Tuesday, March 27, 2012

WEEK 12: Animation Direction 2 : Field Trip to TIFF + Work period for Milestone 5

If you're coming to the CASO event (and you should because it's part of our class) I'll see you at TIFF  -- more info here:
http://tarateach.blogspot.ca/2012/03/caso-presents-exploration-of-todays.html

We'll meet back at school at 2:00 for the last hour of class to continue with your work on Milestone 5. Please bring your questions or WIP. I'm there til 6 so you can use the equipment. Be sure to sign out the gear! Check the schedule to see what's available:
http://bit.ly/stopmosched
I do hope you're staying for Bobby Chiu's awesome talk - I've heard him several times and I definitely wouldn't miss it. He always makes me want to draw more. See you in 515 at 7:00!
http://tarateach.blogspot.ca/2012/03/bobby-chiu-coming-to-gbc-march-29th-700.html

Here's a video from his recent Master Class attended by some illustrious members of GBC.



WEEK 12: Character Acting 2: Quadruped Walk wrap-up + Final Assignment - Acting scene


We'll wrap up the quadruped animation and move on to your final assignment: A character acting scene.  Please don't think of this as 'lip sync' - acting has very little to do with the mouth moving in time to the sound.

You have 3 weeks for this assignment and I've divided the work for you into 3 neat chunks: blocking the keys, adding the extremes, then adding detail. The full description follows.
Jeff Gabor with his animation progression & a plastic spoon

It may come as a surprise that the 'lip sync' part of character acting does not happen until the very last stage.  Please do NOT blast forth with lip sync, that would be very gauche ;o) And for love of Thor, please, no face cams!  Ugh..

The only thing I want you to work on for now is the blocking. The poses are the scaffolding of your entire scene. If they work, every layer of detail will improve it. If not, every layer will magnify their flaws.

Step One: Layout
Due in class 04/04/12:
Also called blocking or posing. You may need to thumbnail your scene first.  Pose the main body positions to support the important ideas and beats, usually around 1 pose per second, with only 2 or 3 major accents per scene. You may work with stepped keys or include 4 frame transitions between poses. Do not include unecessary breakdowns or facial animation, just posing. Do pose the face into the relevant expression but do not animate it at this stage.

Establish your camera(s) at this stage and try not to change them for the duration of the project.  You may include cuts, and if justified, truck ins/outs or pans to follow the action.  Keep these minimal, motivated and crisp (no floaty cameras, please).

Please read the following pages from Richard Williams' "Animator's Survival Kit':
311-326, 338-339

We'll have a look at some great resources for creating animated dialogue including some critiques from Animation Mentor's 11 Second Slub and the iAnimate showreel. 

Another great resource is Keith Lango. His article about Lip Sync is clear and concise.

Assignment 5: Acting Scene
Assigned: 28/03/12
Due: 18/04/12
% of final grade: 20%

Animate a character acting scene with dialogue. Work from your own live action reference, ideally the scene you practiced with Ed in Term 1. You may work in your pairs or groups for multi-character dialogue scenes and animate one of the characters only, or you may attempt to animate multiple characters.

Use pre-built rigs of your choice.

Rubric:

Exemplary: Convincing and well-motivated acting, clear, strong posing, snappy timing and fluid motion with a strong grasp of all animation principles including secondary/overlapping action. High attention to detail in all parts of the body, including eyes, mouth, and hands. Very high level of polish. Demo reel ready.

Excellent:  Solid acting with consistently good posing and timing, almost entirely fluid motion with a good grasp of nearly all animation principles including a good attempt at secondary action. Attention to detail in face and hands. High level of polish. Nearly demo reel ready with minor adjustments.

Acceptable: Decent acting with mostly good posing and timing. Motion is mostly fluid with minor errors or missing animation principles. Some attempt at secondary action. Face and hands animated but not quite polished. Within a few hours of demo reel quality.

Not Acceptable: Acting, posing or timing not clear or well planned. Motion not fluid with quite a few glitches or missing animation principles. Secondary action needing major work. Face and hand animation lacking detail. Quite far from demo reel level.

Equal weight will be given to:
Acting, Posing, Timing, Fluidity, Overlapping Actions/Secondary Motion,

Please submit files by FTP.
Please hand in 2 files, your playblast and your maya file.
You can hand in videos in any standard format except .wmv.
Ex: .mov, .avi, .mp4,
Naming convention:
tdonovan_acting_000.ma
tdonovan_acting_000.avi

Include any necessary referenced files. Please watch your naming conventions. No caps, extra characters or spaces. Feel free to number the files up to 999 as you like. It will help differentiate the files should you need to resubmit.

Good luck!

WEEK 12: Modeling and Animation II - wrapping up "Flour Sack Escapes" + Final Assignment handout

Last chance to show me your Flour Sack Assignments before the midnight deadline!  I'll have a look and help you with any technical difficulties.

It's time for your 5th and final project.

This is a 2D/live action integration project that will bring together everything you've learned so far - the animation principles, working with video reference, 2D animation techniques in Flash - and adds the key component of design.

Yes, finally, you get to make up your own characters and stories.

Your mission is to create a little world of Flash-animated characters in a live-action environment.  You have a lot of creative freedom with this assignment. You can work by yourself or as a small group.  It can be line work or colour, it can be serious, cartoony, depressing, or rude (well, keep it SFW). This is a chance to let your creativity shine. Your character needs to be able to move around and ideally walk around.

Rex the Runt - simple = funny

We'll do some brainstorming in class so you can get started. For inspiration we'll be looking at a brilliantly whacko piece of Flash animation from the video "Animals" by Minilogue.  Anything goes in Flash -- have some fun with it!

"Animals" by Minilogue. A few simple shadows and voila! integration
We'll discuss character design techniques -- finding a style using at all kinds of media including what's in your fridge. I'll show you some classically simple character designs from comics, TV, games, and movies and give you some hints about finding inspiration.

Homework for next week:

  1. Design a character for the final project. Have a printout of it ready to hang on the wall. Three words of advice: Keep.  It.  Simple. 
    If you can't draw it in less than 10 seconds, it's too complicated.
  2. Create a pitch for your idea. Your pitch should include a description of your scenario, as well as drawings to show how your work will all fit with your live action plate.

Here's the full description of your final assignment:

Assignment 5: 

Assigned: 28/03/12
Due: 18/04/12 IN CLASS & FTP
% of final: 20%

Please use a movie file type compatible with QuickTime: AVI, MOV, MPeg4

File naming convention:
hhoudini_final_001.avi
hhoudini_dcopperfield_final_001.avi

In small groups or individually, create a short film starring your animated character integrated with a locked live action background plate. You may download or shoot the video yourself. It should be between 12-16 seconds long including credits.

If you don't have an original idea, use one of these:

  • Busking for bugs 
  • Everybody in the salad 
  • 5" UFO 
  • Leaps tall buildings in a single bound 
  • Other uses for the toilet 
  • Badly disguised 
  • Things on my foot 
  • Urban Emissions

Good luck!