Thinking Animation Blog

I started Freelancers Union because I believe in the radical notion of fairness: we should all have access to the social safety net, regardless of how we work.

Some people freelance because they want to, and some freelance because that's just the way their industries work. But either way, our independence means a lot to us.

Ideally, we would live in a social and economic system that supports independent work. After all, our services are in demand, and we're still paying taxes and supporting the economy. . . just like the folks in the cubicles.

The reality, however, is that while the independent workforce has grown to 30% of the U.S. population, employment laws have not been asked to adapt.

The only reason that freelancers must struggle to survive with an outdated social safety net is because there has never been a movement to represent independent workers and act for change.

Freelancers Union is central to that movement. I hope you'll join us.

Best,

Sara Horowitz
Founder and Executive Director

Computer and Warhol

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:41:09 PDT

Funny...

The Headbanger

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:45:04 PDT

I think I found a video game I would like to play. Halford, Lemmy, Lita and Ozzy!

The work of concept artists Peter Chan, Scott Campbell, Nathan Stapley, Mark Hamer, Levi Ryken, and Razmig Mavlian is featured in "The “Headbanger."

アホな走り集

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:55:22 PDT

Sick Motion Studies...

Example Animation Review

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:03:51 PDT

I heard your requests for an example review to be posted to the blog.
Below, is a review I completed for a submission to my $50 review post.

No need to reveal who the animator is.
This is just to illustrate what a basic review would entail.

General Notes:

The run looks like a puppy and pretty cartoony.
If that is what you are after then great!
It's very cute and bouncy and makes the hippo/dino feel like a baby.
But, you wanted a more realistic hippo run with weight, below are my suggestions.

Before you ever animate a creature or character ask yourself these questions:

Is the creature/character a king or a minion?
Is the creature/character young or old?
Is the creature/character very large like a giant robot or smaller like a mosquito?

Then, download a realistic reference, even if you are going after a cartoony performance.

All exaggerated motion is rooted in reality.
Think about when a boxer is hit in the face.
The body creates the most distorted shapes when pushed to it's limits.
This only happens for less than a split second, so you feel the weight of that impact and would never see that distortion unless you have the still photo.

Notes on improving the mechanics of motion:

The BBC Motion Gallery is the best place to start to find great reference footage.

I found this hippo run as a reference for you.

You can see that the run cycle has at least two feet on the ground almost all of the time. Your cycle moves more like a bunny hop with the back feet working like rear wheel drive. This is a choice, but the choice makes the creature feel more light and cute than a hippo/dino creature. This is tough because the creature design has much longer legs in the back than the front.

You can choose to bring the hips down lower to compensate for the front, or you can choose to make it run like a t-rex/kangaroo with the front paws completely up in the air. Since you are already working a quad run, I would try to mimic the hippo in the reference and keep the hind legs compressed. You will have to rotate the hips up to compensate for this lower translate on the rear.

If you want the creature to move more realistically and have more weight, I would create a run closer to the one in this video were the feet are offset instead of doing the bunny hop moving together.

I am glad you were able to send me the maya file.
This helps me see the motion from all angles.
This is probably just personal preference, but I hate IK spines or automatic spines of any kind.

Torque through the spine of a creature is critical to describing weight.
In my world as an animator I want full control of the everything the character does.
I dislike rigs that tell me what is going to happen by countering a pose I make on the tip of the spine or vice versus.

I playblasted the cycle from the side with only joints turned on.
The controls on this spine, keep the center of his back really tight and it's not absorbing the torque this run would generate. So, all of the motion that should be happening in the back is happening at the head making his head flop around like a rag doll.

Since you are stuck with this rig, I would try my best to get the bouncing action to happen in the back/shoulders and not the head.

I made a few minor changes to the motion in Maya on your curves, just by scaling and sliding their timing and already got more torque happening in the spine instead of the neck and head. Below, is a quick playblast after I adjust the waves of weight that move through the shoulders through the spine and down the tail. Watch the cross control above his shoulders to see how the spine has a lot more rot in it, yet the head is absorbing this rotation and not bouncing as much. I worked on the tail a bit more too, but this is to work with the cute bouncy cycle you have created. Once you create a run cycle closer to the reference the tail should be more for balance than secondary kind of action.

A great way to work out a tail action is to get acetate and put it in your screen. Then draw a dot for the hips translate keys. After your have a dot representing the up and down the hip trans as your creature moves through space, connect the dots. That path is the same path the tail should be following.

The best thing you can do is look at that reference from BBC. The bull hippo in that reference is definitely moving with front wheel drive propelling him forward as the hind legs try to keep up. Use the shoulders more and offset their motion from the rest of the body. This bull moves more like a grown dog than a puppy.

Once you get the right run cycle going on the feet and all of the weight shifts happening in the spine, you can add details like splayed and gripped toes as he pushes off the ground.

Great work! I can't wait to see the next pass!

Mary & Max

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:56:51 PDT

This is a wonderful film.

Below, he says "The true actors are the animators..."

La Marche des Sans-Nom

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:59:39 PDT

weird and pretty and awesome...

student film by Jean Constantial,
Nicolas Laverdure
& Lucas Vigroux
Supinfocom 2006
Music by Mathias Guerrero

Home Videos Channels Shows Change Player Size Watch this video in a new window Little Dragon - Twice

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:35:26 PDT

Music video for Little Dragon.
Also acts as a pilot for upcoming
short film "Dreams from the Woods".

A shadow puppet theater featuring
the little girl, the big bird and the skeleton.

Directed by Johannes Nyholm.
Puppet Masters: Yukimi Nagano, Håkan Wirenstrand,
Fredrik Källgren Wallin,
Erik Bodin, Elias Araya, Aime Hellrand,
Henrik Malmgren, Andreas Korsár and Kurt Lightner.

Toy Story 3 Trailer

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:04:04 PDT

Toy Story 3 Trailer is out...

Milton Glaser Draws & Lectures

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:33:51 PDT

MILTON GLASER DRAWS & LECTURES from C. Coy on Vimeo.

Now go draw something!

$50 Demo Reel Review

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:05:08 PDT

It seems there are plenty of young character animator reels out there that need help.

I will provide $50 Reel Reviews for the rest of this month.

What will your $50 get you?

personal review with me
email with bulleted notes
sketches or drawings, if needed
a plan for making content towards your goals

If you like the notes and want more, we can work out a deal
to improve the work you have on your reel beyond this offer.

I am not going to take you through a big program of academics here.
(That is what Animation Mentor is for...)
I will help you massage what you got -
into something better.

You can submit cartoony animations, creature, mech robots...whatever.
I will help you figure out what to keep on your demo reel and what to toss.

If you live outside of the US we can use skype and chat to communicate.
Questions? email Angie at angie@thinkinganimation.com

If I get a big response to this, I will invest in a web cam!
Click the button below to get started!!!

DD in Florida

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:19:09 PDT

Digital Domain's new Florida digital production studio is planning to carve out niches in videogames, animation and even military simulation graphics.

The Port St. Lucie studio will bear the Digital Domain name and, for now, movie f/x will be done primarily at the Los Angeles and Vancouver outposts.

In addition to $50 million in new investment from DD parent company Wyndcrest Holdings, the studio is getting a $10 million cash grant from local developers, administered by the city of Port St. Lucie; a 15-acre land grant from a local developer, valued at $10 million; and a $20 million grant from the state of Florida's Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development.

Move follows DD's recent announcement that it will expand to Vancouver (Daily Variety, Oct. 6).

read more here...

Duracell "Bunnies" commercial

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:15:46 PDT

Cute doesn't even come close to describe...

Agency : Ogilvy France
Directed by : PLEIX
Country of production : France
Production company : Warm and fuzzy
Post house : Digital District

C G I Brows

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:05:54 PDT

CGI-brows from Andrew Gaynord on Vimeo.

LOL!

Strawberry Swing

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:13:10 PDT

Directed by Ross Neil and Matt Clark. Written by Ross Neil. Produced by The Pixel Hive.

Cult of the Mouse

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:52:50 PDT

I have been a big supporter of Henry and his book.
I started reading the book again, after it sat on my shelf for about 3 years.
It's funny how the message of a book can evolve as your perspectives on your job change.

The first time I read this book, I saw most of Henry's points as only having to do with the giant animation studios. Now, I read it from the perspective of the smaller studios, runaway production, the world is flat, and the lack of innovation in animation today. Everyone is just trying to make money. No one is trying to build anything anymore. Steve Jobs may have been the last guy to be in it for the long haul as far as animation is concerned.

I guess Eisner was right in that memo he wrote at Paramout years ago, "We have no obligation to make history. We have no obligation to make art. We have no obligation to make a statement. Our only obligation is to make money.” I encourage you all to get this book and read it. Henry's insight into the future of corporate america based on pleasing a board of directors with short term profits tells the tale of the death of innovation in the workplace.

Henry Selick leaves Laika

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:38:00 PDT

We have all heard about the layoffs at Laika, but I really figured they were going to focus on stop-mo with Selick after the success of Coraline. I guess not?

Apparently the filmmaker’s contract was up, and according to Variety, Selick had become frustrated waiting for another feature to oversee, and decided to move on because Laika wasn’t presenting any interesting options. Selick was not only a filmmaker working for the Portland-based animation studio, but also Laika’s supervising director for feature film development. He had been with the company for five years.

Laika recently cut their computer animation division (128 employees), deciding to focus strictly on stop-motion animation for future projects. Selick is probably the biggest working American director today associated with the art of stop-motion animation. Selick’s filmography also includes The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, Monkeybone, and stop-motion animated segments of Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic.

Laika is expected to choose and announce their next project as early as this month. The studio currently employs around 180, but is expected to add a couple hundred when production ramps up. You can read more about Selick’s departure on OregonLive.

via SlashFilm.com

Revisit The Incredibles

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:08:06 PDT

Not much to say...
I watched The Incredibles tonight.
I hadn't seen it since it came out - 2004 - wow.

Possibly the best movie ever - animated or not.
It's like the characters are real people.
I love me some Violet.
Edna makes me giggle like a little girl.
If you haven't watched it in a while - go watch it.