Aleksandr Petrov - The Old Man and the Sea

Found @ OnAnimation

The Gershwin Piano Quartet

It's hard not to imagine what this would look like if it was animated! It just looks so cool, and if you cover their heads it looks even better! The song is of course brilliant too.

The Making of Legend Of The Guardians

Really cool to see animators acting out how they want to see their references!



Animator Brandon Body, who worked on this title said:

I feel I should mention that although this was a process favoured by many animators including myself, not everyone did it or found it useful. Some would get frustrated at their inability to capture the performance they wanted or were not comfortable in front of the camera. They would prefer and were perfectly capable of finding a great performance internally or through drawing. There is no one way of working that is right for everyone and all animators have to find what leads to the best end result for them.

Found @ On Animation

Milt Kahl

Found @ Flooby Nooby

We Are The Strange

Surreal film made by Mike at M dot Strange. He makes animation films by himself and documents his process for this film on this blog.

Showtime Short Stories

Showtime have been commissioning and releasing these short stories for a while now, but for me these two were well worth mentioning.

Walks of Life by Cyriak Harris


The Deep by PES

Ishihara

Stumbled across this in my Vimeo feed. It's simple, very simple but affective. Using only the dots and colours from the Ishihara Colour Test, Yoav Brill created a great piece of animation and storytelling for his graduation project. Congrats!

The Illusionist (L'illusionniste) Pencil Test

The pencil test looks awesome! I can't wait to see the film. Check out another one HERE

Dead Space Aftermath

Wow, this looks epic! Just as much as the game.



Via TAG Blog

Animation in England

It's over a year on since this was first reported on BBC news and nothing has changed. Despite BBC news scare tactics, the animaton industry has not 'gone off the rails'. However, all I read today is how Canada, America, India, France and Korea controls the market for animation and the industry is booming for them and slowly dying here.

The Department of Culture is mentioned in this report, but have a look at their website, I can't find animation anywhere! Fairness (HA!) has nothing to do with it.



Via Bryn Richards

Don Hertzfeldt's Shorts

Don Hertzfeldt is back with another bizarre and satirical animation. If you haven't watched his animation before, brace yourself!



Previously to this new one he made Billy's Balloon.



Most infamously; Rejected



And many other animations.

Headless Productions - I'm A Monster

A couple of days ago, I watched the above great short film, called I'm A Monster. Great story and very nice animation. It was made by the Spanish animation studio Headless Productions.

Today, one of my favourite blogs has published an interview with the creators and founders of the studio. Read it HERE on the Character Design Blog


Soundtrack: Oingo Boingo - Weird Science

Learning Animation Online

A couple of weeks ago I posted on the subject of education and the cost, while the students protested in London. It triggered me to think about my own education past, present and future. However, don't go looking for the post. It was a bit too personal for publication so it's gone, for now.

Today, through the EIG (endless-interweb-grapevine), I read a brilliant and in-depth blog post comparing the two (arguably) major online animation training programs going, by someone who attended both. Rastko (if that's even the persons name) wrote about his/her own experiences at the two leading programs; Animation Mentor and iAnimate. You can read the article HERE

I have been thinking about taking the AM 18 month program next year, but now I am leaning more towards iA. I still don't know the total cost of iA (is it $5994/£3871.41 for the whole shebang?... 6 workshops at $999/£645.23 each?), but I have a feeling it's a lot cheaper than AM's $18k (£11.6k) and taught in a way more to my liking. Rastko's summarises - with slightly bias comments to which he acknowledges - that iAnimate is better (for him/her) because it is made to get you to be the best animator you can be, in as much time as you need.

So if anyone is reading this and have their own opinion about...
Animation Mentor vs iAnimate
Online Animation Programs
or anything else... please share your thoughts.

Another online program mentioned in the blog was AnimSchool, and I also know about animationAteam but I have yet to look into these in any detail. If anyone can shed some light on to these programs please leave a comment.

Once I get all the information I need I want to make a table/graph to illustrate the differences more clearly for myself and others who are also thinking about it.

Google Docs Animation

I love this kind of creativity! Well done to the 3 animators (Tu+ Uthaisri, Nam Doan and Arthur Metcalf) who made this.



Via Laughing Squid

Bill Plympton Interview

I remember watching Idiots and Angels at Uni and loved it. I have to confess though, I didn't know who made it, or even who Bill Plympton was. But now I know, I will be checking out more of his work. Very unique and appealing animation.

Animation Checklist

Over at the brilliant Animation Tips & Tricks blog, Mike Stern has written a thorough process he goes through to tackle important shots. It covers...

Checklist of Questions at the Launch
Checklist for Planning a Shot
Blocking
Getting Feedback
First Pass
Getting More Feedback
Pushing for the Final
Shipping it

Check it out HERE

Wikirebels Documentary

This documentary explains a lot about the currently hot topic of conversation; Wikileaks. It starts at the beginning and ends on what's recently happening. It's an interesting documentary that highlights not Julian Assange's rape charges, not Wikileaks vs USA, but more most importantly, transparency in democracy!









Be warned, you may find the end of part 2 and the beginning of part 3 very upsetting to watch.

Toy Story 3 Art Timelapse

This awesome footage of a Toy Story 3 poster timelapse, by Nico Di Mattia makes it look so easy, but he is stunningly talented!



Via Flooby Nooby

Soundtrack: Led Zeppelin - Rain Song

Animation Showreel Winter 2010

It's finally here! I've got my new showreel ready and I hope that this will be more useful to me in the new year, than my last showreel.



To celebrate the new showreel, i'm giving away 8 million pounds I updated my website!!

The Making of Aladdin

One of the awesome blogs I follow has posted the entire Making of Aladdin from YouTube in 13 parts! One of my favourite childhood films I can't wait to see it. Check it out HERE

Cartoon Brew's 2010 Christmas Gift Guide

I saw yesterday on the Cartoon Brew website, that they had published their ideas for christmas gifts. There are quite a few suggestions (about 24) and I haven't had the chance to check all of them out yet, but they do look good. Check out the article HERE


Soundtrack: Queen - Play The Game

Despicable Me: Mini Movie Collection

Recently, Illumination Entertainment have been releasing some very well made, awesome, funny mini-movies/short animations from the Despicable Me franchise (I dislike that word so much, but I think it's necessary to use). The three stories centre around the little-yellow-minions of the lead character Gru. I think my favourite so far is Banana. Check them out and say which one you think is great.







Be sure to check out more great videos on GruTube, and purchase the DVD!

KOOKY

"This film is based on the true story of a teddy bear"

This looks absolutely brilliant! I love the combination of different animation, though it looks like most of it is composited CGI.

"The English trailer for Jan Sverak’s Kuky se vrací (Kooky Returns) has been revealed. The Czech film features a mixture of live-action footage, stop-motion and puppetry."

Via Lineboil

Meet Buck

I've been waiting to see this short film for a while now. From TeamCerf, the (French Graduates) creators of Salesman Pete now comes Meet Buck. Fantastic overall style, great animation and some really nice surprises like when the car crashes through the house at 1min 34sec. Check it out...

Ultraviolet Andromeda

Date: 27 October 2010
Location: M31

Click the picture to be taken to the original site, or read on.

Ultraviolet Andromeda

Credit: UV - NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler (GSFC) and Erin Grand (UMCP)

Optical - Bill Schoening, Vanessa Harvey/REU program/NOAO/AURA/NSF

Explanation: This stunning vista represents the highest resolution image ever made of the Andromeda Galaxy (aka M31) at ultraviolet wavelengths. Recorded by NASA's Swift satellite, the mosaic is composed of 330 individual images covering a region 200,000 light-years wide. It shows about 20,000 sources, dominated by hot, young stars and dense star clusters that radiate strongly in energetic ultraviolet light. Of course, the Andromeda Galaxy is the closest large spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way, at a distance of some 2.5 million light-years. Just slide your cursor over the image to compare the appearance of this gorgeous island universe in optical light with its ultraviolet portrait.

Via Flooby Nooby

Tell No One - Lo-Fi Video Experiments

I just came across more inspiring videos under the name Tell No One, by London based film-makers Luke White and Remi Weekes. They experiment with video editing techniques and effects to produce nice visual art. Here's what they say about the idea behind it...

"Intended to be a peek into our experimental process, we hope to post our on-going ideas, inspirations and processes. Think of this as like an informal brainstorm."

Via Flooby Nooby

Abstract Animation - Michel Gagné

Michel Gagné creates stunning abstract visualisations and animations for film and music. His previous work includes Ratatouille and more recently Sensology. Very inspiring! Check them out...

Star Wars/Dr. Seuss Mashup

USA (Seattle, WA) based cartoonist Adam Watson is making a cool series of drawings in a little project he's calling "Dr. Seuss does Star Wars"



Via Flooby Nooby

Soundtrack: Skalpel - Enigma Of Skalpel

The Ultimate Dog Reference Video

Via Jean-Denis Haas

Thought Of You

There is an animation that is heavily going viral at the moment and it's fantastic to sit back and watch while it picks up attention. But I decided today that I would post a little bit about it for anyone else who hasn't had the opportunity to watch it yet.

Thought Of You was a collaborative creative effort by animator Ryan Woodward and dance choreographer Corey [unknown].

As far as I know the film is not completely finished yet. But here is 3 minutes of stunning animation.

THOUGHT OF YOU...


MAKING OF...


Furthermore, Ryan stated in a comment on Vimeo that one of his influences is from Animator/Director Michaël Dudok de Wit. To view the similarities, here is a film by Dudok de Wit called Father and Daughter...



HERE is an old interview with Ryan Woodward conducted by Randall Sly of the Character Design Blog.

For Pay or Not For Pay?

I'll keep this short and brief, but it's very important to say and I don't think anyone has said it as succinctly than Harlan Ellison...



Since graduating from Uni and trying to find my first step on the ladder to my career, I am constantly (and not alone with this struggle) faced by people who want me to work for free (this equates to the amount of time spent learning the craft, my time creating the work and the huge amount of money I have invested in both). I have so far had three people; two film-makers and a writer, come to me (not the other way round) asking for animation work to be done for free with the INCENTIVE of great publicity or money later on when investors take interest and capital begins to grow.

Now, I have just read this rule of thumb blog post by Arnie Fenner (via David Martinez), which gives some good advice to artists across the board. The last paragraph though, really stands out for me and relates to the issues artists today face with amateur, young, students doing work for free.

"Don't Work On Spec
That's not the same as doing pro-bono or charity work, both of which can and should be done as you deem appropriate. No, what I'm talking about is when someone has a simply TERRIFIC idea—but no money—and wants the artist to work some magic for them so the entrepreneur will have something to show prospective suckers...er...investors to make the project a reality. These sorts of pie-in-the-sky projects almost never come to fruition or, if they—miracle-of-miracles—do, they virtually never turn into a paycheck for the artist. Work for pay, get everything in writing, and don't fall prey to the shysters. Likewise, if someone wants to use your art, demand compensation of some sort. Harlan Ellison, in an absolutely magnificent outburst in Dreams With Sharp Teeth, talks about paying the writer: it goes the same for artists."

At times, I know it can be very difficult to make that decision; to work for free or not. But even if that free work is going to look good in the showreel or on a portfolio, we have to remember that in the long run it harms the industry for the people at the top, which I hope will one day be me!

How To Approach A Shot

An old blog post by an excellent character animator Nick Bruno, highlights a personal checklist full of useful questions to ask yourself what you need to do and look for before opening the animation software.

The points he raises are:
- Know the character
- Study the sequence
- What is the point of that moment in the shot
- Check storyboard panels
- Look around the set
- Listen to the audio
- Your own personal experience
- Draw thumbnails and experiment
- Act it out
- References
- Revise the 12 principles

There are many more he includes from his own personal experience. Check it out HERE

Via David Martinez

The Chase (Short Film)

Love the style. Love the pace. The music works very well!

Here is a short animation by Ron Doucet. He states that in the inspiration comes from Samurai Jack, Dark City and Run Lola Run. That's probably why I like this piece so much! =D Well done, nice work Ron.

Interview: Glen Keane (Disney Animator)

Check out this interview with Glen Keane who recently co-directed Tangled. He most famously animated Ariel in The Little Mermaid, the Beast in Beauty And The Beast, on Tarzan, Aladdin, Treasure Planet and more.

"Have a goal that’s worth fighting for. If you don’t, the computer is like a used car salesman. It’ll always make you walk off the lot with something you don’t want."

Via Roberto Genito

The Arctic Circle - Graduation Film

The Arctic Circle is a really great example of a graduation film done with stop motion. The style is nice but what I really like are the captions in between the story. It not only helps to lead the story in a very stylistic way, but the choice of words seem appropriate to the context of the film. Great work! Made by Kevin Perry.







Via David Martinez

WiP

I've been working hard for the past week or so to complete a few animation exercises that will hopefully work well and sit in my next showreel. So far I have a Jump, Walk and Dance. I'm open to comments and constructive criticisms if anyone has a moment to help.

Click the pictures to watch the videos.

Jump

Walk

Dance

Don't worry, the acting stuff is on it's way! :)

Update (01/12/10):
My first run cycle also in the firing line for criticisms! :D

The Venus Project

I would like to sidetrack from animation for a minute to mention something more universally of interest. I've been looking for something like this for a while, and i'm sure it's not the only idea out there, but this one is growing fast; an alternative to the monetary system.

The Venus Project is an interesting basis to a new ideal world, but I think more time is needed for them to develop all the answers first before the masses begin to lean towards it as a reasonable direction to take. If you have ideas you should send them in as they may help. I would like to see this develop and grow more and become something everyone is certain will benefit all humans.

Jacques Fresco speaks well and makes a lot of good points, he understands people and behaviorism's very well, but there are times where I think "Is he serious?" "Does he know what he's getting into?" He definitely needs more backing and support with him rather than Roxanne who I don't think answers the questions as well; it seems like she is reciting prepared lines.

It's obvious he's an intelligent visionary, and being a visionary is great, but I think this project is very much in its infancy (even though the concept is decades old now). Anyway, it'll be interesting to see where this goes.

By the way the sound is horrible, but bare with it, it's really interesting.

SIGGRAPH Asia 2010

The official trailer for the SIGGRAPH Asia 2010 Computer Animation Festival (CAF). This year's conference is being held in Seoul, South Korea from December 15 to December 18, 2010. More information can be found at www.siggraph.org/asia2010.

Via Martin Sen

Aaron Hartline Interview

I love watching one-to-one interviews with the animators I admire and aspire to be. This is an interview with one of my favourites Aaron Hartline (check out his daily post-it artwork, they're so cool!) he's been an animator for Blue Sky and now works at Pixar. His story is so unique and inspiring for anyone like me who is trying to get into the animation industry and ultimately wants to be working in films. So check out this 6 part interview and enjoy!



Via Martin K

Mars Needs Moms - TRAILER

As you can tell right away, this is an American animation :-) Actually, it's a new movie from Disney and Robert Zemeckis' studio Image Movers Digital, so I think all of the animation is done with motion capture. But I personally like the style and the story looks really funny so it's definitely worth posting.

Via Spungella

Update: I've just read that Digital Image Movers are now shutting down. Bad times.

Aardman Podcast

There hasn't been a great deal of myself to talk about recently as i'm doing the same old heavy and demanding task of job hunting and building up my showreel with better content.

So to keep things from getting stale over here, I want to share with you a fantastic podcasts series from arguably the best animation studio in Britain; Aardman. If you haven't seen these before then catch up with the first series now before they begin the second series which is commencing next year.

Flip Festival 2010

Since I evacuated from University I have been applying myself to many areas of the UK that provide animators more opportunities, such as Bring Your Own Animation (BYOA) in London and Flip Festival in Birmingham (and sometimes Wolverhampton). The latter is where I went to last week and here's the lowdown...



There were two events at Flip Fest that I went to with my pal Kane. The first was a writing workshop run by Myles Mcleod called 'Writing an Animated Comedy'. This was a very stimulating and inspiring talk which began by covering the four types of laugh: Visceral, Recognition, Suprise and Bizzare. These were taken from the book Why Is That So Funny? by John Wright.

We then delved into the mystery of comedy characters. How would you describe them to your friends? Characters, such as: David Brent, Edmund Blackadder, Homer Simpson, Bernard Black.
And what do they have in common? They always solve the problem at the end (this is more to do with the 3 act structure) and more importantly, they are ALL losers (with permission to win)!
You can find almost all character archetypes in the Commedia dell' Arte. They are loosely based on animals.

Great advice from Myles was to always keep a small notebook on your person, to note down all the funny things you hear or think of, or things that irritate you. Because the truth is funny. And we are all flawed!

We then talked about the structure of gag. The Simpsons Evolution clip cleverly shows visually what tells the story. Pick something that makes you laugh and break it apart to find out why. It's a good exercise. Use the does it get better or worse exercise. And ended on Tarvuism by Robert Popper which is completely genius in my opinion!


Then we get on the road to Birmingham to attend Animating The West Midlands. There was some really great animation shown at the event, and also some bad ones. Then the Viral Kitchen group gave a quick Q&A before it hurriedly (like last year) as we ran out of time. Now began the drinking and networking.

I met up with Dave Cox, someone who i've been following on Twitter. Also there were Mark and Andy from the Character Shop.

So all in all it was a very good day and I enjoyed mixing with fellow animators. It would be even better if they could just call it Animating the Midlands, I don't really get the whole West Midlands thing... if East Midlands decided to start up would they be rivals??

Anyway, that was my second time at Flip, so until next year! Hopefully when I go back again i'll be in full time work or at least be working on a big paid project =).


Soundtrack: Johnny Clegg & Savuka - The Waiting

The Finished TARDIS

And so a couple of weeks ago I completed making the TARDIS, but forgot to update y'all. It is a low poly model in the event that it can be used for a game environment. Unwrapped UVs in maya and textured with Photoshop. It was a fun little project which i'm glad I did because I can use it for lots of little things now.

New Showreel

At the news from Kane that we were going to be included in this months Animation Forum West Midlands Newsletter, I took the initiative to revamp my showreel. The older one worked well for my graduation but I needed something a little better if it was going to be shown to potentially hundreds of people in one day. We are also going to be featured again in the November newsletter - more free publicity! Here is the new showreel...




Soundtrack: Mithras - Lords and Masters

The TARDIS

I've spent today modeling Dr Who's TARDIS. The decision isn't final yet whether I am going to use as a prop it for my next animation or simply render it nice and include it in the portfolio. But either way I hope to have it finished well. I'm also trying to keep it low poly for game use if that ever comes about.




Update: 22/10/10
I am currently in the middle of texturing the tardis and animating so it's going to be a while before I show progress.


Soundtrack: Cheer Chen - Self

Long Time No Post

I went to China recently and really wanted to keep a blog with pictures and events that took place for the four weeks, but unfortunately they don't allow Google blogging!! As rubbish as that is, I am able to go through all 5000 pictures and select a few of the really great ones - not picked them all yet though. So here are some delightful looking pictures I took when I went to the far East. I was there for just under 4 weeks with my lovely girlfriend and I can't wait to go back. We went to Beijing, Shanghai, Wuzhen, Hangzhou and Xi'an.





Soundtrack: Cheer Chen - The Meaning of Travel

Interviews...

...you don't have any for ages and then all of a sudden you get them all at once!

After many, many... many months of job hunting I signed up to jobseekers benefits. After another month since then I was finally given the interviews I was hoping for. The first one came from The Character Shop in Birmingham. This will be a junior animator role working on Zoo Troop III for Haven Holiday Camp. The interview consisted of a 3 day test by animating a 14 second piece of dialogue of the main character; Rory the Tiger. Fully modeled and rigged in 3ds Max with Biped. I finished on the morning of the forth day before I had to get my train back home and was accepted to be on the team for a 3 month contract when it starts.






I got the train back home and then hopped on another train to London. This time I was going for an interview at Prime Focus in Soho. I arrived very early so I had time to relax which was much needed in the busy area of Soho. I got to the interview 15 minutes early as planned and waited for my two interviewers.


There was a bit of confusion at the beginning. You see, someone in HR told the interviewers that I had applied for the Data Operator role when in fact I had applied for the Junior Support Technician. So the questions they were asking and the answers I was giving were conflicting in both of our minds. Soon they realised we were on totally different tracks and they began to interview me for the role I actually applied for - leading on from the other role as not to repeat the same questions.
In the end it worked out quite well, because they have put me forward for both of those roles - so it was almost like hitting two birds with one stone!
Data Op isn't something I particularly like the sound of, but that's only because I wasn't sure what that was until my interviewers started saying "You know this is a really boring job" and "You will be punching numbers and data all day long in a dark dingy cave with no outlet for creativity"... okay the dark dingy cave thing I made up... but that's what it felt like. The Junior Support Technician role is perfect for me though. I've done it before and as it's a Junior role I won't be expected to know everything and I already have a willingness to learn. So I can't see a problem there.

Anywho, my four day interview week went very, very well and it's only a matter of time now before I can start working again and making £££££!






Location: Cafe Libre - Soho, London

The Incredible Results of Viveza 2

A couple of weeks ago I discovered a piece of software for manipulating photos with exact precision, that I had never come across before. Nik's Viveza 2 is a wonderfully simple tool to bring the most out of your images.
I am very excited by it as I will want to improve the final shots of my trip to China when I come back in September. So to test this software I created a simple render from maya...

The text uses an ambient occlusion material and the three balls are using a car paint material, both are mental ray materials. The light was setup using an HDRI I pulled from my buddy Rob, who i'm sure won't mind =) and applied it to a IBL dome. The final render was at 720p and these are the results...

1) The original - straight from Maya


2) The edit - from Viveza 2


The results to my eye, are quite staggering. I was able to ramp up the colour and contours of the balls individually and then the whole scene using a circle border which gave it that soft vignette round the corners. I love this tool and will probably be using it for a long time. If you've had positive or negative experiences with it I'd like to know.

I Am A Job-Hunting Animator

After reading this blog post by an animation mentor alumni, I realised that I am looking for work by so many different means. As I dont want to miss opportunities and be helpful to others who might be searching, I thought continuation of Kaiern's list would be a good idea. The first two are very useful if you're looking for work outside of the UK too, which I will be looking for after my holiday.

GameDevMaps




Wayfaring - Animation Places of Interest




Twitter - My gradually updating list of everything animation that comes in 140 characters or less




LinkedIn




Soundtrack: Gentle Giant - Excerpts from 'Octopus'

List of Video Sharing Sites

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Back To Basics - Bouncing Ball

I recently started to work on the 'lifting heavy object' animation exercise, but realised that I was still lacking some of the fundamental knowledge needed to apply in the animation, to make the whole sequence more believable. So I have gone back to the basics and to start with I am working on the bouncing ball exercise using the Flying Fox Rig because later on I can add the tail and ears.



I can see that there is not weight from this first example, so i've gone onto 11SecondClub for some feedback using the curve of my Translate Y movement.



Update - 06/07/10
I've had some feedback from 11SecondClub members now and the ball is starting to look much better. Here is the graph and video update:





Update: 07/07/10
More feedback today to say that there is too much squash and stretch, as in it is too strong. So i've gone in and reduced the amount of S&S i've applied...




Soundtrack: Stevie Wonder - Isn't She Lovely

Principles of Animation: Toy Story

After finishing up my Multimedia course at NTU, I am still finding ways to better understand Animation. I found this very interesting article by ... (someone) at the Texas A&M University. It serves to analyse the Principles of Animation by following Toy Story.

The same person also a great article about Body Language in Animations. Hope it's useful to you.

STAGING
Two contrasting examples of staging...
- Buzz fills up a large part of the screen and the camera is placed at his feet and tilted up to make him dominate the scene.
- The toy soldiers occupy a very small part of the screen. Even when a soldier comes in close to the camera the scene is set up so that he takes up less than a quarter of the screen space. This scene was probably set up this way to show the magnitude of their task.



Clip




Clip


ANTICIPATION
- The animators use an exaggerated anticipation even for the simple scene of woody lifting himself up from the bed
- Where Mr.Potatohead accuses woody, the anticipation is followed by a follow through in the camera movement



Clip




Clip



FOLLOW-THROUGH
The follow-through is also exaggerated a lot in most scenes. The hands and head "drag" behind the body and take longer to settle down



Clip



LINE OF ACTION
A curve can often be drawn through the characters pose. Carefully planning the line of action can make the scene more dramatic.This is similar to the characteristic curves that is often used while designing and modeling a character.



Clip


ASSYMETRY
The animators make sure that the characters always strike a pose with some kind of asymmetry. Its more lifelike to have the character put its weight on one foot or to bend one arm a little more than the other.





Clip


SQUASH AND STRETCH
There's a very subtle use of squash and stretch in "Toy Story". Squash and stretch is often seen in scenes where the toys land onto a surface. I couldn't find any squashing and stretching by means of scaling.





Clip


SLOW IN / SLOW OUT
Careful manipulation of the animation curves can make the scene look believable





Clip


ARCS
- The characters hands and head in particular always move around in arcs. There are no sharp movements


Clip


EXAGGERATION
- A lot of woody's scenes are wildly exaggerated. The hands and the head are animated using a lot of secondary motion.



Clip


TIMING
- I initially thought of classifying this scene under the title "appeal". But actually the beauty of this scene comes from timing. The sudden movements interrupted by graceful slow movements is what makes this scene appealing.



Clip


WEIGHT
- Weight is conveyed mainly using timing. The use of sudden movements after the character has put in some effort gives it weight. The animators also make the characters shiver slightly to make it seem like they're puting in a lot of effort.



Clip

Clip


DIALOG ANTICIPATION
- The characters anticipate dialog delivery by about 3 to 5 frames.



Clip


DIALOG FOLLOW-THROUGH
- The characters follow-through with their dialog by holding the last expression for sometimes as much as 10 frames.




Clip

Clip


MOVING HOLD
- This isn't exactly a moving hold but it makes use of the principle of "hitting the same pose, then drifting to an even stronger pose and so on". Woody "hits" four different variations of the same pose to make this scene dramatic.
- This is the more traditional moving hold where the character holds the same pose but keeps moving a little so that it doesn't look inorganic




Clip




EYES LEADING
- Every head-turn in "Toy Story" is preceded by an eye movement in that direction. When the eye leads the head, the character blinks



Clip


BLINKS
- Eyeblinks in "Toy Story" are almost always like this. The two eyes blink about a frame or two apart.



Clip


BALANCE / CENTRE OF GRAVITY
- The centre of gravity of the character is always right above the foot planted on the ground. Complicated scenes are made believable by making use of convenient camera-angles.


Clip

Clip




Well that's it for this subject. I hope you have found it as useful as I did. Feel free to bookmark this page and refer to it everytime you want to remind yourself of these principles; the pictures with Toy Story examples are great!


Soundtrack: Animal Collective