WEEK 4: Motion Studies DESN1136 Assignment 1 DUE TODAY IN CLASS

Today is a critique day for your first assignment. 

First we'll be going over your next assignment consists of "thumbnails of your action". Thumbnails, thumbnailing, thumbnail posing... in animation these terms get tossed around a fair bit. They all refer to drawing quick, small gestures in planning animation.

Thumbnail examples from Animation Mentor

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.

Thumbnail translated to 3D

This week I'll give you some of the most important tricks I've learned to help you get your gestures down quickly to convey maximum information in a minimum of lines.

Click here for more information: Animation Mentor article "Animation Tips & Tricks: THUMBNAILS"

DESN1136 Assignment 2: Animation Thumbnails

% of final grade: 20%
Assigned: Thursday, Sept 26th
Due: WEEK 6, Oct 8th in class

*Late assignments are worth 0

Please work on paper or digitally (ex, PSD) in high resolution but SUBMIT only JPGs following the image formatting guidelines from this post.

Max 1200 px wide @ 72 dpi

Filenames:

1136_a2_donovant_thmb_001.jpg

Description: 
Plan the animation for a sequence in your virtual game. It can be built around the travelling sequences such as the walk, run, and jump cycles to be animated in the second half of the course. It could also focus on another significant part of the game. Drawings need not be clean but they should be clear, dynamic, and detailed. Consider using live action reference for this challenging assignment.

Rubric:
Exemplary - In-depth planning of all the movement and surrounding actions for animation sequence showing the character's specific personality and style of movement.

Excellent - Detailed movement study of animation sequence showing all major actions with some personality.
Acceptable - Simple study of most of the planned actions for the animated sequence.
Not Acceptable - Sparsely detailed study of a few of the key poses of the animated sequence.

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 3: Asset Development 1 DESN1083: 1st Assignment Due Next Week!

Last week to work on Assignment 1! This project is due at your next class. Please check your work with me to make sure you're on the right track and familiarize yourself with all naming conventions and file size requirements. 

The hard work you do now will pay off when you start modeling and you have excellent reference to follow!

WEEK 3: Motion Studies DESN1136: Storyboarding 101 - 1st Assignment Due Next Week!

Story boarding is one of the key planning tools in film and animation. It requires clear drawing, storytelling ability, and a knowledge of the cinematic tools used by filmmakers for decades. Story boards can be drawn using digital tools but paper is the ultimate collaborative tool for sketching ideas out in teams of artists who are among the highest paid in the industry.  Why? Because in animation, the story board artists direct the action with input from the director, of course. They take the script and turn it into a blueprint for all the action to follow. 

I'll be showing you lots of examples of storyboards for different types of projects. 

Dream Works artists hard at work with pencils, paper, pointers and push pins - old school!

There are a few tools we need for this process. At first I recommend keeping your ideas loose and not drawing in 'boxes' until after your ideas have been explored from many angles. But once you're ready to draw in the squares, make sure they're the same aspect ratio as your final output: 16:9. We have some stickies that size available for you from the office.  Create your own boards in seconds with a cardboard frame or print out fancy ones.  It's up to you. Each studio has their own process and tools.

The master story artist, Pixar's Alex Woo, shows the key to all acting: line of action.

Pitching session on the Fairly Odd Parents - more paper!

Once again, come ready to draw as we will be building on the skills we learned last week to draw from movie stills and learn more about the cinematographic language of story boards.  We'll be referencing the classic animated feature "Iron Giant" - if you haven't seen this movie, take some time to watch it soon. There's a lot to learn both from the cinematography, the storytelling, and the animation.
Try reading the script to see if you could draw a storyboard from just the words on the page:
http://www.freestyle.mvla.net/webaudio/p2-narrative/screenplay/Screenplay_THE_IRON_GIANT.pdf

I'll have a look at your work in progress. By now you should be about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way through this 4-part project which is due at the start of class NEXT WEEK.

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 2: Asset Development 1 DESN1083

standard police and military issue Beretta 92F

 Now that your first week madness is behind you I hope you're really digging into the thumbnailing process for this assignment. I've shared a Digital Tutors playlist with you on creating concept art to get you in the right frame of mind.

Here's an excellent tutorial from concept artist and GBC instructor Ted Kim about his design process for creating weapon concept art.  http://youtu.be/Dytz7DbAW3Y

The fully-loaded version with whistles & bells plus optional cappucino-maker

Today I'll have a look at your work-in-progress and answer any questions you might have, and hopefully show you some examples of successful past assignments from this course. 

Low-detail Beretta from Resident Evil, missing
takedown lever, the majority of the slide release lever,
and has a made-up logo 

When you're drawing, think about the difference between a REAL Beretta 92F and the stylized versions used in many movies and videogames. Here's a catalogue of this gun in many games -  http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Beretta_92_pistol_series#Video_Games

Are those Berettas from Black Lagoon ginormous
or is she just super tiny?

These Berettas from 2001
Max Payne look teensy

Look online for more inspiring types of concept art, such as that of the incredibly prolific Scott Roberston.

Scott Robinson - concept artist extraodinaire

WEEK 2: Motion Studies DESN1136: Environments and Composition

Sidescroller "Beast Hunter" from local Industrial Brothers

Hope you brought your drawing chops today because we're going to be digging into the next part of your first assignment - the environment!

Sidescroller "They Bleed Pixels" from local Spooky Squid

3D multi-level shooter "Damnation"

We'll be looking at some typical game environment designs to get an idea of the planning process for your virtual game. It's a good plan to think about the action style of your game and build a world to accommodate it than to build a world and try to fit your character's actions into it.

In the planning stages artists thumbnail ideas to collaborate and sketch out the big picture for the game or project. This process requires great skill in distilling information to simple shapes while communicating the main idea of the story. This must be more than just who/what/where nitty gritty detail. It also must add emotional information. This requires a basic knowledge of cinematographic language - subjective and objective camera angles, and what various angles and shapes communicate to the viewer. We'll have a look at several sources that can teach us about the major elements of composition:
1- Focal Point
2- Framing
3- Lines
4- Space / Position
5- Perspective / Depth
6- Balance / Hierarchy
7- Scale / Volume
8- Pattern / Rhythm
9- Value / Contrast
10- Color 

All 4 are trees but from completely different movies!

It's not enough to just read about it, practice is essential. And you can start anywhere - freeze-framing movies and searching through photos that illustrate the elements described. Two great books to invest time reading are, "Film Directing Shot By Shot" and "The 5 C's of Cinematography".

A lot of great information we'll be covering in class is available here:
http://www.floobynooby.com/IPUB/comp1.html

I'll show you some successful assignments from past classes so you know what to aim for.

Character design by GBC grad Maya M

I'll also have a look at your work in progress from last week. By now you should be about 1/4 of the way through this 4-part assignment.

Next week we'll get into drawing some more formal story boards for our action sequences. 

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/

WEEK 1: Asset Development 1 DESN1083

Welcome to Asset Development 1
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.

Hey, isn't that a Beretta 92?

Examples of weapon design thumbs

Your grade will be the cumulative total of 4 assignments DUE IN CLASS.

Assignment 1:
Beretta Preliminary Concept Art: 25 marks

DUE DATE: WEEK 7 Sept 26th 

@ BEGINNING OF CLASS

* Late submissions will receive ZERO marks.

Develop a gun concept based on the Beretta 92 semi-automatic pistol.

a) Thumbnails - Produce minimum 6 thumbnail sketches focusing heavily on silhouette designs.

b) Revised Thumbnails - Incorporate various characteristics from the first iteration of

thumbnails in a 2nd design pass, produce minimum 3 revised thumbnail sketches.

c) Rough Sketch - Pick at least 1 of the revised thumbnails and develop the concept further in

a more detailed design pass.

DELIVERABLES:

PSD SOURCE FILES, JPG 

2348(W) X 1280(H) pixels 72dpi

REFERENCE: BERETTA 92 (or 96 and 98)

FILE NAME: 

1083_a1_lastnamefirstinitial.psd

1083_a1_lastnamefirstinitial_a.jpg
1083_a1_lastnamefirstinitial_b.jpg
1083_a1_lastnamefirstinitial_c.jpg

ex -
1083_a1_donovant.psd
1083_a1_donovant_a.jpg

WEEK 1: Motion Studies DESN1136

Welcome to Motion Studies!
Please remember to sign in at every class.

Have a look at the outline for the course and familiarize yourself with the 

Concept art from Machinarium

academic policies.
Motion Studies continues your animation study by focusing first on the production methods used to create animated sequences. From concepts and character designs to story boards and finally animation you'll try out many of the roles in a professional animation pipeline.

For the first 7 weeks of this course we will focus exclusively on DRAWING so always bring sketchpads and pencils. Later on we'll be shooting some video reference to guide the animation process.

There are 9 Assignments for this course due weekly or bi-weekly. 

Machinarium final artwork

Assignment 1:

DESN1136 Assignment 1 Rubric

Concept Design

% of final grade: 20%

Assigned: Tuesday, Sept 3rd

Due: Tuesday, September 24th IN CLASS

Character designs from Machinarium

*Late assignments are worth 0

Please work in PSD in high resolution but SUBMIT  only JPGs following the image formatting guidelines from this post.

Filenames:

1136_a1_donovant_char_001.jpg

1136_a1_donovant_env_001.jpg

1136_a1_donovant_stry_001.jpg

1136_a1_donovant_stbd_001.jpg

Description:

Create a concept pack for a virtual independent game complete with design sketches for the character and environment, a story outline, and one story boarded sequence. The sequence should be planned around the walk, run, and jump cycles to be animated in the second half of the course. It should show how the character will interact with the environment. Drawings need not be clean but they should be clear, dynamic, and detailed.

Keep your ideas simple. The graphic style should be very easy to sketch so all your ideas can be presented within the allotted time. Consider that you will be one modeling and rigging the character when you design it. Click here for a detailed description of this assignment