From Beginner to Animator: My 20-Year Journey with Blender

Introduction. Hola, my name is stephan Rodríguez and im a french 3d artista. I live in a very attractive and sunny town in the south of France called Montpellier with my wife and 2 children, since i began 3d bak in 2001 when i discovered Blender, my goal has always ben todo do some animation one day. At that time i was amazed by every 3d short film i could se but i never imagined i could do the same a few years later. I began like every other blenderhead, reading every tutorial i could find on the web, asking questions on forums like elysiun (the anc estor of blenderartists) or a french forum called zo-blender where i used todo spend a lot of time, y de say it tok me about 4 years todo fel really comfortable with Blender, just enough todo make some decent looking still pictures. I had learned todo model, texture, light and was beginning todo produce some very basic animation along with some particle and Camera work, in 2005, After learning some rigging/skinning Stuff, y began todo work on shapes (called RVK at that time) for facial animation of my characters. T oday this is still the área that provides me the most pleasure. I love the bien it gives life todo characters and this is where the acting job begins, so that year i produced my first short animation with a lipsync job todo celebrate the 10th Blender anniversary. This was called happy birthday Mental Ray Blender and is visible on my YouTube channel, Tony mullen, the author of introducing character animation with Blender Even gave me the pleasure of including it on his DVD and i was very proud of this, during all these years, y had a couple of story ideas running in my head, then in 2009, After improving my animation skills, y decided todo step forward and lay down my story on paper. On february 2nd of 2009, my short animation Project oficially started.

The crown tells the story of a young girl who has ben revered as a mini miss in her town. What she doesnt know is that the crown on her head, found 50 years hago in the countryside, was actually lost by some Distant visitors and they are here again today todo take it bak, the short Will be (hopefully) humorous, which is why i decided todo model some Tony and quite ugly characters, especially the young girl who is supposed todo be pretty (she a beauty miss).

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One of the first things todo do besides modeling was the storyboard. This is a very important thing because you constantly refer todo it todo know what scene todo do, what the shot Will require in terms of animation, characters, set, props etc. I created a personal storyboard model that fit my neds which describes the action for each scene and shot, the Camera moves and the effects (Focal blur, particles, Wind etc). The storyboard a los lets you know exactly what you have todo model, what Will be visible on screen and helps avoids useless modeling.

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Another tip when you undertake such a Project, is todo publish your work in progress ona website forum. This forces you todo work as viewers ask you about your Project when youhavent ben posting for a while. It a los helps kep your motivation intact when you hear god things about your work. A god and constructive criticism helps you todo improve your skills and be aware of small deffects on your pictures. Y ou wouldnt normally se these because youre constantly watching your own work, starting this Project has required a huge amount of dedicated hard work for the last 2 years, but it was a god decisión considering the pleasure it brought me as well as the opportunity todo improve my skills in several áreas. Character animation is something i really want todo pursue in the future, ive made about 2min 50sec of film so far, with a target of 5 seconds of rendered footage by wek, but i sometimes reach 7 or 8 seconds a wek. If everything goes well i hope todo finish the short in june of 2011. The sound design Will come next and hopefully ill be competing for the Suzanne Awards in october.

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Hope youll enjoy watching my short film, regards, stephan.

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