Monday, September 13, 2010

Another Year


Arrived Back in Savannah this past weekend to begin my third year at SCAD. Having gotten most of my pre-req classes taken care of, as well as most of my lecture/non-animation classes, I fully intend to be animating full-time while down here. My schedule this quarter looks like:

-Digital Materials and Textures
-3D Character Animation I
-3D Animation Production

Overall I'm excited for what should be an extremely fun, albeit busy, year. Look forward to new updates soon with work/works-in-progress.

Cheers,
-Scott

Saturday, September 4, 2010

What Might Have Been

While this news has been making the online rounds, I decided it was worth mentioning here. Despite announcing the shelving of Newt back in May of this year, Pixar has decided to release a bit of the concept art attached to the film via its official Facebook page. While it definitely seems to stay true to Pixar's aesthetic formula, it looks like we could have been in for a slightly grungier-looking film (perhaps on par with the opening of Wall-e... something I would have thoroughly enjoyed). I would have loved to see how the lighting department handled the film. It could have been gorgeous. Lamentations about the projects' cancellation aside, enjoy a look at "what might have been." Who knows? Perhaps the short turnaround behind the release of this art shows that Pixar is still mulling over the project, and testing for public support/generating hype.

Just a thought... Enjoy.

It of course goes without saying that all images are copyrights of Disney/Pixar, and that I do not claim ownership of them.

Cheers,
-Scott

Monday, June 28, 2010

Satire at its Best

It has been too long since my last update. Summer has been a bit busier than I intended, but it hasn't been without inspiration. For those few holdouts who haven't seen Unkrich's wonderful third installment in the Toy Story Franchise, I would suggest that you do so immediately (and as much as it pains me, I recommend a 3d viewing, if only for the brilliant short from Teddy Newton). Possessing a strong desire to avoid shifting this blog's focus to my personal reviews of animated features, I will spare you a synopsis.

I promise updates will be more relevant and more frequent in the future, but in the mean-time I will post a video that had me in stitches. Created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker (the creative minds behind South Park), it is a mock-employee video for Universal Studios (formerly MCA) following their acquisition by Seagrams Co. See if you catch the various cameo appearances (they include; Michael J. Fox, Steven Spielberg, and Jeffrey Katzenberg).

Part 1:


Part 2:


This video is also humorously relevant to my current read; The Men Who Would Be King by Nicole Laporte.

Cheers,
-Scott

Sunday, May 30, 2010

It's summertime!



Hello all,
Summer is underway and I hope to remain busy polishing my skills in animation and preparing for a restless year ahead as I attempt to score an internship next summer (following my junior year at SCAD). First up: SCAD's 5 second club, a shameless spin-off of the famous 11secondclub. This is a competition in which we are asked to animate to a 5 second sound byte ripped from movies, television or the vast depths of the Internet. Winner receives a cash prize of $50, but more importantly, the priceless exposure to and critique of animators at Pixar and Blue Sky Studios. The current competition is set to this clip.

I am looking forward to working with it over the next 30 days (this quarter's competition has a 6/30 deadline). I will post my progress on this blog at each stage (animatic, blocking, etc.), so wish me luck.

Also, starting next week I will begin a weekly animation test, where I will work a piece of animation from start to finish in 7 days. At first I will keep the tests limited to body mechanics, and within a 2-5 second time-frame. My goal will be to work these clips up to the best of my ability in 7 days time as well as experiment with various work-flows in cg animation. It is my hope that this will drastically improve my animation, understanding of body mechanics, as well as comfort in cg animation. I will post more details in a few days as I begin my first in the series.

Cheers,
-Scott

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Layout Final

Just completed another quarter at SCAD (off to recover lost sleep and tan away the pale luminosity my skin absorbed from computer labs and LED screens). Desiring to keep my drawing skills up to par, a difficult task for the cg animator, I signed up for a character design and layout for animation class. My final project, a fully rendered (in Col-Erase blue) layout package, was just returned to me. I am surprisingly happy with how it turned out, as it was my first attempt at a layout and render (the branch and leaves are actually meant to be an Overlay layer, as far as the layout package and x-sheet goes. I simply composited it with the background for the sake of this post).

Overhead Map:


Line art:


Render:


Render with Character Placement Overlay:


That's all for now, I'm headed back to North Carolina for the summer. I hope to keep this blog a little more up to date on my current projects and adventures, completed or in progress.

Cheers,
-Scott

Friday, May 21, 2010

Obligatory Introductory First Post

Hello World!

My name is Scott Kennell, and I am a sophomore animation student at Savannah College of Art and Design. Possessing both a desire to break out into the industry and a passion for this wonderful craft I have decided to establish an online presence beyond the realm of "social networking sites."

Thus, without further ado, I bring you: "Scott Kennell Animation- the projects and musings of a student of animation... the blog!" With this I establish the basic requirements to enter the blogging world as I understand them (passionate author feeling the itch for an online voice, sarcastic, informal delivery teetering on the edge of wit, unnecessarily-wordy-yet-unoriginal-title... which will be shortened to fit within the confines of Blogspot's character limits, etc.)

Formalities aside, I hope to use this blog as a form of networking, as well as outlet for me to banter on the various events in animation today. I will feature my various works-in-progress (animation, sketchbooks, character designs, etc.) and keep the blog updated on a more frequent basis than my website as I tirelessly work to find a job as a character animator in the coming years. I will also post various shorts, trailers, articles, etc that I find of relevance regarding my favorite animators, or the field of animation in general.

All in all, I hope that you enjoy reading my blog, and will freely provide commentary or critique of me or my work as I begin my journey!

cheers,
-Scott