Brendans animation blog

Breakdowns

2012-02-10T05:12:00.000-08:00

Breakdowns (My take on a Keith Lango take on Breakdowns.)

The Breakdown defines the movement. It defines the character of the motion.

If the motion is flat, the breakdown needs punched up!

If you like the performance but not the motion, That's a breakdown issue.

1. Key Poses

2. Primary Breakdowns

3. Secondary Breakdown

4. Polish

Secondary Breakdown.

Define additional details of the motion where Primary Breakdowns are not enough.

Eases, additional arc definition, additional overlap, small anticipation, Overshoot and settle.

Secondary BD develops the interest of the movement.

If you change your key pose, you have to change your BD.

Key out the key poses stacked (next to each other)

Add Breakdowns, but favour the spacing.

Then add the secondary breakdowns that help define additional details, : Overlap, anticipation, etc

Breakdowns help you define the motion between Key poses

Secondary Breakdowns help define the movement between the Breakdown and the Key poses.

Breakdown shows the emotion, Does he get from point A to B, fast or slow.

Do not time out your scene until you finish your breakdowns.

Gesture before you say the word , reactions will be timed after the sound. Good lip sync comes early.

Time it out on your thumbnails. Some moves need more than one primary breakdown. Breakdown help define how the motion works.

Your Breakdowns can effect change in the Key Poses, things can always be changed, to improve the scene, try not to think to dogmatic and use the guide lines and principles as guides.

Adding Breakdown

Keys Stacked. RIGHT?

Drag out the second pose by one frame , select the 1st pose, with all controllers selected and change to linear.

This gives you a half way point. You can borrow that and changes in terms of FAVOURING, DRAG/OVERLAP AND ARC.

Sometimes you require more Breakdowns if the computer is doing to much work.

For example:

You want the BODY to favour and hit the Key poses before the limbs hit

The body is getting closer, the Key Pose, we've got more information now, we're not asking the computer to do are job.

Develop your breakdowns, mess around with them and get more SQUASH and STRETCH in the body, hands and arms.

Just because you change your breakdown it doesn't mean you don't change your Key pose, ALWAYS IMPROVE YOUR SCENE.

Favouring

Pose1 Primary Breakdown Pose 2

Primary Breakdowns

Favouring

Overlap/drag

Arcs

Favouring

Where the Breakdown has a visual appearnece that is more like one pose and less like the other.

SLOW IN or FAST IN

SLOW OUT or FAST OUT

Overlap

Drag or animated forces, Gives the scene of weight and inertia to the motion. Parts lag behind other parts, Creating a combined sense of overlapping motion.

Overlap is built into the breakdown.

Arcs

Bio-motion Moves predominantly in arcing patterns. Good primary breakdowns indicate the major motion arc of the part in the motion.

PRIMARY BREAKDOWNS

· Favouring

· Overlap/drag

· Arcs

I love the breakdowns in all of this.

2012-01-25T09:27:00.000-08:00

Kaeloo - Let's play Scaredy Cat from Cube Creative on Vimeo.

Dialogue test

2011-10-26T06:44:00.000-07:00

Animation work from http://www.kultan.com/

2011-10-05T01:52:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to work on this cool project. I Lead the animation team on the project and also had my first expierence of training animators on the job. The game had a fanatstic team and it looks great!!

My break down of Glen keane's notes

2011-07-04T04:54:00.000-07:00

Character Development.

Know precisely what actions are right for that personality.

Story - Characters conflicts. We have to care about his story.

Personality - How does he character feel about himself?

What does he want?

What is he afraid of?

His weaknesses?

What is his world view?

History -

Writ history of your character that brings you up to present moment. What events and people shaped him?

Environment - What's his world like? Hostile - friendly, Luxurious - Desolate, poor - rich.

Design - Describe his appearance - Intimidating, sensual, dumpy, etc

Anticipation

Anticipation is built by clarity - A simple, clear idea that communicates and

captures an audience is your goal.

Character - If the audience knows your character they can enjoy anticipating

his reaction in a given situation.

Music - A feeling of "Get ready for this!" is largely due to the right music. It

can anticipate joy, fear, patriotism, love, etc.

Staging - Your point of view must be clear. What do I want to say with this

scene? How do I want the audience to feel in this shot? How you stage the

scene clues in the audience to how they should feel.

28th in April's 11secondclub.. :)

2011-05-06T13:40:00.000-07:00

http://www.11secondclub.com/competitions/april11

Introduction to Motionbuilder work flows

2011-03-04T09:08:00.000-08:00

I have been looking for a good introduction tutorial for Motionbuilder for a long time. I'm verry to have found one that delivers. I fully recomend checking out the link below, for anyone interested in Motionbuilder!

http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/louis/3ds_max_and_motion_builder_workflow_and_a_bit_of_kinect

More to a Smile Than Lips and Teeth

2011-01-27T23:51:00.000-08:00

Check out this cool article on Smiling.

Animation workflow. cool download

2011-01-24T09:35:00.000-08:00

http://www.squeezestudio.com/animation-insiders/

Animation Process at my studio

2010-07-28T07:43:00.000-07:00

I wrote a blog for the animation process in Poisonville

http://en.board.bigpoint.com/poisonville/showthread.php?t=216689#post1228340

Playboy

2010-07-28T07:41:00.000-07:00

http://www.playboy.de/poisonville

I posed the charcaters for are playboys miss poionville

Solid Breakdowns

2010-03-10T06:48:00.000-08:00

Some notes I've taken from Eric Goldberg's book: Character Animation Crash Course

Having the ability to place a breakdown in exactly the right position can give you automatic overlap. Don't forget your cushion IN and cushion OUT.
With the correct breakdown your work can be planned for ease of excution and maximum effectiveness.

Have your arc in the breakdown
Have your slow in/ slow out in your breakdown.
(pay attention when blocking)

The breakdown is what can add interest to a basic movement.
The arcs, delays, paths of action are in the breakdown are reflected in the entire move.

So your not going going A -> B -> C, your going A-> F -> C To get the right result animation it is not straight forward, it is planning!

If the keys are what the character is doing. The breakdown is how the charachter does it.
The breakdown can show/ sell any kind of emotion, fear, happyness, curious, cautiousness.

New Reel!!

2010-03-01T15:10:00.000-08:00

Recent work, using cat plugin for max

2010-02-12T09:56:00.000-08:00

You met her?

2010-02-06T13:31:00.000-08:00

quick update on current shot

Investers pull the plug.

2010-01-31T01:01:00.000-08:00

The Investers pull the plug on the game, 50-70% of the staff gone in 2 days.My Berlin journey has came to a premature ending, Never the less onwards and upwards, Animator for Hire!

Berlin Berlin

2010-01-18T13:11:00.000-08:00

No post as I've moved to Berlin. It's been mental busy.

Im currently working here.

2009-12-15T12:51:00.001-08:00

cat rigging

2009-11-11T08:50:00.000-08:00

Dialogue shot finish

2009-10-24T09:52:00.000-07:00

term 3 finished

2009-09-16T00:39:00.000-07:00

two shots. I have NOT animated the face of the first shot YET, but will be done in 3 weeks.

emotional hand tests for AM

2009-09-09T00:45:00.000-07:00

Relaxed

Surprised

Angry

Mocap Vs Key Frame animation

2009-08-29T04:58:00.000-07:00

Hi, I animated a breakdance move and then got a bit of motion capture data and refined it. I'm curious to see what had the best end result. I spent about 4-5 animating this. could do with more refinement.

1. My keyframed animation of a windmill dance move.
I used reference from you tube.

2.Here is the original mocap data before I fixed it.

3. The Motioncapture refined!

I would love to get sme feedback on this.

NEW SHOWREEL Aug 2009

2009-08-20T16:32:00.001-07:00

New reel

http://www.brendanfagan.com

It will be updated again, December, I've a few project on going, and will post once it's finished.

For RIG sake

2009-08-12T13:46:00.000-07:00

Click on Images to read text! cheers

2009-07-28T00:00:00.001-07:00

The best short I've ever seen. true classic

2009-07-12T05:09:00.001-07:00

Thoughts or emotions. Part 2

2009-06-26T04:49:00.000-07:00

My repsonce to ED

I think what has distracted me, is that I believed that inner monologue is the same as thinking, and that's something we display on screen, usually with emotions expressed in the character, or a conflict, that our audience can empathize with. So I hope I get it now, and I think I do. Empathy is the key, like you say in your class.

"Your note about "inner monologue" is interesting, Brendan, and I'm glad you mentioned it. I don't think I have ever addressed the inner monologue specifically, and I probably should. Bay Raitt recently told me that when he was working on Gollum's facial animation, the animators divided the page of the script into two halves. On the right hand side was the dialogue spoken by Gollum. And on the left side was Gollum's thoughts. As I recall, he said they tried to animate those thoughts. Many times I have heard good animators say that they "animate the thought".

It seems to me that animating the thought is a good idea, just as long as you keep in mind the formula "action pursuing objective while overcoming obstacle". Indeed -- as was the case with Gollum -- what the character is saying does not make clear what his true objective might be. People -- including animated ones -- tell lies. Or half-truths. A man meets a woman and compliments her on her dress when his true objective is to get that dress off of her. If you were looking for objective in the line: "That is a very pretty dress", you would not get necessarily close to the truth. The guy might be a dress designer by trade. Or he might be gay. The possibilities are limitless. The key is to know your character intimately enough so that you, the animator, know his true objectives -- even if nobody else does." Ed Hooks

Ed's repsonce was just brillent.

Note for today.

just don't say something with your pose choices. SAY IT!

Is it our characters thoughts or their emotions that drive their action in your scene.

2009-06-16T08:21:00.000-07:00

PART 1

(I’m going to break this up as it’s a bit long)

Should our characters emotional expression be the driving force? Or should the character’s thoughts be the steam behind the engine.

Emotion 1^st Thought 2^nd Action 3^rd

Thoughts 1^st Emotion 2^nd Actions 3^rd.

What drives our character's action? He or she wants something! How do they feel about it? And how do we show this on screen?

I wanted to share a conversation I had with Mr Ed Hooks on this matter.

I asked, was it our characters emotions or thoughts that should drive are scene? At first I thought it was a bit of both, which ultimately seems to be the answer.

“The connections between thinking, emotion and physical action are a little tricky……It is true that thinking can lead to action. I can decide that I want to take a sip of coffee from the cup next to my computer, and that physical action would not have much to do with emotion. It also would have no theatrical value. Professional wrestlers and boxers have quite a lot of physical action, and they train to remain level headed during a fight.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that we humans only empathize with emotion. We do not empathize with thinking. What you as an animator want to do is create in your audience a sense of empathy. So, although thinking CAN lead to physical action, what you are going for is emotion that leads to action.

Emotion all by itself has zero theatrical value. If you create a character that is so happy he is jumping up and down with glee, that is emotion leading to action, but it would lack conflict. If this was the first time he jumped up and down since the car wreck, he would have to contend with s stiff body and maybe weakened legs. That would make it theatrical.

Emotion and thinking is a two-way street. The way you feel affects the way you think. This is probably what people mean when they tell you that emotion leads to thinking that leads to action. There is NEVER a moment in our waking life when we are not experience some kind of emotion, even if only low-grade. As I write this, my emotions are not going off the scale, but I certainly have some. I am anticipating the arrival of some handymen who are going to fix some things in my home, so I am a little bit excited, and it causes me to type a little faster than I would normally. So, in this case, emotion affects my thinking, and my thinking leads to faster typing -- physical action. But there is very little conflict to my typing, so no audience is going to want to watch me do it for very long.

The way you think affects the way you feel. The way you feel affects the way you think. A person who is frightened might not make rational decisions. Still, the formula that thinking tends to lead to conclusions and emotion tends to lead to action is a valid one. What I want is for my students to understand that it is impossible to have emotions without thinking. Emotions are automatic value responses. Common sense dictates that you would not be afraid of an approaching rabid dog until you know it is a dog. Recognizing that it is a dog is a thinking process, not an emotional one.” Mr Hooks

There is great stuff in here, meaty subjects. I still had unanswered question on this topic which I will release shortly.

Note for today

“After all our studies, we aquire only that which we put into practice” -Goethe

(I’m not sure who Goethe is but I agree with him.)

Animation Mentor

2009-06-11T15:48:00.000-07:00

I'm heading back!!

I found it tricky to do some studying and animate at once at animation mentor on top off a full time job. You can do it, but I just didn't feel like I was getting enough out of it. By that I meen I don't think I was asking the right questions or enough questions. So I've spent the last 6 months or so studying hard and now ready to get back in. I fully recommend people to study the Illusion of life and also study Eric Larson notes and others that can be found at animationmeat.com. I also recommens Ed hooks books and as I've mentioned before Keith Lango has alot great video tutorials availble for download on his website. Study anything really you can get your hands on. There is so much out there. So Im ready to drive my mentors mental with questions.

my foot note for today.

Don't move anything without a reason.

11 second Club June/ bombed

2009-06-06T07:14:00.000-07:00

I entered the 11 secoond club this month and my shot bombed, I love animation and they say true love never ran smooth.

My biggest mistake was I played it too safe. I floated between poses and didn't hit them hard enough.
I need to hit my poses way harder than I think and I should hold my poses longer than I expect. It should improve my work.

I didn't emphasise my mouth shapes on F'W'O and G's in my lip sync.
I was recomended to use a webcam to record myself speaking the lines at a normal pace, then go back through and frame-by-frame through it to see how your mouth changes as it forms the words.

Hopefully with this advice, i'll improve.

The lipsync is a bit stiky on this. So please go to the link, to get proper playback.

http://www.11secondclub.com/competitions/may09/entry/vQ8Pes/

My degree film Suicidal paranoia

2009-05-22T14:18:00.000-07:00

Degree film 2004-2005
Edinburgh College of Art.
I hope you enjoy it. At the time I was inspired by short films like Rejected and Happy Tree Friends.

Further notes on anticipation

2009-05-18T16:09:00.000-07:00

If you treat anticipation like the blowing up off a balloon. The more air you put in it the bigger the bang you get. So If you have a long anticipating hold, followed by a fast violent/fast action. You will have managed to have work in some great contrast in your work.

I recently asked Keith Lango about anticipation as I was confused by one of his notes on a webpage I found long ago.

“Does the size of the anticipation match the speed of the subsequent action?”

Maybe it’s just me but at first I thought he meant. Does the anticipation equal the following move, are they the same length, which just didn’t sound right to me. So I asked him for further insight. My take on it now is that.

By saying match, He meant, does the anticipation relate to the follow up move. And by RELATE. It has many options. Slow followed by fast. Or slow followed by slow for comedic effect. Also if your going to take a step forward, there is a small (quickish) weight shift in your body in anticipation before you step forward.

Your anticipation depends on what effect you are looking for.

Keith followed up by saying

“The way I see anticipation, it's like blowing up a balloon. The bigger the bang you want, the more you blow it up. So the faster or violent move, the bigger the anticipation. The inverse is also true. The slow, more laid back the move, the less you need to build up and hold the anticipation energy. To step sideways there is a very slight anticipation in the opposite direction with the hips. This is not fast or severe or even held, but it exists. Then the step comes, usually at normal speed and without much fanfare. A more extreme version of this is the old WB off screen zip. Big antic, hold that antic a long time (let that energy really build up) and then explode off screen in 2 frames or less. You couldn't have a soft antic and then explode off screen in 2 frames or less. It'd feel all off. Now you probably could have a huge build up and held antic and then step off in a normal manner at normal speed- but the result would be extremely comedic. The comedy comes from setting up the expectation of a fast zoom, but then doing the unexpected with a normal step. That's probably the only instance of mixing and matching the antic/motion energies that works”

These notes are a great insight into anticipation. I just want to thank Mr Lango for clearing that up for me.

Important Questions to ask yourself about Acting in Animation

2009-05-11T05:15:00.000-07:00

I've just started to look hard at acting in animation and heres a tip I picked up from Keith Lango. Again I fully recommentd him. He will raise your game.

1^st What are the internal Realities for this character at this moment at this time and place?

(Ask yourself? What does this character need right now, what do they not have?)

2^ndHow do they feel about it? What is their Emotional Reaction to it?

(Why can’t they have it?)

(Example: If you’re an attention seeker and nobody paying attention to you

= You want or need attention and you’re not getting it.

What are your emotional reactions?

= ANGER, FRUSTRATION, LONELY, UPSET, ETC.

Animation is: The outward expression of internal realties of our characters.

The 12 basic Principles of animation.

2009-05-07T16:05:00.000-07:00

Hi, this is basic straight forward notes on the principles I have picked up from various places, including the Illusion of Life, and Animation Mentor Lectures. Its a kinda crash course into the principles. My view on the principles has and may change as I continue to develop. Keith Lango refers to knowing the principles well is like having good hand writing. You have the ability to tell your story with good hand writing. The principles aren't animation they are what you need to be able to animate well. Excluding stylised animation of course. Sorry if I've miss quoted Keith, but check out his blog for some awesome tips on animation. I fully recommend subscribing to his tutorials. I've downloaded a few and they have been fantastic.

Heres the principles and what they are for.
12 Basic Principles of Animation.

Squash and Stretch
Anticipation
Overlap and Follow through
Solid Drawing/ Solid Posing
Straight ahead and Pose to Pose
Staging
Arcs
Appeal
Slow in, Slow out
Secondary Animation
Timing
Exaggeration

1.Squash and Stretch

Squash can be the anticipation before and object moves. For example before you jump, you must go downward and in doing this you’re squashing your body down.
Stretch is when the weight of an object is left behind. So when you jump up, the earths gravity is pulling you down, therefore your body is being stretch.

The best example of Squash and stretch can be seen in a bouncing ball and it also the best exercise to help you get to grips with basic fundamental of animation principles.

2.Anticipation

Anticipation is when we are showing the audience what we are going to do before we do it. In order to take a step we shift our weight onto our standing foot, this is the body anticipating the movement. If you try to stand on one foot you will feel and see your body weight shift.

3.Overlap and Follow through

An object in motion tends to stay in motion! Characters on the screen do not terminate suddenly. You need to animate your character coming to a natural rest, so that he remains alive on the screen. When you walk in a straight line and suddenly you stop yourself, you will notice that your body needs to catch up with itself. The legs stop but the torso neck head and arms will all overlap the movement until they come to a rest. Also you need to remember that there will be a successful braking of joints. Though out your body. Your waist will stop first, followed by your stomach (mid section) and then your chest, neck and head etc. Clothing items, hair and anything flexible on your character will overlap the characters movement also.

4.Solid posing

You need to have a clear silhouette that displays the characters action, expressions and emotion. These poses must help the story telling of the scene. At least one pose in your scene should help tell the story. Solid drawing dose not mean you have to have a talent in shading and creating photographic interpretation. You need to draw quickly and clear in order to get your thumbnails down.

5. Straight a head and Pose to Pose.

This is the two different ways to animate. Straight a head method is when you do exactly that. Animate from frame 1 and continue until you stop. This type of animation can offer fluid results but lacks structure and can become time consuming.

Pose to Pose, is when you block in your scene with story telling poses, also know as golden poses. This will structure your scene and you won’t spiral out of control with this structure. Your poses should change when your character’s emotions change or when a character under takes a new action.

Remember this K.I.S.S = KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID! Clarity and appeal are very important in your posing also!

6. Staging

How you set up your scene to tell your story. Clarity and entertainment value are the important values of staging. Body gestures of people sitting together closely will represent two people who are interested in one another. Two people sitting with each other but looking and leaning away from each other will display discomfort between the two.

7. Arcs

Arcs make your movement more fluid. All movement in nature moves on an arc with maybe the exception of some insects.
You need to track your arcs no matter if you’re working on computer or paper

8. Appeal

Appeal dose not mean cute and cuddly. Its means anything a person would like to see, is it interesting, funny, sad, etc?
Your poses are clear and the entertainment value is there. Your scene is clear and reads with the audience. You need to ask yourself would anyone other than your mother enjoy seeing this shot!! You have to be realistic about your work and push it as far as you can. Is it appealing enough for someone to pay to see it?

9. Slow in SLOOOW out

When you move, your body builds up momentum and it takes time for that momentum to build up and also to stop. When your body is trying to stop moving it often will cushion that movements halt. When you start running the first step will not have the same speed as when you’re at full throttle. It will also take time for you to slow down. This also applies to subtitle movements, a slight twist of the neck will slowly move at the beginning of the movement and at the end of the movement. A characters movement can be slowed by adding more drawings into the scene.

10. Timing

Timing is possibly the must important principle as its how you tell the story and sells the characters weight in his movement.
A heavy character will move slowly to sell his weight. And skinny guy will be moving faster as he has less weight to move around the screen. Timing will display emotion in character a slowly moving guy might be depressed or sick and a fast moving character will be up beat and excited about life.

Timing allows us to add texture and rhythm to the scene by having contrast in our movement. You want to have at least three speeds in your scene.
Slow medium and fast. You don’t want your scene to have a rhythm of

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEEEEEP!

You want = Beep Booop bee boo bang twang bop be bo bo bop.

Treat your scene like a song, it needs to have rhythm.

11. Secondary Animation

A secondary motion by the character that helps carries the scene but does not take away from the main action. Fore example if a character is up set and turns his back to the screen, while the character is turning he wipes a tear from his eye. This movement would be classified as the secondary animation. It adds texture to the scene.

12. Exaggeration

Exaggeration is when we push are work that little bit further. Exaggerate the pose the timing to really sell are work. We are not duplicating reality but characterising it. We do this by pushing the characters emotion.

Posing test from Animation Mentor

2009-05-06T13:26:00.000-07:00

Poses in order, excitement, Strong, Balance, and shock, poses that tell a story.

2009-05-06T13:13:00.000-07:00

I thought my reel would be better shown here than just posting a link.
This is work from working in game studios, Television shows and Freelanace work and of course Animation Mentor work.

My homepage

2009-05-06T11:33:00.000-07:00

Brendanfagan.com

A collection of my work up to date. 2005-2009

Morphing expression test

2009-05-06T11:21:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to work in some realistic facial expression into my work. The test isn't perfect but its a step in the right direction. I modeled and animate this work.

I used reference from a great book called

The Artist's Complete Guide to Facial Expression