AFA - Mime - Final

Presenting, "Who's Mime Is It Anyway?". Even with my week extension, I managed to get my part of the Mime piece done on time, along with Scott and Kristian, so we could all submit our finished piece. I do like how it turned out, it seems simpler is better in this case, we toned down the film camera HUD and did without the added film grain for the final render pass, is distracted too much from the action. Plus Scott set up some really nice, atmospheric, lighting for the shot, and it was a shame to cover it up. I really did enjoy working as a group on this one, always having the two other people to ask for feedback, or technical advice, or even just to help motivate me was a real advantage, and would jump at the chance to work with Scott and Kristian again. One of the biggest challenges I faced on this project was learning to use the software package Maya. Until now, I've worked solely In Softimage XSI, but both me, and Kristian made the decision to jump to Maya, which Scott is already proficient in. This way, all 3 of us can work in the same package, easing workflow. It also leaves us in good stead should the three of us choose to work together on our final project. I can now animate comfortably with the popular 'Morpheus' rig, and have gotten pretty used to Maya's UI, so I will be using Maya for the rest of the MA program. I'm still unsure about the ins and outs of lighting and rendering in Maya, but thankfully Scott has been more than willing to help with any technical issues I've had. I'm not entirely satisfied with my animation on this piece. Well, looking back at all the previous tasks I've completed during the MA program, I would say it's one of my better pieces, but still not as great as I would like it to be. Once again, polish is one of my weaker aspects. Although I have spent more time polishing on this task than any other, and have began to gain a better understanding of the process, rather than just guessing my way through, I still feel it could do with more, particularly on the later half of the shot. Perhaps the decision to redo the ending of my shot so late into production wasn't the best idea, but the piece did need a better ending. The first idea was too tame. Rossini just didn't get riled up enough. Even though reanimating the later half of the piece cost me polish time, I'm still glad I went through with it. I think the shot may lean a little bit towards the busy side, meaning, if I were to go back and start it again, I would add a lot more thinking time, particularly in the beginning of the shot. Rossini seems to launch straight into the routine, without, well, thinking. I know it's in his character to be super confident in his miming ability, (at least until he's questioned on it...) but even pros need to stop and think. Planning the piece is the part of this project I enjoyed best. Particularly the artwork side, designing the characters, coming up with profiles and backstories, even coming up with an image of the director to show the voice actor, James, just to give him a better idea of the guy he was to portray. James' performance was brilliant, he really brought the piece to life. We had a script for him to work from, but in the end, we went with his hilarious improvised version. It just shows how a little outside influence can breath new life into a project. All in all, I'm going to say the project went well, sure there were obstacles and challenges a plenty, technical or otherwise, but that's the nature of the beast that is animation. I would love to work with Scott and Kristian again, I think we made a great team, and I hope they feel the same. Working as a team member has taught me so much about the animation production pipeline, instead of just hiding in my room and churning out shots. As for my animation, I'm on the right track I think, but still not where I would like to be, my work isn't as slick or as polished as I would like yet, but at least it's a step in the right direction.

11 second reference

Big thanks to Rachel for being a great Mrs. Crawley.


The main thing I took away from this reference shoot is how the two characters body language portrays the relation ship between them. The pro stands tall, chest out, arching slightly backwards, whereas Mrs. Crawley has a slight stoop, like she's tired.


The pro keeps an aloof attitude, reflected in how her head is more often than not tilted upward slightly, and she looks down her nose at Crawley. Crawly however keeps her head tilted low, and looks over her glasses at The Pro. This way, the hierarchy of aloof professional and downtrodden personal assistant is constantly clear on screen.

11 second stepped

First blocking pass. First thing I need to fix is some constraints. I need to figure out how to constrain objects to rigs. Will find that out tomorrow. Also, the ending, not sure I like how the pro just skates off. And of course, to add the final poster artwork.

I love the 90's

I've doing a lot of thinking lately, about a number of things, but on the way, I found myself reminiscing about a lot of my favourite films, cartoons, video games, which all happen to have been produced in the 1990's. I was born in 1989, so perhaps growing up with these select titles might have coloured my judgement a bit, but non the less, you have to admit there was a lot of great, uniquely flavoured work produced during that decade.

First up - Cartoons.

I was practically glued to cartoon Network and Nickelodeon whilst growing up, Cartoons were nearly all I watched, repeats and all, and looking back now, a lot of the cartoons aired were very multi layered indeed, some running with content that i'm sure would never pass through censorship today...

First up - Ren and Stimpy, now i've posted about John K and his work at Spumco a couple of times here, but what can I say, I really like his work, and how fluid it is. Whilst working on Ren and Stimpy, he instructed his animators to never draw the same expression twice, to create something new every time. Just look at some typical fames from one of the character Rens' psychotic freakouts...

It is not uncommon for animators to go, 'off model' so to speak when pushing for a particular emotion or expression to really make sure a scene 'pops' for the audience, but over at Spumco, it seems more common to go 'off model', than to stay on.

I know i've already posted this vid, but it's still a great watch, and you here John K's words about pushing expressions, straight from the man himself.

Sadly, Ren and Stimpy was cancelled in 1993, mainly due to John K refusing to stick to Nickelodeons ideals of educational programming, and continuing to produce violent cartoons. He blames on particular episode, titled 'Man's Best Friend', for leading to his dismissal. You can watch it here, but I apologise in advance for the poor quality, it's the only online version I could find. you might not want to watch it around any children either...

Still, Spumco continued to produce Ren and Stimpy Cartoons, in the form of 'The Ren and Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon', produced for online audiences produced from 2003 to2004, but wasn't any where near as well recieved, as the studio decided to take advantage of their new found freedom from childrens TV censorship, and in some cases went too far for a lot of fans. This short online series consists of nudity, implied homosexual relationships between the title characters, and even the consumption of less than savoury bodily fluids. not exactly easy viewing...

Still, Ren and Stimpy certainly got John K and Spumco noticed, and landed contracts for music videos, such as the comedy rock band Tenatious D's videos for 'F*** her gently' and 'Classico', and even an intro for the long running series 'The Simpsons'.

WARNING - NSFW

Great article on the making of the John K Simpsons intro over at Cartoon Brew.

Over on the other side - Cartoon Network - equally good things were happening, although not quite as edgy. Although one show really stands out in my memory, 'What a Cartoon'

'What a Cartoon' was an animation showcase programme, developed to give creative power back to artists and animators, after years of childrens animation being mainly franchise based, and mainly produced to help toys (Transformers, My Little Pony, Mighty Max, to name but a few).

Here are a few of my favourites.

Tales of Worm Paranoia

Larry and Steve

The PowerPuff Girls

What a Cartoon was a brilliant format. So many long running cartoons that we know and love today were catapulted into full production thanks to What A Cartoon, shows like The PowerPuff Girls (above), Johnny Bravo, I am Weasel, and even Seth McFarlane's Family Guy, with the above show 'Larry and Steve' being a very early, friendlier precursor to the cult show.
'What a Cartoon' was masterminded by a man called Fred Seibert, who has championed the idea of creator driven cartoons for a long time. Currently, he owns his own production company, Frederator Studios, still producing creator driven shows, including afew of my personla favourites cyrrently in production, Pen Ward's 'Adventure Time', and J.G. Quintel's 'Regular Show'.

Adventure Time Pilot

A Typical Regular Show episode - (slight language)

Video Games.

Video games were actually one of the key things that helped me decide to become an animator. Back in the 90's, bright, colourful, character driven video games were king. None of todays, gritty, brown, macho shoot 'em ups that the market is saturated with today.

To me, one company stood out brighter than the rest, the Santa Monica based studio, Naughty Dog, of Crash Bandicoot fame. I think this video should give you an idea of just how great these guys are.

The Naughty Dog Story

These guy's, excuse the pun, were game changers. They were creating games that seamlessly blended gameplay and technical wizardry, with lush visuals, and fantastic animation. Just after Naughty Dog's 2001 Playstation 2 title 'Jak and Daxter' debuted, I was sure I was going to become an animator. I even email Naughty Dog's Art Director, Bob Rafei, and expressed my interest in becoming an animator, and even begged fro a few tips. 2 days later, he replied, with a whole bunch of tips on squash and stretch, timing, you name it. It was a massive boost.

Mimes mimes mimes

I've spent most of tonight polishing. I think I'm nearly there, though watching back now, there's still the odd jitter in the elbows, and a few little timing issues in the facial work I might need to go back and tweak, but this will do for tomorrow's show and tell.

Scott finalised the the set for the group today, and it looks great! However, for some unknown reason, when he sent me the file, all I got was a blank scene. The outliner in Maya said all the geometry was there, with visibility turned on, but we couldn't see any of it. We both tried different versions of the scene, referencing the scene, importing into the scene, but to no avail. Hopefully It'll work when i pick up a physical copy tomorrow, as opposed to one sent over skype.

You can take a look at the set here.

In other news, SCott took my initial audition tape idea, and churned out this beauty. Complete with full audio.

Nice one Scott!

Mime presentation ideas.

We've had an idea that involved a sort of intro, that showed a series of posters and newspaper clips of the directors past work. However, after talking with Siobhan, it was suggested we went for a more, stylistic approach. I had the idea of an old, lost audition tape, grainy, roughly cut together, maybe not even in colour. Above is a test i threw together in Premiere. It's nothing final, but i gets the idea across. I like it, but we'll see what the rest of the group thinks tomorrow in class.

11 Second update.

Today i've been beavering away, looking for suitable rigs and making props for my pro granny skateboarder scene. I looked at a few rigs, both different variations on the well known Morpheus and Norman rigs for Maya. I want to stay with Maya for the rest of this module, see what I can learn before we kick off with the major project next module.

I looked at a few rooks from this site, HERE, posted by Rachel in the MACHARACTER Facebook Group. I tinkered with a few, but to be honest, I much prefer using Morpheus, thanks to the Mime task, I'm used to it. So I've decided to modify my own. I've also been building the necessary props, i.e helmet, skateboard etc. I have plenty of skateboards around here for reference, so modelling one wasn't an issue. I still need to fully model the scene, I'm still unsure with where to go with it...

I'm not sure how to go about texturing stuff in Maya, so Scott is going to show me few things after class tomorrow. But I at least am able to begin ploughing on with animating the shot now.

Here's a teaser.

Ther personalities are there, but I think the added textures and costumes will really bring the characters home. The pro just doesn't look elderly yet. Well, best be getting on.

Rossini Progress WITH NEW AUDIO

Boom. Right, I think I'm nearing the end with this one. I've marched ahead after getting the all clear for the new ending, and am now cleaning up in spline. I've added the new audio from tuesday's studio session, big thanks to voice actor James for his brilliant ad lib performance, it's even better than the last one!

I still need to go back in and animate Rossini's muttering at the end, as well as more to his fingers, and generally iron out the curves some more, but I like where it's at. Feeling good.

Contrast

Brenda Chapman posted this link on facebook earlier today. It's all about how the use of contrast, be ti through mood, colour, texture, whatever, can really help tell a story in both still image, and film. As i'm starting to lay down ideas for our final project, I found it full of handy little snippets of inspiration. Check it out.

John K and Ren and Stimpy

I love John K. I love Ren and Stimpy. So here's a little window into John K's creative process on creating his cult classic series, 'Ren and Stimpy'.

Unfortunately, embedding is disabled for this one, watch it here.

Every animator/artist/filmaker should watch this.

This is just a small part of the making of documentary for Disney's 1994 smash, The Lion King. Seriously, have a tissue handy, as the ending even makes me tear up.

If ever you need a pick me up, or a reminder why we put ourselves through the hours of work during the creative process, this is it. This is what it's all about.

OKay, corny bit over, back to work.

New NEW ending

Okay, so I showed the new ending around some, and I got pretty much the same response. Why was the box suddenly so heavy? Why was Rossini struggling so much. So I changed it up some more.

This way, he pushes the box away, AND manages to walk of screen in disgust with the Director and his insults. He gains speed as he walks off, just to doubly make sure the audience know it's the same, not too heavy, box.

I've managed to get as far a reasonably tight linear pass. Just gotta keep chipping away at it. I plan on starting the final facial work tomorrow too.

Mime progress

Right. Well the first half is going pretty well. I entered spline over the weekend. Am still working on little nuances, like facial work, and fingers and things, but it's goi g well. One thing pointed out in class today, is the way Rossini holds his box, with a flat palm. It may look more natural if it were balance on his finger tips. Will definitely follow that up. Now, the latter half. Basically, those nasty FK/IK issues appeared again, only they weren't solved so easily. Add that to my own lack of confidence in the strength of those final poses, I've decided to redo them. Basically, instead of just rotating the box, and walking off in a huff, I decided Rossini should really loose his composure, and really, "think outside the box" as the director puts it. He flips out, and starts to shove the box, only to realise what a weakling he is, so he gives up, and dramatically storms off, box in tow. I managed to get the bones of it blocked tonight, so hopefully will have it pretty well on in linear by weeks end. Giving two weeks clearance to spline and polish. Wish me luck!

11 Second Animatic

I'm enjoying this one. Tomorrow we'll shooting reference for the animation to begging shortly after. One thing I need to focus on is having the pro character actually do something whilst getting ready, not just going through the motions. Maybe put a broach on or some earrings. Sould be fun!

The Retro Rollers.

Just a small update today. Been working out the scene layout for the ii second club piece.

I've decided the pro's skate team should be called something like 'The Retro Rollers', I can't think of anything better at the moment, so it might stay that way.

Anyhoo, I want the scene layout to look something like this

The shot will open on the right side of the scene, just revealing the tent material behind them. Then as the pro moves to the left, the camera will follow, finally revealing the team poster, security team, and finally the half pipe beyond.

Advice form John K

I love John Kricfalusi. I love his work, and his work ethic. He recently posted a treasure trove of advice, giving us a look into his approach to cartooning. worth a peep.

John K's Best Tools for Cartooning.

His section hierarchy I think interests me the most, so many hints I never even considered before, especially when it comes to scene layout.

Butch Hartman and YooToon

YooToon is a new, user generated content, online animation channel, by 'Fairly Odd Parents' creator, Butch Hartman. Every week, Butch selects the best content submitted to the channel, and airs them on his weekly selection show.

Custom internet 'channels' appears to be a growing trend, just this past January, 'Rocko's Modern Life' creator Joe Murray launched his animation channel KaboingTV, however his channel seems to air professional content only.

Either way, maybe channel creation is the next big way to make our mark on the industry? Who can say, definately something I'll be keeping an eye on though.

EDIT: Looky what Cartoon Brew posted just an hour or so ago... Here

11 second club cont.

I want to go in the direction of the long suffering PA for the 'Mrs Crawley' character. A few ideas were tossed around about whether she should be a wannabe skateboarder, or a fan, but after a discussion with Kristian, I settled back on the idea of the PA. I think the contrast between the cool, calm, pro, and the flustered, wreck of an assistant just works better.

11 Second Club

http://www.11secondclub.com/

The next part of the Acting for Animators assignment is a 2 character dialogue piece, courtesy of the 11 second club. The clip can be heard at the link above, the the transcript is as follows.

Voice One: "Please don't think we're ungrateful for your enthusiasm, Mrs. Crawley, but there comes a time when things are best left to the professionals."
Voice Two: "But I...."
Voice One: "And now I really, I really must go. Good day."

I've started planning my scenario and character profiles, basically, the 'Pro' is a 76 year old skateboarding badass, about to perform to thousands on her best selling skateboarding stunt show, and the other character is her ever worried, daughter in law, who would rather face the crowd herself than see her aged mother in law perform such dangerous stunts on a nightly basis. She needn't worry though, the pro can handle it.

I've started tinkering with some designs too, I think i've pretty much got the pro sorted, and will have the "Mrs Crawley" character done by tomorrow, as well as the beginnings of a storyboard.

Linear 350

Last post of the night.

I managed to get a further 150 or so frames kinda polished, for tomorrows feedback session. THe later 50 or so frames still bug me, the wipe down of the box isn't right. Too floaty, and in need of some definition on the fingers. The rest is pretty much just more curve polishing I think.

Anyway, more tomorrow folks.

Yet even more Linear progress.

Yet another post! This must be a record... ANyway. The first 200 or so frames of pretty much tidied linear. Sure i'll end up going back to, but I want to press on for now. Rossini seems to have developed a bit of springiness, Not sure if I like it at this stage, but I'm going to follow this new route and see where it leads me. Anyway, more later.

It's all in the eyes.

Stumbled upon this cool little website, test yourself on how well you can read a persons emotions, just from their eyes. A great little exercise. I scored 31/36. Not too bad, but maybe I need to read up on my eye darts and expressions... http://glennrowe.net/BaronCohen/Faces/EyesTest.aspx

More Linear Progress.

Still plodding on. I've retimed the 'tada' section, made it snappier and added a little more flamboyance into the mix. Making good progress, still plenty to tidy up, but getting there.

More reference

I need some more reference, to just to fine tune the timing of the section where Rossini defines his box. My current linear work is still a bit floaty, but want him to be quick, confident. AFter all, Rossini know's he's good. Please excuse the bed head... I had to kneel on my bed for this, due to lack of space, but the idea and timing comes across.

Milt Kahl

So after mentioning Milt Kahl in my last post, I just had to look up some his old pencil tests. I love pencil tests, they emit so much raw energy compared to any finished animation in my opinion.

Milt Kahl - Mr. Snoops Pencil Test from David Nethery on Vimeo.

Bill Tytla - Stromboli Pencil Test from David Nethery on Vimeo.

One of my favourite things about Milt's animation, is the attention he pays to a characters hands, he perfectly integrates them into a characters expression, they're never just hanging limp. (exception being the Sher Khan piece, i guess he technically doesn't have hands.) All Milts work seems to have a majestic quality about them, and characters feel grounded, complete with a very definitive sense of volume and weight, the Stromboli piece being an excellent example of this, the he navigates the characters arm around his bulk, and how his loose body fay reacts and follows through accordingly when he swings about quickly.

For more pencil tests I highly recommend visiting Pencil Test Depot, there you can find pencil tests from old pros, current stars, and students alike.

Great stuff.

Book watch - Full Steam Ahead

Currently available for pre order on Amazon.com, no sign of a Amazon.co.uk release yet, is the Ward Kimble biography "Full Steam Ahead", by animation writer and Cartoon Brew contributor Amid Amidi. One of Walt's original 9 old men, I think it's great to see the others, besides Frank and Ollie, to be given a major published work. Maybe we'll see works about other disney animators such as my personal favourite Milt Kahl, or even more recent animators Andreas Deja and the great Glen Keane. Either way, at about $29, I think I'll be adding "Full Steam Ahead" to my book shelf.

More info about the book can be found here

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0811866319/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=animationblast08&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0811866319

And a post by the author Amid here

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/books/pre-order-full-steam-ahead-the-ward-kimball-biography.html

Finding any pencil tests from Ward is real hard work so for now, here's some Ward being Ward.

I dug up this too, a short film by Ward, protesting against the Vietnam war in 1968. WARNING- probably NSFW

More linear progress.

Been working on the first 120 frames of linear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3Mpm0muDRg&feature=youtu.be

Kristian suggested I change his left arm when he steps across, as it was looking a little bit unnatural. This way there's a bit of follow through for visual interest, and injects some of Rossini's flamboyance into the performance. Winner!

Still in need of tweaking obviously, of course there's no finger of facial detail in there yet, but i'm gonna smooth out the whole piece like these frames before moving onto that. Things seem to be moving on at a better pace now after last nights crisis of confidence...

Anyway, more tomorrow.

Linear Progress

Remember that mess of linear I posted on Friday? Well I wasn't getting anywhere with the elbow corrections. In the end, I resorted to just jumping back to FK, rather than battling with the IK and the up vectors. Sure there's still a lot of work to do before it's any where near presentable, but at least those arms have stopped flailing wildly.

More to come later.