I'm Now an Intern!

I have great news to share! Today I accepted a remote 3D animation internship position at Kashmir World Foundation! I'll be working with a team of animators to animate characters in videos promoting the foundation's various projects. The ideas for the videos sound very interesting, so I can't wait to start working with everybody!

If you haven't heard of the foundation, you should stop by their website. KwF is doing some great things, especially with 3D printed drones. Take a look!

I don't know when our first animation project will be finished, but I can't wait to show it to you guys when we release it to the public!

Until next time!

- Savanna

I'm an Animation Mentor Graduate!

I got my diploma in Advanced Studies in Character Animation! I'm now officially an AM alumnus!

I'm very excited to be graduated, but I'm also sad that AM is over. But I'll keep visiting the online campus, and I plan to keep on being a Peer Buddy, so I'll still be a part of the AM community.

Animation Mentor was such a great experience, and I finally feel that I have the skills I need to be a working animator. Now all that's next is to finish polishing up my reel, and then I can start applying to studios!

The Monsters: Bottle Battle- Animated Short Released

My CG animated short is finally released to YouTube! Check it out below, and please like, comment, and share if you enjoy it!

The short was 2 months in the making as a personal challenge to see if it was possible to create a full CG short in that time period. To complete my goal within that time limit I had to animate 30 shots in 30 days (the fastest I've ever animated). In Animation Mentor we have several weeks just to animate one 10 second shot, so this was a great exercise in animation speed. As a result, I'm much faster now! I also learned more about every other stage of CG film production from storytelling, camera angles, layout, lighting, rendering, and (of course) a lot of animation things. I especially got a lot practice animating all that running (I didn't use any run cycles). In the end, it's not my most polished work (you can see my most polished work in my demo reel) but I'm happy with what I created in the time I allowed myself.

If I got to do it all over again, there are dozens of things I wouldn't do and dozens of things I would. But that's just hindsight being 20/20, so I'm going to leave this alone (except for maybe polishing up a shot or two for my reel) and am thinking up my next short! I won't start it until after I graduate from Animation Mentor (which will be soon, it's currently week 4 of my last 12 week class). I want to get my demo reel all together and sent out first. Then I can work on the next short to distract me while I wait to hopefully hear back from studios.

I figure I'll probably always be working on a short, even once I get into a studio. It's just a fun thing to do, getting to tell a full story and play all the roles in its creation. Though it would be nice to collaborate with a person or two (and would probably produce a nicer result, especially if they know about all the non-animation things that I'm still learning about). I highly suggest that every CG artist create a short of some sort, either by themselves or with friends. It doesn't have to be a 12 month production, it can be a short 2 month production like mine. That way you can learn what not to do and what you need to improve on in a short amount of time.

If you've made a short, or are currently making a short, mention it in the comments below!

Announcing "The Monsters"- My Upcoming Animated Short Film!

I'm happy to announce that "The Monsters," a CG short film I've been working on for over over a month now, is going to be coming out sometime this month! I say "sometime" because I'm still working on it. I'm in the latter stages of animation, but still have plenty of work to do, never mind the lighting and rendering (I'm using image based lighting and final gather with Mental Ray, so each frame takes a decent amount of time). Anyway, here's the first promo poster!

It'll be about 2 and a half minutes to 3 minutes long and, as the poster says, is an action-comedy. I can't really say too much without giving it all away (3 minutes takes a long time to animate, but a short time to watch). However, I will say that the possible subtitle for the film is "The Bottle Battle." It should be fun! There's no dialogue, just a lot of physical humor due to some conflict between the characters. It's kind of like one of the old Road Runner or Sylvester and Tweety cartoons.

Work in Progress Screenshot from Maya

I'm not doing it for Animation Mentor or anything (though the characters are the AM rigs Monster Ball, Bird Ball, and Twig). It's a personal challenge I've set myself to see if (A) I can make a short all on my own, and (B) how fast I can do it. Which is why I'm using pre-existing rigs and several free props, along with the props and set that I made, to help speed it all up.

Work in Progress Screenshot from Maya

It's been quite a challenge so far, but I've learned/improved a lot at so many different things that it's been worth it. I've gotten a lot faster at animating, which is good since my last class gave us 11 weeks to make a 15 second 2 character dialogue. That's fine for school (and actually really good since you have the time to slow down and learn) but in a real production environment you have to work a lot faster than that, which is what I'm trying to train myself for here. And on top of that, it's just fun to be able to produce animation faster because you get it out of your head and onto the screen quicker.

Anyway, I'll keep this blog updated about the film's progress through the last few weeks. When it's finally released, you'll be able to find it on my YouTube channel.

Until next time!

Hand Practice Animation

Check out my new animation- a hand practice piece I did a few weeks ago. I did it while working on my AN05 Advanced Acting dialogue assignment because I was having trouble with the hand poses. It's based on webcam footage I filmed of myself making various hand gestures. Since I'm on break this week, I polished it up and rendered it out (using some of the lighting things I've learned from Digital Tutors). Doing this helped my hand animation skills a lot! I learned more about creating nice hand poses, getting into and out of those poses, and holding the poses while still keeping the hands "alive." I also thought it was interesting how the forearm and upper arm responded to the movements of the fingers/wrist.

Anyway, here's the animation! If you want to see my animations as soon as I upload them, subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Animated in Maya 2013, rendered with Mental Ray.

New Progress Reel- Animation Mentor Class 5

I just finished Animation Mentor Class 5- Advanced Acting! All I have left is to take Class 6- Polish and Portfolio, and I'll be an AM graduate!

I considered putting my AN05 animation into a new demo reel (my current one is here), but decided to wait. I decided that because #1: I want to re-render all these shots since I've been learning more about lighting with Digital Tutors (I got 1 free month for entering the CG Student Awards). And #2: I'm going to start revising many of these shots in AN06 in just 1 week. So I decided I'll wait until the end of Class 6 to upload a new demo reel.

It'll be nice to be able to go back and rework these shots in AN06. I've learned so much the last few months that already several things stand out to me, especially in my AN02 and AN03 work. I may even get to make a whole new shot/sequence in AN06, depending on what my mentor decides. Either way, it should be fun, and I'll graduate with a great looking demo reel!

But that'll be about 13 weeks from now, so in the meantime, here's my progress reel! It's pure Maya 2013 playblast animation, no rendering, no extra music, etc. Again, if you want to see my prettier demo reel (with rendering and music, but minus my AN05 animation) you can see it here: http://youtu.be/ClDsJu92_88 .

WILWA #1- Lifting a Foot

What I Learned While Animating #1

Lifting a Foot

From my Experience Animating "Ballie Jump"

When I first animated Ballie lifting his foot to move back on the block I did it like he was taking a step. He lifted his foot high and didn't let it touch the ground until he was placing it down. It sounds fine in writing, but it looked off somehow. I finally figured out why by acting out the shot myself (another reason to film your own reference instead of just using YouTube).

The action looked strange because in real life people don't lift their feet- they lift their heel and the foot follows. It's true. Remember, even though you probably often animate IK legs, real legs are an FK chain. The foot doesn't move the leg, the upper and lower leg bones move the foot.You're probably sitting right now. Try moving your foot to the right a bit, enough that you have to lift your leg some. What did you notice? Your whole foot probably didn't lift off the ground. Your ankle lifted and your heel lifted, but your toes just dragged, still contacting the floor.

This is how people move their feet when just adjusting them or taking a small step. The larger the movement, the higher the leg, ankle, and foot lift. The smaller the movement, the more the toes drag. I believe that in forward movements it is more likely that the whole foot will leave the floor, simply because friction makes it hard to shove your foot forward without lifting it, but I'm sure that's not always true.

Now back to the shot. Ballie's step was tiny, but not small enough to just drag the toes. There had to be a little lift in the movement as he clears the ledge. Here's the moment from the animation. It has a small arc, and it's hard to see in the screenshots, so I drew up some diagrams to better show you what is happening.

#1- The foot is on the ground and the toes rest on the ledge.

#2- The ankle lifts and the toes move up to clear the ledge. If the toes just dragged, they could get caught on the ledge, and Ballie doesn't want that.

#3- Now that his toes are clear, Ballie begins to conserve energy by letting his his foot go back to the ground, the toes dragging. Remember, everything always wants to conserve energy when possible.

#4- The toes drag back until the heel comes down in the new foot position.

And that's it. It's simple, but it took me some time to figure out that this was the right way to do this small movement.

Questions or comments? Post them below. I'll post another WILWA (not the best acronym, but not the worst) after I upload my next animation. The next one may be a dog one, so it could have some good quadruped animation tips/tricks.

Until next time!

Ballie Jump Animation Test

In my previous post about Animation Mentor I mentioned that since AM is just one class, you may have time to practice other things, like rigging or drawing. Or you could be like me and just animate even more! I actually do draw as well, but I usually upload my drawings to my deviantART or Tumblr. But I may upload compilations of my drawing work here every once in a while.

Anyway, this is a jump animation I did in my free time. My class isn't using Ballie, but I wanted to try him out and this seemed like a great test to use him in. I'd love some feedback on it!

In my next post I'm going to start a new type of post that I call "What I learned while animating." I plan to do this for each animation I upload here. It should be helpful to other animators and will be good in case I ever forget whatever technique/trick I learned.

Until next time!

Animation Mentor!

I'm an Animation Mentor student now! Actually, I have been for six weeks, I just happened to get around to writing this now. My demo reel got me waived out of the first class, so I'm in class 2: Animation Body Mechanics Basics.

It's been great so far. I've learned so much about animation and about the animation industry. My mentor (an ILM animator) gives really great critiques and I've seen great improvements in my work already. All the other students in the class with me are awesome, too. Not only are they as passionate about animation as I am, but they give great feedback. And of course, I get to use the great AM rigs, including the new Stella, Stan, and Sloan.

I highly recommend Animation Mentor to anyone who is considering becoming an animator, and I think that it is a perfect substitute to the traditional 4+ years at art college. As you can see on my About page, I did 3 years at two different art colleges, and while both were great and I learned many things, I do think that AM provides a more streamlined and detailed animation education.

That last part, the amount of detail, is what I especially like about AM. We don't just learn how to animate a walk cycle by copying from the poses in The Animtor's Survival Kit. We learn the science and fine details behind it. The lectures even include lessons from a physiologist describing why we walk the way we do. It's that kind of knowledge that helps make good animation become great.

I know that some people's concern about AM is that they think #1- they'll only learn animation, and #2- all AM graduates animate the same. While it is true that the character and animal animation tracks don't teach modeling/texturing/rigging, etc. it's not like those are things you can't learn on your own. There are tons of free and paid resources online that can teach you about those subjects. After all, AM is only one class at a time. If you're at a traditional art college you would be dealing with 3-5 classes a week. So at AM you should have plenty of time to do your classwork, have a job, and practice some extra things on the side if you want (though my mentor did warn us against becoming "jacks of all trades, but master of none"). Also, you do have to draw as an AM student, so it's not like you'll never pick up a pencil. There aren't any official class lessons about drawing, but you'll naturally improve because of the weekly sketchbook assignments, and you can improve even faster if you sketch in your free time.

Some of my AM Sketches. Circled poses I chose to recreate with Stella.

And as far as all AM graduates animating the same, that's only true if animating the same means making great animation. One of the first things my mentor said in our first Q & A was that we could tell him what style we were going for in our shots and he'd critique us accordingly. Some students choose to animate in a more cartoony style, and some more realistically. We are not being taught to animate in the same way, we are just being taught to animate well, and then we can adjust our work to our stylistic preferences. If you know how to animate well, meaning you understand the principles and techniques, you can switch between styles depending on the project. I may take a few days to transition from usually working in a cartoony style to working in a realistic one, but it's not like you have to go learn a whole different thing. Animation is animation, it's just how you set the poses, timing, and spacing that changes the style.

So what I generally wanted to say with all this is that I'm very happy to now be an AM student. And if you are like I was for years, thinking "Should I go to Animation Mentor even though I won't get a college degree?" my answer is yes, you should. In this field, degrees don't matter. Skill does. You can go to the fanciest animation college in the world, but if an AM student applying for the same job as you can animate better, they'll get the job. But whether you go to AM or to art college, just keep practicing and having fun with your work and you'll be fine.

Until next time!

New Model- White Rhino

After several weeks of work, I am happy to present to you my new model- a white rhinoceros!

He has to be my best model to date! That's because I made a work in progress thread for him over on BlenderArtists.org and got a lot of great feedback and help. I should have begun posting over there ages ago! This is what he looked like when I first posted.

 
Believe it or not, I thought he was almost finished then! The base model actually stayed pretty much the same throughout the revisions, though I did make some changes based upon critiques. What the people over at BlenderArtists helped me with the most was the normal map, displacement map, uv map, sculpting, and they motivated me to rig him. The sculpting part was very new to me, never having sculpted then baked a displacement map before, but it made a big difference in the amount of detail I was able to put on the rhino. Though next time I think I'll sculpt in the beginning, then retopo and bake a normal map, because I think that would be easier to set up.

Here's a close up of his face.

And a side view.

Here are some wireframes.

Here's his rig.

And here's a turntable.

As always, you can get this guy here. He's available in BLEND, OBJ, and FBX formats.

I'm very happy with how this rhino turned out! And I'm excited to put what I learned to use on my next model. I still haven't decided what I'll make next, but when I do I'll make a thread for it over at BlenderArtists.org. Here's my profile for over there.

Until next time!

Several Cool Updates

Hi again, everyone! Remember how last time I said I really wanted to focus on my modeling, texturing, and lighting skills? Well, I just got done doing a lot of practice with those last two. I went through an intense learning weekend where I learned a lot about composition, lighting, and Cycles. In fact, I learned so much that I decided to update all of my old models (except for the Bunny and Bobcat). I've given them all new materials to allow them to render in Cycles, and I've exported them all into .fbx format! I'm especially excited about that last part, because now I can use one of my favorite rigs, my great white shark, in Maya!

I'm also very excited about the updates because of how snazzy all my models look with their new materials and Cycles' better way of rendering. I don't know why I stuck with Blender Internal for so long, I should have switched to Cycles the day it came out! Anyhow, I thought you all might be interested to see the contrast between my old renders and my new renders of the same models. Keep in mind that a lot of the sub-par quality of the Blender Internal renders comes from me just not knowing enough about materials and lighting, something that I've improved on a lot (though I've still got tons to learn). I know of many people who can make stunning renders with Internal, so it's not like it's a bad renderer.

Anyway, here are the images! Old images on the top, new images on the bottom.

Great White Shark

 

I tried to recreate the pose of the original. I love how the lighting in the new one shows off the shark's jaw musculature.

Queen Anne Wing Chairs

 

 I didn't like how the old version had no feeling of presence. I used what I learned about composition and focal length (I went a bit lower than the traditional 35 mm) to create a much more impressive looking scene in the new version.

Jade Canine 

 

This is the only case where I still really like the Blender Internal version. A lot of jade does look like the new version, just like a lot looks like the old version, but I just think all the color variation in the old version looks cool.

Cartoony Hammerhead Shark 

 

I like how the highlights are more defused in the new version. I changed the pose to point the other direction because I realized having it point the other way was pointing the viewer away from the next images.

 Screwdrivers and Screws

 These renders are probably the most similar of the bunch. But I think the bottom one has better lighting and a better composition.

Wine and Bar Glasses 

Major change with this one. The biggest is probably the end of the dark blue lighting. And the bottles have some nice reflections going on.

So that's it! Now that I've finished this, I'm going to go back to making new models. I don't think I'll set them up for Blender Internal anymore, though. I read that development on it was discontinued years ago, anyway.

As always, you can get all of these models here, but now you can get them in FBX format, along with the usual OBJ and BLEND.

Until next time!

Cartoony Hammerhead Shark

Hi again, everyone! I'm on winter break now after having finished a great online semester at the Academy of Art University. So that means I've got the time to make a lot of new things to show you all!

My first completed winter break project is my Cartoony Hammerhead Shark model. It's not rigged because I plan to take this month to really focus on my modeling, texturing, and lighting skills. I'll be doing animation practice, too. I got Tangled and Kung Fu Panda 2 on DVD for Christmas, which means I've been able to go through them frame-by-frame and try to figure out what makes them great. But this post is supposed to be about my new hammerhead shark. By the way, he's unique in that he's the first model I've textured for both Blender Internal and Cycles. All you have to do is turn the nodes on and off to switch between renderers. Anyway, here he is!

Here are some wireframes.

 And a turntable.

As always, you can see more images and download him in .OBJ and .BLEND formats here.

Until next time!

New Models- Screwdrivers and Screws

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. As those of you who follow me on other sites may know, a lot has happened in the last few months. I transferred out of the Savannah College of Art and Design to the Academy of Art University (which I am doing completely online) and also adopted a new dog, a Basset Hound mix named Corey. Both were great decisions, but more on them in another post.

Today I just wanted to show you guys my newest models. I haven't been able to make much personal work, CG or otherwise, lately because of adjusting to a new college and then adjusting to a new dog. But things have started to fall into a more predictable sort of schedule, so I was able to find the time to make these models.

I made a slotted screwdriver (AKA flat-head), a Phillips screwdriver (AKA cross-head), a slotted screw, and a Phillips screw. The screws are accurately sized to the screwdrivers.

While these may not be that exciting to look at, they were rather challenging to make. On top of simply re-learning Blender yet again (I keep forgetting things as I continue to use Maya for school), I also had to learn about the screw modifier, hard surface modeling, and how to make the Phillips tip. Also, I tried to pay a lot of attention to the materials and rendering. I really want to improve in those two areas because no matter how well made a model is, its materials, textures, and rendering will decide how nice it actually looks as a finished product.

As usual, you can get these models on TurboSquid in .obj and .blend formats. They are packaged as a set.

Until next time!

CG Program Recommendations

Welcome to the final part of this three part series of art supply/program recommendations. Last time, I covered digital art programs. Before that, I discussed traditional art supplies. This time, I'm going to cover CG programs that I've had some experience with. I'll be gearing my recommendations more toward how the programs are at making still renders, though I may mention their animation capabilities a bit. Here we go!

CG/3D Programs
There are multitudes of CG/3D programs out there (you'll find people sometimes use CG and 3D interchangeably, since they have come to mean pretty much the same thing). Now while there are lots of CG programs, many by big companies, anyone who's done a quick search will know that there are a few main players. Two of these are the main ones that colleges seem to acknowledge (Cinema 4D and Lightwave aren't on any of my college's computers). The third is one that everyone knows is a strong competitor, though I guess it hasn't become "industry standard" enough to get into college classes. So first, the industry standard ones.

Maya
In my current universe, Autodesk Maya holds the title of Queen of All Things CG. Every CG class I've had so far used it, there are tons of tutorials, tons of websites, and tons of examples of it being used to make films. It can be buggy at times, but patches eventually come out and all is the right in the CG world again. I personally love animating in it (more so than animating in Blender), but I currently like modeling in Blender more. This could just be because I've spent more time practicing animating in Maya and more time practicing modeling in Blender. All in all, I think it's an awesome program. If you're a student, check out my post on how to get Maya for free. Because it costs thousands, if you're a hobbyist, I suggest you start with Blender. And if you've been using free programs and want to move up to an industry standard you can get Maya on Amazon and from Autodesk (the $500 difference is a subscription fee that you'd have to get after purchasing the program from Autodesk, so the prices are actually the same). Keep in mind that often there are only small differences between the versions (they do come out every year), so you may want to consider buying an older version to save some money.

3Ds Max
Autodesk 3Ds Max is another great CG program (I've played around with it a bit). I think that the reason people often have trouble deciding between Autodesk Maya and Autodesk 3Ds Max is that they are both all-in-one CG programs from the same company. Why Autodesk has such similar programs, I don't know. I actually truly don't know the difference between them. The way I've always understood it is that Maya is used more often for movies, while 3Ds Max is used more often for games. Of course, there are many exceptions to that. Whatever it's made for, people seem to love 3Ds Max, so I suppose I recommend it if you find something that it does that Maya can't do (or if you're going to focus on games). You can get it on Amazon and from Autodesk.

Blender
This is one of the biggest CG programs out there, and it's totally free. I used it for several years before getting into college and being eligible for the free version of Maya. I still use it often now. It may not be "industry standard" but it certainly could be. The Blender Foundation has shown that a number of times with its animated shorts, and many professionals and small studios use it for commercials and other such things. I actually know of a couple of people who left the industry standard programs mentioned above for Blender.It has fur/hair, cloth, fluids, and all those other things you find in the "professional" programs. It also has a lot of tutorials available, including books and DVDs. On top of that, it has a built in video editor, so you don't even need something like Adobe After Effects to finish your animations off (you need After Effects, or something similar, if you render animations out as individual frames, which is recommended opposed to rendering single video files). You can use the Blender video editor with videos and frames from other sources (so you could use it with Maya or 3Ds Max). You can get Blender here.

Mandelbulb 3D
This free 3D fractal program is kind of a digital art program and CG program rolled into one. You interact with 3D fractal objects, and have to render your image out like you do in a CG program, but it's not as functional as a true CG program. You can't import models (though I've heard a few ideas about exporting models), and coloring and lighting abilities are somewhat limited. Also, navigation in 3D isn't that easy. But given that it was made by one person (Jesse of fractalforums.com) and is free, it's pretty awesome. It's functional enough for tons of people to be making beautiful 3D fractal art with it right now, and I'm sure that it'll continue to grow. I've used it quite a lot recently, and am looking forward to working with it more in the coming months. You can get it for Windows here (this is the one I use), and a similar program called Mandelbulber for Linux, Mac, and Windows here.

DAZ Studio/Poser
I've never tried Poser, but I have DAZ Studio. I know that there are some people out there who love those programs, and there are some people out there who don't think renders made with them deserve as much attention as they get. This isn't because the programs are bad, they are actually great, but the problem is that you are using pre-made content. With Maya, Blender, etc. you make your own stuff from start to finish, then render it. With DAZ and Poser, you buy stuff from the companies, arrange and pose it (though you can buy poses too), then render it. You're not relying on your own modeling, texturing, and rigging skills. Some great renders can be made with these programs (I get the DAZ newsletter, and there are always stunning renders making up the ads). However, because it is so simple and user friendly, a lot of people seem to feel they don't need to work with their images as much, creating a lot of bland, obviously CG images out there. Because it is not an all-in-one CG program like Blender or Maya, I think they approach it from a more playful mindset and feel that they don't need to read up on fancy texturing and lighting techniques. Of course, there are many exceptions to this rule (I've come across some great renders on deviantART).

So with all that said, do I recommend these programs or not? The answer is yes and no. Yes, if you are just a hobbyist and don't mind having to pay every time you decide your character needs a new outfit or a new hairstyle (you can find some free things, both from the companies and from users, and you can customize the models in other CG programs). These programs can be a great introduction to CG and can teach you how to effectively pose, set up appealing compositions, and appropriately light your scenes. Also, they can be helpful if you need a drawing reference for a pose but can't find any stock footage (I occasionally use DAZ for this). I do not suggest them if you plan on becoming very serious about CG. They are not used in any visual effects houses, so knowing them isn't much of a plus on your resume. Also, it's much more impressive (I think) to show off something that is wholly your own, made from scratch. Lastly, unless you start customizing the models, you may become constrained by what is available for you to buy. And if you're customizing the models, you might as well take the next step and start making your own things from scratch. You can get DAZ Studio here for free, Poser 9 here and Poser Pro here . Be aware that these are not good animation programs (at least DAZ isn't, because I've tried). They are very simplistic when it comes to animation (annoyingly so, I think). Many of the awesome animations you may see on Youtube come from people buying motion capture animations from the companies and applying them to their characters.

Renderers
Once you get comfortable with a CG program, you may decide to go find different renderers. This is not at all required to make great CG art, since all the programs tend to ship with awesome renderers already installed. But it never hurts to try some new ones out, because you may find some that you like better. The only ones I've ever used were YafaRay and Luxrender for Blender, but that was back before Cycles came out. I don't know how necessary they are now, because of Cycles, so I'm not going to actually recommend any renderers. However, here are some that I know of that seem worth a look: YafaRay (for Blender), Luxrender (Blender, 3Ds Max, SketchUp C4D, Daz Studio, XSI, and Poser), Aqsis (for many programs I think, though I think you may need the MOSAIC plugin for Blender), Pixar's Renderman (I think it works with most all the big CG programs, and I've seen it on Maya in my college), and NOX (3ds Max, Blender).

So, that's the end of this series of recommendations! I hope it has been helpful. As always, if you agree or disagree with my recommendations, leave me a comment! In my next post, I'm going to cover how to sketch animals. You can see some of my sketches on my Tumblr.

Until next time!