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An Animation Experiment
4 min read
Over the last eight months I've been teaching myself Autodesk Maya. I've nearly completed my first animated short using the program, a 1 minute, 20 second film featuring a troll kid climbing a large tree. Learned a lot doing it, and now feel confident enough that I know enough about how Maya's animation tools work that I can experiment a bit.
I've always been a big fan of Japanese animation. It has a certain "snap" to it, a certain intensity to the movement that American shows and movies seem to avoid in favor of fluidity. You can see how the American penchant for fluidity affected Japanese animated films in the early days, like in Toei's "Panda and the Magic Serpent" but was gradually filtered out in exchange for more stylized action. This was probably due to budget issues, but I think it produces more interesting looking animation that causes frames to be placed where they really matter, as opposed to very evenly.
The style of CG animation, coming from Disney through Pixar and out into the broader marketplace, has always been very fluid, very western, and kind of boring in my opinion. I want to get some of the Japanese sense of stylized movement into my CG work, but I wasn't exactly sure where to turn to for guidance. No one is teaching that, though some Japanese studios, like the people behind the new Cyborg 009: ReCyborg movie, seem to be making great strides in that area. One former animator said that he didn't think it was really possible to get anime-style movement into CG, because so much of what makes Japanese animation great is how the animators distort the characters in between the on-model poses. This is definitely true in the case of animators like Shinya Ohira, Hisashi Mori, and Shinji Hashimoto. But there's other guys, like Hiroyuki Okiura and Mitsuo Iso, who do really really on-model animation that still has a lot of the "snap" that I'm after.
And that leads me to Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. I've loved this movie for a long time. I think it's the best Batman movie out there, mostly because of Mark Hamill's performance. But the animation is also great. It was storyboarded and pre/post-produced in America, but the animation was done at TMS in Japan. The characters are drawn in Bruce Timm's very boxy, rigid style, which means not a lot of squash-and-stretch or distortion goes on. But the animation has that "snap"! My hypothesis is that by studying and adapting a scene from that movie into CG I can learn exactly what makes the animation so appealing, and get to a kind of fusion between eastern and western styles of movement.
My first step has been to break down the scene I'm concentrating on into key and breakdown poses:
i.imgur.com/sWcYj.gif
My next step will be to actually begin transitioning this performance over to CG. Already, from looking at the scene frame-by-frame, I've picked up that the animators are very comfortable with shifting from one extreme pose to another without much in between motion, as long as there's a fair amount ease-in, ease-out on the extremes. That could be one of the secrets to the "snap" I'm after, but I won't really know until I go through the whole scene myself and see if I can make it work in CG without having to hand-key every frame. Cause if I can't let the program do at least a little of the in-between work, then there's no use in doing it in CG in the first place.
It'll be interesting to see what the result will be!
I've always been a big fan of Japanese animation. It has a certain "snap" to it, a certain intensity to the movement that American shows and movies seem to avoid in favor of fluidity. You can see how the American penchant for fluidity affected Japanese animated films in the early days, like in Toei's "Panda and the Magic Serpent" but was gradually filtered out in exchange for more stylized action. This was probably due to budget issues, but I think it produces more interesting looking animation that causes frames to be placed where they really matter, as opposed to very evenly.
The style of CG animation, coming from Disney through Pixar and out into the broader marketplace, has always been very fluid, very western, and kind of boring in my opinion. I want to get some of the Japanese sense of stylized movement into my CG work, but I wasn't exactly sure where to turn to for guidance. No one is teaching that, though some Japanese studios, like the people behind the new Cyborg 009: ReCyborg movie, seem to be making great strides in that area. One former animator said that he didn't think it was really possible to get anime-style movement into CG, because so much of what makes Japanese animation great is how the animators distort the characters in between the on-model poses. This is definitely true in the case of animators like Shinya Ohira, Hisashi Mori, and Shinji Hashimoto. But there's other guys, like Hiroyuki Okiura and Mitsuo Iso, who do really really on-model animation that still has a lot of the "snap" that I'm after.
And that leads me to Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. I've loved this movie for a long time. I think it's the best Batman movie out there, mostly because of Mark Hamill's performance. But the animation is also great. It was storyboarded and pre/post-produced in America, but the animation was done at TMS in Japan. The characters are drawn in Bruce Timm's very boxy, rigid style, which means not a lot of squash-and-stretch or distortion goes on. But the animation has that "snap"! My hypothesis is that by studying and adapting a scene from that movie into CG I can learn exactly what makes the animation so appealing, and get to a kind of fusion between eastern and western styles of movement.
My first step has been to break down the scene I'm concentrating on into key and breakdown poses:
i.imgur.com/sWcYj.gif
My next step will be to actually begin transitioning this performance over to CG. Already, from looking at the scene frame-by-frame, I've picked up that the animators are very comfortable with shifting from one extreme pose to another without much in between motion, as long as there's a fair amount ease-in, ease-out on the extremes. That could be one of the secrets to the "snap" I'm after, but I won't really know until I go through the whole scene myself and see if I can make it work in CG without having to hand-key every frame. Cause if I can't let the program do at least a little of the in-between work, then there's no use in doing it in CG in the first place.
It'll be interesting to see what the result will be!
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Fantasy Worth Reading (In My Opinion)
6 min read
I read a good deal of books being an English major, but for fun I mostly read fantasy novels. My gallery currently contains tributes to Joe Abercrombie's "The First Law" and Brandon Sanderson's "The Way of Kings" and will soon have an image of Kvothe from "The Name of the Wind". So I thought I'd go through some of the series I've read and give my two cents that probably no one cares about but what the heck imma do it anyway!
Oh by the way if you like any of these series you'll probably also enjoy Berserk. And vice versa. Just putting that out there.
George R. R. Martin- A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE: Martin's epic fantasy series is the one you hear about most these days. It's got its own HBO show (Game of Thrones) and appeals to the widest fanbase due to its complex male and female characters that are actually convincingly written. There characters are all shades of grey to the point that it's hard to figure who is supposed to be the hero. Obviously the Starks at first seem to be the protagonists and the Lannisters their opponents, but that distinction gets muddled up as the books go on. The series is heavy on the sex and violence, but starts off very light on the magic. It appears that people accepted that it did exist, but it has faded from the world. The supernatural starts coming back in a big way though and it's handled very well. The series mostly concentrates on members of nobility, so we don't see much through the eyes of the "smallfolk" and characters actions end up having kingdom-shattering effects. I highly recommend this series, although there was a huge wait for the fifth book and nobody knows how long the sixth book will take to come out. There are currently seven planned books.
Joe Abercrombie- THE FIRST LAW TRILOGY: Abercrombie is my second favorite fantasy author. His characters are all kinds of shades of grey, though they tend to be on the darker side. The best thing about Abercrombie is how he subverts the typical fantasy cliches. The wise old wizard turns out to be a bit of a conniving bastard, while the blood-thirsty barbarian turns out to be a pretty chill guy. There's also a darkly hilarious Inquisitor of His Majesty's Inquisition, who reminds me a bit of Tyrion from Game of Thrones, alongside a prissy nobleman and a vengeful woman. The story plays out as a struggle between various factions: The Union, the Northmen, and the Gurkish Empire. The story is heavy on the violence, has a moderate amount of sex, and some magic. Magic users, such as the Magus Bayaz, play a huge part in the plot of the series as he is hundreds of years old and his personal grudges form the basis for the threat the entire Union faces. The series is finished in three books, but Abercrombie has written two other books in the same world, "Best Served Cold" and "The Heroes", which in part continue the story while allowing him to integrate parts of other genres. If you like Berserk you'll definitely like what Abercrombie has to offer.
Brandon Sanderson- THE WAY OF KINGS: This is the first book in a proposed 10 that form "The Stormlight Archives", Sanderson's epic fantasy series that may become his life's work. Magic plays a big part in this series which is also heavy on the violence. Hardly any sex though. The plot revolves around a war for vengeance on a tribe that assassinated the King of Alethkar. There's also a larger plot in the background that involves one character having visions of the past, while another develops abilities not seen for hundreds of years. A young noblewoman also enters the mix, though her role in the larger plot remains the be seen. Overall it's a very enjoyable book, although it's a bit more typical than I'm used to. There appears to be a force primarily for good that will be introduced that will face off against a force that is primarily evil. I'm hoping this distinction will be subverted a bit in coming books, but even if it isn't Sanderson's writing is worth reading. Besides, the action scenes are pretty badass. Highly recommended.
Steven Erikson- MALAZAN: BOOK OF THE FALLEN: This is a difficult series to recommend. The series in complete at 10 books and I've read the first three. Erikson constructs an interesting system of magic and is very good at world building but his characters are just not up to snuff. Many characters seem to speak in exactly the same voice and have these little melodramatic monologues in their head that I suppose is supposed to add depth to their personalities, but it just comes off as annoying. The plot is really what motivates these books, as the various deities all have their own plans that they're trying to put into motion. There's some powerful images in these books, and the "Chain of Dogs" part of the second book is quite engrossing but when an important character died in book 3 and I didn't care I set the series aside. If you like world building and magic systems and epic, book-spanning plots you may enjoy the series, but I didn't find the characters interesting enough to follow.
Patrick Rothfuss- THE KINGKILLER CHRONICLES: So far there's two books in this series, "The Name of the Wind" and "The Wise Man's Fear". Both are mostly told from the first person perspective of Kvothe, who is spinning the story of how he became legendary. The series is heavy on violence, fairly heavy on sex in the second book, and heavy on magic. Much of Kvothe's time is spent at the University, a place to learn magic. The magic here is fortunately much more believable than a series like Harry Potter. Rothfuss bases his magic systems on existing scientific disciplines as well as anthropological studies of how primitive peoples thought magic worked. This leads to a series that seems well rooted in reality while still being fantastical. My only real complaint is that he sometimes gets a little overwrought with his metaphors and the prose gets a little purple. Some people have also complained the Kvothe is too good at what he does and that he's a self-insert character for Rothfuss. Personally while I think Kvothe might be aggrandizing himself a bit in telling his story he doesn't breeze through life the way a character created for the author's ego would. I'm looking forward to the third (and final?) book of this series.
Anyway that's my short overview of notable fantasy series I've read. If you want to recommend me some more I'm all ears. I might end up doing fanart for them.
Oh by the way if you like any of these series you'll probably also enjoy Berserk. And vice versa. Just putting that out there.
George R. R. Martin- A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE: Martin's epic fantasy series is the one you hear about most these days. It's got its own HBO show (Game of Thrones) and appeals to the widest fanbase due to its complex male and female characters that are actually convincingly written. There characters are all shades of grey to the point that it's hard to figure who is supposed to be the hero. Obviously the Starks at first seem to be the protagonists and the Lannisters their opponents, but that distinction gets muddled up as the books go on. The series is heavy on the sex and violence, but starts off very light on the magic. It appears that people accepted that it did exist, but it has faded from the world. The supernatural starts coming back in a big way though and it's handled very well. The series mostly concentrates on members of nobility, so we don't see much through the eyes of the "smallfolk" and characters actions end up having kingdom-shattering effects. I highly recommend this series, although there was a huge wait for the fifth book and nobody knows how long the sixth book will take to come out. There are currently seven planned books.
Joe Abercrombie- THE FIRST LAW TRILOGY: Abercrombie is my second favorite fantasy author. His characters are all kinds of shades of grey, though they tend to be on the darker side. The best thing about Abercrombie is how he subverts the typical fantasy cliches. The wise old wizard turns out to be a bit of a conniving bastard, while the blood-thirsty barbarian turns out to be a pretty chill guy. There's also a darkly hilarious Inquisitor of His Majesty's Inquisition, who reminds me a bit of Tyrion from Game of Thrones, alongside a prissy nobleman and a vengeful woman. The story plays out as a struggle between various factions: The Union, the Northmen, and the Gurkish Empire. The story is heavy on the violence, has a moderate amount of sex, and some magic. Magic users, such as the Magus Bayaz, play a huge part in the plot of the series as he is hundreds of years old and his personal grudges form the basis for the threat the entire Union faces. The series is finished in three books, but Abercrombie has written two other books in the same world, "Best Served Cold" and "The Heroes", which in part continue the story while allowing him to integrate parts of other genres. If you like Berserk you'll definitely like what Abercrombie has to offer.
Brandon Sanderson- THE WAY OF KINGS: This is the first book in a proposed 10 that form "The Stormlight Archives", Sanderson's epic fantasy series that may become his life's work. Magic plays a big part in this series which is also heavy on the violence. Hardly any sex though. The plot revolves around a war for vengeance on a tribe that assassinated the King of Alethkar. There's also a larger plot in the background that involves one character having visions of the past, while another develops abilities not seen for hundreds of years. A young noblewoman also enters the mix, though her role in the larger plot remains the be seen. Overall it's a very enjoyable book, although it's a bit more typical than I'm used to. There appears to be a force primarily for good that will be introduced that will face off against a force that is primarily evil. I'm hoping this distinction will be subverted a bit in coming books, but even if it isn't Sanderson's writing is worth reading. Besides, the action scenes are pretty badass. Highly recommended.
Steven Erikson- MALAZAN: BOOK OF THE FALLEN: This is a difficult series to recommend. The series in complete at 10 books and I've read the first three. Erikson constructs an interesting system of magic and is very good at world building but his characters are just not up to snuff. Many characters seem to speak in exactly the same voice and have these little melodramatic monologues in their head that I suppose is supposed to add depth to their personalities, but it just comes off as annoying. The plot is really what motivates these books, as the various deities all have their own plans that they're trying to put into motion. There's some powerful images in these books, and the "Chain of Dogs" part of the second book is quite engrossing but when an important character died in book 3 and I didn't care I set the series aside. If you like world building and magic systems and epic, book-spanning plots you may enjoy the series, but I didn't find the characters interesting enough to follow.
Patrick Rothfuss- THE KINGKILLER CHRONICLES: So far there's two books in this series, "The Name of the Wind" and "The Wise Man's Fear". Both are mostly told from the first person perspective of Kvothe, who is spinning the story of how he became legendary. The series is heavy on violence, fairly heavy on sex in the second book, and heavy on magic. Much of Kvothe's time is spent at the University, a place to learn magic. The magic here is fortunately much more believable than a series like Harry Potter. Rothfuss bases his magic systems on existing scientific disciplines as well as anthropological studies of how primitive peoples thought magic worked. This leads to a series that seems well rooted in reality while still being fantastical. My only real complaint is that he sometimes gets a little overwrought with his metaphors and the prose gets a little purple. Some people have also complained the Kvothe is too good at what he does and that he's a self-insert character for Rothfuss. Personally while I think Kvothe might be aggrandizing himself a bit in telling his story he doesn't breeze through life the way a character created for the author's ego would. I'm looking forward to the third (and final?) book of this series.
Anyway that's my short overview of notable fantasy series I've read. If you want to recommend me some more I'm all ears. I might end up doing fanart for them.
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!!!
1 min read
www.younganimal.com/berserk/cm…
New Berserk series. Done by Studio 4C. Looks like the rumors from a year ago had some grounding.
I have been waiting for years for this. Let's hope it meets expectations!
New Berserk series. Done by Studio 4C. Looks like the rumors from a year ago had some grounding.
I have been waiting for years for this. Let's hope it meets expectations!
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Oh Sweet
1 min read
Seems like everyone can forget about Shyamalan's trainwreck "The Last Airbender" because Nickelodeon has announced a new Avatar series: The Legend of Korra.
www.comicbookmovie.com/fansite…
Awesome.
I should probably do some Avatar fanart. Instead I'm working on yet another thing for Berserk. Oh well.
www.comicbookmovie.com/fansite…
Awesome.
I should probably do some Avatar fanart. Instead I'm working on yet another thing for Berserk. Oh well.
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'Last Airbender' ...Yeesh.
1 min read
So, how bout that "The Last Airbender"? That movie really sucked, huh? It's very strange how some director who professes to be a fan of the show and has lots of experience with live action can screw up so badly. There's an entire season of source material to show you how to get it right! And yet acting, script, casting, lighting, and everything in that movie was just awful. Especially the parts in the Spirit World, which were really cool in the show.
I think I liked "The Forbidden Kingdom" way more than this movie, which is really saying something.
Yikes.
I think I liked "The Forbidden Kingdom" way more than this movie, which is really saying something.
Yikes.
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