The Current Situation

2018 didn't go without a fight. The day of my last post, I slipped on the stairs in my home while carrying my two year old son and shattered my ankle. I've been pretty limited in what I've been able to do physically and it takes its toll, mentally. Then my family came to visit for Christmas, and on Christmas Day my father had to be taken to hospital and in those next two days we were told every variation of prepare for the worst. My family and I came home that day and we prayed hard. The next day we were told they had discovered what was killing him; a strain of invasive bacteria. An answer to prayer and day by day he's gotten better and stronger, and now they're back in the States, back to their home so he can recover further in his own bed. Since then my leg has been getting better; I've been able to put more weight on it so I can be a bit more self-sufficient. This week I made a cup of tea for myself!

Though I wish I had posted something for the last two months of the year, the break has allowed me to take a step back and look at it all. I want to dig a little deeper this year and tackle harder topics. Maybe even throw in a video or two. Do something with my Patreon beyond letting it sit there, come up with some exclusive content. Keep an eye on this space!

In the meantime, for January and this new year, please enjoy my latest two showreels representing my work on Star Wars : The Last Jedi and Jurassic World : Fallen Kingdom. I was a lead animator on both of these shows (and specifically the lead animator for Snoke) and I couldn't be more proud of how they turned out and of the work that the entire team at ILM pulled off. It was a dream come true to work on these franchises, and while they were never easy, there's definitely a certain magic to working on something from my childhood, to work on the projects that got me interested in the field of visual effects in the first place. Enjoy!

   

And as always, keep on keyframing!

Don't Let the Machine Win

I was planning on having a bigger announcement this week, but I'm navigating the legal implications. So for now I'm pleased to announce that I'm launching a Patreon for this blog. If you enjoy this blog and want to contribute please hit the button on the right. Contributions will help support the blog and I have plans for the future, which include a Stylized Reality tool set and, given enough patrons, video tutorials based on my personal projects. Patrons will also be able to make requests and suggestions for topics they'd like to see covered in future blog posts.

Also, now that I've reached my self-imposed deadline of January 31, compounded with crunch time at work, I'm going to throttle back a bit and do one post a month. I may start doing one every two weeks when we're out of it. We'll see!

And now for a tip.

The computer, as inbetweener, is an idiot. It knows how things should move mathematically, but not naturally. When I block in stepped, I end up breaking my animation down to the point where I manually place keys every 2 to 4 frames, depending on the action. This gives greater control over the final product. There will need to be some massaging once splining begins, but it should all-in-all be a less painful process and give you the poses and breakdowns you want, rather than the ones the computer demands.

There are tools and techniques you can use to help you with inbetweening. To help you beat the computer.

- Arc trackers are vital. I use it even in stepped blocking. Using it early in the process, tracking all your arcs, helps to make sure everything will work down the line. I use toolChef's motion path tool as well as MorganLoomis' arc tracer at home.

- Space switching is hugely helpful. I almost always have FK arms in world space, as well as the rotations of the head. On some characters, like Kaa, the whole head is in world space. These kind of things reduce the amount of counter-animating you'll have to do because of something the body might be doing. Be in control of what the different parts are doing.

- Make use of rotation orders. Maya doesn't evaluate all of the rotation channels all at once. It does them in a certain order and it can change how one key transitions to another. Morgan Loomis has a great tool for changing rotation orders on something that has already been animated. It even gives you an analysis of which one will give you the best results. This helps you keep on top of the computer. 

Worse comes to worst, you'll have to key something every frame, but that is the last ditch effort. Don't let the machine win! The computer is a tool, it works for you. Don't let it bully you into inferior animation because of math.

Keep on keyframing!