Natural Feeling

I finally finished my first two person dialogue. It's a long one as well. I had a fun time doing this piece, there were also times where I wanted to throw my computer (or myself) out the window... Mainly due to the bugs and crashes of Maya. But at least you know you can always do it better the second time around, yah? Enough with the chit chat and preamble. Critiques, raves, rants, massages, etc, are always welcome!


Two Person Dialogue - "Natural To Be Naked" from Jason Bettinger on Vimeo.

Good boy!

I've been working on quite a few things lately, but wanted to put at least one thing up. So here is my dog running to catch a frisbee.


Quadruped Frisbee Catch from Jason Bettinger on Vimeo.

Look Ma! No Hands!

Just paws...


Dog_Walk_Cycle from Jason Bettinger on Vimeo

Ideas Come From Your Thumbs, Not Your Head!

So I had a little project where I had to create captions and have my character fit those captions. I am posting just a few of the ones I did to show how drawing out thumbnails on paper really help your poses because you may have the idea in your head, but unless you see it, you are just guessing where everything should go when you put it together in 3d or a more detailed 2d drawing.



Thumbs are a quick way of getting your idea out and you don't even have to be neat with it. As long as you or whoever they are meant for can read them, they can be almost chicken scratches like the ones I have.



If I had not drawn these out first, my poses may not have come out as strong as they did. You can see I also tweaked some of them for the better.



Your poses don't have to match your thumbs 100%, because the thumbs were just rough ideas. You need not waste your time rendering every shadow or every detail, the drawing or render should be the polished final.

Walk With Me

So I've been wanting to go back to the basics with my animation, because I didn't like any of the stuff I produced back in college. I was still learning a lot and don't quite think I did my old assignments with "A" quality in mind. So now I'm back, mature, more "learn-ed". Behold, my neutral walk cycle!


Walk_Cycle_Generic from Jason Bettinger on Vimeo.

And on another note, I have volunteered to work on a production called "Reprogrammed". It is a pilot episode that hopefully may go to TV, its being produced by a company called Charter Road Productions, a very Christian company. While I can't go into too much details, I hope to learn a bit about production pipeline and such from this, and get my name in some credits =D.

Redux

So here is an updated version of my emotion change scene. I improved the animation to make it flow a lot better, as well as rendered the scene and added sound.


Emotion_Change_Final from Jason Bettinger on Vimeo.

I've also rendered out my dialogue piece as well. The animation was very slightly tweaked, but practically unnoticeable from its last incarnation.


"My Son Has a Gift"_Final from Jason Bettinger on Vimeo.

Speak Up

So this is the first attempt at animating with dialogue in over a year, and I feel I have done a better job with this that any of my previous dialogue animation, and maybe any animation for that matter than ever before. I'm very proud of myself for getting it done within only a week and a half after having recovered for a neck injury. I still feel like I can improve some aspects, but don't all artists? I'm going to be fixing some of the previous animations I posted, and rendering all them out a higher quality for my anticipated demo reel. I have given myself a september deadline to have at least 5 finished and polished animations that I am proud of. I am 2 and a half way done. =D


Dialogue - "My Son Has a Gift" from Jason Bettinger on Vimeo.

Hunger for more?

Here's my latest animation. Norman has a problem with eating healthy. Will he make the right choice?


Problem Solving from Jason Bettinger on Vimeo.

Boring Entertainment

Okay, this whole regular updating thing... I guess it's just not me. But I will try to post as often as I can.

Anyway, I have decided to take a class this summer at the Academy of Art, because, since I work there, I can take a free course every semester. I figure it'd be good in giving me projects and deadlines I will have to abide by. This whole self motivation stuff just isn't me. I'm trying to focus back on 3d animation, the whole reason I went to school in the first place. So here is the first project I did for the class, the topic for this is "emotion change". Let me know what you guys think. It's only a playblast, its not rendered or fancied up. Strictly concetrated on getting the animation right. Thanks!



Emotion Change from Jason Bettinger on Vimeo.

Happy Feet

My g/f came back from a vacation in Central America last week and brought me back some aztec statues. It inspired me to draw this dancer. Enjoy!

With Love From RGB

I enjoyed the sketches I did for these pieces, but I think the blue didnt come out as strong as I intended, her pose feels weak... *sigh*. This was my first time working with water colors... Hell, its my first time using traditional methods to color other than pencil. I hope to do more. They are also in frames matching their color. Gave them away as a gift. I have a few other drawings I plan on posting this week... so lets hope I don't have another dry spell. I need to update more!

A Process

So I decided to try a new technique, and I believe it is the proper way to paint, regardless, it's a pretty good way to learn tone. Basically I color my drawing monochromatic then go over it with an overlay of the colors i want. All the tones are laid in black and white so I dont have to worry about finding different colors. Here is how i went about it.

Did a sketch in my notebook.



Painted it monochromatically.


Went over in color.



Added background. Took about 3 hours.

Can't Beat the Heat

So I've moved back to good old California, where I belong. I haven't had much time to draw fun stuff because I've been looking for work. Luckily it didn't take me long once I got back to find a job at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. I get some free time to work on my own stuff here and there, so expect to seem some more drawings in the near future. In the meantime, here's two drawings I did in photoshop.




and to shake things up a little, I've been working on graphic design as well. done in illustrator.