Introduction to Character Design

How do you simplify characters so that they are easy to animate?
This is kinda a complicated question.  .... the main jist of character design comes from making the shape, outfit, pose and color of the character convey their attitude, or what you want the audience to THINK about them.  Alot of this comes from the overlying shapes that you use to construct characters.  You should be able to break up just about every character ever designed into a few basic shapes like spheres, triangles and squares.  In fact, if you simplify them (squint your eyes) some characters really are just a big square, big triangle or a big sphere.  The shapes that you use to construct your character with are going to help the audience understand what "kind" of character it is.  This may be obvious to them, or it may just be a subliminal idea they get by looking at your character.  Certain shapes have certain connotations to the brain.  A character that is mostly in the shape of a big sphere will be seen as either soft and cuddly, pleasing, dopey, or just plain fat depending on how you use it.  A large squarish character is going to immediately seen as strong, dependable, perhaps dumb or solid.  The more angular, triangular character will be seen as "active" or aggressive, sometimes evil.  You can use all this in their literal meanings, or use them to determine what YOU think they should mean.  The same works with color theory.  Certain colors have certain feelings attached to them for most people.  You as the creator though can decide to use them in a certain way.   Just do it consistantly throughout your peice.  These are just a few basic examples.  I'm not telling you to make steriotypical characters, I'm just saying that you should be aware of these preconceptions before you design characters.
Try to build your characters out of a few main basic shapes.  If your character is soft and delicate, you may want to make it out of soft shapes, and less angles.  If your character is the abrasive villain then design him so that he LOOKS angular and abrasive and jarring.  Perhaps your "abrasive" character has more points, more straights and diagonals than your more "soft" character.  Your character should LOOK the part, unless you are intentionally trying to trick the audience into thinking the character is something they are not.  Another thing to keep in mind is that often when you are designing characters to fit together in the same environment, they should all have a fairly similar style.  Remember though that just becuase they are in a similar style does NOT mean that you have to forego contrast.
Constrast is one of the most important things to consider when designing characters.  Often a good idea is to contrast a large bulky character with a small thin one.  Or a very young character with a very old one.  Noone wants to see five big burly handsome man characters whose only difference in design is their clothes and their face.  Make their WHOLE body shape completely different.  Give your audience something to intrigue them.  It is the same idea that comic teams use for standup comedy.  Two characters that contrast well against each other are more interesting than two characters who are exactly the same height, build and color.  It's not just comic teams that should contrast though.  Often the villain and the hero, the love interest and the hero, all  have radically different shapes and heights.    Beauty and the Beast would be a good example of this.  Look how Belle looks when she stands next to Gaston.  He's not only taller than her, but he's bright red in color as opposed to her subtle blue, more angular and (of course) radically more built.  Now watch when Belle stands next to the Beast.  Once again, her color contrasts with his dark cape and furr and of course once again her height and build contrasts with his.  In the ballroom scene, even though they change clothing and now Belle is gold and Beast blue, they still radically contrast in color.  I'm sure there are other films that would give you a better example of contrasting character shapes and colors, but I think you get the idea.
While on the subject of color, certain colors denote certain things about a character.  In general, red is exciting, daring, jaring, warm and sometimes even evil.  Yellow is cheerfull, happy, bright, eyecatching and usually a rather neutral color.  Blue is cool (sometimes COLD and DARK!), soft, and the sometimes the color of life (water).  A royal blue is usually masculine while a light blue can be a very feminine color.  Green is a lively color but also the color of money.  Pink is soft and feminine (sometimes overwhelmingly so).  Purple is associated with royalty in its pure form and usually is another feminine color in the pastel version.  Orange is rather bright and intelligent looking (if a color can be intelligent).  Greys are rather dark and neutral and tans and browns are earthy colors. Be aware of these connotations when you pic colors and hues of these colors.  (and we all know that most self-respecting villains prefer darker versions of these colors).  Just becuase these are the average color notations doesnt mean that you have to use them this way.  You can make your own color key, just be consistant in how you use colors throughout each project.  If warm colors represent your "good" side then keep it that way throughout the film and vice versa.  Sometimes a villain would where the opposite colors than you would expect, but in general the audience is only going to pickup on his color-meaning subconsciously... so it's usually best to make his dressing colors give the audience a hint to his true nature.  The same is true for the other characters of your film.  Just some ideas.
One other thing about color is that you should try and not use every color in the rainbow on each character... it becomes crouded, tacky and just overall confusing.  Using colors wisely and with a reason (whatever reason you choose) will make characters easier to read and more appealing to your audience. (and yes even villains should be appealing and at the same time evil.)
Back on the subject of simplifying characters though for animation.  Just some common sense points will often help you out here.  Do you really want to animate a character who wheres 50 necklaces, an elaborately embroidered and be-jeweled coat and completely drawn chain link armor?  Not likely!  Think about having to animate all of those separate jewels! Kinda takes the joy out of animating, doesn't it?  Redrawing monotonous little shapes exactly the same in each frame of animation is TERRIBLE!  When you are drawing concept art or just still drawings for Fun, then sure... give your character super elaborate armor and twelve daggers all completely encrusted with jewels, but when you are designing characters for animation sometimes less is more.  Remember those basic shapes I mentioned earlier.  This applies to clothing and accessories too.  Think about how much you can get across with the least amount of detail.  To some degree computer animation allows you to by-pass this simplification since you don't have to redraw it in each frame, the computer does it for you.  However, characters that have been condensed into their essence show up better on the screen anyway, so my suggestion is that no matter what medium, traditional or computer animation that you simplify your characters to what they really need to express themselves.  Don't add a bracelet just to add a bracelet.  Add a bracelet becuase it adds to the personality of the character.  A character like Esmerelda, from Hunchback of Notre Dame, just would not be complete without her bracelets and trinkets.  Just like with color, add accents and items for a reason.  They dont have to be my reasons, but they shouldn't just be arbitrarily added just becuase you happen to like characters that have lots of earrings and bracelets.  Something you might want to look into is comic book characters that have been adapted for animation.  See how the professional tv animation companies prepare the characters for animation.  Spawn might be a good example.  They simplified the style of the comic down to what ends up being a very effective statement for the tv show (on HBO). (Please note that I'm not suggesting you go watch Spawn. I don't particularly like the show, its just an example of characters prepared for tv.)  I'm sure there are other examples that you can find.  One of my other favorites is Batman: The Animated Series and Batman and Robin.  Both series have good use of color and simplification.  They use colors when they want to and for a reason, not just to add another color.  Check into it and see if you can disect the way they are using shapes and colors.  Find a show you like and see how they simplified it.

5 steps to improve your drawing skill fast

1) Draw everyday and everything you can see or think of, at least 2 hours a day. *Remember, when you are a professional, you have to draw at least about +8 hours a day.*


2) Go to life drawing session at least ONCE a week, better yet twice.

3) Practice drawing from cast and simple object around the house to study value and squinting to find basic value of the subject.

4) Study from any old school master sketches (Mucha, Sargent, Zorn, or whoever is you favorite artists) and try to mimic the piece. You will intuitively learn and try to figure out how they did what they did. The more you do the better you will get.

5) Practice drawing using different medium and switching them around and know how you can work with them, get out of you comfort zone. Try different pencil, graphite, charcoal, pen, markers, brush pen, brush, etc. Anything you can find...use you imagination and let the tool be your best friend.

That's about it...for now. If you consistently do this for about three months, you be surprise. I suggest after about three months compare your first drawing when you just start doing the routine and you last drawing. You will then see what I am talking about, your skill has just been elevated!!! Congratz!

Don't give up to early, once you stop drawing...doesn't matter where you were, your skill will somehow drop. A drawing takes time and consistency to develop. Don't be discouraged by the result if it doesn't come out like what you are looking for, make new ones. It's the journey itself, not really the destination.

What kind of pencil is best for drawing and sketch

What kind of pencil is best for drawing and sketch, how to pick pencil for artist and illustrator.
How to choose a pencil to draw for yourself?
A lot of good professional artists I know have their own preferences, they use different kind of tool varies from person to person. One of the best artist I know can draw anything so great with just regular mechanical pencil with hard lead (2H, or H). But I probably wouldn't be able to pull that off, I love dark lead but not too soft. So it is really up to you to decide which will fit you.

There are many kinds of drawing pencils; here's an overview of lead hardness, line darkness, and varieties of pencils for drawing.

A good pencil is an artist’s best friend. No subject is beyond an artist’s rendering if they have the pencils they need. A good rule of thumb to remember what each pencil does is to remember that the softer the lead, the darker your line will be. Pencils with “B” in the name are soft. Pencils with “H” in the name are harder leads.

This is a list of pencils and/ or lead to help you determine what type you need for different purpose.

Grades of graphite. A word here is appropriate concerning the different grades of graphite. The grades range from numbers 2 to 9. There is a letter following that to determine whether it is hard “H” or soft “B”. In the middle where the two grades meet you will find things like HB, B, F (finepoint) and H. Hard pencils are lighter in tone while soft pencils are darker. So the actual order you will find it 9H 8H 7H 6H 5H 4H 3H 2H H F B HB 2B 3B 4B 5B 6B 7B 8B 9B.

* 2H- This is a very hard lead pencil that makes light marks. It is good for drawing details and preliminary drawings that you may not want to be permanent.
* 6B- This pencil makes dark, softer marks. The 6B shown in the example is a wide woodless, which is great for expressive drawing and sketching.
* #2 or HB- You remember this pencil from school. Most of use started our drawing career using this beauty to doodle on homework. Its lead falls between soft and hard and makes a great all-around go-to pencil. Keep this one with your sketchbook at all times.
* #2 Jumbo- Remember these monster-sized pencils from kindergarten? They have all of the benefits of a regular #2, but they have a very wide lead that is perfect for expressive drawings and thick lines.
* 2B- Softer than the HB, 2B makes darker lines. 2B is great for outlining drawings.



A) Clutch or Lead Holder pencils. They use 2mm graphite refills which are the same size as the wood cased pencils. There is a clutch mechanism in the tip that is activated by the plunger which holds the refill firmly in place. This allows me to extend the graphite as far as I may desire as well as retract it for more detail work. Being 2mm, they also can cover the paper rather quickly when necessary. Creating a chisel point at the tip (by holding the pencil at about a 45* angle and scrubbing a flat spot) allows me to cover larger areas with the flat side but simply turning the pencil gives me a sharp chisel line for those times when I need that. Using it in this way means I do not need to sharpen the graphite very often. I am also very particular about the brand of graphite refill I use.

B)Pencil Leads for Clutch pencil.

C) wooden pencils. The most common is F, the wood cased pencil. These generally come in sets of 9B to 9H and are what most new artists begin using. I would suggest a new artist begin with these but be aware that there are some negative things with them. First, they will change in weight and balance as the pencil is sharpened. I have found this to be annoying. Secondly, my technique will not allow a regular sharpening but requires that they have a good ½" of lead freely available to work with. This brings me to one of the largest drawbacks I’ve found. The graphite is not always centered in the wood so when you sharpen them the tip becomes off center and I often find myself trying to draw with the wood instead of the graphite. The last problem can be overcome with pencil extenders (I don’t have one so I can’t show it) but as they wear down to a nub, a certain amount of the pencil will most certainly need to be thrown away. These pencils require a traditional sharpener or a razor blade to sharpen.

D) mechanical pencils. Standard mechanical pencils can be found in several thicknesses. .3mm, .5mm and .7mm with .3 being a bit tricky to find. Many artists use these exclusively and are able to produce stunning work with them. I find them excellent for detail work but do not use them in the main.

E) leads for mechanical pencils

Concept art

Concept Artist in Video Game, Artist Job descriptions in general, tips on how and what to focus on if you want to get your foot into the Door as artist in Entertainment and Video game industry.

Concept art is a form of illustration where the main goal is to convey a visual representation of a design, idea, and/or mood for use in movies, video games, or comic books before it is put into the final product. This is a relatively new designation popularized by artists working in the automobile and video games industries. This term has been in use since the 1930's by the traditional animation industry who was describing drawn or painted images which illustrate the look, feel, design, colors, etc...of the animated movie to be made.[citation needed] Concept art is also referred to as "visual development" in traditional animation. The term was later adopted by the games industry. These illustrations became necessary for developed visual properties.

Concept artist is an individual who generates visual reference for an object (like weapons, armor and vehicles) or being (like a character or creature) that does not yet exist. This includes, but is not limited to film production, and more recently video game production. A concept artist may be required for nothing more than preliminary artwork, or may be required to be part of the creative team till the project reaches fruition. Concept artists are an enigma in the art world.[citation needed] While it is necessary to have the flair and natural talent of a fine artist, a concept artist must also be able to work to strict deadlines in the capacity of a graphic designer. Interpretation of ideas and how they are realised is where the concept artist's individual creativity is most evident, as subject matter is often beyond their control.

Basically nowadays, Concept artist can focus in three major areas.
**Also depending on how big the company is, they might just have one guy or a few to cover all area.

Environmental Concept Artist: You have to be able to visualizing the richly detailed, beautifully imaginative environments of any given genre. You have to be able to work quickly from sketch to finished concept. You will be brainstorming with level designers and architects with the Art Director and Lead Artist, to help form a believable and awe-inspiring world.
You have to want to work on a project that is going to dipping into the depths of your imagination. You will be painting, sketching and solving visual challenges for a living on a project that will stretch your visual muscles all day.

Other requirements include:
- Second to none concept skills.
- Create accurate, visually interesting, functional, stylistically accurate asset sheets for all levels.
- Create colour moods that capture the feel of the locations.
- Paint master concepts that not only show a general feel of a location, but also describe enough detail to inform an asset list. To be able to paint these master concepts quickly.
- Able to work with level teams to help illustrate any areas that require development.
- Work closely with the Art Director and Lead Artist to maintain aesthetic continuity across the levels.
- Masterly color awareness.
- Excellent spatial awareness.
- Wild imagination capable of visualizing the fantastic to the everyday, giving equal importance, flair and aesthetics to either.
- Fluent with either Photoshop or Painter.
- Passion for the craft, able to revisit work without being too precious.
- Solid understanding of all the different surface treatments one would expect to see in a detailed world and the ability to depict them accurately.
- Passion for conceptual tasks.
*Sometimes You will also be required to do props and object in details (Houses, Ships, Guns, Weapons)

Character Concept Artist: You simply draw and paint all kind of different characters (mostly human form or humanoid) all day. You'll be responsible for creating concept images from multiple viewpoints that are accurate and clear to understand, assembling reference images and instructional documentation which supports the concept designs, working with the Outsource Manager and Lead Artist in creating designs that are consistent with the art vision and assisting in the successful launch of the title.

Other requirements include:
- Strong traditional art skills and good knowledge of human anatomy.
- Excellent technical drawing and vector art work skills
- Flexible with art style and can work in multiple genres.
- Ability to take direction well
- Motivated and driven to face challenges.
- Ability to hit tight schedules as required
- Ability to create detailed and believable visuals based on real world settings.
- Produce art ranging from rough thumbnails to print quality images.
- Strong focus on character concepts.
- Ability to communicate effectively with member of all teams (design, programming, and art).

Creature Concept Artist: You simply draw and paint all kind of different animals and creature (mostly non-human like) all day. You'll be responsible for creating concept images from multiple viewpoints that are accurate and clear to understand, assembling reference images and instructional documentation which supports the concept designs, working with the Outsource Manager and Lead Artist in creating designs that are consistent with the art vision and assisting in the successful launch of the title.

Other requirements include:
- Strong traditional art skills and knowledge of different type of animal anatomy.
- Excellent technical drawing and vector art work skills
- Flexible with art style and can work in multiple genres.
- Ability to take direction well
- Motivated and driven to face challenges.
- Ability to hit tight schedules as required
- Ability to create detailed and believable visuals based on real world settings.
- Produce art ranging from rough thumbnails to print quality images.
- Strong focus on creature concepts.
- Ability to communicate effectively with member of all teams (design, programming, and art).

Art Director - He will give a visual direction of the overall look and is a person who can do all this and on top of everything. Plus sense of humor.

There are more description of professional artists in Video Game world to come. These are just pre-production artist for movies and video games in general.

Animation Tips

There are various useful tips and techniques that may help you in creating world class animations with the effective tools and creative imagination. Some of the tips mentioned below are intended for the artists that create the drawings and others are aimed at the programmers that develop the code around it.
(1) Using shadows for making the characters appear on the ground – A character without shadows tends to float above the ground level. Thus, it is recommended to use the shadows as they offer a visual clue of when a character or object touches the ground. Moreover, by using shadows, you can add more depth to perspective drawings.
(2) Use15 frames per second for computer animation – A normal film reel makes use of 24 frames per second (fps). In order to reduce the number of drawings, conventional cartoon animators often uses the effective rate of 12 fps. There is no limit of a hardware based frame rate on computer and you can select any frame rate. Using the 15 fps offers a good balance between fluency and the number of images you need to draw or render.
(3) Drawing facial expressions on a separate layer – For creating the animation, there is requirement of large number of drawings.  Traditional animators draw on cel (acetate foil) for reducing the number of drawings required. While drawing a cartoon character on a PC, you should draw the facial expression including the eyes, mouth, nose and etc, on a separate layer. Therefore you have one layer of cartoon character with an empty face and another separate layer fills in the face. It helps you in changing the facial expression quickly of the character without the need of drawing the entire corps again.
(4)Using the motion blur – The “motion blur” which is inherent to photo and video cameras provides a clue about the speed as well as the direction of the motion. The human eye possesses a latency that causes moving objects to blur. This property of the human eye along with the camera blur, suggests that movie shot at 20 fps produces fluid motion. The images generated on computer does not have any exposure limit, thus moving objects appear too crisp when generated on computers. For this, you need higher frame rate, say 30 fps, for keeping the animation fluid. By using the Motion blur, you can perceive the sharpness of a moving object along with reducing the minimum frame rate for keeping the motion fluid.
(5) Lip synchronization – It takes a lot of effort to synchronize lips movement with words. In case of high quality animation, the character’s mouth is drawn with accuracy in the correct shape, for every phoneme for handling the proper lip synchronization. If your 2d Character does not display much detail, then you can apply this trick. You can draw only a few basic mouth shapes: “A”, “E”, “I”, “O”, “U”, and so on. It should be just enough for covering the major mouth forms. You require a matrix of frames for transitions from one form to any other form. Thus, using these you can fix the Lip Synchronization issue.
(6) Make ‘moving holds’   -  In case of a hand drawn animation, it happens quite often that you need to animate an action, then slow into a pose by holding the drawing of specific pose for many frames, and then again move into action. The animation keeps alive with the held drawings also. However, in case of computer animation, your animation will die, the moment you hold the pose. In order to overcome this, you need to use a “moving hold” that allows you to continuous move some part slightly instead of stopping the every part of the character.  By making even the slightest movement, your character will remain alive.
(7) Using anti-aliased sprites for fluent animations – In case of sprite animation, the usage of Motion blur is very costly. You can use a mask with softened edges and use alpha-blending for combining the sprite along with the background. Apart from reducing the roughness of the edges of a sprite, this trick also blurs the motion around the edges. AniSprite refers to a library for Microsoft Windows which supports alpha-blending. A paper on algorithms is also available for feathering a mask for anti-aliased sprites.
(8) Loops and transitions – An animated character shows a few repeatable movements like walking. Once a complete step is drawn using the set of frames, you can repeat those frames again for the next step. In some cases the character also has non-repeatable movements like standing up from a seating position. You need to draw a few frames for this non-repeatable movement and also add few more frames to show transition from standing position to a walking. The repeatable movements are termed as “loops” and non-repeatable movements are “transitions”.  If you have cautiously made out at what frame a loop end, you can easily link poses and loops to one another through transitions. After drawing a complete loop, you can select any frame as the start point and end point. It is better to draw the loops first and later on checking what transitions would be required.
The ending frame for a loop should be selected as it also makes up for the starting frame of a transition from that loop to others. Thus, you can make it a key-frame and using it proves to be advantageous.
(9) Improving the illusion of depth by changing the sharpness and the saturation of colours. By using perspective drawing, you can create an illusion of depth in the image. In order to improve the illusion of depth, you should paint objects on the foreground in complete and strong (saturated) colours and background objects should be painted in pastel (or unsaturated) colours. Also, the photographic and video cameras usually focus on a particular distance. Thus, the object that stays in focus is pictured sharply, while others object are blurred.  You can depict the same effect in your drawings by blurring the background objects.
(9) Using a single timer for all animations and timed events – You can use a single timer as the time base for animations and other time-related events. When you are using the two timers then you need to keep the timers synchronized. For that, you must use one of the timers as the master and add code to the other timer for monitoring the master constantly. It is called as the “chasing” of a timer.

VFX

Information Source: VFXTalk

Special Effects or ‘SFX’ are used in film, television, and the entertainment industry to recreate scenes that cannot be achieved by live action or normal means.
They are also used when creating the effect by normal means is prohibitively expensive; for example, it would be extremely expensive to construct a historical castle or to create the Titanic and then sink it, but these can be simulated with special effects. With the advent of computer graphics imaging, special effects are also used to enhance previously-filmed elements, by adding, removing or enhancing objects within the scene.
Many different special effects techniques exist, ranging from traditional theater effects or elaborately staged, through classic film techniques invented in the early 20th century, such as aerial image photography and optical printers, to modern Computer generated imagery (or CGI). Often several different techniques are used together in a single scene or shot to achieve the desired effect.
Visual Effects or ‘VFX’ is the term given to a sub-category of special effects in which images or film frames are created or manipulated for film and video. Visual effects usually involve the integration of live-action footage with computer generated imagery or other elements (such as pyrotechnics or model work) in order to create environments or scenarios which look realistic, but would be dangerous, costly, or simply impossible to capture on film. They have become increasingly common in big-budget films, and have also recently become accessible to the amateur filmmaker with the introduction of affordable animation and compositing software.

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COMPOSITING

The art of compositing is that of combining two images, or elements of two images, together into one seamless shot. This can be done through green screen/blue screen, optical printing, and rotoscoping. Nowadays, this is usually done digitally, and often involves the incorporation of 3D models. Special effects artists can trace an element in a shot, and the software, such as Apple Shake, will follow that object throughout the duration of the clip. The item can then be extraced from the shot, placed in another shot, and the edges softened or the “layer” colorized to match its new environment.
Compositing is done in layers, such as in programs like Photoshop. Individual layers, each with a certain amount of transparency, are added on top of each other to create a final image. It is necessary that some of the layers be partially transparent, so that they can blend with the other layers, and not dominate the full frame.

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SPECIAL EFFECTS ANIMATION

Also known as effects animation, special effects animation is a specialization of the traditional animation and computer animation processes. Anything that moves in an animated film and is not a character (handled by character animators) is considered a special effect, and is left up to the special effects animators to create. Effects animation tasks can include animating cars, trains, rain, snow, fire, magic, shadows, or other non-character entities, objects, and phenomena. A classic case of this would be the light sabres and laser-bolts in the original Star Wars, which were created by rotoscopy.
Sometimes, special processes are used to produce effects animation instead of drawing or rendering. Rain, for example, has been created in Walt Disney Feature Animation/Disney films since the late-1930s by filming slow-motion footage of water in front of a black background, with the resulting film superimposed over the animation.
Among the most notable effects animators in history are A.C. Gamer from Termite Terrace/Warner Bros.; and Joshua Meador, Cy Young, Mark Dindal, and Randy Fullmer from the Walt Disney animation studio.
Special effects animation is also common in live-action films to create certain images that cannot be traditionally filmed. In that respect, special effects animation is more commonplace than character animation, since special effects of many different types and varieties have been used in film for a century.

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CGI and SFX

Effects that are created via computers are known as CGI (Computer generated Imagery) effects and they fit into the category of optical effects - a subset of SFX - because they involve altering a photographic image. Some people claim that because CGI effects are not produced during filming on-set (as in bullet hits, fire, flame, and explosions, wind, rain, etc.) that they are not SFX at all. However, as discussed above, effects produced during filming on-set are a different subset of SFX known as mechanical or practical effects. Other categories of SFX do exist, and CGI effects are still SFX.
The art of adding audio effects to a film is done through either Foley, or pre-recorded sound effects. Foley refers to acting out the scene in a recording studio with the necessary props, such as doors, umbrellas, shoes, or whatever the characters in the scene are doing. If a person was walking across concrete, the Foley artist would probably put the shoes on his hands and tap them on concrete, while watching a screen to make sure he is doing it in sync with the action. Often, Foley sounds become better-known to moviegoers than the real sounds; an example is the traditional use of coconut shells for horses’ hoofs.
Foley is required because so little actual production audio is used; there is often too much camera/crew noise and unwanted environmental noise for location audio to be useful as more than a reference. Shooting on a soundstage reduces the problem of unwanted sounds, but Foley recording is still necessary because the sounds produced on the stage may not be the same ones the director wants in the film, or may not be sufficiently clear due to the necessity of keeping microphones out of the scene.

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AUDIO EFFECTS

The art of adding audio effects to a film is done through either Foley, or pre-recorded sound effects. Foley refers to acting out the scene in a recording studio with the necessary props, such as doors, umbrellas, shoes, or whatever the characters in the scene are doing. If a person was walking across concrete, the Foley artist would probably put the shoes on his hands and tap them on concrete, while watching a screen to make sure he is doing it in sync with the action. Often, Foley sounds become better-known to moviegoers than the real sounds; an example is the traditional use of coconut shells for horses’ hoofs.
Foley is required because so little actual production audio is used; there is often too much camera/crew noise and unwanted environmental noise for location audio to be useful as more than a reference. Shooting on a soundstage reduces the problem of unwanted sounds, but Foley recording is still necessary because the sounds produced on the stage may not be the same ones the director wants in the film, or may not be sufficiently clear due to the necessity of keeping microphones out of the scene.

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VISUAL/SPECIAL EFFECTS TECHNIQUES

Miniature Effects
Matte Paintings
Rotoscoping
Dolly Zoom
Optical Effects
Travelling Matte
Aerial Image Effects
Bluescreen
Motion Control Photography
Audio-Animatronic Models
Digital Compositing
Wire Removal
Morphing
Computer-generated Imagery
Match Moving
Virtual Cinematography

Good animator v a Great animator

So...between a good animator and a great animator. For me, it's the difference between a good actor and a great actor. The animation skills themselves, with time, you learn them little by little. The acting part of things...the choices you have your character do. That's where the true skill relies. I think it takes a lot of studying to get there. Not necessarily animation studying at this point...but acting/drawing/craftmanship/mime/comedy studying. Also your personality has to do with it sometimes. Something you think may be funny, may not be necessarily funny for other people. It's tough. But in the end, and to answer to your question, it's all on the acting. Some animators at Pixar, I don't think of them as animators anymore...I think of them as actors. Purely. Mark Walsh is a great example.

Things to Think about while you are animating a human... Things to Think about while you are animating a human...

·  1. Animate from the inside out….not the outside in.

a. The torso, how the pelvis and spine are working together to move your body.
b. Define the relationship of feet to pelvis and torso
i. Where is the weight?
ii. Is there balance?
c. Arms, necks, fingers and toes come last

·  2. Don’t get overwhelmed by all the limbs and appendages….it’s a bouncing ball.

a. Arcs………everything organic moves in curves, robots move in straight lines.
i. Pick a point on the body, or a locator and track it’s motion with an expo marker. See what shape arc you are making.

b. Timing……what part starts moving first and what is the last thing to get there?
i. Give the eye enough time to see a pose, or an action. If you have two
Objects touching one another- 1 frame is not enough time to see it.
ii. Pauses are as important as the action. The contrast between them is what
Makes each work
iii. Rhythm. Bad pop music is repetitive and everything happens on the beat.
Jazz music has melody but also has off-beats and departures.
 

c. Spacing……determines your slow-ins and slow-outs and your timing
i. Favor a pose
ii. How quickly do you want it to move from pose A to pose B
iii. Cartoony animation vs. Realistic animation. A lot is determined by
both timing and spacing. Snappy vs. flowing.

·  3. Overlap and Follow-through. Flow from one pose to the next.
a. Each part of an arm, leg or torso doesn’t move at the same time.
b. Decide where the energy or need for the movement is coming from –
and move that part first. Follow the this flow of energy as it travels through the body.
c. Everything shouldn’t come to a dead stop. Except in extreme cartoony cases, complete
stillness is a killer.
d. Flow. One part of the body starts to move into the next pose as another part is still
finishing it’s motion from the last pose.
 

·  4. Weight and Texture

a. Within the human body, the majority of the weight lies in the pelvis and lower
torso area. On every single pose, and throughout animation you must keep
track of that weight. There is a constant relationship between the 2 feet and
that lower torso area. If the lower part of the body is off balance – it must
counterbalance using the rest of the weight it’s got. This could be arms, other
legs, the upper torso or an object or prop.

b. Everything you touch or move including yourself or your character has it’s
own weight. Decide how much each thing weighs. Show us how much
by how it affects the body. Am I holding a pillow, or am I holding a safe?
What does my arm look like when holding each? How I choose to hold it will
show weight and how much the rest of my body is affected by it will show weight.

c. Tension or Effort. Sometimes you have to put in some random looking frames
to show tension, struggle, or effort. If you are trying to move something heavy- it
is not going to “give” right away. Your arms may “give” before the object does.
Try dragging something along a carpet- it will catch on the rug fibers…this is
quite different than dragging something along a cement floor- or ice for that
Matter. Things get rub, slow down or get stuck when in contact with other things.

d. Everything you touch, move or walk is made up of different material. Keep
this in mind when animating. Is it soft grass, is the handrail metal or wood,
will the object “give” slightly, or is it solid marble. Remember to show this
visually…after all- we can’t go in there an touch it ourselves.

Other Passes You Can Do On Your Animation……………

·  1. Hips…………. The hip is there to help “take up” the weight of the lower torso, pelvis area.
Animate the majority of the pelvis direction with the root. Save the hip control
For another pass. It is there to help your leg take the weight. It will go into action
shortly after the weight has moved over one leg – and it will happen in a matter of
a couple of frames. If you were a giant dinosaur- this hip shift would take longer
to happen – bigger bones have to rotate more to get the same effect.

·  2. Clavicles or Shoulders…….. are very similar in function to the hip rotation. Particularly
If the hand is being used to rest on or leaned on. The arm will try to take up as
much weight as possible- then the scapula be forced to take up the rest.

·  3. Breathing …. Think about when your character is going to take a breath.
a. A breath can happen during an anticipation. When swimming it literally happens before you dive in and swim underwater. Perhaps you take a big gulp before a golf swing.
Yoga is based entirely on breath and motion. Pulling in the air before a posture and
pushing it out through the next posture.

b. A breath can determine the character’s mood or state of mind. Nervous people
breathe fast, shallow breaths. Someone who has just run may be out of breath
to the point where they literally can’t get it back to normal breathing. Someone
who is asleep may snore or “saw logs” in a regular rhythm. Or they may have
sleep apnea which can cause them to gasp violently all of a sudden. Have someone
scare you- did you suck in air- or blow it out?

c. Breathing doesn’t just happen with one bone rotation. There is no breath control.
The entire spine and shoulders, head and neck are involved in breathing. If it
is the out of breath runner- than maybe the whole body. Again- here is your timing
and overlap following the breath in the abdomen, up through the diaphragm, into
the lungs, up in the chest- up the shoulders and neck into the nasal or mouth.


The Human Body is a large, intricate, complex machine made up of many working parts that all work together
and affect one another….

Aurore Damant Interview: character design artist

Aurore Damant Interview

Tell me a little bit about yourself, about your life? Where did you go to school, and what classes did you study? What helped prepare you to become the artist that you are today?


First of all, I apologize in advance for my basic english, I’ll try to do my best to be pertinent in my answers. Originally I’m from a small town in north of France called Beauvais where nothing never happens. I moved to Paris 10 years ago. My parents always encouraged me to draw, even if none of them are in an artistic business. I remember watching lots of Disney’s bootleg videos when I was a kid (that's all we got at this time) and I guess my love for animation comes for the most part from this. I spent my whole teens cloistered in my bedroom drawing 24 hours a day. I didn't really do artistic studies, except one year of plastic art in the faculty, and I get really bored. I moved to Paris with a new plan : I gave myself (with the support of my parents, who started to loose patience) another year to try to do some internships in animation studios, but it didn't really work. I came from a little town, I didn't know anything about animation and for the professionals I was unknown. Fortunately one of them agreed to take me and the next year I joined Gobelins, l'école de l'image. I was 19. I studied 2D animation, design, storyboard and layout for 2 years and at the end of school I choose to specialize in character design. I learned a lot with my classmates and those 2 years have been decisive in the development of my art.



How do you go about designing, and what goes through your mind, from start to end?


Actually I kind of have the writer's block. I need to have a purpose when I draw, whether it's for my blog or a commission. When I have an idea of a character, or when I'm working on some visual development, I like to think about what I'm going to draw, what kind of character I'm going to do. I like to immerse myself in its universe, if I need to I do some researches before I even touch a pencil. When I'm ready generally the design comes very quickly, because I spent a lot of time thinking about it.
For most designs I start with general shapes, mostly geometrical, and I add the details gradually. But sometimes, when the idea of the character is kind of blurred, it happens that I start with the details of the face and I built the rest of the design around that, I like to let the pencil decide of the final result.

When the rough of my character is done I need to see it in color right away, because otherwise I feel like it’s not finished. Generally when the rough is right the clean-up and the color are right too. Whether it's for a personal work or a production work I always do the colors of my characters myself, and most of the time they already are in my mind : I imagined the color of the skin, the hair, and the tonality of its clothes when I drew it on paper.

When my design is over and I'm happy with it I don't leave it on a white psd document, I look for the perfect way to emphasise it, finding the appropriate composition with the right size and the right font. For me the best thing in designing a character is to go with it from the first line on paper until the last touch on the final composition.


What is a typical day for you, and who are the people you work with?


Actually there's no typical day in this job, not in France anyway. That's why I like it so much, you never get bored. I split my time with freelance at home and productions in studios. The longest time I stayed in a studio is one year, pretty much the time of a TV series production. Each production is different, and each studio has its own way of working. For example last year I worked in a very small studio, the design team (7 persons) was in an open space so everyone can talk with everyone (which is often the case in French studios). In some studios the work day starts pretty late, generally around 10.15 am, sometimes later (!). I'm a bit cranky when I arrive the morning so I don't talk too much, I wait maybe 15 min. and then you can't stop me for the rest of the day. Generally the morning is quite studious, I can concentrate easily even if I'm in a sort of blur from the past night. I enjoy having lunch with my colleagues, talking about the bad TV shows we saw last night, and discuss animation news or DIY (some people have other passion). I became really close with some of my colleagues, I like when I feel that I can continue to learn and have fun at their side. Some of the people I worked with didn't really care about their job, personally I need to work with people who are still passionate.

The afternoon I like to isolate myself with my headphones, I listen to the music and I hate to be disturbed : that's the time of the day when I feel connected with my characters, I kind of immerse myself in my work. At the end of the day, around 18.30 pm (!), I'm pretty exhausted. We don't have long days but we work a lot during one day. It's like we condense several days in one, and we get through a lot of work. I use to do freelance jobs the evenings and week-ends besides my regular job, now I alternate one year of TV productions with one year of home-freelance. I feel more productive that way, and I can (try to) have a life outside my work!


What are some of the things that you have worked on?


Right after school I started working on a TV series called The Pirate Family, I did the model sheets of the characters, then I did the same thing on the TV series Robotboy. At the same time I co-directed 2 short films, illustrated a book for children and worked on the visual development of another TV show called Eliot Kid (I was brimming for energy). Eliot Kid was the first show made with my designs, and during its production I worked on another development, still a TV series (called Commander Clark) which the production ended last January. I did the artistic direction and the character designs of this show, and I learned a lot of things. During the production of Commander Clark I worked for a few months on the TV show The Mighty B! with Nickelodeon US. Between each production I worked as a freelance artist and did some illustrations for French newspaper and children books, visual development and character designs for various studios, mostly english (The Illuminated Film Company, Disney Chanel UK, Cartoon Network UK).


Is there a design you have done that you are most happy with?


Not really. The real challenge for me is to be happy with all the designs I can do in a whole TV series. Still doing some good character designs after 35 episodes (in France one season for an 11’ show is 52 episodes), that’s quite tough. And generally I only have a couple of hours to create one, two or even three characters, whether I'm tired or not. I know that once I designed it and the director approved it, I can't go back, it's sent to the storyboarder in the next hour, so I'd better be happy with it!
In my personal work I'm happy with a design when I feel that I pushed my boundaries and came out with something new, something which I thought I wasn't able to do.


What projects are you working on now? (if you can tell us)


Right now I’m in a home-freelance phase so I work on many projects. I just finishing illustrate the novel of a magazine for children quite famous in France called J’aime Lire, and I’m working on a new TV series project with the producers of Commander Clark. I’ll start this summer the main model pack of another TV series which I designed 2 years ago (and I just finished the 6th season of Grey’s Anatomy).


Who are some of your favorite artists out there?


There are tons of people really talented that I like including my closest friends, but my favourite of all times are Mary Blair, Tom Oreb, Ward Kimball, M. Sasek, Milt Kahl, Jim Flora, Hanna & Barbera (that’s for the dead one), Craig McCraken, Genndy tartakovsky, Dan Krall, Craig Kellman, Marc Boutavant, Delphine Durand, Sempe…


Could you talk about your process in coloring your art, as well as the types of tools or media that you use?


I use Photoshop to coloring my drawings. My designs are sometimes pretty rough so I correct them using the pen tool, which makes clean and dynamic lines. I use this tool 80% of the time, but now I have a cintiq so I can use the brushes when I have some patience. I choose simplicity, but sometimes I wish I was less lazy to take some real paint and real brushes and do something without the help of my computer.


What part of designing is most fun and easy, and what is most difficult?


It depends whether it's a personal work or a commission work. There aren't real difficulties when I draw for myself, specially if I do something I'm used to. However I'm having a hard time each time I want to go off the beaten track, but the feeling I have if I succeed is really rewarding. It gets more complicated with a commission work. The real difficulty is to make everyone (artists, producers, broadcasters) happy with your design. First it's kind of intimidating because lots of people are judging your work (it feels like they're judging YOU), then when they don't agree with you, there is nothing much you can do except follow their directions. The challenge is still being happy with the design which has been approved by someone else than you. It's very important that you approved your own design before showing it to the producers and broadcasters.


What are some of the things that you do to keep yourself creative?


Go to the movies, read some novels, watch TV series, listen to music… any kind of culture is good for the taking. I also try to stay informed about all the other animated shows and movies; I watch a lot of blogs, read a lot of illustrated books.


What are some of your favorite designs which you have seen?


A couple years ago I went to the Disney art show in Paris, lots of amazing pieces where exhibited. I remember some pieces from Mary Blair and Eyvind Earl that look stunning. One day when I’ll make enough money I’ll by a piece from Mary Blair and throw a party to celebrate.


What is your most favorite subject to draw? And why?


Any kind of people or animal looking a bit weird. Fat, ugly, over cute, character with huge thighs, animal with too much hair, anything that makes people different and hang-ups. I’m not really interested by smooth subject, I find the perfection quite boring. If I draw a pretty girl, at least she has to be sneaky.


What inspired you to become an Artist?


I don’t know. As far as I can remember I see myself with a pencil. When I was a kid and then a creepy teenager, I draw to escape a real boring world. My parents where a bit concern about my future job, they didn’t know the animation world very well and what kind of job you could get. I guess everything changed when I heard about Gobelins. There was this very rated school that teaches the kids all the different jobs in animation, then I didn’t need to stay in my bedroom and my fantasy world anymore. I went to this school and everything became real.


What are some of the neat things you have learned from other artists that you have worked with or seen?


My favourite artists are the one working in a kind of good mood. They don’t take the things too seriously, they have fun doing their job. Regarding the technique, you just need to observe the work of the people you admire to learn a lot.


What wisdom could you give us, about being an Artist? Do you have any tips you could give?


My dad said that the success recipe is 10% talent and 90% hard work. I found this sentence very boring when I was younger but now I have to admit that he’s right. And also, try to have fun when you work otherwise you will end as a bitter old apple.


Aurore Damant Gallery

Step-by-Step : How to Make an Animated Movie

The production pipeline of a typical animated short or a movie can be divided into three stages : pre-production, production and post-production. In this article we will be discussing these three key stages in detail.

Pre-Production

The first process in the animation pipeline, and also one of the most important, is pre-production. It begins with the main concepts which are initially turned into a full story, and then, once the story has been finalized, other things such as the script, shot sequence and camera angles are worked on.
Some major components of pre production are Story Boarding, Layouts, Model Sheets and Animatics.

Story Boarding

The Storyboard helps to finalize the development of the storyline, and is an essential stage of the animation process. It is made up of drawings in the form of a comic strip, and is used to both help visualise the animation and to communicate ideas clearly. It details the scene and changes in the animation, often accompanied by text notes describing things occurring within the scene itself, such as camera movements.
Not only can storyboards be especially useful when working in group environments (something quite common in the animation industry,) but they also provide a visual reminder of the original plan; something that can be referred back to throughout the production.

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Layouts

Once the storyboards have been approved, they are sent to the layout department which then works closely with the director to design the locations and costumes. With this done they begin to stage the scenes, showing the various characters’ positions throughout the course of each shot.

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Model Sheets

Model sheets are precisely drawn groups of pictures that show all of the possible expressions that a character can make, and all of the many different poses that they could adopt. These sheets are created in order to both accurately maintain character detail and to keep the designs of the characters uniform whilst different animators are working on them across several shots.
During this stage the character designs are finalized so that when production starts their blueprints can be sent to the modeling department who are responsible for creating the final character models.

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Animatics

In order to give a better idea of the motion and timing of complex animation sequences and VFX-heavy scenes, the pre-visualization department within the VFX studio creates simplified mock-ups called “Animatics” shortly after the storyboarding process.
These help the Director plan how they will go about staging the above sequences, as well as how visual effects will be integrated into the final shot.

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Production

Now that the storyboard has been approved the project enters the production phase. It’s here that the actual work can start, based on the guidelines established during preproduction. Some major parts are layout, modeling, texturing, lighting, rigging and animation.

Layout

Using lo-res models or blocks of geometry in the place of the final set and characters, the Layout Artist is responsible for composing the shot and delivering rough animation to the animators as a guide. What they produce is the 3D version of what the storyboard artists had previously drawn on paper.
During this stage the Director approves camera moves, depth of field and the composition of the models making up the set and set dressing. It is then the responsibility of the Modeling department to deliver these approved set, prop and character models in the final layout stages.

Modelling

Modelers are usually split into two or more departments. Whilst organic modelers tend to have a sculpture background and specialise in building the characters and other freeform surfaces, hard-surface modelers often have a more industrial design or architectural background, and as such they model the vehicles, weapons, props and buildings.
Working closely with the Art Directors, Visual Effects Supervisors and Animation Supervisors, modelers turn the 2D concept art and traditionally sculpted maquettes into high detail, topologically sound 3D models. They then assist the Technical Animator and Enveloper as the model has a skeleton put in place and the skin is developed. Following this, the model may be handed back to the Modeler, who will proceed to sculpt facial expressions and any specific muscle tension/jiggle shapes that may be required.

Once the model is approved, it will be made available to the rigging and texture paint departments, who complete the final stages in preparing the model for animation and rendering. With luck, the model will move through the production pipeline without coming back for modeling fixes, although some amount of fixes are inevitable – problems with models sometimes don’t appear until the rendering stage, in which case the lighter will send the model back to be fixed.

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Texturing

Whether creating a texture from scratch or through editing an existing image, Texturing Artists are responsible for writing shaders and painting textures as per the scene requirements.

Working hand-in-hand with the surfacing and shading departments, textures are painted to match the approved concept art and designs which were delivered by the art department. These textures are created in the form of maps which are then assigned to the model.

Lighting

Not only does a Lighting Artist have to think lighting the individual scenes, they also have to consider how to bring together all of the elements that have been created by the other departments. In most companies, lighting TDs combine the latest version of the animation, the effects, the camera moves, the shaders and textures into the final scenes, and render out an updated version every day.
Lighters have a broad range of responsibilities, including placing lights, defining light properties, defining how light interacts with different types of materials, the qualities and complexities of the realistic textures involved, how the position and intensity of lights affect mood and believability, as well as color theory and harmony. They are required to establish direct and reflected lighting and shadows for each assigned shot, ensuring that each shot fits within the continuity of a sequence, all the while aiming to fulfill the vision of the Directors, Production Designers, Art Directors and VFX Supervisors.

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Rigging

Rigging is the process of adding bones to a character or defining the movement of a mechanical object, and it’s central to the animation process. A character TD will make test animations showing how a creature or character appears when deformed into different poses, and based on the results corrective adjustments are often made.

The rigging department is also involved in developing cloth simulation – so as well as making a character able to clench their fist or rotate their arm, the rigging and cloth department is responsible for making their costume move in a believable manner.

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…planning a character’s performance frame by frame uses the same basic principles first developed for 2D animation.

Animation

In modern production companies, the practice of meticulously planning a character’s performance frame by frame is applied in 3D graphics using the same basic principles and aesthetic judgments that were first developed for 2D and stop-motion animation. If motion capture is used at the studio to digitize the motion of real actors, then a great deal of an animator’s time will also be spent cleaning up the motion captured performance and completing the portions of the motion (such as the eyes and hands) that may not have been digitized during the process.
The effects team also produce elements such as smoke, dust, water and explosions, although development on these aspects does not start until the final animation/lighting has been approved as they are integral to the final shot and often computationally heavy.

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Post-Production

Post-production is the third and final step in film creation, and it refers to the tasks that must be completed or executed after the filming or shooting ends. These include the editing of raw footage to cut scenes together, inserting transitional effects, working with voice and sound actors and dubbing to name just a few of the many post-production tasks.
Overall, however, the three main phases of post-production are compositing, sound editing and video editing.

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Compositing

The compositing department brings together all of the 3D elements produced by the previous departments in the pipeline, to create the final rendered image ready for film! Compositors take rendered images from lighters and sometimes also start with compositing scripts that TDs develope in order to initially comp together their dailies (working versions of the shot.)

General compositing tasks include rendering the different passes delivered by a lighting department to form the final shot, paint fixes and rotoscoping (although compositors sometimes rely on mattes created by a dedicated rotoscoping department), as well as the compositing of fx elements and general color grading.

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Sound Editing

This department is responsible for selecting and assembling the sound recordings in preparation for the final sound mix, ensuring lip sync and adding all of the sound effects required for the final film.

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Video Editing

Video editing is the process of manipulating and rearranging shots to create a seamless final product, and it is at this stage that any unwanted footage and scenes are removed. Editing is a crucial step in making sure the video flows in a way which achieves the initial goal. Other tasks include titling and adding any effects to the final video and text.

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Conclusion

The production pipeline detailed above is broadly common in most studios, however each studio is likely to have a custom pipeline determined by the type of project they are currently undertaking. A 2D production pipeline starts with workbook and goes all the way through final checking, composting and film output, whilst the 3D CGI production process emphasizes the design, modeling and rigging and animation stages. Moreover, animation production is a very coordinated process where different teams of artists work together while utilizing optimum resources and achieving the initial goal in the time available.