Friday, January 2, 2015
New Character for Clash of Clans Fanimation Series " The Balloon Bomber"!
Here it is, fully rigged and ready for war!
Any ideas for short funny stories or battles, please feel free to let us know!
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
A great little review of the 12 principles
I know everyone has shoved down your throats the 12 principles of animation at every turn, the truth is that you need to know these inside and out in order to become the most effective animator possible. SO if we need to have these points drilled into our skill set, why not find different way to keep reviewing the principles in different styles so that they remain entertaining and fresh. So I scour the Internet trying to find new ways to approach this, so here is one that I thought was entertaining and informational at the same time, enjoy.
Please feel free to leave a comment to let me know what your ideas are on these principles or if you think that there should be more, like a new expanded edition in order to explain modern up-to-date skill sets for 2D and 3D!
Sunday, December 28, 2014
Don't Be Afraid of the Blank Sheet...
This is great insight to what becomes the greatest problem for not only 3D animators, but 2D and beyond. This is the dreaded blank piece of paper. You see a blank canvas that is in front of you and you freeze from the moment you start because as an artist you are always struggling to do your best so that when people see it, and they will, you don't want to suck.
You notice that his first stroke he made he did not even look at the sheet of paper. He applied his hand to the surface and proceeded to just make a random convergence of lines and forms with no real purpose!
"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like, Design is how it works"- Steve Jobs, co-founder of Pixar Animation.
Basics Shape represent design and why it works. Opposites can support and compliment each other unexpectedly.
Symbolism is applied throughout the project so that you don't see what they are trying to show you, but instead you feel it. That is what makes it so successful.
The whole process of making these stories and projects is to be simple, but being simple is not always as easy at it may seem.
Be like a kid, just dive in, simplify and just fill it up! Don't worry about the polished look, just get your ideas out and discover what makes your story work! Don't be afraid of making mistakes, make it your goal as well to draw as a child does.
As they pointed out in the video, "pain is only momentarily, sucking is forever!" So automatically you have this fear of making the wrong stroke, the wrong style, the wrong look for your project, so you are setting yourself up to fail even before you put your first line on that blank piece of paper. This episode of Ricky Vega Nierva Art Director / Production Designer, Pixar Animation Studios
Video from TEDxAthens conference shows that it is just a state of mind that you can overcome by applying simple methods to regain focus over your project.
Video from TEDxAthens conference shows that it is just a state of mind that you can overcome by applying simple methods to regain focus over your project.
Watch it here :
You notice that his first stroke he made he did not even look at the sheet of paper. He applied his hand to the surface and proceeded to just make a random convergence of lines and forms with no real purpose!
"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like, Design is how it works"- Steve Jobs, co-founder of Pixar Animation.
Basics Shape represent design and why it works. Opposites can support and compliment each other unexpectedly.
Symbolism is applied throughout the project so that you don't see what they are trying to show you, but instead you feel it. That is what makes it so successful.
The whole process of making these stories and projects is to be simple, but being simple is not always as easy at it may seem.
Be like a kid, just dive in, simplify and just fill it up! Don't worry about the polished look, just get your ideas out and discover what makes your story work! Don't be afraid of making mistakes, make it your goal as well to draw as a child does.
Sunday, December 14, 2014
New Project
A new 2D Fan Animated series that I am working on.
Based upon the hit game: Clash of Clans!
This is the first character design I came up with.
I do have the balloon bomber as well (not shown)
Exciting personal project. Will keep updated, maybe a fan page
in the near future, watch out for it!
This is one of the reasons I have not posted in a few weeks, takes more time than I realized, but it is fun and exciting!
Based upon the hit game: Clash of Clans!
This is the first character design I came up with.
I do have the balloon bomber as well (not shown)
Exciting personal project. Will keep updated, maybe a fan page
in the near future, watch out for it!
This is one of the reasons I have not posted in a few weeks, takes more time than I realized, but it is fun and exciting!
Thursday, December 4, 2014
Ouch!!
Here is a reprint of the news report regarding this travesty.
Northern District of California federal judge Lucy Koh will oversee the consolidated antitrust suit.
Three
separate class-action suits over alleged anti-poaching and wage-fixing
deals by Disney, DreamWorks Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks and
other animation studios have been consolidated into a single complaint,
according to a report by Deadline.
Lawyers for digital artists Georgia Cano, Robert Nitsch Jr. and David
Wentworth submitted an amended filing in a San Jose, CA federal court
on December 2 claiming that “the conspiracy deprived Plaintiffs and
other class members of millions of dollars in compensation while the
films they produced generated billions of dollars in revenues for
Defendants.”
Also named as defendants in the suit are ImageMovers, Blue Sky Studios, Lucasfilm and Pixar. In addition to a jury trial, the consolidated suit seeks reclassification to a class action that could grow to thousands of members who worked at the companies from 2004 onward.
The suit contends that the roots of the anti-poaching agreements go back to the mid-1980s, when George Lucas and Ed Catmull, the president of Steve Jobs’ then newly-formed company Pixar, agreed not to raid each other’s employees. The lawsuit alleges that The Walt Disney Co.’s involvement deepened when it bought Pixar in 2006 and appointed Catmull to run Walt Disney Animation Studios. The complaint also names DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, asserting that Jobs and Katzenberg “personally discussed DreamWorks joining the conspiracy.”
The case has been assigned to Northern District of California federal judge Lucy Koh, who for the past several years has presided over a Silicon Valley employee antitrust litigation case where details of the studios’ anti-poaching deal were first made public.
That class action lawsuit involved Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe, and while Lucasfilm and other companies settled with a $9 million payment in October 2013, Koh rejected Apple and other tech companies’ $325 million settlement attempt to end the case -- a decision the tech giants are now fighting in the courts.
The consolidated amended class action complaint filing can be read in full here.
Disney, DreamWorks & Sony Hit with New, Consolidated Lawsuit
Three class-action lawsuits
over anti-poaching and wage-fixing deals by Disney, DreamWorks
Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks and other animation studios have
been consolidated into a single complaint under the jurisdiction of
antitrust federal judge Lucy Koh.
Northern District of California federal judge Lucy Koh will oversee the consolidated antitrust suit.Also named as defendants in the suit are ImageMovers, Blue Sky Studios, Lucasfilm and Pixar. In addition to a jury trial, the consolidated suit seeks reclassification to a class action that could grow to thousands of members who worked at the companies from 2004 onward.
The suit contends that the roots of the anti-poaching agreements go back to the mid-1980s, when George Lucas and Ed Catmull, the president of Steve Jobs’ then newly-formed company Pixar, agreed not to raid each other’s employees. The lawsuit alleges that The Walt Disney Co.’s involvement deepened when it bought Pixar in 2006 and appointed Catmull to run Walt Disney Animation Studios. The complaint also names DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, asserting that Jobs and Katzenberg “personally discussed DreamWorks joining the conspiracy.”
The case has been assigned to Northern District of California federal judge Lucy Koh, who for the past several years has presided over a Silicon Valley employee antitrust litigation case where details of the studios’ anti-poaching deal were first made public.
That class action lawsuit involved Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe, and while Lucasfilm and other companies settled with a $9 million payment in October 2013, Koh rejected Apple and other tech companies’ $325 million settlement attempt to end the case -- a decision the tech giants are now fighting in the courts.
The consolidated amended class action complaint filing can be read in full here.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Lessons from the masters 01
This is going to be an ongoing series of informational lessons on how animation was established and how you should not re-invent the wheel of it worked perfectly the first time.
Our first lesson is the "Three Ways to Animate".
The first way to animate weather it be 2D or 3D is the strait ahead method.
This method is rather impulsive and requires little forethought when developing the shot. Basically you just start drawing and see where it leads you. There are more disadvantages to this method then benefits. The greatest benefit to this is that mystery or happy accidents that develop out of pure experimentation.
Here are some of the benefits :
1. Spontaneous Action
2. More Natural Flow
3. Embodies Improvisation
4. Able to adjust rhythm and action on the fly
5. Can produce Happy Accidents or "Magic"
6. Since it is Spontaneous, it is fun
Here are some disadvantages:
1. Lines and mass start to wander
2. Squash and stretch starts to loose cohesion
3. Characters don't stay the same size
4. Timing and plot seem to go to the wayside
5. There is A LOT of clean up
6. Not easy for other animators to assist you
7. Not cheap
8.With deadlines and iterations, nerves can become frayed
Our second way to animate is the Pose to Pose method.
First you need to find the extremes or key drawings in your shot. These again are the extreme poses where the feet touch the ground or there is action taking place, it is the point of main interest. In the days of development of this art form, the masters called the key poses the storytelling drawings. They are the images that tell what that shot is about. The in-betweens are the images that lead up to or down from those high points. Once the poses are established you can begin making your charts and your ease in and out's. These charts and indicators are used to tell your assistant or the tweeners what needs to take place and the timing of the shot from pose to pose. These charts where so accurate and methodical, the key animators would just hand them off and come back later to see the work done and take credit for what the tweeners did.
Here are some advantages to this method:
1. The shot is laid out clearly
2. The plot or point of the shot is clear
3. Very methodical
4. The drawings are more cleaner, less clean up
5. The positions of the characters are more clear and definable
6. The pace and plot is in order
7. your assistants can do most of the work (LOL)
8. The production is quicker and allows more scenes to be completed
9. Nerves and sanity are more entact
10. More productivity, more money (not always a sound route)
Here are some disadvantages to this method:
1. You miss the Flow or "Magic"
2. The action become steril and choppy, unnatural
3. If you try to over correct with overlapping, the integrity of the character starts to suffer
4. Not enough spontaneity or surprises, which audiences crave
The last method is the BEST out of all three, this is a combination of strait ahead and pose to pose.
The first step is to create thumbnails, this step is actually utilized in any project no matter how you approach it.
When we are done mapping out the scene we will then create the key poses or storytelling drawings. Then step three of the rough animatic is to create the extremes, these are the frames where the character touches the ground such as in a walk cycle.
With this structure we have the elements of the pose to pose method.
Now we can take these key-frames and extremes and use them as guides for things such as action and direction of the scene needs to take place.
Work on one element at a time, such as the body movement, then the cloths or capes next and then finish with the hair or other objects that move in relation with the characters movement. Then we can use these "guide post" to improve on or finalize as we work strait ahead, while maintaining spontaneity of pose to pose to capture that magic!
After completing a few strait ahead runs on different elements of the scene, making sure to work on the important storytelling drawing first, changing what you need as you go along.
So first we make a strait ahead run, second we do another strait ahead run to work out the "Kinks" from the first pass. Then you keep repeating this process until the shot is complete, while adding the secondary action of cloths or other objects within the scene that compliments the movement or story.
So the advantages of this hybrid method:
1. Lend the strength and fluidity of both methods
2. Balances between planning and being spontaneous
3. Infuses that technical cold sterile feel and your passion into one successful project.
And above all you made magic and had fun doing it at the same time!
Our first lesson is the "Three Ways to Animate".
The first way to animate weather it be 2D or 3D is the strait ahead method.
This method is rather impulsive and requires little forethought when developing the shot. Basically you just start drawing and see where it leads you. There are more disadvantages to this method then benefits. The greatest benefit to this is that mystery or happy accidents that develop out of pure experimentation.
Here are some of the benefits :
1. Spontaneous Action
2. More Natural Flow
3. Embodies Improvisation
4. Able to adjust rhythm and action on the fly
5. Can produce Happy Accidents or "Magic"
6. Since it is Spontaneous, it is fun
Here are some disadvantages:
1. Lines and mass start to wander
2. Squash and stretch starts to loose cohesion
3. Characters don't stay the same size
4. Timing and plot seem to go to the wayside
5. There is A LOT of clean up
6. Not easy for other animators to assist you
7. Not cheap
8.With deadlines and iterations, nerves can become frayed
Our second way to animate is the Pose to Pose method.
First you need to find the extremes or key drawings in your shot. These again are the extreme poses where the feet touch the ground or there is action taking place, it is the point of main interest. In the days of development of this art form, the masters called the key poses the storytelling drawings. They are the images that tell what that shot is about. The in-betweens are the images that lead up to or down from those high points. Once the poses are established you can begin making your charts and your ease in and out's. These charts and indicators are used to tell your assistant or the tweeners what needs to take place and the timing of the shot from pose to pose. These charts where so accurate and methodical, the key animators would just hand them off and come back later to see the work done and take credit for what the tweeners did.
Here are some advantages to this method:
1. The shot is laid out clearly
2. The plot or point of the shot is clear
3. Very methodical
4. The drawings are more cleaner, less clean up
5. The positions of the characters are more clear and definable
6. The pace and plot is in order
7. your assistants can do most of the work (LOL)
8. The production is quicker and allows more scenes to be completed
9. Nerves and sanity are more entact
10. More productivity, more money (not always a sound route)
Here are some disadvantages to this method:
1. You miss the Flow or "Magic"
2. The action become steril and choppy, unnatural
3. If you try to over correct with overlapping, the integrity of the character starts to suffer
4. Not enough spontaneity or surprises, which audiences crave
The last method is the BEST out of all three, this is a combination of strait ahead and pose to pose.
The first step is to create thumbnails, this step is actually utilized in any project no matter how you approach it.
When we are done mapping out the scene we will then create the key poses or storytelling drawings. Then step three of the rough animatic is to create the extremes, these are the frames where the character touches the ground such as in a walk cycle.
With this structure we have the elements of the pose to pose method.
Now we can take these key-frames and extremes and use them as guides for things such as action and direction of the scene needs to take place.
Work on one element at a time, such as the body movement, then the cloths or capes next and then finish with the hair or other objects that move in relation with the characters movement. Then we can use these "guide post" to improve on or finalize as we work strait ahead, while maintaining spontaneity of pose to pose to capture that magic!
After completing a few strait ahead runs on different elements of the scene, making sure to work on the important storytelling drawing first, changing what you need as you go along.
So first we make a strait ahead run, second we do another strait ahead run to work out the "Kinks" from the first pass. Then you keep repeating this process until the shot is complete, while adding the secondary action of cloths or other objects within the scene that compliments the movement or story.
So the advantages of this hybrid method:
1. Lend the strength and fluidity of both methods
2. Balances between planning and being spontaneous
3. Infuses that technical cold sterile feel and your passion into one successful project.
And above all you made magic and had fun doing it at the same time!
(Tangled: Disney)
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Remembering Larry Lauria
The World Will Miss You!!
A noted and very talented animator has passed on from this world and has left behind a legacy of his own. After 35 years of animating, contributing in many various ways, he has left his mark upon this world. In his long career as an animator he has had the privilege to work as the head of the animation department at the Disney Institute in Orlando, FL. The experience and skills that he had brought to Disney came from his many years as a renowned instructor and educator developing new curriculum's and courses at the European School of Animation in Dublin, Ireland. This program that he had help develop became one of the top three animation programs in the world!
Larry has been honored more than a few times over his life span as Who's Who Among American Teacher's. His website, Larry's Toon Institute is applauded by all around the world as an invaluable source for animation technique and instruction.
The cause of his passing is yet unknown, but the news of his passing has reached out and touched many of Lauria's previous and current students, colleagues and friends.
He leaves behind a legacy of awards (over 50), a well known animator, layout and character designer as well as a beloved instructor. He was currently instructing at Full Sail University in Florida.
From one animator to another, I will, along with the rest of the world celebrate this talented professional animator for all of his accomplishments and contribution to this field. I would personally grant him a life time achievement award for all those years of dedicated professionalism to his art and students.
A noted and very talented animator has passed on from this world and has left behind a legacy of his own. After 35 years of animating, contributing in many various ways, he has left his mark upon this world. In his long career as an animator he has had the privilege to work as the head of the animation department at the Disney Institute in Orlando, FL. The experience and skills that he had brought to Disney came from his many years as a renowned instructor and educator developing new curriculum's and courses at the European School of Animation in Dublin, Ireland. This program that he had help develop became one of the top three animation programs in the world!
Larry has been honored more than a few times over his life span as Who's Who Among American Teacher's. His website, Larry's Toon Institute is applauded by all around the world as an invaluable source for animation technique and instruction.
The cause of his passing is yet unknown, but the news of his passing has reached out and touched many of Lauria's previous and current students, colleagues and friends.
He leaves behind a legacy of awards (over 50), a well known animator, layout and character designer as well as a beloved instructor. He was currently instructing at Full Sail University in Florida.
From one animator to another, I will, along with the rest of the world celebrate this talented professional animator for all of his accomplishments and contribution to this field. I would personally grant him a life time achievement award for all those years of dedicated professionalism to his art and students.
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