Shiva Kumar Adloori

Normans

2011-09-01T18:24:00.000-07:00

Update of the Year

2011-08-29T13:34:00.000-07:00

Wait a minute, that sounded as pretentious as the movie title The Tree of Life. I should probably just call it a yearly update instead. So, here it is.

After working on three games for three years at High Impact Games in Burbank, I'm now working on a PS3 Title at SuperBot Entertainment, a startup games studio in Culver City. Since the game's genre is new to me, I feel like I'm back into the student mode, which is soooooo refreshing!

If you're wondering what ever happened to the short, then so am I. It's as of now on hold, coz it became a bit ambitious for one person to fully work on it to see it finished. Now, who is not surprised?! If anyone is interested in collaborating on this one, shoot me an email at skadloori@gmail.com, and maybe it'll get made someday.

Also I'm thinking of sharing some of my old Norman mods, but not sure how relevant those will be, when there are so many feature quality rigs available for free! I'll put those up in a day or two.

Till then, Ciao!

Update on updates

2010-07-03T21:13:00.000-07:00

For those who drop by this blog once in a while, I want you to know that I won't be posting any new stuff anytime soon, as I'm preparing to do a short, which I don't know will take how long! It could be 6 months, or a year, or forever like always. No idea. So, for time being, you can forget this blog exists, or you can subscribe for the RSS feed to remind you, in case I have some update for you guys!

Now, going into hibernation mode, 3....2....1....

Movie files are back!!

2010-03-11T21:41:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Ratul Sarna, I got almost all the Quicktime files back which I had lost yesterday. I uploaded all the files now, so the blog is back to where it was. Awesome! Thanks Ratul!!

Website down

2010-03-10T22:13:00.000-08:00

My bad! I just renewed my domain and hosting for my website from GoDaddy.com for 3 more years. It had a Auto-renewal thing ON which I didn't like. I navigated to the Renewal options, clicked on Cancel, and it cancelled my entire hosting account including the 3 years I purchased 5 minutes ago. Who puts a Cancel button, which actually cancels the account, in the Auto-Renewal section!!

Even though I called the GoDaddy guys right away, they were unable to help with the lost files. They told me there's a $150 fee for retrieval of files. No way I'm paying that! And when I asked them if I could atleast get the hosting account back without the files, they told me I had to purchase an additional 3 months to get it back!! Wow, they must have put the Customer Rip-off number in the Customer Service section too.

Now I have a new hosting account, again with GoDaddy, but my files are all gone! I'll try to find if I have any copies of them on my Computer and try to put them back as soon as I can. But I don't think I have any files from my old blog posts! I'll see what I can do.

So, if any of you have a website, just get a back-up guys! You never know which Cancel button cancels what! Or maybe I'm just a dumb guy and I didn't know about it!!

Modified Norman

2010-01-30T13:58:00.000-08:00

I sometimes get emails with requests to share my modified Norman rigs. Though I'm not able to share the specific character rigs at the moment, I use a modifed Norman, with a body which I grabbed from another rig called Nart, as a base for my characters.

You can download it by clicking HERE

Boss

2009-09-14T19:32:00.000-07:00

I have nothing to say about this one. I just hope it turned out good, as I've absolutely no idea how it's looking. Drop a comment if you see something that's odd or sticks out. I'll try to address those sometime later.

Calvin and Balloon - WIP

2009-09-07T14:53:00.000-07:00

This is something I'm working on just for fun. It's based on a Calvin & Hobbes comic strip. I need to work on it a little more. So, comments or critiques would be great.

I might do more of these whenever I have some free time. Not sure though! Coz I'll have to modify Norman into Hobbes. That's hard!

Tiger Trot Cycle

2009-05-25T19:12:00.000-07:00

I wanted to practice animating a quadruped, as I have never animated one before. And also since it's been a while I updated this blog, I wanted something which I can post here.

I came across this Tiger rig on Highend3d, which had some great controls, so here it is.

I've seen quite a few quadruped walks and runs, but I can't remember seeing a Trot. One more reason for doing a Trot is I thought I could play around to get some fleshy feeling at the belly area, which, in a walk or run, is hard to notice.

I never knew animating a tail was so hard. It's still not smooth. I'll try to fix it some other time.

Feel free to leave comments or critiques.

Commercial Break

2008-11-29T17:50:00.000-08:00

This is the first project I worked on after graduating. The first shot is animated by me. Did bits and little fixes on few other shots. It was a simple character to animate and lot of fun.

It was more fun coz for the first time I was getting paid to animate. After paying the college for years, what a relief!!

Reel is up

2008-11-05T22:49:00.000-08:00

At Last! Something to blog about. You can check out my reel at my website.

Why it took so long? coz, I was trying to not show it to anyone. But 've been sending the link to everyone I know, so didn't make sense to hide it from others.

To people who don't like it, I know it's bad. To those who like it, I still think it's bad.

Dead Lock - Two Person Dialogue

2008-06-25T16:47:00.000-07:00

This was our last of the Pixar 2 assignments. I've nothing much to say about this one. As it happens all the time, I've no idea how this turned out.

Comments and critiques are welcome, but not sure if I can address those. It's been long and 'am tired of working on this.

Subtext - WIP

2008-04-23T00:22:00.000-07:00

Hmm. I can't believe I did a animation on black eye. But, I hope the acting and animation works.

The assignment was to do a One Person Dialogue with Subtext. The teachers assigned each of us with a Dialogue. They also had a bunch of subtexts written on folded papers. They would call us, and we had to pick a subtext. So we had to animate the assigned Dialogue with the subtext we picked.

The subtext I got when I picked was "Your character is trying to hide something".

Most of the critique I got this week was about polishing. From start to frame 90, they told me to make the mouth shapes look "happy" because she's excited about something and wants to show it to the professor. And also that would be a nice contrast to what happens after the gear-change.

They told me to open her eyes more at 26, because she "sees" the professor and then reacts. The "o" mouth shape at 26, when saying "Oh! Professor", needs some anticipation by opening and then tightening really close.

From 95 onwards, since she talks so fast, they asked me to combine few accents into one mouth shape, so that there isn't the chattering going on. They said "we don't talk like that".

Also my "F" and "M" mouth shapes need work.

Tired - Polishing

2008-04-16T12:49:00.000-07:00

This assignment was supposed to be a Silhouette Dialogue where the character is rendered all black with no facial animation. Since I had planned to make it into a proper dialogue piece, I didn't post it back then.

I showed it to the teachers for a quick critique, and they told me that I'm trying to hit every accent and the arms look floppy. They asked me to keep the hands down when he says "prototypes" so that I don't have too many hand gestures.

Also there is a lot of twinning going on towards the end, which I need to fix. Also, I've to fix the part where he's turning. The weight shifts during that part and the pose itself is a little awkward.

Any comments or critiques are welcome.

Gear Change - WIP

2008-03-12T13:57:00.000-07:00

We had to animate a character showing two different thoughts with a good transition pose. The transition moment is what the teachers were looking for. They call it the Light Switch moment.

I didn't get much of a critique this week, as the teachers liked the first part but wanted me to take off the second part after he does the jump. That part is still blocking, as I never got myself to work on that part after the initial blocking stage. Click here to download the large size version if anyone wants it.

Comments or Critiques are welcome.

Fixing - WIP

2008-02-20T00:16:00.000-08:00

Here's my first assignment from the Pixar 2 class. We were told to have a character "fix" an object. We had three weeks to finish it. The hardest part was to think of an idea. Even harder was to make it clear for the teachers and fellow students who have never seen a scale and know how it is used. However foreign students had no problem understanding what was going on.

Now the notes the teachers gave me. As a overall note, the scale seems attached to the hand and moves with the arm with no sense of weight. Instead, the arm should move according to the movement of the scale showing it's weight.

The weight shifts on the body from 18 to 40 are too sharp. it can be toned down and i could add a little overlap on spine. I was told to push the satisfied expression on his face at 155 by raising his left eyebrow even more and adjusting the eye shape, coz the raised eyebrow will pull the upper eye lid accordingly.

From 190-208, the body just translates. they told me to add a breakdown showing that the hips are leading the action and the spine, neck and head are following.

From 240-270, it looks like he's chewing something instead of him mumbling. I was told to add mouth shapes to his inner dialogue.

Comments or critiques are welcome.

Pixar 2

2008-01-24T09:57:00.000-08:00

Got into Pixar 2. Exciting.

Lamp - Object Interaction - WIP

2007-12-12T00:30:00.000-08:00

The assignment was to have a character interacting with an object. The critique I got was to cushion the pulling of the lamp. Right now its a pop. Also the hand shaking after it gets burnt needs to have a good silhouette. And yes, it needs good finger poses, facial expressions and also it doesn't have an ending, which I've to put in. I have one more week left to finish it.

Getting Up from Chair

2007-11-21T00:36:00.000-08:00

We had to show that the character is going through a thought process while getting up from a chair. The notes from the teachers was to add a breakdown between frames 64 and 72, having the character fall (or sit) on the chair while still having the arm stretched out grabbing the paper. I was also told to tweak a few poses little bit for getting smooth arcs on the nose.

Juice Box

2007-10-31T19:03:00.000-07:00

The assignment was to make a Juice box enter the frame, react to something offscreen, or react to another Juice box, and then leave the frame. It was a simple rig. So had fun animating it.

The note from the class was to change the end walk to something with more energy to it.

Another Walk Cycle

2007-10-23T23:15:00.000-07:00

This one is class assignment from Pixar 1. I had to do a character walk. I did'nt know what to do. So I just started out animating. Initially I thought of doing a drunk walk, then changed it to a dozy walk, again changed it to a tired walk, and it ended up looking like a Zombie Walk.

So there it is. The Zombie Walk. I got pretty good notes from the teachers. I'll make changes accordingly and repost later.

Humiliated - WIP

2007-09-21T14:21:00.000-07:00

It's a one person dialogue that I'm working on for my Animation Studio Class. I don't like the pose when she says "everyone knows". I'll be changing that, and hopefully it'll be better.

There's more dialogue to it. I've only blocked this far.

If someone's checking this out, let me know what you think of it. Critiques are always welcomed.

Jungle Jumps - Blocking

2007-09-04T02:09:00.000-07:00

This was an assignment I started on my own and stopped it midway through blocking. I really got all inspired after watching Glen Keane animated Tarzan. I'm not sure if I should continue with it or not, as it might look like I'm trying to copy. Still debating.

I planned it to be a 20 sec clip. Blocked only 6 seconds so far.

Pixar 1 Class

2007-08-24T12:44:00.000-07:00

Just got email from the Academy saying I got into the Pixar 1 class. Finally!!

Baby Lift : Weight Excercise

2007-07-19T08:08:00.001-07:00

Didn't turn out the way I thought it would. I did'nt spend much time on it either. Just like the walks, this is also for the Pixar Class Submission.

Character Walk Cycle

2007-07-18T22:42:00.000-07:00

I've tried to do a Female character walkcycle. I did this as a part of my Pixar Class Submission reel. I've my fingers crossed. I hope to get into that class. This is my third try at it.

Normal Walk Cycle

2007-07-18T22:30:00.001-07:00

The title says it all.

Vegetarian - getting there

2007-05-31T14:01:00.001-07:00

right now...the keys are not offset yet....i hope it'll look good once it's done....and ya...the animation on the waiter needs work and also on the vegetarian guy. and also on the yellow shirt guy....i don't think it'll ever end....i mean the process...

and also the whole animation looks slow and floaty....i'll see what i can do about that...

critique or comments anyone?....hello!!.....anyone??

Vegetarian WIP

2007-04-19T16:36:00.000-07:00

still working on it. have to change lot of poses. Looks terrible now. taking a break surely puts things in the right perspective.

any critique would be great. thanx

Bouncing Balls

2007-04-19T12:14:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how the Graph Editor can change an entire animation. Here's what it did to my Bouncing Balls animation.

And here's the one before tweaking in Graph Editor.