Academy Announcement

AAU will be hosting an Animation Industry Panel on Monday, October 4, at 10am. 

         @

491 Post, Morgan Auditorium.

Company representatives from the following will be on hand to talk about the industry, what it takes to get in, and what it takes to stay:

Gazillion Entertainment

LucasArts

Nickelodeon

Rhythm & Hues

Unicorn Studios

Looks useful. 

Walk cycle

Would like to know what you guys think about my walk cycle

Homework, Class 5

For the 5th session...

Blocking pass on your weight shift exercise.
The rules/parameter of this assignment:

• Static camera, framing the action well.
• start from a standing pose, have the character turn 180 and start to walk/run in the opposite direction.
• There is room to put a little pantomime acting in this, but you will be graded harder if there's a lot of acting and poor weight. The goal of this is to really nail weight mechanics.
• The assigned rig will be Hogan. I have a version of Hogan with a modified facial UI, or use whatever Hogan is handy. 
• NO rendering. NO motion blur. No props on the character. NO texturing. You can construct a simple set using cubes, spheres, and cylinders, but the focus is all on the weight shift
• We'll spend 2 class sessions on this. For next week, focus on Key poses, breakdowns, and timing. .Stepped is fine, but not mandatory.

quick cycle reminders

Just wanted to remind everyone of what the curves mean. Remember. After planting, settle into that foot! I did a quick cube guy above to show ROUGH translation of the core elements of a walk. The side-to-side rotation is very exaggerated just to make the principle clear.

Does the pelvis and spine seem better?

I tried to fix the pelvis and spine, but I don't know if it is still "root out".

Attempt #3 for this week.

I am still not fully sure I understood everything.  I think I will need to go over it with you in class.  I will try and get video reference of me walking tomorrow but for the timing, this is what I have.

Its interesting, I couldn't find anything closer with this kind of old person walk.

How does this look?

I wasn't sure how to get it to look like he was balancing between steps without the hips moving in the Z.  I think I might have gotten it through grabbing the feet and the root, keying all keys controlling any of the nodes on all of them and translating them all together untill the Z-rot for the Root was almost zero all the way across.  I then deleted the root keys, letting it bounce up and down and right to left as I cleaned up the keys in the feet.  The feet keep a bit of a lag mimicing what I was going for by translating the root.

Critique please!!!

I 've still confused about arm movement, I felt my arm wave is not smooth and it is rigid. Maybe my overlap was wrong. How to fix the arm wave？ Besides, does that seem a sad walk? Please anyone can help me.

Feedback Please

new rule

After looking at this past week's work on cycles, I'm going to have a new rule. No more modifying Norman or any other rigs for the rest of term, other than proportion tweaks. After this cycle exercise, I'm going to start assigning rigs per assignment.

The reason for this is because in the past week, I've seen a LOT of work done on the rigs, more so than on the actual cycles. While we all want to put character into our work, the real challenge is to put it into the motion without the help of the character. This will take place on the next assignment.

For learning animation, it's important to have easy to use, fast rigs. For those of you that use rigs with heavy wrap deformers it's just hurting your ability to iterate on your work, as they slow down playback to a crawl. Some of you have kept within the spirit of the assignment...I think Sonia's devil rig did a good job of not going too crazy with a mod, but to keep things fair and to focus on animation, rule in effect....after next class.

also...the talented Matt Ornstein has some great simple rigs on his site.

The Lt. Dan rig is really effective for understanding the princicples of a cycle.

Homework - week/class 4

Finished in-place cycle.

Concept (video reference, sketches, description...really a plan of attack) of a character turning standing in place, then turning around and taking at least a few steps in the opposite direction. This could be a chance to move beyond physical mechanics and injecting a bit of acting.

I've enclosed an example from prior classes (Tim Kallock, Kamil Khan and Lana Bachynski) for examples of different takes on this.

This weeks homework?????

I am still waiting for this weeks homework assignment to be posted to make sure I am doing the right assignment.  We still need a post for week 4 right?

for the tuesday class (tonight) - it's already posted. first pass at a cycle in place.

for friday, the assignment is the finished cycle. I'll put up a post soon

Week II homework - WIP01

This is my 1st pass on the walk. I'm trying to an extremely cartoony walk. Have to work on it a lot I know.. arms especially :D

Comments please! :)

/////notes///////

I-Touch and Iphone Users!!!!!!

I have recently found something amazing; the FPS Calculator.  Here is the URL; http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/from_topapp.net/id325563937?mt=8#

Cameron Fielding - animator extraordinare on...life and animation

Cameron Fielding, a really spectacular animator whom you might know from his Turok reel as well as some great shots in How to Tame a Dragon wrote a really insightful post on what it's like relocating, managing your career as an animator and taking risks down to how to negotiate relocation costs.

Presumably, if you're stubborn enough to pick up and move to another country to learn this arcane art of animation, you'll find a lot to relate to in this.

His reel...

CamAnimation08 from Cameron Fielding on Vimeo.

Walk Cycle for this week. Critique Please

Hey guys. Here is a run cycle I've been working on, I was hoping to maybe get some feedback on it before class. I feel like maybe the head is a bit stiff. I'm keeping it mostly realistic.

Some interesting tutorials.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi44xYt9m_k&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y8EbsGuX5M&feature=related

Homework, Week 3

For next class the work due is...

Rough pass at an in place cycle.
Pose Drawing - topic is ACTION

Due to the elimination of the drop folder, I'd like you all to adhere to the naming conventions below

lastname_first iniital_week #_title
e.g. coopermanj_w10_pendulum.ma 
coopermanj_w10_pendulum.mov
coopermanj_w10_posedrawing.jpg


and please, please, please use compression! There's really no need to have a 500mb pendulum swing.


So what do I mean by in place cycle? Character locomotion using any version of the Norman rig. I'm opening it up to something beyond a plain walk cycle. If you're unsure of what to do or don't feel like you've got the basics of a cycle down, keep it simple. There is no penalty for executing something simple well. A basic walk is challenging and really important. For those of you who want...do a skip..a run, a sprint, a jog...put some personality into it

CTN Animation Expo!

Hey guys! Going to last year's CTN Animation Expo with a big group of AAU students in a tightly packed shuttle was so much fun! The Expo was a great experience :)

It's happening again this year, from November 19th to 21st in Los Angeles Convention Center. Please make sure to book your tickets in advance at CTN website

For those of you unaware of CTN (Creative Talent Network)'s Animation Expo - it's the biggest animation tradeshow in the world. (It's narrowed down to animation, unlike Siggraph). Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, Sony, Nick etc are also exhibiting. Plus - a lot of amazing artists like these would be there!!

I'm exhibiting on behalf of FLB Productions funnylittlebunny.com You can register early and use my promo code TIWARIX10 to get 10% off on 1-day or 3-day passes!

Hi ALL

Hi my name is Kirandeep Karnati and I am basically from India and I did my undergrad in Painting (BFA). Painting is still my passion but I wanted to see my imaginations and characters move and 3D animation was my answer for that. I came from a place where I learned and lived different kidns of culture and so much diverse which is not possible anywhere else within so much little space.

After coming to San Francisco, it was a great and different kind of environment I came through and i was very happy that I chose this place. I love everything about this place and successfully finished my 2 years here. I hope to see a wonderful semester ahead.

Intro.

Hello everyone.

My name is Sangmin Lee from S.Korea. You guys can call me Sam.

My major was business administration in Korea but animations & video games have always been fascinated me. So I finally decided to study 3D animation and I am here now!

I wish have a great semester with you guys~!!

Pendulum and Ball bouncing

This is my first draft of first assignment of 3D character animation2.






My name is minseok Kwon, call me Min or Danial whatever you like. This is second time I have taken for 3D animation class in my life. I have earned BFA degree in Digital Media design at the Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington D.C. DM degree was something weird to me even though I did everything they ask. People who can get the degree with DM should be known about web, 2D flash, motion graphic, video editing, graphic design, and 3D etc...... It seems to be known everything but students who can do everything do nothing for real world. This kind tragedy makes me think deliberatively, and leads me to be focused on just 3D animation.

A few corrections

I changed a few things and some more to correct. Critiques please.. :)

Note: I used the link from Dropbox. Seems to be working! And I turned Autoplay off.

Too Late Intro :)

Hi, everyone!!
My name is su young! I'm from South Korea. I'am third semester here. Nice to meet you!!
I graduated majoring Multi media design in BFA. Because I love animation, I have joined several group animation projects as an animator which are Tokki shinsa, Tokkebi, and preserve the environment of Monterey Bay Aquarium. I want to be a good animator!! Animation is really exciting!! I'm looking forward to see some progress in this class. :)

Brendan Body's walk cycle notes

tons of info

Super late post!

Hi everyone,

Sorry about this late post, I was still figuring out my schedule last week and now I have it finalized. My name is Setia Arinintia, but everyone that knows me calls me Libby. I am a 3D character animation student, and I come from Jakarta, Indonesia. I attained my bachelors degree from a Visual Communication Design major. That is where I learned the basics of graphic and multimedia design.
I just passed my midpoint review this summer, so right now I am working to finish my thesis. Due to the limited time frame I have, I am outsourcing some of my stuff like matte-painting. So if any of you are willing to help out, please let me know :)
I am taking this Character Animation 2 class because I need to improve my animation skills specifically in dynamic human movements (walking and running cycles). I believe I will learn alot from this class. Can't wait to start working with all of you!

Pointers Please.. First Try of walk cycle.

This is just normal walkcycle without specific characteristic.

I have a question about the tilt of pelvis.

When the legs are in the passing position the angle of pelvis is parallel?

Here are my humble drawings..

Thanks for seeing this. -Jin, M

//////////////teacher aside
remember...for the passing pose, you push your weght over the foot that's planted, and rotate your pelvis up to allow for the leg to more easily pass

Cycles

Hi Everybody!

I found some good examples of some walk cycles from a competition at splinedoctors.com. I thought it might be good for some inspiration.


spline doctors walk challenge 2010 from andrew gordon on Vimeo.

Brendan Body on Weight in Animation

thank David Martinez for the link

blog tip...embedding quicktime videos in blogger

Here's the code for embedding quicktime movies into blogger posts. To make the default size bigger, just change the number



<OBJECT classid='clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B' width="320" height="240" codebase='http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab'>
<param name='src' value="http://mydomain.com/video.mov">
<param name='autoplay' value="true">
<param name='controller' value="false">
<param name='loop' value="false">
<EMBED src="http://mydomain.com/video.mov" width="320" height="240" autoplay="true" 
controller="false" loop="false" bgcolor="#000000" pluginspage='http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/'>
</EMBED>
</OBJECT>

1st Attempt on Pendulum and ball bouncing

This is my first attempt. Critiques please.

P.S.: Can anybody tell me how do I upload videos in the quicktime format?

repost...override animation layers

I've used this trick when I've had to deal with mocap, but find it's really useful for trying out a new take in an animation, especially one that's a bit overworked. Once there's a lot of keys down, it can be hard to be courageous and really make strong decisions regarding posing and timing for fear that you'll lose the work you have. This can be counter to doing good animation, since poses and timing can ALWAYS be strengthened and improved.

I'm not sure how widely known this technique is, since I just stumbled upon it myself, but in case it's of use to someone, I thought I'd post it.

I had this mocap lying around (clips below).
This sea of data is counter to any kind of keyframing, and reducing it manually is very slow, however Maya now has animation layers.

Let's start by grabbing all our control objects (selection sets are good for this sort of thing) and clicking the anim radio button.

Still with me? With your controls selected, click that blue sphere with a cryptic yellow star. This allows you to key these objects on a new layer.

Turn the weight to ZERO, and in the layers drop down, set the layer mode to be OVERRIDE. What this does is overrides all animation in the layer below with the animation you currently are keying. Since we're at zero on the weight, the layer doesn't actually do anything until the weight is on. (1=on, 0=off, that is)

Now I'm going to go through the animation and stamp down the keys I want. In a way, reverse engineering keyframing over our mocap. When we're done, turn the weight back to 1. This kills a lot of detail in the animation, but if recorded in an artful manner, saves the right keys.

That's it in a nutshell. Now if you play the animation, it's more clear, easier to see the main beats, and easier to retime and alter key poses.

This is also useful for revising sections of your animation. Do the above setup, but set a zero key 1 frame before you begin altering the animation, then weight to 1, then grab frames, set a weight to 1 key, then a zero key and you're good to go.

clips to come.

Weeks animation/pose sketches/walk cycle

My preference is the first picture, right pose.

My current favorite movie.

and extra choices, just like I did with the drawings.

Late Intro

Hi, Everyone,



This is very late introduction. My name is Seungjin Mun. I'm from Korea. Seoul. I graduated majoring Fine Art in Korea.
Now, my goal is to be a good character animation. It's hard to make a good clip . My weak points are ( there are a lot, though) camera angle, composition, physics, and more flow of the movement, etc... But, Animation is fun. :-)
I'm also interested in Illustration. So, when I don't do animtion I enjoy drawing characters.
I'm looking forward to see some progress in this class.
Below, This is the latest work I've done. Thanks for watching this. Also, I put some of my concept art works .

Intro

Hello everyone,

my name is Pisal Puangniyom or you can call me Jay

I'm from Bangkok,Thailand

my major is 3D animation also i used to work on 2D animation and illustration when i was a student in Thailand

Now I'm trying hard to work and study on 3D with a weak English skill.

ty

cycles!

Fred Moore Walk-Scrappy Birthday
Uploaded by klangley. - Classic TV and last night's shows, online.


Michael Sporn...whole lotta cycles!



Max Walks...

The Late Introuduction

Hi, everyone

This is Mei Wu, I come from China and my major is character animation. I graduated from JiLin College of Art - Animation School. When I at the college, I joined in a small stuido which is opened by my teacher. During doing the animation project, I think I lack of the ideas and the camera movement in my work, and I think some little transitions between pose to pose are little stiff. I saw other students' work were pretty funny and attractive. If my work among of them, it will not be noticed quickly. I hope I can get a great progress in this class and I can get rid of those flaws.

The following video means people need to protect animals, or you will get the punishment.

it is too late self-introduction,

Hello everyone,

My name Tae-Hyung, but please call me Tae. [tay:]
I'm late to introduce my self because this week was very confused by the school schedule.

I'm from Korea, not the north, and I'd worked for 2D animation companies, and those companies had gone broke, so I build up a kind of animation company with my friends. Unfortunately, it also failed, and I fled from them to here. :)

I'm stuck on animation and I've passed a point no return. So I have to develop my skills. :)

Here is my the most recent animation. I appreciate you would give me any comment or critique,

Thanks.

attempt 2 Ball bounce/pendulum critique please

I redid it, making it a little more simple and working a bit more on the timing.  Will someone, anyone, give me a critique.  Thank you.

Hi everyone!

I'm Suria. This class is only my second 3D character animation class so I'm pretty new at it, but I'm loving it so far. I just passed my midpoint this summer so right now I am in the process of looking for people to work with me. I am also doing the work myself incase I can't find anyone, so it is keeping me pretty busy. If any of you know modelers, riggers, matte painter and so on that are looking for work please let me know!! It has been really hard to find people and I mainly only know other animators. Anyway, I got my undergraduate degree in Political Science and Communications so this degree is a big switch for me but I'm glad I made it!

I have a little question

I tried to open pendulum file which I took from pickup file folder with MAYA2009 but I can't see polygon surface but only wire frames. When I tried it at lab it was not even opened with maya2009. Can I ask why this happen?

Homework, Week 2 Addendum

As an extra bit of work for you, one extra thing to bring to class:

Bring a clip of a cycle you like from any movie or cartoon for the class to look at.

iron giant inspiration

http://ultimateirongiant.com/model/model.php

jason schleifer timelapse walk cycle

Saberi - Intro

Hello all!

This is Saberi [sha-bay-ri]. I used to work as a 3D Character Animator in a small production company in India. Although I did a certificate course on animation in India after my undergrad (in Physics), I learnt the most about animation from the book - Animator's Survival kit. After working for a couple of years as an animator in what I'll confess was an almost dead-end non-interesting job, I decided to apply for grad school. And now here I am!

This is my 3rd semester here. I still have to take my midpoint and so I am concentrating on developing my thesis story and my animation skills.

Here is the most recent animation I have done:

Wayne Gilbert on Posing

A small read but huge in inspiration is Wayne Gilbert's Simplified Drawing for Planning Animation, which, as advertised, does what it says. He provides a visual shorthand for conveying weight, attitude and expression. Below are a few scans from some of the pages. A few of you asked how you should draw for these pose drawings, and look no further...the blow drawings are sparse on detail, but convey exactly what one needs for animation.

This last one is fantastic...even with a stick figure, everything essential can be conveyed.

Nurbman - norman proxy

www.coopdesign.org/aac/Nurbman_ACTOR.zip

Just swap this in for your regular model while animating to get a quick read on weight.

Secondary Action vs Follow Through vs Overlapping action

I went through the Kevin Koch article mentioned by Jeff - and I was trying to find an example to confirm if I got the concepts right.

Here is a clip I pulled from Pinocchio - This is where Jiminy cricket is running late, trying to track Pinocchio on his way to school.



The primary action is running.

The secondary action is all the 'stage business' like his sigh, nodding his head, wearing his hat/jacket etc detailing out that he is hurried and nervous.

The follow through is seen in his jacket, scarf, undershirt - as he runs, they follow through and when he stops - the end of the jacket continues to follow through a little. The trailing parts stop after the main body. Or as The Illusion of life explains - Lagging parts follow the lead part.

Follow through is also seen in his arms and legs when they swing along as he jumps/skips - they follow through on the rhythm of the torso.

Overlapping action : One action starts before the other action stops.

/////////////////////////////////////
////teacher interjection
I would say overlapping action is when an action CONTINUES after the main motion ceases, or changes momentum (decellerates sharply). The continuing paragraph seems to talk more about secondary ACTION.
Great thinking Sonia, and thanks for posting a clip with analysis. A+ for class participation this week.
//////////////////////////////////

Say for instance, they could have animated Jiminy wearing his hat and coat quickly then running - but it was more interesting to see him wear his hat/coat/scarf WHILE he was running. Or the way he doesn't blink -talk-blink like a robot. Instead he would blink while saying he's late, while he brings up his hands to tie his scarf.

There is so much of secondary action, follow through and overlap in this clip - I have watched it a 100 times and still notice something new each time!

I used to key all my controls in Maya from A to B, and now I realize it's so DEAD unless we offset keys and give all individual parts the time and path to move according to their relation with each other. The pendulum exercise is a good way to clarify these concepts!

Notes on Pose Drawing

I found this posted in the 2d lab in Spring semester, and I copied it in my notebook. Worth reading!

1. DON'T DRAW CLEAN, DRAW CLEAR
(Attributed to Ollie Johnston)

We have a tendency to try and cleanup a confusing or weak drawing in order to make it more clear. But if the pose or expression does not work in rough form, it won't be improved by cleaning up. The problem usually is in the conception not in the line quality.

2. DON'T DRAW FORMS, DRAW FORCES
(Attributed to Bill Tytla)

Don't draw the body, draw what the body is doing. The story isn't in the drawing of parts. It's in what the body just did and what it is going to do next. You will always be wrong if you focus on drawing the body just right. Focus on telling the story of the pose, communicating what the character is thinking - what forces are acting on the body and what forces the body is exerting.

3. DON'T CHEAT YOUR AUDIENCE - DON'T GO FOR THE FIRST IDEA
(Attributed to Milt Kahl)

Always push yourself to come up with something special. Thumbnail to find a good idea - it will take lots of time, efforts and searching. If its the first thing you think of - anyone could have thought of it. Search for a better solution.

Pose Drawings?

Is this what we need in the way of Pose Drawings?

Critique please

This is my first pass of both a ball bounce and pendulum.  Can I get a critique and maybe some advice as to where I should go from here?

rigs

I noticed an error in the Numan rig  I tweaked....it's been fixed and reuploaded to the AAU online site as well as my site. The one in the drop folder is most likely wrong (the head flipping issue) if anyone wants to verify it.

I'm going to be swapping it out with a new space switching control scheme soon to make it a little more user friendly, but it should work.

kevin koch on secondary motion

include reading this in your homework

Credit to David Martinez for the link...he's a great blogger!

homework for week 2

For the Friday night class....


Pendulum Exercise.
No frame count on this, but use common sense. The idea behind this is to show a pendulum accurately settling, affected by gravity. Beyond that, you have license to be creative and have the platform move around, initiating the action. Look up pendulum exercises on youtube...the priority though is mechanics first, but you are allowed to have fun and do something entertaining.

Pose Drawing.
Draw a single pose of the cycle you're going to do. The cycle will be a Norman variant.
Before next week, I'll make sure the tweaked out Normans I made are working. I noticed in class tonight an issue with the space switching on the head.

extra credit.
ball bounce.

opinion please

http://vimeo.com/channels/staffpicks#14592941

Hello All

Hello,
My name is Nathan Bryan. My website needs a revamp but here it is; nathanbryan.net. I came to this school six years ago for my bachelors in animation and visual effects and came back due to a lack of job opportunities at my skill level. My goal for my grad degree is to better understand the details of animation that I have a hard time with and line up a job before I graduate as an animator. The things I have been told I have a hard time with is composition and timing but I feel that I have not fully grasped all principles of animation. For this class, I would like to get closer to fully understand and be able to utilize all of the principles of animation. I am confident in my understanding of posing and silhouettes and the tools of Maya 2010 and below but I would like to better my skills in being able to show weight, acting, and micro stories as well as better come to know the new tools of Maya 2011.
More about me;
I like rigging and watching my characters come to life. I enjoy working in groups and am the founder and current president of a club for animation collaboration; TACT The Animation Collaboration Treaty. I work as a tutor for animation here at the academy as well as work studies for Campus Life and a part time illustrator for a children’s novel. I try and jog every morning but sometimes lack the energy to do so. I can be rather sarcastic and can act a little over-confident at times but try and let people know that it is a joke and that I don’t really think that bee’s get weak knees for me. I enjoy comedy but prefer it as a garnish to a full story with archetypes. My favorite archetype is the trickster because, although most people think of the trickster as being evil or mischievous, I believe he is just a character that sees things differently and possibly sees more of the of what is happening around him. My favorite trickster is either Odin from Norse Mythology because he tricks to learn or the Kitsune from Japanese mythology because the trick to survive. My favorite moment in the hero’s journey is when he realizes he must become a mentor and can no longer be a hero. As you can probably tell, I like Joseph Campbell and the Hero’s Journey. I grew up in a small nameless town spending most of my time writing. My father worked for the government and my mother is an alien from Australia and, if all my plans go flawlessly, I will be better then awesome in a year and a half (So sad how some plans never happen in the time-span you want them too).
Thank you,
Nathan Bryan
Nathanbryan.net
natbryan@gmail.com

Sonia - Intro

Hi All!

My name is Sonia Gaud Tiwari. I'm 24, married, born and brought up in India. This is my final year at the Academy. So far I focused on art direction and character design - my artwork is posted at Soniastic!

My love for storytelling began with my undergrad degree in Audio/Video Production. I consider Animation as an extension of my live-action and theater experience. All my artwork is strongly influenced by music.

Aside from school, I work for a charity production house called FLB Productions funnylittlebunny.com This year I'll be representing FLB at CTN Animation Expo in November (Los Angeles) - I hope to see you guys there too!

I want to be a director!! And I know, it will come after a lot of practice, experience and maturity - I'm prepared to work hard for it! now, I'll take Jeff's direction to improve my animation skills :)

I'm currently focusing on my thesis project. I'm done with my layouts and am starting animation alongside this class.

My aim for this class is to improve my character animation skills - which I can apply to my thesis and demoreel. Eventually, I intend to use animation to market and sell my music. I'm assuming that the animating-to-music assignment would be of specific help for me!

Below is a small compilation of my animation work so far. I'm missing a few clips which I will post later for feedback.

I look forward to learning from this group!