Notes of Q&A Session (c1_w12)

Yo, I'm going to Class 2, very excited!

Here comes the notes my mentor taught me today!

Have a great week!

Notes of Q&A Session (c1_w11)

Some tips for the personality walk assignment were discussed this week, there should be a  signature of a pose in a walk cycle,contrast the timing on foot, fast up slow down, or vice versa.

Class 1 finished!

Happy Animating!

Notes of Q&A Session (c1_w10)

It's week 10,  we've discussed lots of things, some of these are abstract, so I got nothing to present here.

I would say that although I improved my animation skills a lot, but there's still a long way to become great.

Work hard and enjoy!

Notes of Q&A Session (c1_w09)

It's week 9! I'm going to refine a walk cycle this week. To animate a walk it's a tough thing, at the same time, it's interesting, I enjoy it!

There are lots of things you need to take into consideration, timing, weight, overlapping, silhouette.... and the most difficult thing, I think, it's personality'! "No two people in the world walk the same", said by Richard Williams. 

Just keep on researching the footage or references, focus on those subtle movements, then capture the essence of the personality you want.  

Finally, as an animator, keep in mind that idea is the most important factor, without it, animators could not make things entertain. Those rules and animation principles are used to serve the idea, make things go smoothly, instead of strict for imagination, because they are not mandatory. If there was a possibility, do dare to break the principle, there always a way to present the breathtaking ideas through animation. 

Let's check this week's notes. :D

Please click the image below to enlarge the graph and you'll get a clear version.

Notes of Q&A Session (c1_w08)

Here we come to week 08, introducing to Basic Walk. One of the most common and effective ways to animate the walk is to begin with the contact pose from frame 0. There are lots of references for animation a walk, still, it's lifetime topic for professional animators to keep learning and practising. 

Let's go, walk in person, film ourselves, animate it out!

Please click the image below to enlarge the graph and you'll get a clear version.

Notes of Q&A Session (c1_w07)

We continued to discuss about the overlapping action, this seems easy to understand at the beginning, but once you got involved in practical animating process, you would find this concept is hard to master totally.  In my opinion, when animating the tailor, try to apply the wave action principle to its tail's movement, it would achieve a nice overlapping action. I tried, and it feels good!


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Notes of Q&A Session (c1_w06)

I've enjoyed the Spring Festival this week, and there are some additional notes from YouTube, which were created by Keith Lango, these videos are very inspired and I'd like to shared them here.

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Notes of Q&A Session (c1_w05)

Wow, there was a big festival in week05-week06, felt so excited!
Here comes the note: 

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 Happy Chinese Lunar New Year!

Notes of Q&A Session (c1_w04)

This week I'd like to share some cool tips and tricks for the Bouncing Ball Animation.

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Notes of Q&A Session (c1_w03)

Hi all,

This week my mentor Anthony had talked about the importance of observation.  Begin to observe the live, real stuffs, which will help make your work more personal, and observe the live to build up your own source of creativity.

Please click the image below to enlarge the graph and you'll get a clear version. 

 

 

In the second part, he provided some killer tips for the bouncing ball animation, and I would like to share a reference video here, which was given by Anthony.

Here's my bouncing ball animation planning graph: 

Please click the image below to enlarge the graph and you'll get a clear version.  

Notes of Q&A Session (c1_w02)

Hey buddies, 

I'd like to share my notes here, I summarized it by drawing a graph, hope it would make sense and inspire you, thank you!

Please click the image below to enlarge the graph and you'll get a clear version.

Tasks for everyday learning in AnimationMentor

I found there are lots of tasks to be accomplished in everyday learning, and I've to prioritize these tasks in a effective way in order to achieve as much as I could.

Of course, this is a experimental version, I would modify it if there were some mistakes potentially existed. 

I drew a graph to illustrate the internal relation of all the tasks and to-do things.

I don't know whether this graph would be a logical one or not.

Hope this would inspire you!

The first week in AnimationMentor

Fantastic! At long last the AM program launched !

 I launched my formal character animation training in AM, which's one of the best schools to learn character animation here! So I feel excited!

Meanwhile, I find there's not a easy way to become a real Professional Character Animator, lots of things I need to learn, to absorb, to practise, to comprehend, but don't forget to experience, to enjoy!

Learning animation is very hard, fortunately, I love this art form! 

Happy Animating!

something cool from "lie to me" (part 02)

let's continue this cool things , I do think these would inspire me a lot, hope you like it!

"that guy's lying, his ass off, when you're lying, it's hard to tell a story backwards, because there's no real memory of what happened, liars rehearse their stories in order, they don't think to rehearse them backwards"

"an expression of deep shame, ....and be fully dilated... it's not fear or anger... you know what else makes pupils dilate, sexual arousal"

"there was wrinkling around her eyes, when she smiled in a fake smile, there's no eye wrinkling"

"in skin temperature, about ten degrees scared, which is to say, very scared, intense fear kicked in, it's a classic physiological flight response, blood flows from the extremities to the legs so you're ready to run, your hands get cold first"

"a gestural retreat, his step backwards, means he doesn't believe a word he just said, he's lying"

"his speech was hurried, and he brought that basketball to his chest, creating a barrier between us, those are both signs of anxiety"

"the rape was unplanned, one time, with no additional violence, that suggests a power assertive rapist, somebody who is obsessed with masculinity, who needs others to see him as a man, if sergeant Scott fit the profile, he would have reacted to my overture with one emotion: disgust....."

"eye brows up, jaw down, he showed no deception leakage, no sign of lying"

"a man charged with rape is even more likely to be angry if he's innocent"

"Sheila Lake made two mouth shrugs when she was describing the rape, that's a classic gestural slip, it means she has no confidence in her words, the woman was lying"

"Lake's also not exhibiting any of the emotions a rape victim typically displays when recounting her story, no shame, no fear, we should be seeing a lot of activity in the forehead.... emotional numbing might explain her inability to express her feelings, but not the mouth shrug"

"people touch it (the neck) when they lie, it's a classic manipulator"

"when women listen to a rape victim they believe, they reflect certain emotions: they blush, avert their eyes, hunch their shoulders."

to be continued...

after a thought, I think these stuffs would not be help in animating, but it's fine, these information should become sth. useful, which could extend my knowledge, after all, they do interest me a lot, and I'll keep on collecting, then post here, hope you enjoy it!

have a nice weekend!

new skinning features

hey guys, this is the official presentation for the latest skinning features of Maya 2011. in my opinion, it's good but not a significant  improvement, and I didn't apply these new features into my current production workflow, I think I would perform these in the near future, then I would like to share my experience here.

something cool from "lie to me" (part 01)

hey guys, I'm watching "lie to me" currently, and I found sth. interesting, and thought it might be helpful for animating, so I'd like to collect them here, and I'll keep updating these, so...hope you enjoy them!

"statistically speaking, the average person tells three lies per ten minutes' conversation."

"classic one-sided shrug, translation: I've absolutely no confidence of what I just said. the body contradicts the words --lying!"

"real surprise: lasts for less than a second when it comes across your face, if he is surprised for more than a second, he's faking it --lying!"

"concealed scorn, you see this microexpression in your spouse's face, your marriage is coming to an end"

"he broke eye contact in order to remember and answer truthfully, he never broke eye contact, he wasn't recalling a memory, he was lying"

"to make more eye contact, he need to watch, see if you believe their lies"

"rigid repetition like that is typical of a lie"

"you smile at your colleague, flash her a glance, then shift your gaze, she responded by raising her chin boss revealing deep embarrassment, you two had a fling"

"keep your fingers off your nose, men have erectile tissue there, itches when they're hiding sth."

"that's fantastic, classic gestural slip, got the slightest head nod "yes" before you shook your head "no" "

to be continued......

personality, an awesome ingredient in animation

hey guys! I want to discuss about the personality here. 

"for a character to be that real, it must have a personality, and , preferably, an interesting one. 

it is easy to see how the development of an individual personality in a story situation can make even the dullest action become entertaining. in addition to the personality, however, there should be a change in the initial action that will enable an animator to show more than one side of this personality.

our true personalities are best revealed by our reactions to a change we did not expect."

above words are quoted from The Illusion of Life.

  

in my perspective, everything should have a personality in an animation world. we usually watch a common scenario in many animations: even a furniture would like to express its attitude to the character; for example, a door would express its angry to the Donald Duck who didn't treat it politely. (it sounds funny, right? Yeah! this is the fascination of animation!)

personality influences many aspects, such as the character's shape/appearance, costume design, what 's more,  character's anticipations, secondary actions would reflect her/his personality.it's hard to create such a character with a strong/distinct personality, but I think there's an interesting way to explore how to do it: observation! (wow! animation is not easy, but it's definitely interesting!)

when animating, we need to understand the personality of the character, then we would get the "specific rule of action" for the character, and we would know the direction of her/his action.

without personality, that's a disaster!   

happy animating!

why animation ?

"man always has had a compelling urge to make representations of the thing he sees in the world around him. for some presumptuous reason, man feels the need to create something of his own that appears to be living, that has an inner strength, a vitality, a separate identity-something that speaks out with authority--a creation that gives the illusion of life.

but none can do more than suggest what happened just before, or what will happen after that particular moment has passed. yet, through all the centuries, artists continued to search for a medium of expression that would permit them to capture that elusive spark of life, and in the late 1800s new inventions seemed at last to make this possible.

this new art of animation had the power to make the audience actually feel the emotions of a cartoon figure."

above words are quoted from The Illusion of Life.

I read this magic book today and got lots of inspirations, the way drive me to become a successful animator is not a easy way,  my loyalty and dedication would keep me making sacrifices through days of uncertainty, and I should be more interested in keeping animation alive than I was in making money.

there are constant battles, many defeats, endless disappointments, but just keep learning, I will surely discover new dimensions to delight and entertain the world.

happy animating!

welcome

hey guys, welcome to aniNode! what's aniNode? well, it's the abbreviated name of animation node. computer animators should be familiar with "node", so I would like to assign the same meaning as it is a term of maya.  

I figured out this name by a sudden inspiration when I was reading a book about mel scripting, and I thought it would be a nice name for my blog, therefor, I launched this aniNode. 

I'd like to present my perspective for animation, some useful tips and tricks for animating, my unique ideas for rigging and mel scripting..... plus lots of interesting things here, I hope most of these stuffs would inspire you.

finally, please feel free to let me know your comments, thank you! 

cheers!

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