Dr. Loney asks, "Why justa week?"

Our esteemed resident physician, Dr. Bill Loney, asks an interesting question about all the to doin's goin' on this time of year. In a new article on his blog, he opines not only about the true "reason for the season" but asks why it should necessitate a whole commercialized "season" for us to do what we should already be doing all year. Good questions, Dr. Loney, very good questions.

Sex sells!

Ed Young, pastor of Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, and son of Ed Young, longtime pastor of Second Baptist, Houston, caused quite a splash last week with his "Seven Days of Sex" errr... progr... uhhh... stud... errr... series. The younger Young is sometimes referred to as "Ed Young, Jr.," but technically he's not a junior (different middle name than dad's). Ed Young, the younger, is but one of a generation of young, hip, primarily non-denominational, megachurch (or megachurch wannabe) pastors. You may recall this strange video he posted of himself last year. And this one.

The Dallas Morning News story.

The first sermon in this series can be seen here. It's entitled, strangely and appropriately enough, "Leaving Lust Vegas - Toilet Water." Instead of a pulpit, he had a real toilet in the middle of the stage upon which he plopped his open Bible.

The idea for this... series... didn't originate with Ed Young. A.R. Williams, pastor of World Overcomers Church in Memphis, the mostly black megachurch that built this monstrosity, delivered a similar... performance... almost a year ago. You can read the whole story here and here.

Here's the scene:

"Members of World Overcomers were shocked on last Sunday morning when they entered the place where they assemble to worship God. In the pulpit was a queen-sized bed draped in burgundy and gold.

"Members were wondering why the place that normally Pastor Alton R. Williams preaches the word of God from had turned into a large bedroom, when he entered wearing a robe and pajama pants with his Bible in hand. The lights are dimmed, mood music is playing. Williams at this point lies on the bed reading from the Songs of Solomon.

"While still reading the Bible his wife Sherrilyn enters the sanctuary wearing a long red-feathered, seductive-fitting gown. Mrs. Williams very seductively walks across the pulpit-turned-bedroom and sits on the bed next to her husband. She closes his Bible and begins to rub on him, and then lifts him from the bed and very passionately embraces and kisses him. Pastor Williams, whose Sunday morning freak session is designed to save marriages, tells the women in the congregation, 'This is how to keep your husband so the Hoe don't get him.'"

Kinda makes you wonder how low these "pastors" can go!

Ed Young's blog provides more interesting reading.

Is "The Big One" just around the corner?

There's been speculation for well over a year that Steve and/or Donna Gaines will be somehow involved in or the focus of some big "miracle" presumably calculated to draw in the masses. Along with the "name it and claim it" topic of late, we now have a "miracle" of sorts. True, this one doesn't involve either of the Gaineses, but hey, I guess it's close -- considering it's Steve's deacon chairman.

With giving down and staff layoffs on the horizon a reality, could this be the precursor to "The Big One"?

Watch

Quote from Steve: "God is an encouraging God, is he not? And God will do those... ummm... now listen. He... he may not turn electricity on for you. But he might do something else... if you'll just look around, God is encouraging you. Sometimes, though, you're just not receiving it... because you're not looking for it."

What's next? Huckstering anointing oil and prayer cloths at the end of BBC's Sunday morning broadcasts? "Faith nails" and "miracle coins" in the bookstore?

Joel, Oral, and Benny would be proud!

Jesus Delivers to Your Home!

In both September 21st morning services, Steve Gaines told this story about Donna wanting a new dining room set. He claimed they couldn't afford to go out and buy one, so he'd been setting aside "just a little" money every month.

The scene: Steve is at home on Saturday afternoon, grilling in the back yard with the family, when the doorbell rings. (Just wondering if you can hear your doorbell in your back yard? Maybe they've got a speaker back there.) He goes to the door, and there stand two men with a furniture truck behind them.

One of them exclaims, "Hey, you're the preacher on TV! We watch you on television on Sunday morning!"

Steve said, "Who are you? Heh heh heh heh."

He said the man laughed and said, "Uh, my name is so-and-so. We're from High Point, North Carolina."

Okay, time out for a second here. If these men are from North Carolina, how do they watch Steve Gaines on television? Bellevue's services are broadcast on two channels -- Channel 3 and Channel 50, both local Memphis stations.

Back to the story...

He [one of the men] said, "We got a truck out here with uhhh... furniture on it that is discontinued. We had already made a couple of deliveries in the neighborhood, but we just decided to randomly go up and down the street and knock on doors and see if anybody needed any furniture."

Now, at this point, would a prudent, intelligent person not ask himself why two guys in a tractor trailer rig (from High Point, NC) would be going door to door in his Cordova, TN neighborhood on a Saturday afternoon selling furniture off their truck? Basically, there are two possibilities. The stuff is either junk or it's hot, perhaps both. Apparently plenty of other people, when confronted with the same scenario, have asked themselves that same question. Was this really "uncharted waters," too?

Here is a good article from 2005 on this same scam.

And while the price may have been attractive, and assuming it wasn't stolen, what about the quality?

9:30 Video

At the beginning of this version we hear Steve explaining why they can't afford a dining room set. "So we... you know... we didn't have... have... you know... we didn't... we... I'm not poormouthing... I'm just saying... you know... we got kids in college, 's with a wedding, and all that.... " Have you ever noticed when Steve Gaines is uhhh... "not embellishing"... he stumbles all over himself?

In this version he says, "We went out and looked at 'em [dining room sets]. Have you priced them lately? May... m... m... may I just say this to you? Sev... simply... five hundred dollars won't buy one."

Near the end he says, "I'm telling you, it was about a fourth [the price] of the stuff we'd been seeing out in these stores." (Compare these two statements to what he said at 11:00.)

He ends with, "And if you don't agree with that story, I don't want one letter about our dining room suit. Amen? Not one!" So much for talking with the pastor. He doesn't want to hear from anyone who doesn't agree with him about everything. And people have criticized former members for not going to the pastor? He's about as approachable as a rattlesnake. (Not calling him a snake at all.)

11:00 Video

In this version, Steve is again explaining why they can't afford a dining room set. He says, "And we've had a wedding lately. We have two kids in college, and we're buying cars and and things like that, you know... for... for kids and helping them with that and all that... so... so I said, 'Lord, you know, we just don't have it, Lord.'" I'm sorry, but Steve Gaines very conservatively has to be making at least $300K a year. He gets a housing allowance (tax free). The church gave him a new SUV. He certainly gets other perks. And he can't afford a dining room set?! Puhleaze!

Then he assures us (again) he's not lying. He says, "Now this is the truth. I'm not embellishing it. I... I... wish... you... you... could just see my heart to know that there's no embellishment in this whatsoever. This is not just a good preacher illustra.... This is the truth." Such Herculean efforts to convince us he's not "embellishing"!

Later he says, "Now you think I'm making this up. Am I making this up? She's [Donna] on the front row."

Then regarding shopping, "We don't have time to go look for that kind of stuff. We stay busy, and we don't have time to go shopping." Hmmm... at 9:30 he talked about shopping for and pricing dining room sets. Now they're so busy they don't have time to shop!

Moral of the story? "God delivered a dining room set to us with ten chairs and a hutch, and I paid $200 less than I'd set aside. God delivers when you seek him first. Amen? Amen!" {applause}

Or... there's a sucker born every minute.

Extravagant? Or embarrassing?

The past two Sundays have brought us some real gems. In the 9:30 service Steve Gaines referred to his version of something as the "Steve Gaines version." In the 11:00 service he said the "King Steve version," then quickly said, "Cut that."

From a sermon entitled "Extravagant Worship" we have these embarrassing (and admittedly embellished) moments:

About the Music

On Plagiarizing Sermons

On Leaving in a Hurry

Preaching to the Choir (and Orchestra)

From this Sunday night's sermon, entitled "Corrupt Priests, Crooked Politicians, and Courageous Preachers," we heard these:

Is this from the "King Steve version"?

This is just so wrong!

The "New" Bellevue

Update: The uncut, unedited version has resurfaced.

On Sunday morning, July 13th, both services at Bellevue opened with a rousing choir number with a stage full of young, barefoot, writhing, cavorting, "interpretive" dancers. Apparently several people in the congregation walked out then, and the church office received a number of complaints on Monday.

By the middle of the week, the video archive of this service had been edited, with the baptismal service and dance number cut out. However, we have now been provided with an uncut version. So here, for your viewing... uh... pleasure... is the mysterious, vanishing dance video.

Steve Gaines, who was not present for the performance, apologized to the congregation the following Sunday. He wasn't out of town or anything; he just attended another local church. Yet this Sunday night he stated, "You can't find anywhere in the Bible where a layman told an elder what to do." Sheep have no voice. Not as long as there are still the "elders we didn't know we had."

*********

How to become an Animator - with Bobby Beck

Make sure to watch the Animation Mentor webinar with Bobby Beck. Great advice and tips in this one.

Monster vs. Alien Character Images

Those guys on the right look awesome!


Bigger versions here

Animated-News also has a link to the first image of an actual shot.

Audio Drama Podcast

www.dramapod.com

"you have to literally listen to the shows and pick up a line from it. So it's not tons of one-liners..." (thanks Aziz)

But still worth a listen for those in search of audio clips.

Simon's Cat

These are awesome!




Thanks Bernie & Lisa!

Ringling Shorts

Head over to ringling.edu to watch all the shorts. - found @ Kevan Shorey's blog

"Emily in the Clouds", "Gotch Ya'" are cool. Remember my hatred for the lower eye lid twitch? It's in "Snack Attack"... But there is some awesome timing stuff in that one too. Love it how he wants to grab the steak but then hits glass wall. "Fame and Fortune" is by Nick Pitera, which has crazy singing skills.

Critique - Walk cycle

Hey,

the ball holding hand:

I don't know if it's the pop in the quicktime loop or not. But it feels like that almost towards the end of the swing, the arm accelerates a bit and then there's a pop. But again, that could be the loop.

ball holding raquet:

frontview: I should have mentioned that before, sorry, but can you lower the tip of the raquet after x1 into x10? If you look at the arm and arm movement it looks like it swings forward into that position, then swings back the same way. You want to keep the arc going and one way would be to lower the tennis raquet after the forward swing.

Something about the feet:
There is still some funkiness: Look at frame 0, then 1. The back foot is barely moving backwards (it should be even spacing as it goes back). Same thing from x3 to 4. Then x4 to 5 the foot just lifts up but the rotation (with the tip of the foot going down) is not happening. You have it at x7, but it should be a smooth transition into that. I can show you in class, remind me to act it out.
Same with the other one at x16 to 17 with barely any movement back, then a lift up with no rotation and then rotation sets in. You can also delay the rotation (moving the foot tip up) at x22, rotate the foot down a bit (same with the other one at x10).

Almost there!!
Cheers

JD

Doug Sweetland Spline Cast - Part 1

Head over to Spline Doctors for it.

Nice

Thanks Lisa! :)

The importance of watching a lot of movies

Little follow up from yesterday's rant. :)

One of the best classes in terms of film making I took at the AAU was Pixar 3 with Jimmy Hayward and Alex Orelle. I would have pages of notes due to Jimmy's ongoing rants, verbal abuses and movie recommendations (sounds familiar, doesn't it?). It was awesome. His movie recommendations were great and forced me to open myself up to all kinds of movies, good and bad, old and new, all serving the greater purpose of learning visual storytelling.

After graduating in Spring I took one more class in Fall with Scott Clark and Angus McLane. I was again told to watch at least one movie a week (I believe Angus said that) and I've tried to do that ever since. Animation is not just about moving things around in a pretty and entertaining way. You need to be a filmmaker as well. You need to think about storytelling, which tools you can use to do so, like the use of camera, staging, composition, color, movement, sound, etc.

One of the best ways of learning something new is by immersing yourself in it. Want to learn French? Go to a French speaking country and live there. Obviously it's not always easy to do just that. Same with film making. Not everybody has time and money to take classes and whatnot. But one easy and entertaining way is to watch a lot of movies. So pick up basic film making books (here and a lot more here), learn the basics so you know what to look for, but most importantly, start watching movies.

Lots of movies.

It will help you with building a visual library of acting moments, camera set-ups, composition, editing, how to lead the audience's eye, etc. You will also quickly compile a huge list of audio clips that you can animate to. All that serves as inspiration, guidance, or at least a starting point for your shot so that you can embellish on that and make it your own.

But where do I start? What movies should I watch?

There has to be a class you can take at the AAU about film making and that will give you a quick overview of classic movies. Look into it, take advantage of the classes that are being offered. Apart from that, why not just go through the typical list of AFI's Best Movies of All Time. Or you can go through here, here and here. Or here. It's very easy to google for a best-of list. Agree with the list or not, at least pick and choose some of them and start going through the list. Comparing the list you will find so many movies that show up on all of them, and there is probably a good reason why that is. But don't just go with classics like Citizen Kane, The Day the Earth stood still, North by Northwest, 2001, French Connection, The Thing, Godfather, etc. make sure you check out classics like Goonies, Big Trouble in Little China, Ghostbusters, Stripes, Haunted Honeymoon, Up the Creek, Porky's, etc. etc. ... etc.

And of course Ice Pirates. Gotham Knight was meh. Just watch Batman Begins. And The Prestige. And... you get my point.

Cheers
Jean-Denis

The Legacy of Paige Patterson and Paul Pressler

There's an interesting thread going on the FBC Jacksonville blog regarding Dr. Sheri Klouda, the Hebrew professor at SWBTS who was fired by Paige Patterson because she happens to be female. While the article is written in the context of FBC Jax's Mac Brunson being less than truthful when he used Dr. Klouda's lawsuit as an illustration in a recent Sunday night sermon, it provides an opportunity for Dr. Klouda to respond to allegations that she was offered another position at SWBTS for the same pay and that it was somehow her fault that her family experienced financial difficulties.

Wade Burleson wrote a detailed article about the case here.

SBC Outpost has more relevant commentary here.

How did we get to this point?

Why no email critique? I'm super busy...

Hey,

sorry for the slow posting and lack of online critiques. We are really really busy at work and it takes up most of my time during the week, so whatever time is left is spent with my family.

I will critique the shots I'm getting as soon as time permits, so if you've sent me something, you will get feedback.

If you're a current student of mine:

- I can look at the shots and give very broad comments (unfortunately there is no time for frame-by-frame critique). While you're waiting, start working on your next shot (planning, blocking, audio research, reference, etc.).
Ex-students and web-acquaintances:

- I hope you understand that my current students have priority, but I will get to your clips eventually. If you kept working on it, keep sending me update so I don't critique an outdated clip.

Thanks for your patience guys!

Cheers
Jean-Denis

- pic source

2008 Emmy nominees

Found @ Animated-News

2008 Emmy nominees announced

Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour)
• Creature Comforts America
• King Of The Hill
• Robot Chicken
• SpongeBob SquarePants
• The Simpsons

Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming One Hour Or More)
• Blue Harvest (Family Guy)
• Imaginationland (South Park)
• Justice League: The New Frontier

Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music
• Phineas And Ferb

Outstanding Original Music And Lyrics
• Phineas And Ferb, for I Ain’t Got No Rhythm

Outstanding Music Composition For A Series (original Dramatic Score)
• Family Guy, for Lois Kills Stewie
• The Simpsons, for Treehouse of Horror XVIII

Outstanding Nonfiction Special
• The Pixar Story

Outstanding Special Class - Short-format Animated Programs
• Camp Lazlo, for Lazlo’s First Crush
• Chowder, for Burple Nurples

Jacob Gardner's Animation Workflow

Here's a very cool and detailed workflow from Jacob Gardner (thanks Regis!), covering planning, pre-production, animation, etc.

Animation Mentor Tips & Tricks Blog - Webinars

Just a friendly reminder to always check online for animation info. So if you haven't already, go through Shawn Kelly's "Animation Tips & Tricks" posts. Latest one being: "What is a Key Pose?".

The point is, even if you know what a key pose is, don't just skip that post, I encourage you to go through it, because to me it's always interesting and helpful to hear and read other opinions and other approaches.

So once you're done with that one, check out the free AM webinars and Carlos Baena's site of course. Yes, I'm repeating myself but again, just a friendly reminder.
The webinars are long (which is good), so get a drink ready, make yourself comfortable and go through them. For instance, one of the topics in Shawn's videos is how to use video reference, and he will show you step by step what his process is.

So go check it out!

Cheers
Jean-Denis

Street Fighter IV - Anime Trailer

Watch it @ capcom.co.jp

I am cursed.

I feel like Sam Neill from Jurassic Park...

So I got my new computer (little guy next to the old big tower), started to play around with it yesterday night and suddenly, this morning, the monitor goes black and into stand-by. The same problem I had with the old PC!! It would just randomly go into stand-by. Ugh... Like I said. I am cursed. I will never be able to animate at home...

But, I installed my Wacom driver yesterday and registered my quicktime copy today. So, I will get rid of the Wacom driver and use a normal mouse and get Carpal Tunnel syndrome until I get my marble mouse. Let's hope the tablet driver was the culprit. I just can't believe it would be Quicktime.

Needless to say, those things I mentioned in the "upcoming posts" ... post... that I wanted to do are on a back burner. "DAMN IT!" as Jack Bauer would say.

Anybody else have this problem? Help me internets, you are my only hope...

Midterm - Reminder

Don't forget to bring your latest and greatest to class today. The latest version of all your clips. I'll set up a separate folder and you can dump it in there.

- pic source

Critique - Walk

(quick critique - I'm on the road)

I can't use Maya on my laptop here (I'm not at home), so I can't check your file. But judging by the clip it looks like there is a looping problem. Usually in a cycle your first and last frame are the same, so when you playblast the movie, you need to cut off the last frame. For example, your cycle goes from 1 to 45, then playblast 1 to 44.

Sideview first:

Make sure that your extreme poses are correct, so with a walk it's the extended leg pose and your passing pose.
So frame 0 looks correct as the extended leg pose, but your passing pose is off, that's where the trouble begins. Even when checking over multiple poses, the passing one is off. x6 should have his left leg extended (so the body should be higher). Timewise it should be around x8 or 9.
Also, the walk has to be always moving. The feet have to take a step, so the move forward, once they hit the ground, they have to move backwards. But you have x0, where the front foot seems to touch the ground. But until x4 your front foot (and back one to an extend) is not moving.

Look at your feet rotation as it lifts. From x13 to around x19 the orientation stays pretty much the same. Make sure that you make it look like the foot pushes off the ground and then rotates back up.

Frontview:

Now, after having fixed what I mentioned above, it will all change, but what stands out right now is that your hip weight shift is not there. So look at x8, where the weight is on the screen right leg, so your hip on the right side should be up and down on the left. And don't forget to add little left and right overall body movement as the body shifts the weight over each leg.

Critique - Ollie

(quick critique - I'm on the road)

The beginning looks good, but right when it hits the ground (where's the frame counter?) it slows down very quickly, but speeds up after that. Check that your translation curve doesn't have crazy hiccups.
What looks weird is the jump. First, it's too fast. The up is working the best, the hangtime needs to be longer and the drop needs to be longer. The front foot also needs to be more in the middle of the board before the ollie (he needs to adjust the foot before the ollie) and end it where you have it now.

Critique - Walk

(quick critique - I'm on the road)

Ok, two things stand out, the head has no overlap, it's moving/rotating down as the body moves down. When the body goes down, the head needs to come down a few frames later.

The other thing is your body in the front view, there is still no left to right movement. So when the screen right leg is off the ground, move the body screen left so that the weight is over the screen left leg. Then when the screen left leg is off the ground, you move the body over screen right.

Inside Wall-E

From the San Francisco Chronicle about tomorrow's event:

Pixar Animator Michal Makarewicz will answer audience questions during a Saturday appearance at the Balboa Theater, which is screening Disney-Pixar's "Wall-E".
Makarewicz will speak after the film's 7 p.m. showing and before the 9:15 p.m. screening.
The animator also worked on such features as "Ratatouille", "Cars" and "The Incredibles.". He won an award from ASIFA, the animated film society, for his work on "Ratatouille".
The theater is at 3630 Balboa St., San Francisco. For more information, call (415) 221-8184, or go to www. balboamovies.com.

Critique - Walk

Looks good! I really like how (in the side view) the upper body/neck/head movement works.
What I'm missing in the front view is more hip action, showing the weight distribution from leg to leg.
I would also relax the index and middle finger more, give the hand/fingers a more relaxed posed, right now all the fingers are cupped the same way.
What sticks out the most to me in the front view are his arms, they don't feel like they are finishing the arcs on the forward swing.
Careful with overextending the legs. Check his right leg on x17, then x18. It goes from bent to super straight. You can see the pop in the front view. Same with the other leg. Also, don't slow down the translation of the feet as they go back. You slow down towards x11 with little spacing between each frame and then suddenly a bigger difference from x12 to x13. It's even more apparent looking at the other foot from x23 to 0.
But again, really nice feel in the upper body.

Polish - more notes

Here's a follow up that started with this post about polish (scroll all the way down) and ended with yesterday's talk in class about what polish is exactly.

To recap: "If the blocking is correct and your breakdowns are in place, the polish phase should only enhance the animation, .... It's not there to change the [overall] timing."

Polishing your shot should not change the overall timing and idea of your acting choice, body movement, etc. But instead of writing down what I said yesterday, I will point you to a post about polish that I just read, found @ Synchrolux via Cooked Art's "Other News from the Grapevine...".

Just like a certain someone in our class who prefers to listen to his friends' advice as opposed to what is said in class, even though the advice is the same (I couldn't resist, I had to mention it! Your email still cracks me up! ;) ), you might understand or prefer to read about the aspect of polishing better when explained by someone else. And no, I'm not having a pity party or anything like that, it makes total sense. How many times did my parents tell me what to do and I never did, but when my friends said the same thing, I somehow got it. Wait, did I just compare myself to being a parent and you guys are my children? Hmm.... Anyway.

Even though no one had questions yesterday after that polish lecture, I'm just going to assume that you want to know more about it and hear/read an explanation presented in a more professional way, without me going off on a tangent talking about Bernie's ding dong. Wait, what?

So here a few highlights from Kevin Koch's post:

• One of the things I spoke about then was the need to treat the body as a connected whole — when the head moves, for example, the chest and shoulders are going to move, too. Without this nuanced connectedness, almost any movement looks unnatural.

• polish rule number one: Polish simply takes time.

• Rule number two: polish is subtle. If it made a huge difference, then it wouldn’t be polish, it would be animation.

• The key to efficient polish comes BEFORE the polish phase. So first, do good animation.

• Polishing takes forever when you’ve animated without really making a commitment to what you’re animating. It takes forever when you’re not completely clear in your mind what you want for that scene. You need to start with good, clear ideas.

There's a lot more to read and I can't just copy/paste the whole thing, so please head over to Kevin Koch's SynchroLux and read the post "How much polish is too much?"

You can also listen to John Kahrs' podcast about Polish. There are some great comments about time management and what is the most important part to fix and polish.

- pic source

Disney/Pixar's "Presto" on iTunes

Upcoming Pixar tells us that Disney/Pixar's "Presto", the short in front of "Wall-E" is available on iTunes for $1.99. So head over there, get it and frame through it! :)

Critique - Ork Attack

Ok, thoughts about the clip.

Overall it's really cool! Good to see some creature action for a change. Animation wise it feels a bit too pose to pose. I think you could make it more fluid.

Let's start with the Ork.

There is nice weight in the swing, but the body feels like it's moving in three separate timing blocks. First stop is around x19, second one stops around x26 (upper chest rotation in Y just stops), then the third block starts at around x30 with the upper swing. You can sense three stops during all this part. You can see it with the timing of the upper body, the arms, the weapon, etc.
I like the double bounce, nice little touch, but I would rotate the body back as he is doing that, throughout the whole swing down anticipation. So on x45, looking at that pose, you could push it and really arc his body back in a C curve, instead of having him straight up, from the leg up to the upper body.
The weapon has a weird bounce. On x60 it hits the ground, the goes up on x61 which is fine, but then goes down again for 3 frames. That gives it a soft finish, I think you could make that impact harder.
From the moment the Ork gets stabbed in the leg, you get that fragmented animation feel again. First his body rotates with a big movement in his arm, then his body and head go up, then the leg moves out, then he falls down, and stops suddenly at x96 (need more follow through with the head).
Once he looks up, the head stays locked again. It should follow the action of the human a bit more.
After he gets stabbed I would have him roar a bit sooner, pretty much after the impact. Here too it feels too separated. First the stab, then the scream.
But otherwise there is a lot of nice finger and toe detail.

Human:

Overall there are nice poses, but he feels even more segmented like the Ork, too pose to pose. In detail:
Body wise, there's a very fast move at around x12 till x16, where it doesn't look like a body moving on its own, but more like it's being pulled/pushed.
During the Ork's swing around x31, I would have the human lower his arm or put it closer to his body, just safer that what it is now, plus it makes him less passive.
The human's turn around is too fast. You go from the pose on x57, to 58, with no leading nor dragging, to x59, and then there's a sudden turn around. The arc of the body needs to be smooth out. The body also has a weird move/pop from x63, to 64, to 65. Big movement to 65, then no body movement from 66 to 69. That pause gives it the pose to pose feel. That feel continues once he takes the dagger out, throws it up, reaches for it, turns around a bit, then goes for the jump with very long hang time.

So check the body movements throughout the whole thing, smooth the pops out, make the motions more fluid as they go from pose to pose.

But again, it's a cool clip, but there is always room for improvement. :)

Cheers
JD

Critique - Sit Down

looking good, I like the changes you made to it.

The things I would add are:

- body wise, there's a weird move from x2 to x8, where the whole upper body goes forward, the head as well, and then the screen left leg goes back, so it's a weird move where everything happens at the same time and seems to move the same way, almost locked. It also feels like "Aaaand action!" and then he sits down. You could tweak his first pose a bit, for instance one of the arms, so it's not so defaulty and twinned. It would be better to on action a little bit. I would also offset the hand-pull-pants moment, so that one side starts earlier/later (just a tiny bit).

The timing of how the hands pull up the pants is good, but after that the hand look like they are sliding around until he lifts them.

His hand movement around x90 still feels a bit too linear and simple. You can give that wave much more character (nice finger pose though).

When he puts his leg over the other one, don't have it go through each other, and when the weight of one leg is on the other, around x60, have the other leg react to it, we need to feel the weight change.

Even though there is no sound, you could still animate his face a bit more, especially the mouth. Little changes as he sits down, when he waves, a bit more pantomime to show more of his character.

Hope that helps!
Cheers
JD

Critique - Fish Balls

- little guy first. It's pretty good until around x117 (again, I need a frame counter). At that point it just stops cold and goes up and down in a very robotic way. You need to keep it smooth since it's underwater. The snap back needs a little anticipation. The turn around is also linear, you need to smooth out that curve.

Before all that there is something weird about that moment. The ball swims to the position at around x117. Then what is it doing there? It just stays there until the big fish enters frame. But the thing is, the little ball would see the big one a mile away. So it's weird that it just stays there, waits until the big ball is close and then gets scared. So the little ball would have to move around still and turn around to see the big ball which is right behind it. That way it would make sense that it gets scared.

I don't think the fish needs to crawl through the tube until the very end. It takes too long and you will lose the audience. You can have it go until the first 3rd and then squeeze out of a little hole. And instead of exiting screen right in that little corner, have it swim screen left since there is so much room. You could make it a bigger moment by having the little ball swim behind the big one, hit the big ones butt maybe, then swim away with pride since it outwitted the big guy.

Big Fish:

The squash you have around x223 is a bit weird. Is it maybe stretching to try to catch the little ball? Right now it's not clear what's going on.
You need to put the big fish more inside the tube. Find a way to wrap the tube around half the big ball.

Overall be careful in which axis you move the tail. Make it clear silhouette wise that the tail is wiggling. If you move it towards camera and away, it won't be as clear as up and down.

Critique - Weight and polish

Here's another clip and the person was asking why the animation looks so spliney.

> so is it like a matter of timing?

Absolutely. The reason why it feels so spliney is because everything is always moving, there are no holds, no pauses. The section that works the best is from x162 to x218 (roughly), because he lifts the suitcase and rests for a movement, which makes sense in that situation. But before and after you never feel like any body part gets a break, everything is always moving somehow, but not in a keep alive way, it's just too busy. By having everything move you don't create enough contrast, it makes the audience restless and then bored because there is nothing to focus on and it makes your character look like he's just a puppet and not a living, thinking being.

> So what should I be looking to do, technically... just move keys around to tight things up? Make the tangents flatter for holds? Is this like a small thing to fix or a major thing...?
Almost yes, kinda yes, and depends. :)

Almost yes, because you do need to move the keys around to tighten things up, but you still have to think about where and why. The movements need rhythm, it needs to have a sense of flow. So when he gets hit by the shoe at the end, have him take the hit, the when he's done with the movement screen left, hold that moment, because he's trying to make sense of that situation "Wait, what just happened? Did I get hit?", then have him turn around and look at the door because he realized what happened "SHE hit me!".
Kinda yes, because you do need to have holds and flattening the tangents will help, but you don't want to start flattening tangents left and right. You need to be very selective about the moments where nothing moves and even then, the body needs to have little drifts so that it doesn't look dead. Look at the previous critique on the class site for a good example of holds and keep alive.
Depends, because it all depends on your sense of timing and rhythm. So if you have a good understanding of that, it's just a technical fix, so it's small, but if you struggle with the concept and adjusting the timing, then it can be a major fix.

The funny thing is, the animation can reflect someones personality at times. If someone is very bouncy and animated in person, with big facial expression changes and stuff like that, it can show up in the animation. But of course not always and some people who are very slow, just down in terms of feeling and attitude, can create really alive and animated performances.

> I feel like I'm missing the last step of polishing.. like I don't know how to take it further. So... I start out with all the blocking steps you went over... reference, block a pose every 5 frames or so, tangents on linear... then move keys around so I like the timing. Then blocking plus, add more keys for in betweens, if needed. Then for polishing.. the tools I use are... the graph editor and "perfect arc." Ok I know what your going to say... dry erase marker. Is that all I'm missing? maybe.... ok im going to go out and buy one right now.

Hahaha, you don't HAVE to use the dry erase, "perfect arc" works as well. Whatever you prefer to use to track down your curves and arcs. I just like the dry erase because it's fast and simple.
Your workflow sounds good, there is nothing wrong there, but don't get too worked up over the technical side.
Act out your shot, get a feel for the timing. If you would act out your clip exactly the way you animated it, you would be able to tell what's wrong. So act it out, over and over again, film yourself and study the footage, but first just in terms of timing. Don't start picking it apart for animation details or stuff like that, just observe where you move and where you don't move. But really be in the moment and act it out. Don't pretend and shortcut moments, don't act it out in front of someone because people tend to talk and explain what they're doing instead of actually doing it.

> Oh I know a lecture topic I'd like to hear about... maybe you could elaborate on the "polishing" step of your workflow? I think that's where I get messed up. I think my timing is better in my blocking phase and then things get a little messy when I try to polish.

That's a very good point. I've seen many examples where the blocking has great timing, but then the polished version lost its appeal. A lot of times it's because the holds you had, the pauses you get from animating linear or stepped, are gone due to all the spliney stuff (leaving you with the guy caressing his leg, from x262 to x280 - there's no need to have that hand move around like that, just put in on his leg, add some adjustment on his fingers, add some leg movement since there is added weight and pressure on it from this hand/arm, that's it). If the blocking is correct and your breakdowns are in place, the polish phase should only enhance the animation, get rid of sudden stops, add detail to facial expressions, fingers, contact points, give the overall moments the last little touch of rhythm and life. It's not there to change the timing. It reminds me of lunch, the days when I get the salad to go from the buffet. I put everything in a box. I know this is going to sound really weird... All the different things are in my box and that represents your blocking. All that is needed is the dressing. So I put that on top of the spots that need dressing. That's your polish. But what happens to many people is this: they close the box and start shaking it. Hey, the dressing/polish is everywhere, right? Makes it yummy. That's what you do, no? Put dressing over everything? Now it's all polished. Nope, you just made everything messy and lost the initial appeal of your work/salad. Only add dressing/polish where it is needed.

...

Ok, that comparison was really weird. But the moment of shaking my salad box just reminded me of how animation can get all messed up once you tweak your blocking too much. :)

Nevermind...

Critique - Dialogue

It looks already very good, here my 2 cents:

Screen right woman:

let's start with the root/body. When she lifts her arms from the beginning until around x12, you could straight/rotate back her upper body a bit. Not a lot though, just a little more back so she gets a straighter torso, instead of only having the screen left rotation you got now. That way you can compress the body again when she lowers her arms to x21.
The body seems to stop too much at around x67 when she looks back to the cop. Ease more into that stop, so it's not that abrupt.

The hips seem a bit locked, it would be neat to adjust them during her little weight shifts. For instance, when she goes down at around x45, she could lean on her left leg, which would have that side of the hip go up a bit. There are other little moments where you could do that. Another bigger moment would be around x205 when she comes back after leaning on the cop. First around x199 the screen lift hip could be a bit higher since she's going down and the weight is on that leg and when the other leg touches the ground around x205, the hips could adjust to that side and back. Nothing huge, just acknowledge the weight shifts.

The main thing that stuck out to me with the head was the movement at around x58 when she looks to the cop. The body and the head move at the same time, I would lead it with the head. Then same problem occurs with the head just like the body, it stops very quickly. I would overshoot the head a bit.
When the cop moves after x71, it's a big mass moving screen left, so I would acknowledge that with having her head follow that movement. Nothing big, but right now it's a bit locked during that section, so just add a little head movement, as if she was tracking the cop.
After x165 the head is locked again until around x196. When she's trying to read the pad, definitely adjust her eyes so she actually looks at the pad(more on that later), but involve the head as well. She can rotate her head back on the move up and once she sees the pad you can move her head down and move it like she's scanning the pad. Once again, keep it subtle.
Lastly, I really like how she puts her hand on her face at the end. Since she's really pushing her face down, you could rotate the head counter clockwise from x292 to around x297, showing how the hand is pushing the head a bit.

Her arms: tiny thing, might not be a huge difference, but try it. :) Around x149, when her left arm swings screen right, before she leans over to the cop, feels a bit slow, I would accent that movement a bit more, make it a tiny bit faster, so it doesn't feel like something dead following the body for pure overlap intentions. That arm also gets a tiny bit floaty around x184.
Both arms and hand: when she moves her elbows in and arms down after x95 to x98, I would adjust her hands as well, rotate them more with the arms. They feel too separate during that movement. It's very visible looking at the screen left hand/arm.
I would also lessen the rotation on the screen left hand from x1 to x3. It's too much of a broken wrist and when the arm goes up and the wrist goes down, it looks like it's pivoting from the fingers.
Speaking of fingers, I wouldn't rotate them side to side as much, especially the pinky on x7. Both of them look like they're broken. Keep the shape simple and tuck in that pinky.
The screen left hand rotation from x19 to x20 is huge. The write is open and fingers are out, next frame the wrist is holding the other one and the fingers are cupped around it. Give that movement at least one more frame.

Back to the eyes. When she is reading the pad around x178, make sure she is actually looking at it.

I think "...spot..." could get bigger emphasis lipsync and jaw wise. There's a jaw pop around x65. During "I dont' have...", around x110 to x112 the lips get pinched, it's a weird shape it transitions into. On x261, the upper lip feels pinched in, it's an odd shape. After she leans back to around x218, you have do all those body movements while she hears how much she owes (in body, hands, eyebrows, etc.), but not in the mouth. I would have her mouth a little bit open, as this moment progresses, every time she cringes, close her mouth more to a point where she's really closing it with her lips as well.

Now the cop lady:

you mentioned last time that you haven't worked on her as much, so I don't know if this clip you sent me still reflects that. Overall I would say she feels less polished than the other woman. The movements are more linear and poppy.
For instance her head turn ending around x12 feels very liner, both in terms of arc and timing. Same goes for the head turn back. You don't need crazy movement, but just have more keep alive and ease more in and out of your movements. Although her bigger movement starting at x60 to x109 is nice (I would rotate her read clockwise during the move around x72, so that she drags her head a bit more, right now the body and head move too much in sync). But then the movement from around x110 to x119 feels very linear again. She's a bigger person, so there's more mass, which means it will take more effort on her part to move those masses. I'm not saying that you have her movements be really slow like a giant walking around, but if the movements are too fast and poppy (like during the x186 part), you take away from her weight. Even adding two frame cushions can help, it will still be cartoony enough. And by having her movements be more fluid you will add more contrast to her poppy moves when she tells her the amount of money. That part works for me because of her attitude and it makes that moment stand out more (better contrast).

When she moves her right arm at x39, I would ease out more by adding finger and wrist movement before the whole arm moves (you can also add tiny fingers moves during the head turn at the very beginning, so they are not so dead). Once she moves that arm, I would add more body rotation. Right now just her arm moves, which feels too separate to me, especially with her mass. The linear movement is also visible when she lowers her pad around x198. Soften those moments across the whole body, everything stops very quickly. Same with the move up on x276. Both are very linear again in terms of arcs and timing.

I would add more business to the fingers that hold the pad. For instance when she starts writing on it, because of the pressure she puts on, the fingers could tighten. Same when the other woman puts her hand on her arm.

All in all, coming along very nicely!

Class Update - Homework: have questions ready

Hey boys and girls,

first off, I forgot to mention something in class. For those who sent me work to look at on Wednesday, sorry for not writing back. Wednesday evening I have a meeting for the short film we're working on and it ran very late, so I couldn't get to it. We're also really busy at work, so looking at clips during the day can be difficult. But keep sending work! When I have time I'll reply of course. :)

I hope the critiques weren't too short last Thursday, but it was a lot of fun to just focus on a lecture for once.

About the homework, just a quick recap. Please head over to the "best-of" section. Take some time to read through all the posts that are listed. Yes, all of them. Hopefully you'll get inspired to do more research, read other posts, or ask questions about things that were unclear or that were not mentioned, etc. Feel free to send me emails with questions or tell me on Monday. Once the questions are trickling in I will make sure to address them in class or as a post on the site.

Nice collection of work btw., you guys are doing good! Keep going!

See you soon!
Cheers
Jean-Denis

- pic source

The Tale of Despereaux - Trailer

Animated News points to The Tale of Despereaux Trailer. Nice look!

"Bolt" Trailer

You know what, looks better than I thought! Could be a lot of fun! Watch the trailer @ Empireonline

- pic source

Animation News

Here a few interesting posts and articles:

- Written Interview with Andrew Stanton about Pixar's "Wall-E"


- Official Trailer for Futurama's "The Beast with a Billion Backs"



- Kung Fu Panda sequel coming as well as new 2D material

- This post @ Animated News got tons of "Wall-E" related news (from review to interviews, etc.)

- Cooked Art points to the "2008 Annecy Gobelins Shorts", which are always worth a look.

New Animation Book/DVDs by Goldberg and Williams

Cartoon Brew points to Eric Goldberg's new Character Animation Crash Course! and Richard Williams is releasing a DVD version of his The Animator's Survival Kit (which I hear is close to $1k, which is not exactly student friendly, but hey, 16 DVDs!!). But head over to the official site for a glimpse of it via a 10min clip, and/or click on the "Disks 1-16" tab and watch more clips.



The list of the clips:

Starting Right

Timing and Spacing

Working Methods

More Timing

More Spacing

Building Walks

Flexibility in a Walk

Sneaks, Runs and Animal Action

Flexibility

Overlapping Action and Weight (cracked me up!)

Takes

Vibrates

Accents

Dialogue 1

Dialogue 2

Giving the performance

Putting it all together

And btw. if you don't own the book, you should get it. :)