2013 Animation Reel

I'm happy to share the demo reel I cut from the absolutely massive amount of work done over the development of "XCOM: Enemy Unknown" and "XCOM: Enemy Within."  My goal was to keep it under two minutes and focused on some of the cooler moments that show weight, body mechanics, and just a willingness to try and find interesting ways of doing things.  All the work shown in this cut is hand keyed and the result of a lot of team work to develop an experience people really enjoy.



Here is the "extended version" of my reel showing many more of the cinematic moments I worked on, and shows just how much cutting goes into making the final version of a reel:

Scripting with Color

Even though this isn't a post with an actual animation this does relate to animation, and storytelling, in a bigger sense.  Idea and visual development is very important because it becomes the space where in our story happens.  It's an important element to consider before diving into animating scenes.
These are images I made back in 2005 for a friend's short film.  I've obviously done a ton of work since then, but I thought it would be fun to share a little blast from the past.  Especially because this is more closely related to the painting and illustration type work that I love doing in my free time.
Anyway, after reading an early version of my friends script I started to imagine what the spaces and lighting might feel like.  I allowed the words to percolate in my mind for a bit before I sat down and quickly visualized them.  I spent about 2 hours on each image just sort of playing around.  The "bar" image was actually built into a 3D set.  A partially animated scene done as well, but unfortunately never married to the finished set based on my concept.  Maybe some day.
I definitely recommend collaborating with people on little projects like this.  The free flow of creative ideas between friends is always refreshing.

Work to Live. Don't Live to Work. Enjoy the time you have.

It's always important to try and have a little fun with friends and colleagues during stressful times at work.  This is especially true for production type environments.  I wanted to take a moment to reflect on some of the fun moments that were caught while filming reference for Civ Revolution, and Pirates.  This is several years old now, but full of fun memories.  Development of a game takes years and these fleeting moments of animator high jinks are just an eye blink in the big picture of what was going on, but it helps keep things in perspective.  Don't take work too seriously.  :)

I should also note for animators, and anyone that has interest, just how powerful and fun filming video reference is.  You quite literally get to play any character you ever wanted.  You get to test your ideas and see which ones are good and which ones can be thrown out.  There is a creative release, and it helps get you out of nasty little spells of creative fatigue.  It's good all around in my book.

Watch:

Peter Lip Sync Test

Back in 2011 I was watching a fantastic training video by animator Kenny Roy involving his approach to animating lip sync.  His lesson was really useful and helped me begin to improve how I deal with dialogue.
I started with animating the open/closed state of the mouth throughout the dialogue.  Paying attention to hit certain accents.  Then I addressed the wide/narrow positions of the mouth corners.  Finally I moved to the lip controls themselves to create supportive shapes for clarity.  I tried to lead each thing being said by a couple frames so that your eye could have time to process what was being said.

Here is Part 1 showing only animated facial controls to try and hit the dialogue:




Here is Part 2 showing a little animation on the head to see how the facial movements will hold up:




Here is Part 3 showing my early animation blocking pass with the lip sync.  I felt like it was a good start.  It's a little odd to watch out of the greater context of the scene this shot was meant to fit into, but I'm still happy with the blocking.



Sadly, this animation had to be abandoned for a variety of reasons.  It was, however, a good learning experience and a lot of my recent work has benefited from time spent learning a new way to approach animating lip sync.

Hope this helps someone.

New Peter Animation Tests for "STAGED"

The main character, Peter, for Dennis' shortfilm "Staged" has had a major overhaul.  A few much needed improvements to the character design, model, and rig has gotten all of us majorly pumped.  Here are three animations I did using the new model, and rig as a sort of test drive.  Dennis and I both did some Gnomon tutorials to gear up for the performance we want to create with this character.  The test animations are straight forward and consist of a basic walk cycle, a cartoony series of jumps, and a piece of spoken dialogue.  My intention was to create three short animations with good body mechanics, strong silhouette, and lip sync that matched the spoken dialogue.

Watch my work on YouTube!

STAGED in its early days

I wanted to share an early animation test that I did for Dennis' short film "STAGED."  This film has been a wonderful way to learn about film making, and the production process.  Topped only by the fact that it's being done with friends.  This little clip was blocked in shortly after Civilization Revolution went gold, and was one of my first real attempts at character animation.  Atleast, in terms of emotive acting and a thinking character's performace.  The "illusion of life" is a very difficult thing to create, and this was a huge learning experience for me.  Acting choices are key!  STAGED, as a film, has undergone some massive changes and growth, including full character redesigns, and adjustments to story length.  Of course, all of this work and change is an important part of making the best short film possible.

Civ Rev

Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution proved to be one of those pivotal projects that allowed me a chance to discover my real interest in animation.  It's like putting on a pair of shoes that you didn't think were yours, but they turn out to fit PERFECTLY!!!

One of the characters I posed, and animated was even featured on a magazine cover.  Bonus!

This was my first gig as an animator.  All my time before this point was spent as a modeler on Civ 3, Pirates!, RailRoads, Civ 4, etc.  I really got to flex some creative muscle and join my friends on the animation team.

Here are some of my favorite leaderhead animations from the project.  Since making these, much time has been spent studying the actual art of animation and acting, and how to do it well.  I see tons of areas I could have done differently, but such is the story of any art we make.  My work has only gotten better.

Hope you enjoy!