Blocking fun

I decided to make take my blocking to the next level. I am adding a lot more detail to it.

By this I mean getting ride of the posyness. What I am trying to do is add more ease ins, more ease outs, and more overlapping action in my blocking.

Also instead of just holding a pose, and keeping it there, with my new shot since he is moving around a lot, i'm having him hold a pose and transferring his weight with it aswell. Like his arms will be the same, but his hips will be moving in one direction. And I am also trying to make sure that when he hit a pose, its not all at once.

Like have his hips there, then his arms follow for example.

On a side note, its tough animating on a nice day! So much stuff to do outside like friz, longboarding. Sometimes I wish I still had my lappy so I can take it outside and animate in my backyard or somewhere else than my room.

Geesh

Whoa I haven't updated for a while. A lot of things are happening in my life. Like work, friends, hanging out with one special person, and animation duuuh.

Got a dialogue shot done but I didn't really like it that much. Because..I didn't plan it out enough. Man I need these shots to be alive!

One thing I realized that i need to fix is my pose to posyness. I need to add more secondary action to make the character more alive and not to frozen. Also it adds some personality. Right now to me its hitting the beats. But I want to add more. I want this character to breathe and live like me.

Other than that i'm checking the Animation Mentor website everyday to see when its my lucky day to apply ha.

Experimenting with second pass of inbetweening

So I am still animating the super hero, but this time its more blocked in. I see a pose from one point to another. Sure I could easily just add a pose inbetween it to make it smoother, but it would be a static pose. Like from point A to point B.

Right now I'm experimenting on how to get to point B in a more different way. Because if i want to get to one point to another, why do inbetweens? Because the computer can do that. So I tried to make it more cartoony, and added stuff inbetween "normal actions"

Like my guy wants to press down on a button. Instead of him just lifting his hand and pressing the button. What I did was i made his whole body go with it. But not only that. I make his body dip down, with his arm following, and kinda does a swirly thing then he is in the pose to anticipate the pressing of the button. then walla he presses the button.

Try it sometimes! It is fun! Makes the animation more interesting! Well I think it does anyways haha.

But I need to make sure not to over do it. So I'm just applying to the actions and the person personality.

And if you look at horton hear's a who...They do that a lot! Instead of like racing to get somewhere in a straight line. The animators make them swirl!

More on thought process...

After thinking about it.. The character is always thinking! I shouldn't just make one certain point where I'm worried about what the character is thinking.

Because people are constantly thinking right? I realized this after thinking about it. Haha. Because I was wondering... What makes a silent part sooo dramatic? What is going through the characters mind that is always special?

I mean things are always going thru our mind. Even for fast action we think about it before doing it. Even if we react to it real quick.

With short thought processes it shows we know what we are doing. Like in typing. There is always some thought before typing it, and since I am quick at it, it shows I am experienced at it.

But with my mom for example. She has a longer thought process looking for the keys. And to make something like that interesting. You can have the inexperience typer have a lot of eye darts. This is shows they are looking for the right key. And have them aim at keys before they type it.

THATS how you can make a thoughtprocess more interesting instead of just staring at something blankly. And more having them in a more better pose. Like hunched over so they can see all the keys.

Man this is awesome! haha

More on thought process...

Thought Processes

Whenever I right something in here, its about the animation I am working on, and when I type it, it makes me think more outside the box. So here it goes.

How do you make a thought process more interesting? Right now in my animation, I'm having a guy thinking right? But for me, its boring to watch. And if its lame and boring for me, then it'll most likely be lame and boring for the audience watching it.

So how do you spice it up? Is it the situation they are in? Is it how they think? The poses they are in while they are thinking?

A lot of thought process seems to be in the eyes, and micro expressions in the face. But what if the rig isn't that advanced on facial controls. How do u make it interesting?

Is it how they are timed? How long they think?

Because with the rig I am using it have limited facial controls. The jaw moves up and down, side to side, the eyes are just circles, the eyelids can't change shape, and some eyebrow control.

I have to find another way to make him think. Because right now the way he is thinking is just staring at the door that closed down on him. How can I spice that up?

Eye darts? Moving his jar?

What about his body language? Have him hand up to his chin, head cocked up? hm.. But I don't want to be to cliche.. But maybe for now I have to be before I can develop my mind to get more creative, and more into the character.

But the thought process also have to match the type of character they are right? I mean, not all characters have the same type of thoughts. But is it in the poses they are? Or how long they react to something?

Hmm..

What makes a shot stand out?

Right now I'm finishing up my latest animation. And realized it doesn't stick out as much as I want to.

Then it got me thinking. What makes an animation stand out? How do you make it stick out of the crowd?

Is it the extreme timing between poses? How much personality the character have? Because cartoony timing makes thing pop out more right?

But what about subtle animation?

What I think is, to make an animation stick out is, good acting. The character needs to have a personality. I realized in my animation. There isn't much of that. Not good acting.

My next animation I will really have to push what I can do. Learn more about acting. Come up with more ideas.

I am still debating between a dialogue shot or just, a simple one with body language. I'll see what comes up and inspires me.

But when I see an animation, the thing that I realize first is the personality. Man I need to get that!

My characters feel dead to me, how do I change that? Hmmm. We'll see. I think I have to get in the characters mind even more.

man this is sooo awesome! haha