Friday, September 28, 2018

Meet the 2018 WU Animation Teams


Nine countries from around the world are participating in 24 HOURS this year!!! USA,, Australia, Brazil, Canada,Mexico, Thailand and USA and ...welcome our new international schools from the UK, Germany and Czech Republic! 

Woodbury University has 8 registered Animation Teams for this year's 24 Hour Contest, tying that amount back in 2016.

All teams will this Friday in Miller rm 206 for checking and last minute announcements before the live stream broadcast from CSULB announces the theme.

We will have a pizza for dinner break in the Powell Gallery at 8pm. Please bring your own drinks,  but we will have ice and water.

I would like all teams to send me a video or two of the team working on the project. Keep it short and simple like you project. I want to show what it's like to make a film in 24 hours.

And now, here are all the 2018 Woodbury Animation Teams...

Mystery Shack Employees
Sabrina Sands, Julie Metas, Rebekah Kamemoto, Cindy De Leon Siquin and Team Captain Vasilina Mikhaylova




Team Captain Sal Carreiro, Jaicob Andino, Kayla Branson, Roger Alix and Amanda Way.





Felicia Paredes,Team Captain Camila Maldonado, Emma Garcia, Jessica Ordaz and Jennifer Bose



The Wood Chips
(Our Freshmen Team)

Mallory Collins,Team Captain Sage Pasos, Kevin Nunez, Maria Fiore and Megan Van Hoogmoed


   Fellowship of the Cintiq
(Our Senior Team)

Team Captain Jocelyn naves, Nicholas Posito, Rachel Samoysa, Maria Ordonez and Taylor Kowalczyk 



Pann Cakes

Team Captain Amit Geffner, Prabu Rajanapathy, Levi Ellis, Izzy Anderson and James Rodriguez




The Hunky Lwnch

Team Captain Caitlin Kinkead, Hans Voegeli, Cruz Godinez, Lawren Richardson and Shayne Cut




The Animettes

Brandy Williams, Emily Engel-Fletcher, Jay McPherson, Nicole Petrovsky and Team Captain Haley Lambert.



Participating Schools 24 HOURS 2018:


1. Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA (7) 
2. Art Institute of California San Diego, CA (3)  
3. Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, TN (2)  
4. Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA (2) 
5. Belas Artes University, São Paulo, BRAZIL (6)  
6. Bradley University, Peoria, IL (1) 
7. Braunschweig University of Art, Braunschweig, Germany (1) 
8. California Institute of the Arts, Valencia CA (9)  
9. Capilano University, North Vancouver, BC CANADA (10) 10. Carnegie Mellon University, LA, CA (1) 
11. Columbus College of Art and Design, Columbus, OH (5) 12. CSUC , Chico CA (7) 
13. CSUF , Fullerton CA (7) 
14. CSULA, Los Angeles CA (3) 
15. CSULB,LongBeachCA (12) 
16. CSUN , Northridge CA (13) 
17. Design Centre Enmore TAFE, Enmore NSW AUSTRALIA (2) 
18. DigiPen Institue of Tecnology, Redmond, WA (1)
19. ELAC, East Los Angeles CA (3)  
20. Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Edinboro, PA (5) 21. Emily Carr University of Art & Design, Vancouver BC CANADA (1) 
22. FAAP, Sao Paulo, Brazil (7) 
23. Film School Zlin, Zlin, Czch Republic (1) 
24. Grand Valley State University, Allendale Charter Township, Michigan (2) 
25. Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (1)
26. ITESMCampus Querétaro, MEXICO (7) 
27. Kansas City Art Institute , Kansas City, MO (Missouri) (2) 28. Kendall College of Art and Design , Grand Rapids, MI (3) 29. Lipscomb University, Nashville, Tenessee (1) 
30. Middle Tennessee State University , Murfreesboro, Tennessee (6) 
31. Nevada State College , Henderson, NV (2)  32. Rangsit University, Bangkok Thailand (5) 
33. Ringing College of Art and Design, Sarasota, FL (4) 
 34. SAE Institute México, Mexico City, MÉXICO (2) 
35. Sam Houston State University, Huntsville TX (4) 
36. San Jose State University, San Jose CA (5) 
37. School of Visual Arts, NYC, NY (1) 
38. Seneca College, Toronto CANADA (8) 
39. SFSU, San Francisco, CA (1) 
40. Sheridan College, CANADA (29) 
41. Universidad delValle de Puebla Puebla, MÉXICO (1) 
42. UFSC, Florianopolis, Brazil (1) 
43. University of Bradford, UK (1)  
44. University of California Berkeley , Berkeley CA (3) 
45. University of Salford, Manchester, England (1) 
46. University of Southern California , Los Angeles CA (4)  47. Villa Maria College, NY (3) 
48. Virginia Commonwealth University, VA (2) 
49. Woodbury University , Glendale CA (8) 


Sunday, September 23, 2018

Blocking Animation

The beginning of the animation process called "Blocking" or  "Key Posing". This is an excellent tutorial from Tracy Strong of Stylus Rumble on Youtube.


More will be added soon...

Monday, September 17, 2018

Animating a Cut Out Character

Now that you have added your final Rig to the Harmony Premium Library, you can now bring that rig into another new Harmony scene file.

This is how to set up and animate a Walk Cycle.

You will be animating everything as key poses and creating Key frames. This is known as pose to pose animation. The rig set up allows you to select the body part, say the Right Arm and then click on Deformation chain button to yurn on the bone controls for the right arm. Rotate the bones, Harmony automatically creates the key frames. 

DO NOT ROTATE THE BODY PART AND THEN THE BONES. Doing this throws the bone chain outside and away from the body part it is controlling. See the photos below and remember Harmony will be creating the inbetweens for you, but its up to you to set the key poses and make sure the animation working correctly.

To do a walk cycle, you need these key positions for each step. Below shows only one leg stepping forward as the other foot is going back. This is only the first step of a complete stride. (examples from Richard Williams Animator's Survival Kit (go buy your own)



Below is a timing chart showing the same animation with different timing, giving a cartoony tempo or a more realistic pace.

You should go with the On 16's chart. The first Contact pose is Key .#1, Key # 17 is the opposite of Key #1. Key # 9 is the Pass Position, showing how the back leg comes forward.

Key #1 + Key #9 = Key #5 The leg bends to take the weight making this the Lowest position of your step. Key # 9 + Key # 17 = Key #13 The leg and body's highest position of the step.

You create these 5 poses and then do the same for the other leg stepping forward and you should have the following Keys on the same frames numbers.
                       inbs
First Step K1   - - - K5  - - - K9   - - - K13 - - - K17 
2nd Step  k17  - - - k21 - - - k25 - - - k29  - - - (k33)K1 link up



Turn on the Transform tool and the Animate button first and then select the body part you want to change first. Then turn on the Deformation change button to see the bone chain and rotate the bone. As you do this, Harmony places a key frame on each bone you move. You can also select KF+ to add a keyframe down the entire frame. You can start with the body and legs, position Key #1 on frame #1.

Keep All the Keys on the same Key frames


        Contact       down      Pass        Up        Contact

First Step K1   - - - K5  - - - K9   - - - K13 - - - K17 

2nd Step  k17  - - - k21 - - - k25 - - - k29  - - - (k33)K1 link up
                        inbs       inbs      inbs       inbs
By selecting the Master layer, this selects the entire rig. You can use this to create the up and down motion throughout the 2 steps. Once the body is working, move onto keying the legs, then the arms, then hands.

Always click on the time line in the Master rig layer and then click on the body part you want to select, 



then click on the Deformation change button next to the Deformation tools.

The bone chain appears. Click on the bone then rotate it into position. 

Make sure you pose all the parts on the same key frame. Harmony automatically sets keys frames on the bones you rotate, but you have to key the Master rig layer yourself. 

The Master Rig will move the entire rig, this will help when making Key #5 & #21: the down positions and Key # 13 & #29: the up positions. When you move the Master Rig, use the arrows keys to move it up or down and then adjust the legs and feet. If you click on the Master rig, moving it up or down using the mouse, you will add more side to side motion as well.

Always remember to use your Onion Skin tool to see how the spacing for arms or legs is working. Any motion where the leg's foot moves and then slows down or pauses for several frames and then speeds up.This shows bad spacing and you will need to adjust your leg so its always moving.

Motion and Stop Motion Keys. 

Stop Motion Keys: Are useful for setting up a pose to pose test. Just showing the key poses without the inbetweens added.

Motion Keys: Show the inbetween frames in between the two key poses. 

Here is a good example of what both Motion keys look like in action. The back leg, the one away from us is set on Stop Motion keys.

To change the Stop Motion to Motion keys, go to Animation tab on the top in Harmony and click off Stop-Motion Keys and click Animate on top.

To learn about blocking out your scene, click this link.

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Sunday, September 16, 2018

24 Hours for 2018

The 2018 24 HOURS Animation Contest for Students will take place on Friday October 5th at 3pm PST to Saturday October 6th at 4pm. 

Here's a recent article about this year's contest and link to the Best of 24 Hours contest.

WHAT is it?:

For those that do not know, I have been running this international event for the past 16 years in which students around the world compete in teams of 5 to complete a 30 second animated film in just 24 Hours based on a given theme (by me). Believe it or not, with these tight constraints - many teams actually complete their films…in color!!! 

This has been such a successful event with the student’s attendance rapidly growing each year. In 2018, with over 183 teams (over 1,000 students) from 49 schools in 9 countries from around the world are participating in 24 HOURS this year!!! USA, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Thailand and ...welcome our new international schools from the UK, Germany and Czech Republic! Game on!!!


THE THEME FOR 24 HOURS 2018

In the late 1500’s/Early 1600’s - Galileo Galilei spoke against the prevailing views of our solar system in the name of truth and science.

In the mid 1800’s - Harriet Tubman not only escaped from slavery but returned on many dangerous missions to help other slaves out to freedom.

In the late 1800’s - Helen Keller - Despite her condition of both deafness and blindness worked through her disabilities, learning to read and write, becoming a champion of social issues and helping to improve the welfare of deaf people.

In 1936 Jesse Owens won four gold medals at Hitler’s 1936 Olympics in Berlin. It was one of the great moments of sport, which helped to puncture the Nazi ideology of Aryan supremacy.

In 1955 Rosa Parks showed what ordinary people can do when she stayed on that bus sticking fast to her beliefs of defiance to racial segregation.

In the late 1970’s Harvey Milk was the most famous and most significantly open LGBT official ever elected in the United States against the backdrop of an anti-gay public.

In 2012 Malala Yousafzai a Pakistani schoolgirl defied threats of the Taliban to campaign for the
right to education.

And in 2018 Christine Blasey Ford bravely stood up to recount her sexual assault to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee against background of public mockery.

Each one of these people took an oppositional stance to the status quo. They were determined to be heard, willing to standing alone with the hopes we all could unite in the end. Though their fights were not always won, their voices were heard.

In 24 hours make a 30-second animated film depicting a strong point of view educating to your audience about the need to have empathy. Whether it be race, gender, lifestyle, social mobility, disability, geography, or even species, we all face challenges in making our reality be understood. Animate an experience that will help convey to the audience what it is really like to speak your truth.

You have 24 hours....Go!!!





Finished films will be judged by a panel of industry experts and prizes awarded to the top 5 teams. 

In past years we have had excellent prizes from our industry sponsors, which have included: CSU Summer Arts, TVPaint, ToonBoom, DigiCel, CRC Press, CTNX, Wacom, Animation Magazine, ASIFA-Hollywood, Stuart NG Books, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Disney, DreamWorks, Blue Sky, Laika, Film Roman, Pixar and more!. 



WHY on earth would anyone participate in this crazy contest?:

This contest will teach our students much about working together, meeting deadlines and making creative decisions under pressure AND they all have a lot of fun and return for more each year – so it’s a proven model they really enjoy. This has been such a successful event and has grown every year. I plan to continue this annually and I hope you can join us.






List of Participating Schools 24 HOURS 2018:
  1. Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA (7)
  2. Art Institute of California San Diego, CA (3)
  3. Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, TN (2)
  4. Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA (2)
  5. Belas Artes University, São Paulo, BRAZIL (6)
  6. Bradley University, Peoria, IL (1)
  7. Braunschweig University of Art, Braunschweig, Germany (1)
  8. California Institute of the Arts, Valencia CA (9)
  9. Capilano University, North Vancouver, BC CANADA (10)
  10. Carnegie Mellon University, LA, CA (1)
  11. Columbus College of Art and Design, Columbus, OH (5)
  12. CSUC , Chico CA (7)
  13. CSUF , Fullerton CA (7)
  14. CSULA, Los Angeles CA (3)
  15. CSULB,LongBeachCA (12)
  16. CSUN , Northridge CA (13)
  17. Design Centre Enmore TAFE, Enmore NSW AUSTRALIA (2) 
  18. DigiPen Institue of Tecnology, Redmond, WA (1)
  19. ELAC, East Los Angeles CA (3)
  20. Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Edinboro, PA (5)
  21. Emily Carr University of Art & Design, Vancouver BC CANADA (1)
  22. FAAP, Sao Paulo, Brazil (7)
  23. Film School Zlin, Zlin, Czch Republic (1)
  24. Grand Valley State University, Allendale Charter Township, Michigan (2)
  25. Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (1)
  26. ITESMCampus Querétaro, MEXICO (7)
  27. Kansas City Art Institute , Kansas City, MO (Missouri) (2)
  28. Kendall College of Art and Design , Grand Rapids, MI (3)
  29. Lipscomb University, Nashville, Tenessee (1)
  30. Middle Tennessee State University , Murfreesboro, Tennessee (6)
  31. Nevada State College , Henderson, NV (2)
  32. Rangsit University, Bangkok Thailand (5)
  33. Ringing College of Art and Design, Sarasota, FL (4)
  34. SAE Institute México, Mexico City, MÉXICO (2)
  35. Sam Houston State University, Huntsville TX (4)
  36. San Jose State University, San Jose CA (5)
  37. School of Visual Arts, NYC, NY (1)
  38. Seneca College, Toronto CANADA (8)
  39. SFSU, San Francisco, CA (1)
  40. Sheridan College, CANADA (29)
  41. Universidad delValle de Puebla Puebla, MÉXICO (1)
  42. UFSC, Florianopolis, Brazil (1)
  43. University of Bradford, UK (1)
  44. University of California Berkeley , Berkeley CA (3)
  45. University of Salford, Manchester, England (1)
  46. University of Southern California , Los Angeles CA (4)
  47. Villa Maria College, NY (3)
  48. Virginia Commonwealth University, VA (2)
  49. Woodbury University , Glendale CA (8)

And speaking  of Woodbury University, follow this link to meet
WU Animation teams for 2018.

Thursday, September 13, 2018

Setting up the Cut Out Character

Rigging a character is like building your own Frankenstein monster. Not only do you have to design it, but you must make sure to set up all the parts correctly and make sure all the parts are moving correctly.

The first thing is to use the same naming convention throughout your project. This allows everyone working on your project to work on the same rig with the same labels.

Please relabel your layers the following way...

If you have used a Bone or Curved Deformer in your rig, rename: Deformation-Rt_Arm to BN-Rt_Arm for a Bone Deformer or CRV for a Curve Deformer; CRV-Rt_Arm.

If you have used a Kinematic Output to keep your hand from deforming when moving the arm. Rename this layer from
Kinematic-output_ Rt_hand, to KO-Rt_hand.

I've noticed the some people are renaming all their drawing layers without parenting and adding the proper controls. Or adding a Kinematic Output to every layer. Both are not necessary. 

Once you setup your rig, you must test every layer or deformer to make sure its rotating at the pivot point you set up. Once the pivot are set up, you shouldn't need to reset them everytime you animate them.

Please do not parent your arms or legs to the body. The Arms and Legs basically float above or behind the body. 
The body is the parent of the head, when rotating the body, the head goes with it. Just as the Head is the parent to all the facial features; Eyes, Pupils, (sometimes nose), mouth, extra things like hair, a hat or helmet.

The whole advantage to rigging is to first create all the parts and how they fit together. This is creates a long layer list of parts and controls.

The top Deformation layer controls everything underneath it and you can click on it to hide all the parts. This creates one layer on the timeline of say, the Right Arm layer.

Here's the BN or Bone Deformer controlling the body and the face parts.

v BN-body < Top Deformation layer
   v body
    |_ KO_face
            |- Hair
            |- Hat
            |- mouth
            |- eye_brows
            |- Eye_nose   

This character has no head to rotate, so all the face parts are attached to the body as the Parent. When you move the parent, the child or children go with it.

Here's how each body layer should be labelled and connected.

Jake Rig

Jake_Master
V
 |- v BN-Rt_leg   (PARENT)
 |    |_ Rt_leg       (child) 
 |  the Body is the Parent of the Head.
 |- v BN-body   Top Deformation layer
 |--------v body
 |          |_ KO_Head
 |            |_ Head
 |               |- nose
 |               |- glasses
 |               |- pupils
 |               |- Eyes

 |               |- mouth 
 |- v BN-Lt_arm
 |    |_ Lt_arm
 |            |_ Lt_Hand
 |
 |- v BN-Rt_leg   (PARENT)

 |    |_ Rt_leg       (child) 
 |
 |- v BN-Rt_arm
 |    |_ Rt_arm
 |            |_ Rt_Hand

You should have only 5 layers like this, that all can be Parented to a Master Rig, named as the character's name.

BN-Rt_Arm
BN-Rt_leg
BN-body
BN-Left_leg
BN-Left_arm

This Master rig also you to move and scale the entire character all as one.

Add a Peg to the top layer in your 5 controller layers.

BN-Rt_Arm-P  Peg layer is created to control BN-Rt_Arm

v BN-Rt_Arm-P
 |_ BN-Rt_Arm
BN-Rt_leg
BN-body
BN-Left_leg
BN-Left_arm

Select the other parts and drop them on the peg layer and you get this.

v BN-Rt_Arm-P

|_ BN-Rt_Arm
|_ BN-Rt_leg
|_ BN-body
|_ BN-Left_leg
|_ BN-Left_arm

Change Peg layer name to whatever your character is.  

v Jake
|_ BN-Rt_Arm
|_ BN-Rt_leg
|_ BN-body
|_ BN-Left_leg
|_ BN-Left_arm

When click on the triangle next to the name, this hides the other parts.

>Jake 

Before you can submit it to the Harmony Premium Library, 

You must move Jake's Pivot down to the base of his/her feet.

You need to make sure there are no keys in your timeline, nothing is moving, etc. If there are any problems, fix them before saving Master file to Library. 







Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Hand and Mouth Drawing Substitution

Drawing Substitutions are useful for setting up a series of drawings for eye blinks, mouth positions for lip sync, hand positions and even extra body parts like hair,feathers or extra parts. 

Here's a brief tutorial from Tony Ross explaining the process.


Here's a more detailed tutorial from Frank Summers about how to set up your character's drawing substitutions.


And speaking of Substitutions. I will post my own tutorial as soon as it is available, but for now, these are pretty helpful.