Dialogue test roughs 01

Teaser: some character roughs Im trying out for a dialogue test.

Changes

Scene 33 has been changed. And while the difference is slight, the dynamic of the scene has changed. This kind of change is one of the difficult things about animating in any medium: when a scene changes a good deal after its been started, its gets harder and harder to make "little changes". This happens with traditional animation as well, but more often you have to re-draw the entire scene with any change. With animation programs that contain a graph editor ( Autodesk Maya, Tv Paint, any animation program worth its salt...)you do have some wiggle room to adjust a slow-in here or some overlapping action there. For me, one of the difficult things to learn in 3d was how to cope with this type of change. So it was paramount to learn....STEPPED ANIMATION/CURVES!!

What is stepped animation, you ask? Also known as 'stepped curves' in 3d, instead of adding all the curves ( i.e. making the characters movements smooth), you only show the major poses. It is a direct decendent to the way traditional animators roughed out their scenes. It ends up looking 'choppy' or 'robotic', but again, the idea is to keep things simple so that if the director doesnt like it, you can 'redraw' your poses quickly.

However, some directors have trouble "seeing" the animation based on stepped animation alone, and will only 'get' the acting when its smoothed. Which can cause you, the animator, a world of grief. This is because 'smooth' animation takes a long time to produce. Keeping your animation in 'stepped' as long as possible ensures flexibility and your sanity! But in the off chance that you end up having to present your rough animation in curves, there's still hope. Instead of spending all your time getting every movement perfect, concentrate on the most important movements. For example, if your character is falling thru the air, dont spend your time on how tight their eyes will be closed as they plummet to their doom! The primary action is falling. So key a pose at the top and bottom of the fall. If you want, you can turn your curves to 'linear' so it actually looks as if he's floating down. How fast the character appears to fall is based on how long it takes to get from pose 'a' ot pose 'b'. Fast fall= less time between 'a' and 'b'. Slo-motion fall=MUCH more time between 'a' and 'b'.

the mysterious scene33!!!

Well, this scene is being changed as I animate it, but such is production! I definately liked this version better, but in the end, the closeup wins out. Ill post that one later. I think the great thing now is that I can get a scene roughed out in a day or two now, depending of course on how long the scene is. At the beginning of this film, it would take FOREVER!

Shark Week?

Hmm, Shark Week. So Im late jumping on the band wagon. I was inspired today to do some animation surrounding Discovery Channel's Shark Week. I didnt want to take it all the way, but hopefully, someone besides me will get a kick out of this. This is why i love traditional animation so much: you can do it on the fly. All you need a pencil and some imagination....wow, that sounded really corny, even coming from me.

[EDIT] I was told by a friend that the animation wasnt looping. So I re-posted it. But it took longer than I thought, as Blogger no longer accepts dot gifs as a file format. Lame..

I have very little experience with digital painting, but a little more with traditional oils. Hopefully the interwebs doesnt screw too much with the color in this sketch either. Anyway, I've found that the quickest way to get a quasi-realistic look to your digital paint without rendering it is to:

1)Paint the highlight and the reflected light using a variation of the same color. Not only does this keep the colors in the same family, but it's faster! Notice below that the reflected light is almost exactly the same color ( with few exceptions) as the highlight.
2) Also, the terminator can become too flat very quickly. This is where the light ends and the shadow side of an object begin. As a result, the tendency is to over-render (i.e. gradient transition) this region. Instead, use a definate color change. This will help you get a better idea if the color you chose for the terminator "feels" right. Also, dont be afraid to use that undo key!! The easiest way Ive found is to choose a color for the terminator and paint it in one quick, wavy stroke. U should be able to tell immediately if its off. Simply hit the undo key and try a different color. Hope that helps.

--Pedro

Wow.

Ok animation, its time to kick you in the @$$. So ive been doing a ton of things: web design, animation in Maya (3d), Flash animation, sketches of my dog, and otherwise trying to stay out of trouble. Recent events have definately made my life more..difficult. You ever had dreams of making a film, owning a comic shop, or otherwise doing something that you love? I'll say this right now: it aint easy. Even if you have something that you're really good at, something you want to make into a career. I believe this is because being really good at something usually involves some degree of selfishness. Meaning that at some point, you'll have to forgo pleasurable things, like hanging out with friends, sometimes even being with your family. Maybe you even break up with someone just to hve some extra time.

These are all extreme case of what can happen when you do something you love. The key is to ask yourself what your willing to sacrifice in order to do what you love. Are you willing to sneak into a life drawing session where a fee is required? Are you willing to live in your parents' basement for a few extra years? think about it.

Animation is the thing Im willing to sacrifice a lot for. But I've reached a limit. I know what Im not willing to do in order to make this dream a reality. And I had to make a LOT of mistakes to get to where I am. A lot of tough decisions. A break up. Quiting my job for a film that I wasnt going to get paid for. Designing a website.
Doing clean up work for a t shirt company. Random things.

So if you have fallen asleep up till this point, remember this: Nothing worth doing is easy. I know its been said before, but I learned the hard way to find this to be true.

30 seconds to a minute

The poses went up to three minutes, but I didnt have the patience to draw a QUICK SKETCH for that long. Hmm, I think one thing Im noticing is that I tend to take up too much of a page with a sketch. So it ends up feeling cramped. Practice makes better!





























--Pedro