Animation Tips - how to learn the basics of animation

So this lesson is going to involve some videos of a new animator who's improving like crazy. First, he picked up a copy of Animation Studio (I also recommend Toon Boom and Flash for 2D work). If you're learning 3D, use Blender (cuz it's free), and all these lessons still apply.

So this is all work from HitAnimation, so check him out here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/hitmanimation

First, he started with a test on mouth and eye movement in Toon Boom (you could even do this with Paint and Movie Maker):



Then he continued to experiment with the mouth, but he also added in walk and some arm movement for this Terminator spoof (he switched to Anime Studio for this):



Donkey walk test and some arm movement (you see that he has more to learn). One thing to point out is the character designs are far along (his farthest yet). The character designs look like those on a cartoon you might see on TV:



Then he jumped to multiple characters. All the characters and moving arms and legs is great practice. Animating to a funny song is always entertaining:



This next piece was an experiment in lip syncing. It also served a personal use... a gift. He got lip syncing advice from another animator who was further along (ngstalagmite), and learned a lot from it. This was 2 months ago:



And for this ninja test... more walking and arm movement, and he's playing with the camera (some of the camera movement is getting quite good):



Then a fun little walk test:



Then an Arny walk and arm test on January 19 (I'm listing the dates because he's moving very fast now):



And a lip sync test on January 21:



And a rapper test (mouth and arms) on January 24:



And then on February 8, he finished the full Arnold 2:43 animation spoof (Warning - language):



That's when I came in with more advice he's already heard. My advice...

Praise: This starts to get funny at the end. The potential is huge.

Advice... a lot of floaty arm movements (and slow walking). All movement is much faster and deliberate.

So I only gave a little advice, but he took it. He said, "I took everything on board what you said last time and I scrutnised every apect of the animation."


Next up he took a scene from Pulp Fiction (Warning - language) on 2/17/10:



And here is my advice (lesson) for him and you...

Hahahahaha! Wow, this is awesome! Praise... I love where you're going with the character designs with this. The eyes are really done well (this increases with each vid you make). Keep that up. You also animated the eyelids very well. You even made Samuel Jackson's farther eye smaller... nice.

You also increased the speed of your movements... this is a HUGE improvement. Plus the timing is great (using movie audio makes it easier to have good timing). I also see a little bit of a bounce on his hands as he puts them down. That's awesome! Keep thinking about that.

Advice... so people aren't constantly moving. The next thing I recommend that you work on is trying to make your movements more "deliberate." What that means is that hand movements are great, but the hand jets out there, bounces a bit, sits out there with almost no movement and then later jets back (that's what I mean by "deliberate"-- the movement is motivated).

More advice... I think the guy in the chair looked skittish but not quite as freaked out as he could have. Maybe a little shaking (rather than the rocking motion you used) and eyes that go from small to super wide while he's shaking, kind of like that kid on South Park who drinks coffee. =^)

Also, the ending was a bit too abrupt. The white guy should have still been shaking a little after the dialogue, while Sam leans forward and closes in on a solid stare. =^)

So although I got a ton of advice for you, this is your best effort, it's hilarious, and I hope it does well. You're improving at an incredibly fast rate (crazy fast), so keep it up!

Also, what makes this work well is that you have high quality voice acting (you cut corners by using voice from actors in a great movie), so keep that in mind. Find real voice actors.

Make the audio as good as the video. Music and sound effects help, but the voice acting makes it or breaks it.

Thanks for reading!

- TAE

Animation Tip: How to start animating

Paint and Movie Maker. Those are free, and that's all you need. Those are bare bones though (not the best tools by far). Other better tools are editors (like Final Cut or Premiere), Flash, and ToonBoom. Even Photoshop is better than Paint.

So animating is a skill, like flying an airplane. You learn a tiny bit at a time.

So for step 1 of animating, find a picture of a face. Take it into Paint and open the mouth a little, save that picture as something separate, open the mouth even more, and save that one. Then take your three pictures (closed mouth, open a little, and open a lot), and put them into Movie Maker. Record your voice talking or find a voice clip. Then time up those three images to the voice.

That's a good way to start animating.

Here's an example of LazyGopher doing his first animation this way:



- TAE

glowing animated flash boxes in colour

Messing about with the glow/opacity elements of flash.

=========================

Cool. This could be used in some fantastic ways!

- TAE

Timing for Animation

Click the link to read this book (the first 24 pages are online):

Timing for Animation

Written by two internationally acclaimed animators, this classic text teaches you all you need to know about the art of timing and its importance in the animated film.




John Lasseter wrote the Foreward. It's all about how timing is so important with animation.

Enjoy!

- TAE

Exploding tutorial in blender

From Bu9: Exploding tutorial in blender recording programs

================================

Awesome! This looks fantastic!!! The model's also great!

- TAE

Animation Tip: Some Story Notes

Here are some valuable story notes...





-Fail fast and fail often (if it's a bad idea, fail and move on. It will make you better)

-Funny (Even if it's a serious piece, a small amount of comedy can make your story more interesting)

-Visual (Hold the audience attention at all times. Should always have a point of interest)

-Silent (Should be able to get story across visually before having to add sound or narratives)

-"Just tell me one thing. What does he want and why can't he have it?" (The basic story, great starting point)

Animation Tip: Blinks

Also, before a character turns he (1) blinks, (2) moves his eyes, (3) moves his head, (4) blinks again sometime in here, (5) moves the upper body, and (6) moves the lower body.

Characters also blink before they speak and they sometimes look down before they speak (so they blink, look down, blink, look up, and then blink regularly while they speak).

Take a look at our Tyson animation as a reference:



Seriously, start watching peoples' eyes around you. Pay attention to what their eye movements are like (in comparison to where their attention is focused) and how much people actually blink (that alone might amaze you).


- TAE

Animation Tip: Deliberate Movement

There are general animation rules that you need to use to make movement deliberate: (1) anticipation/preparation, (2) quick movements, and then (3) settle/spring/overlap.

Check out Fruits VS Bugs 2 and look for these animation rules:



- TAE

The Art of Starting Over

Here's a quick tip in 3D modeling...


You might spend hours on something, but then you realize you need to throw it out and start over. That's an important and difficult lesson to learn and to keep in mind.

Even though you're spending hours on it, it's not the modeling that takes that time... it's the learning. You throw out the modeling, but you still retain all the learning.

So you might be modeling a hand for 6 hours. Then you throw it away, start over, and complete a much better hand in 40 minutes. 3D animation is the process of teaching yourself how to learn 3D animation.

- The Emperor

Question: What do I need to learn to be a Web Designer or Animator?

Question for the Emperor: I've got a son in high school who wants to be a Web designer or animator. What does he need to do?


He's actually starting a little bit late. I didn't start thinking about it until college, though, so he's got me beat. =^)

Of course, I didn't have access to the Internet until college.

So, the cool thing with design and animation is that the portfolio is much more important than the degree. The degree helps (moreso in design than animation), but the true value is in the skillset. Whereas most other professions are defined by the resume (which shows degree and job experience), design and animation are defined by the portfolio and merely validated by the resume (most design jobs require the degree, but it's still more possible to get by without one than a technical job).

First of all, DON'T GO TO DEVRY OR ANY ART INSTITUTE!!!! And also, don't take Information Management or Computer Science degrees! The two disciplines we mentioned are entirely art-based. Inofrmation Management and Computer Science are entirely math, logic, and science. They are technical disciplines. They are polar opposites from artistic (user experience) positions.

First thing about design: don't do Web design!!! Web designers are a dime a dozen. If you build a portfolio that is entirely Web design, you'll be lucky if you get a job, and it won't pay well. If you go the design route, you'll want to get a degree in graphic design (user experience design), you'll want to explore some industrial design (where you design objects for the purpose of them being physically made), some print design, some Web design, and then concentrate on software UI design. There are interface designers and interaction designers; both are good positions to have in the software industry. This will help push you to those two jobs, but I'll give more details on that when we think more about design.

Okay. Animation...

Here's some basic information about animation from the Pixar guru, John Lasseter:
http://www.siggraph.org/education/materials/HyperGraph/animation/character_animation/principles/prin_trad_anim.htm

If you go get a degree, you want a university that does well in animation and has awesome animation projects coming through. There are also schools that specialize in animation (Ringling in Florida, DigiPen where I graduated from in WA, Vancouver Film School, etc.).

http://www.digipen.edu/

Animation Mentor

Another place to learn animation is online through Animation Mentor:

http://www.animationmentor.com/

Many of their mentors are current animators at Pixar (and all the major animation studios).

The animators that graduate from this online school are doing very well and getting jobs in the related industies (videogames, animated films, effects for movies, etc.) even though the school is not accredited.

The founder and CEO, Bobby Beck, commented on this blog post below and explained why they aren't accredited. First, he reiterates what I said that a degree is not very valuable, especially in comparison to the skills. Having an Animation Mentor degree will help get someone to look at your work (so that's valuable), but it really comes down to what your portfolio looks like.

Second, he said, "If we went for accreditation we would have to extend our course offering to add things such as math, english, so forth and so on which is the opposite of what we are doing. We want to cut the "fluff" and deliver the core of what animators need to know and deliver it in a way that no one else does."

Similarly, when DigiPen moved to accreditation (after I left), the animators on that track seemed to be moving much, much slower. What they had after their first year was exactly what I was doing in my first semester. So they had to take twice as long to get through the modeling and animation lessons.

The Animator's Test - Blender

Now, here's the test to see if your son wants to be an animator.

Go to www.Blender.org and download the free 3D program. It's very powerful, and it's free. The downside is that it's a little difficult to learn (which is one of the reasons why its free). Have him download that and follow the tutorials on the Website. If he gets through all of it, loves doing it, makes progress very quickly, and learns the interface fairly well, then he's an animator. If he has trouble motivating himself, he's not an animator, and then keep looking.

That's animation. You have to teach yourself new software and be passionate about it enough to overcome the difficulty of learning the software. It's the most important skill in animation. If you can't do it, you can't be an animator (it's still possible, but it just means you'll be struggling to teach yourself that skill for the next 10 years, or maybe you'll be able to teach yourself that skill in 4 years at a university).

If you can do it on your own with difficult software like Blender, then you're born to be an animator.


That's it. Let me know how it works!


Here's one of our 3D animations, Fruits VS Bugs - Part 1:




The sequel, Fruits VS Bugs - Part 2:




- The Emperor

The various stages in making the Pixar short, Geri's Game

Take a look at this image:



1. It all starts with character designs.

2. The storyboard phase happens, where they draw out the framing of each shot.

3. This is turned into the animatic, where they time out each shot.

4. While that's going on, they begin sculpting the head in clay.

5. The head is then scanned into the computer for the model.

6. The model is created in 3D.

7. The model is textured (colors, texture, bumpiness, etc.).

8. The model is rigged (bones are put into it).

9. While all that is going on, the set is also being modeled and textured.

10. The animation tests begin (showing him without the jacket and without the body).

11. Effects like the cloth are added.

12. Final lighting.


We're adding this to animation tips just as a general tip of how to go about animating a larger production. For example, you may be tempted to skip the storyboard. I wouldn't do that if you're telling a story.


- TAE

Disney Animation Books

My favorite Disney animation book was The Illusion of Life - Disney Animation, from Frank and Ollie:

http://www.amazon.com/Illusion-Life-Disney-Animation/dp/0786860707



More on the Illusion of Life from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illusion_of_Life

"Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life (ISBN 0-7868-6070-7), 1981, is an acclaimed book by two of Disney's Nine Old Men, Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas. It is widely considered to be one of the best books ever published on the topic of character animation.
It contains four hundred eighty-nine plates in full color, and thousands of black and white illustrations ranging from storyboard sketches to entire animation sequences, all of which illustrate the exquisite art of Disney style animation.
The book gives many glimpses into the workings of the animation masters at Disney's during the Golden Age of animation. It is a frequently used reference among professional animators."



And here's Disney's 9 Old Men:

http://www.amazon.com/Walt-Disneys-Nine-Old-Animation/dp/0786864966



I love to get into the psyche and history that they had in the old Disney animated films.


The Nine Old Men refined the 12 basic principles of animation:

- Squash and stretch
- Anticipation
- Staging
- Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose
- Follow Through and Overlapping Action
- Slow In and Slow Out
- Arcs
- Secondary Action
- Timing
- Exaggeration
- Solid Drawing
- Appeal

Create a professional Animation Studio for super cheap

"Weekend Extra peers into the brilliant mind of Javan Ivey, an inspired animator, and someone who uses his keen intellect to save thousands of dollars that folks blow on an animation studio."



The animation at the end is worth waiting for.

- TAE

Build a Miniature Set for $10 - With Stop Motion Animation

"Sick of the REAL world and all of it's REAL problems? Well, with a few sheets of cardboard and some cool tricks, you can build your very own miniature town!"



The animation at the end is pretty funny.

Favorite quote:
"Super Time Lapse! Whoo!!!"

- TAE

How to Make a Stop Motion Puppet for $10!

"Inspired by Nightmare Before Christmas, we show you how to make a stop motion puppet for under $10."



That magnet idea is great. Happy new year!

- TAE

3D Animation Tip 2: The Secret of the eye

The trick is to get it the eye to stretch into your proper shape and size.

There's a trick we do in 3D Studio Max where we make two more spheres on top of the eyeball sphere. And then we also make the pupil another sphere on top of the eyeball. There's a feature in Max where you can choose what percentage of the sphere you want, in order to cut it in half.

By creating four versions of the same sphere, we can scale the pupil sphere down to a smaller size that rests on the eye. We then make upper eyelid and lower eyelids with the other two spheres. These two are basically half spheres. We can then rotate them around the pupil to do blinking and emotion with the eyelids.

We then do a stretch scale on all four spheres together. They keep their center point even though they are being scaled. The result is a pupil that you can rotate perfectly around the eye and eyelids that also rotate around the stretched eye, and they keep the proper deformations as they move around. That's what we do in our 3D films here...

Fruits VS Bugs 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfbGzAuOTlM

Fruits VS Bugs 2:



Now check this Bullet animation:


What they do is they actually painted on the uppereyelid on the eyeball. Then they blink and pull emotion with simple squash, stretch, scale, and rotation of the eyeball on the character. So they get the eyelid to express emotion just by rotating the eye, rather than rotating the eyelid separate from the eyeball.

- TAE

3D Animation Tip 1: How to learn Blender

A lot of people ask us what 3D software to use. Well...

There are three good software programs that do everything. Here they are in order of our preference, because this is the order of how easy they are to learn and use: 3DS Max, Maya, and Blender.

Blender is free; the other two are around $3K each.

So go to www.Blender.org to check it out. Our recommendation is to not try to do anything or you'll go nuts and get frustrated. Instead, just find the easiest tutorials and do those for a few weeks (redoing the tutorials on your own). Don't try to do anything outside of the tutorials until you're comfortable, having already done that exact thing in a tutorial.

So if the tutorial tells you to model a cup, then you do it once (or even twice). Then make your own cup from scratch that's a slightly different design. Then find one that tells you how to texture a cup. Then texture your own cup with a slightly different design.

Go back and forth from doing a tutorial to doing the same thing on your own. It is slow; but this way you'll learn the software without getting frustrated and giving up. Go into this expecting this process to take several months, maybe even a year.

Let us know if you are able to do it. We can also have you intern for us and learn that way (internships are unpaid and you work from home).

Thanks!

- TAE