AM Projects

I started AM in January, just after the new year started. It was a little nerve wracking waiting to find out who my first mentor would be. Not that I was concerned about their skill level, because every mentor in the program has massive amounts of knowledge to share. It was more about what their personality would be like and how comfortable I would feel with them... and to a lesser degree, what time slot I would get.

Well, I massively lucked out when I got Anthony Wong. Anthony clearly knows his stuff, and comes from a 2D background, which make it much easier for me to follow his thought process and approach. But the best part is his absolute enthusiasm for what he does. His love for animation is infectious.

To get used to the Stu rig and practice our posing, we've been taking the sketches we do and trying to recreate and improve on the pose using the basic AM rig.

Here's the first one I did based on the generic cafe sketches in the last post.

Then we began doing theme based sketches. Trying to nail down and emotion or purpose. The first was "excitement"

Which gave me this pose...


Next was "devestation"...

Which yielded this one....

Animation Mentor

Wow!.....been a while.

A lot has happened over the past year and a bit including, but not limited to:

• New baby girl Abigail Kathryn born October 27, 2010
• Started and completed Dragon Age 2 as lead cinematic animator
• Started on Mass Effect 3
• Enrolled into Animation Mentor program

Just to get back into the swing of this, here's a bunch of sketches I did for AM. I'll post the posing tests based on these later.

Wow... apparently I really suck at keeping this updated. In my defense I was very busy this summer building decks and fences while still trying to spend as much time with my family as I could.


Bioware recently released Dragon Age:Origins which had been in production for a very long time at the studio. I was lucky enough to get to come in at the end to work on several of the cutscenes with a team that really poured themselves into the project. The game has received some excellent reviews, and even survived a treatment by Yahzee in "zero punctuation".

I started playing my complimentary copy last week, and was amazed that despite working on the title, I still find it compelling, and fun to play. This is not my experience with television animation, where I never want to see the characters again after the show ships. No offense to the projects that put food on my table, but I tend to associate each episode with 3am crunch sessions surrounded by empty cans of Mountain Dew and angst.


I've been really enjoying the experience of finishing "Mass Effect 2" with the team in Edmonton and Montreal. The game looks amazing, and plays even better.



Hopefully I won't ignore this blog as long as I did last time.

Mass Effect 2: Prelude to E3

The last few months have been pretty hectic, and the next few appear to be even more so. That's not a bad thing as being busy keeps you focused, and makes you feel way more important than if you had nothing to do. The coolest thing when working on a project as large as a Bioware game is when you reach a milestone, and you see how things are shaping up.

This recently happened, and we got to sit back and look at all that had been accomplished by the teams that create Mass Effect. I have never been so excited for people to see what we have done. E3 will hit soon, I can't wait to hear what people think.

But until that happens click on the pics for a new E3 teaser video.

Voice actors are cool

I was recently allowed to listen in on the voice record session for the cinematic opening for Mass 2. The animation on those scenes had to be done using VO temp tracks, and I was brought along just to be sure that the lines didn't stray too far away from what the team has already done.

I mention this because one of the actors we used is Dwight Shultz who played my childhood hero "Howling Mad" Murdock from the "A-Team". This definitely counts among the coolest things I have ever been part of.

Here's the chase board from my latest Schoolism project.

IKEA

I have a love/hate relationship with Ikea.

There's something incredibly enjoyable about being there. Seeing all those little room displays is like visiting a museum dedicated to cheaply made college dormitory art, and children tend to treat it like a Macdonald's playroom (which oddly I have come to enjoy since having a child). I crave the meatballs served with some kind of thin gravy and jam-like fruit sauce for 2 dollars, and I'll be damned if you can find a better glass of loganberry juice on the continent.

But....and this is where the hate comes in...I always feel like a rat in a maze....blindly following the arrows on the floor, going where the Swedes want me. I know there are shortcuts, but on those doors are written the areas I will miss should I decide to sidestep the established Ikea pathway....and...well...what if there is a particularly nice "flugenspieller" wardrobe or a "tiglinger" lamp that I would miss....I can't take that chance.

anyways, here's a board I recently did.

Mass 2

Gametrailers came by the studio last week sometime to talk about "Dragon Age Origins" and "Mass Effect 2". I say 'sometime last week' because I didn't see them. We re pretty busy hitting our next deliverable so I tend to hide in the office most days drinking my coffee, and developing my monitor tan.

...But around the 18:20 mark, you see some rough boards that I did being looked over....so that's my .15 seconds of fame.

DAO released some really nice posters for the playable races and classes... To be clear, I had nothing to do with these images, but its pretty great to be surrounded by such inspirational work.