The Magic of Timing and Texture

Timing: is the time when something happens or the spacing of events in time.
Texture (Music): is the way the melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic materials are combined in a composition

       The understanding of these words will help your work like how toilet paper helps you out when you really need it...

Seriously..
     The use of Timing can sell a point or emphasize a moment. The use of Texture can communicate a feeling or can be used to build and keep interest in a piece over time. These words by them selves are concepts but with a medium applied you can get an experience.
     Usually these two concepts are used to help improve the piece of animation or film, but rarely do you see an artist try to show off Timing and Texture all by themselves, or at least give them the spot light. It's a hard thing to do.. so DO IT. Walt Disney gave it a shot with the movie Fantasia. He did it with the help of classical pieces of music and great animators. In the film Fantasia, Disney uses traditional animation with western story telling as well as some abstract conceptual animation. The experience of the animation was amplified using the perfect timing and texture of the classical music. But Disney wasn't the first to do this and he wasn't the last.
     This is a recent piece form Director Joe Write. He uses color and light as his medium. (I wasn't able to embed this video so here is the link) It kicks ass... or.. um.. .. your eye's and ear's asses...  ?

AMAZING TIMING AND COLORS and TEXTURE

     If you do not know what is so special about the video in the link above, you need to STOP (breathing) and find out from someone who likes music. Maybe this next short will help you out. This short doesn't only use color and shapes with timing and texture, it uses characters.. but not in the way you might expect. One thing that makes this short stick out to me is that it still not only keeps your attention with very nice use of timing and texture, but it has a thought behind it, a message to say. Which I think saying something or expressing a thought is always the full potential of any medium. Here is David O'Reilly,


The External World from David OReilly on Vimeo.

      If that wasn't your cup of tea, ..don't drink it. But still learn the importance of Timing and Texture. That's all for today and I swear I swear I'm going to load my animation up soon. But crunch time working on cars2 keeps me late at the studio, so THAT takes priority over the blog.. hope you understand.

-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

How do I do a Short?

No sleep... No food.. No football on TV... No bathroom breaks... No social life.. No woman..

WAIT!.. You got to draw the line somewhere but not that far. I need My Woman..

      Where was I? oh yea, a lot of no's.. What I'm trying to say is that you need to keep your eye on the finish line. You don't necessarily have to give all of those things I mentioned up when trying to finish your work, but you HAVE to be prepared to give them up if they stand in the way of your work. As for me? I have a good balance of everything. I'll still go out to catch a screening of True Grit for the second time even when I have something due in a week. I'm not a hermit, but then again I know my limits and how hard I can push myself if needed so I can afford to spend that time on superficial pleasures :)

     Do you know how hard you can push yourself? What's your breaking point? You don't know?? Then you better break yourself now before you accidently break yourself when you least want to. I know I can animate for 4 days with 3 hours of sleep (and I never the fuck want to do that again..) I broke and I have eye witnesses if you need them to vouch for me. They say I wasn't a human being, I was a zombie shell of who I used to be. I looked tore up from the floor up...  Knowing my limit, I found my comfort working zone (5 hours). I most of the time do from 9PM to 2AM in the morning animating and still wake up at nine. (that's pushing it) but still I know I can do those hours no problem. FIND OUT YOUR LIMITS OF WHAT YOUR BODY CAN HANDLE. That's information you will find the most helpful when you need to weigh how bad crunch time is going to be and how much work you can realistically finish in a given amount of time. 

Right now I am doing a short on the side. It is about 19 seconds long and done on paper. I started January 3rd and plan on finishing around Feb 4th. Here is some photos from like one or two weeks ago..

      You might notice some small pieces of paper on the lower left hand side.. that's the perfectionist in me. I plan every frame before I ever draw a line. If I'm using music or a sound clip I need to figure out any patterns or irregularities there might be, I need to dissect it and plot it out so I can see it clearly. This way I can plan my animation movements and acting choices accordingly to make the most out of it. I use a lot of math and precise measurements to make sure everything is timed out and matches my drawings. A bit dorky but if I wouldn't have it any other way. This allows me to animate it ONCE and only once and nail it the first time I down shoot my animation. For example.. If you are familiar with my work, the animation called 'Death and Beauty' was done in one try. (over a period of 2 weeks) If your planning and math is right.. then your animation will right. Most of animation is physics (weight, inertia, potential, and kinetic energy, etc).. If you are lucky enough to of listened during high school, then animation should be a breeze... 

       And to the right of those papers that you will see I animate on ONE sheet of paper before I start 'animating' for real. I need to work all the arcs and poses on top of each other to make sure they work with each other and adjust their spacing in needed. This way when I start animating I know EXACTLY what I need to draw. The exploring and mistakes are done when I start on animating frame by frame. Why waste time and paper when you can plan it out before hand? 

This picture above is once I started 'animating'.. yes I BLAST my music when I animate. though I do only play music with the same tempo as the action I am animating... if I am doing something hard, fast and physical, maybe some Ice Cube will be playing on my itunes.. If my character is moving slow and mellow.. maybe some Jack Johnson. You get the idea. Music does affect your animation, even if you might not know it.. 

Ah.. walks... stupid stupid walks.. :) do not underestimate the walk. If your still in school, make sure you learn the 'walk' inside out and how to do all kinds of walk. I love walks, infinite kinds of walks, all different, yet they follow the same formula...

Here is one frame so you see how I draw my character with no clothes. I have to make sure I get the anatomy right and the weight. All the details can be put on later.. 

In two weeks I will post my animation. And then you'll have the chance to rip it apart. I hope this post helped those who might of needed it and gave insight to those who where just curious. Until next time,

-Daniel Gonzales

A Thinking Mind pt 3/3

So this is the 3 part of 3 in my rant about art. enjoy...

-Concepts In Art

        So in the last posts I spoke of how (fine) art cannot just look good but also needs have a thought behind it. You cannot just make pretty muffins as an artist. There is no message or thought in your product. The same goes with concept making, you cannot have only strong concepts and not be able to communicate that through your art. If a fine Art piece requires an artist statement in order to understand it, then the aesthetics are off thus failing as art.. Remember your work must be able to please the sences and at the same time make the audience think specifically what you intend them to think.
       You can't just be making concept after concept as if you were a philosopher then try to make art by slapping some dog shit on a canvas and then say, "This represents how the industry treats real artists..." That, I hope everyone would agree, is just a pile of crap on a canvass....  literally.

You must be both, the philosopher and the muffin maker to make a working aesthetic piece and have a concept.

summery- if the concept is strong- but it is presented badly... then FAIL. If it looks good but has no concept. .. why do you even bother creating things??

-More than a Concept
        It is not that simple just apply a concept and be done with your pretty piece.. Here's where I going to get a little dense. Regarding concepts and ideas pertaining to one's piece of art:
 -A piece of fine art induces much thought. BUT does not yield to the possibility of a definite thought, if it's just one idea then it's just a concept.

         Meaning, if your art piece says what it is meant to say right off the bat then the art piece is weak as a whole. The piece of art must invoke images and themes in your mind which surpass the ordinary experience. Remember a good piece of art you find yourself thinking about for a while. One doesn't need to be blunt and have that shock value in order to get one's thought across to his or her's audience. One doesn't need to spoonfeed their audience ideas, you let the art do the talking indirectly.

-You as an Artist
        As artists you might of notice sometimes we don't think the same as the general public does. In our minds there is cognition and imagination. In normal people cognition is the the regular, but not so in us, imagination is dominant. So think about what that allows you to do...

      -As Animators can create an emotion and a thought by just using body language. WALL-E did this for the whole first half an hour flawlessly.
      -As painter can make a composition and with a few colors you can set the whole mood of the painting.. Look at Van Goughs last painting he made before he committed suicide and I dare you to tell me there was no forshadowing...


'Wheatfield with Crows' - by Van Gogh, 1890: last weeks of his life

      -As a musician you can create great wonderful pieces with only six strings. You can create so much emotion with just sound...
And all the other artists out there are capable of so much as well. It is our imagination that allows us to do that. We can recompose the things around us, this allows artist to change the world around them. This is how humans surpass nature. With science, nature is never surprised by what we discover, but with Art nature is dumbfounded in our ability to create wholly never before seen things.

      Not only do we make concepts but we make them into experiences for others to feel. Thats what Art is. All together it becomes more than a concept, it becomes an aesthetic idea.

      A culture is only as great as it's artist and a civilization lives on through it's ideas and art. That's right. Feel that pressure. There are a lot of bad artist out there but nonetheless they are trying. It is up to you to bear humanities future in your creativity with simplicity and elegance.
     One last note before I end this, do not undervalue your personal tastes. 'Taste clips the wings of geniuses' Kant said this and rightly so. You can't just make pure imaginational nonsense. Your taste needs to be the deciding factor when trying to decide when a piece of work is done. When you are judging what stays and what goes, that's is your taste at work. The ability to stand back and evaluate your own art to your liking and from others perspective is crucial. Because it's useless if you have a million ideas but can not reflect on them, if that was the case you would forever combine all ideas all the time and make pure nonsense as long as you live.
So there.
     I hope I gave you enough to THINK about and that it helps you develop your own understanding about what it means to be an artist, to create art, and the idea of beauty.

     Now you should have a good understanding why 'Avatar' was beaten by 'The Hurt Locker' for last year's Best Picture Award at the Oscars. Avatar was about concepts, (the movie told us 'this is good, this is bad' etc etc) as good as the film was made, it had bad aesthetics when compared to the Hurt Locker. It was all on the surface.. Hurt Locker on the other hand went MUCH deeper than Avatar. It showed you a character and gave you the experience and emotion he went through. How he thought, what he felt, all the grey areas with all of life's complications. It made one think about what we value in life. Hurt locker deserved to win and the Academy members saw that as well. So kudo's to Cameran's ex wife for making The Hurt Locker. I bet that stung him a little...

-Daniel Gonzales

PS. I should be responding very soon to your emails if you have sent me one. And if you had given me a business card I going to give priority to the ones who have emailed me first (because their work is usually linked in the email.) So if you gave me a business card I would advise to email me if you want a speedier response. Other wise I will get to you eventually. As for what I will speak of next? Leave a Comment about what you would like to hear. From Blocking in animation, to a little rant on composition. What ever you would like to see. If you want me to publicly critique something for all to see or watch a step by step progress of how I do my work. The sky is the limit. Thanks.