ANIMATION INDUSTRY MAIN SOFTWARE

ANIMATION INDUSTRY MAIN SOFTWARE

Someone asked what is the industry mainstream regarding software, this is our mental map, to arrive to OZ, follow the yellow sidewalk! :)

Please take this with a grain of salt. This is just valid for 2015, and this is a set of recommended choices if you want a pro life, not if you are an occasional artist.

I made the post because we both faced a choice once, and we chose Max instead of Maya.. Director instead of Flash.. UGH.

‘See Motion When Animating’-

To me, it is more natural to create movements from a motion point-of-view rather than a freeze-frame mindset.  It is a common tendency to hold on to each drawing as we animate, becoming disconnected with its velocity, making each as beautiful and in perfect form as possible, inadvertently limiting the animated movement from breathing in a more natural way.

Seeing movement while animating enables the drawings to take on however the shapes that it should, in harmony to its committed ‘feel’, directional flow and velocity.  This means that many animated drawings when view as single frame might not be very pleasing to look at and appearing abstracted, but it is a necessity to arrive at a fluid movement.  

From observation, an animated scene that always maintained perfect form and perspective in every single drawing is comparable to a statue, as it will stay in perfect shape every which way when photograph.  But for an organic being, there will be many instances that the form is distorted and odd-looking in single frame instances, (like the odd-looking photographs that we find of ourselves).

In truth, there is no right or wrong in the way we each control an animated drawing and much pending on each creative taste, but it’s good to see motion when animating and acknowledge the drawing in relation to the physical movement texture at 24 fps.  

Slytherin: Artist aesthetic

Hello :) I'm admiring your work a lot! A question has been on my mind for a long time now but I couldn't find someone to answer: is it possible to visit or even be a trainee at Disney Studios ? I know if you're American there's like some internship but I am French and oh how I wish to see and discuss at least once in my life with artists working for Disney, like you :) I'm currently studying arts and I think it will be soooo interesting to do this! Thanks for your reply :)

I know disney brings over interns from Gobelins regularly, so if you are a student your best chance is to get into the animation program at Gobelins and apply from there. Once you have graduated and want to get on as a trainee (called apprentice now) at Disney you should go to www.disneyanimation.com/careers and follow the instructions there for how to apply.

Bonne chance!

Rolling 03 ^^

‘Movement is information’-

The movements of life are encoded with information and much we can learn from the way something moves.  When communicating through motion, an action description is just the shallow surface and the main content lies hidden beneath the ebbs and flows of a movement.

From the physical aspect, we can tell how much energy is exerted or absorbed, the mobility of a structure and its type of mass. Through patterns of velocity, we can predict its habits, manners, behaviors, intellects and emotions, motives and intentions…

Reading movement is vital for survival, we do that on daily basis and they are the stories of our life.  We transcribe these experiences into words and reflect them to friends and often use hand gestures, body movements to help generate a more complete story.

When telling story through animation, we put focus on the storytelling gestures but often neglect or not putting enough emphasis to the equally important story info in the feel of movement.

Analyzing the short scene above (an experiment I made quite a while back), subconsciously we can tell how closed is the relationship between the young girl and her horse, how long they’ve been friends and the essences of her personality.  All is well to this story except one detail…

A friend has recently pointed out that it is not wise for a person to approach a horse from behind.  It is a blind spot and a 4-legged creature would likely to give a self-defense reflex kick (a piece of info that I was unaware at the time).  It can be addressed with an acknowledging glance from the horse at start of scene (then this story would have been more complete).