Doodle :)

Been a while I posted something.. just doodling around with keyframes

A seminar with Ed Hooks

These are the brief notes based on what I tried to scribble along in a lecture by Ed hooks in this years International animation day.

We were there sitting in the auditorium and Ed hooks started his lecture and made his points clear by going points to point in the film, 'the iron giant'.

I hope you have seen the film. Then he (E.hooks) said, I loved The Iron giant, I liked monsters Inc and I did not like shrek. I mean what a courageous thing to say, but he did... directly say that amongst so many people?!

... so yeah he started with the intro, In the Iron giant the fisherman is fishing and some meteor falls into the stormy sea... then he sees a lighthouse as the last hope, he hopes to be rescued until the giant lighthouse turns around and those are nothing but a pair of big giant white robot eyes! he pauses: says... the character go on doing something that they are supposed to do, untill something causes them to stop them, then they overcome the hurdle... (the fisherman is doing his daily job of fishing in the sea, gets caught in a storm and sees this bizzare sight) we as human empathize with emotions in the characters, the Iron giant is a robot, he is not human(nised) yet and something about emotions leading to action... he said... acting for actors and acting for animators is very different as actors need to feel and do right there, right then on the stage, while the animator can pause the action at any frame and ask...

WHAT IS THE CHARACTER DOING?

I mean yeah he is scratching his head or stumbling but that's not what he is doing... that is his behaviour, what is the emotion/purpose that is driving the character?

WHAT MAKES A GOOD STORY?

now we skip to the next clip where hogarth is trying to pursue his mother to keep a tiny squirrel, he leans on the counter on the cafe where his mom works and plays on one of the stools, the round ones, you know the one at the bars which rotate, he said, see how he's playing on the stools?

well what is this character doing?>he's trying to pursue his mother to keep the squirell >he's playing on the stool, nagging his mother to keep the squirrel: that's his behaviour, not what he is doing... (I hope you get my explanation.. lol)

ADRENALINE MOMENT:

Now this was very useful for me... when mom finally agrees to see the squirell that hogarth has brought, he realises that the squirel has escaped the box, he frantically searches everwhere until he spots it right there running away under one of the tables, crawling he reaches the table where a man is reading a newspaper, he calls the man again and again, and when he removes the paper, the man is sleeping with his head back and sunglasses.. pauses... see now.. how this has so much information squeezed into a single frame?we can see this person is tired, maybe lives alone, is a roaming person etc etc... (I forgot)cont. hogarth talks to the man, while the squirel crawls into the man's pants.. biting his lips and squinching he cannot take it anymore... he gets up and turns his back to the camera... unzips his pants! the squirel jumps out, and the whole room goes ooooh!you have to see the scene man, I can't descibe it... brrr

anyway here he pauses and says.. this is the adrenaline moment, it is something that the characters will never forget, the mom will remember it as the day when her son brought in the squirell, the boy will remember it as the day when how the squirrel he brought in the other day caused a havoc in the cafe, the man will remember it as the day when a kid's squirrel got into his pants and the people of the cafe will remember it as the day when a squirell went up and man's pants and then he had to unzip it in order to get it out and caused a large havoc in the cafe... etc

it was such an amazing shot... you have to watch Iron giant again and the and then read this crappy explanation.. that shot was an assembly of adrenaline moments!

The MAH:

Another important thing he described was the concept of ''mah'' or what I thought it was called. Once an interviewer questioned Hayao miyazaki,

''What was the difference between the western animators and ghibli animators?''

and in reply he clapped his hands (I thought.. yeah, how typical of genuis people, they always do things that we don't understand) then after a pause he said, in Japan, we have an actual name for the space between the sound of claps, the Japanese animators also used the 'mah' or the space in animation, western animators think they have to make continuous noise to tell a story or fear that the moment they stop making the noise, the audience is going to get up and walk away, but it is the space that adds essence to the story, when the space is added in the right amount in the right place, it can work wonders, great musician know that as much as the notes are important to make music, so does the space between them, increasing or decreasing the amount can make a huge change

On ACTING: Acting is not hiding.. acting in a story is exposing, little by little as the story proceeds the nature of the character, the true nature of the character is revealed in a crisis. (Like a dignified villian etc)

There are many more points that escaped me during the session, thousand apologies for that, as my pen could not keep up with his lesson, I wish I could record it, but I tried to recall most of it... :D

A start with shots

Whew! long time no see~

Sorry for this late post. Gomen nasai~

the thing is .. things have been so busy (lazy) around me that I couldn't gather any spirit to write about anything, I may have lost the knack for writing. If I had one in the first place

If I divided the short film into parts/scenes they form three main parts, the intro, the waiting, the climax and the conclusion, of all of them, the most difficult part (according to me) was the one which has the essence or climax of the story. Starting with the principle of starting with the ''difficultiest'' and saving tasty bits later on.. I started on with it.

Shot# Norman is going away after he looses any hope of getting any call.

the phone rings and he makes a dash for it.

straight ahead :)

Layout: Shot #1 [The Call]

as you can see I have changed a few things in the initial layout.
please comment and more than that.. suggest before I move on to my blocking///

setting: there is a table and the black thing on that table is a photo frame..
[refer animatics for details]


sorry for the awkward lighting..
off to dive with more references!

Here cometh the Romeo ♥

Hahah why such a weird title... I dunno why but after I see him , I feel like his personality is like that, barging in a party like that...

who would'nt be lost


fire away



P.S guys who are animators, can you critique a little bit professionally like where would you like

CORPORATE Rat race - hahahah

The rat race was a common term in IT sector and other corporate systems until it slowly corrupted the animation and the animators too, the meaning of this term can be summed up something like this:

Imagine yourself in an endless, self defeating and ponitless pursuit of life. Like the futile effort of a lab rat trying to escape whilst running around a maze or in a wheel, In the modern city, many rats in a single maze expend a lot of effort running around, but ultimately achieve nothing (meaningful) either collectively or individually.

It suddenly dawned on me, that slowly I was too being affected by this mentality until I happened to talk to a friend of mine, his subtle talks woke me up, hopefully I can again animate without hurting myself further...

The pointless pursuit of being/trying to be the best means a lot of sacrifice of personal life, the professional strengths become the personal weakness, it is like a virus infecting groups, people, families and nations... once you are caught you are constantly gripped be fear, self doubt and insecurity...

Animation as being a creative field, there is no such thing as a ''legendary animator'' or a ''best animator'' most of the creative talent is lost because they just want to be the best, or else they'll quit... if only the best birds sang .. the forest would be a completely bland place!

This mentality had took hold of me and thank God, I realised last night when I was meditating before sleeping...

Think before you move and take out some time to reflect on your life and passion
Enjoy animating!


A warning to all my friends and ask yourself... are you a rat in this race?

A Renamon walk cycle

Gyah!

So finally done! I had so many problems rendering this thing, but really nothing is like finalising your animation, even though your heart doesn't want to let it go and live in the cruel hard world of critiques, because once it's done, there is no turning back,
but there's also a sense of relief...

so there you go ..

3D Renamon Walk cycle from Misty9190 on Vimeo.

3D mesh and texture provided
by Ryokukitsune



the alternate youtube link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICnhtTezTm8

A render test

This is a render test just to see if everything was going well, I think looks pretty good and have found some glitches that I will repair in the upcoming renders...

here you go!
hail rendering

3D animated Dino walk cycle from Misty9190 on Vimeo.

This is an animated cartoony dino walk cycle made in Autodesk Maya 2008.

Digital Painting competition!

Animation conclave the blog had arranged a digital painting competition few days ago.. starting with the work in progress such as the first, second and the third drafts..
you can check out the other entries here.

Subject- abandoned ship with character/s what I chose was an abandoned ship with some mermaids.. you can check out the other entries here .



I never knew I could paint! I so love it..

Blogs to help.

Hi folks..
today this blog entry starts on a serious note.. I've been thinking and thinking for the last past year as if to why animation in India is getting into a mess.. I get mails from many animation aspirants who ask me the where, hows and whats of animation, as a animator myself I feel really helpless as to answer them..
It all started to help my friends.. on my blog.. time passed as we formed a group and a team..

So today I introduce you two blogs that are sincerly and honestly dedicating their time and efforts to help who are in need.. meanwhile you can ask any queries as these blogs are by students for the students




and




[click on the blogs to see them]

3D animation:The Indian scenario.

Just when everyone in the 3D industry is looking with hopeful eyes towards the infinite sky of animation, are we forgetting the actual way common people are reacting towards 3D?

The reason that I write today is one of my friends in the 3D circle happened to present a paper... he choose the subject which was ''The use of 3D in the field of technical education'' which according to me was a brilliant choice.. it has many possiblities...So, as he began with the presentation and throught it, he presented various rendered slide shows on how 3D can be applied... not much to my surprise the judges didn't get anything that he wanted to say, and questioned back to him if he was endorsing the 3D softwares! what the heck! don't these guys want to rise to the levels of what other nations are doing?



The Indian common public are not open to new options, I am suspicious if the Indian youth is intelligent at all, I mean everyone can be like Chatur/Venkat.. but who dares to be like Rancho/Ryan? And you know what I'm talking about...
I can imagine this judges being grumpy and playing with his marks on the presentation that he had spent so many sleepless nights on ...





Here's the link to the orignal paper
presented by Arindam Bhattacharya