Striving to be Original

I recently received an email from animator named Adam king, who showed me his work and asked my opinion on how to improve? It's a tricky question. Adam is not new to animation, he has a lot of experience, has built up a solid grasp of the fundamental rules of animation and displays a real talent for physical action. So once these basics are learned, how do you progress to the next level? It's something I often wonder about myself and one thing I try to do is spend time reading blogs and animation websites, looking for inspiring work and hoping to come across a little gem of information that can help advance my own work. I stumbled across an interview with Brad Bird on the spline doctors site and he said something on this subject which really struck a chord with me, he's talking about what separates good animation from great animation.

Brad Bird interview can be found here

around 33.33

"We tend to rely on the stock solutions to problems by cobbling together things we've seen [in animation before] there are animated features where I just know every little pattern that they're going to do before they do it ... and it's slick, but it is absolutely not felt, it is series of little clichés and you're not getting any insight into the character ... Observe the things around you, observe the people around you, what kind of character is this, is this an arrogant character, is this a insecure character, how does insecurity manifest in movement?"


Classic 'W' pose.

I know that my own work suffers from this, when I look back at some of my older work I can now see it's riddled with clichés. The first CG acting test I did with the Pixie from the second Harry Potter Movie is an example, the animation isn't great but also I can now clearly see that much of the acting was borrowed from other stuff I'd seen - the shaking head, the hand flurry, the twining 'W' arm positions, the blinks, and expression changes - Some of it intentionally so, some of it not.

Pixie Test


The trouble is it's sometimes fun to animate clichés, after all we're fans of animation, that's why we got into it, and so when we start out we want to copy the things we've seen done in the medium. Also we know these ideas will work, so when staring at a blank screen it's very tempting to do something we've seen before rather than to try and come up with something new. I also think it's subconscious, the brain has stored in it your favourite bits of animation and calls them up without your knowing. Eamon Butler, my animation supervisor at Double Negative once said to me "never go with your first idea".

When I'm first given a shot, often after hearing the soundtrack and seeing the pre-vis or storyboards, an initial idea will pop into my head. It would be easy to just do that, but I believe this is more likely to be an obvious clichéd idea or a copy of a similar animation I've seen - I have no factual basis for this theory by the way, it's pure speculation. But I think Eamonn was on to something, and I think it's good to never start to animate a shot without first exploring the possibilities of it, as this will lead to a better and more original work.



Adam sent me some of his work, and I'd like to talk about an exercise he created, shown above, which has a character running through a scene. The piece is well executed and for most part I really like the physics and posing of the character.



I especially appreciate that there is an attempt to create a thought process in the character too, even though it's predominantly a physical exercise and the character's face is rigid. The way he looks around after jumping down is a nice touch and really adds something to it.



However, there are a few points where I think he has perhaps strayed into an obvious pose or gesture. An example is in the anticipation before the jump down, the pose he's used, where he leans back, twists his body, and swings his arms to the side works perfectly well but feels like an animation standard, almost like a toned down cartoon anticipation - like Sylvester would do before he chases after Tweety or Tom after Jerry.




Adam has the principles learned, he knows before the jump there should be an anticipation and the one there works, but for me it needs something extra to really sell who the character is and what his motivation is.


This animation actually reminded me of a similar a piece created by Carlos Baena in a scene from The Incredibles. He has broken down how he approached and planned it on his website (read it here)



The first part of the second shot is essentially an anticipation for the jump off the building, it would've been easy to make it clichéd and uninteresting but he has added ideas into this action which have really lifted it.

"Ultimately I tried to sell the idea of him getting ready as a tennis player where they are ready to start playing and their ankles are going up and down. I was trying to sell Mr.Incredible not only as a big guy, but a big guy that could be very fast and agile. In terms of the motivation, I kept thinking Mr. Incredible kept telling himself "Think fast, think fast!!"."

This is brilliant, Carlos has not only given Mr Incredible a subtext ("think fast, think fast") which I talked about in a previous post, but also added an idea as to how the action is going to be performed - like a professional athlete, a tennis player. I think it's really successful, I actually remember seeing that shot for the first time in the cinema and being amazed by it then. Obviously, I wouldn't suggest you copy this idea, instead try to do something for your character, something specific to him.



The character's panting at the end of the scene, again conveys the message that he's tired and I like that this has been added, but seems a bit artificial, almost mechanical. It might have been better to show his exhaustion by adding another idea to it, a small stumble as he stood up, or maybe combine the pant with looking at where he has just been or where he's going next. Adding something to this basic idea would make it unique and original, I believe that once the principles have been learned, originality is one of the keys to improving and attaining that illusive next level in animation.

Good work Adam.

Jeff's Axe Attack

Jeff Baker is a multi talented draughtsman, concept artist and lead animator at a game studio who got in contact with me and asked if I could critique some of his animation. His blog can be found here, I've decided to comment on his "axe attack" animation which can be viewed here.

After looking at his previous animations, he seems to be moving in the right direction, learning fast and improving greatly with each test. The axe attack is very dynamic and predominantly a well executed piece. Jeff seems to have a good eye for poses, I especially like how the axe follows a nice arch over the character's head.

However, a pose I would consider altering is the one around frame 33. The head at this point feels a little unnatural and when viewed in motion, it seems to be fighting the movement of the body. I've drawn a suggested position, and from another angle to make sure it's clear. I'd also consider having it reach this position later than the chest and hips, then perhaps have it rotate back before the rest of the body, this would lead into the next action.



The main issues I've found in the animation are to do with weight and inertia, I think if you concentrate on learning these principles it will really help your animation.

The way I think about inertia is quite Newtonian, "A body persists it's state of rest or of uniform motion unless acted upon by an external unbalanced force". In other words, objects cannot change speed or direction without being pushed by something else. Gravity always acts upon us and we know if we throw a ball up in the air, our hand at first acts against gravity pushing the ball up, but from the moment the ball leaves our hand, gravity will make the ball decelerate and eventually make it change direction and accelerate back toward earth. Importantly, an objects horizontal movement is not affected by gravity and has to be accelerated and decelerated by other forces.

I'm sure that all sounds pretty obvious and straight forward but let's try and implement that in our character. The first place I'd do this is on the character's hips, specifically when he jumps toward the other character. From frame 15, the character's hips are accelerating forward and up by pushing against his right foot until frame 20 when this foot leaves the ground (I like that you've let this foot slip back slightly showing the force of the hips in the opposing direction). At this point no horizontal forces are acting on his body - his body should be moving forward at a constant speed while his vertical motion is responding to gravity.




Then on frame 21 the hip movement suddenly comes to a halt, and then translates down. This seems to me unlikely as his foot has only just made contact with the ground, we need time for his leg to push against the momentum of the body. I would suggest that the hips continue to move forward after the foot contacts the ground for a few frames, with each frame the movement getting less, showing the leg and foot pushing against the hips, slowing them down. This forward movement would also provide a reason for his head to rotate back. Unfortunately, you'll need to alter the foot positions to do this.



This theory would also effect when both heals twist between frames 04 and 14. If we try and act out this movement we quickly find that it is not possible, we have to move the weight off one foot in order to twist it. So, this would work better if he first started twisting his right foot just before frame 4 when his weight is over the left foot, then he twists his other foot as his weight shifts to his right foot.







Between frame 5 and 8 the axe and the body move backward at the same time and speed. If you delayed the hand as I have suggested, this would make the movement feel a little more organic and would add a little weight to the axe, which then leads me on to a bigger problem. My overall impression is that the axe feels too light and if this character were wielding an axe of this size, he would not be able to perform the movement you have created.



This is an easy mistake to make, I always try and find some reference to help me animate. Check out this footage of a lumberjack competition.

The axes these competitors have are much smaller than the one in your animation, yet they feel much heavier. I'm not saying copy this swing action but you can certainly take things from it. The competitors use two hands to swing the axe, spreading them apart to lift and aim the axe. They also keep their feet fairly planted on the ground, although you can see moments when they have almost no weight on a leg by the way the knee wobbles around. They don't jump toward the wood, their movements are quite limited, yet they still strike some very dynamic poses.




My overall advice would be to possibly replace the large axe in his hand with something smaller and lighter - perhaps a sword. This will mean with a few alterations you'll turn this into a great piece. Then if you want to do an attack with an axe of this size, possibly have a look at some reference, and/or act the movement out with something really heavy. Then animate it concentrating on figuring out how the character would push and be affected by swinging around such a heavy mass.

Hope that helps, as I said before I was very impressed by your animation and think with a little more weight your stuff could be amazing.

All the best,

Brendan

Clym's Walk

Clym Smith, an animation student at Ravensbourne college asked me to critique a walk he has done -




Excuse the pause at the end of the movie, that was accidentally added by me.

It is a good start and there are some nice poses in there. My first impression was that it was perhaps a bit fast, and maybe it needs to be inbetweened to make it feel a more natural speed.

As I watched it a few more times, a pose jumped out at me as looking a little odd. This one -





In this pose, the character is too off-balance and looks like he's falling over. It doesn't quite fit in the walk, and it makes the character feel as if he's tripping on something.

It also stands out in this composite of the walk. We can see the head is generally moving forward at a constant speed until this frame, when it suddenly shifts further forward and overlaps the next drawing.

So Clym, that would be the main thing I'd fix along with the speed. But I also thought I'd go through the other drawings and suggest some subtle ways to exaggerate the poses and movement you have.

As I've shown below, the up and down motion you have on the character is quite even. I would be tempted to push this into more of a bouncing ball motion.




Let's start by looking at the first pose in this sequence; the contact position. One thing I noticed is that his body is in a very neutral pose, it would liven the action up if this was altered, and we had a stronger change of shape occurring.




We can see this by drawing a line following the spine, this is our 'line of action'. At the moment the line is straight.



By simply pushing the line of action, and therefore the body, into a slight curve we create a stronger more interesting pose.



So, this is how I would alter the contact position. By adding a more dynamic line of action and also raising the body up. I've also straightened the rear leg to better follow the flow of the spine.



In the next pose, your 'down' or 'squash', I have pushed the line of action the other way. This will give us a change of shape when we play the animation which will add extra life to the walk. I have taken it to quite an extreme here, you may want to be more subtle.

I have also lowered the pose and changed the rear leg. In your drawing it felt as if the leg had shrunk a bit.



In the next pose, the crossover, I have kept some of the curve of the previous pose in the body. I have also changed the lifted foot slightly as I felt it had slightly too much drag in your drawing.

I haven't shown it here, but it would also be a good idea to show part of the hand or the elbow protruding outside the figure's silhouette. At the moment the arm is contained in the shape of the body which means we lose it in motion.



The next pose is the one we mentioned earlier. I pushed his lifted leg further forward, and flattened the toes of his rear foot to look like they are still in contact with the ground. I also changed the angle of his body, so it looks less like he is tripping up.



We then arrive at the opposite contact pose, which I have altered in the same way as the first.



Here is a composite of all my drawings over your original ones. As you can see the heads now have more of a constant motion forward.




While the character's vertical motion forms a bouncing ball curve.

One last thing I think would help the animation. In this drawing you have the arm straight with the wrist dragging as it moves forward, which is good. But you could create a very fluid motion if you then bend the joints the other way as the arm swings back. I have indicated in red a rough approximation of the shape that you might want.

This is called 'breaking joints', Richard Williams describes it very well in his book, The Animators Survival Kit.

And that's it. As I said before, the walk is working well and these are just small changes to add to what you've already got. Hope it has made sense!

Good luck and all the best,

Brendan