Video games and the Twelve Principles of Animation

Today I read this amazing article about  the Twelve Principles of Animation applied to video games animation. For the ones who don't know, the 12 principles of animation are pretty much the 10 (+2) commandments for animators.
The article talks about Darkstalkers (1994), a 2D game that followed up Street Fighter II and it's full of beautiful animated examples that perfectly display each principle and how they were be applied to drastically improve the quality of the game.

http://art-eater.com/2010/07/test-1-darkstalkers/

Cheers,
Stefano

Just because I found this awesome

Enjoy!


Loom from Polynoid on Vimeo.

Cintiq alternative (part 2)

Due to the overpriced monopoly of Wacom on the tablets market I decided to take a leap of faith and buy an alternative brand to Cintiq. It's called P-Active, I've been having that for less than two weeks and it's time to share a quick review. These are the pros and cons I've found so far:

Pros:
- less than half the price of the Cintiq eqivalent (19' Vs 21' though)
- no back order (it took me less than 2 weeks to have it delivered from US to Canada, and in the US it's free shipping)
- the screen quality is really good. Sharp crisp and very bright (of course can be toned down)

Cons:
- Jittering and offsets close to the edges
- a very narrow angle of view. You pretty much have to look directly straight on the LCD
- when working with multiple monitors you get an offsets when you move to the second screen (wich is really quick to fix though, all it takes is a click once the mouse and the pen are on the same screen)

Verdict? I'm super satisfied with the purchase!

If you're interested this is where you can check it out:
http://www.carpediemstore.com/listCategoriesAndProducts.asp?idCategory=2654

This is what I've done wit it in a couple of days of spare time, my first official fully digital illustrations!

Cheers,
Stef

Surreal O' Reilly's short

Reading the last issue of "Animation Magazine" I found an article about O' Reilly's latest short, a story about a boy learning the piano in a surreal world. I found it really entertaining and quite funny overall so I thought it worth sharing.
Cheers,
Stef


The External World from David OReilly on Vimeo.

Black and white drawings

Ok, lately I've been experimenting a bit balck and whyte drawings, here are a couple of them.
Cheers!
Stef

Cintiqs alternatives

I recently tried the Cintiq tablets (if you don't know it's a professional display you can directly draw on) from a friend concept artist at work and I loved them! Too bad they're also ridiculously expensive (the 21' is over 2000$!), so I started looking around for cheaper alternatives. I found a brand called p-active, their prices are much more affordable and since I just had my birthday I think I'll give it a try to see if it's worth it!
Cheers,
Stef

Recent drawings

This weekend I felt like doodling randomly, with an eye for mith creatures. Here's the results!

Stef

The Backwater Gospel

Yesterday I got a chance to check this video and I found it very interesting therefore worth sharing. A good blend of 2D and 3D and an exquisitely unique animation style.



The Backwater Gospel from The Animation Workshop on Vimeo.


I also found a making of. Well, it's more of a collection of sketches, models and conceps, but it's very interesting to see how they developed the video from the beginning.



Bo Mathorne, Making of The Backwater Gospel from Bo Mathorne on Vimeo.

life drawing with 2 models

Last week I went to my weekly drawing session and there was a treat, 2 models instead of one!
That definitely got me excited, too bad you have half the time to draw each subject and that's a shame when both models are really good and can create intersting poses, which is not as easy as it seems.
It turned out a great session, by the end I was totally relaxed and (few) of the drawings sucked less than usual.
Hope you'll enjoy them, and if you have critique or feedbacks just let me know!
Stef

CG serving awesome ideas :)

All I can say about this video is to watch it to the end.
It's so damn funny that today at the studio it kept 10 of my colleagues glued to the screen until it was over!
Cheers,
Stefano

some more doodles

I've been doodling quite a lot recently, just for fun and no other purpose other than relaxing and unplugging the brain.
I'd like to post some digital painting at some point, but for now even with the magic support of Ctrl-Z I totally suck and need to practice. A lot.
Cheers,
Stef

Just for fun

Enjoy!

Stef

Great 2D short

Not too long ago I got to watch this short 2D trailer and I was impressed by the quality of its animation so I thought worth sharing it.
The timing is great, small subtleties and follow through read really well and the acting fits the characters design like a cog.
But enough babbling, enjoy it!


Stefano


I'm a monster from Headless Productions on Vimeo.

Scott Eaton site: great resource for artists and animators

Few days ago I came across this site and I thought totally worth sharing!
 http://www.scott-eaton.com/tutorials
It is a collection of  tutorials and articles on various aspects of artistic anatomy, digital sculpture, and visual effects.
It contains a lot of informations and articles and I haven't myself had enough time to check it all but I definitely intend to over the next few days.
Cheers!
Stef

Great animation reference

Yesterday a friend of mine sent me this awesome link.
It's a collection of 14 different performances from 14 different actors.
From an animation perspective it's great stuff to look at and might be a good source of inspiration.
Enjoy!

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/12/12/magazine/14actors.html#index

Stef