David Nilsson - Aspiring Character Animator

Progress Reel from Class 3

David — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 23:13:12 +0000

So, Class 3 ("Advanced Body Mechanics") at Animation Mentor has come to an end and I'd like to thank my mentor Steve Cunningham for a totally awesome class. I've learned so much during this class, and I really can't wait to move on to class 4 ("Introduction to Acting"). Here's my progress reel from Class 3:

Click here to view the embedded video.

As you may have noticed, I haven't been very good at posting regular updates here on the blog as things are quite busy but I'll try to get better .

Class 3 – Assignment 3

David — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 23:07:27 +0000

Here is my last assignment for class 3 ("Advanced Body Mechanics"). In this shot, I animated a fisherman who gets stuck in something, he pulls heavy until the bobber comes loose and then he notices that he pulled someone's skirt off and runs away.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Class 3 – Assignment 2

David — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 23:03:40 +0000

This is my second assignment for Class 3, "Advanced Body Mechanics". I chose to animate a runway model that falls over on the catwalk and then gets back up, strikes a pose, and turns around and walks away.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Class 3 – Assignment 1

David — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 22:57:10 +0000

Here's my first assignment for Class 3, "Advanced Body Mechanics". My mentor for this class is Steve Cunningham at DreamWorks animation and he's awesome. In this class, the focus is once again on body mechanics, so we're trying to animate advanced body actions (walks/runs/change of direction/jumps/falls/reaching/throwing/pushing or pulling/from sitting to standing position etc.). In this first shot, I animated a waiter that gets scared by a mouse and runs and jumps up onto a chair.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Class 2 – Assignment 3

David — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 17:13:41 +0000

Here is the third and last assignment for class 2. I've had a blast and I'd like to thank Chad Stewart who has been an amazing mentor. For the last assignment, I chose to animate Carlton's dance from "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" (the original can be seen in the post below) and you can see the final animation here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

We have now started class 3 which goes deeper into Body Mechanics. I have a new mentor, Steve Cunningham (Dreamworks), and he seems awesome as well. For my first assignment, I will animate a waiter who gets scared by a mouse/rat and jumps up onto a chair. Check back in 3-4 weeks for the result

Class 2 – Assignment 2

David — Sun, 15 May 2011 16:17:45 +0000

I have just finished and turned in my second assignment for Class 2. As mentioned previously, I chose to animate a person struggling against a windstorm and you can see the finished result below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

For my next assignment, I have chosen to do a dance move. I have picked a funny dance move performed by "Carlton" in "Fresh Prince". You can see the dance here (from 0:37 - 0:46):

Click here to view the embedded video.

Class 2 – Assignment 1

David — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 18:47:43 +0000

I've just finalized by first assignment for Class 2 ("Psychology of Body Mechanics"). This time we got to select an assignment from a pick list and we got to work on the shot for 3 weeks. I chose to animate a heel click and you can see the result below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I've also planned out my next assignment which is going to be a person walking in a heavy windstorm and losing a few steps. We're using a new rig for the animation this time, "Stewie", who comes equipped with legs and head (but no arms).

Blog start and class 1 roundup

David — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 22:41:04 +0000

Well, I've been meaning to start a blog since before I started my studies at Animation Mentor in January and here it is! I have now finished the first 12-week class ("Basic Foundations") and I've had a blast!

My mentor for the class was Jon Collins, an amazing animator and mentor working for Pixar Animation Studios. I have learned a lot in the past 12 weeks but there are certainly many, many things to work on. The final assignment for the first class was to upload our "Progress Reel" for the class, so I figured I could post that here in this blog post as it sums up my first class.

I have many things to fix in every shot, but instead of fixing them during this somewhat free week I decided to go visit my new niece. Also, it makes the progress more obvious if you don't change your first few shots

Click here to view the embedded video.

On Monday I'm starting class 2 ("Psychology of Body Mechanics") which looks very hardcore. I'll try to update this blog every now and then with my progress.