End of year deadline!

DEADLINE FOR ALL ASSIGNMENTS: 

FRIDAY, APRIL 20th, 2012 at Midnight

all files must be submitted via our 

FTP or the shared DROPBOX file for your class

Please check that:

• your name is on all your files (first initial, last name, underscore, project name, underscore, iteration.filetype) ex, tdonovan_tapdancing_012.avi
• your images or videos are a decent size - not too big or too small, or weirdly proportioned. Good settings are: 720p (1280×720 pixels) or 1/2 that size, (640 x 360). 
• you save a standard filetype that can be opened in QT or any picture viewer: .avi, .mov, .mpeg4, .jpg, .png, .tga, .tif. (NOT .flv, .swf, wmv, .psd) 
• you used a standard codec -- by far the best is H.264
• ask me if you have any questions!

Good Luck!

WEEK 14: Animation Direction 2: Final Compositing

Can it be your last week already?

This week we're in Room 510 so you can work in AfterEffects. I'll be available to help people who need it. Please let me know if you need to book any last-minute reshoots. I'm still missing some milestones from some people. Please send me via FTP any missing parts asap. My final marks are due on April 24th.

We'll be screening everybody's work, finished or not, at our final class next week. It will be in 515.


We'll take the first few minutes to get set up and save everyone's work onto the desktop.
Please save your final project as an AVI, an MOV, or MPEG4.


Take a look at the wide variety of creative styles coming from your class! It's really exciting to see them all coming together.

WEEK 14: Character Acting 2: Acting scene, continued: Adding the final details

Lessons in simplicity from the Muppets

The eyes add a huge amount of subtle character.

We'll have a look at your work in progress which should include all major poses, breakdowns, and important facial keys.

Moving on to your third and final stage before next week's critique -

Step Three: Refining the action, adding the details.
Due in class & on FTP 04/18/12

Now's the time to dig into the details like eye blinks and darts, adding overlapping action, any bend bows or smears on the head, arms, and hands, and yes, finally, mouth shapes.

I have a lot of information for you about animating dialogue from masters of animation like Ollie Johnson and Art Babbit.

I recommend you read Richard William's chapter on 'Flexibility in the face' 246-250

WEEK 14: Modeling and Animation II - WIP critique and work period

We'll continue our discussion about 2D walks and have a look at how everyone's work is going so far. You will have some time to work in class on the final assignment which is due April 18th.

I highly recommend you map out your entire project by keying all the major poses before digging into the breakdowns and inbetweens. If you run out of time, focus on taking one section to completion. "Complete" means all the animation is finished on 2's. You can have holds, moving holds, and cycles, but the action should all be smooth and the volumes as consistent as possible.

I will be going over your WIP to find areas of improvement in the timing and spacing, emphasizing all the principles of animation we've been focusing on.

But there's always time for cartoons!

We'll have a look at a highly creative piece by Sjors Vervoort called, “Cardboard, a Cardboard animation!” While often mislabeled 'stop motion', this piece is really just traditional, hand-drawn animation but rendered on epic-sized cardboard cutouts as you can see from the 'making of' still below. If you ever find yourself thinking Flash is a pain, remember this film and think how much work it would be to create!

WEEK 13: Animation Direction 2: Final Stretch!!

This class is a group critique of everyone's raw, unedited footage. This will be the last chance to confer with me and your peers about any last-minute shooting complications.  The rest will be a work period for any reshoots or editing.

Farzad shows those deadlines who's the boss

Final Assignment: Completed Film including titles and sound
Assigned: 05/04/12
Due: 19/04/12 In class
% of final grade: 20%

Edit your final footage together and post-effects like comp'd bgs, lighting, colour adjustments, image stabilization, eye/mouth tracking, titles and sound.

Leave storyboard panels in place of any missing shots to preserve continuity.

Have a look over your assignment sheet from the beginning of the course to remind yourself of all the parameters we've discussed.

Rubric:
Exemplary:  All shots edited together into a cohesive whole piece. A high level of polish in lighting, camera work and comp effects.
Excellent: Almost all shots edited together into a good first attempt at stop-motion. A good degree of consistency in lighting, camera, and comp effects.
Acceptable: Most shots edited together with only minor technical problems.
Not Acceptable: Fewer than half the shots completed or many shot complete but having major technical problems.

Best of luck to everyone!!

you are here

WEEK 13: Character Acting 2: Acting scene, continued: Adding the extremes

We'll take a look at your blocking from last week and tweak it before moving on to the next stage.

I'll also show you an example of great blocking from Sony Imageworks' lead animator, Kevin Webb.

Sony Imageworks' Kevin Webb's blocking & final animation 

Step Two:  Adding the extremes 
Due in class 04/11/12:
Also called adding breakdowns or tie downs. Working between the main poses, refine the timing and motion by adding more keys. If you've been using stepped keys, it's time to switch to spline and flat tangents, may I recommend you do that a section at a time. Now's the time to start adding moving holds, fingers & some facial details, but not yet time for full lip sync and eye details like blinks and darts.

Tweak your camera to flatter your action but consider it as locked as possible from now on.

WEEK 13: Modeling and Animation II - Character design and pitch group critique

We'll have a look at everybody's designs and hear their ideas for their final assignment. Last year there was a huge variety of styles -- some extremely creative and funny -- from zombie weightlifters to Ninja strawberries to eels hiding in underwater caves. 

Over the next couple of classes I'll show you a couple of essential Flash tools for integrating your characters with your photo or video environments.  

some of the widely varied designs from last year's class

Next .. Walk Cycles: The walk cycle is a tricky but basic part of every animation curriculum.  You're going to learn the nuts-and-bolts of bipedal locomotion, and try to apply them to your character.  If your character doesn't have 2 legs, that's ok, just practice with a generic guy or stick figure for now. This is a topic that needs revisiting to really sink in. 

We'll have a look at some beautiful 2D reference from some of the masters of animation who really pushed the medium to the limit.

Pencil Test Depot

http://www.penciltestdepot.com/

Living Lines Library

http://livlily.blogspot.com/

Walk Cycle Depot

http://walk-cycle-depot.blogspot.com/

The classic 4-key walk cycle. There are other types of walks, but this is the most common

WEEK 12: Animation Direction 2 : Field Trip to TIFF + Work period for Milestone 5

If you're coming to the CASO event (and you should because it's part of our class) I'll see you at TIFF  -- more info here:
http://tarateach.blogspot.ca/2012/03/caso-presents-exploration-of-todays.html

We'll meet back at school at 2:00 for the last hour of class to continue with your work on Milestone 5. Please bring your questions or WIP. I'm there til 6 so you can use the equipment. Be sure to sign out the gear! Check the schedule to see what's available:

http://bit.ly/stopmosched

I do hope you're staying for Bobby Chiu's awesome talk - I've heard him several times and I definitely wouldn't miss it. He always makes me want to draw more. See you in 515 at 7:00!
http://tarateach.blogspot.ca/2012/03/bobby-chiu-coming-to-gbc-march-29th-700.html

Here's a video from his recent Master Class attended by some illustrious members of GBC.

WEEK 12: Character Acting 2: Quadruped Walk wrap-up + Final Assignment - Acting scene

We'll wrap up the quadruped animation and move on to your final assignment: A character acting scene.  Please don't think of this as 'lip sync' - acting has very little to do with the mouth moving in time to the sound.

You have 3 weeks for this assignment and I've divided the work for you into 3 neat chunks: blocking the keys, adding the extremes, then adding detail. The full description follows.

Jeff Gabor with his animation progression & a plastic spoon

It may come as a surprise that the 'lip sync' part of character acting does not happen until the very last stage.  Please do NOT blast forth with lip sync, that would be very gauche ;o) And for love of Thor, please, no face cams!  Ugh..

The only thing I want you to work on for now is the blocking. The poses are the scaffolding of your entire scene. If they work, every layer of detail will improve it. If not, every layer will magnify their flaws.

Step One: Layout
Due in class 04/04/12:
Also called blocking or posing. You may need to thumbnail your scene first.  Pose the main body positions to support the important ideas and beats, usually around 1 pose per second, with only 2 or 3 major accents per scene. You may work with stepped keys or include 4 frame transitions between poses. Do not include unecessary breakdowns or facial animation, just posing. Do pose the face into the relevant expression but do not animate it at this stage.

Establish your camera(s) at this stage and try not to change them for the duration of the project.  You may include cuts, and if justified, truck ins/outs or pans to follow the action.  Keep these minimal, motivated and crisp (no floaty cameras, please).

Please read the following pages from Richard Williams' "Animator's Survival Kit':
311-326, 338-339

We'll have a look at some great resources for creating animated dialogue including some critiques from Animation Mentor's 11 Second Slub and the iAnimate showreel. 

Another great resource is Keith Lango. His article about Lip Sync is clear and concise.

Assignment 5: Acting Scene
Assigned: 28/03/12
Due: 18/04/12
% of final grade: 20%

Animate a character acting scene with dialogue. Work from your own live action reference, ideally the scene you practiced with Ed in Term 1. You may work in your pairs or groups for multi-character dialogue scenes and animate one of the characters only, or you may attempt to animate multiple characters.

Use pre-built rigs of your choice.

Rubric:

Exemplary: Convincing and well-motivated acting, clear, strong posing, snappy timing and fluid motion with a strong grasp of all animation principles including secondary/overlapping action. High attention to detail in all parts of the body, including eyes, mouth, and hands. Very high level of polish. Demo reel ready.

Excellent:  Solid acting with consistently good posing and timing, almost entirely fluid motion with a good grasp of nearly all animation principles including a good attempt at secondary action. Attention to detail in face and hands. High level of polish. Nearly demo reel ready with minor adjustments.

Acceptable: Decent acting with mostly good posing and timing. Motion is mostly fluid with minor errors or missing animation principles. Some attempt at secondary action. Face and hands animated but not quite polished. Within a few hours of demo reel quality.

Not Acceptable: Acting, posing or timing not clear or well planned. Motion not fluid with quite a few glitches or missing animation principles. Secondary action needing major work. Face and hand animation lacking detail. Quite far from demo reel level.

Equal weight will be given to:
Acting, Posing, Timing, Fluidity, Overlapping Actions/Secondary Motion,

Please submit files by FTP.
Please hand in 2 files, your playblast and your maya file.
You can hand in videos in any standard format except .wmv.
Ex: .mov, .avi, .mp4,
Naming convention:
tdonovan_acting_000.ma
tdonovan_acting_000.avi

Include any necessary referenced files. Please watch your naming conventions. No caps, extra characters or spaces. Feel free to number the files up to 999 as you like. It will help differentiate the files should you need to resubmit.

Good luck!

WEEK 12: Modeling and Animation II - wrapping up "Flour Sack Escapes" + Final Assignment handout

Last chance to show me your Flour Sack Assignments before the midnight deadline!  I'll have a look and help you with any technical difficulties.

It's time for your 5th and final project.

This is a 2D/live action integration project that will bring together everything you've learned so far - the animation principles, working with video reference, 2D animation techniques in Flash - and adds the key component of design.

Yes, finally, you get to make up your own characters and stories.

Your mission is to create a little world of Flash-animated characters in a live-action environment.  You have a lot of creative freedom with this assignment. You can work by yourself or as a small group.  It can be line work or colour, it can be serious, cartoony, depressing, or rude (well, keep it SFW). This is a chance to let your creativity shine. Your character needs to be able to move around and ideally walk around.

Rex the Runt - simple = funny

We'll do some brainstorming in class so you can get started. For inspiration we'll be looking at a brilliantly whacko piece of Flash animation from the video "Animals" by Minilogue.  Anything goes in Flash -- have some fun with it!

"Animals" by Minilogue. A few simple shadows and voila! integration

We'll discuss character design techniques -- finding a style using at all kinds of media including what's in your fridge. I'll show you some classically simple character designs from comics, TV, games, and movies and give you some hints about finding inspiration.

Homework for next week:

1. Design a character for the final project. Have a printout of it ready to hang on the wall. Three words of advice: Keep.  It.  Simple. 
   If you can't draw it in less than 10 seconds, it's too complicated.
2. Create a pitch for your idea. Your pitch should include a description of your scenario, as well as drawings to show how your work will all fit with your live action plate.

Here's the full description of your final assignment:

Assignment 5: 

Assigned: 28/03/12
Due: 18/04/12 IN CLASS & FTP
% of final: 20%

Please use a movie file type compatible with QuickTime: AVI, MOV, MPeg4

File naming convention:
hhoudini_final_001.avi
hhoudini_dcopperfield_final_001.avi

In small groups or individually, create a short film starring your animated character integrated with a locked live action background plate. You may download or shoot the video yourself. It should be between 12-16 seconds long including credits.

If you don't have an original idea, use one of these:

• Busking for bugs 
• Everybody in the salad 
• 5" UFO 
• Leaps tall buildings in a single bound 
• Other uses for the toilet 
• Badly disguised 
• Things on my foot 
• Urban Emissions

Good luck!