Traditional Animation 3 Final: My Workflow Pre-Production to Rough Pass

Traditional Animation 3 is officially over. It was a hell of a semester.

For this final assignment we had to animate along with an audio track and I chose an audio piece by Abbott and Costello. I have only heard their 'Who's on First' bit a couple of times and never seen any of their actual video. The audio was great cause the voices had a lot of personality and energy in it which I knew would make it fun to animate to.

Two weeks ago I uploaded the animatic of what I was going to do and for the non-artists here, what comes next is pages and pages of thumbnails, X-sheets (which are sheets vital to the animator to use for timing - example below) and reference footage. I went ahead and filmed about 9 takes of each man's dialogue and picked out the ones I liked. Then I took my own acting as inspiration in a new set of thumbnails and from there you make your key drawings.

So here it is in order of what the process was starting way back from character design:

 The inspirations:

 The polished designs:

 Facial Expressions:

 Final Altered Designs:

The First thumbs:

 Hand Gestures:

My own reference acting:

Altered Thumbs:

Alas to the FIRST video with the Key Poses:

Keys & Breakdowns (And the beginning of inbetweens):

To the final which was the rough pass:




So there is my workflow! Traditional and my CG are way different so on the next CG project I will post what it is exactly that I do. And please link me yours if you want to share. Perhaps there is something better out there that you can instill in me that I have yet to learn (and we can pass on to others).

Some people asked what my workstation looks like and this is normally how I have things mid project:

And my professor actually gave great advice on having a good ergonomic workspace. I got some severe wrist cramps during this project and his advice was awesome and helped alleviate a lot of pain. For example lift your light board. As you can see in the photo I threw a few animation books underneath to give it a lift. I added a foam pillow under my chair for comfort and to help give my knees a 90 degree angle with my feet firmly on the ground. Feet on the ground in turn helped my remind myself to sit with my back straight up (a horrible habit of many of us). 

And lastly my own two cents on good/healthy workareas: If you need coffee or soda to help keep you awake, I get it - its a short term solution to meeting deadline, but do NOT rely on them too much! Use ice cold water, eye drops and push ups to keep you awake. Its way healthier and at the end of a long long project and sleepless nights the last thing your body needs is junk it now has to filter out of your stomach.
I ate a lot of junk food and take out cause it was quick and easy and helped me get back to work quickly but again this comes at a cost.

I changed it up a bit, I would to the store and bought some frozen food (Pizzas and Lasganas etc). I cooked them at the start of the day and it was enough food to last me the day. A) I did not waste time leaving to buy food. B) I saved money. C) It is not healthy by any means but it is the less of two evils if compared to fast food.

Another week I made chow mein and pastas. I mean entire pot fulls. I saved the leftovers in tupperware and just grabbed it when I needed it and went back to work.

(One more piece of advice from my Professor) Breaks: Breaks are good for you! Discipline yourself to work a solid 30-60 minutes and then take a break. Get up walk outside, play a quick game of frisbee or football (my personal choice with the roommates), grab food or water. If you mentally need a break you can watch some tv or read a book but do not get too far removed from your work mode. Its important that you keep your ideas and energy up and alive for the project. For me its hard to get to a good creative mindset, so when I am finally there I do not let it slip away. I will take short breaks but dive right back into it. When I feel myself gearing down out of that creative mode then i will take a longer break and mentally walk away for an hour or two.

So, figure out what works for you and STICK TO IT. Create a routine and discipline yourself. When you do it a few days in a row it will start stick and not feel like prying teeth anymore.



What's next?

Next up I am working on another audio piece, much shorter this time, as well as clean up pass for this project. Til next time guys.

Thanks for reading. Happy Animating.

Neil

"I Just Graduated, Now What?"

I heard something very interesting today and it got me thinking. Katherine Schwarzenegger gave an awesome interview on Kevin & Bean (and other news affiliates) about her book "I Just Graduated Now What".

Essentially she has found that many college graduates current and former struggled to figure out what they wanted in life for a few years after graduating, sometime up til their late 20's. Many moved back home and thought they were moving backwards when in reality that is the smartest financial plan you can have with this job market and ridiculous costs of education. She herself has said she moved home and worked jobs that weren't that great and is still trying to find that job she loves. Having a 5 year plan or 10 year plan sounds like a great idea, but how do you know your exact path when you can't even find where it starts. I would highly recommend you read her book o seek out additional interviews found online.

[At this point I will be paraphrasing advice given from Katherine and my professors mixed with my own thoughts and opinions]

So to everyone who is graduating and will be graduating - don't fret. We are all struggling to find out where we belong, who we are and what is next. Moving back home is NOT a step back, it is you crouching down waiting for that opportunity to jump. Holding part time jobs in the service industry is not a waste of your degree, it is a testament to your passion and eagerness to keep moving. Where you are now is not the 'end all-be all'. Give it some time, take a moment. You only feel like you are drowning because you are weighing yourself down. It takes a lifetime to build a dream - not 4 years and one week.  

For those of you like myself who had worked through college, it has taken us far longer than 4 years to earn that same degree. But goddam is it sweet. The blood, sweat and many tears have led you this far, have faith in yourself that you will make it. Attitude will carry you most of the way there.

So...what next?

• You are essentially networking every day. Every person you meet could potentially be your next hiring manager. You never know who it is you sit next to on the bus or serve at the Starbucks. Greeting strangers could be a godsend. I've seen it (and done it) firsthand.
• Build a life. Chasing your work dream is only half of your known life. Work on the other half while you wait. Do things your future self will be eternally grateful for. Strive to be better at time management, strive to be nicer to strangers (ties in to the previous bullet point), start up those projects you keep putting off - it could potentially lead to something bigger or greater than your original dreams.
• Got extra time on your hands? Work another job to save money for a house. Volunteer and give back to those who are worse off than you. Yes - you the graduating student who has 40k dollars of debt and a minimum wage job there IS someone worse off than you.
• Dude BE KIND to yourself. Need I say more here? In fact you probably have years to make up for.
• Enjoy the little things. Go on a hike with friends or get together and play a drinking game or board game. Whatever it is you and your friends do - do more of that. When life begins to take off, it is likely even more of your friends will drop out of your life. Not that neither of you cares anymore but you now have your own schedules, jobs, and families to tend to. Don't get to that stage in life to only find out you missed out on so much.

 Additional bullet points for you artists out there:

• Draw everyday.  No exceptions. This is something I struggle with myself.
• Start that side art project you've been wanting to do. "Did you see that new [insert website of your choice] post!? Its unreal. Wish I could do that". To hell with it - why can't you!? Just do it! Even if it's a massive fail, you as an artist know that every failure is full of rewards and lessons.

If all else fails: "Don't worry about life, you're not going to survive it anyway."

As for myself, I will be starting my first animation short film. I have a script in the works and a few other ideas tinkering around. I'd love to gather a team of artists who would like to start it up with me, something we can all share credit for and add to our portfolios. Leave me a comment or message if you are interested!

All the best to you guys and thanks for reading. You are amazing.

Neil

Traditional Animation 3 Final: Work in Progress

Hey All,

The words that would make any art major scream bloody murder in the middle of the night: FINALS!
For those of you not in the art world finals usually consistent not of cramming for a final exam, but usually a 4-8 week project. And this project will likely carry upwards of half of our semesters grade. Thats a lot of caffeine and cortisol.

Well my traditional animation piece I am working on is from an old Abbott and Costello bit - the infamous Mustard and Hot Dog debate. I started it out 3 weeks ago designing the characters I would use, thumbnailing, making xsheets and then filming myself for reference.

Right now I'm in the middle of crunching out the hundreds and hundreds of inbetweens and I have but 7 days left to polish and turn it in. I'm feeling pretty great about this project.

Not wanting to give too much away for my big End-of-the-Semester Post, here's the animatic on my piece WARNING: Its pretty crude.

Back to drawing...See you all soon.