Monday, January 23, 2012

Week 3!! Planning and Blocking

Wow!! Week three started..This week was all abt Planning and different Methods of Blocking.

Planning is very Important in Animation..It is Imp for us plan for each and every shot that we are going to do. Planning helps us in giving an Idea what we are going to do and how we are going to do it.. Its is Imp because we should all the different methods and things we can do in out shot. That is the reason why we need to plan we  not just go on with our Idea..the idea is mostly a Cleché we Should Think about more different ways to do what we wanted to do in shot. This is what animation is being creative and doing something different and not doing what others did.

There are different aspects for planning a shot, I'll try to mention some of them :

- When brainstorming for ideas, do not always commit to the first idea that pops to your mind, the first idea is always good but its usually a Cleché that been used over & over again and might not be the best for you shot, so try to find different and more creative ideas.


- Close your eyes and try to visualize your shot/shots from start to end, this will help you understand what you want.Then write them down.you are not going remember each and every thing and then also try to see how you can improve them

- Observe the world around you, shoot as much video references as you can to help you in your animation, But do not just copy frame by frame from the reference. You look at your reference understand it and take ideas from it and exaggerate them and add some other stuff in them this will help you making you animation unique.

- Always keep a Sketch Book with you. Observe people and draw them if you find something interesting.Drawing simple thumbnails or story board for your shot is a huge part of the planning process.

- Be sure to always ask for feed back from your fellow animators or even people outside the industry, this is a great way for you to improve your ideas & skills.And also try to give feedback to others.And don't take feedback as an attach over over your we know you love your work. Taking feedback and thinking about them will help you to improve your work. because sometime nope mostly you don't see your mistakes unless someone points it to you. SO always ask for feedback.

Blocking is the main key Drawings that is imp to sell the idea. Its an animation technique in which key poses are created to establish timing and placement of characters and props in a given scene or shot.




Blocking, there are three different methods of blocking your shots :

1 - Layering : is when you layer the animation for a characters gradually along a sequence ( body, hands, head, legs.. etc )
2 - Pose To Pose : is when you set keyframes for the main key poses for a character, then add the in-between on later stage.
3 - Straight A Head : In this them the animator starts with the first drawings then goes to second drawing and so..on...

All three methods are correct, but its good to find the one that works the best for you, every one has a different method of working. Its is not Important to use just a single method. We can also combine there method.. Like for example if you are animating a ball with a tail.. You can first just block out the ball animation hiding the tail...and then just work on the ball animation and not thinking about the Tail. Get the timing and spacing of the ball right. and then you can Straight your tail in another layer..

And for this week we had to show our first animation to our mentor. We had to animate a bouncing ball with the Weight of either a Basket Ball or a Soccer ball... and also submit a sketch of we plan for our Bouncing Ball and for the pose we had to Submit a sketches of poses showing EXCITEMENT and then selecting one pose from those sketches and posing Stu.

Here's my assignment for Week three:-
As we only has to Submit one I submit the top One.. Can't wait for the Critiques... :D





Happy animating Guys...



Week 2 Assignments!!

Hii guys!! So here are my week 2 assignments..This week was Fun!!


But we only had to submit One pose so I submitted the guns one...
and here my Sketches...


Hurray!! I got my First Critique on my Assignment...and here's the revision...

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Week 2 is Here!!! The 12 Principles Of Animatons..

Wow!! Week 2 is on.. In this term we were told about the 12 principles of animations. How they are very Important and are the build block for each and every Animation. No matter how advance or how Complicated you shot is Its foundation are the basics. ( The 12 principles). We were told about the "Illusion of Life ".. man its an awesome book..I read only 4-5 pages till now..buts its like mind-blowing..Totally recommended.. Now I see y its called the Animation Bible. Those Disney animator's "The nine Old men" there are really animations Ninja's. They created all these principles that we now use. Its like they created all these just by observing people. Now thats awesome. The 12 principles of Animation are really Important.
They Created and tested and experimented with all these principles. Animators are using these principles for more than 80 years and it worked for them then if surly gonna work for us. We need to get these principles running along our Blood. Don't be afraid by seeing so many principles and things to remember. Just practice and practice and these will become like a second nature to you. Opps.. I forgot to mention what the 12 principles are :-

The 12 Principles of Animations
  1. Squash and Stretch
  2. Anticipation
  3. Arcs
  4. Staging
  5. Exaggerations
  6. Solid drawing\Solid Pose
  7. Appeal
  8. Timing and Spacing
  9. Slow in and Slow out ( Ease in\out)
  10. Straight and Pose to Pose
  11. Follow through and Overlaping
  12. Secondary Actions
 K..And For this week We got our First assignment.We have go out leave out Computer alone :( and sketch lol...yup go out and draw the People.. But we don't to be Super cool awesome artist. What we have to submit is just the gesture drawing enough to describe what is the line of action and what exactly the person is doing. and ntn more crazy stuff. and Then from those draw select one and Pose it with Stu.  I'm almost done with my assignment. Just looking for some critiques on them by other students then I will also Post them here. Anyways Bye Guys!!  Happy Animating :D

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Yahooo!! The Start of Animation Mentor!!!



Hurayyy!! Animation Mentor has finally started...been waiting for this for a long time..I got Chad Stewart as my mentor..he is awesome...

Chad has been an animator for the last 20 years. He started as a traditional animator for 10 years at Walt Disney Animation Studios, working on films such as Tarzan, The Emperor's New Groove, and Fantasia 2000. Then Chad pursued 3D animation at Sony Pictures Imageworks, animating in films like Stuart Little 2 and Open Season 1 and 2, then as an animation supervisor for Surf's Up. Chad Stewart is currently a full-time animation freelancer and a full-time mentor at Animation Mentor.

 Check out his Reel..

http://www.animationfreelance.com/3dreelv2.html