Category: Student Showcase

Student Showcase 2

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” — Confucius, Philosopher

In this week’s student showcase I want to demonstrate the power of simplicity. And to do this, I specifically wanted to discuss the usefulness of the simple exercises that involve walking or running. All the artists that work with me start with walks, runs, jumps and sitting shots. It’s a test of their technical, graphic and creative abilities — almost immediately I know where they stand. I also ask them to do several of them, rather than just one or two, as is common in schools. Moving characters across a layout is not only an opportunity to interact with the environment of the character but also helps ground the shot with a sense of depth and substance. In the selections below, we can see how beautiful and effective simple locomotion can be. Some of these are very short exercises, while others are part of a larger performance.

Shot 1: Bill Meunier

This simple run was an exercise to help the animator get more comfortable working in “spline” mode. He was to do all the necessary research, exploration and planning prior to execution in Maya. Like a performance, the animator then proceeded to work straight-ahead all the while monitoring his weight distribution and paths of action. The significant side-to-side weight distribution and forward head movement, which is admittedly larger than normal, were part of a designed intention to ensure he’d learn good overlap, follow-thru and drag — elements that give the character a solid sense of weight and form. It’d be nice to show the before/after differences in his work but I don’t think that’s necessary; the results here show a successful transition and the walk is tidy. The solid compressions on and off the ground really makes it feel like she’s wearing those bouncy athletic shoes.

Shot 2: Rachel Chelius

I love what the animator did with this simple challenge which was to create some old school slapstick as part of a walk assignment. The pace of the walk is quick and spritely which quickly defines the character’s aloofness making him a likely candidate to slip on something as obvious as a yellow rubber duck. With solid pose and timing, the animator has created a fun yet visually interesting shot. Well chosen distortion and the fanning of multiple images brings back techniques first pioneered by animation masters Tex Avery and Ken Harris.

Shot 3: Richie Prado

Here, I wanted the animator to do a simple run and jump exercise. To establish a sense of timing and weight the character propels himself up and on towards a higher elevation creating interest and depth while interacting with the environment. The reversals in the Lines of Action, and good use of squash and stretch principle give the character a weight that’s rightly appropriate to his design. Expressing personality in every shot is very important under my instruction, so good clear choices must be made of pose and rhythm to ensure that an audience can read easily the attitude of the character. The nice little touch with the spin around and subsequent leaping off are good examples of such decision-making.

Shot 4: Elena Miroglio

In this shot, I challenged the animator to do an acting shot that started with walking and ending with sitting down. A layout and story was chosen to fit the dialogue providing a suitable context. After much planning and reference work, actions and poses were choreographed to make it feel as natural and believable as possible. Although this is presented only in blocking form — the animator had to relocate to a feature studio across the country before this shot could be finished — it’s quite clear how the convincing body mechanics here aids in the motivation of the character whose attention is completely on himself and his story which is archetypal elderly behaviour. This proves time and again that good physical weight go hand and hand with good psychological (or emotional) weight.

Student Showcase 1

Some people see things as they are and say why?  I dream things that never were and say, why not? — George Bernard Shaw, Playwright

As some of you know, I’ve been teaching/consulting animation artists for over a decade. Many have gone on to solid careers. Starting today, and hopefully on a continual basis, I’ll be showcasing some of the work of my current clients. With hard work and patience, these individuals have greatly improved their workflow, skill set and real understanding of the craft of animation. After all, my goal — and promise to them — is to train them to become not just animators or craftsmen, but real artists (and happy ones at that!)

Note that none of the work here is done using/copying any live-action video reference (altho I’m not against its usage as part of research/exploration). I don’t like any of my clients to produce animation that is devoid of personality or absent of strong posing and beautiful motion. Each one of them learns the proper language and creative process of this craft; they build visions on paper, do detailed research and preparation, and work with great attentiveness and a joy — a joy that is evident both during the process and in their final animations. Although I’m not one to use the word “pride” very often, I must say that I’m truly proud of them (and their accomplishments) and continue to be inspired by their passion and dedication to learning.

Animation by Jody Prouse. This two shot sequence is a nice test of story-telling and acting. Working with a horse rig within a physical environment places a challenge to body mechanics skills, acting and staging choices. Despite the rudimentary rendering (the harsher lighting and limited motion blur reduces some of the smoothness) a good sense of weight, volume and use of 3D space is achieved all the while retaining the joy and visual flavour of the character’s colourful personality.

Animation by Carles Vallbona. This is a simple shot designed to challenge the artist to give a convincing facial performance with a very limited facial rig. It teaches the animator to act with body language (versus depending on detailed lip/facial articulation) and think in terms of broad shapes and clean appeal to achieve believability and interest. I like that the choice of model and dialogue give the scene a certain uniqueness and charm.

Animation by Irina Wolf. Here, a complicated sequence is made to look smooth and simple by approaching it with thoughtfulness and care. Using a moving camera to tell a story is very difficult especially with multiple moving characters. I wanted to challenge the student to deliver a smooth flowing shot that keeps the subjects “in character” — i.e. retain their individual personalities. This means, of course, flawless execution of not just the camera and body mechanics but careful relative pacing between two 4-legged characters all the while maintaining an element of suspense inherent in the set up.

Animation by John Han. This shot showcases how one can achieve strong acting with adult dialogue and realistic models using excellent facial posing and tasteful body language (notice the visual flow and personality that comes from the excellent employment of the hands). The goal was to turn a sit down conversation into one with a bit of tension (altering the context from the film material) while maintaining the charm and elegance of the voice acting. Although the shot is not fully polished (the animator landed a job at Dreamworks shortly after), I believe a solid sense of believability and beauty is achieved here.

Note: The legality of the usage of the models/rigs presented in the above shots is the sole responsibility of the artists themselves, and bear no relationship to me or this website.