As I have still not received any feedback from Ed, it is difficult to really do much about the first animation task. I feel it is silly to start animating now if he completely rips apart my idea so because of this I still have not started working on this piece.
Instead I have spent the weekend doing preparations for the final project as well as digging even further into Ed Hooks' book "Acting for Animators" to try and get a real grasp of this subject.
Since there was little time to record reference last time, my tutor has booked another session tomorrow so hopefully that will help my task even further and if I'm lucky I will get some update on where my feedback from Ed is.
I have also discussed some ideas to this task with my fellow student, Jo Christian Figenschou as I already know the problem with my 3rd story is that he is going down and not up. However, if he is going up it would not fit the current story so we have discussed other possible scenarios and one possible idea came up: He is walking upstairs with a surprise breakfast.
It seems like this can be a good idea if not even better than the original so I will just have to wait and see tomorrow.
Monday, 28 February 2011
Thursday, 24 February 2011
Filming reference
Today we filmed some reference ideas for my task as well as others tasks.
It really helps being in a group of people as everyone can feed ideas to each others. I quickly realized that my character could me much more interesting if I make him cartoony. Before arriving I had originally put together a more serious piece and a more serious character profile. This quickly got tossed out the window as we started filming and I'm glad it happened as I think the new idea will be much more fun to animate.
Instead of having a character that seems more serious and feeling guilt he has a much lighter attitude about the whole issue.
It still bugs me however that I still haven't received the feedback from Ed Hooks as I feel I can't really start animating before I know what he has to say.
It really helps being in a group of people as everyone can feed ideas to each others. I quickly realized that my character could me much more interesting if I make him cartoony. Before arriving I had originally put together a more serious piece and a more serious character profile. This quickly got tossed out the window as we started filming and I'm glad it happened as I think the new idea will be much more fun to animate.
Instead of having a character that seems more serious and feeling guilt he has a much lighter attitude about the whole issue.
It still bugs me however that I still haven't received the feedback from Ed Hooks as I feel I can't really start animating before I know what he has to say.
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
Chosen story
After receiving the feedback from my tutor I have decided to send Ed my 3rd story, "The Night Snack"
My tutor did really like the story about the lawyer trying to get into heaven but concluded with the 3rd story to fit best for my task which is why I have chosen this.
I have also started thinking about the mime task. I will come back to this later on.
My tutor did really like the story about the lawyer trying to get into heaven but concluded with the 3rd story to fit best for my task which is why I have chosen this.
I have also started thinking about the mime task. I will come back to this later on.
Monday, 21 February 2011
Acting for Animation - Task 1 Ideas
Even though I created a mind map to come up with ideas for this task, it really didn't seem to help me much as I seem to work better just coming up with scenarios outside of the map.
I actually came up with more ideas when doing brainstorming with my fellow student, Jo Christian Figenschou and I took 3 of my ideas to the writing stage.
The weird thing is that I actually seemed to come up with more ideas if the character is to walk DOWN a staircase than up which is the original task.
Here are the 3 stories I have developed so far:
Story 1 - The Delivery Man
A delivery man is delivering a new piece of furniture in a big box to an elderly man.
Because the man is old, he can't get the package up to the first floor alone and needs the delivery man's help to get the heavy package up there. The delivery man is in a non parking zone and cannot stay for long before he will be fined.
The scene starts with the delivery man placing down the package inside the old man's house ready for him to sign the delivery papers. The old man shakes his head and points up the staircase.
The delivery man looks at the staircase, then at the box and finally at the old man with a surprised face and points at his clock. The old man points at himself by opening his arms and looking down at his own body.
The delivery man sighs and picks up the very heavy package heading towards the staircase.
As he is coming around the first corner, he gets stuck. He tries to push the package through using all his strength without any luck. He sits the package down and steps back down and looks at the situation with his one hand covering his chin.
He steps back up and tilts the package on the high side, twists it around and gets ready to pick it back up. In this moment, his watch alarm starts beeping and he stressfully pushes the package up the stairs. He runs down and gives the delivery papers to the old man awaiting his signature.
the scene ends with the old man just about to sign the papers and the box slides down the staircase, smashing into the wall.
Objective:
Get the parcel on top of the stairs and get his delivery papers signed before his 5 min parking window is over.
Conflicts:
The tight L Shaped staircase
Time
Story 2 - The Lawyer
The lawyer enters the scene as he is standing at the bottom of the 10 steps leading up to the pearly gates of heaven.
He gets ready to take his first step when he stops and looks at a sign next to the stairs showing the way to hell.
He looks between the two places a couple of times before he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath and takes the first step. As he steps onto the first step, the step illuminates the writing "You shall not steal"
He looks down and shifts his eyes from side to side, blinks and looks back up at his goal and prepares to take the next step. As he lifts his foot to place it on the next step it illuminates the text "You shall not lie". He quickly takes his foot back down on his current step. He nervously looks back down at the sign showing "hell" and looks back at the next step. At this point he blinks his eyes and changes his facial expression to a optimistic one.
He makes a small jump across the step and runs up to the top, stopping in front of St Peter with a proud and satisfied look.
St Peter shakes his head and almost instantly, the staircase transforms into a slide, sending the lawyer back down to the bottom and straight to hell.
Goal:
Get passed the pearly gates.
Conflict:
Internal:
He wants to go to heaven but knows he's not welcome because of his lifelong career as a lawyer
External:
St. Peter
Story 3 - The Night Snack
The man enters the scene as he has just sneaked outside of his bedroom and standing at the top of the stairs ready to sneak downstairs silently to the kitchen and get a night snack.
Previously he has been to the doctor and has received the bad news that he needs to watch his cholesterol levels. Because of this, his wife has cut down on the fat food that he loves so much, and to compensate for this he sneaks down to the kitchen during the night to have a snack. He was caught last night and his wife gave him one hell of a fight so he will do anything in his power to prevent this episode from repeating itself.
Just before taking the first step, he looks back towards the bedroom with a guilty face. As he starts to turn around heading back in to the bedroom, his stomach starts making noise.
He leans up against the wall and takes his first step, making the staircase squeak. He freezes up against the wall with his eyes closed, opens one eye and looks towards the bedroom.
He opens his other eye and keeps focusing towards the bedroom as he walks slowly down the stairs, pushing his weight up against the wall to minimise the chances of making more noise.
With it being dark and him looking the other way, he only manages to do a couple of steps before he steps on his son's toy car and slips tumbling down the staircase, waking everyone up.
The scene ends with him looking up on a silhouette in an angry pose.
I still haven't started sketching out any thumbnail sketches as I still don't know which one to choose. As you might have noticed, the last story is actually a character walking DOWN the staircase instead of up.
This is actually the story that appeals to me the most but since it does not work with the specification of the task I don't know if I can use it and will have to wait for a response from my module tutor and Ed Hooks.
I actually came up with more ideas when doing brainstorming with my fellow student, Jo Christian Figenschou and I took 3 of my ideas to the writing stage.
The weird thing is that I actually seemed to come up with more ideas if the character is to walk DOWN a staircase than up which is the original task.
Here are the 3 stories I have developed so far:
Story 1 - The Delivery Man
A delivery man is delivering a new piece of furniture in a big box to an elderly man.
Because the man is old, he can't get the package up to the first floor alone and needs the delivery man's help to get the heavy package up there. The delivery man is in a non parking zone and cannot stay for long before he will be fined.
The scene starts with the delivery man placing down the package inside the old man's house ready for him to sign the delivery papers. The old man shakes his head and points up the staircase.
The delivery man looks at the staircase, then at the box and finally at the old man with a surprised face and points at his clock. The old man points at himself by opening his arms and looking down at his own body.
The delivery man sighs and picks up the very heavy package heading towards the staircase.
As he is coming around the first corner, he gets stuck. He tries to push the package through using all his strength without any luck. He sits the package down and steps back down and looks at the situation with his one hand covering his chin.
He steps back up and tilts the package on the high side, twists it around and gets ready to pick it back up. In this moment, his watch alarm starts beeping and he stressfully pushes the package up the stairs. He runs down and gives the delivery papers to the old man awaiting his signature.
the scene ends with the old man just about to sign the papers and the box slides down the staircase, smashing into the wall.
Objective:
Get the parcel on top of the stairs and get his delivery papers signed before his 5 min parking window is over.
Conflicts:
The tight L Shaped staircase
Time
Story 2 - The Lawyer
The lawyer enters the scene as he is standing at the bottom of the 10 steps leading up to the pearly gates of heaven.
He gets ready to take his first step when he stops and looks at a sign next to the stairs showing the way to hell.
He looks between the two places a couple of times before he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath and takes the first step. As he steps onto the first step, the step illuminates the writing "You shall not steal"
He looks down and shifts his eyes from side to side, blinks and looks back up at his goal and prepares to take the next step. As he lifts his foot to place it on the next step it illuminates the text "You shall not lie". He quickly takes his foot back down on his current step. He nervously looks back down at the sign showing "hell" and looks back at the next step. At this point he blinks his eyes and changes his facial expression to a optimistic one.
He makes a small jump across the step and runs up to the top, stopping in front of St Peter with a proud and satisfied look.
St Peter shakes his head and almost instantly, the staircase transforms into a slide, sending the lawyer back down to the bottom and straight to hell.
Goal:
Get passed the pearly gates.
Conflict:
Internal:
He wants to go to heaven but knows he's not welcome because of his lifelong career as a lawyer
External:
St. Peter
Story 3 - The Night Snack
The man enters the scene as he has just sneaked outside of his bedroom and standing at the top of the stairs ready to sneak downstairs silently to the kitchen and get a night snack.
Previously he has been to the doctor and has received the bad news that he needs to watch his cholesterol levels. Because of this, his wife has cut down on the fat food that he loves so much, and to compensate for this he sneaks down to the kitchen during the night to have a snack. He was caught last night and his wife gave him one hell of a fight so he will do anything in his power to prevent this episode from repeating itself.
Just before taking the first step, he looks back towards the bedroom with a guilty face. As he starts to turn around heading back in to the bedroom, his stomach starts making noise.
He leans up against the wall and takes his first step, making the staircase squeak. He freezes up against the wall with his eyes closed, opens one eye and looks towards the bedroom.
He opens his other eye and keeps focusing towards the bedroom as he walks slowly down the stairs, pushing his weight up against the wall to minimise the chances of making more noise.
With it being dark and him looking the other way, he only manages to do a couple of steps before he steps on his son's toy car and slips tumbling down the staircase, waking everyone up.
The scene ends with him looking up on a silhouette in an angry pose.
I still haven't started sketching out any thumbnail sketches as I still don't know which one to choose. As you might have noticed, the last story is actually a character walking DOWN the staircase instead of up.
This is actually the story that appeals to me the most but since it does not work with the specification of the task I don't know if I can use it and will have to wait for a response from my module tutor and Ed Hooks.
Thursday, 17 February 2011
New render of the dancing animation from AP2
Before I get ahead completely with the Acting module I have now re-rendered the dancing animation from AP2 where I have fixed the rendering issues as well as improving the lighting.
As I promised back in AP2 that I will post it, here it is:
As I promised back in AP2 that I will post it, here it is:
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
New Module - Acting for Animation
After a lot of challenges in Animation Practice 2 it is about to become even more challenging now as I take on my next module, Acting For Animation and I can't wait to get started!
During this module I will be doing 3 challenging character animations where achieving good acting is essential. The tasks are as follows:
TASK 1: CHARACTER, OBJECTIVE+ OBSTACLE
In this exercise you will animate a character going up some stairs. You will need to be absolutely clear about who your character is, what mood they are in, what is their objective and obstacle.
With this task, we are even so lucky that Ed Hooks will be providing us with feedback!
TASK 2: MIME ANIMATION
In this exercise you will animate a mime artist in a performance piece.
TASK 3: TWO CHARACTER DIALOGUE ANIMATION
In this exercise you will create a convincing performance with two character in conversation.
The greatest part about this task is that we will actually participate in the monthly 11 Second Club competition and submit to it!
So that's what's going to happen in the future from now and I will of course post my work in progress with the tasks I am now given.
During this module I will be doing 3 challenging character animations where achieving good acting is essential. The tasks are as follows:
TASK 1: CHARACTER, OBJECTIVE+ OBSTACLE
In this exercise you will animate a character going up some stairs. You will need to be absolutely clear about who your character is, what mood they are in, what is their objective and obstacle.
With this task, we are even so lucky that Ed Hooks will be providing us with feedback!
TASK 2: MIME ANIMATION
In this exercise you will animate a mime artist in a performance piece.
TASK 3: TWO CHARACTER DIALOGUE ANIMATION
In this exercise you will create a convincing performance with two character in conversation.
The greatest part about this task is that we will actually participate in the monthly 11 Second Club competition and submit to it!
So that's what's going to happen in the future from now and I will of course post my work in progress with the tasks I am now given.
Monday, 14 February 2011
Animation Practice 2 - Conclusion
As I am now about to wrap up this module I will say some final words about what I have learned through animating these 3 challenging tasks.
First of all, I want to thank everyone who gave me feedback through this module, helping me progress as an animator even further.
I am happy that I finally got to do an animation where I have characters dancing and doing it with 2 characters has absolutely been a challenging and given me more knowledge on what I would do next time I animate 2 characters.
The presenter animation pushed me even further on how to make my animation much more snappy when I need it to be as well as it proved to me that I can animate characters who have an extremely small moving hold and it still looks good (by this I mean that the character doesn't have to move all the time)
But the most important point I have learned during this module was when I received my feedback from Ed Hooks. As I mentioned earlier, I did not want to animate the face as part of the block but if there is one main conclusion I can draw from this module it is to also block the facial animation as this can help prevent "over animated" scenes. By this I mean that a face can sell the performance and I might not have to show what the character is feeling by moving it around as long as we can see the face showing the emotion.
The other reason I want to try again now to block facial animation is because I got really sick of looking at my brain dead characters until the very end. It just gives me more feedback about the performance instantly and it all comes down to THINKING LIKE A 2D ANIMATOR.
2D animators does not have the luxury of working in layers like 3D animators. Even though it is a good thing that 3D animators can work in layers if they want to, the best 3D animators are animators with a 2D background and because of this I cannot stress enough how important it is to think like a 2D animator. "Every Frame Is A Drawing"
I am now taking all this knowledge with me to the next module and I can't wait to do some animation with some serious performance in it!
First of all, I want to thank everyone who gave me feedback through this module, helping me progress as an animator even further.
I am happy that I finally got to do an animation where I have characters dancing and doing it with 2 characters has absolutely been a challenging and given me more knowledge on what I would do next time I animate 2 characters.
The presenter animation pushed me even further on how to make my animation much more snappy when I need it to be as well as it proved to me that I can animate characters who have an extremely small moving hold and it still looks good (by this I mean that the character doesn't have to move all the time)
But the most important point I have learned during this module was when I received my feedback from Ed Hooks. As I mentioned earlier, I did not want to animate the face as part of the block but if there is one main conclusion I can draw from this module it is to also block the facial animation as this can help prevent "over animated" scenes. By this I mean that a face can sell the performance and I might not have to show what the character is feeling by moving it around as long as we can see the face showing the emotion.
The other reason I want to try again now to block facial animation is because I got really sick of looking at my brain dead characters until the very end. It just gives me more feedback about the performance instantly and it all comes down to THINKING LIKE A 2D ANIMATOR.
2D animators does not have the luxury of working in layers like 3D animators. Even though it is a good thing that 3D animators can work in layers if they want to, the best 3D animators are animators with a 2D background and because of this I cannot stress enough how important it is to think like a 2D animator. "Every Frame Is A Drawing"
I am now taking all this knowledge with me to the next module and I can't wait to do some animation with some serious performance in it!
AP 2 Research
I know I should have given my readers some input to what I have been up to in terms of research and what gives me inspiration during this module. Since I have kind of forgotten to mention all of this earlier I am doing it now, better late than never.
First of all, when it comes to knowledge about animation I only have a few sources that I have been looking at during this module.
For learning animation there are very few online resources I have been following:
Keith Lango
11 Second Club
Animaiton Mentor Tips and Tricks Blog
Animation Mentor Webinars
I know this might seem like a short list but I feel that I get all the info I need from this next to the other material I have been using in book form and DVD:
Character Animation Crash Course - Eric Goldberg
Animators Survival Kit - Richard Williams
Animators Survival Kit Animated - Richard Williams
Even though there is still a lot of good tips and knowledge online, I still feel that the best knowledge I have gotten is through the last 3 materials which I have read and watched. It is the absolute foundation needed in order to get started. I have now been studying animation for 3,5 years and I feel I have gotten to a point where the best way to learn is to simply do animation and figure out work flows that work for me.
Please don't misunderstand me as I don't read about animation. It is great reading material which I never get tired of but my focus is now leading more towards practicing it and studying the world around me which leads me to my little video here:
During this module, there has been a lot of discussion between me and some fellow students regarding offsetting parts of the characters body to loosen up the animation. I remember back in the day when I used to offset characters body parts by offsetting the keys as I was close to finishing the animation. It was a horrible thing to do, I did not just offset things. I changed the timing. And the worst part was the mess I created in the time line. Once I took this step with my animation there was no turning back and it was horrific. Luckily after watching Animators Survival Kit Animated I finally got my head around the understanding of the difference between timing and spacing and I am now thinking like a 2D animator as much as possible and I am implementing offsets in my breakdown drawings, changing the spacing and not the timing. It makes it all a lot easier to manage and it is possible to make changes.
Even though I have managed to do this with the body I have still been kind of doing the same thing with the fingers of a character which is why I did a little test to find out. Does the different joints of a finger actually arrive at different timings.
According to the video, my two outer joints does actually arrive 1-3 frames later than the first, depending on the speed.
Even though this is proven on the video, I would still conclude with that it is still possible to build it in using different spacing. As long as it looks like it is happening a different speeds it should be good.
The most interesting observation I made however is how uniform the last two joints move together as one which is something I have not taken into account with my animation before.
I am sorry about not being very specific about all the stuff I have been looking into and I will improve on this from now on. I have now added 2 more boxes on the right hand side where I will add videos and links of interest that I have come upon.
Finishing off this post I am giving you the link to what I think is the most inspirational 11 second club clip I have seen up to this moment:
11 Second Club - Ice Cream
I know it is from November but still, it is extremely beautifully done and I love watching it frame by frame and seeing all the work and details behind this animation.
First of all, when it comes to knowledge about animation I only have a few sources that I have been looking at during this module.
For learning animation there are very few online resources I have been following:
Keith Lango
11 Second Club
Animaiton Mentor Tips and Tricks Blog
Animation Mentor Webinars
I know this might seem like a short list but I feel that I get all the info I need from this next to the other material I have been using in book form and DVD:
Character Animation Crash Course - Eric Goldberg
Animators Survival Kit - Richard Williams
Animators Survival Kit Animated - Richard Williams
Even though there is still a lot of good tips and knowledge online, I still feel that the best knowledge I have gotten is through the last 3 materials which I have read and watched. It is the absolute foundation needed in order to get started. I have now been studying animation for 3,5 years and I feel I have gotten to a point where the best way to learn is to simply do animation and figure out work flows that work for me.
Please don't misunderstand me as I don't read about animation. It is great reading material which I never get tired of but my focus is now leading more towards practicing it and studying the world around me which leads me to my little video here:
During this module, there has been a lot of discussion between me and some fellow students regarding offsetting parts of the characters body to loosen up the animation. I remember back in the day when I used to offset characters body parts by offsetting the keys as I was close to finishing the animation. It was a horrible thing to do, I did not just offset things. I changed the timing. And the worst part was the mess I created in the time line. Once I took this step with my animation there was no turning back and it was horrific. Luckily after watching Animators Survival Kit Animated I finally got my head around the understanding of the difference between timing and spacing and I am now thinking like a 2D animator as much as possible and I am implementing offsets in my breakdown drawings, changing the spacing and not the timing. It makes it all a lot easier to manage and it is possible to make changes.
Even though I have managed to do this with the body I have still been kind of doing the same thing with the fingers of a character which is why I did a little test to find out. Does the different joints of a finger actually arrive at different timings.
According to the video, my two outer joints does actually arrive 1-3 frames later than the first, depending on the speed.
Even though this is proven on the video, I would still conclude with that it is still possible to build it in using different spacing. As long as it looks like it is happening a different speeds it should be good.
The most interesting observation I made however is how uniform the last two joints move together as one which is something I have not taken into account with my animation before.
I am sorry about not being very specific about all the stuff I have been looking into and I will improve on this from now on. I have now added 2 more boxes on the right hand side where I will add videos and links of interest that I have come upon.
Finishing off this post I am giving you the link to what I think is the most inspirational 11 second club clip I have seen up to this moment:
11 Second Club - Ice Cream
I know it is from November but still, it is extremely beautifully done and I love watching it frame by frame and seeing all the work and details behind this animation.
Animation Practice 2 - Final Hand-Ins
After being awake for 30 hours working hard, I have finally handed in all my final renders for this module:
LIP SYNC - FINAL RENDER
Here I have now made the small change with the eyes, making them move ahead of the head so it breaks up things.
THE PRESENTER - FINAL RENDER
With this animation I have now taken into account all the feedback I have received as well as adding all the facial animation. I think I finally managed to get the snappy motion to the hands that I wanted and the tip I got from Ed Hooks by keeping him in one pose definitely helped the animation a lot and I am actually quite satisfied with the result.
DANCING AND SINGING - FINAL RENDER
As I mentioned earlier, this is the animation I had the biggest problem letting go as it could be even better. This is the final render however and that sucks as well because of the damned reflection in the window in the background it kind of takes away the focus from the characters and I unfortunately noticed this too late and just had to hand in this render. I will still make a new render though and post it.
LIP SYNC - FINAL RENDER
Here I have now made the small change with the eyes, making them move ahead of the head so it breaks up things.
THE PRESENTER - FINAL RENDER
With this animation I have now taken into account all the feedback I have received as well as adding all the facial animation. I think I finally managed to get the snappy motion to the hands that I wanted and the tip I got from Ed Hooks by keeping him in one pose definitely helped the animation a lot and I am actually quite satisfied with the result.
DANCING AND SINGING - FINAL RENDER
As I mentioned earlier, this is the animation I had the biggest problem letting go as it could be even better. This is the final render however and that sucks as well because of the damned reflection in the window in the background it kind of takes away the focus from the characters and I unfortunately noticed this too late and just had to hand in this render. I will still make a new render though and post it.
WIP 7, Dancing and Singing Task
I have now done everything in my power to tweak the animation as far as I can get it within the deadline. There as still areas where it seems kind of snappy and it irritates me that I have still been unsuccessful in figuring out what's causing it. I've been looking at curves everywhere and I can't find anything unusual.
I also tried rigging the hair very simple for animation but that proved to be more difficult than I thought as all I got was strange result the moment I added the skin modifier so instead of waste time on this, I animated the hair by animating the vertices in the edit poly modifier. It could definitely look a lot better if I had more time but it is still better than no motion at all.
As much as I still see things that need improvement and how difficult it is, I have to let the animation go and call it finished so I can move on to my Presenter animation and make the necessary changes before the deadline.
Also I have completely forgot to even mention feedback on my lip sync task which is also something I need to tweak before the deadline. The last time I showed my Lip Sync animation to my tutor, I was told that in the very beginning it looks like the eyes and head move at the same time so I will tweak this as soon as I get to it.
But here is the final animation for my Dancing, ready for render:
As you might have noticed, I have added a new camera angle. This is because I wanted to capture the girl stroking her hands across his face as well as capturing both of their faces in that moment as it did not show as well in the previous camera angle.
I also tried rigging the hair very simple for animation but that proved to be more difficult than I thought as all I got was strange result the moment I added the skin modifier so instead of waste time on this, I animated the hair by animating the vertices in the edit poly modifier. It could definitely look a lot better if I had more time but it is still better than no motion at all.
As much as I still see things that need improvement and how difficult it is, I have to let the animation go and call it finished so I can move on to my Presenter animation and make the necessary changes before the deadline.
Also I have completely forgot to even mention feedback on my lip sync task which is also something I need to tweak before the deadline. The last time I showed my Lip Sync animation to my tutor, I was told that in the very beginning it looks like the eyes and head move at the same time so I will tweak this as soon as I get to it.
But here is the final animation for my Dancing, ready for render:
As you might have noticed, I have added a new camera angle. This is because I wanted to capture the girl stroking her hands across his face as well as capturing both of their faces in that moment as it did not show as well in the previous camera angle.
WIP 6, Dancing and Singing Task
It has been a busy weekend and still is. If I am to reach the deadline within the next 9 hours I have to keep on working through the night so I can also do changes to my presenter animation.
With the dancing however, now I have finally added the facial animation and it is so much fun to finally see that there is a real character in each of them instead of just to puppets dancing.
I have also made changes to how the girl passes the guy the second time as she pushes him away. Earlier I had her left hand sliding around his waist. To make it even more clear she is interested in him, I have made her stroke her hands across his cheek instead.
Also with the added facial animation it should not be any question about her being interested or not. At least I think it is clear.
With the dancing however, now I have finally added the facial animation and it is so much fun to finally see that there is a real character in each of them instead of just to puppets dancing.
I have also made changes to how the girl passes the guy the second time as she pushes him away. Earlier I had her left hand sliding around his waist. To make it even more clear she is interested in him, I have made her stroke her hands across his cheek instead.
Also with the added facial animation it should not be any question about her being interested or not. At least I think it is clear.
Friday, 11 February 2011
ANIMEX - Final Day
It has been a great week with a lot of interesting talks, but the final talk where Eric Goldberg talks for over 3 hours about his life in the animation industry and it was a prefect ending of a great week.
The final talk with Eric Goldberg was alone, worth all the £75 it costs for a festival pass.
It was great to see all these small animations Eric did in his youth as well as all the stuff he has worked on. It was truly inspiring and a really good reminder of why I have a passion for animation.
The final talk with Eric Goldberg was alone, worth all the £75 it costs for a festival pass.
It was great to see all these small animations Eric did in his youth as well as all the stuff he has worked on. It was truly inspiring and a really good reminder of why I have a passion for animation.
ANIMEX - Lounge
My biggest wish during lounge got fulfilled. I got the honor of meeting Eric Goldberg! What a great guy. Very nice and welcoming and the best part is that I got to show him some of my animation and especially my dancing animation so I could get even further feedback.
I told him about my feedback from Ed Hooks and what I tried to convey with my animation. So far he thinks the dance looks good and tells me that it is a difficult task to make the girl look interested at the same time as she tries to make it look like she wants to leave.
He even drew me a sketch of how the pose could look like:
He also looked at some of my previous animation and gave me some great feedback on what things I could do to improve it even further which is knowledge I'm bringing with me to the future and I might even do these changes to the animation for my showreel when I have the time.
In general, he liked my animation and encourages me to keep on doing it. It has been a great evening leaving the lounge after receiving this feedback from someone as profiled as Eric Goldberg.
I told him about my feedback from Ed Hooks and what I tried to convey with my animation. So far he thinks the dance looks good and tells me that it is a difficult task to make the girl look interested at the same time as she tries to make it look like she wants to leave.
He even drew me a sketch of how the pose could look like:
He also looked at some of my previous animation and gave me some great feedback on what things I could do to improve it even further which is knowledge I'm bringing with me to the future and I might even do these changes to the animation for my showreel when I have the time.In general, he liked my animation and encourages me to keep on doing it. It has been a great evening leaving the lounge after receiving this feedback from someone as profiled as Eric Goldberg.
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
ANIMEX - Workshop with Stuart Sumida
I can't stress how angry I am at myself for missing my chance to attend Eric Goldberg - MASTERCLASS in Character Animation.
But my workshop with Stuart Sumida was still a very good alternative.
During this workshop we learned a lot about how to design creatures which move through water and air and of course most importantly, HOW TO ANIMATE them!
It has completely opened my eyes on how to animate a creature with wings as I have learned more about anatomy and how a wing works.
It was also really interesting to see some "behind the scenes" footage from Dreamworks' "How to Train Your Dragon" as we got to see a lot about character development, animation tests and it was a great learning experience.
But my workshop with Stuart Sumida was still a very good alternative.
During this workshop we learned a lot about how to design creatures which move through water and air and of course most importantly, HOW TO ANIMATE them!
It has completely opened my eyes on how to animate a creature with wings as I have learned more about anatomy and how a wing works.
It was also really interesting to see some "behind the scenes" footage from Dreamworks' "How to Train Your Dragon" as we got to see a lot about character development, animation tests and it was a great learning experience.
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
ANIMEX - Ed Hooks' Feedback
So, here I am. Sitting in the classroom looking at what work the students are showing ahead of me. And one of the students show an animation where there is a character that gives the impression that it does not want to be in the scene.
Ed Hooks gives a short lecture about this specific issue.
"The character does always want to be in the scene" the character should not give the impression that he or she wants to leave. At this point I'm thinking "oh shit" he's not going to like mine then. As I thought it would be interesting that there is conflict and all in my scene I am breaking this rule.
I did initially have the idea that the woman does like the man and is just kind of flirting, but without the facial animation this does not come across and Ed of course comments on this.
We are also accompanied by another tutor, Siobhan Fenton who does actually suggest what my initial idea is, have her look at him with flirty eyes.
It can work but if she wants to leave the man, Ed suggests that they should not touch.
Obviously, I don't want to make such a drastic change to my scene as it would mean starting over and quite frankly, I don't know what my characters should do then as it changes my whole concept.
It is too bad I did not have my facial animation ready for this because my idea does not come across. Light's on, but no one is home.
Even though I'm not going to change the whole concept, the feedback was helpful and I learned from it which is knowledge I'll bring with me in the future.
I also showed my Presenter animation and I got some really helpful feedback on the part where he goes "five-thousand-dollars" as this is the part I'm really struggling with.
Ed reacted to how quickly the character stands back up after saying the sentence the first time. Instead, keep him in the same pose making him look at his audience to make sure they got his point. This was a great suggestion which I will implement with this animation as soon as I return to it.
I wish I had gotten further on my animation but so far I have barely slept the 2 last days and since the animaiton part of Animex is starting, I will now put my animation aside for a little while as I'm completely burned out and want to enjoy the rest of Animex.
Ed Hooks gives a short lecture about this specific issue.
"The character does always want to be in the scene" the character should not give the impression that he or she wants to leave. At this point I'm thinking "oh shit" he's not going to like mine then. As I thought it would be interesting that there is conflict and all in my scene I am breaking this rule.
I did initially have the idea that the woman does like the man and is just kind of flirting, but without the facial animation this does not come across and Ed of course comments on this.
We are also accompanied by another tutor, Siobhan Fenton who does actually suggest what my initial idea is, have her look at him with flirty eyes.
It can work but if she wants to leave the man, Ed suggests that they should not touch.
Obviously, I don't want to make such a drastic change to my scene as it would mean starting over and quite frankly, I don't know what my characters should do then as it changes my whole concept.
It is too bad I did not have my facial animation ready for this because my idea does not come across. Light's on, but no one is home.
Even though I'm not going to change the whole concept, the feedback was helpful and I learned from it which is knowledge I'll bring with me in the future.
I also showed my Presenter animation and I got some really helpful feedback on the part where he goes "five-thousand-dollars" as this is the part I'm really struggling with.
Ed reacted to how quickly the character stands back up after saying the sentence the first time. Instead, keep him in the same pose making him look at his audience to make sure they got his point. This was a great suggestion which I will implement with this animation as soon as I return to it.
I wish I had gotten further on my animation but so far I have barely slept the 2 last days and since the animaiton part of Animex is starting, I will now put my animation aside for a little while as I'm completely burned out and want to enjoy the rest of Animex.
WIP 5, Dancing and Singing Task
It has been a long night and I'm not even close to as far with my animation as I wish I were.
So far I have now added more breakdowns and trying my best to smooth out the choppy animation. It seems to be a spacing issue and I have managed to smooth out some of it but now all. Also I have added the lip sync to the whole sequence and this is what I have to show Ed Hooks in a short while:
So far I have now added more breakdowns and trying my best to smooth out the choppy animation. It seems to be a spacing issue and I have managed to smooth out some of it but now all. Also I have added the lip sync to the whole sequence and this is what I have to show Ed Hooks in a short while:
Monday, 7 February 2011
ANIMEX
Finally, the one week we all have been waiting for has started and I'm excited and I really hope I will get the chance to meet one of the greatest animators alive today; Eric Goldberg.
What is unfortunate is that I still am working (pretty much around the clock) with my dancing animation and I am trying to get as much as possible done by tomorrow so I have something good to show Ed Hooks.
What is unfortunate is that I still am working (pretty much around the clock) with my dancing animation and I am trying to get as much as possible done by tomorrow so I have something good to show Ed Hooks.
Friday, 4 February 2011
WIP 4, Dancing and Singing Task
I have now filled in the gaps, adding all the missing breakdown poses.
As I add more and more animation I do notice it is getting more difficult to keep the float of the dance in certain areas and it looks kind of choppy which I'm still trying to smooth out as much as I can.
I have definitely underestimated how demanding this task was going to be as I feel as I have so much left and I am now worried by meeting my personal deadline on the 7th of February.
As I add more and more animation I do notice it is getting more difficult to keep the float of the dance in certain areas and it looks kind of choppy which I'm still trying to smooth out as much as I can.
I have definitely underestimated how demanding this task was going to be as I feel as I have so much left and I am now worried by meeting my personal deadline on the 7th of February.
Thursday, 3 February 2011
WIP 3, Dancing and Singing Task - Workflow with two characters
So far I have done animation where characters don't interact with each other and I have developed a workflow which works nice for me, Storytelling poses, extreme poses, breakdown and finally polishing the animation.
As I started taking this animation into the extreme poses stage I have quickly realized this is definitely the most difficult thing I have done as the characters are always touching, I can't work my way through the scene focusing on one character at a time like I'm used to.
Usually, my extreme poses are all the contacts and what I am now facing is one character might be in a contact pose while the other is in a passing position or what I would use as a breakdown pose.
I have looked around the web for hints and tricks and especially 11 second club's helpful hints to see if I could find anything useful about a workflow for this animation without finding anything that was suitable for my way of working.
So what I have decided to do is to simply try and do the extremes and breakdowns kind of at the same time. Then when I take this animation to the breakdown stage I will add the missing breakdowns and tweak the existing ones and hope for the best.
It all really comes down to trying to think like a 2D animator, thinking in frames which is a rule I'm trying my best to follow as I know my animation became a lot better as I started following this concept. By this I mean, keying everything in the scene at the current frame so there is no accidental animation going on.
So far I have now added a mix of all the extremes for both characters and it actually starts to float quite nicely already in splined version because of the mix between the extremes and breakdowns:
As I started taking this animation into the extreme poses stage I have quickly realized this is definitely the most difficult thing I have done as the characters are always touching, I can't work my way through the scene focusing on one character at a time like I'm used to.
Usually, my extreme poses are all the contacts and what I am now facing is one character might be in a contact pose while the other is in a passing position or what I would use as a breakdown pose.
I have looked around the web for hints and tricks and especially 11 second club's helpful hints to see if I could find anything useful about a workflow for this animation without finding anything that was suitable for my way of working.
So what I have decided to do is to simply try and do the extremes and breakdowns kind of at the same time. Then when I take this animation to the breakdown stage I will add the missing breakdowns and tweak the existing ones and hope for the best.
It all really comes down to trying to think like a 2D animator, thinking in frames which is a rule I'm trying my best to follow as I know my animation became a lot better as I started following this concept. By this I mean, keying everything in the scene at the current frame so there is no accidental animation going on.
So far I have now added a mix of all the extremes for both characters and it actually starts to float quite nicely already in splined version because of the mix between the extremes and breakdowns:
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
WIP 2, Dancing and Singing Task
After sending the first storytelling block I got great feedback from my module tutor, Penny Holton. She loved the idea and could not point on anything special to change at this point and I should just keep on working.
So what I have done over the night is to tweak the poses a little as well as adding the "kissing" pose on the beginning as I felt there should be something more happening in the beginning instead of them just looking at each others for 50 -100 frames.
After showing this WIP to the class the feedback is still positive so I am now taking the animation over to the next stage of the animation, adding the extreme poses.
As you might have noticed, nothing has been done to the face. As with the presenter animation, I will be adding this later on using straight ahead animation.
So what I have done over the night is to tweak the poses a little as well as adding the "kissing" pose on the beginning as I felt there should be something more happening in the beginning instead of them just looking at each others for 50 -100 frames.
After showing this WIP to the class the feedback is still positive so I am now taking the animation over to the next stage of the animation, adding the extreme poses.
As you might have noticed, nothing has been done to the face. As with the presenter animation, I will be adding this later on using straight ahead animation.
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