to raise your level and put you in the right track. So if you have someone around who can give you good feedback don't miss the chance.

My 2 cents

Bye Revis

Well in July I spent my last days as animator at Revistronic. It was a pleasure to work with the great people, really talented artist and programmers whow work there. I'm gonna miss you guys but it's time to take my chances and start new ventures. What I'm doing now? Well I keep animating (of course) in a really great project I hope to be able to show something soon.

Finally animation!

hey finally I manage to post some stuff I did a few time ago, this weekend I was fixing things here and there, I don't think it's done yet so any feedback it's more than welcome.

Quick sketches

I just found the recently published Walt Stanchfield books really enlightining. Are pure GOLD for any animator. These are son quick sketches trying to put in practice some stuff discussed in these books.

P.D: By the way for some reason blogspot renamed this page to index.htm instead of blogger.html so if for any strange reason you have this direction in your bookmark you will need to update.

selfportrait? (why so serious?)

Hi guys I must say I'm really busy (fortunally) and without much time too upload new things or work in my own stuff at home. This just a kind of selfportrait. Normally I don't detail to much the drawings I do, I try to focus more on gesture, weight, and that kind of things so I did this just for fun.

More drawings

Hey guys just some more drawings I did in my spare time.

Finally!

Hi Is anyone there? I hope so...
You know pretty busy at work, also I'm glad to say I'm taking 2d animation classes son no much time to post here. Sorry about that...

At work we almost finish our last game, and we are just starting our new project.

Also like I said I'm taking 2d animation classes and it's great to be away from a computer just with paper and pencils. I'm waiting for my lightbox, I ordered a few days ago but unfourtunally they run out of supplies so I will have to wait a few days more. Anyway I'm trying to sharpen mean while my drawing skills doing some fast sketching. You can take a look to some samples in this post.