My first top 10!

This past month I placed in the top ten in the 11second club for the first time! It has been a goal of mine to get one of those little trophies (how nerdy) for several months now. This past month I had a little more time to commit to my entry and the work paid off. Since entering I have gone back and polished up more of the shot as well as changed the camera, lighting and background to place more emphasis on the animation itself. Next goal: at top three finish!

You Animator site

For those of you who are interested in posting your work and receiving valuable critiques, You Animator could be the perfect site for you. Everybody is welcome to post their work, critique the work of others using their built in software and even become a mentor by giving excellent critiques. There are other sites such as the 11secondclub that provide similar opportunities, but You Animator takes the ability to critique a shot that much further.

YouAnimator

Eye dart reference

Here is a fine example of eye movement and eye darts. It was orginally posted by fellow animator Kyle Kenworthy. Enjoy and happy learning!

Eye darts tips and tricks

I have only been at Topix for four months but I've learned quite a lot in that time. Working under Marcus Alqueres (Plant of the Apes, 300 etc) provides ample opporutnity for one to expand their knowledge of animation. For example I have a greatly improved my understanding of the graph editor and how best to use it. During my time at iAnimate I was still afraid of the GE and very rarely touched it. In fact my first assignment (which I condsider my best) was done without using the GE at all. I still struggle with floaty animation when I rely too heavily on it, but I am getting better. I will blog more about the GE in the near future, hopefully when I am more qualified to do so! Now, on to those eye darts!
They may seem insignificant and many animators can overlook them during the polish stage, or simply not know how to execute them properly. Up until quite recently I myself have been guilty of this. However, it was one of the first things that I learned from Marcus and his method has carried over to all of my other animation. Here's the trick I learned: WORLD SPACE. Most rigs, if not all, have the option to keep the eyes in head space, or switch them to world space. I had always kept them in head space because it never occured to me to animate them any other way. It seemed logical to keep the eyes moving with the head. This, however, is not how your eyes actually function. Try looking in the mirror and turning your head from side to side while still looking ahead. It appears as if your head pivots around your eyes as your eyes stay focused ahead. If you animated a head turning from side to side the eyes would follow. While this behaviour may work for some situations, it is not ideal for animation and will not give you the most believable movement.
The key to the eyes is to constantly animate eye darts...constantly. The human eyes are always scanning and shifting their focus. They don't do this by drifting over many frames, they do it in a very short amount of time. Typically two frames. Even if you make a big head turn, say 180 degrees as you scan a room, your eyes don't simply move from position to the other. Instead they would dart 30 degrees over two frames, pause. Dart 25 degrees in two frames, pause. Dart 50 degrees etc etc. The best way to learn is to simply observe. If you ever find yourself watching a scene in a movie with an intense close up on a characters face, watch their eyes and try to catch every time they dart.

There are many tutorials and blogs out there that go into much more detail than I did here and I encourage you to look them up. Animating believable eyes adds that final touch of polish to your shot. You will be amazed by the difference it makes.

Happy Holidays from Topix!

Congratulations to my fellow co-workers for pulling this off in such a short period of time! I think the turn around on this was about a month. Only three to four people worked on it and they did everything from modeling, rigging, animation and the texturing and lighting as well. Truly awesome stuff!

On using video reference

Whether you're a seasoned professional, an eager student or an aspiring junior animator such as myself, chances are you've asked yourself: do I need to shoot video reference? How and when to use video reference has been a popular debate in the animation world, and it doesn't have a straight forward answer. Here's my perspective... People often worry that using video reference will result in animation that feels rotoscoped, stiff or lacking in weight. This is certainly the case, if you rely too heavily on your reference which I am personally guilty of. Video reference is exactly that, reference! It's there to be referenced, not copied. For whatever reason live action does not produce believable animation if it is copied. Live action has to be exaggerated in order for it to look good for us animators. Another problem is that when we shoot reference of ourselves we never push our poses as much as we think we do. What I've found is that when shooting reference you need to push your poses much further than you think you need to, and then push them even more! And again, this reference is not meant to be copied. If all we did was copy live action then what would be the point in our medium at all? What we take from this reference are the key poses and what we study are important things such as weight shifts and balance. This is all something that I am still learning and I'm sure I will continue to learn for years to come. In the past I have been guilty of letting my reference do the thinking for me. For my next personal shot (animating to an audio clip from "Anchorman") I am really going to focus on creating a believable, dynamic piece that pushes my video reference to a new level. In the meantime, here is a fantastic comparison reel from the exceptionally talented Jeff Gabor. Many of you will have seen it before but for those who haven't, enjoy! This is a master at work.

A week at Topix

Just a few short days ago I completed my first week at Topix animation studio in Toronto. I really feel like my career has been given a big kick start now. The work is challenging and I am required to animate things that I have never animated before, but the harder it is the more I will learn right?
Best of all I know that the result of all this hard work will be a series of shots that will look fantastic on my reel! Studio work is also quite interesting. It's great to have a supervising animator on board all the time. Twice a day he will review my work and give me notes. It's like being paid to be at school. Best of all I know that he will be harsh because it needs to be good enough to satisfy the client.
As well as this I am also still doing some work at Chuck Gamage in Hamilton. With my busy schedule traveling to and from Toronto I can only work for them part time (or remotely from home) but I really want to gain all the experience that I can. I also decided to finally get a copy of The Animator's Survival Kit which I'm almost done reading. It really is a great read for any aspiring animator and I highly recommend it.
I'm also doing a personal shot on the side, although I don't expect it to be done for a few months with my busy schedule.
I would like to start posting about animation itself rather than just personal accounts of my life so hopefully I'll have time to start that soon...

The Journey Begins

The journey of my career begins next Monday. Out of the blue I was asked to come in for an interview at Topix animation studio in Toronto. I am by no means guaranteed a job but just being contacted for an interview is a big step in the right direction. It was a little over a year ago that I decided to dedicate myself to animation and give up on my dream to reach the highest levels of professional golf. It was a scary decision and one that I did not take lightly. There were no guarantees that I could become a good enough animator to make a career out of it. Afterall, it is a career that I never even considered until my fourth year at McMaster University. Now here I am twelve months after effectively quitting golf to pursue character animation and in a few days time I will walk into Topix with legitimate prospects of obtaining a job. I'll check back next week to let you know (whoever you are that reads my posts) what the outcome is.

I have a job...sort of

Starting this week I will be going in to Chuck Gammage Animation three days a week to work on an animated short. The studio will then use this short to try and bring in 3D work. I am no longer just as intern. As of this week I will actually be a lead animator! It sounds more glamorous than it is though. The only reason I am the "lead" is because I am the only person working on it. I will have one other person helping me build the sets and some models and Chuck will act as my supervising animator, but other than that it's just me. Hopefully this short will attract a lot of paid character animation work for me to sink my teeth into. The most important thing is the experience that this short will give me and how much it will boost my resume which is currently very weak.

Progression of a shot

I decided I wanted to post an example of how I approach an acting shot. I am still learning but I definitely think I'm improving. Not so long ago an acting shot of this length would have taken me be about 50hrs to complete. Now I have a more efficient workflow and I have cut that time in half. There is still a long way to go when it comes to my acting choices but I think my animation skills have improved significantly in the past three months. Anyway, here is a video demonstrating the steps I go through to complete a shot.