Olympics - Food for Animators
If you are an animator, it should be required that you watch the 2008 Olympics. It has everything related to what we do. Weight, Physicality, Beautiful Arcs, Slow Motion footage, Inertia, etc, etc etc. I always find the most interesting parts to be the reactions from the close family in the stands. Its also amazing to watch some of the medal ceremonies. The emotion going through the athletes is so visible. When I am watching the Olympics, I find myself rewinding certain parts to watch them again, and again. Take for instance, when an athlete falls or trips, its always interesting to see how this happens, how the body comes to rest, and so forth. The opening ceremony was amazing in so many ways. It had so many elements that are of interest to us. It was unlike anything I have ever seen in its scope and precision. My hats off to China for blowing away any other opening ceremony in history. Since the games are in High Definition in many parts of the world, it is tough to record them for reference. I have been recording them right off my TV with a camera that has the same aspect ration. You dont get the same quality, but its still very good. Its all about inspiration and reference when watching. We should look at it with our animators eye and figure out how to use it in our work.
-Andrew
Victor Luo
Hi, Andrew!
Olympics is really a BIG meal to our animators!
To see the flv videos of those jumps and runs and lifting and swiming etc, you can also visit:
http://www.sohu.com ,
the official web site for reporting the 2008 Beijing Olympics of China.
http://2008.sohu.com/video/jpzl/
This is the link of the moments of every gold medal athlete win the match. Not only Chinese, but all the guys and girls. Filled with forces, dynamics, energy, exciting time, slow motion, sorry in Chinese Language, but don’t worry, be patient to drag to almost the bottom of the page, there are pictures to recognize, listed by date, please just feel free to click each photoes and titles, there is no virus or bad ads, everything is amazing.
Also, see :
http://s.sohu.com/2008/
drag to almost the bottom of the page, click each title with a tiny camera logo on the left. Those are all the videos of Olympics reports. Maybe NBC did a better job on this, after all, it is another angle.
Anyway, hope you and all the spline fans enjoy it!
Cheers!
Victor in Beijing \(^@^)/
agard
being a full time student at AM and working full time I’ve missed much of the Olympics [unfortunately], but for those of that did, NBC is compiling DVDs of the highlights and the opening ceremony [and maybe more?????]
http://www.nbcuniversalstore.com/detail.php?p=64116&pa=affiliate_NBC
http://www.nbcuniversalstore.com/detail.php?p=65288
But agreed…the human body in these sporting events is an artform!
Victor Luo
By the way,(Manual) to get the *.flv video files onto your local computer, just click play button(may need the flash video plugin for IE or other explorer), watch and wait for it finishing the buffering, then go to the Internet Temporary Folder to get it, rank by size, and pick the nearest and copy to another place.
Another word, flv is not High Resolution solution, only as a quick video reference, I think soon the HD version of those resource will be shared by someone.
I was so exciting by such an amazing game, hope you all can feel what I feeled.
Thanks Andrew for letting me so wordy here
-V
David Beer
Hi Guys!
yeah, Andrew, i thought you’d also find the winning facial expressions interesting again, there was a case very much like the one you documented in the blog, A British cyclist that was coming to terms with the fact he was the fastest in the world. His face went through some many different emotions , it was a trip man! ah, his name is Chris Hoy.
matt tamaru
The Olympics in HD is a brain feast!
The Stuff MSNBC is streaming is pretty great as well. Great resource!
Josh
That’s an interesting reason to watch the Olympics Andrew. I only wish now I’d looked at it through animator eyes because generally I just don’t care about this event in the slightest. Maybe they’ll release a “Best of” DVD so we can watch it and rewatch it in slowmo.
By the way, thanks for coming over to Australia earlier this year and doing your animation masterclasses, I went to the Sydney one and the stuff you taught really helped me in some recent commercial work.
Kyle Maloney
funny, I really don’t care for the Olympics but I caught myself watching some of the gymnastics stuff thinking “this would make great reference material. and I bet this will show up on splinedoctors”
and I was right!
Lesley Vamos
Andrew… you rewind and watch people falling over…for research… or for fun?? go on… fess up ; p lol, your right though, a lot of really nice slow mo stuff to see - my fav is the gymnastics - although they seem kind of super human…
Adam Oliver
I’d agree with the opening ceremony if they hadn’t faked parts of it (go CG!) and hadn’t replaced the original girl who sang the song there with one they decided was more attractive. Also, their government has really dropped the people who were displaced when they lost their homes to the Birds nest site, they won’t even give them compensation and two old ladies were supposedly told to go to labour camp because they had protested against the system!
If you want to see how ridiculous the games can get, just watch the boxing. So many missed points.
I agree with it being gold for animators studying it, I just really don’t agree with how the world seems to have glossed over the major issues China has just because it’s pretty.
Just had to get that in there although I wouldn’t be surprised if this comment doesn’t get removed. I know this isn’t the place for poilitical discussion, but it is still related and therefore people shouldn’t be ignorant to it.
Anyway, the best video I saw for study was when our UK hope for BMX glory crashed out. Watch how she falls, it’s really interesting. As is the reaction on the faces of the U.S women’s relay when they dropped the baton. The ‘acting beats’ were all there.
Adam Oliver
Sorry I meant I wouldn’t be surprised if the previous comment did get removed! You know what I meant. P.S, go watch the Animatrix now for the short about the sprinter. Anyone know the director?
Dave Vasquez
They Olympics have been amazing to watch for reference. I’ve been following the swimming closely…one of the more entertaining moments I saw was Michael Phelps mother reacting to her sons victory (I think it was the 100 meter butterfly). For a split second, everyone thought Phelps had lost, including his mom. But, a second later they advertised his victory. The mom’s reaction was priceless. It was like she hit 3 separate beats. First, shock and horror thinking her son had lost. Then there was the point of realization that it was a victory. Finally, she literally sank slowly to the ground with her eyes wide open in shock again, but this time it was obvious that it was joy. I wish I could find it on youtube cause it was classic, but no luck!
Btw…is anyone else experiencing virus problems when coming to this site? Andrew, just an fyi…this is one of my daily stops, but everytime the page loads my virus software deletes a trojan or some other virus. It’s wierd cause it’s only at this page. Hopefully, it’s nothing serious cause this is one of my favorite websites! Keep up the great work.
Dr. Gordon
SORRY FOR THE VIRUS ALERT. I am working as hard as I can to removie it. I think it has something to do with the host site. I am pretty sure its mostly a harmless virus.
Thanks for all the support and comments.
-Andrew
Adam Oliver
No virus problems for me. Another Olympics moment, when GB was denied the chance to get into the bronze medal match in Taekwondo then the judges reverted their decision. Her emotion was so in-depth to watch. She was holding back when first interviewed, then when she’d lost the next round her face showed that she felt totally broken.
The U.S 4×400m were good to watch too. But diving is still amazing to see how people get themselves airborne.
Nate
It’s the Olympics. Who isn’t watching?
Cameron Chamberlain
Yeah, its amazing to watch all the athletes, not just the winners, you can figure out what makes the winners faster.
by the way you misspelt ratio
Keep the posts coming, good to read
Thanks
- Cameron