When you are downloading something, you cannot use it until you finish, right? Try to think about it in your shot when you think you did everything!

So, when you are addicted in your shot after a polishing marathon.. Make some notes!

- Watch your animation with a critical eye and make a list about what you see;
- Your body mechanics need to have a good physics. Try to watch every part separated, one at time;
- Don't forget the original intention of your scene. Your goal is constantly pushing you and this is awesome to have a road to follow on.

Remember to fix your Center of Gravity Pass:
- Always start with the torso;
- Clean as much is possible your Graph Editor.

Legs Pass:
- When animating the feet, always pay attention to the weight of the body;
- Don't forget the silhouette;
- Build Squash & Stretch into your character's sillhouette using the entire pose;
- Make every frame appealing;
- Watch out for twinning, variation in legs gives a more organic feel.

The last 2%:
Okay, you are almost done!

- Be attent to pops and exaggerated Squash & Stretch;
- Pay attention to the ballroll animation, fingers, blinks, hair, etc;
- Polish where movement is initiated first, and then work your way out to overlap it.

Conclusion:
- Think you have more than 10%! This is normal and great at the same time, because you will be more critical about your work;
- Without weight, you haven't a mechanical shot.

This is my final shot to my 3rd exercise in Class 2. :)

I was thinking to do some pose to talk about when I came across this picture by Michael D. Mattesi. Previously has been said about the possible ways to get into a final pose, right?

"And what does it matter now?"

Animating a full body, it's essential to choose your key-poses, lest it becomes unknowable. So, whey you choose your key-poses, think about it:

- They must show the beginning and the end of an action;
- Change of an action;
- Change in characters thought  the process.

One more reason (or many...?) to doodle enough before sitting in front of the computer. What you should do in the thumbnails:

Pose 1: Describing the beginning of an action;
Pose 2: Describes the end of an action;
Pose 3: Describes change of an action (action coming to a rest);
Pose 4: Complete the action and show the final moment.

Rotating Bodies:


During my 3rd exercise in this class, I met the difficulty of caring the body rotation, and how this influences the dynamics of the scene.

Previously I posted a drawing of a baseball player to talk about torso. To rotate it right, you must know where to start your action. In this case, I was simulating a throwing of the shovel. That is: (a) I start the action by hand, (b) and then the shoulders, (c) chest, (d) belly, (e) waist...
It's always good you try to reproduce the actions to understand the mechanics. In this case, my waist was rotated to one direction, while the upper body to another.



A friend did this thumbs to help me to understand the intent of direction. Is almost like a tail! First he shows up the hands and goes to the award. When the hands are already in the hole, the feet are still walking in the air.

That's it for now :).

For this week we return to a subject discussed before. Perhaps the biggest reason is to emphasize that "the real art of animation comes with the subtlety of timing and spacing".

We have seen a lot of content beyond the balls exercise and I can tell how it affects timing and spacing and how they still walks hand in hand. A quick definition and which affects both:

Timing: 
Is the phrasing of movement. Think like a music. The way you distribute the notes are like you decide to put your key drawings or poses, and it will create the timing.
This influences many other effects:
Weight and Force;
You should remember about what Newton said before: "a body will remain at rest or in motion until acted upon by an outside force";
External and internal force, like momentum. And momentum can't be separated from weight and force;
Don't forget: the property of a moving body that determines the length of time bring it to rest;
Creating contrast in timing clarifies ad accentuates internal state of character.

As you can see, timing remains an important factor that influences what you are animating. And you can't avoid to exaggerate it! At this point you can already notice the difference between styles and how timing is crucial to differentiate them. More you exaggerate, more cartoony you will have and this will be a healthy balance that you will care forever. Try everything!
Some tips to apply before and during your a shot:

1. Know what you are going for before you start it - physics, attitude and personality will ever effect the timing.
2. Put key poses on every frame in order to focus solely on the posing first. "They are more than just mood or dramatics: they also create extremes." It's important to put texture.
3. Start to move poses in time. If you think it need some hold, do it.
4. Play with the timing and see if what feels right.
5. Be aware of the rhythm you are setting up. As a music - again, try to break if is too consistently.
6. You can completely change the feel of a look just changing the timing without change the poses.

Spacing:
Continuing the reasoning and comparison with a music, spacing is how the notes are positioned between the timed keys. In the case, your poses. Will be with your spacing you apply the concepts of acceleration.

The pros agree: don't let Maya make the in-betweens for you, because will be completely unappealing and boring.
I used to track my spacing with software allowing you to draw on top of most applications.

Remember: You can always push poses to create more dynamic spacing or adress spacing issues. If you squash to a pose, you are in essence creating a blur frame, which will allow you to broaden the gaps and create a snappy timing.

Here some stylized drawings I did for Anhanguera Educacional, here in Brazil.

Hey you :)

Today we will talk about something related to arcs: Path of Action!

Previously in class 01 you could see how arcs makes the difference for your animation. So far we used a body composed by one big ball.

"What's the difference between the ball and a body with spine?"

Besides the fact that you have more to animate, nothing. You have to worry about the arcs in the same way... But now will have more! And the chance to turn it a mess is high. So you must understand clearly who is leading the movement. And finish it before care about with the rest. Remember the walk assignment; first the hips and than the legs. When you finish everything, fix the knees. When the animation is okay and you start to work in your arcs, you will see an imaginary path! In The Illusion of Life, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston wrote: 



So watch out, because Maya or other software will try to make everything straight! My actual mentor share with us a good and simple example about arcs here:

Hey!

Sounds even poetic... And abstract.

"So.. How you will explain?"

Well... How it works! If you analyze the motion no matter what, there is always an applied force. Can be the Earth's gravity or even an object or person. This leads to two types of force that can be applied: External Force and Internal Force.

External Force is about everything that comes out of the body you are analyzing. It can be a wind, or a person pushing you, or even a guy giving a punch in your face.

Since the head received the punch, it will lead the movement. After it, will be the neck, the upper body and so forth.

Internal Force is about a purpose with their own decisions. In this case, the action usually begins at the hip. But the point is, if you want to bring live into a character, that's how you will succeed. Because is the Internal Force who show the character is living, breathing or thinking!

This emphasizes to encourage us to always have on hand many references as possible and carefully analyze each action of motion.

Here my final assignment studying the torso and using an external force:

Hi!
On this week we had one more class about stages of a shot. And since we've had a post about it, I'll talk about torso!

As you know, we start to animate a body without arms, forcing us to give emphasis to the spine, the newness so far... And how work with this?

Well, depends of your action. And you will see: the torso is more important than you think.

Hey guys, here we are with a new adventure.

From this week we will begin to use a new rig, with a torso! And this new element to be animated induce you to discover new elements to care about... The case on this week - and your entire career as an animator - are Weight and Balance! 

Whenever something moves, a force was applied to this corps. And what better way to view difficult to the body moves  it? Weight. It will help you to sell your intention.

For example, think about a body with a lot of mass, like an elephant. It will need much more time to gain momentum because more mass demands more energy. To stop this mass, you need to think the same: If you have more mass, you will need more time to stop it... And we realize that in the animation should apply the same concept.

"And what I need to know about the balance?"

You need to know balance and weight go hand in hand. The faster the body moves, it will have less balance! You always should apply the concept about the center of mass and put balance.

"Hmm... But what I need to do when I have more than one mass? If my character, for instance, are carrying something?"




Good question! This drawing by Fred Moore helps to understand it. You need to think your character and the the object - or another character - is one body, which means one center of gravity. If he's carrying a box, or other person, doesn't matter. And to show weight, you need to use more curves. If it's heavy, show it! Bend the torso, rotate your head, etc.

"Okay. And if I want my character is intentionally unbalanced?"

You must be careful, because it is difficult to achieve. You should deliberately miss the center of gravity and be more natural as possible.

See you :).