Class 15 5/10/2017

Hey Class,

Today I took my blocked lip synch animation, and splined it. 

Steps I took:
-Splined all my keys.  I usually start with Auto Tangents on everything.
-Because of splining, you might need to go in and add keys to create holds or moving holds.
-I start refining in this order usually.  First body, head, hands, and then face.  Don't be afraid to come back to something if you think you can make it better.  A great example last night was while I was animating the mouth, I noticed I wanted to go back and change the head.
-Even though mouth is important, your performance will rely on what you do with the eyes and the eye brows.  The eyes tell us the character is alive.
-Don't be afraid to begin offsetting you keyframes from each other.  Have the hands move before or after the body.  Have the head lead the body movement.  You can even offset.

This is the final push for your animations!  Due next Wednesday.  You can send me quicktimes like you have been doing this whole time.  Spline them and make them awesome!  Google splining animation on youtube if you want to see how other people go through this process.

Class 14 5/4/2017

In class today, I began blocking out an acting animation with dialogue.  
Notes I wanted you to take away from the demonstration:

-Be expressive and emote from the head and body.  In my case, I tried to make sure the way the head moved was communicating what the character was saying and thinking.
-Act out the actions your self to find acting choices.
-Time the beats of the animation to how the character speaks
-Try to make every pose interesting.  
-Come back to poses and modify them if need be.  

Notes for Finals

Heejung

Try to simplify your actions.  I think the main beats of your animation should be something like this:

"This drink" -holds up the dish, but not too high.  Begins to sit back.
"I like it"  settles into sitting back.
"ANOTHER" quickly sits back up and raises the dish up before slamming it down

See if you can try things with the camera so we don't lose the man's hand or the dish when he holds it up high.

Branden 

Good progress.  Work on really selling the moment when the bad guy flips from being good to bad.  Don't have him gesture towards the background, since it will only distract from his face.  Begin blocking some mouth shapes and facial expression to really sell how bad this guy is.  Also make sure to pose and animate the fingers of the victim.

Joe

Great revision on your final.  Keep adding breakdown poses and when you have it to a good place, begin splining.  Watch out for weird shapes in the neck and spine.  Think about the lines moving through the character.

Lana

Same as Joe, keep adding breakdown poses, and then start splining.

Vinay

Clean up a lot of your poses.  Pose your hands and place a little cube in there to try and sell that you character is playing video games.  Try to fix the suitcase swing so we get a nice view of the arc.  Film your self shuffling on a bench so you can get some ideas on how to animate it.

HOMEWORK

I would love it if you guys began your splining, and bring in your porgress next week.

At this point, I would like you to look at your own work critically and think about:
-do the poses make sense?
-are they good poses?
-does the timing work?
-can I read the characters well?
-is the story being communicated effectively?

Show to your friends to make sure your animations are working.  Please try to consider these and make adjustments before showing your work next week.