March 1st, 2008 Ahmad Al-Mahir
I recently updated to Wordpress 2.3.2 and everything looked fine until I checked out my Drawings and Sequential Art pages. They utilize a gallery plugin and it seems the update broke it. So until I get it fixed (which will probably take a few days at least judging by how little I know of web dev and code) I apologize for the inaccessibility. Good thing the other pages aren’t affected. Now I notice they have the Wordpress 2.3.3 update for download already. Great.
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I am being swamped by multiple personal project ideas and opportunities and am not quite sure how to handle them. I have a short 2D animation piece I want to develop as preparation for my teaching. It’s tentatively titled “Coffee break”. Then there’s all the stuff I want to explore and attempt for the 3D animation module. And I’ve also been putting off entering Conceptart.org’s P.O.W weekly comic challenge, even though I was (and still am) keen on the idea, and had expressed such enthusiasm upon it’s inception. I hope it doesn’t get pulled due to low participation before I have a chance to jump in. I really don’t want to see the comic art skills I’ve been working on the past few months waste away due to complete inactivity. I guess some other things have taken priority at the moment, but that’s not really a good excuse for utter neglect. So yeah. So many things to do so little time to do it. What else is new.
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My brother recently loaned me the graphic novel adaptation of Paul Auster’s “City of Glass” by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli, and I enjoyed it tremendously (even though I suspect I’ve only partially understood it’s content). I do like the idea of a world defined by words, and the concept of identity brought up in the book. The artwork was beautiful and effective - ranging from stark and minimalistic to incredibly detailed - and the framing purposeful. Especially considering the book’s literally smaller dimensions. To be able to visualize the words into pictures is an incredible feat in itself and I can definitely appreciate that. I also found the use of variety within the 3×3 panels per page layout of the graphic novel to be clever and well executed. Recommended.
Posted in Animation, Comics, General | No Comments »
February 17th, 2008 Ahmad Al-Mahir
I’ve finally finished the artwork on the “Blackbird” comic. Here’s hoping someone picks it up soon. I’m going to take a bit of a break from comic projects for a while (at least those that stretch a few weeks at a time) to focus more on animation and developing teaching materials for the coming semester. One of the modules I’ll be teaching this time around is 2d animation. We’ll be using one of those 2d animation software that’s become so widely used today (check out the newer stuff they’re showing on TV nowadays for some examples), so for the most part it’ll be ‘paperless’. Basically it means that the entire animation process from drawing to final output is done in the software itself. No scanning of drawings needed and no flipping of cels/pages by hand necessary. Time-saving as that may sound, I still believe you can never avoid drawing stuff on good old-fashioned paper. Character designs, thumbnails, pose studies - they’re so much faster and more intuitive to do on paper imho. Wacom tablet and software notwithstanding. Maybe I’m just too much in love with my pencil.
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Did a quick pen sketch of this kid (who I’m assuming is heading home from school) on one of my rare trips on the MRT the other day. I really should get on the public transport more often. And I definitely need to get more sleep…
Posted in Animation, Comics, Drawings & Misc. | 2 Comments »
April 9th, 2007 Ahmad Al-Mahir
I managed to churn out a basic standard run cycle still focusing on the lower body movements only on Saturday morning. Was too tired to post it on the spot so I’m including it here.
Feeling a bit more confident about the standard cycles I’ve done I thought I’d naturally move on to some full body walks. I didn’t want to just keep doing one walk after another though (I’m trying to avoid the generic approach and inject a little creativity if possible) so I came up with a basic situation involving 2 characters, a change in emotion and a bit of walking. I’m incorporating 2 different types of walks for my main character in the scene, while telling part of a story. It’s still at the blocking stage for the most part, but at least it’s a start right?
That guy on the left will probably walk into the scene as well so that’s 1 more walk style I need to work on.
It seems the animation juices are kinda pumping at the moment eh? 
Cya soon!
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April 6th, 2007 Ahmad Al-Mahir
OK. This is the second exercise - the ubiquitous walk cycle. I’m focusing on animating the hip and legs first. And it’s just a generic walk cycle for now. I’m thinking of doing a standard run cycle next. After that I’ll progress on to a full body walk and then work on displaying different attitudes/emotions in a walk next. Then maybe a similar set for the run.
Yay! Second post in a month! 
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April 4th, 2007 Ahmad Al-Mahir
Hmmm. So far this year I’m averaging 1 post per month. I’ll keep working on it.
I’m glad to say that my transition to Maya is going very smoothly. I’ve been playing around with it quite a bit now and am getting very comfortable with the interface and work flow. Of course I’m not exploring every deep dark corner of the software at this point, but I’m already quite familiar with the various aspects of the application and am presently focusing a big chunk of my energies into buffing up my animation approach and skills. I’m working through some animation exercises and will be posting a few of them here every once in a while for your viewing pleasure (and critiques please!). They probably won’t all be polished or finals when uploaded. More like short little ongoing tests. Maybe if I can get a set of them done real nice I can include them in my showreel! I personally believe a person’s portfolio/showreel is never done and should be updated as regularly as possible (every 6mth - 1 year maybe) especially if you’re looking to get into/keep working in the industry.
Speaking of industry, a bunch of us educators were invited to Lucasfilm Animation Singapore last week for Educators Night and I must admit to being very impressed by the staff and facilities. They gave us a short talk and a tour and capped things off with a light buffet cum networking session right after. There were quite a few representatives from the local animation-related institutions - some I recognized and some not. I ended up being one of the last to leave because I was bugging them with so many questions (while trying to eat at the same time) towards the end. Unfortunately I can’t tell you any more than that since they made all of us sign an NDA before the visit. 
I’ll be visiting another animation production house with my director and a couple of colleagues this morning. It’s a day trip. I’m pretty stoked to see how they run things there and what kind of stuff they’re working on (if they let us). I’m probably the last of the animation lecturers from my school to take a tour of the place so I’ve been feeling kinda left out. Also, these guys are utilizing a particular software as part of their production pipeline that I’ve missed seeing for awhile so it’ll be quite comforting when I do get to see the familiar GUI on monitor screens again. Err. Never mind…
Anyways, here’s my first animation exercise: A Jumping Sack.
It’s a Quicktime movie in Sorensen 3 codec.
The cool floursack rig is provided by Tim Oberlander.
See ya soon!
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