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Dumbo_BillPeet_Feat

Animation Workflow: Phrasing

Just read up on a post over at the Animated Spirit blog all about Phrasing in animation. James Chiang does a great job of breaking down what makes Phrasing so important when planning your shots out. Not only is James able to communicate his thoughts on phrasing in animation in a way that seems effortless and easy to follow but he also shows off some great examples.

Dumbo_BillPeet
 
“Phrasing is the effort to present ideas through a series of movements. Well-planned and expertly-transitioned phrasing makes for animation that is both entertaining, beautiful and natural – you’re convinced of its believability while awed by its beauty.”
Head on over and give a once over. Maybe two or three times 🙂
Enjoy!
JP
Ken Fountain

Ken fountain: Why animating “scenes” is good

Some more insightful thoughts about animation process from Ken Fountain. He talks about what he feels is important to animating multiple characters in a scene rather than the lonely one character shots.

Ken Fountain
“Handle multiple characters across multiple shots – “acting is reacting”.
You’ve produced plenty of single character test shots up to this point – enough lonely rigs spouting soliloquies in front of the camera for no particular reason. It’s now time to do what real film animators are tasked with every day: communicate relationships. The body language shared between your characters on screen is your most important tool in telling the story. It’s time to get that part of your tool set polished and ready for the big leagues.” Ken Fountain.
Also check out his AnimTips page for some great stuff including this on observing animation.
Enjoy!
JP
Bryce McGovern

Animation Workflow: Bryce McGovern

Some fun insight to Bryce’s workflow on Peabody & Sherman. Check out the use of video reference. It’s great to see so that you can look at the bits that he uses and the areas where he pushes the performance.
Bryce McGovern
Check out his blog brycemcgovern.blogspot.com for posts that have more insight to his process on these shots. Fun stuff!
Enjoy!
JP
found via the time sheet

CGTarian Webinars: Day1 **Update*** #2

**Looks like some of the recordings are available and I added below..I’ll keep u updated**

Some really nice free recordings of live webinars that CGTarian hosted. You have three posted from Day 1. A couple of Workflow Breakdowns and one about Demo Reels. Some really good nuggets coming out of these.


Animation Reels Lecture – CGTarian Webinar 2015 – Part 1 from mike safianoff on Vimeo.
Part 1 (of 3) of a lecture covering what I feel makes a strong demo reel

Animation Workflow: Geoff Hemphill on Rango

Have a look at a shot that Geoff Hemphill did on Rango. His reference is really great. If you watch it closely to you can see the difference in his ref and his final performance. It’s not completely 1 to 1 and shows how you can take the bits from reference and then keep pushing the performance beyond it.

Enjoy!
JP
you can find an interview with Geoff on AnimatedSpirit

Animators Resource Interview – Darryl Purdy and David Hubert – Full Interview

Been a while for an interview and this one has been sitting in the queue for bit now. Sorry for the delay, but I am happy to share the latest interview I have up.

This is my full interview with Darryl Purdy and David Hubert, two veterans of the animation industry chat about the challenges in both film and games. Darryl then does a quick breakdown of how he approaches some of his creature animation. Sorry about the slight echo early on.

Thanks again to Darryl Purdy and David Hubert for a great interview and giving up their time to give back to the community!

Enjoy!
JP

Check out more at:

See more from David Hubert:
eidosmontreal.com

vimeo.com/97797337

See more from Darryl Purdy:

vimeo.com/119476102

Animation and Game Development Reel: David Anthony Gibson

Sometimes it is hard to put all of what you accomplished on a game into words or thoughts never-mind trying to encompass it on a reel. I think David A. Gibson did a great job here in his reel for EVOVLE, showing the process and how much someone can work on and influence a game. You don’t see this as much when it comes to animating on a film.

David Gibson – Evolve Animation + Game Development Reel 2015 from David Gibson on Vimeo.

Enjoy!
JP

Shot Breakdown: Trent Correy

Some fun process stuff. Its always nice to see what a shot looks like in Layout and how the animator interprets that moving forward.

Trent Corey also showed off some process work with the same character. This was a character test or study and you can really see some of the influences from that test in the shot above. That’s why I think it is super important to be able to explore characters before going into production, unfortunately not always the case.

Animation Reference: Carlos F. Puertolas

Carlos has put together a great collection of his reference from some of his time at DreamWorks. Its great to see a side by side comparison of both. Pay attention to changes in the animation from the reference and how he pushed the animation even more. I like to think about why he would make those choices and it sometimes helps me understand my process a bit more to help push my animation choices.

Enjoy!
JP

Wizards in my Machine

Ken Fountain and his studio Crackerbox just released a teaser for their latest project Wizards in my Machine. It looks like a ton of fun.

For those that haven’t seen it you can check out my interview with Ken on the interviews page of the site. He talks a little bit about Crackerbox and shows some workflow stuff from GeoMe.
You can see more of Ken on Splatfrog
Enjoy!
JP

Malcolm 2.0

Dave Gallagher over at AnimSchool has decided to take on the effort of updating the popular Free Malcolm Rig with Malcolm 2.0. He’s decided to crowd fund this version to make Malcolm super customize-able and give him a wide array of looks.

Head on over to the Malcolm 2.0 page and donate today!
Enjoy!
JP

While you’re at it check out AnimSchool’s latest Student Showcase!

Animation Workflow: Jason Martinsen's Body Mechanics Demo

Animation Workflow: Jason Martinsen’s Body Mechanics Demo

Just came across a fun post on Body Mechanics over on the AM Blog. I’ve posted a few times regarding Jason’s workflow (see below). It’s really nice to see the workflow in this form and the thinking behind many choices. Mechanics is one of the keys to making animation feel right and seeing others points of view only lets you creatively think about your next shot better.

Enjoy!
JP
Links:
Blocking Characters in a Scene

Blocking Characters in a Scene

Check out the post from Temple of Seven Golden Camels about how characters are blocked out during a dialogue scene. He uses the example from an old move called “Paths of Glory.” He also points out some key characteristics throughout the scene that help break it down into points that every animator can think about as they may begin a shot.

Some great posts over there.
Enjoy!
JP

Long Winter Sale and New Character Benny

Long Winter Sale and New Character Benny

Head on over to Long Winter and check out the new character they just released. Benny! He is one of their first creature type characters and is super fun! I like that he still fits in the world of the rest of that cast so if you have gotten any of the previous rigs then he will look great interacting with them.

Check out some of his Demos

Long Winter also has a great sale going on right now with their rigs. There are a bunch of Combo Packs to check out, so Login and explore.
Enjoy!
JP