Monday, April 13, 2009

Bale rant Animation process: 'Animation'

ANIMATION PROCESS BLOCKING AND ANIMATION


BLOCKING:

I wanted to start testing how far and how well the layering method would work on this one… so I decided to work only on about 40-50 frames and try to finish it up… at the same time I was experimenting on the settings… rendering quality… so I could think and try to imagine how it would look as a final product or final “drawings” for the whole shot. Here are the examples:

When I started to go further on the lipsync, I realized that I couldn’t push as much the mouth shapes with this technique… so I started a clean slate in the lipsync and with the help of Flipbook and Jason Ryan’s lipsync webinar I had this done in about 30 minutes:

I think it looked waaaay better than the versions before… so I went back to my shot and polished this up until I have something I was happy with:

At the end after having this 40-50 frames “done” in the layering method… it took a lot of brain power and concentration to really see what I was animating and not getting distracted for the rest… I realized that I could get a bit lost in the performance on the whole clip and my acting pattern could suffer because of this… so I decided to have a complete rough blocking of the main idea of the shot:

The rest of the process was similar to the many pose to pose or layering tutorials on the web, so I just had my important key poses and expressions down and started working in small chunks until the end… and of course after switching from stepped to flat splines, I went back to the layering method… working my way up from the root to the face :)

After a few notes I got from friends and animators, I changed a few things and this is what I can call “the final version”:

Well… that’s all I can say about my animation process on this shot.. it was pretty fun and challenging for me to present it to the spline doctors, and I want to thank all of them and all my friends for the kind feedback! :)

I hope this was helpful.

8 comments:

Dapoon said...

hey daniel first off, congrats for achieving the 2nd position! i think ur work is HUMONGOUS! it's definitely one of the BEST lipsync animations i've seen!! great acting choices! i too feel so f****** annoyed when my computer starts acting funny! one addition i wud've done to INTENSIFY his emotion wud be to SLAM the monitor in frustration! i know that doesnt logically make the computer run fast, but we tend to do it instinctively. and him being a GRUMPY farmer (who doesnt seem much like a computer wizard), this action cud really enhance his character even more! whaddaya think! but all in all, this is INSPIRATIONAL!!

p.s. i'd love it if u cud visit my blog and critique my work to help me become a better animator. thanks in advance! keep inspiring! :)

Dhar said...

Thank you for sharing your thought process. Always inspirational to see the inner workings of a shot. I still think you shld have gotten 1st. Next time :o)

Anonymous said...

Daniel, this is a great post. You explain your workflow better than any other animator around. I have been using the layering method in my work, and have also approached it where I focus on the animation every 40 frames or so. However, combining that with stepped mode is fascinating.

To me working in stepped mode is really tough. The ultimate advantage of layering is that you have a really a clean graph editor from the very beginning. You don't have to worry about the hitchiness that comes with misplaced breakdowns.

I think the reason the layered approach is not emphasized is that directors have a really hard time with it.

My question to you is, I'm wondering how a director gives you feedback if all you have is the root animated while the rest of the body is static? Is it very different than someone who blocks using stepped mode? Thanks again. Please continue these same posts with every animation you do!

Daniel Huertas said...

Thanx for the feedback guys! :) I am glad you liked it.

dapoon: I am heading right now to your blog.. :)

Dhar: it's my pleasure to share this to guys like you that always try to learn and love animation... that charges my batteries all the time! and reviewing my animation steps also helps me to get more organized and achieve better results.. :) all the best!

anonymous: I hear you man.. I had some problems with direction as well on the layering method.. I usually work with layering.. when it's a piece where I am the only director and animator, it works best with me.. but if i am working with a director like at work.. i do my blocking with enough information on it so i could switch to splines soon enough and start applying layering as well :)

Thanx again for visiting guys!

BASILE said...

Very interesting post !

Chetan Trivedi said...

awesome posts..
i love the organic feeling that you have in all your animations.
can you upload bigger thumbnails? the ones that you have right now are hard to see clearly, for me.
loved the part on planning.
lookinh forward to more such post. going more indepth would rock. :D
thanx alot.
ciao
-Chetan

Harinarayan said...

ha haa nice one ..really kool actually i had seen many other shots wid this farmer n all r equally stunning... the character is soo animatable n i guess u had shown a g8 amnt of justice 2 da character... keep up da gud work mate...

Francis said...

Salut, merci de partager avec nous ton Workflow pour l'anim facial.

Tu est vraiment un super animateur (wow, ce que tu a fait durant tes quelques cours de AM s'est vraiment cool ;P). Je viens de finir le Campus Ubi. Je ne sais pas si tu t'en rapelle, mais certain était venus visiter Beenox durant la journée porte ouverte (pas moi mais d'autres)


PS : Ça serait cool si ont pourrait downloader tes anim en QickTime afin de voyager entre les frames

Bon aller a++