HP Technology at DreamWorks
So this is a bit of a long commercial for HP, but there are a lot of neat glimpses of the DreamWorks studio in Glendale, CA (which is a really neat place) and some of its hardware, server rooms, etc.
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Project 3: Character Design
Complete and submit by Tuesday, April 3. Be prepared to present your work in class.
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Project 2: Animation Practice
Complete the following:
- Animate a walk or run that communicates a mood such as happy, sad, triumphant, sneaking, etc. See “The Animator’s Survival Kit” or other materials discussed in class for reference.
- Animate a performance clip using video reference.
- Animate a short performance that uses lip-synch and facial expressions performed in time with a short audio clip, perhaps a favorite movie line or such.
You may use a freely available rig, such as those linked in the previous post. There is one less walk/run than previously mentioned to allow for time. Work for polished timing and spacing as well as demonstration of principles of animation. Complete in time to spend at least some thought toward lighting, set, shot composition, and rendering — make something you’d be proud to post on your reel!
Here is a site that you may find useful for finding a fun audio clip. Be creative in whatever you choose and think of something interesting that relates to your audio, perhaps in an unexpected way, for your character to do while talking.
Complete and upload by Thursday, March 8 to present your work in class.
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Freely Available Rigs for Project 2
Here are two places to find some freely available character rigs: 11-Second Club and Creative Crash. Look around and choose one that you will have fun using and also wouldn’t mind seeing a lot.
Or seeing on your reel — which by the way, if the license accords non-commercial use, you are welcome to use these for your reel. (You should, of course, credit the source for the model and rig — but there is usually a breakdown on your portfolio/reel submission where this is done for every shot in your reel).
There are a lot of fun ones, and some of them (such as the Andy Rig) are configurable for different looks.
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Tentative Crewing and Position List
After taking account everyone’s list of interests, I have distributed positions for a tentative crewing list for the two productions. See the linked document here. If you do not like your position assignment, please let me know. It may be helpful to find someone to trade with you, if you really do not want to do something. Everyone should attempt to take some responsibility in the production structure. Apart from these positions, everyone will be “chipping-in” in less formal ways along the way to production completion, and everyone will have shots on both productions to animate. There is also a list of suggested stories and position descriptions in the linked document. I’d like for the Director, Producer, Story Supervisor, and Art Director to meet to decide what story each unit will produce by Thursday of this week. (If you have strong feelings, make sure to communicate them in a nonviolent manner, to the four people making the final call). If there is an impasse, come to me, and we’ll figure-out what to do. After that, we’ll plan for other production meetings of various departments to plan for the production. -
Animating Your Shot
Click here for the needed files to complete. We’ll practice breaking a shot down into actions which are represented by extremes or keys. Thumbnails and animation timing diagrams help us prepare to animate the scene effectively. These will eventually be turned into keyframed poses in Maya where the timing and spacing will be tweaked via the graph editor for the best look. (In this particular example, too, we are going to look at using our scanned thumbnails to help us space the keys throughout our frames as we would on the dope sheet to plan our animation. We can do a similar thing with frames from a video to plan our animations). -
Projects 2 and 3
As a reminder, your next two upcoming projects will relate to character animation and character design, modeling, rigging, and animation.
Project 2 will consist of animating several specific clips with a rig that you do not have to make. Details will be posted soon, and the due date will be pushed back just a bit from what is published currently on the schedule.
Project 3 will consist of researching (reference material), designing (model sheet, image planes, and maquette), modeling, shading, rigging, and animating your own character. Details will be posted soon, and the due-date will likely be as posted on the schedule or near that date. However, you may wish to begin early and overlap some on the work for Projects 1 and 2; for instance, complete the research, design, and modeling portion in the next couple weeks while also working on the animation clips.
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Recommendations for Sculpting Maquettes
To sculpt your character maquette, you’ll need some clay, materials for an armature, and some tools. Most supplies can be found locally — Super Sculpey works well for basic moquettes and may be baked for durability when finished. About 1 or 2 of the 1-lb boxes should work for a small maquette. This, other clays, and armature wire, as well as small pieces of wood (that would work well for a base) are sold at A.C. Moore and Michael’s as well as other places. Plant and hardware sections often have wire that can work to make the armature to hold the clay’s main character shape. (Other options such as coat-hanger wire or other around-the-house items may work, too). Usually a thicker wire works well for the main body frame, and smaller wire may be used to wrap sections which can also be filled-out using aluminum foil. (Don’t use anything in your armature that could burn when baked). Two-part epoxy in clay form can be used to strengthen joints of the maquette. Another, perhaps nicer, clay that may be difficult to find locally is NSP (Non Sulphurate Plasteline) by Chavant. American Fine Arts Supplies carries these and other materials. They have NSP blocks for a decent price, but it tends to be sold in bulk — you may consider getting a few people together to order if desired. Aside from the armature and clay, you may find a small set of sculpting tools useful, but you can probably make due without this using small utensils, silverware, etc. from around the house. We’ll discuss this more in class, but in the meantime, you may find these links useful: Demon Sculpt Maquette with two-part tutorial, Building Armatures for Polymer Clay, and Sculpting Tutorials. -
Fleischer Studios
Related to wrapping up our class discussion of the Golden Age of Animation, here’s a link to Fleischer Studios. The studios actually moved to Miami, FL in 1938 and continued to operate for several years there during the decline of animation. Several of their early works have recently been restored for release on DVD.
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Review for Test on Tuesday
As discussed this past Tuesday and Thursday, there will be a test this Tuesday (Feb. 21) covering the introductory material from the past few weeks. This will include techniques and principles for animation, narrative structure, visual storytelling, basic film grammar, etc. A full review guide is posted here to help you remember all that we have covered in class. Also, do not forget the notes (particularly on narrative and visual storytelling) on the resources page of this site.
If you do not remember certain people (or concepts) from class or the documentaries, most of these will have ample information on Wikipedia and other websites to help you review. You may also find these Wikipedia overview entries on animation particularly interesting and useful: The Golden Age of American Animation and History of Animation (also, particularly History of United States Animation). [Although you have already studied some more recent history for 220, for this test, you do not need to study any of the history that we have not discussed in class or the documentaries for now -- such as foreign animation or animation more recent than the "Golden Age."]
There will be a written part of the test and also an animation practicum where you will complete a short animation in Maya to submit. The test will count for two “quiz” grades.