Alex James Davies

Run Cycle

2010-08-25T16:09:00.000-07:00

Sooo it's been a very long time, just over a year actually since I've posted anything! CRAZY how quick time goes! So I'm back and working on a few thing's in the evenings after work. I've gone from Wales to England and I'm now living in Sweden which is pretty awesome :)

This is my first attempt at an anim for a few months, so I'm very rusty, it's crazy how you loose the flow of something if you haven't done it for a while, I've dearly missed animating, feedback would be awesome :)

Sorry about the bad video quality btw, I don't have Premier at the moment, I'm using 'Sony Vegas Movie Studio' so still working it out as I go!

Back to it!

2009-08-11T05:23:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've able to animate or get online!
I've moved twice in the last month so finally settled!
So first things first, back to animating.
Haven't animated for over a month, suprising how hard it can be to get back into it.
Anyways I love animating animals so thought I'd give a dog walk a go first!
Will be uploading lots of stuff over the next few weeks, so keep an eye :D

Graduate Show Reel 2009

2009-06-06T09:18:00.000-07:00

Ultimate Image

2009-03-26T18:07:00.000-07:00

Tired

2009-03-23T20:52:00.000-07:00

Just a bit of fun!!
Keys from Eric Goldbergs amazing book, Character Animation Crash Course!!!
This is how I feel right now!!
Time for bed I think!

Mime

2009-03-05T05:09:00.000-08:00

As part of my Showreel Production I'm animating a 'mime' sequence where a character goes through a 'physical' change!
I wont explain whats happening in the scene, hopefully it'll come across :D
This is only a rough block with a little timing just with the tangents set to flat!

Walk Of Confidence

2009-02-09T11:22:00.000-08:00

Had a go at doing a confident walk!
Had trouble with the arms, not sure whats wrong with them!!
But heres it without the arms :)

If I manage to sort the arms i'll upload it again!

Digital Tutors!

2009-01-20T16:16:00.000-08:00

Got myself a copy of Digital Tutors Animating Quadrupeds :D Very cool DVD!
This is what I managed to produce after going throught the tutorial :D

Production Begins!!!

2009-01-13T07:50:00.000-08:00

Production on our showreels started yesterday :D Finally animating again...Pre-Production took a while!!
Anyway thought it would be cool to upload some of the work i've done since yesterday.
I'm aiming to upload my progress as I go along!

So far I've managed to block out two of my Stage 1 animations, a biped walk and a quad run!
I've literally just changed the curves on the biped from stepped to spline, so a lot of work needs doing to it! For the quad run I decided to try animating with my tangent handles set to flat for a change and it seems to look ok so far!

MotionBuilder!!

2008-12-09T06:57:00.000-08:00

Been using a new software package in uni to animate with called MotionBuilder!
Thought i'd upload some of my work....well one for the time being...the deadlines tomorrow :S

Been A While!!

2008-11-30T19:16:00.000-08:00

So like the title says it's been a while since i've actually posted anything and I don't actually have any work to post today but just thought i'd babble a bit!!

So at the moment i'm in the middle of a minor project which is in the middle of the pre-preoduction for my showreel which is also in the middle of my dissertation!!!! :s
Been working with Motion Builder...It's pretty cool I guess, been linking motion capture sequences together but having to somewhere in the middle add our own animation and make it look like one fluid motion!!! Another string to the bow ey!! :D

Went to SAND last week, it was awesome http://www.smu.ac.uk/SAND/
I went on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday! I saw so much cool stuff from different companies I don't know where to start!!! Although I have to be honest the stuff Rythm & Hues http://www.rhythm.com/ showed really blew me away! They were showing us the Hulk rig they used and where talking about the muscle system and how everything worked it was soooo cool! They showed us early animation tests, they blew me away, it was the kind of stuff you see that makes you want to go animate there and then...honestly I had goosebumps!! They also showed us their work for The Mummy:Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor, which was asl very very very cool!!

Ivan Moran from Framestore http://www.framestore-cfc.com/#/Home gave a wiked talk on the work they done on Batman the Dark Knight, mainly showing how they done Two Faces ....Face, it was very cool, was really interesting!! He also showed us the trailer of the animated feautre film they've been working on....The Tale of Despereaux which I've already seen on the internet but looked amazing on a big screen!!

How cool is he!!!

One of the coolest showreels I seen over the 3 days though was of Andy Daffys and Matt Estelas for their company The House of Curves...go check it out http://www.thehouseofcurves.com/?cat=17 . It's got a wiked soundtrack!

I also saw some wiked stuff from Double Neg, MPC, Ed Hooks was there!! So ye I had a pretty amazing three days down in Swansea :D

Intro To Maya

2008-10-23T05:22:00.001-07:00

Hey it's been a while since i've uploaded anything. Back in uni now so it's been busy.
Over the past three weeks we've been doing an Intro To Maya project. It's been so cool.
We've had to do a bouncing ball, bowling ball, cyclical animation and non-cyclical animations.
Only have my cyclical stuff on me at the moment but i'll upload eveything else soon. Bearing in mind this is the first time i've ever used Maya to animate :D

Oooops

2008-08-02T04:16:00.000-07:00

My mistake, it did upload in the end!!
Looking forward to see what feedback I get now :D

2008-07-31T20:39:00.001-07:00

Hey guys, I'm really guted!

I done this months 11 Second Club, finished it hours ago, well on time!

I've been up all night trying to upload it but it just hasn't worked, I have no idea why, the video was the correct size, I checked everything a million times!

But the deadlines gone now and it's nearly 5am and I have to get up for work in less than 2 hours!!!! I've been up all night :(

Sooo figured the only thing to make me feel better would be to upload my final animation here!

So check it out and let me know what you think :D

BLOCKING UPDATE!

2008-07-18T15:09:00.000-07:00

Had great feeback off my lecturer from college and a few of my friends, so here's what I have at this stage! :D

BLOCKING!

2008-07-11T10:47:00.000-07:00

Hey :)
Iv'e just blocked out my shot for this months 11 Second Club. I really like this months dialogue.

Sooo I've also uploaded it on an animation forum which I am a member off, http://www.lee3d.co.uk/theforum/index.php. I'd really appreciate feedback on the blocking before I go any further with it. From the shot to the actuall blocking please let me know what you think, would be very appreciated.

Thanks :D

Master Classes

2008-06-25T10:05:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was probably one of the coolest days ever!
Myself and a few of my friends from College went to the Atrium in Cardiff for a animation day of master classes and talks! It was awesome!
On the day was Mike Collins talking to Mike Ploog, about his amazing career in Comics, Hollywood and Animated features such as Shrek.
There was also this dude named JAKe, http://www.jake-art.com/, he was really cool, he spoke about his career and the things he's done.
But the best part of the day was Richard William's master class, I met and got him to sign my copy of The Animators Survival Kit :) His talk was inspiring, he's one of those people who makes you feel like you should be animating more. Amazing!!
The last speaker of the day who was absolutely amazing was Joanna Quinn, http://www.berylproductions.co.uk/. WAW her animations are insane, I love her style. She completely blew me away!
So all in all was an amazing plus the free food that was put out made it that much better :D

2008-06-18T15:27:00.000-07:00

Wow it's been a busy few weeks, haven't had the chance to upload anything!
So now I have, I thought I'd upload my character interactions that I done for my final major this year.
They were the first time I ever animated two characters interacting with each other. Their not the best and a few things could be changed but I'm going to leave them and hopefully get an 11 Second Club piece done this month!
Please comment, criticism welcome, good and bad :D

Clip from 'The Shawshank Redemption'

Hi :D

2008-06-05T03:25:00.000-07:00

Hey, uhhhmm ok im new to this whole blog thing! It's really cool, iv'e seen some of friend's blogs and thought it would be cool to have one. Im in college at the moment and don't really have any of my work to upload but as soon as I get home i'm going to upload some stuff :D

Soooo a little about me! Im a 2nd year computer animation student at G.C.A.D.T! It's the best course in the world, I love it and I love animation more than anything well maybe I love Oreos just as much and possibly this one person :D But ye animation is the best!
I've just come to the end of my 2nd year! We have our end of year award show/party the Glammies happening tomorrow, can't wait!

So ye ill get some stuff uploaded as soon as possible :D