Animation

Character animation demo reel by Ryan Rosendal

Responsible for all animation

Shot 1Title: Business Meeting
Role: Animator, Modeler for props
Software: Maya 2009
Frame Rate: 30 FPS
Rig: Norman by Leif Jeffers, Morgan Loomis, Peter Starostin, and Neal Thibodeaux and Basic Guy by Tim Oberlander

Shot 2
Title: Action Walk
Role: Animator, Modeler for props
Software: Maya 2009
Frame Rate: 30 FPS
Rig: Norman by Leif Jeffers, Morgan Loomis, Peter Starostin, and Neal Thibodeaux

Shot 3
Title: Depressed Walk
Role: Animator, Modeler for props
Software: Maya 2009
Frame Rate: 30 FPS
Rig: Norman by Leif Jeffers, Morgan Loomis, Peter Starostin, and Neal Thibodeaux

Shot 4
Title: I Don't Feel Good
Role: Animator, Modeler for props
Software: Maya 2009
Frame Rate: 30 FPS
Rig: Norman by Leif Jeffers, Morgan Loomis, Peter Starostin, and Neal Thibodeaux and Basic Guy by Tim Oberlander

The Process

Before I begin animating, I always shoot video reference of myself acting out a scene, which I then sketch out pretty thoroughly. I try to capture all the nuances of human movement, that I can later caricature in my animation. This process also allows me to discover me, small, unexpected moments. Those moments are what make animation so exciting.

After drawing from video reference, I then sketch out what will hopefully be the final poses. You can can see some experimenting here with what poses work best, what needs to be changed, etc.

This is a planning sheet (from a different scene obviously). I use it to determine the motion paths of the character, making sure I can include as much squash and stretch as possible. The planning sheet is an opportunity to make sure all my poses flow together in a nice sense of convincing movement and acting.