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 :).

On this week we had another lesson on how to animate from planning to polish in the splinning pass, more or less like this:

1. Planning your animation.
Start thinking about what you want to do, and try to find and made as much references that you can.


2. After that, start the blocking pass.
- Make sure about your camera because the silhouette must work fine
- Start a rough block and capture the feeling of the important poses;
- Push them after make sure they are working;
3. Put the breakdowns.
- Divide your animation and work in sections;
- Don't forget the overlap and put weight on that;

4. Director/Mentor tip (looks like the teacher on Juan's shot haha!).
- Remember your goal, and make sure your mentor knows it too;
- Be specific and be ready to receive critiques.


5. Apply the notes.
- Put all tips into practice;
- Go to spline;
- Re-check the spacing;
- Re-check the path of action;
- Clean all curves and nail it.


6. Have fun!

Besides finishing our last shot with Ballie (phewww..), we started to plan our next shot.
See ya!

A quote to finish this amazing year:

Woosh, after choose what you will do, record and take a lot of references, have made your thumbnails... Is time to animate!

In the Animation Mentor we have to give a Stepped version.

"Yeah... You show it before. What exactly you need to show in a stepped mode?"

Since the stepped mode will give a "stiff" animation, you need to show the most important points like your keyframes, breakdowns and some inbetweens.

- Be sure about your camera! If you change after start it, sometimes your silhouettes loses the clarity;
- Focus on strong poses: as you are showing your idea without some in-betweens, you need to be clear;
- Try to be sure where you want your breakdown: Start to think in your arcs and use the breakdowns to define motion in your animation;
- If you can add overlap, do it. As much information to show to your director, better for everybody;
- After doing your poses, start to think in your timing: Adjust and watch till the timing be clear enough. Don't forget to add anticipation when necessary.

"Okay... What more?"

Feedback! Always be ready to receive and give feedback to everyone. The process will let you tired and your eyes addicted. So it's always good to receive some fresh eyes, even during the blocking... After all, this is where you should be clear while you present your idea.

Woot. How long!

I'm on a trip since I start class 2 and didn't have time to balance my life with my blog... So here we go!

I'm sharing with new classmates lessons in Class 2 (Psychology of Body Mechanics) mentored by Patrick Danaher! He worked at the new feature Hotel Transylvania, and was a great opportunity to be able to absorb what he has learned and produced for this different cartoony experience, which provided a new style for 3d animation.

Without drowsiness, begin the week researching what we will do one more exercise in our little ball with legs. On Class 1 we learn the various principles that we apply in our animations. The importance of each step to get the final animation. Now it's time to use them!

"It's been so long ... Could you refresh my memory?"

Sure. Let's talk about blocking, which is focused in class this week.

When you have an idea, you need to work it until it becomes something concrete. After that, you need to express and sell your idea and that's the purpose of the blocking phase.

This week has opened my mind about the priorities for your shot in the first stage. Before start your shot, make some questions for yourself:

- What are your goals for this shot?
- How many frames do I have to sell it?
- In your reference, the action is clear enough? The timing is acceptable?

Normally the body mechanics shots on the exercise are fast. You have between 5-10 seconds, so you need to have a clear goal for that. They will give a step and a big jump? Will just wait and kick? Keep it simple. Doesn't matter if you will do cartoony or realistic or even a mix... Just make it believable! After clarifying that, I think you're ready to start blocking.

"How do I know this will be believable?"

Once you have a clear idea of exactly what you want... Look for references! Or be unique.. Make your own references. You don't need to be an actor or have awesome abilities with your body to show the idea.

After that, make thumbnails. Yeah! About your poses... You can do it in a different ways! Have some who prefer to do like a storyboard and exaggerate the poses on the 3d with drawing or your feelings, I don't know... The possibilities are infinite. My mentor, for example, prefer to take just the most important poses of the shot (something between 3 and 5) and make roughs of this, exploring more these poses.