What is this?? A blog?!

Hello blog, sorry I have neglected you!

But I have not forgotten.

The first semester of my 3rd year at Ringling has ended and it was quite busy...  However, I think my work is improving slowly as I develop so - yay!

Here's a look at some of the stuff I did:

First I'll show my animation works!

These were our first "warm-up" exercises.






I enjoyed them, but think I was relatively "safe" with their scope...

Next we spent the rest of the entire semester on the following project.  This is the first part.  The second part is not 100% finished yet, so it will be after the new year when I get back to it and finish it up.



It was a lot of fun to work on.  I actually enjoy the second half of it where I change the persona of this guy from hard-rocker to ballet master.  However, like I said I won't have the final render of that until after the new year - the animation is pretty much finished.

Next will be my story class.  Had a lot of fun with it and really tried to simplify the scope of my projects.  The Cupid story was a beast to wrangle.  The final version seen here is really different from where I wanted to take it originally, however, I would need something like 3 minutes to accomplish that so had to go in a completely different direction, but I still like it!

Here they are:





Next on the will be the work I put out in my DFA class, which teaches design principles, techniques, and processes for character and environment creation.  Overall, it was an awesome class.

These guys were created from abstract silhouette shapes and random scribbles.

This is a caricature of myself that we will build and animate next semester - should be a lot of fun.

This was an attempt at caricaturing Bill Murray.  It was tough to wrap my brain around, but a good intro to "Advanced" (advance to me!!!) digital painting I suppose.  

 So these were a collection of abstract thumbnails that I did that led into the last two projects for this class.

 This project was a purely value based study of an environment including a character.

These were the two major steps of my last project.  I spent 90% of my time on the value study (with tint of color), then used that to color it.

In hind sight I should have done the exact same process with Bill Murray's caricature, but it was all to serve as a learning process.

The last class I took over the semester was a painting class.  At first was cool, but my other classes really took time away from completing my paintings, which was disappointing.  So I'll just include some of the "better" paintings... I guess???

 This one was oil...

 These previous two were acrylic.....

...and these final two were oil, also!

I switched from oil about halfway through the class to see if the fast-drying acrylic would be more or less frustrating.  In the end I definitely liked using the oils more.  It's just unfortunate that they're so toxic :(

Anyways!  That was it for the semester.  There was way more work not seen here.  Like process work and all, but I just wanted to show the finals versions of things here!

Hopefully I will post more often in the futureeee......

Adios.

Semester Down.

Well Sophomore year is finally over.  It was crazy work, but felt good to do it all none-the-less.

Here's my final animation project for the semester:



It was nice to do, but I wish I had come up with an idea that called for more vivid designs and lighting....

Here's my last two animatic projects of the semester.

This is the final project for the semester.  I enjoyed it!



And this is our second to last project - a montage exercise.  I tried to do something that's not funny for once.  I think it was somewhat successful.  I love doing these animatic/storyboard projects!



That's it for now!

Omgozzle an update

Before, I figured I updated this blog too often.  So I decided to wait who knows how many months before I update a slew of more material....

Sooo, here's an update!

We got animation, animatics, life drawings!  Madness.

First up, the animation!  We were provided a model and rig and told "GO!"  This is what I came up with:

His name is Arty and he's ridiculous.

Next are some lighting exercises.  Same scene at two different times - night and day.  Can you figure out which one is which?






Next is an animatic.  Once again, as usual, I ran out of time and it was a little rushed - just 5 more seconds would have made it a little easier to follow.



I apologize for the terrible dialogue.  If I had had more time I could have included a few more lines that would have been sillier.

Lastly - here's some life drawings!

The semester is almost over - I can guarantee a new update once classes are over!

Figures y mas Figures

Here are a couple "storytelling" images.  They should sum up the entire story in a single image.  I wonder why they call them storytelling images, then??

One of these two was selected to continue on to create an animatic.  And the following should give an idea as to which one...

Get it?  Sir BOSLEY....  I thought Sir Rogaine would be too obvious?

Anyways, as the title of this post suggests....  Figures!!!!!

Here's just a few select pieces from my class so far.  Fun stuff, but I'm rusty as hell and can tell I need to "loosen up."

Fall Wrap-up

Well, it's been close to three decades since I last updated this thing and I think it's due for some love.

The fall semester is now past finished and, needless to say, once again, I learned a ton.  This time most of the learning involved softwares (Maya and Premiere).  All the animatics definitely helped me speed up my thinking, thumbing, executing process for compositions.  A successful start to the animation film world, I think!

This coming semester will be more of the same, but delving deeper into what animation requires and what effective storytelling can accomplish.

All of that and I finally get to take another figure drawing class.  Thank GOD!!!  Figure is so important to me, I'm happy to get back into that.

Anyways, I think I'll go ahead and post the last few projects of my Sophomore Fall semester.  Hopefully going forward into this semester, I will be able to keep up posting more often!

Here's my pantomime project in traditional animation.  This class probably suffered the most over the semester.  I actually think I did better work last year.  3D animation and concept class severely cut into my polish time for TA...

It's OK, but basically needs another pass, the end needs more inbetweens to slow it down, and I didn't even get to completely finish him having a celebration.



Next are my last two animatic assignments.  The first had the basic premise: a bird knocks over a pot and strikes a person after it falls.  This was my interpretation of it!



This one is the final project - everything was completely made up by myself for once.  Nothing was provided to us.



Lastly, this was our final 3D animation project, a jump, walk, turnaround sequence of a "simple" polygon character.  Needless to say, I don't ever want to see pizza again.

Unless I'm hungry and it is in front of me begging to be devoured.  That, I may make an exception for...



Well that's a wrap for the semester!

Like I said, I will try to be better at posting going forward :)

A little bit of something new

Alright update time!

I'll start off with two new animatics.  They're very basic.  We have a strict time limit of 20 seconds and the basic premise is given to us.



Frogs and tomatoes!  And grumpy old men!



Rats and pool - and loud noises, too!

Finally, here is my primitive theater assignment.  It was a lot of work, but I'm pleased with the final product next to the ball bounce, it's a good start.



Poor, poor, Reelie (that's his name).

Gorillas, Zoltar, and Balls - Oh My!!

Hello blog!

I will now post updates!

First - a gorilla! --- Walking!


Gorilla Walk from Richard Wiley on Vimeo.

Too amazing.

Next:

A ball .... bouncing!  Incredible!



bbfinal rwiley from Richard Wiley on Vimeo.

I kept it super basic as my first computer animation project - next one will be more complex.

And finally - my first attempt at an animatic.  Story was provided to us so we just did the leg work.



rwiley Zolimatic Final from Richard Wiley on Vimeo.

And that's all folks!

Hopefully I'll post more in the near future.  This year is incredibly busy.  Ridiculous!

Quadripelagal Walk Cycle

The title is a scientific term.  Look it up.

But in all seriousness, here is finally another solid update.

Below is a finished quadruped walk cycle.  Doberman was used to base the model on.

It was fuuunnnnn!


Dog Walk Real from Richard Wiley on Vimeo.

On a VERY different note...

More to come - IN.In.in.THE.The.the.FUTURE.Future.future...

France 2013

Been a while since I've posted anything - primarily because I don't think I have too much to post.  Until now.

I just got back from a 3 week trip to France - St. Colome to be exact.  I brought some watercolors and thought I'd teach myself how to use them.

Here are the results!  Left to right top to bottom = first attempts to last.

The course of work eventually found a balance between using watercolors with small touches of color pencil, white acrylic pen, and ink pen.

Walk Cycle dun dun dunnnnn

This is my character walk cycle.  The design is a variation of lizard used in my previous post.


RWiley SherrifFINAL from Richard Wiley on Vimeo.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this species (Uromastyx):

About Time!

Last couple weeks have been crazy for me.

Especially the this past weekend, but it is almost over.

Here's some work I've done!

Final project for one of my classes.  Is based off of the work below...

These pics are of my final 3D Design project.  Spent significantly more time on my character than his environment!

Lastly, here's my final project for another class.  It's another attempt at digital painting again.  Unfortunately, the glow effect went out of control and I couldn't correct it before the due date.  I think I'm going to try and redo it over the summer and just take this as a study - one helluva study.....  I got pretty good crit notes from my teacher so it should be better the next time!

I'll post another animation piece in the very near future!

Shadows make the mind wander.....

Here's a quick project.

Process work and the final pencil work.  Touched up the levels and a teeny bit of contrast in photoshop.

Think as a personal project I'll do the other two thumbnails, too!  When I have the time of course...

Loved this project, too bad we only worked on it for two days :(

When Groc gets Angry

Here's my newest animation project!


Rwiley GrocJumpFINAL from Richard Wiley on Vimeo.

It was so much more enjoyable to work on than the flour sack.  Took significantly less time to complete and the animation is more fluid!

Crusades and More!

Update time.

Yes.

Recently I finished this piece.  It's supposed to be obvious whose room it is without them being in it!  Can you tell?

It was hand drawn, then scanned and all the color was painted using photoshop!  Learned so much about digital painting on this assignment - considering I didn't know very much to begin with.

Here's my process sheet for this assignment:

Well that's it for now.  More animation coming very soon - once I'm done with it this weekend!

GO JAYHAWKS

Groc Gillaaaaaa

Alrighty then!  Next in animation we will be bringing to life a character of our creation.  We were randomly assigned an animal and had to recreate it as a biped!  Needless to say, I chose camel........

On another note - here are a few life drawings that I thought would be nice to share!

More to come....................

Sack Show!

This is my final Flour Sack Project!

It was way too long, but I am happy with the result.  This was definitely an awesome assignment and I look forward to more animation!!!

O Fearful Caesar

I haven't posted in a while so I thought I would just go ahead and dump a few of the projects I've finished recently.

Enjoy!

Oh my Gaul!  ...get it (it's a bust of Caesar)?

Sculpee

Here's a few angles of a recent sculpture I did of an Ecorche.  Mine doesn't really reflect it perfectly, but I still like it!  It has a borg-like look to it.

Animation - at last!

Finally!

I've begun learning animation and it's pretty awesome.  After four minor projects: ball bounce, light ball bounce, heavy ball bounce, and a perspective ball bounce, I am comfortable enough to post two animations I did.  The goal in all of these is to show our ability to mimic physics combined with squash/stretch and others!

The first is the ball bounce with a tail to help understand the principle of follow through.

Second is my final ball bounce project: a ball must hit an inanimate object.

Next we begin the flour sack exercises to improve our acting skills (timing, spacing, anticipation, follow through, performance...etc.).  Fun stuff!!

More to come!

One Semester Down!

For the second post of this new and exciting blog, I will do a run-down of my first semester at Ringling.

The classes I took, and the rest of the freshman class (there is not much wiggle room in selecting your first year classes), were:

Figure Drawing 1, 2d Design, Drawing 1 (perspective drawing), and Film/Narrative.

All of the classes provided their own unique challenges and, in the end, I can say I enjoyed all of them equally.  I learned a lot from each one and I hope this is evident in the following pics - enjoy!

Here's some select drawings from my Figure class.  Frankly, I feel like I did not improve much until something seemed to click towards the end of the semester.  I think the reason being that I find strict observational figure studies boring as hell.  It's much more fun being loose and creative in your interpretation.  However, at the end of the semester it was very apparent to me that the observation studies really helped my ability to stay true to the integrity of the figure and still be loose(r)!

These were a skeletal/muscular overlay project.  This is one of two submitted - the other being from the back, but I do not have it photographed!

The next batch of pics are from my 2D Design class.  Some may seem odd, which is because of assignment parameters (I'm not really going to bother explaining them - sorry!).

This is the only design project posted that was finished traditionally with acrylic paint. 

This was my final project and was my first submission using my beloved Wacom Intuos tablet!

Finally, the next few drawings are from my (+/- technical) perspective drawing class (the others from the semester are ones no one will ever see because they will be blinded by their, um, awesomeness!!).  

Inventive Interior

Re-POV; we were given a picture of a building and had to re-draw it in a completely new perspective.

Sky is Falling; 3pt perspective project where we had to have one object falling towards the ground!

In the end, I'm happy with most of my work, but I still feel like I could have pushed things farther on a significant number of them.  I will have to spend more time on all of my projects going forward so I won't feel like that again!