It Rhymes With "Red Van"

Sophisticated Movement

2010-02-20T10:52:00.000-08:00

I was in a review a while back and the phrase, "Make the movement more sophisticated.", was mentioned a couple of times. The note wasn't for me but it stuck in my head as it was new to me, and I wanted to try and work out the intent behind it on this oft neglected blog.

For starters, I think that this comment is dependent on the style of movement associated with the piece of animation. The animation in "Family Guy" is basic, but works successfully in the context of the show. With the caveat that we are looking for polished modern feature-quality animation let's sophisticate our movements.

Say our gesture is Key -> Breakdown -> Key, which is the accepted way to construct animation. The sophistication comes not from these poses, but from how we treat the frames around these tent pole moments. It means applying all the fundamentals of animation implicit in our process - force, timing, intertia, overlap, intent etc. It is an attention to detail that adds all of the little stuff. Bringing a character's arm down can be a thought of in high level terms as A to B, but by considering the forces and intent at work, we can think about overlap, settle and the path or timing the arm makes as it travels through space. By applying these thoughts to our A-B we create subtle complexity on top. Makes things a little more believable at the sub-conscious level. Result! Again, this is dependent on the style of animation desired. (Pocoyo, for example, doesn't need this process as it has a lovely style in its own right. If you've not seen it, please seek it out).

Maybe I am intellectualising something that is little more than a semantic alternative to "work into this more!", but understanding a note given in a review is so important to delivering what is required of a shot that I wanted to dissect the note. I think I found it useful, and am now prepared if I ever hear it in a critique.

Cheerio!

Dragon Japanese Trailer

2009-12-29T13:48:00.000-08:00

I hope you like it as much as I do!

http://www.hic-dragon.jp/

Avatar in 3D

2009-12-28T13:57:00.000-08:00

I liked Avatar. Do I believe it to be the next generation of cinema, the herald of a new golden age of theatre-going greatness? No, not really, and some of it isn't the fault of the film.

First off though, I thought that the visuals were stunning. The bar has been yanked significantly higher by a bunch of studios at the top of the vfx game, and the integration between the mo-cap, hand animated and live action elements was seamless. The performances were solid, too. I don't know how much was the actors and how much fellow animators did, but it all looked good to me. The amount of work put into every frame was staggering. Well done Weta, ILM, Framestore, et al.

With all of the artistic and technical expertise on display, the story it served never rose above predictable, thus letting the side down. No matter how great the performances of the characters, if you don't care about their journey then it's all for naught.
Not a moment of the two and a half hours came as a surprise, and our protagonist was a bit of a macho buffoon. Why would our sensitive and attractive Na'vi female lead fall for this guy? Maybe she thought he looked cute falling off his 6 legged horse, for his character didn't seem that affected by the events of the film. A little, granted, but only enough to nudge the third act into being.

Maybe I would have liked him with a bit more emotional baggage. It would have been interesting to explore how he received his spinal injury, and the lingering damage to his mental health. How about the effect of the scientists' mistrust of him, standing in for his highly regarded deceased brother? What is society like back on Earth?

I found the films villains, the Human Race, (of course!) to be similarly one-dimensional. Greed is a Deadly Sin, but on its own it doesn't make for a sophisticated motive, and some ambiguity would have been welcome. A great example of this is Lady Eboshi's town in Princess Mononoke. At first it seems ignorant and greedy that the Great Forest is being cut down to power the town forges, but we later learn that in doing so Eboshi is saving many people from prejudice, poverty, servitude and worse by employing them. Success in business means more people saved, and they are happy at their work. As an audience we now have something that isn't a simple as first encountered, and thus where do we plant our flag of allegiance?
Avatar tells us they've found some pricey little rocks to mine on Pandora, but what are they used for? Twice in the film we hear a single line vaguely referencing Earth as being barren of indigenous flora. Wouldn't the desperation to usher in the rebirth of Earth's biomass to be a more effective motive? The evil military man decries racial betrayal at our dopey main guy, but most of the humans on Pandora are hired mercenaries who liked to shoot things and be well paid for it. A cutting speech to poor Hero Guy, but since corporate policy was on display rather than any overarching human attitude towards Pandora, it appeared less effective to me.
So lots of missed opportunities, but story-wise it wasn't a disaster by any means.

Since starting this post my pal Chris sent me this - a few more salient points about the story:
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/29/five-storytelling-ri.html#more

The hype surrounding Avatar had much to do with it being the first major "live action" 3D feature. To me the 3D wasn't as successful as I thought it would be. I think the theatre might have been the problem since I believe I was using the more expensive 3D glasses, which in turn meant that the screen itself hadn't been converted. Blah. It goes to show that however much money you put in to the product, it can all be destroyed at the final distribution stage.

The Dolby 3D glasses were way to big for me, and sat low on my nose making it hurt after the best part of an hour. Yes, I am a big moaning wimp, but I think the glasses are an important part of the experience. I have no idea why 3 versions of the glasses aren't available - 1 pair for those with normal vision, 1 pair for those with glasses, and 1 pair for children! After all, how can kids wear these things if I can't? If this is simply too expensive, rush licensed products to market and I will gladly buy a nice pair of my own.

All-in-all an OK time at the movies, but now we have our landmark film it is clear that the 3D experience needs to be refined, (and quickly), while it is still fresh to audiences in order to maximise comfort and appeal. We need their continued patronage to fund the next big thing!

2009 Annie Award Nomination

2009-12-06T21:41:00.000-08:00

Hello! Long time, no post. It's a familiar first line, I know....

Last Tuesday turned out to be a biggie for your Welsh hero (me), as the nominations for the 2009 Annie Awards came out and I was named as one of the five nominees in the Character Animation in a Television Production category for my work on "Merry Madagascar"! I am very excited and honoured and a bit scared. To make it even cooler, my good friends Mark Donald and Phil To have also got a nod each, so we have three out of five PDI/DW nominations in one category! Their nominations are for their work on the MvA related television productions. The final two dudes are from Disney, so I'm in exalted company.

Here is where you can find the noms: A N N I E S for TV Animation

I really need to get back to writing interesting stuff on this blog, rather than just posting links. Work being busy is a rubbish excuse and I'm not doing AM at the moment, so I don't really have a leg to stand on.

Dragons Sketchbook

2009-07-07T09:03:00.000-07:00

Cool gift!

Thanks Dave and Cassidy!

T-shirt Design

2009-02-25T10:16:00.000-08:00

I made this design:

Vote!

Coraline Gift Boxes

2009-02-12T15:17:00.000-08:00

Check this out:

http://www.animationarchive.org/2008/11/more-on-our-coraline-suitcase.html

Laika sent out 50 Coraline gift boxes to blogs that they liked? I want one. Unfortunately only my mum actually reads these posts so it was never very likely. Oh well.

Make more noise about my amazing blog, mum!
: D

AM Blog Post #3

2009-01-26T15:36:00.000-08:00

This one is about Key Framing.

It can be found here.

Let me know it if makes sense or not!

Congrats to Julien!

2009-01-22T09:07:00.001-08:00

The short film he helped make at school for has just been nominated for ...

AN ACADEMY AWARD !

That's just amazing. Fingers crossed for "Oktapodi" on awards night.
Hey Julien, now all of the drawings you did for me are worth double. I'm rich!

Tips and Tricks #2

2009-01-05T10:42:00.000-08:00

Can now be found right 'ere

It's about using contrast to make animation look cool.

First Tips and Tricks Post

2008-12-22T12:00:00.000-08:00

Is now online, and available to read

R I G H T H E R E

It's about twinning in animation. Booyah!

Tips and Tricks

2008-12-13T12:10:00.000-08:00

Hello blog, don't be alarmed but I will be canoodling with another in the near future. You will always be my first love, but I've been asked to write some animation-related posts for the Animation Tips & Tricks blog. It's nothing you did, and I shall return, I promise. I may even be allowed to cross-post, if you are willing to suffer such outrage. This dalliance is not scheduled to begin until the new year, so I'll give you some time to think about it.

You're awesome, blog!
K

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!