Make sure to watch the Animation Mentor webinar with Bobby Beck. Great advice and tips in this one.
Showing posts with label Recommendations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Recommendations. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
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.
Friday, July 11, 2008
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
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
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
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! :)
Monday, June 23, 2008
Animation Mentor Newsletter - June 2008
It's that time of the month! And as always I encourage you to sign up for the free newsletter!
This time you get the following:
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Pixar's "Wall-E" Screening
So I did get to see it and it was really good. Definitely different than your usual talking animal movie. There are a few parts that didn't work for me (possible SPOILERS - highlight to read: no need to have live-action actors in there, the progression from real to CG makes no sense, real actors are absolutely not warranted and the CG humans stick out as plastic-y amidst all the super real robot renders; music didn't work for me, especially the songs; beginning third features too many joke scenes one after the other, we get the point that Wall-E is cute and in love, lets move on), so I wouldn't call it a masterpiece and Pixar's best (like the reviews so far have been doing). There's just something about "The Incredibles", "Monsters Inc." and "Toy Story 1 & 2" that's hard to beat, but it's definitely very well done, a wake up call (hopefully to other companies) that you can do so much through pantomime alone and not relying on super blockbuster actor voices. What they got out of Wall-E and Eve in terms of acting was awesome. The story is really cute, has a great not-so-subtle message (bravo to that), no poop or fart jokes (we really don't need to see another creature involved with poop). It's reminding me a bit of Monster's Inc. to an extend (foreign object messing up an established environment), which can only be good since I love that movie, but leans more towards Finding Nemo in terms of emotional value and even the music (same director & composer). The music did not work for me unfortunately, I was hoping for something more original (less Nemo-ish). Plus I'm just not a big fan of known songs in a movie, but I'm picky about that. There are two cues which are awesome though, leaning more towards "Alien" in style and mood, yet keeping a quirky cartoony style. Those sections were genius, but unfortunately it's not like that throughout the whole movie. The renders are insane, with many really cool shots compositionally where you wish you had a poster of that frame. All the robots are really well designed in terms of appeal and coolness factor, the merchandise department will have a field trip. I wish Gentle Giant or Sideshow would select a few robots and do super detailed statues of them. There's more to point out that was awesome, but you just have to go see it for yourself.
It's going to be very interesting to see how the audience reacts to Kung Fu Panda and Wall-E, or how the Oscars will turn out. Two totally different movies, Panda having fantastic set pieces, beautiful art direction, lighting, music and characters, but overall a more straight forward movie delivering on the entertainment factor - and Wall-E, more simplistic in its delivery and presentation at first (only three characters and no (conventional) dialogue for at least the first third, MUCH slower pace than Panda), but emotionally so much stronger and daring exactly because of that, strong message and going beyond the pure entertainment factor. It's almost Spielberg vs. Ridley Scott. Both are here to entertain and they do it well, but yet they are different. :)
I hope Dreamworks is listening and learning from Panda's success and why it works and I hope Pixar keeps pushing the envelope as well as they do. Quality wise they are both at the same level so we are in for a treat. Make sure you catch both movies in theaters and study them on Blu-ray, mandatory homework!
It's going to be very interesting to see how the audience reacts to Kung Fu Panda and Wall-E, or how the Oscars will turn out. Two totally different movies, Panda having fantastic set pieces, beautiful art direction, lighting, music and characters, but overall a more straight forward movie delivering on the entertainment factor - and Wall-E, more simplistic in its delivery and presentation at first (only three characters and no (conventional) dialogue for at least the first third, MUCH slower pace than Panda), but emotionally so much stronger and daring exactly because of that, strong message and going beyond the pure entertainment factor. It's almost Spielberg vs. Ridley Scott. Both are here to entertain and they do it well, but yet they are different. :)
I hope Dreamworks is listening and learning from Panda's success and why it works and I hope Pixar keeps pushing the envelope as well as they do. Quality wise they are both at the same level so we are in for a treat. Make sure you catch both movies in theaters and study them on Blu-ray, mandatory homework!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
May 11second club winner
Head over to the 11secondclub and watch Ivan Oviedo's winning "May Competition" clip. Love the little head shake on "What you spelling man?". 2D animation, especially in this form, is so appealing. While you're at it, click "next" and check out all the other entries.Saturday, June 7, 2008
Kung Fu Panda Screening
Congratulations to Dan Wagner and the whole animation team (and of course the rest of production)! Easily the best Dreamworks movie, very entertaining story, beautiful animation (the turtle character was awesome)!
The beginning is very frantic, so I was worried that this is setting the tone for the whole movie (maybe in order to keep the kids awake?), but it settled down into a great mix of quiet and busy scenes. No in-your-face pop-culture jokes, fart or poop jokes,beautiful look, good voice work, no songs, just sticking with the story. Well done Dreamworks, what a delivery!
Nitpicky (SPOILER ALERT - highlight to read): I wish the villain retained more of the initial fearful presence, his attitude was a bit too light and comedic as the movie progressed, taking away from the scary edge. And Shifu should have died in Po's arms, as you were initially led to believe, that would have made it very powerful and make the movie stand out from the goodie-goodie animation crowd. And one weird thing: I've never seen the underbelly of a rhino, but they have nipples? Those guards and their nipples, that was weird to me. :)
I hope this movie sets a tone for all the upcoming Dreamworks movies. It might just be me and maybe I'm too nitpicky, but animated features without songs, fart/poop jokes, pop-culture jokes and product placements are just so much more enjoyable. They don't take you out of the world the movie is trying to create. Kung Fu Panda was definitely a nice departure from that. Go see it!
The beginning is very frantic, so I was worried that this is setting the tone for the whole movie (maybe in order to keep the kids awake?), but it settled down into a great mix of quiet and busy scenes. No in-your-face pop-culture jokes, fart or poop jokes,beautiful look, good voice work, no songs, just sticking with the story. Well done Dreamworks, what a delivery!
Nitpicky (SPOILER ALERT - highlight to read): I wish the villain retained more of the initial fearful presence, his attitude was a bit too light and comedic as the movie progressed, taking away from the scary edge. And Shifu should have died in Po's arms, as you were initially led to believe, that would have made it very powerful and make the movie stand out from the goodie-goodie animation crowd. And one weird thing: I've never seen the underbelly of a rhino, but they have nipples? Those guards and their nipples, that was weird to me. :)
I hope this movie sets a tone for all the upcoming Dreamworks movies. It might just be me and maybe I'm too nitpicky, but animated features without songs, fart/poop jokes, pop-culture jokes and product placements are just so much more enjoyable. They don't take you out of the world the movie is trying to create. Kung Fu Panda was definitely a nice departure from that. Go see it!
- pic source
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Class F.A.Q.
As students send me questions I will post the answers here for the rest of the class. Make sure that you check this site daily, as class updates, critiques and lecture (extensions) are being posted here.
Homework - the moment you are done with your clip and you need feedback, post it on your site (or any site that offers hosting), which is the preferred method, or you can send me the clip via email. Make sure you keep the file size small.
Movie Files - they have to be Quicktime, with a frame counter visible (go to this site for frame counter information or download it directly here). To keep the file size small, use the H.264 compression codec or Sorenson 3 as you export your .avi file to quicktime.
Kinovea - for critiques I will be using the Kinovea player, which lets me draw on top of frames and write notes among other features. The critiqued file is saved as an .mkv file, so please download the player (it's free) from this website.
- Once you did the playblast in Maya, open that .avi movie in quicktime. Then go to File>Export..., choose Movie to Quicktime Movie, then Options. Under Settings use H.264, Key Frames: Every 100 Frames, Quality around 65. OK all that and save the file. Voila.
Syllabus - you can choose the assignments outlined on the AAU syllabus or you can make your own syllabus. Think about what you want to do and what area needs improvement. Do you need more practice with cycles? Do that. More acting? Body mechanics? Look at the body of work you have right now. Ask yourself honestly, did I completely master the basics? The conventional order of exercises would be a bouncing ball, then a character walk, jump, weight lift, pantomime, monologue and dialogue. Since a lot of you are graduating in a semester or two, you might have done a few if not all those exercises already. But again, did you master them?
As you prepare your own syllabus, make sure that you don't take on too much. Give each exercise enough time. The main point though is that you have to go beyond the exercise. Your clip has to stand out not just animation technique wise, but also from an entertainment point of view, the presentation (by that I mean the staging, the composition of the shot, not a fancy render (which helps but is just the icing on the cake)), etc. You need to be creative and avoid the current cliches. How do I know what is cliche? Take a few hours and go through people's reels, sites like the 11secondclub, animation forums, etc. After having seen 200+ clips, you will know what is being overused.
Animation Clips - Focus on making your clip more than just an exercise, give it context. Don't just have a guy lifting a box. Who is that guy (or girl or thing), where is he and why is he lifting this box? Avoid the default model (grey Norman for instance), give it character.
When doing a walk cycle, please have at least a front and side view visible in ONE movie.
When doing a bouncing ball, please use "side" view camera, not perspective, unless it is for more elaborate shots where the composition is telling a story. If you are doing the basic "heavy, medium, light ball" exercise, please have all three balls in one movie. And again, a frame counter should be visible.
Your own Website - get a host as soon as you can. Your site doesn't need to be fancy, just clean and professional. Don't wait, you need an online portfolio ASAP.
Don't have movie files on it which are 100MB. Yes, broadband is nothing new, but still, try to keep the file size small.
Audio Files - before you start with a monologue/dialogue clip, send me or show me at least 5 different ones. Really try to get the audio off a DVD, so that the quality is high. It's okay to find something online, but once you decided on the right clip, get the sound from the DVD because web clips usually are of poor quality.
For full guidelines, read this post.
Maya Setup - set your animation scene to 24fps
Future classes - read this post
Tata
Jean-Denis
Homework - the moment you are done with your clip and you need feedback, post it on your site (or any site that offers hosting), which is the preferred method, or you can send me the clip via email. Make sure you keep the file size small.
Movie Files - they have to be Quicktime, with a frame counter visible (go to this site for frame counter information or download it directly here). To keep the file size small, use the H.264 compression codec or Sorenson 3 as you export your .avi file to quicktime.
Kinovea - for critiques I will be using the Kinovea player, which lets me draw on top of frames and write notes among other features. The critiqued file is saved as an .mkv file, so please download the player (it's free) from this website.
- Once you did the playblast in Maya, open that .avi movie in quicktime. Then go to File>Export..., choose Movie to Quicktime Movie, then Options. Under Settings use H.264, Key Frames: Every 100 Frames, Quality around 65. OK all that and save the file. Voila.
Syllabus - you can choose the assignments outlined on the AAU syllabus or you can make your own syllabus. Think about what you want to do and what area needs improvement. Do you need more practice with cycles? Do that. More acting? Body mechanics? Look at the body of work you have right now. Ask yourself honestly, did I completely master the basics? The conventional order of exercises would be a bouncing ball, then a character walk, jump, weight lift, pantomime, monologue and dialogue. Since a lot of you are graduating in a semester or two, you might have done a few if not all those exercises already. But again, did you master them?
As you prepare your own syllabus, make sure that you don't take on too much. Give each exercise enough time. The main point though is that you have to go beyond the exercise. Your clip has to stand out not just animation technique wise, but also from an entertainment point of view, the presentation (by that I mean the staging, the composition of the shot, not a fancy render (which helps but is just the icing on the cake)), etc. You need to be creative and avoid the current cliches. How do I know what is cliche? Take a few hours and go through people's reels, sites like the 11secondclub, animation forums, etc. After having seen 200+ clips, you will know what is being overused.
Animation Clips - Focus on making your clip more than just an exercise, give it context. Don't just have a guy lifting a box. Who is that guy (or girl or thing), where is he and why is he lifting this box? Avoid the default model (grey Norman for instance), give it character.
When doing a walk cycle, please have at least a front and side view visible in ONE movie.
When doing a bouncing ball, please use "side" view camera, not perspective, unless it is for more elaborate shots where the composition is telling a story. If you are doing the basic "heavy, medium, light ball" exercise, please have all three balls in one movie. And again, a frame counter should be visible.
Your own Website - get a host as soon as you can. Your site doesn't need to be fancy, just clean and professional. Don't wait, you need an online portfolio ASAP.
Don't have movie files on it which are 100MB. Yes, broadband is nothing new, but still, try to keep the file size small.
Audio Files - before you start with a monologue/dialogue clip, send me or show me at least 5 different ones. Really try to get the audio off a DVD, so that the quality is high. It's okay to find something online, but once you decided on the right clip, get the sound from the DVD because web clips usually are of poor quality.
For full guidelines, read this post.
Maya Setup - set your animation scene to 24fps
Future classes - read this post
Tata
Jean-Denis
Animation Links, Tools, Tutorials and Resources
Here you will find an ever increasing collection of links regarding all things animation.
Spungella Animation Workshops
Academy of Art
Animation Portfolio Tips & Reference:
Animation Workflow Techniques:
Rigs, Tools & Tutorial Resources:
Book/DVD Resources:
Recommended Sites:
Spungella Animation Workshops
Academy of Art
Animation Portfolio Tips & Reference:
- Acting Reference
- Animation Mentor Fall 2007 Student Showcase
- Resume and Demo Reel Guidelines
- Great Animation Examples
Animation Workflow Techniques:
- Mike Walling's Workflow
- Justin Barrett's Workflow
- TJ Phan's Workflow
- Cameron Fielding's Workflow
- Jacob Gardner's Workflow
- Kevin Koch's Workflow
- My Workflow (W.I.P.)
Rigs, Tools & Tutorial Resources:
- Animation Buffet - Free Maya Rigs to go
- How to tweak "Norman"
- frameCounter
- Dry Erase
- Custom Hotkey - Nurbs Controller On/Off
- Animation Hotkeys
Book/DVD Resources:
- Vision of Light - The Art of Cinematography DVD
- The Animal/Human Motion Show DVD
- Industry Books
- Animation Books
- Acting Books
- Filmmaking Books
Recommended Sites:
- Mr. Blake's Art Diary
- 11 Second Club
- Academy of Art University
- Animated-News
- Animation Buffet
- Animation Mentor
- Animation Resource & Tutorial Thread
- BBC Motion Gallery
- Carlos Baena Animation Resources
- Cartoon Brew
- CG Char
- Character Design
- Cinematic Terms - A Film-Making Glossary
- Common CG Animation Pitfalls
- Flip
- Jeff's Academy Animation Site
- John Nevarez
- Keith Lango
- Shaun Freeman Animation Resources
- Spline Doctors
- Strut your Reel
- Upcoming Pixar
- Victor Navone's Resource Page
- Principles of Animation: here, here and here
- Animation Mentor Tips & Tricks Blog
- TJ Phan
- TAG Blog - Animation Guild
- David Nethery's AAU blog
- The Artistic Anatomy Blog
- AAU Animation Club
- Animators Resource blog
- Brendan Body (lots of awesome tutorials)
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
AAU Class F.A.Q., Links and Resources
This post is for my current/former/future AAU students and has a condensed collection of links, which will hopefully be helpful to them.
Technically I want my students to be exposed to as much animation information as possible, but for all the general animation links, feel free to check out the "Animation Resources" section.
But for now, please make sure to read the:
- here you will find answers related to our class and if not, let me know!
You obviously need animation rigs in order to start your shots and most students are using the "Norman" rig. Since I prefer that you tweak "Norman" at least a little bit so that he's not just grey, I want to point you to Nair Archawattana's
which gives you excellent step-by-step instructions. I also recommend that you play around with other rigs in order to make your shot(s) more original and fun. To see most of the free Maya rigs (I'm adding new rigs whenever time permits), please visit:
There are already a lot of rigs available and the selection is growing. Have fun!
Next up are very handy tools which can speed up your workflow:
Not that you have all the time in the world, but I still recommend that you go through as many previous posts as possible. Hopefully my Summary Lists will speed up the process a bit:
Finally, just in case you need to be up-to-date with AAU dates & events, here's the:
That's it so far. If there is anything you want me to add, please let me know.
Technically I want my students to be exposed to as much animation information as possible, but for all the general animation links, feel free to check out the "Animation Resources" section.
But for now, please make sure to read the:
- here you will find answers related to our class and if not, let me know!
You obviously need animation rigs in order to start your shots and most students are using the "Norman" rig. Since I prefer that you tweak "Norman" at least a little bit so that he's not just grey, I want to point you to Nair Archawattana's
which gives you excellent step-by-step instructions. I also recommend that you play around with other rigs in order to make your shot(s) more original and fun. To see most of the free Maya rigs (I'm adding new rigs whenever time permits), please visit:
There are already a lot of rigs available and the selection is growing. Have fun!
Next up are very handy tools which can speed up your workflow:
- "frameCounter" (the file)
- "frameCounter" more info on it
- "Dry Erase"
- "Custom Hotkey - Nurbs Controller On/Off"
- "Animation Hotkeys"
Not that you have all the time in the world, but I still recommend that you go through as many previous posts as possible. Hopefully my Summary Lists will speed up the process a bit:
- Spring 07 Class Summary
- Fall 07 Class Summary
- Spring 08 Class Summary
- Summer 08 Class Summary
- Fall 08 Summary
- Spring 09 Summary
- Summer 09 Summary
- Fall 09 Summary
Finally, just in case you need to be up-to-date with AAU dates & events, here's the:
That's it so far. If there is anything you want me to add, please let me know.
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