Out on Vacation
Back in 2 weeks.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Super Cute Extra White Gum Commercial
Absolutely adorable commercials for "Extra White" chewing gums. - found @ Cooked Art
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Fall Class Update and a Rant
Hey boys and girls! If anybody out there is considering taking my class in fall, remember that it is THIS ONE. I'm NOT teaching the graduate class 686. That was (unsurprisingly) a mistake by the Academy. For months now I've been telling them that it is the Character Animation Studio class only, and what do I see in the recent course line up? My name attached to two classes... sigh...
I was also mentioning that fewer students would be more beneficial, since there would be more one-on-one time between student and teacher and a good balance between lectures and critique. For this upcoming animation class in fall I don't have fewer students, I have actually MORE... sigh... That's how much they listen (or care?).
So far, there are 19(!) students signed-up. Now, let's look at the "worst case" scenario. If I do a lecture, consisting of theory, a demonstration and clips for reference, it can easily take up one hour. The class is 170 mins long, take away a midpoint break of 10 mins, 160 mins, minus the lecture, 100 mins. That leaves us with 5.2631579 mins per student. Now consider the time it takes going from clip to clip, technical problems ("Hmmm... I thought I used the right codec..."), actual viewing time before you get to the critique, etc. We are left with (hopefully) 4 mins of actual critique time per student. That doesn't leave any room for discussions, critique by fellow students, completely unrelated story telling and ramblings, the occasional spankings and mandatory beating. In short, where's the fun??
Ok, ok, I'm exaggerating. Or am I? Tun tun tun tuuuuuuuuhhhh... cue creepy music and flashlight under your face.
Maybe it's time for an Academy rant. I know, it sounds weird coming from someone that is employed by the AAU, but it's not just negative, there is hope.
I've been a student at the Academy of Art College (which is now a University) from Fall 1999 until Spring 2003, and a first time teacher in Spring 2007, returning to the AAU after 4 years. My first impression was that nothing had changed. It is terribly unorganized and the students are not properly advised by their student... wait for it... advisors... They feed you useless classes and you end up wasting a lot of time and money. They promise you 80 or 90% job approval ratings but don't give you the support needed in order to back up those claims. Granted, I can only speak from an animation major point of view (and not photography or design), but according to friends in the film and fashion department, it's not an isolated case.
What I suggest: the moment you know what you want to do, what major, go find a student that is about to graduate and ask him/her what classes are worth taking. Make a list of all the classes that you really have to take (and pay attention to the pre-requisites) and tell your advisor to sign you up for those (don't have them tell you what to do, otherwise you end up taking "Design Drawing" with an insanely expensive supply list). If you are someone like me who couldn't transfer too many classes from your previous education, then you'll end up taking things like English Writing, US History, etc. Interesting classes maybe, but not very helpful when it comes to learning animation. If you have a choice, swap these with classes that teach you composition, storyboarding, editing, anything that's related to film making. If you don't (like me), then add them to your necessary classes, so that you have 5 classes per semester. Don't stop at 4. I took four classes per semester for the first two years and I still had a lot of free time. During my last semester I took 6 classes. 4 must-haves and two mandatory ones online. I didn't care about the grades, I just wanted to learn animation, because that' s what I came here for. What matters is a degree, not your grades. If you are an American and don't need a VISA, then even a degree is not that essential in getting a job. It helps, but your portfolio will get you the job, not the degree. For foreigners applying for an H1B Visa, a bachelor is a minimum requirement.
But even with all this in mind, you won't get anywhere if you are not willing to work hard. As crappy as the AAU can be, it's mostly when you just sit back and wait for things to happen. If you expect to magically emerge as a super animator once you graduate, then no school will be able to help you.
If you are devoted to animation, self-motivated and pro-active, then the AAU is pure gold. You can build up a great network of friends and industry professionals and for animators the Pixar classes are heaven. After graduation I came back for an additional class (since I didn't get any response from studios after my initial demoreel send-out) and it was a Pixar 2 class. The christmas/spring time is always a good time for getting a job, so that time coupled with a stronger portfolio thanks to the Pixar class got me a job. Pixar also offers an internship during summer, so my suggestion would be to do whatever it takes to get a strong portfolio together in order to get accepted into one of the 3 Pixar classes, because the benefits are immense.
My hope is that I can help you guys out with building said portfolio. I'm tough on the grades because I compare the work to the current quality of animation students and portfolios in the field. You are competing with industry veterans, Animation Mentor graduates and everybody else out there who wants the same job as you do. Before the semester starts I will post examples of what is needed to get an A or B and what will get you a C, D and F.
So, again, the upcoming class will be packed and I hope that if you signed up for it, that you are serious about it. If it is just a filler class (and there are tons of them, I know, I've been there), then either get out of it or let me know at the beginning of the semester. It's not fair to waste your fellow student's time. If you tell me that you have to take this class but don't really care, then at least you're honest and I'll let you browse the web during class (just don't expect anything higher than a "D"). It's your choice (and your money).
Just like with my first class, you'll be able to construct your own syllabus. I'm here to help you out whatever your animation needs are. If you've never done a walk cycle, I'd suggest you do one (they're hard). If you did tons of them, move on (unless you're really bad at them...). Make sure that your portfolio shows variety, so find areas that need improvement and go from there. I'm obviously there for you to tell you what needs improvement in case you are unsure. Bring your current portfolio to class so I can look at it. If you're completely new to animation, then following the AAU syllabus is a good idea. The syllabus covers a lot, but the variety is good.
What is required is an understanding of the basic mechanics. Your first assignment will be a bouncing ball. EVERYBODY will have do this. The only exception are students who can show me their balls (zing!) during the first class. I need to see a heavy, medium and light ball. No character, just pure physics. If you can't sell the weight of a simple ball, I most certainly won't let you do a two character dialogue shot. If you want to really convince me, then have the balls fall from left to right (or right to left, or bouncing of walls, objects, etc. anything that's beyond the simple up and down the Y axis) and add a tail to them. So if you have a squishy rubber ball with a tail, you'll be able to show me believable weight, squash & stretch and overlapping actions with the tail. If that is the case, you can move on, if not, keep practicing until you get it (I'll obviously help you with it).
The other thing I will repeat from the first class is the option to email me your work during the week (or better, have a link to it on your site - you need your own website). So don't waste a week on a 10min ball bounce assignment. Once you're done, let me know and you can move on.
If you have any questions, just shoot me an email.
See you soon!
Jean-Denis
Friday, July 6, 2007
Ratatouille Easter Eggs
So was Bomb Voyage in Ratatouille? Yep! Check out the "Ratatouille Easter Egg" post @ comingsoon.net
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Make a short film!
Want to *create* great character performances?
Posted by: keithlango
Make a short film!
That’s the conclusion I draw from reading the entirety of Mark Mayerson’s master’s thesis (he posted the final installment on it today). Of course I am making a distinction between creating a performance and contributing to one.
Head over there, it's a good read and he makes a valid point. Often times the studio that you're doing the movie for has a whole committee of people making decisions and the animation direction you're getting pinballs off so many people that everything gets diluted and confusion reigns once they see the finished animation. Everybody wants to be the director.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Ratatouille Screening
Last Friday my wife, son and I were very fortunate to attend a "Ratatouille" screening at Pixar. They showed the short "Lifted" by Gary Rydstrom and the "Wall-E" teaser, then moved on to the main dish (zing!).
In short, the movie was absolutely terrific.
[Spoilers will be hidden, please highlight the blanks in order to see them.]
The movie opens with the Pixar logo and a subtle French anthem playing on top of it, which made me smile of course. I'm a huge sucker for sounds or music over logos that set the tone of the movie (see "Blow" or countless other movies I can't think of right now), so this was already a great start (yes, I'm that anal...).
The sound and music overall was great, Michael Giacchino proved once again that he's very talented and able to navigate between different genres, and the sound masters at Skywalker Sound led by Randy Tom don't disappoint either.
What surprised me was the animation on the old lady at the beginning of the movie. Being that old, her handling of the gun is a bit over the top and out of character. She's just not strong enough to work the gun like that. Yeah, yeah, it's a cartoon, but Pixar has always been good about keeping their characters consistent across the board. Same with Linguini's slapstick moments, like when hes a few 360s to get the letter out of his pants and when he rides his bike to go kill Remy. The first one is acting wise too much and the bike ride is very fast in terms of movement. I think the reason why I reacted to that is because of the look of the movie. That's my major gripe. The renders look so real at times, that it gets close to live-action, yet the characters are designed in a very cartoony way. That mix is a bit jarring to me. With all that realism established, I'd expect the animation to be leaning towards the real as well. But you're left with cartoony faces and cartoony acting, yet the hair looks and behaves in a real manner, the physics are all real, fire, smoke, etc. everything else obeys the laws of physics. I'm missing the character that even smoke has in old 2D Disney movies. Everything was stylized. Here you have Skinner, with his great performance, but when you see his mouth moving in all directions on a face that looks so real, then the heads become very squishy, very doey, if that makes sense.
Wall-E seems to be going the photoreal way as well. I hope that at one point Pixar goes the other way, establishing a new visual style. But then you hear that John Carter of Mars will mix CG with live-action? Oh boy, I hope not, unless they stylize the live-action part. But that's years away.
Oh, I almost forgot, that little "non-mocap" disclaimer at the end? Weak. Keep it humble, come on.
Is "Ratatouille" better than "The Incredibles" seems to be a question I hear/read a lot. Tough choice. I love the subject matter in The Incredibles more than in Rats, but acting wise Rats is so much more advanced and the overall look of the movie is unbelievably beautiful.
I thought that the end of the 2 act was dragging a bit, with my mind suddenly asking the question "Hmm... so is this better than Incredibles?" But I also thought that the beginning of Incredibles was slow, now I love it. I probably have to watch Ratatouille again so I can enjoy the movie instead of scrutinizing everything.
But all in all another masterpiece by Pixar.
.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Transformers Commercial
Head over to Jalopnik for very funny car commercials.
The first one with Megatron tossing the car is actually my shot, yay!!
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007
Thursday, June 21, 2007
MORTIMER & BRACKET
Check out the short film by Andrew Chesworth.
Funny animation and nice art direction.
Found @ 3Dtotal
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Another Flip Post
I really like "Flip", make sure you check it out. This time Cameron posts an analysis of the judges and the performer on the UK version of American Idol.
Like he writes, watch the clip first, then his post.
Thanks for that post!
Peter & the Wolf
Annecy Winner! Looks awesome! For more info about "Peter & the Wolf", click here.
found @ Harald Siepermann
Monday, June 18, 2007
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
The 11second Club
The good old days of the 10second Club are gone. Unfortunately after a few technical problems the site died.
But now, thanks to Aja Bogdanoff, her husband Mark and other talented people, you will be getting the 11second Club! The premise is this: you get a dialogue clip every month, you animate to it and then people vote for their favorite animation. Having a monthly deadline is great (especially for lazy bastards like myself) and it's a lot of fun to see what other people came up with.
I remember the 10second Club in email form, then the different website versions. It was a blast to see 40 to 80 different versions of the same audio clip, different models, different sets, etc. etc.
Like in any other artform, practice makes perfect. So even if you have classes this summer, but especially if not, I suggest you check out that site and start submitting your work. I will try to do the same, but I don't want to throw out another empty promise... :-)
Tata
JD
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
The Power of Pyramids
by Cameron Fielding @ fliponline
Another interesting post by Cameron Fielding, examining the power of the pyramid in poses and the distribution of weight and focus. Go check it out!
Animator Friendly Rigging - walk timelapse
Timelapse video of a walk cycle created with the rig from Animator Friendly Rigging by Jason Schleifer.
jonhandhisdog.com
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Aardman Speaks
Learn to lip sync your 3D characters the Wallace and Gromit way with this 3D World tutorial in facial animation, based on the techniques used on CG projects at the legendary studio Aardman Animations
Head over to www.computerarts.co.uk for their tutorial.
Found @ Keith Lango's site
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Flip
Head over to "Flip" by Cameron Fielding.
Good site with tips and tricks illustrated via text and movies.
I can't wait to see his vampire short in action.
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