Tangled - Maximus

Maximus is a great reference for Estefan. He's very bold, very abrupt in his movements (with some wacky poses thrown in for good measure). We should make the audience laugh at Estefan's personality like they laugh at Maximus'.

http://youtu.be/hwqEBAYCQdc

(For some reason they don't allow embedding for this video. LAME!!!)

Michael Flatley

This guy is the Irish version of Estefan.

In this first video, I love the walk at the 4:13 mark.






Thanks to Megan Lloyd for pointing these out to me.

Some sketches from the dance sessions.

Kaeloo

At the start of the film Estefan himself is going to have a lot of long, flowy actions. He will be very strong, very graceful, and have kind of prolonged movements.

BUT-- when he loses control (as he's trying to figure out how to do Clara's "hair"), he is going to move a lot more like this:

Very extreme poses, held for a long time, with VERY short in-betweens (like 2 frames. Really.).

From David

Hey guys, sorry I haven't been of much help, this semester I have mostly GE classes and they are killing me.  But I'll start with this:

I like this one a lot because they have really strong and clear poses plus they are full body shots. And the music is live! Sweet!




This one's a trailer for a movie I'm trying to find and watch. Pay special attention at 0:38. When I saw that I thought it could be a great "signature" or funny move that Estefan could do.






I haven't been able to animate a walk cycle but I want to try and record myself and if I don't have time to animate it I'll just embarrass myself and post it here to get feedback.

Royal Conservatory of Flamenco Dance

Flamenco from North Spain, with more of an Irish/ballet feel:


The castanets are super cool.


Great stuff from the men:



Look at these faces:


This last one was improvisational. Professor Rafael de Pino (four-time national champion) decided to get in on it. AMAZING.

Officer Earl

Officer Earl is a great reference for the Estefan character not in the movements and poses he makes, but in the way he makes them. Very strong poses, very fast in-betweens.

Dance Sketches

Here's a couple of roughs from watching last week's video.

It's interesting to think about body lines with these poses-- how do the shoulders and hips relate/contrast? How do the legs extend from the torso midline?

Paso Doble Sketches

Paso Doble Notes 01/26

A few notes I gathered from observing the dance class:

• Very liquid frame/pose
• Pelvic area forward, legs straight (knees not bent)
• Arms behind back to compensate
• Shift weight to ball of foot

The videos are now in the Groups folder (under "Reference > Animation > Dance Class 01-26").

Flamenco Reference

These videos are great reference for both individual poses and strength of movement. I feel like Estefan should have a lot of these very quick, deliberate movements sandwiched with relatively long, strong poses.

(That's what happens when you drink too much and lose your hat.)


This one is a lot more slow-moving, which could work really well when things get dramatic.



This one has a greater emphasis on footwork. Does Estefan have shoes like this?