Anticipation and Followthrough!

Anticipation!


Followthrough!

Hi everyone,

Due to unforseen circumstances, I will not hold class today. Despite that, use today to make progress on your projects.

In 2-D animation, continue working on your films! Take 40 minutes today to make a short side animation for yourself!  In 3-D, refine and correct your animated shorts! On wednesday, I will provide new content for each of you! With 5 weeks left in the semester, great things are coming soon!

Even though I am not in class today, the best use of your time would be to continue making progress in your individual projects. Feel free to email me any questions you have. I will answer them when I have the opportunity to do so.

Good luck everyone!

-Shaw

A list of common hotkeys for Toon Boom Harmony!

HOTKEY LIST:

• 1 & 2: Zoom in and out.
• Hold Spacebar and Click:  Pan Camera and Drawing
• Hold Option and Command: Rotate Canvas
• Shift + M: Reset your view.
• F5: Creates Holds, and extends drawing frames.
• Comma and Period Keys:  Previous and Next Frame, Respectively.
• ((, & . Keys:  Move forward and backward 1 frame))
• F and G Keys:  Move between Key Drawings!
• Option + Shift + R: Create Empty Drawing
• + and - keys: Increase and Decrease Exposure (Can also right-click your drawings in the timeline and select “Set Exposure to X”

For Wednesday:

For Wednesday: Read the previous "Welcome Back!" post, and watch the videos! They provide some great advice for animation that will come in handy!

Remember that you are able to get partial credit for your spring break assignment if you turn in everything you may have been missing when I checked for homework. If you're missing anything, have everything completed by March 21st.  Refer to the Spring Break post for details on the 8 things I am looking for! If you have completed everything, you're good to go! Just review the materials on the blog for now.  See you Wednesday!

Welcome Back!

Welcome back everyone!  Without further ado, let's get into it!

First thing's first: finishing your pre-production package means that you have the following:

• 1. Professional Character Design Model Sheets in color.
• 2. Professional Environment Design Model Sheets in color.
• 3. A 1-page Collection of Common Character Poses on a Sheet of Paper! Use the “How to Draw Adventure Time” resources if you are unsure of how to do this!
• 4. Refine your Animatic!  Finish timing, and add as many drawings as you need to flesh it out! The more the better!
• 5. A 1-2 page Design Document for your animation!
• 6. Exported storyboards and animatic! (H.264 Codec; Three Pages Horizontal Format for the Storyboard)
• 7. Renumber your scenes, collect your scenes properly, and export them to toon boom.
• 8. A collection of photographic and video references for your animation!

Besides checking for this content, here is how having these items help you!

• The character design and environment model sheets serve as reference for your animation scenes should you ever get stuck or forget how to draw your characters.
• The character poses and design document helps you draw your characters on model, with correct body proportions, in case you forget, get tired, or get exhausted drawing during the second semester.  The lack of shortcuts allows you to gain massive experience by drawing more and more!
• Your animatic and storyboards give you 95% of the understanding you need to make excellent timing to your film! We can make changes.  Yet, having this blueprint keeps you from having to think as much about what you're creating!
• Having your scenes exported gives you smaller, bite-size chunks of your animation to work on! 
• Your reference will help you answer this question whenever you have it:  How do I draw ______?

With that out of the way, LET'S ANIMATE!

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STARTING YOUR ANIMATION

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Whether you are making a long movie, or a short sequence, it is always a good idea to start with a tiny chunk of your film. This way you can warm up and get used to making your awesome art regularly. Find a small 6-8 second chunk of your animation that you can produce in a week with full black and white lineart.

We will develop your understanding of select principles of animation each week.

A link to visual descriptions of the 12 Principles of Animation is here!

*videos courtesy of "AlanBeckerTutorials" on youtube*

Techniques that will help you this Week:

Solid Drawing: Making 2-D characters appear weighted and grounded in space! Making them appear believable from any angle!  

Staging:  Where your character appears on screen, and how that character looks to the audience in relation to everything else! Great staging = great composition!

Anticipation: The moments before an action actually occurs! Example: The windup before a pitch!

Arcs: Motion paths that add realism to your actions!

Timing: The moment drawings you make occur in time! Drawings at specific timing creates actions!

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WORKFLOW NOTES:

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In Toon Boom Harmony:

• Make a layer on top of your Animatic. (I like to use a sketch layer, then a corrections layer, then a lineart layer!)
• Keys first! Draw those most important story images first!
• Look out for moments to make good arcs and personality moments!
• Approach: Find milestones, then work between the milestones!
• Breakdown Drawings for every key. Flesh out the animation, start to emphasize arcs! Where you place them will help!
• Inbetweens for emphasis, fluid movement, and greater context~!
• Good arcs!
• 
  

Keep it simple! (your actions and camera shots should satisfy the story first, before you try anything you think is fancy. Believe it or not, technique and skill comes through completion, not through making the most detailed, complicated shot.

Flourishes - like eye blinks - come last!

Lineart Tips:

• Use your drawing tools the same way you would work traditionally. Small brush, large eraser!
• Good to work with consistent line weight at first. 75%  minimum size.
• Pencils and brushes are both useful!
• Do not erase the middle of your lines!
• Turn the paper! (hold command and control.

SPRING BREAK! Produce your Production Package by Monday, March 19th!

Have a great Spring Break everyone! Your homework is below. We covered each segment of this in class! Remember: This assignment is Pass/Fail, and can only be turned in on the Monday we get back from Spring Break! If you will not be in class that day, make sure you find a way to turn in your Preproduction Package! I will review them all Monday and Tuesday, as we will begin animation after spring break!

This is the easiest A I give in this class. As long as you have fun, be thorough in following the 8 steps below, and heed the advice given throughout the semester, you are good!  Remember that this is the first of your portfolio work you are producing, so do your best! It is due @9:07, Monday, March 19th!

See you soon! =D

~Shaw

Recap of HOMEWORK:

• BUILD A PRE-PRODUCTION PACKAGE! We will use this to build an artbook/e-book later this semester!
• 1. Professional Character Design Model Sheets in color.
• 2. Professional Environment Design Model Sheets in color.
• 3. A 1-page Collection of Common Character Poses on a Sheet of Paper! Use the “How to Draw Adventure Time” resources if you are unsure of how to do this!
• 4. Refine your Animatic!  Finish timing, and add as many drawings as you need to flesh it out! The more the better!
• 5. A 1-2 page Design Document for your animation!
• 6. Export your storyboards and animatic! (H.264 Codec; Three Pages Horizontal Format for the Storyboard)
• 7. Renumber your scenes, collect your scenes properly, and export them to toon boom.
• 8. Make a collection of photographic and video references for your animation!

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list of notes from today:

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RECAP OF SKILLS LEARNED THIS SEMESTER (so far)

• audio production
• environment and character design (visual development)
• story writing, editing, and development
• Key animation with EXCELLENT poses!
• most common challenge for entry-level animators: “how do I make ____ look right?”
• solution: DEVELOP A PRE-PRODUCTION PACKAGE!
• A PRE PRODUCTION PACKAGE CONSISTS OF:
• 1. professionally created model sheets for your characters (in color)
• 2. a pose sheet for your character (can be in black and white, but still professionally made)
• a collection of common poses your character would use during “their” everyday life.
• ADVICE: get a friend or family member to take photos of you, or you should take photos of people you know doing these poses!  REFERENCE over everything else.
• Doing this trains your OBSERVATION SKILLS.
• Advice for shooting reference
• Record video, so you can set the camera down, and act how you need in front of the camera. Take snapshots of the poses you need from the video!
• From class, Brian offered a link to a tripod you can buy for your phone! $10, and really useful! (link here)
• 3. A collection of reference photos and footage for your animation!
• 4. Environment model sheet: Every major environment (in color), with a complete illustration of what it looks like without people in it.
• Notes on production packages: What is realistic?
• Your preproduction package should be
• a. something you can accomplish in a few weeks of time.
• b. if you have a visual technique you want to accomplish, but is not sure how to create it, Do the best you can this Spring Break, and give me(Shaw) an idea of how long you think it will take to complete it.
• The goal:  PLAN AHEAD FOR THE BIG stuff!
• 5. A 1-2 page Design Document for your animated short!
• 6. A REFINED animatic for your animation.
• 7. Export complete storyboards of your animation as well!
• The exports you create will serve as the LAYOUT for your animated short!

Advice: Make a digital copy of your materials, and print them out for yourself!

NOTES ON REORGANIZING PANELS AND SCENES:

1. Select all panels. (Right click and select)
2. Right click again and select “New Scene from Selected Panels”
3. Start at the beginning of your film: Select every panel that shares the same camera angle.
4. Right click that segment of your animation and select “New Scene from Selected Panels” again!

• your panels will be separated into an individual, easy to understand scene!

1. Do this for every grouping of panels that shares a different camera angle.
2. At the top of your menu, click on “STORYBOARD ——> Rename Scenes”

• In the box that pops up, make sure you click “Renumber Scenes.” All of your scenes will now be properly divided!

1. Finally, go to file —> Export —> To Toon Boom. Make sure you have exported your work to Harmony. Do this, and you are ready to go!

Cinematography Notes!

Notes for class today:

When dealing with cinematography, camera work needs to be designed in the same way that we design the look and feel of our characters and environments!

Review this list of basic shot types! You can find multiple resources for these online, as well as inside the pages of Framed Ink!

Ultimately, the purpose of camera angles is to find ways to capture the best action occurring within the story!

• To do so, we have to understand one very important, fundamental rule of storytelling:  The camera is meant to FOLLOW the action of the characters and props within the story, not the other way around.
• Most rookie mistakes with storytelling think of filmaking as a series of "cool camera angles" as opposed to living breathing characters!
• So when you are creating shots for your story, and camera angles for your story, try this:
• Figure out where your characters are supposed to go first.
• Then, figure out which camera angles will best tell the story second!
• Our in-class exercise will help with this today!