Macbeth With Ninjas (W.I.P. / 0:45)
This was the final project for my Animation II class. As always, I got too ambitious with my goals and I only managed to turn in a pencil test of this the day it was due. Over the years however, I’ve managed to get myself dragged back into this short, working on it little by little and I’ve promised myself over and over again that one day I’ll get the entire thing finished. The most amount of work lies in the backgrounds at this point but there are also a myriad of effects and stuff that I plan on implementing.
Make no mistake, this is my animation arch-nemesis.
Hard Landing (pencil test / 0:07)
This character was a part of a much larger story I wanted to tell for one of my animation classes but I bit off more than I could chew and I feel that this little piece of animation was the best thing to come out of that whole assignment. It’s a story I seem to gravitate back to every once in a while and one I plan on eventually telling in some way or form.
And for the record, animating a person out of balance is ridiculously hard.
Fight Scene (pencil test / 0:14)
This is, once again, another ambitious project that got too big for me to ever finish within the project deadline. I honestly can’t even remember what ending I had planned for this story. The animation gets pretty rough and loose at times but I think I did some pretty solid work in places.
Alien Walking Backwards (pencil test / 0:04)
Another assignment for one of my animation classes. Considering how much the background adds to this piece, it’s funny that it was initially never going to have one. I have fond memories of animating parts of this during a graveyard shift as a doorman. Good times.
Crash! (pencil test / 0:08)
I love this little piece. It’s always fun to play with perspective and I did a fairly successful job here. I seem to recall doing this in one of my earlier animation classes but it still holds up really well.
Backflip (pencil test / 0:03)
A short but sweet backflip. There’s a fair amount of secondary motion going on here and, if I remember correctly, I referenced a sprite of Q from Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike for the coat motions.
“Guardian Angel (Xavier’s Edit)” Music Video (After Effects / 1:21)
This was the final project in my After Effects class back in college and I’m pretty sure this is the only piece of animation I’ve ever completed from beginning to end. Sure, I phoned it in for the last 20 seconds or so but I look at the sequence where the camera spins around the building that took me entire night to animate and I really have no qualms about this piece whatsoever.
It’s funny, I didn’t really know I was making a music video until I realized how big a part the music is in this piece.
I also didn’t realize that I was basically just telling the story of Batman.