Someone at work forwarded this to me so I thought I’d share. Over 6,000 paintings were created to make this 5 minute film. According to the director, they made a really basic 3D animation (mainly for timing) and then painted over the rendered frames. It’s a pretty nice piece of work which took 2 years to make. For you prog-rock fans out there, see if you can spot the King Crimson references.
Archive for the “Animation” Category
Yesterday I traveled downtown to visit the Cartoon Art Museum which is featuring the exhibit, The Art of Coraline. It’s a great show which has almost 80 different pieces from the film including drawings, storyboards, puppets, sets, costumes, and more! Unfortunately, photography is not allowed so I was unable to capture any pictures. When you enter the exhibit, the puppets and other 3 dimensional elements are in the center of the room with the surrounding walls featuring all the 2d artwork. I was immediately blown away by the puppets design which are both amazing and beautiful on an artistic and technical level. There’s also a fascinating handwritten journal by one of the people responsible for designing and implementing the armatures for all the characters. Lastly, the walls are covered with some phenomenal 2d artwork (concept art, character designs, storyboards, etc.) from artists like Dan Krall and Shane Prigmore among several others. The exhibit is only open for 2 more weeks (ending on February 15th) so definitely check it out if you have a chance. Then go check out the film when it opens on Friday, February 6th! Happy New Year! For my first post of 2009 I’ve uploaded a polish pass on my shot. Thanks to everyone who gave some very helpful feedback. I added some clothes to Bishop and also started developing the room set which I’ll take a little farther when it comes time to render. There’s still some work to be done like fixing a few more pops on the knees (they seem more noticeable now that the character has clothes). Take a look and feel free to leave any feedback.
UPDATE 1/11/09: I’ve replaced the original video with an update consisting of changes from all the feedback I got. Thanks again!
Just thought I’d spread the word about a really great idea Stephen Gregory has come up with. He’s going to tutor one lucky student for free! Yes that’s right, FREE! That’s not even the best part. He’s also going to post all the tutoring on his blog for everyone to see and learn from! I was lucky enough to be tutored by Stephen last year and it was a really great experience for me. We focused mostly on the area of polish since it’s an area that I really wanted to work on. One of the shots I did is posted in my animation section. I think this is going to be a tremendous resource for anyone interested in learning more about animation. Definitely check it out! Or if you’re a student, APPLY!! ——– BTW…I’ll have a polish pass on my shot here soon. Just been crazy with work and the impending holidays… Well, work continues to be intense as we finish up on Sims 3, but I managed to finally get a refinement pass on this thing. I went from step to spline and I think the biggest challenge was trying to retain the overall feeling that I established in my blocking. It’s easy to start losing the essence of what you set up if you’re not careful. I really focused on the hip/torso/head relationships to make sure the mechanics of these were working as best as possible. After that I moved on to the legs and arms. I like where things are going, but the animation still needs LOTS of work. Here are a few things that I noticed right off the bat:
Well, that’s what I have at the moment. Check it out and see what you think. As always, feedback is gladly welcome and appreciated!
Last night I had the wonderful opportunity to see Richard Williams speak in San Francisco! He was promoting his new DVD set, The Animator’s Survival Kit: Animated which I hope to be able to get at some point. He showed clips from the DVD set (all of which were pure GOLD) and then spent most of the night talking about animation and answering questions from the audience. He even signed my beat-up copy of The Animator’s Survival Kit! It was an amazing experience for me to see this animation legend in person. Even though I’ve never met him before, I feel like Richard Williams has been a teacher to me. So much of what I initially learned about animation came from his book (and The Illusion of Life). It’s nice to see that he still has so much passion and enthusiasm for the craft, while also being very willing to share his vast knowledge and experience. All in all, a very inspiring evening for sure! UPDATE: Fellow AM’er Alonso Soriano posted some great notes of the lecture on his animation blog. Definitely worth a look! Wow, time flies when you’re crunching at work! Needless to say, I’ve been anxious to post up my second blocking pass, or what I like to call blocking plus. I got some good feedback from friends on my first pass. The main things that were mentioned were to 1.) block in more refined face poses for the main emotional beats 2.) Make the end walk-out feel more determined because Bishop is really angry at this point. This also helps differentiate the end walk from the one at the beginning where Bishop is more caught up in frustration. So, in this pass I hit those things but also tried to add more detail throughout to get a better feel for what I want the shot to be. Check it out and feel free to leave any feedback if you like.
Since this pass was blocking plus, I broke down the animation to the point of having a key every 4 frames (less in places where the action is fast). Next up, I’ll start my refining process and take this thing into spline! 10/12/08 UPDATE: I decided to rework the arms on the end walk out based on some new feedback I got. Basically, I needed to push the arms more to better showcase Bishops emotional state at this point. I tried to get more of a big swingy motion by getting more reversals and progressively breaking the joints on the arms. Feel free to let me know if you think it’s working. Well, I thought it’s about time I got down to business with this blog! I’m starting in on a new shot. Actually, it’s an old shot that I started a while back but never finished because I got busy with work. It’s a dialogue clip from the film Die Mommie Die. I’ve actually never seen the film, but I came across this line and really loved how it was performed. It has some distinct beats to the dialogue, some nice pauses, and a steady build to a strong climax. I thought it would be the perfect clip for me to do the following:
Here’s what I have so far. It’s the first blocking pass I did a while back. It’s a fairly detailed first pass, but there’s actually some areas that still need more detail. For instance, the parts where Bishop is walking require several more break downs to make it read properly. I’d also like to block in a little more with the face poses to get the attitude across.
Before I dive in into the next pass, I’ll do a quick review of my notes and video reference I shot at the time just to get me back into the material again. One question I need to keep in mind is what is the essence of this shot? Some others are…Why is this shot important? What happened before this shot? What will happen after? What is Bishop’s goal in this shot? Definitely important things to ponder! Now back to work. Next update will be my refined blocking! — UPDATE: A few people suggested that I should post my reference so here it is for your viewing pleasure…
Sims 3 is the game I’ve been animating on the last couple of years. Recently, EA produced a short, “behind the scenes” look at the Sims 3 for the Leipzig game convention which took place in Germany last month. They shot a bunch of footage of our animation team which was a lot of fun. I’m really glad I got to work on this game and even more glad that I got to work with such an awesome team of animators (many of which came from Animation Mentor!). Sims 3 doesn’t come out until February 2009, but check out the developer preview for a quick sneak peak. Tags: Animation, EA, Sims 3
|
|
Entries (RSS)