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Top Five Helpful Hints

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Top Five Helpful Hints

It is me posting again so I hope that is will be helpful and/or interesting.

This is a thread from another forum about helping the animator get past five of the most commonly posted comments. (say"commonly posted comments" five times fast)
http://www.11secondclub.com/helpful_hints/the_top_5/

It is me posting again so I hope that is will be helpful and/or interesting.

This is a thread from another forum about helping the animator get past five of the most commonly posted comments. (say"commonly posted comments" five times fast)
http://www.11secondclub.com/helpful_hints/the_top_5/

:pYou always share the wonderful link with es, how dou you find it?

Mostly I trip over them. :D
I am always on the prowl for interesting animation related information.

The problem I have with those tips is that there's a bit of lip-service being paid there.
The "stronger poses" one is a bit laughable because NONE of the shown poses are very strong or natural-looking
I hate to say it, but the pencil mafia has something over CGI models in this--because those poses could be EASILY pushed in a traditional drawing.
Using a rigged model like that, with limited movements doesn't really help sell the important message home. Both before/after examples are stiff and awkward.

For one, people don't despair with their heads up--they lower them down toward their chest, their centre. That can't be done with this rigged model because the length of the arms would not allow the eyes to be covered by the hands.
The rigging here is determining what the pose can hit.......not what the artist is ( or should be) capable of producing.
Lowering the head would produce a stronger line of action with the spine.

Again, with the idea of a stronger line of action, the standing pose should have the top of the head tilted to the right ( chin towards the left shoulder) so the red spine line can follow through.
Instead......it looks like what it is......an awkward CGI model that is TRYING to be an animation pose, and coming up........( oh, I'll say it) half-assed.

There's no rhythm to these, something that I stalwartly believe could be discovered via a traditional drawing.

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

I thought the swimmy or floated tip was a good one. I see it a lot. As for the poses, how can anyone point out a stronger pose without redrawing the pose?
Use lines with different colors maybe. Lines drawing spine action are alway hard for me to follow. I keep losing track of what is going where but that is just me.

Speaking of strong poses, I read that magazines are an excellent source to study strong poses.

Maybe this forum could come up with a list of 5 helpful hints. Things we could look for and make constructive comments on.

My 5 helpful hints would be:

1: Figure out what is appealing.
2: Push it for all its worth.
3: Timing first, volumes second.
4: Treat camera moves like you are holding the audience's head in your hand.
5: Keep it simple, silly.

and ...

6: Tell the story, then stop.
7: Don't be boring.
8: If its crap, do it over.
9: Learn what the others guys do, to make your job better and theirs easier.
10: You dictate to the tools, don't let the tools dictate to you.

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

My 5 helpful hints would be:

1: Figure out what is appealing.
2: Push it for all its worth.
3: Timing first, volumes second.
4: Treat camera moves like you are holding the audience's head in your hand.
5: Keep it simple, silly.

Your a teacher so these are comments you have made to your students?

I have been watching a lot of clips and I have no idea how to quantify appeal or the lack of appeal in the clips I have seen. Not being able express this must be what is holding me back.

Your a teacher so these are comments you have made to your students?

Yes, for many moons I passed on these sacred words to my warbling padawans, as they were passed on to me by my mentors.

I have been watching a lot of clips and I have no idea how to quantify appeal or the lack of appeal in the clips I have seen. Not being able express this must be what is holding me back.

Disney & Warner Bros = appealing.
South Park, Beavis and Butt Head, Kevin Spencer = unappealing.

Appeal is designs that work, that you can literally not take your eyes off of.
Unappealing designs make your brain start wondering how to fix them.

H.R. Giger does grotesque stuff.......but its appealing.

American Dad is a "simple cartoon" but the designs are pretty bland & ugly--and hence unappealing.

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

Appeal is designs that work, that you can literally not take your eyes off of.
Unappealing designs make your brain start wondering how to fix them.

That's pretty wise and concise, but I don't think it fully covers everything. There are two types of unappealing, I've found.

Unappealing - very poorly done
Unappealing - just not my cup of tea

Both types of unappealing would make a person only think about ways to fix things, which is why it is often difficult to tell them apart.

An example, someone who doesn't like heavy metal music would say "get rid of all those loud guitars and maybe I'd like it". Of course, doing that would ruin the essence of the genre. That's the type of thing that would appeal to some and not others.

Is there an easier way to make that distinction?

Order my book Jesus Needs Help on Amazon or download on Kindle.

You can also read the first 18 pages of my next book for free at this link: The Hap Hap Happy Happenstance of Fanny Punongtiti

That's pretty wise and concise, but I don't think it fully covers everything. There are two types of unappealing, I've found.

Unappealing - very poorly done
Unappealing - just not my cup of tea

Both types of unappealing would make a person only think about ways to fix things, which is why it is often difficult to tell them apart.

An example, someone who doesn't like heavy metal music would say "get rid of all those loud guitars and maybe I'd like it". Of course, doing that would ruin the essence of the genre. That's the type of thing that would appeal to some and not others.

Is there an easier way to make that distinction?

Well, Giger's work isn't my cup of tea, but its still an appealing design aesthetic.
Family Guy, Simpsons, and Futurama are what I would consider semi-appealing, but the designs still work.
The stuff I mentioned before ( South Park et al.)are designs I just don't want to look at at all--so to my mind they don't work. They are just ugly and bland.
Another example: Bryan Lee O' Malley's SCOTT PILGRIM comic is loaded with appealing designs, but it does not interest me in the slightest. The designs just work, but one doesn't have to personally like them or feel a need to fix them.

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

Hmmmm

None of that quite clears up the mystery. All I can really tell is that the notion of appeal is much more of a "shades of grey" type of thing rather then the black & white concept we'd like it to be.

Order my book Jesus Needs Help on Amazon or download on Kindle.

You can also read the first 18 pages of my next book for free at this link: The Hap Hap Happy Happenstance of Fanny Punongtiti

Hmmmm

None of that quite clears up the mystery. All I can really tell is that the notion of appeal is much more of a "shades of grey" type of thing rather then the black & white concept we'd like it to be.

I would like to see more top five helpful hints on making one's clip better. Putting the stuff about "appeal" aside, there are other issues that trip up the inexperienced.

I would like to see more top five helpful hints on making one's clip better. Putting the stuff about "appeal" aside, there are other issues that trip up the inexperienced.

Heh, well most beginners get locked into doing pretty drawings right from the start............uh-uh. Big mistake.
The first drawings one should do for a scene are like the 30 second gestural drawings one does in life-drawing class.

AHA!

The penny drops.......as I have seen it drop with many a student........they finally realize WHY and how things are connected......that making them do those fast scribbles in Life Drawing wasn't just some pointless hoop to jump through.

Its not just some compartmentalized BS, it ALL means something in the process.
You get the basis of the drawing down quickly, not worrying about volumes, just being purely gestural.
You are concentrating on timing first......making sure the action works FIRST. If the timing is weak.....looking after volumes isn't going to mean jack-squat to the scene because the movements are not going to work anyway.

Many a student has not believed me when I told them that they could "animate" an entire scene in less than an hour.......often much less than that. Their minds cannot comprehend it because they are still thinking in terms of a finished drawing. Then they get shown a series of rough keys drawn by the instructor that take maybe........15-20 minutes to draw, then they shoot a rough test and THEN they see just how it works.
It wastes so little time and effort working ruff and gestural , yet it gets you results that you can see right away and makes the whole process less daunting and intimidating.
Yeah, they can ruff animate their entire 1-minute student film in A DAY by this method, and then spend the rest of their time refining the timing and action, and then doing their final drawing.
This, rather than spending weeks pissing around trying this, or that.....and becoming intensely frustrated.

Two more tips related to this: use a softer pencil, and don't use an eraser.
You can always draw lighter at first and bear down once you get the line or shape you want, but don't erase--just correct the line you want and keep going.
This does a few things: it keeps your rhythm going in drawing--you just draw.
It also means you do not have to back-track by erasing, which over time helps you focus more while animating.
If a drawing just doesn't work, then rip it off the pegs and clean-sheet.

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)