Class 10 03/29/2017

Last class we went over your animation ideas, and I begin to show you how I would begin to do layout and previz with your animation ideas.

Final Project Discussion

Brenden
You are picking "Long Live the King".  Try to keep it around 11-12 seconds long.  Even though you boarded out a POV angel, I would like you to try something more simple.  I can see this happening with 2-3 camera angles.  Please draw out those frames and the key moments of the animation and action.  Plug the drawings into After Effect with the audio and time everything out.  For next class bring in a quicktime of your animatic.

Lana
You want to make a girl defend herself from flying objects.  I think it's great that you laid out the poses, but next you need to think about how you will frame this in a scene.  Since this animation will be very involved, I think it's best to use one stationary camera.  However if you have idea for how you would like the camera to move, even it's a little bit, I am interested in seeing it.  But make sure you really give alot of love to your animation first.  Please draw out your frames and the key moments of the animation and action.  Plug the drawings into After Effect with any audio you might and time everything out.  If you want to use the audio from the animation, I am fine with that.  For next class bring in a quicktime of your animatic.

Heejung
You are having some dude smash his plate into the ground.  You have drawn your animatic already, so go ahead and setup your maya file with rough poses and timing.  Bring in a quicktime for next class.

Joe
I really love your ideas, but we need to shape them into something a bit more simple.  I think you wanted to go with having a character drink when they don't want to.  Please draw out the range of emotions your character might go through in this situation.  Feel free to share them with me before next week if you want feedback.  If you get it in a good place early enough you can time it out in After Effects.

Vinay
You decided to have two characters interact on a train, one attacking the other with his luggage.  I think for this sort of animation, you might do well with one stationary camera.  Please sketch out your scene's composotion and where the characters will be.  Please draw out the key moments of the animation and action.  Plug the drawings into After Effect with whatever audio you would like to use (if any) and time everything out.  For next class bring in a quicktime of your animatic.

Animatics

Even though it was not timed out yet, Heejung's animatic is great example to follow.  She drew just enough detail for us to understand what is happening with the characters.  Here are some other great animatics to watch:


This artist has a channel full of animatics showing her interpretation of the Musical Hamilton.  These are really cute.

Another version of Helpless from Hamilton done by a different artist.  I think this one is quite good.

Maya Layout and Previz

I opened up maya and showed you guys how I would get started with setting up my layout/previz file.

1) Open up maya and reference character and camera rigs.

2) Import audio wav file.

3) If needed model a simple environment and props.

4) Set up poses and camera compostions for each shot and action in your scenes.  Use your audio or animatic as timing reference.

Feel free to key your camera and set up multiple scenes in one maya file.  Since many of you are not at this step yet, I will go over this information again.

Maya files

I will be emailing you maya rigs to try out.  Feel free to play with them and try them out.  See if you would like them for your final.  Bring in any questions you might have.  I will try to cover some of them next class.

I also have the camera rig ready for you.  I will explain it during next class, but feel free to play with it.

I will also send you the maya file of my layout along with the audio if you want to explore it and see how I moved the characters and camera.

Class 9 03/22/2017

In today's class, I splined out head turn animation showing how to add life to the character.

SPLINING

-Moving holds- adding slight moves or drift to the character to keep him alive.  You can see it in the graph editor at the beginning of the animation.

Keith Lango has a great write up on moving holds.  I strongly encourage you to read it.  Apologies for the outdated website.


-Moving eyelids- keyframing the eyelids whenever the pupils moved.

-How to use eye blinking

Carlos Baena's website about animators using blinks.

My selected note from this post
"That is after we looked in one direction for a while and get "enough" information from that, we blink and change focus of interest. By analogy, sometimes we blink to separate one thought from another in a thought process." "When a thought process is finished" "This is what I thought was interesting. Someone here told me about a book (sorry - can't remember the title right now) where a film editor discussed how he edits his movies. Basically, he makes the cut where an actor blinks or when
the viewer naturally "feels" like it's time to blink. His whole theory is that our brain is viewing a film whenever we are awake and that our eyes are the editors, and the blinks are our eyes "cutting" the "scenes." This is why we blink when our though process changes or eye direction changes," "Other stuff I try to do is to actually anticipate eyeblinks over a frame or two. Not that is very noticeable, but when you have closeups I really think it makes a difference. When we dart our eyes, the pupil eases out...I also noticed that with blinks. The eyelid doesn't close in a constant way, we have slows in and out of the open/close move"
Example in Moana:

-Smear frame- I attempted a smear frame on the character when he jumped backwards.  His face stretched into the direction from which he was coming from.  The stretch lasted for 1 frame, and reset over the course of the second frame.  By the 3rd frame the stretch was gone.

examples of other smears from frameXframe:
http://framexframe.tumblr.com/post/158068690763/disneys-the-fox-and-the-hound
http://framexframe.tumblr.com/post/32803534310/don-bluths-anastasia

-Added some offset animation - to the head and shoulders at the end.  The head has a delayed bounced while the shoulder happen one from apart from each other, instead of at the same time.  Do these things to add some variety and asymmetry to the timing and movement.  It will keep your character feeling organic.


Here are some extra materials on Head turns and splining animation.  This animator is not using stepped keys, which is fine.  But many of the concepts she talks about are very good.

FINAL

I outlined what I would like to see in your final assignments.  I showed more examples of Animation planning, and some videos that will hopefully inspire your ideas.  You will have the rest of the semester to work on your final, with it being due on the last day of class.  Each week's assignment will be to work on various aspects of the animation process.

Animator Acting reference:
http://i.imgur.com/UWmcpFk.gifv
http://i.imgur.com/mK9ZmYP.gifv

Every Frame a Painting. 
These videos give some ideas and knowledge about how you can use the camera to enhance the actions you are trying to show.  Remember, you do not have to be as elaborate as some of the examples shown here.  I just would like you to see all the possibilities that are available within the frame of the camera.

Drive (2011) - The Quadrant System from Tony Zhou on Vimeo.
Wolf Children (2012) - The Lateral Tracking Shot from Tony Zhou on Vimeo.

Animator Progression reels:

The last two videos for Ratatoullie, and Monsters Inc, I want you to pay attention to.  These two videos show very well many of the steps I would like you to do for your final.

Another source of inspiration might be the Frame X Frame Tumblr.  Surf this website, and see if there are any animations or actions that interest you.

Mr. Buttons

I've shown this animation before in class, but I will be happy to link you to it again, since it is a nice clip that meets the requirements of the final project.

Blind Date Animation (right click, save as)

AnimSchool Student Reels have great examples of the type of short animations I am looking for.

HOMEWORK

1) Finish Head turn animations.  Splined!

2) Final Project Phase 1:

-Please come up with at least two animation ideas.  It could be anything from a lip synch animation like the 11 Second Club, to an action, like dancing or fight choreography.

-Sketch out thumbnails of how you would animate these ideas.  If you are not sure what thumbnail sketches are, here are some examples:

-Essentially, the idea is to sketch out the most important points of your story, or action.  Bring in these images and present your idea for class.

-Bring in any material that supports your animation idea.  It could be the audio, video, or animation reference.  Like I said you could surf FrameXFrame for ideas, or bring in a video of a dancer for reference.

-Remember to pick an idea that really engages you!  It will make it that much more fun to work on!

Class 8 3/15/2017

Head Turn Animation

Hello everyone!  

Topics cover in class:

*LINK* Lines and Shapes in a composition.  - Very useful when staging your scene.

*LINK* Animation as music - The idea that the same principles for appealing music and rhythm can be applied to animation.

*LINK* Eyebrows - Tips for shaping the eyebrows and eyes when posing out the face.

One important point I wanted to impress upon you is to make sure and keep both eyes on the screen facing the camera.  The eyes are important for emotional connections.  If we lose an eye we might lose that connection.

For the demonstration, I blocked out key poses for a head turn animation, and added a change of emotion at the end.  You can see my key poses in the maya scene I have sent to you.  My poses are by no means an exact blue print.  I think it was sufficient to get my idea across.  You may need more or less depending on what you decide to do.  This is why using reference video will be very useful for this exercise.

I also made sure to take care when posing facial expressions.  I wanted to keep them interesting and asymmetrical.  This might mean opening one eye more than the other, offsetting the mouth from the center, or changing the eye brow shapes.

Here are some helpful references on the topic of head turning.  Hopefully these will reiterate what I went over in class, and you can use these as helpful reference for when you are doing your homework assignment.

Jack Jack's head turn

Pocahontas

________________________________________

**IF THERE IS ONE VIDEO I WANT YOU TO WATCH IT IS THIS ONE, WHERE AN ANIMATOR SHOWS YOU HOW HE BLOCKS OUT HIS HEAD TURN.**  Sorry for the caps lock and the yelling.  I just wanted to make sure you read this <3.

<3<3<3<3<3<3

____________________________________

Please take note, there are many different ways to do a head turn.  A neutral head turn is completely valid, but whatever the emotion of the character might be would also affect how the turn is happening.  

Other videos we watched in class:

Chuck Jones - The Evolution of an Artist from Tony Zhou on Vimeo.
Analysis of legendary animation director Chuck Jones and how he approached developing characters.  Because he set down rules and very defined personalities, he was able to effectively create vivid believable characters.  He has also mastered the art of communicating comedy and character through limited facial expression.

Some good eye blinks here.

One More Beer! from pedro conti on Vimeo.

Great character animation that tells a story and shows you who the character is just by using the eyes.

Mother (2009) - Telephoto Profile Shots from Tony Zhou on Vimeo.

Analysis of a great Korean film director who broke the rules of showing both eyes in order for the audience to feel disconnected and helpless while watching the characters.

Since animation is acting, much of what Micheal Caine is talking about here is relevant to what we do as animators.

Blind Date Animation (right click, save as)

This is the animation of the Cat showing up for a date.

HOMEWORK

Based on what was shown in class, and the reference I provided in this blog post, please create your own head turn.  This is your chance to get creative.  Don't just rotate the head and blink the eyes.  Make me feel the turn in the body and the shoulders.  Create an expressive face that might communicate what your character might be feeling on the inside.  Please feel free to explore and experiment.  Remember you are creating art.  Let's see some emotion!

Don't forget to create a new perspective camera to view our animation with.  I usually rename it "RenderCam" which is what many studios do.  Find a good place for this camera, and lock it in place by locking attributes, or just keyframe it.  Make sure this camera view is the best angle for viewing your work.  Remember what I said about the eyes.  Our animations will work much better when we see both eyes in the shot.  Use your RenderCam to figure that out.

It is REQUIRED record yourself a few times turning your head and looking.  Do it a few times and pick the best one.  Turn it in with your animation progress!

Think back to your assignment when you posed out the character to your drawings.  You are essentially doing the same thing, but with poses that are sequential.

So in summary I want to see:
1 blocked animation of a head turn.
1 video of your filmed reference.

Class 7 3/9/2017

Hi Guys,

Last class we I went over scaling keys and splining your animations.  Here is a more specific list of things I covered.

-Scaling keyframe timing in the graph editor using a lattice.

-Retiming your keys so that poses either hold for longer or pop.

-Monitor your arcs.  When your character's torso is moving through space, think back to the ball bounce.  Same could go for each foot.

-Use motion trails to monitor your arcs. 

-Reviewed Euler filter.  Sometime when you go from stepped to splined you might get some funky rotations.  Especially in FK arms.  Check the graph editor.  If you see the values criss crossing each other, try using the euler filter.

I want to emphasize, you can use more than one animation reference.  If you are stuck on a certain part of the body, use animation or video reference to see how other artists solved their animation problems.

Here are the animation videos we viewed in class:

Fumiko's confession

Mind Game

Kairos Trailer

Simulating Kairos with Blender's Grease Pencil

Hercules live action reference

I forgot to post the Ice Age Progression reel last week.  Hopefully it will help you think about animation workflow as your finish your animations.

Evolution Reel from jeff gabor on Vimeo.

Homework.

Finish and finalize your jump animations!  Spline your keys.  Check your arcs.  Retime your keys so that your character feels like they have energy and momentum.  Check how your arms swing.  Do they help propel the body? 

Please bring in 3 playblasts of your animation.  Front, Side, and Perspective or RenderCam.

Class 6 3/1/2017

Hello,

Last night we covered jumping.

I showed you how to take your run cycles and modify them to make them jumps in between running strides.

I also showed you how to jump from a higher level to a lower level, using reference from the Great Mouse Detective.

Other topics I covered were:

-gimbal and local rotate, and how to change these in the tool settings

Here is a great video about pose to pose animation:

Here are the run jump examples I showed in class:
http://framexframe.tumblr.com/post/131747642902/studio-ghiblis-when-marnie-was-there
http://framexframe.tumblr.com/post/128186142038/glen-keanes-duet
http://framexframe.tumblr.com/post/118282198064/disneys-the-great-mouse-detective

Other drawings:

These are drawing examples from a pixar animator, for planning his animation.  This can be useful for planning your poses ahead of time without opening maya:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/victor_navone/collections/72157630141875812/


Duet By Glen Keane
Duet by Glen Keane from Jessie Ray Hester on Vimeo.

HOMEWORK

-Revise your run cycles and bring them into class

-Block out your animations for jumping.  Please bring in quicktimes showing the side view and any kind of persp view you would like to set up.

When doing pose to pose animation, please keep in mind to make as many keys and poses as you need to sell the idea.  There is no limit.  The more you lay down, the easier it might be to spline the animation.