Character posing takes a whole lot of practice to grasp, but Jean Dominique from Animschool made this very easy to understand lecture about it. He discusses shapes, lines, what makes a line appealing and he shows a lot of examples. If you're finding it hard to know what good posing is, watch this video!
Showing posts with label Animation Tutorials. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Animation Tutorials. Show all posts
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Friday, October 4, 2013
Facial posing
This is actually a facial rigging video, but it does a good job of showing advanced facial poses.
And I mean, posing is posing right? That's one of the reasons why drawing is so beneficial to animators too.
The video description says: "Dave Gallagher goes over Eyad Hussein's facial rig poses from AnimSchool's Advanced Rigging class. Dave focuses on appealing shapes and directionality."
I could do a half baked job at explaining the above, but you'd be better of watching it, it explains itself. Enjoy!
And I mean, posing is posing right? That's one of the reasons why drawing is so beneficial to animators too.
The video description says: "Dave Gallagher goes over Eyad Hussein's facial rig poses from AnimSchool's Advanced Rigging class. Dave focuses on appealing shapes and directionality."
I could do a half baked job at explaining the above, but you'd be better of watching it, it explains itself. Enjoy!
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Exploring acting options
I've been busy lately, but it's time to get back to it!
This short and informative video was shared on the Animschool blog a while back (a blog which is really worth following by the way!! Here's the website). It shows that there are innumerable options to be explored when you're looking to create a new acting piece. He gives some great examples to get you started, but loads more come to mind after watching it!
He talks about giving your character something to do, a great example of this is this month's 11secondclub contest winner Jesse Baumgartner, the winning animation you can find here!
Sending creative stimuli your way today, I hope you enjoy it and get inspired!
This short and informative video was shared on the Animschool blog a while back (a blog which is really worth following by the way!! Here's the website). It shows that there are innumerable options to be explored when you're looking to create a new acting piece. He gives some great examples to get you started, but loads more come to mind after watching it!
He talks about giving your character something to do, a great example of this is this month's 11secondclub contest winner Jesse Baumgartner, the winning animation you can find here!
Sending creative stimuli your way today, I hope you enjoy it and get inspired!
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Smear frames
Smear Frames is one tool in the animators toolkit that is quite underestimated, it can really make your animation feel snappier and more polished at the same time. I was reminded of it by the clip that I posted two weeks ago of the Frame by Frames interview with Joe Bowers about some of the work he did for the movies Bolt and Tangled. He tells us about the influence that Glen Keane had on his shots and from what I saw a lot of it was exaggeration and smear frames. (If you haven't already seen the clip I'm talking about, you really should! It's awesome and instructive at the same time. You can find it here: http://insearchofanimation.blogspot.nl/2012/10/tangledbolt-animation-breakdown-with.html.)
In my opinion the animation quality of Tangled is still above other animation films released after it, and if Glen Keane's advice on smear frames contributed to that quality difference, then it's definitely worth the time to learn about it, right!?
So I dug up and rewatched some videos that I had seen by Tony Bonilla who is an instructor at AnimSchool. It could have used more explanation on why he uses smear frames and what the effect is on the impression the animation leaves, but at least he shows his complete approach to it using latices. I still hope it helps :)
Part 1
Part 2
In my opinion the animation quality of Tangled is still above other animation films released after it, and if Glen Keane's advice on smear frames contributed to that quality difference, then it's definitely worth the time to learn about it, right!?
So I dug up and rewatched some videos that I had seen by Tony Bonilla who is an instructor at AnimSchool. It could have used more explanation on why he uses smear frames and what the effect is on the impression the animation leaves, but at least he shows his complete approach to it using latices. I still hope it helps :)
Part 1
Part 2
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Bird animation
A long while back when I was doing some research on rigging bird wings and bird flight animation, to see what kind of movements would be required. While I was doing that I found Brendan Body's blog where he shows his personal work, tutorials and other stuff. His documentation on bird flight is a true goldmine for bird animation!
Recently a friend of mine started working on an animation for a dragon and found him in the need of more reference material. I tried looking up the goldmine, but had a hard time of it! Soooo this post is a combination of sharing this brilliant piece of information, aaaand to be sure that I never lose it again..
Brendan Body is an animator who worked on the movie Legend of the Guardians, a movie featuring owls (and other birds... I think), so he surely has the authority to speak on the subject of bird animation! I recommend seeing the movie too, the visual quality and animation is mindblowing, even after 2 years.
So without further ado, here is the collection of information on bird animation from Brendan Body, dig in!
Tips and observations of bird flight:
http://www.brendanbody.co.uk/flight_tutorial/index.html
Bird Flight Tutorial:
http://brendanbody.blogspot.com/2010/09/bird-flight-tutorial.html
Examples of his bird animations:
http://brendanbody.blogspot.com/2011/04/guardians-flight.html
Recently a friend of mine started working on an animation for a dragon and found him in the need of more reference material. I tried looking up the goldmine, but had a hard time of it! Soooo this post is a combination of sharing this brilliant piece of information, aaaand to be sure that I never lose it again..
Brendan Body is an animator who worked on the movie Legend of the Guardians, a movie featuring owls (and other birds... I think), so he surely has the authority to speak on the subject of bird animation! I recommend seeing the movie too, the visual quality and animation is mindblowing, even after 2 years.
So without further ado, here is the collection of information on bird animation from Brendan Body, dig in!
Tips and observations of bird flight:
http://www.brendanbody.co.uk/flight_tutorial/index.html
Bird Flight Tutorial:
http://brendanbody.blogspot.com/2010/09/bird-flight-tutorial.html
Examples of his bird animations:
http://brendanbody.blogspot.com/2011/04/guardians-flight.html
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Lipsyncing
Today I saw a lipsynced piece of animation that wasn't too great, but it did remind me of this tutorial by DJ Nicke that helped me a while ago when I did two lipsynced pieces. It helps to speed up your lip syncing animation, and if this is your first time doing lipsync it will provide you with an easy to understand workflow! This is how he had put it on his website http://animationsalvation.com/free_tips/lip-sync/1.
"In this weeks video tutorial I explain an amazing method to speed up your lip-syncing animation.
I show you how I produced the above animation from start to finish in only 36 minutes.
So Lets get started!
First, watch this video as I explain the technique in detail:
A lot of planning and preparation went into this, and I genuinely hope you enjoy it! But make sure you watch it all the way to the end. I’d hate for you to miss any secrets.
Now let me step you through this technique. I have made some example videos using that I animated in with this work flow and noted the time each step took.
Foundation: We have already done this by listening to our soundtrack and “getting into character”.
"In this weeks video tutorial I explain an amazing method to speed up your lip-syncing animation.
I show you how I produced the above animation from start to finish in only 36 minutes.
So Lets get started!
First, watch this video as I explain the technique in detail:
A lot of planning and preparation went into this, and I genuinely hope you enjoy it! But make sure you watch it all the way to the end. I’d hate for you to miss any secrets.
Now let me step you through this technique. I have made some example videos using that I animated in with this work flow and noted the time each step took.
Foundation: We have already done this by listening to our soundtrack and “getting into character”.
Structure: From the video, we learned this is Open/Closed – Wide/Narrow. We feel this by placing our chin on our fist and saying the dialogue at full speed.
This first video is only the open/closed positions. It took me 2 minutes to produce:
This second video is the wide/narrow positions. It took me 1 minute to produce:
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Now our Structure is done! Not bad for ~5 minutes work. Let’s move on to the details!
Well, I hope you found this tutorial informative and inspirational! Thanks for visiting my Animation Tips Blog. While you’re here, sign up to be notified when I post more videos like this one."
This first video is only the open/closed positions. It took me 2 minutes to produce:
This second video is the wide/narrow positions. It took me 1 minute to produce:
|
Now our Structure is done! Not bad for ~5 minutes work. Let’s move on to the details!
Details: Now its time to put the details onto our structure. This video took a bit longer (8 mins), and I am starting to add in motion to the eyebrows. Nothing too detailed yet, just some broad strokes of emotion.
Now we’re really rolling! I’ve pulled back to add in some details to the entire face. I’ve also animated the mustache and shifted my keyframes to help it match the audio a bit better.
Now our Details are done! This file took me about 13 minutes to animate, meaning all up we’ve spent 26 minutes to bring our facial animation to this level!. Let’s move on to the Polish.
Now we’re really rolling! I’ve pulled back to add in some details to the entire face. I’ve also animated the mustache and shifted my keyframes to help it match the audio a bit better.
Now our Details are done! This file took me about 13 minutes to animate, meaning all up we’ve spent 26 minutes to bring our facial animation to this level!. Let’s move on to the Polish.
Polish: We’ve done all of the building work, now its time to have fun and get really creative!
What I’ve done here is animate in some head accents for the dialogue. Then I went in and added in some micro-smirks to make him feel as if he is pleased with whomever he’s talking to! Another 10 minutes, making 36 minutes total to produce this animation!
At places like Disney and Pixar, the polish stage is where you’d spend most of your time animating (besides maybe planning), however on lower budget productions with tight schedules, polish is the stage that usually gets cut.
If you’re preparing a showreel, be sure that you are spending MOST of your time in the polish stage. Many animators out there are competent, meaning they can get an animation this far, but its the top few who can really push it in the polishing stage.
What I’ve done here is animate in some head accents for the dialogue. Then I went in and added in some micro-smirks to make him feel as if he is pleased with whomever he’s talking to! Another 10 minutes, making 36 minutes total to produce this animation!
At places like Disney and Pixar, the polish stage is where you’d spend most of your time animating (besides maybe planning), however on lower budget productions with tight schedules, polish is the stage that usually gets cut.
If you’re preparing a showreel, be sure that you are spending MOST of your time in the polish stage. Many animators out there are competent, meaning they can get an animation this far, but its the top few who can really push it in the polishing stage.
Well, I hope you found this tutorial informative and inspirational! Thanks for visiting my Animation Tips Blog. While you’re here, sign up to be notified when I post more videos like this one."