Anyone Can Animate

I don't have the book in front of me, but I think it was Richard Williams who said this in "The Animators Survival Kit" - a must own for all animators by the way. To say that anyone can animate is not to say that animation is easy...not at all. It is an extremely difficult skill and one that can never really be mastered. As an animator you are constantly learning and evolving, especially today when the technology is always changing.
What is missing from this quote is "Anyone with a passion for animation can animate". It requires practice, hard work and commitment. For the purpose of this post I will use myself as an example.

I got in to animation relatively late. In fact, I had never even considered computer animation as a potential career until a little over a year ago. I spent my life chasing the dream of becoming a professional golfer. I had always known I needed a back up plan in case golf didn't work out, but I never figured out what that could be. I wanted to do something I enjoyed but little else spoke to me enough to make a career out of it.
As a kid I loved movies and I loved to make movies. I loved to shoot some footage, edit it and watch my "masterpiece". The problem was I never knew what I could do with this passion for movies or how I could turn it into a profession. Anyway, the long and short of it is that I stumbled across animation, realized how much I enjoyed bringing life to a character and decided I wanted to do it for a living.
It was a scary decision to put golf aside and concentrate on animation because at that time I was not a good animator. I had never animated six months prior to this decision and the only education I had was self-taught. But once I'd made the decision I knew I had to knuckle down and commit to it. I worked hard, practiced at home, purchased tutorials and eventually, when I could afford it, took a workshop at iAnimate.

If anybody is reading this who is at the early stage of their animation career and you want to know how to get better, here's my two cents:
A) Work hard. There is no substitute.
B) Post your work for critiques on sites such as "11secondclub" or "youanimator" and listen to the feedback. Develop thick skin, take it on the chin and use it to get better.
C) Watch as many tutorials as you can while you get started. Jason Ryan has some great ones on his site for a very reasonable price. It's a great way to learn and improve.
D) If you can afford it, enroll in an online school like iAnimate. It's a great way to make connections, receive feedback and work with some fantastic rigs and characters.
E) Network. If can easily be overlooked but it's one of the most important things. Research the studios that you want to work for (don't shoot for Pixar right away) and contact them. Ask them for a tour of the studio or an informational interview. This is what first got my name on the radar at Topix. I emailed a dozen studios asking to meet in person and they were the only one to respond. I met a lead animator at the studio and a year later I got my first job in the industry. Contact as many studios as possible and contact them often, always being as polite and personable as possible.

That's all for now. Hopefully this helps somebody out there :)

I recently had the good fortune to be offered a position on the animation team during production of The Nut Job! It's a tough decision between staying at Topix or taking the chance at ToonBox. Ultimately I feel that the opportunity to work on a feature film at this stage of my career is too big to pass up. It is also much closer to the style of animation that I originally wanted to pursue. During my time at Topix I have picked the brain of my co-workers who have been in the industry far longer than myself. I've tried to acquire as much information about the industry as possible and from what I can gather, working on a feature film can open up a lot more feature possibilities in your career.

I would be sad to leave Topix because the studio and the people have been great. I have learned SO much during my time here and I can never thank them enough for everything. A lot of people wait a long time for their first paid job so I know how lucky I am. But, I would also be very excited to start this new experience. It was my goal to be involved in a feature film after five years in animation so to be offered this gig after only four months is huge. Hopefully this is just the start!

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.