Author: James Chiang

Student Showcase 3

“… to love life through labour is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret.” — Kahlil Gibran, Philosopher/Artist

In the next few of weeks, I’ll be showcasing some more work from my current students/clientele. What will be unique is that it will FEATURE THE STUDENTS WORK BEFORE ATTENDING MY CLASSES VERSUS AFTER. This before and after comparison is not meant to showcase so much my own ability as an art teacher/consultant/mentor but rather to demonstrate what can be achieved in relatively short time when an artist comes to understanding and learning the craft in the right way. The exercise is also meant to demonstrate the individual artists’ hard work, passion and devotion to the art they love — so much that they are willing to humbly put in the time and attention to improve their skillset. It has been a great joy to work with them and see their continuing growth.

BEFORE:

It is clear from this shot above that the animator here needed a lot of help. Despite various forms of schooling and much time devoted to studying the craft, Robert struggled to understand the most essential basics of animation; clarity of story, simplicity of design and functional body mechanics are all missing. The shot above demonstrates what happens when students are not learning or working in the right order, with no proper work flow from concept to execution. The near complete absence of all the things that make good animation such as weight, good posing, solid timing, fluidity and appeal make the scene hard to watch. What dominates is confusion, busyness and noise. The body mechanics are a disaster and the creative challenges the student faced was far too much both artistically and mechanically for him to handle. A student at his level should never be attempting shots with that level of complexity. It’s unfortunate, but the work above is emblematic of the many students (and not just this student) who attend various classes but fail to grasp the concepts discussed, merely doing the exercise without the proper feedback or direction that would address the artist’s needs. Effort misguided can lead to further frustration and actually create greater impediments to real growth.

AFTER:

As Robert’s teacher I’ve had to rebuild him from the ground up; re-instilling in him the right way to conceive, plan and approach his work. Much work was placed in strengthening the basics such as weight, timing and design in movement. By the time we got him working on this aviation shot — a bird was chosen for its simplicity in design — the goal was to train the him, at this stage, to further clean up the way he thought and thus the way he worked, first by working in layers of action, and then by teaching him to work straight-ahead to get him over the mental struggle of working in spline mode. Sometimes artists may block a shot okay in stepped mode (pose to pose) but struggle in transition to spline (full-inbetweening); their work gets choppy and ugly. By choosing an animal in flight, the challenges presented by arms are simplified as are all the other complexities associated with human anatomy. The focus becomes movement and movement alone. It’s a very simple shot, but what’s achieved here is clarity of action, smooth-flowing movement, and a believable presentation of weight. The two shots, when compared, look to be done by two completely different artists. Robert, so far, has come a long way from where he started. It’s not easy to make this kind of jump, but the animator has shown that with hard work and dedication, that it can be done.

BEFORE:

In Jayson’s work prior to our classes, it is clear he struggled with giving his work weight. There is also no depth or sharpness to the animation presented above; things are floaty, flat and lacking any kind of snap or punch, ironically ill-demonstrated in a combat shot. Again, we see an artist who is tackling something he’s not quite ready to do — in this case, a shot involving two characters. It takes great skill and care to animate multi-character interaction shots; not only do we have to worry about constraints and penetration issues, but the application of forces is both varied and complex. We can also see — despite the camaflouging effect of the robotic costume designs — that the anatomy (or body construction) of the characters is not being respected; the joints don’t move right so there is not torque, and the elbows/knees (the pole vectors) are all animated incorrectly. Furthermore, the foot placement is poor and lacks perspective or interest and actions of the limbs are wobbly. The result is work that has neither appeal in design nor believable application of forces. Hence, despite all the kicking and punching, there is no power or feeling in the movements.

AFTER:

In this newer shot, we can already see that in a very short time — Jayson has only just started with me — we’ve been able to remedy a lot of the problems seen in his older work. Sticking with a similar “profile” camera view for the action, we nonetheless witness a much better presentation of the body in motion. Not only is the story simple and clear, the movements have appeal, weight and sharpness in timing. It’s a cartoony shot but one that respects the proportions of the model while demonstrating good squash and stretch, drag, follow-thru and overlapping action. Each key in the blocking phase has been carefully placed and solidified before the artist moved into the breakdown work and splining. There is texture and timing to the whole choreography and a personality (charm) comes across because of the care and attention paid to the design and mechanics. The final result is a shot that looks simple and clear yet also fun. I know he had a lot of fun doing it and we both look forward to how far his skills will continue to jump.

To see more from the Student Showcase Series, go here.

Capacity vs Accumulation

Dumbo by Bill Tytla. Every scene done by the great Bill Tytla showcased, by default, his uncanny ability to communicate emotion beautifully through shape, line and movement.

“No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.” — Alan Watts, Philosopher

What does it mean to learn? To understand? Is it as simple as accumulating more and more information? Or perhaps maybe it has more to do with actually understanding the material that is at hand?

Today, artists — and especially animators — are always searching for more and more tips, tricks or technical scripts to improve their work. It’s normal to be looking for techniques and tools that might make the job easier or allow us to be more creative, and it’s also understandable to feel insecure and lacking, especially since we’re all essentially living in a very competitive globalized market economy. Unfortunately, this kind of mindset only leads one to constantly chase the craft, rather than pay attention to it.

An artist at work is a beautiful sight. Henri Matisse designing a mural for the Vence Chapel.

The purpose behind our art — which parallels the purpose in living to a degree — is to enjoy the process while also making some kind of meaningful contribution. This is often forgotten in the rather repetitive nature of common work and our conditioning to be ambitious, not to mention the basic need for survival. As noted here before, there are only a few fundamental ways to learn anything: analysis, explanation, demonstration, imitation, and repetition. The accumulation of knowledge itself is not enough — and can even be hindrance — if the necessary commitment that follows the acquisition of knowledge is not made. Anything new needs to be studied, understood, and practiced to become useful. This explains why students who jump from course to course, teacher to teacher, or school to school, don’t realize that most of the information is mostly the same stuff regurgitated — only the approach might differ. Anyone who tells us that he alone has the secret to success is clearly trying to pull a fast one on us.

“The type of thing I’ve had the most luck with is working on it, wrestling with it, scratching on the drawings, flipping them until the character’s doing what I conceive of it doing.” — Frank Thomas, Animator

Seeing is the start.

When young artists come to me for assistance, I primarily work to alter the way they look at the information, first by showing and then explaining to them why they’ve not yet understood such seemingly simple concepts as weight, depth, or overlapping action on their animations. What they soon realize upon our sessions is that it’s their inability to see and their lack of effort and time put into understanding the actual fundamentals that hinders them. Oftentimes, having been told or having done one applicable yet rudimentary exercise on the subject, students think they’ve actually learned the concept. Sometimes it’s even worse, having “passed” a course on the subject, he is deluded; the false impression of competence a passing grade or a piece of paper gives can easily decieve. So, like an athlete who wonders why his game seems to be lacking, what he needs to do is take the moment to look and see — and acknowledge to himself honestly — that he’s badly out of shape, can’t move well and lacks real strength or endurance. For the animator, the parallel often lies in the very poor knowledge and understanding of basics like anatomical structure and body mechanics. I also believe that many animators really don’t understand basic design or acting as well as they think they do. After all, almost everybody thinks they have “good taste.” Humility frees the mind and gives us strength. Knowing that you don’t know is the first step to building capacity.

“It’s a very difficult medium… You have to understand movement, which in itself is quite a study.” — Milt Kahl, Animator

The necessity of patience.

The other big hindrance to learning is a lack of patience. Skills don’t jump overnight. Just as muscles take time to grow despite our pounding away at the gym, the brain requires time to breakthrough our previous lack of seeing or clarity. Rushing gets us no where faster. One cannot create anything good or exciting without first a clear vision nor can he fix or repair what is wrong when he cannot identify the problem. This is purely psychological, of course; once the artist relaxes his desire to learn or improve quickly, his mind also relaxes and opens up thus expanding his capacity to understand new concepts or see old ones in a new way.

Building one’s capacity — which is both the understanding and the ability to apply — is always more important than the mere accumulation of more knowledge. Besides, most information and knowledge is already out there. If we’re talking about character animation, the great books written by legendary artists such as Preston Blair, Eric Goldberg, Richard Williams, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston are more than sufficient to derive most of the important principles and techniques on how to animate well. Add to them the hoard of excellent books on anatomy and near-instant access to online demos, video references and countless animated movies to study, there really isn’t anything new under the sun that would constitute giving anyone an “edge” over his peers.

How well do you know the human body? Anatomical movement of the human torso by Gottfried Bammes.

I think it’s better always to keep things simple; see what fundamental issue you struggle with and go address it. Look at the core of the problem. Find the valid and applicable information, then actually try to understand it by studying it and practicing it. Seek a reputable teacher/mentor if that is desired. Copy if it helps. Trace if we must. Doing so is not cheating if it’s done to learn. (Copying and using for final production, and then not giving acknowledgement however, is stealing, and horrible shame and bad karma should visit those who do so!)

In summary, remember what’s most important is the depth of one’s understanding. Real ability lies there. Learn to see, then learn to do. Afterall, it’s only our genuine ability that’s ever gonna give any of us any sense of security in a world so full of uncertainty.