WEEK 15: Animation Direction 2: Final Project In-class show & critique

Last class!!!

Can't wait to see your final assignments!! I'm bringing the popcorn!

Congratulations to all of you who took this huge leap into the wild world of stop motion animation. Like Ray Harryhausen over 50 years ago, you learned through trial and error how to animate frame by frame. More than that -- you are officially directors now! You've successfully learned all the steps of a miniature production pipeline. I hope those skills will help you in your future projects and careers. 

I'll stick around in case you want any last-minute advice to tweak your project before submitting it to the FTP by Friday at midnight.  

Thank you for being such a great class this term. I look forward to working with you next year!
Have a great summer everyone. Good luck with all your deadlines!

WEEK 15: Character Acting 2: Acting scene In-Class Critique

Last class!!! Can't wait to see your final assignments!!
The deadline is Wednesday, April 18th in class, however, I'm sticking around in case you want any last-minute advice to tweak your project before submitting it to the FTP by midnight. I can also help you decipher any of the critiques you got on previous assignments. It's been an absolute pleasure seeing your hard work and dedication pay off with some truly great work this term.
I look forward to working with you in the future.
Please stay in touch.


Have a great summer everyone. Good luck with all your deadlines!

WEEK 15: Modeling and Animation II Assignment 5 In-class show & critique

Last class!!!

Can't wait to see your final assignments!!

The deadline is Wednesday, April 18th in class, however, I'm sticking around in case you want any last-minute advice to tweak your project before submitting it to the FTP by midnight. I can also help you decipher any of the critiques you got on previous assignments and offer some tips for how to make your future projects even more awesome.

Thank you for being such a great class this term. For those staying in the Animation stream - I look forward to working with you over the next couple of years.
For those going into Modeling - see you around the school .. perhaps you'll be in my Texturing class!

Have a great summer everyone. Good luck with all your deadlines!

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