Animateducated Blog

I'm teaching two beginning Animation classes and have begun posting a blog dedicated to teaching traditional and other animation techniques. Most of the content walks students through the process of the different projects we are doing in class. Its going pretty good, but I still haven't gotten any feed back to find out what people think of it.

Check out, Animateducated and leave a comment, hopefully others will too.

Thanks,
Jim

ToonBoom Harmony

Background cycle from Toondini on Vimeo.

I took a 3 day test using ToonBoom Harmony and made this three days after. I really love this program and discovered that it has alot to offer. There are many similarities to Animate Pro, but they've added a whole node base setup allowing the user to see how things are put together in the network viewer. Plus they give you lots of extra controls to plug in and control the final composite. 

Acting in Animation

The above was created in ToonBoom Studio and will have a textured paper background on it when completed. This is the plan, although that may changed later. In fact, there has been a lot of changes to this project where animation scenes have gotten to an animatic stage and the filmmakers have decided to turn them back into still images, like a slide show.

I'm good at finding a visual joke in a scene if one is needed. The above scene involves a lot of acting and requires the character to act as if he is trying to figure out what is going on with him. Its a very simple scene, but needed subtle acting in the eyes and head moves. Its very easy to bring up those hands and start flailing about on-every-single-word-that-he-says. Instead, I got the hands out of this scene to see if I could make this character continue to tell his story with just his upper body. I also added a lot of pauses which I hope helps the character seem as if he doesn't know what he is going to say next. Please let me know what you think.

Learning Maya Animation

I recently finished teaching a group of high school students how to animate using Maya. They did a very good job learning as much as they could in 7 weeks and not one of them had to be pushed into the software. Here's their first CG animation using a simple character called the Johnny the Box project.

While teaching this class, I learned a lot as well. For one, most students begin animating a shot starting at frame one. They don't realize that their audience needs a little time to think about what they are watching. I had to slow them down and stress the importance of holding on the beginning shot for at least 10 frames before moving the character. One main key to animation is learning about timing.

You want your audience to see the character and you should hold on the shot longer, to allow the audience to see what the character is doing or what is their attitude. Also after a character is moving about, we need to hold to see him think or react. In 2D animation, there is a term called "moving hold". This is explained by Jeff Lew using 3D. The moving hold is where the body is in motion and then slows down but never completely stops. It moves into a pose and slowly keeps moving until it moves out of that position. In 2D, this was done in a lot of close up shots of the character's face to keep the drawing alive and not turning into a still drawing.

It was a good class since a lot of the kids would also learning other parts of the program like Dynamics. I would do a double take with a moving hold when I would see someone had created an animated fireball. Then I would ask them, "how did you do that?"

the Nose sequence

This is the beginning of the animation from "One in a Billion" which I have referred to as "the Nose sequence" for lack of a better description. This is rough animation and I've been using After Effects for compositing the various segments to create one long scene. I only hope I am doing this right since there are still more animations to edit together to make up the final segment.

Rough Animatic_ Airport Sequence

This is a rough animatic sequence which was all based on the soundtrack and very little direction from the client. The character designs were later changed to a more cartoony style. Unfortunately, this sequence was later turned into a series of still storyboard frames which the client preferred.

Modelsheets

Sketchy Vector Lines in ToonBoom

I'm working on a project where the client wants a sketchy textured line. I've been doing a lot of tests in ToonBoom Studiov6 and have come up with a possible solution. Since you can only get thick and thin vector lines without any added textures in the line, I am using two layers to make up the line and the line texture.

The first layer contains thin gray lines drawn quickly to give the scratchy line texture. This layer can be done in the blocking or rough animation stage, but instead of hiding this layer you move it above the clean line layer to break up and add texture to the animated line.

Here is a test where:
 A) The lines that animate will only move, but there is only one drawing during a hold.
 B) 3 line layers cycle above during the held drawing, thus keeping the drawing alive when its not moving.

Christmas in February?

I know this is a little late, but it is animated. Enjoy.

Late Night Animating

I find myself with a little more time to animate and work on my film "Hot Property". I have finally created an animatic of blocked, rough and final animation clips. I am concentrate on getting each scene completed as well as added some temporary music.

The only way I have found to keep myself on track is to record my work hours as best as I can and to have a deadline. I am hoping to finish this film as early as Halloween, (only 52 days away) or at the least by the end of the year of 2011. I have been writing down the moment I start working and the minute I stop. So far, I'm discovering that I even though I have small chunks of time, they are adding up and my animation is slowly moving forward.

Metamorphosis Group 2 WIP

This is Group 2's work in progess. I will be scanning in the rest of the project around the end of the week.

Metamorphosis Group 1

Two weeks ago, I began teaching a small group of High School students about the process of drawing animation and how to do it. Their first assignment was to draw a bouncing ball, in order to learn about timing, weight, spacing and other things needed to make their drawings move. Next they were given the task of bringing in a favorite image which they started with and then were given an end image that they had to animate to. Above is what the first group came up with and I think we are off to an interesting start.To see this in better detail, click here.

Where am I ?

Recently, I've been teaching High School students about traditional 2D animation. I've introduced them to something called a "Pencil", an input device which also has a built in delete button and they are using "Animation Bond" software to create motion on a series of animation paper. They also have been given a "Peg Bar", which is used with the animation paper, holding it altogether.

The first project was to create a "Bouncing Ball"; surly animation students will often roll their eyes loudly and yawn at this, but I think its the best way of showing how to make something move. As a magician, the number one rule to performing magic is to keep your audience's attention where you want it. An animator needs to direct his audience's eye where he wants it to go.

With a bouncing ball, you learn to see each frame as you follow the ball. Starting with a Path of Motion or Line of Action, a guide line that shows how the ball moves through the scene. By watching the ball animate, you can see if the ball is moving too fast or too slow. What the ball is made of shows in how much "Squash and Stretch" shows when the ball hits the ground and how it reacts to it. Does the ball react to gravity correctly? Ease Ins and Ease Outs, also known as Slow Ins and Outs, determine the ball's weigh as it goes into the arc, slowing down as it goes up and then speeds up as it returns to the ground.

Here is an excellent tutorial from Angry Animator which explains everything you will need to make your own animated bouncing ball. There is even a bit about how to flip your drawings as you are creating your animation. Check out this great site.



Now while this is going on, I have been working at a studio called Weareroyale since January. The studio has been doing all the on-air programming graphics for Disney Junior. I have been part of a small team of Maya animators to create short interstitials. I can't go into an details since I think I just spotted a black Mickey Mouse van down the street.

I read some blogs and its, " Tobor at Tobor Studio is awesome and I totally dig what be happening. You my doggs!" That's not me, I do want to thank everyone at Royale for making me feel welcomed and giving us great projects to work on. What started as an end date of March, happily was extended to July! Royale is a great studio with real creative folks that run the place and I have enjoyed every frame I have animated there. They also have allowed me to leave early on the days I had to teach without any problem. I look forward to work with Royale again.

I have been told that I cannot post any of my animation until after Feb or March of 2012, because it has to be shown on Disney Junior first. Wow, a whole year??! I could see the dangers of me popping my shots onto Youtube, but what happens if I put them on a DVD and sent it to Disney Features? Or with met someone at Pixar one on one , showing them my shots, but not giving anyone my DVD to keep. Would Disney lawyers begin suing other Disney Lawyers, creating a matter/anti-matter vortex based on Corporate Law, thus imploding really bigger laws like "The Laws of Gravity" or "The Laws of Physics"??? Mankind could end in the blink of an eye!

So, around the end of July, I will be looking for a new gig and I figure, the only way to show this new work would be in a face to face situation. No posting, no linking, no DVD sample reels, just good old American face to face salesmanship. So if you need any animation help, I'm available in August.

In the meantime, I have been working on "Hot Property" again and hoping to finish it soon.

Happy New Year 2011!

Well here it is, 2011 and I am still in production on this project. It started out as a 3D project and then went to a 2D one, and back and forth a bit until it landed on the 2D side of the fence. I recently upgraded my Toon Boom Studio from 4.5 to 6 in hopes to finish this film using this new software version.

I'm sure I could finish this entire short in a matter of months, if I had enough time to work on it. Of course, this is the number one excuse used by anyone who sets off to make a short film. Especially if they present it in a blog which is sporadically posted ever now and then. Let's face it, animation production is pretty boring and even more boring to read about in a blog.

So this year, I'm planning to make my future posting more exciting to your the reader. I hope to finally finish this short film and reap its rewards if any, of course letting you know all about the real dirt so to speak. Yes, I hope to increase my blogging skills by gaining more viewers and subscribers who will begin blogging about me and buying my merchandise(when I get some).

Yes, 2011 will be a very good year, because after all 2012 will be the end of all of us.

Happy New 2011!

Happy Holidays 2010!

Color Testing

I am trying to determine an interesting color scheme or technique that will blend into the character without drawing your attention to it. I want to avoid the flat "Cel" colors by adding levels of shading as well as textures. To do this in Toon Boom, I am using After Effects to composite all the pieces together.


I might be doing too many things to accomplish this, but I want have a blue jean texture in the farmer's overalls. Then I want to separate the characters from the background, throwing the background out of focus slightly. Here a green color is around the Farmer and Pig and a red color on the Farmer's overalls. The first pass, I'm keying out the red and putting a the denium texture on the level below it.



On a second pass, I am now removing the green background to reveal the background level below. This second pass is combined with other levels as well as the background and rendered out with sound track as a final shot.

Here's the final composite with a blurred out background photo of a farm.

Scene 05

This scene was animated on my Cintiq using ToonBoom.

Back to the 2D!

Here I go, turning the Animation Bus around again and heading for the 2D on-ramp on the production freeway. I have decided to go this direction in order to give my brand new Cintiq a workout and see if its possible for me to make a "paperless" production. I have a handful of programs available to help me do this and it looks like I will have a bunch of free time available in April to work on making this film.

The Cintiq is like having a animation light table that you can draw images right on the monitor screen. This is the most natural way of drawing as opposed to drawing to the side of your body while looking at the screen with a normal Wacom tablet. I am using ToonBoom 4.5 to do the animation in and hoping to composite some elements into After Effects to give it a different look.

Alien Test Walk

This is just a rough test of the Alien walk.

New Year's Revolution!

Tis the new year and a time to get things done. I have some old Maya files of the Alien and the Farmer character as well as the beginning designs of props and locations which everyone can use to rebuild.

Neil Bonsteel has been working on rigging the Alien character and figuring out how to make the tenticle arms and legs move. He also is designing a rig which everyone can use for the project. Once he has tested and retested the Alien, I will let the animators take the Alien and get use to the rig before scenes are assigned.

I am considering a solution to finding a modeler/rigger for the Farmer and Pig characters. From the beginning of this project, I was animating this in 2D and thought it might be interesting to combine 2D with the 3D, CG world. The farmer and the pig characters would be composited together in a CG world where all the models, props, background elements, Aliens, the ship, tractor,etc.I will compiled a complete list of what needs to be build and or rigged. I would like to do a few test scenes with the Aliens to see what kind of look we can get using this process. I want to avoid a flat 2D cartoon slapped on a 3D render, so any other thoughts would be welcomed.

The Aliens should be able to do a lot of things.I want everyone to have fun with the Aliens, whereas the Farmer and pig will need to be treated more real in their motion. Being Aliens, they can squash,stretch and be more cartoony in general. They're bodies float above a scramble of tenticle legs that chase after the floaty upper half of the body. Here's a short test of what I'm talking about.