Ghaydaa Saleem

VANARTS

2012-02-09T23:29:00.001-08:00

this is 
hahah this is me :) can you believe it we almost done ... I'll miss those days :')

don't forget to have fun!

2012-02-04T17:15:00.000-08:00

I'm working on my graduation short film, I'll upload all the work progress when I finish it.
but for now I'm sharing with you this new storyboard it just come to my mined I spend on it about six hours.
it's a good idea to have fun sometimes, and do whatever make you exited, even though it will take you away from your current work, but you will go back with more energy

hope you will like it.
back to my polishing :)
and remember; have fun.

Sequential drawing assignment:

what I really like about this assignment is showing the timing through a static image, I love that :)

Term Four / short film in production

2011-11-28T13:03:00.000-08:00

starting term four, it means we almost done. it means we should be more responsible about our animation, even that we still a student but we shouldn't do mistakes, and we have to do a lot of research.
one of the very helpful ways to put you short in production and makes it less scarey to start.
1_ categorize your shots as A, B,C according to the difficulty of your shorts, and how much it is important to tell your story.
2_ make a schedule with a time table for each scene and how long it's going to take you to do planing, blocking, and polishing.
start always with B scenes, give your self a month before you get into A scenes, C scenes are not that important make them your less priority, but for sure don't for get about them :) they need time to be done as well.

Dialogue Shot / Two Character

2011-11-20T23:35:00.000-08:00

I

I still need to work on this shot.I'll revisit it soon.

life drawing

2011-11-20T20:08:00.000-08:00

SUPER HERO DESIGN

2011-10-27T18:28:00.000-07:00

reference and study

my hero is:
NIGHTMARE ASSASSIN
she has an owl eyes, she fight the ghost with her lantern, she walk so carefully like a cat, and she can hide behind her magic blanket.
it was fun working on this assignment :)

Ken Duncan Q&A at Vanarts

2011-10-07T17:26:00.000-07:00

my great mentor Mark Pudleiner, interviewed Ken Duncan at our school and we as student have the chance to ask him about animation, and those were my questions.
1_how can we make the 3D characters, look more appealing?
2_as an animator, should I learn acting, and how can give believable performance to my character?

and here are the great information.

Dialogue shot

2011-10-04T22:15:00.000-07:00

important notes for facial animation:
The Brows
Eyes in Animation
Awesome Facial talk tutorial by Victor Navone
Michael Cain Acting in film workshop part 1
The Silent Six : Anger, Disgust, Fear, Happiness, Sadness, Surprise.
particularly when we are lying, “microexpressions” of powerfully felt emotions will invariably flit across our faces before we get a chance to stop them.

the image by: Chris Beintema

Final Dialogue shot

adding facial expression, and lip-sync, it's still work in progress.

first blocking

Pantomime

2011-09-28T12:44:00.000-07:00

the most thing I learn while I'm doing this assignment is: to overlap ideas.
when we plan our shot and we are clear about what action we want the character to do, to make that believable we need to give the character time to look, think, then react.
but that sometimes makes the animation feels as blocks, separated from each other, and hear where we need to fined a way to overlap the actions and connecting them together.

as you can sea in this file below the actions are separated.

short film (RESEARCH + DEVELOPMENT)

2011-09-13T21:36:00.000-07:00

RUN

short film storyboard

her the Annoying Ghost short film storyboard

after re-viewing my short idea, I find it very scary.

I decided to change the style of both, telling the story and the look of it.

and here are my new character design, still in the first stage.

First concept design

after 6 monthe in Canada

2011-09-07T22:31:00.000-07:00

I'm term three now \Vanarts.
I moved from the 2D to the 3D animation classes
here you can watch my show reel: 3D show reel 2011
I start working now on the RND for my short film.

this is one of the scene, I might try to stylize the shapes more.

after three month

2011-05-31T23:08:00.000-07:00

finally I start having my own way to do my animation. ( no dialogue )
1_ decide what action I wanna animate, who is the character, from inside and out side. that will define the forces that will move him.
whether he is a heavy exited guy or sad Little cute chair :) it might be anything the key is to know your character very well.
2_ get the right video reference don't just choose or shoot anything. no fake acting, if you are pushing a heavy object it should be heavy otherwise, it will be useless.
3_ watch the reference get the rhythm you want for your animation.
4_ thumbnail all the keys, as much as you analyse the video reference as much you will save time later.
5_ draw the layout, and here you will make your staging in the best way to help the story behind your shot and the character silhouette.
6_ draw the keys and set the first timing you think is good to achieve the rhythm you want.
7_ show your work to a good animator, get comment and apply them if you feel that going to help you improve your shot. and most of the time they do, so take the time to be open and ready for a lot of changes.
8_draw the breakdowns and here where you should be aware of the overlap, smoothing the arcs. be aware of the weight, slow in slow out.
9_ show your work to get comment, apply them
10_ draw the in-betweens.
if you have any comment to help me improve my way of working I'll be so glad to hear it. thanks for taking the time reading this page. :)

my first term at Vanarts 2D animation

bouncing ball :)

overlap

I'm always looking for comment to improve my animation, let me know what do you think.

My adventure in Vancouver

2011-03-20T00:02:00.000-07:00

I have been her in Canada for about two weeks, I came here as a student to achieve my goal to become a character Animator.
the city is full of nature, it has so beautiful scenery, the people are so kind and helpful.
the public transportation is clean, safe, very affordable, and it cover the whole city.
this is my first week at Vanarts vanarts.com such a great school, to get information, learn the craft, be inspired, suraunded with students from every where has the same passion, and interast.
I'm planing to post the key point I learn every week in this blog.

I'm studding 2D animation. I have great mentors: Wayn Gilbert, and Mark Pudleiner.
the classes are:
-Character animation,
-Story and visual language,
-Animation history
-and life drawing.
all the subjects design in a way, to help you as an animator.
the life drawing class: is to understand how the body moves, to analyze the force behind each movement, and to be able to draw fast.
the story and visual language: is there not to teach you layout, but to give you the important knowledge for planing your shot as an animator, and be aware of your Camera and get the big idea behind your shot.

and here are the key points for this week:

Drawing:
drawing on the right side of the brain:
when you draw try to pass your left side of your brain meaning; forget about what you know before, about simplify and naming things, start discover what you are watching using: comparison methods, negative and positive space, proportions and measurement. flip a picture up side dawn and try to draw it, that helps to pass your left side of your brain.
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Animation:
we all animators know the principles of animation, but what I like to highlighted here is the category for each principle.
Physical:
-squash & stretch
-follow through and overlap action
-slaw out and slaw in
-arcs
-secondary action
-timing
-anticipation.
Aesthetic:
-staging
-exaggeration
-appeal
Skill and Methodology:
straight ahead animation, pose to pose.
sold drawing.

how to start you shot:
1- planing:
decide what you are going to animate. on twos or ones, fast action needs to be on ones for sure.
keep in mind to make interesting, has contrast rhythm and entertaining.
shoot reference.
draw your thumbnails.
get an idea about the timing for each beat in your shot.
2- animation:
draw your golden keys.
shoot a pencil test to set up your timing, adjust your key numbers. according to how you feel it best.
draw your breakdown, with the spacing chart.
shoot pencil test and show it to another animator.
add the new changes, if you need to add new breakdown, don't worry about the serial number just add comma 1, 2 ,... and go on.
show it on last time to another animator or you supervisor.
get approval
draw the inbetweens.

all the principles needs to be there in your work step by step, if you lost control means you lost control don't fight with your drawing stop, ask for help, don't move to another step if the previous is not approved yet or if you are not sure, maintain the volume of the shapes and most important is to keep you work simple, your drawing loose with no details.
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Story and visual language:
- when you get any brief to start you shot, first step way back from all the details and the information you just got. and simplify it in to very simple blocks, if the shot has 12 character fighting with one small week character it means you have two blocks only the 12 and the one.
- don't make the two blocks in your shot move together, know how to direct the the audience eye, by movement space, tone, shape, size.
- know the rhythm of the your shot by seeing the big picture you should see at least the previous, and the shot will come after.
- you need to know the animation style of the film what kind and how much exaggeration you can add to your shot.
- ask questions, but know when and what to ask.
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that's all for this week please feel free to correct me or add comments, I'll add examples soon for each sections.
happy animating. :-)