Figure drawings

Acting for Animators

An interesting video from Animation Mentor about delving into a character, thought I might share.

Some sketches from ROM

Went to the Royal Ontario Museum a couple weeks ago, got a few drawings I kinda liked.

New Video!

Yeah, it's late. Really late. Sorry about that, this one was a strange one because of all the problems we had and generally how much effort it took. We really hope you enjoy it, my friend is still learning and getting used to blender but we'll try our best to release videos consistently.

Some Drawings

To prepare for animation school I've been taking a life drawing/drawing for animation class in Toronto. I've doodled cartoons for a while now but barely ever did any life drawing, and I just thought I'd share some stuff. Click read more at the bottom for the rest.

Model drawing (farther away stuff is darker)

Quick character

(Don) Drapery study

It's almost there

Yeah, I know I said video by the end of June, and I probably shouldn't make those assumptions anymore :| We're working really hard on it though, here are some screenshots (you might remember it from last year):

Since I'm teaching my friend at the same time that might be why it's taking longer than I thought, but he's adapting quickly. And yes that's a pig on the ceiling.

Partnership with Node

We're almost at the point where we (James and I) can start working on more videos, and coincidentally we've just partnered up with Node in the last few days. This means our videos will be mostly on our channel from now on (though we might still make something for Machinima from time to time), and with school out of the way, it also means that we're actually going to make a video a month now. Expect the first video by the end of June!

More Animations On The Way!

Hey VMComix fans!

I'm Fishy956, or James for short, and I'm here to bring some good news! Vlad (VMComix) and I are very close to finishing our grade 12 year at high school and this means that we will have much more time to put into making videos. I am also going to get a new desktop soon that isn't from the 90's so that both Vlad and I can work on one animation at the same time which will make the process much faster. I am planning on getting the new computer by the beginning of June so that is likely when our animation collaboration will begin.

For those of you who don't know me, I am Vlad's good friend from school. We have been in two animation courses together and a filming course or two. While he may be the bulk of the talent, I have helped with a few animations such as, "Steve: Thinking Differently", "Steve: Fishing Trip", and a few other projects that haven't been posted on Youtube. My channel is really bad, especially when compared to Vlad's, but if you are curious here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Fishy956

If you have been craving some new videos then have no fear! New videos will be on the way soon!

Thanks,
James A.K.A. Fishy956

The Cookie - Comedy Sketch

I made a comedy sketch with some friends for a school project, check it out!

How I Learned Animation

I've been animating for 5 years now and I mostly learned from whatever online sources and video tutorials I could find (I'll post some useful sites at the bottom). However the thing that really got me to the next level is this video training series which I highly recommend you check out if you're serious about learning animation:

https://keithlango.com/animationclinic/cart/
It's $100 but it's completely worth it, trust me.

It teaches you all about acting and storytelling, as well as the entire animation process from blocking to polishing. You can check out the first episode on poses here:



Also check out The Animator's Survival Kit. The DVD's are kind of pricey, but there's also a book. Here's a really cool clip from one of the DVD's about timing and spacing:



Here's some Blender sites to check out:

http://cgcookie.com/blender/

http://www.blenderguru.com/

http://blendernerd.com/

Messing around with Blogger

Rather than doing something useful I've been renovating the blog look and layout a little. There's a "notable posts" section at the side now, so it's easy to navigate to some of the more useful articles. Also at the top you'll notice mini-posters for videos which will lead you to their youtube pages. Let me know what you think, I think it's better this way because it makes the blog more like an actual website rather than a stack of posts, which is pretty much why I quit Tumblr. Eventually I think I'll get an actual website though, I don't want YouTube to be my base of operations (though videos will be hosted there).

In terms of videos I have 2 animations in the workings right now, one is a little closer to completion than the other but I still can't really say when they'll be out. Let's hope before summertime.

If anybody has questions related to the site, youtube, animations, blender, or what I'm doing in general feel free to ask in the comments. I don't want to seem like I don't care about this stuff because I really do, I'm just not capable of keeping it very active... yet.

Changing the Skin Texture

This is something a lot of people have asked about, not sure why I still haven't put it up but here it is! How to swap to a different texture on one of the rigs.

I'm still alive

So I just wanted everybody to know that I haven't quit. I've been having a really stressful semester, and while it's over now, don't expect too much from me anyways, not until after June at least. I might post a few videos in the next few months but I'd much rather focus on other things, so I wanted to make sure to say this instead of disappearing without a trace like I usually do.

I just wanted to say thank you for all the support on my youtube channel, I never thought I'd be able to get so many views, and it's still odd for me to look at those numbers. I'll definitely do more minecraft animations in the future, and eventually I want to expand and start up some sort of series or skits with recurring characters of some kind (animated of course). That's far in the future though, but it'll happen in some way.

Also, I'm happy to answer blender questions through my email (vmcomix@gmail.com) but make sure that it's a genuine question and you know what you're doing; so no "how do i animate plz" or "what program do u use" because I won't answer those. Make sure you search the web for an answer first too, there's a ton of info out there. It's how I learned.