Happy Holidays and have a nice break!

Thanks guys for all your work and for a great semester. For those who graduate, good luck with everything and to everybody: "Don't make any mistakes!!" ;)

Happy Holidays!
























pic source

Totally not Animation related...

... but I just have to share that catchy tune with you guys.

Colin's Bear on Cartoon Brew

Any excuse to post this clip is fine (even though no excuse is needed, it should be mandatory viewing every 5 mins), but it actually made it onto Cartoon Brew. :)

UPDATE! See below

Ahhh, more details emerge, this is from Colin's portfolio site:

I think that becoming a game director would be my ideal career. You know, the guy who helps decide things like, “this is how the game should play, look, sound,” and so on. I’m not very capable with a pencil, I hate programming, I don’t have the drive to practice 3D or animation, I’m not a fan of math, business bores me to death, and I think that video games are generally very poor, but yet I will maintain that I’m in the right place. Music is definitely my biggest passion and what I spend the most time on. I’m always looking for opportunities to contribute to in this respect.

Fantastic! And you can tell he's good at music and editing, because in that regard it's pure genius. Below is one of the video responses to the original post.

The Book of SPAM's Toastvertising

How funny, just a few weeks ago my son and I talked about doing an animation using toast.

New Wall-E Teaser

This is the new teaser, which is unfortunately again only a teaser. Unfortunately because visually it looks really really good, I love the renders. Even though I think that animated features can't really be on the VFX Oscar list due to their non photo-real look (and usually there is nothing groundbreaking about them like Gollum, Davy Jones, or bullet-time (which didn't originate with Matrix, I know), this movie seems to be more appropriate than Ratatouille. I'm surprised that since Ratatouille is being considered, why not Surf's Up? Or Happy Feet before that? The look was great, but I suppose they didn't submit them.

The satellite "blanket" is classic! Can't wait!

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Read on @ www.pixila.com - found @ 3dtotal.com

This Is The End

Wow, tempus fugit!

This Thursday is the last class for this semester. Please bring and drop off the latest and greatest of all your assignments and if you want to share, the characters and props you built during this semester. I'm sure future students will thank you for it.

One more session of useless rants and violence filled animation notes. ;)

Visions of Light

For those who are interested in the art and craft of Cinematography I highly recommend Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography (Netflix has it). And of course Amazon:

Enchanted Making-ofs and Interviews

Click here for the clip and to your right you see a collection of other clips. - found @ Seward Street

Among the general behind-the-scenes and interviews you get one with James Baxter.

Horton Hears a Who - New Trailer

Go to Apple for the different versions of Bluesky's "Horton Hears a Who". This is from the Apple site:

"A new CG animated feature film from 20th Century Fox Animation, the makers of the “Ice Age” films.."

So, Bluesky is now 20th Century Fox Animation? Hmm....

Beautiful design and the renders are crazy. The elephant walk on the bridge is awesome! And the beginning is really cool with the stairs, but hey, watch it for yourself, good stuff!

Apple Christmas Ad - Stop Motion

I know you guys can't stop watching Colin's bear, but here's something else:

Nice 11secondclub shot

Funny shot by Kevin Franczuk for the November winner of the 11secondclub entry. Nice render too.

Best Demo Reel Ever

Rough, but short and sweet! :)

Industry related?

:)


- found @ swissmiss

James Baxter's "Enchanted" Reel

Go to jamesbaxteranimation and watch his "Enchanted" demo reel. It's so good. I love those two shots (see pic). The movement, the flow, the rhythm, and not just by the character but also the hair and cloth, they all have character, they are all one. Those shots to me are THE prime example of how character animation should be done and why a lot of CG work is so cold because they lack that sense of rhythm. Why sim cloth and hair? Because it's hard as hell to animate it by hand, I know. But I can't wait to get animation controls all over hair and cloth. Very subjective of course but I could watch animation like that all day.

Pixar Cameos and Easter Eggs

Great post by Jim Hill, outlining a ton of cameos within the Pixar movies and shorts.

Critique - Working

Hey, nice set!

A few things need to change and get added. First, you need at least a visual cue that his walkie-talkie is beeping. But I suggest you find a beeping sound and some generic jungle background noise (check the school resource folder, there are tons of audio files in there).

The other thing is the bug. You need to either find a simpler rig, or make it much clearer what it is. It looks like crumbled paper or some trash right now :)
Then the first jump away is too fast. Make it clearer what it is. Maybe have the wings flap or move it around a bit as he crawls forward so we know exactly what it is. As the thing jumps away we finally get that this is a bug, but then it's already gone. So that beginning needs to be much clearer.

You might also work on the silhouette towards the end. You got his hand/walkie-talkie in front of his face and then right there the cup, so it's getting a bit crowded.

Nice start, keep going!

Madagascar Penguins get TV show

Get all the details @ Animated News

I wonder if the general audience had enough of penguins though...

December Animation Mentor Newsletter

Another AM newsletter is out, this time featuring:

Of course the always great Shawn Kelly's Tips & Tricks section
This time it's about how you know when your shot is done. He starts with:

1) When there is nothing mechanically wrong with the movement and the performances truly LIVE
2) When you're out of time
3) When the director says so

As always a good read, so go check it out!

Then we got:

Animation Mentor in the world!

Matt Wessel's short film

11secondclub winner & ecritique

Chris Chua - Mentor

Rose Rushbrooke - Student

Critique - Marry

About your blocking:

The main thing that sticks out are the poses on x112+ and around x220. He looks like he's talking to those flat shapes. If he's that much in love, I would have him gaze to the horizon or the sky, like he's on cloud 9.
Also have him look more straight ahead with left/right direction changes inbetween (roughly). Right now he's a bit fixated on the screen left part.

Keep going!

Cheers
JD

Creature Discomforts online

Go to creaturediscomforts.org for the new Aardman clips.

2007 Annie Awards Nominations

from comingsoon.net

Congratulations Michal, that's awesome!!!

2007 ANNIE AWARD NOMINATIONS BY CATEGORY

PRODUCTION CATEGORIES

Best Animated Feature

Bee Movie – DreamWorks Animation
Persepolis – Sony Pictures Classics
Ratatouille – Pixar Animation Studios
Surf's Up – Sony Pictures Animation
The Simpsons Movie – Twentieth Century Fox

Best Home Entertainment Production

Doctor Strange – MLG Productions
Futurama "Bender's Big Score" – The Curiosity Company in association with 20th Century Fox Television

Best Animated Short Subject

Everything Will Be OK – Bitter Films
How to Hook Up Your Home Theater – Walt Disney Feature Animation
Shorty McShorts' Shorts "Mascot Prep" – Walt Disney Television Animation
The Chestnut Tree – Picnic Pictures
Your Friend the Rat – Pixar Animation Studios

Best Animated Television Commercial

CVS Watering Can – Acme Filmworks
Esurance "Homeowners" – Wild Brain
Idaho Lottery: Twister – Acme Filmworks
Oregon Lottery "Alaska" – Laika/house
Power Shares Escape Average – Acme Filmworks

Best Animated Television Production

Jane and the Dragon – Weta Productions Limited & Nelvana Limited
Creative Comforts America – Aardman Animations
Moral Orel – ShadowMachine
Robot Chicken Star Wars- ShadowMachine
Kim Possible – Walt Disney Television Animation

Best Animated Television Production for Children

Chowder – Cartoon Network Studios
El Tigre – Nickelodeon
Little Einsteins – Disney Channel
Peep and the Big Wide World – Discovery Kids
The Backyardigans – Nickelodeon

Best Animated Video Game

Avatar: The Last Airbender "The Burning Earth" – THQ, Inc.
Bee Movie Game – Activision
Ratatouille – THQ, Inc.
Transformers: The Game – Blur Studios

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT CATEGORIES

Animated Effects

Gary Bruins – "Ratatouille" – Pixar Animation Studios
Deborah Carlson – "Surf's Up" – Sony Pictures Animation
Ryan Laney – "Spider-Man 3" – Sony Pictures Imageworks
James Mansfield – "How to Hook Up Your Home Theater" – Walt Disney Feature Animation
Jon Reisch – "Ratatouille" – Pixar Animation Studios

Animation Production Artist

John Clark – "Surf's Up" – Sony Pictures Animation
Michael Isaak – "Bee Movie" – DreamWorks Animation
Hyun-Min Lee – "The Chestnut Tree" – Picnic Pictures
Natasha Liberman – "Growing Up Creepie "Creepie & The Candy Factory" – Taffy Entertainment LLC, Telegrael Teoranta, Discovery Communications Inc., SunWoo Entertainment, Peach Blossom Media
Jim Worthy – My Gym Partner's A Monkey "Meet the Spidermonkeys" – Cartoon Network Studios

Character Animation in a Feature Production

Dave Hardin – "Surf's Up" – Sony Pictures Animation
Alan Hawkins – "Surf's Up" – Sony Pictures Animation
Michal Makarewicz – "Ratatouille" – Pixar Animation Studios

Character Animation in a Television Production

Elizabeth Harvatine - Moral Orel "Nature 2" – ShadowMachine
Monica Kennedy – El Tigre – Nickelodeon
Eric Towner – Robot Chicken – ShadowMachine
Character Design in an Animated Feature Production
Sylvain Deboissy – "Surf's Up" – Sony Pictures Animation
Carter Goodrich – "Ratatouille" – Pixar Animation Studios

Character Design in an Animated Television Production

Jorge R. Gutierrez – El Tigre "Fistful of Collars" - Nickelodeon

Directing in an Animated Feature Production

Brad Bird "Ratatouille" – Pixar Animation Studios
Ash Brannon & Chris Buck "Surf's Up" – Sony Pictures Animation
Chris Miller & Raman Hui – "Shrek The Third" – DreamWorks Animation
Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi – "Persepolis" – Sony Pictures Classics
David Silverman – "The Simpsons Movie" – Twentieth Century Fox

Directing in an Animated Television Production

Seth Green "Robot Chicken Star Wars" – ShadowMachine
David Hartman - Tigger & Pooh "Turtles Need for Speed" – Walt Disney Television Animation
Raymie Muzquiz - Squirrel Boy "Gumfight at the S'Okay Corral" – Cartoon Network Studios
Howy Parkins – The Emperor's New School "Emperor's New Musical" - Walt Disney Television Animation
Gary Trousdale "Shrek The Halls" – DreamWorks Animation

Music in an Animated Feature Production

Olivier Bernet – "Persepolis" – Sony Pictures Classics
Danny Elfman, Rufus Wainwright & Rob Thomas – "Meet The Robinsons" – Walt Disney Feature Animation
Michael Giacchino – "Ratatouille" – Pixar Animation Studios
Rupert Gregson-Williams – "Bee Movie" – DreamWorks Animation
Amy Powers, Russ DeSalvo & Jeff Danna – "Disney Princess Enchanted Tales" – DisneyToon Studios/Walt Disney Video/Disney Enterprises, Inc.

Music in an Animated Television Production

Alf Clausen & Michael Price – The Simpsons "Yokel Chords" – Gracie Films in association with 20th Century Fox
Evan Lurie, Robert Scull & Steven Bernstein – The Backyardigans "International Super Spy" – Nickelodeon
Drew Neumann & Gregory Hinde – Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure – Cartoon Network Studios
Shawn Patterson – El Tigre "Yellow Pantera" – Nickelodeon
James L. Venable & Jennifer Kes Remington – Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends "The Bloo Superdude and the Magic Potato Power" – Cartoon Network Studios

Production Design in an Animated Feature Production

Doug Chiang – "Beowulf" – Paramount Pictures
Harley Jessup – "Ratatouille" – Pixar Animation Studios
Marcelo Vignali – "Surf's Up" – Sony Pictures Animation

Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production

Don Hall – "Meet The Robinsons" – Walt Disney Feature Animation
Denise Koyama – "Surf's Up" – Sony Pictures Animation
Ted Mathot – "Ratatouille" – Pixar Animation Studios
Sean Song – "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" – IMAGI Animation Studios
Nassos Vakalis – "Bee Movie" – DreamWorks Animation

Storyboarding in an Animated Television Production

Ben Balistreri – Danny Phantom "Torrent of Terror" – Nickelodeon
Aldin Baroza – The Replacements "London Calling" – Walt Disney Television Animation
Dave Bennett – Tom and Jerry Tales – Warner Bros. Animation
Steve Fonti – Family Guy "No Chris Left Behind" – Fox TV Animation/Fuzzy Door Productions
Roy Meurin – My Friends Tigger and Pooh "Good Night to Pooh" – Walt Disney Television Animation

Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production

Janeane Garofalo – Voice of Collette – "Ratatouille" – Pixar Animation Studios
Ian Holm – Voice of Skinner – "Ratatouille" – Pixar Animation Studios
Julie Kavner – Voice of Marge Simpson – "The Simpsons Movie" – Twentieth Century Fox
Patton Oswalt – Voice of Remy – "Ratatouille" – Pixar Animation Studios
Patrick Warburton – Voice of Ken – "Bee Movie" – DreamWorks Animation

Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production

Scott Adsit – Voice of Clay Puppington – "Moral Orel" – ShadowMachine
Madison Davenport – Voice of Sophianna – "Christmas is Here Again!" – Easy To Dream Entertainment
Tom Kenny – Voice of SpongeBob – SpongeBob SquarePants "Spy Buddies" – Nickelodeon
Eartha Kitt – Voice of Yzma – The Emperor's New School "Emperor's New Musical" – Walt Disney Television Animation
Eddie Murphy – Voice of Donkey – "Shrek The Halls" - DreamWorks Animation

Writing in an Animated Feature Production

Brad Bird – "Ratatouille" – Pixar Animation Studios
James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean, Ian Maxtone-Graham, George Meyer, David, Mirkin, Mike Reiss, Mike Scully, Matt Selman, John Swartzwelder & Jon Vitti – "The Simpsons Movie" – Twentieth Century Fox
Don Rhymer and Ash Brannon & Chris Buck & Christopher Jenkins – "Surf's Up" – Sony Pictures Animation
Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud – "Persepolis" – Sony Pictures Classics

Writing in an Animated Television Production

C.H. Greenblatt & William Reiss – Chowder "Burple Nurples" – Cartoon Network Studios
Gene Grillo – Back at the Barnyard "Cowman and Ratboy" – Nickelodeon
Ian Maxtone-Graham & Billy Kimball – The Simpsons "24 Minutes" – Gracie Films
Christopher Painter – Squirrel Boy "I Only Have Eye For You" – Cartoon Network Studios
Tom Sheppard – My Gym Partner's A Monkey "The Butt of the Jake" – Cartoon Network Studios

WINSOR MCCAY AWARD WINNERS (career contributions to the art of animation)

John Canemaker - Animation historian, educator, Oscar winning filmmaker. Canemaker's tomes on Windsor McCay and Felix The Cat, his numerous books on Disney history (The Nine Old Men, Mary Blair, etc.) are essential references. Canemaker is Chair of NYU's Animation Program and won an Academy Award for his animated short The Moon And The Son: An Imagined Conversation.

Glen Keane - One of the leading lights in the current generation of Disney character animators, Keane's artistry has been the bedrock of many classic animated features since 1977. Most notably, Keane was lead animator of Ariel in The Little Mermaid, The Beast in Beauty and The Beast, and animated the characters Aladdin, Tarzan, Pocahontas in their respective Disney films. Aside from Disney he's worked on animated films of Star Trek and Alvin and the Chipmunks.

John Kricfalusi - Notorious animator Kricfalusi created the influential Ren & Stimpy Show in 1991. He restored an individual look to TV animation, pushing the envelope during the "creator-driven" movement of the 1990s. He also pioneered the use of artist-driven Flash animation. His animated films and design style currently influences a new generation of cartoonists, with which he communicates personally to through his blog.

JUNE FORAY (significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation)

Jerry Beck

UB IWERKS (technical achievement)

Jonathan Gay, Gary Grossman and Robert Tatsumi – the creators of FLASH computer software

SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT ANNIE AWARD

Edward R. Leonard - promoting the Linux open system for animation in animation studios and gaming software development

CERTIFICATE OF MERIT

Marcus Adams
Jo Jo Batista
Steve Gattuso
Jon Reeves
Gemma Ross
Woodbury University

The Animal/Human Motion Show DVDs

There is a really great DVD set called "The Animal Motion Show" (Vol. 1 & 2) and "The Human Motion Show". They are very expensive at $60, so if you can rent them or borrow them, it's probably better, but it's still a good investment though, just eat and drink less for a week then you can buy it. :)

Go to Rhino for more information about the DVDs, but like you saw in class, they are very nerdy and detailed.

Tekkonkinkreet BGs

I found these @ Cooked Art and holy moly are they sweet.

Enchanted

Saw it last week-end and it was great, very charming, funny, the songs were great and the 2D animation was fantastic. Screw CG, there is a life to drawings that CG just doesn't get (yet?). One shot had her walk then kinda run towards camera, with her hair and costume flowing and billowing. There was so much volume and weight to it, ahhhh, fantastic. A nightmare to do in CG and most cloth and hair is simulated to look and move realistically, there is no rhythm and flow... sigh... Anyway, good to see 2D again and the movie was great.


pic source

Yippee Ki-Yay Animation: Inside the Brain of The Orphanage

Got this email. Please let me know if you are going to attend and don't just ditch the class. If you don't show up I won't mark you absent as long as you let me know AND send in your work beforehand.

Please join us on Thursday, November 29, 2007 for this presentation:

TIME:
Reception 7:00 p.m.
Event 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

WHERE:
Academy of Art University Theatre Morgan Auditorium, Post & Mason
491 Post Street San Francisco, CA. 94102

We are honored to have Artists from one of the leading visual effects studios, The Orphanage, present an inside peek into the animation process for both feature films and television commercials. Creature Supervisor Corey Rosen and Animation Director David Andrews will treat the audience to some of The Orphanage’s most recent work with a special focus on two projects – this summer’s blockbuster Live Free or Die Hard and Director Genndy Tartakoysky’s commercial for Nicoderm. For Die Hard, David Andrews will discuss the pre-production in Houdini and the process of animating that work, with specific attention to the creative challenges of translating pre-viz to final imagery. Corey Rosen will use a recent Nicoderm spot as a case study, analyzing how The Orphanage created a new aesthetic using the iconography of traditional 2D for 3D animations.

pic source

Victor Navone's Thumbnails

Head over to Victor Navone's site and check out his thumbnails for shots he planned out.

Spring 2008 Class

[YET ANOTHER UPDATE] Got this from the AAU:

There will be no more printed syllabi for on-site classes. Syllabi will be available for students – and yourselves – in the Student Pickup drive.

[ANOTHER UPDATE] So far we will meet in room 805.

CA3D 686.02 MS: Character Animation for Grads, Monday 7-10pm

Sounds like the class is already full, but will have more details soon.

[UPDATE]

For those students who signed up (and if you didn't but know people who did, please pass this message along):

I HIGHLY recommend that you DON'T take this class if you are:

- enrolled in Animation Mentor at the same time
- taking any Pixar class at the same time
- working or somehow too busy to attend and/or complete the assignments given in class

Due to recent experiences with students being too busy because of above mentioned reasons I highly discourage you from taking this class, because it's unfair to the other students if you're taking up a spot and then are not doing any work for that class, while other people would gladly work their butt off but can't because the class is full.

Sorry to be harsh but slackers are not welcome.

Emotion Chart

Depending on the show you sometimes get emotion charts, character studies, pose sheets, etc. This one is just fantastic!

New "Spiderwick Chronicles" Trailer

Check out the new "Spiderwick Chronicles" trailer @ Yahoo.

Possible Ending for Bowling Game

Floyd, here's an ending for your clip. :)

Critique - Manager

I don't know why I never thought of it, but the "Employee of the Month" doesn't really work, since he's the manager. Wouldn't it be really funny to have "Manager of the Month" instead? Since he's the only manager, he'd always be manager of the month! :)

Posing wise it's all good but the pen click at around x158 looks too deliberate and draws a lot of attention to itself. I would just switch the pen from his right hand to his left in a causal way.
The other thing is the part from x270 on til "I'm sorry". It's just too busy. Keep all the business til then (with the above mentioned change), but after x270 I would keep it very contained, especially during the silence. When I watched it the first time I really wanted to look at his face and his eyes and see how bad he feels. The pen business takes away from it.
I'd try two things. Put the pen behind his ear DURING the I'm sorry part. And then another version with no pen business at all. He just says I'm sorry to the guys. I'm curious which one has more impact.

Good start, love the tie business.

Cheers
JD

Critique - Samurai

Alright, here we go, let's look at it in passes (chest, arms, etc.)

First off, start the walk earlier so that when you cut into shot he's already moving. Right now it looks like "And...ACTION!".

During the standing around moments, make sure to have some keep alive in his body with gentle swaying left right (super subtle, you don't what it to look swimmy and floaty). The body move from x196 to x202 is a bit fast. I would slow it down and mix it in with his upper body movement until x217.

The upper body could rotate back after x65 to x80. There's a very isolated and fast turn on x92 to x94. His head and arms move with it at the same time, make that more organic. What part of the body do you want to lead the rest of the body? The arms will be a bit delayed after the upper body turn. The arm swing around x100+ would influence his upper body, having the arm swing so isolated looks weird. Same goes for the arm movement around x180. Always think about what part of the body gets affected by moving another one. Again during the sword grab around x230 til x270. It gets better at the end.

Bend his arms a tiny bit on x59. When both arms are swinging it feels very stiff. Screen left arm goes up in a very mechanical way and then sticks there at around x79, same with the other arm x84. Delay his arms during the body turn around x90. His arms would just re-adjust or stay in his defiant pose, they wouldn't really swing. The "regret anything" screen right arm swing is way too big and feels a bit over acted. Keep it small. I'm always in favor of eliminating gestures and have it all in the face. But give it a shot with a much smaller arm swing, let's see how much you can get away with. The arm gesture around x175 is very big, very fast and very isolated. Pretty much all the movement is in the forearm. Think about the upper arm, shoulders and chest. Now, the gesture itself is very non threatening, mainly because of the pose around x192. The way he points forward but then brings his arm/hand/fingers back is not very warrior like. He has to be intimidating at all times. The screen right arm move to his weapon towards x205 is also too fast. Fast movements don't work with his voice, he seems very threatening, sure of himself, calm, serious, etc. any fast movement takes away from that. So keep it slow and controlled. Again with the screen left sword handle move at x232. At least the upper arm moves as well, so it's not completely isolated to the forearm, but think of the shoulder and chest, they will have to move as well.
Your sword is moving without being touched at x237. Make it clear that something is influencing the weapon in its movement, keep it slow and threatening.
His head is very fast and stops like it hits a wall at x94. Tone down the movement as well.
Same goes with the whole taking sword (or should it be Katana?) out and fight stance part. You got giant movement from x284 to x288. Keep it elegant, slow, threatening. Find reference of people doing that.

Watch Samurai movies, really study the movements and focus on showing the intensity and threat in his face.

Cheers
JD

Pivot - Stick Figure Animation Software

This stick figure animation tool called "Pivot" by Peter Bone is the best thing ever!! Apparently there is a version 3 coming out soon, but I haven't found anything about it yet.
I'm really missing a previous/next frame button to check out your animation (instead of clicking on each drawing), but I also only spent a few minutes with it so far. I love it though, it's really neat. Download the freeware here.

AAU’s Fall Animation Festival

That was in my mail box and I need to let you guys know about it:

Just a reminder…. The Academy’s Fall Animation Festival is this Monday, November 19, at 7pm. It’s happening in Morgan Auditorium at 491 Post. Animation by Academy students, fresh popcorn(!), and guest speaker Tom Bancroft (animator on Aladdin, Lion King, etc.).

My Animation Workflow

[Instead of having you guys wait until I fix my stupid computer and post the whole thing, here's what I had so far and the moment I get more I'll post it]

My workflow

First, I obviously think about what I want to do. A clip I wanted to do for grading examples was a guy crawling on the ground or climbing up a hill, so I could show details in terms of hands and fingers and physical strain reflected in his facial performance as well as how the environment gets affected by his crawling around and vice versa.
So for this demo I started with that idea and thought about adding sound so I can really nerd out and use all the sound cues to my advantage. Going through my audio library (which is getting bigger and bigger - you can find a good audio piece in most movies, start building a library yourself), I wanted an action piece with lots of sound and little bit of dialogue/monologue.
I wanted to do animate something like that for a while so I already had recordings from "Saving Private Ryan". Famous movie, so you can't pick obvious and well known parts from the movie. I just wanted firing and shooting and screaming, which "Ryan" has plenty of and I'd hope wouldn't work against me (like picking "Choose the red or blue pill" thingie from "The Matrix" - THAT will work against you because it's so well known, you will fight against people's preconceived ideas and memories of that movie and the actors in that scene). I also wanted to include that sweet spaceship model we saw in class (from your rig library). That would also help me changing the setting a bit. I don't want to make the characters and the set look like what they are in the movie, so no WWII stuff. I love sci-fi, so something futuristic look-wise will do and I can use the said space ship. Yes, I get into Starship Troopers territory, so I need to avoid that look as well.
What I also like to do is to re-edit the audio. Most of the times I cut and paste things together, to further distance myself from the original and because I also have the freedom to do so. Exploit that freedom as a student or when you do your own animation at home. Once you are in a work environment, you’re stuck with the audio, the frame range, the live-action background plate, etc. etc.
So I went through my "Ryan" clips and was looking for something short so that I can polish it and have it ready for you guys in a timely fashion. I found one with lots of shooting and screaming. I listened to it over and over and picked out a few things I could combine. There's something at the end where you can hear a faint screaming and before that, maybe a spitting? I couldn't remember what it is in the movie so I checked, which you should do anyway. If you find a piece of audio online, always check from which movie it is. If you happen to have the same ideas as the director and your shot/sequence looks like the one in the movie, people will think you just ripped it off, you're unoriginal, etc.

As you can see, it's a blow on the mirror, not a spit. Now, given the sound and words, it dictates a bit your surrounding, meaning that the clip will include shooting, screaming, probably a war type setting, etc. You could have guys playing a war type video game or something more creative and technically that’s what I should do, but I always wanted to a war scene a la Starship Troopers, so here’s my chance. 
What I had in mind is a guy crawling on his belly towards his military objective, trying not to get shot with all those bullets flying around. There’s a close-to-camera-ricochet sound and I wanted it to be a shot to the ground close to him, spilling up dirt and stones and have that hit his face (maybe he
even gets wounded a little bit). So with all that in his face he spits out the dirt/blood and continues crawling forward. Then more shot impacts close to him but this time passing by and hitting a fellow soldier in the background. In "Ryan" it's just a moan/scream off-screen, but I wanted to show the guy being hit. The main guy looks back, sees that, gets furious/panicked and starts shooting. That's it. It was about 4 seconds long, nice and short. But then again, I really liked the "Covering fire!!" part, so I edited the whole thing around and ended up with a 10sec. piece (damn it, that always happens, I never settle on something short...). So here’s the audio only:

Click here to listen to the .wave file

Now that I have the sound in place I listen to it over and over until I see the whole animation in my head. I really can't draw, so any thumbnails wouldn’t be able to reflect whatever I thought of or only in a very limited way. So I plan it out mentally until I have a clear image of what I want to do.
BUT. I would still act it out so I can get a feel of what's going on body wise and film it so I can see how I'm acting out the whole situation. So for this clip I let the sound play over the speakers and started to make a fool out of myself. I can only speak for myself but I need to do it over and over in order to forget that I am "acting". That way I get the happy accidents and the more natural spontaneous stuff.

What I imagined for the shot is still better (hopefully) than what I acted out, but there's some interesting stuff here and there that I could use.
I like the different variations of “Cover fire!”, the way I react to the bullets, cleaner silhouettes as I roll over, etc.

So to give you guys a visual idea of what I’m thinking of, here’s combination of things that I liked and elements I want to include.

Now it’s time to translate all that into Maya and a working animation environment. First a little rundown of my Maya settings and tools that I use:

- scene is set to 24fps unless told otherwise
- animation curves are defaulted to “linear”
- hotkeys are set up for nurbs curves visibility on/off & previous/next frame
- dry erase marker is ready
- autokey is on

Let’s elaborate on those:

In film you work with 24fps, so whenever I work at home, I do the same. I don’t see why I should use 30fps unless told by the client.

During my blocking phase I set all my keys to linear, no spline, no stepped, etc. because that's how I learned it at first and haven' t really liked working any other way since. That's obviously very subjective and I'm not enforcing this method in any way. I don't want the animation to be pose to pose through stepped keys, because I like to see how long it takes going from one pose to the other and what the whole thing will actually look like early on. With a character popping around I don't get that. Yes, you can just add more breakdowns in order to get rid of this but I want to keep the amount of keys to a minimum (at least at the beginning). When I'm happy with what I'm seeing I convert specific areas to spline.

Hotkeys: one great time saving hotkey is the nurbs toggle on/off move fingers around in order to access the functions, I rarely lift my hand off the keyboard. So nurbs on/off as well as stepping through frames is quick and easy. My "Undo" is also on on "u" and not "Ctrl+z". Click here for the tutorial on how to set it up and here for the previous/next frame hotkey.

Dry erase marker: super handy tool to check your spacing. Yes, there are scripts that do this as well, but not every computer is set up for it or you get plagued by technical issues. The marker is uncomplicated and works everywhere.

Autokey:

[Rest Coming Soon]

Critique - Bowling

Alright,

first off, I would start with the other guys' hands off screen or at least have them come into frame, then push the guy. The reason is, I always watched it with the first frame visible, then clicked play, etc. so you see the hands and you know what's going on, but when I play it at work the clip just shows up and plays and then that action gets lost quickly. Think about if you have that clip on your reel after another one, people won't look at frame 1 for a few seconds.
After that, you have him stumble forward and kinda look around, but what is he doing? Is he checking out the bowling field or is he trying to look back? I would have him look back at the guys with a "Why are you doing this to me?" look on his face.
The walk towards the bowling balls feels weird, especially with that double step thingie at x65. It feels like he's on a cliff and slipping away. You're also overextending his legs a lot from the beginning til here. Frame 1 already his legs are totally straight, then the right one snaps into a bent position on x3 and moves until x5, stops moving while the body continues and gives you an overextended left leg at x8. x47 has another left leg overextension, same at x65. Overall those steps towards the ball are very awkward. Avoid sudden and separate movements with the body and the legs.
Around x111, as he picks up the ball he takes a little step. I would wait with that. Since the ball is so heavy, he needs all the stability and leg pushing he can get in order to pick up the ball. Taking a step won't help him. Plus the step gets a bit floaty towards the end.
From x124 to x135 his right leg takes a big slow step, plus his left leg is sliding forward. On top of that the ball goes from the edge of the ball-holder-thingie down towards his knees in a very linear and diagonal way. Imagine the ball is way too heavy for you and rolls over the edge of that holder-thingie. Gravity will pull the ball straight down and pull his hands with it. He then holds on to it tighter and the ball and his arms will swing back towards his legs. That's what the motion should be. Right now it's too soft and too slow. You also go from pose to pose with the ball and his body stopping at x133. The momentum and gravity would have the ball/arms swing back between his legs a bit, not hitting a wall type of thing.
From x105 til x202 or so, his head looks very looked, there is no drag no overlap, no leading, no strain, no nothing, so loosen it up. Grab something heavy and act it out, I doubt your head would move like that.
x213 you're overextending his right leg. Look at x210 til x245, his upper body, head, arms and ball move down and up as one unit, which makes it very robotic and there is not weight to it. Again, act it out, see how your body and arms are adjusting to lifting something heavy and how you get ready for a swing. His arms stay in that 90 degree pose til x340 or so, which is too stiff. You're also overextending your leg at x339. Unless you think that this is okay, you should not have those overextensions in your clip. If you see something that looks wrong, then fix it before you present it. And again, act it out so you get a feel of what the motions are. Take frame 339 for instance. His pose is very awkward. Grab something very heavy and then stand exactly how he is. You'll quickly realize that it is not right.
When he starts the swing, his right arm lets go off the ball at x343 and x344. If you're holding something heavy with both hands and you take one hand away, the other hand has twice as much work to do, so there will be some adjustment. In this case it looks like his left hand can easily hold that ball because neither his arm nor his hand are moving or adjusting for the support change as his right arm goes down.
His body also stops the forward translation from x343 to 345, keep it going.
His right arm stays in the same pose from x346 til x366, his upper body does not change rotation (take x354, with his left arm swinging back, that would pull his shoulder and upper body back as well), upper body with arms moves as one unit around x355, you overextend his left leg from x358 to x364 and his body moves up til x382 or so in a very slow and linear way. I know I sound like a broken record but act it out, study reference, examine each part of the body and think about the effect and relationship between each part as it moves.
Be careful to not have one frame movements like his right arm at x413. Unless it's a shaking, a high frequency tension thing, stuff like that, bigger objects like an arm won't travel big distances from one frame to another. Ants would, but the smaller the object the more believable. You also have quick movements during the kissing-the-audience part (with another overextension at x447).
The end reads more like a shock than being embarrassed, and give the acting some time, don't rush it.

You really need to study reference for movement. I just went to youtube and looked for "bowling", which is pretty broad, so I did a search for "bowling lesson" and got those:





There is good stuff in there and definitely something you need to incorporate in your animation.

Cheers
JD

Flipbook! Deluxe

I don't know if you guys ever played with Flipbook, but looks like Benetton has a Deluxe version, which, according to Alex Orrelle, has now color functions and duplication of the last drawing. Have fun! (And no Floyd, this is not my drawing, it's just the first image I found through google...) - pic source

Orangina Commercial

Wow. You think that I'M crossing the line in class? Wait til you see this commercial!

Aardman's Creature Discomfort

The team behind the Wallace and Gromit cartoons have unveiled six new characters - all with disabilities.

Aardman Animations has based the plasticine animals - including a bull terrier in a wheelchair - on those from its Creature Comforts TV series.

Read on @ BBC News

Beowulf

I was able to go to an early screening of Robert Zemecki's "Beowulf" at the Metreon (thanks Eric!!). The movie was shown in 3D at the IMAX and the theater was packed. I have never been to a 3D IMAX movie event so I was very curious about the depth aspect. The 3D intro (which I presume plays in front of every movie) was fantastic, I was actually blown away and couldn't wait for the movie to start.

Unfortunately, after having seen the movie, more than half the time the 3D was not needed. It was cool at the beginning because it was the first time for me seeing something like that (I saw the Titanic documentary by James Cameron a while ago in 3D but that had huge heavy glasses and it was just 45mins, not a full on movie), but it quickly became annoying. There was some kind of a ghosting effect and the canvas was not evenly lit, overall the picture was very dark, but some areas were even darker.

WAIT! That could be because of two reasons. We were sitting a bit on the outside, not full center and sooner than later I will need glasses because far away stuff gets slowly but surely blurry. Not that I'm blind, I can still see and read everything, but it's not super sharp, so that and the seating position could affect the viewing experience.

The end battle was brighter (I could actually see something) and there the 3D effect was really cool, not gimmicky (unlike during other spots of the movie where it was downright annoying), but just there, making the experience a notch better than on a normal screen.
The story was entertaining, definitely better than most live-action "event" movies, but my problem was with the main character. He's a liar and a cheater (in every sense), so I really don't care about him. Yes, he redeems himself at the end, but that's not enough. I cared more about Grendel or Wiglaf.

The look and animation was a mixed bag. Some shots (render wise) looked absolutely breath taking, others a bit cheap and like plastic, which really hurts when it is the characters. The scenes during which you see Angelina Jolie talking to Beowulf are amazing, both animation wise and visually. Most scenes with Robin Wright-Penn are very doll like and dead, both look wise and animation wise. The shots that really worked were the subtle and quiet ones, for instance Wiglaf at the end is really well done. The ones that didn't work were the intense scenes, with a lot of emotion, shouting, etc. Zemeckis still needs to give the animators more freedom to push the performance. One shot that stood out was Beowulf looking for Jolie in the cave. At one point he shouts "Show yourself!" (or something like that). He's only wearing some loin cloth/underwear type of thing, so you see all his chest and stomach muscles. Yet when he screams, only the facial features move (not enough though), but there is no tightening of the abs or other muscles, he just looks like a mannequin. That's too bad because you know they can do it (and they do - at the beginning Beowulf gets naked and lies down, with his arms behind his head and you see all the muscles working, the breathing, etc. all really well done).

The sea creatures and the dragon were AWESOME, but when the humans are on horses, the animation quality goes down a bit (movement is too fast and looks like a cycle - towards the end of the movie, other areas were ok).

Overall, it was just too inconsistent. Some stuff was amazing, other stuff was Polar Express-y. But I still had a good time and I was pleasantly surprised at how violent and sexual the movie is. It doesn't always have to be talking animals. All they have to do is let the animators do their job and push the look. Since you are in a medium that allows you to do anything, then go for it. Have shots that are like Marlon Brando in "Apocalypse Now", push the lighting, give it more mood and atmosphere. And again, give the animators more freedom. Otherwise, go the "300" route and film your actors and have CG backgrounds. Especially with actors like Hopkins, Malkovitch, etc. Unless you rotoscope their facial performance, it's a waste of talent.

It should do well at the box office and will hopefully encourage other studios to produce more movies like "Beowulf".

Cable

Pretty neat, check it out here.

"How we met"

Saw this over @ Cartoon Brew, with more info about it here.

Critique - Run

Looks great, nice weight to it.

His left leg is great, except frame 2 to 3, the foot doesn't move, just make the other leg the same now. His right leg got a speed up from x10 to x12, which makes it poppy and too speedy. Check the spacing (look at the toe) from x21 to x26, looks like the foot slows down. The left leg seems better in that regard, but there is something funky from x10 to x12, maybe even at x9 already. Make sure the
foot is not sliding, keep it even.

Look at x3 and x18, how the wrists are facing down, have them rotated up more, so that they drag a bit as the arms go down.

One last thing. His first belly ring. Is there a way to move that up and down on the side? I see that your hips are moving, but when you look at the front view especially, the hip does not affect the belly at all, which makes it look like the hips are not moving.

Oh, another "last thing". The guy needs some sweat stains on his shirt and sweat on his head. :)

I hate PCs...

If there is something I hate more than the 43 Muni line, it has to be PCs. Nothing ever works the way it is supposed to. The next computer I'm getting is going to be a Mac.

Guess what happened? I was sending an email to work (with an attachment, not too big, maybe 6MB), and downloading a .rar file via FTP. Nothing huge, nothing special, done it before. But this morning I got a little treat. The machine froze up. I know, what a surprise. The twist? After it boots up and you get the "windows xp" logo with the blue progress bar it goes to black, my monitor goes into power savings mode, and nothing else happens. It's dead.

That happened to me before. A full reformat/reinstall fixed it, but what a pain. 2nd time, RAM was the culprit.

Obviously I can't access vital data right now, but most importantly for this class, all my prep work for the work-flow tutorial is on there. I have doubts that it will be ready on Thursday. I'm sorry guys, patience is required...

If anybody has any ideas as to what the problem is, I'd appreciate any pointers.

Live long and prosper.

- pic source

Victor Navone eCritique for the 11secondclub

There's a cool "prize" if you win the monthly 11secondclub animation challenge. You get an eCritique by one of the mentors. This time it's Victor Navone taking apart a traditionally animated piece. Great critique, make sure you watch that. Thanks Richie for pointing it out!

Animation - Fight

Good example of holds. It would be easy to just have the character be still, but the keep alive keeps the character... alive...

Critique - Skydive

It's a bit weird to have her feet cut off like that, either zoom out and/or adjust the camera so you see all of here, or punch in and film her waist up or thigh up or something. But it's a cool composition now, well done.
I don't think you need the first 5 seconds. The way the dialogue is you quickly realize that she's nervous, let alone everybody would be as well when skydiving. So I feel like your wasting time at the beginning, just get right into it. The clip is already long, so you don't want to add unnecessary time. I would take that time and add it to the end where she jumps out or something.
Animation wise it's too rough to say anything. Overall she feels very slow and floaty and you have her head in profile a lot, which takes away from her facial performance.
You need convey the feeling body acting wise that she's nervous, hesitating and towards the end determined.

What would be really neat and nerdy is to have one or two hair strands rigged up so that they flutter (there's lots of wind obviously), especially when she gets closer to the opening.

Cheers
JD

Critique - Trust

You're over extending his right leg at around x55 to x86. So when he takes that first step, don't move his body up in Y so much and when he leans forward to move the chair, have him take a little step with his right leg.
His right arm is overextending towards x113 as he pushes the chair. The wrist is also not changing rotation as he pushes the chair. Take x120 for instance. His arm gets off the chair but it's still overextended and the wrist is still rotated the same way (hidden behind his forearm). So as he pushes the chair, rotate the hand screen right so that we see the hand/fingers. When he takes his hand/arm off the chair his arm will be bent and take x120 again, his hand will be down and towards the right (the chair). Act out exactly what you have in your clip right now, you'll feel how twisted your wrist is and how unnatural it is to leave it like that when you push off the chair or just let go of the chair.
Move his left knee out screen left around x86 so it doesn't point inwards, makes it less awkward.
As he puts his hand behind his back, make sure that you are also moving his shoulder back (and forward again when he points the gun at him).
The arm move when he points the gun at him is too fast. Don't move the arm/gun higher than x116. Look at x124, he's shooting at the ceiling right now. He's showing the guy who the boss is, so the gun needs to be steady on him.
When he takes the step around x120, make it read that he's taking a step forward with the up and down of the body in one nice move. Right now it looks like he's moving forward and up til x123, then the forward movement stops and he just goes down.
Rotate his right foot more screen left when he takes the step from x112 to x126 (the foot will be more forward per above critique). That way you change the pose from A to B to make it more interesting and the foot needs to be rotated especially at x 142 when he takes another step. Look at that frame, his body is almost in profile, his left leg is taking a giant step forward, but his right leg is in a very awkward pose. The knee is kinda pointing to the left but the foot is pointing "up" (screenspace, not lifted off the ground). So when he takes the previous step and have the foot plant pointing more screen left that pose at x142 will be better.
You will have to adjust the body when he takes the last step at x151, don't have him move that far because you're over stretching his right leg. You need to add a foot roll as well when he takes that step, maybe that will be enough to keep the leg from over stretching and you can keep the body translation.
Lower his body at x164, you're over extending his legs again.
Next, change his appearance, start off with at least a dark (unless he's wearing a white shirt) suit. You need to think about how he will blend it with the live action plate so that the silhouette is reading nicely.
Another thing you need to do is applying a holdout shader to the table geometry. So in Maya, create a shader called "Use Background". Apply that shader to your table cube. Now when you render it it, you'll see your guy looks like he's behind the table. You'll have to place a light where the window is and one behind him where that table light is. Give both lights a greenish tint to it so that the character fits into the scene. If you have trouble with that, I can show you in class next week.

Cheers
JD