forgive me, please!

* NOTE TO VIEWERS: THIS ANIMATION IS NOT PLAYING AT THE CORRECT FRAME RATE. CHECK BACK SOON TO SEE IF YOU I GOT IT FIXED!*
Everyone who has a blog needs to look at their sitemeter and track who's been to your blog. I just recently started doing this and it is SO fascinating who's been here! it doesn't give names but it does give countries, cities and sometimes even company names. Last week people from Disney, Dreamworks, ILM, Pixar, Germany, Peru, Nepal, and even Iran were on this site! pretty crazy, i forget that this is accessable to the entire world. literally! Go check out who's been looking at your work!
Sooooo,you all are going to kill me, or stop visiting my blog but i am affraid this post will not be about roughing out your scenes. I have been thinking long and hard about it and have come to a dicision about how to show everyone what i am talking about. I am just gonna animate something for everyone. I am gonna walk everyone through the steps of how i particularly animate a shot from thumbnails to finished inbetweened tie downs. the reasons for this are multiple. I got a little work, praise God! but more over i will be gone for about 2 and a half weeks starting tuesday and unable to post on the blog.
What i thought i'd do is show everyone this finished bit of animation i did for my reel. I posted the half finished version but never showed the entire thing. this is now considered an old test by me, and the characters model has changed. I didn't have him quite nailed down at this piont. There are bigger oops's but i don't need to piont them all out do i? I hope you all enjoy this. I'll be sure to post one last time before i leave on Tuesday. Until then, have a great two weeks!

Geeking out to the max!

Here's a little drawing Glen did in my "Art of Tarzan" book for me on the day i visited the studio. The note says " To Matt, Keep persuing your goal. God Bless you as you do"

I haven't done a lot of geeking out on this blog, i figured while i try to think through what it is i want to say about ruffing out a scene i'd put up some cool drawings from some of my influences.
This first one is from Glen Keane. Glen was my foremost influence in my youth- i've known who that guy was since i was 8! His passion for this artform always was contageous, even from 2000 miles away. anyhow, i had never met him until i was 18. I was in my frist year at CalArts, and anyone who knew me knew i was a Keane nut. in fact, Max, Glen's son was in my class and was even in my cubical. I didn't get to know him too well, he left after 2 months. anyhow, i got the opportunaty to meet Glen in my 1st semester of being at CalArts. I packed all my portfolio stuff up perfectly, had it all arranged: quick sketches, life drawings and then everything else.
I got the Disney and waited down in the lobby for Glen's secretary to some and meet me. It was the first moment that i thought maybe this guys not what i think he is. I mean, i've met a lot of the guys considered to be "the greats" of our day and unfortunately not all of them are admireable people. I started to get nervous that maybe my childhood hero was not Santa but Satan! well, maybe not Satan. I picked up my stuff and went with Penelope (Glen's secretary) up the his office. She was super sweet, offered my some coffee and told me i have to wait for a while until Glen was ready. We rounded the corner and Glen was waiting for us-- I was relieved, he was actually santa claus! My memory kinda blanked out for a bit, i remember being really thirsty and sweaty all of the sudden. beyond that i recall him being extremely gracious and giving of his time. before he even opened up my portfolio he asked me a bunch of questions about me, where i'm from, what kind of artwork do i like. He made me feel like he was actually interested in me and my growth as an artist and a person. He proceeded to open my portfolio and slowly go through it page by page. I've never wanted a pair of diapers more than at that moment. It was gut renching- but he was gracious... VERRRRY gracious. He encouraged me, told me what he liked, didn't like and then proceeded to show me what he had been doing. He pulled out a sketchbook and started flipping through it page by page telling me stories about these people he'd see at the park or whatever. It was thuroughly inspiring to a young lad- He then shut his door and went to his computer and pulled up the sequence from Treasure Planet he was working on. It was the first time we see Silver in the kitchen. I was blown away-- i remember trying so hard to memorize everything because i knew i wouldn't have this happen again.
Then all of the sudden Johnny Resnick from the Goo Goo Dolls walked in with the producer of the film and i was swiftly ushered out by Glen's secretary(and understandably so). While Glen was talking with them I got a tour of the other animators office. Even though it was all a thrill for a young guy, my mind was still on all of those beautiful drawings in Glen sketchbook and walls. Well, the tour was over and i started to make my way out of the building and I heard "Matt, hey Matt!" It was Glen at the foot of an animators office signaling me to come in. I was sure he was talking to another Matt in the room, but i thought i'd better get in there before that other Matt did! I went into the office and proceeded to watch Glen critique an animators work, Bert Kliens in this case. Little did i know that Bert would hire me just a year later for Looney Tunes: Back in Action.
All in all it was a memorable day- even just thinking about it is inspiring enough for me right now. The next post will definately be the long awaited "1st pass" tutorial. until then take it easy!
Matt

ummmmm, here look at this.

hand drawn animation on Vimeo
Not my most brilliant shinning moment but fun none the less! I am a big Wallace Tripp fan, thus a BIG Chris Sanders fan. I really liked Lilo and Stitch and have always felt like it is slightly over looked although i did feel it was appreciated. If there was any film besides Beauty and the Beast or Lion King that i would have liked to have worked on i think it would have been Lilo.
I animated this at Toonacious Family Entertainment (Tony Bancroft's studio). I was glad that they kept everything here in the states since the budget was so LOW. The triumph of the shot was certainly not my animation but the great job Trevor Tamboline did on the clean-up. I typically work tight enough that all you need to do is trace my stuff but the time frame of this job was super short that i didn't have time to tie down a whole lot. Trev did a great job, and i thought the EFX made the shot stand out a bit too.
The other fun bit about this job was working with Alex Kuperschmidt. Toonacious got him to do a few scenes and hit up some drawings for model. I didn't get to communicate too much with him, but i think he's an amazing talent that is, again, quite over-looked! Everyone ought to go to Lilo and Stitch and really study his timing. Very interesting to see how he bends the rules.
OKee doke folks! Till next time!

Ian Worrell

I realized i haven't done much plugging for other people this year in the blogging realm. As some of you know i teach animation at CalArts. This year i was blown away by one film in particular-- "Icarus and the Tree Herder". Ian Worrell is the student that created this little gem of filmmaking. check out his blog and all his amazing artwork! http://ianworrel.blogspot.com/

model sheets!

A momentus thing has happened in the progression of this short film! MODELSHEETS... it's been a LOOOOONG road to find this guys, but i believe i have after a year and a half of searching. I am not necessarily a designer. i love design, and find it fascinating, but i don't consider myself a natural at it. It has taken a lot of blood and sweat to find these.

The characters are there, the story is coming together, the design is taking form-- this is so much fun! oh yeah, i still have to find a job! well, i hope everyone enjoys these!

by popular demand!

For all of you Disney Geeks out there! In my last post in the comments section someone asked what kind of desk i used, and here it is! I use a Disney desk from the 60's... or so i'm told. I got it for free from a friend. it probably looks much different than it did back in the day. it was in bad shape when i got it, i had to sand it, and refinish it myself. but it's a great desk with a lot of history and lineage to it. I wonder who worked on it before me?
Anyway, that's just for all you Disney geeks and freaks out there--

Welp, one down , one to go!

hand drawn animation on Vimeo

This one is DONE! Hopefully the player will play this one correctly at 24fps unlike the last one. hope you all enjoy!

FINALLY! SHEEESH--

Sorry everybody! the last 2 days i've tried to upload the same clip and everytime it would upload as just a black screen. Uggggh, plus i have a dial-up and it takes FOR EV ER!
So today i thought i'd show a little shot i did for an unnamed project i worked on. This was probably my most favorite shot... it was fun to get in there and really play with the timing, making it slightly stylized. I was doing this animation for refrence so i didn't have to tie it down, this is sorta rough for me though (as far as a finished product is concerned though).
enjoy everybody!

New Pencil Test

A few people have been bugging me to put up more pencil tests. I've wanted to put up some Curious George stuff, but i figured i'd wait till' it had it's run in the theaters. Just to play it safe. This was a fun shot to do... in retro spect, i would have done some stuff differently but this was done in the crunch of the film and i didn't have a lot of "searching time". I only had a week to do it and it's mostly on 1's as you can see. I think it turned out ok, but as we learn and grow our work just seems to get dated huh? at least mine feels that way to me. Whenever I can, I love to move the character in and out of the foreground. We as hand drawn animators already have the challenge of making people forget about the fact that they are watching drawings so this depth can help with it. CG has had a positive affect i think in this way that they have forced us not to cheat. CG can obviously do all the technical stuff automatically, but in handdrawn it takes real skill to do these things. I think CG has forced us to not fudge anything to keep up... personally i think it has been a good thing.
On another note i got my copy of King Kong! I'm one of those types who watches DVD's, or rather listens to them as he works. I get a little obsessive about new films. Especially ones from directors and studio i highly respect. The same has been true of watching King Kong. I know the reaction was kinda mixed, but i loved it and still do now. That T-Rex fight is pretty freaking amazing man-- geez, talk about clear staging and knowing where you are from cut to cut. Those guys know what they're doing that's for sure. but for anyone who knows me knows i am a sucker for the tender parts even more so... i can't get any work done when those parts come on man. I just have to abandon myself to it, get sucked into it, and start to feel something. Maybe someday i'll get that chance to animate something really tender, as well as some kick boot-tay action sequence!
This kinda brings me to another thought that i've shared repeatedly. I wanna see hand drawn animation do something like this again. I think Iron Giant had a lot of what i'm talking about... heartfelt moments (the climax of the film), cool action stuff (when the Giant goes bazurk!) and fun humor (playing in the lake). Oh PLEASE Brad, come here and make Ray Gunn. You gotta man!!
Anyhow, enjoy the pencil test and have a great weekend everyone!

emotion dictates design

I few people have asked me about the last pencil test i posted... they've asked a similar question. "Why do you have the eyes change shape so drastically?" well, for starters in order to see any change of emotion or attitude, change is required. I think it was Milt who said animation is all about change followed by some expletives. but also cuz it fits the style-- emotion dictates the design with this particular style i am going for. I learned this from Frank Molieri! The greatest animator you've never heard of before. I met Frank back on Looney Tunes: Back in Action. Frank, i believe is one of the most gifted draftsmen i've ever met. and nobody knows who he is because he's never worked at Disney or Dreamworks... but i assure you he can draw better than most those guys, not to mention he's been like an "animation older brother" to me. when everyone was freaking out about the so called "death" of hand drawn animation, who was staying cool and calm and helping me out as much as he could, Frank! That guy has done more for me than many artists. This is turning into a tribute instead of what i intended-- anyway, frank is awesome and worthy of respect. So like i said, Frank really taught me about how to play with shapes. I've put in some example here that Frank did of bugs (i can't think of anyone who draws him better). Look at the graphic quality to his drawings... he does things that aren't necessarily "natural" or "real", but he makes you believe it.
Look at what he did to the over all shape of the head... it's just a simple shape dictated by the emotion. Also note the cool Fleischer arm!

Notice how the eyes are skewed here... and the shape of the eye lids. so freaking beautiful. oh yeah, and clear hand shapes...
Yep Franks amazing-- oh i forgot, look at the mouth of the drawing on the top, he's totally breaking the rules. I love it man! Hopefully i should be able to finish up the last pencil test (there's still another half of it to go) and i'll post it for you all!

Happy Friday!

Hi everybody! it's Friday baby! but not just any ol' friday! It's my birthday... yes, it is this day 24 years ago that i came out of my mother holding a pencil. Oooh, ouch! She still doesn't like me holding pencils in front of her... makes her nervous.
It's just been a lot of the same old same old for me this week. Waaaaay busy trying to get my portfolio all finished. I was editing my reel and decided i needed one more good acting shot, so i have taken it on myself to animate about a 12 foot shot in a week!! it's been nuts trying balance everything, but God is gracious and gives as we need, not to mention my wife is gracious too!
So here's a piece i did for the character design portion of my portfolio. I really am fascinated with the film noir genre: detective movies and stuff. So i was drawing this detective character. It actually made me think of Ray Gunn, Brad Birds baby. He pitched that thing down here way before Incredibles but no one wanted to do it because of the fact that it WAS film noir and they thought audiences wouldn't go for it. but like most everything, if it's handled with balance and sincerity i think the audience feels and believes it. plus, ummmm, it's Brad! So here's to you Brad, please come down here and make that movie!!
So until next Wednesday which'll be the day before i go up to Pixar to visit a friend and see what's happening. If i can, i'll take pictures and post'em and narrate through my Pixarian adventure! Willermess out!

COULD IT BE?

DISCLAIMER: OOOPS! i see that my comp did quite go as intended with the extra layer floating in the top right of the screen. Lemme fiddle with it and see if i can get you all a new render by tomorrow! it makes sense i promise
It's finally done! well, as done as it can be for now. I didn't get a chance to opaque the tail or correctly comp it (it's actually underneath him on accident, should be comp'd ontop of him). but i think overall it was a successful test for the character design. I've since been able to improve the design because of the work i did on this shot (longer legs etc...).
Ya know it's amazing what your shot looks like in color, even temp color like this. it REALLY brings out all the mistakes and makes your spacing clear as day. sometimes when things are just pencil drawings you can miss a lot if your not careful.
well, this week besides work i started boarding my film! it's been a blast visualizing this story that's been swimming in my head for about a year and a half now. it just needed the time to brew i guess.
Curious George did fairly well last weekend! Better than expected actually, i was pleasently surprised!
anyhow, gotta get ready to teach for tonight. take it easy everyone and have a great weekend!

New Sketchbook

I just started a new sketchbook a couple of days ago. It always makes me nervous to start a new book. I always feel this weird pressure to make the very first drawing beautiful, like a first impression or something.
I decided to break it in with some drawings of trees. Gosh i love trees... i'm not a weird tree hugger or anything but i dunno, there's something comforting about them. Where i grew up in Chicago we had ton's of tree's, and lotsa forrest areas. I loved it, and miss them a lot. Tolkien once called tree's "the messangers of all nature to us." I don't really know what that means but it sounds poetic! Sometimes it's easy to forget to just draw for fun. I've always kinda been a guy who draws with purpose... once i got to CalArts i met a lot of people who just drew endlessly. Everything, everyone-- i was amazed at their stamina. and it definately rubbed off. In my younger years i drew quick sketches of humans and animals to get into Disney. Once that all fell apart, i started to actually draw for the sheer joy of it. A VERY healthy thing. It's so good for an artist to just wander in his or her mind creatively on the page. Things don't have to make sense, and often times that's when we do our most fresh work.

Animals fascinate me! I think if i wasn't an animator i might want to work with animals. But, it's a far second to being an animators, trust me. I just LOVE getting National Geographics and studying the way the behave, their gestures, their movement, there "thinking". Anyone who knows me well, knows i am a Christian and i can say this with all sincerity, God is my favorite artist. Yeah, i dismiss evolution, how could all this beauty be a random mistake? It takes more faith for me to be an evolutionist than to be a creationist. Think about it: if i through my pencil and sketchbook in the air a million times in a row in hopes that they'd create something unique, chances are i would get nothing that makes sense or is understandable, or even functional. That's exactly what evolution claims, that everything happened by random chance, not by intention. Not to get one a soap box, i just hate to take away to Glory that is rightfully belonging to the Creator. God's the most original artist i know of... can you make a new color? I sure can't... one of the reasons i love being an artist is because i feel God's pleasure of creating when i draw. He gave me this gift, only to Glorify Him, no other reason.

Blogging brings out interesting things in me sometimes, ha! on other news though I've been keeping up on Curious George movie reviews. I've only read one bad one out of 10. Not bad, not bad at all. Let's hope it rocks the house this weekend! Until next time enjoy the drawrin's

The Eyes have it!

Finally, I'm good to my word! The eye tutorial is here! I was gonna cover the entire face, but i thought the eye's have plenty to talk about for one post.
I really feel like there are very few people who really take advantage of the eyes in hand drawn animation. I feel like i see a lot more CG stuff where the eyes are used to there full advantage than i see in hand drawn. I think perhaps it's because people don't necessarily know what they are capable of. We've heard this qoute that "the eyes are the window into the soul." It's so true, the first thing we look at on other people is there eyes. It's located in a social triangle. Imagine a triangle between the eyes and mouth. everything within that triangle is the first thing we look at to read what someone is feeling or thinking. Therefore it is of utmost importance that this be dead on when we are performing our shots.
Shape: The shape of an eye ball is interesting. I think because very few of us have actually seen our entire eye ball we assume it's a perfect sphere. It isn't, it is slightly elongated (check out the drawing in the top left). This affect's the eye lids-- there's is enough friction between the eye ball and the eye lid that when looking up or down the eye lid is pulled in either direction. Also, when drawing eye's treat them like you would the sphere of the skull. Draw around the form... you see a lot of flat looking pupils and cornia's in handdrawn animation. especially when it is turning. don't forget to draw around that form just as you would the sphere for the skull.
Movement: Eye's typically move very very quickly... this is comely called eye darts in animation. The reason your eyes dart around in the socket so quickly is because of the types of muscles you have behind your eye rotating it. They are very short muscle, so when the contract, they contract quickly and move your eye rapidly. There are cases when you don't want it so rapid, like if a character is inspecting something thuroughly. Generally, i find that using eye darts at the right time for the right reasons makes the character look like he's thinking. there is a great shot in Dreamworks' "Sinbad" that James Baxter did of Sinbad behind a door thinking about what he's going to say to this girl. Check it out, it's pretty incredible stuff.
Eye Lids and Pupils: Eye lids and pupils are also slightly forgotten elements in facial animation. They both are key to expression. check out the drawing above and look at the set of drawings with just the eye lids minipulated. Works ok, BUT, then check out the drawings with the pupils minipulated. MUCH better... more effective. I did i shot in Curious George of the character Ivan. He's a doorman/security gaurd of the apartment complex the man in the yellow hat lives in. the apartment doesn't allow pets, and Ivan whom takes his job way too seriously can smell a pet from a mile away. There is a shot of Ivan where he can smell George through the vent, I used the pupils very intentionally in this shot to add to what Ivan was thinking but ALSO to portray WHO he is. This guy is like a robot, his job is everything to him. He's mechanical in his movent, very stiff, so i did a sorta cyborgish thing with the pupils. I made them dialate for 2 frames (overshooting) and then shrink until they where dots. It was very affective...
Anyhow, speaking of Curious George the wrap parties tonight so i need to get back to work before i leave. Next week, in honor of the films debut i'll post a review and maybe a pencil test or two from the film since they've already realeased some footage online. until then, have a great weekend!

Miracle Week

I am sorry for not posting more than i have this week, but as any of you know who are even remotely interested in the world of feature animation this has been a HUGE, MONUMENTAL, COLLOSAL WEEK!
It all started on Monday morning when i saw the headline "Disney buyout of Pixar?" I was thinking, what's up with the question mark, tell me more man! as i made my way through the article and the possibilties unraveled my heart began to race, my palms got sweaty, and my throat got dry. All of the things that my friends and i have talked about over lunch all of the sudden went from never happening to a very real possibility. I decided to choke back the tears, turn the computer off and try and do something constructive with my time. I have been to let down before by big news and i wasn't gonna let it get to me now.
Cut to (sorry, so used to film) Tuesday afternoon, i get online to see what the latest scoop is (not to mention i had talked to about 5 billion people by now). and there it read "Disney buys Pixar" and "Lasseter and Catmul to be heads of creative affairs inculding feature animation. I just about had a heart attack... it was almost like when Rudy in "Rudy" gets his exceptance letter to Norte Dame! I was freaking out man!! I spent the entire day with a headache because of the emotion of it all. I went to teach at CalArts that night as well and the school was partying man, total rejoicing. Like at the end of Return of the Jedi!
Cut to Wednesday morning... I had heard all of the rumors about John being interested in doing 2D again. but as i said before, i've been let down a lot of times and i wanted some smal bits of proof. Well, the first article i found was in USA Today. It was an interview with Dick Cook (chairman of the disney studios) and him being asked some of the tough question. One was whether 2D would come back. His response, "John and I have talked about reviving 2D for quite some time. It wouldn't surprise me at all if a project were found and we wanted to make it in 2D." Do you know how HARD it is to get straight answers like that from people so high up!?? Huh, do ya? That NEVER happens. no he didn't say yes, but he did admit that they WANT to revive it and that they are more than likely searching for the RIGHT story to tell in 2D. plus for any of you who know John Lasseter the guy is a fan. He LOVES animation, not just CG but hand drawn and stop motion. He just loves the art form!! What do i think, i think it's only a matter of time before we hear about them repening the division. The other amazing piece of information was that Johns first act in his new role at Disney was to shelve Toy Story 3. Bam baby!! and his reasoning, we should only do sequels if there's a good story. plain and simple, don't you just love it that way. the TRUTH, not the rhetoric that we're used too!
anyhow, all of that to explain why i haven't posted more this week. I am still working on getting another tutorials together for everyone on the face and how it works. It's just taking longer than i thought because of unexpected, joyous news. your thoughts?

Disney + Pixar = New Age of Animation?

I Don't hardly EVER write about politics in the entertainment/film world, but i have to admit THIS story has me by the throat! Just this morning I read on Cartoon Brew's website (www.cartoonbrew.com) about the possibility of Disney buying Pixar. You can read all about it for yourselves, but essentially what is happening is that today, this very day the Disney board and the Pixar board are meeting to either agree or disagree on a particular price tag for Pixar (notably 7 Billion buckeroo's). Now, when i read this i immediately thought of 2 likelihoods: either Pixar will have a profound influence on Disney for the better, or Visa Versa and Pixar will be brought down the tubes with Disney.
Now, personally i believe the first option is most likely. Why? For one thing, Pixar's Steve Jobs will have a prominant place on the board of directors. Given the success of Pixar's films, and being that Job's would have the largest amount of stock in the company would make is influence very very strong. Also, Jobs is similar, very very similar to Walt! He is a man who has built a company (apple) up based on instinct and quality. Tha is an over-simplification, but essentially he has vision of something much greater than making money! Walt always said making money bored him, i believe Jobs is the same way. He's a visionary that respects the creative process, thus, having sucha visionary with a very important voice on the Disney Board would be a huge influence. Lets not forget too that Roy Disney is also back with the company and has since gotten rid of a few people that we "bad blood" from the Eisner days.
The other part of the coin is that with Jobs and Pixar being apart of Disney it is very likely that Lasseter would become the head of Feature animation. Do you know how long it has been since an artist has been the head of animation? Not since Walt DIED... now, selfishly i must admit, this gives me knots in my stomach to think about (from excitement). Lasseter HAS NOT said that he would bring hand drawn back to disney, or that he would even take the helm of feature animation but, i have a strong inkling that he would. Lasseter LOVES animation... in ALL forms, and i think it would be a very smart business and artistic move to make Burbank the Hand Drawn unit and Pixar the CG unit. There IS room for both! but with Lasseter at the helm of both there is no telling where the art-form could go! just no telling!!!
Nothing is final, nothing has happened yet, for all we know the meeting today could go very poorly and things completely colapse. but imagine would COULD happen if things were to evolve in such a way. Maybe then my dreams of working on earth shattering films like INcredibles, Lord of the Rings, and Pinnochio could finally come true. Your thoughts?

Walk this way!

Hi everyone! i took me a little while, but as promised here's the tutorial on a walk. It took me some time to get this one done for ya'll, i started teaching at CalArts this week. It's been a fun so far, but a lot of work and prep time. It's only helpful really. It forces you to make sure that what you think is right is really right. Cuz if you show them how to do something wrong then it'll come back to bite you in the butt later.
anyway, i chose a natural relaxed sort of walk to do for you guys. There are more than one method for planning a walk but the one that seems to work best for me is starting with your contact poses (key number 1 and 13). It's a dynamic way to start you walk. Starting with the "down" or the "up" is difficult and an akward way to start a walk. Art Babbit did it that way, and it worked for him but i find that for me the contact is much easier to understand. The second thing to think about is your beats and tempo. Mark on your x-sheet how fast you think he/she should be going. generally one step on a relaxed walk is 12 frames long. Which is more difficult to do because it means trickier charts. but we want what's best right? If you have less time than you'd like, you could put the walk on 16's so you could use 2's but then your walk is going to become a bit labored looking.
So anyway, I start with the contact drawings... you can either then put in the down or the up drawing. I find that i like to put the down in first... not sure why, maybe cuz i feel like i need to see that weight down first before i can do the up. anyway, once your up's and downs are in (key's 4 and 10) then you put your break down inbetween 4 and 10. This is KEY! it's ALL in the breakdowns! you can change everything in your walk by simply altering your break down, for good or worse. in this case i played it naturally. I tend to treat that breakdown drawing like a 3rd favoring the up. ya know? It gives more time in the up, and less time on the down which gives weight to the character.

Now the tricky part about walks is that you have 2 sets of charts. Your horizontal path and your vertical. Your Horizontal, meaning the distance length wise he walks should always be even. 100 percent! Even steven...
But your vertical charts are quite different... you can check out how these charts parrallel the drawing, but note that the last inbetween in a slow in or slow out is always on a 3rd in this case. As i've said before this isn't necessarily always the way it needs to be, but when your stopping and starting constantly like you are in a walk this IS the way to go. The reasoning for the 3rds is because if you put it as an even you would have even space inbetween your second to last inbetween and your key. That's very very bad when you are trying to convey weight.

Well, i hope that satisfy's every for a little while! I'm having fun doing these so i hope you all are still enjoying reading them. what i gave you today is more a template... because obviously there's a whole other element to walks that i DID NOT cover and that's character. This is a base template of understanding in which YOU need to caricature off of once you understand it. It's like, Picasso didn't start doing abstract (essentially caricature) until he knew how to accurate draw things. same is true here.

Finally!

Updated pencil test

I wasn't able to figure out the HTML so i'll have to add it in a later post, but click on the title and it should take you to the animation.
I hope everybody enjoys the next stage of the process for me on this pencil test. I've been busy writting all week, so i thought on Friday I'd finish roughing out the end of this test shot. The end still needs cushion inbetweens, but otherwise i'm happy. The drop down from the swing is a little slower than i'd imagined it, but i think it works especially since he's not dropping from that high. Does anyone this I need to respace this for more snap in the landing?
Next step is adding the tail (the hard part!) and then laying down the graphite line, and then finishing it with doing a color test! should be fun to watch it's evolution.
Next week I'm gonna do a tutorial on how to animate walks, the pit falls, mechanics, and most importantly the character behind the walk. until then, have a great weekend!

Design Basics!

Hey Folks! I got a request to talk a little about design. Now, for sure i am not an expert on design but it is something i so completely wish i was more interested in when i was a kid. It wasn't until CalArts that i feel in love with design and saw how completely important it is to know what makes for a good design. Hand drawn or CG!
This first page here is just the very basic principle i'm sure you all know and that's finding your basic shape. Animation at it's best is about simplicity and finding the essence of something. Here Milt Kahl's Little John from Robin Hood is basically a rounded out triangle. That's his shape, when he walks on screen that's what you and i read and say "oh, it's Little John". This is why when your designing charactes it's important to keep their shapes distinct and personal unto them.
The other thing here is also the basic concept of keeping your purportions interesting. I used to think that meant totally caricaturing something to a point where it wasn't believedable. Like haing a huge huge guy with itty bitty legs. But remember these designs have to run and walk and jump, and act! So your design HAS to be functional. That's why the Cartoon Network stuff works well for what it is, is because it isn't being fully animated. Those charcaters can't turn. But these characters HAVE to turn. So remember to keep your purportion interesting. Even is boring!
Ahh, Hirschfield! who doesn't love this guy!? Another basic thing is straights and curves. The whole idea is finding a balance and a way for them to support each other. Some might find it ironic that i am using Hirschfield for the example of STRAIGHTS since he is known for his curvy streamline, but really look at it. He has IMPLIED straights, not literal ones. You can see this more clearly in the drawing at the very bottom. But in this drawings with the man holding the staff there is a balance of straights and curves in his design and gesture. The back, although it has a curve to it, is the straight that strengthens the curve of the chest in front. Makes the pose feel stronger. Incidentally, for gestures and balance, always have head somewhere over the main "supporting weight foot". If you don't the character will look like he's falling over.
And here's our examply of implied straights. Not to much to say really besides, DANG THAT CAT COULD DRAW!
I just wanted to say THANKS to the Spline Doctors for plugging my blog! It was awful nice of'em and they didn't have to do it but i appreciate it. Doing these tutorials has been fun and i hope everyones enjoying them. I am going to get more back into animation with the next few tutorials, but in the mean time i m gonna finish this script and try and finish a piece of animation. Willermess out!