WEEK 6: Game Project Development DESN 3010: Assignment 2 Due next week!

So you should be blocking now. A lot of animators use this method of stepped keys to block out their animation with solid posing and all the major details such as facial expressions, hand gestures, eye direction but NOT lip sync. They check and recheck for strong silhouettes and keep honing their timing until it seems perfect before moving forward.

Here's a great example of blocking from Kevin Webb.
He describes this video as the result of a day's work. I think you will agree that was a productive day indeed.


Animation scene blocking from Kevin Webb on Vimeo.

Here's the final result. Notice all the beautiful overlapping action - it's not just pose-to-pose, he's layered on texture in the timing and made everything fluid and lifelike. 14 seconds, no textures, no lighting, no background, no bs. Just great acting and great animation.


Zooey Lipsync from Kevin Webb on Vimeo.

WEEK 6: Asset Development 1 DESN1083: Assignment 2 Due Next Week in Class!

This week you should be starting to put the polish into your weapon concept art. It should have a clean silhouette that you can use as a mask for any finishing effects like gradient lighting. Start thinking about presentation. Here are two examples. 

The first image has blueprint-style images and a photo texture of some paper in the bg. It also has nice lettering and a strong sense of compositional balance. 

The second image is more loose in rendering style but again has a nice balance in terms of image placement and the use of gradients over a simple rough painted texture in the bg.

There's a lot of leeway in the presentation of this piece. Be sure to follow your hand-in parameters very carefully. Watch naming conventions, file sizes and compression guidelines.

Any questions, just ask.

Good luck!

WEEK 6: Motion Studies DESN1136 Assignment 2 Due Today!

Your second assignment is due today in class.

We do have one small topic to cover before we dive into 3D animation in Maya after the break:

cartoon characters have skeletons, right?

Anatomy! You've already covered anatomy in your drawing classes so this will be a review. We'll be using various tools to revisit terms you should have learned last year and start working on a specialized drawing based on your character design: an anatomical cartoon study. Next week we'll wrap up with a little 10-question quiz on everything you've studied.

DESN1136 Assignment 3 & 4: Anatomy Study + Quiz

% of final grade: 5% each, TOTAL: 10% 
Assigned: Tuesday, Oct 8, 2013

Due: 

WEEK 7, Oct 15th at the end of class

*Late assignments are worth 0
Quiz will also take place in the first hour of class. You may write it in either class period. Once your quiz and your assignment are handed in, you're free to go!

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 along longest edge @ 72 dpi

Filenames:

1136_a3_donovant_anatomy_001.jpg

Description: 

Cartoon characters have skeletons, don't they? Of course they do. Draw what's under your

character's skin. This is great preparation for rigging as you consider the joint placement and proportions of anatomy that may need alterations to adapt it from the familiar human skeleton.  Don't just phone it in, make it a nice looking piece of art to go in your portfolio. Draw over the character in PS with the lower layer's opacity very low. Label if you want. And you're not limited to human skeletons - you might need animals, dinosaurs or other skeletons to help you.

Here are some more examples:
http://www.gloriousmind.com/the-anatomy-of-cartoon-characters/

http://www.amusingplanet.com/2010/09/anatomical-cartoon-characters-by-jason.html

Rubric:
Choose one image of your character in a pose and draw a cartoon study of its anatomy. Aim to make your drawing a portfolio piece that shows both your knowledge and your artistic skill.

Exemplary - thorough and well-drawn study of your character's skeleton that shows the skull and major bones of the skeleton adapted to your character's anatomical form and design, special limitations or extra capabilities
Excellent -  a good study of the character's skeleton including all the major landmarks 
Acceptable - a simple drawing that attempts to follow the skeletal form
Not Acceptable - a sparsely detailed or poorly constructed drawing that doesn't follow the character's form

$10 Sketching at the Royal Fair!! Nov 1-10 2013

Sketching at the Royal Fair!! Only $10 for GBC students, alumni and friends. They mail me all the prepaid tickets before the event. You can pick them up from me at school. You can either hand me your $10 bills or use this handy online form to book your spot: https://rwfsketching2013.eventbrite.ca

WEEK 5: Game Project Development DESN 3010: Assignment 2 Due in 2 weeks

Reminder: Today is the last day to drop courses.

I hope you're all digging into the planning stages for your next project. It's a lot of work, thumbnailing, but I suggest you draw at least a basic plan before diving into the 3D world. Remember the little Wall-E clip I showed you - before they started posing they drew thumbnails of their ideas and worked out potential poses in rough before taking it to the next level. This week I want to see everyone upload a basic plan to Trello so we can have a look at your WIP. Next week please have your basic blocking done. 

If you're doing an alternate to animation - such as particles, dynamics, etc. please make a real plan without even turning on the computer. I want a strong concept and not just a tech demo. You can do a lot with a little creativity. I'm happy to work with you to make your piece look great. We'll get you working with a mentor who's been through the process before. Keep an eye on the new advancements in real-time dynamics - there have been a lot of tech papers and demos released recently you'll want to know about, such as here:
http://physxinfo.com/news/

WEEK 5: Asset Development 1 DESN1083: Assignment 2, continued...

Reminder: Today is the last day to drop courses.

On to your next piece. Remember it's in 3/4 perspective. Not a profile view and definitely not a straight-on view. Look at last week's example. Bring in your WIP and I can tell you where you can improve. 

Don't get overwhelmed with detail. Detail should not be applied until next week. Start simple and work only on major elements at first such as silhouette and angle.

Here is a collection of concept art videos by the incredible Scott Robertson to inspire you:
http://www.youtube.com/user/scottrobertsondesign/videos

This one in particular will show you how to very quickly create a piece of simple concept art that looks like it has way more detial than it really does, including a simple way to handle the bg.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKnIm2DpCq8

There are also a lot of concept art how-to's on Digital Tutors including a playlist I'm adding to for you.
Use tools such as the Verold site and 3D programs - you can borrow free models from TurboSquid and Creative Crash to spin in 3D and help you with perspective.

Toy guns, even water guns, might be helpful. Or, apparently you can buy teeny tiny incredibly realistic Lego guns:

http://www.brickarms.com/Toys/weapons_packs/modern_combat_pack_v4.aspx

O..kay.....

We'll continue with the in-class 1-on-1 critiques of your 1st assignment. Great job on those! Wow, some super high marks and some great concepts. Many people are working way too detailed for thumbnails. I did reward your hard work with high marks but really, the idea of thumbnails is to keep it loose and avoid all digital tools like polygons and gradient shading. Many people forgot to add some detail on the 1st set of thumbs - it's not just a silhouette, it has some suggestion of structure such as rivets and form details. Stay away from blurry soft brushes for your edges - keep your silhouette crisp and clear.

Recap on Thumbnails for concept art based on trends from Assignment 1:

Thumbnails -
No -

• Polygon tools like rectangles and ellipses. Looks bad, unless you're going to rough them up later or warp them.
• Outline tools like the ink bottle. Ew. Not at this stage. 
• Gradients on everything. Too much too soon.
• Photo textures - not at this stage.  

Yes -

• Straight lines (Shift snap is fine) for some objects like the barrel. 
• Polygonal lassos to carve away edges and drag shapes around. 
• One gradient to make the gun have some fancy light from the top, for example. 
• Scribbles, fake detail, repeated elements, vague suggestions of forms

WEEK 5: Motion Studies DESN1136 Assignment 2 Due Next Week!

Reminder: this Thursday is the last day to drop courses.

So you're busy on your thumbnails, right? I hope you're keeping it nice and simple. Don' add too much detail, just focus on planning the action.

I've heard from a few of you who are interested in improving your thumbnail drawing technique.

sample page from "Simplified Drawing"

Here are two resources perfect for planning animation. One is by a former teacher of mine and former ILM animator, Wayne Gilbert. You can buy his book directly for $35 including shipping here: http://anamie.com/anamie_book.html

Wayne Gilbert's excellent book, "Anamie" or
"Simplified Drawing for Planning Animation"

sample page from Drawn to Life

A bigger, meatier resource is the 2-volume tome "Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes: Volume 1: The Walt Stanchfield Lectures"  by former Disney instructor,Walt Stanchfield. You can get these online or at Labyrinth. 

Read a great review here:
http://www.splinebomb.com/book-review-drawn-life-walt-stanchfield/

WEEK 4: Game Project Development DESN 3010: Assignment 1 Due Today, Assignment 2 starts

Your first assignment is due today at the start of class. We'll have a one-on-one critique to discuss the outcome and make a plan for your next milestone.

Remember that your project must be approved by me before proceeding. Please dig right into the planning process as soon as you can.

Here's the level of what's coming out of animation programs of just 8 months:
http://www.animationmentor.com/animation-program/animation-body-mechanics-advanced/

Spend some time looking at demo reels from around the world on Vimeo. You need to reach that target and that requires focus. Animation is your focus. Forget about all else for this class and dig into the details. Plan, test, and build your scene in layers and along the way seek feedback - it's what your tuition pays for :)

Please upload your progress to Trello's Milestone 2 board.  Use handbrake or adobe media encoder to compress files under the 10mb file upload limit.

Milestone 2:  ex 5-10 second piece of animation
Value: 20%
DUE DATE: WEEK 7 Oct 17th @ BEGINNING OF CLASS

* Late submissions will receive ZERO marks.
In-class you would want to show:
WEEK 5: thumbnails
WEEK 6: rough posing in 3D
WEEK 7: final animation - Playbasts are fine. No rendering required.

FILE NAMING:

3010_ m2_lastnamefirstinitial_001.mov (mp4, m4v, etc)
ex: 3010_m2_donovant.mov

Please read the post about file formats here.

WEEK 4: Asset Development 1 DESN1083: Assignment 1 Due Today!

Hooray! Due date for Assignment 1!

Make sure you don't leave without handing in your assignment or your work will not be graded. 

Today we'll start straight in on Assignment 2 while I critique each person's work in class.

Beretta cake I sincerely hope was not for a kid's birthday party

Assignment 2 -
Beretta Final Concept Art: 25 marks

DUE DATE: WEEK 7 October 17th

@ BEGINNING OF CLASS

* Late submissions will receive ZERO marks.
Assignment 2 is a continuation of the gun concept explored in the previous assignment.

Progressing from the last revised design pass, produce a detailed and polished rendering of your final gun concept.

Image should be 3/4 perspective to capture the overall design and feel of the gun concept.
Orthographic drawings are also acceptable (front, back, side).

Final Concept Art
PSD SOURCE FILES, JPG
2348(W) X 1280(H) pixels 72dpi

FILE NAME: 
ASSIGN2_NEWBERETTA-FINAL_YOURNAME.PSD
ASSIGN2_NEWBERETTA-FINAL_YOURNAME.JPG

ex -
ASSIGN2_NEWBERETTA-FINAL_TARADONOVAN.psd
ASSIGN2_NEWBERETTA-FINAL_TARADONOVAN.jpg

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.