Claudia Kleinheinz

What happens in Vegas....

15:02

....stays in Vegas! That's how the saying goes, so I can't really tell you anything about my trip there, can I?!? ;) Just as much: I...

11/22/2009

....stays in Vegas! That's how the saying goes, so I can't really tell you anything about my trip there, can I?!? ;) Just as much: I went there on a business trip and it was huge, amazing and crazy- an exaggeration of real life in which it is somehow related to animation. I spent 6 days there and now I'm a bit tired due to jetlag and a flue I caught (most probably from one of the uncountable air conditioning systems). That's also why I've been so quiet lately, but now I'm back again and with me some more sketches and my final version of the parkour animation.

I also did the blocking for my new assignment, but as I only had one day I could spend on it, I want to refine it a bit more before showing it here ;)

Thank you all for leaving comments and feedback, it's great to know that someone is actually looking at this.
See you soon, Claudi

Splines are the Enemy

15:29

Hello everybody, this week was hectic. Fulltime-job, 3 freelance projects and Animation Mentor... didn't get too much sleep ;) I started...

11/08/2009

Hello everybody, this week was hectic. Fulltime-job, 3 freelance projects and Animation Mentor... didn't get too much sleep ;) I started splining the animation I posted last week and all the spirit of it got lost. I don't like splines. Really, I think they are mean ;) However, I managed to fix the worst parts of it and now I'm waiting for my mentor's critique. Next week I'll finish it hopefully and post it here again.

Today I want to show some designs I did recently. The character is ment to be a bank robber of the early 20th century. I did more of those, which I'll show in my next post. Let me know what you think. I'm off to bed now, next time I'll write more.

zzzzzzzzz

silhouettes and more

15:09

Hello again, I haven't been posting for a while, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been busy. On the contrary ;) We've go...

11/01/2009

Hello again,
I haven't been posting for a while, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been busy. On the contrary ;) We've got a new assignment for Animation Mentor and I decided to go for a mix of Parkour and ninja action. This was a huge bite to chew, but in the end I was quite happy with how my blocking turned out. Now, however, I'm panicking because I know that I have to start splining it next week :D

Other than that, I did some thumbnail silhouette sketches for a small mountain cabin. I explored different approaches and styles, some more urban some more rural. In the end I decided that I wanted to have a more rural design that shows that the person who has built it, wasn't very skilled. The whole thing is for I project that I've had in mind for quite some time now, but it's still too early to really talk about it *mysterious silence* lol

Again, please let me know what you think- feedback always helps to learn and improve,
have a great time,
Claudi

PS: I also post the final version of my stairs assignment.

An Amazing Weekend

13:56

Hey all, this week I'm writing brimful of impressions of the last weekend. I attended a character design Seminar last Saturday and Sund...

10/12/2009

Hey all,
this week I'm writing brimful of impressions of the last weekend. I attended a character design Seminar last Saturday and Sunday given by Harald Siepermann. Honestly, this guy is amazing! He did character designs for Disney (Tarzan, Mulan, Brother Baer, Treasure Planet,...), worked on Who Framed Roger Rabbit (the movie that played a huge part in me wanting to become an animator) and tons of other cool stuff.

Check out his blog and be prepared to see hundrets of great drawings! http://haraldsiepermann.blogspot.com/

I learned so much and I'm so inspired that I spend the whole evening drawing. Saturday he even went to a pub whith us and I'm afraid that I've annoyed him by I continuously asking him questions till about midnight ;D But I just couldn't let that chance go by to learn as much as I can from such a talented person.

The sketches I post here are a bit older, I want to refine the drawings that I'm doing right now a bit more before I upload them. I also want to show the blocking I did for last week's assignment (a person walking up a few stairs).

Please don't hesitate to give me any comment you can think of- I got reminded how much there is to learn!

Humbly, Claudia :)

PS: Some of the sketches below were inspired by the work of Chris Sanders, another more than amazing artist.

new term - less time

12:25

There we are, the new term at Animation Mentor has started and I already had my first Q&A with the new mentor Chad Stewart. He worked on...

10/03/2009

There we are, the new term at Animation Mentor has started and I already had my first Q&A with the new mentor Chad Stewart. He worked on Fantasia 2000, The Emeror's New Groove, Open Season,... and he is really, really nice! The Q&A was a lot of fun and I'm really looking forward to the next weeks and the feedback I'll get from him.

Here are some sketches. The first two I did today when I was sitting in an Austrian "Heurigen" (a restaurant where local farmers and winegrowers sell the food and wine they made). Sitting in the warm sun, drinking a nice glass of red wine and enjoying the last warm days- it was great :)

I hope I'll have enough time to continue sketching on a regular basis- maybe even taking some life drawing classes, but I guess there's a lot of work waiting for me this term. We'll see how it turns out, see you all soon,
Claudi

break and sleep :)

15:03

Hello again, last week was break week at Animation Mentor and I also took some days off at work so I slept for hours (had to catch up a bit...

9/28/2009

Hello again, last week was break week at Animation Mentor and I also took some days off at work so I slept for hours (had to catch up a bit ;) ), spent time with my tiny nephew (3 month) and relaxed. So there is not too much I can show this week, but I decided to put up my progress reel I did for AM and also some sketches I did last week (the only creative thing I did)... But now I'm back, filled to the top with fresh energy from Austrians mountains, so expect to see more in the near future :D

Have a great time, Claudi

PS: I just updated my progress reel. It should have a better quality now (at least regarding image quality ;D )

Animals and Animation

04:17

Here it is- the blocking as well as the splined draft of this weeks Animation Mentor Assignment. There is some sound as well, so turn the sp...

9/12/2009

Here it is- the blocking as well as the splined draft of this weeks Animation Mentor Assignment. There is some sound as well, so turn the speakers on ;)
Also some more zoo drawings I did on Tuesday. As I didn't have much time I spend all my time at the animals closest to the entrance which were strange chickens, bunnies and cows. What was great was a kid standing in front of the chicken incubator and said to her mom:" The eggs are being boiled in there and after that the baby chicken hatch ;D So sweet!!

just some drawings....

13:04

Good evening, everybody :) I didn't have time to go to the zoo this week- Animation Mentor comined with a full-time job and a weekend tr...

9/07/2009

Good evening, everybody :)
I didn't have time to go to the zoo this week- Animation Mentor comined with a full-time job and a weekend trip to the family living at the other end of the country was enough to tackle ;)
However, I want to show some drawings I did a few weeks ago. Let me know what you think!

Last week I started blocking my personality walk for Animation Mentor and this week I'll spline and refine it. I decided to go for a fred astaire musical kind of a walk and I'll post it as soon as I revised my blocking. Would be great to get some feedback then, especially before I start splining it. And I've made a mental note to start sketching everywhere I go (I just have to get rid of my shyness and the panic that my "models" will get mad with me when they realise that I'm drawing them) ;)

animals and more

14:20

Hello everyone, I spent another evening at the zo o, doing some animal sketches again. I'm still trying not to focus on trying to do a b...

8/30/2009

Hello everyone, I spent another evening at the zoo, doing some animal sketches again. I'm still trying not to focus on trying to do a beautiful drawing but to capture the essence of an animal (or person). It's really hard to find what makes them unique and then get that into your drawing. And man, they are moving constantly... maybe I shouldn't start with a cheetha.... a turtle might be more suited ;) The other sketches were an assignment I did for the Stephen Silver course. We were supposed to first take the photo and draw what we saw, then put photo and drawing aside and draw it again from memory, using different shapes but keeping what makes the character. Which is the same concept as the one I'm trying to incorporate in my zoo sketching. Hope that makes sense in a way (if not- it's late and I'm a bit tired ;) )

Sketches and Speedpainting

07:14

Hey there, just to keep posting and make it some kind of a weekly routine I wanted to share a few quick sketches with you and also some spee...

8/23/2009

Hey there,
just to keep posting and make it some kind of a weekly routine I wanted to share a few quick sketches with you and also some speedpaintings I did lately. I did these to improve my photoshop painting skills and also to sharpen my eyes for cinematography (camera angle, composition, colours,...). So this is the result after about 30 minutes of painting in photoshop for each. I didn't want to make it an exact copy of the movie still ( I had it open next to it as a reference) but to analyse the image structure in general. Another thing I want to talk about today is the book "Drawn to Life: 10 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes: The Walt Stanchfield Lectures" which comes in two volumes and was/ is such an eye opener for me. I got my copy a few weeks ago and just keep reading. Its a unique mixture of drawing instructions, philosophical snippets, art history and so much more. I can't recommend it enough, check it out, it's more than amazing. That said, I hope you all had a great weekend, take care, Claudia

Tailor in Love

06:26

Hey all, thanks a lot for all the encouraging comments! Highly appreciated they are. Last week I've been working on Tailor, another Ani...

8/19/2009

Hey all, thanks a lot for all the encouraging comments! Highly appreciated they are. Last week I've been working on Tailor, another Animation Mentor character, trying to improve my overlap animation and also to tell a little story. There are loads of things to improve, and I also exceeded the given frame range, but actually I'm not too unhappy with the way it turned out.

This week I'm focusing on walk cycles and right now I'm studying reference material and trying to figure out the essence of a plain walk. I might share some of my research in one of the next posts.

I also want to show some sketches I did recently when I tried to analyze basic body shapes using magazines, books and Rockwell illustrations as reference. I'ld really love to spend more time sketching and oserving but the day has just too little hours (I think another 30 would be just fine ;) )

Take care everybody and don't hesitate to share your thoughts about my stuff, Claudi

Some Animation

11:50

Hey all, I thought as this blog is called clouanimation it is time to actually put some animation on it ;) Unfortunately, I'M not allowe...

8/09/2009

Hey all,
I thought as this blog is called clouanimation it is time to actually put some animation on it ;)
Unfortunately, I'M not allowed to show the stuff that I'm recently doing at work (which is mainly 2D hand-drawn and flash stuff), so I decided to start by uploading this week's assignment I had to do for Animation Mentor. The idea behind it (which you are hopefully able to notice when you whatch it) was overlapping action and I tried to also tell a little story.

In addition to that I want to show some life drawings I did recently. I really tried to get rid of the "outliny" style that I usually have and to focus on three dimensional shapes and depth, however I was told now that I started rendering the drawings too early and that I should focus on the linework firts. So I'm a bit confused right now ;)

As always- pleeeaaase, leve me feedback, it helps me grow :)

Zoo again

13:40

I went to the zoo again yesterday - which by the way turned out to be more difficult than I thought it would as I first missed my turn (you ...

8/05/2009

I went to the zoo again yesterday - which by the way turned out to be more difficult than I thought it would as I first missed my turn (you shouldn't talk to your mom on the phone while driving ;) ) and then had to walk for ages to get to the entrance. So in the end I had only half an hour till the zoo closed and therefore I focused on very quick sketches. Only the giraffe and the hippo weren't done at the zoo but afterwards at home. I also post some character designs/ sketches I had been working on a few weeks ago when I did a character design course at schoolism with Stephen Silver. Check out his stuff, he's amazing!! The character I've been developing here should be a kind of sleazy used car salesman :)

As always, feel free to leave any notes, comments or good night stories you want to, I'll read them all :)

New First Post :)

11:06

Heeeeeree we gooooo.... I tried to have my own blog a few months (or years ;) ) ago, but I just didn't manage to keep it updated and po...

8/02/2009

Heeeeeree we gooooo.... I tried to have my own blog a few months (or years ;) ) ago, but I just didn't manage to keep it updated and post regularly. However, when I realised how much I myself look at other artist's blogs and how great they are to show artwork and get feedback, the blog bug bite me again, and here I am- posting again! I also promised myself to do a lot more sketching from now on, although I'm always afraid that the people I'm drawing will notice and get angry with me ;)

That's why I dicided to start with a subject that can't really do anything about it and went to the zoo. So my first post will show some of the sketches I did there as well as some of the artwork I've done in the last few weeks. I also started studying at Animation Mentor recently and will also keep you updated on my progress there. Big plans so far, you see :) All and every comment and feedback is highly appreciated as there is so much to improve, to learn and to explore! Cheers, Claudi