Eye Direction and Lying

Jim found this link. Pretty interesting, eh?

Performance

Great moments in the [animated] films we make don't come from flashy animation but from great performance. Animation is just a tool we use to create this performance, so sf this is done right, then our technique will be invisible and we will simply see the character in the moment.

You can have all the amazing, fluid motion you want, but if you miss the intent of the shot, then your story will suffer. The art of great performance draws you in to the character's situation, hits the beats it has to deliver, and does this as cleanly as possible.

JSG November 2005

My friend Jason came up from LA for Thanksgiving, and, as usually happens, we ended staying up stupidly late talking about animation. The quote above is basically what J said at some point as my sleepy brain struggled to keep up. I've had to piece it together from my jumbled memory, but it works better as a quote so that's what you're getting.

It's very inspiring to talk to him, for he has such a passion for acting. J used to sit next to me, and his comments were always eye-openers, for he would see things that I hadn't considered. (It was
he who taught me to distance myself from the "business" of a shot and look at the interaction of shapes within the frame to make sure that the movement was working underneath the surface.)

This is why it is very hard to watch something like a "Wallace & Gromit" or "The Incredibles" or "The Iron Giant" for their animation. The characters perform, and they draw you in to the story and then half an hour has gone by and you've forgotten to look at how the stuff was animated. I think this proves Jason's point very well, for the animation takes on a life of its own that we can connect with with very little effort.





Jason probably said lots more interesting stuff that night, but I was so sleepy that I didn't consciously remember it. Perhaps if anyone wants to hear more I can always try hypnotism...

...or, you could ask him the next time you see him. He's the one that looks like he's going to ask you for money.

My Penguins DVD Cover

If you get the separate Pengys DVD sold in Wal-Mart, then it has my work on the front.

Woo!

Famous GF

I'll chalk this up as a point for the forces of good...

Heh.

Mad Shots

Our chum the mysterious "cgAnimator" asked what shots I did on "Madagascar", and seeing as it's out to buy now, I guess it's OK to write about it. Now you can step through them and see everything I learnt laid bare before your very eyes...



-=Memorable Shoreyfied Madagascar Shots=-


Alex being whacked by Gloria wielding a stick, while the lemurs look on from the bushes.
-My first major shot with the lead characters in it. Yikes!

Gloria wallowing in the hot tub while Alex bounces around. He comes up behind her and finishes her line.
-Probably the toughest shot I did in the film. I think I talked about this one in an earlier post somewhere...

The close up of Alex "Riverdancing" on Melman's neck.
-Alex is the new, and less annoying alternative to Michael Flatley. I had to watch that silly man for reference.

Gloria's turn and reaction to the boat's landfall.
-A simple shot, but I like how it turned out.

Alex saying he likes sushi, and the pengys slapping each other about in celebration.
-My first real dialogue CU. Learnt a lot from Rex on this one - namely, to watch for static areas in the face, particularly the cheeks, and to push expressions further for greater contrast.



-=Distinguished Redvan-inated Pengys bits=-

Rico shouting "Eggnog!", just like John Belushi in "Animal House".
-A fun close up, although I probably had even more of a good time with Kowalski hitting the fish with a mallet in the background

All the stuff from the anvil shot to the Granny waggling the foam
finger at Mr. Chew.
- A whole bit of me. Woo!


So there you go. Be nice!

Madagascar on DVD

It is out today! Go and buy it in all its colourful glory.

Animated News has a preview of the DVD here. The last image on the page is from my shot!

Polish

There's a cool post over on the Spline Doctors' Blog about polishing up a shot - taking it from the blocking stage on to that giddy nirvana that is Final.

They have produced a little cheat sheet as an Acrobat file that you can grab 'ere. Study it well, for I will be testing you later.

Yaargh!

Child's Play

This is the annual drive run by Penny Arcade to collect money, games and toys for children in hospital. You can either send money or buy stuff off of Amazon wishlists for a specific hospital.

Do it!

CG Channel Thing Part 2

The second part of that CG Channel training introduction thingy went live on the internet this past Monday. It shows a little better what they are going for, and even features a brief bit of Emilio's animation work.

I think it's going to be a very good buy for people with even a passing interest in animation. I always like to see how people go through the process, so it'll be interesting for me, at least. With that said, I don't really think that the technique for "muscle mass" that was shown in the clip worked as well as it could. I can certainly see what Jonathan is going for (the reaction of the muscles to the impact of the foot fall), but adding this visual discontinuity makes it look like a knee pop on a rig with such little complexity. It might have been better to hold off on this technique until a more detailed character was used.

Anyway, I'm not going to get into niggly bits when the overall thing looks very promising, so a big woo to those guys!

Sheridan Alumni

This last year the students at Sheridan have produced some weapons-grade shorts. In addition to Vera Broscol's "Snow-bo" I also stumbled across Jonathan Klassen and Dan Rodrigues's "An Eye For Annai".

Amazing stuff!

I showed these to lots of people at work, and nearly everyone responded with, "Excellent. That's so your style". I'm not sure why, since I have never produced anything this cool. See website illustrations for proof of this fact.

Anyway, go and have a looky, right now!

AM>

Drat that Shawn Kelly and his clever animation ways. I was in the process of mentally preparing a blog entry based on how Walter Murch's ideas put forward in "In The Blink Of An Eye" could work really great when applied to animation, but the villain has beaten me to it in the AM newsletter. Furthermore, he explains everything way better than I ever could, dammit.

Go and have a read of his essay, concerning blinks.

At least it saves me the typing, I suppose. Here are a few paragraphs of his that I think are most insightful:

"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, and a 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."

I'm sure Shawn won't mind me quoting him here, considering he STOLE MY IDEA and all.

Just kidding.

I'll have to up the ante and come up with something way better now, (possibly featuring goats and formal dancing).


-RedvanimationMentor

End of Moo.

Just finished another hard shot, and probably the toughest I've tackled so far. It's been a real rollercoaster for me, and of course I always take it to heart when I struggle to bring things to final. (I know, I know, but I just can't help it!) It's at that stage that I really appreciate the help of those around me, since it's hard to maintain perspective when I pull that heavy blanket of stress over my own head. Fortunately if I am stressing I grab the nearest genius and get them to look things over, and it can really make the difference. I mentioned this on the blog somewhere before, but as a student I would always just lock myself away and trudge through things on my own, and while this may or may not work, time and experience have taught me to seek out other animation brains when things get tough. It just works! Animation shouldn't really be a reclusive endeavour, at least for the most part, and collaboration makes things a bucket-load better. A big thanks to Schleif, Denis, Chung and Tim!

Emilimation DVD's

My cube buddy, Mr. Emilio Ghorayeb, has just announced that he will be making some sort of animation training DVD for CG Channel. I think it will include workflow bits, as well as animation tips and things to remember when clicking away. The idea is that you will watch him animating, and he will explain what he is doing and why, every step of the way.
It certainly sounds like a good idea, and I hope it does really well. Be prepared for lots of swearing, particularly if Quake is fired up at any point.

Heh.

Watch a taster video here.