WEEK 15: Final Week! Good Luck!

For my returning students - have a great summer!

For my graduating students - best of luck!

Keep filling your sketchbooks - drawing skills never go out of style. :)

Artist Adventures from Olivia Huynh on Vimeo.

WEEK 14: Game Dev 2 DESN2017 Assignment 5 Due Next week! No classes next Friday!

This is our last official class as next week is a school holiday. Please feel free to attend any of my classes on Thursdays from 8-6.

I hope you're all at the final polish stage on your final project.
Here's another great chase sequence from DreamWorks Animation's, 'The Croods'.
This is just a snippet of a complex 5 minute sequence featuring Eep in various types of 4-legged runs, regular runs, and slides.

WEEK 13: Game Dev 2 DESN2017 Assignment 5 Due in Two Weeks

As you think of ways to have your character transition back into the run cycle, consider how you can make your scene interesting. The possibilities are endless. Case in point this nearly 1 minute long sequence from Disney's 1937 classic "Snow White". Her terrified run through the forest is one of the most well-known animated sequences of all time.

WEEK 12: Game Dev 2 DESN2017 Assignment 4 due

The final stretch! This is the last assignment for your course, hopefully one that will bring your character smoothly back into his run cycle you started off with this term.  Think about how you can help this deceptively complex action look believable. It's not just a matter of letting the computer do the inbetweens for you - at this level we would like you to plan some interesting, subtle animation that will show your mastery of the tools and the animation principles. Ok, maybe "mastery" is scary. How about "facility" :D

What IS this 'recovery' of which I speak? Well, that's up to you, really - what happens after the slide, after the stagger, before the run cycle starts again?  There's only one way to do this properly - act it out! 

Don't forget to stretch!

Assignment 5: Recover
DUE DATE: WEEK 15 April 18 (in-class) – 20 Marks
*ZERO marks for late submissions
Using your bi-ped rig animate the character recovering from his stagger and transitioning back into your run cycle. The feel should be consistent with the personality and emotion of the previous animation. Secondary animations a broad range of movements and timing are encouraged to add life to the character.

SUBMIT THE FOLLOWING:
A) Thumbnails of key poses – minimum 6 key poses
B) Video file of 3D recovery animation
REQUIREMENTS:
Filename:
DESN2017_A5_YOURNAME_thumbnails.jpg
DESN2017_A5_YOURNAME_stagger.mov
EX -
DESN2017_A5_BIEBERJUSTIN_thumbnails.jpg (last name first, please!)

DUE DATE
SUBMIT TO BLACKBOARD WEEK 15 IN CLASS

Please compress all images and videos to keep them small using the following guidelines:

Videos:
Quicktimes, 560 pixels by 316 pixels, H.264 codec, max 10MB. You can use a variety of tools such as Handbrake, Adobe Media Encoder, Quicktime Pro and more to format your videos. I use the 11-second club guidelines for all submissions:
http://www.11secondclub.com/helpful_hints/encoding

Images:
JPGs between 500-1200 pixels along longest edge, 72-300 dpi/ppi, max 5MB. You can use a variety of tools such as Photoshop, Gimp, and online programs to compress files.

WEEK 11: Game Dev 2 DESN2017 Assignment 4 due next week

I hope your stagger animation is going well! I keep finding these little examples of animated run-stagger-recovery sequences for you -- please send me links if you find more!

This is a great example from Tangled. Once again it's another 90-degree change of direction. Watch how carefully the animator slows the character's momentum and rebalances the COG so he can continue running. 

This type of animation is very tricky. Be sure to show it in context -- the point of the exercise is to show how you handle the forces required.  

The last assignment will lead you back into the run so don't worry about having that part completed for next week. 

WEEK 10: Game Dev 2 DESN2017 Assignment 4 due in 2 weeks!

Please let me know if you have any WIP to show me. It's good to get some feedback before you get too deep into your work. You have a couple of weeks left so you should be into your blocking this week. Next week you should aim to have all your animation finished in rough so you can polish it in the last week.

I'm really not finding much in the way of run-stagger-recover reference (here's a good excuse to do some video reference shooting if you'd like to borrow equipment like cameras and tripods just ask me).

A large part of making this assignment work has to do with how you handle the shifting of weight. This is true of any full-body animated scene. Here's a great student piece by "Kolin" from Animation Mentor (Kolin, if you're reading this, please tell me your full name so I can properly identify you!)

WEEK 9: Game Dev 2 DESN2017 Assignment 3: Slide Under Object Due Today!

Hello and welcome back from your break.

You have the rest of class to complete your slides and then head into your 2nd-last assignment.

This next piece is about what happens to your character after he jumps over, and then slides under obstacles on his way back to the run cycle. You will have another assignment in between this one and the regular run cycle for your character to regain his footing.  This is all about the 'stagger' where he's off balance and trying to get his COG over his base of support. Maybe the floor is slippery or it takes him a few steps to get balanced. You have a lot of leeway with this assignment.

Here's a very brief example from Ratatouille as Remy runs away from Chef Skinner, Skinner slides to turn the corner and change his direction 90 degrees. He takes a couple of staggering steps, even placing his hand briefly on the ground to recover his balance and continue forward. 

Assignment 4: Stagger

DUE DATE: WEEK 12 (in-class) – 20 Marks
*ZERO marks for late submissions
Using an existing rig create a stagger animation for a bi-ped. The character should stagger or stumble forward. The feel should be consistent with the personality and emotion of the previous animation. Secondary animations a broad range of movements and timing are encouraged to add life to the character.

SUBMIT THE FOLLOWING:
A) Thumbnails of key poses – minimum 6 key poses
B) Video file of 3D slide animation
REQUIREMENTS:
Filename:
DESN2017_A4_YOURNAME_thumbnails.jpg
DESN2017_A4_YOURNAME_stagger.mov
EX -
DESN2017_A4_BIEBERJUSTIN_thumbnails.jpg (last name first, please!)

DUE DATE
SUBMIT TO BLACKBOARD WEEK 12 IN CLASS

Please compress all images and videos to keep them small using the following guidelines:

Videos:
Quicktimes, 560 pixels by 316 pixels, H.264 codec, max 10MB. You can use a variety of tools such as Handbrake, Adobe Media Encoder, Quicktime Pro and more to format your videos. I use the 11-second club guidelines for all submissions:
http://www.11secondclub.com/helpful_hints/encoding

Images:
JPGs between 500-1200 pixels along longest edge, 72-300 dpi/ppi, max 5MB. You can use a variety of tools such as Photoshop, Gimp, and online programs to compress files.

Week 8: Have a Great Break!

Hope you can rest up over the break!

Here are the keys that make up Erick Oh's fantastic little fox run from The Dam Keeper I showed in class. Click to view larger. 

WEEK 7: Game Dev 2 DESN2017 Assignment 3: Slide Due in 2 Weeks!

Hope your work is going well on the slide animation. If you have any questions, I'm here to help!
Your work is due the first class after the break.

Here's a great example of a fight-sequence slide used in the show RollBots by animator Phil Bonner.

WEEK 6: Game Dev 2 DESN2017 Assignment 2: Leap due today!

Today's the day to hand in your second assignment on Blackboard. 

Onward to the next assignment! 

Assignment 3: Slide Under Object

*Note: If your run cycle didn't turn out as well as you had hoped, please redo it instead of the next action. You can still use the same hand-in parameters and call it Assignment 3. Just make it a run instead of a slide. 

DUE DATE: WEEK 9, March 7th (in-class) – 20 Marks
*ZERO marks for late submissions
Using the Stewart or Eleven Rig, create a slide animation for a bi-ped. The character should slide under an object of some sort (object can be invisible) as if avoiding impact. The feel should be consistent with the personality and emotion of the previous animation. Secondary animation, a broad range of movements and timing are encouraged to add life to the character.

SUBMIT THE FOLLOWING:

A) Thumbnails of key poses – minimum 6 key poses
B) Video file of 3D slide animation

REQUIREMENTS:

Filename:
DESN2017_A3_YOURNAME_thumbnails.jpg
DESN2017_A3_YOURNAME_slide.mov (.mov file)
EX -
DESN2017_A3_BIEBERJUSTIN_thumbnails.jpg (last name first, please!)

Please compress all images and videos to keep them small using the guidelines for Assignments 1 & 2

About the assignment:

What exactly is meant by a 'slide'? Well, that's largely up to you. If you give yourself an imaginary obstacle it could be easier, but the main idea is to continue moving the character forward but under something, causing him to duck and slide. 

Thumbs, thumbnailing, thumbnail posing... in animation these terms get tossed around a fair bit. They all refer to drawing quick, small gestures in planning animation.

Check out Pixar's Victor Navone's run study from The Incredibles. Can you guess which movie he used to source that action?

Oh, yes, the Breakfast Club ...


...and here's the clip from the Incredibles in which he used all that reference:

Check out Victor Navone's beautiful collection of thumbnails here.

Drawing is the premier means of visual communication and it's absolutely essential in collaborating with other artists. Drawing is a learned skill that comes more easily to some than others -- but make no mistake, a few hours of dedicated study can make all the difference. Animators have to draw so darned many drawings that they've spent a century developing a list of tricks to streamline the process.  Here's a great article that might help you. 

Animation Mentor article "Animation Tips & Tricks: THUMBNAILS"

WEEK 5: Game Dev 2 DESN2017 Assignment 2: Leap due next week!

EVH can do it, so can you

How are those jumps going? I'm happy to help. :)

Jumping characters exhibit lost of secondary and overlapping action, and anticipation.

Showing the effort characters take to move their own weight is paramount to creating believable animation of any style.

It's one thing to make the up and down motion read as 'heavy' and affected by gravity. It's quite another to master the mechanics of looping overlapping/secondary action with the character's arms, legs and other details such as tails or capes.

If ever the devil were in any details.. it's animating secondary on a looping action!

Your jump cycles should be usable for avoiding ground pitfalls or traveling forward.
The mechanics of the body in the jump should work well before tackling the secondary action

Remember you will be blending this cycle from and back to the run so you might want to export the start pose from a run position to help it transition smoothly.

WEEK 4: Game Dev 2 DESN2017 Assignment 2: Leap due in 2 weeks

You have a couple of weeks left on your leap animation. If you have any trouble please let me know - I'm happy to help!

There are many great examples of traveling cycles in games. These are clips from Tomb Raider featuring some running and jumping with different types of landings including rolling break falls.

Be Friends with Failure - we all need this reminder now and then

Dear everybody: 

Despite a lifetime of conquering challenge after challenge and reaching many of my goals, I finally had to face something that was holding me back: Fear of Failure.  It only dawned on me a couple of years ago that there is no possibility to succeed without failure. Failure is a prerequisite for success. Gymnasts train with pits of foam under the bars because they fall over and over again.  Learning the tricks means falling down a lot.

But as artists we like the tricks but not many of us like the falling part. It's annoying and it's embarrassing to fail again and again. But that's just your ego talking. It's not actually painful unless you attribute meaning to it that just isn't there. 

How many of us have had a crappy day at work with a looming deadline and thought something like, 

I will never figure this out

Now imagine the person sitting next to you saying that to you:

"You will never figure this out."

What would you call that type of person? A jerk? At the very least --a real a**hole and not someone you would trust to work with artists at a studio. That person would need a smack upside the head and a desk far away from humans.  If that voice is your own inner monologue, you need to silence it, now. 

2012 was my year to follow this motto: EMBRACE FAILURE. I came to grips with the idea that there's always progress being made even when it doesn't show up on the screen....yet. That was my other discovery. Adding 'yet' to defeatist statements gives them power and intent. ("I don't understand rigging..yet". See?)

In the gym we work 'to failure' meaning you lift a weight heavy enough that after a few reps you can't lift any more. Failure makes your muscles stronger. Progress takes months but it is guaranteed if you never give up.

At your desk it's the same thing - your brain responds to each new challenge by building new neural pathways. Every new task works out your brain and makes you a bit smarter, even though it takes a while to see it. Learning unfamiliar things feels like failure sometimes but really, painful as the process is, it's growth all the same.

On the long road to success, failure is not only an option, it is a requirement. Make peace with it. 

Here - this cartoon says it best:

http://doodlealley.com/2012/10/10/be-friends-with-failure/

WEEK 3: Game Dev 2 DESN2017 Assignment 1: Run Cycle Due !

After you hand in your assignments it's time to get started on the next one: Jumps.

This is the ideal assignment to use live action reference. Remember that once an object has left the ground it will move at a pretty constant forward speed, however its upward trajectory will slow-in and slow out of the high point. As you run out of the kinetic energy that allowed you to leave the ground, you will slow to the top of a nice smooth arc and gravity will start pulling you back down again - 

Bam -- parabola!

Always think about the 'Why' - why is your character jumping? It helps make the action believable. 

Eadweard Muybridge's classic photo of the long-jumper has many clues we can use to bring life to our animation.

There's a ton of great information on jumps in Richard Williams' The Animator's Survival Kit from 212-216 and on anticipation from 273-284. Buy this book! It takes several readings to get it to sink in.

Assignment 2: Leap over an Object

Value: 20%

DUE DATE: WEEK 6 Feb 14th @ BEGINNING OF CLASS on BLACKBOARD
* Late submissions will receive ZERO marks.

BRIEF:

Animated the character leaping over an object (it can be invisible). It should be consistent with the personality and emotion of the previous animation (run cycle). Secondary animations a broad range of movements and timing are encouraged to add life to the character. Ideally the jump should link smoothly to and from the run.

SUBMIT THE FOLLOWING:

A) Thumbnails of key poses – minimum 6 key poses
B) Video file of 3D leap animation

REQUIREMENTS:

Filename:
DESN2017_A2_YOURNAME_thumbnails (.jpg file) 

DESN2017_A2_YOURNAME_leap.mov (.mov file)

EX -

DESN2017_A2_BIEBERJUSTIN_thumbnails.jpg (last name first, please!)

DUE DATE:

SUBMIT TO BLACKBOARD WEEK 6 (February 14th)  IN CLASS
Please compress all images and videos to keep them small using the following guidelines:

Videos:

Quicktimes, 560 pixels by 316 pixels, H.264 codec, max 10MB. You can use a variety of tools such as Handbrake, Adobe Media Encoder, Quicktime Pro and more to format your videos. I use the 11-second club guidelines for all submissions:

http://www.11secondclub.com/helpful_hints/encoding

Images:

JPGs between 500-1200 pixels along longest edge, 72-300 dpi/ppi, max 5MB. You can use a variety of tools such as Photoshop, Gimp, and online programs to compress files.

WEEK 2: Game Dev 2 DESN2017 Assignment 1: Run Cycle Due Next Week!

Great news! Animation Mentor has granted George Brown students permission to use the Stewart Rig provided you:
1) Properly accredit the Stewart rig in their work, as defined in the terms of use.
2) Do not re-post or share the Stewart rig -- in other words, each student must download the rig directly from the Animation Mentor site.

Here's the link!
http://www.animationmentor.com/free-maya-rig/

Continuing with run cycles - here's a good place to read up on runs:
Richard Williams' "Animator's Survival Kit" pgs 176 - 200

Please do NOT use bad reference from the Internet such as AngryAnimator or Anime. Even the helpful Preston Blair is confusing to students - don't copy his drawings, they are too stylized for a normal run. Only source information from battle-tested, quality animators with high-end experience. 90% of the information online on animation is not usable at this level.

Digital Tutors has a great tutorial on runs but I will caution you it veers into territory you do not want to focus on for this cycle such as character sets, scripting for mirroring poses, and editing rotation order. You can learn these if you want but I want you to focus on just animating great poses with great timing using great reference.

http://www.digitaltutors.com/lesson/25052-Introduction-and-project-overview

This is one of the nicest game reels around - and for good reason, it belongs to Jonathan Cooper, Ubisoft Montreal's Animation Director on Assassin’s Creed III. Some killer realistic runs here:

Jonathan Cooper Demo Reel 2013 from Jonathan Cooper on Vimeo.

WEEK 1: Game Dev 2 DESN2017 Assignment 1: Run Cycle Due Week 3

Welcome to Game Dev 2!
Please remember to sign in at each class.
This is a portfolio-building class in which you create a series of increasingly complex models. Use your time productively so you don't fall behind or distract students around you. You will not be permitted to use this lab for gaming or web surfing except at designated breaks.

Your grade will be the cumulative total of 5 assignments DUE IN CLASS.
These assignments are due:
WEEK 3, 6, 9, 12, 15

Assignment 1:  Run Cycle
Value: 20%
DUE DATE: WEEK 3 Jan 24th  @ BEGINNING OF CLASS on BLACKBOARD

* Late submissions will receive ZERO marks. 

BRIEF:

Create a looping run cycle. 

Using the Eleven rig, create a run cycle animation for a bi-ped. The character should run with urgency as if being pursued or conversely being chased. Secondary animations a broad range of movements and timing are encouraged to add life to the character.

SUBMIT THE FOLLOWING:

A) Thumbnails of key poses – minimum 6 key poses
B) Video file of 3D run cycle
C) Character Bio – A written summary of your character. Consider his/her backstory, motivation,
abilities, appearance etc.

REQUIREMENTS:

Filename: 

DESN2017_A1_YOURNAME_thumbnails (.jpg file) 

DESN2017_A1_YOURNAME_runcycle (.mov file)
DESN2017_A1_YOURNAME_bio (.doc or .pdf file)

EX -
DESN2017_A1_BIEBERJUSTIN_thumbnails.jpg  (last name first, please!)

DUE DATE

SUBMIT TO BLACKBOARD WEEK 3 IN CLASS

Please compress all images and videos to keep them small using the following guidelines:

Videos:
Quicktimes, 560 pixels by 316 pixels, H.264 codec, max 10MB. You can use a variety of tools such as Handbrake, Adobe Media Encoder, Quicktime Pro and more to format your videos. I use the 11-second club guidelines for all submissions:
http://www.11secondclub.com/helpful_hints/encoding

Images:
JPGs between 500-1200 pixels along longest edge, 72-300 dpi/ppi, max 5MB. You can use a variety of tools such as Photoshop, Gimp, and online programs to compress files.

Text:
.Doc or .Pdf

Sample Rubric for all assignments:

Welcome back! Game Dev 4 3012, Asset Dev 2 1086, and Game Project Dev 2017

Welcome back!! 

Think of all the great 70's TV you millennials missed. 

I have 4 courses this term - all on Thursdays in 503 or 503 and one on Friday in 603 from 12-3. If you need to ask me a question, feel free to drop by.

My email is tdonovan@georgebrown.ca

Please include your email in the text of the message as I will only see your name and there may be a delay while I look up your address.

Please sign in at each class with your working email address. I track attendance and look forward to reading any comments you may have throughout the course.

All the outlines are linked off the Outlines tab.

The Help form is for urgent questions. These get forwarded to my email directly. 

Please familiarize yourself with all the hand-in parameters including file naming conventions, formats, and size limits. I am pretty strict on these things. All projects will be handed in to Blackboard this term. No late projects will be accepted without prior approval. Always ask BEFORE the deadline if you expect your project to be late due to serious unforeseen circumstances.  

Looking forward to our term! 

WEEK 15: Game Project Dev 2 DESN2017 Supervised lab time in 520

You're all done with 2017 but please feel free to come to 520 for help. 

Here's a friendly reminder that Health Canada recommends a daily caffeine intake of no more than 400 mg.

Have a great summer! 

WEEK 14: Game Project Dev 2 DESN2017 Assignment 4 due today!

Please meet in Room 503 for your critique.

Lunar harvester concept art by Adam Burn

WEEK 13: Game Project Dev 2 DESN2017 Assignment 4 due next week!

Good luck with your projects! If you need any help, please let me know.