It Rhymes With "Red Van"

Tired Eyes

2008-08-08T10:07:00.000-07:00

The process of working through a shot is a tough one. Much of the creative stuff occurs just after launch. It is here that acting choices, filming reference, thumbnailing and key-posing are hammered out, leaving the rest of the time allocated for revision, detail and polish, and it is here that familiarity comes with a set of blinkers. Once you've got them on it makes it hard to see things that would once have been obvious, like pops, spacing issues, even some acting choices not working so well!

Given that an animator has probably looked at one shot thousands of times when they reach those final stages, it's good to have some tricks to help see the work with fresh eyes. Here are some:

- Look at the shot at half speed -
Spacing and weight issues really show up when slowed. This way brain has time to pay attention to all of those little details you put in!

- Flip the shot horizontally -
If your movie playback doesn't support this, you can always go all old school and simply hold up a mirror to the screen, for the result is the same. Looking at the shot this way is cool for personally I find that I uncover balance issues with my poses in this way? Have I been posing with my head tilted to one side? I don't know, but this helps fix it.

- Turn off bits of the character -
Arms and legs can be be and flappy and gesture-y, distracting you from the movement of the core parts like bodies and heads. Turn them off! Now you can track the important bits free from all that gesticulation!

- Take a break -
I always find that a five minute break does wonders for my ability to see what's not working. I will sit back down and my desk and wonder what I was thinking of, just 10 minutes ago! Whee!

- Someone else's opinion -
Probably pretty obvious, but this is absolutely the best thing you can do to improve your work! Animation is a collaborative thing, and your work will be all the better for having some new eyes on the work...

Woo!

New Ringling Shorts

2008-07-19T10:28:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a chance to see them all yet, but I really like "Emily in the Clouds" and "Siku and Tuku". They are (1,2) and (2,3) in the grid...

HERE THEY ARE!

Congrats to all the new graduates!

Cool Pixar

2008-07-01T18:01:00.000-07:00

I like hearing stories about Amelie-style altruism. Now you can read one too...

Crying Wall-E youTube lady...

: D

A Panda who does Kung Fu

2008-06-02T15:48:00.000-07:00

DWA had the Friends and Family screening for KFP in San Francisco last weekend. I left with a warm and happy feeling inside. I am not going to say lots about it, for there are plenty of places to find such discourse on these 'ere opinionated internets, but I really feel that people who enjoy a good film should go and see it, for it is one. A good film, that is. Actually that's wrong - it's an amazing film! Yay!

Maybe we'll talk later about it, when you have all seen it.
: )

WELL DONE, KFP CREW!

Animation Mentor

2008-04-15T13:27:00.000-07:00

Hello Blog!

It's tough to post these days. Life is hectic at the moment, both outside of work and in. I do have some fun news I wanted to share though, and that is that this past week I started as a Community Mentor for the Animation Mentor online school! The online campus is truly incredible, and the students are an enthusiastic and helpful bunch. Yay!

The role of the community mentor is to lurk around places and then swoop down like a ninja and offer advice/notes to students, outside of their regular contact with their assigned class mentor. I am wearing black at this moment for this very purpose. It allows me to make super stealthy ninja crits. Silk is better than my current cotton due to the reduced noise from friction, but my silk ninja outfit is in the wash. It isn't really. I don't have such an outfit. But I want one.

Anyway, I hope to do a decent enough job. Let's see how it goes.

Ninja vanish!

==-\| W H O O O O S H |/-==

The Dying Art of Cinema-going

2008-02-26T15:56:00.000-08:00

The big worry in Hollywood right now is one of theatre attendance. The Bigs are worried that people are eschewing the multiplex in favour of watching films at home on ever expanding screens. To some extent the home theatre market is encroaching on the box office dollar, but from the takings of the larger releases in the last couple of years it seems clear to me that the market is still there, it just needs to be coaxed back out again.

As someone who falls into this group I am definitely going to need to see change before I start handing over notes of real money for tickets again. I used to visit the cinema on a regular basis, but now I can't even remember what the last film I saw there was as it has been so long. There are a number of reasons I now favour simply waiting for Netflix, and I wonder how much of this resonates with other people, or whether I'm just a miserable, anti-social git:

Mobile Telecommunications - In spite of the little advertisements at the start of every film people still insist on chatting, text messaging and the occasional game of snake, casting a brilliant blueish-white light into the dark to acompany their own brand of noise pollution. Now, technology exists to effectively block the carrier signal to individual phones, and I believe this should be standard in all cinemas, (allowing emergency calls, of course). Once you enter into a theatre you are agreeing to be incommunicado for the duration of the screening, or have the option to move into the lobby to make a call. Sounds fair enough to me.

Seating - like it is where I come from, all seating for popular shows should be assigned. You can plan in advance and book, or choose from what is available when you reach the box office. I don't know why it's not all like that everywhere, but it should be! It would make everyone more relaxed when trying to find a good seat. Ushers should take groups to their seats to make things easier, and which has the secondary bonus for the cinema in that sneaks can't get away with seeing multiple shows on the cost on a single ticket.

People - with the lines blurring between home theatre and the cinema, it seems that people are bringing the same mentality to the movies with them as they would adopt at home. Most of the time this is fine, but not always. Maybe I'm just a prudey Brit but I don't like others pulling me out of the main attraction. For me, cinema is all about immersion, concentration and the experience. I can't imagine you all would disagree with me, but feel free to tell me otherwise.

The strength of going to the cinema is that when the audience is all invested in the film, laughing together, crying together; acting as a single entity, then it is one of the best experiences you can have. The trouble lies in its fragility - it doesn't take much to ruin the whole night for everyone. I would really like to see the resurgence in the popularity of the cinema as it is good for all concerned, and steps are being made to modernise it and make it distinct from viewing at home, but I worry that the root of the problem does not lie in the infrastructure, and more to do with a change in social climate.

So. There we are.
You can turn your phones on again now.

The Big Knights

2008-02-08T13:36:00.000-08:00

Hello Blog. Somewhere way back in the mists of time I think I mentioned "The Big Knights" - an animated C-BBC series by Neville Astley and Mark Baker. It is still one of my favourite animated series' and I was delighted to find that some of the episodes have been put up on youTube!

All the characters are so unique and appealing! I also really like that the plotlines are clever and fun, whilst being sophisticated at the same time. There is no dumbing down of the story at all, and yet it is always super clear what is happening. This is masterful stuff hiding in the guise of mid-afternoon children's entertainment.

Please take the time to watch one.... or eight. They're not available on DVD - the BBC sat on the rights and never released them but for half of the episodes on lame-o VHS. What a terrible shame.

Anyway. Enjoy, blog!

Glumpers!

2008-01-18T19:39:00.000-08:00

Hello blog. Have you missed me? I have missed you. I am sorry you are sad. To make you feel better how about telling those good people out there about Glumpers?

It is a new animated thingy full of awesomeness. I say thingy since I don't really know what format the characters will appear in, but I like it very much. It is simple and clean and organic.

There isn't all that much to see at the moment, but Episode Two made me laugh out loud and that is a good thing to do on a Friday evening.

Goodbye blog! Have a good weekend!

Macy's Shrek Bags

2007-12-17T10:07:00.000-08:00

Mesh and I were walking through Manhattan over Thanksgiving and I realised that all the Macy's bags people were carrying had my pose on them. As we were standing outside the flagship store, there were literally thousands of them. It was a pretty cool sight.

Here's what the bag looked like:

WD40 and the Power of Pencils.

2007-12-15T18:05:00.000-08:00

Wow. I can't believe it's been nearly two months since I showed the Red Van any posty attention. It's going to continue to be inconsistent for the foreseeable future, so the rust is really going to be a problem around here! Yipes!

Anyhoo, I'm still around - just very busy.

So a nice chap emailed me asking about animation and I found myself writing the following. I think it's kind of a logical conclusion to the whole "Should CG animators be able to draw?" debate:

For an animator, it's all about bringing a character to life with the tools available. Many people swear that animators are nothing without strong drawing skills, but I would say strong visualisation skills are more important. The difference is minor, but it is there. If you can externalise a brilliant idea, then all is well. Drawing is a great skill to have whatever happens, but its the inherent quality of communication that you are learning to improve when you pick up that pencil.

This makes sense to me, seeing as my definition of "being able to draw" is different from the next persons...
Right?
I'll get my coat.

A Day in the Life

2007-10-19T15:45:00.000-07:00

So the Dreamworks Animation website has had a facelift and now looks all spiffy and stuff. Not something I would otherwise note here, but for the fact that if you go to the "Day in the Life" section of the site you can now see the live action short written by Mel and I, and starring our animation team. For some reason it is stretched, but at least it's on there. Just a silly thing, but it shows you the shop floor if you are interested in that sort of minutiae...

Enjoy!

Taking it for the Team

2007-10-12T16:46:00.000-07:00

I'm going to start this post with a bit of an analogy, so please bear with me because I think there is a point in here somewhere.

It seems to me that being an admirer of feature animation these days is much like supporting a football team, each with its own supporter base, creative approach, star roster and marketing sensibility. Like football, for some reason being a fan of one animation "club" seems to automatically disqualify you from forming an attachment with any other. The same holds for the different disciplines used to create animated content, ("CG isn't creative!", "Traditional 2D is dead" etc). There are plenty of blogs/publications/websites/critics out there espousing a similar view, (naming no names), but why does this have to be? It is frustrating!

Maybe I'm daft, but this vehemence baffles me. After all, isn't animation, animation? This acrimony doesn't seem to occur to the same extent in other artforms as far as I'm aware, so why modern animation, and how do we get the faithful of one studio/technique to overcome that fierce, unbending loyalty and just enjoy whatever new entertainment release comes along on its individual merit, (even if it's not from AmazingPlaceX)?

A few thoughts on this:

1) Let's face it. There is a lot of snobbery kicking around, and this drives the creative elitism the encourages that rabid fan mentality. Animation has never been more accessible, and superficially, easy to realise. If people think they can do better, more creatively, then they will be quick to denigrate the work of others. To those people I say, "Cool! Let's see it.". It's much easier to promote negativity than it is to contribute.

2) People like precedent, and it is much easier to pre-judge when one studio's theatrical release follows a line of commercial successes. To a certain extent this is true, but the output of a studio or discipline is organic and grows much like those of one artist at an individual level as their experience grows. You can probably learn something even from the least popular animated content, in whatever medium.

Maybe I'm just being naive, but I'd like to think I'll give most things a chance before hating something. If you let prejudice guide your hand, after all the bluster has died down the only person who's lost out on the experience ultimately is you.

Go Team!

Low Tech. High Tech

2007-09-06T14:36:00.000-07:00

This happened a couple of weeks ago and I've been meaning to share it but haven't had a chance until now...

I received a couple of shots with a character doing some physical cartoony stuff - jumping around and the like. I got my broad actions blocked in and approved and so all was good, direction-wise. Trouble was, the character was really small in frame so it was hard to make out without zooming in, even on my computer display. I always have a hard time in these situations since I never know how much detail to put in when things are tiny. I mentioned this to Rex, my HoCA on Madagascar 2. After giving me a secretive look he said, "Come with me", and I followed him to his office where he handed me a piece of black card. I laughed aloud, for it was a coutout portable audience! Into the card was chopped silhouettes of people, and had sticky tape with which to attach it to surfaces, namely, work monitors!

I took this wonderful device back to my desk and sure enough, it was nothing like being in the cinema. Heh. What it did do however was give me a great idea of how large the little jumping fellas would be when projected. I could then see how much more work I had to put in to the detailing, (ie. not much!).

Please see mouse-drawn diagram for further illumination:

Good times!

Block Test update

2007-08-22T09:34:00.000-07:00

In my last post I linked to a youTube link of a British student who had taken my short film and remade it. When it first appeared on the site I was a bit surprised, but ultimately fine with someone using my stuff as a springboard to learning animation, since it isn't a bad way to get enthused about the art form. However, it wasn't until Iestyn sent me a link to his website that I began to get rather annoyed, since the copy of my film was being used to advertise online commercial services created by the individual, and with no specific credit given to the author.

It has taken a month and numerous emails, but it seems like the material has finally been removed. I certainly don't hold a grudge about it, but as soon as the remake moved from studenty learning to commercial advertising I had to put a stop to it. After all, I never made any money from Block Test, so why should anyone else?

Thanks for your support, everyone!

PS. Sorry for the lack of posts. Will try and write something animationy very soon. A bit more exciting than my moaning, that!

Block Test the remake

2007-07-12T14:24:00.000-07:00

...the addition of Christopher Walken just kicks the ass of my sorry original version. Hahahaha

Guardian Article

2007-07-07T12:38:00.002-07:00

Featuring yours truly! Doesn't really say much, but it made my mum happy.

Here!

: D

DW'ers at Comic Con

2007-07-05T09:18:00.000-07:00

A bunch of DW animators are going to have a booth at the San Diego Comic Con. If you are going please go and say hi to the super talented Donnachada, Gabriele, Jakob, Scott, Jeremy and Morgan, and then buy lots of ace looking artwork from them.

I hope they make a million dollars and spend it on presents for me.

Pocoyo 2

2007-06-21T10:27:00.000-07:00

I love love love Pocoyo.
The end.

"Ratatouille" Wrap Party

2007-06-05T09:37:00.000-07:00

Alex took these pictures so you can blame him for the fact that we look like ghosts.

Rani and Me. I bought my suit that day.

When I'm in the presence of superstar people I go white with fear.

Me and Rani hang out with JL. We are awesome.

I will post more about the film soon. In short, it was AMAZING.

Aye-Emm

2007-06-05T00:57:00.000-07:00

I had my first real experience of AM this evening (apart from reading the newsletter) when I joined Jason and Cassidy for an online "Shrek the Third" Q&A. Jas connected his tablet to his TV for the ultimate experience, and the three of us sat at his table and looked like news anchors. I have to say, AM seems pretty amazing. The technology is most accessible; that encourages collaberation between the students, and there were lots of students already online and waiting with cool questions when we logged in.

I was a bit nervous about doing it, (not being a global animation statesman like my worthy co-speakers), but hopefully that didn't come across too much in how I answered people's questions. I tried to sound like I knew what I was talking about anyway, until Milo the dog unexpectedly licked my hand and made me jump, quickly destroying my illusion of composure. Heh.

I would have liked more time to devote to the talk, but the time passed very quickly and we didn't get a chance to answer all of the questions. Maybe they'll have me back at some point...

Thanks AM peeps for the warm welcome!

Shrek!

2007-05-16T10:33:00.000-07:00

There a little film about a green ogre and his pals coming out this week. They run around getting into all sorts of japes, tomfoolery and even ballyhoo. It is a lot of fun.

Apparently it was made using something called animation, and a lot of very talented people worked really hard on creating the high jinks showcased therein.

The steps to entertainment success are:

1) purchase a ticket (or lots)
2) watch and enjoy
3) repeat 1) and 2)

Thanks!
K

Ratatouille

2007-05-01T14:17:00.000-07:00

Disney.com is currently streaming nine minutes of Pixar's Ratatouille.

It looks amazing!

Shrek The Third Article on CG Society

2007-04-30T13:55:00.001-07:00

Here!

That's my pose all big and rendered and stuff!

Whee!

Allen in Pirates 3

2007-04-13T14:22:00.000-07:00

My friend Allen was an extra on the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie and he just found this image of himself online. How ace is this?!

I like iPod pirate too. Heh.

Pencilbox

2007-04-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

We have been holding an informal drawing challenge at work. A topic is chosen for the week and then people post drawings which are voted on by the group, with the winner choosing the new topic. All submissions from 30 second doodles to time-absorbing masterpieces are welcome. The intent is to have a break from computer screens and keep people drawing, and seems to be going pretty well so far. We have been putting some of the entrants up on The Pencilbox blog for each week, and now that there's a body of work up, I'm sending out the link.

Enjoy!