New website

http://www.tnguyenanimation.wix.com/reel

November Animation Reel

https://vimeo.com/53155132

January update

This reel is a specific edit for my application to Blizzard’s Starcraft 2 animator position. It includes ingame animations of stuff I did for Subsistence, a Starcraft 2 modification.

http://vimeo.com/35987761

New Demo Reel!

It’s been a long time since I have updated this blog!! Been really busy, just finished A&C2 and now freelancing for Spiral Games Studio and Blue Isle Studio! Here is my new demo reel:

Random animation test

Found a cool mech rig from the AnimationBuffet website. Did a walk test, check it out : )

I also got invited on to the Force versus Form podcast to give my thoughts on procrastination and road blocks in animation.

Week 5 work

Here is what I turned in to Brian this week. Most of the notes I deal with the foot roll offs and plants of the front feet. Other then that I think it was a pretty successful assignment.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7948072/ACWeek5.mov

For the next assignment we have to animate Cat transitioning from one locomotion to another. I am going with Cat doing a trot into a run/gallop. Here is my video reference:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7948072/Week5trotrunVidRef3.mov

This is going to be a great challenge! Definitely going to improve my timing.

Sorry!!

Sorry for not posting lately! I got swamped with work and forgot about the blog.

Last week I blocked out a cat taking a few steps and sitting down. That sit pose was difficult to sculpt due to my inexperience with the rig. Here is what the blocking looks like:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7948072/CatSitprev3.mov

Got some notes on the weight of the cat, so thats what I’m hitting on hard this week. I’ll post a revision this Sunday.

I also have to plan out my next shot. I decided to do a trot that will transition into a run. This shot is going to be pretty challenging personally for me because I feel that timing is something I still need to work on. I think this exercise will definitely help me improve. Here is my video reference for this week’s assignment:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7948072/Week5trotrunVidRef2.mov

Here is a really awesome short film that my former AM classmate, Louaye Moulayess, worked on:

Assignment 1 FINISHED!

BAM! 2:58

Assignment turn in at the last minute! I live on the edge yeahh.

That was the first assignment I’ve turned in for AM since December! For others it was their first assignment since 2006.

Nothing special this week, we just had to do two poses and some sketches. I won’t upload the sketches because well….ugh.

 

Week 1

So everybody got to know who their new mentor is today!

I got Brian Mendenhall who is a animator at Tippett Studios. He has been there for 7 years and worked on movies such as  Hellboy, Constantine, Charlottes Web, Enchanted, and the recent Cats and Dogs 2.

Totally excited to have him as my mentor for this first Animals class.  Also excited that Max and Genevieve are in my class as well!
Apparently there are rules regarding posting Animals and Creatures student work. Being the first alumni class to go through A&C, there are some things that I can’t post until a month or so from now. I will get full details in tomorrow’s Q&A.

After watching today’s lecture and looking at the syllabus my face looked like this:    O_O

This is going to be a TOUGH class. No wonder I even got a email discouraging me to take it.

I’ll post more tomorrow or Wednesday after I find out more details about the limitations on posting work publicly.

 

Animation inspiration of the day: Azerus Rising

I love stuff like this. I’m definitely a sci fi guy and just stuff like this really inspires me. The characters, the set pieces, and animation are just so well done!

Check out Kel Figgins’ , who animated on Azerus Rising, website.

http://www.3dfiggins.com/page.php?id=4

Inaugural Post

Hey there! Thanks for visiting my animation blog. I started up this blog so I can share what inspires me every day as well as share my journey through the Animals and Creatures Masterclass at AnimationMentor. Also on this blog, you can see my current demo reel and see all the animation links I visit everyday.  I hope that this blog will help you learn new things and possibly inspire you. You can learn about all the boring background information on me under the About section.

So to start off this blog lets start at the ending of my 2+ years at AnimationMentor!

Graduation will definitely be a  high point in my life. I made a lot of unforgettable memories while in San Fransisco. My trip to San Fransisco  was the first time I have ever flown by myself (which by the way is much more fun then if you had naggy parents with you).  More importantly its the first time I have ever talked to other animators. Arkansas isn’t really known for its film or video game industry, so there aren’t really that many animators around.  Even if I did found someone who called themselves a animator, they didn’t even know what squash and stretch or pose to pose meant. Sure there were CG artists (some good ones too), but no ANIMATORS. When I first started AM, there weren’t any other Arkansans doing the program (now there are at least 5…still trying to meet up with them!) so I couldn’t meet up with anyone local.  So when I attended the AM Industry Night, I was ecstatic. I could ask other people what their workflows were like, what they thought about the latest animated film,  and make pick up lines concerning splines and copied pairs without sounding weird!! Being around other people with the same interests as you is definitely a amazing feeling. Plus I got to meet people that I had only conversed via web cam before!

Strangely several people thought I was taller. I think I may have disappointed them ):

I gotta give a shoutout and thank Trung Doan for providing me with a place to stay and also for taking me around. This guy gave me street smarts and taught me how to survive in the big city (haha).

Getting to visit the actual AnimationMentor building was really cool. They have such a wonderful workplace, it would definitely be a incredible place to work. I got to meet the people behind AM. Everyone there really cares for the students and work hard at their jobs. I could See the enthusiasm in Bobby, Carlos, and Shawn (the three founders of AnimationMentor). They definitely have the passion for animation and for teaching others about animation. I want to thank everybody at AM for their hardwork in making AnimationMentor the BEST place to learn animation.

One of the biggests highlights of my trip was the studio tours I got to go on! I got to go on THREE studio tours in ONE day. Thats right THREE:  Industrial Light and Magic, Dreamworks PDI, and Pixar!

ILM is a really cool place. It seemed really intimidating because of all the security check points they have and because of how fast people walk there. At one point in the tour our whole group clogged up a hallway and I could see that some of the studio guys were annoyed (sorry!). ILM has a beautiful theater. I really wish I could have watched a movie there. I got to see my class 5 mentor, Peter Kelly walk around but he seemed really busy so I didn’t want to bother him.

Pro tip: a good way to make a ILM animator cringe is to ask about how they did the transformation sequences in Transformers (sorry Travis!).

Next, we went to Dreamworks PDI. This studio was also beautiful! Lots of windows to let in light! Their free food cafeteria is freaking sweet.

Here is the whole gang and Jason Schleifer!

Meeting Jason was awesome! I loved his lectures and he was a great guy in person. He even signed and personalized 13+ posters for all of us!

To top the day off, we went to Pixar for a look around! The studio is really beautiful. When you walk in the building you can see how everything is centered around this hub, which contains the cafeteria and the legendary cereal bar!

These studio tours were really eye opening. Every time I entered each one of these three buildings,  I could feel a sense of passion, imagination, and hard work in the air. I look at everyone that I walk by and they all look happy to do their jobs (also stressed because of crunch time haha). These guys have the coolest jobs in the world! I want to join them one day.

Also shout out to Laura Warner and Dhar Jabouri for organizing the tours!

This was just a snap shot of my time in San Franisco. I would love to talk about EVERYTHING I did but that would just take too long ; )

After I came back from graduation, I was just way too excited about animation to do college work. I ended up dropping (not failing) a couple classes so I could have some time to work on my animation. Been really happy since.

And now here we are, one day before the next AM term starts. I am registered to take the brand new masterclass AnimationMentor is offering: Animals and Creatures. This masterclass focuses on learning how to realistically animate creatures and also how to animate on top of live action plates.

Check out the program and the trailer here:

http://www.animationmentor.com/masterclass/animalscreatures/overview.html

Most likely on my next blog post I will post who my mentor is and my work in progress for my assignment.

Thanks for reading!