3D Character II

So here are two of my finals that I finished for this week. The one is a dialogue clip focusing on the reactions of the non speaking character and the other is another cartoon test.

3D Cartoon

I'm enrolled in a 3D cartoon class this quarter and it is awesome!!! I can believe how many of us overlook the capabilities of different animation styles within 3D, but I love making my animations "cartoony". In this class we have developed and studied the capabilities of stretchy rigs and some are a complete joy to use. Although in fair warning, ALL RIGS HAVE THEIR LIMITS! Regardless, I urge you to give a try and branch out a bit. It is very important to know and be able to do naturalistic animation, but don't be afraid to push it even to the point of looking like a cartoon. My thesis incorporates 1940's Golden Age Warner Brothers cartoons, so I am loving this new development of style.

Also, another assignment I am working on in this class is 100 poses with a character in Maya. I will probably use 2-3 different rigs, but if you want to get used to a rig and develop your posing skills try this assignment. Your poses will become a lot stronger and your animations will get better. Another thing I've learned this quarter is that there is NO MAGIC in 3D feature animation. It's all about practice and experience of creating good poses. So here's one of my animations from this class and a snapshot of a pose that I created.



To be honest this is how I feel walking through downtown Savannah.

BILL PLYMPTON

This past weekend, we had the privilege of going to Bill Plympton's master class at SCAD, because he was featuring his new animation at the Savannah Film Festival. It was a great lecture on many things, but mostly on how to be a successful independent animator. Basically he said keep your films 1.) short 2.) cheap 3.) make it funny. I also agree with his general outlook on animation, in that he loves to make people laugh, and he says you do this through observation in life and taking normal characters and putting them into odd situations. Through my thesis research I have found many others who have the same philosophy of comedy and I hope to explore and develop these ideas myself. Anyway, here are a few pictures of Bill and it was nice to get his autograph a couples times too.

TOKYO, JAPAN!!!

Hey I thought I'd share that my roommate and I have the privilege of going on this wonderful trip sponsored by SCAD to Tokyo. We will be seeing a bit everything by sketching and photographing with some talented guest artists. I will get to fulfill my dream of visiting the Ghibli museum and possibly the studio itself. I will be documenting every minute of this trip and producing a short animation based on this experience. Here are a few images of where we're going and I will hopefully keep up to date with the project based on this trip. Here some shots of what I'm looking forward to seeing.

3D Character II (Fight Assignment)

Sorry I have not posted in a LONG time, but my second year of SCAD has been awfully busy. Anyway, here is the first assignment from this quarter. It was a fight assignment working on two character applying force to one another and make it look convincing. I couldn't help but to think of a hockey fight, although the difficulty was getting the feet to slide convincingly. It's not a great piece, but it got me working back into 3D again after a long summer of not animating. Here it is:

Spring Quarter Wrap-Up

So spring quarter at SCAD has been very stressful, but I have learned many valuable lessons as from theory, critical thinking, team environments, and more. Despite all the stress, I have come very far and I wanted to post my finished acting piece for my acting for animators class.


We basically found a play script and recorded voices with some performing art students then animated to it. It was a lot of fun collaborating and I have a much greater appreciation and outlook towards voice acting.

Subtext

I haven't posted in awhile, but I've been meaning to post this thought. Several weeks ago, we had a great lesson in my acting for animators class, where we talked about subtext within a scene. Our friend Tom Jech has touched on this long ago, but the way we approached it in class, it finally started to sink in.

We were given some lines from a play and then there were two blank lines below each one. One line for subtext the other for revealing actions. So the one character says "You're carrying a heavy load there, Steel." Now Steel just walked in with his suitcase full of heavy dumbells. (He's a strong man for the circus and his ring master is talking to him) Now carrying a heavy load... physically YES... but for the subtext he's really saying, "something's bothering you, Steel." Then the actions could be varied depending upon the character... if he's sympathetic he will stop practicing with his whip and approach Steel... if not, he will continue practicing with his whip and maybe give him a quick glance.

We then did this for each line between the characters, and what I discovered was your strongest moments are when a character will say one thing but really they mean something else. Great characters moments can definitely evolve when one is in conflict with him/herself or a situation. So when thinking about the "SUBTEXT" of your scene, always write down what is my character really saying or thinking. You can start to really consider yourself a successful animator when you can fully get that character to think.

Another quick idea that has been bothering me is what my one professor calls "on the nose acting." The best way to explain it is to look at the moments in Family Guy when they poke fun at the way William Shatner acts. He's all over the place and starts to become very mime like. Now I've had the privilege of living with a deaf roommate and a lot of times when we communicate I do spell out or there is a logical sign for the words that I want to say. However; this is not how you animate. If I were to say, "I'm going to the store after lunch." That line does not need a separate sign for going (making a guy walk with your two fingers), one for store (rubbing fingers together to indicate money), and lunch (eating motion). To me that can all be summed up into one gesture, because that is more natural when thinking about acting and human behavior. Too many times I see gesture upon gesture and it just looks really bad.

My buddy Tom Jech has many other great posts about acting on his blog. So check those out here. Also the one book we have for the acting class is called Acting for Animators by Ed Hooks. By far one of the best books I have read for character animation. I highly recommend it.