Sunday 31 March 2013
GIF of the week
One thing we learn in animation is that, provided with a thought-through pose, even the simplest of actions can tell an intriguing story. Here George from Seinfeld demonstrates exactly that:
Saturday 30 March 2013
On being creative
Very true words in the youtube video below, that I would like for every single person on this planet to take into their hearts. There's no magic way to become "good", and even the people who are "good" are probably still working on fulfilling their ambitions.
I've only been animating since 2010, and if you count the actual time animating it's probably less than two years... but before that, I drew close to two hundred pages of comics and filled 20+ sketchbooks with drawings of all kinds.
So you could say that in a way I've been studying animation since I was 11, going in-depth on appealing poses, staging, sillhouettes, line of action, and lots of other important principles of animation. And I was crap during the first 4-5 years!
Here's Ira Glass to explain it better than I can:
I've only been animating since 2010, and if you count the actual time animating it's probably less than two years... but before that, I drew close to two hundred pages of comics and filled 20+ sketchbooks with drawings of all kinds.
So you could say that in a way I've been studying animation since I was 11, going in-depth on appealing poses, staging, sillhouettes, line of action, and lots of other important principles of animation. And I was crap during the first 4-5 years!
Here's Ira Glass to explain it better than I can:
Friday 29 March 2013
A few thoughts about MotionBuilder
- Woooow it has NEVER been as easy creating a looping animation as it is with Motionbuilder. NEVER. The pose tool is, well, awesome. I can easily choose if I want to mirror a whole pose or part of a pose, if I want it to continue from a certain part of the body (making walkcycles a breeze), I even get little thumbnails! Squeal!
- I can pin anything! It comes with its ups and downs of course. While the ability to pin anything is very useable, Motionbuilder has also left a lot of the functionality of the rig up to you and your imagination.
Something that frustrated me a lot in the beginning was that I didn't have a foot roll for the feet of my rig. I've grown used to having a slider or two that I'll manipulate to create a walk, and I couldn't imagine animating a foot movement without them.
However, in Motionbuilder there are no sliders for foot rolling. Which frustrated me to no end for the first day or so. But I've slowly started learning the Motionbuilder way of thinking, which includes clever use of pinning various body parts. For example you could pin the toes of the foot, and lift the heel of the foot while the toes stay in place. Very similar to what you would do with an elbow or knee using Maya!
For me it's still a very abstract concept, that instead of pre-set sliders I have to create my own controls, but oh well... I'm sure I'll grow to love it. Maybe.
- Story mode is of course a nice thing as well. Trax editor in Maya is pretty similar to Story I think, although I haven't used it much. Somehow it feels like the Trax editor is more of an addon, while Story is more of a core function in Motionbuilder. It's got a button on the main interface and everything!
Together with takes, you can quickly edit your animation to see how the end result could look. You can keep a whole short movie in one file, using multiple timelines!
- Comparing the two, I'm not sure which one I prefer to work with more. Maya has a bigger userbase, and as a result more useful scripts, tutorials, assets, you name it. Motionbuilder is kind of like the Apple of the animation world, you get a sleek efficient program with lots of awesome tools. However it creates a lot of limits for the rig, it has to fit the blueprint provided by Motionbuilder.
One of the biggest joys of animation for me is working with a rig that is tailored to the needs of a specific character, and that's a freedom that Maya is able to provide. But the pose tool is awesome..... hm. I will have to think about this.
By the way, have a great Easter!
- I can pin anything! It comes with its ups and downs of course. While the ability to pin anything is very useable, Motionbuilder has also left a lot of the functionality of the rig up to you and your imagination.
Something that frustrated me a lot in the beginning was that I didn't have a foot roll for the feet of my rig. I've grown used to having a slider or two that I'll manipulate to create a walk, and I couldn't imagine animating a foot movement without them.
However, in Motionbuilder there are no sliders for foot rolling. Which frustrated me to no end for the first day or so. But I've slowly started learning the Motionbuilder way of thinking, which includes clever use of pinning various body parts. For example you could pin the toes of the foot, and lift the heel of the foot while the toes stay in place. Very similar to what you would do with an elbow or knee using Maya!
For me it's still a very abstract concept, that instead of pre-set sliders I have to create my own controls, but oh well... I'm sure I'll grow to love it. Maybe.
- Story mode is of course a nice thing as well. Trax editor in Maya is pretty similar to Story I think, although I haven't used it much. Somehow it feels like the Trax editor is more of an addon, while Story is more of a core function in Motionbuilder. It's got a button on the main interface and everything!
Together with takes, you can quickly edit your animation to see how the end result could look. You can keep a whole short movie in one file, using multiple timelines!
- Comparing the two, I'm not sure which one I prefer to work with more. Maya has a bigger userbase, and as a result more useful scripts, tutorials, assets, you name it. Motionbuilder is kind of like the Apple of the animation world, you get a sleek efficient program with lots of awesome tools. However it creates a lot of limits for the rig, it has to fit the blueprint provided by Motionbuilder.
One of the biggest joys of animation for me is working with a rig that is tailored to the needs of a specific character, and that's a freedom that Maya is able to provide. But the pose tool is awesome..... hm. I will have to think about this.
By the way, have a great Easter!
Tuesday 26 March 2013
GIF of the week
Two days late, sorry about that! The weekend got a bit busy.
I won't say much more than that, only to enjoy this silly GIF! You have to love the change in face expression, and how he attempts to look innocent at the end!
I won't say much more than that, only to enjoy this silly GIF! You have to love the change in face expression, and how he attempts to look innocent at the end!
Wednesday 20 March 2013
Sunday 17 March 2013
GIF of the week
I've been collecting GIF (animated pictures) for a while now, as I've encountered them around the web. A lot of them consists of little snippets of an actor or person, as they have a reaction or just act in a funny way. The one I'm posting today is a longer GIF of mr Bean, well, doing his thing. He's a master of body language after all, and seeing the subtle changes as he goes from anger to hopeful, to hopeless, is very inspiring!
I plan to post one of these every sunday. I hope you like this idea! Feel free to share any GIFs that inspire you.
I plan to post one of these every sunday. I hope you like this idea! Feel free to share any GIFs that inspire you.
Thursday 14 March 2013
Imaginism
Imaginism is a group of artists, working mostly with pre-production for movies and children books. I am mostly familiar with the work of the founder and co-founder of the group, Bobby Chiu and Kei Acedera. Even though they aren't directly related to animation, their art has a certain quality to it that makes the images comes to life. It often feels like you could jump into the picture and enter a living breathing world.
They also do a lot to help other aspiring artists. For example they founded Schoolism, which offers classes similar in style to iAnimate.
Imaginism continues to amaze and inspire me, they seem to have an endless pool of ideas to draw from. Their art also reminds me to continue to push myself, to think outside the box and pursue a style of animation that is as endearing as their art is.
To finish this post off, my favorite illustration, drawn by Bobby Chiu:
 |
| Their most famous work is probably designing the creatures for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. This illustration was done by Kei Acedera. |
 |
| Drawn by Bobby Chiu. Note how the assymmetry of the face adds to his character! |
Imaginism continues to amaze and inspire me, they seem to have an endless pool of ideas to draw from. Their art also reminds me to continue to push myself, to think outside the box and pursue a style of animation that is as endearing as their art is.
To finish this post off, my favorite illustration, drawn by Bobby Chiu:
Demoreel 2012
Saturday 9 March 2013
In progress
Hey there! Welcome to my very newly started blog!
It feels right that the first post should be an introduction of myself, so here we go. My name is Stina Boberg, currently residing in the beautiful (and cold) country called Sweden. I spent most of my younger years studying music, playing instruments such as upright bass and piano. Besides music, I drew comics, designed websites, drew avatars on Gaia Online, and spent my time being creative in general.
Halfway through the swedish version of high school, I had an epiphany. I decided to ditch music as a career path, and venture into comic drawing instead! Although pretty soon after that, comics morphed into animation, as I realised animation is way cooler. And here you have my very first animation in Blender (isn't it pretty?!)
I started studying Computer Graphics and Animation in Visby, and last year I finished up three years worth of studies! A couple of months after graduating I was approached to do a work test, which then got me a job as an animator at Plotagon! Woohooo!!
I figured that if there's a good time to start a blog, it's when life takes you out on an adventure. And I think I'm just about to embark on one of the bigger adventures of my life.
A few things I hope to include on this blog are:
- General thoughts and musings on animation!
- Inspiration!
- Gifs!
- Book/tutorial recommendations!
- Awesome animators!
- Aaaand a bit of everything...
Until next time, wishing you the best on your animation adventures!
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