Showing posts with label Resources. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Resources. Show all posts
iAnimate Animation Tutorials
As many of you know, I am teaching at iAnimate now and the collection of instructors there is top notch. I have taught at several institutions in Los Angeles, and ianimate has the best of the best instructors to learn from. We are about 3/4th through this block... so there is plenty of time to prepare and save up for it! I highly recommend the program.
Ken Fountain and Jamaal Bradley (iAnimate instructors)
released two new video tutorials in the STORE section of the jrawebinar site.
Bodies in Motion
Sets from Bodies in Motion I
Here are four sample sets from the first Bodies in Motion shoot. Each link below opens a gallery in a new page.
Eye Darts
from TheDIEMProject on Vimeo.
Ever curious what people watch, when they watch a movie or for how long?
This movie is of the eye movements of 11 people watching P.T. Anderson’s There Will Be Blood are tracked using Eyelink 1000 in order to gain a better understanding of how movies are experienced.
Each dot represents the center of one viewer's gaze. The size of each dot represents the length of time they have held fixation. Look at all of those eye darts!
Great Animation Study Resource
This would be a great animation test for some animators reel.
Really fun to watch.
Meet Buck
Meet Buck looks like it could be fun...
and their behind the scenes rigging reel is insane!
start 1 minute in and watch the extreme madness!
EXploding Vegetables
For the VFX Animators out there... Martin Klimas' new series, ‘Exploding Vegetables’, is created by firing a projectile into different kinds of fruits and vegetables reflecting our shift towards healthy (bio) food and away from junk food.
New Auto Retopo Feature - 3D Coat
New Auto_Retopo Feature: the Orc from Don Nash on Vimeo.
...could this mean no more bad topology - ever?
Carousel - Phillips (HQ)
and,
"the making of"
Created for Tribal DDB, Amsterdam, Stink Digital and Director Adam Berg deliver this interactive campaign for Philips new CINEMA 21:9 TV. The cinematic proportions of the display became the theme of this piece. Adam responded with an idea for an epic frozen moment cops and robbers shootout sequence.
This 2:19 film runs as an endless loop, allowing viewers to control their moves through the scene. The film also contains embedded hotspots, which, when triggered, give us a behind-the-scenes look at some of the shots.
Yes, this film does share some creative similarities with pieces weve posted in the past. However, it is the mode of distribution thats really got me excited as the frequency of these types of projects are increasing.
As many feared the death of the traditional spot, others embraced the webs potential to distribute longer form content. Not only longer form, but branded stories where directors and production companies had more of a front seat role. Adam had the opportunity to make a short-film which is quite far removed from the brand who funded it — and promotes them better than any product or tech-centric spot. This is an exciting time for story-tellers of all mediums.
This 2:19 film runs as an endless loop, allowing viewers to control their moves through the scene. The film also contains embedded hotspots, which, when triggered, give us a behind-the-scenes look at some of the shots.
Yes, this film does share some creative similarities with pieces weve posted in the past. However, it is the mode of distribution thats really got me excited as the frequency of these types of projects are increasing.
As many feared the death of the traditional spot, others embraced the webs potential to distribute longer form content. Not only longer form, but branded stories where directors and production companies had more of a front seat role. Adam had the opportunity to make a short-film which is quite far removed from the brand who funded it — and promotes them better than any product or tech-centric spot. This is an exciting time for story-tellers of all mediums.
Time Warp on Discovery
Time Warp: Girl Power Video at YourDiscovery.com
via Virgil
Great reference videos made by Discovery Channel
(for their Time Warp show) showing actions recorded at high speed.
(for their Time Warp show) showing actions recorded at high speed.
via Virgil
Creature Animation Course at Gnomon
I will be teaching a Creature Animation Course with very specific goals in January at Gnomon!
Creature Animation Course
| Day | Saturday |
| Time | 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm |
| Location | Lab 2 |
| Dates | Jan 17th - March 21st |
| Length | 10 Weeks |
| Prerequisites | Character Animation 1 Character Animation 2 |
| Software Used | Autodesk Maya |
| Tuition | $1,675 |
Apply and adapt traditional animation techniques to monsters and creatures
This class builds on what the artists learned in Character Animation 1 and 2 and addresses more specifically the mechanics of motion relating to film quality photo realistic or creature driven content. Students will take what they have learned in previous animation courses and learn how to show realistic weight shifts in the body and expand on a creature driven performance.
Exercises covered include a film quality animated creature cycle (bi-ped or quad) that moves from stop to full speed and then stop again (sliding, climbing, hit, attack, etc.) Another test will be a pure performance-driven film quality animation using a creature or human that aligns with photo-real timing, weight and motion. This class will push student tests to two final, finished creature pieces for their reel.
Online Registration
Tuition: $1,675
Example Animation Review
I heard your requests for an example review to be posted to the blog.
Below, is a review I completed for a submission to my $50 review post.
No need to reveal who the animator is.
This is just to illustrate what a basic review would entail.
Below, is a review I completed for a submission to my $50 review post.
No need to reveal who the animator is.
This is just to illustrate what a basic review would entail.
General Notes:
The run looks like a puppy and pretty cartoony.
If that is what you are after then great!
It's very cute and bouncy and makes the hippo/dino feel like a baby.
But, you wanted a more realistic hippo run with weight, below are my suggestions.
Before you ever animate a creature or character ask yourself these questions:
Is the creature/character a king or a minion?
Is the creature/character young or old?
Is the creature/character very large like a giant robot or smaller like a mosquito?
Then, download a realistic reference, even if you are going after a cartoony performance.
All exaggerated motion is rooted in reality.
Think about when a boxer is hit in the face.
The body creates the most distorted shapes when pushed to it's limits.
This only happens for less than a split second, so you feel the weight of that impact and would never see that distortion unless you have the still photo.
Notes on improving the mechanics of motion:
The BBC Motion Gallery is the best place to start to find great reference footage.
I found this hippo run as a reference for you.
I found this hippo run as a reference for you.
You can see that the run cycle has at least two feet on the ground almost all of the time. Your cycle moves more like a bunny hop with the back feet working like rear wheel drive. This is a choice, but the choice makes the creature feel more light and cute than a hippo/dino creature. This is tough because the creature design has much longer legs in the back than the front.
You can choose to bring the hips down lower to compensate for the front, or you can choose to make it run like a t-rex/kangaroo with the front paws completely up in the air. Since you are already working a quad run, I would try to mimic the hippo in the reference and keep the hind legs compressed. You will have to rotate the hips up to compensate for this lower translate on the rear.
If you want the creature to move more realistically and have more weight, I would create a run closer to the one in this video were the feet are offset instead of doing the bunny hop moving together.
I am glad you were able to send me the maya file.
This helps me see the motion from all angles.
This is probably just personal preference, but I hate IK spines or automatic spines of any kind.
Torque through the spine of a creature is critical to describing weight.
In my world as an animator I want full control of the everything the character does.
I dislike rigs that tell me what is going to happen by countering a pose I make on the tip of the spine or vice versus.
I playblasted the cycle from the side with only joints turned on.
The controls on this spine, keep the center of his back really tight and it's not absorbing the torque this run would generate. So, all of the motion that should be happening in the back is happening at the head making his head flop around like a rag doll.
Since you are stuck with this rig, I would try my best to get the bouncing action to happen in the back/shoulders and not the head.
I made a few minor changes to the motion in Maya on your curves, just by scaling and sliding their timing and already got more torque happening in the spine instead of the neck and head. Below, is a quick playblast after I adjust the waves of weight that move through the shoulders through the spine and down the tail. Watch the cross control above his shoulders to see how the spine has a lot more rot in it, yet the head is absorbing this rotation and not bouncing as much. I worked on the tail a bit more too, but this is to work with the cute bouncy cycle you have created. Once you create a run cycle closer to the reference the tail should be more for balance than secondary kind of action.
A great way to work out a tail action is to get acetate and put it in your screen. Then draw a dot for the hips translate keys. After your have a dot representing the up and down the hip trans as your creature moves through space, connect the dots. That path is the same path the tail should be following.
The best thing you can do is look at that reference from BBC. The bull hippo in that reference is definitely moving with front wheel drive propelling him forward as the hind legs try to keep up. Use the shoulders more and offset their motion from the rest of the body. This bull moves more like a grown dog than a puppy.
Once you get the right run cycle going on the feet and all of the weight shifts happening in the spine, you can add details like splayed and gripped toes as he pushes off the ground.
Great work! I can't wait to see the next pass!
I made a few minor changes to the motion in Maya on your curves, just by scaling and sliding their timing and already got more torque happening in the spine instead of the neck and head. Below, is a quick playblast after I adjust the waves of weight that move through the shoulders through the spine and down the tail. Watch the cross control above his shoulders to see how the spine has a lot more rot in it, yet the head is absorbing this rotation and not bouncing as much. I worked on the tail a bit more too, but this is to work with the cute bouncy cycle you have created. Once you create a run cycle closer to the reference the tail should be more for balance than secondary kind of action.
A great way to work out a tail action is to get acetate and put it in your screen. Then draw a dot for the hips translate keys. After your have a dot representing the up and down the hip trans as your creature moves through space, connect the dots. That path is the same path the tail should be following.
The best thing you can do is look at that reference from BBC. The bull hippo in that reference is definitely moving with front wheel drive propelling him forward as the hind legs try to keep up. Use the shoulders more and offset their motion from the rest of the body. This bull moves more like a grown dog than a puppy.
Once you get the right run cycle going on the feet and all of the weight shifts happening in the spine, you can add details like splayed and gripped toes as he pushes off the ground.
Great work! I can't wait to see the next pass!
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