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

Robot Chicken Star Wars

Maan some funny stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK1RphU8uqQ

I love the acting for boba fet. it completely matches his personality!

I can just keep on watching it, and feel like acting it out cuz its soo fun!

Check it out.

I love the poses they gave to him. Especially when he says "right between those baby blues" hahaha!

Is animating just moving a character pose to pose?

I read from Carlos Baena about something similar to this. It feels like I'm going through the same boat. When I first started I just moved the character around. Not thinking about the character. Just from a pose to another pose with no reason. I started to think that animation was that.

But now after learning more, and experimenting and just animating I realize there is more behind it.

Of course poses tell the story of the animation, and the type of character you are animating. But I can't explain it but there is more behind it.

You are making a image on a computer alive. Like a human. People just do things for no reason. We don't think of poses we do. We just live. Thats how our characters should be. They should be flowing, not just go from one pose to another with no life.

I can't explain it so well. But when I first read it on his blog I couldn't really connect. I thought thats what animation was right? So I just kept it in the back of my mind, and realized that he was right. There is so much behind the movement of the character.

I need to study more types of characters man. This is so interesting!

Blocking down key poses

I tried this new way today. Well its not really new, but I never really used it.

Before I did straight ahead animation. Which was more comfy for me to do. But I decided to do the other way with key poses with this new animation.

And I gotta say, man it is awesome!!! Because my biggest struggle is the story part. So just quickly blocking out the poses and what happens give me a good visual on how it is going to work. And since I am a visual person it helps a ton.

So I can tweak the story real easily if needed without moving a lot of curves.

Also it is super helpful because it'll make sure what your story points are, and make those poses really strong.

Before I was worried about the mechanics and such, but since now I'm worried more about the story, and the personality of the character, i think this will help out a lot!

New Idea's/Why I animate

Anyways I was animating something and thought it was a simple idea. Its about a guy bouncing a ball and is optimistic, but it hits in the face and blah blah blah. It's kinda complicating for me, I need to simplify it.

At first I realized my character wasn't being himself the whole time. The walk cycle was dull, everything didn't show personality.

So I ended up deleting everything and re did everything

Also I am learning and realizing why I make animations. There needs to be a reason a person looks at it. Whey would they waste there precious time to look at my animation? I need to make it worthwile for them. I need it to have a point. A good laugh, a touching story etc. And to do this I need to make my animation clear, and entertaining from beginning to end.

I need to ask myself these questions so I can make my animation better, ask why would someone like this? Why would someone not?

And for me.. I like funny things. I like to make people laugh, I like being simple, a happy guy. And thats what I want to show through my animations. But how do I show that?

I guess I can show it through how he reacts to thing. What he thinks of an object, how he reacts to different people. But how make it worth watching? By making it funny. How making it funny?

Not sure. I don't want to do something completely random. But I like humor through people's personalities.

Like my friend Hiro. He doesnt' do random stuff. But his timing, and reactions to certain situations are just soo hilarious.

But how would the audience know it should be funny? How would they know what his personality is like with just a few frames?

Key poses. Those should tell what type of character he is. Even just in a few frames. The audience needs to know just by how he walks, how he looks etc.

The office

I love how they make the camera man part of there show.

Because they know they are there, and sometimes they don't really care.

Another thing that I recognize when something ackward happens, and the character is in it, they stare at the camera! They stare at it because it was ackward ofcourse, and I can't really interpret what it means. But it is funny

I think like if Michael does something, they stare at the camera or other characters to make it more ackwards, or to like, I guess have a "I can't believe he done this type of thing" or like agree with it.

It's kind of complicating but I'll have to study it more

My art teacher!

She is soo good at thinking about art!

I told her I wanted to learn animation, and she thought it was just technical stuff. So like we have to come up with something we want to study for the year, like a theme type of thing.

So I talked to her about it, and we found out something that can relate to animation, and the theme thing! Body gestures.

This is really gonna help me with my idea's and key poses! Also get my sketching better.

And its awesome that she is open to the idea for animation, and is interested in it a bit! Hopefully I'll learn a lot from everyone in that class because they are all awesome!

My animation problems

When listening and practicing on a dialogue piece, I realized that I try to much to stick to what I have.

I need to keep an open mind. I should be able to change things quickly.

Since my blocking is fast, I should block out my original idea, then see if the idea is gonna work, see how it looks on with my character. If I don't like it I should delete it. Since my blocking is getting pretty fast i should learn to question every single movement of my character.

I think thats what I am doing now...

Also when I first started, I wanted to hit certain parts. I was stubborn on changing it. But then I realized it won't have a lot of texture, or i the dialogue part when to fast. So I have to get those key places that can actually fit.

So yea my animation journey is just still starting!

Blocking

I dunno, its weird for me. I get the blocking done pretty fast. I'm not sure if that is good or not.

The hardest part for me is getting the idea. But yea.

Just the blocking out part is worrying me...I'll try other things.

Before I did straight ahead animation with a my reference video. But now I'm kind of trying the golden poses, and like inbetween them so it won't bother me, and it shows how they get to it.

I hope doing this can get my poses to more stronger!

How I work, need to change

I get distracted to easily.

I work for like 10 minutes then take like a 4 minute break. It's annoying.

I need to stop!

Maybe I should disconnect my internet when animating.

Yea i'll do that

Animation Mentor new showcase!

Its friggin awesome! Watched it a ton! Good job!

Anyways I am working on my first dialogue piece, I'll post it up when I am done! It is super fun, I really like doing this dialogue thing because I like have an audio for how my character is and stuff!

But thanks AM for the awesome showreel it really inspires all the animators out there!

Feeling rusty

Haven't had time to touch a computer for 2 weeks! I feel soo...Weird to it.


But I am ready to jump back in, got inspired with the amazing people I was with!

Now need to study!

My imagination part

What I have figured out for me, most of my imagination comes out when I start blocking out the character.

The reason video reference is so hard for me is because I have nothing to see ( I have a visual type of person I think) So it was really hard for me to make up my mind and making a video reference.

But right now I am blocking out my animation, and for now, this is where I think I get creative. I'm changing things around, I see the character movement in front of me, I can get inside his head and think of more ideas.

What a huge relief for me!

Video References

For me this is the hardest part of animation.

This is where your character comes to life. You have to get inside there head. Being a beginner it is hard to do.

I've spent all day trying to get into my characters head. But I keep on changing the story and stuff. So it is hard to get a good understanding.

I've been in my basement for a while just acting things out. And for me it is tiring lol.

But I'm going to try my best to get good video references