“… 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.
