Animation – Animation with a moustache

May 4, 2020

The humbling encounters

Once in a while in your career or just even at the start of your studies you will meet some unique individuals that will feed your self-doubts.

Whilst studying at Animation Mentor back in 2006, I was marveling at the work of several students that eventually became CG animation superstars, then later during my animation career, I came across few profiles that could animate three times better and three times faster than I could, so I just kept at it, with the belief that it might take me longer, before eventually succeeding.

If it is not just procrastination stirring us away from our goals, some of us just need to work harder to succeed.

Do you think Nik Ranieri gave up animation when he first came across 21 years old James Baxter while working on Roger Rabbit?

Pretty close but Nik Ranieri kept pushing and like Baxter, he ended up also, writing his name on Disney’s history books!

James Baxter line tests

Listen to this fun Nik Ranieri’s recollection of that encounter in the third part of an other memorable Animation Podcast interview.

I am posting a direct link to the interview as the libsyn link in the interview page is now broken, the main page works though or click below.

Direct link to the podcast:
http://animationpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/AP_2005_09_05.mp3

Related posts:

http://www.olivier-ladeuix.com/blog/2006/08/28/youtubecom-i-love-you/

http://www.olivier-ladeuix.com/blog/2008/03/04/james-baxter-animation-podcast-part-2/

http://www.olivier-ladeuix.com/blog/2007/05/19/the-future-or-animation-is-now/

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Animation / Education

June 3, 2019

by Olivier Ladeuix

Lip sync observations Pixar “Onwards”

If you have liked my old Toy Story lip sync article, you will love this little video where I am studying the lip sync of a shot from Pixar’s forthcoming movie “Onward”.

Ideally, you want to download the video and play it frame by frame with a media player like KMPlayer, Keyframe MP or RV for the lucky ones.

It is also possible to play the videos frame by frame in Youtube and Vimeo after pausing the video. Use Shift + Left or Right arrow in Vimeo, coma (,) or dot (.) in Youtube.

Download link

Vimeo link

Related post:

Lip sync observations

Mouth shapes – Chester V

KMPlayer, best video player ever!

Raph breaks the internet – Behind the scenes

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Acting / Animation / Animation Mentor / Education / Story

December 1, 2018

by Olivier Ladeuix

Raph breaks the internet – Behind the scenes

Behind the scenes are very rare those days compared to 10 years ago where you could get 10 hours of extra features on the additional DVDs so let’s celebrate the ones available.

As an animator and hopeful storyboard artist, I am mostly interested in the nitty gritty of animation related stuff and storyboarding and this video happens to have a bit of both.

I find it interesting to see storyboard artist (mostly female yay) working together in a room, with Sharpies on paper, but this makes sense as it probably is a brainstorming session to work on a specific scene. I wonder if they will scan the drawings next or just redraw them on the computer, probably the latter.

Animation wise, except few seconds with fellow Animation Mentor graduate Kira Lehtomaki, there isn’t much to see however, I am still finding some material worth a look. In feature animation it is not rare for animators to use footage from actors reading their dialogue for their acting so I can’t wait to see how much the animators derived from it as the hand gestures here in the video are mostly contrived, symmetrical and unappealing due to the fact the actor are just focusing on their lines.

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Animation / Education

November 30, 2018

by Olivier Ladeuix

World space head

I don’t understand how people can animate heads in local (parent) space. Here is a great example on why you want to animate the head in world space rather than local space.

Our vestibular system acts as a gyroscope allowing us to keep our head’s direction independent from the rest of the body.

Using local space for the head also requires so much counter animation work, hindering granular refinement of the motion.

The motion of the body is so complex and requires a lot of finessing when the head seems so still. In production you want to have the freedom to add more layers of complexity in the body without having to counter animate the head.

https://www.facebook.com/WWFFrance/videos/329660194537260/

Related posts:

World orient head and shoulders

Local eyes vs World eyes

So you want to be a rigger huhh? version 02

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Acting / Animation / Education

May 13, 2017

by Olivier Ladeuix

Blocking and realist acting

A friend who is a professional TV series animator was telling me yesterday that he wants to attend a body mechanics workshop rather than an acting one. My answer was unequivocally to do an acting one instead.

Acting is the most difficult skill in animation and being a professional animator, one already have a grasp in body mechanics, substantial enough to support any performance.

If what you want to end up doing is acted performances and you are already a professional animator, don’t waste time and focus right now on producing shots that will show the recruiter you can do the job you want to do. With all the feature animation gigs going on right now, there is an urge to jump on those opportunities. In one year time, those productions will be finished and it is very likely that you will be facing the competition of hundreds of seasoned feature animators who took those opportunities when you didn’t.

I just came across that video by pure luck some time ago and it showed me how little I knew about acting. Too be fair we don’t all want to create that kind of performances in animation but it is a good wake up call. I am adding the Captain Underpants theme song as ….. we don’t all want to end up doing serious animation after all!!! 😉

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/156924340[/vimeo]

Make it organic_Overwatch D.VA “Game On” emote

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Animation / Education / Video Games

August 18, 2016

by Olivier Ladeuix

Make it organic_Overwatch D.VA “Game On” emote

D.Va-Game-On

To make a character or an animation more appealing you need to look for ways to make it more alive, more “organic” by adding more details, very often a simple reaction to a main action would be sufficient

D.Va-Game-On-Gremlin_small

When robots and mechs are usually characterized by their stiffness, the animator here added a nice little touch by making Overwatch D.Va’s mech react to her fun idle (emote) and moving as Hana goes side to side stuffing her face with crips and fizzy drink alternatively while focused playing a holographic shmup.

The animation and Mech are definitely more alive and we still buy it is a mechanical object that could spring up to action anytime.

Great work Blizzard!

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nGPiq1O1pE[/youtube]

Related posts:
So you want to be a rigger huh (v02)
Ears motion

gremlin-dva

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Animation

November 23, 2015

by admin

Academy Creative Spark: Simon Otto

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNvXFz1tsF4[/youtube]

Academy Originals just posted an inspirational video interview with Dreamworks Head of Character Animation Simon Otto which in the Dreamworks lingo would probably translate into HTTYD HOCA 😉 (click above for the video)

As a fine art hobbyist and compulsory doodlers I couldn’t help smiling throughout.

“Animator Simon Otto (“How to Train Your Dragon”, “How to Train Your Dragon 2”, “Kung Fu Panda”) takes viewers inside his creative process in an exploration of where ideas come from”

Simon-Otto_creative-spark_01

Simon-Otto_creative-spark_02

Simon-Otto_creative-spark_03

Related post:
Premo, the Dreamworks animation software

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Animation / Education

July 19, 2014

by Olivier Ladeuix

Premo, the Dreamworks animation software

With the rise of companies like Disney, Blue Sky, Sony or Illumination Mac Guff relying entirely on the “off-the-shelf” Autodesk Maya which most animation students are familiar with, Dreamworks and Pixar had to revamp their ageing proprietary softwares to attract and retain talents. Presto for Pixar and Premo for Dreamworks seem to have now totally leap-frogged the commercial Autodesk offering by making the most of the numerous cores that current CPUs have made available for years, to the addition of on-board GPUs.

Dreamworks_apollo_02
Dreamworks used to be really secretive about EMO, their home made animation software, but things are changing.

With the release of Dean DeBlois’ “How to train your dragon 2”, several videos and articles have emerged showcasing Dreamwork’s new Premo animation software running on the latest Apollo technology. The technology looks so ground breaking that the ASIFA offered Dreamworks an Ub Iwerks award at this years Annie awards.

Premo looks very fast and intuitive. Instead of having to keep a separate sizable GUI on the screen, the controls are right where you expect them to be and they magically appear when the cursor hovers over the actionable areas, signifying to the animator that the highlighted area can be animated, liberating a huge screen real estate compared to GUIs.

Additional controls like IK/FK switches I am guessing can still be accessed through the related spreadsheets when needed obviously.

This is very refreshing as the idea has been suggested for years by Keith Lango and I also relayed the information on this blog in 2010. (read the article here: You want to be a rigger huh!)

Premo also offers a dramatic speed improvement compared to Emo as animators don’t need to recalculate after each action and rig can also be played real time in the viewport without needing to use proxy models.

Don’t believe me? Watch the following videos!

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osrXVvKP3c4[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iepGUcvsWB0[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N16Qsj6kAhw[/youtube]

Dreamworks_apollo .

External articles:
How DreamWorks reinvented animation software to make HTTYD2

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Animation / Education

May 25, 2013

by Olivier Ladeuix

Rethinking Maya’s hotkeys for animation

Having studied Psychology and Ergonomy at University, it always bothers me when I have to use tools that haven’t been carefully thought out with the final user in mind.

Personally I like to stay in the flow when I animate so I don’t want to have to look at my keyboard constantly when I animate. The least my hands and fingers travel, the more focused on my viewport and the more efficient I stay.

If you haven’t realised yet, on a keyboard, you have two bumps on the F and J key. This is a feature for “touch typists” that allows you to quickly locate where you are on the keyboard by feeling those two keys without looking at them. Touch typist would lay their index on them and muscle memorize the surrounding keys.

For Maya users, the F key is the most important one as Selection, Translation, Rotation and Scale (QWER) are just above it. To make things more efficient, I like to have my additional animation hotkeys, just below that area. Have a look at the attached picture.

Note the position of the next/previous keys and frames, this is the most important thing when like me you work in the manner of a traditional 2d animator and constantly “flip your drawings”.

Click on the picture to zoom in.