AM Class 2: The "Dimos on 3" World Tour

So, we ramped up into "Class 2: Intro To Body Mechanics" this evening and I got to meet all my new(and a few old) classmates, as well as our mentor for this go-round, Dimos Vrysellas.

At first blush, this really seems like it should be a kick-ass term.  I think I may have a complete, platonic man-crush on Dimos already. :)  He's been doing this a good while, has a background in traditional animation as well(which I dearly love.  Miyazaki FTW!), really comes off that he knows his stuff, but also totally seems to understand that even if you're an avowed workaholic(guilty) you can't take yourself  TOO seriously or you're likely to go ape shat.  In other words, he "gets it"(in my opinion, anyway).  I dig that.  He's reputed to be a "harsher critic/grader"(he, however, insists that "harsh" should be replaced with "honest"), but I sort of welcome that.  Can't get better if you aren't pushed/held to a higher standard, etc.
 
This crop of co-students seems to have a nice range of folks with some prior/current experience in CG and a few with next to none.  I tend to prefer a mix like that.  I get to learn things I may not have known from the fellow "industry experienced" folks, while at the same time get to pickup on some of the more basic fundamentals that I may have been taking for granted since the less experienced individuals will be more likely to ask for those things to be explained in greater detail.

Even more stoked to get this ramped up this term after this evening.

Bring it!!

AM Class 1: That's a Wrap!

So, I managed to muscle through the last couple weeks(so. friggin'. busy!) and we're at the completion of the first term.  It's been awesome, but I'm certainly stoked to ramp up into the more advanced work in Class 2 and beyond.

Got to meet a bunch of cool folks, got some excellent input from our mentor(thanks again for everything, Scott) and really got "re-inspired to make this happen" pretty much every week.  Thanks to everyone for all the help/commiseration/criticism/encouragement. It was always truly appreciated.

For posterity's sake, here's my progress reel for perusal if you're feelin' that way:

Fair and Balanced

Rolling into the home stretch here for Class 1 with AM. This, for all intents and purposes, will be our final week of assignments. On the docket this go round will be a refinement of last week's character walk, as a perspective shot, and our final pose with the Stu rig.

I've decided to jump on the pose early and get it out of the way prior to descending into character walk splining/polishing/etc. Here are my initial sketches:

I'm feeling #'s 8 and 9 the strongest.  Thinking #8 is going to be the winner.

A vs. B?

Trying a couple different sequences here for my personality walk. Undecided on which one I think "feels" best:

A


B


Thoughts?

Mr. Personality.....Walk

Okay, I went back to the planning phase on this(a bit) and tried giving the ol' ball w/legs more of a "motivation" instead of having him just immediately marching across the screen:

I've also thrown together an initial shot for the pose assignment due this week, in which we were to have our biped emote "exhaustion."  Here's that first pass as well: