Oskar Fischinger (1969)

Posted by DrMeloche on 10/24/2010

Lumigraph Film (c. 1969) by Elfriede Fischinger (excerpt) from CVM on Vimeo.

Unfortunately this video is without sounds, so this has lost its original intent.

Metamorphosis Remix, "Satori"

Posted by DrMeloche on 10/24/2010

Metamorphosis Remix, “Satori” from Douglas Meloche on Vimeo.

This is an expansion on my earlier assignment. I added a few breathing holds, but I really need to find a way to lead into them and make them appear more natural. I think the pace needs a lot of work and there’s a few things I would just take out entirely.
I did add a lot of content that I am happy with. Since I was shooting on notecards there were issues with cropping.
I also started playing around with stop-motion and altering the exposure between shots to create fading effects.

William Kentridge

Posted by DrMeloche on 10/24/2010

http://www-tc.pbs.org/video/media/swf/PBSPlayer.swf

Watch the full episode. See more ART:21.

Walk Cycle With Character

Posted by DrMeloche on 10/17/2010

Walk Cycle With Character from Douglas Meloche on Vimeo.

“Hello, My name is Gilbert. Friends call me ‘Gil’, and you sir may not call me ‘Gil’.”

No introduction necessary, Gilbert here took care of that for me. Here you’ll see my use of the “very light” walk cycle to produce my first character.

Walk Cycles

Posted by DrMeloche on 10/10/2010

Walking Female from Douglas Meloche on Vimeo.
This is the first successful walk cycle I produced. One thing I love about this is the fact that no matter how many times you do walk cycles there’s always a way to make it better. The toughest part is knowing when you’ve done all you can to a specific drawing and it’s time to move on to the next step.

Walking Male from Douglas Meloche on Vimeo.
Here I improved on the original drawings after completing the female walk. I needed to give the figure a more forceful step to show the more deliberate, male movement.

Walking Light from Douglas Meloche on Vimeo.
This is the most rewarding walk cycle I’ve executed so far.
I began sketching this animation by asking myself, “What causes someone to have a very light step?” Without even realizing it, I was beginning the steps of creating personality animation.
I was thinking about what motivated a very light walk, and how the body would move to create this gesture. It was remarkable to finally see exactly what I imagined come to life in this little figure.

Visual Research 1

Posted by DrMeloche on 10/08/2010

Here are five images from a continuing study of composition. Since I will be having to provide scenes for my animations, I am getting into the practice of visually containing a scene.

I find that some of these images offer much more visual interest than others. One idea I am playing around with is how to arrange different amounts of objects in a composition. So, I intentionally photographed scenes with varying levels of visual interest. Since I am photographing these from an animator’s perspective, I have to consider how to effectively frame environments that have less detail than others. The more complicated the backgrounds in an animation, the more work it is to render it again and again. Our flip-book assignment made that clear to me.

Oh, I just took this about twenty minutes ago and simply had to upload it. I would like to crop this to be a narrower landscape shot, but I uploaded the original file so you could see how I composed the shot with the camera. The only part I just can’t stand is the fluorescent lights that pop up on the right side.

Motion Capture

Posted by DrMeloche on 10/06/2010

I’ve become rather fascinated with the movement of squirrels. There’s quite an abundance of them on campus. So, each morning I try to observe them before going to my classes. They have this odd ability to elongate their body which gives them a unique squash and stretch effect.

Weight: Three Objects

Posted by DrMeloche on 10/03/2010

Objective = Simulate realistic weight effects and the objects’ impact on a resistant surface.

I had some issues with cropping the final cut, but it’s all there. The objects get really close to the borders. This is my first time using stippling as a rendering effect. I like the end result, but I should use it sparingly. It is a very time consuming process. In the future, I need my shadows to be more subdued.

I have to say that I’m most pleased with how the rock and paper turned out. I certainly need more practice with breathing holds. The horizon line is moving so much that it distracts my attention from the moving objects.