Animation Mentor Newsletter
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Here are the past "Tips & Tricks" by Shawn Kelly:
- Tip #21: Reversals
- Rise above the snobbery
- Blink for a reason
- Style first!
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Student Example
Hey class,
go check out the "Fried Chicken Cutlet" blog and play the Pixar 1 reel. All his clips on the site are good, but the guy getting out of his chair in the Pixar 1 reel stood out for me. The complexity of it is nice, it's not too cartoony and not too simple.
And his balls look nice too. :)
Since most of you are graduating very soon, I'm sure you got some ball assignments somewhere. If not, it shouldn't take you longer than 20mins. Let's see them so you can move on!
Friday, September 7, 2007
Class recap
Hey guys (and girls!),
I hope you had a good time yesterday, I know I did. Everybody seems to be motivated to animate the crap out of this semester, good times! :)
There were still a few students that didn't show up, so if you have friends that are among them, please let them know about the new classroom and this site, so they can get up to speed and know what needs to be done homework wise.
Speaking of which:
- read through all the posts on this site (the ones that look helpful at least, like tutorials, lectures, Splinedoctor synopsis - I'd recommend critiques as well)
- check out www.11secondclub.com and go through all the entries. Grab a drink, put on some music and make yourself comfortable, it will take you a while. But like I said, it's good to see what's out there and you'll get to see all the overused and cliched acting choices as well as the more polished and subtle ones.
- look for a web hosting service and get your site up and running. Since you are graduating you NEED an online portfolio.
- use rigs that you can modify so that they look unique. Stay away from Generi, PackageMan and those guys. I recommend Lowman, but especially Norman. Check out Simon Christen's site and go through his links site. Check out all the animators and go through each animator's link page as well and so on. Again, take a few hours on the week-end check out all the amazing stuff. It's great to see how you can create unique characters and make your clip stand out.
- please show me a light, medium and heavy bouncing ball. If you have clips like that from another class, show me those. I just need to see that you mastered the basics and that you are able to show weight. Don't wait til next week if you have them already, shoot me an email and move on.
- please use a frame counter in your clip, keep the codec simple (sorenson 3 or something like that), quicktime (not windows media), movie size big enough so I can see what's going on but don't exaggerate, try to keep the file size small when you send me the movies per email (a direct link to the movie would be great, because on day I'll run out of space)
- if you don't want to follow the school syllabus and do your own thing, go ahead. If you have an idea of what type of clips you want to do and how many, you can always send me an email with that outline and I'll take a look at it.
- everybody please send me an email anyway, so that I have all of them on file (for mass emails in case of class updates). If you have a picture of yourself, attach that too, so that I can start remembering who you are (take a picture of your ID or some head shot). :)
I think that's it. If I remember something I'll add it here, if you have questions don't hesitate and send me an email.
Tata
Jean-Denis
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Advice for Students - by Mark Kennedy
If you haven't done so already, you should check out the "Temple of the seven golden camels" by Mark Kennedy. It's a great blog full of great posts. The newest one is about short films. Go read it!
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
"Stick Figure Fundamentals" by Keith Lango
There is an interesting post over at Keith Lango's site, about posing your character and how drawing fundamentals can help you with it.
I don't know if I agree completely. Yes, drawing will help you with your poses, but if you don't know posing, composition, all these principles, then your drawing will still suck. But if you've studied these principles, then you can recognize what's wrong with bad poses. There is no need to draw them out. You can go ahead and fix it on your 3D model.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
3 Bouncing Balls
Alright, the semester hasn't begun yet and we are already starting critiques!! Way to go!
Overall it looks great. Nitpicky as I am, there are few things that stood out.
Trap Door Ball:
- once it hits the floor it keeps rolling til around 238 or so (I'm at work, I can't step frame through it...). I would stop the roll a lot sooner, because the ball feels really heavy, there is almost no bouncing after the impact, so unless the floor is uneven (which it doesn't look like it) it should stop rolling pretty soon, just like a bowling ball.
Bouncy Ball:
- all good til frame 57 or so, it seems to slow down a lot, as if it starts rolling onto sand. Check your curves and adjust the translation so that the speed change isn't as abrupt.
Balloon Ball:
- that's a personal preference and what you have is not wrong, but I expected the ball to hit the little one at frame 231 instead of going past it. Again, nothing wrong with it, would add a nice touch and complexity to the piece. But your mechanics are good, it's not a required change, totally up to you.
- what I WOULD change is the ball's rotation from frame 261 on, it suddenly stops going clockwise and then continues at frame 293, keep it consistent
- when the ball hits the wall at frame 363 it keeps rotating clockwise for a while til the next bounce, I would go into the counterclockwise rotation a bit sooner
All in all, good stuff, you're ready to move on to whatever you want to do. You mentioned an audio clip for a one person dialogue. Sounds good. Bring in at least 5 different audio clips. Check out this post for the guidelines.
Make sure that you don't neglect the human mechanics. I know everybody wants to jump into acting, but ball physics is not the only basic element you should master before delving into dialogue shots.
Tata
Jean-Denis
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Part 1-Interview with Bobby Beck, Shawn Kelly and Carlos Baena of AnimationMentor.com
Watch it here.
Important part during the interview: Just because a company doesn't get back to you after you sent your reel to them doesn't mean that you are not good enough, but that the company is looking for a specific resume. If a company is not looking for what you're offering (no matter how good you are), then you won't get hired.
I found it on the "squash & stretch" blog by Randolf Dimalanta.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Room Change!!
I mentioned that our room with two people per computer could prove to be a bit frustrating and what do you know, 30mins after my email to Chris Armstrong I got a response saying that the new class room will be in 806. Thanks so much Mr. Armstrong, that was quick action taken there.
I think the room I had last semester was 805 (which was great) and the rooms on the 8th floor seemed pretty big. I haven't seen 806, but I think it's going to be like 805 (if anybody can confirm that, I'd appreciate it, I can't go downtown this week to check).
Monday, August 27, 2007
Full House
So I got my new faculty ID and checked in at the 180 just to see if there are any class updates. You'll see the day, time and room number at the top of the page.
To my surprise the school added one more student to the class.
Now, it's nothing personal and I am really excited that so many people want to be in my class. I'm just afraid that time will be very tight. We are now 20 students in a room with 10 PCs. I will have to figure things out so that I can really spend enough time with each of you guys (and girls of course).
If you want a head start, you can already start working on the bouncing ball assignment (which EVERY student will have to do). Here the description from a previous post (or rant):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).
If you know other students who will be in this class, please tell them about this site and this assignment, spread the word. :)
Thanks guys and girls and see you next week!!
Tata
Jean-Denis
Friday, August 24, 2007
Melvin The Robot Rig
Interesting. While browsing "Retro Thing"'s "Who says robots can't be cute" post, I noticed the uncanny resemblance between these guys and the Melvin the Robot rig.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Team Fortress 2 GC 2007 Soldier Trailer - Direct Feed
Great style, that's how feature movies should be now, away from the hyperreal.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Crowd Animation
This is really sweet! - found @ Cartoon Brew
Samsung Dance - video powered by Metacafe
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Surf's Up Siggraph Paper
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Coke Happiness Factory
Remember that coke commercial which showed what happens inside the vending machine? I liked that one a lot, but this new one is awesome.
Check it out here!
Friday, August 10, 2007
Pencil Test - Behind the Scenes
Head over to Cartoon Brew for the details on that movie. Very interesting!
"Carried Away" by Zach A. Parrish
I'm always thinking about doing a 3D short. But then I see stuff like "Carried Away" and go, "Aw, why bother... My technical know-how is so limited by now."
Just look at it, great renders, the animation is sweet, cute story. Nicely done. Reminds me of the movie "Explorers". Good movie too (at least the first half).
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
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
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