weight shift with squash and stretch

weight shift 3

weight shift

weight shift

http://www.animationarena.com/acting-and-animation.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHx_E8KctdU

Iron Man 2 - Poster and release date!

A brand new poster has released for the upcoming movie 'Iron Man 2' that features who else but Iron Man of course, and also War Machine! The film's release is set for May 7th 2010.

A trailer is expected to debut sometime in December. Until then we've only got a few storyboards here by artist John Mann.

"

Merry Madagascar

Sneak Walk

Pixar's "Up" Short "George and AJ" is Now Online

Must watch new short. Watch it before it vanishes... :)


http://www.worstpreviews.com/headline.php?id=15871&count=0


Cheers

jump

what is posing

What is posing?
Posing is positioning character in such a way as to tell a story.
The biggest goal of posing is to show personality of a character, while showing his "buisiness" in the scene. While posing, one has to remember attitude, appeal, balance, force, composition, exaggeration, contrast, flow and silhouette. These five, when done well give a great pose.

The first of these is attitude. To show attitude, we should understand the character that we are posing. How old is he. What is his background. What is his attitude in this scene. What is his mood. What are his intentions. What are his shortterm and long term goals and so on. Once we have this information, we would usually draw 4 or 5 poses and see which one of them is best in the given context and composition. There are several ways of showing a particular attitude, mood and emotion. The degree of emotion he needs to have also defines the pose.. Is he upset? Annoyed? Frustrated? Angry? Mad? Homicidal? If he is upset, it could be a more "toned down" pose with just the face being the main ingredient.. but if he is really mad at this other person and wants to dessimate him, his pose will be elaborate and aggressive..

To get to the point of doing good poses, we need to understand three things first.

1) Action line or Flow line.
2) Silhouette.
3) Exaggeration.

A knowledge of these three is really really important.

1) Action line:

Action line is the general flow in which the body parts are placed in such a way as to suggest the direction, intent and mood of the character.

Consider this picture from Preston blair's Cartoon animation.



See how all the characters have a single "Arc" type of a line running through their body? That is what makes these characters really "physical" and "appealing".

A good training is to just draw an action line and try to build a simple character around it.. This will give an understanding of "balance" and "flow". The more curved the line is.. generally, the more "dynamic" the action is and/or the more "exaggerated" the pose is...

Importance of Posing

Posing in Animation
Today I'd like to talk a bit about posing. I recently was given a great lecture on posing. I know for me, when it came to my learning process in animation, not enough emphasis was placed on posing. I mean, really drawing and figuring out your poses before even getting into the computer. Also really pushing your poses. I always get feedback saying push those poses further.

I always seem to contain my posing. It seems that the best way is to push too much...because then you can always dial it back some more.In my experience it is to push the pose, step back, look again,then push more. It's like when they say, "It's always better to be overdressed than under-dressed". Never go with your 1st pose, ask yourself, "Can I push it further?" In the lecture I received he discussed 3 Main Principles of Posing.

1. Staging of the Shot
2. Line of Action
3. Pose Design

As animators we are exposed to staging all the time. Before we were animators it was planned out for you to see in all of the films that you watch. If you stop on a frame of animation, you can really study the staging in a shot. Where the characters are placed in the scene also in relation to the objects or even other characters. Most things in a shot as you might notice in many great photos do not lie perfectly center but are slightly offset. Take a look at this still frame from Foghorn, you can see the staging set up clearly and direct. All of the action and staging leads the audience directly where they want you to look.

This is discussed in John K's Blog as he takes this shot and breaks it down frame by frame. John's Blog is a great resource for this as he seems to do this type of stuff alot. He examines different shots of classic animation all the time and breaks them down. Check it out.

Now the Line of Action in a character is one of the most important aspects of posing. How you pose the character I believe will determine how much smoother your animation will flow from one extreme to the next. I never realized it early on but having really strong poses can actually make your animation easier when you go from your blocking to splining. It will also help your animation read clearly. You can convey just about every emotion with your posing. It also ties in with your framing of the shot in that many elements of the shot will follow your line of action. Think...if your character was just a line...Would it be clear?




These are a few poses of Louie from the Jungle Book drawn by Milt Kahl. I saw this post on Michael Sporn's Splog. There are many frames from this animation, so check it out cause they are amazing examples of how you can get good weight and character through Line of Action. Next time that you see a great piece of animation I encourage you to pause it on a single frame that best describes it. Then frame by frame it from pose to pose and see how clear the animation really is. This is all made possible by these types of poses.

There are a few elements within Pose Design that were covered in the lecture I received that I would like to bring up. Simple vs Complex and Straight vs Curve. They run hand and hand but you will see it. It is mainly all about balance in the pose when you are constructing it. Ask yourself what it is that you are trying to say. What emotion are you try to sell? Then you can start with your line of action and in that line of action will fall your attitude. Here are a couple of examples...one from animation and one from real life.





The 1st example is a Glenn Keane drawing for the prince of Rapunzel.
If you look at the left side of the Prince then you see Simple and Curved. The right side is Complex and more Straight up and down. Same with the pic of the the kick boxer his left side is Complex and the other side is Simple. In any good pose you can find these. Please check out Glen's site The Art of Glen Keane. There is always great examples of posing on there.

There are so many examples of great posing out there so do your research. I have put together a few more resources for everybody. So really take the time and think about your posing it will make a world of difference in your animation.




The ones above are from a great site called The Animation Art of Bobby Pontillas that has plenty of great examples.




This one comes from a Pose Tutorial I found on Deviant Art pretty sweet. Deviant Art is also a great resource for good posing.

And here is a few other links
Keith Lango's Life after Pose to Pose

Victor Navones Tutorial on Posing

to be continued...

Thanks
Enjoy
JP
posted by jp at 11:51 am
labels: bobby pontillas, deviant art, foghorn. line of action, glen keane, john k stuff, jungle book, keith lango, michael sporn, milt kahl, pose design, pose tutorial, staging, victor navone

Happy Diwali (:

Happy Diwali to Sandeep Sir and all my friends..
May this year bring success and prosperity in your life (:

Happy diwali to all of U

Get Well Soon Tenzing (:

Take Good Care of Yourself Buddy..
Cya soon...
God Bless Ya (:

loweer body walk

lower body walk (front & side)

AJAY PLANNING

Planning

Planning

Weight Lift Planing

Planing weight lift - Tenzing

planning weight pic.....

JOLLY BOX

WALKKKKK DANNNN

Jumpy_Box

First Look - New Upisode from Disney/Pixar's "UP"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMvOJViPKLw

My Pose

Planning

Planning for animation

VIDEO ANALYSIS

Front view

MY Video ref (side view)

ball_bounce

lamp jump

">

squash and stretch ball fall down on a brick

New Mr. Fox poster
 

A new one-sheet advertising The Fantastic Mr. Fox can now be seen on Internet Movie Poster Awards. Based on Roald Dahl’s popular children’s novel, the stop-motion film will open in theaters on November 25th, and features the voice talents of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, William Dafoe, and Bill Murray.

Dick Cook resigns/fired from Disney
 

Dick Cook, Chairman of Walt Disney Studios, either resigned or was fired today depending on the source. Several box office bombs and a lack of profitability are the main reasons being given for his leaving. The New York Times has what seems to be the official version, while Nikki Finke has the behind the scenes version of the story. Thanks to Josh in the Animated News & Views Forum for the heads up.

SP1.: Script as Discussed

Dear Specialization Batch 1.

As Discussed you may give a try to this simple parenting script.


ZV Parent Master (Download Here)


Simple Script. I still will like to put my preference on real Constraints.



Cheers.

BALL _ OBSTACLE BY PUNEET

finding refernce for four legged character

got a great question from Sergio, who wrote in to ask: "How do you find your reference for an unusual four-legged character and how do you do your planning for the movements?"

Hi Sergio! First off, thanks for the great question!

I know that's a tough thing that a lot of newer animators struggle with. You have to animate a dragon or a dinosaur or a centaur, but for some reason, there just aren't any centaurs to be found at the zoo.

Well, this is one of those times that you're going to have to put your animation imagination into overdrive, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't study any reference!

What you want to do is look for animals that have a similar physical makeup to the creature you will be animating. Sometimes this means studying multiple creatures.

An example that comes to mind was Eragon. When we were animating Saphira the dragon, we noticed that her body was very similar in proportion and design to that of a lion, and her wings were designed very similar to eagle wings.

We got right to work amassing a lot of great footage of lions and eagles and started studying the heck out of them, looking for concepts we should be using in our work, and studying how their body mechanics worked. When Saphira was on the ground, we tried to take inspiration from the movement of the lions, and in the air we animated her wings in an eagle-like pattern and fashion.

So just take a long look at your character, and see what it reminds you of, and start investigating the animals out there that might be similar. You can find great reference on Animal Motion Show (Rhinohouse Dvds), youtube, documentaries, movies, BBC motion gallery, etc.

The important thing is to base the movement (and acting) of your creature on REAL LIFE ANIMALS so it will have believable body mechanics that an audience can relate to and accept easily.

Hope that helps! Good luck!

lamp and ball playing wid each other

ball bounce by puneet

lamp_jumping over the ball

ball_jumping

Important Things When Posing a Character

The most important thing to look for in a pose would be a strong line of action, if it is an action pose. If the character is mid-action, such as pushing/pulling something, fighting, running, jumping, etc -- in any of those, there should be a really clear line of action, especially in your key poses. A single line that describes the force moving through the body and the momentum of the movement, ideally a line running through the entire body, and hopefully into an arm and/or leg. The stronger, longer, and more connected this line is, the more dynamic and strong the pose will feel.

If it isn't an action pose, then you should probably be more concerned with making sure the pose clearly describes an attitude or emotion. You should be able to tell, from one static frame, whether the character is sad, happy, angry, shy, embarrassed, nervous, excited, or afraid. In these cases, it is OK to sacrifice a strong line of action in order to strengthen the emotion, at least in my opinion, although it's often possible to craft a very communicative pose while still retaining a nice line of action. However, showing us the internal thought process should be the priority in these types of scenes...


Hosted by Shawn Kelly,
co-founder of AnimationMentor.com
and Industrial Light and Magic Animator

Important Things When Posing a Character

The most important thing to look for in a pose would be a strong line of action, if it is an action pose. If the character is mid-action, such as pushing/pulling something, fighting, running, jumping, etc -- in any of those, there should be a really clear line of action, especially in your key poses. A single line that describes the force moving through the body and the momentum of the movement, ideally a line running through the entire body, and hopefully into an arm and/or leg. The stronger, longer, and more connected this line is, the more dynamic and strong the pose will feel.

If it isn't an action pose, then you should probably be more concerned with making sure the pose clearly describes an attitude or emotion. You should be able to tell, from one static frame, whether the character is sad, happy, angry, shy, embarrassed, nervous, excited, or afraid. In these cases, it is OK to sacrifice a strong line of action in order to strengthen the emotion, at least in my opinion, although it's often possible to craft a very communicative pose while still retaining a nice line of action. However, showing us the internal thought process should be the priority in these types of scenes...


Hosted by Shawn Kelly,
co-founder of AnimationMentor.com
and Industrial Light and Magic Animator

Important Things When Posing a Character

The most important thing to look for in a pose would be a strong line of action, if it is an action pose. If the character is mid-action, such as pushing/pulling something, fighting, running, jumping, etc -- in any of those, there should be a really clear line of action, especially in your key poses. A single line that describes the force moving through the body and the momentum of the movement, ideally a line running through the entire body, and hopefully into an arm and/or leg. The stronger, longer, and more connected this line is, the more dynamic and strong the pose will feel.

If it isn't an action pose, then you should probably be more concerned with making sure the pose clearly describes an attitude or emotion. You should be able to tell, from one static frame, whether the character is sad, happy, angry, shy, embarrassed, nervous, excited, or afraid. In these cases, it is OK to sacrifice a strong line of action in order to strengthen the emotion, at least in my opinion, although it's often possible to craft a very communicative pose while still retaining a nice line of action. However, showing us the internal thought process should be the priority in these types of scenes...


Hosted by Shawn Kelly,
co-founder of AnimationMentor.com
and Industrial Light & Magic Animator

180 rotation

Notes on Animation from the brain of Ollie Johnston

Notes from a Lecture by Ollie Johnston
-----------------------------------------

1. Don’t illustrate words or mechanical movements. Illustrate ideas or thoughts, with the
attitudes and actions.

2. Squash and stretch entire body for attitudes.

3. If possible, make definite changes from one attitude to another in timing and
expression.

4. What is the character thinking?

5. It is the thought and circumstances behind the action that will make the action
interesting.
e.g.: A man walks up to a mailbox, drops in his letter, and walks away.
or
A man desperately in love with a girl far away carefully mails a letter, in which
he has poured out his heart.

6. When drawing dialog, go for phrasing ( simplify the dialog into pictures of the
dominating vowel and consonant sounds, especially in fast dialog.)

7. Hit your pose 4 frames before articulating dialog, but use identical timing of the
mouth as on the X-sheet. (Some suggest articulating dialog 2 frames before its
placement on the sheet.)

8. Changes of expression, and major dialog sounds are points of interest. If possible
hold the character still for time. If the head moves to much you won’t see more subtle
action.

9. Don’t move anything without a purpose.

10. Concentrate on drawing Clearly, not Cleanly.

11. Don’t be careless.

12. Everything has a function. Don’t draw it before knowing why.

13 The facial expression should not be contradicted by the body. The entire pose should
express the thought.

14. Use thumbnails, explore all avenues to get the clearest picture in your drawing.

15. Analyze a character in a specific pose for the best areas to show squash and stretch.
Keep those areas simple.

16. Picture in your head what it is you’re drawing.

17. Think in terms of drawing the whole character, not just the head or eyes, etc.
Keep a balanced relationship between all parts of the drawing.

18 Strive for the most effective drawing.

19. Draw a profile of the drawing you’re working on, every once in a while.
Check the proportions against each other. The profile will usually clarify any
perspective problem.

20. The break in the eyebrow usually relates to the high point of the eye. Keep
this relationship consistent.

21. The eye is pulled by the eyebrow muscles.

22. Keep skull size consistent, but get a plastic quality in the face; cheeks, mouth
and eyes.

23. Keep drawings loose. Strive for a rhythmic quality.

24. Animate simple shapes.

25. The audience will lose the first 6-8 frames of your scene.

26. Does the secondary action contribute to the main idea, or confuse it?

27. Think of your scene in continuity, visually and emotionally. Don’t animate for
the sake of animation.

28. Actions can be eliminated, and staging "cheated", if it simplifies the
composition of the sceneand does not disturb the audience.

29. Spend most of your time planning your scene before you draw.

30. Steps for animating a 4 legged character:
Work out the acting first. Pose your main attitudes. Then animate the
legs. Finally adjust the up and down motion of the body in accordance
to the phase of the stride.

more on www.anim-gyan.blogspot.com
-----------------------------------

Happy Teachers Day

We have always cherished your Guidance, Support, Friendship, and Love..
May not say it always but we do mean it.. For all the things you have done for us..
Thank You Sir

~HAPPY TEACHERS DAYS ~

Oscar Awarded - Father and Daughter

Unveiling game-changing wearable tech

Run Basic Keys

Metronome...Beat Maker

Metronome

http://www.8notes.com/metronome/

Watch for timing.

District 9 Trailer - 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6PDlMggROA

Strength (Reference)

Weight Shift (Final)

Strength

frog funny animation

My tissue paper

Strength

Jump final

My Pose -

Avatar By James Cameron

strength

Flipbook excercise

GET WELL SOON

dear Sandeep sir

A bowl of warmth, a soft face, a new day. Some get-well thoughts sent your way. Feel better soon.

FROM ALL KEYFRAMERS

My refrence-Tenzing

Eyes

BLINKS HAVE MEANING

Tip 1: Blinks Have Meaning!

I feel like writing about blinks today. Why? I just saw a commercial on TV (name of product withheld to protect the innocent) starring

a character who had a severe blinking problem.

Now, I don’t mean the character blinked too much. I don’t mean he blinked too fast. I don’t mean the character’s blinks were too far

offset, too slow, or too few.

No, this character was plagued by a disease that has been running rampant through animation (particularly student work, though

not Animation Mentor students, of course. Everything they do is perfect and wonderful in every conceivable way... Well, okay, that’s

not exactly true, but I haven’t actually seen it as a problem in the school. Probably because we harp on stuff like this ad nauseum).

Where was I?

Oh yeah, the disease...

Let’s call it “Randomblinkitis.”

Many animated characters currently living out their lives on demo reels around the world suffer from this terrible disease, causing

their blinks to feel random and meaningless. While some characters use their blinks to convey thought process and emotion, these

poor Randomblinkitis victims are forced to slog through their daily existence unable to properly communicate their emotions and

thoughts to each other, let alone to recruiters around the globe.

It’s a tough life for them, folks, so let’s do something about it!

See, the medicine for this heartbreaking disease is Observation. It’s easy to do, and it’ll mean so much to your animated characters

(and to the recruiters forced to have to try to communicate with your characters!) if you can just take a little time to observe the

blinks of your friends, your family, your co-workers, your favorite movie star, and yourself before you start plowing ahead into acting

scenes.

Listen, I know about the whole “I just discovered animation a month ago and must do an acting scene IMMEDIATELY!” thing. I know

you all want to do acting scenes. I know you think they’re the most fun. I know you think they’re your ticket into Pixar. And I also

know that for some of you, all the “honestly, spending 6 months practicing basic body mechanics and force will give you far stronger

acting scenes than you’ll ever be able to do without that foundation” advice in the world isn’t going to keep you away from playing

with some acting shots...

So, if you absolutely must do some acting shots (or, better yet, are advanced enough to do acting shots properly), then please, give

some attention to the eyes of your character.

We’ve probably all heard people say “90% of acting is in the eyes” or something to that effect. Shoot, some of us have said that

ourselves. And I actually think that’s true, and is great advice (aside from the fact that if you don’t sell the acting with the body first,

all the facial stuff in the world isn’t going to save your scene), but when you hear that “90% of the acting is in the eyes,” I know most

people immediately jump to “eye darts” and “eye direction,” etc., completely skipping over one of the most essential acting tools you

have - the blink.

When I was in school, I was told that “animated characters should always blink every two seconds.”

Well, that’s just about the worst advice I ever got, other than some advice I recently was given during a trip to Singapore, which was

“giant fish eyeballs taste really GREAT,” but animation-wise, I think the “blink every two seconds” is probably the worst. Actually, both

of those pieces of advice are equally true (or rather, equally completely-and-utterly-untrue!).

Look around. Do you see anyone who is blinking every 2 seconds?! (If you do, please report them to your government, because

chances are they are some kind of android spy from Mars or something.) People don’t blink on any kind of set time schedule

anymore than giant fish eyeballs taste “great” (and for all of you out there who maybe think fish eyeballs DO taste great, probably

because you have some kind of steel-reinforced taste buds like the Singaporeans I was with at that restaurant -- which I do admire

and am completely jealous of, by the way-- then that’s fine to like your giant eyeballs, but just trust me on the blink thing anyway,

okay?)

Look - if you do a scene where your character doesn’t blink at all, and don’t have a reason behind it, you have a fair chance of that

character feeling a little dead. However, there are plenty of times when you’d WANT the character to not blink -- maybe he’s scared

out of his mind, or she’s looking longingly into her husband’s eyes, or you’re doing some homage to A Clockwork Orange...

We’ll get into that stuff in a minute - for now, I just want to point out the reasoning behind the “blink every 2 seconds” rule. Ostensibly,

it’s so your character feels alive. That’s the idea they’re shooting for, anyway.

Sadly, this is a very outdated concept. If you choose to animate according to this rule, and have every character blink every 2

seconds, two things will happen:

1) First off - congratulations: no one will wonder if your character is dead, or if his eyes are getting enough moisture. Mission (sort

of) Accomplished.

2) Instead, they’ll be wondering if your characters are meant to be robots. (D’oh!)

Blinks are so much more than the merely physical act of moistening our eyeballs! We blink for a variety of reasons, and the absolute

least important of these reasons to you, as an animator, is the “I’m just getting my eyeballs wet” blink. Forget about that blink. File it

away in your head for future use, I guess, but file it in the back of the bottom drawer, right next to “My Aunt Martha’s right eyebrow

shoots upwards every time she says ‘pretzel’.” It’ll come up about as often in your work, and be about as useful as well.

People blink for a reason.

Blinks are so much more than any kind of physical dry-eye response.

Blinks are the key to selling many emotions. Fire up some of your favorite films and study the eyes of good actors.

When do they blink?

Why?

What does it feel like?

How does it make you feel?

Right off the bat, the number of blinks can affect emotion in dramatic ways. Rapid blinks can make a character feel shy, nervous,

uncomfortable, relieved, or like they are about to cry. Not blinking at all can feel angry, stoned, dead, or super intense.

Check out Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump when he’s meeting his son for the first time. As soon as he realizes it’s his son, he stops

blinking completely. He’s transfixed. Tom Hanks holds back his blinks to communicate the idea that his character is THAT intense

about what he’s realizing. Then a blink, and boom - he’s on to his next emotion, which is guilt. He feels guilty. Shouldn’t he have been

there to raise his son? Did he do something wrong? The blinks are coming fast and furious now, to indicate his discomfort, his worry.

Then a thought occurs to him: “is he slow, like me?” He doesn’t say it right away, but you can feel the exact moment that crosses his

mind, because suddenly his blinks stop again, and he’s back to that intensity, and finally he works up the courage to ask Jenny his

big question: “is he smart, or is he...?” Huge eyes, locked on, almost afraid to hear the answer. “He’s the smartest in his class.” And the

blinks are fired back up again, which communicates his relief.

That whole scene is amazing for eye stuff. He even asks “can I go see him?” using only his eyes! Sure, his head moves barely as well,

but it’s 90% just his eyes, and you totally know exactly what he’s saying. He delivers a line without ever opening his mouth. And it

feels so real. To me, that’s a great scene, and something we should all aspire to in our work.

So your first set of big blink questions is this: “what’s my character’s emotional state right now? What are they reacting to? How is

that making them feel?” And your second set of questions, just as important (if not more so) is this: “well, how do I blink when I feel

that way? How do my friends blink when they’re in that situation? How did my favorite actor blink in that amazing scene I saw the

other day?”

Figure out the emotional state of your character, go observe that emotional state in as true a form as you possible can, and then

study the heck out of those eyelids. Better yet, act the scene out over and over and over until you aren’t thinking at all about what

the actual dialogue lines are anymore, and all you’re thinking about is the emotion you are truly making yourself feel, and the

context/subtext of the scene, and videotape it, and study it!

That’s it. It’s pretty simple really. Just like with every single conceivable aspect of your animation, you don’t do ANYTHING without

a reason. You don’t move a single finger without knowing why your character is moving it, and the eyes (and sometimes even more

importantly, the blinks) are no exceptions. Never move ANYTHING on a character unless you know exactly why you’re moving it. So

if anyone ever tells you to animate something randomly, unless it’s the tiniest subtle “add a little ‘dirt’ to this movement so it feels

a little less smooth” type of thing, then you should probably say, “No way!” Unless he’s your animation director. Then you probably

shouldn’t say, “No way.” That might be a really bad idea. You should instead say “Right away, no problem!” while you silently think

“man, I wish my animation director would take some AnimationMentor classes...”

Where was I? Oh yeah - nothing is random. Well, neither are blinks.

The most important use of a blink is to show thought process. We do blink sometimes just to wet our eyes, and we blink on a rapid

head turn, we blink on a major change in eye direction, and all those other “blink rules,” but in my opinion the most important time is

when we have a change in our thought process. When we’re having an idea, or when we’re switching from one emotion to another,

or when we’re realizing something. Those are the gold-mines in terms of blinks - that’s when a perfectly placed blink will take a scene

from being merely “good” and make it “great.”

There’s a great book called “In the Blink of An Eye,” by Walter Murch, who is an amazing film editor. Murch is an incredibly accomplished

film and sound editor, with a bunch of Oscars on his mantle, and great work in such films as Apocalypse Now, The Godfather Part II,

The English Patient, and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Part of that book is about his theory that we blink to edit the film of our lives. We

blink throughout the day to cut from one scene to the next to the next to the next. And he uses that theory in his film editing. He

looks for when the main character blinks, and often uses that as his cutting point, figuring that it’s probably the most natural-feeling

place to cut for the audience.

As animators, we can hijack his theory and apply it to our own work and our acting. We can study the same phenomenon that he

noticed, and we will all find the same exact result - people blink when their brain shifts from one thing to another, whether it’s an

emotion or a thought.

We blink for a bunch of reasons, but the most important to me are these:

1. We blink when we shift our thought process

2. We blink to show or hide emotion

3. We blink in the middle of a fast head turn

For me, those three things dictate 99.9999% of the blinks I’ve ever animated, and I’ll tell you what - not one of them has anything to

do with any “2 Second” rule.

Ok, so let’s start with number 3, since that’s the most basic. This is one that most of you have heard about, and use often. Personally,

I think it’s a great rule, and seems to work really well. If your character’s head does a really fast head-turn, drop a blink in there near

the middle or near the end of the head turn, and it’ll give it a nice natural feel. This is something I’ve definitely observed in people,

and it’s a great rule of thumb to generally keep in mind.

I’m not sure why we blink mid-turn, but I think it might have something to do with having too much visual information zooming

past our eyes, and our brain says, “Holy moly! Too much information! Gotta shut those things for a moment!” I have no idea if that’s

true, but it sounds like it might be right, and that’s good enough for me...

Let’s jump back up to good old numero uno - blinking to show a shift in our thought process.

This is an absolutely essential and endlessly useful tool in animation - something you can truly use over and over again, in shot after

shot. Like the idea of advanced “anticipation,” this really can be one of those few “lifelines” of communication you can have with your

audience. A way to reach out to them, and whisper, “Hey, check it out! He’s thinking right now! Oooh! And now he’s made up his

mind!”

Anyway - back to shifting our though processes...

The eyes are the windows to the soul, right? We’ve talked about that cliche, and how right it is, and how important it is to communicate

with your character’s eyes. (I think we have, anyway. Haven’t we? This is month 19, so it’s getting a little fuzzy in my memory! I could

look it up, but we both know I’m too lazy to do that...)

Personally, I feel like 70-80% of the emotion of your character is going to be sold in the face, and 90% of THAT emotion will be sold

in the eyes. The timing and direction of your eye darts will communicate more than almost any other thing in your scene.

But a HUGE part of that communication is with eye blinks. We can talk more about eyes later, if you guys want, but as far as blinks

go, all the great eye animation in the world will not work without carefully planned blinks.

Your character is in a basement. Scared. Backing into a dark corner, unsure of where the villain is hiding. His eyes are wide, darting

all over the place, searching frantically. For help. For a way out. For a weapon. For a hiding place.

So far, so good. No reason to blink, right? He’s scared for his life, searching DESPERATELY for help. His eyes want to suck in as much

information as humanly possible, because if they don’t figure something out quick, his eyes might stop seeing anything at all pretty

soon.

If you’re animating this scene, you’re going to be taking the “no blinks at all” approach so far in this scene, unless it’s gone on for

a REALLY long time. If the eyes are desperate enough, I think you could get away with not blinking for even 10 seconds or more.

There are countless scenes of some of our best actors showing their intensity and emotion by not blinking for much longer than 10

seconds, but at some point, a sustained shot of “scared guy” is going to get stale and boring, so I’d say a shot like this will get boring

long before you’d HAVE to throw a blink in there...

So, he’s scared and desperate. No blinks yet. His back bumps against concrete, and he realizes he is cornered. His eyes are even wider.

Searching. Hoping. Suddenly, they lock on! He spies a shovel! A weapon! He’s found hope!

Guess what he does?

He grabs the shovel, right? Well, yeah, he does, but what does he do first?

He blinks.

Why? Well, it’s sort of the Walter Murch thing. He’s “cutting” his film. His “scared and hopeless” scene has ended, and it’s time for the

“try to be a hero” scene, starring him and his shovel.

In other words, his thought-process has shifted. He’s gone from one idea to another idea, in his head. He was scared out of his mind,

and now his fright has morphed a little bit. It’s evolved. He’s probably still scared, but I bet his eyes are a little narrower, now that he

has his shovel in hand. His eyes are darting a lot less. He’s still frightened, but now he’s a little hopeful, and maybe even a little mad.

Who is this lunatic hunting him down in his basement?! Who does he think he is!? He’s going to get a face full of shovel if he doesn’t

get out right now!

Right?

When you first get handed a scene like this, you’re going to study the amount of time you have to work with, you’re going to plan out

your motions and timing, figure out your dynamic poses, etc. Just as with any other bit of planning, it’s essential to search through

your scene and try to find a moment of change – when an emotion changes, or an idea shifts. These are ALWAYS the meatiest

moments for you as an actor and animator, and these are generally the moments when you will carefully choose when to blink.

A shift from scared to hopeful? Blink. Happy to nervous? Blink. How about something really subtle, like sad to sadder. Blink!

Those blinks will SELL the changes in thought process more than anything else other than possibly overall posture changes.

Ok, and then lastly, we have the idea of using blinks to sell emotions.

Well, let’s go back to our previous example, with the scared basement guy. How do we know he’s scared? Well, hopefully you’re using

as many small things as possible to show his fear. Hopefully his movements feel afraid, his head and eyes are darting around, his

overall actions and broad movements can even show fear.

But having those wide, unblinking freaked out eyes - THOSE are going to sell the fear as much as anything else. Maybe even more

than anything else, right? So right off the bat, we have an emotion being sold through blinks, or rather, through the lack of blinks.

What would it look like if he was blinking a lot in the basement? He’d look flustered, maybe he’d look like he’s thinking rapidly about

a lot of different ideas, or trying to remember something. He might look shy, or maybe even nervous. But he probably wouldn’t look

scared, no matter WHAT you did with the rest of him.

Once Mr. Scared finds his shovel, he blinks to show that realization (and the timing and number of blinks at this point, by the way,

will totally define the mood of the performance. A long pause, with two wide-eyed blinks would be funny and played for comedy,

whereas a quick blink and dash for the shovel will keep it in the “scary” realm), but now that he has his shovel, we’re going to use our

blinks in a whole new way.

He’s still scared, but not so desperate that he can’t blink now and then. Now we’ll have quick “scared” blinks (slower blinks would feel

too laid back) now and then, maybe when he’s shifting his gaze from one place to another, or if he hears a sound in the other corner

of the basement, etc.

The timing and number of your blinks are an invaluable way of letting your audience know what’s going on in your character’s head.

Not only how he’s feeling, but when those feelings are changing.

To me, this concept is one of the most fundamental foundations of any good acting performance, and I think it’s something

worthwhile for us all to continue to study and deconstruct.

If you’ve been reading this column since the beginning, you’ve read my tips about scene planning and know how essential it is to

plan your performances. Part of that planning should often be video reference, of either yourself or friends or actors. If you truly get

into your character’s head, and truly begin to feel the REAL emotions of the scene when you are acting out your video reference, you

WILL see the properly placed blinks, showing these shifts in emotion and thought process. If you aren’t sure where to blink, be sure

to go through this process, it can be really helpful.

Another great idea is to just study the blinks of your favorite actors. Think of your favorite film, and choose a scene that stood out

to you as being especially believable acting. Pull it up on DVD and study the actor’s blinks. Check out Forrest Gump meeting his

son for the first time - it’s amazing. Also, Robin Williams’ blinks and eye-darts in One Hour Photo are great to analyze. Any of your

favorite actors will have valuable reference for you to study. Check that stuff out! How does the timing and frequency of the blinks

communicate the emotion at just the right precise moment to make it feel true... How does it make you feel? Why?

It’s a great idea to sit down and really study that stuff. Make notes for yourself, and really dig into it. You don’t have to be an acting

expert to find value in that reference, it can really be helpful.

Let’s see, to recap:

1. Blinks Have Meaning!

2. Skipping a strong foundation in the basics in order to get to acting scenes quicker shoots yourself in the foot.

3. Never animate anything without a reason.

4. Don’t say “No way!” to an Animation Director.

5. We blink to cut the “film of our life.”

If you have an opinion about what kinds of “tips” or more “tricks” you’d like to see in the future, email me at: tipsandtricks@

animationmentor.com and let me know!

That’s 5 tips for the price of one. I better start being stingier or this’ll be a short-lived column!

Hope you found it helpful. See you next time!

This Way Up - Oscar nomination 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BdaalerF9M

Pros and Cons of Video Reference

Pros and Cons of Video Reference

Hi Shawn,

Great blog! My question is I’ve been listening a lot to various animation podcasts and watching animation videos, and it seems there are some great very experienced animators that don’t use video reference, some that don’t even thumbnail at all. Some indeed say you shouldn’t become too reliant on it, and warn that using it may suck the life out of a performance. Other’s stating as a reason that they don’t like to video themselves as they think the performance will end up being too much like them self and not like the character.

I was wondering about your thoughts on this?

I know myself that when I first started my career as an animator, I never used video reference, I never thumbnailed, I just went straight into the 3d program and animated and my work sucked. After I learned a bit more and started to plan more using reference my work massively improved – but do you think it has negative affects also?
-Steven Heft


Hi Steven! Thanks for the nice words and the great question!!!

I too know many animators who don't use much reference for human animation (I still don't know many who wouldn't at least study some reference for creature/animals work), but these are all either very experienced professional animators or are animators who's work never quite measures up.

Everyone has their own method of working that they are most comfortable with, and everyone is at a different level or a different place along that path to learning animation.

Truthfully, I don't use near as much reference anymore if I'm animating a biped. Depending on the action, I might, and certainly with acting shots I would generally film some reference in order to seek out some unique acting choices and emotional beats, but these days I'm finally able to see the action animation more in my head, and am finally experienced enough to be able to combine that vision with a deeper understanding of the body in order to be able to just dive into it and pretty much know how most of the physics will work. Of course, I still blow it sometimes and have to go back to the drawing board (whoops!), but for the first time, I'm finally understanding this stuff a little more.

But that's after over a decade as a professional working on films. I'm not claiming that's some big number in the length of a career, there are a whole lot of animators out there with piles more experience and talent than me, that's for sure. But I mention the number of years in order to point out that for at least the first seven or eight years as a professional, I needed to go through a very deep planning process for pretty much every shot if I wanted it to be a shot I was proud of.

If you include my years as a student and working in games, then you're talking about a 12-year stretch where any assignments or shots I got cocky with and skipped my planning phase inevitably turned out simply "adequate," at best. Certainly less special than they could have been. At worst, they were complete failures, and I can't think of a single shot frrom that 12 year stretch that didn't include planning that I would include on a demo reel today.

Conversely, the shots where I spent the most time planning, filmed reference, studied it, etc., are the shots that finished fastest and turned out the best, and which I am most proud of -- or at least can look back on with the least amount of cringing. :)

This is why I so strongly recommend a thorough planning process to animation students. If someone has been animating for a bunch of years and feels like their experience lets them skip that process, then I think that's great -- more power to them. However, the vast majority of us, myself included, would still benefit from some amount of planning for the majority of our shots, *especially* if they include dialogue and/or acting.

To me, recommending to a beginner or mid-level animator that they don't use reference would be just like tossing a first time swimmer into the deep end with no instruction, or handing some carpenters a bunch of wood and tools but no schematics or blueprints and telling them to build a house. Can that guy swim? Maybe he can figure it out, maybe not. Could the carpenters build a house? Sure, maybe, but unless they already have a lot of experience, my guess is that it isn't going to turn out very well, and certainly isn't going to win any architecture awards.

As for the fear you mention of reference affecting our work negatively, that's up to us as the artist. If I film reference of myself for Yoda, Optimus Prime, and ET, and they all move the same way, then I've pretty much failed in my job! ****REFERENCE IS NOT FOR COPYING.**** If someone is copying the reference verbatim, then yes, they run a really high risk of sucking the life out of the shot and animating everything to move the same way they move.

But that isn't how reference should be used. It should be a source you can study to see how the body mechanics work, or to discover great and unexpected acting choices. But THEN you have to apply your knowledge of the principles of animation TO that reference. Exaggerate the poses a bit, push the timing here, add some contrast there, etc.

As long as your are doing your job as the animator to apply life and interest to the reference you are studying, then you don't need to be afraid of it having any negative impact on your work whatsoever. That's my opinion, anyway...

Thanks so much for writing in!

Shawn

HIGH SPEED SUPER SLOW MOTION CLIPS

http://www.engr.colostate.edu/~dga/high_speed_video/#Dynamics

My refrence-

TOY STORY 3

Download your VIDEO References in quick time ...

www.bbcmotiongallery.com

My Selected Shot - Satish

My selected Shot-Tenzing

BlueSky Studios! Watch it

WorkShop TODAY!

Hey Guys.

On special request, out of 700 students of framboxx, only ur batch has been allowed to attend the workshop today at 9:30 Am East of Kailash Centre. Volunteer for activities thr and hav lot of fun, Its going to be awesome.

We will have some outsiders attending it. So try pumping the environment and be creative!

Cheers.

The Room

Adnan - Walk(WIP)

Anticipation

Hey Guys..

I found this really kool image which reveals Aniticpation in Nature..
The image shows a deer tensing down in anticipation of fleeing. It’s only a few frames long, but yet we feel the added springy-ness of the deer’s flight. And physically, it’s impossible for the deer to bounce away without crouching down first - it needs to build up the potential energy in its limbs (squash and stretch again).

Satish - Dan Walk Front View

Satish - Dan Walk Side View

anticipation in animation

WIP Dan JUMP -Tenzing

WIP Dan Walk -Tenzing