CLASS 8: Modeling and Animation II: Anijam due! Wrapping up 2D Animation in Flash

Last class before the break!
First: our Anijam Debut! With any luck, everyone's films will cut together seamlessly and we'll have a few minutes of cinematic glory. It's a chance to sit back and ponder how well you've handled learning the complex process of hand-drawn animation, and a chance to look forward to a new set of challenges with 3D. Everything you've learned so far will make the next steps easier as all the animation principles are necessary to bring life to your 3D animation.

"DESN 1119 Anijam 2012" premieres 20/06/12

But that's not all we're doing this class! We'll leave shortly after our screening for a studio tour and it will take the rest of class. Bring TTC fare. 

Kathy Shultz, filmmaker of "A Sea Turtle Story"

As befits the end of our unit on hand-drawn animation, this week's tour is of the National Film Board of Canada -- a hotbed of independent film making for over 75 years!  As many of you may not yet appreciate the proud history of animation in Canada, the NFB has put together a short program of award-winning short animated films just for YOU. We're also fortunate to have as our personal tour guide NFB filmmaker Kathy Shultz who teaches stop motion at George Brown College. Kathy's film "A Sea Turtle Story" is currently showing in international film festivals. Sadly, the NFB's public viewing facilities are scheduled to close this Fall so enjoy them while they last!

we even got to try some stop motion animation!

CLASS 7: Modeling and Animation II: Anijam posing critique,

More intermediate animation techniques --

• Moving from blocking to animation
• Overlapping action with Alison Saunders
• Combining straight ahead and pose-to-pose animation: tips from Richard Williams p 61-67

We'll look at some kee-razy examples of very exaggerated cartoon animation from back in MY day -- the 1990's -- when animation for grownups went completely off the rails.

Pose-to-pose animation from Ren and Stimpy* -

and straight ahead animation from the Roger Rabbit shorts -

*If this doesn't traumatize you, you might be interested in seeing Canada's inimitable John Kricfalusi live in person at the Toronto Animation Arts Festival International July 6-8.
  http://taafi.com/events/taafi2012/schedule/?id=58

CLASS 6: Modeling and Animation II: Character design with Guest Instructor, Rachel Kahn

After patiently drawing the flour sack for a few weeks, I know a few of you would like to be able to use your own characters.  Today we'll talk about finding a style and look at some examples of simple designs that work well for animation. And we have a guest!

Please welcome Rachel Kahn who will be sharing her expertise on character design --

Rachel Kahn is a freelance concept artist and illustrator. She has a BFA from York University and has been continuing her studies at Max the Mutt Animation School in between projects. Rachel has been working as a designer and artist in independent mobile games, and will also have illustrations appearing in literary and comic anthologies in the upcoming year.

Rachel's professional website is www.portablecity.net

________________________________

Also in this class we'll review some of the Flour Sack Jump assignments and start the next assignment:



Assignment 3: Flash Anijam!
Assigned: June 6th
5% Key Posing Due: June 13th in class
10% Finished Animation Due:  June 19th end of day
Group critique: June 20th, in class
Re-submission allowed up until June 27th

This is a group project by the entire class using ye olde tradition of an 'animation jam' or 'anijam'.

Using the layout & prop provided, animate your character or the flour sack catching and throwing the prop. Follow the design and stage direction exactly as the layout indicates so that all the scenes will cut together seamlessly.

The way your character interacts with the prop should be the focus of the scene. The animation should indicate that it's heavy and very dangerous. You may include a brief beat before the prop enters and after it leaves.

Please do not destroy the prop in your scene - it should be passed, intact to the next scene. They'll be edited together to make one continuous scene.

You may add a simple BG in your scene but keep it low-contrast.

You may design your own simple character for this piece but be sure it fits the scene and that it's simple enough to draw many times.

Create a 640 x 480 QT with H.264 compression.

Please upload to our group folders/albums called "Flour Sack" on DropBox before the start of class. Please do NOT place your files inside a folder. Watch your naming conventions.
File formats:
tdonovan_anijam_001.fla
tdonovan_anijam_001.mov

The layout for this scene will be on DropBox in the folder "flash animjam"

CLASS 5: Modeling and Animation II: Flour Sack jump, continued

Continuing on with the flour sack...
Intermediate traditional animation techniques in Flash --

• Working between Keys to create breakdowns and inbetweens. 
• Combining pose-to-pose and straight ahead animation 
• Timing & spacing for weight
• Adding the secondary action

Posing is the most important key to making your animation great - 

Take a look at these flour sack poses you guys did last week & think about how they could communicate more clearly through a stronger line of action, simplification, and clearer weight.

http://bit.ly/floursackposes

Similar to the flour sack, the personality-filled rug from Disney's Alladin

This will be partly an in-class work period so I can help you work out the staging and timing for your flour sack assignments. I'll also be showing you some more tips and tricks for giving your flour sack weight & personality, both in the drawing and the timing.

And I have more 'toons for you: an incredible film by Ryan Woodward called "Thought of You" as well as the 'making of' that shows his expert use of the very tools you're using to animate the humble Flour Sack

Ryan Woodward's amazing digitally hand-drawn "Thought of You"

CLASS 4: Modeling and Animation II: Animation Principles, Part 3 - The famous Flour Sack

The Flour Sack: Disney's pioneering

device for learning personality and

timing

The world-famous half-filled flour sack has been used by countless animators to learn animation principles. The deceptively simple shape has many possibilities for creating personality and weight.

More Animation Principles:

• Anticipation
• Follow through and overlapping action
• Secondary action
• Appeal

The key to making nice flour sack animation is really solid drawing. We'll study some tricks for drawing 3-dimensionally and test our skills by creating drawings of the flour sack in 4 distinct moods. For example:

Confident
Sad
Wasted
Shocked/bamboozled 

Assignment 2: Flour Sack Jump in Flash
Animate the flour sack doing a simple jump. Show as many of the principles of animation as you can. All the Principles of Animation should be in this assignment, especially nuts-and-bolts tools like Anticipation, Action, Reaction, Weight, Timing, Arcs, and even more esoteric ones like Appeal.
Spend your time on the mechanics of the jump. If possible, add a little personality. Think about how heavy the sack of flour would be. Show the effort required to move that weight. Try to keep the volumes consistent and use timing, spacing, and solid drawing to keep the four sack looking heavy in both his movements and posing.

Create a 640 x 480 QT with H.264 compression. Create a simple BG - just a ground line will do. You can add other props such as a wall but keep it very simple.

Assigned: May 23rd
Total Value: 15%
5% Posing Due: May 23rd end of day
10% Finished Due: June 3rd end of day

Please upload to our group folders/albums called "Flour Sack" on both DropBox and Vimeo before the start of class. Please do NOT place your files inside a folder. Watch your naming conventions.
File formats:
tdonovan_floursack_001.fla
tdonovan_floursack_001.mov

Rubric:
Exemplary: Strong apparent weight, snappy timing and fluid motion with a strong grasp of all animation principles including secondary/overlapping action.
Excellent: Apparent weight and almost entirely fluid motion with a good grasp of nearly all animation principles including a good attempt at secondary action.
Acceptable: Mostly apparent weight. Motion is mostly fluid with minor errors or missing animation principles. Some attempt at secondary action.
Not Acceptable: Not convincingly heavy or not fluid with quite a few glitches or missing animation principles. no apparent secondary action.

CLASS 3: Modeling and Animation II: CASO presents "Optimizing the Production Process in VFX and Animation": $10 for GBC Students

These events are always enlightening! Go if you can - and if you're in the Summer session for DESN1119, you must! :D

Join us Friday, May 18th, 2012 from 12:15 -1:30 pm
at the NFB/ONF Mediatheque
150 John Street, Toronto
Just North of Richmond Street

*SPECIAL GBC Students Price $10.00 +HST
Lunch included

Regular Pricing
Student $15
Members $25.00 Advance $40.00 Door
Non-Members $40.00 Advance $55.00 Door
+ HST

Sign up here:
http://bit.ly/CASO_Opt

CLASS 2: Modeling and Animation II: Animation Principles, Part 2 - Flash!

Your Flipbook marks are up! Click here:
http://bit.ly/DESN1119_Winter2012
The class average is 3.25/5 which is exactly 65% or a C+
Let me know if you have any questions. A grey cell means I don't have it. :D

Intro to 2D animation techniques in Flash

A step up from a flip book, and not quite as involved as hand-animating on paper, creating traditional (2D) animation in Flash is a great way to learn to control timing and spacing to create weight.

What goes up must come down, and in the case of anything inanimate that leaves the ground, it will always come down at exactly the same speed and follow the same exact arc as it did going up. A mirror of it, of course.

Tennis Ball 

Golf Ball

Basket Ball 

Strobe photos are fantastic for showing the beautifully symmetrical parabolic arcs followed by everything that leaves the Earth... except a rocket. Also check out the video "Ball Tests" by Brendan Body (also in sidebar links -->)

How the ball moves and how it shows the effect of Earth's gravity is all a matter of timing and spacing. Things slow down as they leave the Earth and speed up as they descend. The bouncier the ball, the more 'hang time' or slow-in and out to its zenith (!) - you want to pile your timing up at the top of that arc and space the descending inbetweens to show increasing speed. The moment on the ground should be very fleeting. Don't overuse squash and stretch - it shows too much - just keep it very subtle and study your reference.

I have some great reference vids for you and if we have time I'd like you to shoot your own reference videos.  Animators tend to shoot a lot of reference to study and learn from.

We'll continue our study of the 12 Principles of Animation with a closer look at some new principles:

• Squash and stretch
• Staging
• Solid drawing
• Straight Ahead and pose to pose animation

Assignment 1: Bouncing Balls in Flash

Animate at least 2 contrasted bouncing balls showing as many of the principles of animation as you can. Start with the setup provided for you to create a 640 x 480 QT with H.264 compression. Create a simple BG - just a ground line will do. You can add other props such as a wall but keep it very simple.

Assigned: May 16th
Total Value: 10%
5% Posing Due: May 16th in class - make sure I see your WIP!
5% Finished Due: May 23rd in class - please upload to our group folders/albums called "Flash Bouncing Balls" on both DropBox and Vimeo before the start of class.
File formats:
tdonovan_ball_001.fla
tdonovan_ball_001.mov

Rubric: (click image to see it more clearly)

CLASS 1: Modeling and Animation II: Animation Principles, Part 1 - Flipbooks!

Welcome to "Intro to Animation"!

Make sure you sign in, read your outline and ask me any questions you may have about your course.

availability survey results

Over the next 14 weeks, we'll be studying the Principles of Animation in detail - first in 2D using Flash, then in 3D using Maya.

Reminder: Please BRING YOUR TABLET PENS to all classes for the rest of the term.

Availability survey results show the best times to reschedule make-up classes are 3-6 Tues-Fri. Thanks for letting me know!

----------------------------------
Intro to Animation Principles
2D animation, also called traditional or hand-drawn animation, is drawn frame-by-frame with pencil & paper or digital drawing tools.

The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. 

For nearly a century animators in all media have used the "Twelve Basic Principles of Animation" to bring life to their animation. These 12 principles, pioneered by Disney's 'Nine Old Men', were  documented by Disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas in their 1981 book The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation.

I highly recommend reading the lengthy and beautifully illustrated chapter on the Principles of Animation, "The Illusion of Life" Chapter 3, from p 47.

We'll be studying the 12 Principles of Animation in detail in the coming weeks. Here's a brief overview of the 12 Principles with the concepts we're highlighting today, well, highlighted:

1 Squash and stretch
2 Anticipation
3 Staging
4 Straight ahead action and pose to pose
5 Follow through and overlapping action
6 Slow in and slow out
7 Arcs
8 Secondary action
9 Timing
10 Exaggeration
11 Solid drawing
12 Appeal

Bouncing Ball:
The very first exercise assigned to aspiring animators is usually the bouncing ball exercise. There is no better tool for teaching animation timing. This is such an important assignment that we'll be visiting this 3 times over the term.

We'll talk about how to show the effects of gravity using just a few simple concepts.

First we'll try some flip-book animation. Flip-books are one of the few things in this world that are FAST, CHEAP, and GOOD -- see how insanely fun these can be to create watching this awesome flipbook tribute film: "(notes on) biology" 

 "Robot Elephant" - hero of "(notes on) biology". Also my hero. 

Try a few different weights and styles as you can. We'll go over the rubric in class.

In-class exercise: Bouncing Balls Flip books

Animate at least 2 contrasted bouncing balls showing as many of the principles of animation as you can.
Assigned: May 9th
Due: May 9th in class
Total Value: 5%
Rubric and marking form here:
http://bit.ly/BallFilpBook

Finalist for Digital Tutors CG & VFX 2012 Instructor of the Year!

Oh my! I'm one of the 6 finalists for Digital Tutors CG & VFX 2012 Instructor of the Year.

Voting ends May 11th and is open to anyone with a Digital Tutors account. Log in here to vote:

http://www.digitaltutors.com/11/instructor_of_the_year.php

Thank you to all who nominated or voted for me, it is a great honour!

This is a great cartoon  of a famous quote by former US president Calvin Coolidge.

You may not yet have heard this spelled out, but one day you will know this to be true -- there is no surer path to success than persistence and determination.  

Congratulations on completing the term!  

For my graduates - please stay in touch.

For my returning students - have a great summer.

For my new students - I look forward to working with you!