Bein' Green

Just a simple test.

Giacomo Sleeps Tonight

This past weekend I painted the final shadow on Giacomo. After screening at the Brouhaha Film & Video Showcase last month, Pupsock & Wendell in The Gallery Of Doom has been accepted into the Florida Film Festival!

And just in time because I've started a new chapter on my animation journey: my first class at AnimationMentor has begun!

Hindsight

The animation on the Gallery Of Doom was a bit more involved than I anticipated. The deadline had been moved to today, Oct. 8, and I turned in the final shot last night. In hindsight, I've learned a lot - about animating with ToonBoom, about communicating with the director, and about how I work.

It was an incredible challenge for me to work the animation in with the shots involving a live actor. I have all the more admiration for a film mixing the two, such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I thought those shots wouldn't be too hard because I would be able to see on the screen where everything is supposed be at a particular point in time. Mechanical, connect the dots, right? Well I encountered two huge issues: one, since each live action shot was changing every frame (fast-action shots that involved running), there would be more drawings than I anticipated and two, since the camera moves/angles were fairly dramatic, I had real trouble figuring out the perspective and keeping it correct on some of the drawings.

Patrick had the foresight to give me reference video, as himself playing the character, so I could see what the character was supposed to be doing - where he was coming from, at what angle, where he was going, any special action, etc. and what props were in the frame that the character had to deal with - like a door. That helped tremendously when discussing the character action with him.

This was a good project to work on in anticipation of AnimationMentor. Patrick was patient and gave me great feedback on the work I was doing. I have more confidence now to tackle those drawings that I think I couldn't do - things I just had to learn myself. I couldn't just tell Patrick that I couldn't do a shot - I had to figure out a way to make it work. This also combats my tendency towards procrastination - instead of worrying and over-thinking a drawing, I'm learning to just get on with on it.

Serendipity

Soon after my last post, I began work on the animation of a 2D character for a short film that a co-worker of mine, Patrick, is producing and directing (and animating, and compositing...). I have 27 shots to complete, the longest of which is 250 frames, the shortest 16 frames, with most under 100 frames. I'm trying to have all my shots finished by Oct. 1. (that's 2007 not 2008). I'm working in Toon Boom and am fully animating the character. For some shots, I'll be able to use cycles of various lengths. The film is a live-action/animation mix. All live-action photography is complete so I'm able to use the actual film as reference.

Joining this project has proven to be the kick in the pants I needed to get animating again. Funny thing is, the project found me. While discussing the film class I had just completed, Patrick and I got around to talking about animation. Before long he told me about this project of his and was asking me to animate one of the characters. I said yes and the next day I was looking at concept art that had been done on the character.

I admit I'm really out of my comfort zone doing this because of the aggressive deadline (we're trying to have it ready for a puppet festival in late October - one of the characters is a puppet that was filmed live with the actors). I'm very skeptical and worry constantly about the quality of the animation I'm turning out. But I love doing it! In the end, it's Patrick's film and as long as he keeps accepting the shots I'm giving him, I'm going to keep moving forward. I've been working practically every night on it and words fail me to convey what a great learning experience it is.

I was going to start bearing down on completing the FAS course but that's taken a back-seat to this project. I still plan on completing the course but you know what they say about plans... In any event, my burgeoning library now includes Loomis' Figure Drawing For What It's Worth and Graham's Composing Pictures, two books I'm chomping at the bit to start studying.

I'm signed up to start Animation Mentor this January. It's a big commitment in many ways, but it's a worthwhile solution to what I feel I need to do to keep my animation education moving forward. I've got a lot of work to do since now it's crept into my mind that I'd like to be paid to do this someday. But such work has never been so much fun!

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Figure Sketching

A great quote from the introduction of an inexpensive book I'm starting to read that touched me:

No matter how rough a sketch, how poor its technique, or how weak its composition: if it is not alive, it is a failure. In drawing there is design, technique, and life, and the greatest of these is life.

Your aim must be to make a drawing life-like. This does not necessitate a lot of finnicky detail; in fact the most life-like drawings are the simplest and least finished.

It is the artist who can draw vitality who commands the highest price for his work, and how is this quality of life to be attained? By going direct to life, that is to say, making your sketches from the living personalities around you.

Do not let your desire to render a pretty drawing swamp the importance of retaining the essential life and character of your subject.

Figure Sketching for Beginners / Len Doust / 0486450953

Storyboards From Film Class

The Basic Film and Video Production class that I was taking ended last month. Our final project involved the whole class with the instructor assigning a film production role to each person. The instructor was the executive producer and then classmates filled roles such as screenwriter, director, editor and so on. There were about 15 of us in the class so each of us had a role. I volunteered to be the storyboard artist. The story is a comedy about a person who takes diving "lessons" from a unqualified scuba shop employee. I didn't receive much guidance from the director while creating the boards so I just followed the script and tried to "direct" it myself. In review, I see that some of the drawings imply a higher camera angle than I meant them to. Below are some of the storyboards:

I'm again hearing the siren song of animation in the form of a character that a co-worker has asked me to animate. This is going to be a single character that will be composited into a short, live-action film that he is working on. I'm really looking forward to working on this. The character design (already done) is simple, something straight out of Samurai Jack.

Detour Ahead

I dedicate this post to JK. From the start, he has offered his help and been very generous with his time and sharing his experience. JK, I appreciate the huge favor you have done for me by helping me focus on what I'm doing. I've arrived at this point a lot sooner than if I had been completely alone.

I started working on an anticipation/follow-through exercise, but I've gotten to the point where I have to really push myself to sit down and practice. For the amount of time that it takes to become a skilled animator, shouldn't I at least look forward to practice?

I'm afraid that concentrating on the technical aspects of animation have started to overwhelm a more basic desire: telling a good story. In other words, I'm getting hung up on the small details before having giving enough thoughtful consideration to the big picture. I don't feel like I've put in enough time and practice with the things that go into making solid animation (drawing, writing, acting, filmmaking). I wouldn't be surprised to find a lot of animators feel the same way, but I also am finding myself more interested in the story aspect and how to tell it than in the actual creation of the animation itself. It recently dawned on me that most of my browser bookmarks are to the websites/blogs of story artists, not animators.

I guess what I'm saying is that it seems that most, if not all good animators come from an artistic background first instead of the other way around. I know that there's a low barrier to entry with Flash and the Internet and I've heard it said to just get something up, just do it.

But to me, that doesn't feel right.

So I'm closing Tony White's book and shutting down Toon Boom. For now.

Currently, I'm in a basic film/video production class at a community college here in Orlando. Aside from learning from the course itself (camera operation, lighting, sound, editing) and projects we've worked on, it's also allowing me to connect face-to-face with people that share similar interests as me - something that was missing from studying on my own. This fall I'm going to take a screenwriting class to learn dramatic writing.

I plan to continue on learning the crafts of drawing and filmmaking. For starters, I will complete the FAS course, if for no other reason, than just to complete it. In the near future I would also like to start creating storyboards for local filmmakers (and maybe not-so-local too) to get additional practice and meet more people.

If I could make a wish: I would continue to sketch and draw on my own but attend film school full-time. Not because I have dreams of becoming the next big director or screenwriter but to simply immerse myself in the filmmaking craft and work with and learn from people like me but not like me.

Snap, crackle, pop.

Back in reality, my top priority is my young family. But I'm restless. The challenge is to reconcile my responsibilities while honoring my personal creative desires. Nothing new there - that's something I know many people struggle with every day. So, taking a class when I can, along with the FAS course, and drawing and writing on my own, is my attempt at meeting that challenge.

I end with a quote from Bill Watterson, lifted from a post on Do It For The Fat Lady:

"The truth is, most of us discover where we are headed when we arrive. At that time, we turn around and say, yes, this is obviously where I was going all along. It's a good idea to try to enjoy the scenery on the detours, because you'll probably take a few."

Thanks for reading.

Run Example

Below is a ruff 14-frame run cycle I created based on the 8-frame example in Tony White's book. My aim here wasn't to create any particular effect but just to practice inbetweening and try different timings, in this case slowing the action down a bit. My result here is basically a slow-motion run but after watching it a bit, I imagined the character struggling to finish a race, out-of-breath. I'll be working on the chapter exercise next. It'll be my first performance-type piece: the character runs off the screen, walks back in, pauses and then runs off again.
(right/control-click on the movie and select Play)

Walk Exercise

Below is my ruff animation for the Walks chapter assignment of Tony White's book. The assignment was to create your own walk cycle using guidelines from the chapter. I created a 12-frame double-bounce cycle looping it for 5 seconds. No doubt that you could spend an eternity just animating different walks but I had to stop somewhere.
(right/control-click on the movie and select Play)

FAS Assignment 3 Response

Got the assignment back from FAS a few weeks ago. I did very well on the this assignment except for the last part, the shape design. My design wasn't what they were for looking for. The feedback/drawing was extremely helpful on what I should have been doing.

Down on the Passing Position

Another walk experiment where the body is going down, instead of up, on passing position. I added a slight hold on the keyframes to emphasize the action. My ruff drawing here doesn't show it very well, but the figure is standing on his toes in the up position.

Full Body Side View Walk

This is my third walk, now adding a full body complete with arms and head. This is another copy of an example from Tony's book. I added a "pencil" cleanup just to see what it would look like. This high-stepping walk is more like a march, but I'm not concentrating on personality yet, just learning the up and down motion along with the arm swinging.

Front Walk

This is my second walk, a front-on view I copied from Tony's book. Even though it's pretty bow-legged, I'm starting to see how even a real simple walk can be varied. I tested it before creating the last inbetween and the effect gave the walk a little swagger. More practice and variations on the timing to come. Hopefully my drawing will improve too.

Learning To Walk Again

Here are some updates since my last post:

• I got a 6x8 Wacom tablet and 'upgraded' to felt pen tips. Using these along with Toon Boom Studio solves my procrastinating-inducing dilemma of how I want to continue to learn.
• I've adjusted my expectations and come to terms with the fact that animation is hard and more time-consuming than I first thought. To learn and do it with any skill at all is going to take a long time especially considering that I have to work it in with my other responsibilities.
  
• Since the FAS folks are moving a good deal slower on returning my assignments than I'd prefer, I got a very used copy of the highly recommended FAS Cartoon Course to work through at my own pace.
• I'm slowly working through The Animator's Workbook. I just started the chapter on walks. Very convenient with the Ken Harris/Richard Williams discussion I just read (from Cartoon Brew). I plan to pencil test most, if not all, the exercises along with whatever else I feel is appropriate. The pencil test below isn't an exercise though, it's just an example I copied from the book.

FAS Assignment 3

Section 3 of the FAS course was Basic Design - an introduction. This section was definitely design 101, mainly about visual communication - the use of shapes and symbols and how they can be arranged for different meanings. The assignment was to complete seven different areas related to what was discussed in the text. Unlike the first two assignments, this assignment was varied, containing a few areas that required fill-in-the-blank answers and a few that required me to do some simple drawing. The last page was the arrangement of colored paper cutouts of different shapes of a single object. I choose a seashell (the shapes are views of the shell from different angles) and tried to arrange them to indicate the shape of an ocean wave.

Page 1	Page 2
Page 3	Page 4

Sack Joy Jump

This is a simple pencil test of the flour sack jumping for joy! There's not much business going on other than the jump. One thing I'm going to be working on in the near future is to make these tests more emotional - to try and show some "thought" before an action. Also, this is only animated at 12 fps, I probably need to bump it up to 24 fps so I can get smoother action.

Sack Stretch

Very simple, very short sack pencil test. I'm trying to get comfortable with the shape of the sack and how it will stretch and squash.

Rotating Cube

This is a 'pencil test' of a cube rotating in space - a short exercise I created for myself. The main point was to freehand the drawings and try to keep the perspective correct as the cube rotates. The inbetweens were done from key poses and breakdowns to help me line up the angles correctly.

This was the first animation I've posted that was created in Toon Boom Studio. The rotating disc feature was invaluable!

Please click the '>' button to play the animation.

To help with my sense of timing and patience, I'm going to do a few more ball bounce exercises before moving onto some character animation exercises. As I wrote previously, my animation library has grown considerably. Two books that I'm working from that include good exercises and explanations are Mechanics Of Motion and Character Animation in 3D (this book actually has good 2D exercises, I'll be skipping the 3D stuff for now).

FAS Assignment 2

UPDATE 10/31:
Received the assignment 2 watercolors back from FAS last week. Overall, they were happy with my work. A comment regarding both painting is that I need to work on controlling my edges better. I thought they were going to slam the lighthouse blending but they didn't. I guess it didn't turn out too bad. The instructor did paint his own blending on a clear overlay. Very helpful but just reinforces my opinion that 'technique' instruction is done a lot more efficiently in person not through coorespondence. Corrected painting is below:



Last night I finished the second watercolor painting to turn into FAS for evaluation. This was done using white/grey/black gouache. I posted the transparent watercolor a while ago.



I probably learned more about myself (ie, my perfectionist, procrastinating tendencies) than I did about how to paint with gouache. I've slowly started to get a grip on controlling the paint, it's not as frustrating as it was when I started. But I have to say, this exercise would have been a lot easier if I had taken a class (which I eventually will - I like painting with gouache).

This is the last 'technique' lesson. Next lesson is learning about design.

Stumble

In this journal, I've meant to describe the path that I'm taking in learning to animate. I'd prefer that path to be, if not straight, at least always moving forward.

But that's not happening.

Since my last post I have:

1. Started to learn Toon Boom Studio.
2. Become enamored with the world of silent films.
3. Struggled with the part of my FAS course where I'm learning to paint with gouache.
4. Bought more books on animation than I care to admit.
5. Gotten depressed about how late to the game I am, angry at myself for wasting so much time and frustrated about how good I want to become but fear I never will be.

Since my last post I have not:

1. Animated.

Animation. I've thought about it. I've read about it. I've watched it. I've browsed the web looking for a lot of information about it. But I haven't done my work. Basically I'm spinning my wheels and procrastinating. Why? I think because this battle started inside my head with one side being "You need to learn principles if you're going to be any good" and the other side being "The whole point is to create something, so stop with the ball bounces, start creating a film".

The thing is, I think both thoughts are correct. So what to do?

Well, in my procrastinating-based web browsing, I did come across one site that I spent a lot of time reading: Mario Furmanczyk's Animated Buzz. Mario journals his years at CalArts as an animation student. I took a lot of great information away from what he wrote but most importantly, for me: deadlines. The students operate under the deadlines of end-of-year shows and portfolio reviews.

Deadlines. That's one thing I've been missing. And that's what I'm setting for myself. Maybe most people can create all good and well without them but, at least right now, I need the guardrails of deadlines to keep me on track.

So to balance the "learn principles" vs. "create something" aspects, I'm setting a deadline for myself to work on and learn animation principles and storytelling knowing that eventually I'll leave the training wheels behind and start on creating performance pieces and short films. March 21, 2007. The first day of spring.

I'm continuing the FAS course (I'll be turning in a crappy gouache painting) and I draw a little every day.

And I dream.