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My current demo reel. All these animation tests were created during my Capstone classes in CSULA and the Summer Arts Program at Fresno State. It is rather satisfying seeing them all together as a unit, but even better knowing that there are lots of other animation tasks that I've completed that did not make the cut.



Squirrel is an acting animation test. Based on an exchange between Veruca Salt and her dad in the new Willy Wonka movie, I tried to convey how annoying Katie could be during a temper tantrum. Like with Confident, I have not seen the movie, so the way it is shot to the acting cues and actions and timing of the animation were originally envisioned by me.


I figured it'd be fun to show what Squirrel looked like when it was in the rough blocking stage. This one was actually pretty difficult to figure out. You can see some of the obvious changes (a sofa to a park bench), but also subtle changes like the camera angles used. Also, Katie's movements changed over and over again, but at least I had the timing down based on the rough blocking that I finished here



Confident is an acting animation test. I made it from a comical exchange between Veruca Salt and Willy Wonka in the new movie, and it works awesome with Norman and Katie as the two characters. I've never seen the movie, so everything that happens here is originally envisioned.


Rough blocking for Confident - Deciding which camera angles to use was one of the primary tasks to complete when Confident was in this stage. What was interesting was that the camera angle in the last shot dictated which way Norman would face and how both characters would turn to face each other



This is the finished skipping animation test for Katie. On top of just the skips, I animated her coming to a stop to add a pseudo ending to the test. I added numerous different facial expressions to the ending to show her thinking...about why she decides to stop, going from a surprised emotion to awkward shyness, ending with trying to stay attentive. This is the main 3-quarter perspective viewpoint which I will probably use on the demo reel.


This is the side of the skipping animation test, which I used to study the movement mechanics of the rig and fix any knee jerks that pop up everywhere. I also used this to really iron out the leg movements and weight distribution. I'm kind of proud with the way the ending turned out, I was trying to convey how Katie's body is still moving due to the momentum of her torso even though her legs have stopped. I think it turned out pretty good.


This is the front orthographic view of the skipping animation test, which I used to fix many of the translation issues in the X-axis...for instance, if she jumped too much to the left even though there was no momentum going in that direction, or if in mid air she shifted left for no apparent reason, this is where I would catch it.


This is my third animation test for Norman, the rig I received at CSU Summer Arts program from Andrew Gordon from Pixar. I really wanted to animate Norman stepping on some dog poo and his reaction to this all too annoying occurrence. But the more I animated the more I realized how hard it would be. I needed to animate a reason for Norman not to pay attention to where he was walking, so I added the aborted sneeze, which prompted me to animate the sideways walking, a total pain. Animating Norman losing his balance was also a major roadblock. In the end it turned out ok though.

This is an acting animation test of a character called Norman. I completed this at the Summer Arts work shop in CSU Fresno. This rig was provided courtesy of Andrew Gordon from Pixar

Front view of a run cycle for the character called Katie. I modeled, rigged and textured her last year.

This is a three quarter view of Katie's run cycle

This is the side view of Katie's run cycle