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
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.
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
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.
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
Looks like they're mixing a cg puppet with a regular string puppet? Either way, looks awesome!
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:
Basically, don't make any mistakes. HAHAHAHA! (that one was for my Fall '07 class)
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.
Show me an interesting character, not the same damn thing I’ve seen over and over. Be original with your characters, ideas, acting… everything.
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
Head over to cookedart and check out the three Gobelin shorts, Crash Test, The Omen and my favorite: Blind Spot (great little dark story).
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!
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.
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!)
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. :)
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.
