My current project:

So i've not posted so much in the last month and a half, this is mainly down to a new focus. I am doing an advanced animation class that is more about character performance. Showing me the best way to go from planning stage, to blocking and then through the breakdowns. Now I knew all this stuff before.. theoretically. Its one thing to know how its done, but its been far, far better to see how a pro does it. Its been very beneficial and now even my less than 'awesome' stuff is done more efficiently and in such a way as I can improve it quickly without considering a complete write off.

For this project i've taken a clip from a recent film featuring Cate Blanchett. In this scene she's fairly inebriated so its been fun doing the reference filming.



It's very early stages really, I just wanted to get the rough acting down. I've just started to do the breakdowns, there are some wandering eyes and lots of ironing out to do as well as completing the rest of the clip. A good way off lip sync and splining yet!

Stay tuned.

Paul

This could halt progress a little...

On a strange and more personal note, I have applied to be on the second series to the Bear Grylls show "The Island". If you're unfamiliar with the programme, it basically involves 15 people being left on an island with only a few knives and 2 days drinking water between them. They are then expected to survive for a full month, living off of the land and taking from the  local environment. It would certainly be a brilliant life experience though it could halt my learning a little!

Good story writting

I'm still plugging away as ever, though I suppose I haven't felt the urge to add anything on here lately. I'll add some progress clips of my current work soon I suppose. I am 60% of the way through the Advanced animation course with Jim Finlay ( jimfinlay.com )On top of that I have made it through the major planning stages of  "Top secret" project which I hope to be able to engage a wide audience that will stick around to watch more of my stuff. Anyways, I have come across this video on a Facebook group called Animdailies.

The video is about engaging with characters within a story, its major point being that sympathetic doesn't mean you have to like the person. Its all about association through vulnerability, its ben well timed as I am still developing a story for my own project. I definitely recommend giving it a watch.

Sympathetic Doesn't Have To Mean Likable from Jennine Lanouette on Vimeo.

Paul Out

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.