tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80131275475076600512011-09-09T02:57:30.689-07:00an animator's journeyJoost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.comBlogger451100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-69260921195716810712011-06-06T08:02:00.000-07:002011-06-06T08:04:18.646-07:00

Often when making video reference its hard to see how the body is moving in certain angles because of the foreshortening of the arms or legs. Or an arm is covered by the body in certain poses. In those instances it would be nice to have video reference of different angles of the same action. I experimented with this with my last shot and it worked pretty well for me.I used a two camera setup with

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-31503062230050599592011-04-14T04:16:00.001-07:002011-04-14T04:16:53.022-07:00

After some searching for good UV layout programs I finally bought UV layout yesterday and I must say it's a breeze to work with in combination with Maya. Previously I used flat colored shaders most of the time because of my limited knowlegde about UV's. The most important thing i still need to learn is where to place the seams and texturing in photoshop. The new version of Zbrush with the UV

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-32364204978022346652011-02-11T15:46:00.001-08:002011-02-11T15:57:59.723-08:00

Exploring some new techniques to render in a 2D kinda style. The textures are painted in photoshop and mapped on the simple cylinders just for testing. Very curious how this style will work when I put these kind of textures on a character.Only one light is used for the shadowlayer. No lights used in the scene. Did Some additional adjustments in Photoshop to enhance the contrast.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-30017222714969617252010-09-08T07:08:00.000-07:002010-09-08T07:36:32.578-07:00

Here is a movie with my curent eye setup for my new character. I wanted to create a separate set of eyes that I can attach to the head rig with locators. This way I will have a flexible setup so I can move the eyes around freely.All the attributes for shaping the eyelids and pupil dialation are in the eye controllers and can be adjusted in the channelbox. The reshaping of the whole eye is done

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-35612310528397291202010-07-07T04:51:00.000-07:002010-07-08T05:01:34.687-07:00

After hearing a lot of people talking about creating a fresh reel with your own characters I decided to dive in the world of rigging too. I had some mixed feelings about this because it's hard enough to become a good animator and your really need to spend a lot of hours to improve. (Thinking about the 5.000 hours Shawn Kelly was writing about in his blog before). But on the other hand, it think

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-91172236327103709832010-03-14T05:18:00.000-07:002010-03-14T05:23:56.583-07:00

First rendered frames after some compositing. Thinking changing the window colors of the cars and maybe the colors of the shirt of the girl to make here stand out some more.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-76221189814463583972010-02-01T06:03:00.000-08:002010-02-01T06:07:47.842-08:00

Another rendertest to get the right atmosphere. Still not not happy about the blue-ish windows of the tram and the houses. But everything is coming along now.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-47167188267713552522010-02-01T05:56:00.000-08:002010-02-01T06:00:07.802-08:00

A rendertest of the tram I created for this project. Thinking of making the body of the tram somewhat reflective to give it some more life.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-57406047771340353992010-02-01T05:51:00.001-08:002010-02-01T05:53:34.589-08:00

A rendertest for one of the scenes. You just have to imagine the the blue cube on the left is a car passing by pretty close.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-70457589240376795572010-02-01T04:19:00.000-08:002010-02-01T04:23:12.370-08:00

First design for the overview of the city.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-16207503378267620202009-11-15T11:45:00.000-08:002009-11-15T13:20:48.087-08:00

The girl character is mostly finished now. I added some blend shapes and did more weight painting today. So it was time to test her in a pose looking very scared when the tram can't avoid her anymore. Some additional blendshapes will be added when I start the animation for this project. It's time for the second character first.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-59727477520840543522009-11-12T20:59:00.000-08:002009-11-12T21:12:18.976-08:00

Halfway creating the models for the environment now. Here is just a testrender in duotone for fun. The final project will be done in color but its always fun to experiment with colors and filters and discover new moods. The car is still a work in progress.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-42341599075124203432009-11-09T08:32:00.001-08:002009-11-09T08:37:21.722-08:00

Just one extra for today.The girl is standing a little to high on the platform so there is some space between her feet and the platform. Maybe she borrowed her shoes from Astro boy. In that case, why should she need a bike then :-).

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-68423463472134468312009-11-09T03:46:00.001-08:002009-11-09T03:50:20.910-08:00

Finally an occlusion render to show how the girl looks in a setting. I gotta do some extra weight painting on the girl to fix some areas but overall I am happy with the progress.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-40473312585654316362009-11-08T16:25:00.000-08:002009-11-08T16:29:16.556-08:00

Finished most of the modeling on the tram today. Just a few more weeks and I can start doing the animations for this project.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-49419786299694207592009-11-08T06:45:00.001-08:002009-11-08T06:48:32.335-08:00

Just finished some models for the tramstation. My to do list is getting smaller:-)

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-1596813390963082612009-10-27T12:38:00.000-07:002009-10-27T12:46:21.560-07:00

Working on the model of the tram now. I trying to find a balance to keep the shape stylized but also recognizable as the HTM tram that runs in Den Hague.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-74721816200622648412009-10-18T13:10:00.001-07:002009-10-18T13:18:50.913-07:00

I also modeled and rigged a bike last week. I even added a wheely controller :-). A big thanks to Henk Kok who helped me write an expression to be able to counter rotate the pedals to keep m horizontal when a character is riding the bike.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-43810749532850090582009-10-18T12:53:00.000-07:002009-10-18T13:04:38.049-07:00

Working on a new project where I also have to design, model and rig the characters.I am using The Setup Machine for rigging the body and that works pretty nice. I only still have to fix some weight painting. But overall I am pretty happy with this tool. This week I will do the facial rigging with the Face Machine and I am very curious how that will work and how heavy the rig will become.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-61891870351334742532009-06-03T13:12:00.000-07:002009-06-03T13:32:44.723-07:00

One frame rendertest of my Sushi two dialog shot from class 4. My computer is making overtime rendering at night to have all the renders finished this week. I am not a lighter and renderer but its fun to add some extra flavor to those old assignments. And its fun to learn a bit more about this other process along the way.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-61767623264888434252008-10-17T10:05:00.001-07:002008-10-21T15:19:43.425-07:00

I have been doing some more rendertests this week and working on revisting my assignments from last year and make them render-ready for my reel. This is an image from my heavy push assignment. Just a few more tweeks and my machine can render this file too this weekend.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-39454137642494272032008-10-13T18:22:00.001-07:002008-10-21T15:39:58.282-07:00

So today it was time to do some more testrenders and dressing up the character with some hair and clothes. There are still some tweaks to be made. I am not so happy about the eyes. They have a weird glow around the iris. I also need to tweak the animation just a little so I guess be the end of the week I will give my computer no sleep to do the renders for me at night.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-83332271980976463392008-10-12T20:43:00.001-07:002008-10-12T21:00:30.497-07:00

Working on my first 3D character showreel at the moment and trying to figure out all these render settings like Ambient Occlusion, Final Gather, Global Illuminatio and also trying to understand Subsurface scattering. Lots' of technical stuff to cover and it almost drove me crazy that I was not able to render out some decent pictures. This weekend I finally made some progress and was able to

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-37272860096770621242008-10-06T02:54:00.000-07:002008-10-06T06:11:44.651-07:00

Just some funny doodles I created this morning. Made me create a new banner for my blogsite.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-25575168695245809872008-10-06T02:47:00.001-07:002008-10-06T08:50:08.320-07:00

Just came back from London where I met a bunch of new Animation Mentor students and some old friends to do a studio tour in London. I visited Nexus, Famestore, Uli Meyer and Double Negative. It was a blast. Next gathering will be the FMX in Germany.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-45899001624551684552008-09-30T18:30:00.000-07:002008-09-30T18:36:44.656-07:00

Just a funny sketch.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-26558925026520275392008-09-30T17:44:00.000-07:002008-09-30T17:54:36.286-07:00

This is the latest version of the cocktail penciltest that I did this week. It was a fun project to do and I learned tons of stuff about timing, texture and contrast. It's amazing how little changes in timing can affect the total look and feel of the animation.I will revisit this animation later again when I have some fresh eyes again to polish the animation some more. Just let me know what

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-65640928764042134872008-09-29T18:15:00.000-07:002008-09-29T18:39:37.416-07:00

One of the end images of the 2D cocktail animation I am working on.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-73544514654233347382008-09-29T13:05:00.001-07:002008-09-29T13:14:10.749-07:00

Here is the first rough pass of the first 117 frames of the cocktail animation. The rough images are cleaned up some more in Photoshop and imported in Flipbook again.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-9608368259808555442008-09-28T15:46:00.000-07:002008-09-28T15:58:44.705-07:00

Made some changes to the end of the animation. I tried to add an extra cartoonfactor and pushed it some more at the end. After he takes a zip he totally freaks out. This exaggerated cartoony stuff is kinda new to me, so let me know if it reads well. First rough blocking animation in Flipbook.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-48070316503454228492008-09-27T00:36:00.000-07:002008-09-27T05:03:39.821-07:00

First rough planning for the cocktail animation. It's time to try to use all the animation principles I learned at Animation Mentor, in a 2D animation instead of 3D. I also wanna try to experiment with a broad cartoony style animation with lots of texture in the animation. My previous assignments last year where very subtle. So this will be a nice change to get a grasp of the cartoony thingy.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-31399854970996402162008-09-27T00:35:00.000-07:002008-09-27T00:36:11.051-07:00

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-23350000585057833332008-09-26T02:41:00.000-07:002008-09-26T09:15:06.058-07:00

Some warmup scribbles. I kinda like the cocktail waiter poses. Maybe the waiter got potential for a pantomime test animation. Who knows;-)

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-49705792034906022672008-09-23T17:06:00.000-07:002008-09-24T02:57:10.641-07:00

This is my first Flipbookexperiment I did today with the Jason Ryan approach to solve an animation in 2D first before diving into Maya. This is just a quick test on one's and two's and I have no intention of building this one in Maya but I am pretty happy with the speed of this workflow. This rough animation was done in Flipbook within two hours without any videoreference. Just trying to

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-36368887402986079122008-09-23T04:42:00.000-07:002008-09-23T07:14:51.232-07:00

After visiting Kevin Koch's blog about blinking where he showed a video with a part of an old acting class of Michal Cain explaining about blinking, I was eager to see the rest of that class too. This class is full of acting tips that are also extremely helpful for animators to create genuine animation. It made me realize even more what you can do with subtle movements and expressions in the face

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-70988996466247094252008-09-22T17:48:00.001-07:002008-09-23T04:48:45.565-07:00

Daily Sketch

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-45228691555276037892008-09-22T17:13:00.001-07:002008-09-22T17:26:11.584-07:00

First image out of the new "strange connection" series. Will do some Flipbook 2D animationtests with these guys soon to get some more practice doing 2D animation too.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-51070862287611705002008-09-22T05:27:00.000-07:002008-09-22T11:09:08.649-07:00

A funny little character model I am working on when I have some spare time.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-58093119554024838002008-09-22T05:06:00.001-07:002008-09-22T05:11:28.475-07:00

Daily exercise exploring poses.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-4729049646398914102008-09-20T07:14:00.000-07:002008-09-22T05:13:12.596-07:00

Some characters I am modeling in Maya just for giggles. Work in progress. Would be nice to be able to rig and animate them later.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-88933741486536940152008-09-19T18:56:00.000-07:002008-09-22T05:14:47.614-07:00

Some sketches I created while watching the Ratatouille DVD.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-21735804778499688782008-09-19T17:43:00.000-07:002008-09-20T07:34:53.916-07:00

Jason Ryan, a supervising animator at Dreamworks opened his site with tutorials earlier this year. I had already seen some lectures of him at Animation Mentor and I liked the approach he uses for his shots. He works with Flipbook an application where you can quickly sketch and test your animation. Recently I drew a lot of thumbnails for my animations to test out different poses but once in Maya

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-15110805315952840592008-09-19T17:35:00.000-07:002008-09-22T05:15:58.324-07:00

The daily morning routine. Little thumbs and scribbles.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-34923990801100105642008-09-19T17:04:00.000-07:002008-09-29T12:01:19.098-07:00

I recently graduated from Animation Mentor the on-line animation school. I had a blast those 18 months. The community was awesome and it was great to finally meet my fellow classmates at the graduation in Berkeley and during Siggraph. Here is a picture during graduation at Berkeley with some fellow students and classmates.From left to right: Jose Francisco, me, Yannick Jouneau, Olivier Ladeuix,

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8013127547507660051.post-58521033200251294182008-09-18T14:51:00.000-07:002008-09-23T18:16:49.911-07:00

Thanks for visiting my blog. Here you can find some sketches, animations and other experiments that keep me busy during my journey to become a better animator. This is one of the sketches I do almost every morning to start the juices flowing and to get a better understanding of good poses.

Joost van Schaikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16409256310337897313noreply@blogger.com0