Nintendo Fan GIFs

HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY, BLOG!
(That must be like 90 in blog-years, because it feels like you're slowly dying...)

So if you haven't already, you should check out tumblr. It's brimming with amazing art and animation, especially gifs. It feels like a new frontier for animation, in a way. I'm posting more often there these days, and a lot of my friends are too.

Anyways, thanks to tumblr, I've hopped on the GIF Train somewhat. Here's a sampling: a couple of Nintendo fanboy doodles that move.

Hope you like.

Do Bald Guys Use Shampoo?

Do Bald Guys Use Shampoo? from Aaron Ludwig on Vimeo.

Wolverine

With such a strong sense of smell, it's a wonder that he can stand to smoke so many cigars...

...good thing he has regenerative powers, I guess.

Inspired, as always, by the awesome Marvel fan art going on at Jake's and Anthony's.

Crusty Old Sailor

Blathering Blatherskite!!!

When I was a kid, I thought Gizmoduck was the coolest. He had such an awesome techno-suit filled with all sorts of mind-boggling gadgets.

 He even got to activate his suit by cursing! How cool was that?

Man, when I was like 6 or 7, I wanted to be Gizmoduck so badly.

(yes, I had a mullet)

 Problem was, I didn't have a beak, and I wasn't allowed to swear. So I decided to make my own suit. 

I had it all worked out-- white t-shirt with the logo drawn on it, cool 1992 sunglasses, my sister's Barbie car (to act as the tire)...

...and for the arm-band thingies? I needed something long and white... my dad's socks were perfect!!! I would just cut up four or five pairs. He wouldn't mind, right?

I must say, the costume came together better than I expected. I looked just like Gizmoduck! I was ready to save Duckburg! I hoped my dad would like it.

When he walked in, his reaction was better than I could have dreamed!

He started swearing!

I was sooo excited!
I knew that at any minute, a high-tech suit was gonna come bursting through the door and he was gonna become....

GIZMODAD!!!

But that's not quite what happened....

Cut Out the Middle Man

Having kids changes everything. EVERYTHING. For better and for worse.

One example: before we had kids, when we went to church, it usually went like this:

Ahhh. A day of rest!

Now it feels a little more like this:

And we only have two kids!!!

Church used to be about worship. Now it's all about SURVIVAL.
We're hoping God gives bonus points if you and your family simply live through sacrament meeting.

With this in mind, as we prepare for church we only have two goals now:

1. Make sure your kids don't disturb the other members of the congregation so much that they get up and leave in a huff and never come back.

This means bring snacks. LOTS of snacks.

2. Make sure you don't leave a complete mess behind.

NEVER forget the diapers and wipes.

Oh, also, if you can:

3. Try to learn something from the talk.

If nothing else, your scriptures will come in handy as a shield.

One recent Sunday, in our efforts to accomplish #1 and 2 above, we decided to give our son a snack during Sunday School.

The chair next to us was open, so we set a pile of Cheerios™ on the seat and let him at it.

Now, mind you, our son has shown a pretty impressive repertoire of motor skills and hand-eye coordination, so we figured he'd be perfectly capable of grasping a few pieces of said toasted oat cereal and delivering them successfully to his pie hole.

But he's a critical thinker, so he decided to skip an altogether unnecessary step:

So much for goal #2.

DreamGiver!!!

Here it is-- for your viewing pleasure:

DreamGiver was very successful as it traveled through the festival circuit. Some of the more notable achievements are the College Television Awards "Student Emmy", Cannes Film Festival, Anima Mundi, Comic Con, Adobe Design Competition, Angelus Film Festival, Austin Film Festival, SIGGRAPH and over a hundred more!

Again, big thanks to Ty Carter for this awesome opportunity.

And yes, the DreamGiver does look like me.

And no, that wasn't intentional.

Christmas Gift Tip of the day

2011 Character Animation Demo Reel

2011 Character Animation Demo Reel from Aaron Ludwig on Vimeo.

Caminar

Here is a rough walk cycle test for the main character of our senior film, "Estefan". (I always want to call it our "señor film"...)
He is the greatest hairdresser in all of Spain... and by Spain I mean the universe.

Estefan Walk from Aaron Ludwig on Vimeo.

More to come shortly.

829 hours and 34 minutes later....

....we are done! Since May I've been working on Tyler Carter's film DreamGiver. Most of the film is 3D animation, but I got to be a lead on the 2D sequence of the film. We had a daunting task-- finish 50+ shots in practically one semester-- but we did it!!! We had an awesome team of animators and clean-up artists who really took this film as their own and made miracles happen.


In my humble opinion, this is one of the most beautiful student films I've seen (and trust me--that's not because of anything I did). I have been truly blessed to be a part of it, and to work with such amazing artists.

I hope to update my demo reel soon, and then I can share a festival-friendly post with you. Hopefully you get a chance to see the entire film somewhere as it makes its festival run over the next year or so.

Thanks Ty!

The Illusion of Life

So in the Animation Program at BYU there's a class for sophomores to take called "The Illusion of Life". It basically allows for exploration into any four of eight or so different fields of animation while keeping a single story/set of characters in mind. It's pretty awesome, but WAY intense-- at least 20 pages of research and reference are expected for any assignment. It's great though because it really helps to get you in the mindset that the pros are in-- always learning, always exploring.

So here is my character line-up:

Some storyboards from the story:






I got to explore anatomy for one of my characters and for a horse. Here are a couple of images from that assignment:



And here is the pencil test featuring Joss, the main character of the story:

Joss from Aaron Ludwig on Vimeo.

Character Animation Demo Reel 2010

Animation Demo Reel 2010 from Aaron Ludwig on Vimeo.

More Animation

Here is the final for the aforementioned class taught by Cynthia. It may not show, but I've learned a TON!!!
(Sorry-- it's a bit small, still rough, has weird aspect ratio issues and is a bit light! But other than that....)

Proof

I do animate sometimes.

This was our first assignment this semester for Cynthia (Overman) Hogan's class. There are a few things I'd like to finish, but, alas, I'll never have time.

Clueless Discovery Won 2nd Place!

I've already posted this video before, but just wanted to announce that it won second place at the BYU MindMashup SPARKY Video contest (what a mouthful).

I've also submitted it for the international contest, which is being held sometime early next year. Hopefully it keeps on almost-winning!

Thanks again to everyone who helped (or just watched it and laughed).

Clueless Discovery from Aaron Ludwig on Vimeo.

While You Work

A little animation test in Flash I whipped up today at work. Hope-a you likey.



Can you tell I'm a fan of this guy?

Clueless Discovery

Here is a video I spent all summer working on. It's for a contest on campus. (Sorry it's a little small here...)

Clueless Discovery by Aaron Ludwig is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Thanks to Mary, Mark, and Matthew (and everyone else whose name starts with "M") for all your help.

Learning Flash

This is a test from my first run through of character animation in Adobe Flash. It's an incredibly intimidating program, but now that I'm learning it (a tiny tiny bit), it's been a blast.


I'm hoping to turn this into a minute-or-so-long "commercial". (there will be more than walking involved. Promise!)

Elephant on Parade

Here's a rough run-through of an elephant walk. Let me know whatcha think!