WEEK 15: All assignments due in class this week

Motion Studies - your blended cycles are due

Asset Dev - your turntables are due  http://blog.digitaltutors.com/modeling-quads-triangles-use/

Game Dev - your final animation is due

Hooray, you're done! 

Happy holidays to all my students! This is one of the funniest Christmas toons from one of my favorite studios: BirdBox. Their stuff is the epitome of simple, snappy timing and loads of appeal. 

WEEK 14: Game Project Development DESN 3010: Milestone 5 roughs due today!

One week left to go!

I look forward to seeing your planning material for your last project which is due next week.

Here's some great advice from a Sony Imageworks animator, Matt Munn, on bridging the gap between being a student and being a professional.  Here are some of his key points:

• remember you're not alone :)
• get feedback - many senior people are willing to share their expertise with you
• collaborate - work with your fellow team members to get the best performances
• stay passionate about your work!

Here's a sampler of Matt's animation from Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 

WEEK 13: Game Project Development DESN 3010: Milestone 4 final animation due today!

Milestone 4 is due today!

Please also let me know what your plans are for your final assignment. You only have 2 weeks for this one so I want to make sure everyone's on the right track.

Milestone 5:  ex 5-10 second piece of animation.
Value: Total 20%. See breakdown below.
* Late submissions will receive ZERO marks.

The following are due in class:
5% WEEK 14: planning & rough posing

15% WEEK 15 final animation

FILE NAMING:

3010_ m5_lastnamefirstinitial_001
ex:
3010_m5_donovant_001.mov
3010_m5_donovant_001.jpg

Images: JPGS only, 72 dpi, 1200px along longest edge,
Videos: Quicktimes only, 560 pixels by 316 pixels, H.264 codec, max 10MB

Playbasts only, please. Do not render these assignments. You do not have time.

Your final animation should have a different number than the rough posing but otherwise please follow the identical naming convention.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: Planning animation - 

A few of you still seem a bit unclear about what is meant by rough animation. Here's a podcast you can listen to from one of the all-time greats - another animator to get to know: James Baxter. Does his name sound familiar? Then you must be a fan of Adventure Time where he helped create a horse character who neighs his own name! Hilarious as it is, don't get too sidetracked by this recent silly turn because James Baxter is a well-known animation heavyweight with some of the biggest blockbuster feature credits you can imagine - Beauty and the Beast and the Lion King to name just 2. 

Here he is speaking about animation planning. If you're super keen check out the episodes before and after it: http://animationpodcast.com/archives/2008/03/02/james-baxter-part-two/

James Baxter's masterful drawings of Rafiki's hands from the Lion King

WEEK 12: Game Project Development DESN 3010: Milestone 4 posing due today!

Looking forward to seeing your rough posing today!
Due next week:
10% WEEK 13: final animation (polished, fluid, full animation)

This week is the 85th anniversary of one of the most pivotal milestones in animation history: Walt Disney's 1st Mickey Mouse cartoon and one of the earliest cartoons with sound. 1928's "Steamboat Willie" helped make Walt Disney a household name and boosted the career of pioneering animator Ub Iwerks.

What's remarkable to note is that this cartoon predates "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" by just 9 years! A lot can happen in a decade.

WEEK 11: Game Project Development DESN 3010: Milestone 4 planning due today!

Today I'll have a look at your submissions for planning the 4th assignment which may include storyboards, thumbnails, video reference, blocking, or other planning methods of your choice.

Due next week: 
5% WEEK 12: rough posing (all key poses including facial expressions and hands)

This means your animation must be finished in rough form by next class. :D

Please triple check your hand-in parameters to make sure they conform to all requirements for size, aspect, file type, naming, etc. Help each other avoid common mistakes! 

From the info I gathered in last week's quiz it looks like you might want to start stuffing your head with more animation history and start to recognize the work of some influential animators of your time. This is one of the best sites on the internet to brush up your animation knowledge. There's a heap of documentaries so you can get to know some of the true pioneers of your industry.
http://livlily.blogspot.ca/

WEEK 10: Game Project Development DESN 3010: Milestone 3 due today!

Milestone 3 is due today!

Milestone 4:  ex 5-10 second piece of animation.
Value: Total 20%. See breakdown below.
* Late submissions will receive ZERO marks.

For the final 2 assignments I'm allotting marks for work in progress. 
The following are due in class:
5% WEEK 11: planning (may include storyboards, thumbnails, video reference, blocking)
5% WEEK 12: rough posing (all key poses including facial expressions and hands)
10% WEEK 13: final animation (polished, fluid, full animation)

FILE NAMING:

3010_ m4_lastnamefirstinitial_001
ex:
3010_m4_donovant_001.mov
3010_m4_donovant_001.jpg

Images: JPGS only, 72 dpi, 1200px along longest edge,
Videos: Quicktimes only, 560 pixels by 316 pixels, H.264 codec, max 10MB

Playbasts only, please. Do not render these assignments. You do not have time.

Your final animation should have a different number than the rough posing but otherwise please follow the identical naming convention.

Please note that no marks will be given for conforming to requirements. Only projects that conform to hand-in parameters will be graded.

First up: Planning!  Due next week! Do not skip this part it es muy importante!
Here is master animator, Carlos Baena bringing it all to a quick sequence from The Incredibles:
http://www.carlosbaena.com/resource/resource_tips_planning.html

WEEK 9: Game Project Development DESN 3010: Milestone 3 due next week!

Happy Hallowe'en! Would it scare you if I reminded you that next class is your deadline for Milestone 3? Moohahahahaaaa!!!!!

Tonight Pixar is releasing a new short 'Toy Story of Terror!' that looks like lots of fun.

Here's some behind-the scenes progression information about the many stages of production they went through on this short:

http://www.tv.com/news/toy-story-of-terror-sneak-peek-see-the-evolution-of-a-single-frame-of-footage-from-abcs-new-special-from-story-to-final-product-photos-138138516864/

WEEK 8: Mid term break! Bye! Have a nice break! See you the week of Oct 27th!

License-Free Maya Rig Testing **Update 2013**

Rigs, rigs, rigs....
They're all similar but oh, so different.
A great way to get ready for rigging your own characters is to try a LOT of rigs.  Learn what you like and don't like. Peek into the Outliner and see how organized it is (or not!). Check out how usable it is for animation.  Then you'll be ready to borrow ideas for your own rigs.

Please note if you use any of these rigs they are not for commercial use and must be properly credited!

3 sites with lots of rigs for you to try:
Animation Buffet

Creative Crash Maya Rigs

22+ of the most fun rigs for maya

FLOUR SACK:

Beautifully made flour sack rig (at last!) Created for Maya 2013 by Joe Daniels - check out his cool video clip as well!

http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/character-rigs/c/jd-floursack

ELEVEN:
Created as a group collaboration project by members of the 11SC community!
I love the look of this super cute girl/guy rig!
It looks like a lovely rig so far. Very teensy compared to some other rigs. Fast, easy to use. Nice rig. We use this rig a lot at school.
http://elevenrig.blogspot.com/



NORMAN:
by Leif Jeffers, Morgan Loomis, Peter Starostin, and Neal Thibodeaux

This rig isn't much to look at but it's packed with features -- maybe too many? He's even got 'bend bows' for arcing limbs, sweet! The GUI is totally customizable and you really ought to be able to do anything with this rig.
Only a couple of problems -- the head CTRL -- you know, the one you might need to grab like 1000 times a day, is on the BACK of his head ??? So, unless you love working in XRAY mode or wireframe, you have to do a little tumbling every time you want to grab it.

People have customized Norman into all SORTS of amazing models. Check them out!
https://sites.google.com/site/normanrig/

MORPHEUS:

by Josh Burton 

Wow. Just wow. This is a very distinctive.. and unique GUI.  Is this a good thing? I'm not sure. I find it distracting.  Good news -- it's just to customize the rig into all sorts of different 'looks'. Then you can hide that sucker.

The rig is very slick and there are more ctrls than you can shake a stick at.
http://www.joshburton.com/projects/morpheus.asp

MOOM:
by Ramtin Ahmadi

This ugly-on-purpose rig has a very slick GUI and it's easy to find your way around right out of the box. *NOTE* - one of the arms was IK and the other FK (perhaps purposefully?) but the switch turned out to be not that hard to find (on the ground).  My favorite so far for ease of use.
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/character-rigs/c/moom-v4-0-3-by-ramtin

MAX: (Maya or Max)
by Peter Starostin and James Hunt

Last but not least, this well-used rig has a lot to recommend it.

I liked how easy it was to find everything ... except one very important thing... the MAIN CTRL!
I'm used to seeing, 1, 2, or 3 big, obvious ctrls somewhere in the area of the character's feet.  I see a ROOT but it's in his middle and with IK legs, it only moves the middle. My apologies if it's staring me in the face and I just can't see it!
http://www.bockstyre.com/james/maxformaya/

HEAVY: from Team Fortress - might be some copyright infringement going on here but it's fun to play with.
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/character-rigs/c/heavy-character-rig

SQUIRRELY by Josh Burton:
This is a great opportunity to test out Anzovin's popular autorig, the "Setup Machine".  Very quick and easy to use, also the setup machine rig can be purchased and used with any of your own characters. 

http://www.joshburton.com/projects/Squirrely.asp

Lovely rigs but not recommended for school:

STEWART: *NOT FOR SCHOOL USE :(
Meet Stewart, Animation Mentor's new rig from their "Tribe" family. It's a very versatile athletic rig with lots of bells and whistles like bend bows, stretchy everything, double gimbals, IK/FK switching and more.
Be sure to include their attribution for non-commercial use. Download it here: http://www.animationmentor.com/free-maya-rig/

MALCOLM: * NOT FOR SCHOOL USE :(
AnimSchool has a very cool rig up for grabs as well: Malcolm. Its only 2 negatives are that it is a fully-decked-out feature rig complete with 1000 ctrls and it might be a bit over the heads of students just learning Maya. The other negative is that it's the ONLY free feature-quality rig out there, imho, which makes it extremely popular. The 11-second club winners use it almost exclusively.
I am using it myself, but the female mod which looks a bit like this:
http://www.animschool.com/DownloadOffer.aspx

BUCKID: Buckid is a super simple Maya rig for people just starting out.  1 major flaw: lack of independent hips. The one hip CTRL drives all the ones above. That means if you use hip rotation in your walks, you will need to counter animate the upper spine and head. But aside from that it is a fun, snappy, simple rig with stretchy limbs and spine that is really fun to work with.
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/character-rigs/c/buckid

Conclusion:

Well, the jury's still out. People have certainly created some fantastic animation with all of these rigs.  

I'm looking for a simple interface like Moom that has a neater look like Eleven.

I'd have to vote for either ELEVEN or MOOM.
Morpheus is also worth another look if you don't mind that interface.

Try-em out for yourself and let me know what you think!

WEEK 7: Game Project Development DESN 3010: Milestone 2 Due Today!

Today is an in-class critique of Milestone 2 and hopefully we'll have time to talk about your ideas for Milestone 3. 

Please post your work to Trello so we can share ideas and accountability. :D

Milestone 3:  ex 5-10 second piece of animation
Value: 20%
DUE DATE: WEEK 10 Nov 7th @ BEGINNING OF CLASS

* Late submissions will receive ZERO marks.
In-class you would want to show:
WEEK 7: thumbnails
WEEK 9: rough posing in 3D
WEEK 10: final animation - Playbasts are fine. No rendering required.

FILE NAMING:

3010_ m3_lastnamefirstinitial_001.mov (mp4, m4v, etc)
ex: 3010_m3_donovant_001.mov


Here's something to think about over the break...

Enjoy your break! See you on Hallowe'en!

WEEK 6: Game Project Development DESN 3010: Assignment 2 Due next week!

So you should be blocking now. A lot of animators use this method of stepped keys to block out their animation with solid posing and all the major details such as facial expressions, hand gestures, eye direction but NOT lip sync. They check and recheck for strong silhouettes and keep honing their timing until it seems perfect before moving forward.

Here's a great example of blocking from Kevin Webb.
He describes this video as the result of a day's work. I think you will agree that was a productive day indeed.


Animation scene blocking from Kevin Webb on Vimeo.

Here's the final result. Notice all the beautiful overlapping action - it's not just pose-to-pose, he's layered on texture in the timing and made everything fluid and lifelike. 14 seconds, no textures, no lighting, no background, no bs. Just great acting and great animation.


Zooey Lipsync from Kevin Webb on Vimeo.

WEEK 5: Game Project Development DESN 3010: Assignment 2 Due in 2 weeks

Reminder: Today is the last day to drop courses.

I hope you're all digging into the planning stages for your next project. It's a lot of work, thumbnailing, but I suggest you draw at least a basic plan before diving into the 3D world. Remember the little Wall-E clip I showed you - before they started posing they drew thumbnails of their ideas and worked out potential poses in rough before taking it to the next level. This week I want to see everyone upload a basic plan to Trello so we can have a look at your WIP. Next week please have your basic blocking done. 

If you're doing an alternate to animation - such as particles, dynamics, etc. please make a real plan without even turning on the computer. I want a strong concept and not just a tech demo. You can do a lot with a little creativity. I'm happy to work with you to make your piece look great. We'll get you working with a mentor who's been through the process before. Keep an eye on the new advancements in real-time dynamics - there have been a lot of tech papers and demos released recently you'll want to know about, such as here:
http://physxinfo.com/news/

WEEK 4: Game Project Development DESN 3010: Assignment 1 Due Today, Assignment 2 starts

Your first assignment is due today at the start of class. We'll have a one-on-one critique to discuss the outcome and make a plan for your next milestone.

Remember that your project must be approved by me before proceeding. Please dig right into the planning process as soon as you can.

Here's the level of what's coming out of animation programs of just 8 months:
http://www.animationmentor.com/animation-program/animation-body-mechanics-advanced/

Spend some time looking at demo reels from around the world on Vimeo. You need to reach that target and that requires focus. Animation is your focus. Forget about all else for this class and dig into the details. Plan, test, and build your scene in layers and along the way seek feedback - it's what your tuition pays for :)

Please upload your progress to Trello's Milestone 2 board.  Use handbrake or adobe media encoder to compress files under the 10mb file upload limit.

Milestone 2:  ex 5-10 second piece of animation
Value: 20%
DUE DATE: WEEK 7 Oct 17th @ BEGINNING OF CLASS

* Late submissions will receive ZERO marks.
In-class you would want to show:
WEEK 5: thumbnails
WEEK 6: rough posing in 3D
WEEK 7: final animation - Playbasts are fine. No rendering required.

FILE NAMING:

3010_ m2_lastnamefirstinitial_001.mov (mp4, m4v, etc)
ex: 3010_m2_donovant.mov

Please read the post about file formats here.

WEEK 3: Game Project Development DESN 3010: First Milestone Due Next Week!

Milestone 1 is due in class next week. Late projects will not be marked.
Please verify all naming conventions and formats so you don't lose marks for simple errors.

By today you should have finished all your rough animation so you can spend the last week adding details like facial animation, fingers and overlapping action.

Please check in with me so I can tell you where to focus your energy to get the best results for this assignment. Good luck!

Your last week should be spent on the animation details.

WEEK 2: Game Project Development DESN 3010

Now that your first week of classes is over hopefully you've had a bit more time to dig into the planning of your animation exercises. 

Trello is a great way to track projects - join our class group!

By now you should have a set of sketches, thumbnails, layouts, storyboards or 3D layouts demonstrating the concept for your piece. Please remember your project must be approved in order to receive a grade.

By next week you should have completed all your animation for this project in rough and meet with me to discuss revisions. 

Progression from Horton Hears A Who -
from reference to blocking to animation to final

WEEK 1: Game Project Development DESN 3010

Welcome to Game Project Dev 3!
Please remember to sign in at each class.
This is a portfolio-building class that will give you time to complete your own pieces and to get feedback from industry pros. You could find yourself working on a game here at school or in the industry.
This class is strictly a work period and no lectures or formal instruction will be given aside from one-on-one critiques. 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, each worth 20%.
All the assignments are your own choice but must be approved by me to receive a grade.

Milestone 1:  ex 5-10 second piece of animation. Value: 20%
DUE DATE: WEEK 4 Sept 26th @ BEGINNING OF CLASS

* Late submissions will receive ZERO marks.
In-class you would want to show:
WEEK 2: thumbnails
WEEK 3: rough posing in 3D
WEEK 4: final animation - Playbasts are fine. No rendering required.

FILE NAMING:

3010_ m1_lastnamefirstinitial_001.mov (mov, m4v, mpeg, etc)
ex: 3010_m1_donovant.mov

Please read my post about file sizes, aspect ratios and codecs. We will go over this in class.
We will be using a few tools to simulate a professional animation workflow. Please check email regularly for invites to shared folders and applications you may need to join for this class.


What types of pieces should you create? Well, SHORT ONES. Keep it simple. You should animate 20-30 short pieces over the year or two if you can for practice and expand on the ones you like best. By the end of term you should have 5 pieces of 5-10 second of animation or concept work.

some great ideas to get you started. 

Avoid obvious noob mistakes like having obnoxious content or a style so niche that would only appeal to one tiny studio. The rest is common sense -
-keep it short 30-90 seconds MAX - <2 min if you're a professional.
-only show your best work - be ruthless and cut everything that doesn't quite work
-make each character unique in their movements and personality
-try to find new rigs
-show your range

More advice here:
http://www.animation-addicts.com/2012/12/17/the-perfect-reel/