Today was the last day of this semester, and I know I learned a lot. Now, I'm going to take some break (which doesn't mean I'm not gonna study animation though, I mean I will stay away from computer :D ), and Sean just told me to watch this to think "timing".
Sean said the comedy timing is really useful for animation so he just recommended me to watch twice. First time, I understand the jokes and then I can more focus on timing of the jokes.
Another thing I noticed when I saw this was how much each subtle pose helped to understand what he is thinking. I think especially in comedy, a lot of complex thought are showing, sometimes they are clear and sometimes not.
Anyway, I and Sean talked a lot today and I will pose what he told me as an article later, I need to watch this again and pack my bag too.
I have been studying timing and spacing theses days especially, and one thing I notice that "HOLD" is really important to make contrast in timing (which is not something "WOW NEW INVENTION!!GENIUS!!" tutorial just a basic principal but Sean just told me we need to go back to basic once we learned everything)
Here's my clips from my animation test...
I think it's fairly OK...for me, looked slightly same rhythm, beat..pon,pon,pon...something like that. I wanted more contrast, something that BREAKS my good boy timing. So far, the timing is like that.
the last timing was not same as other two poses but still same for me, I wanted more clear contrast, Having said that, I still liked the transition timing, one pose to another. So what i did was to change the "HOLD" timing, not "TRANSITION" timing.
Now the timing for looks more like...this!
I liked that, and I will go with this timing. Yes, one thing I noticed from this was, when we need to change the timing, we have to think two different timing. "HOLD"and"TRANSITION"timings.
When we have two poses like this, we have to think the timing. We have to think timing carefully because timing and spacing is everything in animation. I used to only have one question before...
How long does it take one pose to another?
but sometimes it's really difficult to put variety of timing in animation because the character's action needs to be physically correct, otherwise we are going to lost believability. Audience doesn't believe this character is alive. So what we can change then is...hold!! Here's another question to myself.
How long does it hold until the next movement?
Now I have a lot of different options when I think of timing, and I remember some animators said "HOLD" is really important to show character's thought process. I will need to consider every time. I will hold this idea tight not to forget!!
Acting speed depends on the character's emotion, in the certain circumstance. I kind of liked this acting, when he reacts what he saw on the dish. He goes like..frozen. I used to like this contrast and pose BUT, what do you think he's seeing inside that? He moves super quick and frozen...umm I was actually thinking inside that was something he does't like but look at his face!!
He is more like SCARED!!...it actually more looks like someone pointing a gun to him...and I was like"what the hell is this crap pose, and timing?"
There's no great pose without any definition of circumstance, character and situation. I will change this pose and timing and will pose it later how this pose changes.
I remember what Pixar animator said, exaggeration is not big pose but -ER pose!! I need to change this pose more "ew I don't wanna eat this"er pose. and Tom also told me, acting speed depends on the emotion, if he is happy, he might move slowly and if he is surprised, he might move quickly (OF COURSE, the kind of happiness also need to be considered!! like... WHY he is happy? What is he surprised at?, which means he can move very very slow, even if he surprised) ...see? Depends!!
Sulley's Take animation test, I animated this test by referencing in Sulley's take from Monsters, Inc. When he noticed someone's behind him and was trying to see what it is. This is really really great example for me because this is exactly what I was trying to get, variety of timing.
One of the things that I learned from this test was, great timing is not perfect. What I meant wasthe beauty of imperfection, look at when he is trying to see by turning his head to left, I can see his thought like (No!! not this way, something is the other way!!) . So he made made mistake, he was supposed to turn his head to right at the first place. So this is NOT perfect (or I should say the most practical) acting, BUT this is natural!! Imperfection is really natural and that what brings life to the characters. No one is perfect in real life.
From timing point of view, it is like we are playing some music instrument and suddenly stops, makes a mistake or change the beat...not perfect...but if this is a jazz improvising, how cool is it to do something like that?
I set the bar for myself, this quality of timing is the bar...no animation coming from myself anymore with boring timing. By the way, I think this way to test was really good for me. I didn't just rotoscope all the frames, instead, I had drawn all the key poses from the original clip, then I put them in the computer. From that point, I didn't watch the original clip so much. I just made animation by myself, created timing. I watched the original just only when I wanted to see some more breakdowns, (not only to copy from it but to study how to have the character move properly). Funny thing is though, my timing turned out faster than the original, but looks to work well, I think I was using different rig and this guy is not as heavy as Sulley for sure that's why he is supposed to move faster than Sulley and works well.
I like making an icon as like milestone by myself once in a while to keep my mind fresh and inspired. This AWESOME summer semester that I spent with great artists was going to finish next daily on coming Monday, and I myself has been animating for almost an year since I came here (because I didnt have a computer in the last summer semester and I could not animate anything).
I clearly remember the talk with Sean about King Louie scene in the class taught by Tom, which was for me the first time to study animation and it was a start of everything. Now, surprisingly and fortunately, I'm making an animated short film with Sean and instructed by Tom.
I feel I'm so fortunate and can't wait to animate!!! next semester, I'm sure its going to be super super awesome!! but at the same time, I know I had been spending really hard time by looking back my life struggling with animation. Sometimes, I even didnt want to open a computer, watch animation.
However, anyway, it's like it's been passed half way until graduation and my skill actually got way to better than I expected (which doesn't mean I'm satisfied with it at all now though).
I dont really like writing stuff like that and not good at it at all so...but one thing I'm sure by considering all the difficulties, the nights that I cannot sleep and the moments I was freaking out and crying like crazy....still love animation.
That what brought me here, and want to say thank you my dad, mom, my family and friends.
I might be going have more freaking out moments but will try to be passionate.
I remember that my Animation Lead once points me out a mistake that starting animator will sometime do. He points me out that beginner animator will sometime add more poses (breakdowns) in their animation trying to fix an animation where poses are already not working well together, as if adding more poses would “solve the problem”.
Don't fall into the trap of believing that people will understand your animation once it starts moving [they should understand it just by seeing a few poses with clear intentions]”
This basic rule of acceleration and deceleration of an action also applies to a musical background,
- The animator must constantly be aware of beats and accents. And there is no accented position, when action is all evenly spaced.
- NOTE: The faster the beat, the more accurate the hit or accent must be.
- A beat constitutes a specific interval of time. It applies to both the musical beat and action tempo. A 24 beat means 1 beat per second or every 24 frames.
- The measure of time established by the musical tempo must be broken down into audible taps. A metronome is normally necessary to measure the rhythm.
- A 12 beat action would be equivalent of 2 taps per second. If the tempo quickens to an 8 beat, this represents 3 taps per second. Only violent action will require anbimating as fast as an 8 beat.
- Accuracy is especially important if the beat is faster than a 9 beat. The hit must occur exactly on the cue frame which receives the tap.
- This applies also to rapid dialogue. The mouth positions must occur exactly on the frame of the corresponding sound. And the action must change on every frame. Animate in ones.
(When a slower beat is used, such as a 12 or 16 beat, the accented action may hit two frames before the frame of the tap. Greater impact is also provided through extended contact).
- When the rhytm of the dialogue is relaxed and conversational, the lip movements should be started two frames ahead of sound. Depending on phonetics, it takes one or two frames to form certain letters before sound is spelled.
- Remember: the faster the beat, the more accurate the accent - and the lip movement must be synced exactly as indicated on the exposure sheet.
I used to not believe animation curves when I was animating, I used to think what is important is what I see in the shot camera. I still think so in terms of posing, but I kind of think that in terms of movement, curves are really important. So now I'm trying to have different thoughts at the same time, as like Sean said...lick an ice cream.
I can't believe myself animating without touching curves, but I believe it important to learn WHY it is important by myself...otherwise, What the hell was I doing at that time?
