Animation Tips & Tricks

Sign Up for Maya Workshop: Animation Basics!

2012-05-02T10:24:00.000-07:00

Our workshop is designed to help beginning animators learn the specific tools needed for character animation.

This is a six-week workshop with a super small 7:1 student-to-mentor ratio to ensure that you get the same great Animation Mentor experience:

Week 1. Introduction to Animation and Maya

Week 2. Tools for Basic Animation: Getting the Ball Rolling

Week 3. What Is “Workflow” and Shading?

Week 4. Tools and Workflow: Making Sense of Curves and Basic Lighting

Week 5. Tools and Workflow: Creating a Simple Character and Character Animation Workflow

Week 6. Tools and Workflow: Animating Simple Characters in Maya

You will also receive a three-year active student account to the Autodesk^® Education Community where you may access the Maya^® animation software.

We are really excited to introduce you to this dynamic software and to start you on your journey of bringing performances to life as a character animator!

Hurry, space is limited for the Summer 2012 term. Apply today!

— The Animation Mentor Crew

Learn More or Apply Today

Building Trust Takes Time

2012-04-30T11:06:00.000-07:00

Animation Mentor was an effort that started almost nine years ago by three good friends. We wanted to share what we knew to an upcoming generation of animators. It was our hope that they didn't have to go through what we went through to learn animation.

Back in school, I had no access to feature film animators. Didn't know anyone, didn't know how they thought about animation, what their process was … didn't know anything. All I remember was me and a few hungry animator friends sharing back and forth some beaten up fifth-generation VHS copy of some Disney talks … and even these were more than difficult to get. It looked like a scene from a total underground espionage movie to pass a friend a Ruben Aquino talk on locomotion in exchange for an Andreas Deja talk on timing at someone's house. Additionally, I'd meet with these hungry animator friends a couple of times a month to frame by frame some old Disney classic VHS or regular live-action movies, until the VHS player heads wouldn't take it anymore. I broke two. Sometimes one of these friends would come back after a few months of doing self learning with some revealing knowledge about how to overlap joints in a character so that the character wouldn't look as stiff when it was being animated. We'd talk about what we learned in our work, even if it was ridiculously basic. Those were still giant milestones for us. We shared whatever knowledge among ourselves, because we didn't have anyone else. Among those hungry animator friends were two of my college best buddies, Bobby Beck and Shawn Kelly.

Once we started Animation Mentor, we put on the table all the things in those experiences we'd like to make more accessible through the internet. We also fought hard at the thought that this "internet community" perhaps wasn't going to work. We heard several times, "I just don't trust the internet, why should my son/daughter go to your school?" Worst part, we didn't have a good answer … we only had our hope that through our motivations, our passion, and our honest effort to create something a little different — that people would trust us.

Trust doesn't come from one day to the next … or one year to the next. Building trust takes time. It is not easy to earn trust when something hasn't been done previously, and there is so many unknowns.

Many times, the three of us asked — "How on earth are we going to do this? Will this work? Will people even connect with each other through this little webcam window?” And I guess, the most important question — “Will people learn an art — that was so difficult for us to learn in PERSON — through this artificial means of communication?" So we decided to put those types of pressures off the table … and simply have fun. The key moments for me were when we said, “screw it, we are doing it, whether it works or not.” Big difference for me.

So we started. The beginnings weren't working. The way we were teaching was very serious, in front of a blackboard and in a room. It wasn't the way we learned animation … and it just wasn't us. So we got out there. We decided to record things on the street, went to the zoo, went on trips. It was about having fun and enjoying ourselves while hopefully sharing and passing along that passion and motivation that has been fueling us to future generations. We wanted these future generations to experience why what we do is potentially the most special job on the planet.

We found that if we are ourselves when teaching the same way we are when animating, the information would come out more naturally than if we took ourselves too seriously. So we all decided to make the lectures and talk to students in the ways we'd like if we all went back to school. We tried our best to create an encouraging, supportive, and respectful environment.

Then, to our surprise, something happened — the Animation Mentor community. We did stress helping each other out, the same way we did when we started. Helping a student mate today means he/she may help you in the future once you are both in the industry. That couldn't be more true. It's happened to me personally with Bobby/Shawn and when other student mates became co-workers — and I continue to see this. And the online communication created by all these hours we all spent in front of the computer when animating made the community grow faster and stronger. Special friendships were created, students were even getting married after meeting in this online animation community. Groups of students were gathering in different parts of the world to talk animation and help each other. Students were not only kind to us, but now recruiters from studios supported us as well. In fact, some of the best times I've had in different conventions and talks were thanks to a combination of industry friends hanging out with students and recruiters of all sorts. Not in a million years did I think this would all happen the way it has.

Animation Mentor means all those things and many many more. For that, this school means a lot more to me than any other educational experience I've seen. So thank you Animation Mentor, for all you mean to me.

Carlos Baena.

Get More Information or Apply Now

What Inspires Me About the Character Animation Program

2012-04-26T12:50:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, it's been just over seven years since we opened our virtual doors to our very first class of students. Time flies, huh? Technologically, everything about Animation Mentor was different back then. We launched with a radically different website, a different physical headquarters, and a somewhat different curriculum. Even the entire platform the school runs on was completely different. Over the years, we have completely reprogrammed the entire school, refining and broadening the experience of our students with the never-ending quest of providing the best educational experience possible.

Some things, though, haven't changed in the slightest. Right from day one, we launched with an incredible roster of mentors, a talented and dedicated school staff, and a group of students with enough excitement and passion to match them all. I don't think any of us were quite prepared for the level of enthusiasm we saw in our students! Anyone who has ever been to an Animation Mentor gathering or event knows exactly what I'm talking about. Pretty much right from the time we announced the school, I realized that I would probably never find anything quite as inspiring as hanging out with our students and graduates. They come from every imaginable background, culture, and corner of the world, but they are truly a family. They look out for one another, help one another, and together form the most inspired and inspiring group of people I've ever met!

And while our focus as a school has always been to teach the ART and CRAFT of animation, it's equally been our mission from day one to share our love of that art and craft with our students. As animators ourselves, we know full well that you just cannot make it in this business if you don't love it. We all need the passion to continue to learn and grow as artists every single day. We need the enthusiasm to get right back up on that horse when it bucks us off, and to dive right back into our shots when directors change their minds or hate our ideas. We need the dedication to embrace and learn from our failures, because without that, we will never be the artists we have the potential to be.

Above all, we need each other. We need extra sets of eyes to advise us on our work. We need hands to high-five us when we knock one out of the park. When the fear or frustration set in and we're in a rut with our work, we need shoulders to cry on and hands to hold. Ears to listen and strong animation backs to carry us when we're tired.

Sometimes people ask me what sets Animation Mentor apart. Why is the enthusiasm and excitement of our incoming students only more passionate when they graduate at the end of such a challenging program? The answer is in the people.

We now have students, graduates, staff, and mentors all over the world — and that means that at any moment of any day, there is a hand somewhere out there, ready to reach out to them. Ready to high-give, ready to help, ready to teach, or ready to just be a friend. Our alumni have formed a bond that transcends school, and they all know without any doubt that there is this safety net of hands out there at a moment's notice, not just as they go through our program, but for the rest of their lives.

If you ask me what I find most inspiring about our program, I'd be hard pressed to come up with something more powerful than that, and I'm humbled and honored to get to be just a tiny part of it.

-Shawn :)

P.S. For you longtime readers who might miss our extensive chats about the wonders of fried chicken, have no fear: my love of fried chicken is still deep (deep-fried?), and while friedchickenmentor.com does not yet exist, it will always exist in my heart. :)

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No Application Fee AND Smaller Classes!

2012-04-25T12:16:00.000-07:00

We're always looking to improve the Animation Mentor on-campus experience … and we've come up with some great ideas.

First, we want to make it easy for you to apply. That's why we're waiving the application fee, effective immediately!
But we've got something else …

Students always tell us that they LOVE the one-on-one time with their mentors. So we're super excited to announce smaller classes with our low 10:1 student-to-mentor ratio! Just think … more mentor time and individual instruction!

We are excited about these changes and hope you are, too. Most of all, we hope to see you on campus soon!

— The Animation Mentor Crew

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Six key skills to succeed as an animator

2012-04-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

I love my job. I get to see students — who have a massive desire and passion to tackle their challenges internally and externally — make their dreams come to life. Not everyone succeeds, yet there are common threads that tie those who do together.

Here are six key areas of personal development I’ve seen in those who succeed as animators:

Be humble. Attitude plays a MAJOR role in your success. Who wants to work with a jerk? I don’t, and I’m sure you don’t. This does not mean that you need to let someone walk all over you, either. Build confidence in who you are, share your thoughts, and respect those of others. Remember, there’s more than your way to tackle a challenge.

Be thirsty. I LOVE this one. It’s also been called “the beginner’s mind.” At Animation Mentor, we call this Continuous Improvement and it’s one of our core values. Never feel like you have “arrived.” There’s always more to learn. When you get stuck, look for ways to pivot your thinking and you will find renewed inspiration.

Share everything you know. There’s a famous quote that states, “It is in giving that we receive.” I really love this and find it so applicable. Those who give comments and share their knowledge are those who seem to accelerate quicker. Those who hoard information only go so far. When you learn something that accelerates your skills — share that knowledge. You’ll be surprised at what comes of it.

Never give up. Don’t lose focus, it’s just a matter of time. This may be easier said than done, yet remember that you cannot ever stop learning, practicing, and growing. Be sure to water your mind and feed it goodness whenever possible.

Beware of the “gremlin voice.” Most likely, there will always be a "gremlin voice" in our heads that expresses our insecurities — and most likely, there’s no way to ever fully turn off that voice. So think about "turning the volume down." If it's blaring at 10 max, then what would it be like to turn it down to a 5? Or even a 7? Over time, learn to identify the voice and slowly begin to turn it down.

Nurture balance. The life of an animator should not be all about the latest animated movie. Those who succeed have a passion for life just as much, or more, than they do for animation. Be sure to cultivate YOU.

These six little things could take a lifetime to nurture. Which one are you going to tackle today? Think about it, get inspired … and I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments below!

-Bobby "Boom" Beck

Get More Information or Apply Now

The Animation Mentor "What Inspires You?" Podcast Series!

2012-04-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

The Animation Mentor crew is a curious cast of characters. We love watching creative people do what they do, and we always have to ask — what inspires them? Well, our Curriculum Director, Luci Napier, set out to get all the answers in our new podcast series.

First up is one of our cofounders, Carlos Baena. Listen as he details the many facets that fuel his passion for animation. And we think you'll like his simple premise about animation: just love it.

Wait, we've got more. We're still pinching ourselves that Luci interviewed Enrico Casarosa, Head of Story for Pixar Animation Studios - and Writer and Director of the Oscar-nominated short, La Luna -- for our latest podcast!

Prepare to be inspired!

Download Podcast

-- The Animation Mentor Crew

Animation Mentor’s latest character is here, Spif!

2012-03-26T12:55:00.000-07:00

Here is a sneak peek of our new character Spif!

Spif goes live to our class 4 – 6 students and our Character Animation Alumni today (3/26/12)! I’ve been playing around with the rig personally and have found it to be super flexible and easy to work with. Great for getting appealing poses and a diverse range of acting choices and styles. We’re super excited to see all the incredible work our students and alumni do bringing this character to life.

This week we are also rolling out our active library of 10 characters, Spif being one of them, to our entire Character Animation Alumni community! It’s a great feeling to be providing the ongoing support and encouragement to help our Alumni community thrive and we know they are chomping at the bit to get their hands on all this goodness!

-Bobby "Boom" Beck

We’re Super Excited to Announce Our 10 New Character Rigs!

2012-02-02T09:04:00.000-08:00

When it came to learning animation, our classic character rigs of Ballie, Stewie and Bishop 2.0 broke all the rules. Now they have 10 new friends. Say hello to Lenny, Yomm, Samh, Nico, Leticia, Tanner, Rictor, Rod, Reeno and Walt. For you, these new character rigs offer a great variety to apply the principles of animation across our Character Animation Program!

You Can Be One of the First
It's not every day that you can be one of the first ... but if you apply for the upcoming Spring 2012 term, you can be one of the first to work with our 10 new characters!

Don't miss this great opportunity. Pursue your animation dreams and apply today!

— The Animation Mentor Crew

The Social and Community Aspects of Animation Mentor

2012-01-24T15:03:00.000-08:00

You'd be surprised at just how social a worldwide online animation school can be! Honestly, when I first began Animation Mentor, I didn't think that an online school could be anywhere near as social as a real life campus. The reality, however, is that I've come out of Animation Mentor with new friends and colleagues from all over the world. I've even gotten the chance to work with some of them in the industry!

I've often said that my favorite part of Animation Mentor is the critiques. I don't just mean the mentor critiques, as awesome as those are. Having a community of people who love animation as much as I do constantly looking at my work and giving me feedback is an incredible resource.

There's only one catch: you have to participate. Like any school, you get out what you put in. So, if you decide to enroll in Animation Mentor, make a point to get involved in the community.

Check out other people's work, give them critiques, ask questions in your Q and A, and post on the forums. You'll find that others will respond, and before you know it, you'll be making friends -- and possibly lifelong contacts.

Guest Blogger Nelson Brown

How Much Reference Do Studios Provide to Animators?

2012-01-17T14:42:00.000-08:00

Speaking as a director who has had to provide reference, the answer is always the more the better.

There is a caveat to that, though. I don’t want to hamstring the animator or artists by giving them EXACT information. I want them to be able to take what I want as a director and make it better.

You want to give the animator enough to understand it but then also allow room to keep the animator excited to add their own touches to the scenes.

Guest Blogger Mike Gasaway

The Importance of Time Management

2012-01-09T14:28:00.000-08:00

As an alumnus of Animation Mentor, I remember that my biggest question as a new student was, "how much time will I actually need to put in to be successful?" The one statement I read that stood out to me before I started school was something along the lines of, "kiss your family goodbye, forget about your friends, because you'll need to put 100% of your free time into Animation Mentor." I was determined not be one of those people. I find I need variety in life. To me, people who eat, breathe, sleep, and think about nothing else other than animation are, well, boring.

Obviously the answer is different for every student, but this is how I ended up handling it.

When I started classes at Animation Mentor, I was working full time, and my wife and I just had our first baby. Those two alone took up most of my time. However, I found that if I kept a pretty tight schedule and stuck to it, I was more efficient in getting my school work done while finding time during the week for myself to unwind. I also found that by managing my time better I focused on my tasks more, and I avoided burnout by MAKING TIME to do nothing and get away from the computer.

My schedule looked something like this: during the week, I'd go to work from 9 am to 6 pm. This part was a no brainer. I'd come home, and eat dinner with my family. Once we put our son to bed around 8 pm, I would head into my office and work until about 11:30 or 12 am (however, I never missed an episode of LOST). On Saturdays, I would spend my mornings working on my assignment trying to get as much done as I could, with my afternoons free to be with my family or hang out with my friends. Sunday mornings were for any last minute fixes, then I would get away from the computer for the rest of the day.

I never pulled all-nighters and have tried to hold true to this when I started working at Blue Sky. I find after a certain point, my productivity goes down if I'm over tired and that can actually lead to me making poor decisions while animating. So while attending Animation Mentor, by going to bed at a relatively normal time I found that I could get more done in the morning than in the hours after 1 am.

And what do you do with the free time you carve out for yourself? Go EXPERIENCE LIFE! How can an animator bring characters to life if they're chained to their computer and don't live one for themselves?

Guest Blogger Richard Fournier

Have You Ever Felt Discouraged in your Animation Career?

2012-01-04T15:08:00.000-08:00

"Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right." -Henry Ford

Don't give up. There may be times in your career where you think you just can't do it-- that learning animation is too much or you just can't get your head wrapped around it.

Don't give up. You are not alone. All of us have been there before. I like to call this place "the crossroads."

It is a place where you have to make a choice. You can choose to either give it all up and follow some other career path or to persevere and have faith that it will all come together.

No matter what anyone tells you, you CAN do it! If you are truly passionate about animation, believe in yourself and work really hard at it, you will succeed. I believe in you!

Guest Blogger Joe Mandia

Taking Control of your Animation

2011-12-20T09:30:00.000-08:00

Here’s a question that I get quite a bit in my classes: Why does my animation look bad when I take it out of stepped mode into splines for polishing?

The answer for me is relatively simple. Don’t let the computer do your animation. If you don’t like the inbetweens that your computer is giving you, don’t let it do the inbetweens! Control the arcs of your character, the way a head turns, the speed at which the arms move, how much space the body goes through.

I like to say that if your computer looks like computer animation it’s because it IS computer animation. You, the animator, haven’t put enough inbetweens or enough love in your splines (whichever method you like to animate).

Ask anyone in my personal life. I’m a control freak. I have to be in control. I’m learning, through tons of therapy, to get better but the fact still remains. This comes in handy when I’m animating. I will usually put a keyframe every 2 frames or so. Sometimes I’ll even drop one on EVERY FRAME. I trust my computer to crunch numbers extremely fast. It knows the difference between a one and a two. But, it doesn’t know anticipation. It doesn’t understand arcs. So I have to put that in there. I have to let it know that on frame 46, my head is going to do this and my left arm is going to do that.

I make sure that I put that keyframe on EVERYTHING. Not just the head or the hand, but EVERYTHING. Let me say that one more time with feeling. EVERYTHING. I do this because I do like to work in stepped mode to finesse my animation and see where the keys are. The last thing I want is to hit that magical spline button, and everything falls apart. Why is that not moving? Why IS that moving? Believe me, I’ve yelled that at the top of my lungs before. If I put a key on everything, it doesn’t do things I have no control over. It doesn’t do things I didn’t anticipate.

It does what I wanted it to do.

Silly computer. Animation’s for animators…

Guest Blogger Mike Gasaway

What Tangents in the Graph Editor Do You Typically Use-- Clamped, Splined, Linear, or Plateau?

2011-12-12T17:27:00.000-08:00

Typically, when I start a shot I work primarily in stepped mode. This allows me to get my key poses in and hold them in place without having them loosely spline from pose to pose.

One thing I do during this phase is roughly block in my holds. I place the same pose at the beginning and end of a beat (or similar pose for ease ins/outs). It's important for me to do this, because it's misleading to let the stepped keys do the hold for you. If an animator doesn't account for that end pose, once they hit spline, that hold will disappear and that’s a big reason for splining to feel swimmy initially.

From time to time, I will select all my keys and convert them to linear. This gives me a rough sense of timing, and lets me know how fast my transitions are between major poses. I'll go back and forth between stepped and linear a few times, and when I feel I have all the information in there and my timing is working well, I’ll convert to spline.

Guest Blogger Rich Fournier

How often do you work on colleagues’ animation and what are some tips for doing so?

2011-12-06T10:37:00.000-08:00

You can work on a colleague’s animation from time to time, and depending on the circumstances, you'll handle it differently.

Typically, it can be very frustrating to work on someone else's file. Animators have different methods and workflows that they incorporate in their process. Sometimes you will get a file and when you analyze it, it makes perfect sense to you. Other times you may be left in absolute confusion trying to decipher the animator’s thought/work process.

The former can be relatively easy to work with if their workflow closely resembles your own, so changes should go smoothly.

The latter, however, can cause you to go gray overnight and utter countless curses on the file’s creator. In this case, I will strip out everything but the key poses and maybe some breakdowns to maintain the essence of the animation and rebuild it. I find that this saves me oodles of time and countless hours on the therapist's couch.

Guest Blogger Joe Mandia

What Type of Training Did You Receive in Animation?

2011-11-29T09:42:00.000-08:00

When I went to school, no one taught animation. It mostly involved teaching students how to use software.

Back then, I wanted to become a traditional animator, so I went to an art school to hone and improve my art skills. Even after I graduated from college, I continued talking figure drawing classes and continue to do so to this day.

Learning to see with an artistic eye allows you to pick up subtle nuances in poses, how to design a pose and what makes for good composition. It also helps you build your confidence when you are sketching out poses for your scene.

Guest Blogger Joe Mandia

How Important Are Social Skills in an Animation Career?

2011-11-22T09:38:00.000-08:00

Social skills are very important because you're not a one-man-show.

You have to work on a team and get along with the group. Everybody is there to help the client finish his/her movie. Every project will go through crunch time, where everybody has a lot do and people are stressed out.

It is during those moments where you have to be able to stay calm and get your work done, regardless of what is happening around you. You will depend on other people's help and vice-versa. Again, it's all a team effort.

There is no room for an ego, jealous behavior, or other attitudes and your animation skills alone won't save you. You also need to be comfortable receiving feedback as well as giving feedback, especially once you become a lead animator, supervising animator or beyond that. Sooner or later you will have to deal with production people around you-- producers, directors or whoever is involved with the project you're working on. Having no social skills is not going to make those moments very enjoyable.

I haven't been involved with interviews but I would definitely look for appropriate social behavior in an interview. People will judge you and if you come across as arrogant, awkward or selfish, etc., then your chances of getting hired will diminish.

Guest Blogger Jean-Denis Haas

What Skill Sets are Needed for the Different Levels of Animation Positions?

2011-11-15T11:32:00.000-08:00

The skill sets an animator needs for video games, special effects, and feature film studios differ greatly.

In film, junior animators need to be able to suck up knowledge like a sponge and be willing to work on background characters and reaction shots without feeling upset that they are not working on more challenging shots. Patience is the key. With time, all animators at a studio will get the chance to work on longer, more challenging shots.

Special effects animation is similar, but it is easier to be typecast into doing less character-driven shots and more creature or object animation. That is fine, but if you want to try other things, I encourage doing challenging physical and acting tests with the rigs provided and showing them to your supervisors for feedback. This may allow you to move on to different types of shots. Just asking for something isn’t always enough. You have to show you want it, and prove you can handle it.

In games, the same is true. Do a test to show what you are capable of. Being productive and showing constant improvement will quickly turn a junior animator into an animator or senior animator at a game studio. Being able to work and make changes quickly is more paramount in games than at a feature film studio.

For all animators, the same rules apply. You still need to be humble about your shots and listen to advice in order to improve. It is often at this level where many animators find they have a certain skill that makes them better at some things than others. Some are strong with subtle acting, others with physical weight, others with more cartoony movement. Some animators find that they are great with birds, monsters, four legged creatures, females, or heavy characters. Certain people have a feel for certain things. It’s good to know who has what strengths. When you are assigned a shot that someone you know would be great at, ask them for advice!

Senior animators have to have confidence in their ability to do all kinds of animation at a high level consistently. Leads and supervisors have to have this same confidence, along with the ability to communicate well with the crew and director. Their job is to help get the strongest performance out of everyone, keep morale high, keep the quality high, and be clear and honest about how a shot is working. They need to understand and visualize multiple ways that a shot can change to improve, and understand how to translate the often cryptic and difficult notes from a director to the animators.

Guest Blogger Jason Martinsen

When Looking for an Animation Job, What is the Best Way to Approach a Company?

2011-11-08T14:27:00.000-08:00

It should go without saying that your demo reel should be your best work, but once you get the interview, how should you act?

I feel like being yourself is the best approach. It sounds like common sense, but sometimes you get nervous before an interview. Stay relaxed, be professional, and the rest will fall into place. Also, do some research about the studio where you are being interviewed. Having a general knowledge of the studio's work is a respectful way to approach the interview.

Guest Blogger Josh Riley

How Important Was Schooling For You In Your Animation Career?

2011-11-01T10:21:00.000-07:00

My school was essentially the nine old men. I wore out my first copy of The Illusion of Life. I flipped through those pages like they were gold. I went over and over and over and over all of the principles until they were burned into my grey matter. Those principles were turned into exercises. I tried to slowly incorporate what I learned into each animation I did.

The hardest part about this was not having someone critique my work. I had to be my own harshest critic. I guess that explains why I can’t stand my animation about ten minutes after it’s done. My eyes constantly find something wrong. Something that could be better. Something that could be stronger.

The other part of my “schooling” was learning what came before me. I was lucky enough to find a laser disc player (do they make those anymore?) that had a remote control with a little disc on it. This tiny circle allowed me to go through films frame by frame – letting me see little nuances in animation that I would have never seen at speed. I would roll through backwards and forwards…thousands of times. Watching arcs. Watching timing and spacing. See how an anticipation would actually make the action stronger. I looked at the animation with not only the question of HOW but of WHY. Why did it work? Why did certain poses make an emotion stronger? Why did a silhouette make the drawing more exaggerated?

The hardest part was making this transition to 3D. (In an old man’s voice) – “Back when I was learning animation, there was none of this new fangled three dee moving characters to watch and learn from.” So I had to translate some of the things I was learning into my 3D cartoons. I never had to worry about staying on model or appealing drawings but I did have to work with strong poses and clear in-betweens.

It did take quite a long time to figure out this art called animation and given the chance, I would do it all over again. However, if I could do through animation mentor? I’d do that in a heartbeat.

Guest Blogger Mike Gasaway

How Much Reference Do Studios Usually Provide to Animators?

2011-10-25T10:35:00.000-07:00

Animators are usually provided with some reference of the actors reading their lines, which is extremely useful.

You can pull little facial nuances or body movements that can help make each character unique. Most of the time, we film our own reference or enlist the help of someone else in order to explore and refine ideas for our shots, the whole time trying to keep character traits in mind to make our reference as close to the character as possible.

When we're unable to film our own reference, for example, of a big cat running, there are so many resources out there. YouTube and BBC motion Gallery have been useful, but with the internet available to us, there are many resources out there, so there's no excuse to not have good reference.

Guest Blogger Rich Fournier

What Tangents in the Graph Editor Do You Primarily Use in Your Workflow — Clamp, Splined, Linear or Plateau?

2011-10-18T11:16:00.000-07:00

The answer to this question is that it depends on what I am animating.

If I am animating for film, I start in stepped mode and stay in stepped until I get to the polishing phase. This helps me to stay focused on the drawings themselves and not let the in-betweens distract me from focusing on my keys and breakdowns. Once I am done with stepped, I change my curves to linear, then to spline. I pretty much touch every frame and really limit the amount of work I let the computer do because the result it gives me is rarely what I want. I don't touch the graph editor until pretty late in the game. This may mean extra work for me, but I would rather have that level of control if things change late in the process. It's easier for me to go back and make changes without worrying about how the software is interpolating the in-betweens.

If I am animating for games, time is of the essence due to the sheer amount of animation required and for the rapid prototyping of game play. Game engines will also play subframes, so you have to make sure that the rotations won't get into a state of gimbal between frames. In this case you want the computer (software) to do as much as possible. So in this case I start with spline right out of the gate.

Guest Blogger Joe Mandia

How Often Do You Work on Colleagues' Work, and What Are Your Tips for Doing So?

2011-10-11T16:59:00.000-07:00

This is something that thankfully only happens occasionally. Although when I worked in vfx it was more frequent. At Blue Sky, sometimes a supervisor would get too busy and have to hand a shot off, or someone would leave or get sick for a long while and the shot needed to be finished. Taking over someone else's shot is challenging because people animate in different methods and often with different movers. What you do will depend on the state the shot is in. If it is rough blocking, you can clean up the poses a bit and just use it as your own file, or if you prefer, make a playblast, and pose out your own file using the playblast as reference. If the shot is in splining then you have to use what is there, figure out what movers they used and work with it.

It can be a nightmare deconstructing how somebody else’s animation mind works but the supervisors will understand this and give you some extra time to figure those things out.

I had to do this once on Horton Hears a Who with a shot of Vlad climbing up a tree.
The supervisor had great blocking in, but his methods seemed messy to me and I ended up just making a playblast and using that as reference. Of course, he put extra pressure on me to make it good because it was his shot originally.

On Iron Man 2, I got a shot of Iron Man being tossed into a car. The animator had put keys on all sorts of movers I never used, so I couldn’t figure out where some movement was coming from until I spoke with him. In another shot on the film, an animator had done a pass and they changed directions with it. I ended up re-working the shot, and basically starting over from scratch, after trying and failing to use the data.

The best tip I can give is to speak with the animator who was working on it right away. Ask them how they went about it, what movers they used, and ask the supervisor what he wants to do differently than what is currently there. Just don’t get easily frustrated if someone takes your shot, or feel too bad when you have to finish a fellow animators’ shot. It is not something that anyone wants to do. But it is part of the job.

Guest Blogger Jason Martinsen

How Important Is Networking in the Animation Industry?

2011-10-04T09:58:00.000-07:00

Networking is EXTREMELY important in the animation industry! It’s not more important than your animation and work ethics, but it’s probably next in line!

Keep in mind that networking with nothing to show for yourself won't get you anywhere. But good networking with a solid demo reel to back it up is a good way to get your foot in the door and also stay employed.

A lot of people think that networking stops after you get your first job. No way! Networking is an ongoing thing to keep your face and work known. This is a small industry, but that doesn’t mean everyone will know you. So go shake some hands and make some new friends!

Guest Blogger Jess Morris

What Are Some Tools You Use to Animate Better?

2011-09-29T12:28:00.000-07:00

Our tools vary from show to show, but it really saves time when you have a great character UI, a way to pick controllers of your character-- especially when you have a lot of work to do with fingers or facial features.

A good facial shape setup will go a long way. If you have to zoom and move around your character trying to find the right controller, then you're wasting time. So if there's not character picker, then I set up scripts (in Maya) that help me select all the fingers at once, or all the tail controllers, or wing controllers, etc.

It's also really helpful to have a script that will select all the keys that are part of your character in case you have to move the whole animation around. It is a huge time saver for me during my initial blocking passes.

Or, let's say you have to add some handheld motion to your camera and you need to set random keys for a long period of time, then it helps to have a script that does that for you. You just adjust the frequency and amplitude and go from there. If you had to do that by hand, it could take a long time.

Sometimes you need to zoom into your scene but you don't want to use another camera because you need that exact angle and setup of your shot. For this you can use a 2D camera zoom script. This helps me a lot when I need to focus on specific areas that are more detail oriented and smaller, like fingers vs. big body movement.

These tools actually exist online. You can find them on creativecrash.com in the Maya MEL script section, and I highly recommend them.

I also have a set of hotkeys within Maya that help me save time. For instance going back and forth in time, frame by frame, or toggling Nurbs controllers on and off, or other things that I use very frequently. The hotkeys are also laid out close together in a way that I don't have to move my hand around, just stretch my fingers a bit and that's it.

Of course there are also other tools for copying animation curves, mocap tools, cleanup tools, etc. that I use, but due to their proprietary nature I wouldn't be allowed to talk about them. The previously mentioned tools are all available online and let me have a pretty good setup at home and not just at work.

Guest Blogger Jean-Denis Haas