What is Previsualization?

By: Nicole Herr 

The art of making entertainment has been evolving from the very beginning. Now with animation, the process of visualizing a product has moved from storyboards to animatics to previsualization animation—commonly called Previs!

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What exactly is Previs?

According to the Oxford Dictionary, Previs is: The visualization (now especially through the use of computers) of how something will look when created or finished.

Ultimately, previs is the process of imagining and planning a final product. The previs team works with a client or director to quickly create an idea of what cameras, performances, effects, stunts, etc. may be needed for them to film. It’s a faster, and hopefully less expensive, way to premake a film or sequence so they have a visual blueprint of the final product. It also gives the client the ability to make changes before they even start to film.

Why is it important to learn previs?

Previs has become more mainstream in the entertainment industry. Most of the major blockbuster films use previs on a regular basis—just look at the credits for the latest VFX film. Chances are, you will see at least one of the many facilities that do previs credited. Some films previs every frame you see, and some only do a sequence or two. And it’s not just the heavy fight sequences that are prevised, it’s also many of the acting shots too. The biggest reason to learn previs is to learn how to quickly lay in performances and cameras in a way that is actually filmable. This is why ALL animators should learn at least some previs.

As a previs artist, what has your experience been, and how has it changed? 

The first time I really worked with it was on . It was a great way to see how he was going to move up the walls, it was a very young process, so we didn’t do a bunch. On Stuart Little 2 we spent a lot of time working out how they were going to be putting him into the real world and where the cinematographer could put the cameras to help show him in his world. For the most part, we would work on sequences in the film that the director wanted to work out, but not the whole film. 

Jungle book was the first time I worked on a film that was prevised completely. Every frame in the film had to be animated in 360. We animated long sequences, some were thousands of frames long, so that the cinematographer and director could put the camera anywhere in the world without being constrained to frame limits and one camera angle. We gave ideas of what a camera could be, but ultimately, the final camera work was filmed in virtually in a mocap stage by the client.

"The biggest reason to learn previs is to learn how to quickly lay in performances and cameras in a way that is actually filmable. This is why ALL animators should learn at least some previs".

When I worked on the DC TV shows—Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, The Flash) we did a lot of previs on the VFX-heavy sequences. As the previs lead on those shows for Encore, I had the animators use the final assets so that we could use that as the basis for the final animations. Not only did we do our own previs, but in many cases that previs became the blocking for the final shots.

Other than film, have you prevised any other products?

Yes, I have worked on many films, but I have also worked on television shows, commercials, virtual reality, games, and even a theme park pitch as a previs artist. Ultimately, previs is not limited to only one part of one industry, it can be used in many different industries to help show what is possible.

How has previs changed over the years?

When I started in the industry, previs was primarily be done with storyboards, photography, and illustrations. They would then be cut together by an editor to create an animatic for the director to follow. Now, with the addition of 3d animation, we take the script and/or animatic and make it into a rough animation so the client can work out timing and cameras in a way that is filmable.

An example of previs vs. final animation

At this point there are many companies that solely do previs and postvis. Those companies send artists to the client’s office or set so that they have direct access to the artists. Every time I have worked at the client’s location, I find that it makes for a very creative collaborative experience.

What is the future of previs?

I wish I had a crystal ball, but previs is a constantly changing art that is definitely here to stay!

source:blog.animationmentor.com

4 Quick Tips for a Better Idle Animation Cycle

When creating idle animation cycles for games, there is more to keep in mind than just keeping the character moving. It is important to make sure that the animation is not only mechanically sound, but immersive enough to keep the player focused on the game. The key is to make the animation feel as natural and balanced as possible, while allowing for personality to show within the subtleties of the animation. Here are some good points to keep in mind:

Body Mechanics: The foundation of all animation. Make sure to have solid posing that accounts for any extra weight from armor or weapons.

Appeal: What is your character’s backstory, and how can you show your character’s personality through the animation? Even within an idle cycle, you can add appeal and contrast through posing, quirks, fidgets, etc.

Balance: That being said, it’s also important to keep your animation balanced and feeling natural. Too many fidgets or head turns can feel unnatural, so it could help to space them out so that they occur once every few breath cycles. With eye darts to the side, make sure to bring the gaze back to the other side and looking forward, so that it doesn’t feel like your character is focusing on one side.

Smooth Cycling: Even idle cycles contribute to a player’s immersion in a character and a game, so make sure that there aren’t any hitches in your cycles! You want to make it so that no one can tell when the animation loops back again. Make sure to check the tangents at the beginning and end of your animation to prevent any jitters.

In this clip, Jarrod Showers outlines the basic rubric of a good idle animation cycle, and shows his creative process from video reference to character animation.

source:www.animschoolblog.com

5 Key Steps for Effective Blocking

By: Shawn Kelly 

What are some effective blocking methods? This is a question that students ask a lot! According to Shawn Kelly—Animation Mentor co-founder and Lead Animator at ILM—these are the methods that seem to work best for students or animators at any level of experience. Follow along and take notes!

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1. Pre-planning

Before you film your reference, at least know the following:

Who are the characters? Be detailed! What are their ages? What is their background like? Things like this will affect their acting choices dramatically.

Where/When are the characters? Same thing! A character in a Berkeley, California creative writing class in 2018 is NOT going to have the same acting choices as a London theocracy scholar in 1908.

Which character(s) is(are) the main character(s)?

What does that character want in the scene? What is their ultimate goal? Commonly known as their “scene objective.”

What is preventing them from achieving their goal?

Once you know all that stuff, it’s time to start working out your planning. Deciding your timing, your acting choices, etc. This is a good time to move onto numero dos…

2. Thumbnails (Part 1)

Thumbnailing can be a great way to really quickly work out a lot of ideas. Posing ideas, action ideas, composition ideas. It’s so much faster to scribble some stick-people than to pose something in 3D. At this stage, my goal is mostly to figure out which overall ideas will look cool or read well vs. which ones will be confusing or boring.

Once I’ve figured out my ideas, and combined them with all the answers from my pre-planning, it’s time to bust out the video camera (or webcam, or whatever is handy), and move on to number three.

3. Video Reference

I’ve said it a million times, but it bears repeating: The vast majority of professional animators use SOME form of reference. Whether it’s film of themselves, or a clip from a documentary or film, or something they found on YouTube, or filming their friends—most of them are using reference at SOME point, for at least part of their scenes.

The more experienced they are, the less they may need reference, but for the most part, all of us use it pretty regularly. When I taught at a university, I heard students complaining once that the “only reason so-and-so’s animation was the best in the class was because they ‘cheated’ and used reference.” Well, here’s a newsflash—their animation WAS the best in the class, and that’s all that matters. Reference is NOT CHEATING. I can’t say it enough times.

Anyway, now is when you film your reference. I’ve talked about this stuff ad nauseum elsewhere, so the quickie version is this: film yourself or your peers over and over again until you end up with one single take that you think is really strong. The ideas read, the emotion feels real, etc. One of the keys to this is the actor needs to do it enough times to really become that character and FEEL the emotions and desires TRULY. Worry way less about the actual lines of dialogue, and much more about the emotional beats. That’s what matters most at this stage.

4. Thumbnails (Part 2)

OK, so you’ve got a clip of video reference that you like, and it’s time to get ready to filter that reference through your artistic mind, apply the principles of animation to it, and turn it into something special. This is when you bust out some paper and do some new thumbnails, this time from your video reference.

If you’ve been animating for less than a decade, I recommend the following method as a safe way to get some good blocking:

Go through your video reference, and any time you see a major change in weight or pose, draw a thumbnail of that pose and write down the frame number that it happened on. Look for which frames feet pick up off the ground, or important breakdown poses between extremes, etc. Draw all of those, and for EVERY ONE be sure to put down the frame number it actually happened on.

As you do this, you can start to use your knowledge of the principles of animation to exaggerate the poses. Push them into something a bit more dynamic, a little more exciting. Push the emotional poses a little bit into something just a tad more clear, etc.

However, I really wouldn’t recommend screwing around with timing quite yet. Particularly if you aren’t very experienced yet. You’ll only end up confusing yourself. It’s better to mess with the timing a little bit later in the computer where it’s much easier and safer.

5. Blocking

Woo hoo! Guess what? You’re almost done animating the shot.

I’m not kidding.

Most of the hard work is done. At this point, you know exactly what pose is going to happen on exactly what frame, and you haven’t opened anything up in 3D yet, or wasted any time “trying” stuff that ends up not working in 3D.

So now all you have to do is go to frame one and pose your character just like your frame 1 thumbnail, and save a key on EVERY POSSIBLE CONTROLLER on the character (not counting facial controls, that stuff all comes later). Then move on to the next pose—maybe it’s an anticipation at frame 4. If so, then go to frame 4, push his hips a little bit over for the anticipation, rock his head a little bit, lag the hand a little bit, and then again, save a key on EVERY POSSIBLE CONTROLLER on the character.

Now you just go through the whole scene, following your thumbnails. If you’ve thumbnailed enough key poses and breakdowns, you should have pretty much every footstep, every anticipation, every bit of follow-through, and even some decent rough arcs already built into your blocking!

Once you get it all in there, you still have one more really important step to do. You’ve already exaggerated the poses and ideas, but so far you’re still copying the timing verbatim from real life. Sometimes this is fine, but most times you’ll need to exaggerate the timing a bit as well. You’ll want to make it a little more snappy here, hold on this emotion a little longer there, etc.

Well, since your animation, at this point, is pretty much just a series of 3D “drawings” where everything is all saved on the same frames, you can just select all the controllers, pop open your graph editor, and start playing with the timing. The graph editor will be very clean and easy to work with, so this step should be fun and easy.

Once you get your timing working the way you want it to, it’s time to block in some face stuff. I keep this VERY simple and minimal for my blocking, and do the majority of my facial work in later passes. At this stage, I would only be concerned with eye direction, blinks, brow poses (if necessary, to sell the emotions), and maybe just blocking in the jaw animation like a muppet mouth.

After all that, guess what? You’re probably 80% of the way finished with your scene, and ready to move on to the polishing stages!

This method has worked really well for me over the years, and was especially invaluable when I was learning. Huge thanks to Wayne Gilbert for beating it into my head that good planning was THE key to finishing a shot quicker and ending up with a far stronger result, and not letting me get away with being lazy when I was learning!

Hope that helps …

How Zootopia Animator Philip To Went from Animation Mentor to Disney

By: Animation Mentor

Animation Mentor: What made you want to become an animator? What films were your greatest inspiration?

Philip To: Wanting to become an animator was due to a number of different things. I never really had that one ‘ah ha!’ moment where everything aligned and I knew that’s what I wanted to do. I knew when I got to University that I wanted to focus on computer graphics and it wasn’t until I had a grasp of all the facets of 3D that I realized that I really wanted pursue character animation specifically.

I’ve had a number of different inspirations at different stages of my life. I mean, there are heaps more but these are the ones that stick out to me that really affected me wanting to become an animator.

Mary Poppins © Walt Disney Productions

As a young child, Mary Poppins was something that I watched endlessly on VHS. I still remember seeing Aladdin at the theaters with my family. That movie just blew my mind as a young kid.

My favourite animated film is Porco Rosso and I remember catching that one late night on a tv when I was about 12 or 13. At that point I had never seen anything quite like it compared to other animated films.

As an animation student, the Pixar films were really inspiring, in particular Monsters Inc. and The Incredibles. Most recently, I’d say Tangled is something that really lit a fire and you could see they were doing something special at Disney. I think that’s a huge reason why I wanted to work here.

AM: Walk us through a day in the life of an animator at Disney.

Philip: A typical day for me is arriving to work, walking into the caffeine patch and grabbing a morning coffee. The first thing I usually do is check mails and my calendar to see what’s scheduled for the day and then check out the latest and greatest shots that my fellow animators have submitted into the system for either rounds or dailies. For me, this is really important for two reasons. One is that I get a kick out of seeing really inspiring work from my colleagues and two, I learn a lot from seeing what other people are doing in their own shots. I love seeing a shot where I get that feeling of ‘damn, that’s awesome! I never would have thought to do it that way!’.

If I’m showing for dailies that particular day, then I’ll submit my work and then head to dailies. After dailies, I’ll usually try to check in with my sequence supervisor to ensure I’ve got a good understanding of the notes the director gave, so we’re on the same page and also to get some additional thoughts. At this point I’ll usually take a bit of a break to clear my head and to make sure when I do sit down and address the notes, my mind is fresh and I’m ready to go.

Once I’ve addressed the notes, I’ll sign the shot up for rounds so it can be seen by the heads of animation and the supervising animators to see if they have any other thoughts and to see if I’m on the right track for what the director asked for. At this point, the supervisors may want more things addressed or tell you that it’s ready to present to the director again.

Throw in a couple more coffee breaks and that’s my typical day at Disney!

AM: What has been your favorite scene or character to animate and why?

Philip: I really liked animating Judy Hopps from Zootopia. Cory Loftis, who designed the characters in Zootopia did an amazing job in creating these unique and appealing characters. I liked that Hopps was a strong character but she wasn’t physically imposing so she had to rely on her intelligence and will to succeed to get ahead.

Judy Hopps in Zootopia © Disney Animation Studios

I had to animate a scene of her offering Nick an application to the ZPD and I really enjoyed that because it was a soft and kind moment between the two and she was able to show him genuine sincerity.

AM: What is the most challenging shot you’ve ever animated and what did you learn from it?

Philip: This is a hard question to answer because I generally find most of my shots quite challenging for very different reasons. I do remember feeling a lot of pressure when I was animating a few of my very first shots on Zootopia. It was my first film at Disney and like in any new job you really wanting to impress your peers and do a good job. So I remember being assigned some shots when Hopps makes the choice to abandon her post as a meter maid and go on to chase the weasel through Little Rodentia. She tosses off her meter maid hat, strips off her vest, displaying her ZPD badge and goes on the chase as a real ZPD officer.

The shots went through a number of iterations as the directors wanted to add more to the shot compared to what was done in story and layout. The big lesson for me in this shot was because the action was tied to the moving camera, I had to work neatly. On my first pass, I did not. And once the changes started coming in, I ended up having to do a lot of rework.

AM: How did Animation Mentor help prepare you for the industry?

Philip: It did in so many ways! I wouldn’t be in the position I am now without my time at Animation Mentor. The quality of my work increased tenfold after I went through the program. And I made so many amazing friends, many who I’ve worked with at past jobs and now at Disney Animation.

Philip To, Animation Mentor alumnus and Disney animator!

I learned the value of giving and receiving feedback as well as working towards very strict deadlines. It’s not too different than what you would encounter in actual production and I think that’s why we’ve seen so many people come through the school and have had successful careers in animation.

AM: If there’s one animation tip or technique you’d share with someone wanting to animate in feature film, what would it be?

Philip: Be patient. Animation takes a long time to do and learning it, especially at the beginning can feel really daunting. There are just so many things to think about and to keep track of. But stick with it, tackle one problem at a time and bit by bit it will get easier and better! Thanks for reading and happy animating!

source:blog.animationmentor.com

AM I TOO OLD TO GET STARTED?

Am I too old to shift careers? Am I too old to start as an artist? Am I too old to start this big project I’ve always wanted to start working on?

What’s the average age to start working? If you grew up with an interest in art, drew all the time, and went to art school then most people start their art career maybe in their mid-twenties. Often people who get to art a little later in the game wonder, “Am I too old to do this?” Young people think, “When am I going to get that job?”

Regardless of your age, you are probably comparing yourself to people older and younger than you, and wishing you had done something different when you were younger or feeling like you are so far behind.

EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL LATE STARTERS

Sang Jun. https://www.sangjunart.com/

Didn’t start drawing until he was well into his twenties. Realized he loved drawing, and started practicing, went to art school, ended up getting a job at Lucas Film doing character design for Episode 3, and then became a lead character designer at Blue Sky. You don’t have to start in your late teens to make it.

Lee White. https://www.leewhiteillustration.com/

Didn’t draw in twenties, or teens. Wasn’t interested until he was in his thirties and started drawing. Applied to Art Center of Design and got accepted with a scholarship, moved to LA, and graduated when he was 33. Then started getting his first books when he was in his mid-thirties, and that’s not the end, it’s just an on going thing.

Miyazaki, the Walt Disney of Japan, in animation all throughout career until 40. That’s when he decided to start his own animation studio. He did a graphic novel at age 40 for Nausica that he wanted to make into a feature film, all of his great movies were done in his post 40’s.

At age 40, you still have 25 years till most people retire, that’s a long time!

You really don’t ever have to retire.

Art isn’t like playing football, it’s not hard on your bones.

Zombies video

AS YOU MATURE, YOUR ART MATURES

Greg Manchess was winning awards and competitions for years, and he came out to do a lecture, he had just done the cover for “Above the Timberline.“ Speaking of that painting he said, “10 years ago I could not have painted this” even though 10 years ago he was winning awards for the Society of Illustrators, etc.

If you really are serious about being an artist and creating the best art you are capable of creating, you have to make it a lifelong goal. It’s not a sprint.

You need a schedule for yourself. You need to have an actual goal, something to look forward to. Without it, nothing happens.

Don’t judge results by if you are right on target.

Say, you’re 35. 5 years will pass whether you like it or not. You’re gonna be 40 at some point. Wouldn’t you rather have done something interesting with those 5 years between 35 and 40, or and tried to do this thing? If time passes anyways, you might as well do it.

If you are starting later, you won’t be creating the same work that you would if you had started younger. You have had so many life experiences: losing jobs, family, work, etc.

Beauty of age, experience, which leads to more informed art.

If you’re older, you’ve figured out how to work and developed a good work ethic. You don’t quit until the job is done. Broader perspective, more interested in learning than instant gratification.

Gina Jane- was a student going back to school. She turned in some of the best projects in the class, she had done a lot of graphic design stuff but hadn’t been drawing for a while. However, she had the work ethic, and she worked so hard at applying what she was being taught. She easily turned in some of the best pieces in the class.

You can accelerate your learning with your experiences. Older students are more okay learning something without instant gratification.

i.e. learning perspective, having a more broad perspective and being more willing to learn.

BATTLE PLAN

For someone starting at, let’s say, 35-36..

PHASE 1 OR YEAR 1:

• Draw for 2 hours a day.
• Enroll in an online school, SVSlearn, schoolism, CGMA.
• Learn the Fundamentals: Perspective, Light and Shadow, Figure Drawing, Composition, Color, how to use Line/shape/tone
• Fill 6-7 100 page sketchbooks, during your 2 hours a day. Work on hands, head, the figure, landscape, perspective, shading, this is your your sandbox for practicing and applying what you are learning.
• Pick 5 of your favorite artist, do 20 copies from each of these 5 artists. Each copy, you will learn so much from trying to deconstruct what these artists have done. You want to learn how that artist did it.
• You’re gonna fail with some of them, but you try and learn from the masters by copying their work. Depending on what your goal is, it might change your approach. Jon Klassen. Does a lot more simple graphic design type work. http://jonklassen.tumblr.com/ Craig Mullins. Studied industrial design. He didn’t like the industrial design look. Then he went back to school and did illustration. http://www.goodbrush.com/
• Seek advice from a professional: "these are my goals, what should I do?" Sometimes students want to become a children’s book illustrator but don’t really know any illustrators.
• During this first year, you need to educate yourself on this field. If it’s children’s books, every week maybe read 5 a week. If it’s comics, know what’s in comics, not just 20 years ago, but what is happening now. Fill your creative bank account with what people in the industry are doing.
• State your goal publicly: and then share your progress on the social media platform.

That’s your Phase 1/ Year 1, it might take 2-3 years.

PHASE 2: BUILD YOUR PORTFOLIO

• Draw 4 hours a day
• Intermediate classes, these online schools, and svs have more advanced classes. More one on one with teachers.
• 4 sketchbooks this year, not studies, concept art for portfolio. Illustrator: ideas for illustrations or childrens books. Comic artist: ideas for characters, your take on Wolverine, etc.
• Complete the Draw 100 Somethings Challenge: boats, trees, flowers, gummy robots, dinosaurs, robots, etc. Teaches you to not be satisfied with first 2-3, or 20 designs. Teaches you that true creativity comes after you have drained all the low hanging fruit. Jake did 200. Just to prove that there is no end to the ideas you can do. 

Design 100 Somethings 

• Continue Studying. If you’re aspiring to do childrens books- keep studying children’s books. concept artist or animator-reading every word in the “Art Of” books. Comics, keep studying comic books.
• Social Media- post your 100 somethings. Post your sketchbook studies. Can start growing a following, cause you aren’t just practicing but sharing your own unique ideas and what you are bringing to this field you are entering.
• Choose your heroes. Educate yourself on what you want to do. i.e. children’s books, comics, animation.
• Post regularly, share your work, journal chart progress, share what you’re learning.
• Keep Studying
• Start to pay attention to stories. At the end of the day this is what will separate you. See what the story is about, not just the details, separate that.
• Eventually everyone will be able to draw and paint, and story is what will separate you.
• Ultimately, Star Wars is all about a family. It’s a family drama, that’s what it is about. Be able to see the broader view, what’s the story about, and how did they tell that story. You can really get some great insights to storytelling, story building, and how to tell your own stories.
• You don’t want to just be a vapid artist who isn’t saying anything.Key: Ultimately, it is your stories that you tell that will separate you from the others. Be observant of stories in your life and all around you. What the story is all about, what is the broader view? How did they tell the story. Look at it separate from the details.They’re not saying anything, or they’re saying the same thing that has always been said.
• Be conscious of the style that you are developing.

See "Uncovering your Style", https://courses.svslearn.com/courses/uncovering-your-style

PHASE 3: MAKE A PRODUCT

• Kickstart and Create your comic, illustrate your book, concept out your idea. Create something that works for you.

Reasons:

1. Teaches you to Start and Finish a project.An actual product, suggests a finality to the project. Not just a project. Finished not perfect.
2. Learn Marketing
3. Learn Production
4. Learn Salesmanship.
5. Learn who prints things, and how to get things printed.
6. Learn about how when things get screwed up how to fix it? You’ll be more educated and understand what’s happening behind the scenes. Year 3 is all about taking everything you are learning and create something with it.

• Enter contests, put yourself out there, step up to the plate, try it, and get work out there. This is the best that I have got, this is what I have to share. Helps propel you to a new step. Do your best, and then move forward. You need moments of finality and stair stepping, then you can ask, “Where to go next?”
• Keep finishing things, then you go on to the next thing, and keep doing your best, then you can decide where to go next. Don’t just keep a bunch of unfinished things in the drawer. Ultimately, we want you to teach yourself how to finish and present something.
• This will also help you flesh out a network. If you want to be successful, you need to build a network. People above, next to, and below you.You’d be surprised at what jobs and opportunities will come.
• Someone above may like your work and throw you a bone.
• Someone next to you may recommend you for a job. 
• Someone below you has opportunities too.
• Start building that network by building things and putting them out into the world.
• Get into the network/world that you hope to enter.
• Project creates a connection with people in that world, starts a network.
• Study a film a week, a graphic novel a week, etc.

Will used to have though that “If I look at other people’s work I would be copying.” Originality comes from taking and combining, and studying. Will wishes someone would have grabbed him and told him that. Keep feeding yourself.

All creativity is, is connecting dots. Connecting dots that other people wouldn’t haven’t thought to connect. In order to connect dots, you have to have dots in the first place if you’re not filling your brain, then you have no creative capital to work with, you have no thoughts.

HOW CAN I DO THIS?

You have 4 hours in a day. You work for 9-10 hours. You have 14 hours. Maybe you shave off an hour of sleep, maybe you stop watching a TV series.

It really comes down to what you want to sacrifice. You shouldn’t sacrifice family, or your job. But there are some things you need to sacrifice to go down this path.

Need to discuss this with your spouse or significant other. I.e. “This is something I feel really passionate about, let’s work out a plan, maybe Thursday Friday nights are spent doing this, and you get me Saturday and Sunday.”

Maybe it’s not 4 hours a day, and it’s 2. You can get a lot done in 2 hours. If you don’t prioritize it, it will never happen.

Come up with a schedule. Maybe it is Thursday or Saturday.

Early to Rise.

Jake gets up at 4am to work on Skyheart.

Lee wakes up at 5, works from 5:30-9:30 or 10AM.

During that grouping of hours, stuff happens.

You can get a ton of work done in that group of time.

Pursuit of Happiness. The main character would drink less water, so that he didn’t have to use the restroom as often and could therefore make more calls.

You’ve got to ask yourself, how bad do you want something? It comes down to that.

I really want to play the guitar, but I didn’t sacrifice for it, I didn’t prioritize it. I said that I really wanted to play the guitar, but if you don’t sacrifice and prioritize it, then you don’t really want it.

You can’t have good things without some sort of sacrifice or some sort of skin in the game.

Yuko Shimizu, http://yukoart.com/

She had a full time corporate job, and kept her job until eventually she hit the tipping point and she quit her corporate job, and now is an incredible illustrator.

source:svslearn.com

MY WORK IS GREAT, WHY WON'T ANYONE HIRE ME?

Will got a long letter from an artist who felt that they had done everything they were supposed to, they felt that their work was great, and they were frustrated that they still weren’t getting work.

Jake and Will looked over this artist’s work and felt that the work was pretty good but not great. It was missing the style that fit the market that the artist wanted to go into. The style didn’t match the genre. You can’t do characters that look like they belong in World of Warcraft for a children's book.

Often, it’s not that you can’t draw or paint, but that you are missing the mark of where you need to go. Your style isn’t hitting the mark with what you want to go into. Your style needs to match the intended audience.

WORK ON YOUR CRAFT

Sometimes we feel that when we can render something nice, we have arrived, and we feel really good about ourselves. While that’s a great start, and an important step, this is really “fool’s gold.” There is a lot more to good illustration than just drawing well, and making things look 3-dimensional.

You never “arrive.” There is always an area to further grow or to better master.

Never convince yourself that there is nowhere else to grow.

There is a difference between drawing well, and creating a very engaging product.

The first step in getting professional work is to work on your craft: develop good drawing skills, good perspective, shadows, and light and color.

After mastering your craft, the second step is discretion. To not over render things, to not add too many highlights. You need to learn what to leave out. You need to learn what to illustrate and add. The artistry is figuring out what to put down, and what to leave out.

CONDUCT A SELF-AUDIT

You need a combination of a self audit, and a professional audit.

You need to conduct a Self-Audit, as outlined below:

*You need go through this honestly, it will take some time.

- Study the published things in the realm that you want to go in, and have the “right heroes”

- pick 8 top illustrators, who are getting their work published, by the big publishers, i.e. Harper Collins, Random House, Scholastic, etc.

- make a 9 Square grid. Put your best piece in the middle and surround it with a piece from those 8 illustrators that you admire

- Then identify what you like about it, Don’t just say, “I love this!”, you need to verbalize specific things that you love about their work, create a specific list, and write it down. These are the things that you need to work on incorporating into your work.

- Hang the list by your desk in order to remember these principles and to try to incorporate them, hang the list by your desk.

Bart Forbes, http://bartforbes.com/

When you have an image that you really like, really analyze it, and dissect it. Don’t just say, “I like this image,” And then move on. Really dissect it and look for specific things that are working well for you. What am I responding to?

COPY, COPY, COPY

Many people have the attitude of: “I don’t want to look at other people’s work because I want to be original, I don’t want to copy.” There is a false idea about originality; it says you shouldn’t look at others people’s work, or that you shouldn’t copy or take inspiration from them.

Jake still looks at others work for inspiration. All great artists do.

You really don’t need to make it as hard as you’re making it! You say it comes from within, but really it comes from without and you process it and make it your own thing. Find the right artists to look at and let them flow through you. There is no way you can perfectly copy all things all the time, at some point you’re gonna mix something with something else, and with a little bit of yourself and a little bit of this other person, and you’re going to find your own style that fits into this world that you want to get into.

When you are at the level that you want to be at, then find the right people for your work. I.e. Landscape painters will find the right gallery, not a children’s book publisher.

Do you know anyone who is going through med school? What is their total work hours per week? Basically, if you are in med school and are doing well, you pretty much have zero life, and have tons of focus, attention to detail, etc. And if you do well in school, you most likely have a good job waiting for you with a good salary.

Illustration is every bit as hard, to develop a unique style and a product to beat out other artists for jobs, and there is not a guaranteed job waiting for you. You should be treating it like you’re in med school. 

You won’t get paid to learn and do research. You need to find the motivation within. No one will tell you everything you need to do. You need to make a schedule yourself and be self motivated.

After you develop the skills it becomes more and more about making an interesting image, something that people grab onto. That extra element of storytelling creates interest, the idea behind it. Am I bringing something new to this subject matter, some new idea, some kind of unique viewpoint, or perspective?

Chris Applehans, http://www.froghatstudios.com/

ADD INTEREST TO YOUR LIFE

There is nothing interesting there? It may be because you aren’t an interesting person.

But you can become more interesting, you need to have a rich life outside of art. Art is just a way to express the interestingness that’s inherently inside of you.

If your work’s not interesting: go out and do something, talk to somebody, travel, go to the other side of town. You need to fill your creative bank account. You have gotta have creative capital. If you’re dry and empty, you are just going to have dry and empty work.

The lazy man doesn’t get too far, the perpetually busy man doesn’t get much farther.

Some people are just drawing, drawing, drawing, without much giving it much thought.

Stop, what kind of images am I making? Is there something better or more interesting that I should be creating. Don’t just draw and draw without any direction, you need to be more deliberate.

You can’t just exhale, you need to inhale.

Quick Summary:

1. Audit yourself, audit your work, evaluate your work based on others.
2. Work on craft, do master studies, copy
3. Add interest to your life.
4. Find an outside source who can give you some honest critique and create a feedback loop (get feedback, improve it, then get more feedback again.)
5. You have to work towards getting your skin thick enough to beg for a really honest critique. A pat on the back is not a critique.

4 Step Process to Evaluate If You are Really Good?

1. People naturally gravitate towards your work. When you put your work up, people naturally are drawn to it. Online, people naturally gather around it. Mom, or significant other don’t count.
2. People start seeing your work and recommending you for something or to others.
3. You’re going to start to win things: contests, scholarships, free classes, etc.
4. People will start paying you.

WHY SHOULD I COPY?

Top art schools have there students create master copies. It’s a proven exercise.

Steps:

1. Create a master copy, the more exact the better.
2. Then do a new original piece as if you were that artist. When you get stuck, look back at their work and try to figure out how they might solve the problem. What would ______ do?

Keep a copy sketchbook, this is a sketchbook that you can just throw away when your done. That’s it, don’t need to show it to anyone.

The most valuable thing from doing these master copies is what happens in your brain and your muscle memory. The most valuable thing is inside you.

When kids start to learn to play piano, the teachers don’t say, “Alright, just make a piece of music, just write whatever you want!” The kids start by playing other peoples music and learning to sight read other people music first. In other words, they copy.

The same goes with martial arts, and with sports. They teach you moves. They teach you what the greats before you did.

STORY TIME

Jake was working on an illustration of Santa’s sleigh being pulled by a bunch of different animals. He got an honest critique from Skottie Young, and Skottie told him that it looked like the stock-image version of what Jake was trying to do.

Jake went to Pinterest and started looking up cartoon animals, made a Pinterest board with cartoon animals and saw, “oh this is how you would do a killer whale… oh this is how you would do a llama… I wouldn’t have thought to do that..” Then took a little bit of this guy, and then took a little bit of what they did in this drawing, etc, and mashed it together and made it his own. But really it was from absorbing from all of those different artists.

There are pinnacle and milestone pieces where you have breakthroughs. Eventually you get to where you can focus a lot more on the creative and imaginative side of things because you don’t have to worry so much about how to actually create it.

Eventually you’ll get to where you don’t have so much hurt from something not working out. You need to learn to not take it personally, or take an emotional hit; to be able to say: don’t mind looking at something and saying, “Ahh, that’s not working out” and then you go back without taking an emotional hit, and say, “you know I can make this better.”

Sometimes you will ask, “Why am I not impressed with what I just did? If you yourself aren’t kind of impressed, then no one else will be. You should be stoked, not trying to convince yourself, “uh, it’s good, it’s good..”

There are times where Jake has worked on a piece for a few hours and then had to scrap it because it just wasn’t up to par.

You need to get to the point where if your dog chewed up your piece, you don’t mind because you know you can create it again or maybe even do something better.

A WORD TO THE PROS

If there is a professional illustrator out there, or close to professional who has great work and you are saying, “I’ve done this, guys.” Then maybe your problem isn’t your craft, but your network. If you don’t know people in the field you want to go in, then you need to find mentors, get your work out there online, and up your game.

source: svslearn.com

How To Be A Freelance Animator?

Animation is a field that has been around for many years, ever since the start of print media. However, in the latter part of the 20th century and ever since the turn of the 21st, the field has branched out onto its own, with computer-aided design (CAD) techniques and other groundbreaking innovations have led to the discovery of newer techniques.

It is a growing field. One that definitely has a big future, and one that has come into its own in the past decade.

Thus, there are many reasons you should become an Animator; there is the allure of good pay, the allure of renown, and a lavish lifestyle. Moreover, it is one job, which you can undertake from the comfort of your home and still be handsomely remunerated, the gist being that it is a good freelance option.

Job Duties For Freelance Animator

You will have many job duties as an animator, sometimes more complex than simply changing the storyboard or the narrative. Most animators learn the generic basics of animation, like 2-D and 3-D animation, but many exclusively like to focus on specific sub-fields.

Some of the duties you would expect to perform as an animator include:

• Understanding client needs and developing animation from their concepts
• Creating storyboards that depict the script and narrative
• Drawing in 2D to create sketches, artwork or illustrations
• Designing models, backgrounds, characters, objects and environment
• Using clay, plaster, oil paints, watercolours and acrylics
• Working to deadlines and meet client’s expectations
• Using technical software packages, such as Flash, 3d studio max, Maya, Lightwave, Softimage and Cinema 4D

Skills

Freelance Animators must develop certain skills to make a decent living. There are many websites and forums and blog posts that can help you develop and hone these skills. However, before you do find out where it is important to know what these skills are. Without ado, let us look at these skills in question:

As an animator, you should:

• Be creative and artistic
• Possess drawing skills (and sculpting skills for stop frame animation using clay)
• Have excellent IT skills
• Have good concentration
• Have an eye for detail
• Observe and understand body language and expressions
• Be a good communicator and negotiator
• Be organised
• Be innovative and resourceful
• Be able to work well as a team player and take direction from senior animators, directors and clients
• Be interested in art & design, film and television

You can develop and hone these skills needed online, or through courses. Many platforms and websites can help you ‘animate’ a brilliant career, as an animator.

Animation Mentor, The Virtual Inkstkructor, Lynda, and The AnimSchool offer both paid and free options, where you can learn animation online.

Being Successful As A Freelance Animator

Maybe you will create the next Buzz Lightyear, Elsa, or even the next Batman. Who knows? However, what is apparent is that with the skills and talent this field will give you many opportunities to create memorable characters. So, how can you become a successful animator?

There are many bumps along the way to becoming successful freelancers: no colleagues to moan to, no shared lunches, along with the instability of the absence of a weekly cheque. However, one can become successful, or indeed set off down the path to success, by following certain tips, as;

• Being adept at drawing
• Being a keen observer
• Referring to and studying the works of better artists
• Being able to produce a demonstration of your work, either a showcase or a demo reel
• Learning to act, to bring the animated characters to life in believable environments
• Learning continuously
• Networking

Average Remunerations

Have you ever wondered what the animators for Frozen or Tangled earned for their projects? Well whatever the details of those cheques were, they must have been ludicrous amounts, perhaps not but what about future paycheques now? Safe to say that they must be rolling in the money; in the world of freelancing though the average pay scale is based on the two types of work models.

As with other freelance opportunities, there are essentially two types of engagements offered, the fixed-price model and the hourly payment model. Therefore, what can you earn as a freelance animator?

Estimated budgets for fixed-price engagements range from $50- 500 for a project, while hourly jobs usually pay $5 – 30 an hour depending on how good and experienced you are.

There have been projects quoted at $1000, but as you can imagine the scale of the project and the scope of work will vary with amounts quoted. There are jobs that pay less on an hourly basis but provide ongoing work for sometimes months and even years together.

Average hourly payments for animators are around $21 an hour. In the beginning of your career, you may have to work for a slightly low price than quoted, but such jobs will help you build your credibility and are equally important if you wish to make a name for yourself in the freelance market.

Finding Work

Finding work as a freelance animator can initially be a bit tough. However, once you have created a name for yourself then it becomes much easier.

One of the best ways to advertise your services is to create a Facebook page, and invite your friends, family and acquaintances to like it. You must remember that as an animator, your work will have visual appeal and social media platforms can help you leverage the fact.

Apart from creating a Facebook page and a blog, some popular websites that offer work for freelance animators include Elance, Freelancer, Peopleperhour, Odesk and Guru.

Resources:

There are many resources available, if you wish to develop newer skills or sharpen your existing ones. Many sites like Animation Mentor, The Virtual Instructor, Lynda, and The AnimSchool offer both paid and free options, where you can learn animation online.

source: https://careerlancer.net/freelance-animator/

Pro Animation Tip: Don’t Forget About the Shoulders!

By: Dana Boadway-Masson 

When you think of showing emotion in animation, what’s the first thing that pops into your head. The face? The eyes? Those are definitely important—but shoulders are actually just as important and useful for animators trying to show emotion! Here are some essential tips for effectively animating shoulders from mentor Dana Boadway Masson, owner and director of Killerjellybean Animation!

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When people think of showing emotion, the first thing that pops into mind is usually the face, followed closely by the hands. But I would argue that shoulders are just as important, and expressive! They even frequently betray emotions that a person might be trying not to show outwardly. They have a LOT of movement range, and animators shouldn’t be afraid to use it! Shoulder rigging has come a really long way from earlier CG rigs, too. It’s one of the toughest areas of the body to skin in a rig, and not have the geometry fold like a candy wrapper.

A character that comes to mind immediately when I think of VERY expressive use of shoulders is Rapunzel, from the movie Tangled. And when you watch her move, she doesn’t feel overly cartoony, yet the poses can be surprisingly exaggerated. Look below to see some range of motion used in her animation:

Example from Tangled © Walt Disney Pictures 

Example from Tangled © Walt Disney Pictures 

It’s always surprising, when you look at still frames from a shot, just how exaggerated the positions can be, and when you watch it again in full speed motion, it just doesn’t seem as extreme.

Example from Ratatouille © Pixar Animation Studios 

If you watch the following shot progression from video reference to final, you’ll notice how important the shoulders are in the expression of the character Anna in this scene from Frozen.

The animator reaches a high level of exaggeration right from the start of planning, in his video reference, and this transfers wonderfully onto the character, as she alternates between excited, hopeful, and resigned/sad. The changes happen quite quickly in the scene, and the shoulders are the biggest part in conveying those changes clearly, using a lot of contrast between the positions.

Having just done some research, I can tell you that it’s not easy to find information about shoulder posing. There’s tons of stuff about yoga poses that open your shoulders up, and about how emotions can affect you physically, including a lot about back, neck, and shoulder issues. Interestingly, if you have very tense shoulders, if you engage in exercises to help you loosen them up, you might suddenly and inexplicably find yourself breaking into tears! What does one have to do with the other?!

As human beings, we often suppress emotions for one reason or another. We think it’s better not to feel emotional pain, and stuff it down. But that energy gets built up and stored in your musculature, and creates muscle tension. So if you break that tension, the emotions are going to release. If you release the emotion, the muscle tension will break. The emotional and the physical are interconnected.

When we are in the midst of expressing emotions, our muscles will exhibit more or less tension, depending on what the emotion is that we’re feeling. Sad/bored/tired emotions will be very low

Tension:

Example from Tangled © Walt Disney Pictures 

…and the shoulders (along with the rest of the pose) will sag, and feel heavier.

Excited/nervous emotions will increase muscle tension, bringing shoulders up higher:

Example from Tangled © Walt Disney Pictures 

Angry/defensive emotions will also increase muscle tension, but the aggression will hunch the shoulders up and forward, drawing the whole spine into a hunched curve:

Example from Tangled © Walt Disney Pictures 

Shoulders also are part of large muscle groups that hold a lot of strength. Very often, the shoulders will show the effort in a physical movement, and the exaggeration of the shoulder pose can help to communicate that effort to the audience.

Example from Ratatouille © Pixar Animation Studios 

The shoulders will very often lead the arms in their movements as well, creating momentum for the rest of the arm gesture. Notice how Remy’s shoulders drop first in the clip above, and the rest of the arm motion follows quickly behind. Shoulders are like the top of the pendulum rig. They drive the action of the rest of the joints of the arms. The torso is like an upside-down pendulum, driving from the hips, upwards towards the head, and the arm pendulum is attached to a joint in the upper back area, so the rest of the arm action is affected by what happens with the upper spine.

Like everything else with body mechanics, you need to have a good idea of the underlying anatomy. You can see how interconnected the arms are to the upper back and neck if you look at muscular anatomy chart:

When the arms lift, the shoulders must lift, too. All of that musculature works together. So when the arms raise, do not forget to move the shoulders with them. A rig will not automatically do that for you!

In character poses, if you draw a line across both shoulders, and across the top of the pelvic bone, you can see how the angles of the shoulders oppose the angles of the hips in order to create interesting and dynamic lines of action through the spine:

So the position of the shoulders greatly affects the appeal of the pose, as well as describing the physical action, and communicating the characters’ emotions.

It’s an awful lot to think about, but don’t shrug it off… that just shows you just how important it is to keep shoulders in mind when you’re animating!

source:blog.animationmentor.com

What is Important in Order to Succeed as an Animator?

By: Jason Martinsen

There are many steps that can help you to break into the industry. A short and sweet demo reel with your best shots first will help. A reel that shows talent with plenty of upside and potential is going to get you a job. 

Having contacts and good word of mouth will help, but the reel reigns supreme. Once you have broken into the industry, to continue to succeed takes plenty of work as well. 

Never change your mindset and start thinking, ‘I’m done, I made it, time to relax and set some mindless keys and pay off my student loans.’ You always need to have an open mind and continue to learn proactively. 

Make friends with all the great animators. Treat each shot like an assignment you had in school. Ask your peers and supervisors for feedback on how to improve. Even if you have people telling you that you are a great animator and they love your shots, keep the ego in check and be humble. You never know when that next shot you get will be something you have never done before, and will be a challenge. 

That’s what makes animating so much fun! Success is simply taking all you have learned and combining it with feedback from your fellow animators, leads, supervisors and directors.

Click here to see more posts on animation tips and tricks

source: http://www.animationtipsandtricks.com