I thought I would share this little segment from one of my Q&A‘s at iAnimate.net. I was teaching my class how to take video reference of a human and try and use that to bring a performance across in a quadruped. For this I just shot a simple reaction shot of myself and then reproduced it on the cat rig with the goal of retaining a cat-like element without it feeling like a human dressed up as a cat.

A peek into iAnimate.net workshop

Animating the Shadow Cat from Animation Addicts on Vimeo

I’d love to hear about your work methods.

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted, things have been a little busy at my day job to say the least. I was able to sit down with some co-workers to talk animation a few weeks ago, and we tried talking about animation styles and character styles. Have a listen and please share your thoughts on the subject we covered.

AA Round Table Meeting: ANIMATION STYLES
35:17"

We got off topic a few times (our addiction and love of animation got the better of us) but I’m sure we made a point in there somewhere. I would like to thank Joe, Mike, Mike and Onur for taking the time to sit down and talk.

Joe Bowers
{ twitter }

Mike Safianoff
{ website }

Mike Stern
{ blog }

Onur Yeldan
 

As I’m sure you have noticed the posts have been more sparse these past few months. The main reason is my addiction has been in full blast. Over the last two years I have been working on a shot, this time included modeling, rigging, animation and final render. Why did it take so long? – well, it’s something that I have been working on by stealing an hour here, a few minutes there. Slowly and slowly time add up.

So now what? – well, I have decided to take the work I have done on the shot and use it to help others learn and get better. I have been recording and editing a few short video snippets that show the workflow and explain how I created this shot. I will start posting these in the near future and it should last a while.

I am still editing these and have a few left to record, so I’m opening it up to you all, if there’s something you’d like me to focus on while I’m still mid “production” – now is the time to ask for it, before it’s too late.

The videos will be available to all, and depending on the interest to this post I’ll decide how deep to dive into the actual execution of the shot. Would love to hear your thoughts and feedback!

Crafting a Feature Shot Trailer from Animation Addicts on Vimeo

Keep an eye out – they’ll be here before you know it!

So in a bit of a nostalgic moment I went through some of my earlier artwork and drawings while I was young and pursuing my addiction of feature animation. I came across a letter that I had almost forgot about. When I was in the 8th grade I wrote a short and poorly composed letter to one so called famous animator by the name of Glen Keane. This was right after Beauty and the Beast had came out, and at the time Disney did a really good job of getting the name of some of their animators out there. Mr. Keane’s was one of the most known at the time (and still is today!) and I was very curious about any information I could get about becoming an animator (this was before the invention of that new fangled thing called world wide web).

I took the time to type a letter, mailed it in and a few months later received a three page letter from Glen Keane on March 8, 1993. This month marks 20 years since that letter. It’s odd to look back on how things played out and the fact that I was able to achieve my lifelong childhood dream. I was lucky enough to meet Glen Keane on two separate occasions and I admit that after all these years I am still amazed every time I see the guy draw.

As a student Mr. Keane thought:

My drawings were rough and scribbly but Disney Animation was so refined, the lines so clean, so intimidating!

till he learned the truth about the industry and himself

…Their animation was rough and scribbly, yet it had weight and volume. The characters moved powerfully and convincingly across the screen. The drawing is loose yet solid and beautiful.

To this day I’m super thankful that Mr. Keane took the time to write back (or so I hope he did, at least he signed it). This is one of the main reasons I always make a point of responding to emails and work review requests if I have the time on Pay it Forward.

Every once in a while I catch myself smiling when I’m in a meeting with animators that I have known by name for years and I think to myself I made it. The dream came true, – now back to work! I would love to hear your stories and share your letters if you got them!

Thanks again, Glen Keane!

I had the idea for this post before all the craziness of the last few weeks, but it seemed to fit the subject of this post in an eerie way. I admit that my goal through my journey of studying animation, was alway to become a feature animator. I never thought of what would happen when I would get there. It was always the journey that was my addiction, it was the thing that kept me awake hours every night and was my driving force for many years – the need to be better, the need to be recognised, and, land a feature animator job.

Sooooooo, now what? You landed the job of your dreams and now you need to actually work. Studio life was not at all what I was expecting or was “promised”. While going through school you would meet professionals who tell you stories and you would see all those “staged” making-of on your favorite animated films, oh, lets not forget the stories in the few books of the time like The Illusion of Life.

I admit that my first feature job was a rude awaking into the world of feature animation production. I always thought it would be more of a we grow as artists environment and less I’m going to step over your body to get what I need. I am happy to say that the latter hasn’t been my experience at every studio, and that there are studios that fit a little better my idea of what feature animation was. All that aside, I found the challenge of being at the studio much greater than getting there.

It’s hard for me to look back at my own work from seven years ago, before I got to DreamWorks, and how odd it is to think that at the time I felt good about the work I was doing. It took me a long time to really change my perspective on animation and my workflow, not to mention the less creative side of what we do. We are in a sense commercial artists. We try to bring someone else’s vision to life on a limited time and sometimes limited resources, but the struggle of just doing the work on one hand and the constant need to improve and learn are always there staring you in the face.

Over my career up to now I have found a number of efficient and productive workflows that help me produce quality work on schedule. The main problem is that if you don’t push yourself to learn, change and adapt with new workflows, – those that would teach you something new (not only about the craft of animation, but you as an animator) – then you become stagnant and start treading water as an animator, which is a sure way to get left behind in this industry.

What’s more, is that the industry (well, at least the feature animation) has gone through a huge change in the last 6 years, and I think it can be felt in the studios themselves. The overall execution skill level of CG animators has jumped to an insane level over the last few years, and a lot of people find themselves racing trying to keep up. Others, who are new to the industry, instead of starting them out slowly, well, they might get tossed into the deep end to see if they sink or swim (this relates to my earlier post on Making It).

So you made it to your dream job
as an animator at a feature studio,
how do you survive?

For me, it came down to one simple thing, yes, I wanted to work at a feature studio – but it was always the need to be a good animator that drove me. The need to keep pushing and honing my craft until… well, until, I guess, it never ends… It’s the eternal journey of any artist. You keep pushing and evolving and it becomes your addiction. The thing that helps you get past all the petty childish stuff you run into at any studio or the pitfall of any production. It’s the only thing you can control, which is what many of us learned over the last few weeks.

Studio execs will do whatever they need and we are, at the end of the day, just artists that are there to make the studio’s movies, however, – the craft is ours! It is the thing that inspired us as kids to fall in love with the idea of bringing life to drawings or CG puppets. It’s that feeling you get when you watch the movie that started it all for you and takes you back to that first emotional reaction, or the feeling you get from seeing a great animated feature that isn’t there to sell you toys or set up a number of sequels. I admit, it doesn’t happen often, but when it does – it brings it all back to that first day that I knew I wanted to be an animator.

I hope your journey to your goal is easier than mine, and that, like me, you can find the joy in the small things, and remember we do this for us.

Remember, we do this for us! Not because of glory or fandome but because you wanted to bring life to something and share it with the world! Tweet it

© DreamWorks SKG

Over the last year I have had the chance to share my thoughts on the challenges of animating kids. I was lucky enough to have animated a large number of the shots of Sophie on Rise of the Guardians, and, I admit, when I started on the show I was really drawn to the idea of animating Jamie’s little sister because she was close in age to my daughter. At the time, I had no idea of the challenges and difficulties that awaited me. First off, Sophie didn’t talk much which meant I would need to convey all her personality in her motion and reaction to the things around her. Second, because she wasn’t a lead character (which was good, since it let me have a good amount of control over her) the Director and production didn’t really have a clear idea of who she was, other than she was a “cute” kid. Which allowed me to pitch a variety of ideas to them and really try to help to develop a unique personality.

My first challenge was to find appealing shapes and expressions with her face, I admit that for that I took a good number of photos of my daughter and tried to match her expressions as close as I could with the given controls on the character’s facial rig. I found that “cute” is very hard to get right, especially when you are working with an existing model and rig. I found that I was changing her eyes shape, size and proportions as well as teeth shape and size to help get the appeal I was looking for. I kid you not, I was scaling up the front teeth and down the back just so it didn’t feel like a generic kid.

There’s nothing like a good challenge
to take you out of your comfort zone
to make you a better animator. Tweet it

Apparently this first part was the easy step. Overall Rise of the Guardians was a very challenging film to work on. The level of animation and execution was high and very demanding of the artist. There was a lot of reference used on the film (like any animated film today, and, no, there was no mo-cap used on the main characters) but, when animating children, especially ones that are young like Sophie, you run into a new problem. On the film anyone can go into the ref room and record themselves as the character they were animating and use that as reference. The problem is when you try to do the same for a young child you run into one of the biggest pitfalls of the use of live action reference – thinking you can be the ref/actor for any character!

Like I have mentioned in one of my previous posts, when shooting reference it’s really important to keep in mind the characters personality, age, gender and sometimes species. Children’s motion and personality is so different from adults’ for many reasons: their center of gravity is different; their motion is sharper and more direct; they don’t have as much fear as adults when it comes to their actions; their body tends to be more flexible; and, their poses much more pushed and efficient.

If you were going to try and use reference of an adult acting out as a kid and then place that as your acting, you’d find that the character would look like a bad mo-cap session. One of the main causes is that we can’t really get into the mindset of a child so we have a hard time understand what they would do in any given situation, and, usually, we try to do something that we “think” or perceive as being “cute” (which is what we associate with young kids).

I wanted to make sure that Sophie‘s performance came off as totally believable in it’s behavior and motion. I wanted people to see her and think right away Oh, my kid does that. I found that the best way to achieve this was to try and record reference of my daughter in similar situations as Sophie‘s character was in her shots.

Now, I am very thankful to say my daughter isn’t an actor or has any dreams of becoming one (though right now it’s a ballerina) – so I needed to find a scenario close enough so the reference worked for me, then push it and make it entertaining for my character. Keeping in mind that none of the references was perfect because I could never get the exact situation that was in the shot, and it really came down to animating.

Another challenge was that in a good number of the shots, Sophie was always falling down on the ground (it got to a point where the CFX artists were really feeling the pain on the character). Now, other than just chucking it up to being a kid I wanted everything and anything happening to have a reason, so it became a small challenge to build a little story in the SQ and find a reason for that fall other than just the need to move the story along. I would then pitch the idea to the Director, he would decide if it would work keeping the whole film in mind, then it came down to if he felt if it would work and not distract too much from the idea of the shot and SQ.

In one of the shots Sophie had to fall down so she would cry and call Jamie’s attention to her. So I placed her on the porch stairs and had the dog push her over while it was running down the stairs, which then lead to her crying.

To me, Rise of the Guardians was a really good challenge of learning what character’s unique motion is and that every character moved in a very different and distinct way. As well as trying to find good sources of reference everywhere not just running to the closest ref room and recording myself.
There’s nothing like a good challenge to take you out of your comfort zone to make you a better animator.

iAnimate.net Interview with Tal Shwarzman
55:58"

I had a chance to chat with Larry and Ric from iAnimate a few weeks ago and talk about my career in animation as well as what I have been up to with Animation‑Addicts.com. It was cool because the interview didn’t just focus on the films I have worked on and how I have gotten to where I am. We talked about the issues that have been more of the day to day discussion topics that I end up talking to people about, including the state of the animation industry and the students that are trying to get their big break. I hope you enjoy it and if you have any questions, as usual, feel free to post it or email me.

Cheers and keep your addiction in-line!

Or listen to it here:

Doesn’t exist. This November I was lucky enough to attend CTN Animation eXpo with many other animation addicts. Other than the many talented artists there, that were sharing their artwork with everyone, there were a number of studios going over people’s reels and sometime even give feedback.

I was helping to man the iAnimate.net booth and had a look at a number of animation reels. People are always looking for feedback on their reels, and it was fun and intimidating to see so many talented people looking for work. It took me back to when I was fresh out of school looking for work and was trying to show my reel to as many people as I could to get an idea of where I stood. The times have changed though, much like I mentioned in my previous post, today’s expectations from graduating students are much higher than ever before.

Students are always searching for how to make their reel the “perfect reel”, the one that will get them a job anywhere or somewhere. The problem is that, today, studios can be even more picky than ever before. With such talent out there, they don’t need to just grab someone that is good at one little thing but is fantastic at it all or has a reel that may contain similar work to a project that they are working on now.

At CTN a few people mentioned conflicting remarks from different studios, the thing they didn’t understand is that every studio has it’s own needs based on their current projects. If the project calls for quadruped you’ll hear comments like you need more mechanics or creature work, other with female or kids in leading roles might get comments like you need more feminine or acting pieces. These are all fair comments and it might well confuse the students out there trying to get their big break.

It’s important to have a well balanced reel that shows that you can do it all, good mechanics (biped and quadruped) as well as a few acting pieces that show your range. But most important is that you put your best work on you reel. Only your best work. It’s better to have a short reel with your best work than a long one with filler shots that will hurt you. Some say: put your best shot first and your second last. I never understood that, why not put all the best first and blow them away.

Most important is that you put your best work on you reel. ONLY your best work. Tweet it

I will say this, while I saw many students that can move stuff around, that’s all they did. It’s sad to say that most of the reels looked identical, and I saw reels from quite a few schools. It’s not fair but today standards require student reels get judged at the same level as industry pros. The thing that was missing in 99% of reels was characters moving uniquely – so every character moved in their own way revealing something about them. Most of the shots just had characters all moving the same, which makes it even worse when the characters all look alike. So you end up with two characters who look alike and move alike and then you are left thinking ok… yeah, it moves, but it’s not alive. I saw characters that won’t stop moving, and those that moved with no thought or purpose. Shots are starting to look much more manufactured and there seems to be a lack of thought to why characters are doing what they are doing and what makes them unique and why they move the way they do. Do you remember WWW+GOAL? – Implement it!

My suggestion to students is stop trying to target a studio, focus more on yourselves and making something unique that will make it stand out because it will truly bring your character to life. I found that the people that do the best are those that focused on making something personal and real. Genuine work will always end up grabbing people’s attention and make those artists a commodity to the studios.

Good luck to everyone out there!

Planning: Looking for Ideas

Now comes the part that’s the hardest in my eyes… planning! In theory, we Animators would love days to plan the shot, until we have every little part of it figured out and really get at the heart of it while keeping it entertaining, but, in reality, we have around half a day if you’re lucky. So keeping your addiction under control means you need to plan and work through what you have in mind for the shot.

As mentioned in the previous post first thing I do when I am tasked with executing a shot is go over the boards/layout (since both are Director approved) and the audio. Below you will find how I breakdown the audio to give me an idea of the highs and lows of the pitch in the audio and at the same time helps to drill the audio a little more into my head and get ready for the Director’s launch.

When going into dailies it’s always a good idea to let the Director give his pitch to what he has in mind first, then with the right questions see what was left out. Few very important things to keep in mind, I’ll call them WWW+GOAL (that’s “Where, What, Why + Goal” or “three double u-s and a goal” for you).

Find the One Idea

After you have all this information you can start to plan your shot. At this point I start drawing thumbnails to help give me ideas for the shot. Important thing to note, and this is something that has come up quite a bit in the last few years when I have talked about my workflow, my “thumbnails” are not meant to be key drawings / frames or even extremes. They are an idea – no more, no less.

Thumbnails are an idea – no more, no less. Tweet it

In these drawings I search for what the shot is about, those questions I looked to get answers for. What the idea of the shot is in the SQ, what the character needs to accomplish in the shot, where they are coming from, where they are going, why are they there. I try and find one pose that when I see it I know what the character is thinking and feeling.

In a long shot like this I usually find one to three poses because the character could have a lot of ground to cover, not only physically but emotionally as well. These storytelling poses help me to begin and plan the shot.

I then take this one (to three) idea (which, by the way, might take upwards of 2 to 3 pages worth of drawings to find) and go into the reference room with maybe another Animator to try work out the most honest way to bring this character to life. Usually, before I start recording, I have a pretty good idea what I want to happen in the shot. The reference recording is more of a check system, it helps me make sure that I have enough time for what I want to do and to see how it will look filmed. The other big advantage that ties back in my post about Honesty, is the use of live action reference as they did way back, in the good old days, to help figure out the actual mechanics of the movement.

Really knowing how something moves and trying to reproduce and caricature it – is what sets great animation a part from the rest. Tweet it

Now, in the past I have talked about being the right person to shoot the reference, keeping in mind every shot I do is different and sometimes I’m not the person that can act the shot out the best I might use someone else. This time it happens to be a digital version of me, – so I took a guess that I’d be a good match ;-).

Shoot and push it

While shooting reference I try and keep in mind those same questions that I put in front of the Director – WWW+GOAL. I record for a while with the audio and sometime – without, so I can get a feeling for the rhythm of the shot. Every so often I stop so I can see if it’s hitting the marks I need it to, as well as if it is working the context of the SQ. To me this is very challenging, you need to make sure that the character comes through in the performance. Be careful that it doesn’t look like you in a suit of that character. One of the best things to do is to stop and ask yourself if you would act like this in the same situation – so you are trying to get the most genuine performance you can (I could go into several other posts on acting theory, and the many levels help construct it, but we can save that for another time).

After I have recorded my reference, I will try and cut it down to the best two or three takes. I’ll play the reference back a few times to see if it really is what the shot needs to be – WWW+GOAL. When looking for the right take, I try to find a take that has something… Something that sparks my interest to animate, something that might give a little comedy to the shot. If I am not sure I’ll show it to my Sup or fellow Animators to get their take on it and see if something stands out to them, good or bad, something they might see that I wouldn’t. Sometimes I might need to edit two or three different takes together, but most of the time I will try to use one take. I find when I edit too many together it throws off the rhythm and pacing of the shot. You want to try and find a take that has a nice feel to it. A nice balance between movement and quiet reflective moments.

Digital Thumbnails and Corrective Drawings

Last step before we finally dive into our software of choice. I go over the reference footage and try and pick out the most important poses – those that will become our keys. After picking them out I export them as single images and go over these and draw on them to see where I can push them and make sure that I’m not just copying my reference but pushing the poses and making sure I get the most I can out of it. Basically, creating digital thumbnails, now, with these in hand, I dive into the next step which is blocking!

This is Animation Addicts first podcast. I had the idea to bring together four animators from different backgrounds and animation mediums: visual FX, stop-motion, CG and 2D to talk about one subject, that we’ve been dwelling on around here, to see what their views on it might be.

AA Round Table Meeting: REFERENCE IN ANIMATION 26:18"

I would like to thank Mike, Kevin and Matt for taking the time to sit down and talk about their addiction to animation.

Mike Safianoff
{ website }

Kevin Maclean
{ blog }

Tal Shwarzman
{ blog }

Matt Williames
{ blog }