Update # 4 : Push and Pull

Here's an update. I hope it looks better now. ;) I'm having fun with it!

-A

Just for fun... : Pose test

Update # 3 : Push and Pull

Here's another update... I'm still not satisfied with the pull part :(
Working on it...

Push and Pull (WIP) : Update

Okay, here's an update. Its in stepped tangents. Please feel free to shoot your suggestions. I think my eyes are getting saturated and after working on it for hours and hours, its really hard for me to judge it. I hope its not too bad. heh :)

UPDATE

-A

Push and Pull : First pass/stepped (WIP)

Hey guys!
I'm back and I'm animating again. Here's something I've done today. Its my first pass, and I hope it looks okay. Dude, this is not as easy as I thought. heh.. Do let me know what you think. Thanks!
By the way, here's the 2D planning I did before making this in 3D. :)
Will post an update soon. I'm STILL playing with my timing. I may change some of the timings in my next update. Let's see.

-A

The Fool’s Errand, Part 2 : keithlango

Here's The Fool’s Errand, Part 2 by Keith Lango. There's really so much to learn from Keith's experiences/faliures. Great post! :D

-A

A cool animation video tutorial : YouTube

I wish these kinds of tutorials were around when I was first starting out with Maya! This is one really good video tutorial on (Maya based) character animation and you simply cannot afford to miss it!!

No doubt, this video could easily beat Keith Lango's VTS. Watch out Keith! heheh.. Great stuff. I'm sure you'll love it! Do let me know how you like it! heh ;)

Changed the template

Surprise visitors!

As you can see, I've changed my blogger template. Its still under construction and hopefully by tomorrow, I'll manage to create a better looking header for my blog. Thanks to a techy friend, Ravikant Bargale for helping me a lot with my template. I was bored of my blog's old whitish look. I think I like this one more! :)

-A

The Fool’s Errand, Part 1 : keithlango

You wanna go for a short film? Thats great!
Now, if you are going to make a short film all by yourself then don’t even try and match this!

This being just one set from Pixar’s latest film Ratatouille! Do not even try to match this high quality! "Hell, WHY? Why shouldn't I make my short film look as cool as possible??" Well, click the above picture or click here here to read Keith's post "The Fool’s Errand, Part 1". And you'll get your answers.

-A :)

Golf play

I couldn't stop myself from making this simple animation in FlipBook. Maybe, I could have pushed my drawing a bit more to make it more toony...but thats okay I have the idea. It took me about an hour to make it. Yeah I know, I'm taking my break from animation... Animating is so much fun (especially in 2D) that its hard for me to stay away for long. I feel like I'm addicted to it.. If I don't animate, I feel uneasy. heh.. I enjoy 3D as well, but right now I wanna stay away from all the technicalities of 3D. Sometimes its enough to drive me batty. This two week break is enough to recharge me again. Yep! Now NO MORE ANIMATION for two weeks!!!!

-A
Colored: This one looks okay but the colors are distracting...and especially those white clouds. Don't you think?



Black and white: This one looks much better.

Will be back after this break.....

Hi everyone!

I wanna take a break from my animations. So, you'll not see anything from me for at least 2 weeks. Sometimes I start feeling really tired of everything, and some of the things in life drives me insane. So now its right time for me to take a break. I'll continue with my push-pull animation later this month.
In my break, I'll try my best not to even think about animation and animating. I'll divert my brain to some other wonderful things that God has created in this world. I know I'll miss animation..(sob!) But thats okay, I really need this break or else I'll soon be found in a mental hospital. I just don't want all this craziness around my life. See ya'll soon.

Later gator!!.... :)

-A

Mr. Bean rocks!

I've been collecting a few pictures of Mr. Bean. He really is a living cartoon! Though, I'm not a big fan of his cartoon version. I think that real Mr. Bean is a lot funnier than his cartoon version. The cartoon version looks quite cartoony but not that funny. Maybe thats because, nothing can beat the original performance. The cartoon version will always be a copied form of real Mr. Bean. I believe, no animator can recreate the original Mr. Bean, and Rowan Atkinson is the real (so called) animator of this character.

Flipbook: quick little test!

Hey everyone!

For past few days I've been animating my push and pull animation in 3d. I'm having fun with it, but sometimes it really makes me tired. Today, after working for several hours in Maya, I decided to give Digicel Flipbook a try and have some fun with it. I made this quick little run test animation in about 20 minutes. Yep, just a simple cartoony, crappy looking run. Nothing too special. heh..

Push Pull exercise.....2d planning, R&D

Right now, I'm working hard in 2D and I'm trying to get inside push and pull type animations. In fact, this is my first push and pull animation and soon I'm gonna make it in 3d. I'm studying a lot of reference videos, drawing a lot of thumbnails, doing research on push an pull and watching some good push and pull animations. I must say that I'm getting the hang of it. And working in 2d helps me a lot and forces me to think hard about my poses, timing etc. Very soon you'll see this 2D blocking in 3D. I made this in Plastic Animation Paper. However, soon I'm gonna switch myself to Digicel Flipbook. I have its professional version and I must say that I really love Flipbook. Its really fast and it feels great. So from now on, I'll make all my 2d animations in Flipbook. I'm enjoying it! :)

Cheers!

-A

And Bamm!!!... an update!

An update of "And Bamm!!!".....
Thanks to Psekal and DJ for the comments. I tried to speed up the last action. I hope it works. And thanks to Jocelyn Cofer for her comments. Your idea of adding some moving hold in the anticipation part did work really well Joci! Thanks!

This time I've uploaded a QT file and embedded it here so that you can see its every frame. Let me know what you thing guys! I know its not perfect. I tried my best though, to make it better.

later,

-amrit

AM Tips and Tricks by Shawn Kelly : Your Animation Style

Hey guys!

Today, I received this month's Animation Mentor Newsletter and I was reading the 'Shawn Kelly Tips and Tricks' section. He talked about style in animation. He said, First you gotta nail down the style of the animation, because the style will inform every animation decision you are going to make on that project. Timing will be based on the style, posing will be based on the style and most of all, acting decisions will all be made based on the style of the work.
Now this is really important! I must say that I was quite aware of these facts, but till now, I was kinda ignorant about style. One thing I noticed about my style is that I tend to push myself more toward cartoony side and most of the time my animation suffer badly. Where should I be restricting my acting, poses, and timing more toward realistic side, and keep things subtle, I tend to push it more toward cartoony side, which is not a very good habit. For example, in my last 11 second club animation I pushed things a bit to its limits and I shouldn't have done that. That 'June 11 second club sound file' didn't ask for any cartoony performance at all and I pushed my acting, poses and timing quite a bit towards cartoony side (not much though). Adding that cartoonyness here...Not a good idea!! I HAVE TO CHANGE this bad habit!! I'm not doing myself any good.

Let me quote what Shawn Said in his article.

Anyone who has been doing this animation stuff for a while knows that every movie has its own style. The more realistic the work, the less variance in the style, I suppose, but it still exists nonetheless, and it's important to really nail it down before you sit down and start saving keyframes.

Think about Davy Jones on the big screen, Peter Griffin on TV, and Tony Hawk skating across your Playstation. They are all great animation examples, and done perfectly for their respective mediums and universes, but if you plucked any one of them and swapped them into each other's worlds, they would look ridiculous.

Tony Hawk's animation in the games are terrific. They're really well done, consisting of a great blend of complex animations that are carefully timed to be responsive to the crisp controls of the gameplay.
He pulls off his amazing tricks with great poses that blend perfectly from one to another as you try to string your skating tricks together, and then always manages to get back to its default "skating" pose.
(Unless I'm playing, then Tony always manages to end up at the "Tony just cracked his head on the side of the skate ramp" pose).

So, in the world of the Tony Hawk games, that animation is perfectly done, in my opinion. However, if you took Tony Hawk and had him skating around on Davy Jones ship up there on the big screen, his animation would look very out of place and odd. For one thing, because his movements are designed in the game to be able to quickly react to your controller, he can move really fast. He'd look like a hyperfast spaz on Davy Jones ship, probably, just as the super-detailed Davy Jones would look startlingly out of place wandering around Tony Hawk's skate park.
Nail down the style of the animation first, because the style will
inform every animation decision you are going to make on that project.Nail down the style of the animation first, because the style will
inform every animation decision you are going to make on that project.
Timing will be based on the style. Posing will be based on the style.

Most of all, acting decisions will all be made based on the style of the work. Is the style really cartoony, or realistic and contained? I may have mentioned the ideas of "Representational" acting performances vs. "Presentational" acting performances in the past, but basically those ideas break down into two different art forms.

Thats very true indeed! And I should never be ignorant about these facts. From now on, I'll listen to my sound clip and at the same time I'll take the animation style into consideration, that is, much before drawing my key poses on paper and before taking my video reference. Style is really an important thing in animation. Just imagine a character from The Incredibles, roaming around in the movie Madagascar! That would look like crap! These are all very different styles of animation. In the words of Shawn, "none of them are "better" than the other, all are carefully tailored by talented artists to meet the demands, expectations, and challenges of their mediums."

In the last, Shawn said;

Oh, if anyone has a time machine and can send this article back in time to me one week ago, that'd really help me out, by the way... I really could have used it! :)

LOL!! Thats what I was thinking when I was reading his article. hehehe...... My 11 second club animation would have looked a lot better! Oh well, thats okay! Thats how you learn from your mistakes!

So, do you guys have any thoughts about this topic? You're most welcome to share them here with me. I would be glad to know what you guys think :)

Keep animating and always remember to HAVE FUN with whatever you do. Don't just enjoy the final result or your final render... learn to enjoy the whole process of animating. That way you'll never stop growing as an animator.

By the way, its raining here in New Delhi. I'm enjoying it! :D ..weeeeeeeeee...................

Cheers!

-A

And Bammmm!! Done

And Bammmm!! Its is finally done! I'm done with my polishing and stuff.... so this is final!

Jason Ryan Animation.... I'll go for it!

Howdy everyone!

Few days back, I got my first newsletter from Jason Ryan Animation. I'm really happy that Jason is starting his new tutorial service. I really can't afford to miss that. I still wonder how much it will cost, but I'm all too excited to take this course.

Picture taken from Bobby "Boom" Beck's blog

For those of you who don't know Jason Ryan, he is a supervising animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation and also, Jason is one of the original legendary AM mentors from when the program first started.

Here, take a look at Jason's Workflow! Its super cool!

So, I'm really excited about this and I'm looking froward to learn a lot from him!! wooooooooot!!....................

-A