Week 8: Have a Great Break!

Hope you can rest up over the break!

Here are the keys that make up Erick Oh's fantastic little fox run from The Dam Keeper I showed in class. Click to view larger. 

WEEK 7: Game Dev 2 DESN2017 Assignment 3: Slide Due in 2 Weeks!

Hope your work is going well on the slide animation. If you have any questions, I'm here to help!
Your work is due the first class after the break.

Here's a great example of a fight-sequence slide used in the show RollBots by animator Phil Bonner.

WEEK 7: Asset Dev 2 DESN1086 Milestone 2: Walk/Run Due Today!

You have today's class to finish up your walk/run cycles.

Here's a cute example of the same sort of run cycle you've been working on - a little fox from the short "The Dam Keeper" currently doing the festival rounds. 
Assignment 3: Jump

DUE DATE: WEEK 10, March 13th (in-class) – 20 Marks
*ZERO marks for late submissions

Develop a jump (side-scrolling) for the character you designed in Assignment 1. The animation should be consistent with your character in terms of the overall design, game type, platform etc., similar considerations that were approached in the initial character design assignment.

Use thumbnails and rough sketches to explore your ideas. Establish your key poses first (minimum 6 frames). Any additional in-between frames are more to support the main action found in your key poses.

SUBMIT ALL OF THE FOLLOWING:
A) Thumbnail sketches – minimum 6 key poses
B) Line-test animation – preliminary animation
C) Final animation – polished B&W or Colour

FILE NAMING:
1086_A3_YOUR-NAME_jumpthumbs.jpg
1086_A3_YOUR-NAME_jumplinetest.mov or .gif
1086_A3_YOUR-NAME_jumpfinal.mov or .gif

Ex - 1086_A3_BEIBER-JUSTIN_jumpthumbs.jpg (last name first, please!)

Format:
Traditional (ie pencil, ink, markers, paints etc)
Digital 2D art (Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter, Flash, Illustrator etc.)
Filetypes: movie clip ( mov) or animated GIF
Please compress all images and videos to keep them small using the following guidelines:

Videos:
Quicktimes, 560 pixels by 316 pixels, H.264 codec, max 10MB. You can use a variety of tools such as Handbrake, Adobe Media Encoder, Quicktime Pro and more to format your videos. I use the 11-second club guidelines for all submissions:
http://www.11secondclub.com/helpful_hints/encoding

Images:
JPGs between 500-1200 pixels along longest edge, 72-300 dpi/ppi, max 5MB. You can use a variety of tools such as Photoshop, Gimp, and online programs to compress files.

Enjoy your break! See you in 2 weeks.

WEEK 7: Game Dev 4 DESN3012 Milestone 3 due in 2 weeks!

How is your 3rd milestone going? I'm happy to look at thumbnails and blocking today to help you make the most of your assignment. The week it's due is the one right after the break so this is your last class to get my feedback before handing it in.

Good luck!

Here's something to think about over the break...

Enjoy your break! See you on March 6th!

WEEK 6: Game Dev 2 DESN2017 Assignment 2: Leap due today!

Today's the day to hand in your second assignment on Blackboard. 

Onward to the next assignment! 

Assignment 3: Slide Under Object

*Note: If your run cycle didn't turn out as well as you had hoped, please redo it instead of the next action. You can still use the same hand-in parameters and call it Assignment 3. Just make it a run instead of a slide. 

DUE DATE: WEEK 9, March 7th (in-class) – 20 Marks
*ZERO marks for late submissions
Using the Stewart or Eleven Rig, create a slide animation for a bi-ped. The character should slide under an object of some sort (object can be invisible) as if avoiding impact. The feel should be consistent with the personality and emotion of the previous animation. Secondary animation, a broad range of movements and timing are encouraged to add life to the character.

SUBMIT THE FOLLOWING:

A) Thumbnails of key poses – minimum 6 key poses
B) Video file of 3D slide animation

REQUIREMENTS:

Filename:
DESN2017_A3_YOURNAME_thumbnails.jpg
DESN2017_A3_YOURNAME_slide.mov (.mov file)
EX -
DESN2017_A3_BIEBERJUSTIN_thumbnails.jpg (last name first, please!)

Please compress all images and videos to keep them small using the guidelines for Assignments 1 & 2

About the assignment:

What exactly is meant by a 'slide'? Well, that's largely up to you. If you give yourself an imaginary obstacle it could be easier, but the main idea is to continue moving the character forward but under something, causing him to duck and slide. 

Thumbs, thumbnailing, thumbnail posing... in animation these terms get tossed around a fair bit. They all refer to drawing quick, small gestures in planning animation.

Check out Pixar's Victor Navone's run study from The Incredibles. Can you guess which movie he used to source that action?

Oh, yes, the Breakfast Club ...


...and here's the clip from the Incredibles in which he used all that reference:

Check out Victor Navone's beautiful collection of thumbnails here.

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.  Here's a great article that might help you. 

Animation Mentor article "Animation Tips & Tricks: THUMBNAILS"

WEEK 6: Asset Dev 2 DESN1086 Milestone 2: Walk/Run Due in next week

Having fun with your animated cycles? Please ask if you need any help.

While drawing away in your various softwares it's wise to remember the one advantage of hand-drawn animation: freedom. It's easy to paint ourselves into a restrictive corner without realizing, when every now and then you see something that makes you stop and see that when it comes to creative 2D animation cycles, the sky's the limit. I had one of those moments when I first saw this:

Evolution from Mehdi Alibeygi on Vimeo.

WEEK 6: Game Dev 4 DESN3012 Milestone 2 due today!

Today is an in-class critique of Milestone 2 and a chance to talk about your ideas for Milestone 3. 

Milestone 3:  ex 5-10 second piece of animation
Value: 20%
DUE DATE: WEEK 9 March 6th @ BEGINNING OF CLASS

* Late submissions will receive ZERO marks.
In-class you would want to show:
WEEK 7: thumbnails
WEEK 9: rough posing in 3D
WEEK 10: final animation - Playbasts are fine. No rendering required.

FILE NAMING:

3012_ m3_lastnamefirstinitial_001.mov (mp4, m4v, etc)
ex: 3012_m3_donovant_001.mov

I'm really happy with the progress so far from last term to this term. You guys are keeping it simple, which is allowing you more time for polish. At this level what people expect is that you handle all the basics well, even with mastery. It's ok if it's simple. Better simple and great than complex and mediocre. Right?  Here's a great example of something simple and polished - check out the nice silhouettes and the way the animator leads your eye where he wants you to look:

WEEK 5: Game Dev 2 DESN2017 Assignment 2: Leap due next week!

EVH can do it, so can you

How are those jumps going? I'm happy to help. :)

Jumping characters exhibit lost of secondary and overlapping action, and anticipation.

Showing the effort characters take to move their own weight is paramount to creating believable animation of any style.

It's one thing to make the up and down motion read as 'heavy' and affected by gravity. It's quite another to master the mechanics of looping overlapping/secondary action with the character's arms, legs and other details such as tails or capes.

If ever the devil were in any details.. it's animating secondary on a looping action!

Your jump cycles should be usable for avoiding ground pitfalls or traveling forward.
The mechanics of the body in the jump should work well before tackling the secondary action

Remember you will be blending this cycle from and back to the run so you might want to export the start pose from a run position to help it transition smoothly.

WEEK 5: Asset Dev 2 DESN1086 Milestone 2: Walk/Run Due in 2 Weeks

I'm happy to look at your work in progress today. Just ask!

Here's a cool timing tool - tap to get the beats per minute or frames per second:
http://www.all8.com/tools/fpb.htm

Here are a couple of great spots to find live-action reference:
Treadmill Walk: Dude

"Endless Reference"'s You Tube channel (also see sidebar link -->)

This is a little nsfw (not really) but it's so amazing it really belongs here. Felix Sputnik has absolutely nailed the style and timing of animated runs. Lots to learn from here. :D


Animated walks and runs from Felix Sputnik on Vimeo.

There are lots more great examples of hand-drawn cartoon walks here:

WALK CYCLE DEPOT

WEEK 5: Game Dev 4 DESN3012 Second Milestone 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.