Announcing: "Walk Cycle Depot" blog

With a deep bow of acknowledgment to Jamaal Bradley's wonderful Pencil Test Depot , I have started a sub-section of Academy of Art Animation Notes devoted to collecting various Walk Cycles,  called  "Walk Cycle Depot".

I'll be posting walk cycles animated by pros and by students.

Here's an example of what you'll find there:

Max walk cycle from Cat's Don't Dance:

(I'm trying to post all Walk Cycles as Quicktime movies so it's possible to step through them frame-by-frame.   The embedded Quicktimes tend to load and play better in the CHROME browser or  FIREFOX browser.   If the playback is too choppy download them to your computer to view directly in Quicktime Player for better playback quality)

I'll try to update it frequently.   Check out the Walk Cycle Depot.

More Kinect Hacking

Some very amusing Kinect hacks from Robert Hodgin. When people first started hacking with the Microsoft Kinect, the projects were very technical in nature. These videos show some very cool creative possibilities.

The difference in the Kinect sensor apart from a normal camera is that it captures z-information, allowing you to use the scene in three dimensions. This allows you to affect each three dimensional point in space.

Body Dysmorphic Disorder from flight404 on Vimeo.

Fat Cat from flight404 on Vimeo.

These were coded with the open source framework Cinder. Cinder is a visual framework written in C++ and can be used for creating visual apps of all types.

Dueling Kinects from flight404 on Vimeo.

Two Kinects running at the same time. Each depthmap is compared and the closer value is kept. Allows for the creation of mutant hybrids, arms coming out of stomachs, etc.

"Jumping Through Hoops: The Animation Job Coach" by Tony White

At the recent CTN Expo in Burbank (great event , by the way) I was pleased to finally meet animator/author/teacher  Tony White face to face.

Among other interesting projects that Tony has in the works he has recently completed and released yet another book  titled "Jumping Through Hoops: The Animation Job Coach".

The book is a much needed guide for all those who want to get a first job in the animation industry.  It is also a valuable asset for all those who want to stay there once they have that all-important first job.     I read it cover-to- cover on my return flight home , and I highly recommend it to all students.    This is a very practical guide to preparing yourself for the modern animation industry and seeking a job once your animation training is completed.

(*Note: I will say that if I had a small quibble with the book it is to point out that the book needed more careful proofreading before publishing as there are a number of typographical errors,  but these in no way detract from the overall value of the wisdom contained in the covers of this book .  Just something that should be fixed in the second printing of the book.  Get the book. )