Two Sites! One Emotion! One Contest!

 

Do you know? Have you heard? I have teamed up with my friends over at SplineBomb.com to sponsor an animation contest we think is pretty unique, and we’re pretty excited about it.

I was super flattered to have been asked, and so happy to offer my videos and my time to make this a really fun and worthwhile effort for the big community of animators out there. As you may have read, the winner will receive all 3 of my “Attitudes and Acting Beats” tutorial videos for FREE, as well as a live critique for any single shot of your choice. The second and third place winners will receive 1 of the “Attitudes and Acting Beats” videos of their choice for FREE.

Here’s the details:

 

Animate an Emotion!

Animate a character in one specific emotional state.

They could be building to this state or coming down from it, but the main “point” of the shot should be to express the one emotion.

• The emotion of choice for this first contest is ‘Panicked’.
• Your shot should be no longer than 6 seconds (144 frames).
• Your shot should contain only one character of your choice.
• Shot dimensions to be 640×480 pixels.
• No music or audio should be added to the shots
• Any animation type/medium is accepted
• Fancy lighting and rendering not required. Just great animation!!!

The Deadline: 31st July, 2013

Submit a QuickTime movie file no larger than 4M to SplineBomb@gmail.com with the subject ‘Panicked Comp‘

Name your file as follows: ‘Name_Surname_PanickedComp.mov

 

Can it really be that simple? Yes! It can! What this does is really give you the chance to focus on specific body language, very detailed facial nuances, and flex your imagination as you come up with your own subtext and context for your animation.

Should you send an explanation about why or what your character is feeling panic about? No. Your shot should stand on it’s own, and simply make your audience know instantly what the emotion is and fully believe that the emotion is real. What they are reacting to is irrelevant.

Does this mean you have to design a big set with props and secondary characters and crazy FX and whatnot? No, you should be able to get the emotion across with your one character alone in the scene. Consider placing the camera a little closer too – it may help the audience see your character’s face better and really “feel” what is happening.

I really feel this is a great exercise for any animator of any level. If you can communicate clearly with pantomime only, your shots will end up looking and feeling that much better when included in a big fancy feature film quality production 🙂

So, head on over to SplineBomb and get to know them while you get your shot ready to send over. They’ve always got a boatload of inspiration for you to feed on as you create your masterpiece!

Good Luck!

 

/ken