COMPOSITION 101: Balance

     "OMG danny, Where the hell have you been?" 

      -Don't worry I'm back. I just had to give 110 percent to this class I'm teaching and had to put the blog on the back burner.  But that sissy era of non-multitasking is done, time to get this blog back up and running (but odd fact of the day: This last month I had the most views I have ever had and I didn't even post anything!!!.. what does it mean) 



BALANCE 101

      One of the first things I learned about art was by accident. I was in 6th grade, drawing my awkwardness away, when I noticed that some arrangements of things I drew worked better than others. I didn't know how but they just did.. The drawings were pleasing to look at! Looking back I can now say I was noticing good composition and balance skills in the making :) But some people don't have that epiphany, so I thought I'd do a little post about: BALANCE

Definition: (here's a definition I found online, lets take a look)

(noun) - As a basic principle of art (specifically of design), balance refers to the ways in which the elements (lines, shapes, colors, textures, etc.) of a piece are arranged. Balance is one of those useful terms to know, if one is to employ Art Speak. (If you want to sound artsy, learn how and when to use balance. Do not go into an art school saying: This Lendo fool decided to drink more to be balance and not feel it.)

Balance can be symmetrical ("formal"), where elements are given equal "weight" from an imaginary line in the middle of a piece. For the most basic example of symmetry, think of your eyes in relation to either side of your nose.

SYMMETRY

Balance doesn't necessarily mean symmetry, though. Asymmetrical ("informal") balance occurs when elements are placed unevenly in a piece, but work together to produce harmony overall.

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Confused? Symmetry is balance, but symmetry doesn't happen in nature so its not as appealing than Asymmetry. Even with a seemingly unbalanced image, one still has to be able to visually balance an image using elements of design. A few are elements of design commonly used when balancing an image. 

1. shapes and their proportions 
2. Your frame: what you crop and choose to show
3. negative space
4. contrast in value
5. breaking these rules: creates tension and unease.

Rule of thirds is the easiest way to help balance your image, putting your image smack dab in the middle is technically a balanced image but that doesn't mean it is interesting. When you come up with creative ways to balance your image: such as rule of thirds, it adds interest to your image. Below is an example. 

As long as there's no context, The image on the Right has a balance that is more interesting than the image on the left.

Rule of threes: Odd number of subjects in your image will always be more interesting than an even number. Even number of objects suggests symmetry. When there is an odd number of objects the eye will assign arrangements for the subjects. 

Balancing an image with space, usually this technique is another way of using the rule of thirds. Another way of thinking about the rule of thirds is that you are balancing the image, not with objects but with space, If you put the object on one side of the paper and if there is enough space on the other side, then your picture will be balanced. You can also create space with simplifying the image

More examples     
       A quick search of the interweb and I found these images.  They demonstrate balance in a very simple way: Here are two squares on a white plane. a smaller square that has more contrast can balance more space than a small dull square. The less contrast a square has the larger the square has to be.  The same applies for a square of color. 

....A complicated shape has the same effect as well as texture. 

     So it's a simple context but it can be difficult to master. When you are unsure if your image is balanced, you have to go with the aesthetics of the image (Aesthetics is a fancy word that basically can mean: what your gut really thinks about the image) If it feels wrong, then your image is probably unbalanced. If you are still unsure ask somebody! Receiving feedback is the best way to check if your work is communicating your idea. 

WILDCARDS!!  Test yourself.. are these images balanced??

Hope you enjoyed the post! If you are interested in the online classes I teach please feel free to email me about them. I also will post when my next class starts, so check back in once in a while :)

-Danny Gonzales

GRAPH EDITOR: when you are panicking

Animator specific post...

     Graph Editor Tricks that I have found my self using. One is for when I am animating in stepped and the Other trick is for when I'm animating Layered. (stepped is when your graph editor does not allow your splines to curve and keeps looking like steps, layered is a way of animating when you FEEL the animation and its timing from the root out)

     I'm not here to debate which way of animating is better, I'm not about to regress into a school girl type of shouting match. I'm just going to give two tricks I find my self using often and the help me out a lot. Actually.. they've saved my ass more time than I care to admit :)


     So.. lets say you are animating Layered, so happy that you are getting results super fast and you even dare to think you might actually finish before the deadline. But soon you perfect start disappears and soon you animation is muddy, your timing is wrong, your takes melt into each other and nothing is left of your initial timing! You were almost done but now you don't know what to do. There are hitches in the arms, the nose arcs and you even discover you have problems in your root! What are you going to do?

What I do is:

I do hope this makes sense. The numbers at the bottom are frames on the time line.

     So I kind of start over but keep my 'blue print' of what my animation once was. I use the buffer curves (ghost curves) to guide me. I go through each curve pretty fast and double check its right and working well with the curves before it on the hierarchy. Doing this process saves more time than actually trying to fix everything while all the body parts are moving. And most of the time you don't even know that the curves you are fixing are responsible for the pops or bad timing in the first place. So that's why once you remove all the curves from sight and slide them back one by one, you easily come across the bad curves that were messing everything up. Its a bit tedious but it goes by fast. and you know once you are done, you have done everything you could have done and that leaves you feeling satisfied.


     The other situation where I use one of my tricks (well I wouldn't call it a trick, its more a piece of advice) is when I'm animating in stepped. Usually I'm pretty far along with my animation and I'm ready to start splining and making my curves smooth when I realize when that making my curves smooth is LOOSING all my timing etc. Now I'm faced with a choice: Do I continue smoothing out my stepped curves and FIGURE it out like how us good little animators were taught?? Or do i say fuck it and just keep animating in stepped?

I say Fuck it!... bad choice of words danny.. bad choice..

     BUT DANNY why would you animate like that? I don't make this decision out of laziness all the while as I am adding breakdowns I have my eye on the graph editor watching the curves FORM as breakdowns and poses are added and added. once I can see the curves develop more defined, then I will start to clean them up (all the while in stepped) Eventually my animation will be on 2's 3's and 4's here and there. This method keeps my timing and I spend more time animating than fighting with the graph editor. I never allow my graph editor to become messy and I never ignore my curves. I baby sit them the whole way still using as little controls as I can while getting the most out of them.

    These are my methods, they are not wrong, they are not right, but they allow me to finish my animation. It works for me and I encourage that if these methods do not seem to help you, you will search for a way that does. Many times I see a lot of great blocking and Ideas turn into mush and then becomes forever lost in the graph editor.


    Internship deadlines are coming fast in the spring, I wish all of you who are applying to places the best of luck and happy holidays! I guess I should mention here that I will be trying out tutoring after the new years. Not online tutoring but a real legit person to person hands on tutoring. I'll see how it goes. It might be cool it might actually be a utter complete business failure :) I'll do a post in a few days with more details about my plans for this... experiment!

GRAPH EDITOR: Off Setting 101

This post is for animation Students but hopefully it gives some insight to non-animation artists for those who are looking for it.  
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Dear Curves,

Die.

-A Student
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      I could write 100 blog posts about the graph editor (graph editor is a tool animators use to move and adjust their characters in the computer. ) but no amount of lectures will substitute raw first hand experience. You have to get frustrated and go through your OWN epiphanies. In my experience with the graph editor I have come across a few tricks/understandings. In this post I will share one of my understandings with you. I will keep it short for I find when something is over explained, it can make a simple subject very confusing.

OFFSETTING in animation:
      -When you break up the moving parts of the body to help show that there are different muscles working at different times to achieve one giant general movement. In the graph editor that just translates to: shifting your curves so that they all are not working at the same time. This is something everyone knows but its tricky to get it to look RIGHT/or ORGANICALLY in your animation for someone who is still learning.
      My tip is, even though we are taught that when things start and end at the same time is bad, TECHNICALLY under the hood (graph editor) it needs to happen at some level. If you look below you will see a very simple turn. (All we will focus on is the body and the head). When you first offset a curve it might look like the example on the lower left hand side of the page I have provided below. Most new students will leave that as is and then wonder why their animation has hitches and pops. You must remember that EVERYTHING moves on the human body at the same time, but somethings move more than others; which gives the illusion that somethings are not moving at all.

My drawings of the curves might not be accurate but its the concept I am trying to get across. 

     So do you notice how my curves will start moving at the same time? Though the curve for the head 'takes off' before the other curve for the head does. The body curve is moving at first but only very very slightly, then it slopes up to catch up to the head curve. When you make the curves harmonize and 'wait for each other' before coming back to a 'flat' stop, it will help with making your movements feel less mechanical and broken. 
   
EXTRA TIP for a head turn: Using counter animation to your advantage. If you look at the next picture, you will see a situation where you are forced to use counter animation.

       Below: Is how that curve will look in the graph editor. Notice how the 'hump' in the head curve doesn't extend the amount of frames needed but works within the frames given. in maya terms: All you need to do is set a key 3/4th of the way through the head turn and then raise it up in the graph editor.

     I can go more into why I believe these tricks work and, how should i put it.. I can talk more THEORY on the subject but I shall leave you with the solid basics and spare you the dense explanations. Try experimenting with these curves yourself. Adjust according to your needs. My drawings are not accurate to real situations but the curves are drawn only to get the point across. Take my tips and make them your own, you might discover better ways to accomplish what I'm trying to teach here. My way by far is not the right way or the only way. I do hope this helps for those that might be struggling with their fundamentals.

-Danny

WRECK IT RALPH: sketches

WRECK IT RALPH

     I hope you all have gone and seen the movie! It was a lot of fun helping create such a fun film. I thought I 'd share some sketches I did while on the film. They are just little doodles and chicken scratches on post it notes and toss away pieces of paper.

ONE of my first sketches of ralph... when I actually had time to draw

'BUT DANNY TELL US SOMETHING INTERESTING?!'
     Hmm, Well working on the film feels like you and your co-workers are on a giant boat. Everyone has their job to do and something to help out with. You learn and become close with your 'crew' bc you end up seeing them more than anyone else, even your family and loved ones. So they in some sense.. a sort of family to you as well.
     And just like a real boat there are rough times and easy times. During the harsh times, there is no sleep, everyone is hard at work, we are all stressed, and it feels like there is no end in sight. Smooth times always come early on in the making of the film. It'll ramp up and get busy until a climatic few weeks of overtime and hell... and then.. its done. Then you have to remember how to live life again and find out what were your old hobbies, and remember that people exist outside of your work life. And you have to be social! (unless you can not remember how to be social by this point)
    Watching the world react to the film through Facebook and reading the reviews in all the magazines is a pretty crazy feeling. It's kind of having a venerable sort of feeling in your gut as you read what people say about the movie. Last but not least, seeing your name in the credits.. makes a landmark checkpoint of emotion that causes me to reflect and see how far I've come and to be excited about the future. I have a lot of life to live and my road is just getting started.

      There was always something to do! It left very little time for drawing, but the sticky notes above I did while animating those characters. Drawing on post it notes is a very good way to become detached to your drawing and let loose. You find yourself drawing very fast with out being precious about each little line you do. And even though that line isn't perfect, there is some energy captured in it that no amount of fiddling and perfection would repeat.

      Animating Vanelope was very fun. I was intimidated by her a lot until I was given a few shots with her.  Vanelope has a very cartoony 2D appeal to her that we always had to be aware of. Not as much as king candy but still a decent amount.

Sometimes when I'm stuck I figure out my problems with drawings

     I spent most of my time animating in Sugar Rush as you might figure out if you look at the ratio of candy racer drawings to everything else. I also animated a lot of characters in the Game Central Station, the Felix party in the beginning of the movie and at the climax of the movie. I do have a lot more sketches but I'll save them for another post. I hope you all enjoyed the movie and make sure to watch it a second time to find all the hidden things in the back ground (hint: look at the graffiti on the walls in game central station)

Wreck-it-Ralph and tips for Crunch Time at a Studio

 
       Crunch time is over! I've been gone working at Walt Disney Animation Studios helping animate their next upcoming film, Wreck-it-Ralph. I can't say anything new about it other than whats already out there on the inter-webs but I can say that you've never seen a movie like this before. It's going to be a fun one to watch the world react to it. Already I'm starting to see a lot of Ralph around LA.


TIPS FOR CRUNCH TIME:
-sanity_going out,fun and food
-drive_dont give up bc you have 2 hr of unproductiveness
-concentration-turn off internet
-strategize_when to show, control image of yourself


SANITY
      Hey, remember what it was like to have a life? To go out, actually have time to sleep? Maybe even entertain a hobby?? most people who under a crunch time do not. You do not want to be one of those people. If it's a friday night, you got work tomorrow, but everyone kinda wants to go out and grab a drink at a bar... GO. BAar scene isn't your thing? Who cares, GO!! You benefit in two ways bc of this. One: you give yourself a break form the work-home-work routine. You spend some time with co-workers and keep your social skills up. Two: Remember, you get animation ideas from real life, so go out and live a little.
     Do not underestimate what your body can handle. You can easily go to sleep at 1 and wake up at 7:30 to get up and go to work. 6 hour sleep is just fine to recharge.





DRIVE
     Working hard all day, 6 o'clock hits and you still have a lot of work to do... so you stay 2 more hours and you realize you're not getting anything done. Now you have a choice: the tempting, "I should just go home and tackle this in the morning, I've been staring too long at this." Or my choice: you put your head down and power throw this 2 hour artist block bc sooner or later your mind gives up on procrastination and says, "FINE DANNY, I'll work I'll work just as long as you promise to go home after this" Sometimes I have unproductive hours but I dont give up, I work through them and sooner or later I get a second wind and complete a lot of work!

Remember all your work pays off. Pull your weight, you are now part of a team

CONCENTRATION
      You don't have time for a 2 hour artist block? Your shot is due in an 1 and a half hours and you barely finished blocking???? I go into a code red mode, I turn all chrome, safari, internet explorers OFF. emails turn off, iphones go in the drawer, heads phone go in the ears but have no music (keeps people from talking to you and block out noise)  ..This is my code read I have to get shit done mode. Its not fun but you turn up your productivity 200%

STRATEGIZE
      Probably one of the most important topics in this post, you only learn this through experience but I'll try my best to explain this.
     You are in control of how people see you and your work. Here's an example of bad control: You might be a perfectly capable animator but you show too early all the time. Then you do not show until you have polished your shot.
      I would say this is a bad strategy. Here is why, when you show early and its too under-baked, this is the image and memory you are leaving your supervisor with. And even if you turn your animation into a wonderful finished piece a week later, you left them with all that time with an image/memory of crude bad animation. The memory of the wonderful animation you just turned in will be erased once you show blocking two days later and its crude and too early once again.
      Another tip, Do not have facebook up when people walk by, let them see you working THEN bring up your facebook page even if they are there. These might be little differences but it can mean the difference of - "oh he's always on facebook and only works when im around." or "he's always working, ah he's just checking facebook. cool"
     -Always show strong work, with a lot of information and breakdowns. Give your supervisor as much information in your animation as they need so they can give correct accurate notes. Do not be afraid of doing a lot of work and then changing your animation. Do not be afraid of doing surgery on your splines and blowing stuff away and redoing it. Its your job. Don't treat your animation as if it's precious, it's the directors idea so be ready to change things at a moments notice. Always do your best. If you ever have a bad dailies or a bad drive by, make sure the next time you show makes up for that, make sure its GOOD. You don't want to be the guy who always has problems with their animation.

be aware of where you fit in your team. are you helping out, are you dead weight?  Do they really need me? What am I bringing to the table...

      Thanks for reading. We wont be starting on the next film for a while, expect a lot of new posts weekly and please don't be shy in sending new me work to check out! Whether its animation, short stories, drawings etc!

Danny What have you been doing??

Quite a few things!!!


      If you haven't noticed I have not posted in about a month now. This last month has been quite a bit crazy for me. Disney is going strong with their movie WRECK IT RALPH. Which I just say it's teaser... AMAZING. I definitely look forward for all of you seeing it. The animation is top notch and this film will look amazing. On the side I also got to get my hands on the Rapunzel and Flynn rig and do a dialogue test with them. 


but for now for the real reason that I've been so busy...

Directing

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
     In November/December I jumped on board a project my friend Ted Hayden was thinking about, it was a live-action short film. (In our business we say LIVE action or Animated film as to not confuse the two)

      In this post I'll share with you the madness, sweat, and insight I had being an animator in a live action production.

     NOVEMBER: Ted Hayden,

     he's a guy I met in college, he moved out here to LA a little while before me and since then has worked on sets and done a handfull of short films of which a few he has earned awards for in festivals and awards.
     Ted asked me to help him on his next short, he wants to focus on being a DP (cinematographer) and doesn't want to worry about anything else. which is where I come in, he wants me to direct. "What do I have to do?" Ted says to come up with a story and help out with shots and design. "OH, story board the film!!??"  ted says.. um yes. Story board. Like how the Coen Brother's do it...

     (this was my first animation reference. Story boards are a huge huge part of animated films as well for animators when they do them in thumbnail form. Storyboarding is doing many drawings of your film in it's entirety from concept to individual shots. A lot of Live action isn't done with a lot of story boards)

     DECEMBER: I draw out the film and we meet at least once a week to discuss things I really have never dealt with before. Here is an example of a miss communication.
-'Budget' ted says
"What the hell do you mean budget? Are you hungry? I could spot you for lunch..."
-"No haha, I mean how much money can you throw down on this film??"

     You see... being an animator, all I need is a pencil and some animation paper, and if im poor at the time, then just blank sheets of paper. I dont really have to spend more than $40 but here we are talking about props, renting out lights and equipment, food for people, gas to drive out to location, money money money....

     And the most obvious one that hit me hard, we have to pay to feed people and reimburse them for any expenses they make while working with us...

     WTF! I yelled.. and when Ted added up and started trying to list all the things we were going to need to do and get, he started going bald and dropped to the corner in the fetal position... Then he said we need a production manager! Enter SUNDAY WANG.. We could of not done this short with out him. He was amazing. I would say something like, 'I need our bad guy to wear this that and this, I need wine glasses and a fully dressed diner table for this scene and by the way, we need to find more drivers to carry the equipment tomorrow. OH AND did you find the location for the final sequence of the movie??"

-"yes, i got it, don't worry about it."

Sunday was also our Stunt double...

     Thats all he would say. Sunday was a BOSS. He's very good at what he does (which is that he wants to produce)  He really helped smooth out the production in this short. It was still crazy for me even with Sunday handling a lot of the stressful things. Such as when I had to decide camera shots and what color should our heros jacket should be and when Sunday would ask, 'what hair style do you want the actor to have... My responce was: askdhalsdkjhfldaskj !  shit i don't know, um.. as long as it's not dreadlocks??  but I had to choose because as director you have to decide every little detail or at least give the OK on it.
     In animation it's much easier to make decisions, all I have to do is draw and color with pencils and I'm done. So from time to time when I couldn't talk camera equipment language, I would draw something  and tell Ted- use what ever lens gets you THIS SHOT/ or make sure you get the lighting that looks like THIS...  It really did feel like two people speaking two different languages at some points during this process..


     JANUARY: We did our location scouts, we got out actors, we have our equipment ($40,000 worth of equipment if we broke it or lost it all...) and everything else we might need... time to start shooting..

     OUR FIRST MISTAKE and many other difficulties...

    (thinking we could EASILY finish shooting over 2 weekends..) Which we did finish but we should of done it over 4 weekends! It was really cool working with Ted and the cameras, because you can immediately play back something you shot on film and see if it was right or not. And if it was right, then
that was it! 10 seconds of film done! (in animation this would take weeks, so i was very pleased)

      BUT... When preparing a shot, I would be very eager and say, 'ok, so this one is easy! Lets do it real quick to move on!" So I would run to the location where the camera was suppose to be and start directing ted where to point and what to capture with his camera. Little did I know he was still back by the car messing with his camera.."TEEEDDD, what are you doing, come over here lets shoot!"
-I'm getting the FILTERS ready and setting up! these things TAKE TIME!
-Fuck! How much longer??
-Just HOLD ON.. so then after 10 long minutes he would set up his sticks (tripod) and set the camera where it was suppose to go...
-Ok ted ready? Ok lets do this!
-WAIT, im not ready.. im setting my marks and focusing...

     By this point I think regrettably punched a cactus or something... In animation I am use to just diving right in and drawing at a moments notice and start working on a shot.. In Live action it takes an awfully painstakingly long time to prepare for a shot, EVERY DIFFERENT SHOT! But I learned and got use to it.
    I also got use to 16 hour work days and being very tired all the time...

     All in all there was many little things like that that would pop up once in a while. there was a lot of improvising when a reflection of the sun glasses prevented us from getting a close up shot of our hero because our reflections would be in the shot.. that was frustrating. There was this one take that took us 4-5 hours to take and we did it 30 times.. that was a hard day. But we had an amazing crew, Ted did a great job realizing all my story boards and my vision and solving ways to do my impossible camera shots. (even doing a dangerous hanging out the trunk while driving 50 MPH with only a rope holding him in place..)

     We are still editing the film as I type this post and probably will not be done until another 3 weeks. I'm excited to see the film finally start to come together. It was a huge learning curve to deal with lighting a scene and figuring out what the hell was a kino and a flag.. Why do we need sand bags, the pain of being your own grips, and also learning to hate the words,'Don't worry about it, we'll put it in the budget.!'

  I will keep you updated on the progress of this film because we will eventually send it to festivals and try very hard to make it look like a very well done film. Wish us luck!!!!

-Danny