I put together a 2011 demo reel of my best stuff.
The shot breakdown can be viewed here:
jesseobrien.com/shot_breakdown.jpg
Demo Reel 2011
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Final animation for my second character animation class
This is my final animation for my character animation 2 class.
The Pumpkin of Nyefar
This is a beautiful film that I saw in one of my classes. Cartoon Brew has a great article on it here, The Pumpkin of Nyefar.
Animation Week 10 Assignment
Hey all, this is an animation I have been working on for the past few weeks. It’s still a work in progress, far from finished, but this is what I have so far.
Animation week 6 assignment
Hey all, here is the week 6 assignment for my character animation 2 class. It needs a lot of work still, but this is what I have so far.
TIJI Colour
This is a really gorgeous short film I saw recently. The animation is beautiful, and the story is a lot of fun. The whole thing is extremely well done! The film was created by Tiji, a studio in France.
How to Cheat in Maya 2010
I recently read How to Cheat in Maya 2010 by Eric Luhta.
This book is fantastic! It is full of great tips for a faster and more efficient workflow in Maya. It is a must read for the beginning Maya animator, and also a great read for someone who learned to animate in a different 3D software package. It also has a fantastic 3D walk cycle tutorial, and talks about how to animate lip sync, blinks, and brows.
There is also now a newer edition out, How to Cheat in Maya 2012. I have not read that one, but it is likely also fantastic as well.
First assignment for character animation 2 class
Hey all, here is my first assignment for the character animation 2 class I am taking. The assignment was to animate the character going through a change of emotion. This was an especially challenging assignment for me, because it is the first time I have tried to animate a female character.
I came up with a little bit of a back story.
My character is a 16 year old girl who lives in the American midwest. She is a little spoiled, and a very dramatic person.
In this scene she is angry because her father told her she can’t go out with the school bad boy. She storms into her bedroom, slams the door and screams at her father who is on the other side of the door.
A wonderful little film
I just came across this a while ago. I am amazed at what a poignant story can be told without facial expressions or dialogue at all. Congrats to the folks at Polder Animation on a fantastic piece of work.
Blik from Polder Animation on Vimeo.
First Day of Class!!
Today was the first day of Fall 2011 classes at AAU. I am taking 3D character animation 2, and preproduction. I feel my animation skill improved a lot last semester when I took 3D animation 1, so I am extremely excited to be taking animation 2. My entire AAU education culminates in my thesis project. The preproduction class gets me started on the thesis, which is also exciting!
I had a great summer. I learned a lot teaching the animation class. My portion of the iPhone game for Lake Effect is almost done. From here on out it should be just bug fixing.
I just discovered a fantastic website. It’s a social networking site, kind of like Facebook, but for animators. The site is called animatedbuzz. One great thing about it, is that there are extremely experienced animators involved with the site who will critique animations for around $25. They provide the kind of detailed critique that one usually only gets when taking a class. The system allows people to pay for critiques a la carte though, instead of taking a whole class. The link for the site: www.animatedbuzz.com