Katie Canadas : Animator

Hit a bit of a wall in the progress of my dialogue piece.  Not long after beginning to block in poses and create cameras, my scene bogged down and started to lag substantially.  After combing Google, speaking with my mentor and trying everything I could think of, I was at my wit's end.  I finally reached out to Long Winter Studios (the creators of these 2 rigs) and asked for guidance. The verdict?  A character with wings is basically like having 2 rigs -- a rig for the character and a rig for the wings.  Then I want both characters in the same scene?  That was apparently a scene death sentence. So after spit-balling with a friend and testing multiple methods out, I decided the least annoying solution was to create new references file in which I hacked the high-poly wings off both characters and utilized the low-poly wings also available on the rigs.  I also created buttons on my Shelf to load and unload the reference for each character. It's n...

Worked on the second set of poses for my two dragon characters for my next dialogue piece!  Now this was the original pose I began working on for Drake (aka Blue) and I think it sums up his character perfectly.  I also think this still portrays how Benny (aka Pink) is going to be feeling in this piece, hehe. I'm finding Benny challenging with his short, squatty body and facial controls that seem to want to smile no matter how determined I am to get him to grimace.  I'm also finding Drake challenging because frankly, I've never work with a large, quadraped rig with a wide wing span and am not sure how to get his silhouette to pop when I've got so much rig to work with. After some words of encouragement and advice from my mentor, I'm feeling confident in handling this large, four-legged creature!  And it's probably no shock, will be gathering much inspiration from the beloved Toothless. It's so easy for me to noodle poses to death, working on them far...

Life has been pretty hectic, but I'm trying to get my main poses blocked out for a dialogue piece I've been working on (we won't say how long I've been attempting to work on it). I find beginning the most exhilarating and intimidating part of any process, animation included.  I'm so excited about brainstorming all the poses and actions, then begin to feel a wave of anxiety rush over me as I wonder how I'm actually going to execute all of it and how long it's going to take me.  So when I start, I start SMALL (because #anxiety).  I'm mostly just trying to get the character out of their canned "t-pose" and give them some life and emotion.  I also start with the thought: what's one pose I can put this character into that sums up who they are and how they're feeling in this clip?  Then try to channel that as I craft my first poses. With little time to work due to my full-time job, I find myself often rushing the process or mentally be...