ANIMSQUAD JOURNEY

So this time I decided to do a documentary type style video on making my short for animation. Many friends and family who are in the dark about this process don't realize how much time and patience goes into animating a simple scene for a few seconds. This will be my time to shed light on the subject by the only way I know how. Posting Random Jibber Jabber. I hope I stick with it or fail Big either way it should be a bomb maybe I'll learn something. HERE WE GO so I'm gonna start off with week one finding audio clips!

 I think finding audio for an animation is probably the longest most stressful thing you can do WHY?! one is the shot going to be memorable to anybody that watches it ?
What was the last video you watched recently? Do you remember what it was about? Could you tell me who was in it or what it was advertising. You don't have actors to act what you have in your head, your constrained to the material that's available to you Youtube, TV, and Netflix etc. Probably what most of us do on a daily basis for entertainment. Three has this already been done before? Animation students multiple like the devil nowadays. What are we looking for that is outside of what everyone is choosing. It's like what's in fashion these days, the challenge is finding something new and fresh. Just make sure your not animating something somebody already did before you.

 Now they have a certain establish set of rules and what you can do in an animation for instance choosing audio needs to have substance and material in something that just isn't mellow. meaning voices need to have range. Example: High and Low tones, whispers to shots, gasping breathing, crying, stuttering, a sentence read by a professional actor doesn't need all these things to necessarily be good. The Point is if the words that are being spoken tell the story you are trying to portray.

 There was an instructor who gave an example from a previous student who did very awesome and is at Blue Sky..he then recommended that you find an audio clip similar to the selections he chose. The problem is that all the audio clips that were in the demonstration were all Chris Pratt from Parks and recreation. So you could have guessed the semester following was a Pratt Party. Pratt performance has substance he has range he has goofiness and funniness and comedy with good timing, this is gold for animators.

 Normally you would hear from seasoned animators in order to find a good audio clip you need to search hard this will take you anywhere between hours to days to possibly weeks just to find the best clip. So I put on my Indie Hat and crack my whip because I'm about to quest for some audio gold. I decided to go with two people interacting with one another because I don't have that on my demo and I figured I need to be challenged. I figured lets get some couples fighting because the only thing I have to really to work with or man and a woman. and I have real world man hours in the realm of fighting. Like with my girlfriend (not really)

 So after 4 days I got two 5 seconds clips. Dam! Then I found one funny clip from a YouTube movie that I thought was pretty hilarious just to give it some spontaneity and some spice to my selection. Wouldn't you know it my instructor chose the silly over Matthau and Lemmon. I had two stories lined up, but this one, this one is just silly! I could've pulled it from anywhere, but my Teacher Marlan knows best, he is the man, I Respect the Hell out of them so we gonna do the one like a boss.


 Already starting to set up the scene I have a story in my head that I think might make sense the end of the audio clip tells the viewer that they are in fact in a waterpark so that limits my settings to someplace of the waterpark that has something to do related to a waterpark and two people that are interacting with one each other the other not saying something but one talking in and leading the action of the shot Time to set some staging and blocking for this new shot starting of spring term of Adam squad.

Brad Faucheux Demo Reel 2016 from Brad Faucheux on Vimeo.

Updated Demo Reel for the New Year, With newest Animsquad shot, Which was an
Amazing learning experience.  The end of last year has given me more drive and determination
to become a better artist, student, and animator. After work classes have been a challenge but I welcome the opportunity and have been so fortunate to meet and learn from the best instructors.
I can't wait to see where this new year leads me

Brad Faucheux Winter Demo Reel 2015 from Brad Faucheux on Vimeo.

Updated Demo Reel, Off to CTN with a update demo, Just added a few shots I have been hard
at work on over the past few months, Have a look.

The two hero shots I animated on The Book of Life 

Both of these shots wiz by in a second during two very pinnacle parts of the film. You would have to pause and rewind to show your family in friends." I animated that person and those guys! " Did you laugh? Did you get the joke? did you understand that I worked on that for 7 days ?? .  With cheeky smiles and nodding heads the biggest uttered word in the room was, "Cute" followed by "Cool", followed by, "what did you draw?"  Facepalm  

Yes it's hard to explain these real in depth topics when you just saw a flash on the screen. I was put on Book of Life as a background animator during the whole production. Meaning I did majority of the characters you see moving behind the characters you are suppose to be focusing on. I so badly wanted to do hero characters and would constantly ask for anything I could get a hold of. Through the cracks I got two that I could call my own. These guys are super short and super fast, but at the time I was like a kid at Christmas animating these shots. 

After every big project or production artists all over will make a demo reel to show what they contributed to the project. Obviously this is one of the most vital parts of working in the industry because this is your work! So what do you do with a short but sweet hero shot that only appears for half a second? Thanks to GIFS and the craft of repeating one shot over and over again I can show you my hero shots in the way I would like them to be displayed to clients, recruiters, supervisors, directors, and other animators. Not as some quick flash on my demo reel that would bring up questions  but as the way we animators watch our shots on a daily basis so you can see each character, their personality, and many of details that appear within a cut of the film. 

My hope is to show any shot no matter how small can bring alot of personality to the movie or project at hand. And also wanted to show my shots because being so quick and fast they don't appear on my reel. 

My first stab at TV paint, So much I’m learning about this software it’s crazy. Here’s some WIP of a winter knight. I been geeking out hard on Game of Thrones lately and wanted to try out a character run. 2D takes sooo much longer than a prepared 3D rig. But this exercise has forced me to learn shape, silhouette,  and how to create dimension for a character.  Most of all it has buried my head back into sketching, life drawing, studying form and posing. All that I have been in serious need of because my drawings suck!  Background and color  I hope will come soon when I figure out all that  this software has to offer. If anybody has some good tips please let me know. 

Hare Rig Run from Brad Faucheux on Vimeo.

A animated test I did with this creative rig created by Arman Musovic
Arman has made this rig available to everyone,
Rig here armangsb.blogspot.com/

Animating an old piece with more polish and more notes, I added some sound for added feels.