1. when you've got a scene where the character is acting and walking across the room or something, when blocking it out, do you plan out, and block out the individual steps or do you do something like block out the pelvis with all your acting poses around the room, and then plug in the steps later?
1. I actually block the whole character, including steps. ALL very very rough. It looks ridiculous at this point. But I don't care. I can't just blocking the pelvis without arms and legs in there. Even if I set one keyframe every 20-30 frames...but something to guide me. Again, I'm looking for ways to rough out the whole action without getting into details. That applies for arms, legs, head. It also applies to steps the character may be taking. The minimum number of controls...and the minimum number of keys to help me visualize the blocking, to see if I'm going on the right direction.
How do you go about figuring out lead and follow relationships on some of the more subtle actions? Like when Sully does this wave in one of the special features sections, it affects the rest of his body. Trying to figure that out is like a brain teaser for me.
I can't remember which shot you are reffering to. But in the end, it's all a combination of Keys and Breakdowns. In these, it should be clear whether the head follows the body or the other way around, you know? Then you can go onto cleaning stuff up.
« Last Edit: June 11, 2004, 04:52:46 PM by Carlos Baena »
I was wondering if you could show us a breakdown of one of your animations in passes (blocking, breakdowns, hips... the diferents passes that you explained above in your previous post).
Yeah Stephane,
last night I didn't have time to scan some stuff. I'll see if I can later tonight. It's been a crazy week so far honestly.
I know this Ask the Pro is wrapping up today, so I just wanted to say thank you for sharing all your ninja animator insights this week. It's been a great read!
YO Thomas,
I've been trying to get to all the posts. Thank god this week was a chill one at work. But the pleasure is mine man.
With the 2D/3D classes at AnimationMentor.com will we be able to do a combo of both the 2D and the 3D? from what you've said the experience of doing 2D really helps with the CG stuff.
Thanks for taking time out to give us some pointers and direction, you've really opened my eyes....a lot.
1. I'm wondering if you can talk about what it is (in terms of acting and animation - not story) that separates Pixar animation stylistically from other studios like PDI, and how you think you're able to achieve that stlye.
2. Are there any specific techniques on a strictly mechanical basis that you can share about achieving this type of animation (for example there is a thing on www.keithlango.com where he explains how to get snappy movement by building up energy in the antic and then releasing it in fewer frames).
3. When you use live action reference are you looking at it all the way through to your polish stage, or are you just using it to inspire your thumbnails/keyposes and then putting it away. And how much do you diverge from the acting decisions made in the original reference?
4. What I like about alot of your work and Pixar's is the way it subtly charicatures personalities without being cliche. What are your inspirations in art/film for that type of comment on reality. What has contributed to to developent of your artistic ability to charicature personality types? A good example would be that excellent cop thing you did for hubert's brain (on your site), the vain, egotistical character type was really exaggerated, but not cliche. Did you come up with that stuff about cleaning his teeth etc. in your acting reference and then push it further?
Ok, I'll try to finish the last round of questions today, if Rick is cool with it. I don't wanna leave people hanging. It's really hard for me to keep up with website emails, so I've been trying to make this section, a way to give back to people that have put an effort in writting me.
All Right Thierry,
1. Well animation is animation period. I think one of the things that I learned mostly once I got to Pixar, was the attention to detail. I never paid that much attention to detail in my work before going to Pixar. Also, I think this company has always gotten their own style since the John Lasseter shortfilm days or even after people like Pete Docter or Andrew Stanton added their own style to the company. John set his own animation style, and that has shown over the years. John's shortfilms and Pete's CalArts shortfilm certainly inspired the hell out of me over the years, and maybe unconsciously my animation skills were influenced that way. The fact that Pixar's style is more snappy, maybe a reflection of animators personalities and their animation work maybe? I really don't know for sure...
2. That's very true. Every time you have a very quick move, you have to be able to prepare the audience for it, and know how to finish the move. It's the anticipation, action and reaction of things. You can totally have a 1 frame move, if you anticipate it properly, and cushion it or overshoot it properly. Sometimes, a action is not really about the action itself, but more the before and after of the action. That's when you are selling the action itself. Think Coyote, or TexAvery...they can have the character literaly dissapear in 0 frames...maybe just add some smoke from how fast they leave the screen. Yet, they know that for such an exageratted move, they need an incredible amount of anticipation...or sle audiences would be like "uh? what? what did just happened?". So it's important to not really think about it in terms of the action itself, but more the before and after the action. Theat's when you can sell whatever the hell you want to sell.
3. Both. I just loop it over and over to see what breakdowns they use, how could I exagerate it in animation, what kind of poses they use, etc. Sometimes I stick to the original reference as much as I can, other times I take it as a starting point. There is no 100% things this way. Animation is great that way, a lot of flexibility both in the decision and the execution of things. Don't think, oh things have to be this or that way and that's THAT. Think of it as ways to explore your different possibilities.
4. Thanks Thierry. I think the personalities, charicatures and so on, are things drawn from live experiences, my personality, things I watch, things I may find amusing or funny, and trying to put all those together. Every animator goes through that process I think. It's important that as students, we bring what we got inside, and not do an animation or acting this or that way, just because it's been done on a movie or by another animator, and it worked. As artists I think it's important for us to bring what we wanna say in our animations, and most important be ourselves through our work. It's kind of what Glen Keane talks about when he talks about sincerity&honesty in your work.
1. when your animating all day and your in crunch time... im sure the tiredness kicks in at times... how do you motivate yourself to put in those extra hours?? anything in particular that makes you just recharge your batteries and keep on runnin?? 2. Same question applies to when directors ask you to change a scene a couple times.. how do you stay interested in the scene and not allow yourself to frustrate over it??? 3. And where do you find the energy of workin at home ( for example when you would get home and do personnal projects ) after a hard days work at an animation company? THanks for doin this... Chau hermano querido Your Argentinean fan, Julian
Que pasa Julian,
Como va eso amigo,
1. Taking naps. I swear. That recharges me in any minute. That and stepping away from my own work and coming back to it later.
2. Big question. That's something you just have to deal with. It goes back to what I was saying about working with Directors and essentially, for someone else's movie. You are helping create their vision...and even though it may be frustrating or not, you have to do your best to help create that vision. If you really believe in their vision you won't mind anything. On the "Incredibles", that was my experience. I really enjoyed this movie, and tried my best to work with Brad in getting him what he had in mind for my shots, and try to add something extra if I could.
3. That, I still don't know. I just really enjoy this shit too much. Can't get enough of it, as weird as it sounds.
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animator insights this week. It's been a great read! 
