Quick Sketch

Complex Inferiority

"In theory, if you rotoscope a really good performance by a really good actor, it ought to be much more effective than an animated performance that's been drawn or computer generated to match a voice."


Amid posted this little movie critic gem on Cartoon Brew this morning. It's amazing that even after America has driven modern animation for the last 100+ years, it is still not a mainstream-accepted medium with the gravitas needed for informed review. Sure, Mum and Dad will take the kids to the cinema for 90 minutes to keep them happy, but they certainly don't see animation as art in the same way that painting or film-making is art, and this allows critics to write sloppy, uninformed pearls of wisdom such as that seen above.

If someone had written something similarly dismissive about live-action techniques they would be jumped upon and ridiculed, but unfortunately that is not the case here. I think most people are blase about the process of creating an animated performance. They just don't understand that getting into character is just as important for an animator as it is for an actor - the intent is the same after all! The mainstream press talks at length about the technical aspects of feature animation, (particularly CG) but rarely is the process of creating the actual motion discussed. That may dehumanise the medium, and leave it wide open for ignorance to creep in. No people, we don't have a "Final Animation" button!

Animation can be immediate, energetic, subtle - whatever. All those things happen in the planning stage, in 'rehearsal'. It may take us longer to deliver the final performance but that is the nature of the medium. While film may have the ad-libbing thing, we just do it before we start acting!

I hope this begins to change at some point. Maybe we need some superstar animators disrupting parties, destroying hotel rooms and dating Paris Hilton?

Mark's Sketch Blog

My cubemate Mark knocks out a digital painting every day, and they're all rather ace. Have a look!

H E R E .

Meow

It's a bit pixellated at this resolution, but have a click and you can see it full size under the "All Sizes" option. My first TabPC doodle!

Tablet

For those interested, I bought an HP TC1100 Tablet PC. It is a shame but they don't make this model anymore, since it has some nice ideas in its execution. The team developing it left the company and went to Motion Computing. I bought this one because it is a "slate" model with a detachable keyboard, and is small enough to carry around. Also, it has a dedicated graphics card rather than all that integrated nonsense.

I've already roughed out a few animation ideas in Plastic Animation Paper, which, while not perfect, has at least given me a better sense of timing out my keys. Hopefully I'll get better as I learn more about the software. From what I understand Mr. Schleif's greasePencil script will allow something very similar within Maya, the coolness of which has made him an INTERNET SUPERSTAR.

Right. Back to the scribbling of roughs!

Follow the Leader

Like many animators (Schleif, Hull, Behm, Hurd, Cordan - what a list of superstars!) before me, I have finally taken the plunge and got myself a little Tablet PC on which to doodle away the evening hours. With a little luck it will give me the motivation to create some more stuff in my spare time.

The cool thing is that I will be able to use Plastic Animation Paper to thumbnail my acting ideas and even see what the timing is like! Another positive will be that I can quickly make a clip to support something that I have described terribly on this blog.

The only bad thing is that I can't really draw all that well, but you know what they say - practise makes slightly-better-than-awful.

Wish me luck!

Blocking Vs Christmas.

It's always a nerve-wracking situation to show blocking for the first time. Two and a half years as a fully growed-up laminator and I still get a severe case of jittery tum over it! Blocking is the most creative and most personal part of the shot process for the animator. That means it's also the toughest, with the most margin for error. The creative leads haven't seen any real performance until this point, and your interpretation of their scene is going up on the big screen. Yikes!

While having to make changes can be an absolutely necessary eventuality in order to deliver the intent of the shot, it's a totally brill feeling though to come out of a review with only a few minor notes and an hearty, "looks good!". It means that all the thought put into the prep before the keyframing has paid off, for it's steered those keys in totally the right direction. It's the best place to be after the first review, and always makes me prance about like a small child on Christmas morn, Except, my version is better since I can get this feeling more than once a year, even when I'm a grown-up. Sort of.

(Father Christmas must be real by the way, for there is no way my parents could have smuggled all my pressies to Tenerife without me knowing!)

Cashing In

The Mesh and I went to the cinema yesterday evening for a bit of light-hearted fun. She had been eagerly awaiting the release of a film, y'see, so in spite of having just got back from Tahoe (ACE!) off we went.

The film itself was cool, but I was really annoyed that in front of a comedy about clothes they put a trailer for "World Trade Center", a re-enactment of the terrorist attacks barely 5 years after the event. I'm sure it is being handled very carefully and all, but I question the need for another 9/11 dramatisation so soon, (particularly featuring Nicholas Cage). "Flight 93" has only been out a few months, and now here's a new one with a very Hollywood trailer that left no doubt as to the graphic scenes contained in the film. We all know that the studios can tell this story, (particularly due to the events tragically playing out to almost cinematic conventions), but why make this now? I'm sure it was a pretty harrowing experience for those who actually knew people killed in the attacks. I'm sure because Miss Mesh is one of them, and to see her in tears two minutes after the theatre lights went down upset me greatly.

I assume that the people making the film didn't lose anyone in New York in 2001, for if they had Mr. Cage would not be donning a fireman's hat and pretending like he had any clue what those people experienced on that day, and that of the others left behind to mourn them.

Legal Alien

That is my legal designation here in the US. It's not really a very nice label, is it? Looking back I seem to have written lots of meandering posts about jobs and reels and Welshness, but not much about being a migrant worker in a country that doesn't really want me anywhere near the labour pool.

I was really very lucky to get my job when I did, with no relevant experience in professional feature animation. As far as I know, I am the only graduate from my uni to get a job straight away as an animator in a big US company. It's not going to get any easier either, further down the line since the quality of work coming out of domestic schools is really quite fantastic right now.

The US is, rather obviously, the best place in the world for feature animation, and like many other Western countries these days, It is also a pain in the arse to get through the immigration gate. There are many hurdles to clear before sitting down at a animation desk these days, and it's unfortunate that although our little industry lives in a progressive global market its companies and creatives are bound by national labour laws and generally mistrustful immigration agencies.

A foreign applicant must have an amazing reel/industry clout to stand out not only from the large number of domestic candidates but the other foreign hopefuls too. This is crucial not only for the individual, but for the company, who, (if interested), must provide proof that the 'alien' really is a cut above everyone else, and therefore indispensable. This is where industry experience comes in handy because it is tangible proof that can be listed and used in evidence to back up this indispensability - ace showreels don't really hold much sway over any country's immigration officers. I'm afraid.

Other stuff can also be used as evidence of alien greatness - newspaper articles, published papers, awards and honours all help to build up a picture of a candidate's merit. Add this to company wanting you and a bit of industry know-how and you're laughing all the way to the one-way ticket purchase.

Of course, this is the start of the adventure for us wide-eyed foreigners, for once we touch down we have to work out how to actually live in our new home. So many life things (Money! Car! House! Culture!) to take care of that a native doesn't have to acclimatise to, particularly at break neck speed before the world of work beckons. I'm actually surprised that I managed to do all this without some form of breakdown occurring, but after all the bureaucratic nonsense is done it is totally worth it.

This may sound a bit doom and gloom, but I don't think any foreign worker shouldn't at least have a pop and try to land the job overseas they always wanted, particularly in animation, The industry moves at a terrific pace, and I firmly believe that to be one of the best in the world, a company must hire globally, from a talent pool hailing from all different nations/cultures in order to tell stories that continue to appeal to everyone.