Double your Animation Output in 7 Easy Steps!
In this weeks video tutorial I explain how to Double your Animation output by structuring your approach and focusing.
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I know that it’s been a while since my last update, but I had an Emergency Contract pop up. The client needed 45 Seconds of animation produced in only 8 days. With less than 24 hours notice, I was on a plane heading for Valencia, Spain to work tirelessly with the director (who only speaks Spanish) to meet this deadline!
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Well, we did it! Then I took a much needed vacation in Spain, which happened to coincide with a massive yearly festival called Fallas (link – Wikipedia).
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So Lets get started!
Here is the video where I explain the techniques I used to work so fast. I’ve also included a little bonus footage of some of the celebrations:
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A lot of planning and preparation went into this, and I genuinely hope you enjoy it! But make sure you watch it all the way to the end. I’d hate for you to miss any secrets.
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Now let me step you through this technique.
- 1. Orientation & Pre-Planning
- 2. Imagineering (sorry, my Disney past has had an effect)
- 3. Inspiration
- 4. Plan
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- 5. Blocking
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- 6. Second Pass
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- 7. Polish!
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I have also written a pdf detailing this process a bit more. This can be downloaded and freely distributed here.
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Well, I hope you found this tutorial informative and inspirational! Thanks for visiting my Animation Tips Blog. While you’re here, sign up to be notified when I post more videos like this one.
Then leave me a comment on this video. Tell me what you thought of it, and feel free to suggest topics that you’d like covered in future video’s.
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Hi DJ Nick,
Is there anyway that you could let us download the video for further reference for later?
Thanks,
Cassandra
Hello Cassandra,
I will try and get a quicktime file online in the reference section. If you have signed up as a member, I will upload it to the reference area.
Also, if you use Firefox, you can use a downloader such as “Flash Got” to download YouTube of Vimeo files. Please email me privately if you need any more help in downloading this for later viewing.
-DJ
Thanks for the tutorial DJ. Will try it out.
To Safari users who want to download the movie file:
Go to your menu bar (at the top of the screen)
Go to WINDOW>ACTIVITY
As the movie is loading, look for the only item on the Activity Window that is also loading (hint: it
will be the largest file listed (this tutorial came in at 63.2 MB)
Wait until the movie is fully loaded
Option Click on that item and it will start downloading.
This is a great way to download virtually any movie file from the web (for Mac users). Once you do this a couple of times you’ll understand what you are looking at when you open the Activity window. Option Click on the biggest file.
Sorry DJ, this is turning into my own tutorial here. I should have added that most of the things you might download this way will come in as a .flv file. These play fine in Quicktime (but I believe you need the PERIAN plug in for QT to be able to play .flv files. Google Perian for QT, it’s free!).
DJ’s tutorial came in as a mp4 which also plays fine in Quicktime.
Sorry for all this DJ. Didn’t mean to hog your blog (man that almost sounds dirty).
Thanks again.
Paul
Hey DJ thanks for the tut! How did you understand what the director wanted with the language barrier. I’ve noticed that in all creative endeavors there’s a wall, you know that once you are doing it that you’ll love it and you’ll lose track of time (get into the zone), but there’s resistance to starting that you have to knuckle down and just get over, I’m wondering if you have any tricks or advice for getting passed that initial resistance? (aside from just will power, and unplugging which you’ve mentioned) Also, in your pdf you mention that in your blocking pass you need to keep viewing from all angles, but I find that often to push for strong silhouettes/poses I need to cheat for the camera, so do you just wait until your final pass of blocking and go in and push the poses you’ve already set?
Thanks!
Paul, please don’t apologize!
That is a great comment that will help a LOT of people download these videos and many more for their own reference.
God stuff!
Hi Alonso,
A lot of the communication is done through acting things out and sometimes drawing as well. It’s actually quite fun trying to understand. Sometimes it was frustrating, but it was always exciting.
That “wall of mental resistance” you speak of (procrastination) is a big one. That’s why I say it’s important to get EXCITED about your scene by trying something new, funny or risky. When you’re excited about something you can’t wait to dive in and get started. Also, looming deadlines are a great help, as is BLOCKING the internet on your work computer. It sounds extreme, but you really should keep your work computer disconnected from the internet. That way you KNOW that sitting down at that computer means business.
As for strong silhouettes, I leave this until my final pass. You never know if the director or even you will want to move the camera a bit (or a lot). Plus it’s easier to get the weight of your character down if you make the pose work from all angles. As a later (Polish) pass I definitely push the silhouette from camera, but I try to leave this as late as possible. Of course, on tight deadlines, it’s often necessary to get right down to animating to camera, but try not to make that a habit.
Great questions Alonso! I’m glad everyone is enjoying the tutorials!
hey dude, without a shadow of a doubt this video has helped me out 1,000,000%, i struggle so much to work in complete silence as i start to talk to myself and i feel like im going insane but now i realize how important it is to have that silence and have no music playing in the background (especially Slipknot lol). as you know i dropped my animation classes until next year but as i promised im still working at animation as much as i can until my other classes are out of the way then its animation animation animation until the end of my life
. but thank you again for this tutorial as i said its help me a lot and i look forward to the next one.
talk to you soon mate.
I am testing an anti-spam plugin “WP Captcha-Free”.
You should not notice any difference in posting comments, and there is no “captcha” image verification.
Please email me if you have any problems posting comments.
-DJ
Hi DJ,
Thanks for you hard work, really useful tips!
I’ve created a referral of your site on CGDigg:
http://www.cgdigg.com/story.php?title=animation-tips
-Chen
CGDigg.com – Digg, for CG related info, vote on your favourite story or submit info you’ve found.
Hello DJ Nicke !
I’m a 24 year old GetIgnition student named Jeoff.
I found this blog through your comment.
Attending this program as a live seminar would not have been possible for me.
The Internet format is exactly what i need but it lacks the possibility to relate instantly with other students.
Because YES ! It’s good to have someone to talk about this program !!!
But don’t you find it frustrating not to be able to share feedbacks with people taking action ?!
Nicke, I’m trying to build an ‘online’ master mind because i want to share experience during the program.
But here is the kicker, i think it could be WAYYYYY more valuable to be in touch with other students after the program.
If you’d like to join, just let me know with a quick note.
Jeoff @ hotmail . com
P.S. As you may know, french people are the worst english speakers so please …
Excuse my poor english !
Hi, DJ
I would like to say that your tutorial is so great. Very very nice. As an animator, this structure to make animation is essencial to transform animation into great animation.
thank you so much and I hope to have others excelent tutorials from you very soon.
Marcos
Hey DJ,
One of my school mates recommended this site of yours and boy I am glad I came across this one. Though being at AM, the things which you discussed is constantly reminded to us, still having all in one video is great and more so because everyone has its own way of presenting stuff and amazingly the same thing can be presented in different ways and some struck us more than others.
So yours is definitely one I can relate to a lot. Though I am yet to explore other sections of your site, but rest assured you will find me haunting this site for a long time to come.
Also I was reading the comments here, Alonso has mentioned some very very relevant barriers we all face in our lives but may be don’t really come to admitting it. Or may be some even don’t know these barriers exists. Thats the worst aspect of these barriers as they are so subtle, we wont know their presence until its a bit late.
ok before i drift to other areas…i shall sign off here !
Also your suggestion of disconnecting the internet is a HUGE one. I need to get this one implemented a lot more.
Thanks !
Cheers!
Hey DJ,
Your lectures are awesome man, keep up the good work! You are very informative and put things in ways that we can easily understand.
One request I have, is to maybe make a tutorial on how exactly you go about moving from the blocking stage to the polishing stage. Everywhere you go, people just say to “now move on to polishing stage” but dont really show how exactly is a good way to tackle this. I know this is assuming that a person is working in stepped mode at first for their blocking stage, which i think is safe to say that the majority of people do. Its just that whole transition from stepped to spline that is very intimidating. I was just wondering if you could shed some light in this area.
Thanks again for all this hard work you put into making these FREE lectures. I think I speak for everyone when I say that it is definitely a huge asset to us and we greatly appreciate what ur doing.
Thanks!
Hey DJ, I really like what your doing for the animation community. I’ve been searching for good work-flow techniques for awhile now and yours is by far the easiest and simplest I’ve found. Thanks for all the hard work! Can’t wait for the next one!
Thanks!
Hey DJ,
Thanks allot for posting this! Very interested in what you said about The Zone and in the work-flow in general. As a junior animator I find my workflow is often a mess of different stages and half finished ideas, so I’ve added your workflow principles to my desktop at work so I can learn a better way of working!
Thanks again, was very useful,
Simon
Hi, do you think you can help me out by animating a fight scene. something with a lot of action. thanks.
hi,
This is a great piece of material, and i love that you just go through it all quickly. I hate sitting and listening to lengthy monotonous stuff.
Will go look for more stuff on your website now
Oh maaan!!! thnx a LOT!!!
Great tutorials! I’d love to hear more about how you add overlap and follow through into your animation, esp when you offset keyframes vs. building it into the pose during your blocking. Thanks!
Hi there,
I found this tutorial so helpful, thanks alot! I was wondering if you had any ideas on character empathy as I am currently creating a film for last year at university and this would be a real help for me.
Thanks again,
James D
I really enjoyed this video and it’s inspired me for my own classes. I realize that I spend too much time explaining the technical details, whereas what you cover here is just as important if not more. It gets to the heart of how you must approach your projects and how to apply those things you learn. In fact, an improper approach such as listening to music or having a video playing on another monitor while you try and work (yes, this is actually more common than you’d think) not only slows you down and reduces the quality of your work, but for students new to animation, I believe it can actually block the ability to fully absorb and grasp what they’ve just learned and are trying to apply. You can’t learn simply by studying, you have to do it, and your video helps to explain how one should do it. Kudos!
This wonderful post! thanks a lot for the amazing article! I’ll make sure to come back in your immediate future!