Sean Graham's Animation Mental Blog

Sub-par...

2006-07-16T18:49:00.000-07:00

If there's one thing I can say, it's that this school keeps me on my toes. But this week's special. For one thing, I'm passing in the final for the golf swing. That's unfortunate, because last week, Scott gave me some pretty extensive notes, which I couldn't possibly fit in. Not that his demands were unreasonable, no. See, we were moving t0 Massachusetts. WHAT?! You might say. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SEMESTER?! You might continue.

Unfortunate as the timing may have been for school, it was perfect for most everything else, so we made it happen. Quite a few things fell into place for that to occur, not the least of those considerations was family, our daughter, the selling of our house, my wife's department getting widdled down to practically nothing, and her imminent resignation, but not hidden at the bottom of it, was the fact that I'd have more time to work on school work once the move was finished (about 10 days) and Siggraph will be in...you guessed it, BOSTON this year! Plus at least 10 other pros helped completely out weigh the cons, and we made the trip.

The bad news. My mid-term movie was a disaster. Yep. I tried like heck to get all of those changes in, but alas, in the end, I had to let it go. There was still half a semester to make up ground, so I wasn't feeling like I was done for, but boy, it was really tough to just let it slip. And Scott was really cool about it. He understood, and we worked out a plan to keep me in the loop for the ten days during the trip, and I even attended the live QnA from Arkadelphia, Arkansas via the internet at the friendly Hampton Inn! Those be good folk.

So, here it is in all it's unfinished-ness.

Click on the image, as usual...

In The Rough...

2006-07-16T18:22:00.000-07:00

So here's the tricky part, especially if you've used IK arms (please see a couple posts ago for details). Going from stepped to spline*. Now, I do this in chunks, and I also go to flat** first, because true spline gives you too much junk to work out that early in the process. Going to flat and using the copied pairs method*** allows you to work a lot like you're still in stepped, maintaining your snappiness and timing and all that, but you can start working on your transitions from pose to pose and refine in a fairly orderly manner. A few things are evident when you have a look this week. You can definitely see what happens when you go from stepped to flat. Some things are definitely soupy. You can see that the golf club is not actually attatched to his hand! You can see in the take*** that the hands look separated from the body in what they're doing. Feet are sliding, motion is somewhat sloppy...all things that the animator needs to work out. That's not even getting into the more artistic decisions like, how do you get from pose to pose, you're breakdowns, as it were, offsetting parts of the body, easing or overshooting, acting...we're just talking about the mechanics and reality stuff that you don't want getting in the way of the performance. Now, you definitely are thinking about all of that stuff anyway, but you want to wait to actually execute the majority of it 'til you've locked down you're character. At least I do anyway...

Click on the image to see the movie for this week - blocking plus

* stepped to spline - refers to methods of data interpretation from one saved set of data to the next over time. Stepped method holds the value of a set of data until it reaches a new saved set of data. Spline will in one of a variety of ways try to interpret the best way to gradually become the next set of data from the first. Example: Timeline has 10 seconds. At second 1, value is 0. At second 10, value is 10. In stepped, very second from 1 to 9 has a value of 0. In spline, every second has an added value. Second 5 in spline would have 5, not 0.

** Flat - A method of spline mode, which arrives at saved sets of data by easing into them and out of them at equal amounts. Creating a wave look.

*** Copied Pairs - A computer animation technique that allows one to work in spline and still maintain holds by placing equivalent sets of saved data over the length of the hold.

Mulligan.

2006-07-16T18:08:00.000-07:00

Ok, so that first pass wasn't exactly breathtaking. Agreed. But it gave me a jumping off point, which was exactly what it's purpose is. Scott gave me some really great tips. We changed the camera angle. Tried to build more of an arc into the set up for the swing. I pushed those poses more, and adjusted the timing to really build some tension before he swings through. We also added some time for him to follow the path of the ball before reacting, which I think really helped. I'm now up to about 225 frames, still manageable. I've decided that, given the other demands on my time, 200-250 frames is about what I can get in and really make it polished animation. We'll see!

Click on image to see latest pass...

Mechanics of a Golf Swing...

2006-07-16T15:01:00.000-07:00

Last semester, I got a bug in my britches about trying a golf swing animation, but folks thought that, as a 4-emotion test, some of my other ideas had more potential. Well, this semester, I get a chance to do that golf swing! So I planned 'er out, did a whole bunch of video reference of myself getting out there and trying it (which I'll post soon, it's on the other conputer) and blocked out my first attempt at the golf swing shot! And it's not very impressive. But it's a start!

I am, however, starting to regret my use of IK (Inverse Kinematic) arms as a primary animation tool, as getting every thing to work properly is a hellish mess when it comes to arms, because I'm essentially reverse-animating the natural progression of arm movement. With IK arms, the arm position is dictated by the position of the upper and lower arm as they relate to the hand. Not as they relate to each other and the shoulder (which is called FK, or Forward Kinematic arms). IK arms can be thought of as like the muppets. You know how on Kermit, there are sticks attached to his hands? C'mon, I know you're not supposed to acknowledge that they are there, but we've all seen 'em. Well, what happens when you move the stick? The hand moves, and the arm, jointed in the middle at the elbow and connected to the shoulder, moves based on where that hand goes. That's inverse kinematics. Forward kinematics is like G.I. Joe arms. There's a stiff joint at the shoulder, elbow, and wrist. The position of the parts is relative to what you've done to move each section around. You move the shoulder, the whole arm will move too. You move the lower arm, the hand will move there too. The hand does not dictate the position of the arm, unless, of course, you grab the hand and force the arm into a position, but it's difficult to do that, because it's not designed for that. However, that would be a way of attempting to make that FK joint system IK. A really good use of IK arms, if when the hand DOES dictate the position of the arm, like when a character is hanging from his hands, or is resting his hand against a wall, or in some way is acted upon by an outside force. Whew. Anyway, my arms on this guy are IK. I won't discover the folly of my ways 'til the next project.

Click on the image to see the first blocking...

Wrapping Up A Good Lesson...

2006-07-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

As term two came to a close, I found I'd bitten off a heck of a lot more than I could chew! The down side was that I didn't get a chance to finish this one. The bright side was that, even still, there was a lot I'd learned from the experience. What I have here, is a snippet of the shot showing the character as I started to try to refine him, and the little ball with the tail on it, even going so far as to rough in the later ball actions in something called a "grease pencil tool" that allows you to draw two demensionally in MAYA. It's really cool, and gave me a chance to work out some of the timing and action. And actually, if the length of this had been the entire length of the piece, I probably would have been fine, but the whole thing was better than twice this length, and just killed me. Especially since I was doing a lot of things over, had chosen some methods that were more time consuming because I didn't know any better and generally, was working harder, not smarter. Oh, the life of a student.

Click the top image for the pencil test, click the bottom version for the "final" piece I turned in.

Meet Scott Lemmer, Mentor, Class 3

2006-07-03T14:04:00.000-07:00

My Mentor for Class 3 is Scott Lemmer! Really cool guy, actually graduate not too long ago from a rather prestigous animation program in Canada, and then went on to work for DNA Studios in Texas. DNA's just finished up production on 'Ant Bully', a feature that's coming out soon, and they're actually laying off a lot of their talent, I think including Scott, so I'm not sure what he's up to right now, since it's been about 3 months since I've really talked with him. But he's a great example of how quickly you get worked into this industry if you have talent. He's a fairly young guy, baby faced in fact, but has a wealth of knowledge. He was a pleasure to have as a Mentor, even though I'm sure I out age him by at least 5 years, probably more like 8! I feel old.
Looks like he's getting his portfolio site ready to look for a new job (another clear industry negative, the potential that, as an animator, you become ex[pendable once the work load slows) so his website professional website (www.scottlemmer.com) is down, but he does have a student site still up, you can find a link to that to the right of this article under my Mentors.

Surfacing...

2006-06-15T08:48:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody! I'm coming to the end of my fourth semester at Animation Mentor, and it's been amazing. I can't believe how much I've learned and yet how much there is still to learn. Just when I think I've got something down, I find I didn't have the slightest clue. But that's ok. That's what this is all about, right? Trial and error. Better now than in the middle of a feature production, going into dailies* and getting laughed out the door!

Well, I have a lot to share with you! I have 4 assignments, including the completion of the piece you've seen snippets of from last year, a golf swing test, an acting test and a two character shot which I'm just finishing this week. I also have news on the mentor I had last semester and where you'll see his work, as well as some details about this semester's mentor, Doug dooley, a dry but humorous fellow who's an exceptional animator and working over at PIXAR! I'll probably also touch on our recent move from L.A. to Boston, and why, as it is directly related on some levels with my animation Mentor experience, and what the upcoming plans are before I graduate from teh course and become a full-fledged (hopefully) working animator. This may take a few posts, but I'm dedicated to getting this out now, as it's a good time for me, so I'll be working on it over the next week or so. So here we go!

Over the course of the last few months...ok, let's not kid myself, I haven't posted here since last November. It's been over six months! No way. Well then, there's a lot of catching up to do. I've been listening and relistening to audio conversations on Animation Podcast which is a fantastic site. He talks with some pretty important and influential animators, including Eamonn Butler, Ron Clemmens and John Musker, Nik Ranieri and the venerable Glen Keane. What's really cool about these interviews is not only getting a sense of history (especially Disney history, since both the site's creator and his interviewees all seem to have roots there) but also how passionate these people are about the field and about the future potential of animation as an artform, regardless of whether it's on the computer or hand drawn or stop mo.** or whatever. Plus I'm starting to get familiar with the people, places and work that continue to be important knowledge as I prepare to work my own way itn this industry.

Every now and then, I hear something that sticks, like Ward Kimble's advice to always allow the audience to see the funny picture "There's a funny picture in this scene, make sure they see it!" or learning about new resources that are available, like gesture drawing with Walt Stanchfield, and important figures in animation, like James Baxter (who's apparently in his own studio in Pasadena, of all places!). There also been advice about demo reels from Nik Ranieri: Take chances. Make it polished animation. Don't worry about lighting and rendering unless you want a job in lighting or rendering. Good mixture of physical stuff and expressive stuff, but make sure it's all driven by an idea. Keep reels short. 4 or 5 scenes is plenty.

So if you get a chance, and are interested in the nitty gritty of animation production, politics, and life, give it a listen.

Next segment: Picking up where we left off. How the final assignment from body mechanics failed, and lessons learned.

*Dailies: Showing your animation progress to the director and peers in a closed door meeting where your work is watched and critiqued, usually on a daily basis.

** Stop Mo. or Stop Motion: An animation technique whereby articulate puppets are placed in a scene and a picture is taken to represent 1/24th of a second of film. The puppet is then moved again slightly and another picture is taken. This process is repeated over and over, moving the character through the scene. Playback of the pictures at real-time produces animation.

Rethinking Emotions

2005-11-27T12:49:00.000-08:00

So here we go, the whole purpose for the early sketches and the 4 pose emotion test is to start to refine an approach, a PLAN for the animation. One really great critique I got was to focus on just on concept, and have all of the emotions stem from that. Currently, I have the paper acting as the reason for Stewie becoming alert and then engaged, and the dead animal as the reason he become disgusted. After deliberating on this for quite a while and talking to my buddy Tom and then going over it with my Wife Sara, I thumbed some alternatives like this and this.

When I brought it up in the Class Q&A, folks had a really great reaction, and further enhancements for me, leading to the next version you can see here!

Click on the image to see the animation blocking pass.

Four Pose Emotion Test

2005-11-27T12:15:00.000-08:00

Bobby mentioned this might be one that we would end up putting on a reel, so, as if I needed extra motivation, I really worked on this long and hard to try to find what I wanted to do. There were a few scenarios to choose from: Scenario Sheet A, Scenario Sheet B, but the one that seemed to hit the mark of the four emotions most was one where Stewie's lying in a lounge chair, throwing a ball for Tailor, (we'll call him Stewie's pet) and Tailor returns with a deasd animal, which Stewie picks up without realizing it, then freaks out as he does realize it and throws it down, leaping over the chair.

The four poses, what they call "golden poses" (although I'm not sure how golden mine are) are in the movie for this week. Have a look! Oh, at the end , are sketches as well, showing more of the progression. We were told, though, to stick to just the four key emotion poses for this week.

Click on the image to see the poses.

Push Final (sort of)

2005-11-27T12:00:00.000-08:00

I'm gonna have another crack at this at some point, but for now, we're done with the push. I learned a whole bunch from this assignment, which in the end, is probably the point, but I'd really like to do something more with the ending and clean up the rest of the animation so I could possibly use it as a piece for my reel. For now though, I'm happy that I was able to catch up and deliver this on time, even though I was REALLY behind after trying to do too much in the first few weeks and realizing I'd dug myself a big hole!

Click on the image to the right to see the final (sort of) push.

One idea for an alternate ending involves a monstrous hand busting through the box as he's pushing, grabbing stewie and trying to pull him inside, poping his huge head off in the process, it bouncing and rolling down the ramp, and off screen left.

Pushing it. Adding more detail.

2005-11-11T00:32:00.000-08:00

So ok, the last version quite a bit to be desired. So I went in and tried to flesh it out some more. The direction I got was that the opening poses were much too cliche' and that there should probably be more pushing and a resolution to the pushing in there.

Well, I got as much of that as I could done this week, which was hard, because we went out of town for half the week. But even though I'm a bit behind, I think I'm getting there...

Click on the image to the right to see the second week blocking.

Makin' Stewie Earn His Keep

2005-11-11T00:22:00.000-08:00

Yay! the first assignment is behind us, and no time to waste, on to the next challenge! We have this Stewie guy, a box and we need to have Stewie push the heavy box up an incline. Now that I've moved Stewie around and got him to do a character walk, I'm feeling pretty comfortable with him. But now he has to actually interact with another object. Eek! Wha-- how-- oy. Deep sigh, and off we go. Got to learn a few tricks, like parenting the hands of Stewie to the box so that I can use the inverse kinematic controls and the hands will remain firmly planted on the box. Nice trick. Also, I decided in my ultimate wisodom to add a few moments of acting to the beginning. Kind of a "What? You want me to move THIS thing?!"

So, anywho, blocking, first pass. Have a look...

Click on the image to the right to see the animation.

Adding Polish To Igor.

2005-11-09T20:18:00.000-08:00

Here we are, into spline, and whoa! I think it's not too bad now! Not great by any menas, but MAN have I learned a bunch from this assignment. Not to bad, I think for a guy who's never worked with a complex character before. As a matter of fact, in case you're curious, I think it's ok for me to show you what the rig kind of looks like. Check out all of the controls I'm working with!

Click on controls image to the right to see closeup.

And here's the animation. It doesn't go so far as to animate the fingers, so it still needs polish. But for what we were expected to do for the assignment, I'm feeling like it's ok.

Click on the Igor to the right to see animation.

Igor learns to loosen up.

2005-11-09T20:11:00.000-08:00

Here I thought I did a good job on the Igor arms, and turns out, they stunk to high heaven. Looking back on it, they DO stink. What was I thinking? I worked long and hard on those things, and they look stiff and completely unuseful. Well, after a long critique, it became clear I had a lot of work ahed of me. No problem, I'm ready to handle it. So, this was the final week of the assignment, but before I could move into "spline" ( basically animating every frame using MAYAs interpolation abilities to in-between), I needed to fix my problems in blocking. So, that's what I did, and ehre's the results...

Click on the Igor to the right to see the animation.

Guess who got some arms!

2005-11-09T19:47:00.000-08:00

Igor! That's who! Yep, the guy's got to move limbs other than legs. Well, the first shot at this was less than inspiring, but hey, I'm NEW to arms! Oh! Plus, we had to add an intro to the walk. We needed to take the first 60 frames and come up with a way to lead into the walk we had already created! Actually, it was really cool and VERY educational, as there was a whole lot to consider. Anywho, it's blocking, but you should be able to get the idea.

Click the Igor to the right to see the animation.

I'M SOOOO BEHIND!!

2005-11-09T13:28:00.000-08:00

Ok, you're all tremendously patient with me. I mena, really, I've left for a long time, and yet here you are, reading this. Wow. Seriously. You are one dedicated Sean Graham's animation Mental Blog fan! You might be the only one, too! It's also possible that noone's reading this, and I'm just talking tomyself at this point, but ok, whatever. ANYWAY! Over the last...holy cramolies! Month and a HALF! I've been working long and hard at Animation Mentor. There's been a TON to absorb and then apply and that is the biggest reason I've been absent. I'm gonna try to get some stuff up, though, starting later today. I have the second pass and final of the Igor walk, which came out "ok", and then the second assignment sketches, blocking, smoothed adn refined of a "push up an incline", which was awesome for me, simply because of everything I learned from it! And now, we're into a four-pose assignment which will take us to the end of term! Whew! So! stay tuned, I promise, later today, I'm-a gonna be postin'!

Blocking Igor...

2005-09-27T21:44:00.000-07:00

So, you've seen my most excellent sketching, and you're thinking how could it possibly get better than that, right? Well...then do I have a treat for you! Here's the "blocking" for the igor walk. "What the heck is blocking?" do you say, well, blocking is simply getting keyframes in place to see how it's all working. It's not finished, just "roughed" in so to speak. About every third or fourth frame, depending on the situation, and then you manipulate the keys back and forth in the timeline to optimize the timing and spacing, refining the "performance".

Click on the image to the right to see the animation.

Reference and Sketching Igor...

2005-09-27T21:28:00.000-07:00

Week 1 was a real test. The idea was to apply the principle of overlapping action to a spine and neck test. Basically, overlapping action is a HUGE part of what makes something look organic and not a robotic. Overlap is what happens as things move. Not everything moves at the same time. Soemthings are attached to other things that move first, then pull the next thing and so on. Like a tail. The tail movement by itself is not overlapping action, but the fact that the tail moves in response to the ball and doesn't all move in the same direction at the same time DOES make it overlapping action. It's the exaggerated physics of elements reacting to each other that's the key.

So for Igor, the trick is to have the back and neck and then the head moving in reaction to the quick leg movement. Video reference revealed that the there'
s also a twist in the torso and hips the counters each other at the same time. Here are the sketches:

The first page here, is an attempt to find some of the key frames that determine the walk, the overlapping action, the reversals and the movement of the dragging leg.

This second sheet is a further look at the shoulder dip and rotation, and the overlapping timing of the neck and head.

Semester 2, Week 1 New Mentor, Old Subject.

2005-09-23T22:38:00.000-07:00

SO! Since you are all wondering and waiting so patiently, I'm ready to divulge the most anticipated news of the day, my new mentor! Drum roll please...

And the winner is: Justin Barrett! Applaud at your leisure.

Justin is a supervising animator at Reel FX in Dallas, and has worked in a number of studios around the country and just recently establishing himself at "Reel". He was recruited by Bobby to join the mentor team, and I think he made a great choice. Justin's a very high energy guy, funny, witty, quite "animated" in his own right, and really great to talk to. He has a very varied and interesting past with some most unusual jobs that I'll refrain from mentioning as a courtesy to our fine mentor.

As for this week's work, it's overlapping action again, except that this time it's all the more intensified. We've been given a more involved character, not quite full bodied, as he has no arms, but the rest of him's intact and must move convincingly. I've decided to try an Igor walk with the one leg trailing because it's one that will very clearly show the principles we're focusing on this week. We'll see how it goes! I've got some sketching done for it, and I think I have a good handle on what I'd like to do! So, I'm off! Next post: sketches and blocked Igor walk! Woo hoo!

Sumo Stomp Angle View

2005-09-21T23:22:00.000-07:00

So this is the first look for you of the Stomp that was, in essence, my "Final" for semester 1. I've gotten tons of positive feedback about it, which was really great, because while producing it, I was never totally sure I was going to pull it off. I spent a lot of time just acting it out, focusing on different parts of the body as I moved from pose to pose. The foot, when it lifted off the ground, the leg and hip, how far it rotated, the upwrd arc of the foot and then the knee and foot as it smashes down.

It was a lot of trial and error, and even then, people saw things I could change, and I did. A big thing I thought of that was reiterated by some other students and Warren was that the height of the stomp leg doesn't stay there long enough before it comes down hard. So, I added a few frames to each, and boy, what a difference. So even with all my reference, acting it out, planning and diligence, it still took two weeks to really see it reach fruition.

Anywho, here it is. Sean's last animation from Semester 1:
Click on the image to the left to see the animation...

Last Two Poses for Semester 1

2005-09-21T23:11:00.000-07:00

So here are the last two poses, the first is the final for the Week 11 assignment, Balance. Warren said he liked it from a technical standpoint, but didn't see anything unique about it. I agree, it's pretty generic. I think I was just trying to get back to creating something that didn't just totally suck. In that regard, I considered it a success, even if not fresh and new.

This is a revision of a pose I did in week 10, Exhausted. I did away with the props for the most part, I'm not good enough for props. I just tried to focus on finding a clear weightly feeling that I could really sell as exhausted. Warren thoguht this was really a drastic improvement over the squashed bug first attempt, and thought only that the screen left foot could be moved closer to the other foot to make it feela a little less stable. It's amazing watching him draw all over my poses and clarify them by simply doodling. Someday.

Pics from the AM BBQ

2005-09-15T22:44:00.000-07:00

Before I get too far into review and looking forward to semester two, here are some pictures from the BBQ!

It was very cool that they were able to set up the web-cam so that students that couldn't make the event could still be there in some fashion. They even had a second webcam set up in the lobby with sound, to just take in the experience. I tried a virtual hotdog experiment, putting a hotdog really close to the web-cam to see if they could smell or taste it out there in cyber-AM. I've yet to collect any results.

Bobby! Our fearless leader has a moment to share with yours truly, I finally get my picture with the MAN! Thanks for everything Bobby!

Warren Trezevant (left) and Ken Hatch (right). Warren was our amazing mentor this semester. Great guy, very good animator in his own right, always gave us fantastic crits and QnAs. Ken's a fellow AM student, never would have guessed he was, like, 6'8"!

Our tireless staff, grillin' and chillin'.

Just a moment at the BBQ. Taylor tried really hard to escape the camera's eye. He FAILED! BWAAHHHahahahaha!

Give me a week, I'll take a...

2005-09-15T21:47:00.000-07:00

So the semester's over, and you'd think that maybe I'd be able to keep up with this blog, here. Nope. So far, my break between semesters has consisted of lots of work-work, a 3-day stint at the Space 2005 conference in Long Beach, where I met Bill Russel (If you don't know who he is, google it.), got to wrangle penguins for a 45 minute period, met some really cool people from "Mad Science" (you can google that too) and about 300 kids, some of whom knew more about the work I was presenting to them than I did. My wife and I are also working on preparing to sell our house and last weekend we and Emily went up to San Fran with another AMer Brad Bradbury to attend the AM BBQ! It was a TON of fun, and good networking as well. My mentor Warren was there with his daughter Talula (sp?) who was a real sweetheart and very loving towards Emily. I got to see in person quite a few of the students I've only ever seen by web-cam, and to my surprise, they were much bigger in real life :) . I gave a quick thank you to Victor Navone (again, google) who's site was where I first saw AM, got some really great time with Bobby and some inside scoops of upcoming stuff (sshhhh! Can't tell!) and was literally surrounded by tens of some of the most amazingly talented animators and artists in the world. I had a blast!

So, here I am, back on the 'puter, ready for a new semester! All jazzed up and ready to go, got some really great final thoughts from Warren as I go forward and even a big unexpected pat on the back from Bobby "Boom" Beck himself which was really inspiring.

Ooh! I can spill this one, TOMORROW I find out who my new mentor is! Yipeee!!! I've decided to not try and predict or have any biases, so I plan to simply be thrilled with whomever they deem worthy of our educational direction.

Next up, recap. I've promised you a lot of stuff, so it's time to anty up.

Walking with character.

2005-08-30T16:43:00.000-07:00

What a comeback! Last week was a real terrible week for me, the work was subpar, the time I had was minimal and just over all, I felt like I was getting behind on the learning curve adn started questioning whether this animation thing was really for me.

I've found that happens from time to time, but when the next week rolls around, I find a new energy and drive to do better. And what, after all, is this all about if not to improve each week? Add to that, that this week was "character walk" week, giving some unique walk qualities to the character and really animate. It's the first time we've had a chance to do this, so I was excited and scared all at the same time.

Something you learn early in art school, any art school, any art, is that you HAVE to put your work out there, and so essentially, you have to put yourself out there for the world to criticize and you have to even take it a step further and allow yourself to accept that criticizm with deliberate and openminded attention. That's hard. But that's a whole discussion in and of itself.

However, it is the root of why it's scarey to start to really do this stuff. there's an investment, I want to be good, I don't want to look stupid or untalented or whatever. It's why as Sara says, I go way overboard, that I'm a perfectionist. I don't know about that, but I do know what looks good to me, and what doesn't, so if I see something that doesn't look good in my work, it bothers me, and I have to correct it before someone else sees it and thinks I didn't.

So, that was my week. Oh, and a new pose. This time, it's exhausted. In the next post, I'll elaborate and have the results with links, promise.

Vanilla leaves bad taste.

2005-08-29T00:31:00.000-07:00

So! Vanilla walks. Apparently my brain thought that meant vanilla POSE as well, as I think I reached my low point in posing. This week, we were to take our vanilla walk blocking and now "fill in the gaps" so to speak. We also had a new pose, which was concerned.

Ok, so the walk went fine, although now, looking back on it, the body was WAY too high in the air. I really should have taken everything down a bit to allow for more knee bend and less stretch. It's amazing what a SINGLE week of perspective can be worth in this school. Anyway, I can't say I was all that displeased with the movement, and application of the animation principles, just some physical issues that resulted from him being too high. So, here's the fleshed out Vanilla walk in all it's glory.

Click image to see large walk cycle (48 frames, 667k).

Some things Warren had to say were not unexpected, like making sure the plant foot stays planted through the passing position and to watch out for knee wobble, but I pretty much cleaned that up. I think I'll go back in, though, and bring that body down when I get a chance.

The pose was a different animal all together. First of all, I must confess, I did it on Sunday, with very little reearch over the course of the week as I was trying desperately to complete my walk. However, don't let me get away with excuses. Plain and simple, I dropped the ball, and Warren noticed too. It's supposed to be a concerned pose, and the scenario we got from Warren was that a close relative was in a horrible car accident, and my character gets to the hospital and there's confusion about which of the two passengers, the one that's ok, or the one in critical condition, is my character's relative. The pose is during the time just before my character finds out which it is. So here's the poop I came up with.

Warren humorously called it the "oh crap, the dog pee'd on the carpet" pose. Not nearly enough emotion or energy. I think that's generous.

Walk This Way

2005-08-13T14:48:00.000-07:00

Click image to see large walk cycle (24 frames, 300k).

"Vanilla" Walk. Sounds easy, right? What a load of hooey. This week, we get a second leg and a whole lot of trouble to boot. I'll never take walking for granted again! Or at least I've definitely gotten a much clearer understanding about just how complicated a walk can be, even in it's most basic form. I'm sure if you asked my 18 month old if "walking's easy, what's Dad all bent about?" She'd probably tell you to back off, walking's a real pain in the diapers! Then she'd probably try to point out a "birdie" somewhere. She likes to do that. I think she's doing psychological testing on us. It's how she decides if she's still in control. If she can point at something that is absolutely NOT a birdie, but still get us to go along, or to try to find a birdie, she knows we're still wrapped. Anyway, more on that in the OTHER blog. Here, we're interested in WALKS. So, the link above is an attempt at blocking a 24 frame walk cycle. For those of you who don't know what I was working on, here's a brief synopsis:

It must move across the screen.
It must be a full walk cycle, and cannot be more than 24 frames.
It's in blocking form, meaning only the frames that show key changes, i.e. the "passing", "contact", "high extreme" and "low extreme" positions.
Attention should be paid to rotation, overlapping action in the body and shifting of weight.

That's some of the stuff anyway. We had a really great video to watch from AM on this subject as well as reference materials, like Richard Williams "Animator's Survival Kit" and Disney's "Illusion of Life".

Week 7: Getting A Leg Up...

2005-08-11T23:07:00.000-07:00

Arcs and path of action are the topic we're most concerned with this week. Getting the animation to flow well, making sure all of the paths of action follow natural, convincing arcs, and how to enhance those arcs in poses to more effectively "sell" the action and make it "readable" to an audience. To help us begin to understand these concepts we're doing a one-legged jump, using all of the principles we've learned so far, and now adding arcs.

Here's the blocking, I actually did two sheets of blocking this week to try to get this right:

And here's the animation. Warren had a few good suggestions, like breaking up the leg movement to give it some rhythm. A few others suggested adding a small hop at the end. One of the campus mentors told me he thought this was one of the best jumps he's seen this semester, so that's cool.

Click the image to see animation.

He's cute, he's cuddly...he's TAILOR!

2005-08-11T22:54:00.000-07:00

Overlapping action. It's the concept of the week, you know, and to try it out we get a fuzzy tail as I may have mentioned in an earlyier blog. Well, i wasn't kidding! Boy is he fuzzy and cute! Well, he's a ball, actually, but he does have a fluffy tail that follows along behind him as he bounces to and fro'. Here's the sketch blocking of the shot, a simple movement across the screen:

So, the next step was takin it to the ol' computer and seeing what we can do with this little furry bastard. Turns out it's not as easy as I thought, and my first attempt was a bit "floppy". I've tried as I go through these assignments to add a little touch here and there, as well as just trying to "push" the animation as much as I can and still have it feel natural. So click on the image below to see the revision of the Tailor bounce across the screen.

Click the image:

Week 5 Obstacle Course Animation

2005-08-11T22:31:00.000-07:00

This was pretty challenging, but a great way to explore timing and spacing and squash and stretch and weight and momentum and anticipation and...oy. It was fun, but pretty darn hard to get right. I'm not even real sure I did get it right, but it's not bad, and I think my little bouncing ball will sleep very well tonight and be a bit sore in the morning...

Click to see the bouncing ball go through the obstacle course.

Devastated Pose

2005-08-11T22:08:00.000-07:00

As I continue to try to buck the norm, I'm finding that it's really difficult to come up with alternative poses to what are readily available cliche' ways of exhibiting these emotions. This week, my pose is "devastated". I attempted to choose a pose that has movement inherent in it, but I think it just comes off as confusing. I think my devastated looks more like he got punched in the nose or something. It was suggested, and I think this is part of my learning process, that I find a "settled" pose as opposed to a "transitional" pose.

Putting my ball through it's paces, Step 1

2005-07-26T20:35:00.000-07:00

My ball was in extreme need of exercise. It had been loafing around, you see, and needed a good workout. So this week we get to see just what this little ball can do! I got an obstacle course to be used with the assignment, and the first job was to PLAN the animation! So, here's how that went:

Lots of sketching, lots of notes, tried to break it down and get a good feel for the timing and spacing of the animation. Went pretty well, I thought.

Quick note on Week 6...

2005-07-26T20:21:00.000-07:00

Well! Week 5 has come and gone. Welcome to week 6! And to ring in the new week, we've been given a tail! Goody! Our balls now have a furry-like tail that is meant to help us address the newest principle of animation, "overlapping action". I'm glad to see this addition because I had started to get a little discouraged by all of the purely physics-based animations. I understand we're building up skills, and so simplicity and focus helps to do that, but it's not really animation. Animation to me is acting, finding a character within the puppet and expressing that physically. Even just walking around or jumping or whatever, there's unique expression, and unique body movement that really give it life and believability. To this point, we're not doing that for the most part, so it was good to see we get a new element of the character to play with that can hopefully be used expressively. So here we go! Week 6, animating with a tail!

Week 4 Pose: Dismissal

2005-07-18T22:05:00.000-07:00

This week, Warren assigned us an optional pose, this time focusing on a "transitive verb", which he has found to be an easier type of pose to work out, because the nature of a transitive is that it is the expression of an action carried from a subject to an object or more plainly, something one charcter does to another. So this week, it was "dismissal" there were a number of examples he gave, one of which was a boss firing a worker in anger. I tried a little different approach. I've been trying to break out of my normal male-dominated poses, and try to slip into something less comfortable. I've been trying poses that really make me get into the character to understand it better. What's the story behind this pose, do you think?

Two Balls Different Weight

2005-07-18T21:49:00.000-07:00

Week 4 and we've gradutated to TWO balls. Yea, I know, but I'm trying to lay off the vulgarities. That's right, basketballs are behind us, now we get to show some character. Just a little though. Actually, it's not really character per se, more like weight and density. See, one ball has to be quite a bit lighter than the other...or...is it one has to be quite a bit heavier...well, what ever, you get the idea. One is, say, the density, weight and size of a basketball, while the other, the density, weight and size of a bowling ball. They must bounce, they must come to a stop. Well, I heard this, and all kinds of scenarios came to me, ways to make the balls play off each other, bouncing all over the place...then I realized I have one week. And the point is not the go crazy with this new skill, it's to hone it. So hone I will! I'm a honin' like the DICKENS, BABY!

Here's the final passed in for my assignment for the week...

Click to see two balls bouncing with different weight.

Headin' to Siggraph...

2005-07-15T13:21:00.000-07:00

IT'S OFFICIAL! Got the company confirmation today, I'll be heading to Siggraph! The down side: THERE'S TOO MUCH! Look at the scheduel, just for Sunday!

Sunday, 31 July:
8:30 am - 12:15 pm - Anyone Can Make Quality Animated Films!
(The Eight Basic Steps to Success) Hall A
Whether the film is one minute or one hour, there are simple basic steps to producing any animated film. This course explains how anyone with a little talent can apply industry-standard techniques to create polished, professional, commercial animated films. All the basic techniques, from developing the initial concept to compositing the final release print, are summarized and discussed. Comprehensive handouts guide attendees through the process.

1:15-3:15pm - Keynote Address: George Lucas

1:45 - 5:30 pm "Madagascar:" Bringing a New Visual Style to the Screen
Hall A
New insights into the creative and technical thought processes required to evolve a new look for a CG movie. Highlights include how moving away from stylized realism required rethinking the creative process, development methods, and technologies, plus a comparison of the approaches that worked with approaches that did not.

BOFs:
10 - noon Sunday
Animation Mentor Gathering
Los Angeles Convention Center
Room 511C

12:30 - 4:30pm Sunday
CG CHAR @ SIGGRAPH Event
Westin Bonaventure Hotel
Catalina Ballroom

And that's just the courses, keynote and BOFs. The convention itself isn't even addressed, or the viewings of yet-to-be-released animated shorts and features, new technology showcases...Sheesh! I need to clone myself FAST!

Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy...

2005-07-10T22:00:00.000-07:00

Sara (my Wife) told me about mid-week this week, after my latest epiphony regarding my bouncing ball that I was obsessed. What? No. Not obsessed. Fascinated. I like that word much better. I started the week by making a quickie Flash-based ball bounce, frame to frame with squash and stretch and everything. It was a great learning experience, but it bounced like crap. I then did a lot of reading, took a look at some other people's bouncing balls, made a video of my own, bounced balls anywhere I found them (including my daughter's daycare, where there are an abundance of balls for the bouncing as long as you don't mind being stared at reproachfully by 2 year olds), and watched the AM videos. The epiphony came when I had unsuccessfully animated a few balls, and then I realized I had been going about it all wrong! The clue was in the planning video all along! Layered action! They talk about three approaches to animating. Layered, pose to pose and straight ahead. I didn't really get layered 'til I realized how I could use it in my ball animation! I'd basically been trying to work in pose to pose, keying everything each keyframe, working action across the screen. No, no no! As my daughter is unfortunately learning to say. That totally limited how much tweaking I could do! All wrong! So, I went back to the ole drawing board. Keyed just the movement left to right. Then I keyed just the hit points. Then I keyed just the top of the arc. After doing all that, I was able to tweak the movement, arcs, add or subtract breakdown keys...it opened up the whole thing in the graph editor! Bingo! So, without further adue, my first somewhat successful (or at least a good learning experience) bouncing ball! Remeber, it's supposed to be a basketball.

Click here to view.

I know, it's not sexy or fancy or anything. But I feel like it works. That's good enough for now.

Not my best pose week...

2005-07-10T21:40:00.000-07:00

I'd have to say I literally "dropped the ball" this week when it comes to the sketches and pose. This week we're supposed to do sketches and a "Stu" pose, the theme being "excitement". Well, I was plowing along working through my bouncing ball so much, I don't feel like I really gave the pose it's proper time. Here's the sketch...

Icky, I know. All I can say is, I was working with a particular theme. I tried really hard to NOT be cliche. No Toyota leaps in the air, no fist pumping...then I went ahead and did a jump in the air and a...fist...uhm...pump...

But in my defense, I decided to go with a scenario, as suggested by our mentor, Warren. "Write a paragraph about your character." Warren said, "Who is the character? Why is the character excited? What's the character's personality?" There's more, that's just a loose quote. So, my paragraph went something like this:

"Somewhat effeminate runner, pompous and arrogant even though he never wins. Gets excited when the crowds cheer him on (even though they cheer everyone on, he's sure it special, just for him) so he throws them kisses as he runs by to show his affection."

Then I posed this:

Well, the good news is, Warren has lots to pick apart and I can do a revision for next week.

Let's Get Physics-al!

2005-07-10T21:15:00.000-07:00

Bouncing balls. Wow. To tell you the truth, I thought I had a good grasp on the concept. How hard can it be? It's...a...bouncing...frickin'...ball. Give me a break. Well faithful readers? The animator-to-be has a lot to learn indeed. I watched video others made of actual bouncing balls. I made video of my own bouncing ball. In the process, I done bounced a ball myself. I've been bouncing balls all my LIFE! Richard Williams had some great reading. The lectures and AM videos had great stuff. So why was it so HARD?! I'll tell you. It's hard because it's simple. The simplicity, the sheer maddening, common, everyday, see-it-in-my-sleep nature of a bouncing ball means that you could take a half blind, hundred year old lady who's been living in a cave since birth and SHE'LL tell you if it's working or not! Why? It's physics. It's weight, gravity, force, energy...and we all know it, even if we don't know it. Problem is, it's got to make sense when you view it. Ok, maybe it doesn't have to be perfect, but darn close. It has to "read" as a bouncing ball. The path of motion, the amount of energy on the rebound, the spin, the arcs...not to mention is it a superball? Is it a basketball? Is it a cannon ball? On grass? On concrete? On a trampoline? Is it windy? Rainy? Is there a slope? Stairs? Objects that it has to bounce off of? That's why the bouncing ball, in all it's infinite "simplicity" is a great subject to start animating with. It teaches you that not all that looks easy is. That you should pay attention to the details and really think it out. Most importantly, it teaches you to plan, plan, plan. Be prepared and know what you want to do. There will be plenty of challenges, preparation is your strongest defender.

Week 3 Early Bounce Test

2005-07-06T10:00:00.000-07:00

Update - July 6, 05

Feedback: Wow. And I thought I'd done a good job. Thanks to all who contributed, I realized I have a lot of work to do. First off, I should just start over. No, that's fine. I actually did this version to get an early idea about where to go from here, so that's good. Some things to keep in mind, however:

I need to dump the sns 'til I've nailed the bounce.
Since we're animating a basketball, litle or no sns will return.
A basketball (well-inflated) will have much less energy loss than I've given this ball, so the height of the bounces will be higher and more numerous.
Make a technically space version. I need to play with the spacing to determine if I think the spacing distribution on the upward movement should be equal to that of the downward movement, or if that makes it too mechanical.
Make a Richard Williams inspired rigid bounce version.

Ok, I'm off!

Original post:

So here's an early flash-based test, it's half-size to fit this frame (320 x 240) but I think it works to convey what I'm after. I have the ball entering from the left and it's supposed to have a minimal amount of squash and stretch and resolve after the bounce with a little back-spin. What do you think?

Note: To see a larger version, click on this link.

Week 2 Submission

2005-07-04T23:26:00.000-07:00

Additional Note:
Ok, so I had my crit with Warren, and I was really happy to hear I didn't totally blow this assignment out my backside. Truth be told, he seemed to enjoy it, and had some small tweaks, but overall, he seemed happy with it! Yay for me! There were tweaks, as I mentioned:

He liked the structure elements under the sketches, I should keep do that as much as possible.
Liked that I added the silouette as well as the original sketch.
He thought the back shoulder could have been pushed up a little more
He thought the forward arm and leg made a similar shape, and it didn't look as interesting. I might be able to open up that negative space more by opening up the forward arm, straightening a little and pushing it up slightly.
Noticed the back arm has a bend and my arm doesnot show abend, I might be able to increase the feeling of tension by adding more of a backward bend, just a little.
Conclusion: Always push the pose to make interesting, consider negative space and what shapes they're making graphically.

So, with the sketches behind me and the Stu model played with, I set to posing my assignment for the week. The idea was to take a pose from the sketches and use that as inspiration for posing Stu. Ok, sounds easy enough. But it wasn't. It so very much was not. The biggest problem was emotion and appeal. I'm sure that's the case quite a bit of the time, but it was really something I emphasized. I started out, actually, much like I sketch. Get the basics down, find the body lines, work from the core of the pose outward to the finer detail. That worked fine for this (a pose of an exaggerated throw) but I found that posing Stu to the exaggeration in the throw lost something. The exaggeration was lessened because, I think, even I expected more from Stu than from a human, who's limitations are many and clear and obvious. Stu's limitations are less so, and I expect him to communicate something with greater flair and clarity. I'd accept much less from a human. I ended up pushing the pose quite a bit, raising the leg more, twisting his body around to an extreme, throwing the ball arm way behind and above his head...it worked pretty well. Lesson learned: push poses as much as I can, almost to a point where it's way too much and then, maybe, it'll be enough.

Testing Stu

2005-07-04T23:12:00.000-07:00

Some of the things we were asked to do with the Stu character this week were related to getting to know the "rig", which can be euqated loosely to a puppet. There are controls at the joints, and usually some custom control built in to help articulate subtle movement within the body. I've found that this rig is pretty darn good, and I didn't really do much breaking of it, unless I went beyond the physical constraints of the character.

Warren had mentioned in our Q&A to pay particular attention to clear line of action, clarity in the pose, meaning that the pose communicates well, even if it were to be viewed as a silouette, and to give the character motivation. Ask ourselves what the story is, the situation. Make it personal add...well...character. So, I started playing this the idea that Stu is testing a body of water. A pool? A pond? Doesn't matter. What does matter is he has to test it with his toes, and he's sure it's going to be cold which he's not looking forward to. The three poses below are chronological from left to right of my attempts to convey Stu's trepidation. After one and two didn't do it well enough, I went outside and had Sara (my Wife) video me trying the same pose, and things jumped out at me immediately. Can you guess what?

Week 2 - Sketch 2

2005-07-04T23:05:00.000-07:00

We (my Wife and I) went outside and threw the ball around for Wally (with Emily, our daughter squealing with delight as the dog would shoot off to retrieve the ball). The main purpose was to gather some video reference of a number of throwing motion poses as well as any other interesting poses that might come out of it. The result is below. Special attention, as in the first set, was placed on finding the hip and shoulder lines as well as the basic curves and skeletal structure:

Gently weeping

2005-07-01T09:27:00.000-07:00

As I was driving into work today, a fabulous day for driving in, since the traffic is free and clear, or as close as L.A. can get during the morning rush, I heard the Beatles song which may be titled "While my Guitar Gently Weeps". I couldn't help thinking to myself that indeed, his guitar DID gently weep. I was mesmerized for a moment, and then I realized that he was getting emotion from his guitar, an inanimate object, a thing, built by humans out of wood and wire and glue that has no purpose or desire or feeling of it's own, but is infused by it when someone talented and knowledgeable picks it up, caresses it's form with care and love and begins to tell a story in sound. How amazing is that? So amazing, that we believe that the guitar has life and really feels and breaths and cares. When the talented guitar player is done, the guitar is put down and once again is returned to it's lifeless state. Even if someone like myself were to go up and pick it up and try to play, to breath life back into it, I would find it stubborn and difficult to even begin.

So I think that's a reason the Beatles and others are so great. It's that ability to infuse their music and their stories with so much of themselves and translate that to their artistic choices, using all of the potential their medium provides and even inventing new ones when what they have doesn't seem to work. That inventiveness, precision and craft coupled with talent, awareness and desire really push them to produce what becomes unique and powerful songs that touch billions and can change lives. Incredible.

What's even more incredible is that I realized this because those tools and required skills and dedication are very similar those needed to become a great animator. Obviously the medium is different, but as an animator, I'm trying to not only move something from point A to point B, but to provide much more as a story telling device. The expressions, the posture, the motion, timing, and so much more tell a story in some of the most exaggerated and subtle of ways. Understanding that, and understanding how to achieve the right emotional and physical state given the story and the character's motivations within that story are really essential to good animation. Clear, concise, easily translated action, no matter how wild or zany or funny or whatever must communicate well to elicit the audience response we're after our artistic and skilled choices make that happen. I have so much to learn.

Sketch A - Emily, IKEA et al

2005-06-27T11:45:00.000-07:00

So, in a previous entry I wrote about the sketch, here are the details: I spent some time watching my little girl Emily, who's starting to get the whole walking thing, but her balance is still questionable. A PERFECT subject I thought, and I was not disappointed. Beyond that, I also got an idea for reversals while at the IKEA, which had a little lunch area. I had my pad with me, so I thought I'd jot it down. I noticed people going to get coffee had nice, upright, direct, confident walk in general. The cup hooked loosely in their fingers. On the way back, they would inevitably have filled the cup too much, not having anticipated the amount of cream they added would fill it up, and they walked very slowly and softly back to their chair, taking great pains to not spill any coffee by trying as hard as they could to cushion each movement to avoid jostling the cup. Fascinating. I'm going to explore this one some more.

This stuff's a lot of fun!

Week 2 - And there off!

2005-06-27T11:31:00.000-07:00

So! Just watched the video of the Principles of Animation which is the week 2 video from primarily Carlos, but Bobby and Shawn pop in as well, along with some of the other faces from the industry I'm starting to get familiar with. Very interesting, and it's easy to see how understanding these things will be essential to good animation. The only problem i, there are TWELVE of them! E-gad! How am I going to remember to think of al of that as I animate!? Oy. Well, as they say in the video, you do it over and over and over and...well you get the point. Eventually they become second nature. THAT I understand. Interface design and functionality also have a lot of principles that take a while to grasp and engrain, but when you get it, the constraints actually FREE YOU UP to be more creative. I think it has to do with understanding your boundaries so you know when you're within them and when you're crossing them. It's kind of like a runner who has ALL this ENERGY but doesn't know in what direction to run! There's TONS of want-to, but without direction, he can't pick up any speed! Ok, maybe that's dumb, I'm not sure. I'm gonna go with it though.

Here's to week two!

Week 1 a bit slow...

2005-06-26T09:54:00.000-07:00

With all of the hype heading into the classes, I think I was hoping we'd just DIVE right in! But that was not the case, and probably rightly so. Although I may have been living vicariously through the first class last semester, reading all I could about the program and the classes and sucking up as much info from forums and blogs as I could, not everyone had access or knew where to find that stuff and are coming in fresh. They needed to be acclimated. So week one was about getting involved in the Q&As, meeting the founders, meeting my mentor Warren, introducing myself to my fellow students and getting myself prepared with software and hardware to be able to produce for the class.

I couldn't help it though. It was too much. I needed to sketch, do something. So, I began week 2's assignment, sketching in a public place and then posing "Stu", our emmaculately rigged character, to follow a pose we sketched. That was a whole lot of fun, and I'm glad I did it, because it forced me to work out some kinks, including the fact that my webcam is not so good at the detailed still frames. So, I ended up having to use the digital camera instead. But I got it up there, and here's a look at one of the sketch frames to the right. I'll describe the sketch in a blog entry called "SKETCH A - Emily, IKEA et al."

That's it for now,week 2 is officially under way, so there will surely be quite a bit more to come!

Indie Explosion Around Corner?

2005-06-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

Excellent article in the L.A. Times that focuses on the upcoming animated film "Valiant", but also discusses the future of the animation industry from the standpoint of cost vs return . It's a very positive and enlightening look at the corporate bottom line that is driving huge dollars and incredible growth potential in the animation industry, not only for large investors but even for the small indie projects as well.

- Sean

Steve Jobs: Hungry and Foolish

2005-06-24T10:38:00.000-07:00

I know that there are some links to this out there already, but I couldn't help myself. If it's possible to have scaped hearing about or reading this commencement speach, it's worth your time to immerse yourself in the philosphical drippings of a true innovator. If you happened to be there, lucky you.

Steve Jobs, Commencement Speaker, Stanford Graduation, 2005

Stay hungry, stay foolish.

- Sean

Week 1 - First Q&A with Warren!

2005-06-22T20:28:00.000-07:00

So I barely have time to catch my breath when we get right into the FIRST of many Q&A sessions with our most excellent mentor, Warren Trezevant. He did not disappoint. Warren was very personable, humble about his amazing work, open about sharing his experiences and very good at expressing his views, understanding of animation and gave us a good, realistic view of the trials and pitfalls of the young animator to be. He is going to be a really valuable resource and a fun guy to talk with to boot!

So far, this AM thing has been really cool. Very inspiring and ALREADY, without having animated a single shot for AM, I've learned a tremendous amount just soaking up what these guys have to offer. Getting a feel for how they "see", observe, plan, collaborate, experience the world around them has been a huge lesson already. There's just a TON to learn, but I feel like I'm in good hands.

Ok, enough of that. Some of the Warren Q&A highlights:
He shared with us that he does a lot of the shots that have a bunch of characters interacting. Some he mentioned were the dinner scene in the Incredibles, the Blueberries troup in Bug Life, school of fish in Nemo, Seagull Chase in Nemo.
His favorites were shots that were sort of a zen experience for him, where he just felt the shot through without even really thinking much, it just all worked: Violet screaming in Winnebego at the end of Incredibles, Blueberries shooting down the plant into hideout bouncing off the mushroom in Bugs Life were two he mentioned.

It was a really good time. Our first assignment is to sketch in a public place and then pose a character called "Stu" in one of the poses. That's gonna be fun! I'm on it!

Week 1 - Browsing, video, Global Q&A!!!

2005-06-22T20:03:00.000-07:00

So I've had a chance to check out the "campus" which is very cool, including lots of resources, a forum for the latest gossip and get news, student pages and a TON more.

My favorite section so far is the video section. It has a lot of stuff to orient us newbees to the program, and get us pumped for the course, as well as really good tutorials and the live Q&As, which (if you're not familiar) are amazing because it's basically a huge video conference, with the Mentors video always up, and they can select students to show up in the other video window to ask a question or just introduce themselves.

But it's not just for the fact that so many students can interact with each other and the Mentors that makes this REALLY rock, but the very fact that the Mentors are there to discuss animation with us on a regular basis! So far I've been involved in two Q&As, one was a GLOBAL Q&A, which had the three faces and founders of AM, Bobby, Shawn and Carlos answering our (all 350 or so of us) most indulgent of prying questions as well as those about the program itself. They're really high energy, fun, smart animation gurus who we are blessed to have running the show. It was a great time. The video was pretty choppy because of the number of people logged in, but good sound, and I even got to ask a question! I was so nervous I don't even remember what I said, except maybe something about thanking the first class for how open they've been and plugging Siggraph (AM will be there, I'll get a chance to meet them in person). I didn't really have time to prepare for them putting me up on video (through my webcam), so the first shot they got of me (remember, the video was really choppy) was me with a face full of nachos which remained up for a REEAAALLLYYY long time 'til the screen refreshed! Oy. The very fact that I was able to recover from THAT first impression that I'll never get back was, I think, remarkable in itself. I've been playing with the idea of having my Avatar (a computer likeness, like a caricature or other image) be a goofy shot of me with nachos all over my face.

A few notes I made were:
1) There will be a Star Wars Q&A coming up with Delio Tramantozzi, Charles Alleneck and Kevin Martel! That's going to be extremely cool, I can't wait to see what they have to say.
2) There's a book by Shawn's mentor, Wayne Gilbert called "Simplified Drawing for Animation Planning" that's recommended reading, but we shouldn't go out and get it yet, they're working out a discount for AM students.
3) They related to us an advanced animation topic called "force" (no, not THE force), apparently a tough concept and one of the specialties of Mr. Gilbert.

Semester 1 is here! FINALLY! My Mentor is...

2005-06-19T18:38:00.000-07:00

Warren Trezevant!

I've had some difficulty finding info on Warren, but here's the AM slant and the tidbits I could Google:

Here's the official AM bio: "Warren has been with Pixar Animation Studios since "A Bug's Life." He has since worked on all of Pixar's films up through the upcoming 2006 release of "Cars." One of his recent highlights was in the dinner sequence in the "Incredibles" when the family is arguing and Helen (mom) has to use her super powers to take charge of the kids while Bob (dad) comes in and picks up the table in frustration, while Frozone rings the doorbell and the family pretend like nothing happended."

Dexigner describes Warren as "a core member of Pixar Animation Studios' award-winning animation team..."

On February 7th, Warren was a Special Guest at Cal State Berkeley discussing "posing the human body to communicate a character's emotional state.

He did an interview for "a3dGraphicsite" in late '99 or early '00...

That's basically it that's relevant.

All in all, it sounds like he's not new to teaching, nor does he have any trouble communicating and he's been with Pixar for about ten years, so he knows his stuff. I'm excited to get to know him some more and really explore his knowledge in the Q&As. This is going to be a whole lot of fun!

Madagascar

2005-06-12T11:26:00.000-07:00

I've been reading a lot of the blogs, getting a feel for the Animation Mentor program, and possibly a head start in thinking about the work to come. The insites have been invaluable, not only for preparation, but just animation knowledge as a whole. So, when my wife and I, in a rare moment of baby-less-ness went out to see Madagascar, I had an even more sharpened appreciation for the work that goes into making a feature length animation. Wow. I don't need more inspiration, but seeing how they approached the shots, the camera angles, the application of the principles discussed so often in the blogs and what I knew already, and then just the level of originality, taking those tools and applying them in a way that looks fresh and interesting...Impressive.

I don't think I ever watched an animated movie and paid so much attention to the individual qualitities of the characters or paid as close attention to how the audience reacted to them, for instance, listening for when they laughed, or didn't when they were supposed to, (which was rare). Also how who the characters are and what we know about them affects how they move. It's about physical limitations and potential, emotional tendencies and expression...it has become more and more obvious why a course like this one is so important, to get the tools out of the way, make them second nature so you're not thinking about that anymore so you can focus on really bringing the characters to life. Giving them the individuality and definition to really play well as a personality.

I also recommend sticking around for the credits. It has has become a mainstay of animated features to give you a few more neat little playful moments. In this case, they take all of the main characters (and some secondary characters) and they all dance to the same song, one my one. It's a study in how just what we know about each character affects how they move and dance to such an extent that they are all unique. I was mezmorized.

Siggraph Explored:

2005-06-10T17:31:00.000-07:00

Siggraph 05 is coming up July 31 to August 4th.

My company is willing to send the art department! So I'm going! I'm also going to look into a student rate now that I'm taking the degree progam at AM and maximize the company's $600 per person budget.

Anyway, here are the highlights...

SIGGRAPH 2005

Keynote Address: George Lucas - 1:15-3:15pm Sunday

Computer Animation Festival

Electronic Theatre will have matinee (except Sun) and evening showings:
1:30-3:30pm, 7-9pm
Animation Theatres are showing 1-6pm (Sun), 9am-6pm all other days

Experience the year's finest achievements in animation, visualization, simulation, visual effects, and technical imagery.

Courses:

1. Anyone Can Make Quality Animated Films! (The Eight Basic Steps to Success)
Half-Day, Sunday, 31 July, 8:30 am - 12:15 pm, Hall A
Whether the film is one minute or one hour, there are simple basic steps to producing any animated film. This course explains how anyone with a little talent can apply industry-standard techniques to create polished, professional, commercial animated films. All the basic techniques, from developing the initial concept to compositing the final release print, are summarized and discussed. Comprehensive handouts guide attendees through the process.

5. "Madagascar:" Bringing a New Visual Style to the Screen
Half-Day, Sunday, 31 July, 1:45 - 5:30 pm, Hall A
New insights into the creative and technical thought processes required to evolve a new look for a CG movie. Highlights include how moving away from stylized realism required rethinking the creative process, development methods, and technologies, plus a comparison of the approaches that worked with approaches that did not.

17. Acting and Movement for Animators: Students, Teachers, and Professionals
Half-Day, Monday, 1 August, 8:30 am - 12:15 pm, Room 502A
Animators perceive and apply acting theory in a different way than do stage actors.
Ed Hooks, author of Acting for Animators (revised 2nd edition, 2003), pioneered acting workshops that are specifically designed for the needs of the animator. Each consists of a lecture, simple improvisations, and acting analysis and deconstruction of clips from films. Hooks does not try to make stage actors out of animators. He teaches them acting theory in a fun, painless, and empowering way. The primary focus of Acting for Animators is to explore the connections among thinking, emotion, and physical action as they relate to performance animation.

Attendance at this course is highly encouraged. Its exclusive content will not be recorded in any post-conference video documentation.

22. Résumés and Demo Reels: If Yours Aren't Working, Neither are You!
Monday, 1 August, 3:45 - 5:30 pm, Petree Hall D
Beginning Learn what it takes to get a job in the computer graphics field. A top career coach and recruiter reveals the secrets of how to create an irresistible résumé and showcase your talent in a demo reel to get the job you want. Sample résumés and demo reels are included.

23. Taxonomy of Digital Creatures: Interpreting Character Designs as Computer Graphics TechniquesTutorial
Monday, 1 August, 3:45 - 5:30 pm, Room 515A
The process of developing digital creatures from concept to the screen is presented as a series of decision points. The focus is on classifying issues to allow design and performance requirements to drive the techniques employed in execution of the final product.

34. The Invisible Actor
Tuesday, 2 August, 1:45 - 5:30 pm, Room 515 A
An examination of the role of staging and composition in computer-animated films. Using examples from "Madagascar," the course explores the core elements of composition and how they are used to create a visual style.

MAYA 6 and a bare neck

2005-06-09T22:33:00.000-07:00

I asked one of the support people at AM what version of MAYA I'd need, and I found out that the version I have (4.5) will not do! So, I need to purchase the student version of 6.5 ASAP!

On another note, I went a head and stuck my neck out and suggested an L.A. Chapter of AM Mentees. We'll see what comes of that. I thought it would be cool to meet the other students, perhaps at least haev contact to share info specific to the L.A. animation scene. We'll see...

Itchin'

2005-06-08T22:03:00.000-07:00

Got my student id today and registered. It kind of sucks that I can't actually get into the campus area 'til June 20th. I've been filling the void with the CG Talk thread, just reading through, taking some notes, going to some of the student blogs, getting a better feel for what's to come. I realized this space is probably a much better place for me to keep animation web "favorites" rather than in the browser bookmarks, so I put some of those in the links section. I've been collecting tid bits of info as well, like people have been talking a lot about the Logitech Quickcam 4000, I have a different Quickcam, but we'll see.

All in all, fairly anti climactic first day as a student. At a physical campus, I'd at least get a chance to hang out and get a sense of the atmosphere, the coffee shops, the walking distance between classes. I guess the web version of that experience is the blogs. So I'm sucking it up.

Getting started

2005-06-07T13:49:00.000-07:00

Looks like I'm in for it now.

Not 2 months ago, I was wondering what direction my career was going in. I'm currently a Senior Multimedia developer for Raytheon ITSS in Pasadena, CA. When I moved here from Boston, I thought I'd gotten quite the deal, having fenagled a company to actually pay for me and my (at the time) girlfriend to move out here. My plan was to prepare for grad school and then apply to USC's grad program in film. Well, one Marriage, a mortgage and a gorgeous baby girl I wouldn't trade for anything later, and I still hadn't applied, and had, in fact, decided against USC because it was too expensive, and I'd have to quite my job, which was now paying me really well. After having taken some MAYA classes (that I got the company to pay for) at UCLA, I realized UCLA might be a possibility, but their animation program didn't look real stellar to me, given my situation. We were just getting ready to trash the dream and move back to Massachusetts when I saw Animation Mentor.

As far as I'm concerned, this program was a gift from god. Regardless of what comes out of it after I graduate, I'm thankful this opportunity exists and I get a chance to see if this "Animation thing" will really pan out after all. It's been a desire of mine ever since I was a little kid, and is what prompted me to become an artist in the first place.

I'm really excited, and I hope I can prove worthy of this chance.

In that vain, I plan to give you the point of view of a full-time professional multimedia developer with a mortgage and a family and all kinds of "want to", trying to make this dream a reality.