Animation 101: REACTIONS

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Reactions should be communicated with CLARITY

      Anticipation is the one of the most important animation principles that plays a main

role in bringing life to a character. In general we use the term to express a waiting of the next move. I would like to bring to attention a less talked about term: the 'reaction'. This might not be a technical foundation of animation but it is essential to an entertaining performance. In the 'reaction' of a character is where the personality of a character can show. A well rounded animator must not only learn how to prepare the audience for an action, but also to relieve them with a reaction.  

      Your animated characters reaction to an action that follows an anticipation will let your audience know how to react. You can notice characters in cartoons using extreme anticipation to engage into a powerful action, such as a sudden run, or hitting with an axe, or playing golf. And then contrast the action with a subdued reaction usually drawing laughter from the crowd. Droopy was one such character whos personality was a superb contrast to over exaggerated actions. Exaggeration is a common factor incorporated in anticipation and reaction. The same can be said with underplaying an anticipation and reaction. Being aware of your characters reaction is essential to creating believable performances in animation which is appealing and enchanting to the viewers eye. 

"Danny we already know this!"

Great, then I go move on to my point. CLEAR REACTIONS! A piece of work lives and dies with the viewer. One will notice pieces of art live longer when they are clear. While the viewer quickly grows uninterested with the messier unclear ones. Clear reactions can resonate with your viewer and leave a lasting impression. A good example of clear poses that relate to the viewers are memes. They are universal and easily recognizable no matter how specific the emotion being depicted is. Take a look at a small collection I have gathered here from the internet. You might recognize some of them.

 

 

 

      These are some awesome expressions that have been shared around the internet hundreds of thousands of times. if you are ever in need of a specific expression look no further! Memes are here to save the day! I mean it, I often reference memes if I'm ever in a bind or need inspiration. 

(quick tip: never go look for help from something generally accepted from the art world, Look for things that resonate with thousands of people on the internet. There will be something about it that makes it connect better. Its up to you to figure out what that x-factor is and use it to your advantage!)

Below I found some memes that can maybe be considered anticipation to something the character might say. They are clear and sometimes exaggerated! (such as the table flip ...which I'm afraid I'm guilty of doing here and there) 

   

   

 

This post is a grossly simplified overview of reactions, but I hope it plants a seed so that you can start to see this concept in a new light. I hope you all enjoyed it and I look forward to doing more posts. Continue to draw, continue to learn!

Note Taking During Critiques 101

NEW names on the right hand side! check them out if you haven't already, they are friends such as Alex Alvarado, Jeffrey Engel, Andrew Chesworth and more.

   Staying organized Mentally while working on something is hard for some people. Sometimes things can distracting and take you away from your work: such as friends, internet or even yourself! There are times I feel that I have been working on the same part of my assignment for 3 hours and have gotten NO WHERE...

      This is a bad thing, and the solution (my solution) to avoiding such a situation is keeping your mind organized and being aware ON WHAT YOU NEED TO DO NEXT.

-NOTE TAKING-
     Everybody takes notes differently, but the bottom line is that everybody SHOULD be taking notes when their teachers, mentors, or even some friends are critiquing their work. At work we have dailies every week (When the animators and us get together to look at everyones work they have done during the week.) When it's my turn for my work to be reviewed everybody, they just start shouting things out or go into a very detailed explanations one after another. Before you know it, someone else jumps in with an EVEN better note... If you could imagine, it can go pretty quick and nobody will wait for you to finish taking a note.
      So my strategy is to write EVERYTHING I hear down really fast and messy. By the time every one has commented on my shot, my 2 pages of notes look similar to what a nasty, one legged, charcoal footed chicken would look like tap dancing on my sketchbook... But as soon as I get back to my desk I reread my notes and rewrite them. If I don't do that right away I will not know what these notes mean later.

The page thats cut off, thats my regular handwriting, the big writing would be my messy handwriting :P

    I do not know about you but I get excited after I get some really good notes, there's an energy to knowing you just got information to make your work even better. Some animators use this energy to dive right back into their work and others bask in it and take a break to clear their mind to start fresh later.

-THE CHECK LIST-
      When I rewrite my notes I make a list of things I have to do so that I have something to check off. Not that doing this is necessary but it's a way to keep track of your progress and it feels good to cross off a note with a big fat marker and feel like a boss bc your TO-DO list is shrinking.

     (organizing the priorities on the check list: you are not going to fix your finger arca before you fix that major major hitch in your hips. So aim for the things that stick out like a sore thumb and is killing your shot.)


-THE CIRCLE-
     This is how I stay mentally focused..  everybody needs their strategy bc we all could get stuck noodling the same nose arc for 3 hours.. The Circle is something I came up with that visually breaks down what I need to do and what I have done (while showing me the time I have spent doing each task)

 -How does it work DANNY???? ok here is a step by step of how I do this:
You draw a clock, and you plan your day on this clock with general words.

Then as time goes by you shade in the appropriate section on the clock when ever you can.

      Then when you actually finish a task that you aimed for you mark how long it ACTUALLY took you to finish that task.

     Then you continue and adjust the rest of your schedule accordingly (like cancel those movie plans you made that night!!)
     With the circle I can easily see what is taking the most time to accomplish and where my time is going. I like the circle visually much more than a linear system like a bullet pointed list. This is how I get my work done when I am in crunch mode. I do not do this all the time. Here are some of the circles from my sketchbook so you could see how they really look (unlike the fake one I used to demonstrate above)

  

     That's all I got for today. hopefully it helps out who ever needed the help and If you didn't need the help, I hope you enjoyed the insight. Happy NewYears! Oh and one more thing...

PS:
     REMEMBER to not compare how fast you do your work with how fast your peers do theirs. Some peers might be insanely faster than you naturally but like wise do not take comfort if some peers are a little bit slower than you. Do not think that means to slow down and start to take comfort that you are a little ahead. work hard ALL THE TIME.

Animating a Shot: Part 4 (End)

A still from a my Dialogue Piece

 


      It's funny how different you can feel in a span of ten minutes. Before your work is done you are begging, "No more, let it be done... take it away.. take IT AWAY" ..but ten minutes later when you realize you are done, you discover a craving for more; Another idea, another project, the sole possibilities of what might be your next art piece, is too much to bare. You'll find yourself nose first in your sketchbook roughing out and brainstorming your next big idea..

     So here is my finished piece of animation. I do like it but I hate it as well. 3 weeks it took me to complete it and I'm pretty proud that I kept myself to a constant pace of work. I always learn more form completing a piece than I have things to boast about it. IT's always possible to FINISH, just set your mind to it. the more you follow through and finish, the easier it becomes.

-I wont fill in the characters unless I have to, it's a personal choice. I like seeing the lines. I personally like rough animation and pencil test more than I do finished "tied down' drawings of animation.

-ATTENTION TO DETAIL
     -A few explanations of my choices in this animation piece. 

     Why a sunset background? The mood wouldn't be the same with a bright sunny day. The audience would be questioning the setting if I staged it at 4 in the morning, 'Why are they out there that early?' I chose sunset because it is the END of a day. It's when you have to call it quits and accept that theres no more daylight. similar to how my character is accepting that, "It's not for me." He too is accepting his fate.
      When making small decisions such as background and setting, The amount of attention you give each choice can only improve and add depth to your art. It was a conscious choice of mine to keep all shots of my Main character clear and just leave sky in the background. He has his mind made up, he is thinking clearly and knows exactly what he wants. So I chose to represent that with a clear background of the sky.    
     On the other hand I chose to crowd my secondary character's composition as much as I could with out making it obvious. I added power lines in the first shot and a expensive car in the background. Not only do they crowd the composition and made it 'busy' but the power lines added a diagonal that I enjoyed. With the secondary characters next shot I crowded him yet again in the composition. A little bit more to show some progression. I am mainly crowding him to contrast the main character's composition. The secondary character's mood is a bit more sour, aggravated and indifferent. I think a crowded composition with a few diagonals represent that just fine in comparison to the main characters shots.

(diagonals, straights and other visual story telling vocabulary are all real elements that animators, directors, and other artist use when making an art piece. If you didn't know, go out and educate yourself on it. It'll change your perspective on film dramatically)

-ORCHESTRATING A CLIMAX
      I added one subtle thing I'd like to point out. I had established in the opening shots that my main character was Screen Left and my secondary character was Screen Right. But in one shot I switched the main characters orientation in relationship to the screen. I put him on screen right. 'Whats the big fukn deal DANNY!!!!!??' you ask. Well this is an example of emphasizing a point within your shot.
      In the beginning I listened to this dialogue and tried to figure out where was the POINT, where was the Umph and climax of the line of dialogue. It had to be "It's not for me." That part of the dialogue seemed to me to carry the most weight. So without doing a cliche' gesture and over the top acting to point out and say,"Hey everybody look at this, its the most important part!" like how most people tend to do, I took step back and asked how else can I emphasize this part. While taking a story telling class with Mark Andrews back in college I remember one thing story boarders tend to do to emphasize a point in the scene, it was to mess up a pattern or a 'Normality' that has been established. So decided to break up my screen direction. It didn't bring attention to itself or disrupt the flow of the animation piece so it was a success to say the least. It's not a big deal BUT, it does add that layer of complexity to the pice and keeps it from looking bland.

-CLOSING THE BOOK
     So I will turning this in for this months contest at http://www.11secondclub.com/ If you'd like to participate and vote be my guest. We'll see how it goes. I do not believe it will win on the count of how limited my animation is, people tend to like the cartoony stuff and appealing acting. If I could do this again I would not change it, I felt this line of dialogue called for a limited acing role and performance that in some cases might be more powerful than overacting. What will I work on next? I don't know... actually I do know. But I wont finish it till June or July of next year. 


I hope you enjoyed and found these 4 post helpful or at least insightful. Don't stop sending me work, I always love critiquing and giving advise back to you guys through email. I liked it so much I'm doing it professionally now. I just started at Animation Mentor as a mentor. But you could still send me your work for me to critique here for free :) like how I believe all information should be.

-Daniel Gonzales

Animating a Shot: Part 3

     

     Happy first day of fall! So I'm just about over the hump of the hardest part of completing an animation piece. Yes yes, I had the beard going, blood shot eyes, the zombie stare, the anti-social anti-food anti-TIME feelings flowing freely in my mind. I was in the Zone. It doesn't look pretty from the outside (ask my girlfriend haha) but on the inside, it's wonderful, my mind was 100% on creative mode.

     If you think physical/acting animation is alone the toughest part of the whole process, you haven't animated dialogue yet. Not harder but it's almost the same level of difficulty as acting and physicality. I believe it takes the most amount of attention and concentration. Your background music, podcasts and side conversations must be put on hold when you are listening and drawing mouth shapes for dialogue. So in tradition of the first person story telling style of the last 2 posts, here I go:

THE MOUTH
     I know mentally this is the most draining part of the process. So as I prepare my desk by setting up 2 mirrors and an extra pillow on the seat of my chair, I'm mentally thinking of all the mouth shapes one see's through out the day. The funny thing I noticed is that YOU DON'T SEE mouth shapes. You kind of interpret the shape when it flashes by. And in a sentence you only see the Major sounds take shape in the mouth.

e.g: "Fuck"
-You will see the 'F' shape very clearly and is mainly the only shape you have to nail when generally animating the word. The rest is just jaw and a general 'UGH' mouth shape.

     So I'm going over all I know mentally before I start. When I start animating, I initially want to exaggerate EVERY LITTLE SYLLABLE. But a quick trick where you put your hand under your jaw, and say the line of dialogue and take note how many times your hand dips. The points when it dips/or opens wide, are the points to exaggerate the jaw opening. This keeps me from animating my characters mouth opening on every syllable. So I first draw in the key poses when the jaw opens in my animation. I time those poses out to match the dialogue perfectly. Then I move on to other major mouth shapes such as the M's B's F's P's V's. I make those shapes very clear so that they can be read at a moments glance.

IN-BETWEEN THE LINES
      While animating the mouth you always have to be aware of a very important thing. That the mouth is connected to the face. If you are just animating the mouth and not moving the head, nose, or jaw; your mouth would look like it is floating on the surface of the face. So all it takes is a small stretch of the nose, or a blink on a hard accent, or countless other tricks to make your mouth feel connected to your face. Also (to those 2D animators out there) always check the distance from the top lip to the nose and bottom lip to the chin and try to stay consistant. Many times I found my mouth drifting closer and closer to my characters chin with out my knowledge.. Lots of erasing... lots of finger cramps..

Here is a video of the dialogue (90% finalized)

FINISHING UP
     If dialogue was the biggest mental drainer, then finishing up and 'inking' of a piece is physically draining. As i finished up doing my dialogue I was OVER my piece. I wanted it does, I wanted to be done, I was ready to start on something new. It's a very trying time. I took two days off my work. Went outside and got some sun, I went to Santa Cruz and visited my brother, caused some trouble and just messed around. I was not eager to start the process of drawing wrinkles in clothing over and over again for 150 frames straight. I was not eager to draw an oval of a head 500 times and keep it consistent, I was not eager to sit 10 hours at a time and kill my hand tracing and erasing and tracing over and over again...
      But I went online, read a book (King Lear), watched a movie (The INSIDER) and went on a campaign to inspire myself again. And that's all it took, at eleven at night after watching a movie with my lady, the surge and energy of inspiration hit me and I immediately took advantage of it because i know in the morning the inspiration it would be gone. 'Aren't you coming to bed?" she would ask, "No, I feel like [I gotta work] work, I have to get it out of me."

     When I animate and I'm nearly done, I POLISH as I INK. which means as I am outlining my animation with black, I take notes on what can be pushed or tweaked. But I don't always fix them as I come across the mistakes for fear of ruining the momentum I have at the time. If I was to stop to solve the problem I have found, it drains the clock and it also drains my motivation. One hour and finishing a scene of 5 seconds? or spending an hour fixing 4 frames (5 percent of a second)? What makes you feel like your being more productive?

SO here is me while I am finishing up, hopefully I have time to really polish the hell out of it. It's the last push so I'm going hard: more hours, harder concentration, and keeping constant pace.  I do still see mistakes in my animation but I'll try to finish first then go back and fix them.

How I feel right now: tired, motivated, and a urge to push until I break which comes from insperation

Animating a Shot: Part 2

Universe showing off it's still the best at creating beauty

     So it's easy to DO the work in your head. Like right now.. Bam! just created a master piece. (in my mind).
     But to actually start on your work is a very crucial step that most artists never get to. Last post I talked about 'planning' your shot and making it specific conceptually. But now it's all about planning your work technically and executing your animation. Last post I talked about the very very first stages of starting an animation piece, here I will continue that post..

TIMING and POSES
     I had just finished story boarding my shot so I know what camera angles I want. The next day I sit down at my computer and think about my acting. I do rough poses and draw them into my storyboards. Then I play them to see if they 'feel' right in the time given. 'FEEL' right referes to, does it feel aesthetically correct, is the timing rushed rushed? Do I read the acting as a viewer? Is the tempo of overall movement complimentary to the tempo of the dialogue.. All these things have to come into play.
      Think about it, if the tempo of my movements in my animation are beat for beat that of my dialogue, then on each word or accent I will have movement. First off, that is not natural and it will be too distracting. So After an our or two of getting the beats and acting right, I came up with this (you might call this BLOCKING):

     The timing is pretty close to what I had originally proposed with my initial storyboards. The cuts work, the characters are not over acting, every choice I made checks back to the very specific background story I had came up with. This part of the process did not take that long, but I still stop working for the day because I know the NEXT step is the most difficult....

MATH and MOVEMENT
     "My project is 24 frames per second but for every frame I make I duplicate it so that it comes off as 12 frames per second. But when there is a movement or an action I will not duplicate and animate all 24 frames per second thus giving me more control over my timing and the ability to make the action read better."

    I'm thinking this to myself as I get out of bed... I 'm recalling how Disney animators use to animate during the golden age of animation. Mostly on 12's, but on 24's when the action was complex. If you do not know you're multiples of 12's, 2's, 6's and sometimes even 3's, you are going to be animating blind when it comes to planning out movements and timing. Math plays a SMALL role in animation but a crucial time saver if you use it correctly.
     For example. In my first shot I want my character to lift up it's head. I do not want it to happen in one frame as it is right now in my story boards but in a normal like manner, but not too slow that it feels mechanical. So I think in my head, "one second is too long for a head lift, so maybe half a second.. (I try lifting up my head at the speed I want) It took a little less than half a second to lift up my head. So that means when animating my head lift it should be 3-4 Frames. Why 3-4 frames? 4 frames is 1/3 of a second. It's not quite half, which would be 6 frames (because 6 is half of 12.) 12 frames being one whole second. four frames would be pretty damn close to the timing I am looking for.

If that was confusing, that should be a red flag.

ANIMATING
       (This is the part of the process where all new animators rush too and they skip all the prior steps I have done.)

My Order of Operations:
Movement, Stills, Facial, Mouth Dialogue, Specifics (clothes, hands, hair etc)

      So I animated. I animated all day. The first things I animated were the movements. Movements are the most eye catching elements in animation and they have to be timed out right so that they do not catch your eye at unwanted moments after your dialogue is done. (I DO NOT start animating dialogue yet) So once I get the physicality and acting believable then I would move on to dialogue.
     When I animate I will usually draw out the first and last pose, (lets look at the first head lift again) I will draw the down position of the head and the final up position. Then do in-betweens. BUT LET ME TELL YOU ONE THING, I actually tried to takle this with straight ahead animation but I re-did it many times (5 times). Because when you do straight ahead you do not have constraints and limits. So each time I would play what I had just animated, It would over animated. I had way too much of an anticipation, or I had an overshoot I didn't even need, or worst, I threw in an arc that was totally unnecessary. I was getting very frustrated, because it all looked good but it wasn't the FEELING of acting I had in my story boards. I asked my self what did my storyboards have that this animation does not. It had simplicity. The story board JUST had a simple head raise, not some fancy dance move of a head raise. I stood up in front of the mirror and did the head raise, I was right, not a lot happens during the head lift. So after an hour and 37 minutes I animated the correct head lift in 9 minutes.

     Remember to not be satisfied with you're work UNTIL YOU GET WHAT YOU DESIRE. That said, there is another side to that piece of advice. While I was doing the part, "you never, cross the finish line.." I had other ideas come up as I was animating... a lot of ideas matter of fact. I had thought of many more acting choices that my character could be doing on that line instead of a head shake. So I animated them to see if they were better than my current idea. They looked good, but again, in the whole big picture, it didn't feel or compliment the whole project very well. But I still had ideas and I kept animating them out. If you have time, always explore other solutions. At first I did not realize they were not working because they didn't flow with my animation piece as a whole, I thought they didn't work because of my animation ability, and I re did it and re did it soo many times I almost threw my pencil at my cat. Everything gets better when you walk away from your computer and come back later :) 10 minutes later or an hour later, it all does the same good... My original idea ended up being the best solution, so after 4 hours.. I finished animating the right solution in 1 and a 1/2 hours.

Duchamp, animating within a painting? hmmm.. think about it..

SECOND NATURE
      So this is where I am at now in my animation process. Here is a video showing what animation I have done so far. The things I have not mentioned about my process are things I take for granted. I should be telling you:
      I ALWAYS check that my drawings are somewhat consistant, that my forms hold the same volume in each drawing and if I'm in doubt, use guidelines on the face to help out with the construction of the character.  I tend to draw past the edges of the camera to make sure my pose and proportions are right. I try my hardest not to hold frames. and if I do they are only to show timing bookmarks and not to be left in my animation for the final product. Try cycling 6 drawings before you EVER hold a frame.                      
     I also write notes to my self on the page. Timing quirks I come across, notes on the eyebrows I did not want to waste time animating right now (remember I'm only doing physicality, even though I have a big urge to start animating the face and mouth I have to keep myself from doing so.)
Sometimes the notes have nothing to do with animation. I write down things I think of for futre projects or write down ideas that inspire me. You might also just see things I wrote down because I want to wikipedia them later!

And before you ask, I do listen to music and podcast while I animate. but when I do dialogue I do not have anything else playing.  What podcast? Today was the podcast "Things You Should Know".

Traveling and Art

                                   

   


      So sorry for not being able to post recently. Things have been busy here at the studio in so many ways. Cars 2 is about to come out, I've seen it and the kids should love it. On top of that I have been getting ready to go travelling abroad. I leave this Monday the 27th of June! Where am I going? Belgium, Germany and Amsterdam. So if you are in the area be sure to send me an email, I would not mind meeting up!

      So I want to talk about drawing materials briefly.. And since I'm travelling, more specifically materials on the go. Sure you can make art out of anything and make a drawing with any sort of thing that makes a mark.. but should you? I'll say no, not all the time. Just like a soccer player can not be the best player they can be while playing with a mango shaped ball, neither can an artist release their full potential with with the wrong materials..

First off-  The Sketchbook/ Pad of Paper
Find the size that's write for you.

     -You want to work on details and become free to draw without the edge of the paper restraining you? Go for the big sketchbook. (my preference)
  
    -You want to draw people discreetly and work on catching quick gestures and in the moment expressions, go for the small note book

    -You just want to put your self through drawing boot-camp and not treat every drawing like it's precious and just focus on form and skill? Go for the cheap newsprint like drawing pads that have like 300 pages in them and get your self some permanent markers!

     The kind of sketch book you choose will greatly effect the way you draw. Imagine you buy a leather bound notebook and you are just learning to draw. You might feel like you have to make every drawing worth it and it has to be the best.. this kind of thinking is bad, you'll find yourself too timid to even draw in it. How will you EVER improve your skills when you expect yourself to make good drawing right away? As a rule never treat your drawings as gems. I say, the first GOOD drawing you draw, have your mom, or sibling draw over it or rip it up. You have to learn to treat your good drawings like nothing and think of your self as being capable of drawing EVERY drawing that good. And make that your goal to be able to draw EVERY drawing that good when ever you make a pencil touch a paper...
     If you are in architecture, how are you suppose to draw the grandness of the building on a 3x5" sketch book????? No way you can draw the masonry or the details around the windows! You would be much better off with an 11x14" sketchbook...

So enough about sketchbooks, you get the point.

-The Pencil
Lets start with the basics. If you do not know the hierarchy of pencils.. LEARN THEM..

    In school you usually use an HB pencil or a 2B pencil. which are pretty common. Ideally you want to use a dark (they are referred to as soft) pencil to draw and sketch quickly. Especially for figure drawing you might want to even go up to a 6B pencil. It's harder to erase and it'll force you to live with your mistakes and see them, learn from them. Very good at learning how to make your lines correct the first time you put them on the paper.
   Now and then I'll come across someone trying to draw a full on landscape with a 2H pencil. Your making life hard when it doesn't have to. Keep the light (referred to as Hard) pencils for details and tinier feats. When going out, my combination of pencils are 6B, 2B, HB, and H
(Eraser to use: White eraser)

Here I used a many different types of pencils to achieve the desired shading the drawing required

This was the finished piece, my favourite sub picture would have to be the lower left.

-Wax Pencils
    I almost forgot about these. Wax pencils are usually thicker and you have to peel to expose the tip after it gets dull. I like these a lot. Use them for quick drawings and figure drawing! There are also wood-less pencils that just plain look cool :)

-The Charcoal Stick
    Perfect for life drawing and figure drawing. Charcoal is messy and fun. You can not take charcoal and be serious with it. Most likely you will see artist do fast 30 sec. or 15 sec. model studies with charcoal. Charcoal allows you to manipulate lines and clearly see your mistakes. And the only way to fix mistakes with charcoal? Is to not do them in the first place! Over time you will see your lines loosen up and you will see your hand eye coordination greatly improve. Most likely you'll see me using huge Biggie pad of newsprint paper that doesn't cost much. Huge means like a 2 foot pad. You need a huge pad so you can learn how to use your WHOLE arm when you draw, and not just your wrist. Very good thing to learn for painters.  (Eraser to use: kneaded Eraser)

A very fast one minute contour drawing of a flower

     Charcoal CAN be used for great detailed art pieces. There are no rules. I am just saying what you can do with these materials to get the biggest bang for your buck.

Still Life of hanging clothes with charcoal

Just because you don't have the right colours of charcoal doesn't mean you still can't do what you want...

-Color Pencils
   If you use any color pencils, use Prisma Color. Think: go hard or go home, they might be expensive but they are worth it. Prisma Color will get you the most vibrant richest colors out of any brand. Have fun with color pencils! I always carry a few just to inject some life into my drawings once in a while. Because page after page of black and white drawings just doesn't do it for after a while.

-Markers
    There are 2 kinds of markers I usually use. There are the grey gradient story boarding kind, these are always good to have for any sketch artist. Good for practising tones and light studies.

    And then there are the Crayola markers and Sharpies. if you make a mistake, make something out of it. work with it. do not waste paper! Go with the flow, CREATE! Do what you need to do to save the drawing. Markers teach problem solving. You will find yourself saying, "Shit Danny! I drew that line in the wrong spot, what do i do with this line?"  ..um.. make it into a cloud? FIGURE IT OUT.  I love markers. make sure you use them with paper you do not care about. You will go through a lot.

-The Ball Point Pen and Ink Pen
    I have grown fond of these. It's a nice mix in-between a marker and a pencil. You have to learn how to do things right the first time or learn how to solve the problems you create. I've learned to be patient and learn how to shade with them and draw pencil like drawings with them. I figured out that they are very good for blind drawing and counter drawings. I like the lines the create and the aesthetic quality they give to the drawings. Try them out.

-Crayons..
   Do not act like crayons are for kids. Do not act like it wasn't THE CRAYON that inspired you to start exploring your creative eye at the age of 3... try letting loose with them and see what happens!

     So on my trip you can expect me to have some of these materials, and to be sketching on my train rides around Germany. I'll be sure to post pictures of the sketches :) I will be gone for two weeks and will be back the 15th of July! Still keep those emails coming, I do enjoy seeing all your work and reviewing them!

Go out and draw. and watch cars2.. at least for the Brave teaser in front of it...
-Daniel Gonzales

Animation 102: General Polishing Notes..

     So here is an email of a critique I wrote out. I thought it had some useful elements  to it and decided to share! Context: They is about to wrap up on this and has a little less than a week to finish. So I pointed out the major things that catch my eye and overlook the little things so they can make the best use of their time... enjoy

Hi _______,

     Lets get down to business shall we? I'll try not to be that harsh :)

     So, contrast... everything needs some sort of contrast, it just makes things look texturally more interesting, agree? So your animation is great, but as bad ass as it is, in the beginning it's still sort of, smushy, water smooth... (and I understand he's sneaking) but none the less the characters movement is a bit swimmy.

     The Culprit: The FLASH LIGHT. The flash light moves way too much and at the same pace and style as the body, if you would just view the flash light and hide the body, it will look like the hand of someone high, or drunk, or just someone waaay too relaxed. It has tooo much over-lap (up and down), the head and the body go up and down already, no need to go overkill and do the flash light as well, it's like you want me to watch your assignment while nodding my head up and down the whole time. if you're more a percentage kind of girl, I would tell you to take it 80% down...

     Solution: Hold it reletively still in the direction it is in now, towards the opposite wall where he is heading towards. and if you are feeling daring even put a lil frequency vibration in it to show shaking, but DONT MAKE IT look like he has tremors! This will contrast the slow cat like movement of the body. make it look like he's holding the Flash light with a purpose and not hold it as if it was a prop.

     POSES: On frame X78 is very natural and realistic. Not bad, but tell me one thing...  which one is better.... im just asking.. you know... just take a look and let me know...

        You see? Just always push things a little more and make sure you are selling the pose. Never forget to check if your silhouette value is the best and clearest it can be. Is it telling the whole story? is it appealing? What might it be mistaken as? how do i make it fool proof? And don't start saying that it's not physically possible with the model. "but Dannny, it wont let me, It doesn't want to bend that way, it's too hard..."  FORCE IT. Do not compromise with the computer, do not meet it half way, don't let it decide how far you can push your art. It does what you tell it to do, don't pitty it. The moment you start to let it tell you who's boss, that's when we all lose and then movies like Terminator 2 and the Matrix become reality. Always keep the computer in check. :) It's just waiting for you to let down your guard..... haha

Frame X78- X104
       After you hit that pose you start to turn, BUT EVERYTHING TURNS WITH EACH OTHER FAIRLY AT THE SAME TIME!!!!!!! You do have a teeny weenie bit of an off set, but that's only because I had to look for it. How about you hold the head staring towards Screen Left for a while longer and hold the flash light there too. Make the body turn first then around X92 start the head turn, try that out see if it feels right and adjust accordingly. Break it up, make it feel natural.

       Ok this next one is a big one, you might hate me but i can afford you to hate me, what you CANNOT afford is sub par problem solving skills!
-Flip through Frames X105 to X110.. then continue flipping to X115. Doesn't it look like he's bouncing off those boxes? Like in a bad action film sort of way? X110, that character definitely broke it's back on those boxes.. I drew something that might help you out:

 

      So you see what I did, I also moved your last pose a little screen left. This way not only is it a reaction, but VISUALLY he is moving away from the ghost as well. It makes the head ARC less spontaneous and it's easier to follow along with the eyes. But that means reworking the animation before and after it and making it work, re-look at the physics my pose change demands and make it work. it's going to be tough but try it out. It will definitely be challenging.

     Your ending, I'm going to acknowledge it's subjective. Because I too watched cartoons when I was younger I could recognize what you were doing (scared stiff and the fainting) but if I was living in a cave my whole life or from Antarctica, I would have no freaking idea what the hell was going on, "he stopped, then moves again and stops again... then he MOVES again to fall down... and then the ghost looks at me??" WTF is going ON!!!!!!????? lol. your animation is nice. I'm just letting you know you are relying on the audiences background knowledge of cartoons to sell your idea.

      So I hoped this helped you out, Let me know how it goes, your animation is very nice and it doesn't look messy at all. Good job staying organized. Notice how most of my notes were on choices and not fundamentals. That's perfect since you are in the polish stage. If you would like me to check it out again let me know and I'll gladly do it. Touch on these notes then I can look deeper into your timing and spacing after there is nothing to distract my eye. Keep on going!

-Daniel Gonzales

Critique: Animation in Dancing

 (This was an email to a friend critiquing and trying to solve the problems in their animation assignment, enjoy and I hope it gives insight for those of you who seek it)

Hey, 

 

       So first I'll tell you how bad it is.. Then I'll tell you how bad it is specifically. all the while showing solutions and the thinking behind my decisions. Bc no body wants to read about someone JUST talking shit... ppl want their intellect stimulated.. along with a side of shit talking. haha

      Your animation is 75% there. But 25% kills the whole piece because I can see and feel some parts where it does not move physically realistic. But 75 percent of it does move right and that's not a bad thing :) Some parts are actually very nice.. and I could definitely see that some parts you either haven't touched or you do not know what decision to make and your just moving stuff for the sake of moving it...  

      Biggest flaw in your animation is: You move in diagonals and not arcs most of the time...

      -So about animation. Ima tear apart your root (which is the bottom of the torso, around the hips).

-From frames X13-X18  (X means frame in our lil animation world) 

      Your body is lifted in a way where it is not realistically possible. No way your toes can lift a body up. You must try to get the body over the LEG so that the balls of the feet and the body are more lined up. YOU get to chose whether thats the right foot you want to favor or the left. Your Frame X10 works just fine. but it's when you raise your body up you get unbalanced.. such as frame X14. So these drawings show one solution: stay over the screen right leg.

      The other solution would be to go immediately over the screen Left leg and then raise up. You would have to dip the body and already start moving to the Left around X11 so that at least by X15 you are above your Screen Left leg and are just raising straight up bc your weight is centred and the other leg is there helping as well. This might all be sounding confusing but all I am doing is describing arcs. Simple :)

-Frames X83-X87 

      looks like he's doing some chris angel magician floating shit. haha Maybe it's like that in your reference but this doesn't cut it visually here on a 2D screen with CG characters. In the next drawing is a solution.

-Frames X106-X110  

      You are fine... but then your root (body) slows down magically in mid air by X114 and then the next two frames after X114 you speed up again to land. no no no..  like a bouncing ball your spacing must reflect the physics of the movement. A ball does not slow down as it is past it's apex. If your slow down was meant to be 'hang time' well it comes too late. :P

( For those who do not know what the 'Bouncing Ball" reference is: it's all the tiny baby poo fundamentals of animation in one assignment called the "bouncing ball". always to be referenced for animation 101)

    Your other jumps that come after kind of do the same as they land the spacing gets a lil muddy just like the first. Remember the spacing is greatest before it lands. Just like a bouncing ball and we are just talking about your root. If this root's spacing and arcs is off, forget about getting good spacing/arcs on shoulders, head, arms, knees, you might be able to fake it and force good spacing on the rest of these body parts, but like i said, you would be forcing... and not letting it happen on it's own. Think of it like sex :)

-Frame X160-X163 

      You go straight up... then from frame X163 to X170 you do some levitation wizard shit. DIAGONALLY. so you go straight up with a diagonal, you know what your are giving me a triangle... no bueno.. gimmie some sort of sexy arc here. Here is a aLL in one example. Look at my arc of the line I drew. see how my root and head roughly follow it? and I even saw that you tried to do some overshoot at the end. Very nice, but it doesn't work because the movement before does not flow into it. Movement especially dance is like water, every arc and graceful movement must flow into the next, just a bunch of smooth slow in and ease outs with some sexy arcs slapped on for structure.

_______________________________________________________

    -Next I will only talk about your head. it just needs to either lead or overlap correctly. always having some sort of arc.. Once your arcs on your root are set then you will be fine bc your head will be riding off those arcs. I'm only going to give you one example and I hope it is clear enough were you can apply it to the rest of the piece. Lets use the last Frames X160 to X17Oish... I will just draw it...

     This will never work with the root you have now. but it will work once you fix it. you see how the head is dragging as it comes up and as it goes down? and them comes up at the end? 

frames X90 -X99 

     Also is a place where your head kills me :(  I bet you graph editor has two knots. One around 90 and one around X99 and it is pretty linear diagonal. that will explain the evenness in it's movement (mechanical) pull out some handles to get me an ease in or an ease out. USE THOSE HANDLES WOMAN :) add some texture to that head move. Maybe starts fast and ends slow or vice versa! or something! Throw a dog a bone here. haha

     I hope this helps a little. Remember these are not the only way to do things and this is HOW I would try to fix them. There are other ways. My way is by no means the best way or the only way. 

     When you first come out of your blocking the root and the head should be your first priority. And it might not be enough to just get it smooth. SMOOTH from now on does not exist in your vocabulary. Smooth is replaced with arcs and ease ins and ease outs. :) all this info should be nothing new and be stuff you already know but are learning how to apply

     Best of luck and do share this with ------ and the others. they might really benefit from it. bc you guys should be really trying to help each other. It's WAAY easier to solve other peoples work than your own. 

-Daniel Gonzales

Rhythm, Tilt and Twist - Glen Keane

     Today I stood about five feet from a man who knows how to draw. You might think that a lot of people know how to draw.. But Glen Keane KNOWS how to draw. I listened for a few hours to all his knowledge and insight and it was very inspirational to see him draw and talk. Even though it seems as the drawing magically flows from his pencil, there is no magic, there are no tricks. Even Glen himself stressed that all he is doing is basic drawing principles.

      It might be comforting to imagine that good drawing takes deep understanding of the cosmos and the insight of line and only deities such as Glen Keane are genius enough to penetrate the mysteries of the pencil... (and all the animation geeks start slobbering on cue)
     But isn't it more empowering and motivating to know he accomplishes these great flawless drawings based on a few drawing principles we all learned in college? The only difference is that he executes THE PRINCIPLES while the most of us forget them.

Glen Kleane stressed three words over and over.. Rhythm, Tilt, and Twist. When a drawing looks bad, it most likely lacks either one or more (rhythm,tilt, or twist) DANNY WHAT DO THESE WORDS MEAN?? TELL US HIS SECRETS!!!


RHYTHM: (see picture above and below) The over all movement of the drawing. IT IS NOT the line of action. The line of action is a huge understatement of what rhythm is. Rhythm is how each line curves into the next. And how each line contributes to the over all shape of the drawing. Glen Keane used a river as an analogy. He said imagine that you view a river from above, and you see the curves and the bends the water makes and how the landscape controls where the water flows. Everything works together to give the river it's overall rhythm. So in a drawing, every line flows and curves into each other creating a rythm. it'll capture your eyes lead it around the drawing in a sort of dance.


TILT: A very basic principle, if your hips are tilted one way, your shoulders are tilted the other way, and then your head is tilted the opposite way etc etc. Glen said if you ever have a stiff drawing, it's most likely because it lacks tilt.



Twist: Instead of standing figure looking at you straight on you can add some twist to it. The legs are one way, while the torso is facing another.. You can draw lines suggesting the 3D Form of your character even though it is literally a flat drawing.




       It was a real treat watching Glen Keane draw in person. it was fun watching people geek out over Glen Keane in person. I'm never one to geek out over people like Glen or Deja. Even when I first started working at Pixar and I would see Pete or John walking around. I wasn't raised on animation. I'm not an animation geek nor do I really worship any ones style in art. I respect and am interested in artists and recognize when they are VERY talented.. but these people are just people. They are artists and you all have the same potential inside of you to do what they do. It when you start to worship these artist like gods that you disconnect with their art. You imagine their art to be heaven sent when in reality it's made with human hands.. just like yours. Do not distance yourself and your dreams by imagining that there's a kingdom where only great artist live, great artist look like you and me and live in one bedroom apartments too. So next time you are about to geek out, try to calm down and breathe... because people can smell someone geeking out a mile away and it's not sexy at all. Stay classy.

-Daniel Gonzales

A Critique of Blocking

Here is a recent critique I did. Thought I'd share because it deals with the blocking stage of animation, and people always fine this the hardest part to get through. So hope this gives insight.

Next post on (SOME TIME BEFORE FRIDAY) will be my side animation I've been working on.

THE LETTER in raw form:

Hey ______,

      Very very entertaining. Things to tweak but not things that you missed. Just PUSHING things you already touched upon. Which is very good. This means you are not missing the point and there for do not have to learn anything from scratch. So far so good _____. 

So in this long ass critique, I'ma talk about two things. SELLING YOUR IDEA and ANIMATION. The latter being just regular animation notes and the first one is mostly about your CHOICES, not your technique. Second one skill, first one Personal. Cool? ok.. here we go...

SELLING YOUR ANIMATION-

    Your audience is number one number one number one. You are doing character animation so your audience by default is number one. Character animation isn't conceptual or just animation for animations sake, you are doing it for your audience. 

    Your idea gets across. it's gum. on a shoe.. and he wants it off. YAY, but don't pop champagne bottles over this just yet. As a character animator to get the idea across is NOT THE POINT. (And if you get ANY ONE THAT SAYS OTHER WISE give them my address so they can come to MY HOUSE and I can tell them personally. [bc I'm not going to go waste my time going to their house to tell them something I know..]) I repeat, to get the idea across in an animation is not the FINISH LINE. You have to make us experience with the character what the character itself is feeling. The point as a character animator is to make us Feel what the character is feeling. And we do this by emphasizing story points and having good acting with correct timing to compliment the mood. Movement has texture that highlights whats important and what is not. everything works together like how all the muscles in the arm, back, and torso controls a ballerina's delicate arm motions during a performance. 

Ok, Now to business. ~FRAME 51: this pose. THE MONEY POSE, this is the pose your whole assignment is revolving around. very nice. Clear silhouette. BUT you only give it 12 frames for the audience to register it. You need more. Here's why:

-You give the walk more than 20 frames..You give 37 frames to pose after he looks at his foot (the OH SHIT WHY ME pose i call it). 25 frames are given to the nice entertaining walk to the edge of the curb.. You give 20 some odd frames to him scrapping the curb with the bottom of his shoe.. 30 frames to scraping the sidewalk with his shoe at the end.

    Just about every action is given more attention than the crucial pose on frame 51.. You give it 12 frames AND you still have to ease into it so i say you actually have given it 6 frames. So when starting an assignment here's what I look at.

'Can I take out this Pose/Action and the assignment still make sense?'

      There are only 2 poses/actions in your shot that if we took out, would cripple your shot: The Walk and The First Look underneath the shoe. Everything else is icing on the cake. So priority is always to be given to these two poses. the walk is fine. :) but you neglect the Look at the Shoe pose like a little red headed step child. haha. Give it more time and you'll be fine. 

    PS. I know your limit is 200 frames, I'm not insensitive to that, and I do recognize the feet sliding at the end is actually some of the most entertaining animation you have in this assignment.. My solution?  You have TWO foot scrapes on the side of the curb.. Make it ONE. Take that time and add it to hold your story telling pose (first look underneath foot)

That's just one note.. hahaha

(DISREGARD this note because I just found out that the eyes cannot be animated.)

Ok second note. I know i know you are short on frames. Other wise I would say to make the second look underneath the foot longer. BUT you can't. bc of restrictions.. doesn't mean we over look the note. Can his eye's be animated in any way more than a blink? If so, please atleast show him get angry in that pose (only in the eyes) it would really compliment the last foot sliding action. The foot sliding action right now comes out of no where (which is funny) but you can not REALLY make it come out of nowhere. everything needs a lil anticipation. so his eyes getting angry (that the gum is still there) is his anticipation to scrapping the shit out of the gum until it dies :)

Other than these two notes I hesitate to say more. bc I really want your idea to shine and be made to work. This is where as commentator I have to recognize I am ONLY a commentator and not the animator of this shot. I am to improve it not change it to make it my own. Only supply changes that can help make it stronger. 

I won't talk too much of specific animation notes bc this is just blocking. Just watch your arcs. (heels, torso, hips, shoulders, head, knees.. EVERYTHING in other words) watch momentum (inertia), and remember to keep your poses and not lose your timing when you move forward with this. 

ONE real fast animation note. The foot scrape on the side of the curb.. very nice. nice leg animation and head animation... even good side to side hip animation! BUT try doing that action in real life... to keep your torso at that height with out going up and down during scraping GUM of the bottom of your shoe... not possible... unless it was a sissy scrape...

So watch out for that. When doing a physical action YOUR TORSO WILL ALWAYS BE MOVING. every avar. even if it's just a little. Never should be flat flat flat in your graph editor. so watch out for that.

Hope everything goes well. I am very excited for this shot and look forward to seeing you progress on it. Your going to do fine.This blocking already kicks ass as it is.

PS.. ima post this on my blog..

:)

Daniel Gonzales III