just for fun

hand drawn animation on Vimeo

No thoughts this time round' or anything good to say. Just a very short shot I did from Curious George. This one took like, 3 days-- was fun cuz of the camera move. Always enjoy a good camera move shot!
I try to get a good mix of physical shots and acting shots in a film, even though physical shots invovle acting and acting shots involve physicality. Ooops, more depth than i said i was gonna have for this post... Enjoy!

are you an Actor, or a Technician?

(I add this pic because it's guys like this that have inspired
the thought to this post)

This is something I feel that within the last year I've really had to come to grips with myself as an animator. If you're like me and known you wanted to be an animator since you were 9 you've been hearing for most of your life "animators are actors". You would have heard that if you could focus on one thing it should be performance. You've been hearing that animators are actors with pencils and all the other cliche things to be said. WHY then do so few of us really understand or impliment this? No doubt I include myself in this list.
We all have to come to a point in our artistic lives where we sit down with ourselves and have a very brutally honest heart to heart. We have to ask ourselves "Am I REALLY an actor/artist, or am I just a good technician?"
It's painful... growth, however necessary can be extremely painful at times. Growth shows us where we were/are weak, and sometimes it's embarrasing that we didn't see how weak we really were/are at the time. I bring this up because i feel like being vulnerable is a key elemant to personal growth but also the growth of others around you. We have to be honest with ourselves: are we really good actors, or can we just convincingly move stuff around. Understanding good weight, spacing, drawing things well or even convincingly ISN'T ENOUGH. It's something i feel like exists a lot today unfortunately (animation that is merely technically pleasing)... I wish i could say i have not contributed to it. There are so many animators out there (and I am talking specifically hand drawn although this does not solely apply to the hand drawn animation) that are very technically sound animators who blow you away with there tech. prowess. They understand drawing, and spacing, control their volumes well, blah blah blah. But they don't tell you jack squat about the characters they are performing. They don't THINK about their characters, instead they overindulge in squash and stretch, through in fancy smear drawings, flaunt their beautiful arcs... all at the price of a better pose that could have told you something important.
I think this can be partially attributed to the fact that we as a generation stand on a lot of brilliant work from the past guys to look at and be inspired by. And if you're like me you could sit around all day staring at Milt or Frank drawings/animation. It's our blessing and our curse-- we subconciously revert to what we know will work, we play it safe. That's how acting patterns begin, and cold sterile art is born. Ironically the old guys had NOTHING to look at (animation wise) and found their inspiration from life or other areas of art.
This is a tough thing to do (not copy the past)-- I am not just talking to students, I am talking to every animator: Pro, amateur, retired vet, whoever... no once escapes this question. But here's the GOOD news, no one has to create only technically pleasing art. You absolutely can create a moving performance. YOU have something special to say in a way that only YOU can say it. That is what will set you apart... the challenge is can you call a spade a spade and realize that maybe you've just been a good technician all these years/months/whatever! I know I had too and still daily ask myself why i am doing what i am doing.

The real turning point or inspiration for me was actually being rejected. I applied and was rejected from Pixar. No pity party here man, it's what woke me up! It hurt my pride a little, but that isn't necessarily bad. More importantly it showed me that I wasn't focusing on what really makes animation work, I was a technician who was fascinated with charts, solid drawing, interesting design, fun timing... so what man. So what... if none of that has something personal behind it, it's just mechanical. It set me straight--
I share all these thoughts not to discourage and get down on anyone, but to encourage everyone that they can be amazing! The trick is are you willing to look at yourself in the harsh light of day and really ask yourself this horribly honest question? I know if i want to do something special with my art, I have to every single day. NOW GO KICK SOME BUTT!

Eye Darts and the Social Triangle

Eye darts are one of those things that you don't see a ton of in Traditional animation. Why, I'm not sure. I certainly don't believe that it's too subtle for hand drawn-- lotsa people have proved that wrong, but i would say it is much MUCH more difficult to pull off in hand drawn.
More than how you pull it off though is WHY you pull it off. I've never had a director tell me this but i have had friends that have told me some directors will just tell them as they are finishing their shots, "looks great, now throw some eye darts in there and it's done!" OK, but ummmm, why? The funny thing is that when i do it in hand drawn most directors ask me to take them out. Weird--
There are many different feelings about eye darts-- Some people say they weaken the character, some people say without them the character looks dead. You can always go too far in either direction so I lie somewhere in the middle. It's always about the story your telling-- as an animator you tell stories in Micro form, shot by shot. There may be a time when a character is tense and very serious about something. That could be a time to hold those eyes still, like laser focused! Remember ever being yelled at by someone who was dead serious and they lock eyes with you so you know they are not kidding? That's what I'm talking about--
Sometimes though your character might need to be pondering something or reading someones expression. This is where the social triangle comes in. I thought a great way to teach this would be by looking at someone with the body of a greek god, and the face of an angel. It was an easy choice--

OK, soooo-- Social Triangle. It's exemplified below as the the first things we look at on other people to read how they are feeling about us, about themselves, what they are thinking... just reading them in general.
Generally when i do eye darts, especially in conversation bits, I dart them back and forth from left to right. If the character is right handed I start on the other characters right eye and work to the left and back again. If the character is left handed I will do the exact opposite--
The last thing we read on the face is the mouth. So at times i will alternate down slightly in between the left to right motion.
The thing about this stuff is knowing when to use them-- I love qoutes and I'm gonna butcher this one but it's a really neat one my friend Tony DeRosa told me. He said Mark Twain said this about writting, "The difference between finding a good word and the exact word to explain something is like the difference between a firefly and a lightening bolt!" What's that have to do with eye darts? well, eye darts aid in acting, and (an animation as a whole) is about distilling life to it's essence. When you see a good caricature of someone, it might take you a minute to get it then you forget it. But when you see an Al Hirschfield caricature it's like that lightening bolt man! It hits you because he's captured the essence of the person. Acting should capture the essence of the feelings of the moment. Eye Darts are one of the many tools to help you do that. This little post was more just to explain why and how to use them-- hope it helps!

Matt's Excellent Portland Adventure

Welp, It's that time of the year. A time when we all need to reflect on why we should be thankful. Me, I have absolutlely nothing to not be thankful for. Yes, I could go on and on about my wonderful wife, the fact that i am still doing hand drawn animation for a living, and that we have so much more than 90 percent of the world. But honestly, what i am driven to confess is my thankfulness is for a God who loved me enough to die for me so that i may live. All else is rubbish compared to knowing Jesus as Lord of my life-- I am thankful indeed!
As for other news, I am affraid that posts are going to slow down dramatically for a while. I have taken a job up at Laika in Portland! It's not permenant, and i will mostly be working freelance from home though i will need to be spending a good long chunk of time up there in house. I'll be on "Coraline" doing hand drawn animation-- there is no hand drawn in the film, but they are using a lot of it for reference and other things. I've heard the film is looking amazing! Someone up there even told me that from the reels they've seen it's as strong as the "Iron Giant". Now, I'll take that with a grain of salt for now but if it's true this could be pretty freakin cool!
Anyhow, I do not intend on not ever posting, if i do it'll be small for now. No tutorials for a while--thanks for your patience everyone and to my students at CalArts, rock on and finish strong! I'll see you guys next semester! Cheers!

fin

Tied Down Final on Vimeo

So here it is! BIG THANKS to Kaveh for helping my compress this and adding a frame counter at the bottom of the screen. very cool, thanks man! So this was started in June doing the animation at nights and on weekends and here we are! Honestly, it's still not 100 percent done. My version of digicel is only 300 frames long and the actually scene length is 308. So, we're gonna miss the last 8 frames. The last thing to truly do is a beauty pass!
The animation at this point is pretty close-- I'm happy with it, but i think there is some stuff that needs tweaking, mostly nit picky stuff like overlap, blinks, spacing things. This is were your beauty pass comes in. Honestly, i've NEVER had the luxury to be able to take the time to do a beauty pass on my animation. Most studios don't do this, I know Pixar does but i don't think Disney or Dreamworks do. If you guys who work at either of those spots do please let me know so i can correct my info. Anyway, i will get a comprehensive list up of what i think should be tweaked (i.e. the blink on simple) and then do it, and post it :)
So that is near the longest shot i've ever animated! It was FUN! Really got to sink my teeth in and struggle with the acting. Compare the rough pass and the tie down, it's staggeringly different. It's fun to see how organic the creative process is. Like i said, tie down, for me at least, is as creative if not more so than the ruff pass. The problem with doing personal stuff is sometimes you don't have what you might elsewhere like model sheets. So, I think the model changed a tiny bit-- although i was careful to check every Key i did with my first drawing. I think something i discovered, to all of your advantanges is that I tend to be a better refiner than i am just laying down a beautiful rough drawing like some crazy french animators! Why is it that French guys always know how to draw, like , amazingly well! Anyway, besides the point. Like i was saying if any of you work this way you know you're not alone. I think not having an official modelsheet makes a difference too-- that is, in what your ruffs look like. But this just goes to show that everyone works differently and can come to good results in the end. However, i will say it is a consistant goal of mine to be learning how to make more beautiful ruffs all the time. I typically use my ruffs as land marks really, just abstract ugly drawings that i KNOW i am going to refine. But sometimes that's not fair to your director who needs to NOT BE SURPRISED when you show him your tie down.
So i guess the next step is this-- I will begin the tutorials again on tying down-- being more thurough about it, finish the beauty pass on the animation and post it. THEN i want to do something scary! well, for me at least :) I am gonna ask a hand full of animators i know and respect look at the animation and critique it. I will post their critique's on the blog so you all can learn from their wisdom! That's really where animation is at anyway, mentorship. The great thing about this artform is that it feels like there is a lineage being passed down from generation to generation! To be a character animator is a high artform, and no easy task! It's like once you are apart of this great team of people that you now have a sacred responsibility to carry on the artform in the most respectful and integral manner possible. Not to make an idol out of it, but rather, just to respect it and those who've come before you and give it everything you have to make it special.
Thanks for hanging with me through this guys!

Dancing James Baxter

Some people just make you sick! And i mean that in the most complimentary way possible :) In case you never saw it while it was on his website, i found it here on youtube. It's a fun bit James made for the "open house" party at his studio. Some people got flipbooks, I haven't been able to get my grubby little hands on one yet, and notice the "yet"... So, enjoy this whilst I try going back to bed and actually sleeping for a change. cheers!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NOMAD!

How nerdy is this, I'm celebrating my blogs birthday! Well, what's NOT lame is all you people out there who've made this so much fun to do! The funny thing about this blog is that i started it so flipantly that i never expected or intended to do much with it. I though it'd be a convient way to show potential employers some work i've done. Well, nearly 50,000 hits later it has been a big teaching venue, as well as showing off a little bit of what i've done.
The most enjoyable part has truly been hearing from people like yourself that visit every now and again! I love sharing animation and what i've learned about it, and it's been a blast to hear that some many people enjoy reading about it too! Also, the other great thing about this new blogland we have found ourselves in is all the AMAZING artwork out there! It's scary, but inspiring too! If there's any 2D guys out there with blogs, post more pencil tests man! There are only a couple i know of that do, i think it'd be really fun to see more of that out there!
This next year i'd like to finish that tutorial of course, ya know, on how to approach a scene. I still have to finish all the tie stuff. by the way, that bear shot is nearly complete, about 85 percent done man! but i want to post more on my short film-- maybe some designs, even though i suck at it, maybe some boards, and definately more animation.
So thanks to all the amazing artists out there who have made this such a fun experience and here's to another year at the Hand Drawn Nomad!

From 2's to 1's

I've been thinking about this for a while, and it kinda works out that I can post this now cuz I've been teaching this in my class at CalArts. There is a real danger in SOLELY thinking on 2's. Meaning, you assume that if you need to add ones inbetween those drawings all you do is simply add them in evenly spaced. Not so much-- It's a super important tool to understand the difference in spacing on ones and two's and it can be kind tricky. but the important thing here is to understand WHY you space things a certain way, not memorize charts for whenever the occasition pops up.
I thought a very clear way to present this idea would be through a little ball bounce experiment for ya'll to prove my points. I've animated 4 different ball bounces, all different spacing. 1: all 2's, 2: lazy inbetweens, 3: adjusted spacing, 4: fine tuning of spacing. The first test is completely on two's--


Ball Bounce on 2's - video powered by Metacafe

As you can see it works "OK", but it's not great-- what would give it a lot more fluidity and weight, you decide, would be to put it on to 1's. And I would agree with you, plus it's strobing! So, you just think, whelp, just throw in there 1 drawing between every other drawing and we just be set! Yeah, ummmm, THEN your results come back and you get this:


Ball Bounce - video powered by Metacafe

It's not terrible, but it doesn't have the weight you'd hoped for-- in fact, it feels kinda watery and floaty. Why? What happened-- this animator made "lazy or possibly ignorant inbetweens"... Meaning, he wasn't considering the transition of spacing from ones to 2's or he wasn't thinking period. The main parts of the test, you'll notice, is in the slow in's and out's and the contact of the ball. By the way, side note: you always need at least 2 frames of contact for it to actually read as a contact. Anyway, you think, huh, how can I fix this-- you need to respace some of your animation. You locate the problem areas and begin rethinking it. It seems floaty from 17 to 1, so you respace with place 18 as a half, 19 as a half, and 20 as a third (because that last inbetween needs to be a third to continue the slow out).


ball bounce - video powered by Metacafe

Ok, so it's looking pretty close now! That repsacing from 17-1 really helped! But man, it's still a tiny bit sticky on the contact, and it still doesn't have the punch on the impact that you wanted. What else is there to do? You've already respaced it to an extreme favor-- Whelp, just take out the drawing 10 and add one frame into your slow in at the beginning of the chart! Simple as that!


Ball Bounce - video powered by Metacafe

So yeah man, 1's can be tricky, and sometimes it's a trial and error thing to figure out what'll translate but I think the important thing here to remember is to PLAN FOR ONE'S. If you know your going to need to be doing something that requires 1's, plan for it, build it into your existing work that is on 2's. This is why I animate with the lightbox on, so I can see where my spacing is coming and going from. Spacing is one of those very important pieces of the animators tool-kit that so few truly understand. I'd like to do a whole other post on spacing when your animating your Keys on 3's: 1, 4, 7. but i'm affraid i don't have the energy at the moment! Thanks for continuing to visit everyone! I love hearing from you all, and please, feel free to ask any questions you want!

Were have I been man!

My apologies everyone! Man, has been so psycho... have been helping someone to get ready for pitch and had to animate, like, near 30 feet in 3 weeks! Ughhhh, i hate it when life gets taken over by work--
So, because of my business i am going to continue the tutorials but in short bursts. I just don't have the time to sit down and organize an entire huge entry right now, but i need to keep posting. I dug this up... i showed this in a rougher version a long time ago but i realized i never posted the finished piece! I like the weight in it, but i spent so much time on the beginning that the end, the real acting got sacrificed. meaning, i had to cut it off about half way through cuz of time. So, hope everyone enjoys!


hand drawn animation on Vimeo
So, here's a little question I'd be curious to hear from all you traditional animators on. What would you prefer to work on... cintiq, paperless hand drawn animation or just the regular paper and real pencil animation? I ask cuz I've heard very mixed reactions-- I've tried the cintiq, i hate it personally although I'd do it if i had to. but i would prefer a choice between which method. what do you guys think?

An oldy but a goody

hand drawn animation on Vimeo
It's hard to believe that this piece of animation is nearly 4 years old now-- thank goodness for growth. Some of those drawings a terrible in there! The fun thing about this shot is it was the first real shot that i had on the film that was of any significance. It ain't perfect, i hate the last 30 frames of it or so, i got very pressured by production towards the end of this shot ( was pretty slow back then). I don't think straight under pressure... it coulda been so much better, but ah well-
Things have been so crazy- working day, night and weekends. I have no time to post anymore... sucks i know-- but i see free time coming my way, and when it does be sure you see a continuation on the "tie down" part of these tutorials!
Until then, cheers!
Matty

another plug: Andrew Shek

Whilst i grind away on free-lance and preparing future tutorials take a look at this blokes blog! Andrew Shek www.elephantart.blogspot.com . Sometimes there are people that just understand something, in this case, it's design. I've always kinda had bland, sucky designs so when i see someones work like Andrew it always makes me wanna work harder at getting better with design. Take a look!
And heck while your at it take a look at this girls blog too! Robin Hall at http://idlesiren.blogspot.com/. She too very obviously has a gift for design and puts me to shame man!

Tie Down: Refining your acting, drawings, and the technical side

Phewwwwwwww! Have been SOOOO busy between preparing to teach 2nd year at CalArts, (for which i am VERY excited about!), working on a project that could spawn into something cool if it actually takes off, and a bunch of other life stuff! So, i thought about posting something completely non related to animation but declined after i thought about what people expect from the blog.
So, where to start. Tie down is just like roughing out a shot, it's up to your disgression about how you want to tie down a shot. I think you have to examine who you are before you decide on a method- and it's totally cool to switch methods up. I do to a degree. but i thought for starters i'd show a bunch of different examples of tied down drawings and talk about them a bit.
First up is Glen Keane. Glen is a good place i think to start when talking about tie down-- He's very individual, which is something i admire greatly. He's draws loosely, but everythings there. Actually i think his rep for drawing really rough is a bit over-stated. Some of his drawings are actually rather direct, that thick line can make them look rougher than they really are. But the main point to draw (no pun intended) from someone like Glen is the best type of tie down for you to do is one that you do naturally. This is the way glen draws... so let him draw that way! I've spent waaaaaaay too much time in my artistic life trying to draw like someone else. Be you! That's what makes these guys stand out, is that they are being themselves to the ultimate capacity. what if everyone drew like Milt, that would be soooooo boring! If you follow that path you'll only ever be a medocre copy of another mans genious. Something else i find interesting is that sometimes we do things that mean something to us that others view as "pointless" because no one will ever see it. Glen shades his drawing, no one will ever see that stuff but if that is what he needs to do to make a drawing come alive then he HAS to do it! Obviously the downfall of tying a drawing down this way is that it can be difficult to follow by an assistant. but, if your assistant actually knows how to draw you should be alright.

Next up is Andreas Deja. Everyone knows he's a Milt fanatic, just like most of us although i think he's taken fandom to a new level with his HUGE collection of animation art. I think Andreas is another great example of being yourself but still having an influence. It's really quite obvious that Andreas loves Milt, but it doesn't look exactly like a Milt drawing. There's a flare to his drawings that are completely his own, and that's what makes them so beautiful! Andreas is also no where near as anal as Milt was in terms of tying down a drawing. You will see what is important to an animator by the way he ties down his drawings-- I think Andreas is a bit more technical minded that Glen is but they are both overwhelmingly emotional. Which is not a bad place to be!

Ahh- one last example here of a tie down drawing although there are infinite examples in my opinion. James' drawings are just like his animation, delicate, precise, and clear. You'll note his line quality-- it's a sort of etchy kind of line. The first person i can think of that really used this was Ronald Serle, and Milt loved Searle and used it a little bit, Fucile loved both those guys and implimented it into his drawings and James and Tony (from what i've heard) are good friends and have had an influence i'm sure on each other. Now personally, I prefer this method of tying down. I feel this-- whatever gets up on screen should be 100 percent your doing, whether it's good or bad. This way of working is a bit on the practical side in terms that your animation moves through clean-up WAY faster than a rough scene does (assuming it's on model and everything). But even more than that it offers a reallyu great amount of control to the animator. Sometimes when your lines get mushy and thick it can be tough to do subtler stuff with the eyes because your pencil is too thick and the spacing get's lost. Once i switched to this method my acting got called out on the carpet. I couldn't hide behind loose drawings anymore-- this is not to claim that Andreas and Glen hide, it's actually quite the opposite. what i mean is more the irresponsible type of draftsmenship where you leave WAY too much to clean-up. That's not Glen or Andreas-- what i am getting at is that it's important to me to be in control of what i do. This is the perfect method FOR ME. Maybe not for you--

I guess the key to this particular post is to experiment and be you to your fullest capacity! I feel very strongly that when you are comfortable in being you then your art will really take on a life of it's own. Yes, influences are important to the development of an artist, mine are probably pretty obvious, but staying there is artistically stunting. Be curious, branch out, take risks--

The next post will start to cover the refining process of tie down in hand drawn animation- putting things on model, turning the character, refining spacing, and most importantly refining your performance: adding eye darts, taking eye darts out, meaningful blinks, ect... thanks for your patience everyone. Life doesn't seem to want to stop for my blog!

TEASER

bear animation on Vimeo

Have been pretty busy between working freelance and trying to get this shot tied down-- i knew it'd be a while until i would get it complete which is the way i wanted to present it, but i thought i owed it to everyone to show where it's at as of right now.
As far as critique, the one change i am going to make is a little bit of lip sync stuff arounf the "get outta here". Fast dialgoue can be tricky- and where i put the blink on the word "simple", i feel takes away from his expression and the sorta of "eureka" feeling i wanted, like, he's think "well isn't it obvious". I feel like taking the blink out, and closing the eyes before the accent on the I of "simple" and the overshooting them will give me a more truthful performance. so anyway, check it out and stay tuned!

IT'S COMING!

IT'S COMING!!!!!
Hey everybody! The tie down is coming i promise-- this ones gonna take some time though! I'll do my best to post what and when i can but haven't had much to say yet. but believe me i will once i can show ya'll this tie down version! hang in there everybody and we'll see ya on the next post!

Random nuggets of joy

I've had a lot of time to sit around and think about what i might not have covered in the last few posts on animating a shot, so i've come to a boiling point now and i think i'm ready to spew out some thoughts.
Here's a debateable topic: Animate with lightbox on or off? As with MANY things in the process of animating this is what i've learned, EVERYONE DOES IT DIFFERENTLY! James Baxter animates with it on, others like John Pomeroy animate with it off. not all the time i'm sure, but that's at least what i've witnessed these 2 do. and yet, they are both great. answer... it's up to you- it's good to know the pro's and cons for having it on all the time.
PRO'S:
easy to track spacing
helps with keeping volumes
helps keep a good context in your mind of where you are

CONS:
Sometimes your drawings can get kinda flat
you stop flipping
things start to become mechanical

Me, i animate with it on most of the time, but, i always have my lamp angled "just so",so i can focus on the drawing i have on the pegs a little better. Like i said, it's seems to me that everyone does it differently.

Spacing: Here's an interesting subject that i'll cover more once i delve into tie down more, but spacing is something i've discovered few animators understand even though it's the difference between weight and no weight, laugh or no laugh in a scene. It's very technical but once you understand it you can start using it artistically. The bottom line for me and spacing is mostly about "where to put what", meaning, where do i use half's and where do i use thirds. It'snot easily explained, but i'll say this. Anytime you are slowing in and slowing out i typically use a 3rd on the very last inbetween to the key drawings. however if a character is slowing down but not to a complete stop and then progresses to speed up i will just use halfs. confused-- don't worry about it, i'll explain more later.

Ahhhh, here's a frustrating one! KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID! Everyone in animation knows this K.I.S.S. things. I think this is the critique i've heard more from animators i respect than any other critique. As animators we kinda wanna impress, ya know? show all our amazing "skills" to qoute Napoleon... but it's really a matter or being confident enough NOT to do something fancy to linger on a pose. I have found that this for me is atough line to draw sometimes. You can go too far in any direction really.... "if i hold it back too much, it'll have no nuance. If i don't simplify enough my poses won't read." Unfortunately there is no answer-- it's case dependsant, but the answer for each scene revolves around what the point of the shot is. and believe me you guys, i'm preaching to myself! If the scene benefits from those eye darts your throwing in there, then great, but if it's distracting then take'em out no matter how well executed they are. Something i heard alot from Tony Derosa was "work within the pose". I used to get confused cuz his stuff would seem so boiled down to me-- and THAT'S the point! He boils things down to their essence and works within the poses. working within the pose can be anything the character does while in the pose (head shakes, blinks, slight breathing). Look at the stuff on Sher Kahn, Milt could drawing anything and move stuff like no one else, yet, that's the most subtle stuff he ever did! What used to impress me was stuff that moved brilliantly (good weight and such), but now what blows me away is subtle acting that makes you feel something. It's kind of scary really-
Okay, just had to get that off of my chest! I am hoping that the next post can be a continuation of the "tutorial series!". I just finished 2 jobs and actually have time to work on my own stuff. yeah!! take it easy all!

Post 2 and a half: Breaking it down

Sorry for the delay on this post everyone! Blogger wouldn't let me upload pictures for the longest time, but now it's all figured out!

Now that you've all had a chance to look at the rough piece of animation, i'll go through how exactly i came to that point in the process. I mentioned that a turn-around is ideal to put behind you on your disc to flip from for refrence of model. I did up a quick turn around for anyone who wasn't sure what one was. I also did a quick version of a short hand drawing. This is a very useful device to employ when your roughing something out. It's a very loose version of the final design. It's just to get the expression in and block out the volumes. You can really burn through footage fast when you have a short hand version of your character to draw which brings me to my first point of roughing out a shot: LOOSEN UP!

This is NOT the stage for making pretty drawings yet. Personally i think that roughs are quite beautiful when done well and with honesty. Here are things you should not be overly concerned with at this stage of the process: details like hair, nostrils, nuanced facial animation, eye darts, perfecting the dialogue, every single wrinkle in the clothing and every single inbetween. What you SHOULD be focusing on is: performance, gestural drawing, rhythm, consistant purportions, flow, and, you guessed it, performance!!! oh yeah, did i mention performance? It's important to think about your animation in a certain way. I believe this can some up what we do, animate feelings! Meaning, don't think "ok i gotta pick up the leg, move it here"--- naw naw naw, C'mon! animate feelings man! Yes, mechanics: spacing, arcs, on-model drawing contribute to good performance but they are merely a support FOR the performance. I personally feel this way, without great mechanics you can't communicate your great performance properly and yet if your animation is wonky because you don't understand good technique i think it could potentially pull someone out of the performance. Likewise a beautifully animated character from a technical stand-point only tickles the brain, not touch the heart. So while you need to be mindful to a degree at this stage of the process of techincal things, your main goal is making that funny little character breath and live. This is why most people work pretty rough at this stage-- I will admit that these ruffs of mine are a bit more complete than i usually do, but this time around it felt right. I work loosely because your first pass is like trying to capture the essence of the emotion of the scene. The essence of something is the core, all things shed off-- kinda like a quick sketch. So, step one: Find your story-telling poses. This is always your first step. Finding those poses that will tell the audience what your character is thinking and feeling. You should have done this to a degree already in your thumbnailing process, but everyone works differently and there's no telling how you'll come to that final pose. Sometimes i thumbnail everything out, and then spontinaeously i find something better as i'm roughing it out and then don't even use my thumbnails. Or sometimes I just stick exactly to what i thumbnailed. it's always different. So, i guess the point in all that is to allow for spontinaeous moments but also it's wise to have a pretty clear idea of what your shot is to be eventually. Make sense? How you get there can and will change from shot to shot.
So basically you have your rough poses... and as you can see in the pics they are pretty far apart time wise:frm 1 to frm 59. I call these anchor drawings... they are starting and stopping points, but a lot needs to happen inbetween them. For example, from 1 to 59 the character is just listening to another character say "So what's the flight situation". I have a lot planned for this but i will not execute it untill tie down. Things like breathing, looking around and such. The main thing is to not draw too much attention to himself just yet-- whenever another character is talking and in the same frame (as there will be eventually hence the nudge pose at the end of the shot) you keep the other character "alive" but subdued. I really like using eye darts and breathing for thinking (which you won't see until tie-down). That's all this character is doing at this point, he's thinking about their situation. Thus he hits a brewing point and at frm. 59 lets out the word "simple".
Something else i look for is when an actor takes breath's in their performance, i know i mentioned it for thinking moments but i just plain like it in performances too. It helps give you the sense that the character is alive. It's easy to over-do so you gotta be careful with how much you use it but i like to try and build them into the performances on a consistant basis.
So you hit up all your main story telling keys, roughly time them and then move on to filling it all out a bit.

The next step is to break down your anchor keys with some other keys. This is where you build in arcs, breathing, extra thinking poses, head turns. Basically flesh it out-- you really need to be planning ahead for what your eventually going to tie down. Ultimately it's the performance your after but if something is so indecernable (a.k.a so stinking rough and off-model) that you are having an impossible time tying it down maybe you ought to complete your ruffs a little more before you go to tie down. everyones different of course, but i know I've learned a lot from this phrase "Value your ruffs". It's a Glen Keane term not surprisingly-- Some animators treat their ruffs as a means to an end... no no no no, ruffs are an art unto themselves! why do you thinkeveryone loves a good Glen Keane ruff... it's his heart and soul that's why! I digress!

So basically all your doing from here on out the end of the first pass is fleshing things out a bit. You dont want to waiste your time on details that don't matter yet, but you do want to give enough information to tell your director what the shot will eventually look like.

Incidentally, the sooner you can get some numbers going on your animation (i.e timing) the better!

Okee doke peoples! That's it for now-- i do plan on taking a little break from this online teaching stuff for a little bit since it's gonna take me a long time to tie this stuff down on top of work and stuff. So, i might post here and there about some other stuff but rest assured i will finish this series. Looking forward to completing it! take it easy!

Post 2: ROUGH IT OUT

hand drawn animation - video powered by Metacafe

Before i forget i DID NOT DEISGN THIS CHARACTER. This is Steven MaCleods of www.clockroom.blogspot.com. This character is from HIS film from CalArts this year. It's one of those designs that just roll off your pencil, really wonderful shapes! i love him Steve!

Here it finally is! In the next couple days i will go through it piece by piece and breakdown exactly how i approached this rough stage. Remember everyone, this is just a rough. There's a LOT tweeking that has to happen from here (mainly pulling things back a bit), this is just your heart and soul on the paper. the next step is refining it all in tie down. but look for my next post where i will break it all down for everyone. enjoy!

Step 1 and a half: Before you rough out your shot (Tips and Tricks)

Welp, here we are again on the second post of the "animate your own shot" saga! This post will mainly be a sorta of common sense kind of lesson. There are some helpful Tips and Tricks that i employ while getting ready to animate a shot. and by the way, these are in no particular order. OK! you've got your road map, you've got your conviction and your gusto, and a lot of coffee! your almost ready to start your amazing shot that young and old will admire for centuries to come! The very first thing i do AFTER conception of a shot (this sounds like Health Ed), is write up your X-Sheet. Richard Williams does a fine job of explaining this in his book, but using your X-Sheet is a great way to think through your timing. Sometimes you want to do funny little hand gestures ontop of your main pose and aren't sure if the hand will settle in enough time for your main pose to read, this is where you start to gestimate whether it'll work or not. It's hit and miss. The more you animate the more your know what'll work and what won't. And also, number your X-sheet all the way to the end on the odd numbers: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, etc... I've had animators tell me that at ALL cost keep things on odd numbers. This never made complete sense to me, what they meant is "if you keep it on odd's then you can keep it all on 2's and make less work for yourself". As long as that works for your scene fine, but if something needs to be keyed out on 3's just do the work! If you don't want to work hard why are you in animation for heavens sake? but also more practically if you plan things on 2's and they stay on 2's it's easy to throw things on 1's without having to renumber like made. Plus, it's easier to find where your at in the shot if you have a problem arising. Your drawing number IS the frame number on this system and makes things easier on everyone.



Another tip for ya is to blow up or down a xerox of the model sheet to match the size of the character your animating and tape it to the top of your disc (as shown in pic above) so all you have to do is flip to the back to check on how your drawing the model (a turn around is ideal). Trust me, no matter how big or how small your shot is DO THIS! There is a great story i heard from animator Derek Thompson. He worked at DreamWorks on Prince of Eygpt... one day he walked into James Baxters office and started small talking and asked him how he got his work "so solid". James didn't say a word, stood up, walked down the hall to the xerox machine, tapped on it as if to say "like this" and walked back into his office. All with a smile on his face. He meant that he uses the xerox machine in ways like this to maintain the model. If James finds it useful, i think WE ALL need to be doing this.
Also, and this is a matter of opinion, do turn off your music, radio, dvd, whatever it is. I LOVE to "watch" or listen to movies while i work. I do it all the time, but NOT while i am doing my first pass. Your first pass is really your heart and your soul and if your like most you need concentration to find the scene somewhere inside you. It may not be the prettiest version of your scene, but it sometimes is the most honest. Personally when i know the shot is working acting wise, i put on a film that helps me zone out but not until i have it.
I know this post must seem slightly boring and thin compared to the last, but this is just a simple tips and tricks post. The NEXT post (in 2 days!) you get to actually see what the roughed out shot looks like and i'll talk about how i approached it. Until then be thinking about questions you might have and i'd be happy to answer them!

Teaching at CalArts

Phewwwwww- these 2 free-lance gigs are killing me man! Am thankful for the work but sheesh, i need a little me time know what i'm sayin'? This post is mainly for my CalArts students... I just wanted to let you all know how much fun i had last semester, it truly was MY pleasure to get nerdy about animation with you guys. But alas, teaching first year was not to be for me this coming semester. Mike Ngyuen will be returning to teach 1st year so Cynthia asked me if i'd be willing to step aside............... AND TEACH 2ND YEAR BABY! Oh yeah, we get to nerd out for a whole other year! And boy do i have some RAD RAD assignments for you guys! You guys are gonna get your brains so swelled with animation goodness that all you'll be able to do is respond to people in animation terms. "so how long will you be gone for? Ohhhhh, about 3000 frames" or, "Could you reach that for me? Sure, let me time it out on my X sheet first. Let's see, anticipate, squash down, stretch up, delay arms...
But seriously folks, it's gonna be RAD! Be looking for the next post on the "How to do a flippin' cool shot" serious. I am gonna cover a little more practical tips and tricks in what you do right before you start animating next. stay tuned!

Step 1: Planning your Shot

Soooo, the long awaited "Start to finish" series of posts has officially begun! I am sorry for the time it has taken, but i have been gone, am working 2 freelance gigs (and am thankful for the work), and plainly i wanted to make sure this was as good a post as it could be. So i've put a lot of thought into it!
Let me start this post out with the comment that this is only ONE way of animating. there are as many ways of animating a shot as there are animators! So, find what works best for you and then modify it. The wonderful thing about art and animation is that it is so very personal-- make it your own! I can't say that i use even my own methods all the time. Sometimes certain scenes are very simple shots that don't need elaborate planning. I am doing a 30 frame shot for a commercial right now-- very very simple, i didn't even thumbnail it. However, i find when a shot is "lengthyer" and more specifically offers certain acting/staging challenges I NEED to explore on paper. but before any thumbnailing happens i am going to tell you to do something that a Production Manager would HATE me for, but here it is: THINK! The last thing you should do when starting a new shot is pick up your pencil. You HAVE to internalize what you are about to execute. If you can't do either one of these things you're scene will not be successful.
A: Visualize
B: Internailze
Ollie Johnston has been qouted as saying "If you can't see it, you won't be able to draw it. I believe that seeing it and feeling it (internalizing it) are related but not necessarily the same. I think they are related in that if you can't feel it, then you won't be able to invision it clearly in your head. So, think about your scene. Ask questions: who is he what's his personality, where does this shot take place in the arc of the story, who did he just talk to and what was the last emotion he/she felt, what's the arc of the scene, where's the entertainment value in this shot. BE RUTHLESS with yourselves in your exploration... if you find yourselves slavishly applying Preston Blair formulas to your shots then your scene is already dead. Yes, sometimes books like that help with technical things but right now i'm talking about conception of a shot! Get OUT of your studio, take a walk, ride your bike, read, whatever inspires you!
I personally like to take walks and really think through my shots... by the time i'm done with my walk i am ready to start writting down some ideas. Also, this is a great time for research. Now this i will say with no apollogy... everyone needs to research. I don't care who you are but so much comes from studying and researching that you couldn't possibly have brought to it any other way.
So to sum it all up-- get juiced up and excited about what your gonna do. I know that i cannot animate something unless i believe in it wholeheartedly! Have the guts to challenge and idea you think is weak (with grace of course) and be willing to be wrong. that's the big one, throw your pride out the window man! I learned that one the hard way!
So... now that you've though all about your shot and have conviction and just KNOW that your scene is going to be revered through the anals of time you can begin to plan and thumbnail! Ideally before you start thumnailing or even thinking about your shot you should have your dialogue memorized. All of the ups and downs... where the accents are. KNow it in and out. What i start doing at this point is finding some gestures that tell the main key points of the scene. It doesn't have to be many poses, in fact it's usually better when you simplify. Tony DeRosa's main comment on most of my animation has been to simplify it-- so start scribbling and finding those gestures that explain what the character is feeling and thinking.
Here are some pages of thumbnails i did for the shot i will be animating. It is here where you find your gesture, plan your staging, write down ideas... let it all out. Try things that are outrageous-- you never know where your thoughts might carry you. Oh, and don't worry about making pretty drawings-- these are just thoughts, i use stick figures a lot when i am thumbnailing. Especially when i don't know the character too well yet.
The line of Dialogue reads: Deer:"So whats the flight situation?" Bear: "Simple (pause)... there's no way on earth we're getting out of here tonight(pause and laughs). we'd have more luck playing pick up sticks with our butt cheeks that we would getting a flight out of here before midnight" ( i tried posting the dialogue put could not)

I mean come on, look at these drawings! they suck! They're not meant to be pretty, they are meant to be honest. I think sometimes it can be a downfall of animators to mistakes nice poses for "thinking". I've done it for sure-- certainly poses can evoke thinking, but i really feel like think is shown mainly in change. i.e A character is in a situation where he is being asked to make a difficult decision. He is tense, shoulders up, chest inflated, brows down-- he realized he needs to make a certain decision and is at ease with it. He relaxes his shoulders and exhales and lifts his brows. There is not a huge pose change in there, just a change of shape that shows us his thinking. You are working within a pose with something like this-- now sometimes you want to have some sort of change of line of action to make your idea clear it's just knowing where to do it. I am only skipping around these topics because i will cover more once we get into the animating portion of the posts (the FUN part).

I hope that's a fine start for everyone! Please please feel free to ask question if you have them either e-mail me or just post it and i'll reply. So get excited, get inspired and have fun everyone!