Posts Posts by: "Ken Fountain"

Blame it on a sudden curiosity in robotics (and the math that drives it all), but I have recently begun to see animation principals in terms of equations. For instance, the principals of timing and spacing, the foundation of what we do as animators. These have an obvious mathematical relationship to themselves when it comes…(Read More)

Character Sets

by

A brief explanation of why I choose to use characters sets, how they work, and how I feel they loosen up my workflow. Enjoy! 🙂 /ken P.S. – Feel free to use the comments section below to let me know what other topics you would like to see covered in future. Thanks!     &nbsp…(Read More)

GAAAAAHHHHHHH…

by

…AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!! Phew! I’m coming back up for air.  As is the typical bloggers lament: after all these months of neglect, it’s finally time to start communicating again. And there’s a lot to communicate – what’s been happening, and what’s on the horizon. Let’s just make a list and make it…(Read More)

  Do you know? Have you heard? I have teamed up with my friends over at SplineBomb.com to sponsor an animation contest we think is pretty unique, and we’re pretty excited about it. I was super flattered to have been asked, and so happy to offer my videos and my time to make…(Read More)

  Here’s how I was going to start this simple thought:  “The pendulum may have swung, I think.  Where once student animators used to be blamed for over-acting and over-animating, I think the opposite may now be starting to happen.  There is this blanket of seriousness and a focus on subtlety that…(Read More)

For this episode, I’ve excerpted a portion of “Breakdowns & Body Forces: Using Energy and Muscle Tension To Tell Your Character’s Story”.  This is the beginning of the breakdown process, where I determine how to push the character’s body mechanics in order to express their motivations and emotions in the most clear…(Read More)

  Hey Everyone, A bunch of people have requested that I post the succession of playblasts from the “Attitudes & Acting Beats” tutorials.  I finally had some free time to collect them and get them online.  I will update this post at some point with some embedded streaming versions, but for now here is a…(Read More)

  As you may have seen, yesterday I announced the official release of a project I’ve been collaborating on with some good friends over the last year.  The group calls itself Crackerbox, and our first title is “Geo-Me!”, an animated, musical iPad app that helps introduce kids to world geography. But how in…(Read More)