AAU Character Animation Class

Spungella goes live!

2008-06-04T14:52:00.000-07:00

After a recent run-in with legal complications concerning my sites (not this one... yet), I thought about the look and presentation of this academyanimation blog. Since I never got the official ok to use that name (not that it is AcademyofArtUniversity.blogspot or something), nor images, etc. plus given my rants every now and then, which are purely my thoughts and not the ones of my employers, but especially the fact that this has grown beyond pure AAU material for my students, I decided to change the look and feel (and name) into something more individual. Another reason was also the awesome feedback I got regarding the layout and what you guys would like.

It's time then to redirect you to: SPUNGELLA.

So hopefully Spungella will present itself as more streamlined, accessible and efficient as this current blog. Of course I would really appreciate any further feedback. A few major posts have been switched over already and I will continue to migrate the more important posts. Trailer notices, posters, things like that will stay here, so think of academyanimation as an archive for these type of posts.

That's it for now!

Cheers
Jean-Denis

Space Chimps

2008-05-30T11:21:00.000-07:00

New posters for Space Chimps:

- found @ impawards

Back from Vacation

2008-05-29T13:22:00.000-07:00

I'm back and posting will resume!

- pic source

Movie Screengrab Resources

2008-05-20T15:34:00.001-07:00

I know I mentioned his site many times, but if it isn't on your regular check-list, it should be. This time John Nevarez hands you sweet links to sites/blogs which have a really good collection of screengrabs. Definitely inspiring when thinking about starting a new shot.

Animation Mentor Newsletter - May 2008

2008-05-17T16:14:00.000-07:00

Nice, another Animation Mentor Newsletter. This month you get:

Survive as a contractor

Animation Short: Forever Young

Mentor: Ethan Hurd

Student: Iestyn Roberts

Bringing your work back to blocking - by Shawn Kelly

Go ahead and check it out!

Damon Bard Maquettes

2008-05-14T14:33:00.000-07:00

Head over to this site for the Damon Bard interview and check out the images of his artwork.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU

2008-05-14T14:30:00.000-07:00

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

The semester is over!

2008-05-13T12:24:00.000-07:00

Well, what do you know, another semester is over. Time just flies! Thank you very much for your patience throughout this semester, you've been a great class and I wish you all the best! And who knows, I might see some of you again in another class or as a fellow coworker. Take care!

Jean-Denis

pic source

Jason Ryan Animation now open

2008-05-13T12:20:00.000-07:00

Head over to jasonryananimation.com and check out the previews for all the tutorial videos. A lot of cool stuff! I've been getting his ramp-up emails and it's very exciting to see everything fall together.

Animate on your DS

2008-05-10T16:22:00.000-07:00

So ever since I found out that there is an animation program for the DS I got hooked on the whole homebrew scene. If you're interested in the research I did for it, check the swench posts about said DS Homebrew Research and the one about the Installation Process.

What got me started was the post on Tim Sormin's blog, in which he wrote about the current progams: Animanatee, Flickbook and Inchworm. You can read his review and thoughts about it there.

If you're more into a sketchbook type of program, then Colors! would be more appropriate.

Visit Tim's post for more information as well as the official site of course.

I would have liked to get Inchworm, but since the creator is looking for a publisher, I don't know if and when it will get a release. You can sign up for an email notification regarding the official release though.

So after installing all the necessary components I tried out Animanatee.

Once you start the program, you're prompted to the main menu:

The main menu gives you a nice quick overview on how to use the DS buttons and the rest is pretty self explanatory. Choose "New" to start a fresh clip and it will give you this:

The top screen will show you at all times what your current frame looks like. Or if you have your animation play, then it will always play on the upper screen, even if you are in the animation menu screen or working on your current frame within the lower screen. I actually found it to be very neat to have it play while you work separately on the shot, because it gives you real-time feedback and you don't have to switch to a menu or push a few buttons and lose time. Yes, I know, it's not a big time waster, but I like things quick, efficient and intuitive.

Speaking of quick and efficient: as you work on your shot on the lower screen, no buttons or menu tabs are in your way, therefore giving you the full screen real estate to work with. As the main menu told you, click Y and A (or Left and Right on the D-Pad) to move forward and/or backwards frame by frame. If you want to change the size of your brush, or color, or switch between foreground layer and background layer, etc. just push either the right or left shoulder button on the DS and the animation menu shows up on the lower screen:

This menu gives you all the basic animation options you'd like to see. Add, duplicate or delete frames, clear the full frame, redo and undo, activate onion skinning (showing one previous frame), switch between layers (foreground/background), change the frame rate (from 1 to 30), step through each frame or quickly go to the end or beginning of your shot, change the size of the brush, and pick a color.
The three last black rows are for your custom colors. If you colored something red using the given palette and change the color later on, everything that's red will change. So use the preset colors and don't change them. If you want to create custom colors, then click on one of the black frames within the last three bottom rows and go from there.

Once you're done with your clip, push Start and choose any slot to save your work. You will also see the "export avi" button on the upper right corner.

You need to choose your slot first and then click "export avi" for it to work. The movie will be saved in your Animanatee folder, which you can easily copy off the MicroSD card onto your PC.

I never once had to look up any manuals or extra instructions online, there is no confusion about what to do, the program is very intuitive and a joy to work with.

If I had to nitpick, here's what's missing:

- more than two layers (FG/BG), that would be really cool
- onion skinning for the frame ahead and maybe more than one layer, although one is enough for me
- a way to copy one frame and insert it on any frame you want to
- the possibility to load a sound file (that would be awesome!)

But again, the program is free and a lot of fun, I love it! After a few minutes of trying it out for the first time, this is what I got:

Now on to "Flickbook".

Reading through Tim's post I expected it to be a lot more refined than "Animanatee", but I wasn't into it at all.

First the good things: you can zoom into your shot (and zoom out), you have more layers (up to 4) and a way to copy the full frame or just a section of your choice and paste it wherever you want to, fancier ways to scroll through your shot, etc. So it's addressing points that I missed in "Animanatee" and adding other cool functions.

But what killed it for me was:

- the lack of an undo button (if you accidentally drew something on your frame, you would have to erase it using different colors, basically "fixing" your drawing)
- no looping function (bye bye bouncing balls, walk cycles, anything that requires a loop, plus it's annoying to always click on "back to first frame" and "play" in order to watch your clip multiple times)
- a somewhat clumsy menu ("Flickbook" gives you the chance to reskin your menu, which is a cool option, but the default layout was just not that intuitive, plus some of the icons didn't really tell you what they were for, forcing you to look up the online manual - no, I don't mind manuals and reading, but after Animanatee's ease of use you notice a difference)
- too many steps needed in order to export your clip (you need to use a second program on your PC for it)

There are other things that I didn't like too much, but there's no need to slam something which is free (go here for a more detailed overview of the software). Don't get me wrong, it's not bad, it's just not what I am looking for, especially after having tried out Animanatee. I think I read that Flickbook is more widely used, so what do I know. They are almost identical, but even if it had a looping function and an undo button (the two things I miss the most), I'd still go with the other program because it's so efficient and easy to use.

There you go.

If you don't have a homebrew kit for your DS but want to test out the two programs on your PC, just download a DS emulator and give it a shot.

Tata
Jean-Denis

Animation Mentor Newsletter - April

2008-05-10T11:48:00.001-07:00

Wow, that tells you how behind I am with my emails (so much to do, not enough time...).

Again, as always, if you haven't subscribed (it's free), you should. :)

This time around we get:

- AM grads work on Horton
- "Daphne's New Broom" short
- Mentor: Don Kim
- Student: Eleanor Dayton
- Round 2 of the Animation Lightning Round with Shawn Kelly

Definitely read the Lightning Round, especially the first Question/Answer. But the rest is very informative as well, so please take a break from whatever you're doing and read Round 2.

Last class and finals

2008-05-10T09:21:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

for next Monday, please bring your latest and greatest version for each assignment, since I will be grading you for this semester's work.

How it works:

- for each Blu-ray DVD your grade goes up by one letter.

JUST KIDDING!!

It's two Blu-rays.

Cheers
JD

Fantastic timing!

2008-05-08T14:31:00.000-07:00

This clip is awesome! The timing on the drop is GENIUS! :)

New Kung-Fu Panda Trailer

2008-05-08T09:57:00.000-07:00

Looks awesome! Watch it @ Yahoo

Brains from Thunderbirds takes centre stage in drench ad

2008-05-08T09:47:00.000-07:00

Looks like they're mixing a cg puppet with a regular string puppet? Either way, looks awesome!

Igor - Trailer

2008-05-07T11:49:00.000-07:00

Watch it @ Yahoo!

Original Ideas

2008-05-07T10:32:00.000-07:00

One more week to go and I'm sure you guys are all tired of my same old rants. But look, I'm not the only one ranting about the same thing. :)

The Spline Doctors site got an update (content and look) and the latest post is a demo reel guideline. Once you read it you can tell that Dr. Gordon is a bit frustrated. One might argue that the name calling is a bit out of place (although the commenter actually liked the harshness), but I agree about the content, as you've heard me saying the same thing many times. Here's what I mean:

4) Same old, Same old - If I see another canned physical test I might go crazy. We see alot of the same thing over and over. Whether its an animation mentor character jumping on some poles, or the same ringling assignement where you have to model yourself and animate a piece of dialogue…. It all starts to blend in. I want to see original ideas. Stories, interesting acting. Remember, its always about the ideas and acting abilites. Polish can be taught. Focus more on coming up with original acting and good ideas. The problem with many animation schools these days is that they seem to be copying each other. We see many different reels that contain similar models. If possible, create your own character designs.

Seeing the same walk, the same jump or in general, the same type of animation test becomes boring. Do it a different way. Show the potential employer that you have good ideas. If you are using a pre-built rig then try to change it so it has a different character to it. After a while, when you see so many reels, you see the same stuff and it gets really boring to watch. When you see a fresh idea or character, it is refreshing. I think that someone out there needs to build a rig that is almost like a universal character that can be manipulated. This way you can create any character type and come up with any scenario. I will try to put together some links of successful reels.

Basically, don't make any mistakes. HAHAHAHA! (that one was for my Fall '07 class)

No, seriously. He's right. It doesn't have to be the best looking character in history, but don't stick with a grey Norman (or blue Generi), add props and a set. Even a simple set will expand the story of your shot, beyond the pure exercise. I'm not constantly asking why your character is doing what he/she/it is going because I like to torture you, it's because I want you to think about the bigger picture and the motivations of your character, so that you can elevate your clip beyond a pure assignment into an original and creative piece of animation.

Back in the day people got hired based on their bouncing balls. Well, the game has changed, the expectations are higher. If you're not willing to go the extra mile, you will have a hard time. And face it, if you want to work for a company, you need to figure out what they want and then give them what they want. If you want to do whatever you feel is right, then do your own short. If you're lucky, people will like it, maybe people at companies and that will result in getting hired. But you're only limiting the chances of finding a job. Use all the time you can get to work on single clips (or a little sequence), which fit the style and taste of the company you want to work for. The company is your client and you need to please the client. Once you're hired you can go off and do your own thing, no problem.

Show me an interesting character, not the same damn thing I’ve seen over and over. Be original with your characters, ideas, acting… everything.

If you have a hard time sympathizing with that, then I suggest you spend a Saturday or Sunday (full day) going through ALL the reels you can find online. Watch as much as you can for a whole day and you will realize what he's talking about. It's also good reference in terms of what not to do. You will quickly realize which audio clips, acting choices, set pieces, etc. are overused. So don't replicate any of it, figure out something new.

The suggestion that someone out there should build a universal rig which can be molded into any character is a good idea (Norman is a good example), but a bit out of touch in terms of the time and effort it takes to do so. Dr. Gordon is aware of it ("Sure, it would be great to be able to design your own character, but I understand, as much as anyone that it isn't easy and animators want to focus on performance."), but I wonder if reviewers at other companies are as well. I have my doubts that they REALLY understand it unless they are job hunting, animating and rigging while trying to pay off their student loan in today's environment.

How about the companies use their resources and build a universal rig for the animation community? Bluesky has a proprietary rig they hand to job applicants as a testing tool. I'd like to see other companies do the same and more. How about once you submit your reel and it's promising, the company provides links to a library of their own rigs? You wouldn't be allowed to share them publicly, maybe only the company will end up seeing the clips, but at least they get to see what they want (rig wise).

One day maybe.

- pic source

Another fantastic Blog Collection by John Nevarez

2008-05-02T16:03:00.000-07:00

Once again, John Nevarez gives us a list of fantastic artists. Go check out the whole list, here as usual the style that I like:

GMGallery

The Woeful Tales of a Domesticated Man

Ross Dearsley blog1 and blog 2

Kataplonk

Polcochon

Ahmed Guerrouache

Bibouse

storybreathing - aaron becker

Stargaser

Gobelin's animated shorts

2008-05-01T17:51:00.000-07:00

Head over to cookedart and check out the three Gobelin shorts, Crash Test, The Omen and my favorite: Blind Spot (great little dark story).

Daniel Dociu - Guild Wars

2008-05-01T17:26:00.000-07:00

I don't know why I love that type of art so much but whenever I see work like that I get so inspired to stick characters into those environments and animate the hell out of it (not that you can ever do that - I wish you could pick and choose your favorite environments, then load them up in Maya and start your shot).

This time it's the art of concept artist Daniel Dociu. Please visit bldgblog's post called "Game/Space: An Interview with Daniel Dociu" and check out the fantastic artwork, there are many more!

Hands

2008-05-01T10:33:00.000-07:00

One thing you should not forget and which doesn't get enough attention from people I think, me included (just like shoulders) are hands and fingers. Make sure to check out these drawings and what Angus McLane has to say about it.

Another source I like to check for reference and inspiration (which is more of a hit & miss than checking out animation masters and their work, but still) are statues and maquettes.

I check out bigbadtoystore, cornerstorecomics and other sites, because I can't help myself, I'm a nerd. But every now and then you find a really cool statue. In this case, it's the Premium Format Figure of Star Wars' Asajj Ventress. I actually don't like the figure that much, but the photos of her hands were really cool.

It's expressive, strong, has a nice silhoutte (in this picture only though), it just ads to the figure (although the body pose could have been stronger).

The other picture shows her holding the lightsaber and it's a good example of how you should really push the poses of your hands and fingers as they hold something. Often I see the hammer pose, or worse, the broken wrist pose.

Try to to really think about how the wrist and fingers are working together in order to wrap around and hold on to an object, like this next photo:

It's tedius work, but pays off in a big way.

- pic source of hammer and Star Wars figure (c) 2008 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM.

The Animals save the Planet

2008-04-27T20:05:00.000-07:00

Go to "The Animals save the Planet" and watch those cute stop-motion clips produced by Aardman Animations studio for Animal Planet.

(thanks for the tip Erik!)

Critique - Box lift

2008-04-26T09:46:00.000-07:00

Hey,

looking much better! You're general timing is pretty good. A few notes as you go into blocking +.

Opening the door starts off well, but then after x37 it gets too fast. If you're going for a heavy door, that's not it, you have to slow it down by 50%.
It's good how he immediately goes into the box grab, but then you have a long pause around 78 where he doesn't do anything. Not that he has to move around all the time, but it's like he freezes for a moment.
The box pull towards him ends too quickly and it's also too fast. You mentioned that the box wasn't that heavy, so initially I thought the speed is almost ok, but later, when he lifts the box, it looks really heavy. So I would go with a slower pull towards him (and go for a heavy box).
After the lift the animation gets a bit too slow and floaty, after around x208.
You also need to really sell how he's holding the box up with his right leg (if that's what's going on). Right now it looks more like he's holding the box with one hand and it floats up around x235 and later.
The door closing could also be slowed down a tiny bit at the beginning. So it takes some strength to get it going and then it can fall down.

But overall much better, you got rid of that slow motion, lost in space type of feel. :)

Human

2008-04-25T09:13:00.000-07:00

Humans- Cool Cartoon!
Uploaded by aniboom

- found @ haha.nu

Animation Food by Cameron Fielding

2008-04-22T13:21:00.000-07:00

This sounds like a really cool tool. Head over to "Flip" to learn more about it. Here a snippet:

Over the last few weeks or so at work, I've been building a little tool that will just throw me random quotes, ideas, little nuggets of info, tips tricks, checks etc right there in a little maya window. So when I'm animating, particularly on the acting shot I'm doing at home, I have this little thing open and I click it once in a while and get some pure gold advice to keep me thinking, give me new ideas, or just inspire me to think about what I'm doing in a different way.

John Nevarez' awesome site recommendations

2008-04-21T11:57:00.000-07:00

Every now and then I check out John Nevarez' site and as always you're given a ton of really inspiring sites to go through. Check out his site if you haven't already. Some of the blogs don't have the "older posts" options, so you have to go through their archives. Here are some of my favorites:

Leighton Hickman Art:

Jaclyn Favro Portfolio:

... on Mars:

Fablog:

Erik D. Martin:

Turley Sketch:

Ev's Place:

A Little Golden Blog:

Spudvision:

Palindrom:

Last Travel Art - The Artwork of Marco Hasmann:

Sushixav Blog:

Sara Pichelli:

alaykssblog:

Eye Movements

2008-04-21T11:29:00.000-07:00

Head over to synchrolux, specifically to the post Eye Movements 3 - Saccades and Fixations, for those interested in why and how eyes move. Don't stop there of course, make sure to check out the rest of the site (via categories)/ - pic source

Oktapodi

2008-04-21T10:59:00.000-07:00

Cartoon Brew had a post about "Oktapodi" a while back. It also points you to Quentin Marmier's blog, which has an awesome collection of production images.

But make sure to click on "older posts" in order to see all the other cool artwork.

Orgesticulanismus

2008-04-21T09:15:00.000-07:00

According to Shawn, watch from 1:30 to 6:00, so I did. And holy moly it's AWESOME! Go to this youtube page for "Orgesticulanismus" (embedding is disabled). It's a short movie by Mathieu Labaye. Here's what the youtube movie info says:

Great tribute to his father Benoît Labaye, suffered from a multiple sclerosis at 29 years old. Benoît Labaye had been confined to a wheelchair since age 40 and died at 55 years old the 04.22.2006, as a result of a pneumonia.

In the movie, you can hear Benoît Labaye speaking:

"I think it's by the movement you appropriate your own life. By the freedom to come and go, to have gestures of love, tenderness, anger, whatever. When you are deprived of movements, as I am and as a lot of other people are, I think if you want to survive, you must reinvent the movement differently. And so what happens inside my head isn't purely brain, purely intellectual. It's a way of recreating an inner space which is also my freedom."

"When you live a severe handicap, when you live absolutely still, dependent, you live, in fact, something that can't be shared, that can't be easily expressed, which you can't easily talk about. Because when two people talk, to be able to understand each other, they need to have a minimum of common experience between them, to speak of something they both know from some form of experience."

"Sure, the stillness, the handicap, brings you to the conclusion and to the gradual acceptance that there's a certain number of things that you can't do. But conversely I think it opens a whole bunch of new possibilities, notably with inner freedom, inner space, but also with the way you can come in contact, in relation with others.
I think there is in the handicap, in the disease, a lot of potentiality. The human being is inexhaustible at the level of desire, of energy, of inner strength. Ans it's something you discover with maybe more urge, more intensity, when you're deprived of movement."

Head over there for more info and links.

Site Update: What would you like to change? What is missing?

2008-04-17T09:48:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

I've never gotten any email or comments about how I could improve this site. Since I want this to be a good resource for my students and anybody else who reads this, please let me know what you would like to change, add, remove, etc.

Please leave a comment to this post with any suggestions. Don't be shy, it's for your own good. :)

- image source

Shapes and Lines

2008-04-17T09:29:00.000-07:00

Head over to Carlos Baena's site to check out his post on Shapes and Lines. Awesome image of Medusa he posted, look at that pose! Make sure to check out all his tips & tricks and resources while you're at it.

New Wall-E Featurette

2008-04-16T09:15:00.000-07:00

slashfilm via Upcoming Pixar got a new Wall-E Featurette. A few new scenes, but nothing huge in terms of spoilers.

Asymmetry

2008-04-15T09:34:00.000-07:00

I'm not a big fan of posters nowadays, they seem to be more cut/paste photoshop works as opposed to creative and original ways of getting you excited about a movie. BUT. What I wanted to point out in this Hulk poster is the asymmetry in both Edward Norton's and the Hulk's body. Even though both just stand there, none of their arms have the same pose, same for the hand, fingers, shoulders and even the head favors one side.
In animation you want to avoid twinning, so says the common rule, although I think twinning can be effective if done right (with a slight offset so it's not completely mirrored). Someone had a great post about that, but I can't remember who, it was a clip with Simon Pegg in it, anybody remember?. [It can be found here, thanks Jeff!] But again, as a general rule you want to avoid it and Shawn Kelly has a great article about it @ Animation Mentor, check it out.

But let's get back to Asymmetry. Draw a line in the middle of this poster and look at how each side is slightly different. Hulk's screen left shoulder is up, which helps with the different position of his arm, the head is tilted screen right instead of just staying in the middle, etc.
It's a lot more subtle with Edward Norton, but each side is still a little bit different.

Let's look at the image if you'd mirror one side. Not that exciting to me and just like the title says, I would call it "Huuh???".

So keep that in mind when you get to a moment and pose which looks too mirrored or twinned. - poster found @ impawards

R.I.P. Ollie Johnston

2008-04-15T09:14:00.000-07:00

The last hero of the Nine Old Men died at 95. It's a sad day for sure.

If you're wondering who he is then please head over to Animated-News and get all the details, same with Cartoon Brew which has a ton of good material (as always).

And if you don't own "The Illusion of Life", you should get it, it's a must have.

Cartoon Brew

2008-04-10T16:24:00.000-07:00

I might be stating the obvious but make sure to check out Cartoon Brew. I'm sure you guys got sites that you visit daily, so if you haven't already, add this one.

Among this week's posts you got news about Pixar's Presto, their new short in front of Wall-E directed by Doug Sweetland.

Next up are the "Geri's Games" remakes, which are pretty cool.

Interesting as well is the "Disney's Gettin' Lazy" post.

Make sure to check out the site regularly.

- found @ Cartoon Brew

Show acting, not just action

2008-04-09T00:38:00.000-07:00

This is a question I got and I thought it was a very good question:

Hey JD,

I was reading Cameron Miyasaki's interview and there was
this one thing he says "make sure you animate emotion and attitude and not
action. More important than what the character is saying is how the character is
saying it. It's a subtle difference in the way you approach a scene, but it's
the difference between just simply animating and acting."

This might be
a silly question, but I dont think I quite get what he is saying. Could you
explain it a little further?

I really want to make a longer post about it with examples, but that will take some time.
In the meantime, here the gist of it (at least how I see it):

- how you say something makes a world of difference. Take "I love you.", which I say to my wife a thousand times a day. :)
But she can exactly tell what I mean and how I mean it by the way I'm saying it. It can be a heartfelt and honest way, it can also be in a "Yeah, sure, whatever you want sweetie." way. It can be a "We're still friends, right?", or "You're the best thing that's ever happened to me." way. It all depends on the tone of voice, the emotion and attitude behind it. It can vary depending on how I look at here with just my eyes, or a head tilt, or a hand gesture.

So when you have a dialogue piece, you have to think beyond the mechanics. It's more than just "Okay, he's saying "NOW!" so I have to get an "N" shape, mixed with a wide "AH" and transition that into an "OO". That's just animating. Go rent "24" and watch how Kiefer Sutherland says "Now!" (you can't miss it). In fact, every character yells "Now!" at least once. But it will be different for each character.

Or watch this funny clip of Shia saying "No" over and over:

Even though it's repetitive, there are differences. The action is the same, but once you start changing emotions and attitudes, the meaning will change.

And that goes beyond what the character is saying, it's important for all the actions of your character. That's why I ask you guys all the time why your character is lifting the box (or whatever other action your character is doing), has he done it before, who is the guy, where is he, etc.? You have to make a decision about who your character is and in what situation because that will determine his emotion and attitude. A guy lifting a box of beer can be animated differently. It could be a delivery boy and he's tired of lifting those heavy boxes all day and doesn't care about the alcohol, or it's a guy arriving at a party and he can't wait to get drunk. The way they will handle the box will be completely different and that's what your animation has to show, it has to show acting instead of just action.

Planet 51

2008-04-08T16:14:00.001-07:00

Watch a behind-the-scenes clip @ marketsaw

Wall-E & Space Chimps

2008-04-07T09:04:00.000-07:00

Animated-News points to info and details about the production of Wall-E and Space Chimps.

Ask the Pro

2008-04-07T08:45:00.000-07:00

If you haven't done so already, go to CG-Char and read through the "Ask the Pro" sections, there are a lot of goodies in it. What prompted this was an email from Sow Hussein Dembel, giving me a best-of from the Mike Belzer questionnaire. Thanks!

Mike process:

As far as process goes I think the number one thing to do is be clear about your actions/ideas. If you are not clear than your character and your audience will not see it either.
So take time to figure the best way to approach your shot. Understand the story of what is going on, where are you coming from and going to. Act it out, thumbnail, video reference. The point it do more than go with your first impression of what you think the character should do. Don’t cheat the audience by taking the easy way out.
After I thumbnail, act out and sometimes video record I’ll do a phrasing pass. This is where I block in the key poses to the shot to see how it is working. I’ll most likely go back in to strengthen the poses later but this will be the building blocks of the shot.
I work linear but shoot out my images with keys only. This way I see it in what looks like stepped mode but once I put breakdowns in the linear process gets me closer to the poses I’m looking for.
From here it’s adding breakdowns, refining main poses and adjusting timing.
Once I feel it’s pretty close I switch to spline mode and spend a fair amount of time cleaning up the crap that the computer gives me.
Then it’s onto the final steps of finesse and refinement of poses and checking arcs and whatnot.
That’s it in a nutshell as far as my approach. That said I don’t thing there is any one way that is right or wrong. If the results are on the screen, that’s all that matters.
As far as inspiration… it comes from so many places for me. My children are a constant library to draw from. I can’t get enough film… watch all kinds of films. Live action, animation and don’t forget CHAPLIN!!! I get inspired from his work every time.
For animation specific… I just love doing it and constantly pulling people in to help better my work. I’m also very inspired by students. I teach at Animation Mentor.com and I’m constantly blown away at both he quality of work and pure energy that comes from that school. I also love going to different festivals, schools, and studios and just geek out and talk about animation. I don’t grow tired of this art form. When I do I guess it’ll be time to go into another line of work. Till then I’m loving animating.

Q: I love to draw and it is a massive part of my process I believe in great design and character, yet I hear advice given to "CG" animators to only concentrate on animation like it is a seperate thing.

WRONG!!! It certainly is true that you need not be the strong draftsman that you need to be in 2-D but there is so much to communicate with drawing. To be able to explore your shot before staring thumbnails is so important. This is a weakness of mine and I wish someone had told me “LEARN TO DRAW!!” To be able to communicate a quick idea to a co-worker, supervisor or director is very important in this visual world we work in. Also if you =ever get in the role of supervising a character it is very important to communicate what you want the character to move like for rigging, facial shapes for modeling/rigging. Talking about them can take you so far but as they say a picture is worth a 1000 words. Right now my pictures are only worth about 89 but I’m continuing to work on it.

Q: I believe drawing and "seeing" enrich animation and should not be discarded. It seems to be a product of the CG age.

Agree with this as well. I believe through drawing you learn anatomy, composition, line quality for posing out a character and appeal. It’s such a rich tool it should not be discarded because you are in CG or even puppet animation for that matter .

Q: I know the CG process is a long one so even more reason to have a strong sense of design and character I feel. People may misread this advice "only concentrate on animation."

To be a well-rounded artist will only strengthen you. I thin those who say you don’t need to draw have issues themselves with drawing. Again I am one who struggles with drawing… but I see the great importance it has in a visual medium that we work in.

Q: You mentioned before to watch all kinds of movies, specially Chaplin, but I usually get a little lost in what to study in those films, can you give us some advice for some key elements that I should look for in movies? Again, thanks a lot.

Be open and be a sponge and soak up all that film has to offer. Look at the film as a whole. Look at it frame by frame, in slow motion, without sound… these are all ways to see things in different ways. One other trick that is interesting to try is listening to a film without looking at the picture. Plan it out in your minds eye as to how you would approach a scene and then look at how the actors chose to act it out. The results will surprise you.

Q: Do you do any 3d modeling and rigging? Do you even have time for personal projects at the moment?

I wish I did now how to do that kind of stuff. I have an understanding of it so that I can communicate my needs but not enough knowledge to actually do it.
As far as a personal project… I am in the process of creating some DVD’s that I believe will be of great interest to animators and students especially. No firm date as to when they will be done.
I’d like to do a short film one day but with work and family it’s a tough balance to find time. Perhaps more coffee and even less sleep.
Thanks for the questions.
Mike.

Q: Hi there Mike,Thanks a lot for staying with us for a bit.My questions would be:
1: Why and in which conditions animators use linear interpolation in a Final Shot?
2: Far too many times in various animated movies I have noticed that Body Language,Head Tilts,Expressions,even Poses...etc...are dramaticaly over used.....or who knows...reused....just like a stencil. If you know what I mean.
Lately,the animation didn`t evoluate for a bit.Only got polished. Is that the Students are molded in that manner and they`re just happy they can emulate X or Z animator? I know the fight with the clishee is not easy,but is not imposible either.

Hey Cristinel
Using a linear interpolation for final shots would come in two areas that I can see. One is that is that if the style of the show wanted that harder edge feel (which I don’t so much care for) or if they basically key frame just about every frame. This is where I’ve seen success. If the animator is keying every frame it does not matter if it is spline or linear because the end result from frame to frame is controlled. This is a lot of work with my workflow so I don’t work that way.

I don’t see this as an issue with the medium more than it is with the animator. The same held true back in the golden age where you had say 9 incredible animators at Disney and others who may have been good but not up to that same level. Not cheating the audience and coming up with fresh new ways to show an action or pose is key. I think many animators today go with their gut reaction and animate what first strikes them. The need to thumbnail, act out and look at reference is something that is not always done. Yet it’s through this labor intensive process to determine what the best action for the shot is what can separate some good animators from average ones. I hope that addresses your question.
Thanks for the questions,
Mike

Ice Age 3 - Trailer

2008-04-06T09:30:00.001-07:00

Latinoreview has the "Ice Age 3" trailer which played in front of "Horton". Notice how the head is in front of a lighter background, giving the silhouette a contrasty push. Can't wait to see dino action courtesy of Blue Sky. HD version here. - found @ Animated-News

Critique - Mind Bottling

2008-04-05T15:22:00.000-07:00

Alright! Much better, that's it! I think that pose works much better than the previous one.

Now what's left are just technical things:

- the paper being thrown away, right now they move all over the place, give them a nice curve and more accurate physics
- the idiot's screen left hand at x142. It goes from a fist to open and moved to the left at x143, then the wrist rotates 90 degrees within one frame and goes up, then a bit linear to the right and then up. That whole section this to get smoothed out with nicer arcs.
- his left elbow gets tucked in a bit fast after x40, plus it goes in and out, so just slow that down
- his left hand doing the twirl. I would keep it within the same rotation. Right now he's doing it counter clockwise and then clockwise, plus the arcs are a bit choppy, smooth that out as well
- his left hand thumb does a quick turn at x186, I would not stick it out that much, keep it in
- the finger poses at the end on both hands are nice, but they seemed mirrored. Change one of them a bit

The nerd still got eye problems. Check x121 for instance, you can hardly see the pupil. Same with x162 and x210.

Work on that, but you're almost done! :)

Critique - Bar

2008-04-05T15:14:00.000-07:00

This one is almost done to me. There are only little things that I would change.

First, that little head move at x74 feels too poppy. Yes, she's surprised, but to me it feels more like how your head would react when something came towards you very quickly. I'm exaggerating, it's not that big, but the feel of that is there. Soften that part and see how it looks. My guess it will be more of a confused-to-realizing motion (if that makes sense).

Little thing, check the fingers on her right hand at x92, make sure they don't go through the table geometry.

The detail work is nice, the earring, the hair, etc. I really like how the hand goes through the hair for readjustment, that's really well done. I also love the finger pose of her right hand at the very end. :)

Now this part could purely subjective and just a matter of direction, so totally up to you.
What is a bit weird to me is her look at the very end. That wide eyed look is almost freaky. I would go for a more seductive look. But that could make her look too fake? First she's disappointed that no one is talking to her and when there is some one, instead of being genuinely happy, she puts on that game face. Right now you have her look REALLY happy, so maybe it's just a matter of lowering the upper eye lids a bit. But what about this:
instead of having her look at the person at around x137, stay with the look to the glass (like x122). Keep the eyes there and then close them around x143 instead of x154. Keep them closed and keep what you have, except at for the end where the eye lids really open up. Keep it more like x188, even lower, make it really seductive.
But again, this could be a different character that you don't want to give her, so that's up to you.

Critique - Alien

2008-04-05T14:10:00.000-07:00

As always, love the bugs crawling out of the alien's mouth. :)

Let's look at the gun guy. He looks already really good, so let's be nit picky.
I feel like you could add a bit more weight to the gun. As the screen left hand lets go of it, I would lower the back part of the gun down. Even though the other hand is in the middle of the gun and could keep the balance even the way you have it now, I think it would be neat to see the effect of him letting go. You have it in there for a tiny moment but then the gun goes up again. It feels light because it happens so fast, first down then up, that quick jiggle makes it feel light.
Add one more pass on the screen left hand. It still feels a bit IK-ish. Look at the beginning till around x65. The hand goes up and down in a slow and even way, with the wrist keeping the same orientation, even though the body and arm is moving around. That just gives it away as being IK. Same goes for when the hand lets go off the gun. Go from x67 to 68. Gun butt moves away yet the hand keeps the rotation, I would rotate it down as it lets go.

I would make the "no" part during "I don't know." a bit faster and have it happen a frame or two earlier, it just feels a bit soft and a tiny late.

I like the last little expression change at the very end of the clip and the little eye darts. Also how he emphasizes "alien" with his body and arms. Overall there is nice detail work on him.

Now the lantern guy.

I would tone down the amount of eye darts at the beginning. To me the intensity is a bit gone and makes him unfocused. You could keep the one x10, but maybe try a version with no darts at all. I would go for an intense stare until "... it is.", so around x45 have an eye dart going from right to left (or left to right, up to you), but I would keep it to that, then have the head turn. Right now at x53 you got one to the left, then immediately down after that, little drift then up right before the blink and head turn. That's just too muddy to me. The ones after that are much clearer and focused.
Around x128, a few frames before and after, when he stops his head/body turn, it feels like there is a little hitch as he ends that turn. I can't pinpoint it, check your keys and curves (unless it's just a constant hiccup in my quicktime).
Check his left elbow around x76. As he turns around, the turn felt fast. I think it's mostly because of how the elbow gets tucked in after x72. Give that movement 3 more frames or so.
His right hand has a few IK problems towards the end. Check how the arm slows down towards x135. After that it drifts screen left to x160 in a very straight line. After that it goes back screen right, then down with an even wrist rotation, then back screen left in a straight line until x227. So that's a long section which needs more work to get rid of that IK feel.

But all in all a really cool clip!!

For those who haven't seen it yet, I really like the composition with the two guys left and right and the alien in the middle. There is also good back and forth attention grabbing between the two characters. It doesn't feel confusing, I always know where to look.

Critique - Wall

2008-04-05T10:57:00.000-07:00

Alright, here we go:

First off, it looks really good. BUT. It feels like you stuck to the video reference a bit too much. You're getting close to mocap, rotoscope quality. If you'd have that on your reel for ILM (and I assume Sony, WETA, etc.) it would be a good fit in terms of realism. But I suspect that for feature animation shops you might want to amp up the cartoon factor. That's up to you of course.

Animation wise, the biggest fix that has to be done are his arms, they still feel very IK-ish. Let's look at his left arm. Since you got all those great details in there, I'll be nit picky. Look at x20 and his hand. His body goes forward yet the hand doesn't move till x30. That feels too locked for me. I would start having a tiny movement in the hand leading into what you have after x30. Just have his fingers stay in the same spot so that you still get the feeling that his hand is pressed against the board.
As the hand/arm moves away from the board, it follows a pretty straight line till around x37, then kinda sticks there until almost x42, after that it goes down in another straight line to x56, where the hand stays put again until x60. On top of that the wrist orientation stays the same and the timing of those movements is very even and slow. Then the arm goes straight up until x73+ to around x87, again with no wrist change. The fingers also stay in the same pose (and go through the leg geometry around x93). After x98 the wrist does rotate but very slowly and in an unnatural way. The arm again doesn't have a nice arc to it, it moves straight from after x100 or so to around x118, again with pretty even spacing.
Once he's on the wall the wrist is flat on the wall, with all that pressure on it, I can see that it wouldn't move. But the body starts to do some big moves and the arm is shaking, so it would still be neat to see a tiny bit of wrist squishing left and right following the arm movements. Now, the wrist goes up around x172. Is he just momentarily getting off the wall or are you overextending the arm? It feels a bit big and fast, that's why I see it more as a pop than something intentional. If it is intentional, I would tone it down by 50% in terms of height, that way you slow it down.
So what's killing the left arm animation are all the straight lines instead of arcs and especially the even timing and how the hand/arm sticks in one position. All this just screams IK (and even if it isn't, it makes it look that way).

Now his right arm. Same thing here. Even timing, slow moving. Let's start with x22 to x35, too slow and even. After that he takes his hand off the board which is good but the up movement suddenly goes down and then the arm stays put at x45 until around x60. It looks like it's moving straight towards the camera yet not up or down. After that we get the super slow motion move up until x99 where finally accelerates. You definitely need more rhythm during that part. The rest looks good.

The body overall is great, it would just fix the beginning around x20 as it goes down to x34, that movement suddenly starts and feels very even in terms of spacing.
I would also add more variety to his lean forward when he checks if the coast is clear. So from x39 to around 52. Body and head just rotate forward and then stops. I think you could lead more with the head and then follow with the body. Speaking of head, the head turn around x60 is a tiny bit fast, I would add one or two more frames to the turn and overshoot a tiny bit more. Right now it's fast and then from 65 to 67 it stops. It doesn't end like hitting a wall, which is good, but I think slowing down the turn will help. Same thing for the turn around x100.
Even though the complexity is nice, I feel like the body head move to the right at x153+ is a bit fast and abrupt. It goes till x158 or so. Again, I would slow it down, so just don't have him go as far. You might just have to reduce the head rotation so you can keep the body stuff. I think that could be enough to take the jerkiness out of that section.

What I really like are his feet and legs, especially when the feet are on that metal trash can. The fact that the feet don't stick on it feels nice to me. Hard shoes and slippery metal. One thing though is his right leg at x150 to x151. I think you should ease into that sudden up movement a bit more. So have the foot a bit lower at x151 and fix the spacing from there. Right now it's borderline a pop because the foot is on the can and on the next frame pretty high up already.

Finally, tilt the camera down a bit. You're still hugging the frame. Other than, looks awesome!

Nice work!

Silhouette

2008-04-03T15:33:00.000-07:00

Staying with Indy, I just wanted to post these as well, but it also relates to the "Silhouette" of your character. Let's say you push 7 in Maya in order to get that black/white look, are the poses of your character clear? Not that you have to have your arms out and away all the time, but still, make sure every action reads well. If you have certain story points you want to bring across, could you boil them down to individual poses? - artwork by Mathew Reynolds

Artist - Patrick Schoenmaker

2008-04-03T15:10:00.000-07:00

Of course I had to find out more about that Indy drawing. You can buy this at the Indy store of course and they have this to say:

Acme Archives has pursued some stellar talent to bring Indy fans a new series of limited edition fine art lithographs, including this fun animated take of a classic Indy scene by artist Patrick Schoenmaker. This 13"x19" fine art giclee on paper, limited to just 245 pieces, depicts the tooned-up Indy and Marion staving off the darkness in Raiders of the Lost Ark's Well of Souls. This piece makes you wish we could see a fully-animated Indy adventure! Each print is hand numbered and comes with a Certificate of Authenticity. About the Artist Currently living in Utrecht, the Netherlands, Schoenmaker is studying animation and has drawn several comics appearing in such magazines as Break Out! and Stripnieuws.

One of the best sites for Indy news is theraider.net, which has more artwork and links to his blog and portfolio site. Here a sample of his work:

I miss 2D...

2008-04-03T11:01:00.000-07:00

I know most of us here are doing 3D animation and it's awesome, pays bills, etc. etc. but damn do I miss traditional animation. With the impending release of Indy and my being an Indy nerd I was browsing through the new Indy shop and found this "Escaping the Tomb" giclee. Imagine this fully animated in feature quality with awesome sound and music.

Sigh...

Critique - Manager & Kiss

2008-04-02T22:46:00.000-07:00

First your Manager Shot:

you know what cracked me up? After all that time waiting you probably expect pages of critique but I actually have pretty much nothing to say, you're almost done! Yes, almost. :)

First off: the screen right hand movement around x151 feels a bit fast, 3 to 4 frames longer would help if you can shave it off somewhere.
Then, how the screen left hand grabs the pen around x333 feels too soft. Not that you have to have a giant grip on it, but just a bit more than what you have now. Towards the end what you could do is lower the thumb so it rests on the pen.
Last thing, the tie. It feels like cardboard. Look at x 211 for instance, how it rotates screen left. Give it a "gravity" pass. :)

The section "... much of anything else for that matter..." is really nice, well done!!

Of all the different version you showed me, the original #4 was the best one (even though I have a few issues with it as well). The pullback in the other version doesn't work for me either. Just like you said, it looks like he's preparing for projectile vomit and to me it's also like mouth to mouth resuscitation.

Not having seen the clip for a while gave me fresh eyes though. I have to say I'm not a big fan of the beginning anymore. Even though I like the idea that they look around to see if anybody is catching them, it doesn't read as strongly as it could. Right now it's almost as if they are checking how the audience is. Look at x72. He looks almost confused. You have to push the sneaky feel. Plus having them stand in the middle of the boat isn't helping either. If they would hide behind something, that would work better, like a life boat or something else that could be on the deck.
But what doesn't work for me at all is how she is bent backwards during all this time. The time from x150 to 200 could be cut and used at the beginning with them finishing a step behind the boat, checking if anybody saw them. With the boat rocking back and forth you could have them kinda trip over each other, loosing their balance and he catches her before she falls. That way they end up in each other's arms, and that's when he goes for it (or her).

I know that's quite a departure from what you have, it's just my 2 cents. What do you guys think?

Squash and Stretch

2008-04-01T17:02:00.000-07:00

I know that you guys are into character pieces and not bouncing balls anymore, but squash and stretch can be applied to many other situations besides cartoony balls, such as walks, faces (here and here) and in this case a jump. Plus I just wanted to post those images because they're awesome.

Another thing worth pointing out for those who will or want to do a jump. Don't forget to fully extend the legs (or whatever the character uses... arms?) during the lift off and to extend the limbs before the touchdown as well (unless there is a specific reason for NOT doing it).

Squash

Stretch and full leg extension

Another leg extension before the touchdown

And squash again

Images found via Haha.nu @ ejphoto

Insight - Creating a rigged CG character by Michael Kiessling

2008-04-01T15:38:00.000-07:00

As I was adding Michael Kiessling's rigs to Animation Buffet I also checked out his tutorial section and he has two pdfs about the process of creating his rigs, from modeling to rigging to texturing, etc. Since he wrote it in 2005 you can imagine that the tools have a changed quite a bit, but it is nevertheless an interesting insight into that process. Go to his "tutorials" section and look for "Insight - Creating Enemy Soldier", which is the 70+ pages long pdf (the Wolverine one is much shorter).

R.I.P. Jules Dassin

2008-04-01T10:34:00.000-07:00

Do yourself a favor and watch/rent/buy the movie Rififi (orig. "Du rififi chez les hommes"), to me Dassin's best movie (although "Topkapi" is great too) and mother of all heist movies (again, that's just me). After all the heist preparation you get to witness 30mins of no sound and music during the actual heist. It's fantastic!

The Digital Bits got a nice review and Netflix got it right here.

Björk’s “Wanderlust”

2008-04-01T10:18:00.001-07:00

Very cool looking music video for Björk’s “Wanderlust”. Head over to Carton Brew for all the details of this live-action, stop motion, CG and puppetry mixup.

Carlos Baena's Blog

2008-04-01T09:53:00.000-07:00

If you haven't already, besides Jeff's site and many others, make sure that you add Carlos Baena's blog to your bookmark and daily visit habit.

I may ramble and rant about many things pretending to know what I'm talking about, but you can believe what he says without questions. :)

First up a great post about "Status/Personal Space". I love this picture he posted.

The composition, the composure of the two people, invading the personal space, etc. cracks me up, so good.

Next up is a fantastic post about "Demo Reels". If you want the latest and greatest info, then read this post.

So go on and head over to Carlos Baena's blog and bookmark it.

Critique - Walk and Monkey

2008-03-31T16:44:00.000-07:00

Hey,

nice work!

Norman walk first, let's check out his left leg. From the beginning till x3 the leg feels to straight, you could have it start bending a little so that it transitions better into x4. Right now going from x3 to x4 it looks like the leg pops into a bend pose. Adjust the foot roll for a smoother transition. Same goes for the other leg. And make sure your feet are not slowing down the backwards translation before they get off the ground. Seems like towards x13 the foot slows down, with x16 and 17 not moving back at all and resuming at x18 a tiny bit.

Two little things, I would rotate his wrists a bit so that (looking through the front camera) you see less of the palm. For example screen left hand at x1. Compare this frame with x16 and when you let it play there is a lot of hand rotation going on. I would rotate as far back as x26 for you x31 position. Same idea with the other hand.

The other thing is his shoulder around x4, 5 and six, how it leads the arm into the swing. Delay the shoulder so that the arm swings first. That's it.

Now the monkey. Great start! What stood out were the bobbing head and the feel of having the butt area being separated from the chest area. The head is not going to be so separate, it's more like it's going with the body motion of up and down. I checked some reference on bbcmotionmotiongallery.com ("monkey walk" search) just to be sure and that's what I'm referring to. It looks pretty similar to what you have.
If you're going for that type of monkey walk (first one), it feels like the butt would go up and down during the back leg steps. In your clip it feels like the part right above the butt is not moving up and down at all.
As you move from blocking to polish, don't forget to offset the limbs, the legs will finish the step before the hands.

James Baxter Animation Lecture - Day Two: Technique

2008-03-31T15:56:00.000-07:00

Stop whatever you're doing, go to Seward Street and read through the James Baxter Animation Lecture. Here's a little snippet:

Body Acting

Muppets are James’ favorite example of acting with just the body. Without any facial expression they’re able to communicate the attitude.

In order of importance to James in animating a scene:

* 1. Body Language
* 2. Expression
* 3. Lip Sync

The body is the heaviest part of a character and therefore takes longer to change direction (see Inertia below). To try this out with your own body, move your head left to right 6 inches. Takes a relatively short time. Now try moving the same distance with your torso. Takes longer.

It’s not that heavier things move slower, just that it takes them longer to get up to speed. That’s what will make it look big. If you animate heavy objects slowly all the time, they’ll just look like they’re moving underwater.

In contrast, small characters take less time to accelerate and decelerate.

Mr. Blake's Art Diary - Part 2

2008-03-31T10:15:00.000-07:00

As mentioned, here's part 2. Looking back, it's a bit weird to have so many links of Mr. Blake's site in one post, as if it's a mirror of his site. But that's why I'm linking to his site and not the final destination. Total disclaimer post but I just want to make sure that you guys go visit Mr. Blake's Art Diary, since he did all the research. Since this is part 2 the posts are getting older and older (2006), but that doesn't mean that they are obsolete.

- first up, "Matchbox", a maya tool that mirrors your character's poses. Follow the link for video demos as well.

- want to add some better lighting in AE after the render? Check out "Normality & Reality"

- "Elastik" adds squash and stretch options to your rigs

- "Sketch Pose" - this tool is awesome! I remember hoping that someone would do this (since I'm too retarded to so :) )

- "UI Editor" is a very handy tool for a character GUI

- "My Mental Ray" - all you need to know about mental ray

- this tool is awesome: "Copy Set Driven Keys" - name says it all

- head over to "Adelaide Grey's" production diary for an inside look of this is coming together

- "ezMark" sounds very cool. I can't test it here on this machine, but as long as you can step frame through your scene while using this tool, can only be awesome

If you are an animator and want to draw reference points on your monitor but don't like using markers, then this tool is for you! ezMark is a simple utility that lets you draw directly on your screen - on top of all applications. Some of the ways you can use ezMark are:

* Use the preset circle brush to trace your animation and check your arc
* Draw over your reference animation on screen to study them
* Doodle!

- you can't point enough to Keith Lango's site. Mr. Blake mentions "Breakdowns" but I highly recommend that you check out all his tutorials

- lighting tips

- mental ray tips

- Justin's "tweenMachine"

- great CG shorts, Mr. Blake got direct links to the movies and to the plog

- this was posted before but is another one of those that should get studied over and over. Great
hand poses. Tedious stuff to do but very important, check it out.

- 1994 article on "Animation Tricks":

Hesitation The final step of a proof is a sort of punch line to a scene. To get the viewer involved I don't just move the shapes directly in place; I sometimes make them pause a bit before final positioning to build up anticipation.

As you can see, still valid today.

- "Color Toy" is very cool tool, I also recommend "Color Schemer"

- "TWiki" - great collection of links to maya tutorials

- you might have seen those, but come on, go through them again: "Glen Keane Notes"

- Renderman references and tutorials

- Occlusion lighting tips

- maya dynamics tutorial

- oldie but goldie: "eyes"

- "logitech orbit cam" (funny)

- A classic and still awesome: "Ryan Film's Ryan vs. Dorkman" - official site here

- Google's "Sketchup" tool, free 3D modeling tool

- "Planning Animation" - great notes by Paul Mikulecky

- Want drawing lessons? 34 pages right here

- Itchy Animation's article on "Light Theory", which is coming out as a book soon

- Christopher Evans' huge muscle reference library, as well as many other tutorials and MEL scripts on his site

- great collection of animation tools, software and desktop tools

- awesome character designs by Jeff Merritt

- "MELwin" is a Maya UI creation and script editor

- "floating channelbox" script

- "Doron Meir's Acting and Animation" article (and more)

- Francois' studies of lighting

That's it. Once more you gotta love the web. All this information at your fingertips! A huge thanks goes to Mr. Blake and his blog, make sure you add his site to your bookmarks.

Mr. Blake's Art Diary - Part 1

2008-03-28T14:21:00.000-07:00

I've found this site a while ago but it had so much good stuff on it that I procrastinated a post about it. Well enough is enough (plus it's slow at work right now), so here we go. This is just a best-of that I found interesting (goes back till 2006), ranging from animation tips and tools to just cool stuff. There is obviously much much more, so I encourage you to go through the posts yourself since I will only post animation (kinda) related posts.

(There is a lot of stuff worth mentioning, so this will be part 1. On Monday I'll post part 2.)

- First off a piece of artwork by Mr. Blake which I really like (street scene)

- Next up is "Graph Editor Redux 1.1.0". Follow the link and download it from highend3d. The download comes with a handy PDF for instructions.

- "Frenzied Fauna: From A to Z" has really funny and cute creatures by Michel Gagne. His site also displays his work on/for "Ratatouille", "The Iron Giant", etc.

- If you want to have your animation controls invisible while you work but still be able to select them, then check out "Keith Lango's trick for invisible viewport selections in maya".

- Here's a huge collections of character animation scripts by Aaron Koressel. ackNewGraphEditor sounds good (any tool that improves the graph editor is worth a look), then ackSliceCurves sounds awesome. It "inserts a key at the current time into the currently selected curves while preserving tangents". Good to have. Much more there, go check out the list.
There's tons of good stuff out there, so stay tuned.

- Check out Deter Brown's Animation Mentor Demo Reel, with some cool animation and nice renders.

- Storyboarding tool as well as many other production related tools.

- ShapeShifter is a web based animation program. Very simple but a lot of fun.

- Gesture Drawing for Animation by Walt Stanchfield. There used to be a pdf collection online, but since an official book is coming, it got pulled. Check the site for an update on when the book will be released.

- Feng Zhu Design. Go to the gallery section and check out the beautiful artwork. There are also workshop DVDs and much more.

- "Pencil" is a free Windows/Mac/Linux animation program (2D)

- "Maya Tutorial Muscle Rigging" by Fahrenheit Digital

- Veerapatra Jinanavin's Animation site - you might recognize his older work, very cool though!

- "Supercrumbly" collection of MEL scripts (auto rigging script, bookmark your curves, etc.)

- "PoseLib" lets you set up a library for your poses. (direct link)

Don't stop there though. "SeithCG" has a great post to his "Flushed-Away" Animation Process, with a clip showing initial blocking to final animation.

- "ShotView for Maya" - This is a tool by Cameron Fielding for a clean maya viewport. I think I linked to it before on this site, but it's always worth linking to it again

- "sparth - by Nicolas Bouvier" is an awesome blog with fantastic artwork

This one was done on the Nintendo DS using "colors".

Framing your shot

2008-03-28T09:58:00.000-07:00

Make it a habit to visit Jeff's Academy site. One of the posts mentions the Movie Screenshot gallery blog, which looks to become a fantastic resource. Go through the posts and study the framing of the actors or the general composition of the shots. Think about how you can make your own shots more interesting, how you can use specific staging to advance the story point in your clip.

I also recommend the DVD "Visions of Light" as well as the following books (click here).

Acting Reference - The Quiet

2008-03-27T15:23:00.000-07:00

Yes, I do rent all kinds of movies. You have to see the good and the bad and in this case, it was pretty bad. What I want to highlight though is the character Michelle, played by Katy Mixon.

Take her acting, place it into an animated movie and she'd be perfect. Since animation is a stylized and exaggerated form of reality, she would fit right in. :)

Just watch and marvel. Although it speaks for Katy Mixon and her ability to make that character really annoying.

_______________________________________
Video clip(s) are for educational purposes only
© 2006 Sony Pictures Classics
All Rights Reserved.

Acting Reference - We Own The Night

2008-03-27T13:02:00.000-07:00

I hadn't heard too much about this movie so when I finally saw it I was actually pleasantly surprised. I really liked it. Unfortunately going through reviews afterwards it seems that half of the general audience really liked it and the other half really didn't. Either way, there is a fantastic car chase in it and (to me at least) very good performances by Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg (poor guy is still fighting the Marky Mark stigma). The drug lords, Robert Duvall, even Eva Mendez were good. It was one of those movies where the evolving character arcs sucked you in. The performances were overall great, which gave me a hard time to pick out something isolated that would help you guys in your shots.

My goal of posting these acting references is to showcase single acting moments that add texture to a character, a defining gesture or attitude that gets you inspired for your shots. Saying that Marlon Brando is a great actor and telling you guys to watch "On the Waterfront" isn't bad, but will it help you right now with your single shots? I have my doubts (but you should still watch the movie). You don't have the benefit of a full length movie (or multiple movies), in which the audience gets to know your character or where you can surprise an audience with a new role. You're stuck (right now) with single shots or a sequence at most which has to showcase creative and unique acting choices. And one thing to remember is that animation (at least in feature animation) is an exageration of character, a stylized version of reality. An animated feature mimicking real life is boring. Why not shoot it life-action instead? So don't get sucked into live-action movies and trying to emulate scenes that you like or that I recommend. I'm recommending the essence of a particular scene or acting choice.

"We Own the Night" is a tragedy and the overall feel of the movie isn't exactly a cheerful one (not exactly key ingredients of animated movies in the U.S.), but here's a scene that cracked me up because of Joaquin's face and body acting.

Context: Joseph, played by Mark Wahlberg, and Bobby, played by Joaquin Phoenix are having a fight (obviously...) because Joseph just raided his brother's nightclub. One brother is a cop, the other is circulating in more shady territories, so conflict is a given. The scuffle ends with them insulting each other's wife and girlfriend. This is the end of that as they are being separate by Joseph's cop buddies.

What I liked about it was the moment after "Get out of here!", where Joaquin is being pushed away physically and verbally, yet he still defies his brother through that smile and body posture. It's just a "YEAH?! Whatever." attitude, trying to regain the upper hand in a way. I just love the face he makes. If you guys would animate a verbal fight between two characters and end it like that, it would be sooo cool! It's just a great character moment to me and one that works taken out of context. You don't need to have seen the whole movie in order to understand or appreciate that scene.

The next shot is definitely more context heavy. Joaquin and his girlfriend Amada, played by Eva Mendez, are under protective custody. Amada has a hard time with it because as the story unfolds Joaquin, his brother and their dad are forming a tighter and tighter relationship and Amada feels left out. So in this scene Joaquin is getting back to the hotel they are staying at in order to pack his things, but Amada has left already.

You see him being really in love with her at the beginning of the movie, so you would expect him to read the note she left him, but he's gradually accepting the fact that he won't get the support and love from her that he needs. Again, context heavy, but it's interesting to do things that play against people's expectations. So let's say this is your dialogue and you're animating to it, you could exchange the note with flowers and when the cop says " She said to give you this." have your character throw them away or discard them without emotion or something like that. The fact that your character would not care about pretty flowers (or whatever object you'd choose) says something about his emotional attachment to it. To me it's interesting to see acting choices outside the confinements of your audio clip. Not that this one is really limiting you to do something specific. But let's say you animate to an audio clip where someone is on the phone. You don't have to stick to that. You don't have to have your character act out the lines and emotions your hear in the audio clip. What if he/she is pretending? Have the character say/act out the line but during the pauses he/she could address someone who's with him/her and give him/her a look of "I can't believe I'm saying this!" or "Oh my god, he's totally believing what I'm saying!" or "How much longer do I need to be on this damn phone?!" while the audio line delivery is all polite, etc. I hope I make sense. Don't feel trapped by the audio clip, think outside the box and be creative with it.

On a more serious note I like how Joaquin pauses a bit (even freezes a bit) after hearing "...left about an hour ago.". It is a surprise/shock/disapointment to him, but yet he doesn't read the note. And when he's packing his clothes, I like how he's fighting against his emotions. He is disapointed and sad after all and even though no one else is in the room with him (which might force him to keep his composure), he doesn't want to cry and break down. I think it's a more powerful scene when you watch the whole movie, but I still wanted to include it in this clip.

_______________________________________
Video clip(s) are for educational purposes only
Copyright © 2007 by 2929 Productions, LLC.
All Rights Reserved.

Critique - Conductor

2008-03-27T11:53:00.000-07:00

I like it much better. The only thing that you need to look out for is the last part where he pulls the sheet towards him. I know it's blocking but don't forget to make it as sad/heart felt/loving/ as possible, so keep the movement more on the slow side.
Same with taking the phone off the ear and down needs to be slow as well, just like the paper pulling closer. You need to see that he gets lost in his own world of music.

And yes, too many poses gives it that cartoony, overacted look, much like Horton (obvious polite but true disclaimer, the animation was beautiful, but there was just too much of it). Less is more with a few well placed accents to give it a nice contrast.

Be careful about the pose change from x50 to 51. It's a big move so don't forget that it will take time to switch between poses. That's why I'm not a big fan of stepped blocking, unless it's like around x200+, where you have more breakdown poses as he sits down. That way you can judge how long a move will take.

James Baxter Animation Lecture - Day One: Acting

2008-03-27T10:12:00.000-07:00

Found @ Seward Street, this is a very interesting post about acting for animators. Some nuggets:

Actors do, while animators describe.

...

Milt has set it up so you only look at one thing at a time. He crafted the scene so that when Shere Khan pops open his claws, everyone is looking there. Nothing else is moving. (Waste of time to always be moving all the background characters).

...

Used Horton as an example of animation having too much to it. Loved the scenes with JoJo because you could actually focus on what he was doing.

Great notes, go read them as soon as you can!

Zoomerator

2008-03-25T14:31:00.000-07:00

As mentioned yesterday there is a link to zoomerator on Animation Buffet. Here the description:

Creates a small interface to manage zooming and traking in x y and z, using the overscan and offset values of a chosen camera.
It helps animators and trackers get in close, or back up far from objects independent of the actual tranlates and rotates for the camera.

Very useful, give it a try.

How movies are meant to be seen.

2008-03-25T14:24:00.000-07:00

I know this is not exactly animation related, but let me tell you. Once you've seen "Ratatouille" on this, you can't go back. "This" being the:

Mitsubishi HC1500 (for $699)

Holy smokes, I watched "2001" on Blu-ray yesterday on this projector as well and it look A-mazing. So far giant standouts have been "Ratatouille", "3:10 to Yuma" and "2001". Plus the projector is bright enough so you don't have to have a pitch black room. In full sunlight your blacks will vanish, granted, but darken the room a little bit and it's no problem. Of course the darker the better. But holy moly "2001" looked good. That movie is 40 years old. And it still holds up (unlike "Batman" - the Keaton version...).

2001 - A Space Odyssey [Blu-ray]

The special features are fantastic. Useless for some but great for me, there's even a German tack on it. :)

Do yourself a favor, don't buy a big TV for 2 or 3K, get his projector for $699 plus a PS3 and you're in movie heaven. And with the money you saved, go get Blu-ray movies. I know, total sales pitch, but animation nerds, hear me out! You HAVE to watch movies, it's part of your homework. You need to study the craft and what better way than on a big screen? :)

Images from DVDbeaver

How do you animate really, really fast? - by Kevin Koch

2008-03-24T09:33:00.000-07:00

You can’t animate it if you can’t see it, clearly, in your mind’s eye.

I wanted to add the second quote as well. It's great when you find someone who thinks the same way (not that I'm putting myself at the same level though!), but who's actually able to explain and articulate his thoughts in a way that makes sense. :)

"... knowing in great detail who your character is and exactly why they’re doing what they’re doing, and I’d push and push for specificity and clarity in their intentions..."

Great post about planning and speeding up your workflow by Kevin Koch, a must-read. You should print out his post and always carry it with you. - found @ Wong Loon's blog - pic source

Animation in exaggerated form

2008-03-20T19:59:00.000-07:00

Head over to Mike Nguyen's blog (via Cartoon Brew) and check out his post on exaggerated animation:

This physics is a reflection and take roots from the real-world based on our human experiences; this reflection does not follow exact step-for-steps of the real, but requires a reinterpretation from the artist.

There's a great little 2D animation clip and another piece on his July Films Inc. site. There's just something about 2D that 3D doesn't have for me. Although that Ice Age 3 trailer in front of Horton was awesome. :)

Horton Hears a Who - CG Society article

2008-03-20T13:07:00.001-07:00

Head over to CG Society for the "Production Focus" article on Horton.

Analysis of a shot

2008-03-20T09:38:00.000-07:00

The beauty of the web. So much information out there!!
Looks like more and more posts about a shot analysis pop up, love it! This time it's Alex Woo's post "Analysisof a Shot - All the President's Men". Speaking of which, I'm a bit behind with my movie updates. There's been an accident within my family, so critiques and long posts have been on the back burner.

Walkcycles

2008-03-20T09:34:00.000-07:00

Yep, just like bouncing balls, a walk cycle is an exercise you should master. They look easy but are hard as hell. Head over to Stephen Gregory's class blog for his walk cycle post.

Daphne's new broom

2008-03-19T17:08:00.000-07:00

Great short by Ales Mav. You know, every now and then I think about doing a short, but then I see the quality of the models, the environment, the renders, the sounds, etc. and I feel old. :)
I think a playblast with Milt is more my level! :)
Check out the frogs at around 1min 20sec. I love how the one on the water and how he floats to the left and the frog at the end of the short.

- found @ bobbyboom.blogspot

Facial Expressions and Milt Kahl

2008-03-19T16:53:00.001-07:00

Carlos Baena has two awesome posts on his site . First one about facial expressions, using the Seinfeld show as an example. Lots of great screen captures and important notes. I really want to highlight the first point of his:

Just because your character is upset or angry, doesn't mean that you should have an upset or angry expression. Sometimes a character that's so upset or sad that can't even handle their feelings, they display emotions through laughter or smile.

That's so true!

Next one is a humongous collection of Milt Kahl movies, notes, recordings, drawings, etc.

The Art of Disney Animation Blog

2008-03-18T11:46:00.000-07:00

Cooked Art points to "The Art of Disney Animation", which has TONS of really cool images and photos.

You'll get to see "Alice", "101 Dalmatians", "Ratatouille", "Robin Hood", "Aladdin", you also get info about Eric Larson, Wolfgang Reitherman, etc. etc.

Make sure to click on "Page suivante" (next page), and then pages 2 and 3 for a lot more.

Interview with Andreas Deja

2008-03-18T10:10:00.001-07:00

ultimatedisney got a good interview with animation legend Andreas Deja.

Horton Hears a Who - Shot Progression by Jeff Gabor

2008-03-17T13:13:00.001-07:00

UPDATE: Site is open again and you can watch the movie clip. GOOD STUFF! HOLY MOLY!

I don't know how he's allowed to post that before the DVD release, but according to Jeff Gabor, check back in a week or two for the clip. - found @ 3dtotal

Stumbled onto tons of links

2008-03-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

Every now and then I check the stats of this site and this time followed a link to someone called "Arien". He had a list of useful links on "Stumble!" and here they are:

Tutorials and Technical Information for 3D Modeling, Animation Setup, and Rendering
Tons of stuff about the trax editor, FK-IK Spine setup, Blendshapes, Footrolls, Gimble Lock, then links about Cloth, Rendereing, Texturing, etc.

Another was for abhimation.blogspot and the post "Dialogue Clips to Animate" has a good list of audio clips.

This next one is awesome. I thought I posted about it a while ago, but it's worth a repost. It's the Art Tutorial page of itchstudios.

Then there is this silhouette image from uxmatters by Kevin Cheng.

The next one cracked me because I'm so rarely sketching things out (because I SUCK big time), and then I see these elaborate renders for a bouncing ball assignment (courtesy of Kid-Mesh @ CGsociety)

Then you got this massive Maya Video Tutorial site. You have among others:
- Illustrator to Maya
- Blendshape controls
- Maya 3D Piston
- Mental Ray
- Suspension Rig
- Modeling Tutorials

etc. etc.

Another thing was an animation blinklist (?). Worth a look, you never know.

Next one is a classic site. I remember checking it out while I was a student. It's about walk cycles courtesy of Thinking Animation. Head over there for a cool example list of different walk attitudes.

Next one is another Maya tutorial list on 3d-tutorial.com. You got stuff like Animation Layers, Rigging examples, etc.

Next one is the "Things They Don't Teach in Art School #5" post @ Temple of the Seven Golden Camels
You should visit that site no matter what.

Next up is "Animation Critique". I haven't registered yet, but could be good. If you're unsure about your clip, the more eyes the better.

Then you have animationresourcecentre, which has tons of links to animation shorts. One of them being "Zoudov". Even though I wish the animation was more polished, I love the feel of it (the John Barry music helps a lot, classic).

Lastly, talino.org has a nice little tutorial section for Maya.

Madagascar: The Crate Escape

2008-03-13T11:08:00.001-07:00

Oh no, that song is back... But the penguins are awesome!

Animation Mentor Newsletter March 2008

2008-03-12T11:03:00.000-07:00

As always, I encourage everybody to sign up for the AM newsletters. :)

This month we got:

A free eBook with all of Shawn's Tips&Tricks - a total must have!

Myths of the Animation Industry by Mark Garabedian

Chris Clyde's "Building the Pyramid" short

Mentor Randy Haycock

Geekcorner: Weight in Animation by Wayne Gilbert

and more!

New Wall-E Trailer kicks ass

2008-03-12T09:56:00.001-07:00

Head over to Apple for the trailer in glorious HD
I know they call me Pixar fanboy at work but COME ON! Look at this trailer and tell me that it won't kick ass. How can you not be a fan of what they're doing when comparing their movies to what else is out there.

Could this be the first live-action appearance in a Pixar movie?

Notice how the glow fades away on her as she opens up.

This reminds me of Attack of the Clones.

That's the only weird thing. Live-action humans and those guys. Weird mix.

Looks like the little guy is leading a robo-revolution.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs - Poster

2008-03-12T09:14:00.000-07:00

This version is funny! I just wish the dino would look at the mammoth. I think "direct' eye line contact (if that's a way to describe it) could be more menacing? I know, never happy...

Isn't this more menacing? (gotta love photoshop)

found @ impawards

Dreamworks at the AAU

2008-03-11T16:57:00.000-07:00

I got this reminder email today:

Dreamworks @ the AAU

Wed, March 12th
7pm, 491 Post St
Morgan Auditorium

Dog Walk by Neil Parkinson

2008-03-11T14:04:00.000-07:00

As I was going through google in search of rigs for Animation Buffet, I stumbled across this dog animation by Neil Parkinson (see his website here).
This happens to showcase what I was talking about yesterday in class about toe animation, how they would fan out once they hit the ground and curl back when the foot gets off the ground. It's subtle in this clip, but still there.

Jonathan Paine

2008-03-11T11:46:00.000-07:00

Head over to Jonathan Paine's site to check out his modeling and sculpting work. Really cool! Thanks Jeff for mentioning his site!

Here you get a good look at the pilot:

I like how their names are Bass and Treble, never noticed that before.

Animate on your DS

2008-03-11T11:25:00.000-07:00

I was so looking for an animation software on your DS and Tim Sormin, on his blog, points out to a few very promising programs.

First, you got Animanatee, then Flickbook and finally, Inchworm.

Head over to Tim's blog for more details, his impressions and even test animation clips.

Inchworm has me very excited because it seems to be the most polished program (which comes at a $ price of course as opposed to free). Unfortunately it's still in beta mode but you can tell them to email you about the official release date. Head over to their tutorial site where you can watch videos demonstrating all the different features.

Space Chimps

2008-03-11T09:49:00.000-07:00

- found @ Latinoreview

Dreamworks' "Monsters vs. Aliens"

2008-03-11T09:43:00.000-07:00

USA Today got an article about this 2009 movie. Could be awesome!

Digital Tutors - Tutorial Videos

2008-03-10T15:34:00.000-07:00

Head over to Digitaltutors.com (thanks for the tip Miurika!), where you can find a lot of tutorial videos, for instance "The Parent Constraint". For those of you who are doing box lifts (or any weight assignment), this might come in handy.

Workflow of TJ Phan

2008-03-10T13:11:00.001-07:00

Awesome! Another workflow post is online! This time it's TJ Phan's. Please take the time to read through it.

Weight Lift - by Raphael Suter

2008-03-10T12:43:00.000-07:00

Head over to Raphael Suter's Animation page, which shows his Pixar Internship work. His clips are nice and short, a good preparation for feature work in terms of shot length. His "Bob Weight Test" is especially cool (you know me, love the detail with wheels).

February 11secondclub Winner - Phillip Hall

2008-03-10T11:41:00.000-07:00

Head over to the 11secondclub and watch the February Winner clip. Really sweet! It was done by Phillip Hall, who has a blog here.

"Horton" coverage in USA Today

2008-03-07T14:51:00.001-08:00

USA Today got a piece about Blue Sky's "Horton Hears a Who!". The guy in red is Jimmy Hayward, who taught a Pixar class at the AAU. Those 3 hours were some of the funniest classes ever. His humor was so dark but funny.

Dragon Hunters - Chasseurs de Dragons

2008-03-07T11:32:00.000-08:00

Dragon Hunters is an upcoming CG feature. You can find out some @ Kotaku, watch a sequence @ dailymotion and/or visit the official site (in French) with a trailer intro. This site has a lot of 2D designs.
The style is cool and that fantasy setting intriguing. Love the two parts where the blue guy eats the sausages and where the bat creatures all stare at the big guy. :)
- found @ 3Dtotal

Dragon Hunters - Trailer www.player4ever.com
Uploaded by Player4everFR

Critique - GI Walk

2008-03-06T17:11:00.000-08:00

Much better! There is some stuff in the feet:
Let's start with his right one. From x1 to 3, as the foot roll happens, you should lower the toes (they are always curled up a bit over the ground - should have told you that before, sorry), just like you have it on x4. On x5 keep the toes down (straight flat boot), even x6 looks like it's a bit up. This could just be me, but in the interest of having nice arcs, what about (looking at the front view) when the foot goes up, having a little path/arc towards the other leg, so looking at the front view, going screen right a bit (not by much, but giving it a little arc, not just a straight up). The foot stomp feels weird when I step frame through it (then why do you???), only because there is big spacing from x12 to x13, but then small to x14. Well, the ground is there, the foot can't go lower... you could say, which is true. What I would do though is on x14 have the foot almost flat on the ground. If that's too much, too blocky, then for sure on x15. But you have the foot up till then and down only on x16. That makes the stomp too soft.
Same goes for the other foot. On x2 the foot is still rotated up, bring it down flat on the ground. And the same goes for his toes during the lift off the ground. On x17 keep the toes down, which you have up until x20 at least.
Now front view: I feel some stickiness as the foot goes up and reaches the top part. There's that big move up to x21, then smaller on x22, but then on x23 the foot is at the same height. So either bring up the leg a bit more or rotate the foot up, but either way, visually there should be a continuation of the upward arc. It's only for one frame, but it gives it a sticky feel.
This note is minor, maybe not necessary at all (might take the force out of the gesture), but try (haha!) this: follow the tip of the gun in the front view and draw a dot with a dry erase marker. There's a big downward move to x4, but then a little to the left and up on x5. Instead of up, can you have the tip be a bit lower than on x4 and ease more into that new upward arc? Might just be me. It works, but as go through it over and over looping, I get the feeling that it should come to such a harsh end and upwards curve.
You might also want to clench the fingers during that part, showing a firmer grip to end that downward thrust and bringing the gun up. That would be a nice little detail (maybe curl up the thumb too).
Other than it looks very cool!

Critique - Toilet

2008-03-06T07:20:00.000-08:00

Hmm... a few things stick out. Toilet humor and Bill Paxton from "Aliens". I would keep it a bit classier and also less overacted. Your gestures are very big. I would take out the audio, then never lower the camera. Have it all in his face. The look down realizing that the paper is gone, the look around to see if there is anything else he could use (maybe have him grab something off screen and bring into screen, like a plant leave and other "paper" like things). Then at the end he picks up the empty toilet paper roll and that's when the audience understands what's really going on. But I think bringing different objects into frame would be funny and a tease for the audience (they'd be thinking "What is he doing?!) until the payoff at the end.

Cheers
JD

Animation Buffet

2008-03-04T15:16:00.001-08:00

Sorry for the Norman Modification Tutorial delay. I thought I could just copy/paste what Nair wrote but it took a little bit longer. Again, sorry for the delay.

But now it's up and ready for you guys. Thanks again Nair for all the work! Head over to Animation Buffet, or directly to the "Norman" post.

Huh? Animation Buffet?

Well, this current version of Animation Buffet is a more stripped down one (the original idea would involve a lot more work and more manpower), but until then it will hopefully help you guys in terms of a centralized spot where you can find all the free rigs that are currently out.
I'm adding rigs on a daily basis from now on so this is not the full amount that's out there. If you find a rig online which is not on Animation Buffet, please let me know so I can add it. Same goes for Norman modifications. I'd like to have a library of wigs, clothes, props, etc. for people to use. So if you're willing to share, it will be highly appreciated.

Of course any comments and/or suggestions are always welcome.

Cheers
JD

Manipulation

2008-03-03T15:11:00.000-08:00

Check out this animation at youtube. - found at tjphan

Worms can boogie too!

2008-03-03T11:43:00.000-08:00

Critique - GI Walk

2008-03-01T18:32:00.000-08:00

The walk is funny, love the Norman tweak (never ceases to amaze me what people can do with that rig).

This might just be that annoying last frame in quicktime which gives cycles that extra pause (how do you get rid of that??!?), but double check your feet that they're not slowing down towards the end before they get off the ground. Something I would tone down is the floppiness of the toes before the plant. As the foot goes up and down, the toes go up, which gives it a lot of overlap. Maybe that's just my "realistic" brainwash I get from ILM :) but I think of military, then hard boots, then no toe overlap because of boots.
Something else sticks out. Look at x11, the leg is up, then shoots down for the plant till x14, but during that time the upper body is not going down at all. I would start going down because right now from x14 to 15 the body suddenly goes down for two frames. It makes it very poppy during normal playback. Don't soften the body too much, but make it a bit smoother as it starts going down, it will take out the snappiness of the gun moving down as well. I like the helmet animation :). Same goes for the up actually. As it reaches the apex, keep it going up ever so slightly to really milk that moment.
The mouth is interesting, but why is he opening it? Is it part of a marching song or some yell as he walks?

Critique - Walk

2008-03-01T18:09:00.000-08:00

Looks good! Huge improvement!

The upper body and head have a great attitude to it, nice!

What sticks out are his arms. Plus his screen right foot (front view) is sliding to the right as it moves back. The feet also need to get rotated out a bit (not so straight default looking), as well as his knees.
(sideview): as his left foot goes back the spacing changes (it needs to stay linear with even spacing). x3 to x4 has a bigger move than before. From x13 to x14 the spacing is too small, then there's a huge move to x15. So if you fix x14 it should fix the spacing before and after. But after that, fix the spacing from x16 on. From x15 to 16 it's pretty small, but then to 17 it's a big movement forward. Bring the foot back on frame 17 and make the step forward more gradual in terms of spacing.
Now the right foot (still sideview): same here when the foot gets off the ground. On x2 the foot could be further back. After that it's okay until x11. It gets to x11 but x12 and 13 has the foot in pretty much the same spot. Keep the forward movement going and then have the foot plant. Finish the arc the foot is on as it moves forward taking the step.

Keep going!

Critique - Manager

2008-03-01T17:09:00.000-08:00

Ok. First off, I love the pens... :)

I like the overall feel, nicely done. Now that it's been so long since I last saw it, I wonder if the hand readjustment around x210 is needed (I can already see you rolling your eyes :) ). Maybe it's because there's a lot of body and shoulder adjustment while he does hit. I would tone those down 50% but keep the hand, I wonder how it looks like. I think it would make it more like a cool subtle detail as opposed to selling that move to the audience, which would distract from the face. Might just be me though (you know me, I always go for less is more). Give it a shot. :)

Let's look at the face (I'm going to crit top to bottom). I like the head movements. The eyebrows are good, but maybe a tad busy? One thing though is, the eyebrows seem to just go up and curl down, but never curl up (up being like a an "n", down like a "u" - if that makes sense shape wise). It sticks out to me during x274, when just the screen left eyebrow goes up. It would be neat to have a nicer line through the brows. For reference, go to Carlos Baenas' new site and under resources or tricks (don't know right now), you'll find a page about brows, very cool.

The brow busy part is mostly after x290 or so. They go down, then up at 314 (I would tone that down 70%), then down again around 330 which is good though, but it starts adding up. So tone that one down, then I would keep the down instead of going up around x345 until around x370 where they go up again. I think it would add a stillness and nice pause before the "I'm sorry" part. Otherwise it just gets too busy.

The eyes. There's a weird counter move around x119. He looks screen left, keep it like that. Right now you have them going toward screen right as the head moves screen left and then they seem to move screen left as the head turns screen right again. Might just be an optical thing, or me, but try to keep a steady gaze. Then there's a quite a big move from x242 to 243. It's a big eye shift over one frame, plus they are really close to the eye corners. Lessen how far they move screen right. You can break it up between little eye darts. Another big eye dart is at x281 to 282. It feels even bigger because the eye lids move so much.

Lip synch is pretty good, there's a section though around x311 which stays the same for a while. It's a very small default feeling shape. Goes till x363 or so but even after that it kinda stays like that. I'm missing mouth corner variation. Not that you would want to make it all too busy and mushy, but try to get some asymmetry in there.

Upper body. There's a screen left/counter clock rotation at x135 that's mostly in the body (maybe a bit in the head too) which feels too fast and it ends to abruptly at x137. Keep the rotation going for 2 or 3 frames, ease into that stop. Then there's a forward and clockwise rotation starting at x197 which feels too separate. First he bends over till x203 (the head also goes with it a lot, which gives it this "one unit" feel to it). Then at x204 he rotates to the right until x209. That move also stops too quickly. Like I mentioned before, tone that whole body move down and combine the two rotations to make it more organic and less robotic.

Now the shoulders. This is going to screw you up but I would tone those down a lot. One thing that sticks out is how low they are. Look at x113, that's a good position. It's easier for us to lift up the shoulders. Moving them down is a really forced move. Unless we rotate them forward, more like a slouch. It's good to implement shoulder animation, it's often forgotten, but in your case I feel that they are too isolated, they move too much. Take x112 for instance. Around there you have the screen left shoulder move down very slowly til x128, which makes it a bit swimmy and isolated. Around the 200 area, tone down the height. You already have to tone down the upper body rotation, so maybe that's enough, but you might have to move the shoulder down a bit. The way it is now makes the move down from x241 to around x269 a very big one (it's also very slow, which gives it that uncontrolled, swimmy, spliney feel). Then on x319 the screen right shoulder, which is already low, starts to go even lower till around x335.

Looking at the hips I realized what makes the upper body/head movement from x198 to x210 so detached. The lower body and especially the hips are not moving. It feels very stiff. No need to add crazy movement, but some keep alive would be nice.

Changing the upper body and shoulders will alter your arm curves so try to keep them the way you have them now, because they're good. One thing though, check x284, the pose of the screen left arm with the hand on the tie. The wrist is cranked up a bit too much for my taste, it feels a bit broken. Tone that down a bit.

That's it. :)

Ray Harryhausen

2008-02-29T14:33:00.001-08:00

SFGate got a nice article about the legendary Ray Harryhausen. I can already see blank stares from you guys in class. Now imagine me going "Whhhatt???!" So go and check out at least "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad", "Clash of the Titans" and "Jason and the Argonauts".