Pixar Zoetrope
This thing is just too COOL! What about a smaller handheld version, with just one character, sold at Disney stores. I'd totally get it. Here's another angle (shorter clip though). - found @ Cartoon Brew
Friday, October 12, 2007
Strong Hand Poses and Contact
Those pictures are from the new CG "Ten Commandments".
Take a look at the hands/fingers. Please make sure that you don't have default finger/hand poses like that in your work. This is kinda a repost, but you can't research/study hand poses enough. Make sure to look at Angus' drawings, check out comic books or do a google search, you will find very strong poses (not just for hands, for instance Tennis and Football). Find inspiration where ever you can.
Also, look at the feet (in the first pic), they don't seem to be really grounded on the floor. Make sure that your contact points are solid. not just with feet, but on hands, or whatever you have that should convey contact and weight. Even if it means tedious frame by frame work. Davis' cowboy on-his-knees clip is a good example.
I know it's a cheap shot to point out stuff like that, there might have been tons of reasons why the poses look so generic, I'm just using it as an example, so no need to write me an angry email.
Critique - Jello
Alright, the "teacher" works great during the push-off-desk. The gesture on around x110 for "Who did this?" is a bit broad, it's very "Tataaaa, look at that." You can lessen the arc, where it's a very matter of fact A to B (with a little arc though). I would keep that pose with some life to it as he looks back to the kids (the hand to the chest is very even in terms of timing and slow). You can then go to the folded hands as he starts walking
The walk needs some work, it needs more weight and character, right now it's very still (whole body with arms and head are moving as one), loosen up the upper part. The screen right leg around x206 is doing a weird swing, where the knee is pointing screen right and then moves in with an opposite pose at around x214. Lessen the out and in of the knee.
On "I'm gonna loose..." his bending down to the kid is too big, tone that down because you want the full explosion happening with the other kid. Straighten him up as he says that line. He's stiffening up, preparing for the jump, then make the jump a bit faster and have his head always looking at the kid (with a little nose down for the overlap on the land, but not too much). On "mind" you can have him get closer to the kid to accentuate "mind".
The right kid looks okay idea wise, just put polish on it. The left guy shouldn't look at the other kid because it distracts from the teacher, the audience should always be looking at him. The kid can look at the other one at the very beginning with a tiny head rotation towards him, nothing big.
With FK/IK switching you either match it frame by frame or make the switch happen across a few frames.
Cheers
Jean-Denis
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Critique - TNT and Martial Arts
First off, the TNT clip:
I can't wait to see the final version (love the foot traces as he slides back - how are you going to make them visible? Are they just geometry, little spheres?).
The main thing that sticks out is his facial expression around x188. At the beginning of the shot, before he bends down to pick up the box, you see him screaming. That expression needs to be while he throws the box and clearly visible at x188, a scream of power and desperation, hoping that the box is far away enough.
There is something about that pose pause around x190 to x200. I would add some overlap or continuing acting with his body. Right now it seems like he pauses for a bit in order to go to the shocked expression at x209. It's a bit too pose to pose.
Speaking of x209, I would offset the arms in terms of posing a bit. At x209 (during that section) both arms are stretched out and down. I would take the screen right one and move it up a bit (see image), give it more negative space between the chest and the upper arm.
I'll take a look at it at home for a more detailed critique.
Again, the foot traces are great, now you need to add little touches like that to the set. Give the walls some character (don't have them be straight lines for instance), same with the boxes and the ground. Keep going, nice work!
The martial arts one is coming along nicely. One part that stuck out was around x176 where the poses could be stronger.
As you get further along, add some detail to the foot when he holds the pose at x40 (right now it's pointed up with the same rotation throughout, you could tense the foot more right before he goes into the next action, or relaxe it a bit, just keep it alive). Same with the head, it feels locked.
Would be cool to add some breathing or strong inhale/exhales during certain moments, gathering his strength before the next salve for instance.
Hope that helps!
Cheers
JD
John Nevarez
Take a break from animating and check out John Nevarez' blog. There are lots of really talented artists out there with fantastic blogs, which can be really inspirational in terms of posing, design, composition (like Gabriele Pennacchioli's one-drawing story), but I always visit John Nevarez' blog, because not only do you get to see what he's up to, you also get posts with TONS (and I mean TONS) of links to other insanely talented artists.
The variety of artwork is great, you get really inspired to create unique characters and to place them in powerful backgrounds. Sometimes there's just a very strong hand/finger pose, or the interaction between multiple characters or the composition using a small and a big character, a certain facial expression, etc. etc. but there is always something cool.
It will take you a long time to go through all the posts and links, but whenever you have time, start your journey into holy-moly land.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Does your browser crash?
I'm using Quicktime 7. 2 - Firefox 2.0.0.7 - Flash 9,0,47,0 - on 4 different systems (different configurations), Firefox 2.0.0.3 and Mozilla 1.7.7 at work, nothing happens. If anybody finds any solution, please let me know.
UPDATE: Jeff (THANKS!!!!) posted this in the comment section:
...actually there's a new quicktime bug that crashes all browsers, that happens every time it updates itself. try this...go into..
quicktime
quicktime preferences
advanced
direct X
disable enable directDraw accelleration, secondary monitors, and video accelleration.
all should be well.
------------------------------------------------
So, I asked around and no one is having browser crashing problems except my students (which sucks because you guys really need to be able to read the posts). Here is a reply I got from a "tester" which might help:
They can try emptying their cache.
MAC
Clearing Cache on Firefox 2.0 for Macintosh
1. Open Firefox.
2. Click the Firefox menu and select Preferences.
3. Click the Advanced icon and click the Network tab.
4. Click Clear Now under the Cache section.
5. Click the "X" in the top left corner to close the Advanced window.
6. Exit and re-launch the browser.
Winblowz
Clearing Cache on Microsoft® Internet Explorer 7.0
1. Click Start and select Settings, then Control Panel.
2. Double-click Internet Options.
3. Click the General tab.
4. Click Delete under the Browsing History section.
5. Click Delete Files in the Delete Browsing History dialog box.
6. Click OK.
7. Click Close.
8. Close and relaunch your browser.
Clearing Cache on Microsoft® Internet Explorer 6.0
1. Click Start and select Settings, then Control Panel.
2. Double-click Internet Options to open Internet Properties.
3. Click Delete Files.
4. Click OK on the Delete Files dialog box.
5. Click OK.
Clearing Cache on Firefox 2.0
1. Click Tools and select Options.
2. Click the Privacy icon.
3. Click Clear Now in the Private Data area.
4. Click Ok.
5. Exit and relaunch the browser
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also try flushing your DNS cache.
open a command line in windows. Start > Run > (type: CMD)
in the DOS terminal type:
ipconfig /flushdns
So, give that a try.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Blocking Stages
For some curious reason I've received numerous emails from students expressing their dissatisfaction with their clip, even going as far as stopping to work on it completely (curious because they all arrived pretty much at the same time). All of them were in the blocking to blocking+/polish stages, where the main ideas are in it, but not all the details.
If you have a clip which is very subtle, the basic blocking might look very boring to you (that happens even with action pieces btw.). Don't give up, trust your instincts. If you liked the idea at the beginning, hold on to it. It's normal that you get bored or frustrated after seeing your clip a hundred times. Work on a 2nd clip to change your ideas and to keep a fresh eye.
Sometimes the "wow" factor lies within the polish. Just make sure that the foundation, the blocking, is in place and go from there.
Justin Barrett has an interesting breakdown of his Puss in Boots clip, from acting reference to final polish. There is even a clip with 4 stages shown at the same time. Read through his breakdown here.
Animation Mentor: Advanced Work-flow - Two Medium Approach
Another article in the current AM Newsletter is "Advanced Work-flow: Using A Two-Medium Approach" by Kenny Roy. He says about this method:Simply put, TMA is the practice of switching between hand drawn and CG animation, whenever one method offers a better way to overcome an animation obstacle.
It's interesting to see that this work-flow is being covered right now. A few days ago there was a post on the Spline Doctor's blog, which started as a 2D animation software recommendation. They mention that students should learn 2D animation before tackling the 3D version of it. The comments to the post mention an AM work-flow involving 2D and 3D animation. So go through those comments and you'll end up with tons of useful links about 2D software.
But back to the main topic. The work-flow is not for everyone, since basic drawing skills are a minimum. It's all about saving time and getting to your animation as quickly as you can, so bypassing a complex rig and drawing your poses can be great. But if you can't draw at all, you might take the same amount of time. Just go through the Pros and Cons he lists and you'll see if this method is for you.
There are also clips that illustrate the method. It's definitely an interesting approach and you should at least try it. Greasepencil by Jason Schleifer is also very cool, a script that let's you draw inside Maya.
Animation Mentor Fall 2007 Student Showcase
Alright, ready for a big piece of humble pie and a refill on motivation?
Stop whatever you're doing and watch the AM Student Showcase 07.
It's fantastic and humbling to see how high the bar is now in terms of student work.
Perfect example up front, Nathan Engelhardt's Body Mechanics clip with the cave men. It could just be a weight assignment, but there is so much that makes this clip stand out. First of course, the animation. It's very well done and funny, the emotions are clear and the character seems alive. There is also interaction with the set, as he pushes away his tools during the struggle.
The 2nd guy adds humor to the whole "exercise" and gives it a little story. Also a good incorporation of a cycle (with some extra tweaks to disguise the cycle).
The composition is clear. Even though the character is right smack in the middle of the frame, the emphasis is on the stone, which occupies most of the left screen half. He's standing in front of the sky, which makes his silhouette clear, there's nothing busy behind him.
It's not just an empty space, it's an actual location and the character is part of it. He's wearing his little loincloth. The landscape is not just flat, it's a bit uneven where he stands, there are hills and rocks in the background and stones and bones in the foreground. Nice touch how the foreground and background are out of focus, adding depth to the scene.
All of this doesn't require any technical skills (besides the animation mechanics of course). There are no crazy modeling skills necessary, this should all be doable.
The visual icing on the cake are the textures. The stone, the landscape, the exaggerate form of the clouds, beautiful. The lighting works also very well.
The rocks and the sky could be taken from an image and not be actual geometry. But the realistic stone texture makes it all work together and nothing stands out as out of place.
But that "little" extra requires skills beyond animation and basic modeling. I would always spend the extra time on animation. When you feel that the animation works and you have free time, then you can work on the extra visuals.
Either way though, this is what students do, that's the current level.
As you continue watching the reel, you start to wonder if all the students took extra texturing classes, since all the sets look very nice (even the snow on the 2nd clip). :)
Another fantastic clip is the two character interaction one by Shad Bradbury. I've always been waiting to see a clip like that (since most clips online are about one or two characters talking). This one shows a great feel for weight.
The struggle of the little guy lifting/pushing/pulling the heavy one is great, but I'm actually always watching how the heavy one moves. The way the body feels heavy and squishy is great. A bit cliche maybe but to push it further you could put those characters in a warzone or some environment which makes it clear why he's pulling his buddy. Yes, it's the desert and he wants to help/save him, but a more interesting set and maybe interaction with it would have been top notch.
There is a lot more in that reel, so please check it out, it's well worth the time.
Critique - Walk & Run
The walk:
Front view: your body is missing the left/right translation. So let's say during x10 (and of course for the other side as well), his weight needs to be over the screen right leg. Right now your body just goes up and down.
The head could also use some stabilizing, right now it swings with the body left/right. If you pick the middle part of the head, it should more or less stay in the middle with some overlap, but your head swings from left to right a lot.
The right arm more so than the left one hits a wall towards x32/x1. It does an outside swing, then comes in a bit until said frames and hits a wall for a few frames. Make sure that the arc continues throughout the loop.
Side view: the feet are sliding, it looks like they snap down and backwards, slow down, then accelerate before the lift off.
There is a hiccup in the spacing on his left arm, it seems to slow down around x10, then speeds up again.
The hands are too early in terms of drag and overlap. Look at x32, the arm just finished its backward swing yet the hand is already rotated back (delay that by 2 or 3 frames and I would actually lessen the rotation a bit).
His head could use a bit more nose up/down, when the body goes up the head drags a bit with its nose down and vice versa on the down.
The run:
seems good except one major thing: there is a giant snap during frames 1 to 2 and 15 to 16, as if he got hit by a giant hammer!!
:)
Animation Mentor Newsletter - Oct 07 Issue #27
The new Animation Mentor Newsletter arrived yesterday and I hope everybody signed up for it.
The highlights are:
The 11 Second Club revealed! - AM is now sponsoring the site and the future looks bright!
"The Briefcase" short by Jimmy Almeida - I met Jimmy and he's a very talented and funny guy, same goes with his animated short. Make sure to check it out.
Profile on Dave Burgess - Dreamworks Feature Animator
Profile on Megan Hobby - AM Alumni
There is more, but they warrant their separate posts. Check out the links and sign up for the newsletter if you haven't already.
Strong Poses and Planning
According to Jeff I "started this instructor blog craze" :) and I'm glad when other teachers are adopting this method (I doubt I "started" this method though). Whatever it takes to give students the most help they deserve.
And now that I'm checking out Jeff's animationaac blog, I'm glad he started the blog. He has a great link to Elliot Roberts' blog, which has a great post on strong poses.
He also has a super sweet outline for planning your shots from Clay's Animation Podcast site. Absolutely go check it out!
We Were Centurions
Go to wewerecenturions.com and watch the clip. I feel bad for complaining about something (I hear my own voice going: Well how about you create a finished short instead of criticizing), but here it goes. This is (to me at least) an example of too much gesture acting, less would have been a lot more. If you characters have limited facial features, there is no need to act everything out with your arms/hands to compensate for it.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Critique - "Jello"
This works a lot better, nicely done. If there is a way to put the screen right student more into frame, that would be good, so he's not that cut off.
The hands are fine, but as you get into a more refined stage you can add more business to them, instead of them just being cupped together, not too much, it's nice how it's a bit contained before the outbreak, plus it lets you concentrate on the character's face. He could hold his hands together, rub them a little bit, relax the hands, stuff like that.
At the end, when he screams at the kid, I would have him look straight into his face, not looking down the way it is now.
Basics are blocked out, now you can put all the good stuff in it! Can't wait to see it!
Cheers
Jean-Denis
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Critique - Walkcycle
Hey,
nice, a lot better. The head rotation adds character, you could turn her head a bit more towards us (frontview), not by much though.
The legs are good, although you seem to have a tiny Y rotation on the feet as they plant and move back. But the knees and everything is nice and smooth.
Since you reduced the feet, I think you need to reduce the arms, in terms of how far forward and backwards they swing. Now that the legs and the body up/down got smaller, they stick out a bit (with the big hands :) ). That's just something that you see after the tweaks you've done. But all you need to do is scale your z or x (don't know which one), it will slow down the arms a bit which fine though.
So everything looks good, the last thing to fix is a hiccup in the upper body (which is visible in the head because of that). So for reference, look at the front view, her right side of the head. It moves screen right until x4, then hits a wall. Same with the upper body that goes screen left til x24 then to the right on x1 and x2. So first fix the upper body. Look at the shoulder spheres and track the spacing frame by frame, making sure that you don't have sudden stops. Once that is fixed, do the same thing with the head. Make sure that the rhythm is nice and without hiccups.
Sideview, check the timing of your arms as the swing forward and back. Her right arm seems to slow down a tiny bit as it approaches x22 but then speeds up again. It's also visible in the front view. The screen left hand/arm (more then the other one) seems to shoot forward and to the right and then back the same way. You could add a nicer arc as the arm goes back.
Go through your arcs frame by frame, or pick a spot of the character's body. For example, I look at the right side of the head, the hair to be exact and go through the spacing. So x1 to x4 the head goes to the right, then stops at x5 til x7, then to 8 it moves a little bit to the right, then nothing, then from 9 to 10 a tiny bit to the left, then nothing til x12, then to the right til x15, nothing til x18, then a broad movement to the left til x24, then suddenly to the right from x1 to x2 and so on. Then check your keyframes in the graph editor and adjust them or set keys (whatever approach works better for you, but it's easier to adjust the keys and the curves in the graph editor), so that the spacing gets polish.
Another example would be (in the sideview) her left arm. After the forward swing, at x16, track the spacing of her forearm/hand. x16 to x17, little movement (big drag on the hand, which you could reduce a tiny bit actually), 17 to 18, bigger spacing, then the culprit from 18 to 19, where the spacing as a bit smaller again, but mostly, the arc gets a hiccup. If you look at the wrist, it doesn't go down, just to the right, then down again from 19 to 20. After that the arc is fine. So take your dry erase marker, put a dot on the wrist on every frame and you'll see the hiccup (and also a slow down towards from x24 to x1, but then a bigger spacing, and then a smaller one again - doesn't stick out as much as the one on x18 but might as well clean that up). Don't forget to use the dry erase marker (or whatever spacing check tool you prefer).
That's it. You're pretty much done.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
DVD.
Critique - Walkcycle
Walkcycle
The upper body still shoots up quickly and then stops the Y translation from x7 to x11 or so. Make that transition a bit smoother.
With that body popping up during the steps and how she slams down her feet she feels very stompy. Is that what you're going for?
With the left/right swinging that's going on, it would cool to see more fluid movement in the upperbody from the sideview. Not much, just a little bit.
The backleg on x13 pops to x14. The other leg looks better during that moment of taking the foot off the ground.
Frontview: you still have the pops in the legs, make sure that you trace the arcs. Left leg, stays put (speaking of left/right arc), then from x3 to x4 it pops to the right, then from 4 to 5 it pops to the left. It does a nice curve during the step til x10, but hits a wall and stays put til it x14. Same thing happens to the other leg.
Frontview: right arm, swing is good til x18, then as it goes backwards there is no more left/right swing, it's all straight, try to keep the arc going. Same with the screen left arm at x4, it swings to the right then hits a wall. It swings back with a tiny arc, but make that transition at x4 smoother. There's a pop in the arc going from x24 to x1. The arm goes forward, then suddenly to the left then to the right, that needs more love.
Sideview: Your shoulders seem a bit delayed. They should go with the arm, with a 2 frame delay or so. The arm is leading the shoulder, true, but right now the shoulder is really late.
The overlap on the head needs more love as well. The timing is a bit off. As the body goes down, the head stays up and when the body goes up the head goes down, dragging. Keep the amount that you have, just work on when it happens.
Keep going!
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Critique - Daddy's home
First off, I apologize for this part, I should have mentioned it when I first saw the clip with the girl in it. Right now, the framing is off. Frame 1 has better framing illustrated (the major points of the critique are drawn onto the movie in a very artistic way btw.). This way the kid's legs are not cut off. So I would move the camera down. I also moved the girl more to the left. That way, when she walks to the door, there is a clearer path of A to B then what you have now. If you had just the silhouette of the girl, there wouldn't be that much of a change from when she's sitting to when she's standing. So, she plays with the horse, light goes on (have it in the blocking so that the idea is clear - every idea needs to be in the blocking). She then gets up and walks towards the door and ends up where you have her. When the dad opens the door, have her react to it and take a few steps to the right, otherwise both characters' silhouette overlaps. So give the dad some room by having her more screen left, especially when he pushes her (next drawing). Her landing point also needs to be more screen right, again for clearer composition.When the dad kicks the bookshelf you can use that moment to break a little piece of the wooden part (have the bookshelf jiggle a bit), that way it's a bit more plausible that the whole shelf falls down when he holds on to it (yes, you could argue that the wooden piece is of really crappy quality by breaking off that easily but hey, maybe the dad is a cheap bastard).
Cheers
Jean-Denis
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Critique - Walkcycle
I like the look of the character! :)
First thing that stands out animation wise is the even up and down of his body. Try to find a more natural rhythm. The body is going to be in the up position for a bit longer, which will make the "fall" a bit faster. The down part can also be held a tiny bit longer, since it will take him a bit to get up (sounds very labored but I'm talking about only a few frames).
With that body Y translation fixed you'll have to work on your legs again, which is fine because right now they are popping into a straight position at x10 and x26 and make the heel go up, which gives it a weird bounce up. The feet also slow down as they are about the lift off the ground. The speed needs to be the same until the foot gets off the ground. Grab your overall body controller and move the guy forward as if he was walking from A to B. You'll see that the feet are not sticking to the ground, they are sliding.
If you look at x1 how the heel of the foot touched the ground, it takes 4 frames to get it completely flat on the ground, which is a bit slow. It makes the steps feel very soft.
Front view: when you make the foot plant faster, keep the timing of the hips (right now they go up a bit too early, but with an earlier plant it will look correct). But keep the right side up longer. At x14 they are almost leveled out, which should happen as the foot gets to frame x16 and 17.
There is something odd about the arms, how they get closer to the body on the forward swing and then go out on the swing back (front view/left arm: the curve gets to a halt on x18 the goes forward in a straight line).
But what will change all that is the upper body. It's swinging a lot (front view) from left to right. You should keep the upper body straight in terms of left/right movement as it curves into the c shape. Same goes with the head which moves along with upper body. Check the image on this post if it is not clear:
academyanimation.blogspot.com walkcycle
Sideview: the head could be a bit loser on the up and down, dragging a bit as it follows the upper body rotation.
And the fingers feel a bit spread out, keep them a bit closer together and rotate the pinky and ring finger a bit inwards, for a more natural pose, right now they seem a bit flat. Angus from the Spline Doctors sketched out great hand poses with dos and donts.
thoughts on hand poses
Cheers
Jean-Denis
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