I've gotten some email and verbal comments about my stance on not taking AM or Pixar classes while enrolled in my class and sadly the distilled opinion was that I don't like Animation Mentor or the Pixar classes. I guess my wording was poor so I just wanted to clarify a few things.
I have nothing against those two animation classes at all.
If you can enroll in Animation Mentor, then do it. I recommend it over the AAU because AM focuses strictly on animation. So if you're not going for a Bachelor's with a general art education, then AM is for you. No distractions, no other classes that take time away from your animation homework, just a focus on learning animation. I know Shawn and I can see how committed he is to make AM an awesome school, so you're in good hands (and that goes for Carlos Baena and Bobby Beck as well).
But if you're enrolled at the AAU then your primary goal should be to get into the Pixar class. Work as hard as you can in order to get accepted because it's worth it. The assignments of my last Pixar class got me my job as a feature animator. The wealth of knowledge you're exposed to in those classes is enormous, so make it a priority to get in there.
BUT.
Once you are enrolled at Animation Mentor or the Pixar classes, it's time for HARD work. You need every minute you can get to polish your shots. Which means surrounding classes at the AAU will suffer because of it, which is fine to me. I had an English writing class during my last semester and some other useless (for me) class. I spent about 5mins a week on it, the rest was focused on my animation. If you have any filmmaking classes, don't neglect those of course.
SO.
I understand that you want to spend as much time as possible on your AM or Pixar assignments and technically I'm all for that. But for every student that's putting 5% into my class, there's another who would spend 100% (ok, maybe 95%). The problem is that this student didn't get into the class because it was full. And this is where I say, don't enroll into this class if you can't/don't want to put in the required time, because you're taking up a spot of someone that would. It won't help you, it won't help the other student and it won't help me. All in all it's just a waste of time.
The head looks good, I would just add a more appealing facial expression. He's a bit neutral. Especially the mouth.
What stuck out to me are his feet and arms.
First feet:
sideview: look at the front foot on x1. I think it's too high up. The walk is very casual so having the foot rotated that high up feels unnatural, same with the toes pointed up like that. Don't go higher than what you have at x2. The steps also feel slow from x24 to 1 and 2. I think it's mostly how little the foot goes back from x1 to x2, but big again to x3. Same with the other foot from x24 to x1, there's suddenly a smaller distance that the foot travels spacing wise. Then still small spacing from x1 to x2, then a big one to x3. So that slowdown and that pop gives the walk a weird feeling. When you watch it looped you sense a pause and then a pop. Also watch the arc of the foot as it lifts off the ground. Track the heel for instance. From x2 to x3 it goes up in Y a lot, then a little from x3 to x4 and then a sudden drop from x4 to x5. If you reduce the height on x3 and lower it a bit on x4 you'll get a nicer arc going into x5. You can also lower the foot on x9 and x21. With a relaxed walk like that you can have the feet almost graze the ground. The other thing, when looking at the front view, it looks like the feet vibrate. Make sure that they are locked on the ground, no wiggling.
Now the arms. They feel very straight, same with the hands/fingers. I would reduce the amount the arms swing in (frontview) and don't rotate the hand as much during the back swing (again in frontview at x12 for instance, rotate the hand (screen left one) so that you don't see as much of the palm).
Rotate the thumb away from the hand in order to give it a more natural pose. Right now the hand/finger pose reminds me of a military salute where everything is straight. What accentuates that salute feel are the straight arms during the swings. Look at the sideview, x7. The arm is pretty much straight and the wrist is bent too far back, so reduce the amount of back rotation for both hands and bend the arms so that they look more like what you have on x23.
Thanks to a tip and comment by David Bernal I checked out Carlos Baena's website and what a well of information, holy moly! He's updated the site and added soooo many goodies, fantastic!
Drop whatever you're doing and go through each page!
The Home page will give you general info on what he's working on and who he is.
First, Animation Material. It's the same link as I have on the right side under my resource section, so I can't say if he added stuff, but even if he hasn't, there is so much good stuff on it, you HAVE to check it out.
Then the Tips & Tricks section. There's a section about "Thought Process" and an awesome one about "Eyebrows". Again, take a moment and go through those pages. Thanks again David!
There's a cool progression comparison over @ characterdesign.blogspot. I do have to say though that the Clone Wars pose could just be an inbetween leading to the final pose. And don't forget it's TV, not a feature production. The time that is given to the animators is ridiculously small.
Still, it's a nice reminder to push your poses, to make them as appealing as possible, even during inbetweens. Don't let the computer do the work. If you want quality animation, you have to treat each frame like drawing animation, where each frame is worked on, without automatic inbetweening.
And apart from that, go check out the characterdesign blog for all the other posts, good stuff there.
This sequence is long, but filled with awesome moments.
Context: Crown Prince Leopold, played by Rufus Sewell, found out that his future wife Sophie, played by Jessica Biel, is cheating on him with the magician Eisenheim. He comes home and confronts her.
First off, I like the rhythm and pacing of it. It isn't just talking, every now and then the tension erupts into action and then gets dialed back.
But it's not a scream fest or a fist fight between the two actors during the active parts, there is a cool back and forth between loud and quiet. Let's look at all the good stuff within this sequence.
First, Sophie is anxiously awaiting Leopold's return, so you're anticipating that once he's arriving, the drama will start. But no. He comes in and sits down. He doesn't really look at her, he doesn't give her the satisfaction of addressing the problem immediately (even though she pretends to not know what he's talking about at first, she suspects he knows). Here's the first awesome character part to me.
Instead of starting the confrontation he sits down and pulls the plate with the glasses and the bottle towards himself. He could have just grabbed a glass and the bottle, but no, that would have left one glass and the option for Sophie to join him. No, he grabs the whole thing, not caring about her at all, shutting her out, keeping the upper hand. Awesome! Love that part.
Leopold then starts the conversation/confrontation. No shouting, just calmly questioning Sophie. And here's another great detail, often unused in animation.
A swallow.
Leopold says "I know you've been with him." and to that Sophie responds with "It's true." BUT. If she would just say it like that, she could come across as cold, as just confirming his "accusation". Instead she swallows before that line, which makes a huge difference. With that swallow you get guilt, nervousness, definitely not indifference.
Breaking up the quiet conversation is a sudden standing up by Leopold, because Sophie is not backing down (she tells him that she doesn't like his tone of voice). Leopold is losing power, so he gets up, but that's it, no screaming, just a little FYI that he's pissed and to keep the tension of the sequence going and to let her know who's the boss. Sophie is dismissive and Leopold condescending.
Sophie stands up, so she's not just physically on the same level as Leopold but also psychologically. It's a nice little power play between the two (reminds me of a classic Star Trek episode "Balance of Terror", but that's for another time...).
This leaves him only one way to exercise power, he screams, finally letting out his anger (awesome line delivery on "... if you've slept with him!!", but that could just be me :) ). Anger is still contained though, no invading of personal space. He's mad, but he's still just standing there.
Sophie had enough and tells him what the deal is. She is not going to marry him. The ultimate defeat to Leopold (he needs that marriage for political reasons), so he resorts to violence. He slaps her. Once reasoning is out, violence comes in, a typical human trait. She's also provoking that hit, but goes into major spoilers, just watch the whole movie. :)
Nice little detail added in post production. Notice how Sophie's cheek is slowly getting red? That would be easy to do in Maya with textures and definitely an awesome subtle detail.
So after that slap Leopold feels quite confident again. He tells her what she is supposed to do, walking away from her, turning his back on her, being dismissive. So you'd think that Sophie will finally bow down.
But no. And here comes another awesome little body gesture which says it all. Instead of being submissive, Sophie just tilts her head. There's a TINY smile, a little change of expression, but all that just shows that she feels pity for him. He just doesn't get it. And after that head tilt she says good-bye to him. AWESOME!! A little head tilt, that's it. Love it!
This next clip prompted me to post those acting reference shots in the first place, not just because it's great reference but also because I love that shot and wanted to share it with you guys. :)
Context: Edward Norton's character Eisenheim is having a private magic session for prince Leopold and his entourage.
So after a first round of tricks Eisenheim asks to see the Prince's sword. You can tell Leopold is annoyed just be the way he stops his walk and that he doesn't acknowledge Eisenheim by immediately turning around. He then walks up to Eisenheim and displays his sword. And here's the part that I LOVE.
Eisenheim asks "May I?", meaning "may I hold it" and watch how Leopold reacts. Again he doesn't look at Eisenheim and there is that giant pause, that reluctance to hand him the sword. Eisenheim is well below Leopold's social standing and the fact that this peasant has the guts to ask permission to actually TOUCH the sword is repulsive to Leopold. He has to lower himself to the standard and level and (to him) intelligence of Eisenheim. And his obvious annoyance of having to do so is beautifully acted by Rufus. He doesn't hand him the sword, there is no extra effort to be forthcoming, all he does is lower himself (visually and symbolically) so that the sword is within Eisenheim's reach. And as he does this he looks at the audience with a look of "Can you believe I have to do this?"
AWESOME!! Again, no giant gestures, nothing dramatic, just a little body movement down which says so much! Less is more. I love it!!
Context: Inspector Uhl, played by Paul Giamatti, wants Eisenheim to confess that all the magic is fake. Eisenheim does so but not in a way Uhl expected.
This one is again another example of a nice subtle move. Eisenheim simply asks if he can go now and Uhl, annoyed, says yes. But watch how he does it. That little smile, the head tilt and the eyebrow flash, saying "Sure, go, but I'm not done with you yet.", nice and subdued.
Watch Uhl's pose in the next shot. Even though he's "defeated", this pose is still elegant, still powerful in a "You can go but only because I let you." way, trying to keep the upper hand.
I have to post things the moment I see them, because otherwise I forget where and through whom I found it. This time it's the "Midnight Diaries of Catty Wampus" @ sabudesign. Tons of really cool animation tips, lots of comparison images, examples, etc. etc.
This is just too cool, love it! Like I said, check out Jeff's site. Not to double post but with this one I just wanted to make sure you guys are seeing the clip (and make sure to check out his blog "Flip", it's listed on my links list).
- feet: (sideview) as the foot goes back and lifts up, make sure it does not go through the ground (have a ground plane so you see what happens); (frontview) look at x21 how the screen left foot is up in the air, but the leg is rotated out, so have the foot not be parallel to the floor, rotate it as well (that goes for the other foot as well)
- hips: (frontview) delay how the hips go up once the foot planted. Looks like the left side starts going up at x27, have it start at x1, same with the other site which has the right side go up at x12 or 13, which should be x17
- delay your root down movement by 3 frames or so
- looks like your chest is rotating in Y before the arms, I would delay it by a few frames compared to how you have it now
- I like the head bobble though, makes it loose and playfull
- I think the arm forward swing is a bit fast
- pose out the hand/fingers in a more appealing way (do a search on our site for "Angus Hand pose", there's some good stuff
I want to know how I have to put my key frames to delay action.is that with just my feeling?when I couldn't put a few frames to built my action to make smooth, I usually put my keys on everyframe. is that right?
First, about the delay.
The funny thing is, it's not just about how you set the keys, it's about how you pose it in order to have overlap and delay. You have to understand how overlap works, it's not about the keys. If you don't know how overlap and delay works, then you can't set a key correctly.
And yes, sometimes you end up having keys on every frame to get what you need. Some people get to it through tweaking the curves in the graph editor, others through keying every frame.
The walk, let's look at the sideview:
- the foot doesn't really move backwards from x0 to x1, but from x1 to x2 there's a huge move, from x2 to x3 a less big movement (it all has to be the same, it has to be linear). How the foot rolls off the ground still has the weird pivot feel. By that I mean, look at x12 to x16. Step through it and you'll see that the toes are kinda stuck in the same spot. The forward movement of the feet can not be all over the place in terms of spacing. Look at x20 to x21, which has a small movement forward, then x21 to x22 which has a much bigger move, so make sure you don't have sudden pops like that.
Check out the site of the featurette here, which also gives you video profiles on the people who worked on it with more glimpses of the series. You know what, it actually does look cool. Don't forget it's TV, so budget and time constraints are huge. Facial animation needs some work but otherwise the production value is cool!
Animated News points to AOL Movies, which has the new Dreamworks trailer. Nice look! Too bad the music for the trailer is overused... A little bit of originality? Come on marketing! You can do better than that! The renders are awesome though, the last image especially, the way the master guy is framed.
Unfortunately I don't remember how I stumbled upon Daniel Chou's blog, so if anybody told me about it, thanks, if someone had a post about him, thanks as well! :)
I had his blog open in my tabs for a while now so it's about time I posted the link to it. There you go, Ginseng Soup.
Like I always say, sponge up all the information you can get. Please check out the links on the right side of the posts on this site, go through the resources and links.
One of them is Jeff Cooperman's blog. I always check it out because the info on it is great and there a lot of visual tips and critiques. Today I saw a post about TJ Phan's blog and his Spiderwick Goblins animation. That cracked me up because TJ emailed me last week and I wanted to link to his "A few good Mel's" post. Now he's up on Jeff's site. It truly is a small industry. :) I highly recommend his site because just like this one it's updated on a daily basis, so make it a daily visit. I can't stress this enough, sponge up all the information you can. You need to find your own way of working, my method and workflow is only one of many. Figure out the best and most efficient way and most importantly, have fun with it. Maybe that's just me but I love reading up on techniques, watching other people's work, etc. it really motivates me to push myself and to get off my lazy butt.
TJ's Spiderwick Animation. Like he says, "They're basically bouncing balls with teeth." Which tells you that there is a reason why everybody starts with a bouncing ball. It is the basic starting point that teaches you all the principles (animate different balls with character and tails and you got it all in there).
This sequence has a number of goodies in it. Let's take a look at how Shia gets out of the car. Nice struggle but what I liked is the thing he does with his hand on the ground.
There's shattered glass everywhere so he can't just put his hand flat on the ground otherwise he'd get cut. So watch how his fingers are off the ground and how only the ball of his palm ( can you say that?) is touching the glass.
I know it's a tiny thing, but if you would animate a guy crawling over glass, I'd love to see details like that.
Speaking of hands, watch how he grabs the door after limping around the car. It's not the typical FK to IK snap with a locked off wrist once its holding on to the object. There is a re-adjustment which would add some nice complexity to your animation.
And finally the look of horror as he sees his dead father. No giant screams, no bursting into tears, no flailing arms. Just a look of shock. I'm always for "less is more" when it comes to acting and this moment works pretty well in that regard.
It also reminds me of telling you guys to think about RE-acting. Many people say acting is reacting and I think it's crucial to your performance, especially when you have multiple characters. Pay attention when two people are talking to each other. Are they really listening to each other and reacting to what each person is saying? Or is one actor just waiting for the other actor to finish his line so that he/she can continue?
So how about having your character react to great dialogue instead of being the one who says it, that could be a good challenge.
Simple shot, Shia is asleep and wakes up. It's not your typical yawning or one eye opening before the other, etc. it all feels fairly natural, but what I liked, besides his sleepy expression and way of getting up, is how he slips before he gets up. It's funny, not exaggerated and adds a nice touch. One classic assignment is having a character getting out of a chair. That slip would be a great little detail.
Another simple shot but I like how he throws the phone away and how restless he gets. There are obviously a number of ways of throwing something and this one I think is a funny way of doing it.
Context: Shinzon is the bald guy in power and he just made it clear to the Romulan what she has to do.
What I like about this sequence is how he looks at her after she says "Dispose of him.". To him it's completely obvious that he is done talking to her and that she should get out of his sight. So watch for his little smile and the little eye darts. It looks like he's amused by her ignorance and I love that arrogant and condescending tone and look as he says "Now go.". No giant gestures or facial expressions, it's all very subtle and contained.
I'm trying to watch at least one movie a week and from now on I want to find cool moments in a movie in terms of acting or any other type of reference that would be helpful or inspiring to you guys.
So no matter what style or quality of a movie, something usefull has to be in it. This is easy to say and I'm already struggling with it... For instance "The Kingdom" had a great overall performance by Ashraf Barhom who plays Colonel Faris Al Ghazithe, but not a single moment that you could easily pick apart (at least I had an easier time with "The Illusionist" for instance). He was just good in general, just like Anthony Hopkins is always a joy to watch.
Be warned that I will mention plot points when needed in order to give you some sort of context, so spoilers are inevitable.
What I have almost ready are the following movies (some movies might get listed due to other notable filmmaking qualities besides acting):
Congratulations everybody! Of course there were many other winners, check out the whole list @ Hollywood Reporter
Best Single Visual Effect of the Year
"Transformers" (Desert highway sequence) Scott Farrar Shari Hanson Shawn Kelly Michael Jamieson --------------------- Animated Character in a Live Action Motion Picture
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" (Davy Jones) Hal Hickel Marc Chu Jakub Pistecky Maia Kayser --------------------- Animated Character in an Animated Motion Picture
"Ratatouille" (Colette) Janeane Garofalo Jamie Landes Sonoko Konishi Paul Aichele
The 35th annual Annie Awards took on a new level of laughter this year in an event that successfully combined prestigious awards with huge menu of comic relief, and most everyone was in a grand mood. Winners trotted to the stage to deafening applause and cheers with a couple of standing ovations thrown in. It was by far the most fun I’ve had at the Annie Awards. It seemed it’s time has come, and is fully embraced by the industry as the ceremony where frivolity looks great in animation black.
You would have to import both movies into after effects and put them side to side. At least that's how I do it. Or you import your animation into the same animation and then you have two identical guys in there. Move one aside and rotate it 90 degrees. But I think the AE method would be faster.
If anybody has another methods, let us know in the comments. ------
I assume that the arms haven't been animated yet, so let's look at the rest.
First of all, that character freaks me out! :) Those eyes in the front view, holy moly!!
Anyway. Let's start with the body. The up and down seems good but I would delay the hips. (frontview) From x0 to 3 the hips are already going up on the right side. His full weight would be on the foot starting at x3 and as he pushes himself up the weight shift would happen. So have the hips level out at x3 and then go up into what you have at around x7. Same goes for the other side. In the sideview it look like your hips are rotating back (let's take x0 to 3) a lot, whereas from frame 10 to 14 or so, as the foot travels backwards a lot, the hips don't really rotate anymore. Make sure that the hips are not disconnected from the leg action.
Your feet need adjustment in terms of timing. The moment the foot steps onto the ground it has to travel backwards (sideview) at the same rate. So the curve of your foot has to be linear from touchdown to liftoff.
Look at your foot from x3 to x4. Little movement back. Then x4 to 5. Big movement back. Then x12 to 13 it's smaller again. At that point it's actually slowing down to a stop from x14 to 15. From 15 to 16 it's moving forward! Then from 16 to 17 you have a giant change with the foot being on the ground with curled toes to completely off the ground. Use those extra frames when it slows down and stops to add more inbetweens so that the foot has a nice lift off the ground. There's good reference for that at this site:
Another quick shape change happens from x17 to 18 as well as from x23 to 0 where the toes are curled down and then fully up. You will have to make this transition a bit smoother by adding at least one more frame between the pose changes, because right now it makes the feet look very floppy (and the shoes look actually pretty hard and sturdy). Don't overstretch your leg during the passing poses at x8 for instance (you can see that the heel is off the ground).
Looking at the head (sideview) it feels like the timing of the overlap needs to get adjusted. Have the head be down around x5 already (the impact of the foot planting and the body stopping to go down will influence the head down movement). At x13 the head would be a bit up because it's dragging. 16 or 17 it would be down again because of the impact of the step, etc. etc. Frontview: the head does a quick screen right movement from x9 to x12. It looks like the body rotation is taking the head with it, so adjust the overlap there.
Animation Director, Lead and Animator // worked at Blizzard Entertainment, Nickelodeon Animation, Warner Brothers Animation and Industrial Light & Magic / Teacher @animationmentor / @academy_of_art / @spungella Animation Workshop
