Graki Khan - Animator Extraodinaire

Learning to Block

2010-10-25T17:09:00.001+01:00

I always wondered why my animation looked like a kick in the face. Now I know it's because I never learned how to block. (yuk yuk yuk)

Keys, break downs and inbetweens. That's about all animating was for me. I never really did blocking, blocking plus or refining. I'd systematically do keys and breakdowns, then tweek a little if I needed and then fill in with inbetweens. Also, I never spent a month animating 6 seconds before.

But yeah, I'm really liking that with 3d I can spend a month on 6 seconds, the vast majority of which is just tweaking movements and thinking about animation principals instead of volumes and keeping things on model. I like tweaking. I can tweak forever.

I think this must be the first time that I've animated something that has had any real level of polish to it. Sounds a bit crazy to say but.. yeah.....

Acting, eh?

2010-09-28T16:38:00.001+01:00

I thought I'd post a few cool links here, instead of forgetting about them forever.

So yeah, acting in animation. Honestly, acting in animation never appealed to me that much. I just wanted to do some awesome physical animation, with weight. Jumping around, kicking heads, that sort of thing.

The relevance of mime in animation.

The idea of miming for some reason rubs me the wrong way. Honesty is a big thing with me and miming doesn't feel honest. It's a show. But being a good mime is really important to animation. Take out the props and all we're animating is miming. I feel like there's a mental obstacle in there that needs to ground down. Must, embrace, mime! XO

The other video's on Body language =D
I could actually really get into that, because it's real and honest. Not the best video in the world on it but it kind of opened my eyes to the fun stuff of acting.

Survived Class 1 of Animation Mentor

2010-09-17T18:26:00.008+01:00

I did it! =D

How was it?
Friggin' awesome. I learned a lot in just three months. I made some awesome friends who happen to be amazing animators and probably a new BFF. I seem to only pick one up for every educational institution that I go to. Looks like I got mine early at AM. ^^

So here's my Class 1 Progress Reel.

They say, one of the biggest things bout Animation Mentor (apart from the learning to animate thing) is the networking aspect. I got a little taste of that by 'meeting' Peter McEnvoy, an established Dublin animator who was also in Class 1.

But through messing around and procrastinating and being an idiot with the help of my friend Jass, I think I've networked myself something serious. I made a funny video of my Class 1 mentor, Elliott Roberts (who used to work in Pixar and now works for Double Fine), and then showed it to him. He loved it and put it on his Facebook. All his friends loved it on Facebook and there's loads of likes and comments from animators who work at or used to work at Pixar, Double Fine, Blue Sky and Bungie.

It's not like I can actually do anything with this but it's nice to know that in some obscure way these people know I exist, but at least I know Elliott will remember me. ^^

So yeah, I'm on break now and kind of wish I wasn't.

Good times.

Some Foundation Level Maya

2010-06-12T21:47:00.000+01:00

Just thought I'd pop up my progress reel from Animation Mentor's Maya Springboard program. I'm pretty happy with my progress and can't wait to get started with the actual animation course.

New Directions

2010-04-04T18:27:00.000+01:00

I was putting off posting for a good while, but finally I've got my stuff together enough to make some definite statements.

For a while I've been disillusioned with my career in animation. It's pretty much been on life support since I left college and the only thing keeping it alive has been sheer power of will. Constantly trying to get better, trying to make a living out of it, and not really getting anywhere. I'm only an animator because it's what I decided, as opposed to it's what I do for a living.

In February I went to Animex and met some people who were making a living out of animation, people like James Baxter. What they were doing was way out of the scope of what I was aiming for in my career. It made me stop pushing forward, lift my head up and wonder, where the hell am I actually going with this? If I kept pushing and was successful, I'd either end up as a commercial person, with work uber scarce (because who does ads in Flash?) or in a studio doing kids cartoons, which is making a living.

But since I have the luxury of doing what I want with my life, it doesn't make sense to stop half way. I got started in animation because of animation like Eva, not Spotty and Super Ted. I want to make animation for adults. Animé only exists in Japan and that's impossible for me. So I figured, the only way to make animation for adults in the west is to get into games. More importantly, get into 3D.

So that's where I'm at now. I'm currently doing the Animation Mentor Maya Springboard Workshop before I jump into the legit Animation Mentor course. I'm a student again and will be for the next two years. This time I'm completely self supported so, I'm really broke. But for the first time in quite a while, I feel good about myself. Instead of blindly pushing forward, I can see a light in the distance and there's hope yet of getting what I started all of this for.

Aprés ISA CON 2010

2010-01-10T19:36:00.002Z

On Thursday January 7, the first Irish School of Animation Convention was held in Ballyfermot, Dublin. On Wednesday the 6th of January, it snowed like crap and continued to snow for days, messing up public transport considerably. So the showing for ISA Con was small but, filled with dedicated animators.

Thursday night held talks from Louise Ridgeway (Head of Animation, Rare Ltd.) and Nick Ryan (Director/Producer, Image Now Films), and a panel discussion chaired by Damian Farrell (Creative Director, Caboom) that included Louise Ridgeway, Stephen McFarlane (Art Director, Rare Ltd.), Nick Ryan and Jason Ryan (Supervising Animator, DreamWorks).

Straight after the panel, Pegbar held a social at the Spy Bar on South William St., which I attended a bit too exuberantly. As a result, I missed Jason Ryan and Chris Dickers' (Creative Director, TT Animation) talks the following morning... Yes, I'm still kicking myself over it.

But in a very hung over state I managed to drag myself into the portfolio session in the afternoon, where Louise Ridgeway advised me to send my showreel out where ever I can. Apparently Flash animators are in demand in the UK and America. Having moved to Edinburgh on my own a few years back, I'm not so keen to relive the experience. But, I guess I'm not so keen on unemployment either.

For me (because of my career focused state of mind at the moment), hearing Louise Ridgeway and Stephen McFarline talk was the highlight of ISA Con. That's possibly influenced by the fact that I missed Jason Ryan's talk.

It was inspirational to see animators in the games industry who seemed really happy, proud and secure their jobs. It's making me think a lot harder about working in games.

100 Facts About Pandas

2009-11-22T22:10:00.002Z

A good while ago while I was working at DADDY, I did a picture for Mike Ahern for a book he was working on. So this morning, I was pleasantly surprised to get a copy of 100 Facts About Pandas in the post. I checked the back pages of it and was very pleased to find my name credited for one of the illustrations. Thanks Mike.

So when you're shopping for Christmas, you should totally pick up a copy of 100 Facts About Pandas. Noel Fielding said that it was 'a breakthrough in panda literature.'

All in all, a really good coffee table book.

Cinema 4D - The beginning!

2009-11-19T03:58:00.001Z

I wasn't sure if I should post this but, it took so long to render I thought I may as well make the render worth it. Next time I'll think of something more imaginative to say.

Behold, my first endeavour into Cinema 4D! (Thanks to an Andrew Kamer tutorial)

Also I'm thinking that this should probably be my new career move in terms of getting work in animation. Motion graphics... that's where the jobs seem to be.

And so, it begins...

Macbeth

2009-11-14T19:27:00.000Z

About three weeks ago I agreed to do a bit of animation for a rendition of Macbeth in England in the Seagull Theater. They were kind of in a bind, due to time constraints and lack of budget, but I said what the hey and gave it a go. Also, when I heard that Abi Titmuss was playing Lady Macbeth, I was sold!

So here it is minus the proper sound track.

Because I was doing this pro bono and since the piece was for theater, I was a bit more experimental than usual. I was given some reference footage from John Hales who is playing Macbeth.

Originally I tried to rotoscope it in Flash. After a while I figured using After Effects was the best way to go about things. I rotoscoped some of the footage in Photoshop as opposed to Flash and just messed around with the filters in After Effects.

I feel that though the course of making this piece, me and After Effects have become buddies.

Signs on the Horizon

2009-10-19T18:36:00.000+01:00

Once upon a time, myself and Billy were asked by Vinnie Gallagher to animate on his movie, providing we got funding from the Irish Film Board, though the Virtual Cinema scheme. Actually that was the other week and the other day we had a nervous interview with the Irish Film Board people, and a while ago we got the all clear to go ahead and make Vinnie's film Signs. Hoo-rah!

So that means that I got me a job for a little bit in the future. It'll be a mix of Flash and After Effects and Photoshop stuff. So it'll be a good way to improve my After Effects without getting too out of my comfort zone.

Here's the test me and Billy did for the interview. Billy did the chic and I did the dude.

Après Darklight

2009-10-11T20:40:00.000+01:00

Just about recovering after the Darklight film festival. It was my first trip to Darklight and it was awesome. I learned a lot, was pretty entertained and felt more focused on film making. I'll definitely head back year after year.

On Friday I attended a talk by Hunter Weeks which, for me, was the highlight of Darklight! Hunter talked about his low budget film making (He made 10mph, the first ever feature documentary on YouTube), but more importantly, what to do after your film is made and how to use the internet. I've heard for a while now that, now-a-days film makers have to also be marketers and market themselves and their films with an equal intensity as their film making. Hunter was the first person I've ever seen that actually does this.
On the verge of finishing his third feature length film, he was still really passionate about what he's doing. He seemed like a sound, reasonably happy guy and which made the world of film making and following your dream seem pretty optimistic, until he referred to himself as an impoverished film maker. Hopefully he was just being self-deprecating.

Also on Friday was a Synth Eastwood; Animators Anonymous night. On the night were talks by the amazing DADDY, Lovely Productions, Fergal Brennan and Chris Judge.
Fergal Brennan premiered his music video (can't recall the name), which honestly was one of the best short pieces of animation I've seen, ever. It was a music video that isn't just a music video, it's a cohesive piece of film you just have to see. I'm dying to see it again. Hopefully on a later post I'll be able to link it.

Also, Chris Judge's film, Desert, premiered and was well received. (I helped a little with the animation).

Saturday's highlight was the Mark Romanek Masterclass. I wouldn't strictly call it a masterclass. More like a casual talk about his work to date. It was really good, like a live version of 'special features' that you'd get on a DVD. It was extra nice to see him critique a couple of the audiences' films at the end of the talk. For only a couple of minutes we got to see his ability to analyze a film and make concise and accurate criticisms in an inoffensive way. It was amazing.

So yeah, Darklight... it rocked.

(And I didn't even get into the free schnacks and booze!)

Little Man Walk

2009-09-03T11:37:00.000+01:00

I've been a bit quiet on the posts but that just means that I'm either really busy doing loads of work or doing nothing. To be honest, it's actually has been half and half.

But what am I up to now a days?

Working on an ad for Love Irish Food at the moment that should be on telly in a few weeks.
I had to get back into classical 2D animation, which was scary stuff, being used to the comforts of Flash for so long. The plus side is that I don't spend ages wasting time editing vectors points no one'll notice, but the down side is the lack of ctrl+z (or I should say command+z).... the world would be such a better place if ctrl+z worked on everything... That sounds like a film idea.

Anyway,

For the Love Irish Food ad, I did a walk cycle that wont be used, so why not shove it on the ol' blog log og.

The character design is a Mike Ahern special. I accidentally saved over my stick man walk cycle so here you only get to see two of the passes that I did; rough and then a little bit cleaner before he got scrapped. The bottom fellas are on ones and the top fellas are on twos. This was animated in Flash.

New Website

2009-07-30T14:00:00.000+01:00

I've been pretty busy, getting my showreel together, finishing off a few projects and making a website. Major props to Karl my homie for getting it up and running. Basically the idea is that the website is the showroom and the blog is the workshop.

So without further adooooo go to Gracechan.ie

More After Effectsing

2009-07-08T12:41:00.000+01:00

I finally got myself a shiney new mac that can handle programs of a CS standard and above! (Unlike my old laptop). So now I have the opportunity to do lots of after effectsing as opposed to doing it on other peoples computers behind their backs, like a cg ninja. Also I finally got around to replacing all the camcorder bits and bobs that I lost, so I can actually use the damn thing properly.

Expect future videos to contain crappy acting with awesome special effects. In preparation of my live action film making debut, I've created a logo ident type thingy (based on another Andrew Kramer tutorial).

Script Writng

2009-06-26T17:37:00.000+01:00

I have been busy, but unfortunately, no too much of my work is of much interest when it comes to posting on the ol' blog log og.

Never mind. Here's something that I think is alright for posting. It's a script I wrote for the Filmbase/RTÉ Short Film Awards. I doubt it'll get made, as I've been chatting to a few people and they all seem to hate me, and everything I do. I should really stop asking them for feedback.

I learned a lot from writing this script. I always had an inkling that I was a nerd but I really didn't think so, being so cool and all it was hard to believe... But I do believe this here script is the proof.

Negative feedback always welcome.

After Effectsing

2009-05-25T10:15:00.000+01:00

Yeah, trying to learn After Effects at the moment. Found a load of great tutorials from www.videocopilot.net if anyone else is inter learnink sum stuff. Here's my homework for the graffiti tutorial.

I got way camera happy there... but cosidering that I've been working with Flash for forages, I think it's understandable.

Rotoscopo

2009-05-14T14:41:00.000+01:00

Some more animation awesomeness...

I actually started working on this around January/Feb. Mike thought it might be a good project to do. Other things kept popping up and so, this got forgotten about for a while.
When I got back into doing this, all the momentum of having a new project to work on had vanished. Also, I was stuck doing the fat fella last. After three goes at him, I finally ended up with something nice but due to losing my original Flash file with the other three on there, I had to put them together in after effects. The end result being that the fat guy got this vertical line-y-ness to him which is one of those happy accidents you always hear other people talking about. And now one of those other people is me.

Toon Boom Test

2009-05-04T17:17:00.000+01:00

I thought that when I set this blog up, it'd be cool to do a post a week. But at the same time I don't want to put up unfinished work... So here's a compromise; old finished work.

This is a test I did for a pitch for a play around January. It's ment to be all doodly. I'm not a fan of shaky line animation but, having done this, I think it's a taste that could be acquired.

Stop motion/Pixilation

2009-04-14T15:40:00.000+01:00

I'm thinking about sending something in for the Irish Film Boards Short Shorts grant. Here's a couple of tests I did for that. Just experimenting so far.

Once I get a tripod it should be pretty cool. Also, I should probably add sound to my tests in future. I think a bitta rammstein would definitely liven this puppy up.

N00b

2009-04-14T12:07:00.000+01:00

Howdy yall,

I've finally gotten myself a website. Why should you care? Because I'm Grace and this is my blog....

If you're still not convinced, I'm sure I'll persuade you with my ramblings that often contain gargantuan pearls of wisdom and my artwork that's made of my patented ratio of 70% F me and 30% god damn that's good!

But don't just take my word for it. Have a look for yourself...(in 5 to 8 working days when interest to upload is due.)

... Niki just informed me that my blog is blocked from Ballyfermo for obscenity. I've three words to explain how I feel about that.