Anim: Salute

Here's a very quick animation I did during a webinar for my class. Lots of things I would fix, but not too bad for 1 hour and animating live.

Acting Reference #69

Great clip of Robert John Burke in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. Some really great timing in here & awesome facial expressions.

 
Acting Reference #69 from Kyle Kenworthy on Vimeo.

Last Chance!

Today is the last day to sign up for the second run of my class!

Anim: Weapon Out

Here's a test animation I did while preparing for my class. Also included quick process video. All in all took me about 4 hours to complete. Was fun doing research learning about different ways to carry & raise a rifle, I always enjoy the "research & learning" part of animation :)

Lexica Article

USA Today article about the game I'm currently working on :) Click the link to check it out

Disney's Frozen

Looks great :) can't wait!

iStabilizer

I wanted to use this post to plug the iStabilizer. I shoot video reference a lot and having a quick and handy camera tripod is very key. Most of the time I just use my phone to film reference & this little guy is compatible with most all phones. I also like how you can bend & shape the legs into different shapes, this allows for a lot of flexibility when positioning the camera. It's only $21, definitely worth it if you're into filming reference :D

Video Game Animation

I'm running my Video Game Animation class for CGScoeity again. The dates run July 8th - July 29th. Sign up now!! :D



and here's the promo video

Acting Reference #68

Not much to say about this clip - Anne Hathaway gave a pretty amazing performance in Les Miserables. It's a little longer than my normal acting reference videos, but since this was all one shot I didn't want to cut any of it out. Never have I seen a musical performance with this much emotion in it. Enjoy

Acting Reference #68 from Kyle Kenworthy on Vimeo.

51 Things Every Game Student Should Know

Must read for people wanting to get into games

Acting Reference #67

I wanted to talk a little bit about composition & this clip from Romeo & Juliet is a great example. Often when animators are doing dialog tests the environment & composition are an after thought. But thinking about where your characters are & what the camera is doing can add tons to your shot. Using the fish tank as a way to introduce these two characters was a really cool idea & it adds a lot to the scene. I'm curious how many takes they did to get the right fish movement...these days they just would have made the fish cg.
When tackling a test shot, bring in an environment, play with where the camera could be/where the characters could go. You can find a lot of free environment models on the internet - cgsociety does a lighting challenge & you can download the environment models they use here
I also like the little take/reaction Leo has in this shot
hmmm I have a lot of Leo clips on here...is that a problem...am I obsessed with him?...probably

Timing & Expectations

Nice post by Ken Fountain on Timing, check it out!

Acting Reference #66

Sorry for the lack of posts, been pretty busy with my class. I've been watching March Madness and these AT&T commercials are on all the time. I really liked this one in particular. The girls expression & delivery after he asks "do you believe in yourself" is awesome! Such great timing and I love the facial expression.

Acting Reference #66 from Kyle Kenworthy on Vimeo.

Promo Video

Promo video for the cgsociety class I'm teaching :D

I'm Teaching A Class

I'm going to be teaching a class on video game animation for CGsociety :) Click the picture to learn more about the class and sign up!

Acting Reference #65

First off sorry for the lack of posts, was a busy Holiday. I've gotten a number of messages about how I added clothes to the Morpheus rig for my 11 Second entry. I plan on making a how to video very soon to show this. Onto the acting...

Here's a great clip from Django Unchained. This movie is awesome..so go see it. Christoph Waltz is amazing in it, definitely steals all the scenes he's in. I love the contrast he has with Jamie Foxx. One character being more over the top & expressive and the other much more subtle  Having contrast in your characters allows them to play off each other very nicely.

Acting Reference #65 from Kyle Kenworthy on Vimeo.

Anim: Cops & Robbers - Process

Here's a process video of my 11 Second Entry & some explanation below
 

 The first clip is my reference. I plan out my camera angle & layout in Maya first, so I can shoot reference that will be close to the angle I'll see in Maya.

12 sec - The next step is blocking. For dialog shots I worked in stepped & block in the major key poses. I study my reference and also use it for very rough timing. This just helps save time, so when I start splinning in the next step the timing isn't super off.

23 sec - The next video I have splinned the beginning. I work in small sections, so I can focus my attention. I don't stay in stepped mode that long, I find it easier to switch to spline & start adding in-betweens there.

35 sec - The fourth video I now have rough inbetweens/clean up on the whole shot. This is technically my final blocking pass.

46 sec - this is my first pass polish. I start tweaking some of the timing, pushing some of the poses & adding more overlap/follow through. I also added the gun twirl in this stage, I felt the ending was lacking a bit and thought this would spice it up

57 sec - this is my second polish pass. I've added in first pass lip sync/worked on the face more. I've also added in some secondary action on the gun, but only in the first half of the shot

1:09 - this is the final polish pass on the guy. I've tweaked more lip sync and fixed anything I saw that felt "off"

1:20 - I added in the girl animation. I animated her in a more straight ahead manner, was in spline from the beginning. I knew I didn't want her to be distracting so I basically just animated reactions to what the guy was doing

1:32 - Final version. Added in a background & rendered it using Maya's Hardware Render Buffer. I definitely recommend it. It's quick and lets you add in motion blur. Basically a beefed up version of a playblast

Anim: Cops & Robbers - Final

Here's the final version I submitted...and I won!!!! woohoo!!!!