Trying Cake

Trying cake from Paulina Gomez Rios on Vimeo.

So it's been a while and a lot of things happened in my life. I graduated from my MFA, I started working for a small studio in San Francisco and I moved to Puebla City to teach animation in a university. In the free period I had between jobs I took on an animation class with AnimSquad and I gotta say, I love them. They really push their students and if I had a little bit of free time I would take another of their classes in a heart beat. This piece comes from that class. I remember that the hardest thing here was figuring out a way to add a shortcut for the Euler Filter. I eventually found a reddit post that helped me do it. Either way, Jeffrey Engel had a way of opening up your eyes to your mistakes. Hope I can do the same for my students.

This piece took me 39 hours and 5 minutes to do so that leaves me at 9,838 hours and 29 minutes to go!

Soccer Punch

Soccer Punch from Paulina Gomez Rios on Vimeo.

This piece has haunted me for some time now. It was the final project for a Pixar class. After that I had to wait approximately 4 months to work on it again. Once I finished my thesis I had one more week before classes ended to keep working on it. In the end I decided to finalize this to allow myself to work on different stuff. Mark my words though, this is not my last attempt at making something cute.

Unfortunately I lost the page where I was counting the time taken for this piece. So I'll say I'm still at 9,877 hours and 34 mins to go.

The Struggle

The struggle from Paulina Gomez Rios on Vimeo.

What can I say about this piece. Well first off all I think this will be my future, except I will wear biker jackets and be awesomer. This is the piece I worked on after getting my ass kicked at CTN. That's right, little miss ego went to CTN thinking she was going to claim ALL THE JOBS and instead got a very much needed dose of reality. I'm afraid it's January now and I -once again- think I'm the coolest person to ever grace this world with her presence. Oh well.

Took me 10 hours 15 mins, only 9,877 hours and 34 mins to go.

Circus diver reimagined as a pill

pill diveJump v010 1 from Paulina Gomez Rios on Vimeo.

This piece was certainly a wild ride. I didn't love it at first because I wanted to do a cat animation instead of a diver but the professor decided on this one so I had to do it. Then I started loving it when I thought I could make it a funny clip by making the diver fall on his face. Then I hated it because the rig made rotating the pill impossible. Then I loved it again, then I hated it again and in the end I guess we just grew used to each other like the old couple who are more like best friends. We have been to hell and back this pill and I and I would happily say that if possible I would never EVER animate with this rig again. I would rather take my chances doing a pendulum or a walk cycle in a slow computer. True love.

 Took me 9 hours 30 mins, only 9,887 hours and 49 mins to go.

Horse trotting (again)

Horse Trotting from Paulina Gomez Rios on Vimeo.

It's been a while since I posted anything. I've been working on my top secret thesis that no one will ever see until it's finished. This on the other hand is not secret and it was actually homework so everybody and their aunt saw it. This is the remake of my past horse trot. It is also composed of layered animation. I want to think I'm getting the hang of layered animation but the truth is that I still have lots to learn.

Took me 17 hours 44 min, only 9,897 hours and 19 mins to go.

Lipsync "I'll take the first watch"

Well, I almost forgot to post this. The last assignment for Advanced Character Animation, a 10 second lipsync. Overall I kind of like it but I definitely wish I had spent more time on it. Oh I had big plans for this animation but as always I ran out of time and grew slightly sick of it. By this point I think the stepped workflow I hated so much has finally grown on me. I find it's pretty practical even though I find it very slow (no wonder I'm always complaining that I wish I had more time). If I could change something of this piece I would have liked to animate both the guy and the girl at the same time instead of spending more time on the girl. If I had had a definite main character I wouldn't have mind but since they are supposed to be equals I don't like the big gap in polishing between the two characters.

Took me 17 hours 16 min, only 9,915 hours and 3 mins to go.

Lipsync "Whatever it is you have to say"

This was our midpoint assignment, a 3 second lipsync. This project taught me the value of simplicity in an animation. Yes, animations are supposed to be cartoons and cartoons are exaggerated but sometimes doing less creates more. I had a tough time doing this because for some reason my eyes evolved faster than my animations skills, and I could pick out mistakes but could not figure out how to fix them. It was really frustrating but that is how all art skills evolve, I guess.
Took me 7 hours 1 min, only 9,932 hours and 19 mins to go.