11 Second Club Win and FREE eBook!

I won last month’s 11 Second Club competition! It’s the second time I’ve won.

What’s special about this one is it’s the 8th highest rated animation of all time for the competition since it began in 2007 and is the highest rated animation for the last 17 months!

Here are links to the other 7 higher ranked animations (3 are from one guy!): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6, 7.

But for anyone thinking it comes easy, think again! Last month I received 5th place, which is why I really committed myself to this last month’s. Fifth place isn’t shabby, but having won before I wanted to win again!

It all started with reference, which you can watch below. For the first shot I set up my camera in a stationary position and I brought two different takes into Premiere and simply used a ‘4-point garbage mask’ effect to make a split screen so I could see each performance play at the same time.

For the final shot I convinced a friend to be a stand in (thanks!). I had set up a light stand and tried some takes with it, but I knew I really wanted to see how someone’s body reacted to me grabbing their shoulder and moving it around.

While I was animating this piece I started to take notes to help remind myself of a few things for the next time I animate. I decided to turn it into a little eBook and share it with everyone! You can download it by clicking the image to the right, or click here.

I worked on this for about two weeks straight and am really looking forward to hearing the critique! I already know the couple of things I would change, but I am really excited to hear a new perspective!

I’ve said this before but I love the fact that the reward for this competition is a critique! It’s all about improving and it’s a privilege to be told how to do that! I can’t think of many other industries structured like that and I think that’s why I’m drawn to animation (no pun intended) because I want to improve in life in general and in animation it’s one of the main facets, constantly improving at your craft.