People are really interesting

I noticed a particular person on the highway, and I thought I'd share about my observations of this person. So I'm on I-15 Southbound, heading home from work, when I noticed this pick-up truck ahead of me. It was a pick up truck, American made, with a camper. The back of the truck had all sorts of Army stickers on it. "Army of One","Rangers," etc. Even the license plate was a vanity plate that made a reference to the military. But what made this truck stand out and catch my eye was this little detail that the owner of the truck decided to add. There they were.. down at the bottom, dangling from the tow hitch: truck nuts. It's been 3 years since I've seen a set of these vulgar plastic nuts. And here I was, after having moved from Miami to Washington State to then NC to now Utah that I encountered them again. And in Utah of all places??
So anyways, here was this truck, decked out with military bumper stickers, and truck nuts dangling in the air, and I start to pass alongside of it. Now, here's the kicker for me. I immediately start to picture what the person driving must look like. Then, I start to think about who this person might be.. Is he current or ex military? Is he a Billy Bad Ass? What's his deal? I start to pass him on his left, and in moments, I pass the driver's side window and get a look at this guy. Here's a sketch of what he looked like:
So my primary purpose of this sketch was to capture his pose, which I found totally at ends with the image this person was conveying with his truck. After all, he was sporting truck nuts! These things:

So what gives, right? Now maybe this guy wasn't the owner of the truck, or whatever. But I found it interesting how my first observation of the truck and it's "decorations" made me subconsciously picture a certain "look" or "personality" for the driver, and when I saw his posture, I was totally thrown off. I totally pictured someone sitting like this guy here:

Someone hanging back and chillin', basically. Not arched towards the steering wheel like he's learning to drive for the first time. Again, that person very well might not have been the actual owner. Maybe in his head he was annoyed about having to use his buddy's truck for some errands, and thus having to drive around town with those offensive plastic testicles hanging from the tow hitch. Either way, I thought it would be a great analysis of how we instantly perceive things, and automatically judge someone just on their apparent display even before seeing who the individual is.

Ahhhh March, where did you go?

Well, March was another great 11 Second Club audio clip that I started and didn't finish. But I had good reason, though. Midway through the month, I flew out to interview with Avalanche Studios. I also was working on a test for another game company that was, at the time, local to me in North Carolina. Well, since then I accepted an offer from Avalanche, and moved across the country for the third time. Things are definitely fun so far, but in the meantime, I dug my March piece out and started working on it again. I think after working on my facial test and learning a few things, I'm ready to try and push this to a new level. There's some randomness to the blocking in this piece, including a small section of blocked lip synch. I added in that lip synch because previously that was just a held pose, so I'm trying to figure out where to add some head movements and whatnot. I plan on changing that hand gesture on "remind you," and for some reason the video compression cut off my last pose on "DO."




On a side note, it's almost August. This August will mark 3 years that I left my previous job as a police officer, taking on a day job to concentrate on finishing Animation Mentor. It paid off, and led to eventually getting hired on as a contract animator for Bungie Studios in January 2007. My career as a police officer started, ironically, with the police academy in August of 1998. No, the police academy is noting like the Police Academy movies, by the way. After graduating in January of 1999, I went on uniform patrol and served as a police officer for the City of Hialeah for approximately 5 years. In 2005, I changed gears somewhat, and transferred to the Florida International University Police Department, figuring on being a little more lowkey while I focuses on my studies in AM.
Anyway, I tend to rattle off my cop stories to my coworkers every now and then, so I'll share a few from time to time here on my blog. Who knows, maybe I'll write a book one day on how to go from law enforcement to character animation or something to that effect. :)

The Way You Talk polishing

So after some great notes from some friends and coworkers, I've moved on to giving this shot some polish. Been working on prettying up the brows and the eyelids. I might add a few little eye moves here and there, and maybe break up some of the larger eye moves. But I'm feeling pretty decent about this one, I think it's coming along. :) I think a couple of more passes over the weekend, hopefully, and I'll b wrapping up with this one and moving on to something new. I'd like to do a test with a really broad performance.

On another note.. I'd really like to start fixing up my blog.. if anyone has any suggestions on how to mess with the elements of the page and tweak it so it looks like something pretty and not just a blog right out of the package I'd appreciate it!

Back to Blogging again!

I'm back to blogging again. I'll be working on this blog little by little, but for the time being I'd start off with an animation I was working on for the 11 Second Club for last December's entry. I started on it late, with only a few days left in the month, and with the holidays and whatnot, I didn't get to finish it. So I'm thinking I might get back into it and finish it up. Any crits or suggestions welcomed. She's holding a book to her chest, and her hands are really roughed in there and aren't quite holding the book properly yet.