On a holiday break

Hello there, I hope you guys have had a lovely Christmas and holiday so far. I particularly found this Christmas to be quite quiet compared to last year, this was probably due to the lack of board games that we had available to us with my family. None the less, it was still a very fun Christmas.

 I haven't been focusing much on the animation over the past couple of weeks as I had picked up a few extra shifts at work. Luckily, it hasn't been hectic as the customers may've been on a spending spree on presents and the sales that are going on. Still, there is New Year just around the corner and that could be a busy shift at work.

So as a small holiday present, I present you this video below which I had fortunately stumbled across on youtube. Happy Holidays and I'll see you next year!

Storyboard and more references - Dog Animation Part 2

Hello once again. I was hoping that I would have a lot more work to show but, due to the increase of shifts that I'm doing at my part time job I'm afraid that this project is slowing down which is kind of bad for me, as the time schedule I had planned myself for completing this project is going out of the window. Never the less, there is a flip side to this, I can therefore take a bit more time with this animation especially as I'm still on the storyboard stage. More drawings!

I have thought about what the animation would be about and compared to the one I had in mind from last week, the one which I have drawn out today is far more better, in terms of timing and storytelling. The video below is basically the storyboard, as I think it would be much easier for me to animate as close to it as possible. Reason being is that: I don't have a dog, haven't animated much of creatures before and by using this video as the base of my storyboard I can pick out the small personalities from the dog much easier. (Start video at 2:20).

I'm a bit more confident with animating with this even though there will be a few moments that will prove to challenging to do i.e when the dog is on top of the work table. It's certainly a lot more fun to animate rather than a walk cycle which I had planned on doing a few weeks back.

Storyboard 1 - Dog searching

I then storyboarded some of the key moments from the video. This again is still the early stages, so poses I may've missed are the contact poses and etc. Doesn't matter. I just needed a rough sketch of whats going to happen so, I can look back very easily on where I am when animating. I will however need to look at a bit more references as for example the image above, top right hand corner thumbnail, the back legs are wrong, as there was something blocking the leg, therefore it doesn't feel right.

Storyboard 2 - Dog searching

When I was drawing out the storyboard I found that it was rather enlightening experience. This really reminded me back in the days when I was still doing my A levels and when I was drawing something really passionately and I put all of my heart and soul into it. Sounds odd but, I feel as if I didn't have a job back then, then maybe, just maybe I could've applied my creativity in my drawings a lot better back at school. But that's all in the past now.

Storyboard 3 - Dog searching

So, as it's pretty much the last week before christmas, I will set myself the task to draw out the key poses of this animation. After christmas I should really be cracking on with blocking out in maya and if not, for some unseen reason, then I should model out the objects that will be staged in the scene.

Drawing from references - Dog Animation Part 1

I haven't had a very productive day in terms with work but, I did however complete most of the christmas shopping earlier this afternoon. So, that's something to smile about. I have more or less have an idea of what my next animation will be about, it'll be based on a dog sniffing around. I then might link on with another idea to this.

So like before starting any animation or key poses, I then had a session of drawing dog references from videos, pictures that can be found online and so on. With the help of Stuart S. Sumida work, I then felt that it was necessary to look at the anatomy of a dog.

This proved to be useful as when I was then drawing from the references I can then figure out how long a leg is based on the dog anatomy. It made things easier as my drawing skills isn't that great at all.

Dog anatomy structure

 As well as looking at the dog anatomy, I then found the image below which highlights the dog's muscles.

Dog muscles 

As mentioned earlier my drawing skills isn't the best but, I hope that as I continue to do more of this, that I will gradually improve. You can see that the first image below on the left hand side of the page that I did a few warm ups before, I started drawing.

Few minute warm up

 I started drawing with a pencil but then found that when I used a blue crayon really relaxed my mind a little as it felt as though I didn't need to get it perfect. Some animators do in fact do this, where they start with a rough sketch and then go over in their work again to clean up the drawing on a different layer.

Anyone that watches CTFXC? - Spot Marley

Video above is one of the few references I've used

So my workflow is to find references, most of the time it's from videos as I can scrub through the video to find some interesting poses from the character or creature. I then just draw and make sure that the form of the body is right and has that feel of life. 

In the Zone

 There are times when my mind does seem to drift and the quality of the drawings does go down. At that point I sometime like to experiment in the way I draw then, where I draw more lines than it is necessary.

Slowly drift off

When I feel confident however, I start to draw in pencil again as it gives me that extra boost where I have to pay more attention to how a line is drawn.

Try to use pencil again and be more attentive to the way I draw

Planning the animation is something that I want to make sure that I get right. So, I think I will continue drawing just a bit more before finding my key poses.

Animal Locomotion- Stuart S. Sumida

Hello again guys, I was hoping to get some work done for my next animation which will involve a dog running. The problem I then ran into however was, I was a bit ambitous on what else I can animate a dog. Lots of brainstorming came up from the dog chasing a person, to it sniffing around to show a bit more personality. With all of these ideas popping up, I then had to reason with myself that I have to make sure that I get the basics right before animating anything. I then looked at dog videos from how they walk to chasing a ball.

Stuart S. Sumida teaching at a workshop

I then noticed however that some of the walk cycle of a dog is sometimes similar to the cheetah cycle that I had animated last week. I then  just had to be sure that I was seeing this right. I then remembered Stuart. S Sumida who talked about anatomy and how animals walked from the BFX festival a couple of months back. I then thought that there must be a presentation that maybe reflect some of his work about this.



I then found a powerpoint presentation which was similar to the one he had presented  at the BFX festival but, I also found another one, that had quite an extensive breakdown of different locomotion for animals.

Stuart S.Sumida

Reading Stuart's work was fascinating and it just goes to show why his wealth of knowledge had been so essential to the numerous animation studios, that he has worked along with. Now, I must admit that I found some of the powerpoint to be overwhelming but after a few minutes on youtube, watching the videos of how a dog walks, trots and so on, it has really helped me understand a lot more on the locomotion of them.

Now the image below is based on a walk cycle and the way to identifying this is that, "there will be a three point support or triangular under support".

Stuart S.Sumida - Walk has three point under spport

The video below will show different cycles of a dog moving, but for now let's focus of the walk of the dog, starting from the 8 second mark. The best thing about this youtube account is that they have provided a slow motion sequence, something which helps you see the finer details of the walk. Anyway, if you have watched the video now, you can see how the dog has three point under support.

You can also see this from another animal for example, the cat video below:

Trotting is when an "animal step cycle dominated by alternating diagonal under support". They are two types of trotting and they are:

- Two beat: "trotting is dominated by alternating contact with the ground.

- Four beat: "hind lands first before the fore member of each. What this means is that the fore (front legs) leaves the ground a split second after the hind (back leg) member of each.

So from watching the trot below, I think that this is a two beat trot. Correct me if I'm wrong.
 

The video below is about a canter vs a gallop from a dog. 

The process of a canter is when the animal is normally interacting with something, and is often a 3 beat digit sequence. It always starts with the rear leg and finally on the front leg, that  is diaagonal from the hind leg. So, if the right hind leg strikes the ground first, then the  front leg will lead and vice versa. This might be hard to wrap around, but watch the video over again to see this happening.

 A gallop however, will have a floating stage of the animal, both limbs are tucked underneath the body and will therefore extend forwards and back. This is also the highest speed of locomotion.  

I could talk more about what I had read and learnt from the powerpoint but that would take forever, plus right now blogger is being a pain with the fact it keeps glitching on me when I embed a video and there is now save button at the moment. I hope you found this a bit useful and if you want, I leave you a link to Stuart S. Sumida powerpoint below.

http://www.stuartsumida.com/ANIMATION/LocomotionImages.pdf 

Nebraska and Frozen review

Watched a couple of films today after finally purchasing the "Unlimited card" from Cineworld which, I should have invested long ago. Could've saved a fortune! Oh well. I had intended on watching Saving Mr Banks today but unfortunately, I had woke up late and missed the screenings. Instead, I watched Nebraska which I must say, I had no idea what it was about before watching it.

So, this is my first time watching a directed film by "Alexander Payne" and from hearing past films for example "Sideways" (2004) and "The Descendants " (2011) having such well received reviews, I was interested in giving this film a go. Plus, the fact that this film was highly praised in the Cannes festival 2013, this further made me more curious on how this film will turn out.

Woody and David- Father and Son

I must say the first ten minutes of the film felt very blunt as I sat there soaking in the characters personality, for instance "David" we can see how he cares very much for his father, that he doesn't hesitate to defend him and it's understandable, as we saw very early on, the condition "Woody" is in.
We can then visibly see how time has caused the deterioration of the family to slowly fall apart and tensions are on a all time high with Woody's health condition as "Kate" his wife and "Ross" his other son, decides what's the best next step for Woody.

Woody meets his old work partner at "The Blinkers Tavern"

It's only with Woody stubborness to claim his "million dollar prize", that we start to see the story take on a new chapter, as David decides to help his father accomplish this, even though he's aware the fact that his father has unfortunately fallen victim to one of the many blatant scams that is posted by mail.
So, we then see a journey with father and son where they slowly rebuild and lean about each others past and present.

Woody and Kate - Husband and Wife

I won't spoil anymore of the story as I really believe that this film is definitely worth a watch, as your patience will be greatly rewarded with some heartwarming, sad, funny moments, that is well structured together, as the story is slowly unravelled to you. I really enjoyed this film and give this three and a half stars. Now, I have to watch Sideways and The Descendants.


Another film that I was able to watch the newly released Frozen, that has just come out in the UK. I was quite excited about this when I first watched the trailer when it came out. My other friends however didn't exactly share the same enthusiasm.

I had high expectations for this as the film "Tangled" (2010) which is similar to the storyline and theme of a fairytale of what Frozen seems to be, was a very refreshing take to this kind of story; a film that I really loved. After watching the film I was about maybe sixty to sixty-five percent sure that I enjoyed this.

One of the reason for this was the amount of songs that was sung one after the other, there was too many and I felt that this didn't really help the story grow or be told effectively. However they were some rare moments that was well sequenced together because I wanted to know more about how they were feeling like the snow queen "Elsa", who in my opinion didn't have much screen time as she should have had.

The film is almost two hours and at times it was a bit of a drag to watch as the structure of the story was predictable and at times I thought that some scenes could've been cut. The story does make sense but I just don't think that they gel very well together. I do feel the lack of urgency or danger that takes place in the story was well. When there is however, like a pack of wolves, they are easily just cast aside and forgotten. When seeing the ice mountain troll from the trailers, I genuinely thought that this would be one of the main villains, but he wasn't.

 I think the fact that the amount of characters or creatures that are introduced, doesn't really help, when instead they could've have focused on five main characters, the "snow queen Anna, Kristoff, Olaf and the Duke". The characters that really stuck to my mind that I thought was unnecessary was the trolls. Yes, they needed them for one aspect of the story, but they were the most unappealing characters, why couldn't they have used fairies?

Love at first sight

I maybe bashing a bit here, but some of the points I raised are key factors from what makes previous Disney films so great, the story and the characters. So I therefore felt a bit disappointed with the way the film was told.

The video below is from the film Frozen which had much of that enchanting and magical feel of a Disney film, something which I felt was missing throughout the whole film or lacked of.

 One of the better moments of the film (Spoiler alert)

On a lighter note, I thought that the snow simulation and art style was brilliantly done. The scene which we see the snow queen build her own palace from scratch and how she was able to make a dress from her powers, was nothing short of amazing. I do however feel that, they focused more on what they were capable of doing with the snow, than on the story.

The film was in my opinion passable, a verdict which I share with Pixar's film, "Brave"; just isn't quite up there with other films like Tangled.

Cheetah walk cycle

Hello again, I just wanted to make another quick post of the faults with the Cheetah walk cycle. Even as I type this blog post, I still feel that with another couple of hours with the animation file, that I could refine this project a bit more.

One of the faults I saw from the rendered video was that the bounce for the back part of the body wasn't natural. Something felt odd. Honestly, it felt as though the cheetah was happy. When I then checked the graph editor I then saw that squash position was then followed up with an increase of value to the Translate Y attribute. I then fixed this by lowering the values.

Translate Y- Weird bounce

Another problem which I had found was that from frame (F) 262  to 263the paw, would switch from one pose to another as though it was in stepped mode. See image below.

Frame twitches

Needs to be a gradual change

 So what I then did to fix this was to move the translate Z forward. Even though when I went to see the graph editor, the Z axis was on a steady curve, the gap from one key pose to another was too steep as I zoomed in closer.

Another fault I found was the back legs, where they kind of jerked forward a bit too much. As you can see from the annotated image below, I have wrote down what ways to solve this problem. So for this instance, I simply moved the translate Z attribute forward.

Translate Z - Problem

Again, the movements needs to be gradual

The video below is the re-rendered animation which includes the fixed problems of the animation before. Still like mentioned before, I still think I need time to fix and refine smaller movements of the cheetah walk cycle.

Time for action and change

So after some deep thoughts about what I should do now, I have now wrote down my action plan and what I need to accomplish so that, my showreel is much stronger and tailored towards the studios which I want to get into, as well as the type of work that I want to do i.e creature work. This is a big change for me as mentioned before from a previous post, as I've never done creature animation. But, if I want to stay and work in the UK, then creature animation is the step forward.

Now before I show you the work that I have done over the past two weeks I want to talk about something which I feel strongly about and should be addressed. It's about the "mouse". Yes, this device is what I want to talk about.

I have been using this device throughout the majority of my life and never had I had any problems using it. It was however only until during my university course that I had heard other animators talk about using the Wacom tablet device to animate. They exposed the dangers of "repetitive strain injury" (RSI) with the use of a mouse. This is due to the small movements that causes an unatural twitch of sort, when animating on the PC.  Kenny Roy really reiterates the dangers of RSI (video below).

I then thought about it for a while and thought that, "was it worth investing a Wacom tablet?" I was still unsure at the time as I had other things in mind which I wanted to buy i.e a new camera. But, I soon realised that since working on an animation last week that I've noticed my right hand was beginning to feel stiff and I felt quite a bit of pain building up. I then bit the bullet and decided to invest in a Wacom tablet.

I have to say it was difficult to grasp the concept of using a wacom tablet when I started using it for the first time but after configuring the buttons and slowly grooving into the use of the pen, I must say I couldn't believe that I was animating with a mouse before this device. I highly recommend for any animator that is serious about their work that, they should purchase a wacom tablet. It was instantly a huge relief for my right hand, and now after almost a week of using it it has recovered from the RSI of the mouse.

If after reading this post that you don't feel convinced enough that a Wacom tablet could help, then just remember that you not only are you putting your future career at a risk but, also your health. That's all I have to say about this topic. If you want to know which model I have it's the "Wacom Tablet Pro Intuos 4".

Right, over the past two weeks or so, I have been focusing on a cheetah walk cycle and I must say, I'm about 70% confident that I have animated this correctly. Reason why I say that is because it's the first animation which I have done without it being critiqued by my tutor, since the training. So, it's quite strange that I don't have that initial feedback of my work but, I do feel reassured that with the animation principles that has been drilled into my head, has been applied here in my work.

So here are some of my initial drawings of my research which I spent a day or two, to really spot the key movements of the cheetah. I really pushed myself to really focus of each movement and to improve every drawing to be better than the previous.

Initial drawings

I was watching videos of cheetahs and other cat like animals, that could help me identify the key poses for my walk cycle. I then looked that the Animators survival kit and saw the thumbnails drawings of a dog. I then drew them out as thumbnails and compared the image above with the cheetah reference videos. I then noticed that the cat walk was different to the one that I drew out.

Working out a formula

Convinced that animals will have different walk variations I then aimed for something more close to the cheetah walk cycle video, that I have. One thing that I noted down was the fact that the back leg of a four legged animal, seemed to be the driving mechanic for the walk and would therefore, be a step ahead or frame of the front two legs.

Finding the weight shift

I then looked at how the weight would be shifted from side to side in a walk. Much like the character walk cycle, it's a similar formula.

Key pose 1

So, after figuring out my key poses, I then started out drawing and annotating the first key pose, from when the shoulder muscle of the cheetah is in front and rotated to, how the back part of the body is lifted higher than it's counterpart of the front body.

Key pose 2

Key pose 3

Key pose 4

After 2 weeks of working on this animation, I was able to complete the walk cycle. I will re-render this animation again, as I'm not happy with how I staged the perspective view camera, other than that I'm quite happy that I'm back and that I'll look forward to ticking off the list of animations that I have set myself to do. I'm also sure that I will need to go back to the Cheetah walk cycle file and make some more refinements. See you next time.

VFX Festival Final Thoughts

So the VFX Festival was three weeks ago and I have to say that there was a lot less going on, in terms with what was shown compared to the BFX festival which was in Bounrmouth, where they had much more detailed breakdowns of different studios showing their work.

VFX Week 2

I enjoyed the recruitment advice the most as this was cancelled in the BFX festival, so it was good that I was able to hear from industry professionals on how to work yourself up the ladder in the VFX studios. 

I also have to admit, that I didn't network as much as I had initially planned before booking this event. I honestly didn't feel comfortable and at times I know that I would be forcing myself to talk where i could slip up and etc. But, that's not to say that there isn't a flip side to this story.

Covent Garden- Needed a break from the VFX Festival

I was able to stay down with my cousin in London for the duration of the week and though he may not be part of the industry I was going into, he and his girlfriend was able to offer some advice on my next steps in life. Just hearing the words "patience" in the conversation with them, really struck a chord in me, reason being is because,  I have been giving myself a hard time on how, and where I should be rather where I am right now, with no job in sight of an animator anytime soon.

A discussion with VFX head studios about the future on the industry

I was also very lucky to have then been able to meet my other cousin in London, as I never thought that I would be able to see her until the Christmas holidays. She has a boyfriend  named "Ash" who has turned out to have worked on the recent blockbuster film this year, Man of Steel. I was shocked. I was then able to talk to both of them and I must say, I felt an uplift of confidence. Some of the things which stuck with me was how Ash said to me that "Andy, you're pretty lucky with the extra time you have now, in terms of improving your showreel". I was confused on how he could be as he had worked on a film like Man of Steel and is now working for The Foundry. But, I slowly realised what he was talking about when I got back home. I have all the tools to make and improve my animations.

With these few but memorable conversations that I had during the VFX festival, I have found that passion and resolve to once again strive towards my goal, which is to entertain people, through the performance of my animations, as an animator.