CLASS 10 : Modeling and Animation II: Intro to 3D Animation in Maya

Welcome back from the break!

Updated Schedule for the rest of term:
Class 11: Thursday, July 5th 3-6 pm
Class 12: Tuesday, July 10th, 3-6 pm
Class Cancelled: Wednesday, July 18th 12-3 pm
Class 13: Wednesday, July 25th, 12-3 pm with guest instructor, Jakub Pazera
Class 14: Wednesday, Aug 1st, 12-3 This will be your last formal class.
Wednesday, Aug 8th: Supervised work period

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Intro to 3D Animation in Maya: 

For some of you this will be your first look around in Autodesk Maya so we'll get a feel for the interface with some simple exercises.
First up .. everyone's favorite assignment - BOUNCING BALLS: Part 3!

Why am I so cruel making you do this for the THIRD TIME..? Because there is no other more effective way to practice animation principles while getting used to the Maya tool set.

You can always animate simple primitives by keying the geometry. By all means, if you're new to Maya, you may do so. On real productions, however, we interact with our models via a control rig so I'm providing you with a simple one. Normally we do not animate directly in the rig file, we have the file reference the rig from another location. 

Click to download Maya Ball Rig

http://game.georgebrown.ca/~tdonovan/Rigs/ballMaya.zip

I've given you both .ma and .mb files and we'll talk about the differences.

We'll also talk about file referencing and how it's used on productions. 

http://tarateach.blogspot.ca/2011/01/file-referencing-for-maya.html

Here's how to make a Playblast preview video:
http://tarateach.blogspot.ca/2011/01/previewing-animation-in-maya.html

I'll introduce you to the Graph Editor, a dark and scary fun and friendly tool that is absolutely essential for working with timing and spacing. By the end of class you should be able to know without a doubt what different types of action will result from different types of curves in your Graph Editor.  Digital Tutors has some excellent video explanations of the Graph Editor -- a powerful tool that you should be very comfortable using by the end of this assignment.

'Cause and Effect' art installation by Ana Soler

Exercise: Bouncing Balls in Maya

Assigned: 04/07/12

Due:  05/07/12

% of Final Grade: 5%
Animate at least 2 contrasted bouncing balls showing as many of the principles of animation as you can. Balls should be in the same file. Be sure the balls have very obviously different weights. Animate them either until they exit the screen or come to a stop. You may add primitives such as cubes, planes, and use them to create simple obstacles such as stairs, a wall, a room, or a sloping plane. Find a flattering camera angle from which you can see your animation clearly. Tracking camera moves to keep the balls in the scene are permitted but keep the camera move very simple.

Rolling, squashing, and stretching is totally optional.

You may make the objects different colours if you wish. Please do not light these or apply any special textures. No marks are given for rendering.

The final output should be 2 files: an .avi and an .ma file. 

Files should be named as follows:

tdonovan_ball_000.avi

tdonovan_ball_000.ma

The file number (000) should be whatever version of the file you hand in. You can hand in any version up to 999. This could come in handy if you need to resubmit. You can simply send me the new file with the new version number.

Careful with your file naming.

No caps. No extra spaces. No extra descriptors.

Rubric: 

Exemplary:  Advanced grasp of animation principles evident. Balls have unmistakable and contrasted weights.

Excellent:  Strong grasp of most of the animation principles with few mistakes. Balls have clear and contrasted weights.

Acceptable: Reasonably executed animation utilizing most of the animation principles with some mistakes. Balls bounce clearly and believeably with some contrast.

Not Acceptable:  Lack of evident understanding of the animation principles with several mistakes. Balls not clearly contrasted.

CLASS 9 : Modeling and Animation II: Pixar Story Quiz

Looking ahead to the 3D part of our course, it would be impossible to overlook the enormous influence of one studio: Pixar.  It's fitting that this week is the long-anticipated premiere of Pixar's "Brave". We'll be able to discuss it next week in the context of all they have accomplished from their very earliest experiments with motion graphics decades ago. 

This class aims to provide you with some basic general knowledge about the company that started the whole industry of CG animation.

We'll screen a feature documentary called, "The Pixar Story" and complete a short multiple choice quiz worth 5%.  The film will be screened in class and the quiz will only be open during class time (Wednesday, July 27th from 12-3pm). If you're away you can view the film on your own and complete the quiz remotely. If you are unable to complete the quiz during the scheduled time please contact me to make other arrangements. The film is available on YouTube in 9 parts or it may be available on Netflix. Click here to view the first 11 minutes.

Click here to take the quiz. 

(Note - this quiz will only be opened while the class is writing it)

Good luck!

Have a great break, everyone! 

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!

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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