Framestore time!

I start my animation internship at Framestore today! I'm working in VFX department which is really exciting for me because I love films. Here's to a new experience in the film industry and I hope to learn loads from the amazing animators here!

Some Personal Work

For the last 6 weeks I've been working on and off on a personal project. It's a trailer parody for Valve's newest game - Counter-Strike: Global Offensive which is coming out in 2012.

 

I would like to thank everyone who collaborated with me on this project:

Jonas B. Ingebretsen for Music and Sound Design - This is my first project where I've had the opportunity to have a music specifically composed to fit to my animation, as well as excellent sound design to push the standard sounds into something so much more professional sounding. Something that's quite new for me :) 

Fernando Zamora for Voice Acting - Fernando, in case you didn't know was also the voice actor for my short film, Self-Conflict. He voiced the narrator and also the character voices and screams in the animation. Some of those character screams still make me laugh.

Aran Saunders for Additional Animation - Aran volunteered to animate a few shots for me and he did very well (maybe too well?) at adapting to the style to fit the rest of my animations.

And I did pretty much everything else! Overall, I am very pleased to have worked with these guys and very grateful to them for helping out.

Some work from Cubic Motion

I can finally post about some of my work at Cubic Motion since it's now released as samples for the website.

This here is an example of capture-driven animation:
This type of animation specifically requires strict adherence to the video reference capturing every subtlety made by the actor. A lot more time consuming to clean up and get right. I was responsible for the animation and lighting.

This one shows the capture-driven animation being transferred to a stylized character rig (Morpheus rig by Josh Burton):

A fellow animator started the facial animation and I finished it off, cleaned and polished the rest, including the body animation. I was also responsible for the character customization and lighting setup.

Driver: San Francisco is out now!

Check it out guys! This is the game I worked on while I was at Ubisoft Reflections from 2009-2010. It was great to be a part of the animation team and I learned a lot from everyone.

The game is out today (in the UK). If you've played it, let me know what you think!

P.S. This is also my first credited game! :D

Obs: Comfort Zones

What do you do when you can't figure out what your character should be doing in a scene? Well, the most important thing is knowing what the character's objective is. Everyone knows that.

But let's explore something more global, something that affects us in all scenarios and pretty much all the time. Today's observation is about comfort zones. This is something that should be considered on-top-of our character's objectives. Take for example, our character wants to eat some pie but there are spikey obstacles in the way. Our character won't be running across it to get to the pie if it's going to hurt him or cause him discomfort. Ok, that's quite an extreme case but this can be really effective if used in more subtle ways.

In the biological sense, our body is always finding ways to use the least amount of energy possible and to be as comfortable as possible. Say you're at home and sat down watching TV. A few minutes later, you'll find that your body is completely slumped. And if you get any lazier, you'd fall asleep. Biologically this makes sense because we need to conserve energy for when we need it - in the case of danger. Similar reasons to why our heart beats faster when we're afraid, to make sure our body is ready to flee or fight. So the next time you're animating a character doing an action, it's useful to think about how "comfortable" they are. It helps add that bit of realism to your piece doing things that people naturally do.

We also move in reaction to our comfort zones. When someone we don't know or don't like moves too close to us, we move away. This is best observed at the bus stop. When there are few people at the bus stop and you're stood on one side of the bus stop and another person comes up right next to you, chances are you'll feel very uncomfortable. The funny thing is that your comfort zone is adaptable depending on the situation. If the bus stop was packed with a lot of people, and you are sandwiched between others, it becomes acceptable because everyone else is in a similar situation. 

The more we understand about what makes us or our characters comfortable or uncomfortable will help make our character's interaction with others in the scene a lot more believable. So the next time you make your animation poses, ask yourself if it looks comfortable in etiher a) as a normal balanced pose or b) comfortable in the situation.

Apart from the main objective that our characters are going through, do remember that there are also a lot of subconscious things that our bodies will do naturally to support our actions. The more we observe the nonverbal clues of body language, the more we can accurately display genuine actions for our characters. I used to believe secondary action is something you add to your animation for extra awesome sauce. It's not. It's something you consider before-hand and apply consciously throughout your animation for all the right reasons. 

First Class Honours!

I just received my degree results from my University today.

I got a Bachelor Of Arts in Digital Character Animation With First Class Honours! Can't be more pleased about this. It's time to celebrate with some sushi.

Anim Test: Bucky

Found this Buck Kid rig and decided to have a play with him. Just an animation test done in 2 hours.

Obs: Blinks

Have you ever spoken to someone about something and for some strange reason, you are able to tell when he/she starts getting confused/don't-have-any-idea-what-you-are-talking-about? Apart from the obvious confused look on their faces, and their stillness in their body language and/or pause in their activities, notice that they will also stare at you blankly. By this I mean they will stop blinking. Weird isn't it?

There are a lot of reasons why and when we blink but I think this one is quite interesting in it's own right and I'd like to talk a little about it. Seems blinking is also an activity linked with absorbing information. To me it's the nodding of the eyes. When you're listening to someone and you are in agreement, you tend to nod at them... and blink too! I know this seems odd, but try it for yourself. An example is when I am in a lecture hall and listening to a very informative and interesting lecture, I would catch myself blinking a lot. I mean a lot uncontrollably.

I believe the same is true when you stop agreeing. This is why it's quite shocking how we are able to tell when someone is lost while trying to explain something to them. It's easy to tell because we notice a change in behaviour or a break in a pattern. While the listener understands what you are talking about, they will often be blinking, nodding, etc and suddenly as they get confused, our brains are able to detect that change in behaviour, a different action performed out of the normal, even as subtle as fewer eye blinks. Try it and see for yourself!

Started work at Cubic Motion

Today was my first day working at Cubic Motion. It was great. Lovely place, people and atmosphere. And already a lot of work to be done. I think I'll be very busy the next few months! Wish I could talk about the exciting projects I'm going to be working on but it's top secret.

That's all for now!

Obs: You look at what you want

Observation: You look at what you want. For the most part, this is very true - where your eyes are looking will determine what is currently in focus or of interest. You can pick up many things from looking at people in the train station, bus stops, etc. Most people who travel alone like their own space and mind their own business. Many will resolve to mp3 players with headphones plugged in or reading books. These people tend to have their eyes down and away, often signifying their desire to not be disturbed and left in their own little worlds.

Then there are others who are without any media distractions, travelling alone with nothing to do. Observe them. You can tell a lot about a person by looking at where they are looking. If their eyes are constantly scanning the room, their brains are active, they are receptive to their surroundings and are alert. Perhaps hoping to meet the gaze of another interested individual. Generally, if you're looking around you or at people, you're opening yourself up for conversation and subconsciously inviting friendly talk. If your gaze is down and away, it's the eye language equivalent of "leave me alone". Of course these are all variable depending on the situation but I'm just talking about general observations here.

As I was travelling in the train one day, I caught myself becoming a victim to this observation. I'm usually either reading, scanning people, reading them or when I'm tired, look away in a corner and try to fall asleep. What was unusual in this instance was that I needed to use the toilet. First thing I did was try to identify where the nearest toilet was without getting up. It was at the end of the corridor. Next I determined whether or not it was vacant without getting up so I studied the light switch above it. I couldn't really tell if it meant vacant or not.

What I did notice was 2 other ladies sat uncomfortably near the toilet with quirky movements. It told me they were waiting for the toilet. Soon I realized I was no longer doing the things I would normally do, lie in a corner or falling asleep. I was constantly checking for the toilet to be available, scanning the area, seeing if the ladies had already had their turn. So much so that my body had tilted itself to a unusual position, my head leaning to the side  giving me full vision of the situation in front of me. This got me thinking. Would I have been in this position if I hadn't needed to use the bathroom? No. It was an uncomfortable position, with my head tilted to one side and heck why would I be staring at the aisle in front of me for? At which point, I got a little subconscious because I thought the ladies in front caught my eye and they must be thinking the same thing, "this guy needs the loo". Hah!

Naturally I tried to fake it and look away returning to a more comfortable position. But it was difficult to go back to doing something more casual when you really needed the bathroom. I soon found myself back to the original leaning position, with my eyes on the toilet scenario.

Have you ever had a conversation with someone and suddenly their eye darts to something behind you and eventhough he/she is still talking, you know they are now focussing on something else? More often than not, you'd be so intrigued by what has intrigued them that you too will turn and see for yourself. Our eyes can be so revealing sometimes.

This ends my observation for "You look at what you want". Your eye looks are directly connected to your brain and will look at what you are currently interested in. So I guess this is why we look at people's faces when talking to them (mostly eyes) to read them because it is shocking what you can find out with their gaze and direction.