Day 1

Late but tis Day 1 of the challenge on Day 3... :( Thanks to Jess though cause she did the clothes when I got lazy.

Silverware and Start of 30-Day Challenge

I'm going to take the challenge with Jessica Tong and perhaps my other friends. Hope I'll pull through!

How About We Spoon, Satyr? After Some Exercises!

The first piece is my lineart for a Secret Santa exchange while the second piece is a for a weekly exercise.

Web Flare Model

Steve Hickner Presentation

Let's get better together guys. I did lose my fire near the end of the second half and therefore the notes there aren't as strong. If anyone sees anything that I may have missed, I would appreciate them filling in the gaps. Thanks!
Critique: Nic Rudy's City of the Beast

• Begin a scene with the character or object that will progress the story. Example is starting the scene with Leblanc rather than with Alex and Kate.

• Do not lose the sense of geography and the location of the characters.

• Do not use columns and poles to block the scene. Rather use them to frame it.

• Instead of having character heights be the same, place them on an invisible diagonal.

• Instead of having a character bend over to be in the frame, have the camera zoom out instead.

• Have more differences between the angles of cuts so that it does not appear as a jump cut. If the angles must be similar then think of using a pan instead.

• If a cut is done repeatedly, it lessens the value of the technique and the audience becomes numb to it.

• If closeups are used too much, when there is a need for a personal scene, there is nowhere to go for that.

• Have an editor do the most aggressive cut they can do. Once the shorter version is seen, the original version will seem much too slow.

• When an editor cuts his scene, Steve only adds back in a bit of the scene. Never to the point that it's the same length as the original.

• Apology shot - a shot in which an important object is somewhat in the frame. Appears as if there is uncertainty as to whether or not the object should be included and therefore the artist is apologizing.

• If a character sits, the audience relaxes because the character most likely will not go anywhere. If a character is standing, the audience pays more attention since they may move anywhere. Ingenious. Character in a moving chair.

• The instant dialogue is added, there is now the potential to critique that dialogue. It is better to have great acting.

• To show a concluding conflict between two characters, have them be visually far apart onscreen and as the conflict is cleared, have their character appear closer to each other onscreen.

Critique: Hillary Bradfield

• Never start a a movie silent cause the sound level is then harder to set.

• Steve added in Edith's name at the beginning of the film in a drawing rather than having it shown in the middle.

• Rather than having the bear being called upon in the morning just because, Edith calls on the bear to have him (I'm only assuming it's a male because it makes wording easier in differentiating the bear from Edith) help her down.

• Steve introduced the letter blocks early so that there is a way for the bear to leave a more adorable message.

• The record player also played aided the story twofolds. In having a playful way for Edith to get dressed and also to later reveal how she incorrectly put on her clothes.

• Don't crowd the bear. Steve moved the camera down to show more ceiling and give the bear more room.

• A different establishing shot. No reason to show the town unless to depict the relation of the park and the house. "Why build a town when you will never use it?"

• Alarm was designed to go with the theme of the young leaving the nest.

• Steve added in a teddy bear so that the audience believes her to be talking to it when actually she's calling her friend.

• Dropping the camera down low accentuate the fear and danger of the height of the bed.

• After the teeth brushing, Edith and her bear is moving towards screen left out of the bathroom. In the next shot, they are still moving in the same direction but now they are outside.

Aspect Ratio:

• 1:1.33 - Out of date

• 1:1:85

• 1:2.35 Hard to compose. More drawing is required. Not necessarily more pleasing.

• Framing could be used to change the ratio of the screen. Perhaps used to make a dinosaur seem taller by getting rid of the wide spaces.

Close camera - the camera is placed almost straight on to the character. Above the listener's ears. This draws the audience into the movie more.
Hunger Games/Michael Bay

• Too many close ups.

• Therefore there is no sense of geography.

• Better to use less cuts and to have every cut serve a purpose.

The filmmaker has two weapon at their disposal that theatre and literature does not:

• Cuts

• Closeup

Steve adores computer screens and glasses.

• For a scene in which an audience needs to see what a character is looking at on a computer screen and the closeup of a character's face, people tend to use two shots to convey that.

• Steve would focus on the character's glasses to portray what's on the screen and then focus on the face so that only one shot is needed.

Storyboarding:

• Have more drawings in storyboarding so that the editor may take things out. Too few drawings and animators would have to guess and that usually changes the planned timing since they usually add in more.

• Being vague lengthens a scene since both story artist and animator will attempt to tell the WHOLE story in their individual scene.

• If that applies to everyone, a movie would have many beginnings and ends. But it should only have one beginning and one end. The inbetween shots are merely the middle.

• If shots all have an ending or concludes, the shot following would have to reestablish things and this delays the progress of the story. (IF SOMEONE COULD PLEASE CLARIFY THIS FOR ME A BIT MORE)

• If a scene is indeed ended though, there is a way to remedy that by having a bigger conflict occur. It's best to have the conflict be an external force and not something that is suddenly brought on by a character without reason.

• Every third shot should reestablish a scene.

• Do not place the horizon line (HL) in the middle.

• Low HL. Character seem small compared to the sky. A low point.

• High HL. There is much distance to be traveled.

• "If you can appreciate why the HL is at the top or bottom, you'll be a good picturemaker someday."

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfiCdpmuFUE

• Shots of three is the minimum to create a rhythm. Two is for setting up and third is for being different.

• When you do use shots of three, have the main motions go in different directions. Down, Left. Right.

• Do not cut a character cut at their joints with the frame. Knees. Waist. Bottom of chin.

• Steve would change the size of a character if it made the scene better.

• Better to have multiple setups than multiple takes.

• Coincidences are really only allowed in the beginning but less towards the end.

• The more successful a focal point is, the less time a scene needs to work.

Story with animation in mind:

• If a character does sit, give the animator something else (business/activity) to work on.

• Sexy Beast Don Logan could have been talking to himself in the mirror and do nothing else but he was given a razor for business. It made the scene much more intense since he was angry and he had a blade in his hands.

• If a character is walking far, give the scene something else as business or else the animator will get bored. There is no point to the scene otherwise.

Storyboarding exercises:

• Exchange storyboards with one another.

• It is easier to have something to work off of than to have nothing at all.

• It forces the artist to not have their boards be precious.

• Thumbnail in a vertical arrangement (Simon Wells)

• This allows for the artist to clearly see characters and which side of the frame they are dominating.

There is a difference:

• Plot - Less interesting. Things happen.

• Sexy Beast A retired criminal is visited by an old acquaintance who is recruiting him for another job.

• Story - More interesting.

• Sexy Beast Don Logan is disfunctional and still loves Jackie.

Examples of closeup within a wideshot:

• Hillary's film: Wide shot of window and letter blocks. Letter blocks is framing the park for a closeup.

• Wide shot of Edith's bed but instead of waking from the head side, she woke from the feet side closer to the camera and therefore making it her closeup.

• Mother Wide shot of bus. The seat ending above the mother's nose frames her eyes for a closeup.

Names:

• Harold Michelson

• Steven Spielberg

• James Cameron

• Simon Wells

• Hitchcock

• Ingmar Bergman

• John Ford

• Francis Coppola

• Terence Young

Movies:

• Slingblade

• Casablanca

• Rocky

• Mother (Korean)

• Warhorse

• Lawrence of Arabia

• Ikiru

• Water for Elephant

• Outside the Law

• Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan

• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

• Argo

• Dardenne brothers?

Infinite Hope - Nothing But Nets Charity Submission

http://www.nothingbutnets.net/

This was my submission for Nothing but Nets art auction in which my piece will be auctioned off to raise money for mosquito nets to help prevent malaria in Africa.

Much thanks to Jessica Tong for doing the text.

Jaguar Gesture

My first gestures of a jaguar. Posting them to compare with the results at the end of the year.

Steve Hickner Presentation

The power of the cinema is in the reaction shot.

The more you shame a character in Act 2, the better it is in Act 3.

Tools at disposal:

• Sound
• Music
• Costume
• The way someone speaks

Try for less shots. Doing something less is more artistic.

Having a character low in the frame shows a low moment for them.

Do not show closeups in a sequence. Show the world as well.

View through objects.

Emphasize something by having the shot before contrast.

For a large stage, contrast it with a person.

To show a speeding object's speed, show moving things in the foreground.

Our eye goes to the point of contrast, light/darkness, color, movement, or 3/4.

Movies:

• Breaking Away
• War Horse
• Driving Miss Daisy
• Easy A

In a 2 hour movie, the inciting action is around 9 min. The end of the first act is around 28. End of second act is 60. And a plot point in which a revelation occurs is at 87.

Plot points move the story in a new direction. This usually occurs at the end of the first act. The first plot point is a lesser degree of the second one.

Never put the end of the frame at the joint.

Movies needs to always have set pieces. They always show the style of the film.

Digital Modeling Chapter Notes

Digital Modeling by William Vaughan

What Is Digital Modeling?
The process of creating a mathematical representation of a three-dimensional shape of an object.

A 3D model or 3D mesh is the result of digital modeling.

You can create 3D models manually or automatically. Sources of digital models are those generated by an artist or technician using 3D software, as well as meshes that have been scanned into a computer from real-world physical objects using specialized hardware.

Who Can Become a Professional Digital Modeler?

Demand for high-quality 3D graphics and animation is on the rise. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the job market for 3D artists is expected to grow at a rate of 12 percent through 2018 (www.bls.gov)

Problem solver with good observational skills and a desire to create things.

If you get to a point where you stop seeing these challenges as lessons that help build your ever-growing skill set, it's probably a sign that you've lost your passion for the medium and it may be time to explore other career options.

What You Should Know

• Fundamental understand of Windows computers.
• Basic file structure protocol
• Working with peripherals
• Using internet search engines
• Using portable storage drives.
• Working knowledge of one 2D paint and one 3D graphics program.
• Basic experience with 3D digital modeling
• Fundamental understanding of 3D space.

What You Will Need

• RAM
• Random access memory. More allows more date to be simultaneously accessed without having to wait for the system to load it from the hard disk.
• CPU Speed and Number of Cores
• Makes rendering and data processing faster.
• Graphics Card and GPU
• Allows to view digital models as smoothly as possible.
• Two Monitors

Software Requirements

• 3D Software
• 2D Software

A Final Word: Change Your Thinking

PICNIC
Problem in chair not in computer

Chapter 2

 

To truly master digital modeling, you must be aware of all aspects of production and understand how they are connected.

 

As players help enhance the stars of a team by supporting their individual skills, the team works together to reach an end goal.

 

Production pipeline - The path and schedule that the production will follow from the initial idea to the finished product.

 

Common departments for animation:

• Story
• Visual design
• Storyboard
• Edit
• Audio
• Modeling
• Scene setup
• Texturing
• Rigging
• Animation
• Effects
• Lighting
• Rendering
• Compositing

Pre-production - Process of preparing all the elements involved in a production and is the foundation of the project-the blueprint of the entire animation.

• Story/Visual Design/Storyboard
• Story - Story developes in the form of a script.
• The story should live in the director's head.
• Directors must work closely with the modeling and visual development team to create a world that holds true to the spirit of the story.
• Visual Design
• Maquettes - Clay sculptures
• Character designs need to be finalized.
• Sets and props need to be designed.
• Color and lighting theories have to be conceived and approved.
• Ideas are expendable. It is less costly to remove concept ideas rather than having a bad idea sent into production.
• Characters are the hardest to do and take the longest to get approved.
• Close collaboration between the character designer, modeler, rigger, and texture artist.
• Storyboard - Sequences of images that help previsualize the story.
• Most are directed back to the storyboards to ensure that they don't stray from the goal.
• Some of the best elements of any story are conceived during this stage of production.
• Skipping the storyboarding stage can prevent refinement and delay production.
• Aid director in having vision become a reality.
• Animation relies heavily on the storyboarding process.
• A storyboard artist fleshes out what isn't on the page.
• A writer, artist, actor all in one.
• Add visual puns in expressions and actions.
• Create action in a story when the script is vague.
• Cut production costs by giving production teams a better way to understand fights, stunts, the timing of a comdedic gag, special effects, and anything else that involves costly and complicated parts of a production.
• Storyboards speak more to the content within the frame than the drawing itself. No rendering each frame, but instead try to capture a moment.
• Consider framing/length of the shot, angle, and if there is any movement involved.
• Color is unnecessary.
• No attachment. Everything changes. Draw quickly.
• Know film terminology. Cut-in. Cutaway. To avoide crossing the line. Psychology of different camera angles.
• Draw quickly and clearly. Visual communication.
• Animatics - Story reel
• Using previously approved storyboards and scratch tracks, an editor works directly with the director to create an animatic.
• Pacing and story are still being refined.
• Animation is tim-consuming and expensive. Animatics allows for all levels of changes at little or no cost.
• If a movie doesn't work in 2D format, no amount of CG polish will help.
• Layout artists begin constructing a 3D animatic.
• Proxy models - Low-resolution, temporary models.

Production - Final elements of the animation are initially created based on the work developed by the pre-production crew. Must stay true to the blueprint in place and to maintain the director's vision.

• Modeling
• The longer it takes to get to this stage of production, the more likely you will be generating digital models for a successful project.
• Moderlers work under the art director and/or a modeling supervisor.
• Mesher - 3d models
• Moderlers create models that are ready to be rigged and textured by the other departments.
• Open communication because having a model sent back due to issues with the mesh can delay production.
• Some studios don't have a modeling department. TDs Techinical directors - create the models and then see them through to articulation (rigging).
• TD may also be required to generate UV maps (2D texture coordinates for points).
• Weight maps (a value that defines a bone's influence on a point) for the rigging department,
• Selection sets (which store a single state of a point, either selected or not selected) for the effects department.
• Flexible, adaptable, thick-skinned, assertive, a team player +
• Think ahead and problem solve on multiple levels.
• Take feedback and crit.
• Ask questions before modeling.
• Know good topology for better rigging.
• Know where to put accurate edge loops.
• Keep in mind of clean topology and proper base pose.
• Clean topology
• Good poly flow. Without a good poly flow, the model will never deform properly regardless of how much time and effort the rigger puts in.
• Good, clean poly-flow and efficient geometry with no extra or hidden stray pieces are a major boon to the effects artist.
• The more geometry the computer has to push through the calculation, the longer the process takes. Make sure that only what's actually needed is modeled is something you'll want to build up experience with. Effects department will sometimes request low-polygon "hulls," simplified objects to use in simulations where the full level of detail for interaction is not required. Being able to make a low-polygon version of your master asset is a skill.
• Build items to scale whenever possible.
• Accurate attention to detail.
• Have an accurate understanding of anatomy and how muscle structures work (in both humans and animals).
• Avoid stars (point with five or more polygons connected to it) in areas that have a wide range of motion is desirable for good deformations.
• Page 45. Hinge joints.
• Proper base pose
• Rest on the ground plane, centered on the origin, and facing forward.
• T-pose default. Though rigger may ask for something else.
• Scale of the model is accurate.
• Modelers should know rigging. Riggers should know animation.
• Understand the entire production pipeline.
• Supply low-poly objects for some items in the far background along with models with multiple levels of detail (determined by the distance from the camera) that are able to be swapped out with the final meshes.
• Know how UVs work.
• Rigging/Texturing/Scene Set Up
• Rigging
• Design and create rigs (bones and controls)
• Talk with animators to make sure the rigs have the functionality needed to animate. So the model will deform and move in the way it was designed to.
• Scene Set up
• Set decorators will start populating the 3D animatic scenes with the final elements based on the concept art and animatics generated by the other departments.
• Populate the scenes with objects that help make the backgrounds more believable, but not too distracting from the main action of the shot.
• Adding or adjusting details and props to help fill gaps in the scene or guide the eye to where you want the viewer to be looking.
• Texture
• Brings details and color to assets.
• Generates texture mpas from photographs.
• Create shaders that mimic real-world materials.
• Master observation.
• Keen eye for detail and the ability to reproduce materials based on the references they have been provided by the visual design department.
• Unwrapping and laying out UVs.
• Breaking out the mesh into multiple surfaces.
• Outputting ambient occlusion and normal maps.
• Painting texture maps for the various attributes of each surface.
• Finalizing the textured mesh for the production.
• Animation/Lighting
• Stages:
• Layout. Temporary models, or stand-ins
• Blocking. Low-resolution representations of the models that can be posed quickly, or specially created segmented models that are parented to the joints.
• Director may require a check of the blocking using the final models before signing off to identify any problem areas as early as possible.
• Facial animation and lip sync. Often where the first problems are seen. Expressions may be too extreme or bomcines expressions that weren't tested together.
• Final pass. Secondary animation, offsetting the timing of motions, and a final check to make sure there are no intersections.
• Lighting
• Set mood, color, and atmosphere.
• Works closely with render and compositing.
• Responsibilities
• Technical
• Ensure that the desired elements of the scene are proplerly illuminated.
• Fulfill the requirements of time, place, and weather.
• Ensuring continuity with other shots in the sequence.
• Aesthetic
• Setting or supporting mood.
• Composition through lighting, such as determining viewer focus through variations in light intensity across the image.
• Find light leaks, flipped normals, edges that need a microbevel.
• Effects
• Create hair fibers; elemental effects like water, fire, and smoke; as well as fabric dynamics. Debris, dust, water spray. Feathers, fur.
• To have the most impact, effects need to be lit a specific way as well. For these reasons, constant communication with the lighting and animation department is a very improtant part of this process.
• Rendering
• Break out approved shots into individual passes and render them out for the compositors to reassemble.
• Replacing proxy geometry, lighting, and effects with the correct and final versions, and optimizing the scene so it would render as quickly as possible without monopolizing the render farm.
• Nurnies (small technical details added to break up the surface of an object to add visual interest)
• Good naming convention.
• Edit
• Audio
• Scratch tracks/voices - stand-in voices performed by any willing member of the production crew.
• Tests shows with audio before committing to final dialogue and the pacing of scenes.
• Contributes 50 percent of what makes an animation a success or a disaster.
• Sounds tells things such as metal sound, motion of metal, duck sound.

Post-production - Take the longest due to the refinement of all of the aspects of the final product.

• Compositing
• Understand color theory. Artistic eye.
• Enhance the lighting and color of the shots, maintaining the established look form the director and visual design artists, but refining it with a final layer of polish.
• Final Delivery

Notes to Self: Animation

Best in Show
Most entertaining
Best foreign film

Elements of a ball bounce:

• Perpetual
• Apex
• Stretch. Most likely only 1. Same as contact.
• Contact
• Squash/Super squash. Not elastic though.
• No strobing
• Straight up and down.

Rule of Odds.

Do not find position through halves at first since that would make for a quicker ending.

Keep the animation positioned near the top of the page for easier flipping.

Work without the light at first. It is more spontaneous drawing from a blank page then from a tracing. A light table is for finding exact position.

Squint off of the animation to detect mistakes.

Make sure it is dark enough to read.

Keep field guides straight.

What reusing drawings, apply the correct horizontal to each foot.

Use arcs and not straights.

For spacing, perhaps the necessary amount of pages should be calculated beforehand and then draw until the requirements are met. Numbering system changes too often.

For rotation, move the larger limbs before the smaller. Shoulder. Elbow. Hand. The lower leg moves after the upper. To make up for it the lower leg moves faster.

The torso doesn't change that much in a second. Be careful of drawing different positions since the torso may seem to spasm.

Depending on the mood of the person, is the heel raised as high?

Do not shade the back leg with the same color. It makes it difficult to trace.

Back foot should not be on the same horizontals.

Chapter 9
Due Date: November 1

Your mental and emotional processes are what motivate you, and without motivation you would accomplish nothing. And without enthusiasm, motivation would atrophy before you could make a quick sketch. Your mind is like a projector-whatever you choose to put into it is what will be seen. The switch is motivation, and the electricity/power is enthusiasm.

Man-the artist- is a creative being. If you take that away from him, he is less than his potential.

Awareness of creative energy will be strongest in the springtime when the earth around beings hum with renewal of life. Not dependent on springtime though. A mere rededication to creativity is all man needs to start the creative juices flowing and then suddenly there is the energy-energy that seems to feed upon itself, so that each moment becomes a fresh start, each experience a new event, and the vision is forward-looking with anticipation and wonder.

The preparation for drawing is aligning ourselves with that creative energy, becoming a channel through which it can find expression.

Think of the universe as being full of energy and that energy is swirling around us waiting to take on some form. All we have to do is open up our consciousness and allow it to enter-and in a way that no one else in the world can, express it.

One of the more potent forms of positive thinking is subliminal input. It is a potent vehicle to guide your mind in the direction you want it to go or change some undesirable direction it has inadvertently taken.

Surround yourself with the best drawings you can lay your hands on and perhaps a few "quotable quotes" of a positive thinking nature.

"Success is the result of an attitude that can find the postive, worthwhile aspects of everything it comes into contact with and denies anything that may be negative or hindering."

Animation has a unique requirement in that its rewards are vaguely rewarding and at the same time frustrating. Our inner dialogue must be amply peppered with encouraging argument. We sometimes have to invent or create an audience in our minds to draw for.

Our fellow artists only partially serve us in that respect. We go to them for criticism not for praise.

We can't see our audience but it is real and it is something to work for.

30 minutes of stretching and aerobics each morning. At home, one hour of competitive tennis every day. Hikes on beach.

Mental hygiene. Must be a personal choice and one which helps keep everything in perspective. Use of religion, philosophy, yoga, zen. Whatever it is, it should serve to activate the juices and to stir up the desire to improve yourself to reach beyond yourself-beyong where you are now. It has to make you want to express yourself, to create.

Impression minus expression equals depression.

Today's drawings bring out the best in me-if I bring out the best in today's drawings. It becomes an expectancy factor, and attitude factor. Two great energy source.

Never drive home from work by the same streets twice. Observe new houses, trees, gardens, and look at them. Look into store windows. See the set up, the merchandise, the signs. Sketch it in the mind's eye. Observe passerby. Posture, walk, rhythms.

Chapter 8
Due Date: October 25

It has been said that you can’t save a bad story with good animation, but no matter how good a story is, it still takes a series of well-gestured drawings to capture the interest and involvement of the audience.

Encourages students to have a one drawing story in mind as they draw from the model so the essence of that story will project itself into their drawing.

In the gesture drawing class we have models that suggest a character, but the artist has the opportunity to fine tune it to suit this or her own liking.

Angles invariably create tension, and intensifies emotions – in a word, grab the attention of the audience. (Telescope model)

Rumi: “Let your impressions be the clarity; your pens and pencils be the language that tries to say it.”

“True seekers keep riding straight through, whereas big, lazy, self-worshipping geese unload their pack animals in a farmyard and say, ‘This is far enough.”

Applies to area like singing. Stop singing. Stop singing words and tones. Concentrate on telling the story. Just “talk” the song on the proper pitch. Study the parts well while learning but while performing, forget the notes, the dynamics, the key, the beat and just tell the story.

You don't want to burden your viewers with how much you know or don't know about anatomy or how well you draw belts and dress seams. Just tell the story with simple, easy-to-read gesture drawings.

Hold the pencil farther up the shaft.

If you're not thinking about the story behind the pose, you're just drawing lines.

Story should be down in 10 lines.

For two models, the desired result is not a dual action, but rather dual characters blended into one, action.

You should surrender to the delights of expressing yourself in drawing. If you don't feel that need now- you should expose yourself to more dramatizing, even if only in the form of books, movies, and plays, thus creating a desire to express those things.

"You must be very careful in the use of a mirror. It teaches an actor to watch the outside rather than the inside."

See it in the mind, and feel it in the body before trying to draw it on the paper.

Kathe Kollwitz

Hours should be spent with anatomy book, old Disney films, and scenes of the old masters like Milt Kahl and Ollie Johnston to develop your mechanical side.

Also read a great variety of authors- novels, biographies, psychology, metaphysics, and of course humor to develop your essence side.

Don't wait for the light to come on-immerse yourself in the search now.

Get involved in subtle and uncommon gestures. The films you work on are uncommon. They require a more diversified range of emotions and a much more sophisticated style for communicating them. It requires a little introspection-analyzing your own feelings to come up with an "uncommon" gesture.

Body language is used to real one's social position, one's attitude, and one's needs; also there are gestures of love, friendship, and hatred.

Practice, observation, constant sketching, "osmosis", and even emulation of the Disney masters past and present should be among your daily pursuits.

Anatomy is not the answer, acting is. If anatomy were the answer, an actor could go out on the stage and just stand there-naked.

Chapter 6
Due Date: October 18

Push the first impression even further.

Scenes are lifeless when Photostats are traced. Live action actors do not move from extreme to extreme as animation characters do. Actors mince through parts like a cloud changing shapes in a breezy sky.

Character picking up a very heavy object. Knees are bent at all times cause of weight.

Take a moment before you start to see the pose.

A drawing has one theme, and that theme must be featured or the drawing disintegrated into a montage of unrelated climaxes.

A drawing is like a parable, which is a story told to convey a lesson. If the story reveals the meaning of the lesson it is a success, but if it is just a cute story, it falls short of its reason for being.

There are as many if not more subtleties in a broad pose as there are in a subdued one. It may not take as much concentration to draw an action pose as a subtle standing pose, for you can get away with more. But if you apply the same effort in seeking out the subtleties of a broad pose as you must do for a less active one, you would end up with a really nice drawing, not merely a recognizable action.

Don't settle for recognition, go for subtleties.

If the animator were to study the mime, he would find that the hands and feet are one of the most important parts of the body in the representation of an action, or of a character, a mood, or a gesture.

Illustrations with only hands and feet, arms and legs explain poses much better than heads and torsos.

Lazy lines. Lines that didn't describe anything like shape, texture, softness or hardness. Same line for a beak and feathers. Feel the difference and inject that feeling into the drawing.

The line used to lay in the pose or action (acting) can be all one kind of line, as long as it is flowing, expressive, flexible, searching, and basic. The line to "finalize" the drawing must describe the shape, texture, and malleability of each part.

When the chin is pulled down, the cheeks stretch and usually there is a bag under the eye.

When the mouth smiles, it pushes all flesh up. You are drawing the top of the cheek. The highest part is found at a point where the mouth would have touched it had the mouth line continued up that far.

Ch 5
Due: Oct 11

"This is what the model is doing, or thinking,"

Draw squash and stretch and weight distribution.
Composition, shape and form, perspective, line and silhouette, tension, planes, negative and positive shapes.

• Weight distribution - how the figure balances itself because of what it is doing.
• Thrust - Body language usually requires a body part to be thrust out. Hip out. Shoulder up, Knees apart, arm out.
• Angles add life and movement. straight up and down is stiff and static.
• Tension - Never draw one appendage without planning a counter move with its opposite. Tension is brought about by the appropriate use of angles in a drawing.
• Pull off the perpendiculars. Pulling from one border and pushing toward the other.
• Figure and ground, figure would fall if something weren't done.
• Between outstretched arm and opposite outstretched leg.
• Imagine a large rubber band connected from hand to hand, foot to foot, knee to knee; hand to knee, head to foot etc. Tension is simply the stretching, pulling, elastic force, pressure or exertion that takes place in a pose or an action.
• Straight against curve. squash and stretch. Emphasize and clarify gesture. In quick "first impression" gesture drawing, two lines is all you need to locate and suggest the various parts of the arms and legs- preferably one straight on the stretch and one curved on the squash.
• If the body leans forward to grasp some object with its outstretched hand, there must be stretch and there must be an adjustment in weight distribution such as counterbalancing with the opposite arm, or placing one foot closer to the object than the other to keep the body balanced.
• Eye contact with the object funnels attention. Path between the hand and object, eyes and object are clear of obstruction. Opening hand in anticipation for the grasph.
• Extremes of the pose - pose prior to a change of direction. 

Search for

• The overall structural personality or character (tall thin graceful soft doll-like comical)
• Essence of the gesture. How figure enacts the pose. feeling evoked. Refer back to the feeling.
• Rules of perspective.
• Important angles. Squash and stretch.

Avoid when gesturing:

• Thick and thin lines. Do not use thick for shadow or to balance a lopsided drawing. Use it to emphasize a tension, thrust, or pull.
• Shading. Save for portrait study.
• Putting more details in one area than others.
• Texture.
• Putting down lines simply to get lines down. Takes more time.
• Using many instead of one.
• Working on one part without think of the opposite part.
• Don't copy.

ASK 102 - 117
Due Date: October 9

Tendency to lean in a walk.

Slower it is, the more you're in balance. Faster, out of balance.

Walking is a process of falling over and catching yourself just in time.

Going down on a walk, we speed up. Gravity is doing some work. Arm is at their widest point.

Women take short steps in a straight line. Legs closed. Little up and down. Skirts restrict.

Men are off the line. Legs apart. Equipment. Body action on strides.

We don't get weight by a smooth level movement.

Exaggerate the up and down from a rotoscope or else it floats.

Up and down of masses gives the feeling of weight.

We feel weight when the mass comes down especially when it's preceeded by a straight.

Contacts - arms opposite to legs for balance and thrust
Passing/Middle/Breakdown/Halfway - Up because leg is straight.
Down. Bent leg. Arm swing is widest.
Up. Push.

Down after contacts. Up after passing.

First thing to do in a walk is set a beat.

Generally people walk on 12's. March time. Animate on 16's or 8's.

We can change the height of the positions.
Lean forward or back?
Kicking out?
Wobbling?

Start with contact positions in planning a walk since the head and body parts are in the middle position. Starting with the down, the image is already static.

Start with contacts for general use. Down for unconventional.

Chapter 4
Due Date: Oct 4

Experiment with switching modes. Color. Dark and light. Masses. Depth.

First Impression - Moment of inspiration: a moment of utter clarity: that instant of pure seeing that Betty Edwards calls the Äh-Ha moment. Extremely vivid summation of all the important elements before you.

Gesture drawing with alive model should be short that a quick first impression can be summoned.
Short pose sketching also give a higher sense of awareness so the creative juices flow more freely. Seeing becomes more acute. Gives a feeling of spontaneity in the drawings. Condenses the whole process of drawing so that a gesture can dominate the wholeness.

Quick sketching encourages experimentation and alternate interpretations. Trying for variations will sharpen observation and hand/eye coordination. Help seek out subtle nuances of the gesture.

Not copying but finding a gesture that will be applicable to any character you might have to animate.

Draw a gesture like you would a simple shape. You do not sketch a bit here or there, going over what you have done and continue or seeing only small sections of line.

Feeling the pose is actually pictturing in your mind doing the pose. What attitude it invokes.

Assume a new mood with each change of pose.

Divide inthree parts. Draw one with the next in peripheral.

ASK 212-216, 273-284
Due Date: Oct 2

In a run, it is nice to have the spine shape reversing.

Pushing the head forward helps a runner get over a hurdle.

"When you think you've gone far enough - go twice as far!"

Get lots of lean into the bodies.

Delay one of the legs to prevent twinning.

If a person jumps in the air, get the arms and feet going to avoid floating and give weight.

To make something more fluid and loose, have:

• More stretch
• Compression
• delayed parts
• More arm reversals
• Secondary action.

 273

Only three thing in animation

1. Anticipation
2. Action
3. Reaction

Use big anticipation. It communicates what is going to happen. The audience sees what is going to happen and so they go with it. We think of things first and then do them.

Usually the anticipation is slower - less violent than the action. Slow anticipation into a sudden transition means a fast action.

Before we go one way - first go the other way.

For walks, start the walk with the foot nearest to where he's going.

Don't ever show the hand hitting the chin. Show the hand after it's past the chin and the chin has moved out of place.

Leave out the contact and show the hand past the hitting point.

Don't do what is expected. Surprise gag.

Giving snaps to things by having a quick anticipation.

A take is an anticipation of an accent which then settles. A strong movement to show surprise or reaaction.

You need at least 6 frames to read any accent.

A hard accent recoils.

A soft accent keeps on going.

Sounds is on the bounce back. One frame after the contact.

ASK 217 - 245

Due Date: September 25

2 flaws:

• Everything moves around the same amount.
• Everything is flashing around all over the place.
• We want to have a stable image and still have flexibility.

Breakdown

• Where we place it brings flexibility. Unstate and get subtle movement which was still 'limber'.
• Gives character to the move.
• Stops things just going boringly from A to B.
• Simple overlap gives us action within an action.
• Ken Harris - Exact tracing of drawing "A" or "B" that favors one or the other.

Body sections

• Head
• Shoulders
• Chest
• Arms
• Pelvis
• Drapery
• Legs
• Feet

People unfold, one part start first, generating the energy for other parts to follow.

Counteraction

• One part goes forward as another part balances by going back.
• One part goes up as another balances by going down.

Breaking means bending the joint whether or not it would actually bend in reality.

To break joints successively-

• Where does the action start?
• What starts moving first?
• I it the elbow? The hips? The shoulder? Head?

In most big actions of the body, the source, the start of the action is in the hips.

If all the joints do not break at the same time, we'll get all the flexibility we'll ever need.

Displace the hit.

WS Chapter 3
Due Date: September 27

Factors of concern

• How far from the object are we and
• What is the angle of perspective.

Rules of perspective

• Surface
• Size
• Surface plus Size
• Overlap
• Surface lines
• Foreshortening.

Draw side view if foreshortening is bothering you.

Symbols in animation are simple. Fewer lines, fewer jitters. No anchor point then hard to keep from drifting.

4 basic words: structure, angle, squash and stretch.

A real solid drawing is one in which the clothing is doing what the body is causing it to do.

How big around is the shoulder opening?
How is it attached to the bodice?
Does it taper?
Does the shoulder seam attach at or below the shoulder?

Drapery lines would have to animate as a secondary action - the primary action being the body itself.

Most Disney characters only have wrinkles at the joints, and then only where there is pressure applied by bending or squeezing. So they'll occur at elbows and knees, and at the waist when seated.

Women's clothes have wrinkles caused by pleats, gathers, puffed sleeves, etc., but you can always count them on two or three fingers.

The Complete Book of Fashion Illustration, by Sharon Lee Tate and Mona Shafer Edwards.

Pipe fold
Diaper fold
Zigzag fold
Spiral fold
Half-lock fold
Falling fold
Inert fold

WS Chapter 2
Due Date: September 18

Simplify sketches. Draw because you like it. Draw and look at drawings.

Cheap sketch book. Interest in life will grow. Ability to solve drawing problems will be sharpened. Creativity will surge. The more you use up energy, the more you produce.

Face it if your drawing is not satisfying. Start another and all the faculties that are required to make a more satisfying sketch are being awakened.

Do quick speedy drawings but also some long detailed ones.

Landscapes have gestures that can be beneficial for analyzing action.

Take notes. Dull maybe become wisdom later.

Walt Stanchfield Chapter 1

Draw ideas, not things; action, not poses; gestures not anatomical structures.
"Drawing a burnt match, the anatomy wouldn't be drawn. Instead a match whose anatomy has been burnt and twisted into an agonizing shape. A shape that if I imagine myself being in that state-if I feel what has happened to that match has happened also to me-then this is the feeling that I have to draw, to portray."

A drawing or scene is final when a sensitive depiction of an emotion has been made.

Drawing for animation is translating an action into drawing form so an audience can retranslate those drawings back into an experience of that action. You want to visualize an action for them to see-that is, to experience. That way you have them in your grasp, your power, and then the story can go on and the audience goes on with it, because they are involved.

"In every physical action, there is always something psychological and vice versa." Constantin Stanislavsky

Animation is really a pantomime art. A good pantomimist, having a thorough knowledge of human behavior, will, in a very simple action, give a positive and entertaining performance. There will be exaggeration in his anticipations, attitudes, expressions and movements to make it all very visual.

The pantomimist, working within human physical limitations, will do his vest to caricature his action and emotions, keep the action in good silhouette, do one thing at a time and so present his act in a positive and simple manner for maximum visual strength.

Gesture is the vehicle used in fitting a character into the role it is called upon to act out. Our interest is in seeing the differences in each personality and their individualistic gestures and, like a good caricaturist, capture the essence of those differences.

Essence, applied to drawing, is the motive, mood or emotion as displayed through the gestures of the physical body.

What is going to make an artist out of you is a combination of a few basic facts about the body, a few basic principles of drawing and an extensive, obsessive desire and urge to express your feelings and impressions.

Illusion of Life (47 - 69)

"When we consider a new project, we really study it... not just the surface idea, but everything about it."

• Squash and stretch
• Anticipation
• Staging
• Straight ahead action and pose-to-pose
• Follow through and overlapping action
• Slow in/out
• Arcs
• Secondary action
• Timing
• Exaggeration
• Solid drawing
• Appeal

A smile defines the lips and the relation to the cheeks.
Don't think you're exaggerating enough. Oswald example.
Little interior lines are not necessary since the whole shape, conceived properly, did it all.

Anticipatory moves lets the audience know what is coming.
Expecting it, they can enjoy the way it is done.

Test staging with silhouettes
Staging an action, be sure that only one action is seen.
No poor choice of angle or upstaging by another action.

Consider perspective and watch how the background relates to the animation.
Vary the intensity of actions. Have accents, surprises, smooth flowing actions contrasting with short, jerky movements, and unexpected timing.

Appendages continue to move after the figure stops. The head, chest, and shoulders usually stop together.

Secondary action should emphasize the main action. The speed of a moment can show mood such as excitement, nervousness, and relaxation.

Chapter 7: Principles of Animation

Drawing Principles
"Hey, you've drawn an arm--what you should have drawn is a stretch."

Liken drawing to the science of cause and effect. The principles of drawing are the cause of a good drawing and when those principles are used, the resultant effect is a good drawing.

Principles of good drawing and creative thinking are dependent on each other. You'll probably come closer to a good effect with a heavy emphasis on creativity--but you will then have to have an extra good cleanup person to put the finishing touches to it.

28 principles

• Pose and mood
• Shape and form
• Anatomy
• Model or character
• Weight
• Line and silhouette
• Action and reaction
• Perspective
• Direction
• Tension to extreme
• Planes
• Solidity
• Arcs
• Squash and stretch
• Beat and rhythm
• Depth and volume
• Overlap and follow through
• Timing
• Working from extreme
• Positive and negative shapes
• Straights and curves
• Primary and secondary action
• Staging and composition
• Anticipation
• Caricature
• Details
• Texture
• Simplification

Dropping jaw can show weight when Tigger is leaping.

A location of a joint is more important than the joint itself. For instance if an arm shape has been established, it cannot have an elbow bend in an improbable place, no matter how well the elbow is drawn.

Drawing element ("Caloric" value)

• Squash and stretch (500)
• Anatomy (300)
• Angles
• Straight against curved line
• Gesture (750)
• Overlap (500*)
• Diminishing size
• Surface lines
• Foreshortening (300*)
• Surface (400*)

* Calories with asterisks are from the rules of perspective.

The closer something is to the primary action, the more it will be influenced.

Animate the action as if you were it.

Every move we make has two elements: anticipation and opposing force. Use angle against angle, squash against stretch, close proximity to openness.

Three poses to study and portray each action:

1. The Preparation - telling the audience something is going to happen,
2. The Anticipation - gathering the forces to carry through with the action, and
3. The Action - carrying out of the intended action.
4. Plus, of course, all the follow--through, overlap, and resulting residuals.

Optics of Water

Water is a medium with a density.

Facts:

• It is transparent
• It is faintly blue.
• Its color depends on the depth and its dirtiness.
• To paint water is to paint something else, a reflection.

Water reacts with light in four ways:

• Scattering light
• The water acts as a light source. The light is a soft, pervasive illumination similar to one found from a laptop glow.
• Reflecting light
• The water acts as a mirror. Turbulent waves produce a bad reflection.
• Absorbing light
• The water acts like an object. It darkens form and lowers value.
• Refracting light
• It de/focuses light. It acts like a lens.

Seeing a window at a glancing angle will show a reflection.

If the window is seen head on, there is less reflection.

http://www.ringbell.co.uk/info/hdist.htm

PHYS 123 Introduction

Hammering a stake into another's chest seems to not be as effective as shown on TV.

3 basic types of animation:

1. Traditional
2. Stop Motion
3. Computer

Compositing - Combining two or more separate images into a frame of a film.

Rotoscoping - A process in which a scene is filmed and animators trace the images. It is very noticeable and so it is used sparingly.

Motion capture - A scene is acted out, creating data from the sensor points which is then used in creative computer graphics images.

To create realistic animations, animators need to understand the principles of mechanic.

Chris Webster lists 

four levels of animated motion:

• Activity
• Arbitrary motion without the constraint of physical laws.
• Action
• Objects move according to physical laws.
• Animation
• Follows physical laws and is also intentional.
• Acting
• Intentional motion that conveys personality.

FALLING

Essential elements of animation:

• Timing
• Spacing

Norman McLaren
"It's not important what goes on each frame of film; it's the spaces between the frames that are important."
Basic principles for animation

1. Squash and stretch
2. Timing
3. Anticipation
4. Staging
5. Follow through and overlapping action
6. Straight ahead and pose-to-pose action
7. Slow in/out
8. Arcs
9. Exaggeration
10. Secondary action
11. Appeal

Frame Per Second (FPS)

15 FPS - Phone, Not useful for class.
24 FPS - Film
30 FPS - Video

Animators should use live reference for speed because Wile Coyote is suppose to be moving fast but the rate at which the backgroud passes him suggests that he only moves at 20 MPH.

The middle position is not the middle pose.

The "Odd" Rule

Distance between keys increases in the ratios 1:3:5:7:9... starting from the apex drawing.

Straight ahead animation is expressive but it can be hard to plan the scene or go back and adjust timing. Usually used in stop motion.

Pose to pose animation is less spontaneous but easier to plan. Common in computer animation.

Perception of motion is not the persistence of vision

In time, the middle key (3) is halfway between the first (1) and last (5).
In space, it is a fourth of the way down.
This rule applies to any key halfway in time from the point of release

If the spacings near the apex isn't quite right then the ball reverses direction at the top in an unnatural way.

The overlapping of an object from one frame to the next helps maintain the perception of motion.

If the action is too fast, the perception of motion can be lost because the object seem to disappear and reappear.

The brain has a discrete framerate

Wagon Wheel Illusion
A wheel seems to spin backwards because our perception of motion is confused due to strobing.

See Nyquist effect.

Stretch is a way of reducing possible strobing by minimizing the spacing between positions. Have to be careful that a character's features aren't distorted beyond recognition though.

Objects do not physically stretch as they fall, not even raindrops. They visually stretch due to motion blur. They actually flatten.

A slinky falls compressed and is weightless. Air resistance stops free fall.

Stretch in falling is not realistic. Stretch due to the law of inertia (drag) is.

Smear animation.

Odd rule can be used in falls viewed from above.

Falling away is less impressive than falling toward.

PATH OF ACTION

 

Line of action indicates the visual flow of action in a single drawing.

Path of action indicates the trajectory for a sequence of drawings in an animation.

Secondary motions also have paths of action such as a character's hand, arm, foot.

When gravity is the only force, the path of action is a parabolic arc.

A ball rolling off a table combines horizontal (constant) and vertical (odd rule) motion.

A ball dropped and a ball fired from the same height reaches the ground at the same time.

Two balls thrown from the same location at different angles that reach the same height will hit the ground at the same time.

 

 

 





The Animator's Survival Kit

"Our animation differs from anyone else's because it is believable. Things have weight and the characters have muscles and we're giving the illusion of reality."

- Milt Kahl

Animation is just doing a lot of simple things  - one at a time! A lot of really simple things strung together doing one part at a time in a sensible order.

Concentrate on the performance.

Do what a camera can't do.

Windsor McCay
"If I were starting over again, the first thing I'do would be to make a thorough study of draftsmanship. I would learn perspective, then the human figure, both nude and clothed, and surround it with proper setting."

Richard Kelsey
"First of all, kid, learn to draw. You can always do the animation stuff later."

Eric Freifield
"Go to the library and look at Albrecht Durer for two years."

Animators have to enclose their shapes so there is a tendency to end up just drawing outlines. We don't usually draw from the inside-out, like a sculptor does.

Good drawing is not copying the surface. What we want to achieve isn't realism, it's belief.

Grim Natwick
"Änimation. It's all in the timing and in the spacing."

Timing is the contact point.
Spacing decides the speed.

Squash and stretch isn't always necessary since a hard golf ball isn't going to conform much to that. Things will come out rubber-like.

Key - Storytelling. Main actions. Comic panels. GET IT RIGHT.
Extremes - main drawing.
Inbetweens - Drawings between the extremes. Volume control. Don't worry about line quality since the shapes will be colored in.
Breakdown - Middle position between extremes. POSITION CRUCIAL TO INVENTION. MUST BE GOOD OR INBETWEENS FAIL.

Easing in/out = slowing in/out = cushioning

For inbetweens:
Remember arcs/perspective
Retain shapes

Outnumber bad inbetweens with good ones.

Process: (Page 64)

1. Thumbnail.
2. Keys.
3. Anticipations
4. Extremes
5. Animate one thing at a time.