Interview with Randy Hayes

Randy Hayes

(Randy didn't answer the questions in order like Steve did, so i'll just list the questions and then his response)

Where did you go to get your degree?

What did you do right after you graduated?

How long did it take for you to get your first job in the industry?

What steps did you take to get to your Lead Animator position at Reel FX now?

Do you notice any common mistakes people make while animating? For example, lack of exaggeration?

What advice do you have for me, since I am graduating soon.

I saw your profile on LinkedIn mentioned you do motion graphics as well- what have you worked on and how did you get there as well? 

In answer to your questions, I went to the Art Institute of Dallas, and I started at Reel FX during my last quarter at school. I started with Kent as the first animation apprentices. Kent and I have just worked our way up kinda together, we both have kind of unique skill sets that have been able to help build the team and we do a lot to help everybody work more efficiently. Kent writes some tools and I wrote a training manual we use for new hires to get them acclimated. So between that and just a general overall improvement in my animation over the time I've been here, I got my "Lead Animator" post. 

I think the main thing that people do in CG as students is that they kind of let the computer tell them what they can do. If the rig doesn't give them a nice pose easily, they settle too quickly for an ugly one, or they get halfway to a nice one, and then move on to spline and hope that the motion will make up for the bad poses. But animation is all about the poses telling a good story, if they don't do that by themselves, they won't do it with a lot of computery in-betweens. 

So I'd say to focus on always knowing the story or the joke or the moment that you're trying to show, and making sure EVERYTHING about the pose really communicates that. Don't jump too quickly to in-betweens, make sure your poses work well and then in-betweens become much more fun and useful. 

Motion graphics is something I did more as a hobby, so I can't really give you too much advice on that, but if you're interested in that, check out my friend Byron. He lives out in LA now, but he does great motion design work.

hellobyron.com

Ball bounce walkthrough

Tutorial

Here is a quick tutorial that shows how some of the basic principles of animation can be applied to a ball bounce.

This is my first tutorial video so feel free to leave any comments or suggestions for the video below. Be gentle.

Interview with Steve Orsini

Steve Orsini

Where did you go to get your degree? 

The short answer is I don't have a degree.  The long answer is:

I first went to a regular brick and mourter college in the state i grew up in, New Jersey, but then dropped out after a year (I sat in the "advanced" animation class they had, to check it out, and I found out you didnt get to choose what discipline you studied that last semester [you drew straws for what you have to learn {one would pick animation, cause it's awesome or course, and the rest would be stuck with texturing or something else they didn't want to do}) Also, the seniors and juniors were asking me Maya questions, and not even difficult ones.  So I hightailed it outta there after a lot of praying, analyzing the situation, and asking my one friend who worked at Rhythm & Hues for advice.  

I left and went back home to study at Animation Mentor, as you know.  

What did you do right after you graduated? 

Right after I graduated, I went back to practicing and refreshed myself of the basics before I did more animation tests for about a year and a half.  I had gotten a job at a small game studio not far from home halfway through AM.  I was there for two years and after I was laid off I immediately got the apprenticeship here (although I had been applying everywhere that was a film studio since I finished AM).

How long did it take for you to get your first job in the industry?

Oh, oops, I kinda answered that one in the previous one, haha.  To get my job here, It took about a year and a half, I think. Hmm, maybe It was a year; i forget.  Either way, it wasn't immediate and I had to practice and work on my demo reel the whole time.  It was difficult since I was animating at work, and then would go home and animate more.  But it was worth it!

I noticed you have taken a part of Animation Mentor, how helpful do you think it was?

Animation Mentor is what I owe my career to.  100% helpful.  Being exposed to working animators and networking though it was a gargantuan help. I'm working with two out of the six mentors I've had. I wonder if that had any effect on my being hired here. My Rhythm & Hues friend had given me some personal critiques a lot through the early part of AM and it was just awesome.  I learned so much from him on top of what I was learning at AM. 

What steps did you have to take to become an apprentice at Reel FX and then an actual animator there?

The first part of this kinda goes back to what I was saying earlier.  Lots of practicing after school.  We never stop learning in this industry. Not after school, and not after we get a job.  

To get hired on after the apprenticeship I kept learning.  Being teachable and knowing how to follow directions very quickly and completely, even if you totally disagree, made me more desirable to them, I guess.  I was going pretty fast though notes on my own shots and I'd take on any fixes of other people's shots that they'd give me (which is the lame part of job, in my opinion), without pitching fits or showing negativity.

Do you notice any common mistakes people make while animating? For example, lack of exaggeration? 

I don't feel I'm able to make an overarching generalization like that about my co-workers, but I can say that in student work I notice that animation lacks character and entertainment a lot more than it used to.  Anybody can learn the principles, but being entertaining and having a sense of what's funny will make your work stand out.  It's also the toughest part to get right.

In my own work, I find that I often forget to build in texture to the movement.  So, like two fast movements, then one slow movement, then one fast movement, is more interesting then, four slow movements. Obviously it depends on the situation, but I hope that kinda explains what I mean by texture.  The action has to follow a rhythm, but not repetitively, and I am forget to plan for that often.

What advice do you have for me, since I am graduating soon. 

No matter what project or place you work at, find something to learn.  I was awfully grumpy for most of the two years at the game studio, but once I got here, I realized how much it had helped me.  I understood rigging way more than I would have otherwise, I had a better understanding of how to do cycles when the time came here, I gained a lot of speed, and I got to save up a lot while living at home.  Not everyone lands their dream job right out of the gate. Some do,  but just in case be prepared to do work on yet another lame mini-game compilation for the Wii, or a commercial for a product you hate, and know that there is a wealth of knowledge at any studio in this industry.

I hope that helped! If you have any more questions or need clarification, don't hesitate to ask!

Guest Post, Taylor Offill

The animation process developed with ink and paper transfers directly to 3D animations. 

What is the purpose of animation?

The process of animation is to give life to the lifeless.  By exaggerating each of the twelve principles of animation the performance becomes believable to the audience.

What is a perfect animation?

The most important thing about animation is to always remember that story is king and animation is the way to show the story.  Many new animators jump into a project and start animating wildly. Make sure that every motion has a purpose instead of just having movement to fill space.  A perfect animation is one that lets the audience fall into the story by making them feel welcome or feel apart of that world. 

How do the principles bring a viewer into the world?

Fluid motions with slow in slow out allow the viewers eyes keep up with what has happened.

Arcs are more pleasing to the eye than sharp turn and jagged movements.

So now we get to squash and stretch. Many people may ask about photo-realistic animations and if you still need to squash and stretch. The answer is yes.  Granted its not like in a cartoon animation where you can pull a body part 20 feet away from its original orientation, but each part of the body still has the ability to stretch out or compress in a small about.   An example of this is your head, take the time to examine its range of motion.  It can turn side to side and pivot up and down. Now you can compress or stretch you neck out which deforms the body from it original position. Its the small details such as this which brings a character to life.

Anticipation builds suspense that gains get the audience on the edge of their seat. Getting them excited about what is to come. 

How does this information help me?

Keeping these principles in mind while animating will help animations become a better and pleasant experience for the makers and the viewers alike.

Like this post? check out Taylor's blog

Arcs, Timing and Spacing

Arcs

Only the most mechanical actions follow a linear path which can work fine for animating a machine but it looks unnatural for a living creature. Most natural actions are done in a path of an arc or curve. This is especially true with humans and animals where everything from hand movements to eye movements have an arc to them. 

Importance

As an animator it's important to 'clean up' your arcs to keep them as nice flowing curves from one pose to the next to create more realistic motion. It's not uncommon for animators to use programs or sometimes even dry-erase markers on their monitors to track the arcs of different parts of a characters body such as the hips, hands, or head to ensure that they are moving in the smoothest arc possible.

Timing and Spacing

Timing and Spacing relate to how much time you put between poses. This has a great effect on how an action is understood by the audience. It can change a character's walk from someone who is slowly meandering down the road to one who is hurried or late for an appointment. 

Example

The most common example used to explain this is the head turn. Using the same head poses, a fast turn could make it seem like the character was hit in the face while a slow turn could make it seem like they are merely stretching their neck. 

Here is a lesson that was helpful to me when I was just starting to animate.

Sources

Thomas, F., & Johnston, O. (1981). The illusion of life: Disney animation. New York, NY: Walt Disney Productions.

Williams, R. (2001). The animator's survival kit. New York, NY: Faber and Faber Limited.

Goldberg, E. (2008). Character animation crash course!. Los Angeles, California: Silman-James Press.

Blair, P. (1994). Cartoon animation. Tustin, California: Walter Foster Publishing Inc.

Follow Through, Overlapping Action, and Slow In and Slow Out

Summary

Follow Through and Overlapping Action are two similar techniques that provide some additional realism to animations and create the impression that the characters are interacting with real laws of physics.

Follow Through

Follow Through is what happens at the end of and after an action, and adds resolution to the scene as a whole. Some examples would be during a baseball swing when the player continues to move the bat around their body after they hit the ball, or a soccer player that keeps their foot moving after they kick the ball. Without the ending the action loses it's strength and looks like it was effortless for the character.

Overlapping Action

Overlapping Actions are the smaller parts that supplement the main action that don't happen at the exact same time. This gives the impression that different parts of the character or clothing are separate from the main driving force of the action. A common example is the tail of an animal, the main body of the horse is the driver of the action while the tail reacts to it by dragging behind and generally starts and stops moving after the body. Nearly any part of a character can be used for overlapping action as long as it isn't the main driver for it.

Slow in and Slow Out

Slow in and Slow out is the spacing of in-between frames so that the velocity of an object isn't constant throughout. This generally means making an object spend more time at the beginning and ending of it's motion and less time in the middle so that it emphasizes the more extreme poses and creates a more appealing action. Without it the character's motion seem too linear and and mechanical.

Sources:

Williams, R. (2001). The animator's survival kit. New York, NY: Faber and Faber Limited.

Goldberg, E. (2008). Character animation crash course!. Los Angeles, California: Silman-James Press.

Blair, P. (1994). Cartoon animation. Tustin, California: Walter Foster Publishing Inc.

Straight Ahead and Pose to Pose

Summary

Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose are the two opposing methods of animation. Straight Ahead Action is the method were the animator literally starts at the first drawing and works straight ahead from one drawing to the next until the action is complete. Pose to Pose is the method of planning out and perfecting the important key poses needed to convey the idea of the animation and then going back and filling the the in-between poses.

Straight Ahead Action

Straight Ahead Action allows the animator to be extremely creative and can help add a feeling of spontaneity and freshness to the animation and can be the most effective with wild and scrambling actions. This method runs into issues in some situations when there is a strong perspective in the camera and can cause certain key poses in the animation to lose clarity and appeal. 

Pose to Pose

Pose to Pose is the most popular method for animators in the industry because it allows for a large degree of control over the action. Animations that use this method are usually easy to follow and generally avoid issues with the scene or camera placement because each major point in the action is planned out before the animator invests too much time into it. When used correctly, Pose to Pose helps the animation to have a certain clarity and strength that is difficult to achieve with Straight Ahead Action. 

My Opinion

On a personal note I would advise any beginning animators to start learning using the Pose to Pose method because it is both the most common method used in the industry and it allows the animator to make corrections to parts of the animation without undoing much of their work. I found some examples of how this method is used in modern 3D animations to plan out the scene before adding the in-between frames for a dance and for a conversation.

Source

Thomas, F., & Johnston, O. (1981). The illusion of life: Disney animation. New York, NY: Walt Disney Productions.

Staging

Origins

Staging is presenting the idea or action in such a way that makes it completely clear to the audience. It's the most general of the animation principles since it incorporates many different concepts, often from theater, in order to create something that the audience can easily understand. 

Importance

There are multiple aspects of staging that need to be considered for animation. The most important one is the 'story point' which means that every frame of the film must advance the story. Simply put, if you don't need it, don't show it. If the character is supposed to be happily running through a field of flowers don't include anything that detracts from the feeling like a graveyard in the background or a bat flying overhead. 

Another point to remember is to only show one action at a time. You don't want your action de-emphasized by a bad camera angle or other things going on in the scene. Each frame of animation should show the action in the strongest and most understandable way. You are essentially guiding the audience to look at one thing, then the next, then the next instead of showing them everything at once. 

As an animator it's important that you avoid hiding parts of the character from the audience such as having the hand move in front of the characters face or one leg hidden behind the other. Older animations had an even harder time with this since everything was in black and white. This required them to pay extra attention to the characters silhouette to avoid the hand being lost in the chest or the shoulders disappearing into the head. This limitation turned out to be a valuable learning experience though as they learned that it is always better to show an action in silhouette.

Source

Thomas, F., & Johnston, O. (1981). The illusion of life: Disney animation. New York, NY: Walt Disney Productions.

Anticipation

Origins

The second principle of animation is anticipation which is used to prepare the audience so they can follow an action before it happens. It also makes the overall animations seem more realistic. At the Disney studio Walt Disney was particularly insistent that the actions were easily understood by the audience so that they could anticipate what the character would do. He called this technique aiming and was known for acting out scenes himself for the animators.

Importance

The importance of anticipation is clear when it's missing from an action. Just imagine a baseball pitcher not winding up before the pitch or a soccer player not pulling his foot back before the kick. It takes the energy and effort out of the action, leaving the audience confused about what happened and how the character managed to do it.

Examples

Some examples of anticipation that is often used in animation would be a character crouching down before they jump or tilting back before they push a heavy object.

Source

Thomas, F., & Johnston, O. (1981). The illusion of life: Disney animation. New York, NY: Walt Disney Productions.

Squash and Stretch

Origins

Squash and Stretch is the first most important of the principles of animation. It's what gives characters a fleshy organic look while lack of squash and stretch is what makes hard objects like a metal bat a rigid look. Squash and Stretch was originally discovered in the 1930s by Disney animators who were trying to bring more life into their drawings. They found that living objects tended to change shape while retaining volume and that only lifeless stiff objects stayed rigid while in motion. After discovering this Disney animators started to compete with each other to exaggerate the squash and stretch in their drawings to create more and more extreme poses. 

Examples

There are two common examples used to explain squash and stretch to beginning animators, the half-filled flour sack and the bouncing ball.

The half-filled flour sack was created to practice changing an objects shape to show emotions while keeping the volume the same. What was learned from the flour sack  exercises could then be applied to characters in Disney animations.

The bouncing ball is a common animation for beginners for a variety of reasons, one is to provide a simple scenario to use squash and stretch. It was surprising for Disney animators when they discovered that having a ball squash when it lands and stretch when it takes off would make such a huge impact on their animations.

Sources

Thomas, F., & Johnston, O. (1981). The illusion of life: Disney animation. New York, NY: Walt Disney Productions.

Williams, R. (2001). The animator's survival kit. New York, NY: Faber and Faber Limited.

Goldberg, E. (2008). Character animation crash course!. Los Angeles, California: Silman-James Press.

Blair, P. (1994). Cartoon animation. Tustin, California: Walter Foster Publishing Inc.

The Beginnings of a New Art Form - Part 2

Animation from 1937-1995

Walt Disney Studios became the dominant force in animation after the success of the Mickey Mouse series, and it wasn't long until Walt turned his eye towards feature films. Not only did he create films with widespread popularity, him and his team also improved on animation technique. He wasn't alone though, and between 1937 and 1995 animation was being pushed forward by many different studios until the eventual acceptance of 3D animation into the feature film industry. Below is a timeline detailing prominent events in animation from 1937 to 1995.




Sources:

Pollard, N. (1998, September 25). Animation timeline. Retrieved from http://www.cs.brown.edu/courses/cs229/animTimeline.html

Nusair, D. (n.d.). Animated film timeline. Retrieved from http://movies.about.com/od/animatedmovies/a/history-animated-films.htm

Miyao, D. (2002). Japan forum. Before anime: animation and the Pure Film Movement in pre-war Japan.,
14(2), 191-209. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy.utdallas.edu/ehost/detail?sid=4ef1c519-e90c-4d6c-bbd6-2277c37167ce@sessionmgr10&vid=4&hid=9&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ==

Connelly, J., & Connelly, M. (2011). Tech trends. History of Animation, 55(3), 6. Retrieved from http://www.springerlink.com.libproxy.utdallas.edu/content/3405846h66w55212/

Telotte, J. P. (2008). Journal of popular film & television. The Stereoscopic Mickey: Space, Animation, and the Mouse.,
36(3), 133-140. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy.utdallas.edu/ehost/detail?sid=1fb7da6f-2322-4556-97ca-d415989d8688@sessionmgr15&vid=6&hid=9&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ==

The Beginings of a New Art Form

The creation of animation can't be attributed to any single person or film; rather it was developed over several years during the early 1900s by people building on those before them as they inched closer and closer to what we now understand as animation today. Today I will cover some of the early milestones of animation that led it to become a mainstream industry. 

1900: One of the earliest steps towards animation was the short video The Enchanted Drawing created by cartoonist J. Stuart Blackton where he uses stop-camera tricks to give the appearance of him interacting with a cartoon man. Although the film is not considered true animation it is an important milestone towards the development of later films.

1906: After other artists expanded on his techniques, J. Stuart Blackton came back to create what is commonly considered the first animated film titled Humorous Phases of Funny Faces which uses chalk drawings and cut out pieces of paper to achieve true animation. 

1914: After Blackton's work in 1906, many other artists began experimenting with animation. One of the most notable is Winsor McCay who created the Gertie the Dinosaur series which helped bring animation into mainstream view. In this work you can see how animation had been refined in the 8 years since it's inception from choppy and rigid movement into something more believable for the audience.

1920-1930s: By this time animation had developed into a fledgling industry producing gag animations, but it wasn't until Walt Disney brought his passion for pushing the limits and furthering animation as a serious art form that it was brought into the mainstream. Walt Disney started his studio in Hollywood, California working on the Alice Comedies which featured a young girl going on various adventures. It wasn't until 1928 with the short film Steamboat Willie that Walt enjoyed his first major commercial success. Not only was Steamboat Willie the first public introduction of Mickey Mouse, though not the first animation to feature him, it was also the first animation to have a full post-produced soundtrack. Mickey Mouse's popularity would later skyrocket in the 1930s, bringing Walt Disney's studio to the forefront of animation both in popularity and technique.

Walt Disney and his team of animators eventually went on to create some of the most successful animated films of all time. In the next blog post I will cover what is known as The Golden Age of animation up to the introduction of 3D animation into the feature film industry.



Sources

Simmon, S. (1999, March 31). Notes on the origins of american animation, 1900-1921. Retrieved from http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/oahtml/oapres.html

Thomas, F., & Johnston, O. (1981). The illusion of life: Disney animation. New York, NY: Walt Disney Productions.

Introduction to blog

  The Evolution of Animation

     During the past 100 years, animation has grown from a niche art form by a handful of small studios into the major industry that animation is today. How did it get there? What innovations were needed to bring animation into the mainstream media? Recovering the roots of animation and its principles is beneficial for young animators to understand both how to apply them and why they are so important. Knowing the history and development of animation is key to knowing not just how it's done in modern studios by why it's done the way it is. Because of this I decided to take it upon myself to fill that gap and educate those interested in

animation through this blog.

     This blog will cover how animation has evolved since the first animated film in 1899 to become the giant international industry that it is today. The blog will be primarily focused on contributions made by past animators and films and how they relate to modern animation. The blog will discuss both important past animations during the 1900s and modern ones that building towards the future of animations. I will also cover the origins and development of the 12 principles of animation, the problems they solved in early animation, and how they are used by animation studios today. Special interest will be given to the early years of Disney and the animators there who developed many of the major techniques and showed the world how to bring life into drawings.

Topics covered

• The foundation of the 12 principles of animation and the problems they were developed to solve.
• Landmark animations and historically important animators.
• How animation was shaped over time to be what it is today.
• Where the industry is today and where it is going.
• Disney and its impact on the animation industry. 

This blog isn't only for aspiring animators, it's for people of all ages with an interest in animation and a love for animated films produced by the industry.

This is for you if...

•  You are an animator interested in knowing why animation is done the way it is. 
•  You enjoy animated films and want to learn more about them. 
•  You want to learn more about the principles of animation. 
•  You love Disney and want to know how it was brought to the forefront of animation.

I'll start off by introducing the 12 principles of animation used in the industry today.

1. Squash and Stretch
2. Anticipation
3. Staging
4. Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose
5. Follow Through and Overlapping Action
6. Slow In and Slow Out
7. Arcs
8. Secondary Action
9. Timing
10. Exaggeration
11. Solid Drawing
12. Appeal

 I will use future blog posts to go through each of these in more detail in order to explain both why they are used and where they came from.