It's the end of the year as we know it (and I feel fine)

Wow, so year's almost over. It's lunch break and I'm writing from my desk at Immersion Games, where i'm about to gather my second month of work. The job is awesome! It's really difficult - I'm asked to make an animation using two characters that interact per day - and I had to stay in town during Christmas and New Year so I could finish some pendant work, but it's still amazing!!

Last time I wrote here it was November, so mmm.... I guess I'll do a fast recapitulation of this year's story:

- I finished my diploma in Character Animation at AnimationMentor.com
- I went to my graduation in San Francisco!! And to my first (but not last) Siggraph convention in LA
- I moved out from my parents' house to a big house with my sweet girlfriend and a bunch of friends! We got moved from one room to a bigger one (with its own bathroom) due to one couple of friends moving out from there to an appartment in September.
- I bought like 20 books in the International Book Fair (FIL in Spanish) in Guadalajara. Most of them were meant for my girlfriend, but I managed to buy 2 big novels for just 8 dollars and some small biographies for 2 dollars each.
- We did a small quick vacation trip to Acapulco this summer, and I was saving to go to Quebec this winter but well, job called.
- Aaaand, I got a job as an animator!!

Preety cool year, huh?

A job in videogames!

Since 2005 I've been working as a Web Specialist for HP in Guadalajara, developing external web pages for hp.com and applying my practically limited knowledge of html and web design from University. After 3 years of working in Hewlett-Packard the journey is completed, I signed out from the company to start a new job in the videogames industry!

Immersion Games is a Colombian / Mexican videogame development company that has already created two cool games for Playstation and Xbox, Cell Factor and Monster Madness, and is currently developing a third and a fourth game. They required 3d animators urgently to start the demo of the fourth game, and they contacted me in Creanimax in Guadalajara this past October 20.

The company itself is divided in two teams, the mexican team and the colombian team, so it's a good multicultural environment. I'm to start working with them this next monday, I'm really excited! It seems to be a lot of work!

A taste of Cell Factor:

Unfinished but Amazing Animations

This is an ode to those great animation shortfilms that weren't entirely finished - some of them look more like a pencil test or an animatic - but that look really enjoyable, and damn I wish these people who did them just had a million box to spare and dedicate themselves to finish them... oh well

"Laundry Day", from Guillaume Chartier, Sheridan School



Now THIS is good Pop Culture comedy, you know why? My parents laughed but didn't get it, some of my older friends didn't get it. But people the same age as me and below, we were all tee hee hee hee


"Unicorn vs. Narwhal", by Adrian Molina, CalArts (2006)



Amazing lipsync and soft animation (where there is)

The Making Of Hanging Fan (2008)

I considered necessary to share with you all the complete process of making of the 5-min shortfilm I did for the last two terms in AnimationMentor, since we entered the Twilight Zone and I felt that it was important to ensure the reliability of my word. Mark and I shared some e-mails about this and I can honestly say, he's a great animator and a very responsible and honest person, and I share completely his concern: I would have done exactly the same thing in his position, to go ahead and contact the person who did the film; and ask politely to give a response and act accordingly, instead of just pointing fingers and blame without asking first. Since I want him to feel comfortable that my work wasn't a rip off of his, I'll dedicate this new section to the complete process of Making Of "Hanging Fan" (2008)

1.Story

2.Story Pitch

3.Final Idea

4.Schedule

5.Storyboard And Animatic

6.3d Layout

7.Blocking

8.Blocking Plus

9.Polishing

10.Final

The Making of Hanging Fan (10)

10. Final version

This took a while and a lot more tweaking (especially on the antenna cable) but at the end, this is what I got.

Glad I have this documented now :)

PREVIOUS: 9.Polishing

Back to "The Making Of"

The Making of Hanging Fan (9)

9. Polishing

Time to scream!

This is the hardest and most challenging part of any animation. You've got a cute nice blocked scene, the keyframes and important poses showing up. It's very beautiful to watch and it gives you the sensation of movement, although they're still images, separated by several frames, which makes the whole thing look like you're seeing a comic strip really fast.

Then, you take all your keyframes, make the interpolation become a curve spline instead of a stepped sequence, and voila! Madness.

Madness? This... is... Splining!



This took forever! And the damn splines were so difficult to predict. I found myself doing test over test over test to get the interpolations work right. It was really challenging and a bit fun (in a masochist way) but I can honestly say this was the part where I learned the most.

For example, no. 1 rule when you make the poses in blocking mode: Never ever rotate something freely. Do it so by rotating each axis. It takes longer but believe me, it's worth it.

PREVIOUS: 8.Blocking Plus
NEXT: 10.Final

Back to "The Making Of"

The Making of Hanging Fan (8)

8. Blocking Plus

Blocking plus is just another word for saying "Better do more poses between poses so when you make the whole thing have interpolation frames, you might see something capable of being saved from being HORRIBLE! (you'll see what I'm talking about soon)

Also called Blocking 2d pass



PREVIOUS: 7.Blocking
NEXT: 9.Polishing

Back to "The Making Of"

The making of Hanging Fan (7)

7. Blocking

The best part of making animation to me is Blocking. You build the key poses and simply spread them in the timeline. No inbetween animation, no curves to take a look at, simply pose and save keys. It's so refreshing, and blocked scenes look very beautiful. If you need to change something, simply change it and don't mind any other thing.

This is simply my favorite part of animation, so I did this one enthusiastically.



PREVIOUS: 6.3d Layout
NEXT: 8.Blocking Plus

Back to "The Making Of"

The making of Hanging Fan (6)

6. 3D Layout

This was not the easiest part of the whole thing.

In March 2008, I started to finally do things in Maya. Modelling wasn't too difficult, but not easy whatsoever. I modeled the whole house, fences, antenna, cable, windows and roof, and got the rest from the props library in AM and several sites like TurboSquid and HighEnd. I recommend these sites to anyone not that fluent in Maya, like myself, that is looking for props.

Several problems invaded my peace of mind in that moment: the camera angles were not as tight as I had drawn them, the character looked a bit flat in the scenery with so little things around, and that problem with how to make a convincing sky in the outside. Layout animation itself wasn't a big deal (except for the roof scene). Overall, I didn't enjoy too much this part of the process. Oh well, it happens.

PREVIOUS: 5.Storyboard And Animatic
NEXT: 7.Blocking

Back to "The Making Of"

The making of Hanging Fan (5)

5. Storyboard and Animatic

Time for some Storyboarding!!

This was my first animatic using the Storyboard I created. I love drawing so this was a great pleasure.



I also came up with the first sketches of how would my character look like. I chose Bishop from the AM library to be this guy, since he has the best expressions and I needed a very expressive character.

Afterwards, I started sketching his house as well, just to get the camera angles positioned in the angles I had imagined. This was especially useful to model the house later - Practically the only thing I modeled in the short film, the rest were free props from several places, mostly from TurboSquid.

After taking ideas and lots and lots of feedback with my mentor and my peers, I finished the Animatic to match the time and even got some sounds working on. This was getting all the planning it could get!

As part of the planning process as well I designed the character - just a cap on him for the moment - walking. This walkcycle is at the end of the final storyboard.

PREVIOUS: 4.Schedule
NEXT: 6.3d Layout

Back to "The Making Of"

The making of Hanging Fan (4)

4. Schedule

The video pitch came up pretty well. I started doing some drawings for it and then knew I had some good shots for the actual film, not just to illustrate my craziness in front of the camera. But at that moment, it was clear we would need to learn something about production.

So we were asked to divide our whole work for the upcoming 6 months and get them week by week. The school's program required us to finish everything by week 10 of Class 6. It was time to get something like this done:

PREVIOUS: 3.Final Idea
NEXT: 5.Storyboard And Animatic

Back to "The Making Of"

The making of Hanging Fan (3)

3. Final Idea

After a careful thinking, my mentor and I came up with the pros and cons for the two stories:

Hanging Fan
Pros: Simple, funny, physical. Him falling from the roof and then forgetting he's in danger to keep watching his game was a hilarious idea.
Cons: Possible issues with the antenna cable (indeed), too predictable in some parts, difficulty to relate to the character

Late
Pros: funny, physical, something with everyone can relate. The character is the everyday man
Cons: not that funny actually. I couldn't help but think that I kept liking Hanging Fan better (catchy name I guess) and I wanted to see someone fall down and get hurt. This guy would just get stuck and make frowns, and the Fan would be happy and scared, relieved and more scared. I liked that contrast better.

So I decided to go with Hanging Fan (February 1, 2008) and here's the final story pitch. I even did some preeliminary sketches of how did I imagine the scenes. I ended up using them in the storyboard.

PREVIOUS: 2.Story Pitch
NEXT: 4.Schedule

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The making of Hanging Fan (2)

2. Story Pitch

After rambling and mumbling our 5 ideas, we were told to get some feedback and get the top two to make our first video pitches. It was hard to get rid of some of the stories but I had to think of what would be simpler, easier to do in the time I'm given and with the best comedy and situations.

OhmygodI'msolameattellingstories...

PREVIOUS: 1.Story
NEXT: 3.Final Idea

Back to "The Making Of"

The making of Hanging Fan (1)

1. Story

I was asked to come up with 5 ideas for a 30 second short film during the first two weeks of Class 5 at AnimationMentor. This was written on Friday, January 18, 2008

I have to add that the ideas herein were just a bunch of nonsense talks with my brother. He has amazing ideas and creativity and we were able to pull out some of the basics. I also wrote down in this document from which places did I take the idea from.


Story 1: “Hanging Fan”

Setting: Interior, Afternoon, Living room of a small house, a TV and a big window behind Character is: A soccer fan, dressed with the team’s shirt and shorts
Objective: To watch the game, no matter what!
Idea taken from: The man from “Amelie” who fooled her when she was a girl, then she took revenge upon him. And some real sport freaks I know.

We open up with a scene from inside the living room and the TV. Our man is watching the soccer game, his entire soul in the results of his team. The window is behind him.
Suddenly, the signal goes out! The sound is still on, but the image is out. He can’t believe it! Noo!! Immediately he hears a noise and turns over the couch. The Satellite antenna has fallen down, and it’s hanging from it’s cable from the roof, visible from the window.
So he jumps off his couch and rushes out through the door. He grabs the gas tube and starts climbing with difficulties.
Then he reaches the antenna and climbs with it to the top of the roof. He’s concerned of loosing one last second of his game, so he tries to put the antenna back but then he slips, falling from the roof. In a dramatic instant he grabs the antenna and avoids the fatal ending. He’s hanging from the cable, and he’s happy to be safe. Then he finds out that the signal has returned, and he’s capable of looking the match through the window. Then his team marks a goal. He forgets about his precarious position to raise his fists and scream “goal!” and falls off from scene.

Moral of the story: Our passion is everything that matters.

Story 2: “UFO Watching”

Setting: Exterior, Night, the open fields. Stars shining in the sky
Characters are: an UFO geek. He watches for UFOs outside his house all nights. A geeky Alien dude.
Objective: To watch without being watched.
Idea taken from: some birdwatching I did back in highschool.

Our man is watching the starry skies with binoculars. UFO books are all around him. He sighs disappointed of another day of not seeing an UFO.
Suddenly, a bright light illuminates the night scene. He can’t believe his eyes, a smile of excitement draws on his face. He rans off and jumps into a bush to hide.
Then he glances from his hideout and looks through the binoculars. He can see a flying saucer landing gently on the hill. He looks excited that the door is opening and a small alien-like figure is coming out.
The alien is a cherish, geeky character with binoculars and books as well, only that his book has a human figure in the cover. He’s on Earth to do some human-watching! But then as he walks down he sees the guy and runs himself to another bush.
The UFO geek is suddenly wondering where did the little guy go, so he looks everywhere with his prismatics and finds out that the alien is looking at him as well with his binoculars. Confused, he stands up and approaches the alien. In a sudden moment, the alien jumps at him and he’s so fast he just sees black.
Fade in. it’s the inside of the geek’s room. He enters the scene with a veery pissed off face and sits on the bed. He’s got tagged on the ear and a leg by the alien, like he’s some captured bird. Another UFO passes outside his window, but he’s so angry at them that he just shuts the curtain.

Moral of the story: Don’t do others what you don’t want to receive.

Story 3: “Late”

Setting: Interior, Morning, dining room of a small apartment
Character is: An everyday office guy, late again to work.
Objective: To get to his car and flee
Idea taken from: Self experience, chat with my brother.

Our man enters scene in a big rush. There’s some unfinished cereal and coffee on the table. He looks the wall clock and confirms he’s so late again. He puts his briefcase on the table and starts putting papers in it. There’s a big keyholder with his car keys next to it.
Suddenly, when he closes his briefcase, he founds out that while moving the papers, he has left his keys in as well. He sighs and attempts to open it, but it’s stuck.
A brief sequence of funny shots take place, where he tries to open it in different ways, like against the door or smashing it stomping on.
He watches the clock again, he’s really late now. In desperation, he lets the briefcase fall on the table again. It magically opens.
He takes off his keys and watches them with pride as he closes the briefcase again, but when he starts walking, the briefcase falls off the table with his tie grabbed in it.
Tired, he lifts it and lets it fall down again on the table, but it doesn’t open. Frustrated, he just rushes off with his briefcase hanging from his tie.

Moral of the story: Sometimes, you just gotta let go.

Story 4: “Sweep Off”

Setting: Interior, Day, Inside of a Mall
Characters are: A very old man who sweeps and brooms the mall. A heavy robot replacement. A low-caring boss.
Objective: To win a sweeping race.
Idea taken from: Chat with my brother. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Dexter’s Lab.

It’s our senior janitor’s last day. His boss doesn’t care, he just replaced him with the latest in technology, a big heavy robot with sweeping arms and an evil Terminator camera. Filled with sadness, he delivers his old broom.
Suddenly, he has a plan and, with determination, he reaches his boss again and points at the robot. (Title “Sweep off” appears)
The two contestants are in line. Several objects are put in the floor, to mark the tracks of each one. It’s the signal to start racing and it’s on!
As expected, the robot does a quick and flawless job, in record time. It sweeps and brushes and cleans and polishes his side of the track with arms coming out of his body. On the other side the old man is in turtle speed, gently sweeping with his broom. As expected, he finishes last and the boss takes his broom off with an evil smile, then grabs a can from his unfinished side.
Suddenly, the can grabs the robot’s attention. With his red visor he targets the can and the boss. He approaches and deliverately takes the poor man and launches it on his recipient bin.
We see the old man sweeping gently again with a smile on his face. He takes his broom to the new garbage processor unit – a modified version of the robot.

Moral of the story: Heart beats Ability

Story 5: “Bad Hair Day”

Setting: Interior, Day, Bedroom and Dining Room
Characters are: A very shy teen guy, A beautiful fashion-lover teen girl
Objective: To hide a bad hair
Idea taken from: Chat with my brother. Hair and gel commercials

It’s finally the Big Day. Our hero wakes up with a smile in the face and looks to the calendar, where it’s marked “Big Day! Cindy here!” He rushes to the bathroom and looks himself in the mirror.
Suddenly, he screams, his hair is a mess. More than a mess, it could have its own life. The worst bad hair day in the history of Mankind.
So he gets a comb and tries to solve the problem, failing miserably. He tries to brush it and when he looks like he’s made it, it jumps off again to its later form.
Then he takes drastic measures: He grabs his Atomic-Cryptonite-Alcohol Free styling gel. Fights with his hair until it becomes more like a helmet. He smiles confident at the mirror and leaves.
His date arrives, she is wearing fashion dress and earings and stuff. She sits with a smile in the small romantic dinner he has arranged for her in the dining room. He’s nervous and she looks calmed.
Suddenly, just when she is approaching him in a soon-to-be first kiss, his hair starts trembling like an earthquake or a volcano about to explote. Then, like a whip, it jumps off its form and hits the girl, throwing her off her chair.
He’s devastated about this and runs to help her stand up. But she looks at his hair and touches it with a smile, it’s very fashion like!

Moral of the story: Even the worst thing could be fashion some day

NEXT: 2.Story Pitch

Back to "The Making Of"

AH THE ACKWARDNESS!!!

ENTERING THE TWILIGHT ZONE!

*electronic sounds*

This is so weird I still can't believe it:

My name is Mark VIllagracia. I am a working animator in Los Angeles. The story of the piece "Hanging Fan" is clearly taken from a piece I created in 2004 called "Watching the Game". First off i would like to say that your piece is very well animated and that I'm flattered you would base an animation on a story I created. I have no problem with this piece being on your reel as long as you properly credit those that inspire your work. I worked really hard to create that story four years ago and I think its unfair that you claim to have written it on your own. I can tell are new to the industry of animation. You have to remember your reputation will follow you wherever you go. You have a prestigious animation school associated with your reel and because of that, I can be perceived here in LA as someone that takes other peoples work that are not in the USA and use it for myself. Colleges and other professional in animation I know very well have seen your reel to recommended that I ask you personally to properly site your work on every website you post your work. Please see to it that you attend to this as soon as possible.

Mark Villagracia

Here's my reel from 2004-05 just as a reminder.

http://markvillagracia.com/Mark%20Villagracia%20Animation%20Reel.mov

I created "Hanging Fan" from scratch and never thought these kind of coincidences could exist. His shortfilm (created in 2004 so that screws me) is almost the same story as mine. It's called "Watching the game" and it's amazing! He's got great talent with animation and fluidness.

So you're free to believe me or not. I can't prove otherwise unluckily since my story was created in 2008. Best thing I can do is to avoid any problems and take it out from my reel. I'll acknowledge him as well as the inspiration for it.

This is what I replied to him (September 22, 2008)

Hello Mark,

First of all, I'd like to thank you for your compliment on my animation work; it was a real surprise for me to receive this mail and I still can't believe I'm not in the Twilight Zone: I did this story completely from scratch, they were a couple of ideas I got while watching my best friend play videogames and get really angry and excited, combined with some conversations with my brother on a story about a truly enthusiastic guy (a fan) which would require a lot of physical humor and no talking, two of the requeriments I had on the last shortfilm assignment at AnimationMentor.

I even recall having a conversation with one of my mentors about the posibility that my story had already been created - that concept of a guy watching tv and the antenna messing up - just like in the french film "Amelie" - was probably too simple to never exist before. Since I wanted to make a simple story with a gag or two and focus on the animation, I mentioned it and my mentor simply replied that this was a posibility on all animation clips, ideas flow really easily and they tend to repeat in all layers, so I should make it as original as possible and even if a story had already been created, it wouldn't be that much similar to appear as a rip off.

So this was truly a surprise to me since I had never seen your work before.

The story is so similar! Both our characters step out and climb to the roof, then fall down (mine just fixed the signal by hanging from the antenna) It's so impressive how they are so similar! Yours is definitely better animated though. All your reel is amazing, you have a great talent man.

I know this will be hard to believe and I don't blame you for standing in your position and demand recognition, since your short was created in 2004, mine just this year. There is no way I can prove to you I came up with this by myself except for the idea text and a video pitch and storyboards; but those could easily be created after watching your clip. I am a defendant of copyright, and I know that to rip off another story and claim it as yours is the professional death: my mentors said it all the time, the number 1 rule is to never claim another animator's work as your own, the world is too small to never notice those kind of things and it will persue you forever. I can truly honestly swear I never saw your work and got the idea from it to make my Level 6 short film.

But I don't want any problems with you or any other animator that has seen my work. It would really hurt myself if this is considered as a rip off, since its not, and I had no intention whatsoever to take another story from someone else and redo it claiming it as my own. That is why, to prove my sincerity and to avoid any problems with you, I will take those scenes out of my demo reel and place a sign saying "Hanging Fan original story by Mark Villagracia" in my shortfilm. I personally know this is not true, it would be like saying it just so you don't take any actions against me; and you are free to believe in my word or not. I'm not capable of convincing anyone of the opposite. That short film was a tough work and it costed me a lot of time and effort, but it was worth it since I learned so much. I'm new in this business and I want to start with the correct foot, and never do something so low as what you've considered I've done.

Please let me know if I could do anything else to prove my good will in this.

Take care and I'll send you a mail when I correct these things, and please let your animation peers know what I wrote.

Eduardo Gutierrez

To rip off someone's animation work is UNTHINKABLE. Never do something that low as to take out someone's effort and claim it as yours. I would never do something like this, but unluckily the evidence shows that I could've taken my story out of his. My mind is calmed and I have absolutely nothing to regret of.

UPDATED: Mark and I discussed how to solve this and we decided to make our works separate themselves by using watermarks with the year. I just updated these videos and added a small text at the end of "Hanging Fan" assuring that the idea was taken from scratch and that any similarity is pure coincidence. Thanks to Mark for believing my word and sorry for the misunderstanding :)

Illustrations

Curriculum Vitae (2010)

CURRICULUM VITAE
June 17, 2010

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Name: Eduardo Alberto Gutiérrez Pérez
Place and date of birth: Tlalnepantla, Edo. de México, Mexico, July 28, 1982
Nationality: Mexican
Contact information: +52(33)3797 5688 (Home) - +52(33)13188050 (Cel.)
E-mail: eosmusashi@hotmail.com, eos@larvagamestudios.com
Personal Webpage: www.eduardogtz.blogspot.com
Demo Reel located in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clfjr_Ab4Rc

ACADEMIC FORMATION

• Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Design, Multimedia and Digital Animation at “Centro Internacional de Estudios Avanzados, A.C.”, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, from 2000 to 2005.

• Diploma for Advanced Studies in Character Animation, AnimationMentor.com (www.animationmentor.com) January 2007 - August 2008

• Animation Seminary with René Castillo (www.renecastillo.com) and Luis Téllez at Calavera Films, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, during 2002.

• Training in Quality Management, Hewlett-Packard, March 2007

• Filmaking Workshop under the supervision of Gabriel Beltrán, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, in 1996.

LANGUAGES

Spanish: Native Language
English: Advanced level, both oral and written (95% written, 95% oral)
Instituto Anglo-Americano, Guadalajara, Jal, Mexico, 1994 - 1997
Y.E.S. Ingles y Computacion, Guadalajara, Jal, Mexico, 2000
Vancouver Language Centre, Guadalajara, Jal, Mexico, 2002 - 2003
Vancouver English Centre, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2003
French: 12-Level program at Proulex A.C (60% written, 50% oral) 2006 – 2008

SPECIALIZED COMPUTER SKILLS

Animation skills in:
Hash’s Animation:Master
Autodesk Maya
Autodesk 3d Studio Max
Adobe Flash
Adobe AfterEffects
Autodesk MotionBuilder

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Televisa Deportes presenta Los Sokerklones (http://www.televisadeportes.com/video/mundial-sudafrica-2010/sokerklones/) (March 2010-June 2010) Animation Supervisor for 18 short animated clips

Larva Game Studios S.A. de C.V. (www.larvagamestudios.com) (Current, since Dec. 2009) Lead Animator, Character Animation for videogames

Immersion Games Mexico (www.desarrollosoftware.com) (Nov. 2008 - Dec. 2009) Animator, Character Animation for videogames

Digital Design University (3dmx) S.A de C.V. (www.3d.com.mx) (Current, since May 2008) Animation and digital production professor for the Bachelor’s degree

Hewlett Packard Centro de Servicios Globales S. de R.L de C.V, Las Fuentes Site Guadalajara (May 2005 - Nov. 2008) Editor In Chief and Web Publishing Specialist in GBS, Marketing Web Publishing group, under the supervision of Luis Mendez (luism@hp.com)

Cover Letter

Hi!

My name is Eduardo Gutiérrez and I’m a 3d Character Animator from Mexico. I’d like to start these lines by telling a bit about myself. Ever since I was a small kid, I absolutely loved drawing. I was known as the classroom artist and I spent almost every afternoon after school sketching in lots of notebooks. Soon I began creating my own characters, and by the time I was starting Junior High I felt the growing urge to see them moving. That’s how I got involved in the amazingly crazy world of Animation.

I can clearly recall how did I decide I was going to be an animator. There was this movie I saw once, Nightmare Before Christmas. I think there hasn’t been a movie that blew my mind so hard yet. I remember stepping out of the cinema with the characters, the music and the eerie environment rolling in my mind over and over again. I was so impressed I couldn’t believe it; how did they do that? How did they get some dolls become living flesh characters, singing, dancing, talking, thinking? Then I saw the documentary about the movie, where Henry Sellick finally explained the animation process to me. I remember thinking “This is definitely what I want to do with my life.”

So there I was, a young enthusiast of cartoons, feature films, short films and documentaries about stop-motion and hand-drawn animation, playing with an old tape camera and some clay with my small brother over the base of my bed, endless hours of fun and discovery. Eventually I got tired of one technique and began playing with my computer. I got a small 3d modeling and animation program from Corel and found out that we lived in a 3-axis dimension, that things moving were represented in a timeline, and so on. Eventually CG animation was the kind of animation I liked most.

I studied a degree in Graphic Design, Multimedia and Digital Animation where I learned more about it. After I completed it, I realized I knew very little about actually animating, I was focusing too much in learning a tool, and the basic knowledge about how things moved had been happening almost from scratch. So I took an 18 month diploma at AnimationMentor where I learned what I needed about characters and the animation process. I now seek to continue learning about this world, and to get involved in the process of creating life.

If I could only use one adjective to describe myself, it would be enthusiasm. I love working in something that I know will touch an audience. I love to ask and being asked about animation, and I like to get in touch with other people’s way of seeing it. Professionally, I’m great at following commands, and I’m always willing to give some of my time to help others reach their goals; but at the same time I work better when I have my own focus and space of development. My favorite theme of conversation is the Goal in Life; I think that in order to be successful, one should have a goal to fight for, clearly defined in mind. And animation is my own.

Thank you,
Eduardo Gutierrez, Mexico 2008

Animation Demo Reel 2008

This is my demo reel as of 2008, all of the shots come from AnimationMentor!



UDPATED: Added copyright watermark and the shot list at the beginning.

Hanging Fan (2008)

This is my shortfilm for the 18 months diploma at AnimationMentor.com, I really liked working in this one. I can definitely state that:

1- I learned a lot from the last shortfilm B Happy
2- My animation skills boosted after AnimationMentor
3- I'll do more video references next time
4- It was fun!



UPDATED: Copyright and year watermark for 2008, as discussed with Mark Villagracia to separate our works.

B Happy (2005)

I did this shortfilm when I finished my degree in Graphic Design, Multimedia and Digital Animation. It was fun, challenging and really tough, and it's my first complete project in 3d. I'm really proud of how the film came up, but I can really see how much I've improved since then, the animation lacks a lot of sensibility and fluidness. It was fun though, and I've learned a lot since then :D

Everything started like this...

Hey everyone,

Due to popular demand, I have created a personal blog page to include my experiences in the amazing world of Animation, in which I have begun a personal journey since I was a kid!

This page will be mostly a temporary container for work until I get to create my own personal site (soon hopefully) so sit tight and wait for it!