your animation tips videos for really inspiring useful to me please keep it up.
Thank you, Prakash!
Hi Ken,
Since your method sounds nice and organized I am trying it out on my first test scene but I still have a couple of questions.
You have a Face sub set inside another Face sub set. Why do you do that?
In the first blocking/posing phase you have the tangents set to Linear, so the playback appears as an 2D `pose test`, that`s logical. So when you start the Spline phase do you change the tangent option to Plateau or something? Or do you keep the Linear and use the `tween machine` to create slow in’s and slow out’s?
Finally with this workflow that you use doesn’t it oblige you to work very….how to say it….step by step. I mean, in the spline stage you have to ‘remember’ what set you have selected and only do breakdowns or tweak that set. For example, if I was making a breakdown of the left arm (left arm sub set selected) and I noticed I wanted to change something on the right arm I would have to remember to change to the right arm sub set| right? When you get into the ‘heat of the moment’ tweaking and creating breakdowns where you are moving multiple elements of the body on each breakdown, the idea of having to stop and change the sub set for each part of the body you want to tweak. Maybe you could explain that first breakdown/spline stage. For example, do you first ‘breakdown’ and work on the Torso sub set for the whole animation then go back and work on the arms then finally the Face and Mouth.
Thanks for your help….
All the best,
Chris
Hi Chris! Sorry for the delayed reply. You’re correct that this technique does require me to be in the proper set while making big timing edits, but as I get deeper in to spline polishing I tend to disregard the sets and work a little more free form. It really just helps me while blocking my performance (with one ALL set to easily see and move red markers on the timeline) and then go from stepped to spline (using subsets to get the first phase of offsetting of the overlap and timing). I do work in stepped exclusively while blocking, key everything on every new pose, and use tween machine to create breakdowns. Then I nail down my holds and convert to splines (“auto tangent”) This approach (using tween machine) works really well with character subsets to get quick and easy overlap and “lead and follow” in my breakdowns by simply using the sliders to favor previous or next poses in individual body parts. But once I get in to the “heat of the moment” I begin to ween myself off of the characters sets and work more organically and on a curve by curve basis. In that “heat of the moment” polishing I do begin with the torso, getting all of the force and weight right. I make sure the feet and legs look like they are driving that torso if that is necessary. Then I work on arms and hands. Then I spend time polishing the splines in the face. I do keep a separate “mouth” set active all the way until the end so I can keep a clean focus on the curves I need when I do my lip-synch pass – which I always save for last. This is all a bit confusing in writing, I know. I may do a follow-up video and get a bit more specific with regard to my step by step workflow using these tools. Glad it is a little helpful for you though, man!
Ken, you could do some video on how to clean the curves. Sometimes when a bone has rotation, translation, etc. is difficult to get the right approach. Some trick?
That’s a good idea. And it wouldn’t have to be to long, either. I’ll put that to the top of the list. I have a couple more planned for the coming weeks. I’ll try to squeeze that in too. Thanks!
Great video! Makes so much sense, and will really help my next scene 😉
Excellent! Thanks man. Glad to know it helps 🙂
Yes, Thank you so much Ken. 🙂 🙂
Hi ken, Hope you are doing well. How can you added new controls to existing subcharacter set, i tried to do it, but i can able to achieve only for Character set, not for subcharacter set. How did u create a dropdown menu for Face subcharacter set, could you please explain me. Thank you.
Hi! Yeah, it’s a little bit tricky.
To add controls to a sub-character set you need to make sure the sub-character set is active in the little character set menu to the right of the timeline.
Then, you choose the control you want to add and select the attributes you want to include from it in the channel box (like TranslateX, TranslateY, etc.) You need to be sure to select these, or it will give you an error saying there are no channels selected to add.
Those newly added control attributes should now be yellow in the channel box – that’s how you know you were successful.
To create a sub-menu in your sub-character set, you will basically add a sub-character set to your sub-character set (confusing, I know). With the sub-character set active in the character set menu (like “FACE”), select the controls you would like to move in to a new sub-set (like maybe just the mouth controls). Choose Create Sub-Character Set from the Character menu, and give it a new name (like “MOUTH”). And now you should have a drop-down menu coming from your sub-character set.
Make sense?
Thanks Ken, for another awesome tips. 🙂 🙂
You are welcome! 🙂
Mr. Fountain…you amaze me once again with this quick vid! Brilliant stuff! I find it funny that just the other day, I was thinking about watching my reference in very slow motion to pull out great posing choices and this video takes that idea to a whole…’notha….level!! Thanks bud.
Right on! I like the slow-mo technique too for analyzing the mechanics. But this method really helps me isolate and simplify the story. Glad it helps, man!
Thanks for the update Ken. You have been very busy and continue to be so. I’m excited to have purchased your tutorials and look forward to a new one. Just a quick question. Do you have any opinions on using motion capture technology to create animation? I haven’t used it, but I’ve seen the folks at Dreamworks putting it to use. It could be a good tool to create your main poses and tweak from there. What are your thoughts?
Hey! I’ve never worked with motion capture before either. I know a lot of the “behind the scenes” DW footage shows a heavy reliance on motion capture for the animation, but it is a bit exaggerated. They kind of just show off that stuff to visiting dignitaries and press because it’s cool new fun technology. While they use it for pre-vis and layout, the animators are still working in keyframe animation.
What I think is useful, is the way it can help an animator see the basic physics behind the movement they will be interpreting. It’s like a step beyond video reference, and one more chance for in-depth study of your subject. In fact, I’ve heard from friends in the VFX world that mo-cap really helps them hone their mechanics in such a good way. But, in my opinion, real life movement is boring 😉 An animator’s job is to caricature and tell a strong story. Too much real life “noise” can sometimes cloud an otherwise good narrative. So, in my world, I like to consider stuff life that a good learning tool, not so much a means to an end.
I also hear tweaking mo-cap curves is a pain in the butt. I am sure the technology is getting exponentially cleaner by the day, so it could become a good key pose tool in the future. But nothing compares to artist interpretation, in my humble opinion.
Cartoons forever!!! 🙂
thanks ken ,
Great stuff Ken, love you put that many examples.
And I think you’re probably right, people in general are drifting to a more serious and subtle stuff nowadays, specially in reels ( me included I’m afraid).
Thanks for the heads up! Looking forward to that podcast 😀
wow !!!!! loved it .. thanks a lot KEN .. i am a student and i was a little stuck with my project . this article opened many doors …. fantastic timing .. thank you :))
Excellent! Glad it was helpful 🙂
Fantastic! Thanks Ken, really enjoyed reading that and it makes a lot of sense.
Thanks Bryn! Good to know my ramblings can be occasionally cohesive 😉
That’s a very nice topic. Thanks 🙂
Thanks A Ton Ken! I follow your blog like a honey bee. Its so inspiring and giving us the confidence that anybody can do it. 🙂
Thanks a lot Ken! That actually makes a lot of sense!
There are times I find myself playing with my thumbnails or with my character in Maya, looking for the way to push the expressions further , going from good to great. But sometimes I’m not quite sure what I’m searching for until I accidentally get it. Sure this technique will help me to find more genuine expressions since the beginning ;).
Looking forward to your next post!!
Dang it Ken…this is an absolutely brilliant example on eyes, which can be difficult for me to express real emotion in drawings and animation. You’ve knocked it out of the park with this one and maybe you should patent the avocado example!
Thanks man! Actually kind of fun to get that idea out 🙂
Wow! This is a great analogy/explanation of how simplicity in the eye can communicate a whole range of feelings without using a myriad of S curves. As usual, Ken, you rock. Unfortunately, I haven’t have a chance to take one of your classes, but I will certainly will.
cheers!
Thanks Marcos! Hope to see you in there soon 🙂
Thank you for the tutorial videos, I just bought three of them and I am going to watch them after downloading.
It’s so good to know this website.
Look forward to upcoming tutorial. 😀
of course i’m nowhere as experienced as you, but the approach i have i believe is pretty much the same, wich reassures that i could be good at some point!
great posts… 😀
Thanks for the podcast Ken. I’ll definitely put those beats counting in practice. I think it’s very interesting and funny to play with that moment after the “normal” beats have happened and the audience is waiting for something to happen.. but it’s not quite happening.
I really love to watch theater plays, specially the comedy ones, just to focus on the timing of the actors. Think is a great source for inspiration, not only for acting, but for comedy timing as well.
Cheers man,
Martin
Theater is great, because you get to watch an actor decide what to do for that exact moment for that specific audience. I agree, great inspiration!
Great stuff Ken…thanks for sharing
Thanks JP! And thanks for the link! 🙂
Wow!, that’s gold Ken!
I think I handle better spacing than timing. I usually get a correct timing but I kind of feel it could be much better. After reading your post it made rethink the shot I’m animating at home and try to push it and make it funnier.
Never made that difference between types of timings but it makes perfectly sense.
“Your audience expectations” is something I’m going to think about it a lot from now on when animating humor 🙂
Keep up the good work, we really appreciate it.
I’m glad it was helpful, Martin! It’s a really fun exercise to make a list of all the possible options that can happen in a scene, then pick the one(s) that make me laugh the most. This really only is the tip of the iceberg. It’s like an animator’s form of improv. (and, I really wanted an excuse to animate a guy getting hit in the head by a big hammer.) 😉 Thanks man!
I would love to see how you derive giving your chars their personality. How their personality makes any difference in a different context, etc.
In short, more on developing the char from scratch. 😀
Cheers.
Bee
I don’t usually work with rigs that have the fk ik snap so i’ve got used to do it “eyeballing it”. And always changing from one mode to the other in one frame. I try to study which moment would be the best to do it so it doesn’t look weird in case i can’t match it with total accuracy.
But i definitely want to try those other methods! 🙂
Hey Ken,
Thanks a lot for that post, really appreciate.
I do feel frustrated and the shittiest animator ever quite often at work. Working in TV is already stressful enough to even get late changes just because there’s no agreement between animation director and director. But the fact of knowing that top animators like you share the same feeling, somehow it’s soothing
Thanks 🙂
Awesome info Ken!
I agree with Bonny, timing would be amazing to get a better grasp on, just a breakdown of how you do timing i.e. being surprised, a stare, etc.
Great tip Ken!!
Thanks for taking time to share this. Any chance we can get process on dealing with timing?
Keep it up!
Thanks Bonny! Yep, I’ll put that one on the list. Nice 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing this Ken.
What works for me is having a solid idea of what I want from the shot. If I know what poses I’m going to have in the shot, how the mechanics is going to be, where the spacing is slow, where it’s snappy, the arc… all these little details laid out in front of me… I could just go in and animate not having to think too much “conceptually”.
I know it’s basic. But many times I’ll forget to get a good idea of how at least one of these elements (spacing of an extremity maybe?) work, and that slows me down big time when I’m polishing.
Thanks for starting the podcast .. 🙂
If you are still taking suggestion for podcast topics..
A while ago Fardinad at AnimatorIsland started this really brilliant series about eyes. I had few questions about eyes .. so here I am re- posting those again .. Hope to see some of them to make it as podcast topic..
I know most of these questions can be answered only through visual media.. but I still think its worth the shot.. so here I go… 🙂 🙂
I have just started doing acting assignments and first part that I have to learn is to animate eyes meaningfuly
In my quest of learning acting in animation, I am in pursuit of the answers for the following questions since past few weeks
1. How do you plan eyes, I mean I usually I have decent idea about what’s going to happen since I prepare rough pencil test first,
My question is,
What do you exactly look for in video reference regarding eyes?
What’s your usual process?
What are the most common or basic things you look for in eyes (eye movements)
2) there’s this really great article by Shawn Kelly “Blinks Have a meaning”
I would love to see your take on blinks..
Your usual thinking process about blinks
3) Eye movements usually could be strong narrative beats or sometimes connecting tissue between dramatic blocks
I usually see in badly animated movies, the mechanical blinks and unintentional eye movements which ignore subtexts or actual words completely
How do you plan/ animate eye movements with respect to head and entire body motion ?
How to deal with subtext and narrative beats while planning and animating eyes ?
How to enhance the essence of that particular moment without making eye animation too much distracting from entire performance?
4) I love Dexter series, and Michael C. Hall is an amazing actor.
He has this incredible control over blinks, eye movements which amplifies the emotions and subtexts in the scenes at times he doesn’t even blink, its so brilliant
Do you have any reccommendations for eyes?
Or some specific scenes
& what should we be studying – looking while watching talented actors eyes
What are the things we should note down?
5) there this awesome scene in movie Bolt, where Bolt runs towards Penny but then realizes(thinks) he has been replaced.. he stops
His reactions, the eyes, the one slower blink.. its so perfect …amazing acting performance
How do you bring that finess – awesomeness in scene, with eyes and blinks?
What must be done right in these delicate scenes?
6) what are 3 foundational things one must do while planning eyes and why?
7) what’s the ultimate goal of eye animation or eye movements in a scene?
Of course it will mean different in differnet scenes and in different context
But what’s ultimate goal we should have for eyes in general?
our goals for eyes in body mechanics scenes?
our goals for eyes in pantomime?
our goals for acting scenes?
8) what are 4 most frequent things you see in eyes in badly animated acting scenes?
9) Usually big eyes are preferred for more expressiveness in eyes,
But what are the things you must do when you have to animate character like Rango who has tiny eyes & pupils?
10) How do you explain the relationship between eye brows – eyes – cheeks
What are the ways to animate them together meaningfully as a whole unit
11) do you have any tips while animating using the area between upper eyelids – brows?
12) I would love to see/ read about your thinking process for any of your shot where character is talking
How you planned your eyes? What you got from reference? How you amplified it?
How do you make clever choices?
What questions you consistently ask while animating eyes?
13) What are things that need to be considered while animating a character where the subtext is different than actual words ( for ex. Lying)
14) while animating animals what things need to be considered as there’s huge distance between eyes and mouth or it doesn’t make any difference whatsoever
15) how to deal with challenge of animal or bird eyes when they are far apart or on completely different sides?
16) I don’t remember exactly that it was Ken Duncan or Glen Keane but
One of them mentioned that sometimes with eyes,
Doing less is more…
There are some really impressive scenes in Tangled where characters are only breathing
How to sieze that opportunity of doing less is more?
What caution should be taken while doing that?
How to define that line between over animating eyes and expressive eyes?
Wow… its like more well thought out version of layered approach…
For speed animating
I think Pencil tests in planning, save so much time in CG, as you can scribble different versions, sometimes combine decisions and we are not at all robust to change and suggestion at that stage..experimenting with timing and poses so easy in it plus while going in CG we definitly know what are most important milestones and what has to be improved beforehand…
Another way to speed up .. I think Traditional Flash Animation approach …
Having rich libraries of facials and poses and hands..
With smart use shelf and shortcuts can improve speed faster…
For example having single shortcut button of playblast in shelf saves lot of time
Another thing that usually works is.. preparing pencil tests of 2 or 3 shots that are to be done…
Then switching between those shots at different stages in maya …
That way eye always remains fresh… and we don’t get stuck up in just one shot … working 3 different shots keeps creativity and brain on super awesome mode…
Because of pencil tests …we already know that the shots are going to work out in the end.. so no pressure of incomplete shots
Plus after you are done… 3 different shots get completed !!!
P.S. : I have always heard legends of Mark Henn as incredibly superfast ninja animator …
Does anyone have notes or talk or anything where he talked about how to produce those awesome results ??
…thanks in advance… 🙂
GREAT advice, Mahesh! It reminds me that I’m totally excited about the new grease pencil in Maya 2014. I plan on using that approach more often. Thanks for sharing man!
Oh, and Ted Ty is a good friend of Mark’s. I’ll have to ask him to share some stories. Dave Burgess at DW is crazy fast too. I hope to get him on a podcast interview in the future, so stay tuned 🙂
Thank you so much ..Podcast would be really great idea .. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Ken. Yeah it’s really tough to work like that.
The good part is that I’ve really learnt to value my poses. And specially the eye darts and blinks. The key is using them in the right moment so you get the maximum effect from them to keep your character alive. Good , clear and dynamic poses are essential as well.
And the best of all is that you get quicker animating, so when i want to animate something really polished at home i can try many possibilities knowing that i can re block pretty quick.
To resume, I think that having a tight schedule is a good training field.. but i can’t wait to try how it feels to work in features! 😛
Darts and blinks! They can do so much, yes – on a fast or slow schedule 🙂 Good reminder, Martin. Thanks!
Really great post Ken! I struggle with this a lot, trying to get this stuff out fast and also making it the best that I possibly can. I remember being told at AM that whenever you are working on a shot, pretend that you are making it for your demo reel. This is really hard when you are trying to get work done as fast as you possibly can and you know that the shot suffers for it
Awesome post thank you very much 😉
I remember in your attitudes and acting beats that you said impeccable spacing was one of the things that separates the best of the best apart from the rest of us, so I would LOVE a video just dedicated to spacing
I address that a lot in my classes right now, and it relates directly to the principles of weight and acceleration I mention in “Breakdowns.” Good one. Putting that on the list. Thanks Kelly!
haven’t gotten to breakdowns yet, but attitudes and acting beats is easily the best animation tutorial I have watched, so I am looking forward watching the two that follow it. Also, I attempted to leave a review on attitudes and acting beats but the review link is not working for me.
Oh no! I need to check that out, to see if its broken. Thanks for the heads up 🙂
I think I fixed it! (Damn plug-in conflicts!) 😉 So, if you’d like to leave a review you are free to go for it. Thanks for letting me know, Kelly. 🙂
Multiple character shot workflow? I saw Cesc’s work(wine tasting).Really amazing work!
I am considering a podcast on multiple characters giving and taking focus. Yep, that’s a good one. And yep, Cesc’s shot is brilliant, I agree 🙂
Really great stuff as always! I would like to see some tips on what you do if you have a very limited time to work on a shot. Working in games, we don’t have the luxury of as much time. Sometimes, we have to block out 4 or 5, 30 second shots in a day and we only get a few hours to complete each shot.
Finishing up an animation sprint right now, so I may have some fresh ideas on my mind. Good one! 🙂
Thanks to YOU! 🙂
And I’d love to see videos on timing and giving characters personality.
Timing! The idea of how to use muscle tension for comedy specifically would be good. Thanks Ruben!
Thanks for the awesome videos … Animating a Basic Acting Shot and attitudes & acting beats… soon i will buy part 2 and 3, can you please do videos on approaching cartoony pantomime….
Regards
Vj
Thanks for the awesome videos … Animating a Basic Acting Shot and attitudes & acting beats… soon i will buy part 2 and 3, can you please do videos on approaching cartoony pantomime….
Regards
Vj
I think I may want to do something on good use of smear frames. I’m putting this on the list! Thanks Vijay.
As always, wise words, Ken. And a very good read 🙂
Great article Ken. I really appreciate the time you take in developing your video tutorials. your lessons are clear and very well put together. they are also very affordable.
Keep up the fantastic work
Great article Ken! I agree completely. It can be addictive to just sit and watch those subtle nuances that everybody makes in their body language, or way they form a mouthshape. Do they talk from the side of their mouth? Do they barely open their mouth to speak etc. Very fun stuff. I look forward to your future blog posts. It is fun to peek inside other animator’s brains and see how they work.
Hi Ken Fountain,
your animation tips videos for really inspiring useful to me please keep it up.
Thank you, Prakash!
Hi Ken,
Since your method sounds nice and organized I am trying it out on my first test scene but I still have a couple of questions.
You have a Face sub set inside another Face sub set. Why do you do that?
In the first blocking/posing phase you have the tangents set to Linear, so the playback appears as an 2D `pose test`, that`s logical. So when you start the Spline phase do you change the tangent option to Plateau or something? Or do you keep the Linear and use the `tween machine` to create slow in’s and slow out’s?
Finally with this workflow that you use doesn’t it oblige you to work very….how to say it….step by step. I mean, in the spline stage you have to ‘remember’ what set you have selected and only do breakdowns or tweak that set. For example, if I was making a breakdown of the left arm (left arm sub set selected) and I noticed I wanted to change something on the right arm I would have to remember to change to the right arm sub set| right? When you get into the ‘heat of the moment’ tweaking and creating breakdowns where you are moving multiple elements of the body on each breakdown, the idea of having to stop and change the sub set for each part of the body you want to tweak. Maybe you could explain that first breakdown/spline stage. For example, do you first ‘breakdown’ and work on the Torso sub set for the whole animation then go back and work on the arms then finally the Face and Mouth.
Thanks for your help….
All the best,
Chris
Hi Chris! Sorry for the delayed reply. You’re correct that this technique does require me to be in the proper set while making big timing edits, but as I get deeper in to spline polishing I tend to disregard the sets and work a little more free form. It really just helps me while blocking my performance (with one ALL set to easily see and move red markers on the timeline) and then go from stepped to spline (using subsets to get the first phase of offsetting of the overlap and timing). I do work in stepped exclusively while blocking, key everything on every new pose, and use tween machine to create breakdowns. Then I nail down my holds and convert to splines (“auto tangent”) This approach (using tween machine) works really well with character subsets to get quick and easy overlap and “lead and follow” in my breakdowns by simply using the sliders to favor previous or next poses in individual body parts. But once I get in to the “heat of the moment” I begin to ween myself off of the characters sets and work more organically and on a curve by curve basis. In that “heat of the moment” polishing I do begin with the torso, getting all of the force and weight right. I make sure the feet and legs look like they are driving that torso if that is necessary. Then I work on arms and hands. Then I spend time polishing the splines in the face. I do keep a separate “mouth” set active all the way until the end so I can keep a clean focus on the curves I need when I do my lip-synch pass – which I always save for last. This is all a bit confusing in writing, I know. I may do a follow-up video and get a bit more specific with regard to my step by step workflow using these tools. Glad it is a little helpful for you though, man!
Ken, you could do some video on how to clean the curves. Sometimes when a bone has rotation, translation, etc. is difficult to get the right approach. Some trick?
That’s a good idea. And it wouldn’t have to be to long, either. I’ll put that to the top of the list. I have a couple more planned for the coming weeks. I’ll try to squeeze that in too. Thanks!
Great video! Makes so much sense, and will really help my next scene 😉
Excellent! Thanks man. Glad to know it helps 🙂
Yes, Thank you so much Ken. 🙂 🙂
Hi ken, Hope you are doing well. How can you added new controls to existing subcharacter set, i tried to do it, but i can able to achieve only for Character set, not for subcharacter set. How did u create a dropdown menu for Face subcharacter set, could you please explain me. Thank you.
Hi! Yeah, it’s a little bit tricky.
To add controls to a sub-character set you need to make sure the sub-character set is active in the little character set menu to the right of the timeline.
Then, you choose the control you want to add and select the attributes you want to include from it in the channel box (like TranslateX, TranslateY, etc.) You need to be sure to select these, or it will give you an error saying there are no channels selected to add.
Those newly added control attributes should now be yellow in the channel box – that’s how you know you were successful.
To create a sub-menu in your sub-character set, you will basically add a sub-character set to your sub-character set (confusing, I know). With the sub-character set active in the character set menu (like “FACE”), select the controls you would like to move in to a new sub-set (like maybe just the mouth controls). Choose Create Sub-Character Set from the Character menu, and give it a new name (like “MOUTH”). And now you should have a drop-down menu coming from your sub-character set.
Make sense?
Thanks Ken, for another awesome tips. 🙂 🙂
You are welcome! 🙂
Mr. Fountain…you amaze me once again with this quick vid! Brilliant stuff! I find it funny that just the other day, I was thinking about watching my reference in very slow motion to pull out great posing choices and this video takes that idea to a whole…’notha….level!! Thanks bud.
Right on! I like the slow-mo technique too for analyzing the mechanics. But this method really helps me isolate and simplify the story. Glad it helps, man!
Thanks for the update Ken. You have been very busy and continue to be so. I’m excited to have purchased your tutorials and look forward to a new one. Just a quick question. Do you have any opinions on using motion capture technology to create animation? I haven’t used it, but I’ve seen the folks at Dreamworks putting it to use. It could be a good tool to create your main poses and tweak from there. What are your thoughts?
Hey! I’ve never worked with motion capture before either. I know a lot of the “behind the scenes” DW footage shows a heavy reliance on motion capture for the animation, but it is a bit exaggerated. They kind of just show off that stuff to visiting dignitaries and press because it’s cool new fun technology. While they use it for pre-vis and layout, the animators are still working in keyframe animation.
What I think is useful, is the way it can help an animator see the basic physics behind the movement they will be interpreting. It’s like a step beyond video reference, and one more chance for in-depth study of your subject. In fact, I’ve heard from friends in the VFX world that mo-cap really helps them hone their mechanics in such a good way. But, in my opinion, real life movement is boring 😉 An animator’s job is to caricature and tell a strong story. Too much real life “noise” can sometimes cloud an otherwise good narrative. So, in my world, I like to consider stuff life that a good learning tool, not so much a means to an end.
I also hear tweaking mo-cap curves is a pain in the butt. I am sure the technology is getting exponentially cleaner by the day, so it could become a good key pose tool in the future. But nothing compares to artist interpretation, in my humble opinion.
Cartoons forever!!! 🙂
thanks ken ,
Great stuff Ken, love you put that many examples.
And I think you’re probably right, people in general are drifting to a more serious and subtle stuff nowadays, specially in reels ( me included I’m afraid).
Thanks for the heads up! Looking forward to that podcast 😀
wow !!!!! loved it .. thanks a lot KEN .. i am a student and i was a little stuck with my project . this article opened many doors …. fantastic timing .. thank you :))
Excellent! Glad it was helpful 🙂
Fantastic! Thanks Ken, really enjoyed reading that and it makes a lot of sense.
Thanks Bryn! Good to know my ramblings can be occasionally cohesive 😉
That’s a very nice topic. Thanks 🙂
Thanks A Ton Ken! I follow your blog like a honey bee. Its so inspiring and giving us the confidence that anybody can do it. 🙂
Thanks a lot Ken! That actually makes a lot of sense!
There are times I find myself playing with my thumbnails or with my character in Maya, looking for the way to push the expressions further , going from good to great. But sometimes I’m not quite sure what I’m searching for until I accidentally get it. Sure this technique will help me to find more genuine expressions since the beginning ;).
Looking forward to your next post!!
Dang it Ken…this is an absolutely brilliant example on eyes, which can be difficult for me to express real emotion in drawings and animation. You’ve knocked it out of the park with this one and maybe you should patent the avocado example!
Thanks man! Actually kind of fun to get that idea out 🙂
Wow! This is a great analogy/explanation of how simplicity in the eye can communicate a whole range of feelings without using a myriad of S curves. As usual, Ken, you rock. Unfortunately, I haven’t have a chance to take one of your classes, but I will certainly will.
cheers!
Thanks Marcos! Hope to see you in there soon 🙂
Thank you for the tutorial videos, I just bought three of them and I am going to watch them after downloading.
It’s so good to know this website.
Look forward to upcoming tutorial. 😀
of course i’m nowhere as experienced as you, but the approach i have i believe is pretty much the same, wich reassures that i could be good at some point!
great posts… 😀
Thanks for the podcast Ken. I’ll definitely put those beats counting in practice. I think it’s very interesting and funny to play with that moment after the “normal” beats have happened and the audience is waiting for something to happen.. but it’s not quite happening.
I really love to watch theater plays, specially the comedy ones, just to focus on the timing of the actors. Think is a great source for inspiration, not only for acting, but for comedy timing as well.
Cheers man,
Martin
Theater is great, because you get to watch an actor decide what to do for that exact moment for that specific audience. I agree, great inspiration!
Great stuff Ken…thanks for sharing
Thanks JP! And thanks for the link! 🙂
Wow!, that’s gold Ken!
I think I handle better spacing than timing. I usually get a correct timing but I kind of feel it could be much better. After reading your post it made rethink the shot I’m animating at home and try to push it and make it funnier.
Never made that difference between types of timings but it makes perfectly sense.
“Your audience expectations” is something I’m going to think about it a lot from now on when animating humor 🙂
Keep up the good work, we really appreciate it.
I’m glad it was helpful, Martin! It’s a really fun exercise to make a list of all the possible options that can happen in a scene, then pick the one(s) that make me laugh the most. This really only is the tip of the iceberg. It’s like an animator’s form of improv. (and, I really wanted an excuse to animate a guy getting hit in the head by a big hammer.) 😉 Thanks man!
I would love to see how you derive giving your chars their personality. How their personality makes any difference in a different context, etc.
In short, more on developing the char from scratch. 😀
Cheers.
Bee
I like – keep it coming sir.
Thanks for sharing Ken, that was a good one.
I don’t usually work with rigs that have the fk ik snap so i’ve got used to do it “eyeballing it”. And always changing from one mode to the other in one frame. I try to study which moment would be the best to do it so it doesn’t look weird in case i can’t match it with total accuracy.
But i definitely want to try those other methods! 🙂
Hey Ken,
Thanks a lot for that post, really appreciate.
I do feel frustrated and the shittiest animator ever quite often at work. Working in TV is already stressful enough to even get late changes just because there’s no agreement between animation director and director. But the fact of knowing that top animators like you share the same feeling, somehow it’s soothing
Thanks 🙂
Awesome info Ken!
I agree with Bonny, timing would be amazing to get a better grasp on, just a breakdown of how you do timing i.e. being surprised, a stare, etc.
Great tip Ken!!
Thanks for taking time to share this. Any chance we can get process on dealing with timing?
Keep it up!
Thanks Bonny! Yep, I’ll put that one on the list. Nice 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing this Ken.
What works for me is having a solid idea of what I want from the shot. If I know what poses I’m going to have in the shot, how the mechanics is going to be, where the spacing is slow, where it’s snappy, the arc… all these little details laid out in front of me… I could just go in and animate not having to think too much “conceptually”.
I know it’s basic. But many times I’ll forget to get a good idea of how at least one of these elements (spacing of an extremity maybe?) work, and that slows me down big time when I’m polishing.
Thanks for starting the podcast .. 🙂
If you are still taking suggestion for podcast topics..
A while ago Fardinad at AnimatorIsland started this really brilliant series about eyes. I had few questions about eyes .. so here I am re- posting those again .. Hope to see some of them to make it as podcast topic..
I know most of these questions can be answered only through visual media.. but I still think its worth the shot.. so here I go… 🙂 🙂
I have just started doing acting assignments and first part that I have to learn is to animate eyes meaningfuly
In my quest of learning acting in animation, I am in pursuit of the answers for the following questions since past few weeks
1. How do you plan eyes, I mean I usually I have decent idea about what’s going to happen since I prepare rough pencil test first,
My question is,
What do you exactly look for in video reference regarding eyes?
What’s your usual process?
What are the most common or basic things you look for in eyes (eye movements)
2) there’s this really great article by Shawn Kelly “Blinks Have a meaning”
I would love to see your take on blinks..
Your usual thinking process about blinks
3) Eye movements usually could be strong narrative beats or sometimes connecting tissue between dramatic blocks
I usually see in badly animated movies, the mechanical blinks and unintentional eye movements which ignore subtexts or actual words completely
How do you plan/ animate eye movements with respect to head and entire body motion ?
How to deal with subtext and narrative beats while planning and animating eyes ?
How to enhance the essence of that particular moment without making eye animation too much distracting from entire performance?
4) I love Dexter series, and Michael C. Hall is an amazing actor.
He has this incredible control over blinks, eye movements which amplifies the emotions and subtexts in the scenes at times he doesn’t even blink, its so brilliant
Do you have any reccommendations for eyes?
Or some specific scenes
& what should we be studying – looking while watching talented actors eyes
What are the things we should note down?
5) there this awesome scene in movie Bolt, where Bolt runs towards Penny but then realizes(thinks) he has been replaced.. he stops
His reactions, the eyes, the one slower blink.. its so perfect …amazing acting performance
How do you bring that finess – awesomeness in scene, with eyes and blinks?
What must be done right in these delicate scenes?
6) what are 3 foundational things one must do while planning eyes and why?
7) what’s the ultimate goal of eye animation or eye movements in a scene?
Of course it will mean different in differnet scenes and in different context
But what’s ultimate goal we should have for eyes in general?
our goals for eyes in body mechanics scenes?
our goals for eyes in pantomime?
our goals for acting scenes?
8) what are 4 most frequent things you see in eyes in badly animated acting scenes?
9) Usually big eyes are preferred for more expressiveness in eyes,
But what are the things you must do when you have to animate character like Rango who has tiny eyes & pupils?
10) How do you explain the relationship between eye brows – eyes – cheeks
What are the ways to animate them together meaningfully as a whole unit
11) do you have any tips while animating using the area between upper eyelids – brows?
12) I would love to see/ read about your thinking process for any of your shot where character is talking
How you planned your eyes? What you got from reference? How you amplified it?
How do you make clever choices?
What questions you consistently ask while animating eyes?
13) What are things that need to be considered while animating a character where the subtext is different than actual words ( for ex. Lying)
14) while animating animals what things need to be considered as there’s huge distance between eyes and mouth or it doesn’t make any difference whatsoever
15) how to deal with challenge of animal or bird eyes when they are far apart or on completely different sides?
16) I don’t remember exactly that it was Ken Duncan or Glen Keane but
One of them mentioned that sometimes with eyes,
Doing less is more…
There are some really impressive scenes in Tangled where characters are only breathing
How to sieze that opportunity of doing less is more?
What caution should be taken while doing that?
How to define that line between over animating eyes and expressive eyes?
Wow… its like more well thought out version of layered approach…
For speed animating
I think Pencil tests in planning, save so much time in CG, as you can scribble different versions, sometimes combine decisions and we are not at all robust to change and suggestion at that stage..experimenting with timing and poses so easy in it plus while going in CG we definitly know what are most important milestones and what has to be improved beforehand…
Another way to speed up .. I think Traditional Flash Animation approach …
Having rich libraries of facials and poses and hands..
With smart use shelf and shortcuts can improve speed faster…
For example having single shortcut button of playblast in shelf saves lot of time
Another thing that usually works is.. preparing pencil tests of 2 or 3 shots that are to be done…
Then switching between those shots at different stages in maya …
That way eye always remains fresh… and we don’t get stuck up in just one shot … working 3 different shots keeps creativity and brain on super awesome mode…
Because of pencil tests …we already know that the shots are going to work out in the end.. so no pressure of incomplete shots
Plus after you are done… 3 different shots get completed !!!
P.S. : I have always heard legends of Mark Henn as incredibly superfast ninja animator …
Does anyone have notes or talk or anything where he talked about how to produce those awesome results ??
…thanks in advance… 🙂
GREAT advice, Mahesh! It reminds me that I’m totally excited about the new grease pencil in Maya 2014. I plan on using that approach more often. Thanks for sharing man!
Oh, and Ted Ty is a good friend of Mark’s. I’ll have to ask him to share some stories. Dave Burgess at DW is crazy fast too. I hope to get him on a podcast interview in the future, so stay tuned 🙂
Thank you so much ..Podcast would be really great idea .. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Ken. Yeah it’s really tough to work like that.
The good part is that I’ve really learnt to value my poses. And specially the eye darts and blinks. The key is using them in the right moment so you get the maximum effect from them to keep your character alive. Good , clear and dynamic poses are essential as well.
And the best of all is that you get quicker animating, so when i want to animate something really polished at home i can try many possibilities knowing that i can re block pretty quick.
To resume, I think that having a tight schedule is a good training field.. but i can’t wait to try how it feels to work in features! 😛
Darts and blinks! They can do so much, yes – on a fast or slow schedule 🙂 Good reminder, Martin. Thanks!
Really great post Ken! I struggle with this a lot, trying to get this stuff out fast and also making it the best that I possibly can. I remember being told at AM that whenever you are working on a shot, pretend that you are making it for your demo reel. This is really hard when you are trying to get work done as fast as you possibly can and you know that the shot suffers for it
Awesome post thank you very much 😉
I remember in your attitudes and acting beats that you said impeccable spacing was one of the things that separates the best of the best apart from the rest of us, so I would LOVE a video just dedicated to spacing
I address that a lot in my classes right now, and it relates directly to the principles of weight and acceleration I mention in “Breakdowns.” Good one. Putting that on the list. Thanks Kelly!
haven’t gotten to breakdowns yet, but attitudes and acting beats is easily the best animation tutorial I have watched, so I am looking forward watching the two that follow it. Also, I attempted to leave a review on attitudes and acting beats but the review link is not working for me.
Oh no! I need to check that out, to see if its broken. Thanks for the heads up 🙂
I think I fixed it! (Damn plug-in conflicts!) 😉 So, if you’d like to leave a review you are free to go for it. Thanks for letting me know, Kelly. 🙂
Multiple character shot workflow? I saw Cesc’s work(wine tasting).Really amazing work!
I am considering a podcast on multiple characters giving and taking focus. Yep, that’s a good one. And yep, Cesc’s shot is brilliant, I agree 🙂
Really great stuff as always! I would like to see some tips on what you do if you have a very limited time to work on a shot. Working in games, we don’t have the luxury of as much time. Sometimes, we have to block out 4 or 5, 30 second shots in a day and we only get a few hours to complete each shot.
Finishing up an animation sprint right now, so I may have some fresh ideas on my mind. Good one! 🙂
Thanks to YOU! 🙂
And I’d love to see videos on timing and giving characters personality.
Timing! The idea of how to use muscle tension for comedy specifically would be good. Thanks Ruben!
Thanks for the awesome videos … Animating a Basic Acting Shot and attitudes & acting beats… soon i will buy part 2 and 3, can you please do videos on approaching cartoony pantomime….
Regards
Vj
Thanks for the awesome videos … Animating a Basic Acting Shot and attitudes & acting beats… soon i will buy part 2 and 3, can you please do videos on approaching cartoony pantomime….
Regards
Vj
I think I may want to do something on good use of smear frames. I’m putting this on the list! Thanks Vijay.
As always, wise words, Ken. And a very good read 🙂
Great article Ken. I really appreciate the time you take in developing your video tutorials. your lessons are clear and very well put together. they are also very affordable.
Keep up the fantastic work
Great article Ken! I agree completely. It can be addictive to just sit and watch those subtle nuances that everybody makes in their body language, or way they form a mouthshape. Do they talk from the side of their mouth? Do they barely open their mouth to speak etc. Very fun stuff. I look forward to your future blog posts. It is fun to peek inside other animator’s brains and see how they work.
Thanks, Mike!