Monday, December 23, 2013

kid climb rough blocking

I started working on a kid climbing.  This rig is really tough to use, the spine likes to flip out and the stubby joints are hard to get into place.  Anyways, it was a fun start.  I'll work on it more this weekend.



Hard to believe its already Christmas and this workshop with JD is almost over and I'm going into another iAnimate block.  Hard to believe I've been at Fantage for almost 2 years.  Its insane how time goes by so quickly.

Edit:  JD's critique

www.jeandenis.net/workshop/so/video_feedback/leeann_karpel_0008.mp4

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Solar Panel Model

So I actually did it, I actually modeled something.  Nothing fancy since its my first model since college. I followed digital tutors.  I'll try something more challenging next time.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

glass blown ornaments

Made these for my Mom for Christmas.  They're a little lopsided, but I hope she likes them.  Glass blowing was hard, also a fun experience, but I think I'll have to wait a while to take a class in it again, its quite pricey and far from home.

Monday, December 9, 2013

Blurp again



About to finish this up I think

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Painting #2



So here is painting #2.  I'm making that it's official title!  I still have a lot to learn, but I think I've come a long way since the beginning of the class.  I went from knowing nothing about painting to making something presentable in a matter of a few months, so overall, I think it was a success.  I'm sure I'll take another class in the future, debating taking one in January because of iAnimate starting up, it might be too much, but I might try it anyways.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Blurp Changes



So I was feeling a iffy on how this was working and JD's review helped me sort through it.  So I made a bunch of changes, hopefully this one flows better.

Edit:

JD's Review: 
www.jeandenis.net/workshop/so/video_feedback/leeann_karpel_0007.mp4

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Blurp First Spline Test




My first spline pass on this guy.  I think some of the timing still feels not quite right, I'm going to mess around with it and see what other people say.  I do like this, though, its so much different than normal.

I was also at CTN last week and it was awesome as always :)  Got to say hi to Ted and sign up for his workshop in January.  He's going to kick my ass!  I'm trying something new to be more productive during the week to start getting ready for his class.  Instead of working out in the morning, I'm going to wake up, animate in the morning and then workout at night.  So far its been working well on the animating side, just gotta actually workout at night now!

Edit:

JD's review:  www.jeandenis.net/workshop/so/video_feedback/leeann_karpel_0006.mp4

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Blurp First Pass Blocking and Flash Animation Reel



Edit:

JD's review here:  www.jeandenis.net/workshop/so/video_feedback/leeann_karpel_0005.mp4

Haven't posted much recently, the last couple of weeks were rough in that department.  Last week I restarted the hands piece due to a crap-ton of gimbal lock.  I needed to set it up much nicer and with more thought than I originally did.  So I didn't post that because it more or less looks the same as the others but less finished.

I was tired of the hands this week, so I went ahead and started blocking something more cartoony.  This was actually a lot of fun to do, I made all the poses and then timed them out.  Its a lot like how I do my flash animation at work.  Speaking of work animation, I went ahead and put together a flash reel of the stuff we've been doing lately.

Flash Demo Reel Fall 2013 from leeann karpel on Vimeo.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Fantage new animation style



This is what my team at work has been up to.  Really up-ing the animation style compared to what we used to do.  Its not perfect but we're learning and the kids seem to like it, so this is a victory for us.  I'm proud of our team :)

I'm sure I'll post something with my individual scenes sometime, but I did the scene with the zombie on the screen, the kids being chased by zombies and Agent Scarlet's close up dialog.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

hands splining



Splining Splining Splining

This is proving to be quite the challenge for me since the hands are all IK and I've got some gimbal issues.  No finger clean up yet.

Edit:   JD's shot review:

www.jeandenis.net/workshop/so/video_feedback/leeann_karpel_0004.mp4

Sadly, after all this, I decided that the gimbal issues were too much to deal with and to restart with a cleaner version using FK and an "Extra Axis" script given to me from Jacob Gardener to keep it from gimbal locking.  There will be more curves to clean, but hopefully I'll know what they're all doing and I'll be able to make this a better piece.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Cat Jump Render



Finished tweaking my cat and rendered it out.  I wish the texture on the cat was grey or brown or something besides black.  Black is hard to render and show the body.  I tried and I believe I failed.

iAnimate Anniversary FlashBack

So I was listening to a podcast yesterday and they mentioned that its the third anniversary of iAnimate.  Hard to believe I've been at this so long.  Specially for the anniversary, here's a flashback:

My Sept 2010 reel submission to iAnimation to get into the workshops:



My first iAnimate progress reel (I used really bad music) :


I've come a long ways but I still have a long ways to go!

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Hands blocking



My current project.  Felt this needed to be done in stepped mode.  I don't know the last time I did anything in stepped.  I'm enjoying this.  Its really different than what I normally do.

Saturday, October 5, 2013

First Painting

This is how my first painting ended up.  Since its my first, I'm fairly happy with it.  I think I needed to get this out of the way.  I learned so much doing this.  Hopefully the next will turn out better :)

Sunday, September 29, 2013

First Still Life Painting


Since I've been posting my in progress works and stuff on here, thought I might as well post the progress of my first painting.  I'm taking a continuing education class for painting through the New York Academy of Art.  I'm liking it a lot.  I have a lot to learn though!  It was pointed out to me to move the light over a bit so thatits not on the edge to keep the painting from looking too flat.  I might try that next class, or just move on.  I have three hours left to finish it.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Cat week 3



Finishing up the cat.  Probably just a little more to do before I call it done.

JD's Spungella Shot Review

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Cat - cleaning

So I worked on cleaning my cat jumping animation this last week.  The week was crazy with getting a new CEO at work and everything so I didn't get everything done that I would have liked.  Half the tail is still in blocking and I haven't gotten to adding those tiny feet movements like JD was talking about, so that will be this week.  I'm going to try to get back into this tonight.

JD's Spungella Online Shot Review

Monday, September 9, 2013

Cat Jump Rough Blocking

So I actually changed my mind and decided to start something new.  Haven't ever done much with an animal, so I thought this test would be fun.  I actually did enjoy blocking it out.  Now I have to go through and clean it and get rid of the pops.  I included the review I got from JD at the bottom.



Spungella Shot Review

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Dead Rough Blocking

I forgot to post this a while back.  I put this one on hold for a while.  I needed to recharge my batteries pretty badly, but now I'm back at it.  I'll be working on this for the next couple weeks.



Not doing iAnimate this block, instead I'll be doing the Spungella workshops with my old teacher Jean-Denis Haas.  I think that this will be less stressful and I'll still learn a ton and keep animating.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Pie Render



I think this is done for now.  I think I'm fairly happy with how it turned out :)  now moving on!

I also went through and did some touch up on the sneak animation.  I cut out the end with her running away and added a hold at the end of her looking over to try to make it more entertaining.

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Pie Polishing



Mostly approved!  Only a few small fixes.  Going to do that and then start on the next piece for this workshop.  I'm thinking of doing something more cartoon-y.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Pie Lipsync



Added some lipsync and fixed some stuff in the body and arms.  Hopefully just cleaning up next week and I'll be moving on, but we'll see what my instructor says

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Pie - Body Splining



Missed last week because of a wedding, so next week gotta really get going on the face.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Pie 2nd pass



So I changed the camera started cleaning my animation and fixing some rough areas.  Next week I think i'm going to focus on tracking arcs of the arms and head mostly and anything else that comes up.

Saturday, June 1, 2013

first pass blocking

Forgot to upload this last week.  Changing quite a bit, I'll have a new one to upload probably tomorrow.  Going to start in on the root now.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Pie_week2

So I've officially started on my next piece.  A short one this time.  Here's my reference and scene set up.  Tomorrow I start blocking.




Sunday, April 7, 2013

New Reel



Got this fixed up and put together just in time.  Meant to post it last night but I was exhausted and just fell asleep.  Going to have my teacher look it over one last time tonight and then call it officially done and just move onto newer and better things.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Dragon Polishing 1st Pass and iA Progress Reel



This week's turn out.  Going to finish this up in the next couple of days, still have a couple problem areas, but I think its coming along.

Also, my progress reel for iA was due, seems like a big change from the first to the last, gotta go back and fix that pace assignment.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Minion


Did this just for me, its been entirely too long since I've done something for myself.  Its my squishable monster, Minion :)

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Dragon 3rd Pass



Here is my most recent pass on the dragon weight lift.  Lots of timing changes were made this week.  Still lots to do.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Sticker Designs




Just thought I'd post some of my recent stickers I've made for Fantage.com.  Still practicing new techniques with vector.  Lately I've been focused on gradients and line weights.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Dragon Second Pass and New Reel





For a record of three posts in a day, here's the last one.  One is my dragon weight assignment, wasn't feeling very well and was super busy so I didn't get as much done on it as I would like.  This is my second pass, I'm going to try to get as much done next week as humanly possible since its supposed to be the last week for this assignment.  The other is my reel I managed to put together for my website.  Its up, it'll probably be changed within a week, definitely within two or three, but I'm glad to have it together :)

Promise Render




I rendered out this one today.  My most recent file got corrupted, so I did a little fixing, but I lost some of the work I had done in the face last week, which is a bummer.  I am sure I will return to this next week in order to get it fixed up, but for now due to deadlines, this is what it is.

Also thinking I might have to go through and lighten these pieces for my reel in after effects, they seem so dark on my pc.

True Love Render



Finished this up yesterday.  There's still some work that needs to be done to it, especially when he comes back down after he says "true or not you, see", the spacing I feel could use a bit of work.  (Actually it bothers me so much that if I get time, I'm going to go back in tonight and fix it and re-render it over night)  But since I have to get this out asap, I'm going to leave it as is right now and return to it in a week or two after I finish up some other projects.  Its weird going back into a piece that I animated a year ago and looking at my curves. So bad.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Sneak Render



Sped this up a tiny bit and I think it feels better.  This finished rendering last night, so I thought I'd post it before I go run my 10k this morning.  Going to probably be posting quite a bit this weekend since I need to get two reels together for Monday.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Photo Drop

Well, thought I might as well use this blog for more than animation and post some of the pictures I've been taking.  Some of the views on my morning run are awesome.











Sunday, March 10, 2013

Dragon week 2



Here's where I am right now, I only went through and made some timing changes and cleaned up what I could.  Parts of it are too smooth now, got a lot to still do to it.  Also been working on my other piece "promise" during lunch breaks for the last couple weeks.  Had a friend give me some notes which I'll apply this week then maybe I'll post it here.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Rough blocking

This is my first blocking pass.  There has been no cleaning on it, so its super poppy and messy.  I'm going to start cleaning it next week.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

sneak final



There is the final pass of my sneak after I made a few adjustments.  I'm going to try to render it out this weekend.  I'm also moving forward with the blocking for my weight assignment and trying to fix up "promise".  Its a lot of work, but I'm determined!

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Sneak week 2

Here's where I am with my current sneak.  I'll get my final notes for it tonight.




And just for shits and giggles and sake of comparison, here's the same assignment I did two years ago.  Its pretty awful.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Sneak_animation

ok, so I suck and have been terrible at updating this.  Here's what I've been working on for the last week or so.

first blocking pass:


first rough cleaning pass:


Still going with this.  I might upload the next steps in the next couple of days.