when animating I found that lighting an positioning was crucial, the way you see the character side on front on, all give a different appearance and feel to the character, so I found once I actually started shooting that I had to tweak the story board and continuously re evaluate what it was I was trying to create, I found with using the dragon software it was really handy having onionskins so I was able to keep close eye on what I had already shot so i could, match up, and make sure I've not moved my puppet to far out of line or out of place.
DISASTER STRUCK:
camera tripod knocked it very slightly... trying to re match this up again was a complete fail and I struggled big time taking me about 3 hours to even get it close to what it previously was. So marking where the camera is on the floor and that exactly and trying to not touch and keep as far away from the camera when shooting was really important.
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
walk cycle breaking it down, story boarding
I found that, I was going to have to break it down step by step, so by using some on line examples of how others broke down there walk cycle and the style that give, I started to work on mine for my character, here are a couple of the examples which I used as a reference,
walk cycle key frames
aardman- stop motion
DAEWOO: clay by luis cook for aardaman
walk cycles women,toddler,boy running, and dad also the dog ( four legged) these are all very different from each other the toddler being unbalanced and jolt like, as there unstable. The woman walking tall, the man, walking quickly opening and closing doors hurrying and the dog galoping towards the rest of the family, done in clay and being stop motion the way there walks give them more character and shows more personality and quality's about them individualy.
http://www.aardman.com/commercials/showreels/stop-motion/ the video can be found here
walk cycles women,toddler,boy running, and dad also the dog ( four legged) these are all very different from each other the toddler being unbalanced and jolt like, as there unstable. The woman walking tall, the man, walking quickly opening and closing doors hurrying and the dog galoping towards the rest of the family, done in clay and being stop motion the way there walks give them more character and shows more personality and quality's about them individualy.
http://www.aardman.com/commercials/showreels/stop-motion/ the video can be found here
aardman - stop motion
Kellogg fruit twistables " Fruit camp by luis cook
the fruit twist commander, walks, heavy footed exaggerated steps and it shows authority and power in his walk if he was to walk danterly , or light footed the effect wouldn't be so power full of the character, the walk is perfect for this character, creating the other fruits to fear him
check video out at :
http://www.aardman.com/commercials/showreels/stop-motion/
the fruit twist commander, walks, heavy footed exaggerated steps and it shows authority and power in his walk if he was to walk danterly , or light footed the effect wouldn't be so power full of the character, the walk is perfect for this character, creating the other fruits to fear him
check video out at :http://www.aardman.com/commercials/showreels/stop-motion/
aardman - stop motion
When looking at walk sequences, I found it had just finding a walk sequence, a lot of animators have, cut away suggesting a change of place or area, an avoided the walk sequence, when looking at some well know stop motions, I looked in to the comfort adverts, the comfort -leaving by Luis cook, as the mum enters the room she has a walk which, is specific to her, and body language is open, she walks by moving her hips, in a quite statement style, that she walked in the room her feet don't leave the floor fully, but walks with a slight drag of the feet this reflects the connection between her an her daughter, telling her daughter to cheer up the mothers walk shows, she not really bothered, and thinks her daughter is being silly over the situation.
http://www.aardman.com/commercials/showreels/stop-motion/
http://www.aardman.com/commercials/showreels/stop-motion/
Madame tutli putli -2007
http://films.onf.ca/madame-tutli-putli/index.php?lg=fr link to the offical website , for a short film which detail really is small ieces of art work in them selves
film makers :
film makers :
Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski
adverts which i've came across
here is a link to a site which has lots of stop motion produced adverts, this is where i really like the context of them, with some humour, and interesting story lines, often a strange balance to product there advertising but they really work,
especially the lux soap advert , which I can't actually get the link for direct but the website to the link is, http://www.bentimagelab.com/
under the stop motion section lux, the movement flows, and the body language is pronominal.
Also the "Washington health department ad for smoking kills"
the way there's a double take here, and the boy looks away, showing there's something there he is looking at and the girl double, taking before she goes to eat the rotten dead animal, and the boys turns round to her, in horror, shows how it's created some tension and suspense, and you waiting for the next thing to happen to see what , she did what she did, it' works really well in this case and gives a strong message.
especially the lux soap advert , which I can't actually get the link for direct but the website to the link is, http://www.bentimagelab.com/
under the stop motion section lux, the movement flows, and the body language is pronominal.
Also the "Washington health department ad for smoking kills"
the way there's a double take here, and the boy looks away, showing there's something there he is looking at and the girl double, taking before she goes to eat the rotten dead animal, and the boys turns round to her, in horror, shows how it's created some tension and suspense, and you waiting for the next thing to happen to see what , she did what she did, it' works really well in this case and gives a strong message.
preston blair
movement of a 2 legged figure and looking through lots of animation books I came across his walk cycle figures as I've shown below this is what i have related to when looking for given my character a style of walking.
This came from the "THE ANIMATION BOOK" by kit laybourne, but orignal drawing came from preston blaires " book animation- how to draw cartoons"
this gave me something to work with when story boarding, my character as it' gave me ideas and how to pose my puppet so it didnt look out of place.
This came from the "THE ANIMATION BOOK" by kit laybourne, but orignal drawing came from preston blaires " book animation- how to draw cartoons"
this gave me something to work with when story boarding, my character as it' gave me ideas and how to pose my puppet so it didnt look out of place.
colaline
again another film directed by henry selick, i love his style and way the animations look. the detail and story lines he uses are fantastic.http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi513934105/ trailer
Stop motion
when given the brief we brushed over ed hooks and his top 10 tips, by looking further into him iv'e found a lot more about ed hooks and more tips that he gives an recommends.
Acting for animating tips :
Acting for animating tips :
www.actingforanimators.com < very usefull site where this has came from
1. Scenes begin in the middle, not the beginning.
2. A character should be "doing" something 100 percent of the time.
3. A character enters a scene for a reason, and he exits for a reason.
4. Thinking tends to lead to conclusions; emotion tends to lead to action.
5. A gesture need not be an illustration of the spoken word.
6. Audiences empathize with emotion. The key to good animation
is in empathy.
7. Comedy is drama heightened, oxygenated.
8. An action pursues a longer term objective. (Smile at the girl
because you want to date her.)
9. Short term memory causes eyes to glance upward.
10. Long term memory causes eyes to glance downward, into the soul.
11. The human sense of sight is many times more powerful than the
sense of hearing.
12. Humans act to survive. Find the survival mechanism in your character.
13. Play an action until something happens to make you play a
different one.
14. A scene is a negotiation.
15. "Actors are athletes of the heart" - Artonin Artaud
16. Anxiety is a high or heady power center; confidence is a low
power center.
17. Emotions are automatic value responses.
18. Characters that make steady eye contact for more than a few
seconds are either going to fight or make love.
19. The human smile says, "I won't hurt you."
20. Never underestimate the audience.
21. When you animate, you are saying to the audience, "I
understand this." When the audience applauds, laughs or cries, it is
saying, "I see what you mean."
22. Actors lead; audiences follow.
23. Background characters can be defined with shadow movement - a
jiggling knee, a charcter's mouth moving when he reads the paper,
biting fingernails and so on.
24. "The Iron Giant" is an animation classic. Every animator
should study it, like visiting Mecca.
25. We see things before we hear them; we hear things before we
touch them; we touch things before we smell them; we smell things
before we taste them.
26. A villain is a regular person that has a fatal flaw.
27. A hero is a regular person that has to rise to extreme
heights to overcome an extraordinary obstacle.
28. The "beats" in a scene or script are better perceived as
"beads" in a necklace. One bead leads to the next to the next and so
on. Put the beads together, and you have a story.
29. The purpose of (character) movement is destination.
30. Acting has almost nothing to do with words.
31. Commercials convey almost zero actual information. They are
about emotion.
32. Humans and other animals negotiate status continually.
33. To energize a scene, convert the character's "wants" to "needs."
34. Theatrical reality isn't the same thing as regular reality.
35. Acting is reacting.
36. Animators are not mimes. Mime is a specialized art.
37. A key ingredient of empathy is distance.
38. Old people stoop because their bodies ache.
39. A drunk character tries to counteract the effects of the alcohol.
40. To show that a character is hot, have him try to get cool.
41. To show that a character is cold, have him try to get warm.
42. An "adrenaline" moment is one the character will remember
when he turns eighty and looks back on his life. The best movies
include plenty of adrenaline moments. (Re-read #24)
43. A character analysis is like a character biography.
44. When a character is faced with a choice, be specific. Avoid
ambivalence.
45. Allow your characters to be affected by the atmosphere in a
location, the "feeling" it projects. (A car wreck has an atmosphere;
a church has an atmosphere; a marriage bed has an atmosphere.)
46. Yelling is a weak acting choice.
47. We speak of memory in general terms, but it is referenced in
specific mental images.
48. A character that is listening to another is actually
preparing to speak.
49. The camera tends to follow the character's gaze.
50. A scene should have conflict, otherwise known as an obstacle.
51. Trick for suggesting villainy: tilt head forward; eyes peer
upward, exposing whites in lower portion of eyeball.
52. Character "personality" is actually character "behavior."
2. A character should be "doing" something 100 percent of the time.
3. A character enters a scene for a reason, and he exits for a reason.
4. Thinking tends to lead to conclusions; emotion tends to lead to action.
5. A gesture need not be an illustration of the spoken word.
6. Audiences empathize with emotion. The key to good animation
is in empathy.
7. Comedy is drama heightened, oxygenated.
8. An action pursues a longer term objective. (Smile at the girl
because you want to date her.)
9. Short term memory causes eyes to glance upward.
10. Long term memory causes eyes to glance downward, into the soul.
11. The human sense of sight is many times more powerful than the
sense of hearing.
12. Humans act to survive. Find the survival mechanism in your character.
13. Play an action until something happens to make you play a
different one.
14. A scene is a negotiation.
15. "Actors are athletes of the heart" - Artonin Artaud
16. Anxiety is a high or heady power center; confidence is a low
power center.
17. Emotions are automatic value responses.
18. Characters that make steady eye contact for more than a few
seconds are either going to fight or make love.
19. The human smile says, "I won't hurt you."
20. Never underestimate the audience.
21. When you animate, you are saying to the audience, "I
understand this." When the audience applauds, laughs or cries, it is
saying, "I see what you mean."
22. Actors lead; audiences follow.
23. Background characters can be defined with shadow movement - a
jiggling knee, a charcter's mouth moving when he reads the paper,
biting fingernails and so on.
24. "The Iron Giant" is an animation classic. Every animator
should study it, like visiting Mecca.
25. We see things before we hear them; we hear things before we
touch them; we touch things before we smell them; we smell things
before we taste them.
26. A villain is a regular person that has a fatal flaw.
27. A hero is a regular person that has to rise to extreme
heights to overcome an extraordinary obstacle.
28. The "beats" in a scene or script are better perceived as
"beads" in a necklace. One bead leads to the next to the next and so
on. Put the beads together, and you have a story.
29. The purpose of (character) movement is destination.
30. Acting has almost nothing to do with words.
31. Commercials convey almost zero actual information. They are
about emotion.
32. Humans and other animals negotiate status continually.
33. To energize a scene, convert the character's "wants" to "needs."
34. Theatrical reality isn't the same thing as regular reality.
35. Acting is reacting.
36. Animators are not mimes. Mime is a specialized art.
37. A key ingredient of empathy is distance.
38. Old people stoop because their bodies ache.
39. A drunk character tries to counteract the effects of the alcohol.
40. To show that a character is hot, have him try to get cool.
41. To show that a character is cold, have him try to get warm.
42. An "adrenaline" moment is one the character will remember
when he turns eighty and looks back on his life. The best movies
include plenty of adrenaline moments. (Re-read #24)
43. A character analysis is like a character biography.
44. When a character is faced with a choice, be specific. Avoid
ambivalence.
45. Allow your characters to be affected by the atmosphere in a
location, the "feeling" it projects. (A car wreck has an atmosphere;
a church has an atmosphere; a marriage bed has an atmosphere.)
46. Yelling is a weak acting choice.
47. We speak of memory in general terms, but it is referenced in
specific mental images.
48. A character that is listening to another is actually
preparing to speak.
49. The camera tends to follow the character's gaze.
50. A scene should have conflict, otherwise known as an obstacle.
51. Trick for suggesting villainy: tilt head forward; eyes peer
upward, exposing whites in lower portion of eyeball.
52. Character "personality" is actually character "behavior."
Tuesday, 2 November 2010
reseach
this is my blog created specificly for research for the projects which i am workin on within this unit,
- walk cycle
- fusion
- on screen text
- lip sync
- crs
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