DJ Nicke Animation Workflows

Another great person in the Animation community is DJ Nicke. He interviewed Jean-Denis Haas below and also runs the Animation Salvation website (which, if i'm honest, I have yet to figure out how to use).

But I just discovered a few of his tutorials and they are brilliant! The first one about facial animation has come my way at a perfect time when I am going to be concentrating on a facial animation piece very soon! I love how quick and easy he makes it seem - not so daunting anymore! I hope I can find more of his tutorials in the future because they are so helpful and will improve mine and everyone else's animation.



Notes from Video 1 - 4 steps of facial animation

Step 1 - FOUNDATION
Know the audio file inside out. If you don't have it in your head, how are you going to put it on the computer?

Step 2 - STRUCTURE
Build the Open, Close, Wide and Narrow.
For Open and Close: Place your elbow on the table and place your chin on your fist, then recite the dialogue at at regular pace and feel where the different structure's fall on the dialogue. Put down the structure keys on the timeline.
For Wide and Narrow: Place you finger and thumb on the corners of you mouth. Put these structure keys on the timeline.
Finally, shift the keyframes between 2-5 frames forward because we produce the mouth shape before we make the sound.

Step 3 - DETAILS
Add the rough emotion to the eyes: eyebrows and eye-gaze (direction). Then pull back and add the mouth emotion.

Step 4 - POLISH
Spend more time here. Adding the features unique to the character. Add head tilts, micro-expressions and weight (cheeks, jaw, lips). Concentrate on the 12 principles. Watch your arcs!



Notes from Video 2 - 7 steps within the 4 steps

Step 1 - FOUNDATION
1) Orientation & Pre-planning
Know your scene! How does it fit in with the bigger picture/story/character arc? Know the audio inside out. Speak to other animators, lead and supervisor to know where it fits in.

2) Imagineering
You know the scene, the story and the audio... now play the scene in your head and imagine it was being animated by the best animator on the planet. Quickly thumbnail ideas.

3) Inspiration
Watch reference material, be inspired and get excited to keep you going.

4) Planning
Re-imagine it again with all the details and thumbnail the the key poses while remembering to use the 12 principles.

Step 2 - STRUCTURE
5) Blocking
Have no distractions and completely focus! Blocking (stepped keyframes) should incorporate these details: squash & stretch, appeal, timing and clarity. It should be developed to the point of telling the story. Once that's done take a break!

Step 3 - DETAILS
6) 2nd Pass
No distractions and focus! Add more keys with these details; anticipation, arcs, secondary action, slow in & slow out, spline your keyframes, reverse your arcs, refine timing and a little bit of overlap and follow-through. Take another good break and get it looked at!

Step 4 - POLISH
7) Polish
Get into THE ZONE! Add more secondary action, overlap and moving keyframes around.