Uncanny Valley

An interesting article on anthropomorphism waiting to be read, here. I think modern CG is currently stuck in that trough at the moment, so there is always the question of whether to try and push through towards real or hang back in the safety of cartoony-ness. I'd say "The Incredibles" characters have way more soul than those in the new Final Fantasy movie ("Advent Children"), with the later looking impressive in stills, and very reanimated zombie-doll in the movie. It does look great technically, don't get me wrong, but is a bit creepy, nonetheless.

Give me cartoony-ness any day!


Trivia: I went to art college in a valley. It wasn't particularly uncanny though. More .... rainy.

Employee of the Month

Our lad Jason recently penned a post about the lack of recognition animators get for the amazing work they do. I certainly share this sentiment, for while lots of people know of the "9 old men" and some of the more famous current animation supervisors, (Misters Keane, Deja, Baxter etc), there are plenty of other worthy names out there deserving of some renown.

About two weeks ago, (I say this in order to distance myself from the thinkings of the boy Schlief - I woz 'ere first! Hee.) and in an attempt to rectify this, I thought that I might write up a little something about an animator whom I would like the world to meet, so that they may stand, bow and accept their applause. Where I know stuff I will try to describe some cool work that they did and what I learnt from it, (For these will all be people I am acquainted with, rather than impersonal biographies).

Now I don't know if people would hate being exposed in this way, but...

actually....

tough. If your name's on IMDB, then you're fair game in my book. Heh.

Dead Cool

I saw "Corpse Bride" last night. It's pretty amazing really, and I still don't know how those guys can produce such fine work straight-ahead, one frame at a time. I love the production design - all of those Burton curlicues and spirals are really unique to that particular bloke, and are much copied. That said, some contrast to the darkness of the towns would have been nice, (a la "Nightmare Before Christmas").

I will say that I think the animation in "Wallace & Gromit" is marginally better, more organic, if you will. A couple of times "Corpse Bride" throws you out of the story with a few pops and stuff, but hey, who am I to complain? I couldn't do that stuff!

There is something special about a stop-motion animated film. They're so tactile, so immediate that they have a real sense of power to them. Close-ups, in particular..... Woah!

It makes me want to move some puppets around now. I could do that, right?

Absence

Apologies for my absence this week, chums. I haven't posted anything in a while due to this 'ere arm thing. I've got an ergonomic evaluation on Tuesday, so hopefully the lady who's coming in will be able to get my work area sorted out. It's terrible! I've had to limit my geekery to work only - no home drawing on the computer, no games. Bad bad bad!

In positive work news, I finalled my first shot on that little known project, "Shrek 3". i don't know if you've heard of it, but I reckon it's going to be pretty successful. It features some green guy. Dunno what his name is though.

I am listening to a very nice CD made by my cubemate Emilio. He's a bit handy with those old school record things, putting them together to make it sound as if it's all one long piece of music. Now I don't really like dance/techno, but I have to say I do like this, so it must be testament to the lad's obvious talent in that area. It seems to be good for shutting everything else out and allowing me to work into my blocking.

Ouch. That's my arm telling me it's time to stop writing posts of no import.
Bye!

Pengys

Just snapped out of my W&G reverie and realised that we saw our Penguins short for the first time on the big screen as well! What a dope!

It was pretty amazing to see it all lit and yummy-looking and stuff. I think the whole thing turned out very well, and am excited to see the reaction to the short on its release. My pal the anonymous "cgAnimator" asked what shots I did, and while I will certainly oblige in due course, I should probably wait until it's released before I write down any of that stuff.

Also, I think the fact that we are releasing in theatres allows us to be eligible for Academy consideration in the short category. If that is indeed the case, then it's sure to be nominated.

Nice.

Wallace & Gromit

This morning I got to attend a company preview of "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit". Holy crap, it was absolutely ACE. The story was entertaining and rich, the characters were great, and the animation was unbelievable. My favourite was Lady Tottington - a fabulous caricature of a genteel English rose, (you guys all know what I mean by that, right?). When you go and see it, pay special attention to her, because she is brilliantly observed. I loved just watched her arms...

Right, now bring on "Corpse Bride" and we'll have a face off.

What a great month to go the cinema!

Ergonomicals

I've just got back from the GP, to whom I was sent with a very poorly right arm. It's me mouse arm, y'see - all of this geeking out moving characters around all day seems to have buggered up my most valuable of limbs.

Recently we were given new Logitech optical mice with a wheel instead of a button, and that seems to have been a trigger to this arm situation. I then had it swapped for an Evoluent one (www.evoluent.com) but that didn't do good things either, and I have ended up going back to my trusty super-old Logitech (pic here: http://www.clubic.com/photo/00027044.jpg ).

Does anyone have any more things I could try? There's always the tablet option, but I would really rather stick to a mouse if I can. The best one in the world for me would look exactly like the one posted above, but optical and with a separate wheel as well as a proper middle mouse button (kind of like a normal version of the Evoluent).

What does else everyone do to protect their major bread-winning appendage? I would welcome any suggestions at this point.

Thanks!

Mad 2

With "Madagascar" making 500 million dollars worldwide, today's announcement of a sequel is no big surprise to you all, I'm sure.

No details as yet, other than most of the cast are already on board, and all of us original lot will be the geeks behind the button-pushing.

The other bit of news is that our pengys are starring in a short that'll play in front of "Wallace & Gromit". Phew! I can finally say that out loud. It's been tough. I worked on it, y'see!

T-Shirt Submission!

Some time ago I submitted a design to Threadless for voting. Well, it's now up there, so please head on over and vote for me! It's only a super-simple design but I hope it gets made. If it does I plan to put the profits into the company Hurricane Fund. All of the contributions are being matched dollar for dollar, so that could be pretty spiffy if it wins.

Thanks very much!

Mr Ben

Ben's a cleverer man than I. He posted this in the comments section of my last post. I thought I would make it a bit more visible, since most people won't see it otherwise.

-------

I personally think that bouncing ball drawing doesn't represent it really well, and that Tytla didn't draw that way (I may be wrong though, just basing this on thoughts, not facts). I think he rather animated in a blown-up thumbnail style, that showed the forces, showed where the volumes were, what the facial expressions were, etc. And then his cleanup gave it the details, connected some lines, and so on.

And he states that it's actually a philosophy. I believe it works in 3D as well, but differently. In 3D, thinking of forces will help you get it more right than it would be if you were just thinking of moving forms. But there won't be anything like the 2 drawings that are exactly the same, but the forces one has more vitality to it than the forms one. In 2D, that would be because of how the pencil was pushed. It's amazing how much a line can say about your thoughts at the time of drawing.

I think it's got lots to do with getting into your character. If you actually get into it, and feel the movements, you'll think about forces naturally. Cause when you're running, or punching someone, or screaming, or anything, you're not thinking "oh, I should tilt my head this way, move my arm that way, curve my spine that way to keep balance", you're just thinking about the emotion inside of you. And that will naturally bring force to it. If you really place yourself in the character, I think the force will come naturally. You'll actually be taking snapshots of a movement, instead of placing a form here, then next frame a bit further, then the other frame another bit further, to get movement out of it. I guess it might all come down to this: you've got to transform movement into still drawings that will transform themselves into movement. You musn't just transform drawings into movement.

Does that make any sense?

- Benjamin

4:25 PM

--------

I think Ben is agreeing with me, (maybe?) since his points seem to echo mine - all those aformentioned forces and forms are considered implicitly when a talented animator tackles a shot.

The discussion makes much more sense in 2D, but unfortunately I have no experience that way so can only try to apply these 'ere things to our digital puppets.

Yes / No / Shut up spiky Welshman?

Forces for Courses

OK, so read this and then come back:

Carlos Baena's Website - Don Graham Notes

Did that make your head spin? It did mine. I'll have to be honest, it sounds like the intellectualisation of something inherent in the normal animation process to me. A good animator will always consider the forces motivating and motivated by the body in motion. I can see the differences in the bouncing ball diagram, but did Tytla really draw like that? I have a hard time picturing it, and it's certainly nothing like the roughs I've seen from his Disney stuff. Maybe I'm just not understanding the whole concept!

On my last shot, the character was heavily influenced by the external forces acting on him. Actually this was the point of the whole shot! So by planning out what parts of the body had the most inertia, what would move where, and where the centre of gravity was and all that jive, the right poses kind of made themselves simply by thinking about stuff logically. I never draw super fancy thumbnails (I couldn't if I tried anyway), but my little pics usually have lines showing where the masses are going. It just makes sense to think about where bits are flying off to and why, right?

I suppose this essay may have more application in 2D where the artist has much more control over volume than those of us with pre-designed rigs. If anything though, I hope it makes all of us put a bit more thought into planning movements out. I promise I will!

Hooray!

I think have Carpal tunnel syndrome!

.....





Bugger.

Hurricane Help

If you buy one of these cool T-shirts from Threadless for $10, they donate $20 to the relief fund.

Film concept

On Uli's blog today he has a post that describes a film concept called "Little Beauty King". It was supposed to spoof all of the old Disney films, and seems to have ended up little a 2D, racy version of "Shrek".

Have a looky here:

Knickers around ankles alert!

Luci's Baby Book

Here is a link to Flickr, which contains a baby book made by my department for Luci, who left to have a baby. Cool, eh?

F I N A L E

Guess What?

I finaled my shot!

Wheee!

Those who read my post from Monday will know that I was worried about finishing my last shot before leaving the show and moving onto the next one. Well, after a couple of late nights and daytimes at my desk spent actually working, it seems to have turned out OK. I showed my stuff as a next pass in yesterday morning's review and it was finaled. How unexpectedly cool! I spent the rest of the day finessing the animation and making things look pretty - smoothing out arcs, adding some subtle overlap in certain places, and then wandering around the department making a nuisance of myself.

I usually get pretty impatient to have stuff off my plate, especially when animation has been approved, but I'm finding that it really is worth the time to go back and look at everything overall with a critical eye. I've noticed a few pops and intersections, that I hadn't spotted before. I found that by leaving the shot alone for an hour or two, (I went and played football at lunchtime, and ping pong in the afternoon) I'm able to see the wonky stuff much better.

I hope people will like it when they finally get to see it on the big screen, since I think it turned out pretty well. It's certainly one of the more technically complex shots that I have done.

"I'm no Superman"

Doo-Wee-Do...

Heh.

I've been watching the first season of Scrubs courtesy of those guys at Netflix, and I'm really enjoying it so far. It's funny, well-written and, at times, quite touching.

The performances are particularly noteworthy, like that of John C. McGinley, who plays the Attending Physician, (I think) Dr. Cox. Watching his face is super fun, since when he is being sarcastic, (which is most of the time) it is filled with unusual stuff for animation geeks to look at.

His eyes are open wide, but the mouth is tense and pursed. The way in which the dialogue is enunciated is really off balance, too. He does lots of exaggerated head shakes, and emphasises his delivery by jutting out his chin. I guess it's kind of like baby talk in a way, just mean, over-the-top baby talk.
I also love seeing the moment he suddenly drops the act and everything softens into normality. It's quite brilliant.

It would be really cool to animate a character in such a way, since the personality is so unique... Let's have more of those in our films!