Body movement in support of personality

Each animator will get to a point where they will have mastered the body mechanics enough so that they can focus on acting choices. But temptation is always there to have gestures or other body movements showcasing animation principles instead of personality. I totally understand and I'm guilty of that myself. A frequent example in my workshops is my Maya 3 assignment from the Academy, Ze Chair:


which was lovingly referred to as "Animation Jerk Off" by the awesome teacher Lisa Mullins. She immediately let me know that this is just animation for animation's sake. And she was totally right. I was more in love with the animation principles and focused on showing them off, instead of thinking about character and personality. I hope she's still teaching. Her class was the first real character animation class for me and one of the best ones.

So once you get passed that, it's less about "there's a pop on x17" but more about acting choices, which fall more into the "I prefer this over that." as opposed to being wrong (of course you can have totally inappropriate acting choices that will feel wrong, but I hope you get my point).

Which brings me to a workshop clip I was giving feedback for. The question from the animator was, which version I preferred. My response and preference was based on movement supporting a character's personality, which I'm sure is totally debatable, but I just wanted post the feedback from the Workshop Feedback page here as well:

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stuck02


IP10

(This is in response to which version I prefer.)

Funny enough, I like them both, but specific parts and would mix them. I know that sounds complicated and not sure if that's helping you. What I like about "stuck02" is the amount of rotation and overlap the body has after she's being stuck. In "stuck02" she goes pretty far down up to x54, whereas in "IP10" she doesn't go as far and stops a bit abruptly. So anim wise from a body mechanics point of view, "stuck02" feels better.

But what I prefer in "IP10" is her left arm from x51 to 74, because it's stiffer. She's surprised, a bit irritated, but tense, and that is reflected in that stiffer arm. In "stuck02", from x54 to 85, the arm is loose and dangling, and feels too out of control and animated. Too me it's not in character.
After that it's up to you. Neither versions are wrong, they are just different in terms of acting choices. In "stuck02" she looks back up to x100 in a slow way, which gives her a feel of "Hello? Uhm... anybody see that? Help me!". In "IP10" she goes up very fast to x93, which gives it a feel of "Oops! I hope no one saw that!", which is a bit more in character because she looks and moves like a confident business woman, so when she's in trouble, I think she would want to keep that strong and confident look, so she wouldn't look around for help, she would try to fix it herself. That strong personality is reflected in x182, how she puts her glasses back into the right place. Then at the end when the manhole cover comes out, that's what breaks her confidence and that's why she looks surprised and out of it at x240. It's good contrast and a change in her character, whereas in "stuck02", she already looks a bit helpless like that during the x91 area. So the ending in "stuck02" is a bit more of the same in terms of character and less of a contrast.

So basically, I would use "stuck02" until x56, then use the rest of "IP10". :)

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Animation Mentor Showcase 2011: Back to Basics

Watch the reel here. Great work!

Shot Breakdown by Tomas Jech

Tomas Jech made this awesome clip and on provides a great breakdown on his blog (thanks Le Roy for the tip!).

February 11 second club winner

Check out the new 11 second club winner, Veerapatra Jinanavin!

I really like the whole package of this entry. The animation is great, ranging from close up subtle facial work to full body physical shots. I like the camera angles and the subtle handheld-y feel to it. The rendering is great too.
If I'd be picky, I'd work on the lipsync a bit more and have the alien guy not look like a mix between Megamind and Airbender, only so that there is no association with an existing product.
But overall it's really cool and the animator shows a wide range of skills within 11 seconds. Congratulations!

Copdog - Animation

After the rather sad "Dying" clip I wanted to do something a bit more fun and light.

- The rigs are: Koko for the dog, the alien creature from a DVD set @ CG Toolkit, the cops, cop car, rocket and set from Digital Tutors
- music is edited together from multiple tracks off the "Home Alone" score; I animated the whole thing first and then looked for music that would fit the action
- used Maya 9
- time spent on clip: 3 days (3x 10 hours days - spread out over a week or so with an hour here, an hour there and week-end work), and add about half a day to a day for planning (no reference, although sliding down that tube would have been awesome!! :) )
- inital blocking in linear keys for alien first, then dog, then background guys
- quicktime and vimeo version

'Rio' Exclusive: Film's First Two Minutes

Beautiful! Awesome job as always from Blue Sky!

<a href="http://www.bing.com/videos/browse?mkt=en-us&vid=390a5af2-fac2-4e20-8b6e-4cc518d71596&from=en-us&fg=dest" target="_new" title="'Rio' Exclusive: Film's First Two Minutes">Video: 'Rio' Exclusive: Film's First Two Minutes</a>

The Letter by Jamie Gallant

I'm always a big fan of masking an "exercise" shot. For instance, character sitting down. Sure, you could just focus on the mechanics and go through the motions. But it's more interesting if you give the character a reason, where the action in the shot is driven by a situation, emotions, so that the focus is not just on "sitting down".

Found this cool clip @ onanimation.com

The Letter from Jamie Gallant on Vimeo.

Kenny Roy's Animation Lectures

Head over to Kenny Roy's site and check out the lectures he's offering! There is "Cartoony", "Contact" and my favorite "Secondary". They are all good but I really liked the "Secondary" lecture. There's a lot of food for thought in that one but I would recommend all of them.

Dying - Animation

See post update below!

Dying from Jean-Denis Haas on Vimeo.

Another exercise (following Here and there, Collision Alarm and No no no clip). This time the focus was on gear changes and more subtle acting. The clip is very long but the actual audio was even longer. So edited it together a bit so that there is this gradual emotional shift throughout the shot.

- The rig is again by Nino Aniceto. Thanks a lot!
- Audio is edited together from an episode of "24"
- used Maya 9
- time spent on clip: 3 days (3x 10 hours days - spread out over a week or so with an hour here, an hour there and week-end work)
- acted shot out, shot reference, initial blocking in linear keys for both characters at the same time
- quicktime and youtube version

UPDATE!

And here, for those who are interested, more info on the shot.

First the compilation of reference footage that I kept. Be warned for some naked shoulder action here. It was a hot day. :)


With that as a starting point I started to block out the shot. This is the version I sent out to fellow animators for the first round of feedback. It's very rough, but the ideas are in place.


And if you want to see the whole progression, and it's very boring towards the end as I go through detail stuff (the clip is over 13mins long, 130MB), then continue on below. It's a compilation of each major maya file that I saved. Some versions I skipped because I didn't see any difference (must have been some backup saves), but otherwise it's there from finish to the end.

Animation Mentor Student Showcase 2010

Holy moly the work is gooooood! Go check it out here!


And here is a behind-the-scenes look of how graduate Jeff Engel talks about his shot.

2007 Animation Reel of Jennifer Hager

Thanks Sonia for the tip! Awesome reel!

Here and there - Animation

Here and there from Jean-Denis Haas on Vimeo.

Another exercise after the Collision Alarm and No no no clip. I wanted to do a two person dialogue clip with a bit broader action.

- The rig is again by Nino Aniceto. Thanks a lot!
- Audio is from "Chocolat"
- used Maya 9
- time spent on clip: 3 days (3x 10 hours days - spread out over a week or so with an hour here, an hour there and week-end work)
- acted shot out, no reference, initial blocking in linear keys for both characters at the same time
- youtube & quicktime

Sketchy Duel

Soo gooood! The timing is awesome!



found via Kevan Shorey

And there is more:

Collision Alarm - Animation

Collision Alarm from Jean-Denis Haas on Vimeo.

Another exercise to keep different animation muscles alive. This one is more about physicality and interaction compared to the No no no clip. I hope you like that one as well!

- You can watch it on youtube as well, or as a quicktime file.
- The rig is by Nino Aniceto. Thanks a lot!
- Audio is from "The Abyss"

[update] After some email inquiries, more info:

- used Maya 9 (does that really matter?)
- time spent on clip: 2 days (2x 10 hours days - spread out over a week or so with an hour here, an hour there and week-end work)
- acted shot out, shot no reference, straight-ahead work during impact, initial blocking in linear keys
- blocked out FG guy first until fall on ground, then BG guy, then both together for pick-up part

No no no - Animation

No no no from Jean-Denis Haas on Vimeo.

It's time again to work on personal clips to stretch different animation muscles. This time it's a bit more subtle and quiet. I hope you like it!

- You can watch it on youtube as well, or as a quicktime file.
- The kid's head is by Mario Aquaro, his body is Generi and the devil is by Nino Aniceto. Thanks a ton for those!
- sound is from a Star Trek DS9 episode, called "Return to Grace"

[update] After some email inquiries, more info:

- used Maya 9 (does that really matter?)
- time spent on clip: 15 hours (so workday being 10 hours, 1 1/2 day - spread out over a week or so with an hour here, an hour there and week-end work)
- acted shot out, used reference for last hand gesture part at the end of clip, initial blocking in linear keys

Barry Nardone - Winged Creature

Super sweet idea. Nice way of showcasing a little story, build up suspense, camera movement and of course complex animation. Head over to the Workshop feedback site to watch the clip!