Animation

Key Points on Animation!

October 23, 2011 0 comments

Useful points and key notes/quotes to keep in mind and follow during animation…

1. Rhythm, Timing, Beat & Spacing ~ Pattern, Texturing, Timing!
2. Learning drawing is vital!
3. Anticipation ~ Every movement in animation should have! Anticipate force being applied…
4. Arc ~ Every single thing in body should have!
5. No overshoot, No energy ~ exaggerate first and then pull it back until it’s fit with animation (Don’t be afraid of exaggerating too much)
6. Focus on PRINCIPLES ~ Staging, Posing, Anticipation!
7. KISS ~ KEEP IT SIMPLE Stupid!
8. Contact Frame ~ Right before and after the energy applies, foot touches the ground, legs stretch. Look out for contact key poses!
9. Video Reference ~ Cool motion, we could get the acting that people can’t think of consciously. Push things more, search what makes animation unique!
10. Graph Editor ~ Be careful about the gaps between keys. Smooth out until the keys are faded out. Ease-in and Ease-out!
11. At least 3 frames are required to let audience see what it going on the screen!
12. Heavy ball takes a lot more frames to stop. Root is the heaviest part of the body!
13. Every frame should be able to tell a story. Posing is very important!
14. Polish TILT, RHYTHM, TWIST!

P.S. Notes assembled from a Romit studying at PIXAR 🙂

HEPHAESTUS // short film ~ Fund Raising

October 21, 2011 0 comments

Hephaestus is a short film directed by Alexander Curtis. The short follows the story of Hephaestus, an aging robotic soldier who finds new purpose in the care and protection of a young girl, Kaylee. But when the duo find themselves trapped in a war-zone, Heph must venture on to the battlefield once more.

Currently the short is running a campaign to raise some funding for the volunteer project for resources such as music, software and food!

Being a part of the rigging team I assisted on creating Kaylee, the lead character’s hair and goggles setup as a volunteer support! Please feel free to support the movie and the talented artist by making a small donation 🙂

Tracker system by Igor Stefanovic

October 17, 2011 0 comments

Technical study of a realistic hand. The setup is based on tracker system by Igor Stefanovic currently working as a Character TD at DreamWorks Animation. Below you can check out the demo on implementation of the tracker tool on a full body setup.

This setup seems to be different from the traditional corrective shape, pose-space deformation or muscle based deformation. It seems like the setup is a bit like an intelligent set driven key (kind of) or some history dependent math connection applied on individual joints or controller binded to individual mesh component for smooth fleshy and realistic articulation. This is simply a really big milestone on rigging tools for realistic deformation. A good share by Igor, awesome job and deserves two thumbs up!

Squash and Stretch (Part 1)

October 13, 2011 0 comments

Useful post on Squash and Stretch by Mark Kennedy.

“One of the first concepts you hear about when you’re studying animation is “squash and stretch”, which is the idea that living forms (and certain types of inanimate objects) have a certain amount of flexibility and that they change shape as they move around under their own power, react to external forces or change expression.”

The Art of Puppetry

October 10, 2011 0 comments


In this video, the puppeteer plays a double role as a rigger and an animator to bring the puppet to life. Think of those strings controlling the puppet to be IK Handles! 🙂