Spungella Online Animation Workshop
A few months ago I met Jean-Denis Haas at The Animation Collaborative’s Bay Area Creative Connection. I had a great talk with him about animation, being a father, and began to consider taking his online workshop. A few weeks later I signed up to his Spungella Online Animation Workshop. He helped me decide on what I wanted to focus on, and how I could approach it. I wanted to improve on my mechanics and performance, and with that he gave me a list of ideas for inspiration, but noted that it should be something I have fun working on. I tried a couple different ideas but decided on this: An escaped prisoner sitting down in a church bench (with guilt and hesitation.)
I imagined this as someone who had just gone through something terrible and was feeling guilt, but was seeking guidance.
Initial layout and planning of the idea.
First pass at blocking. I shot reference but it deviated from the original planning of the performance for the shot, the tonal change was because I focused too much on the mechanics. I re-shot reference and focused on the performance.
Current progress of the shot. Still needs more polish but it’s nice to see the improvement. I’d like to move on to smaller exercises for a little while.
JD really helped with how I thought about the shot, the performance, and how I could continue to improve on animation fundamentals and mechanics.
Jose N. Molina 