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4. Edward Usher Run cycle

by Kenneth Coker

3 months ago

3. Kenneth S. Coker Demo Reel 09

by Kenneth Coker

5 months ago

2. Oni Ise Owo

by Kenneth Coker

6 months ago

1. Iwa

by Kenneth Coker

7 months ago

Credits:
Written, Directed and Animated by: Kenneth Shofela Coker
Original score and Sound Design by: Michael Peery and Brian Truesby

This animation was completed for my graduation show at the Memphis College of Art in April 2009. Story boarded, animated, composited, and scored over a four month period using 3ds Max, Photoshop, Illustrator, Adobe After Effects, and Logic Pro.

The animation is based loosely on West African tree of life myths and legends that emphasize the cyclical nature of life and the universe. In Yoruba "Iwa" means strength of character.

Contact:
kennethcoker.com/
cokerkenneth@gmail.com

Credits

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Tags

Mbuotidem Johnson 6 months ago

loving ur work man. its great. Naija 4 life men.
samuel van dijk 6 months ago

unbelievable! very nice work
Femi Omoluabi 6 months ago

Love the work it will be interesting to work together if you come back
mastah cez 6 months ago

i'z got to tell u, u'v got som nice design there, i luv the ethnic style to it and the ideas but ur animation skills need improvement. i'd really like to see u evolve in ur shorts but man, the way ur characters move... it's lacking some snap to it. it's all mushy and linear. and it's no just the characters actually, u could really breathe some more life into ur animation if u knew how it works. i recommend u take a look this guys blog for som animation basics keithlango.blogspot.com/
cheers.
Kenneth Coker 6 months ago

I'm glad you like the design aesthetic and the style, and I agree that the animation isn't all perfect (the animation was done in less than a month). However the style of animation I was trying to achieve "is" the opposite of snappy. Snappy animation would not suit the tone. I wanted the characters to seem otherworldly and ethereal/surreal. I do wish there was some more secondary animation in the backgrounds... but that's for another short with more time to work on.
COLLECTED WORKS OF ENES PIZOVIC 6 months ago

nice story and animation
mastah cez 6 months ago

alright, guess u were trying to be consistent with the style of the whole thing. that's definitely good but i still notice those linear hard stops of motion when a character reaches a pose and no principles of animation in use there. by no means u should stick to them, but only if u know what ur doing. right, and when i said snappy, i didn't mean cartoon snappy:) i just wanted to point out that it's linear, poses are weak and u see no force or weight when their pullin or moving. but that's just body mechanics, the story compensates for that and it's all readable so it's not that big a deal here i guess.

anyways, good luck on your future work!
Kenneth Coker 6 months ago

Thanks mastah cez, I appreciate the critique. I'll work on those problems that you mentioned in the future.
mastah cez 6 months ago

hey, no problem mate! happy to help out:)
cheers, Czarek.
beeple 6 months ago

awesome work sir. was all of the animation of the characters done by hand? i really know absolutely nothing about character animation but would like to learn more...
Kenneth Coker 6 months ago

Thank you, and yea all the character animation was done by hand in 3ds max.

Gnomon character animation tutorials are a great start. They demonstrate with Maya, but the same principles apply to all programs.
panic embryo 6 months ago

lovely work!
onehugeeye team 3 months ago

lovely unique style!
we would like to invite you to publish your work on onehugeeye.com and tell us a bit more about it.

we're a new portal created by animators for animators.
Alex Labbe 2 months ago

i am confused to how this is done!!!
Kenneth Coker 2 months ago

Hey Alex, props, environments and characters were built in a 3d program, then animated and comped out in several layers so that the background and characters, lighting information and props existed on separate layers. Then backgrounds were painted, then composited with the characters and extra stuff in Adobe After effects, where texture overlays were applied and effects and color correction were added. I made sure I tailored the shots and storyboard, from the project's inception to suit the style of production.
Cartoon Smart 2 months ago

Well done. And in response to the poster above.... The less-than-100%-fluid animation worked really well I thought. The characters looked stone-like so having some abrupt movements was keeping with the overall style.

Ken, I love that you wrote the "animation was done by hand in 3ds max" By hand via a mouse right =)
Kenneth Coker 2 months ago

Haha, thanks and yes Mr. Smart unfortunately/fortunately my hand is the mouse. These are strange, brave times we live in... haha
Valdecir Melo 2 months ago

Not only a simply stunnningly video, but the music as well!!
Valdecir Cerkvenik de Melo. Londrina, Brasil.
jeannie 2 months ago

I enjoyed and I am so impressed. It makes me ashamed of my poor jobs on my own videos. I love your work. I wish I could get you to help with mine.
Jeannie Blankenship
João Gabriel Riveres 2 months ago

Beautiful animation. Really inspiring.
Rob Wingfield 2 months ago

Amazing! What a unique world you create.
prajjwal thapa magar 1 month ago

good work. need some punchy n snapy for animation .some steafness must be clean. hoping at new work.
Jason Doggett 27 days ago

Amazing.... I am Digital Cinema Major, animation programs too much for me. Sticking to Final Cut. You got a handle on it though.....