Starting out in Animation? Workflow!

I can't stress enough how much a good workflow will help you in your animation. It will speed up your work, your scenes will be easier to manage, the animation's going to look better and you'll just have plain more fun during the process.
I found it one of the most difficult things to develop a workflow I can rely on. There's a ton of tips and tricks on the subject out there, it's kind of an overload. When I was starting out I had so much input from the Animation Mentor lectures, I didn't really know which pieces I should adapt in the first place.
In the end, your workflow it going to be your personal workflow. You'll design it after your needs and preferences and you'll be tweaking it depending on the kind of shot you work on. It will be an organic process and you'll keep adding new pieces and drop others on your way to become a animation ninja (or pirate, which ever you prefer). But it's hard to find a place to start.

With that said, let's take a look at what I would suggest for anyone starting out in animation.

It helped me when my mentor in class six, Kenny Roy, pointed out to me that I should be aware of the phrases in my shot. Take a look at the smokers shot:



If you take a look at the second part, the phrases are:
run in - come to stop - look at cigs - grab the box- grab a smoke - put it in mouth - hop on desk - grab the lighter - light the smoke - lean back - smoke..
That looks like quite a lot but in the end, breaking down a complex shot to manageable pieces is key to keep the process fun and smooth.
Once I'm clear about the phrases, I start making a checklist. Each phrase needs certain ingredients, so a typical phrase list would look like this:
(This is taken from another shot I worked on, so don't get confused by the naming of the phrases. It's just an example for the general approach)

I'm using Notebook for all my AM related business by the way, it's a great note taking app for the mac.

Every phrase needs it's own Anticipation, Action, Overshoot, Settle and depending on the shot a Hold. Sometimes and overshoot might blend into the anticipation of your next phrase, but it helps to keep your animation clean if you make separations as clear as possible

So once my planning is finished and I start blocking my scene, I simply have to follow this list and I can concentrate on creating great poses. It's hard enough to keep all the principles of animation in mind and the character under control when you're starting out in animation. With this workflow it might just get a little easier.

I should point out that I wouldn't have got to this point without the help of my former mentor Kenny Roy. He runs a website where he offers more information and lectures on workflow related stuff. Be sure to take a look around and get your workflow fix. Check it out HERE!

Take care
C

Subtle vs. Low Energy - Part 2

Ok, now we're up for part two. Back in part one of my venture to solve the mystery of low energy vs. subtle I didn't really know what to make of the notes my mentor gave me for the Darth Vader shot.

Now I at least got a slight idea. Last week we started polishing our monologue shot. Check out the version I finished back in class five:



So, I really like this shot! It's fluid, smooth, good looking animation (on a student level, at least). And it has some sort of believable touch to it, it looks sort of casual and like something a person would do in this sort of situation.
Here's the thing though: Kenny asked me to lower down the volume and look at the animation without sound. When you do so, you'll find that you have no idea about what is going on in the shot. He even went so far to speak over the muted shot. Try it, it's fun: Mute the clip and go "Hey! .. You know what?... I think everybody blahblah" and so on. It totally works as well, right?

So I reblocked the whole thing in a matter of days. Which by the way made me feel super confident; I took the shot to this stage in 3 days, whereas the same took me four weeks just half a year ago!
I tried to really make the body language go along with the dialogue. Not to say that the body has to express what the character's saying, but it has to be related to what he's feeling! If a character tells one thing but his body language tells the exact opposite you have some great opportunities for interesting acting choices.
Anyways, here's what I came up with:



This is a lot more expressive and has so much more energy. Maybe even to a level that looks all cartoony and overdone, I'm not even sure if I like this version better or not. But I know it's communicating a lot better, and in the end I guess this should be all about communication. I think I'm on the right track with this. Even though it might feel a bit too snappy-happy and all over the place, it's a huge step when it comes to learning process and I'm really really satisfied with it.
In subtle animations, it's a challenge to get the emotions to stand out and vibrate when you have to stay in the boundaries of a character who's not moving a whole lot.
The thing I will have to try to work on in the future is blending: blending my feel for subtle animation with the newly discovered communication skillz (and yes, they're so mad, they come with a Z!).

If I'll be able to make this happen, the Vader Shot will stand out! Can't wait to get to work on it once AM's over.

Take care
C

Subtle vs. Low Energy - Part 1

Hey there, how's it going?

Class Six keeps me very busy, so I probably won't be posting as often in the upcoming two months.

You might remember that I worked on a brand new shot during break week and I was looking forward to hear what my new Mentor Kenny Roy thinks about it, as I feel like it's my most intense shot in the acting department to date.



Pity, I'm not allowed to work on it at AM as we are supposed to work only on the assignments we worked on with a mentor.
That's by the way the reason why the shot didn't progress, it still needs a lot of polish. But it looks like when I solved this riddle about Subtle vs. Low energy, I'll be starting over anyways, so I'll just leave it for now;)

Well, anyway, Kenny was kind enough to leave me with some notes. One thing he mentioned is still stuck with me and I haven't been able to wrap my head around it so far. He said that the shot is rather low energy than subtle. Whaaat? Isn't subtle the same as quiet and still? Apparently not! I'm still diving into this subject and I'll be sharing what I come to understand about the subject in the coming weeks.

Here's the notes I took from his feedback:
"Shot has some fundamental problems: It looks like low energy or subdued instead of subtle. A chair usually cuts the energy in half, you would have to go a lot broader with his movements to get high energy. Advice: have him stand up, put secondary action in there, i.e. have him hold his helmet and maybe have him rub over a dent with the thumb."
The shot was a candidate for my one person acting piece back in class four, so I had done all the preparation already. I had a first pass of taking reference where I was to include secondary action while he was holding his helmet and fiddled around with it. But then I decided to boil the performance down to it's core. The core to me, is this man, who is not able to see his kids anymore and how he's devastated about it. We have a huge story unfolding there. This man IS low energy! If you take a look at the original acting footage in the Wallstreet sequel (I couldn't find any footage online, unfortunately), you'll find that although Michael Douglas may be standing at the window, he doesn't move an inch during the whole scene. He keeps his hands in his pockets, maybe a shoulder shrug here and there. One pose.
It's the second time I'm getting a note that I should avoid a sitting character in shot. Well, if he's having a hard time, he most likely won't have the energy to move around and do stuff while expressing his emotional state. It's like cartoons aren't allowed to rest and be still at all!
I do understand that a cartoon's purpose is to entertain, but why would you turn a quiet moment into hyperdrive-mode?

I wrote an e-mail to Ed Hooks, the author of Acting for Animators about this and asking for his opinion and advice as well. I'm looking forward to hear from him and hopefully I'll be able to share some parts of his answer with you in a future post.
Meanwhile I'll be trying to find out myself and do some research. I'll get back to you as soon as I know more ;)

I'll be glad to hear your comments and thoughts!
Thanks & take care
C

Super Great Blog Post by Jason Schleifer

Found these blogposts by Jason Schleifer via Spungella.

Check them out, they are a great read:

• Animation Quality vs Quantity - The Great Debate
• Animation Quality vs Quantity - Learning To Focus
• Animation Quality vs Quantity - What About Quality?!
• Animation Quality vs Quantity - Intent

This is just the right input before getting back to work on my dialogue piece. Will update you on that soon too.

Have a good one!
C

how to get more out of your shots: learning process reviewed

Ok, so as I wrote earlier, I have come up with an entirely new idea for the current dialogue exercise.
I gained a whole lot of insight at Ed Hooks' Masterclass and Bobby Beck's lecture while I was at FMX, so I wanted to share that as good as I can and tell you about the thought- and learning-process I was going through..
Ok, let's jump into it by looking at the first version of the shot I submitted:



I love that audio! It's full of energy, has great contrast between the two characters and is just plain entertaining. I wanted to get out of my comfort zone with this one and really push myself with my last exercise at Animation Mentor.
I wasn't happy with what I came up with as I submitted the layout pass. Two guys, with a desk between them, one is even sitting and the other barely moves during the whole piece? Come on! Where's the energy? But I wasn't able to put my malcontent in words.
Then came FMX and I've learned a ton there. Let's check it out:

Basic lessons learned by Ed Hooks and Bobby Beck:

1. Acting is doing!
The character needs to be doing something all the time. It's not like you have to let him jump around all the time though. Waiting is an action too! But then ask: "who is he waiting for?" A character waiting for a first date acts completely different from a character who's waiting for his girlfriend he is about to break up with!

2. The magic formula: Action ---/Obstacle/---> Objective
The character takes action in pursuit of an objective and is interrupted by an obstacle/conflict. There are three types of conflict:
- conflict with yourself
- conflict with the situation
- conflict with the other person

3. The scene takes place in the middle!: 
Know what the character was doing before your shot and what he/she will do after the cut.

4. Acting has almost nothing to do with words!
You can tell the audience one thing with words and show them another thing. What the audience sees overrides what they hear.

5. Goals of an animator:
- communicate your character to the audience
- make your character feel present in the scene

There's a lot more you could and should consider when thinking about your shot, but let's keep the list brief for the sake of easy reading. I'm currently reading Ed Hooks book and there's so much more info that will help you create better performances. Go get it!
Are you still with me?
Ok, let's go back to the clip above and cross check it with the list. The first and second points are more or less covered: Both characters have their objectives and obstacles (will describe them below), but it's provided by the audio and sort of given in this case. Number 3? I give away no context at all to what has happened before or will happen after.
Let's put 4 in other words: Turn off the sound and there should be a story unfolding on your screen. If it's not happening, you obviously failed to use your character to communicate a story or their character traits. It's just moving puppets to sound.
As for 5, they go along with the other points: As long the characters don't have an objective to follow, a story to tell, backstory and emotions, there's no way you can make the character feel present and real in a scene.

When I came up with the idea for the clip I wasn't aware of any of these things and just made up something random that felt like fun to animate. Now here's what I submitted after going over my notes and with the checklist in my mind:



First of all I wanted to come up with something that was up to par with the energy in the audio clip. So there should be movement and action in there.
Then I tried to describe the characters actions, objectives and obstacles:

Writer:
Action: write the script, get help from other scriptwriters
Objective: Write a great script, that satisfies producer, audience, critic and stands out as a piece of art
Obstacle: Can't find a middleway between producer/deadline and his artistic expectations

Producer:
Action: Delegate tasks (script to writer), organizing and overviewing the production
Objective: Get the movie done
Obstacle: Writer is unable to work in a production environment because he thinks he's an actual artist! can't work with people like this!

Point 2, check!
So I had this idea that there should be movement. And the characters' schedules and objectives are never in sync.. basically the writer is unable to keep up with the producers pace.
Movement. Unable to keep up with the producer.. see what I'm getting at? Easy! They are walking towards the producers office while discussing the writers work -Point 1, check-, and the producer sets the pace! Even without the audio we now can read this relationship clearly! Point 4, check! To stress the fact that the producer is in a stronger position than the writer, we put the scene into the building of the production company.
In the end the producer shuts the door in front of the writer. There's a producer tag on the door. So basically he shuts himself, he's not open to the writers suggestions anymore. The writer failed.

Guess we have covered points 1, 2 and 4 so far. But what's with 3 and 5? Aight, let's have a look at 3 first:
Even though we don't have an explicit indication about where they came from, the fact that they are quickly walking through the hallways gives us a sense of context. The producer looks like a man who's hard to get a hold of, so the writer might just had to wait for him to come out of the conference room and intercept him on the way to his office. The end is obvious: the producer is back in his office and keeps on being busy. Whereas the writer.. well he's going either home or straight into the next bar..
Opposing to this scenario, two men sitting in an office isn't exactly rich, right?

Point 5 seems like a culmination of the other points to me. If you managed to create a scene that contains those four points you will most likely be able to communicate your characters to the audience and the will feel present in the scene and context you've created.

Wow. This is easily the most elaborated post I've wrote so far. I surely went through a huge learning process during the last few days and I wanted to make shure I'll share my thoughts. Hope you enjoyed reading and could take something away for yourself. Let me know if I left anything open or unclear, or if you have anything you'd like to add.

And right back to work! Have fun!
C

FMX Diary Part 2

Wow, was that a week just passing by?!

Ok, so lets try to wrap this up:

1. Animation Mentor

Wow, finally: real animation mentor folks, and lots of them! And it was a real fine crowd too. When you arrived at the Festival site in the mornings, you could just walk over to the AM booth and have a chat with everybody. Then we would go to the panels together, have lunch, go see more panels or just kept hanging out. And then it was dinner and beer til late. It was great to see how the community stuck together during the festival.
Bobby Beck was there, and took the time to give extensive feedback on students' demoreels, which was really cool. I was looking forward to meet these folks and I couldn't be happier with how the whole week has turned out. Can't wait for next year!

2. Input Input Input!

As I said in Part 1, I attended Ed Hooks' Acting for Animators Masterclass. So much interesting stuff about the acting side of animation! Did you know that when two people talk to each other, the one talking will look into the opposites face about 40% of the time whereas the listener looks into the talkers face at about 80% of the time? No? That the person listening is most of the time busy to think of what to say after the other person is done talking? Guess you knew that one! But for animators it's specially important to know and be aware of. If you can make the listener display believably that he is in a thought process, you can add so much to your shot!
If you're an animator make sure you go get his book, it's filled with gold!
Then there was Bobby Beck's school presentation. I was expecting him to simply just introduce the school and what it's all about. but instead he gave a lesson in acting choices, where to draw inspiration and reference for your shots from and so on. Totally unexpected and really helpful as you can read in part three...

3. Inspiration

Last week's assignment was to come up with the layout for our dialogue shot exercise. I worked something out, but was never really happy with what I came up with. Well, after Bobby's talk and Ed Hook's class I was aware of what I've done wrong and went right back to my place to think my shot over. And I think the idea I came up with is really worth the trouble I'll be getting myself into now:) Since I was busy with the festival and brainstorming, planning and stuff, I now have two days left to create the new layout AND make a first blocking pass..
Well but it's totally worth the extra effort -I went home a day earlier than planned and even missed the closing party-.  The shot is going to be a lot more entertaining and believable and, well... just plain better. Once the superhurry of the next couple days is over, I'll try and write a post where I compare the two layouts and analyze why I made some of the changes. So look out for that one!

So, is that all there's to tell about last week? No, certainly not, but if I kept writing about all the good things that happended, I'd still be sitting here tomorrow and I really need to get going with my shot;)
I really had a blast at FMX and it was great to meet the Animation Mentor folks and staff, listening to great panels and enjoying the occasional 7 beers.. I'm all charged to tackle this last assignment at Animation Mentor and looking forward to see how it develops over the next weeks.
I'll keep you posted, thanks for tuning in!

Christoph

FMX Diary Part 1

It's FMX time in Stuttgart. I just arrived at my cozy bed and breakfast place, quite close to the festival site. Well actually it's bed only, even coffee is charged separately, but it's cozy nevertheless. Perfect to do my homework in the mornings before heading over to the festival.


It's my first time here at FMX, so I'm really excited about being here and finally meet some of my fellow Animation Mentor students! Phew, I've been in this school for about a year now and never have met anyone in person (from AM that is, although I haven't seen lot's of my friends during that time either;)
Time to change that!
So tomorrow is going to be day one and I have quite a schedule going. First in the morning I'll be attending Ed Hooks' Acting for Animators Masterclass, a three hour workshop. Friends of mine have already been to one of his classes and told me only great things about it, so... Yay!
Then I'll be helping out at the Animation Mentor booth, talking about my experiences during my time at the school. Bobby Beck, co-founder and president of AM will be present too, which is really exciting, since I see him on screen every week but (again) never in person. Time to say a 'thank you' for that wonderful school he and his buddies founded.
Well and then later on I have my regular tuesday evening Q&A. And as a special treat, two classmates and I are going to attend together. Usually I'm sitting alone in my room or the office and talk via webcam to classmates and the teacher. It's going to a blast, I'm really looking forward to that!


Well that's it for now. The title says "diary part one", so I'll be shure to post an update later this week. Might not be tomorrow though ;)

Take good care y'all!
Christoph

Teaser Trailer for Heart String Marionette is out

Animation weirdo M dot Strange's new film. The guy worked four years all on his own to create another feature lenght animation movie. Looking forward to watch the whole thing when it's out.

Time to act!

Aaaahhh, I can finally return to my studies at Animation Mentor! I just had my first Q&A, where I got to meet my class and my new mentor, Jason Martinsen. He has done some awesome work, including Iron Man 2, Horton Hears A Who! and Ice Age 2 and 3. Check out his Demo Reel!
Fantastic, isn't it?
I'm really happy to be back at this inspiring place, inhabited by great folks. Looking back, taking my 3 months break was definetely the right decision. I could work on my body mechanic shots and take it a little easier for a while and now I'm back and fully charged for all that acting goodness that's coming up now.
That's right, acting! The subject for class 4 is "introduction to acting" and we're getting to do a pantomime shot as well as a monologue shot (without facial animation though, that's going to be done in class 5). So lots to learn, lots of work, lots of excitment coming up!

Talking about lots of work; I'll probably go dark for a while now and won't be able to post as often. You wouldn't believe how time flies at Animation Mentor. Must be some different time-dimension-thing or something, you literally sit down and start working on your shot and before you know it, four weeks have passed.
Well but anyway, I'll give my best to keep you guys updated on a more or less regular basis about Animation Mentor or work related news.

Allright, let's go back to planning that pantomime shot now.

Cheers
C

these ten minutes of film have changed my life

It was in 2006 when I saw Jojo In The Stars at a local film festival and was blown away by it. I had never thought that some computer generated film might be able to touch me as deeply, to convey the characters feelings so convincingly. And they barely had faces. So much for effective character design.
Back then I was selling guitars at some store and was all devoted to music. But this short film turned it all upside down.
I came quite a long way since.
I was able to get an internship which lead to my first 3D job some months after the screening, went to school, learned and learned and learned. Then I got my job at the company where I'm still working today, Feinheit. I'm still learning new stuff every day working on the job.
And then of course there's Animation Mentor. Best school ever. Short, focused, hard animation training with great people and the best teachers you could imagine.
Tomorrow the new term is going to start and I can't wait for it. The batteries are recharged after my three month break and I'm ready to dive back into my studies.

It's crazy to think that these the minutes lead me to all that change..
Enjoy.




Happy New Year
C

I've got a candy store for a brain!

When it comes to having ideas and then making them happen I'm very much like a kid in a candy store: Going crazy and running from a shelf to another without touching anything, because as soon as I see something that looks appealing and approach it, something much tastier catches my eyes and I turn towards that new shiny piece of candy.

I always felt kind of depressed about my unability to bring all my brainchilds to life and being lazy when it comes to making things happen. But I think my time at Animation Mentor was kind of an eye opener in this aspect.
It's the getting it done part where I'm struggling, and Animation Mentor is really all about getting a huge pile of work done in a short amount of time, week after week. Learning under those circumstances is probably the most valuable thing I'm getting out of my studies apart from the exquisite animation training.
Once you're wrapped up in work, executing one of your ideas, you don't bother about all the other things you might come up with in the future. You just care about getting it done properly and then move on to new things.
So it's all about deciding, executing and moving on.
And as soon as I'm done with one thing I've got a bag full of candy to choose from. Pure luxury, ain't it?

Talking about getting things done: Here's a new still from my 'make it grand' short. have to get it done before I get back to my studies at AnimationMentor in January, or I'll never get it done. Tight schedule, but I guess it'll work out somehow.