Tuesday, March 13, 2012
INSTRUCTOR POST - feedback required: what have you learned so far?
Now that we have gotten through the first assignment, take a moment to think: what would you suggest to your fellow students on this next assignment to ensure a better outcome? Any ideas on workflow that would've made things easier? Share your thoughts on the one thing you've learned so far that you wish you knew at the start of this term. Any must-have tools that sped up your workflow? Share your idea in the comments section of this post.
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15 comments:
I wish I would have set up a better storyboard with better keyposes in the planning stage. I had audio and video ref but then my animation lent itself too much to the reference video. I also would have shot ref video using other people than myself. I haven't taken acting for animators yet and it probably would have been easier to tell other people what to do instead of trying to manipulate my webcam and remember the audio myself. I ended up not even using my self-reference. Since my scene involved two characters in conflict, I probably would have wanted to watch more live action AND animated clips of characters disputing each other. I think it would have sped up my ability to pick up subtleties in facial ticks and body language.
Great thoughts Kelsey - cookie points for you! I have a video of your animation with draw over notes. I will email it to you and copy it to your class folder
I like Kelsey wish I had better planning. I spent too long thinking about the idea and not enough time on how I was going to execute it. Struggling with the more basic problems while working set me back and kept me from moving forward with the animation.
Especially after reading and watching a lot of the tutorials floating around on the blog, planning planning and planning. I was able to shoot lots of really good reference, from multiple angles which helped the physical action of my animation SO much, but in the end it was on the most basic level that my animation didn't work; overall timing and planning to make it have real variety and interest. Aside from what we have done in this class, I haven't learned much about planning out an effective animation shot in any of my classes and for a long project like this it would really help.
1) I would have started out with shooting my own reference instead of searching for something close to what I wanted. I've never shot my own reference for anything before this class and now I find myself shooting reference for everything. (As for what Kelsey said, Acting for Animators does help a lot but mostly in not being embarrassed to do ridiculous stuff on video or in front of other people.)
2) If you're ahead of where you need to be, stay ahead. Life will always find a way to screw you up. Never assume that the extra time you have will still exist a week later.
3)Be very clear of exactly what you're going to do from the beginning before you do any animation. (Planning)
4)If the teacher says 8 seconds minimum, do 8 seconds. If you think you can do better than the minimum, do a complete 8 seconds first, with more in mind. You do have other classes that come with their own homework.
There's probably a lot more but I think I've gone on long enough.
The biggest thing I learned is that the simpler the idea, the better. You can still execute a great concept while keeping the idea simple. Also, as contrary as it may seem, the biggest thing I learned is that 4 or 6 seconds of great animation is a lot better than 10 seconds of mediocre or just really bad/floaty animation. It's better to present a higher quality piece than a longer piece just for the sake of it being longer.
I should have thought about a planning in the beginning stage more. Even though I searched the references of parkour before I started to make my animation, I watched the reference a lot, so the animation became like stable and timing is too even. I would have exaggerated it.
I think, to keep simple is the best way to animate.
Wow, I feel like we're all on the same boat on this one: PLANNING. GOOD REFERENCE. KEEP IT SIMPLE.
That's ultimately what it comes down to, and I feel disappointed with myself to some extent that I'm taking Character Animation III and yet this is not ingrained in my system by now.
Interacting/sharing my work in progress with you guys helped a lot as well. It was great to be in the labs, saying hi to some of you guys and see how your work is going, and get great tips from you. Hopefully I shared some good pointers as well.
There were many tasks which could have made my life much easier if I understood how to use character controls and tools. Morpheus tool is one of handy tools which help you to save time to select controls you want.
When you start animating your characters, it is best to understand and decide what setting you wanna use for their movements in different animations; such as "FK" or "IK" for wrist controls. I did not realize that wrist's "world" parent setting works better for my character's wrist movement until last Thursday and I spent hours to convert it to "world" from "shoulder."
I am still having issues with elbow movement and I am still trying to figure out function of elbow's parent setting.
Planning ahead is another important task you want to do before you start your assignment. You also want to show your storyboard and reference to your classmate or instructors if they work well for the assignments. If you don't have them, at least have your simple planning on a scratch paper.
1. I was reading an interview with Andrew Stanton and he said something that really struck me, something to the effect of "Fail fast so you can start making it better." I get too hung up on my first ideas often and move too slowly because I want to do it perfect and ultimately I get to precious with it. Ultimately I think the best thing is to just get something blocked out as quick as you can so you can get feedback and implement it instead of trying to make your first draft your final.
2. Planning is king. I know you stress it in lecture, but I have a habit of forgeting it and messing around in maya so that I lose the big picture. This is a real pitfall near the end when it's the subtle details, I can just get lost in the minute and unimportant details and miss the more important problems.
3. Keep things simple and clear. Another side effect with just messing around in maya is that my actions get too cluttered, which is a bad habit. The main action should usually be simple and clear, but I have a habit of cluttering up my actions.
Can't wait to start on the next assignment!
Solid general workflow practices have been what I have taken the most so far. The only hitch that I had was an IK/FK switch issue with Morphy but was quickly fixed by comments from the blog. Learning name spaces and implementing scripts in Maya along with understanding how to create tool sets has improved my workflow significantly.
In the begging I felt I was introduced to the technical side and I took it to a more Tech side. But all in all I wish I had more time. More planning was a must this time around now that I have went threw the rapids, I now know what not to do. Now I feel more prepared and I feel like I applied the critiq and got as much done as I could. Mike Oros :)
I think the most important thing I learned from this assignment is the importance of planning. It's best for a dance scene to actually record it yourself and if you can try to dance it yourself to really feel the correct body movement. Also always have your file online! definitely learned that lesson!
I would say once you have a good idea in your mind's eye of what you want to animate, start immediately with the rough blocking of timing and character positioning, staging, etc. before getting too mired in endless reference material.
At earlier stages, even before key framing (first week), it's much easier to alter timing and positioning.
While better planning almost universally equates to better end results, better direction while working and less time wasted, most will probably find themselves either wanting or needing a certain degree of flexibility in changing the original plan anyway.
Lesson being: don't waste too much time on planning at the expense of actual progress with the animation itself. Fall back on additional reference only when hitting project breaking snags.
Lastly, have a back up plan if the initial idea is overly ambitious. Have a Plan B for a simplified, shortened version of that initial idea if not an entirely different, simpler idea in a worst case scenario.
Through the assignment I have learned 1. making a good plan first. Without a clear plan the project is hard to countinue. In this assignment I didn't have a very good plan on these characters ' action. 2. Check the time line always. If I got a timing problem I need to start over again, it is hard to fix and waste time. 3. Snape. This function is really useful when I swish whe IK and FK.
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