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Thursday 13 December 2012
New Showreel (2012)
I've been busy creating my latest showreel, trying to get a scholarship and getting an internship for next May till October. Because I had a good letter of motivation I got my scholarship, hooray! But I need to find an internship before the 8th of February in order to still be able to officially get it.
Friday 26 October 2012
Lipsync
One of the two assignments at Gobelins Summer School was a lipsync / acting assignment.
This is what I made of it, I guess.. Well, it's never really done.
This is what I made of it, I guess.. Well, it's never really done.
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Update from the last couple of weeks
School has started again for about two months. We already have autumn break, but honestly, I'm okay with that. I'm working on setting up a showreel and I really welcome the time off. We don't really have time off anyways, because they gave us a big homework assingment in Houdini FX. Which is kinda cool, but not really my piece of cake.
I just kinda finished my lipsync animation and will start at something new any moment. I'm gonna include parts of Spirit of Necropolis (which I worked at during an internship) and maybe a shot from the commercial we worked at at school. I don't really know what else to include, but I need to be finished by the end of next week.
The first few weeks of school we worked at a commercial for Bionade. It won't be on television (fake assignment), but it was really cool to work at and turned out nice. I like working on commercials a lot better than I expected. It was a lot of fun and I like the tight deadlines.
On October 29th the children's serie The Tumblies will be on television. I worked a bit on it when I was at my internship last summer at NMtrix Studio. I'm really curious about it.
This week it was in premiere this week at Cinekid Festival.
I just kinda finished my lipsync animation and will start at something new any moment. I'm gonna include parts of Spirit of Necropolis (which I worked at during an internship) and maybe a shot from the commercial we worked at at school. I don't really know what else to include, but I need to be finished by the end of next week.
The first few weeks of school we worked at a commercial for Bionade. It won't be on television (fake assignment), but it was really cool to work at and turned out nice. I like working on commercials a lot better than I expected. It was a lot of fun and I like the tight deadlines.
On October 29th the children's serie The Tumblies will be on television. I worked a bit on it when I was at my internship last summer at NMtrix Studio. I'm really curious about it.
This week it was in premiere this week at Cinekid Festival.
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Thursday 13 September 2012
Gobelins Summer School: Graduation
The Graduation
The Graduation
The Graduation
The Teachers
The Classmates
The Diploma
It was awesome!
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Gobelins Summer School: Yoshi Tamura
Already the last masterclass.
These two weeks at Gobelins were over far too soon. I would like it to be for at least two months, instead of only two weeks. It's now about 2 to 3 months ago and I still miss Gobelins. The best experience ever!
The last workshop we got was the one of Yoshi Tamura. Yes, you should really click the link and see what he did at IMDB. His work is awesome! He worked together with Glen Keane on Tarzan, worked on The Hunchback of Notredame (Quasimodo), Princess and the Frog (Tiara), Igor and made Reflexion (which won an awesome price at Siggraph.
Yoshi told us some things about acting and interstiong things about how to really express emotions. I was really surpised to hear that Yoshi never works with the graph editor in Maya. He says he's used to do everything by eye, probably because of his 2D background.
And he gave an interesting perspective about how the background itself is a character too.
Most of the masterclass he did he filled with showing us his work and telling stories about the studios and work he did and how he got in. It was really interesting to listen to him and honestly, I was honored to get a masterclass from Yoshi. It was epic.
These two weeks at Gobelins were over far too soon. I would like it to be for at least two months, instead of only two weeks. It's now about 2 to 3 months ago and I still miss Gobelins. The best experience ever!
The last workshop we got was the one of Yoshi Tamura. Yes, you should really click the link and see what he did at IMDB. His work is awesome! He worked together with Glen Keane on Tarzan, worked on The Hunchback of Notredame (Quasimodo), Princess and the Frog (Tiara), Igor and made Reflexion (which won an awesome price at Siggraph.
And he gave an interesting perspective about how the background itself is a character too.
Most of the masterclass he did he filled with showing us his work and telling stories about the studios and work he did and how he got in. It was really interesting to listen to him and honestly, I was honored to get a masterclass from Yoshi. It was epic.
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Thursday 6 September 2012
Gobelins Summer School: Alexandre Heboyan
The before last teacher at Gobelins Summer School 2012 was Alexandre Heboyan. He taught us most about the different kind of filmindustries (America vs. Europe), camera and acting and movement during lipsync / acting in different bodyparts.
Alexandre is working on a movie of his own. He's going to be de director of Mune which is going to start production next year. He explained a little about Mune, told us the synopsis (it is totally awesome! About myths about the sun and the moon, you should really keep eye on this project) and showed some tests and concept art they had 'till now.
During his lessons he had some really cool interaction with everyone, played out some examples and told us about energy levels in the body. I read some more about it, but I still need to get into this part more.
The parts I found most interesting is when he told us about the importance in the movement when using lipsync. I was suprised to know that the lips aren't that much important at all. First the eyes (mask), silhouette, shoulders and neck (and maybe even hips before that if you see the hips) and then come the lips. And always to put the movement first; what I mean by this is that when you hear an "O", put the shape of the "O" two frames before you hear the sound. Only then it's right for the eye.
When you see a full body, hips are the most important. I was well aware of that. What I wasn't aware of was that he told us he read an article about some kind of test. In the test they only showed footage of the hips / hipmovement of certain people. The conclusion was that relatives and close friends can recognize people they know only from the movement of the hips. That's just amazing! So always work on the hips and try to give your character a great sense of weight.
Alexandre gave us an acting / lipsync assignment afterwards and helped us out in the workshops that followed. Learned a lot during that time.
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Lydia's Portfolio
During his lessons he had some really cool interaction with everyone, played out some examples and told us about energy levels in the body. I read some more about it, but I still need to get into this part more.
The parts I found most interesting is when he told us about the importance in the movement when using lipsync. I was suprised to know that the lips aren't that much important at all. First the eyes (mask), silhouette, shoulders and neck (and maybe even hips before that if you see the hips) and then come the lips. And always to put the movement first; what I mean by this is that when you hear an "O", put the shape of the "O" two frames before you hear the sound. Only then it's right for the eye.
Alexandre gave us an acting / lipsync assignment afterwards and helped us out in the workshops that followed. Learned a lot during that time.
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Lydia's Portfolio
Monday 3 September 2012
Gobelins Summer School: Mike L. Murphy
On the Friday and the Monday we Mike L. Murphy came to give us some masterclasses.
His masterclasses were really interesting and above all, motivating. It immediatally got me to want to go to work on my stuff and make it look great. Plus, he worked on lots of big studio's, but he told us he applied for jobs over a 100 times before he really got into the industry. That gave me some courage to stay focusing. Just work harder, and keep holding on.
He first told about his work and his time at CalArts, also about his film with which he applied to the studio's: Pig Out (made in 1997):
Later on in my blog I'll post some more information about Mike L. Murphy, since I joined his Monthly Mentoring lessons. You can find some more information about him and his lessons overhere.
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Sunday 2 September 2012
Gobelins Summer School: Fred Nagorny
We had three days masterclasses of Fred Nagorny and I have to say that I could do with a lot more days. His masterclasses were really suprising and very interesting. He has a whole different approach to animation than what I'm used to.
Fred is the only permanent teacher at Gobelins. All other teacher the students usually get are people who get hired for a short time and work in the animation industry on a regular base.
The main part of Fred's masterclasses were about walkcycles. He used Muybridge as a reference. Muybridge was a well known photographer who made series of pictures right after eachother so we could see the movement of the subject (both humans and animals).
We got to use the walkcycle of Muybridge and make it into animation, a realistic one, a semi-realistic one and a cartoony one. All those types of movement should be on a cartoon character as well as on a realistic character so you could clearly see how the difference of the looks work on both characters.
He gave some really cool tips, which I wasn't really aware of. They do sound really logical, but when we did it at the Filmacademy (at which I study) we just had to redo it and they never told us;
If you want your realistic walk to be cartoony (in CG) just stretch the curves. Make incredible poses, double certain angles and you instantly got a cartoony pose or movement.
Like I said; Fred had a really different approach than what I was used to. It was much more mathematical. The most things he makes he just approach at the mathematical way because, he says, you can always do everything by feeling, but you don't know if it is exactly right, if it's really the way it's supposed to be when it comes down to realism. If you work mathematically, it is always right.
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| Fred's approach to walkcycles. |
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| Fred's formula for adding squash and stretch. It works everytime and is quite awesome. |
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Lydia's Portfolio
Saturday 1 September 2012
Gobelins Summer School: Kyle Balda
So, I'm well aware of the fact that Gobelins Summer School already is sometime back, but I would still like to update some about it. I'm planning on adding some pictures and add a story a day about it per teacher.
It'll all be short stories about the days we had their masterclasses.
Today I'll be writing about the lesson of / days with Kyle Balda.
Kyle Balda was supposed to teach fort two or three days and give an acting assignment, but he had a really tight production schedule and so it happend he only did the opening. Which was too bad, but it was quite interesting and we had a really cool teacher to replace him (Mike L. Murphy), so after all it wasn't to bad (and it helps that I have no idea what I really missed).
After receiving the email with the informatie that Kyle would only be doing the opening I thought he would just come in, say hi, tell a little bit about the summer school and leave. But! He still gave a bit of a lesson and told some interesting stuff about working on The Lorax, which was just awesome.
He told some interesting (sometimes basic) things an animator should know when they start working on something. Like the main goal in animation:
Create empathy by the audience for the character. A lump of clay could be thinking, feeling and everything. Get the feeling across!
And that you should always listen to what the character wants. You need to know your character that well to know what he or she themselves would logically do in a certain situation.
What I found really interesting is that he told us about two things, physicality and acting. Those are the two things you use in animation. They can be separated into a few different things. Physicality is either right or wrong, but acting really shows your talent as a animator.
And for a big part of his masterclass he told us about editing and quoted some things about Walter Murch's book In the Blink of an Eye. Which was really cool, because at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy you are supposed to read the book to earn some points on your Film- and Literaturelist.
He recommended the book, said we should all read it. Especially the part about the order of priority to make a cut.
Further more he recommended we use his YouTube channel for online tutorials. Here's a link to his channel:
Kyle Balda's channel
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Lydia's Portfolio
It'll all be short stories about the days we had their masterclasses.
Today I'll be writing about the lesson of / days with Kyle Balda.
Kyle Balda was supposed to teach fort two or three days and give an acting assignment, but he had a really tight production schedule and so it happend he only did the opening. Which was too bad, but it was quite interesting and we had a really cool teacher to replace him (Mike L. Murphy), so after all it wasn't to bad (and it helps that I have no idea what I really missed).
After receiving the email with the informatie that Kyle would only be doing the opening I thought he would just come in, say hi, tell a little bit about the summer school and leave. But! He still gave a bit of a lesson and told some interesting stuff about working on The Lorax, which was just awesome.
He told some interesting (sometimes basic) things an animator should know when they start working on something. Like the main goal in animation:
Create empathy by the audience for the character. A lump of clay could be thinking, feeling and everything. Get the feeling across!
And that you should always listen to what the character wants. You need to know your character that well to know what he or she themselves would logically do in a certain situation.
What I found really interesting is that he told us about two things, physicality and acting. Those are the two things you use in animation. They can be separated into a few different things. Physicality is either right or wrong, but acting really shows your talent as a animator.
And for a big part of his masterclass he told us about editing and quoted some things about Walter Murch's book In the Blink of an Eye. Which was really cool, because at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy you are supposed to read the book to earn some points on your Film- and Literaturelist.
He recommended the book, said we should all read it. Especially the part about the order of priority to make a cut.
Further more he recommended we use his YouTube channel for online tutorials. Here's a link to his channel:
Kyle Balda's channel
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Lydia's Portfolio
Sunday 19 August 2012
Internship NMtrix
A day after I got home from Gobelins Summer School and a few days holiday in Paris I started an internship for over the summer. I have to do an internship for my school next year, from May untill September, but I thought I could use some more practice. Plus the fact that I'll be able to use the skills from the summerschool right away.
So when I saw that NMtrix Animation Studio in Alkmaar (about 15 minutes by train from the place I live) were hiring I asked them if they could use someone for over the summer and they offered me an internship.
Eventhough it's been for only a short time I do have the feeling I learned a lot. For example; I've never worked in 3Ds Max before, but now I can work with it (at least for animating). And I think I did progress during the time I worked there (I've now got only one week left). It was a good experience too, to just see what it's like to work at a studio who mostly work (at the time) for a children's serie and sort of commercial work. They work so fast! The Tumblies (the children's serie) are about 90 seconds, and usually make one episode in just a few days.
I worked on some commercial things, the Tumblies and an "Olympic Art"-thing. Art is the mascotte of NMtrix. We made some short animations to celebrate the Olympics.
This is one mine:
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Lydia's Portfolio
So when I saw that NMtrix Animation Studio in Alkmaar (about 15 minutes by train from the place I live) were hiring I asked them if they could use someone for over the summer and they offered me an internship.
Eventhough it's been for only a short time I do have the feeling I learned a lot. For example; I've never worked in 3Ds Max before, but now I can work with it (at least for animating). And I think I did progress during the time I worked there (I've now got only one week left). It was a good experience too, to just see what it's like to work at a studio who mostly work (at the time) for a children's serie and sort of commercial work. They work so fast! The Tumblies (the children's serie) are about 90 seconds, and usually make one episode in just a few days.
I worked on some commercial things, the Tumblies and an "Olympic Art"-thing. Art is the mascotte of NMtrix. We made some short animations to celebrate the Olympics.
This is one mine:
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Lydia's Portfolio
Sunday 29 July 2012
Friday 13 July 2012
Two weeks of Gobelins!
The past two weeks I followed Gobelins Summer School. It was the best experience ever! Awesome masterclasses, epic teachers, and great classmates!
Most days we had masterclasses from 10 in the morning 'till 1, lunch and after that workshop with the teachers untill 5. You were allowed to start at 8 in the morning and stay untill 8 in the evening to practice some more, so that's what I did. Get as much time in Gobelins as possible! I would certainly recommand this Summer School to everyone who is interested in animation.
We got masterclasses from Fred Nagorny, who is the only permanent teacher at Gobelins. He is just brilliant. He has a really mathimatical way of approaching animation, but even though I don't really like math, it was so interesting! Not to mention how useful it was. It's a whole different way of approaching stuff, at least it is for me, but it works just great.
We had three days of masterclasses with him, which was the most time we had with one teacher, but I couldn't get enough of listening to him.
After him we would have gotten masterclasses from Kyle Balda, but because of his thight production schedule, he unfortunately was only able to do the opening. We got Mike L. Murphy instead. His lessons were really intersting. Mike explained a lot about characters, comedy, acting and marketing yourself. I got some great tips. We had Mike's masterclasses for two days.
Then we got Alexandre Heboyan for two days. He explained some more about acting and emotions, and a lot of things about the filmindustry itself, using camera's, film in general. Most of the film-stuff he told was recognizable from the lessons I got at the Filmacademy where I do my current study. He gave really good feedback during the workshops.
The last masterclass was give by Yoshi Tamura. Oh, I was so looking forward to it! But the biggest part of the lesson we got to see his work and he told a lot about his expierence, which were both really great to hear about too.
During the workshops the teachers of the masterclasses helped and there were about four other teachers who didn't give masterclasses, but helped out at the workshops. One of them was Vincent Garcia. He helped me a lot during the workshops and I learned so much of him.
It were two really intense weeks. Everything about it was just wow!
I will miss it a lot, but I'm really happy I got to experience this.
Walkcycle for Fred's assignment:
Unfinished blocking for Mike's acting / lipsync assignment (I will finish this later on):
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Lydia's Portfolio
Saturday 30 June 2012
Off to Gobelins Summer School!
March 25th I sent my application, with portfolio (showreel), motivation letter and some personal information to Gobelins, l'ecole de l'image Summer School in Character Animation. Click here for more information about the whole Summer School and application information and everything.
This was my personal showreel at the time when I applied:
At March 30th I got an e-mail from Gobelins which included the following text:
"We are pleased to inform you that you are admissible to our International Summer School program in character animation that runs from July 2nd through July 13th 2012. Because of your previous animation experience, you will also have access to the workshops that will take place most afternoons. We wish to emphasize that the master classes and workshops are devoted to the performance aspect of character animation; they are not beginner courses or software courses."
So, by now, I've got my bags packed. Tomorrow morning I'll be taking the train at 10.16h to Paris! First I'll take an early train to Amsterdam.
I'll arrive in Paris at 13.35h, but the rooms at the campus won't be availble until 15.00h. So I need to wait some time before I can go in, but it'll be fine. I love Paris, plus then I've got some time to find my way.
At five Elise and the teachers will come and greet the students at the housing at the campus. I'll be staying in the Maison Franco-Britannique at La Cité internationale universitaire de Paris, together with 33 other students. The students are from all different countries around the world. I'm the only Dutch person in the group. There will be students from the USA, different countries in Europe, China, Russia and more..
When Elise will meet up with us she'll give us more information about our stay and introduce us to everyone.
I can't wait!
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Lydia's Portfolio
This was my personal showreel at the time when I applied:
At March 30th I got an e-mail from Gobelins which included the following text:
"We are pleased to inform you that you are admissible to our International Summer School program in character animation that runs from July 2nd through July 13th 2012. Because of your previous animation experience, you will also have access to the workshops that will take place most afternoons. We wish to emphasize that the master classes and workshops are devoted to the performance aspect of character animation; they are not beginner courses or software courses."
So, by now, I've got my bags packed. Tomorrow morning I'll be taking the train at 10.16h to Paris! First I'll take an early train to Amsterdam.
I'll arrive in Paris at 13.35h, but the rooms at the campus won't be availble until 15.00h. So I need to wait some time before I can go in, but it'll be fine. I love Paris, plus then I've got some time to find my way.
At five Elise and the teachers will come and greet the students at the housing at the campus. I'll be staying in the Maison Franco-Britannique at La Cité internationale universitaire de Paris, together with 33 other students. The students are from all different countries around the world. I'm the only Dutch person in the group. There will be students from the USA, different countries in Europe, China, Russia and more..
When Elise will meet up with us she'll give us more information about our stay and introduce us to everyone.
I can't wait!
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Lydia's Portfolio
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