the Barebones of it...

Catch!

2011-12-20T22:41:00.000Z

I swear my other half gets fed up with me spotting things that make good reference, although it's probably more down to the fact that I point them out to her (she's not an animator). This one received the obligatory sigh when I excitedly leapt from the couch to rewind and watch it again, so I thought I'd share.

I've repeated the footage three times at regular speed, then once at half speed and once at one fifth speed. There's so many of the animation principles on display here, I'll just let you watch.

For the uninitiated, the clip is from the BBC television series "Strictly Come Dancing" in which a series of celebrities (who are new to ballroom dancing) compete over 12 weeks to be crowned champions. This lift/catch by the overall winners Harry Judd and Aliona Vilani comes from their "American Smooth" in the grand final. Stunning and absolutely effortless.

Address is Approximate

2011-11-23T16:16:00.000Z

I know this has been doing the rounds on various animation blogs, but I wanted to add my two cents about this personal project by Tom Jenkins.

Address Is Approximate from The Theory on Vimeo.

Having spent many years animating, I still love it when I'm truly immersed and captivated by a short film or an animation, and this beautifully crafted piece had me smiling all the way through. There's some incredibly clever ideas in there that has probably had many of us kicking ourselves and mumbling "why didn't I think of that!"

Great job Tom. Thanks for sharing.

The Rhythm of Life

2011-10-12T13:28:00.000+01:00

Timing, and rhythm is one of the fundamental principles of animation and I'm sure every animator has their own approach to timing (and measuring it). Personally, a stopwatch had always been perfectly adequate. But, in the pursuit of improving my workflow and technique, I'm always looking for new things to try and new ways to work. Inspiration comes from many places, and towards the end of last year, several things converged and got me thinking (and now working) differently about my approach to timing.

I'd stumbled across the blog of Olivier Ladeuix (Animation with a moustache) and a post titled Animation Beat Box. It referenced part of the 1988 TV documentary "I Drew Roger Rabbit" (below) where Richard Williams stalks his way around Soho Square in London, timing out the beat, rhythm and motion of the people and animals around him.

This is fascinating stuff, and really every animator should have the physical capacity to tap out the rhythm of life around them with a similar accuracy. Sadly, not all of us have the sense of timing that Richard Williams does. That ability comes through years of experience, practise and dedication. But, there are ways we can improve our sense of rhythm (as Olivier has done with the "Animation Beat Box"), and even carry the ability around in our pockets.

There was something else in the documentary had caught my attention, and helps to explain how Richard Williams has such a good feel for a beat. The sequence that follows on from Soho Square, Mr Williams is back in his studio, and is seen setting the tempo of a metronome, flicking through an animation sequence, re-setting the metronome, and flicking through the sequence again. Working with the constant beat of the metronome, the rhythm will, after a time, become second nature. It's much like a sportsman (or woman) repeating the same movements over and over to perfect their technique.

I remembered reading, as a student, about the use of metronomes by animators at Disney. This had never really seemed relevant to me. But times change, and with age and experience come different perspectives.

"Some of the old Disney animators used to work with a piano teacher’s metronome on their desks. This enabled them to assign a particular tempo to a planned animated character."

- Timing for Animation

The idea of using a metronome started to intrigue me, and it soon became an itch that needed scratching. After a fair amount of digging around, I found very few references to using metronomes for animation timing. But the book "Animation Unleashed" seemed to hold the key to what I was looking for. In the chapter "Timing and Rhythm Structure", Ellen Besen talks about acting out your action to the beat of a metronome. So with pocket metronome in hand, I gave it a go.

After a bit a trial and (mainly) error, I realised how uncomfortable and unnatural my performance felt and therefore looked. In the same chapter of "Animation Unleashed", Besen also mentions "using the metronome while watching". Now admittedly, I've taken this line out of context, but actually out of context it has more relevance to what I was looking for. So, flipping the idea on it's head, I set about timing other peoples actions. This had its own impracticalities. The unsuspecting members of the public I was trying to time were, more often than not, way off in the distance by the time I had an accurate tempo on the metronome.

This was incredibly frustrating. But, after a little re-evaluation, I realised my mistake actually lay in the equipment I was using. Yes, "a bad workman always blames his tools", but in this case it was the right tool, but the wrong type (a bit like using a cross head screw driver for a slotted screw).

The key thing that I had missed was having the ability to "tap out the rhythm of life". These days, there's a wide variety of metronomes available, from the old fashioned "pendulum" style that sits on your piano, to small electronic ones, to all sorts of mobile apps. Aside from the majority being a more practical size, many come with a "tap tempo" function, enabling animators, of whatever skill level, to replicate the ability Richard Williams and other great animators in the local park or shopping mall.

Now, having spent a good period of time stalking round à la Richard Williams, timing out the movement of unsuspecting colleagues, friend, family and unsuspecting members of the public, I came across another issue. I'd got the tempo of how fast (or slow) someone or something moved, but now I needed converting from metronome beats (bpm) to frames per second (fps). This (I found) was actually relatively easy once you get the right information. As long as you know your constant divisor factor, it's relatively plain sailing (with a little rounding up or down to the nearest frame). The divisor factor for 24fps is 1440 (ie.60 seconds x 24 frames). But in the modern era of Film, Television and Games, another issue is thrown up.

Depending on your area of the animation industry, the fps you use or are used to will differ. I started animating over 20 years ago on film, and 24fps was standard. But over the course of my career I've worked at 24, 25 and 30fps. And although I still do, it's rare these days that I work at anything other than 30fps, making "march time" 15 frames (an easy enough calculation), but what of all those other walks, runs and actions I've been timing out?

NB. I feel I should make it clear that I am a Maya user these days, and this next paragraph is specifically aimed at other Maya users.

I've been lucky enough throughout my career to be surrounded by some supremely talented artists and technicians, and it was one of them, a technically minded guy called Neil Dorrington, I went to with my problem. I asked if he could come up with a MEL script to help with my conversion problem and within what seemed like minutes he created a MEL script that is effectively a Beat Calculator (pictured). That script is available here.

It allows the user to convert bpm to fps (and vice versa) through direct input or the use of a slider, giving the tempo results in 30, 25 and 24fps (NTSC, PAL and Film respectively) and highlighting the speed settings you are working on.

These days my trusty stopwatch lies gathering dust. I guess I might use it again someday, but the "tap-tempo" metronome gives me more freedom and flexibility to accurately record the timing for what I want to animate.

Credit where it's due, and a note of thanks has to go to Olivier Ladeuix, Richard Williams and Ellen Besen for the inspiration, and Neil Dorrington for the MEL script. If, as Animators, we are to progress our art form, we need to be constantly thinking, learning, questioning and being inspired.

Apache

2011-05-19T12:15:00.007+01:00

I came across this via the Thinking Animation Blog, and I find it beautifully mesmerising. It's a music video for the band Danger Beach and is Directed by Ned Wenlock with Character animation by Rodney Selby

Apache from oneedo on Vimeo.

Marie Palmer LLAM FRSA (1944 - 2011)

2011-02-15T15:00:00.048Z

Marie passed away peacefully the night of February 3rd 2011, withher husband, John, by her side. She battled hard for over three and a halfyears with metastatic breast cancer, having tumours in thelungs, and then a tumour in the brain. It seems fittingthen, that the first post I write here on heroes and inspirations is about her(my mum).

Growing up in the 70's and 80's mum was always there for whateverwe needed. She would always allow us our own freedom (or so it seemed). It'sonly in later life that you realise that that freedom came as an extra bit of slackon the parental reins. But it gave us chance to grow, explore and develop intoyoung adults.

There was never any "you must be a..." speeches, but therewas also never any "you must not be...". In fact the closest any ofus came to that, was the fact that mum never wanted any of us to go intotheatre or acting. Ironically, and I never told her, animators are oftenreferred to as shy actors. But she probably knew.

Mum always worked and she worked hard. Even in her teens she ranstables for her father. The majority of her adult life she worked either as awife and mother or a teacher. Her subject, speech and drama, was something shehad fallen in love with as a girl (as I did with animation as a boy), and wenton to make a long and successful career from it, working in two private girlsschools, a drama school, and for many years successfully running her ownbusiness.

I was fortunate enough to, not only be taught by her, but to watchher teach. In my mid teens, due to High School "teacher trainingdays", mum would often take me with her to the Drama School in Birminghamwhere I'd find myself surrounded by and semi immersed into the training of a dramastudent. This allowed me the opportunity to observe and understand the basicsof theatrical performance, and eventually incorporate it into my animation work.

Mum was a big influencein and on my life, and helped me become who I am today. Even in later life whenshe'd decided to retire from teaching due to her health (a decision that tookmuch courage), mum was always there to listen to plans and ideas with greatencouragement.

Everyone that met or knew mum could see what a wonderful and strongwoman she was. That strength was even there in her last days. Less than twelvehours before she passed away, she became a Great Grandma for the first time,one final tick on her checklist of achievements.

She touched the lives of hundreds of people during her life, fromfamily and friends to all of her students. She was loved and respected and willbe greatly missed.

Rest in Peace mum, you've earned it.

Parallel Parking

2010-09-08T15:45:00.001+01:00

This is a great little short. Not only does it combine two of my favourite things (animation and small Fiatesque cars), but look and feel draws you in straight away.

The setting up of anticipation is perfect, and the pay off? You decide.

Thanks to twitter's @focalamanda for the link

Dragonboy - short & shot evolution

2010-07-14T15:20:00.002+01:00

I stumbled across this delightful little film via Spungella. It's absolutely charming and beautifully put together. The pace, timing and flow of the story, the characterisation, the shot composition, the use of lighting, are all incredible.

Dragonboy from Dragon Boy on Vimeo.

Also, via the films own site (www.dragonboythemovie.com) a great little bit of shot evolution. Check out the site for more on the film, including shot compositing clips and stills gallery.

Dragonboy Shot Breakdown from Bernie Warman on Vimeo.

The Illusionist

2010-06-16T11:12:00.000+01:00

I'm absolutely blown away by this. Least of all the fact that I loved Les Triplettes de Belleville (Belleville Rendez-Vous). For an animator, Tati's work as actor and mime is great to watch (as is the work of most of the great mimes). If you've never watched any of his work then Mon Oncle (My Uncle) and Les Vacances de Monsiour Hulot (Mr Hulot's Holiday) are great places to start.

The original unproduced script (by Tati in collaboration with his long term writing partenr Henri Marquet) was apparently written in 1956 as a personal letter from Tati to his estranged eldest daughter.

"The Illusionist is one of a dying breed of stage entertainers. With emerging rock stars stealing his thunder, he is forced to accept increasingly obscure assignments in fringe theatres, at garden parties and in bars and cafés. However, whilst performing in a village pub off the west coast of Scotland, he encounters Alice, an innocent young girl, who will change his life forever.

Watching his performance to the excited villagers who are celebrating the arrival of electricity to their remote island, Alice becomes awestruck by our hero and believes his tricks are real magic. Following him to Edinburgh, she keeps his home while he goes to work in a small local theatre. Enchanted by her enthusiasm for his act, he rewards her with increasingly lavish gifts he has 'conjured' into existence. Desperate not to disappoint her, he cannot bring himself to reveal that magic does not exist and that buying these gifts is driving him to ruin.

But as Alice comes of age, she finds love and moves on. The Illusionist no longer has to pretend and, untangled from his own web of deceit, resumes his life as a travelling entertainer, a much wiser man."

Reels and applications...

2010-05-06T16:51:00.002+01:00

I've been meaning to write a blog post about reels and applications for a while. This is not that post, but in the meantime, some wise words from Kenny Roy on "When Is the Best Time to Apply to the Big Studios?"...

"...So relax! If your reel is between 30 seconds and two minutes, has only your best work on it, and if you haven't already applied within 3 months, just send that sucker in. And I'll sleep easier knowing you aren't out strangling somebody for the gig."

The full article can be found HERE

Toy Story 3 - viral trailer

2010-04-09T16:22:00.001+01:00

I stumbled across this viral trailer for Toy Story 3. Spoofs the recent surge of horror/surveillance movies

Pixels - short film

2010-04-08T11:56:00.000+01:00

New York invasion by 8-bits creatures !

Patrick Jean' latest short film, shot on location in New York. Another one from the spam Inbox at work, courtesy of one of the animation team. Brilliant!

PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN.
Uploaded by onemoreprod. - Watch original web videos.

Written, directed by : Patrick Jean
Director of Photograhy : Matias Boucard

Elk Hair Caddis - short film

2010-03-24T13:20:00.000Z

A colleague chastised me recently for lack of blog posting over the last few months... mea culpa ...so, to make ammends, here's a great little short (courtesy of Keith Lango's blog). There's some really great pacing, and the comic timing is pretty near perfect throughout.

Elk Hair Caddis from peter smith on Vimeo.

There's also a making of and design work on the films site:
www.elkhaircaddis.com

MoMA | Tim Burton

2009-11-13T12:45:00.001Z

Here's a great little spot for the Tim Burton retrospective coming up at MOMA. Created & Produced by Mackinnon & Saunders (the best puppet makers in the world). Sadly I have no plans to be in NY over the next 6 months so I'll miss out. But hopefully it'll find its way to the UK.

"This major career retrospective on Tim Burton (American, b. 1958), consisting of a gallery exhibition and a film series, considers Burton's career as a director, producer, writer, and concept artist for live-action and animated films, along with his work as a fiction writer, photographer and illustrator. Following the current of his visual imagination from early childhood drawings through his mature work, the exhibition presents artwork generated during the conception and production of his films, and highlights a number of unrealized projects and never-before-seen pieces, as well as student art, his earliest non-professional films, and examples of his work as a storyteller and graphic artist for non-film projects. The opposing themes of adolescence and adulthood, and the elements of sentiment, cynicism, and humor inform his work in a variety of mediums—drawings, paintings, storyboards, digital and moving-image formats, puppets and maquettes, props, costumes, ephemera, sketchbooks, and cartoons. Taking inspiration from sources in pop culture, Burton has reinvented Hollywood genre filmmaking as a spiritual experience, influencing a generation of young artists working in film, video, and graphics."

the white stuff...

2009-10-02T22:18:00.001+01:00

I was digging about trying to find some old files for an interactive pilot I directed and co-produced and stumbled across these old British Milk marketing advert from the 90's.

The animation and design team used them as a basis for the style and technique ffor the pilot (which I'll share that with you at a later date).

There were a couple more as part of the campaign, but these two stand out as the best.

The Beatles: Rockband (short film / trailer)

2009-09-28T16:43:00.000+01:00

Not sure how this passed me by. Thanks to Thinking Animation blog for posting and apologies to those who've seen it already.

From what I've seen of The Beatles: Rockband game, this short bears little resemblance to the in game characters. Personally, I think if the fab four and the rest of the game looked like this I'd be straight down the shops.

Onwards

2009-09-14T09:12:00.000+01:00

Another twitter "thanks to" for this one.
Illustrator James Jarvis and Shynola director Richard Kenworthy have collaborated on a lovely new film for Nike.

Onwards from AKQA on Vimeo.

The film is Jarvis's first. To get the accurate running action, Kenworthy filmed Jarvis (a very keen runner) on a treadmill, then recreated his movements (it's not motion capture).

Art (and animation is art) is very much a personal thing. Some people will love it, some won't. Now, I found myself looking at the still image for this short wondering whether I could actually be bothered to watch it. I've always found (and this is my personal thing) this sort of animation style a bit dull and tedious. But I'm really glad I clicked play. If this isn't mocap (as I'm lead to believe) then it is delightfully observed. The music and the break up in pace (like opening the gate) make the whole film flow wonderfully, and at times I forgot I was watching animation.
Thanks Muttpop.

Tip: Deleting keyframes

2009-09-04T23:19:00.001+01:00

This post comes thanks to an #animtip posted by Justin Henton recently on twitter. He suggested assigning a button on your Maya shelf for deleting keys from your timeline. Great tip, I find myself having to delete keys (mainly mistakes) all the time! So why not make it a hotkey instead? Works for me.

Now after a little bit of trial and error, I've assigned my "delete key" to Alt+z with the command:

timeSliderClearKey;

Assigning hotkeys has always a little bit hit and miss for me. I find myself constantly changing my mind of what key to assign to what command. For me Alt+z just made sense (with Ctrl+z being undo).

Thanks Justin for the inspiration.

Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear

2009-08-25T10:30:00.000+01:00

One of the great things about working in a studio surrounded by some great talent is that you'll constantly get all sorts of cool videos drop into your email inbox. Like this..

... I'm particularly fond of the "collapsing knight".

at home with Harryhausen...

2009-08-19T20:27:00.001+01:00

Sorry, bit of a hefty post this (only because there's nearly half an hour of video). But it's not very often you get the chance to watch two legendary filmmakers sat around at table chatting about work and the industry.

I'm privileged to have met both of these guys and fortunate enough to have worked for one.

Animation Timeline

2009-08-19T08:28:00.000+01:00

I came across this ages ago on The Animation Podcast. Yeah, I know most of you have probably seen it before, but I still love it.

Animation Podcast Timeline on Dipity.

Tip: Try losing focus...

2009-08-17T17:25:00.001+01:00

This may seem like an odd thing to use as a blog title, but I don't actually mean lose your concentration. It's really more a case of watching your work with soft eyes. I've been doing this subconsciously for years, and it wasn't until a Director I was working with started mimicking me that I really became aware of exactly what I was doing.
The trick is to squint a little when reviewing the progress of a shot during playback. It's really effective during blocking or first pass stages of your animation. It's pretty much like photographers using soft focus effects to get rid of blemishes on models, only you use it to soften the harshness of a blockout. Defocusing your eyes will help you look at the overall picture of your work and how it's flowing. It'll also highlight (at a more final stage) any mistakes or glitches you might have missed by only focusing on one element.

Alarm

2009-08-12T12:57:00.000+01:00

Some days you just can't move for stumbling across great animation stuff, and this is beautiful and brilliant (although the hair and cloth dynamics does start to get a little irritating after a time)...

Apologies for anyone who's seem this via the Thinking Animation blog.

Endangered species

2009-08-12T09:05:00.001+01:00

A bit of fun from Tony White...

This film was created exclusively to illustrate Tony White's recent book... 'Animation from Pencils to Pixels ~ Classical Techniques for Digital Animators'

#animtip tuesday on twitter...

2009-08-12T08:37:00.000+01:00

Calling all tweeters and (in fact) none tweeters! This only started recently, but it's a great resource of tips from animators around the world. Get yourself some animation tips. Go on, spoil yourself

Tip: Having fun?...

2009-08-11T07:48:00.000+01:00

No? Ok, so it's not entirely about having fun, but if you're not enjoying what you're doing it really will reflect in your animation. Like wise, if you're hungover, tired or got a head cold you'll never produce your best work. Obviously we can't be 100% all the time. We are, after all, only human (although most animators are an unusual breed of human).
I'm a firm believer that animation comes from the creators heart, mind and soul. So, if your body's out of balance for what ever reason, you'll never bring to the screen an animation or sequence that you'll be entirely satisfied with.
I know that probably sounds all "mystical guru", but there really is no mystery to it. Relax and enjoy yourself.
Have fun, you really will notice it in your animation.

in the pursuit of perfection...

2009-08-04T12:12:00.000+01:00

"In the begining there was nothing, only an idea. But I believed you could build anything out of almost nothing. You just have to strive for perfection".
Kihachiro Onitsuka

I stumbled across this via an origami related spam email in the studio. I know it's a couple of years old now, but I like it and thought I'd share. Admittedly, I feel the animation (in parts) is a little clunky and not particularly polished, but that just emphasizes the visual style of the film. It is, after all about the "pursuit of perfection" and not perfection itself. It sweetly mixes stop motion and computer animation to tell the story of the Japanese sports brand ASICS in origami.

The Origami campaign won the a Silver for TV at Clio 2008, a Gold for TV and Cinema at the London International Awards 2008, and the Grand Prix for Design at the Eurobest 2008,

Know your history...

2009-07-23T13:20:00.000+01:00

It surprised me recently when I heard a ‘trained’ animator ask “How did they do that?” about the giant zoetrope created by Pixar. The surprise was soon replaced by a concern that Univeristies, colleges and art schools aren't teaching the basics of animation.
As a student of the art form (as I believe all animators are) we should have an understanding of the basic principles. It's not just about sitting in front of a computer with your chosen software making things move. We should know the early techniques of animation and film making, the phenomenon of persistence of vision (although this is apparently now myth) and motion perception.
Of course we (as animators) should always be looking forwards to new technologies and tools to improve our techniques and push the boundaries of our art. But if we don’t have the grounding and understanding of what has gone before us, we have nothing to build on.
I applaud Pixar for bringing a technique (now 175 years old) into the modern age of animation in such a brilliant and spectacular way. But don't just let the big guys of the industry rework old techniques for us to be aware of them. Have a root round yourself. Take inspiration from the methods, styles and craft of the fathers of animation.

You've got to start somewhere...

2009-07-19T15:33:00.000+01:00

When I decided to set up this blog, as with all new ventures, I was a little unsure of how to start. I've had many ideas of things I want to include here, but where to begin?
There's plenty of blogs and sites out there in the world wide web offering advice and inspiration to the budding (and professional) animator. But here is my two pence (or cents, depending on your geographical location).
I can't claim ownership on everything I write in this blog as many of the tips and techniques that I'll post has been collated from friends, colleagues, monsters, heroes & men over many the years. They will be credited (if I can remember who said what).
Hopefully my ramblings will give someone inspiration, or at least open their eyes to different ways of approaching animation.