New "Ratatouille" Trailer @ Disney.com
Brand new Ratatouille trailer rant @ swench.com
Go check it out!
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Friday, March 23, 2007
Story and Animation Tips
Head over to the Blackwing Diaries, for a great post on Story and Tips on Animation, part 1 and 2.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Spring Break & Midterm Update
Hello boys and girls,
time for another update.
It's that time of the semester, the midterm showdown.
Unless you have received a separate email about your grade, you got a "C". What? Just a "C"? What's going on?
Well, here's how I grade:
"A" students would mean absolutely ready to start at a company right now, "B" showing creativity and doing more than asked, "C" understanding and applying the mechanics and animation principles but work being average, "D" for NOT being able to apply the animation principles and "F" for simply failing in all aspects.
For midterm and finals I will grade in full grades, no B+s or -s or whatever. So even if you got a "C" now, you might be really close to a "B". At the same time, you might be really close to a "D".
Take a look at the "Virgin Voyage", or the latest Animation Mentor Showreel. That is your competition, that is the standard that other students are setting. Anything below that and your chances of getting a job are small. The chances are still there (it's also about luck and timing, but the reel is still your ticket in), but it's really tough.
Again, look at the competition and be aware of the kind of work is needed in order to make it nowadays.
But it's all doable. Do the research, work hard and have fun with it! You can be the next Doug Sweetland or Maia Kayser, it's all in your hands.
I haven't see everybodies work for a while, due to the super-late-notice-retarded-teacher-failing-to-show-up-for-class incident and this weeks spring break. So please, EVERYBODY send me your latest and greatest this week.
Also, take a hard look at your schedule, be it the class schedule or your own. Are you on track? Are you falling behind? Are you keeping the deadlines? Be mindful of the goals that you set for yourself. If you are having problems with it, let me know and we will work something out.
Any questions? Complaints? Recommendations? Ideas? Don't be shy, let me know. It's your class, your money, make sure you get the most out of it.
Ok, that's it. Have fun during spring break, remember to drink a glass of water for every 2 or 3 cocktails so you don't have a hangover the next day, eat before you drink so you don't puke, girls, don't tease boys too hard, guys, "No" means "No".
Cheers
Jean-Denis
Monday, March 19, 2007
Spline Tutorial Part 2 by Victor Navone
Victor Navone has posted his 2nd part of the "Splinophilia" tutorial.
Make sure to mouse over the images as a lot of them have rollover images. Part 2 is excellent and a must-read for all of you.
His tutorial explains:
- Smoothness
- Curve containment
- Economy of keys
- Variation
- Easy Eases
- Easy Overlap
- Blocking
- Converting to Splines
- etc.
Cheers
Jean-Denis
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Animation Critique - Bouncing Balls (Alison)
Direct Link: Alison's Balls, light & medium & heavy & character
Light Ball:
Over the 9 to 13 frames or so the ball slows down. The first rolling down is faster, so slow that down so that part falling down is at the same speed. From 10 15 the ball is moving screen left on a very straight path, as if there was still a ground beneath it. Then it starts going down. That arc needs to be smoother (see image below).
The bounce afterwards is good til 37. From 37 to 38 the ball moves only a tiny bit down, then from 38 to 39 a lot more. That end bounce/fall needs to get worked on. The spacing needs to get gradually bigger, don't have it stay even, and at the end there shouldn't be a pop.
Same with the next bounce. It's all good til the end, during which the spacing is very even and seems to get smaller til 54 (again, should be the opposite). Then from 54 to 55 there is a bigger move down, resulting in the same pop as before.
The bounce from 55 on goes too far screen left. You can cut that distance in half and make the bounce a bit faster. That means you'll have to add one more tiny bounce at the end.
Medium Ball:
In this one you are having more problems with spacing unfortunately. You need to take the dry erase marker and at every frame mark a dot in the center of the ball. Do this for the beginning and you'll see that the spacing is very uneven.
First the ball maintains the same speed, then on frame 4 speeds away, same on 5, then it's small again, moving in a straight line to the left, then suddenly down.
The dry erase marker is not a gimmick. You NEED to use it. If not that, then use the ghosting method in Maya, or whatever is convenient, but you need to use something to track your arcs and make sure that the spacing makes sense.
The second bounce shows you that you have two big gaps and that throughout the rest of the bounce the spacing is very even.
The third bounce shows a gradually smaller spacing and then a pop at the end.
Here you can see that the arc is not smooth enough and that the spacing at the beginning is too even.
This one is hard to judge because I can't zoom into your file. But I think I made my point pretty clear. You can still see that the arc needs some work and that the last bounce is too wide.
This is a ball falling onto ice, so don't pay attention to the bounce, but look at the spacing of the initial fall. The spacing gets gradually bigger, there are no pops in it. Same thing with a bouncing ball assignment.
Heavy Ball:
Same problem here:
The ball is all over the place. It starts off slow, then super fast, then ends up suddenly slow again.
Character Ball:
The spacing and timing in this one is a lot better. What I would take out is the pause (double bounce) that you have at frame 115. You can cut out 116 and 117.
I would work on the other ones first before you finish this one (it's pretty much done anyway).
Cheers
Jean-Denis
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