The One Academy DG61

Panorama - Asia Pacific Animation Challenge 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:34:00 +0000

Just got this competition from HooiLing.. its sponsored by Autodesk..

here are the details...

Panorama: Asia Pacific Animation Challenge 2009

i'll skip all the boring descriptions, conditions and eligibility thingies..

Qualification:
Animations completed on or after Jan 1 2009
Animations completed using Autodesk softwares
Production team could not exceed a total of 3 members.
Entries must be received on or before Nov.1 2009

skip skip

Judging:
- Main Category
- Bonus "Best Teamwork" Category
- Bonus "Best Rookies" category: voted by MEDC
- Bonus "Animax Extraordinaire" Category: voted by Animax

PRIZES:
- ONE team will be selected from each countries. The team will become finalists of the competition and awarded:

1. Free passes to the Asia Pacific Animation Challenge 2009 in HONG KONG

2. To take part in Animation Challenge Bootcamp, 4 days at the Hong Kong Cyberport from Dec. 11- 14. During the bootcamp, finalists will have the opportunity to improve their submitted animation and be mentored and taught by experts from Lucasfilm, Animal Logic, Rhythm n Hues, Imagi.

3. 1st prize: USD 1200 plus autodesk maya software + cert + trophy
2nd prize - USD 800 + . .
3rd prize - USD 500 + . . .
Best Teamwork Award - USD 500
Best Rookie Award - USD 500 (sponsored by MDEC)
Animax Extraordinaire Award - USD 500 (sponsored by Animax)

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So here's our problem.. we are to choose THREE members to represent our team.. so hooi ling asked me to discuss with you all.. HooiLing also suggested that we let those currently not working to join, so that if we're selected for the bootcamp, it wouldnt clashes with our works too much.. but of course if we get the prize, we'll split evenly 8D

so what do you think..?

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12 Animation Principles, which one is most important?

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:44:00 +0000

Man, that's such a tough question.

The truth is that you can't single out any one principle as "the" most important. In the past, I've said that animation is kind of like golf. Have you ever tried to golf? Well, I'm not much of a golfer, but I've learned enough to know that there are dozens of important things to remember during a golf swing, and eventually -- after a LOT of practice -- all of these different things become second nature, and they all tie into each other to create one thing -- a good golf swing.

You have to have your toes lined up just right, you have to have your shoulders angled just right, your hips need to be in a specific spot, and you have to swing the club up to a specific height/angle during the back swing. You have to be holding the club in a specific way, and bend your knee in a specific way, and shift your weight from one foot to another mid-swing in a specific way. You have to have one elbow bent just so, and pull with one arm while letting the other drag and steer, and you can't take your eye off the ball, etc.

But at the end of the day, all of those things are really just ONE thing, right? A golf swing.

Animation is EXACTLY the same way. You have to remember anticipation and overlap. Arcs and secondary animation. Force and dynamic posing. Overshoot and line of action. You have to remember squash and stretch and weight & balance and path of action and a million other things.

In the golf swing, if you forget ONE of those things -- say you have your toe pointed in the wrong angle -- then guess what? The ball goes haywire and it's a bad shot.

Animation is the same thing. If you remember everything above, but forget anticipation, then unless the style specifically demands a lack of anticipation, the shot is just plain wrong. It's bad. Because of ONE thing, even though you might have great overlap, beautiful arcs, and the most dynamic poses ever - it's still a bad shot.

We spend a lot of time at Animation Mentor breaking down all the various principles and then showing how they all relate to each other and tie together and morph into one big thing called Body Mechanics, which is basically just the idea of what moves what in the body, and WHY. Overlap, overshoot, force, path of action, etc. -- these are all just different ways of describing tiny facets of what makes our bodies move without falling over, and just as with golf, there's no one facet that is more important than the other.

I wish there was an easier answer, but the truth is that animation requires a serious study of ALL the principles, and the only way to create strong animation is to become extremely familiar with all of them, and -- more importantly -- with how they affect each other.

Best of luck!

Shawn :)

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Lol, sorry everything is written by Shawn Kelly from AnimationMentor, ILM animator. Not me XD Copy and paste ftw~

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.: Ratatouille Progression Reel :.

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:46:00 +0000

Came across this interesting video of the progressions of Pixar's Ratatouille. Its a compilation of different stages of producing the feature film, including storyboard / 2d animatics, 3D previz/animation blocking, full animation, simulation, effects, lighting etc~

Enjoy!

http://movies.ign.com/dor/objects/834652/ratatouille/videos/rata_prog_reel_061307.html

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.: UP new Theatrical Trailer :.

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 23:23:00 +0000

A new 'UP' trailer just came out few days ago I guess, and i LOVE IT !!

looks like it's going to be a great show~ cant wait for the movie to be released~

here's the said trailer :

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.: Tetsujin 28 :.

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 12:47:00 +0000

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This looks like it's going to be great.. A full 3d-CG movie adapted from the classic manga, Tetsujin 28 or (Iron Man no. 28).

Official site here : http://www.imagius.com/t28/web/index.php

The trailer so far is great. Really looking forward to see the real movie ~!!

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How Do You Improve the Arcs in Animation?

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 01:17:00 +0000

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FIRST THINGS FIRST:
Before you go crazy improving any arcs, you must know that you need to work from the root of your character outward (pelvis » spine » neck » head). A slight change in the arc of the root may result in a big change in the arc of your wrist.

There are may ways of improving your arcs so I’ve broken it down to a few sections.

DESIGN:
The beauty of animation is you are the one in control, so why not take control over your arcs. They don’t always have to be your standard arc. Different arcs can have different feelings. So here are some things I like to think about when designing my arcs.

* Arcs should not all be the same. Think of different patterns and how they relate to each other. For instance, if you moved through a squiggly arc and then into a smooth arc, you animation may start off feeling chaotic and then end feeling calm or fluid.

* Like any design, angular shapes and patterns have a rough, rigid and maybe even a negative feeling as apposed to a smooth shapes and patterns may have more of a fluid, organic or positive feeling.

* There needs to be at least three frames (3 points) to describe any curve.

* Arcs can have a thickness to them as well. For example if you move your hand through and arc and your fingers are spread wide at the beginning and in the end, but are close together in the middle that arc will have a feeling of going from thick to thin to thick. When doing this its important to remember volume and anatomy.

DRAWING YOUR ARC:
When I think I have an idea for my arc, I plot it out on my monitor with a dry erase marker (for flat panels I may use a sheet of acetate over the monitor). I first plot out my start and end points so I know roughly how much space I’m dealing with and then I draw my arc connecting the two.

Remember, the more detailed your arc is the more frames you will need. For example, if you wish for your object to follow along an “S” curve you will need enough points to keep it from looking like a “Z” curve.

SPACING:
I think the thing most often forgotten when it comes to arcs is the spacing along the arcs. It's not good enough just to make sure that every frame follows the arc, but the spacing along that arc has just as much value. If the spacing is done incorrectly your arc may or may not read.

As a starting point, I think of my spacing along an arc like the coils in a slinky. If you were to stretch out a slinky along an arc, the coils would be closer to each other at the ends and furthest apart in the middle. When you move through the slinky from the start toward the middle, each coil (spacing) gradually gets further and further apart until it reaches its furthest spacing in the middle. From that point, the coils (spacing) get closer and closer together. Like I said, this is just a starting point, your typical arcs ease out, and moves through a breakdown to an ease in type of spacing. Quite often I will see two random coils in the middle of an arc very close together unintentionally, and even though the object is moving through an arc it still appears to pop because the frames before and after don’t lend itself to that spacing.

DRAG, SQUETCH (Squash and Stretch):
When moving through an arc it's important that any drag, or squetching we do follows that path of action as well. For example, in your standard bouncing test, as a ball stretches on its descent the line of action of that ball points back up the arc where it came from.

MOTION BLUR:
This may be a bit unnecessary to talk about and may even complicate things a bit, but when you get to that big studio it matters. Motion blur is like 5-year-old playing connect the dots. It will only draw a straight line from point to point. It doesn’t know to arc in between the dots. So this may or may not be another factor to the design and detail of your arc.

by Nick Bruno
AnimationMentor.com Mentor
Senior Animator at Blue Sky Studios

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.: "UP" Trailer is UP !~ :.

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 15:05:00 +0000

yes. The trailer of Pixar's new animation 'UP' , is up~

Be the first one to watch it HERE

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How Do You Go About Timing Out Animation That Can't Be Performed in Real Life?

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 01:13:00 +0000

That's a tough one, and it depends entirely on the style of the project you are working on. The timing is going to be very different between Davy Jones jumping vs. Mr. Incredible jumping vs. Horton jumping. These projects all land at different places on the meter of stylization, and each of those character's movements and timings are dictated heavily by those chosen styles.

If you're working on a more stylized piece, and are creating a performance that you can't find or create reference for in the real world, then my advice would be to use the principle of exaggeration to push the timing and poses that you see in the real world.

You always want to base your animation on the real world while adhering to the rules of the universe that have been set up by the style of the project you are working on. No matter how stylized the motion, if it has zero connection to the world we live in, the audience is going to have a hard time connecting to it, and will likely find it confusing or off-putting. You want to give the audience some anchors - something they are familiar with, and use that as the jumping off point for your stylizations.

As an example, let's say that you are animating a character jumping up into the air, but you want to give them extra "cartoony" hang-time. In this instance, I'd encourage you to study (and maybe even film) the mechanics of how a real jump works. Jump around at your desk and feel what happens in your own body. Study how the whole body squashes on the anticipation, stretches on the launch, squashes at the top of the jump, stretches on the way back down, and squashes on the landing. Just study ALL that stuff about how a real jump works.

Once you know how a real jump works, now you're ready to animate your exaggerated jump. Just take what you've observed and apply your knowledge of the principles of animation to it (including and especially exaggeration, in this case) and you'll be fine! Keep that overall squash and stretch for at least the launch and landing as anchors, for example, and be sure to have a frame where at least one toe is still on the ground with a very straight leg so the character feels like he's pushing himself upward. Maybe get his arms involved, as people do, etc.

With those anchors in there, you will successfully communicate the idea of a jump, no matter what other craziness you now add to the mix. Give him a longer hang time, for example, but try to hang onto those anchors as well. Keeping him on a nice arc would probably be another good anchor, to keep things somewhat rooted in the way the audience understands how our gravity works, but that doesn't mean you can't elongate that arc and keep him in the air for as long as you possibly want to!

Hope that helps! Have fun, and keep animating!

- Shawn Kelly.
Co-founder of AnimationMentor.com and ILM animator.

:: Graduation Campaign Updates ::

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:39:00 +0000

T-Shirt design submission is open !~ Do design some nice T-shirt (monotone or 2 / 3 colors) for our T-shirt sales , and submit it to Beng / Jared by Sunday~

Theme is based on Love Bomb

T-shirt Template - get from Beng / Jared.

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Monday- If you have any 2nd hand stuffs u wanna sell of, do bring them on monday and pass them to Ji Yan =)

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Graduation Campaign : Batch 61 Forum

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:54:00 +0000

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Yes, the forum is UP and running~

http://graduation061.forumotion.net/forum.htm

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Metal Gear Solid 4 : Case Study

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 08:49:00 +0000

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Don't Miss it!~

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CGSociety - The Top Ten Tips of Texturing

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:27:00 +0000

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Have fun everybody!~ And happy final term =(

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Final Term is here !!

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 09:52:00 +0000

The results are out, and thank god, nobody fails!!~ ^_^ aaaaand here's the timetable for the new term :

MON -

TUES - Adv 3d Studio 2 + Final Project Dev 2 // LHL // 3dlab1 // 9am - 6pm ( LOL)

WED - Graduation Campaign // Kelvin + Stephen // AVH // 2 - 4pm

THUR -

FRI -

SAT - Adv 3d Studio 2 // KFC + TCH // 3dlab1 // 9.30 am - 2.30 pm

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Good luck to all = =b

Gnomon Tutorials DVDs

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:37:00 +0000

Hooi Ling has passed to me quite a few Gnomon tutorial dvds.. anyone who wants anyone of them or all of the DVDs, please tell me~

Below is the list of dvds..

- 2D and 3D Fluids: Maya Fluid Effects Fundamentals
- 2D and 3D Fluids: Maya Fluid Effects - Particle Integration
- Modelling The Human Head Disc 1
- Modelling The Human Head Disc 2
- Digital Set 3 : Rendering and Compositing
- Mental Ray - Global Illumination

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Animation Mentor Student Showcase Summer 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 01:22:00 +0000

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Download movie
(Right click - save as)28.2mb

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The Tale of Despereaux (2008)

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 01:10:00 +0000

Coming this Christmas!~

Inspired by the famous children fairy tale book ; The hero of the story is Despereaux Carlos Tilling, a small mouse with large ears, who falls hopelessly in love with the beautiful human Princess Pea. Despereaux was dubbed unusual by the other mice immediately after his birth because he was born with his eyes open, a rather large pair of ears, and a tiny body. The story goes on with Despereaux becoming a 'hero' and friend with the princess and the king. ( -wikipedia.com)

Visit the official site~ :: http://www.thetaleofdespereauxmovie.com/

Working in ILM

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:55:00 +0000

How Do You Spend Your Week at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM)?

Honestly, it totally depends on what we are working on, and where we are in the production schedule. But I would say that my general statistics would be working around 45-50 hours per week. I get to work around 8:45, and on a typical day go straight to dailies where our work is shown up on the big screen and we all talk about how to make it better. Then it'd be back to my desk to catch up on my email, phone messages, and a couple hours of animating before lunch. Most of the animators eat together every day in our dining area, and we're a very close-knit family. After lunch, it's hardcore animation for me, and I animate until I go home, generally around 8 p.m. or so.

The truth is that I am crazy blessed with this job, and literally get to just sit in a room with most of my closest friends and laugh all day long. We work hard, but we keep the mood light and fun as much as possible.

-Shawn :)

Shawn Kelly,
co-founder of AnimationMentor.com
and Industrial Light & Magic Animator

Workflow for Fully Rigged Character

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:19:00 +0000

Shawn Kelly, Industrial Light and Magic Animator, and co-founder of AnimationMentor.com, shares how he works with animating a character. Below are his sharing.

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In simpler models, I would key everything together at the same frame so I would not be confused when I tried to move things around. Now I'm working with a character with a mouth, eyes, and full facial rig. Do I key the face controls along with the rest of the body, or do you re-block them on their own pass? What is a normal workflow?

Working with a new character is always intimidating (but exciting, as well, as you get to explore how that new character works, puzzle out new solutions for movement, etc.!), and jumping into your first "fully rigged" character is even scarier than normal.

I work just like the above -- I block in the scene in a "pose-to-pose" way, using my reference and planning as a guide, and saving keys on every body controller as I go. HOWEVER, your question raises a great point that I don't think I've mentioned in the past, and that is the fact that I do NOT save any keys on the face at all during this first pass at blocking. I just ignore the face completely, and in my mind, I imagine what the face will eventually look like.

Even with eye darts or blinks -- all that stuff I save for a completely separate pass. I don't know if that's the "normal workflow" or not, as everyone works in whatever way works best for them, but in my experience, doing any facial work in the first pass of blocking has a decent chance of being a waste of time. The body performance/timing might not be really locked down yet, and the facial emotions and thought-process needs to be very integrated with the acting choices, gestures, and body mechanics. You might as well wait until the body is really nailed down and 90% finished before jumping into any facial stuff, because if you end up having to change the overall body stuff, the facial stuff might all have to be scrapped completely as well. It'll save you a lot of headache in the long run, in my opinion, to hold off on the facial stuff.

Remember, the facial animation is the "icing on the cake," and if the emotions, actions, and ideas aren't communicating through the body language and physical performance, that should be a huge red flag for you that the scene is in trouble. The greatest facial animation in the world is not going to save your scene from poor body mechanics or bad body language...

So yes, in answer to your question, I save the face for last, and by the time I'm keying the facial work, expressions, jaw, and lip-sync - at that point, I'm no longer at all concerned with what frames my initial body-blocking poses and breakdowns were on. This is completely separate, and while it's very important to make sure the face is very related to what's going on in the body, it's very normal for the facial keys to be on completely different frames than the body keys.

Shawn :)

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Behind the Scenes of Kung Fu Panda with HP Workstation !!

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:55:00 +0000

Kung Fu Panda CGsociety Production Focus

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:24:00 +0000

Kung Fu Panda is one of the best animated film for this year in my opinion~ We were all blinded by the over-exposure of its awesomeness!! XDlol

Read the Production Focus on CGsociety now~ Click Me !!

KungFu Panda Outing

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:49:00 +0000

POW !!~ Kung Fu Panda is coming to the theaters this Friday, June 6 !!

So i'm thinking of organizing a class movie outing this friday afternoon, to watch this animated movie D: !! There'll be 2 possible showtimes : - 3:20pm and 4:10pm.

Anyone who's interested please inform me asap !! Please confirm your place by Thursday =)

Cheers. kapow !!

1st Life Drawing Session

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 01:59:00 +0000

Tomorrow, 2 June, afternoon, maybe find an empty class room over at H, I, J, K blocks.. We'll discuss the time in class tomorrow.

If there's anything, please contact me or leave me a msg ~

Thanks

Cracking the Not-So-Tough Maya~

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Tue, 27 May 2008 14:59:00 +0000

Several people have been telling me that they have problems running maya after installing~ Most of them i'm sure, its because of the MAC address thingy right?

It's actually quite easy =)

1 After installing Maya, go to Start >> All Programs >> Autodesk >> Common Utilities >> FlexLM utilities

2 In the LMtools, under System Settings tab, the Ethernet Address is what you are looking for =D

Some helpful Maya Mel scripts

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Sat, 24 May 2008 02:16:00 +0000

Here are some helpful (i think) mel scripts that we can use..

HoeYi4Steps <-- one button for all 4 commands

MJPolyTools <--- as shown in class in the Gnomon tutorial

http://www.sendspace.com/file/ns1vbs

tested with Maya 8.5

Speed Racer

noreply@blogger.com (Hikari+) — Sat, 17 May 2008 08:48:00 +0000

After the famous Matrix Trilogy, the Wachowski brothers blow the minds of the viewers once again, with Speed Racer.

CGsociety Article: http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=4521&page=1