Advanced course and new rigs

So the time has come to once again take up some tutoring. Its all well and good doing my little experiments to make new and cool action shots but I still need help to see where I am going wrong. University seemed to serve only in getting me that bit of paper which so far hasn't really gotten me very far. This would not have been the case had the course actually allowed me to spend 90% of my time animating. In reality 90% of the time was spent creating scenes, assets, characters and rigs, essay writing and more horrendously time consuming nonsense that actually kept me from doing what I started out wanting to do!

So rant aside... Around this time last year I began studying with Jim Finlay (www.jimfinlay.com) a seasoned vet in the world of animation having worked on "Happy Feet" and various Disney projects. I have completed both the beginner and intermediate course and am now due to start the advanced level. When I first started I felt almost down hearted at the idea of going back to a beginner stage having just done 4 years at university. However the importance of the skills of basic timing and spacing principles I picked up on in the first few lessons left me pleasantly stunned and relieved I had agreed to do the full course. I can now comfortably plan my whole scene always knowing where to go next or whats missing from a shot. My work process is so much cleaner, altering one frame can make the difference in the shot. Whereas before my keyframes were so messed up that making any improvements could take hours, not seconds.

So, for the next phase I am doing a 10 second acting piece based on audio from "Blue Jasmine" featuring the voice of Cate Blanchett. The character is kinda tipsy in this scene which makes some of the phrases more interesting. In the past I have completed one or two 11 second club entries (Never to my satisfaction mind...) But this time round I will have a pro showing me the ropes. This project will teach me the correct way to approach an acting piece, start to finish. The benefit of a guiding hand telling how crap some of my poses are should point me in the direction of creating something reel worthy!

I want this vid to come out better than my previous works, so with that in mind I coughed up for a new rig. The above picture is the "Claire" Rig by www.longwinterstudios.com bought as part of a double pack including a male rig. I will be doing a full video review of the rig soon as others wanting to know the of the rigs potential before forking out 35 quid or more will benefit from it. So far I have found it deforms well and the facial controls are nice and clean. Considering all of its controls are on the rig itself rather than in a control box it doesn't appear too cluttered. One snag I have come across which is actually quite frustrating is the arm control setup. After finding and unhiding the IK/FK control I have found that you need to use two separate controls just to move and rotate, which when your doing a lot of blocking quickly it can get a bit frustrating. But worse still is the lack of elbow effector. An elbow up vector/effector is typical of most rigs i.e Josh Burtons "Morpheus" rig and allows you to change angle of the arm via the elbow. For the claire rig however you have to use a mostly forward method to position the arms, which may be a bit of a drag when it comes to find tuning. I am yet to get the hang of its controls and often send the limbs jerking uncontrollably.
All that being said I remain optimistic about this rig and will no doubt enjoy using it for my coming project!

Progress: Render One

So today I cleaned up the shots a bit, the animation itself runs smoothly but is no where near what I would call complete. I have had to force myself to set phases, the end of each I need to render and review whats happened so far. As it stands it looks pleasing, but a lot of the impacts are yet to be refined.



So there it is, there are a number of poses that have body parts moving too soon and timings need adjusting. For my final version I also want the Orange character to hit the pipe with force. So far he just floats up to it and bends it out of shape. I think I will animate the pipe a little more whilst adding a bit of exaggeration to the poses at the point of contact. Adding a bit of camera motion as he hits might add to it also.
Other than that there are a few more camera shots to throw in before I view the curve editor for splinning etc. I will definitely be adding a second impact at the end as he splats against a wall.

Progress Report

So for sometime I have played about with a shot involving a super powered character over powering an opponent. The shot was based on a reference taken from a episode of a super hero series. I chose this sequence to exercise my animating abilities as well giving myself chance to experiment with matching camera shots, angles, timing and posing based on a reference. Plenty of things going on at once  there.




So theres a chunk of it roughly rendered, its over very quickly with only two shots included so far. But there will be a shot of the orange character splatting against a ventilation pipe of some kind before falling in range of a punch that will send him flying into a nicely placed destructible prop.
Most of the animation has been blocked out now. So i'm busy tweaking the timing of the shots before I tidy the poses, iron out the curves and add in any extra magic.

More to come soon!

Posing

This is a subject that I often think about regularly. I found I began to enjoy my work a lot more once I paid attention to the individual pose. To easily I can become distracted by the cool pose in the middle or the cool hand position 3 frames further ahead. Each pose matters, allowing the computer free rain of placement of any parts of the model just detract from those all important Golden poses.
In my earlier animations I would just rush about the timeline plotting as many rough frames as possible trying to make it all happen at once. An experience I would liken to attempting to dress yourself was running down the stairs, its just not the best way to get something done. So i'm going to continue to take it slow and enjoy even the less dramatic poses, each of them matter after all.
Its always a great thing to be excited about a scene or even an exercise but maintaining discipline and doing things the right way will definitely save time in the long run. I do love to stick in those secondary motions often before the whole motion is blocked... "I haven't finished yet, but doesn't that secondary wrist action look convincing!" .. yeah it will do for a full hour or so before you realise the timing is all off and that wrist action serves as a knot to untangle once you have relayed your foundations.
In short, a bit more control and less haste, enjoying each and every pose as you go will save a lot of time feeling the ups and downs of a scene increase and decrease in quality for reasons that despite being glaringly obvious, elude you long after frustration has claimed many a fistful of hair.

A change of focus: The Art of Action Animation

I've been busy lately and although I haven't made time to blog about it I have been busy animating away and making future plans. I am currently on pause with my mentored studies and will be forced to go it alone for now whilst I come up with the dosh to continue. So whilst no one is telling me what to do and how to do it I am going to concentrate on the fun stuff. Lately I have been really getting back into animating action. When watching a film or episode of something It can really get annoying to see a punch thrown with no real force behind it or seemingly no impact. Too many action sequences have no weight to them and the contacts are far too light.

So from now on I will be using this blog to study method of creating action sequences that are visually pleasing. To do so I wont just be brushing up on getting the basics of weight, timing and spacing down, I will be looking beyond the animation side and study current examples of good action sequences. I will be focussing in on areas such as; Character weighting and structure of strikes, reactions to impact, use of camera motion to add impact as well as the practicality of certain strikes within a real life situation ( A roundhouse kick is rarely the answer). 

I intend to study the different martial arts, their pros and cons, different weight distributions and styles of movement. I will also pick out a few of my favourite action sequences in attempt to recreate them and possibly improve upon them.

For those of you who are reading, my intention will be present my research and findings in resulting videos and hopefully pass on my preferred methods of delivering a convincing fight to the fellow aspiring animator.

Stay tuned, first video to follow soon!