Katie Canadas : Animator

I guess the theme of my blog these past couple of weeks has been Paramore, today's title is another song off their new self-title record.  I wanted to post a quick update from the new animation I've been working on, it's been slow going but hey, that's just the way it goes sometimes!  I've been spending quite a bit of time working the initial pose of each character.  I really want this first pose to convey the character's personality and help establish the relationship between the two right off the bat, so that's been my focus here in the beginning stages of my blocking, giving each character more of a backstory.  I've put a screen cap below of what I feel are strong initial poses for these two characters.  My next steps are to continue blocking this animation out then revisit this first frame to make sure the character's personality is still being portrayed accurately.  Any feedback is welcome!

Hello everyone!  I've updated my demo reel to include the new piece I just finished and decided to create a post to show it off, of course I've also updated it on my demo reel page here on my blog.  It's not too terribly different from my previous demo reel but it's always important to keep these things updated!  I hope you enjoy it and again any feedback is welcome!  So here it is as of April 2013: Character Animation Demo Reel from Katie Canadas on Vimeo .

Today's post title is another song from Paramore, I've been listening to their new album quite a bit lately, I'm really enjoying their new sound!  In other news, I have an exciting announcement!  I've finished the one person dialogue I've been working on!  Below is the final piece, I hope you enjoy it!  I feel like I've improved greatly from my last piece but at the same time my sense of accomplishment is diminished because I know I have so much more to learn.  Hopefully I can take all that I've learned and apply it to my next piece.  I'll be doing a two person dialogue this time and hope to be shooting my reference soon since I've already got my audio clip picked out.  I'm nervous but excited to progress onto a more challenging piece.  Stay tuned for more exciting things!  The total time on this was roughly 38 hours. Second One Person Dialogue Final from Katie Canadas on Vimeo .

So this evening as I'm writing this blog post I'm not listening to music, but instead am watching one of my favorite TV shows: Frasier.  One of the few TV shows that makes me laugh out loud.  In other news, I have another update on the one person dialogue piece I've been working on.  I've been refining some of the body movements, making the poses better, and in addition have added the facial animation as well as animated the pigtails.  It was so exciting to see the character really come to life by adding in the facial and pigtails!  I was actually surprised how much more realistic it looks with just those small details.  I'm roughly 29 hours in as of now and very excited about this animation! I'm definitely not finished yet, I've already started refining what you see here so far, trying to make it as good as I possibly can.  I'm hoping to have another update and possibly even a finished product very soon!  Which is exciting because then I can be...

Today's blog title is the new single from Paramore, whose new album dropped today, which is very exciting for long time fans like me!  So of course I have the album playing while I animate!  On to more important things: I have another update on the one person dialogue I've been working on.  I haven't made any big changes, I've just been going through and refining, making sure there are no sudden stops, softening some movements, etc.  Just trying to make what I've done better.  And I've learned something very significant: I will never again animate Morpheus with the hands/wrists following the shoulders, it's been nothing but a headache and has caused me so much grief!  From now on they will follow the world!  I've learned my lesson....  And I'm about 20 hours in on this animation as of now. In addition, there are some things lacking from this animation I'd like to address.  I've been thinking quite a bit about how to improve my process befor...

I've been listening to this Hunter Hayes song almost nonstop lately, so it's no surprise it's this week's blog title.  Anyway, I know it's been awhile since my last update but that doesn't mean I haven't been working hard!  I've started splining, breaking my animation down into blocks of 20 frames or so and getting in there to do my refining.  The time between the last update and now has been very challenging for me, which is great and frustrating at the same time.  But again, I feel like I'm learning even more this go around than I did in my last piece, which is awesome!  I still have a lot more work to do on this piece, I want to keep refining and softening things before moving into facial animation.  I've put about 17 hours total into this animation thus far.  Enjoy!  Please feel free to leave any comments or feedback! Second One Person Dialogue WIP#2 from Katie Canadas on Vimeo .