Let’s put this 2D-3D thing to bed. Shall we?

Dr. Stephen has been posting some great stuff recently. Most of all, that last Milt quote. I read a comment from that post questioning whether Milt’s statement carries the same weight when compared to how things are done today with CG animation. We’ve tried to state this fact in previous posts, but let’s try to tuck this one in and send it to bed.

I think it’s vitally important to remember in these CG days of ours that everything in Milt’s quote is more relevant than ever. The problem with a lot of CG work is that people who have never learned to draw, design, or study composition fail to think about their work graphically, and for some reason believe that the computer will carry part of the load. For that matter, they neglect to think about their work at all. Yes, you can easily turn something in space. No, you don’t have to worry about your ability to draw. But 3D Max does not have an “appeal” filter. There is not a mel script on the planet that can create fresh and exciting, organic timing. CG does not let you off the hook. It takes discipline, work, and an eye that a computer can never give you. I hate to burst any bubbles out there. Truth be told, a pencil can’t give it to you either.

Pencil or mouse, the struggle doesn’t change. I don’t care whether you think you can draw or not. Think and thumbnail! Animation is too time consuming and too messy a medium to go into without having invested a good deal of thought and care into what you’re doing. 2D animators of years gone by had to deal with draftsmanship, yes. They also had to deal with timing, appeal, performance, story, and entertainment. Nothing has changed. If the classic masters invested this amount of forethought into their work before composing their drawings, don’t you think it’s equally important to have thought things through before you start manipulating a model that has over a thousand controls?!?!?

Please try to get it out of your heads that animation is a trade that can be learned once you acquire the right amount of knowledge or learned the right software. It is an art form. And like any art form it takes an eye, discipline, and an ability to observe what is around you. I wish I could tell you that it takes this, or it takes that. Believe me, having such knowledge would make our lives a whole lot easier. Alas, it’s not the case. Animation is as good as what you bring to it and what you are open to learn along the way. We can give you tips and insights based on the successes of our predecessors in addition to what we might have learned from our own mistakes, but in the end it’s all up to you. We’re recording some more roundtables in the days ahead and Andrew has another great Splinecast interview planned, so stay tuned. Thanks again for visiting the blog.

-Adam

Computer Animation and Drawing.

Many students get really intimidated when they are asked to draw or do thumbnails and show them in class. It’s understandable, now days you don’t have to be a great draftsman to get into animation school, heck for some schools you can have never drawn anything and get in. Computer animation has liberated many great animators, who may never been able to get into animation due to their lack of drawing ability. So on one hand the computer has allowed so many more people to access animation as a career and also allowed animation to become as big as it is these days, from computer games to the Internet, to commercials, feature animation etc. The flip side is that because of this access and the possible feeling that drawing doesn’t relate to computer animation, the overall quality of the animation being produced is getting weaker and weaker. Many students now days can go to school learn everything there is about Maya, and graduate with only taking a few drawing classes and possibly never taking story or design classes. It’s really a shame, for one that students don’t demand story, design and drawing classes and also that schools don’t find them important to the curriculum of computer animation. I had four main classes at Cal-Arts that repeated every semester for four years; Story, Character Design/Design, Animation, Life Drawing.

I’ve kinda gone off topic I’ll come back to drawing now. The reason drawing is so important and life drawing in particular is that in one class, if taught well, you can learn about story, design, weight, physics, balance, squash and stretch, overlap, follow through, positive negative spaces, silhouette, composition, structure, rhythm, line of action, so many things all from a single drawing class. The other important thing is that if you keep going to class and keep drawing all the time you are constantly working on and being reminded of all of these things all the time. It can be really overwhelming to think about all of that stuff all the time but that’s ok because your not just creating one drawing, you’ll have many drawings where you can work on these things. One of the best things for me is to take one of the life drawings I did in class. Put a piece of tracing paper over it and try to look at the drawing and think about design or weight and re draw over my drawing thinking about one of the things mentioned for example, balance. Then keep repeating until you’ve addressed all the ideas, overlap, squash and stretch, silhouette, rhythm, etc, etc. I don’t think you need to be a gifted draftsman to be a great animator but I do think you need to understand all the principles that are taught in good drawing, to be a great animator. Plus there is no need to be intimidated by drawing, only you are going to see them. You don’t have to show your drawings, or thumbnails to anyone if you don’t want to. While your in class don’t even worry about the drawing who cares, worry about the process and thinking that goes on while drawing. If the drawing looks like junk but in the end you came away with a better understanding of how the forms work together and where the squash and stretch was working in the pose, that’s cool. You’ll remember that for next time and you’ll remember that next time you sit down to plan out a shot or pose a character. I don’t worry about the drawing anymore, I focus on trying to learn something while doing each drawing.

Just for fun and to show you that your drawings don’t have to be great or pretty or nice or presentable I’ve included some thumbnails of mine from various films. These may or may not be pushed or the final poses for the characters in the shot. I tweak poses in the once they are in the computer, when I’m working to the main camera. Here I’m really trying to get and idea of what the pose will be and also what my acting is gonna a be and how it’s going to move. I take a lot of notes along with the drawings to help describe motion, arcs, antics, or ideas that I can’t draw. They are the road map of my shots but not always the final destination.

-Dr. Stephen G.

Animation, is Animation, is Animation.

There was a comment in the last post about Walt Stanchfield’s amazing drawing notes, which you can get at animationmeat.com, about how some students or even non-students dismiss these because they feel it only relates to 2d animation and doesn’t relate to 3d computer animation. I guess this might be why people are always looking for books on computer animation which is silly. Animation is Animation. Animation as and art form or craft exists outside of the medium your using. It really doesn’t matter if your working in clay, sand, pencil, computer, paper cut out, or any medium the principles of animation exist in all of these. The principles of animation exist outside of these mediums. So anything that would help in one medium would also help in the others. As far as drawing goes, and learning to draw or understanding the principles of design and composition these are some of the most important things we can have as animator to help tell our stories. So to dismiss these ideas and concepts because, you are not a graphic designer, a cinematographer or a 2d animator is really just hurting you as an animator. The best animators I’ve come across are really talented at all of these things, Design, Composition, Acting, Music, Dance, Film history, Observation, Drawing, Story Telling, Attention to detail, Physics, and Passionate. I’ve always believed that what makes animation so hard to master, is that you have to have an understanding of so many things. Like being able to understand body mechanics and human emotion to having the ability to draw like Rembrandt. And then having some concept of almost everything in between. It’s hard trust me, and I myself am no where near knowing all of it. The only thing I do know is the people that tend to be better at all of these things tend to be better animators.

The catch in all of this is that in your quest to become a better animator it takes a tremendous amount of time and focus. Thus potentially limiting your time to explore other areas of art and life. In a field that really needs you to be an extrovert and observe life, animation really makes you an introvert and locked down to learning the craft at a computer or drawing board. I guess that’s the rub.

So remember the more you can learn about anything especially drawing, because it incorporates things such as design, weight, balance, emotion, story telling, physics, the better off you’ll be. Just because you work on a computer doesn’t mean you don’t need to draw. Now let me clarify a bit I’m not saying you have to be an amazing draftsman you just need to be exposed to drawing and constantly trying to become a better draftsman because through that process you’ll become better at all things you can learn from drawing.

How could notes like these not help you in any form of animation?

Or Understanding great Design ar appreciating Art like this Mattise not be helpful?

The nine old men did and even refer to fine art and learning from it in the “Illusion of Life”. It’s kinda funny that it’s at the begining of Chapteer 16 my favorite chapter.

–Dr. Stephen G.

Complaints

I wanted to respond to some gripes about the quality of the podcasts we do at Spline Doctors. I was recently reading some user comments on the Animation Podcast. Some of the users don’t seem to like the quality of our interviews. What I have to say is this…

For one, its a podcast, not 20/20. The fact that we are able to even do them is a miracle in itself. We do them so that not only you, the listener can enjoy them, but so that we can get inspired and learn more about how people do things. I won’t appologize for my phone ringing or there being too many um’s and wows in the interviews… We are not professional interviewers… We are Animators. The podcast is an amazing thing. It gives people a chance to almost have their own radio station. When I was a student, and professional up until a few years ago, all you might be able to get your hands on was an old lecture taped at Calarts. I remember seeing a copy of a copy of a James Baxter video lecture. The quality was crap, but I didn’t care because the info was gold. I felt lucky to be able to watch it. Now, there is so much information online, you can pick and choose where you go to get your education. My point is this, it ain’t always about how perfect the recording is. Its about content and understanding that its free. We don’t have advertisers paying for equipment. Everything is done with no budget. So those of you who don’t like the quality of the podcasts don’t have to listen.

Those of you who have supported us and given great feedback, we appreciate this and keep doing these Splinecasts for you.

Sincerely,

Andrew

Mark Oftedal’s short films from Cal-Arts

So here are two of Mark’s great student films. A big thank you to Mark for letting us post these films, thanks again.

enjoy

4pm

Knife