Visual Style for my Animation

The overall visual style I'm planning on having for my animation is along the stylised lines. I've been looking into other animations to get inspiration and decide what I want to achieve. In feature animations, the environment tends to be more realistic even though the character are of a stylised design. Brave and Epic are prime examples of this, as seen below. As technology has progressed, so has the ability to create more realistic environments. These characters are stylised, however they have a human appearance are are more life-like than previous films such as The Incredibles where there is a lot of exaggeration in the design as they were superheroes.

My dragon has a cartoon appeal to him so I think putting him in a fairly realistic environment wouldn't work too well. The two may seem disjointed against one another. A possibility is to have something simple such as the environments in children's animations. Wallykazam is a new animation for Nickelodeon. The characters are very appealing and would suit a child audience, they also fit well with the environment. The environment itself is fairly simple, a ground plane with foliage and what seems to be an image put in the background to add depth. The trees look to be like 2D cutouts, and whilst this is a nice touch and would suit a child audience, I don't think it's the right route to take for myself. I'm aiming my animation at all ages so I do not want to choose an overly simplified background as this may give the impression of an animation aimed at children.

Something more along the lines of what I'm aiming for is similar to that of Carrot Crazy. The trees are simple in design yet have more detail than those in Wallykazam, and it works quite well with the design of the characters. I might look in to populating the ground with some grass and foliage and this can be done using Maya paint effects. This will add a bit more realism to my scene but in keeping with the overall design that I want to achieve.

nick wallykazam naptime clip 1 640x480 1600 m30W from Jessica Wilson on Vimeo.


Carrot Crazy from littleGIANT on Vimeo.

Types of comedy

As mentioned before, I want my animation to have some comedy within it, and I've come across different types of gag types and types of comedic practice that has helped informed and solidified some of my ideas. The three that I have picked out are as stated in Wells, P (2007) Scriptwriting. Lausanne: AVA Publishing:

Reversal: Reversing the anticipated outcomes of a comic scenario to create an unexpected or surprise conclusion

Repetition: By constantly repeating phrases, actions and motifs beyond their logical usage and place, these elements take on the currency of anticipated points of comic expression.

Accidental/Physical: Often known as 'slapstick', this represents a physical routine or comic 'business', and usually involves things going wrong, the loss of physical control and autonomy and the concomitant loss of dignity or status.

My animation can fall into each of these types of comedy, reversal - things do not go as according to plan and therefore is not expected. Repetition - the dragon continues his quest for the apple and repeats the act of building an object in order for him to cross the ravine. Accidental/physical - in a few of the situations, because the objects have gone wrong, the dragon will suffer the consequences of them e.g falling from the sky as the jet pack has gone out of control.

Road Runner and Wile E Coyote is a prime example of these types of comedy. The repetition of Wile E Coyote always going after Road Runner, accidental/physical outcomes due to each plan going wrong and reversal as all his attempts are unsuccessful. It could be classed as reversal comedy, however because it is an extremely well known animation, as an audience we always expect him to fail at catching Road Runner. Because of this, does this then not make it reversal? I think in comedies it will be important to get the right shots as it can emphasise certain actions and could create more of an impact. In Road Runner, there are close ups of the plans going wrong and sometimes, if Wile E Coyote falls from a cliff, the shot emphasises how big the drop was and does this using perspective. I will be looking into other animated comedies such as Looney Tunes in order to get a better idea of shot composition.

Story Ideas

Initially my story revolved around a small dragon and his desire to get the best apple that was high up in a tree. He would be determined in his quest and not want to give up. I decided to expand on this and make it really obvious that he would not be deterred, no matter what stood in his way, or how many failures he endured. After passing round some ideas, I settled upon the dragon failing numerous amounts of times, each time he would come back with a new idea/contraption to get him across the ravine and to the apple. Each idea is almost like an upgrade from the last, as if he was evolving, first using the environment to his advantage, then progressing to creating machines of a higher capability. I'm wanting my animation to be comedic, something light hearted and that will make people laugh. It also gives me the opportunity to really experiment with facial animation and comedy performances. I will explore different types of comedy in another blog post and in which category my animation will fall in to.

Below shows the log line of my story and the main beats that will take place. It gives a good overview of how it will all pan out and the main gist of the story. From here, I need to work out what will take place in each shot in between the beats. This is where I will be really flushing out my story and getting a good idea of how I will go about animating certain shots.

Geri's Game

Geri's Game is a short animation created by Pixar which revolves around a game of chess. What's clever about this animation is that there is only one character, yet as it progresses you believe that there are two men playing the game. To distinguish from each other, they have different personalities even though deriving from the same character. Their personalities determine their expressions which create a really entertaining performance. This is something I want to try and achieve in my own animation, actions speak louder than words, so I want to create a performance with engaging gestures that represent my character's personality.

This animation has been shot in a way that only one character is ever seen, giving the illusion that there are two. It cleverly cuts in between actions, which also adds to the illusion, as if they were interacting with one another. If an action was carried out fully before cutting to the next shot it may not have worked as well as it does. Shot composition and camera layout is really important so I will need to spend some time working out each of my shots. I don't want everything to be shot on one camera or along the same plane, close ups of expressions and objects will highlight certain things more, such as emotions and the importance of an object. Once I've designed my environment I think it will be easier to visualise what camera will go where as I find working in a 3D space is more beneficial to myself.

Short Films

My animation contains only one character whereas many other short films will tend to have a couple of character in which interaction can take place. Instead my character interacts with its environment. I've been researching into other short films that contain one character and have come across the ones below. Even though they only contain one character, none of them are lacking in terms of interaction with another character, in fact, you become absorbed into the story and focus a lot on the character. An animation can be great but if there is no story that engages an audience then it's almost wasted.

Good idea + Bad animation = Good film

Bad idea + Good animation = Bad film

Bad idea + Bad animation = Stinker

Good idea + Good animation = Write your acceptance speech 

(Animation: The Mechanics of Motion Volume 1, pg110)

All of these films have the story and the animation. Whether it is funny or heartwarming, you are still engaged from the start, right to the very end. With Origins and Sapling, it shows the emotional journey of the characters and how by interacting with objects in their environment, the story unfolds.

Having one character keeps it more simple, if I were to include another character I would need longer or another person working with me on this project. It gives me a good opportunity to work on the story and the development of my character throughout the animation. It's going to be about his reaction to certain events and how he may overcome obstacles in his way. Snow Day has a similar concept to my own story, the want and need to achieve something yet it's a struggle to do it. It's entertaining to watch the ways in which the dinosaur tries to put a sock on. Because of his short arms, it's not possible, but this does not deter him. Nothing is easily achieved in life and from this people could relate to the dinosaur's struggle and end up routing for his to achieve his goal. Even through a comedic story, the audience should still be able to connect with a character and be able to empathise with them. 

Origins

Sapling

Saturday the 14th

Snow Day

Developed and Final Dragon Design

Sophie has put together some developed designs for my dragon, along with some expressions and a final design. She's done a great job in capturing what I had in mind and portraying his expressions. As mentioned before, we bounced back ideas and whilst Sophie was drawing I tried producing a quick sculpt using 123D Sculpt, a piece of free software that allows you to sculpt organic shapes and objects on the iPad. This allowed both of us to get a better idea of how the head would look like in 3D as we had some trouble trying to figure it out, and if it would indeed work how we would have wanted. Fig. 1-2 shows the first sculpt I did which seemed very generic in terms of a dragon, I wanted a more rounded face to give it that soft appeal. Sophie was drawing up more rounded designs as seen below, but just to make sure it would work I did a really quick test keeping the face as spherical as possible (Fig. 3-4). It seemed as if it could work out quite well, the eyes would just need repositioning.

Once we settled on the design that was right, Sophie went on to producing a final design along with different details and colours. Out of the initial four that she gave me, A-D, I chose the one with my favourite details and she produced E. This version was also a blend of colours of B and D. I decided against a green or orange dragon due to my animation be set within a forest, I felt that the dragon may get lost within that. He is the main character and focus of this animation so he needs to stand out from the background. I'm really happy with all of the designs produced and I think the final design really captures the essence of my character.

                                         Fig. 1                                                   Fig. 2

                                         Fig. 3                                                   Fig.4

Initial Dragon Designs

After compiling some moodboards, I started on drawing up some initial ideas for my dragon. These were some quick sketches taking some aspects that I liked from my moodboards. Using these designs as a rough guide, Sophie Linney will be designing my final character in colour, along with a T-pose in order to help when modelling. We've both sat down and talked about what I wanted in my dragon and what would be possible when modelling. Seeing what Sophie was drawing and being able to give feedback right there and then proved very useful and we were able to settle on a design fairly quickly. All these designs have been roughly based on a circle, having smooth lines rather than harsh ones to make it more appealing. As mentioned before, proportion will play a big part in getting across the fact that he is a young dragon. The small wings are a key factor in the dragon's design as the whole point of the story is him not being able to fly, and it will also add appeal in terms of cuteness.

Animation Cliches

I've been thinking a lot about how to open my animation. The first shot needs to establish the scene and also that of the character and environment. I came across this article that talks about an animation cliche that crops up in the beginning of a film, "This is me..." - it tells the audience about a character rather than showing their personality through engaging with the environment. It has appeared a lot of the years in many different animations, and the video below shows how often it has been used. The article mentions that this cliche comes across are artless and lazy, however I think when it's done well it works. I've never really had a problem with it myself and until now, not noticed how often it has been used. Yes it may be classed as a shortcut, but it makes it clear what the character is about, but at the same time not give their whole personality and goals away at the start.

For my own animation, as there is no dialogue or voice over to the story it would seem very disjointed if I had a 'This is me..." opening. Instead I need to come up with a clever way of introducing the character and engaging the audience from the start. Cliches to do with story aren't the only ones, when it comes to performance, cliches can arise too. I was able to attend an online lecture hosted by Andrew Gordon, animation director and Sam Hood, story artist, who both work at Pixar. Andrew Gordon spoke about animation cliches within performance and how they can become the most boring of choices, and also the most over used. When it comes to the animation stage, I want to try and avoid these cliches and create a performance that represents the character's personality and emotions. The neck rub is most commonly used, along with the point and looking at your watch. Where these are not really possible to achieve with a quadruped, there are other actions or gestures that I might come across which may feel cliche. If this is the case I want to try and find another route round it. It will also give myself good practice expanding my acting skills.

Animation Jobs Go Fast (And Why You Must Go Faster)

Chris Oatley writes some really informative blogs on his thoughts and the way the industry works. I got an email about his new blog post on applying for jobs at animation and games studios, I decided to check it out and it contains a lot of useful advice. The thing with the animation or games industry is that it is very fast paced, and any job that is advertised will soon be filled. Because of this you need to be quick off the mark and apply as soon as possible, preferably within 24 hours of the job being posted. You have to keep on top of job listings and check everyday, and if someone recommends you then that's even more of a reason to apply quickly.

'But right now, I just want to speak to the heart of the matter…The portfolio you have right now is the portfolio you have right now. What difference is two more weeks really going to make? …besides putting you at the very end of that very long line? When you’re trying to break in, you must remain just as proud of your work as you are critical of it. Now is the time to be intensely critical of your own work…not right after you spot a job announcement. When you send your portfolio away to the recruiters and art directors, rest easy and take pride in knowing that you did absolutely everything you could to prepare…and got your application in on time.' - Chris Oatley

Now is the time to start bringing together a final showreel of my time at uni, when I finish I want to create my graduation showreel, and this will be the one I will be sending out to companies and studios. That's not to say I won't be looking for jobs until then, I'm looking right now and if there is anything around, I may enquire about it and get feedback on my showreel. I've got a long list of different companies and studios that I check through regularly to see if there are any jobs, or internships going. It is scary and nerve-wracking applying for jobs and worrying what if they say 'no'. But you will never know unless you try and even if it is a 'no' who's to say you can't try again at a later stage? There are many people at Pixar who applied several times before getting accepted. Landing your dream job will never be easy, but I think getting your first job within the industry can be just as hard. You just have to go for it and be proud of the work that you have sent in and see what happens.

Character Sheet

To get a better understanding of my character, I created a character sheet. It's helped myself flush out my character more and get to grips with his personality and specific traits. Character sheets can help come up with a more informed design for the character, but it can also greatly aid animation. As an animator I breathe life into any character, but before I do that I need to understand their goals, motivations, personalities. No person would do something without thinking about it first, unless you were impulsive, but that in itself is a character trait. Gestures can reflect a personality or how a character is feeling. It's all linked in together with performance. I've learnt a fair bit on performance during the previous module, but I'm planning to go back and revisit and expand my knowledge on the subject. Hopefully I can bring this into my animation and be able to portray my dragon's personality through his movements, emotions and gestures. 

Moon

I came across this interactive animation earlier today (FOUND HERE) It's a lovely little animation made for ING and UNICEF. What makes it stand out from the rest is the interactivity, using your phone, you can change the story whenever you want. There are two different versions and whenever you turn your phone, it seamlessly changes from one to another. It's a different approach to advertising charities on TV, where a lot of the time people are unengaged. By having an interactive approach, it draws you into the story and you become more engaged with the animation and the character. Having the ability to switch allows for two stories to be told simultaneously, yet puts the control in the audiences hands. This is an interesting concept and shows how a something can differ greatly due to just one small thing such as school in this case. It makes the message clear to the audience and allows them to see what could happen if it were to go either way.


ING UNICEF LUNA VFX breakdown from miopiafxdemos on Vimeo.

Organisation

Along with each of my lists to help me throughout my project, I've also scheduled out each day so I can stay on track with tasks and get everything completed on time. Many people tend to have their plans on their computer but I find it much easier to have it printed out and visible at all times. Having it on my wall, I can always refer back to it with ease whenever I need. There may be some areas in my planning that I've allocated a lot longer than I may need, however if this is the case then I will start on the next task sooner. It gives myself some leeway, just incase there are certain areas that take longer than I have originally anticipated. After writing out my plan, I realised that I should model the character first, before the environment. It makes more sense this way and by doing that, I can accordingly scale everything to the character's size. It's the end of January now, so there isn't much time left, I have about 3 months to complete everything (minus the rendering). It seems daunting the amount of work I need to get done but if I stick to my plan, it should all be okay in the end.

Dragon Candies

Whilst researching into dragons and other animations, I came across this advert that revolves around a young dragon and his want for a ripe strawberry. As mentioned in my previous post, a young animal can be shown through proportions and this advert is no different. The head and eyes are much larger than the rest of the body, the wings are fairly small and look like they haven't fully grown yet which suggests a younger dragon. I really enjoy this animation as it contains subtle use of squash and stretch to emphasise and exaggerate certain gestures. The performance really puts across the dragon's personality and desire for this strawberry, and that's something I need to make sure I get across in my own animation. As there is no dialogue, performance is key, there is no tone of voice to suggest certain emotions. Whilst sound effects can be used on top the aid the animation, the performance needs to be believable in the first place or else the audience may not be able to connect with that character.

Watching through this animation, your eye will instinctively be drawn to the face, so this is where most of the emotion is shown, especially with the eyes. There are many subtle eye darts throughout to ensure that the character appears alive, but it also aids the performance and you get a sense that the dragon is very curious, yet slightly confused to begin with why this strawberry isn't fully ripe. This soon turns into anger/annoyance combined with a great amount of concentration. This dragon has a similar demeanour to mine so observing these subtleties will be of great help. I also have to bear in mind that there will need to be secondary action with the wings of my dragon, similar to this one. The wings are connected to the body so it will react to any movement coming from the spine. In this advert, the wings not only have secondary action, but they aid with emotion. If the dragon reacts happy or shocked, its wings perk up. This is an idea to consider and possibly work with in my own animation.

 
Dragon Candies: Strawberry from Tolm on Vimeo.

Dragon and Animal Influences

When beginning to come up with how my dragon will look like, I complied a couple of moodboards to gather inspiration. I've looked into not only dragons, but other animated animals, a long with real life animals. I've noted down what I'm looking for and it will just be about trying to find a happy medium between them all. I am aware that my rigging and weight painting skills are not highly advanced, so wanting to create a character that is very much round and not much of a neck will be a challenge. Hopefully I can achieve this as I feel that having a 'line' that goes from the head to the tail will draw the eye across and gives it somewhat of an appeal in terms of design. Soft and round edges are more appealing and inviting than harsh lines.

The dragon is a juvenile, and as there is no dialogue in my animation, it needs to be obvious that he is of a young age in terms of design. Proportion can play a bit part in determining an animals age, normally a young animal would have larger and rounder heads, with bigger eyes, than that of an adult. There is a lot to consider with the design, so a character sheet will help solidify his personality and goals which will ultimately help the designing stage.

Extended Practice

With this being the final module, I plan to make a short 3D animation that centres around a dragon's desire to find the best and most delicious apple. This will allow me have more practice animating quadrupeds, along with creating a more complex rig, and hopefully facial rigging will be included. This will be my largest project to date so I've made sure I've planned out everything and when it needs to be achieved by. Below is my breakdown of each major section of the project: research, development, production and post production. I've also included a section for animation. All these lists will help me keep on track with what has been achieved and what still needs doing. Working out all the aspects of my project at an early stage will help me plan out my whole project and give myself an overview of what I'm trying to achieve. Being the biggest project, I've also made sure that I'm researching and producing things that I've not done before e.g skeletal drawings to help with rigging, advanced rigging, rendering and lighting. I want this piece to look the part and be something that I will be proud of.

The Saturday Lecture and Reel Review

On Saturday, The Art Department's (TAD) Animation Department hosted a free lecture online with animator, Andrew Gordon and story artist, Sam Hood who work at Pixar. There was limited space for the lecture so I was put on the waiting list, because of this I missed out on the majority of Andrew's part of the lecture. Even though I missed out, the rest of the lecture was invaluable. Sam Hood roughly went through his process of how he would take a story and turn it into boards. He did a live demo which was really useful to see how he would work and the software he used. After this, reel reviews took place. When signing up to the lecture, you could submit your reel for review, however I didn't do this as I was currently in the process of putting together a new one. Only a few were reviewed but it was great to see the critique and even though it wasn't my work, I could see how I could take their advice and implement it into my own work. Over the past couple of years I've always been watching animation reviews, they're quite accessible with the online animation courses. Whilst it doesn't show the whole review, it's still really useful and through watching them, I've been picking up techniques and ways in which to improve my own animations. It's always inspirational and invaluable information to see how a professional in the industry works.

After this course I'm seriously considering taking online animation courses to further my knowledge and improve my animation. Having one to one reviews and learning from an industry professional will really benefit me, as so far I've very much been self taught. I feel that by doing those, it will also give myself more confidence in my work.

Joy Competition Animation

Only just got around to posting this now, but back in November, I entered the Joy competition held by Spline Bomb, in the end I didn't place, but it was a good exercise working without any sound. It was harder than I had anticipated as sound can really carry an animation and help it along. Voice or sound will have beats and you can normally animate to those, but without this there needs to be some sort of rhythm to the piece.

With the bear rig that I created, it worked okay, however there were issues with how much I could animate it without it being deformed. This comes down to the weight painting and if I had more time to spend on the rig, I would have liked to have made sure that it was capable of all the animation I needed. There are parts of the animation I'm happy with, but it needs some work. I think I would have found it easier if I could have constrained the hands to the bear, however I couldn't figure out how to do this without the arms deforming a considerable amount. I used FK on the arms instead, to ensure and constant contact on the bear, yet when it came to switching between FK and IK, I think this is where a few issues arose. I need to explore more into the switching and how to do it successfully and seamlessly, as right now in a couple of places the arm jumps quite sharply. I might try and revisit this at a later stage, and hopefully by that point I will have improved so I can go about fixing the errors.


Joy Competition from Siobhan Parkhouse on Vimeo.

Mouse or Tablet?

Something that I have come across before is the use of a graphics tablet when animating. It has been suggested that this is better than a mouse, due to it being faster and feeling more natural. A big reason to try and change is to reduce repetitive strain injury, something that can happen after a prolonged period of time working with mice. This is not to say that using a graphics tablet eradicates this, but it might reduce the effects. RSI is the main thing that worries me and how it could one day stop myself from animating, so trying to use a graphics tablet instead of a mouse may be a good idea. Graphics tablets are supposedly being used more within the industry so it seems worthwhile trying to get used to it so I'm not just limited to using a mouse. There is the issue of people not being able to return to a mouse (when animating) once using a tablet for a while, but if it ends up being easier and faster for myself then it might be worth it.

A lot of it is down to personal preference and how you can adapt to it, but it's something to bear in mind and try to work on. I tried out a tablet before when animating and it did need some getting used to, however there was a more natural feeling to it. It will be interesting to see if I find it quicker to use than a mouse and if it brings any other benefits. The ideal tablet would be a Wacom Intuos, however the price tag can be an issue. For now I think I will just be trying to get to grips with it using my Wacom Bamboo, if it works for the best I may invest in a better model somewhere down the line. Many people on 11 Second Club seem to be in favour for the tablet and it's always good to hear how other animators are finding it and the benefits they are getting from using it.

Final mocap with keyframe

Below is my final motion capture with the keyframe aspects added in. In a previous post I had managed to get the motion capture to a workable stage with the cleanup of the data. I found that in some areas the performance wasn't as strong as I was hoping it to be, this may have been because of the data not being very accurate when recording. To get around this, I emphasised certain actions whilst trying to keep the main performance at the core. I found it hard to distinguish between what makes it motion capture and what makes it keyframe. Surely by animating over the top of the data turns it more into keyframe, so what is the point of motion capture? It's trying to find that fine line between the two, keeping the integrity of the actor's performance whilst ensuring the animation has weight and believability to the movements.

I chose to use iPiSoft as it was a more accessible piece of technology that is becoming more commonly used. I wanted to see how well markerless technology could capture a performance. It had its issues with the accuracy of the data, however when it did capture something, the movement came across as realistic and had subtle motions within it, something that may not have been able to be achieved with keyframe. Through doing this project I can see the benefits to using motion capture, it's a quick way to get a base performance down or to work out the layout of a scene in 3D space. If you do add keyframe into motion capture you have to make sure that there is stylistic consistency between the two, and for this reason it is why games companies may choose to use motion capture without the use of keyframe. It ensures that throughout the game the animation is of the same style, something that could be hard to achieve with keyframe if the animators have not had much experience with that. Both motion capture and keyframe can have their strengths and weaknesses, however it should be about the performance and the believability of a character. If an audience can connect and empathise with a character because of the believability and performance, then that should be all that matters.

The Imaginarium Studios / Marker motion capture

The Imaginarium was founded by Andy Serkis and John Cavendish in 2011. With the use of performance capture technology they currently have two productions under way, Animal Farm and most recently (securing the rights to) The Bone Season. Andy Serkis is well known for his performance as Gollum in Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. The Imaginarium did a workshop at BAF Game, showing their process when it comes to motion capture and the software they use. When capturing a performance, they will use around 50 Vicon cameras for the body and sometimes another 50 just to capture the face. What's great about motion capture is that it provides realtime results, directors are able to see what is being produced and not have to wait for animation to be completed. It would be a much faster process than the pre-viz stage in animation where characters would be animated in a 3D space according to the storyboards. The 3D cameras is also able to be adjusted and moved around accordingly.

Fig.1 shows the setup at the workshop, there were around 10-12 cameras for this demonstration. Each Vicon camera works by projecting infra-red light which is then bounced back off the reflective markers on the body. Marker motion capture is very accurate, more so than markerless motion capture due to the reflective markers. The markers are placed on the body in relation to where the joints would bend and move. To aid the performance and allow for believable reactions to take place, the use of props can be used, and these can also be captured (Fig.2). It allows for the interaction between actor and prop to be more realistic and believable in terms of contact with the object.

A fairly recent piece of technology that Vicon has produced is the Cara rig. This allows for more accurate facial motion capture. It has been designed for comfort and with the actors performance in mind whilst being able to achieve high quality results. Previously games such as L.A Noire were able to achieve highly realistic performances with the use of MotionScan, however this could only be used on the face. This resulted in the body motion capture to not be of the same standard of the face. With the Cara rig, it attaches to the actors head and with this, fully body motion capture can be achieved. Fig 3 shows the cameras view of the face and the points that it is tracking.

Fig.1 

Fig.2 

Fig.3

The Trouble with Overtime

Overtime has always been an issue within the cg industry and in the past few years it seems to have come to light more. Last year there were several vfx protests about their working conditions and they way that they were treated, and how vfx was being pushed out of the USA and outsourced to other countries. As someone who is about to take their first steps out into the industry in a few months, it is worrying, I've always known that if I were to obtain a job within the industry I would be doing overtime, especially when it comes to deadlines. I came across this article and it is quite astonishing what could actually happen with overtime.

Normally studios will pay for overtime (classed as more than 40 hours of work a week in USA), however this becomes a problem when you are doing 11-14 hours a day for a prolonged period of time. The normal working day is about 8 hours and after that time, staring at a computer all day, everyone needs rest.

'It is actually impossible for a digital artist or TD to remain focused much longer than 8 hours a day. To suggest or imply that not working 14 hours in some way indicates the ability or commitment of the individual is ludicrous.'

Reading through the article it has made myself wonder why this actually takes place. If someone is constantly working that amount of time, weeks on end, their work standard is going to go down. Not only that but they will lose respect for the company and think they don't care. The company will not be gaining anything. They will be losing money from paying for overtime.

They could end up paying '11 hours for perhaps 8 hours of work. The math? Cost of VFX has risen by another 27%' If this carries on, the whole industry won't last, and you can see why the people in the industry have been protesting. Working that long without seeing family or having time to recharge is not right at all. This is changing however, in smaller companies they are limiting and sometimes are not permitting overtime. In my opinion it makes perfect sense to limit it, only when necessary though (deadlines, or if someone makes a mistake, etc) Having a team that is ready to work each new day after being rest seems far more beneficial than a team that is tired and restless. It is also down to the artist to make sure that they get their days work done in the time given. It seems like everyone needs to respect each other and their limits of what they can do. Yes the industry is fast paced, but endless overtime isn't going to keep the industry going for long.

Jeff Gabor - Epic Comparison Reel

It's always great to see how an animator in the industry works and the different ways they can sometimes go about it. Jeff Gabor is a lead animator at Blue Sky Studios and below is his comparison reel for Epic. What's interesting to see is that his storytelling poses are what I would compare to my blocking stage, and his blocking stage is very detailed when compared to that. As I've learnt from Keith Lango, the more you do in blocking, the less you have to do in spline - and this is where the problems can sometimes occur. I think from now on I might try to block it out in even more detail, as at the minute I seem to let the computer interpret parts of my animation. It's a bad habit and if I go and add in more blocking, hopefully I can add some more personality to the characters and their performance.

Looking at his reference videos you can see how much he gets into character and that gives him the core performance. I wrote part of my extended essay on performance and it's made me realise how crucial it is to understand the character you are trying to animate. Personality, actions, reactions, decisions, they will all play a part in how an audience will perceive that character, and as an animator you need to get it right. For example, a character that is shy would not be a person who has vast amounts of confidence when walking into a crowded room. Even just observing how someone works is of a great benefit and hopefully I can take what I've learnt here and translate that into my own work.


Epic Comparison Reel from jeff gabor on Vimeo.

Companies and Studios

Being a final year student I need to be prepared for once I finish uni, where do I want to work and in what area? My main goal is to be an animator but to get to that, there are a few different routes I could end up taking. Depending on the area of work whether it's games, animation or vfx can change the entry roles. Ideally a junior animator position would be a good starting point, however it seems to be more common within the vfx industry to get started as a runner. It's a good way to get your foot in the door and you can also get a wider knowledge of the industry and see how the studio works. Over the past couple of years I have been building a database of different studios in the UK and abroad of where I would possibly like to work. One site that has proved really useful is CGStepInside, it shows a vast number of animation, visual effects and cg studios around the world and is always expanding. What's interesting to see is the widespread of these companies around the world, and many in places I would have not even thought about.

The CG industry is huge, and I've already found out that for what I want to do specifically, that is character animation, my opportunities may be better outside of the UK. I know that for the next few years I plan to establish myself and get experience within the industry here, but long term I would like to move abroad and try and get a job in Canada or America. With those countries though, there is a lot of competition for jobs so only when I feel ready would I go for it (also have to consider money and visas and possible sponsorships, it's no easy feat!)

Even though I'm wanting to work more within animation or vfx, there is a site for the gaming side of things, similar to CGStepInside, GameDevMap. This too shows many games companies around the world and splits them into different categories, developer, publisher, mobile/handheld, online developer etc.