What Is the Best Way to Go about Animating Walks?

Many animators agree that animating a walk is one of the hardest things to do in animation. Not only do you have to make sure the character’s body mechanics are all working properly together, you must also make sure you imbue the walk with as much personality as possible so that the audience clearly reads their personality.

To successfully animate a walk, one must first analyze the character’s state of mind. This will greatly affect the way the character will carry himself. A depressed guy will move completely different than someone who has just won the lottery, for example. Once you know WHAT your character is thinking within the context of a shot, it becomes very easy to see HOW that character will move. Now, it’s up to you as the animator to act out the walk and see what makes it tick.

A good way to start is by filming yourself and analyzing what it is about the walk that makes it so distinctive. Frame through the footage to get a better feel for your timing. I’ve found that watching video reference in conjunction with thumbnailing your major keys and taking notes about timing is a great combination to achieving a successful walk.

Beware of sticking too closely to the video footage, though. Animation is about exaggeration! Take your keys and really push them. Go for BELIEVABILITY over REALISM. Sell the weight and push your poses to the next level.

Once I finish thumbnailing, I usually proceed to block out my keys (ups and downs), being careful to include the contact positions for the legs so that I know the character’s stride length. I usually stay in stepped/held mode as I add in more keys and breakdowns, constantly going back and forth from key to key, feeling things out and making any necessary adjustments to my timing and animation.

After I get the general feel of the walk working in my blocking, I then begin to spline my animation. I first isolate the root by hiding the other parts of the body such as the head, neck, arms and legs. Since the root drives everything, I try to make sure it retains the timing and overall feel I gave it in my blocking pass while concurrently striving to push my poses wherever I can.

Just a few last things to keep in mind:

-Make sure your character takes time to gain speed or slow down. Use slow-ins and slow-outs to give your character weight.

-You can simplify the ups and downs of the walk by treating the root like a bouncing ball. Pull the handles on the top of your spline to give it that nice bell shape. This of course is not a formula and each walk must be treated appropriately but it’s a good way of avoiding your animation from getting too mushy.

-Make sure to plant the character’s feet once it hits the ground. Nothing destroys the illusion of a walk quicker than sliding feet!

-Lastly, remember to keep the character’s state of mind first and let that dictate the walk.

Guest Blogger Chris Chua

By: Unknown On 12.29

Continue Reading

Tips on Anticipation

Anticipation is a really helpful tool that animators can use to make their shots clear and readable. Combined with solid poses and clear silhouettes, it prepares the audience to what is about to happen in your scene. It gives them time to process your character's actions and intentions, thereby making it absolutely clear what the character is doing or thinking.

On another level, anticipation helps to emphasize the physicality of your character. Flesh and blood characters have muscles and need to overcome gravity with each move they make. If you wanted to animate a baseball pitcher throwing a fastball, for example, you would need to have a big wind up (anticipation) pose before going into his throw. If the wind-up is left out of the scene, the physicality, believability and the clarity of the animation would suffer.

As a general rule, the broader an action I'm animating, the bigger the anticipation I put in. I also try to make sure that I incorporate it into my blocking as early as I can to feel out the overall timing and the rhythm of my shot. The advantage of doing this is that it is easier to dial down, delay and adjust it accordingly down the road.

Another thing I try to pay attention to as I flesh out my animation is to delay the various parts of the anticipation so they don't all fall on the same point in time. Try to offset the brows, lids, or a head move to give your character that nice organic quality, even if you are animating something that is really pushed or cartoony. Remember to keep things clear and simple to get the most out of your poses.

The last thing to remember with anticipation is to make sure that it feels natural and not over done. A common mistake is to put in a big anticipation on EVERY action. This will end up giving your character an odd pattern of movement that will distract and unsettle the viewer. Some robotic objects, for example tends to move quite linearly and have very little (if any) anticipation. Similarly, some insects or animals will have quick staccato movements that are inherent in the way they move. Know what you are animating and use anticipation accordingly!

Guest Blogger Chris Chua

By: Unknown On 11.15

Continue Reading

What Has Been a Challenging Shot and How Did You Overcome It?

One of the most challenging shots I’ve done was the final scene of my sophomore film, “The Gift.” The film is about a little boy fishing with his grandfather and the shot in question was a pretty lengthy shot of the little boy waking up and realizing that he had caught a fish on his reel. He looks up at his grandfather before excitedly pulling the fish out of the water.

The reason why the shot was so hard and challenging was because I had two characters interacting for the better part of 700 frames. At the time, the shot felt quite insurmountable not only due to its length but also to the fact that the main character, the little boy, had to go from many different states of mind -- from being asleep, to waking up, to becoming quite excited and then finally catching the fish.

This is a shot that I overcame by doing meticulous planning. First, I used thumbnails to search for the most interesting and entertaining poses to sell the acting. Once I had these poses down, I blocked them in and got my general timing and overall feel for the entire shot.

At this point, I fleshed out the shot by adding breakdowns to see how fast or slow I should go into and out of my key poses. Once I was happy with the overall feel of the shot, it became a matter of taking each chunk of the scene and tying down the keys and breakdowns and then adding more in-betweens to smooth out the action.

Although it was done in 2D with pencil and paper, it really taught me that animating is very much like sculpting. You work on the broadest, most important elements first and add the little details later on. Similarly, in animation, you are mainly breaking a shot down to its most essential parts (finding your keys and main story-telling poses) and then slowly fine-tuning it as you go along. The advantage of this method of working is that you are afforded the chance of stepping back and assessing your work thus far and making necessary adjustments along the way.

To see “The Gift”, go to www.cchuareels.blogspot.com

Guest blogger Chris Chua

By: Unknown On 09.52

Continue Reading

Tips on Becoming a Better Animator

Just as there are an infinite number of ways to animate a scene, there are just as many ways to improve as an animator. The ability to observe from life and reflect whatever it is we see in our work helps to make our art more personal and therefore enrich us as artists.

A great way to improve your powers of observation is by keeping a sketchbook and sketching from life as much as possible. This, to me, is the equivalent of a musician practicing their scales. An accomplished musician does not sit there and think about the next note they’ll be playing. Rather, they are more concerned with letting their passion and inspiration drive their performance. Similarly, it is beneficial for an animator to learn and absorb as much technical knowledge as possible so that they can instead focus on bringing convincing performances to life. If you constantly observe the world around you, you will have a better idea of what will make your animation feel more natural and true to life.

Learning from the masters is a great way to improve as well but don't limit yourself to just watching animation...live-action films are a goldmine because they offer a great deal of amazing performances that are fresh and avoid cliched animation acting. One thing I like to do is take a performance I admire and try to deconstruct it by thumbnailing all the key poses and analyzing what makes it work. By doing this, you can really distill the actor's work and learn a fresh approach to constructing a similar shot in animation.

Another important (and often hard thing to do) is to step away from your animation and try to enrich your life. Do anything that will inspire you, whether it is listening to music, going to a museum, seeing a theater performance or reading a book. It can be really easy to fall into a rut when you are animating all day so setting your work aside and recharging those creative batteries will do wonders for your scene.

Most importantly, don’t be afraid of getting feedback on your shots and have the attitude of a student. Show your shot to the people you trust and learn from their constructive critiques. KNOW that you are learning and improving as you do each shot and things don't necessarily have to be perfect each time out. Have fun! If you set realistic goals and enjoy yourself along the way, there is no doubt that you will constantly improve and surprise yourself with how much you are growing both artistically and personally.

Guest Blogger Chris Chua

By: Unknown On 13.59

Continue Reading

What Are Some Good Tips for Animating Brows?

Eyebrows are an integral part of facial animation and should be treated as such. They heighten and enhance the eyes, telegraphing your character's emotions. Since the brows frame your eyes, it becomes easy to read the eyes from a distance. An animator should be aware of and take advantage of this. There are several important things to remember when working with eyebrows:

1)Have clear, defined shapes that flow from one brow to another. Brow shapes should ENHANCE the eyes and never distract from them. Use strong simple shapes. Treat the brows as a connected, rhythmic wave instead of breaking them up into two separate shapes.

2)Treating the brows as frames for the eyes really helps to sell a character's emotion. Similarly, using the angle of the brows can also help direct the viewer where to look.

3)Show a character's change of thought or precede a move by having the brows move first. This is advantageous because it helps with anticipation and shows that the character is thinking. The other advantage is that you won't lose the face change while the character is moving.

4)Think of the flexibility and malleability of the face! Your animation will have an organic quality if you involve the brows during a blink or an eye shift. You don't always have to have a big shape change on the brows but even a tiny amount of movement combined with the eyes can go a long way in adding that extra layer of subtlety in your shot.

5)Don't overanimate!! Make your character's thoughts and intentions clear and readable by using only the necessary amount of brow shapes. Overanimating the brows can lead to the audience being confused about your character's thought process which may, in turn, compromise the clarity of your shot. You can often get a lot of mileage by working within one brow shape.

6)Analyze great acting. Study your favorite actor's performance to learn how they incorporate their brows into their craft. You will often be surprised at how little you have to move the brows to sell a performance. Again, this goes back to finding and sticking to as few browshapes as needed. Make sure it feels natural and keep things simple!

Have fun!

Guest Blogger Chris Chua

By: Unknown On 12.09

Continue Reading