Bucks Animation Student Kalim Momen is Rusty - For a Day

As everyone at Bucks knows, Rusty is our official university mascot, the big furry character with antlers who welcomes you to our University Open Days and to Freshers’ Week. This week we did some filming for a short video about life at the university, and we needed someone to play Rusty. Fortunately, Kalim Momen, one of our 2nd year animation students, was game to try out the Rusty suit, and see what life is like as a loveable cartoon deer.

Kalim gets suited up

Animators sometimes forget that we are actors too. Unlike most actors, we act out our performances (for the most part) with a mouse, or a pencil, and most of our work is done in our imaginations. If we act something out, it is generally for reference only. The final product will be the animation itself.

On this occasion, Kalim had to try something different – using his body to become the character, like regular actors do. To get into the part, he had to get dressed up in the Rusty costume - which took a lot longer than you might think.

As it turned out, Kalim was a great Rusty; he quickly got into the swing of things, doing silly walks, hugging visitors, and generally putting a smile on everyone’s face. Rusty is the official mascot of the Bucks Students' Union, and the SU could not have been more helpful getting us up and running.

Kalim also discovered some other things about spending the day as a cartoon buck. Big antlers make it hard to fit through doorways, and even on a cold day in November, the inside of a thick fuzzy deer suit gets very, very hot indeed.

Suited at last!

I know this from personal experience because years ago I got to play Goofy at DisneyWorld. Out in the Florida heat and humidity I thought I was going to boil alive. Twenty minutes was enough for me. Kalim on the other hand managed well over an hour – a fine achievement of endurance.

Rusty gets a big hug. Go Rusty!

In the end, we got the footage we needed, and Kalim got some great experience being an actor and performer. Now all he has to do is apply those skills to his animation....

For more on the experience of studying at Bucks New University, come and visit us at one of our Open Days,  take a virtual tour of one of our animation studios, check out what our students think of our course, and see why we're ranked in the top 12 creative universities in the UK. Find out why we're giving free laptops to all our students, and why we give all our students free access to videos at Lynda.com. Also, see what financial assistance might be available to you. Learn which is better for animation, a PC or a Mac? Get hold of a copy of a map so you can find your way around campus, and learn about motion capture at Bucks.

Bucks Animators Go to Blue GFX

Blue GFX

Last week Bucks New University students went to the Blue GFX Expo in London – a massive annual visual effects event sponsored by Autodesk, and a great opportunity to find out about the latest developments in our industry. There were presentations about Autodesk Maya, 3D Studio Max, a chance to try out the latest Cintique tablets, and best of all a talk by Framestore about the work they did on Gravity, a film that looks and feels like a live action movie, but is entirely animated. OK, George Clooney and Sandra Bullock were real – but the rest is CG magic.

Nomad Games

I went to a fascinating lecture by Don Whiteford of Nomad Games, who talked about how his company got started – an excellent introduction to the challenges of starting up a small games business and adapting to new technology and changing markets. They created Talisman – now a 30 year old game, and he talked about how business need “not just one product, but something that gets updated and can be rolled out over time, with expansions and extensions” to the existing game. He also explained that here in the UK, Creative Skillset will fund creative salaries at 50% for a year – hugely useful for a start-up company short on cash.

Autodesk Maya

Graham Bell of Autodesk introduced some of the latest features of Autodesk Maya, including how to use their hair tools to create realistic fur and grooming for CG animals and creatures.

Overall, the event was a huge success, and a great way for students and lecturers alike to catch up on new developments in our business.

Blue Zoo

To see more about Blue GFX 2013, see this post about the use of Maya's latest hair and fur tools, read about how Blue Zoo revealed the secrets of making a new animated TV series, find out about how Frame Store did the title sequence for Skyfall, and learn about how graduates can get a job with Blue Zoo, the UK's largest indie TV animation company.

---Alex

For more on the experience of studying at Bucks New University, come and visit us at one of our Open Days,  take a virtual tour of one of our animation studios, check out what our students think of our course, and see why we're ranked in the top 12 creative universities in the UK. Find out why we're giving free laptops to all our students, and why we give all our students free access to videos at Lynda.com. Also, see what financial assistance might be available to you. Learn which is better for animation, a PC or a Mac? Get hold of a copy of a map so you can find your way around campus, and learn about motion capture at Bucks.  

The Best Free Rigs for Learning to Animate in Maya

Morpheus - endlessly flexible

We do not design and build our own rigs here at Bucks - there are just too many excellent free rigs and sets provided by Maya enthusiasts for student use. We point our students to the very best freeware rigs from the web and show you where to find them. In the end though, it is up to our students to find the rigs that they most enjoy animating with. There are so many; all have their strengths and weaknesses. Below is a list of some of the best, and where to find them.

The Marvellous Monty

The marvellous Monty by Raveen Rajadorai. A green pea with legs, and the perfect rig for learning animation. We recommend him for animating locomotion, like walks runs and jumps. His long legs make him very flexible and easy to use.

Morpheus by name, Morpheus by nature

Josh Burton's excellent Morpheus rig is a great rig for acting and performance. This stunning rig has a few quirks (the textures are a little tricky to use) but it is very flexible and adaptable and gets great results.

For sets and props we use the many free assets available at the excellent website Turbosquid,
and also www.tf3dm.com, which has tons of free stuff. We always recommend that our students set the scene, and create a set. It helps you imagine what is taking place, and helps create an interesting environment.

Animators can also consult the Resources page of The 11 Second Club. The Club runs a monthly animation competition, which we strongly recommend all our students enter. Their Resources page
lists the rigs that they recommend, and we don't disagree with any of their picks. They are all solid and reliable, and deliver the goods when it comes to character performance and dialogue.

Another very useful page is this blog post by LesterBanks, a few years old, but still a great list of fantastic free rigs available online.

Finally, don't forget Animation Buffet, which again lists some of the best free resources out there.

The important thing to remember when you download a new rig is that all rigs have their quirks, and each one is unique. To be sure your animation will come out OK, test your rig extensively and make sure it can do everything you need. If necessary, get online and start asking questions in user forums. Not all rigs will do what you want them to. For example, if you are working on a dialogue shot, don't invest tons of time and effort in a rig that doesn't have facial expressions - you are simply wasting your time.


For more on the experience of studying at Bucks New University, come and visit us at one of our Open Days,  take a virtual tour of one of our animation studios, check out what our students think of our course, and see why we're ranked in the top 12 creative universities in the UK. Find out why we're giving free laptops to all our students, and why we give all our students free access to videos at Lynda.com. Also, see what financial assistance might be available to you. Learn which is better for animation, a PC or a Mac? Get hold of a copy of a map so you can find your way around campus, and learn about motion capture at Bucks.

What Makes a Great Animator? Mike Nguyen Explains

Korean Goshawk - animation by Mike Nguyen

Mike Nguyen is a veteran animator who has worked on many classic Hollywood feature films such as "Beauty and The Beast" and "Space Jam".  He was a lead animator on Brad Bird's classic "The Iron Giant" and also on "Osmosis Jones", and has been working for a number of years on his own independent animated feature film  "My Little World".  Here he talks to Bucks about what makes a great animator.

CalArts. Image: Wikipedia

Bucks: Where did you learn animation?

MN: I began with self-taught animation when I was in junior high school but properly approached animation learning when I came to CalArts in 1984. My very first animation instructors were Hal Ambro and Bob McCrea. Both were veteran Disney animators from the Golden Era. It definitely was very inspiring to be spending time learning animation in their presence.

However, my most influential mentor was Bob Winquist and he happened to be a design instructor. Animation to me has a much larger picture that belongs to the film language, encompassing the animating process, and also colors, designs, film editing - all to communicate stories through the moving imagery with certain sense of style. In time, I became aware of this unity through the guidance of Bob Winquist.

Fantasia

Bucks: What animators most influenced you when you were learning?

MN: Walt Disney’s Fantasia had a giant influence in my early study, especially the ‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ sequence. I didn’t know which animator did what and still don’t know off-hand. I sort of preferred to embrace the inspirational influence collectively as an entity to a piece-of-work. But then there is~ Bill Tytla, the one animator that stand out the most to me and whom I most admired.

When speaking of the admirable qualities of the many master animators, one might say one is wonderful at character performance, impeccable comedy or amazing command of draftsmanship… But for Bill Tytla, his works just simply ~ ‘life’ (with all the dramas, humors, splendors, grace and beauty encompassed).



Bucks: What is it that makes a great animator?

MN: A great animator brings life to his or her animated movements. It sounded rather a cliché to say this, but so much of modern animation truly lacks this fundamental quality. I think this has to do with one being incredibly sensitive to life’s energy and then trying to reflect them without being trapped in showcasing the technical constructions.

To me, a great animator is able to express the living experience in compelling and unassuming ways, with sincerity, honesty, conviction and inventiveness, avoid highlighting the technical expertise and rather engage the viewers directly into the emotional intent of the performance.

For a ‘good’ piece of work, the initial respond may begin in how well something is drawn, interesting character poses, great acting choice or fluid movement mechanics. But for a ‘timeless’ piece of work, the first respond might just be- ‘…awe!’

Among the modern living masters that I truly admired are-

Richard Williams

Richard Williams, while possessing an incredible and bedazzled wealth of technical showmanship, the critical ‘feel’ of life is always at heart of all his expressions.



Yuri Norstein, his works command very intimate and magical qualities, very difficult to analyze from a technical standpoint.




And Hayao Miyazaki, whose works emanates in very bold theatrical expressiveness but yet very delicate and never feels embellished.


Interestingly, the 3 masters are not just animators, but very well-rounded filmmakers. I feel a great animator would also have to be very well aware of the overall film language.



Bucks: What is the most important thing - technical skill or the ability to entertain?


MN: The great animators are truly a very rare breed. I feel not because they command such extraordinary talents that many animators can’t possess, but rather they have the insights and sensibilities to look and concentrate their energy into the essential places, that is ~ ‘having something relevant to say’.

To me, the ability to breathe life, to entertain, to communicate emotion in compelling ways are most important. Because of this quest, one will naturally accumulate the necessary techniques to enabling such expressions. With this approach, one is not trapped to the rules of established techniques, but using the rules accordingly and automatically invents new ones as demanded on every specific creative case.

Technical skill is hard work and has little meaning by itself. Highlighting the technical expertise is only impressive and well-appreciated by other professionals and might not be equally appreciated by the general public, for whom we mainly made our works for.

Stallion of the Cimarron

My good friend Alex Williams once shared a thought while he was working on DreamWorks’ ‘Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron’ some years ago... The film’s style was closer to realism and demanding a very high technical draftsmanship to properly animate. He mentioned it took an incredible amount of skill and effort to animate a scene of man mounting onto a horse, with all the proper perspective and getting the motion mechanics right. The animators could marvel at how technically fluent, difficult and beautiful the movement in the film is - but to the general public - ‘it’s just a man mounting onto a horse’. This story is a wonderful reminder that the ability to entertain will always be more important than the technical skill.


Bucks: What advice would you give to anyone seeking to learn the craft of animation?

MN: It’s good to stay incredible sensitive, very curious and fascinated to all things that constitute this living experience from a personal perspective, away from the given animation topics or entertainment arts.

Make reaching out to discovering new and interesting general topics a habit, perhaps simply out of curiosity or through a possible creative assignment. For example, a curiosity about trees and plants and why do trees go through the trouble to generate such sweet fruits? Taking interests in the many documentaries with a wide range of topics is very nurturing to the creative mind. They’re raw materials, food sources for new and relevant creative ideas.



It’s good to understand trends, following its style if needs be but not to become a copy. It’s better to interpret trends and reflect them with fresh qualities, and best just to be~ trend setter.

It’s also good to admire the works of the masters, but not to develop after a certain master’s style and be in their shadows. It’s resourceful to learn of a master’s thinking process and understand how the final texture of his work came to be, rather than the final outcome.

It’s always best to search, identify and strengthen one’s given original style and find ways to present it in most appealing manners.

Lastly~ ‘to be the very best animator, one must strive to be the very best human being first’.

My Little World

Bucks: When can we see "My Little World?" !!

MN: Unfortunately I’m not as lucky with connecting to funding with ‘My Little World’. I’m terrible at self-promotion and talking in grander commercial values to attract a business entity. As of this moment, I’m aiming for 2020 completion without the need of business investors.

For more on the experience of studying at Bucks New University, come and visit us at one of our Open Days,  take a virtual tour of one of our animation studios, check out what our students think of our course, and see why we're ranked in the top 12 creative universities in the UK. Find out why we're giving free laptops to all our students, and why we give all our students free access to videos at Lynda.com. Also, see what financial assistance might be available to you. Learn which is better for animation, a PC or a Mac? Get hold of a copy of a map so you can find your way around campus, and learn about motion capture at Bucks.

Exaggerate the Essentials

Al Hirschfeld in life and caricature

I teach animation to students in the second year of a four year program.  They are just getting beyond bouncing balls and flour sacks and beginning to engage with human movement.  This year, I'm noticing that more students are shooting live action reference for their assignments.  Live action has its uses, but it's critical that an animator knows what he or she is looking at.  Live action has to be analyzed to understand how the movement communicates to an audience.

The skill of caricature is to see past unnecessary detail to the underlying shapes of a face.  It is the process of analyzing and editing.  What is essential to a likeness and what is not?

This same process is at the core of life drawing.  Someone looking at a posed model is using knowledge of anatomy, perspective, composition and design to reduce a three dimensional figure to a two dimensional representation.  What detail is necessary to communicate the gesture and what can be ignored?  An untrained artist can trace a photograph of the same pose and while it may superficially resemble the figure, the lack of underlying knowledge will be obvious.  There is no analysis or editing, there is only imitation.

Human movement communicates.  From infancy, we develop the skill to read body language and facial expressions in order to understand what is happening in another human mind.  Because we do this intuitively, we are not aware of the analysis we are doing.  We don't consciously realize that some movements and expressions communicate more than others, the same way that some facial detail defines a person's appearance more in a caricature.

Using live reference without understanding how the body uses weight, balance, momentum and time is useless.  Using live reference before knowing what movements communicate and what movements can be ignored leads to a result no better than tracing a photograph and calling it a life drawing. 

Analysis and editing are essential.  Exaggerating what's left after you have eliminated the unnecessary makes the communication more vivid for an audience.  We see people moving every day.  Acting is a heightened version of daily movement; it's a way of communicating thoughts and emotions more directly than we see in normal life.

Live action reference can suggest things to a knowledgeable animator; it can help the animator analyze how a movement communicates.  But without the underlying knowledge, an animator cannot discriminate between what helps an audience understand and what distracts from understanding.

There is a difference between imitation and communication.  Until a student understands this, live action reference is simply a faster way to imitate human movement.  If the movement is no more insightful than what we see in life, animating it is unnecessary.  What we want is movement that communicates more precisely than real life.

James Chiang Explains What Makes a Great Animator

The animator who brought you surfing penguins

Animator, Director and artist James "JC" Chiang has worked as an animator on many feature films including Robots, Ice Age - The Meltdown, Surf's Up and Open Season, and was animation director on the 2008 Veggie Tales movie. He teaches animation, and is a also an accomplished fine artist in his own right. We asked him to explain what, exactly, makes a great animator.

How did you get into animation?

JC: My career in animation started when I chose to leave my career in business to go back to art school. At the time, I still didn't know that much about animation as a career. When I realized I really wanted to draw for a living, I went to Sheridan College in Toronto, Canada, whose grueling program really sets your mind straight about the need for fundamentals and the importance of drawing. It's where I saw for the first time the really rough animation drawings by Glen Keane. It was incredibly inspiring.

Sheridan College, Toronto

Then of course, I started flipping the paper, and voila! Seeing the drawings come alive, by my own hands, that did it for me. I knew then, that I've made the right choice to study animation and become a professional. My experiences, which range from being a part of Disney, Lucas, Blue Sky and Sony, and later on, the opportunity to supervise/direct overseas, all stem from that first big decision.

Nude by James Chiang. Oil & canvas

What makes a great animator?

JC: A lot of things! But it really has a lot to do with the basics. And I mean profoundly basic things like passion, which is a real love and respect for the craft. Then, mastering the fundamentals, which requires a devotion to a sort of daily practice until it's all second nature - weight, timing, arcs, overlap, follow thru, lead & follow, etc. 

The Illusion of Life - the first book to set out The 12 Principles of Animation

Daily drawing and observation of life/reality/other art is also important - I've not seen too many animators that draw really well be poor animators. Another thing is being professional - such as being really organized with your work, being accountable to deadlines, and making solid presentations of your work to your superiors. In essence, it's about being really reliable. You don't want to stress out your supervisors/managers, you want to make their job easier. 

Another big thing is perseverance and patience. It takes a long time to become a good animator (never mind a great one!) There has to be a dedication to the craft beyond the job. Now, that doesn't mean animating all day and night, but rather, making sure your body and mind are healthy, and in the right mind set to accept and learn from criticism/mistakes, being prepared to make it through tough deadlines during crunch, or when times are slow, to keep working at your craft so that you're always getting better. This process of getting better happens a lot slower than many people would like. 

For more on the experience of studying at Bucks New University, come and visit us at one of our Open Days,  take a virtual tour of one of our animation studios, check out what our students think of our course, and see why we're ranked in the top 12 creative universities in the UK. Find out why we're giving free laptops to all our students, and why we give all our students free access to videos at Lynda.com. Also, see what financial assistance might be available to you. Learn which is better for animation, a PC or a Mac? Get hold of a copy of a map so you can find your way around campus, and learn about motion capture at Bucks. And find out about how our online video tutorials work.

How do you pick the best place to study animation?

Life at University

One of the most important decisions that any of us will ever make is what to study at University, and where. How do you choose? Even if you know you want to study animation and the digital arts (good choice!), there are at least 80 courses in the UK to select from. So how do you pick the right one? The simple answer is - pick the best. But how you tell which courses are the best? There are a number of ways of making the right decision, but we think that there are two that are by far the most important.

First, check out what other students on the course have already done. If they have done excellent work, the chances are that you will too. Why? Because few students produce great work in a vacuum. Most of us require motivation, inspiration, and the discipline of a well structured curriculum to guide us through, and help us do the best work we are capable of. Students are pushed by their tutors to succeed, and are inspired by the excellent work done by their peers to do better themselves. This is a virtuous circle in which standards get raised all the time.

We've just cut a new demo reel for the work done in recent years at Bucks. Check it out. We want all our students to be at least as good as this - and preferably do even better.


Second, take a look at the people teaching the course have done. Are they skilled in animation and digital media? Are their skills up to date? This is an industry which is in a state of constant change and upheaval as new technology drives the market. Traditional art skills matter, but so does having the right software and the ability to use it.

I've been working in the animation industry for 25 years, since 1987 when I worked as an assistant animator on Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. Later I got to work on Lion King at Disney, and The Iron Giant at Warner Bros, among many other hand-drawn films. In the early 2000s I switched from 2D to 3D animation, working on Robots, Open Season and then Monster House. Below is my 3D animation reel.


In the mid-2000's I started working in visual effects, on Racing Stripes, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, the last three Harry Potter films, and Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The video below shows a selection of visual effects work.




All our tutors at Bucks know their stuff. We're proud of what we do, and we are proud of teaching practical, industry-level skills that will help our students find jobs in an every-changing and highly competitive market.

-----Alex

(Editor's Note: To see the excellent work done by Bucks tutor Rob Kelly, check out this post. To see more examples of our students' work, check out the first exercise done by our new students here. Also, take a look at the animation of Jack Strood, as well as our latest commercial project for Rocketseed, our short film done for a global aid agency, and take a look at the excellent work of some of our recent graduates, such as designer Monika Dzikowicz, architectural visualisation specialist Krsytof Michalski, Alex Whitfield and the 3D artwork of Mike Swan. )

Bucks Animation Showcase 2013

We're proud to showcase the best work from our students at Bucks over the past year. Included in this compilation video is work by Dave Berry, Monika Dzikowicz, Kristof Michalski, Allan de Leal, Mike Swan, Paula Gillin, Andre Spencer, and others.

Our talented graduates are now taking a well-earned summer break before starting their careers in the animation, games, visual effects and design visualisation industries. Anyone looking to hire one of our talented students should contact us at alex.williams@bucks.ac.uk or david.creighton@bucks.ac.uk

----Alex

How should you get ready for September?

What kind of preparation should students do before starting with us in September at Bucks? Here's a checklist of stuff to get you started. It's not comprehensive, and you don't have to do all of it, but tick off a few of the things on this list and you will be a making a great start on your animation career here at Bucks.

First, here is a reading list to get you started. Buy some of these books online or check them out from your local library. 

1. The Animator's Survival Kit. We recommend that any serious student of animation should buy a copy of The Animator's Survival Kit, by Richard Williams. It is now the standard textbook for animators and easily the most comprehensive book available for learning animation.
2. The Illusion of Life. The Illusion of Life was written by Disney animation legends Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnstone, and represents the accumulation of knowledge of the first "Golden Age" of Disney animation. An invaluable resource. 
3. Cartoon Animation. Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair was the first available book on animation, and has been in print since the early 1950s, regularly updated since then. Still full of very useful material. 
4. Timing for Animation by Harold Whittaker and John Halas is another very useful book on animation. It was first written some years ago but was recently updated and edited by former Animation Guild President Tom Sito. 
5. Character Animation Crash Course. The Character Animation Crash Course by Eric Goldberg is an excellent resource by one of the most talented 2D animators in the world - the man behind the genie in Disney's Aladdin.
6. The Complete Digital Animation Course. The Complete Digital animation Course by Andy Wyatt is a very useful overall guide to all the processes involved in digital animation and film-making. Especially good for the technical bits that the older books don't cover. 

OK - what else? The next thing to do is get yourself a free copy of Maya, and open it up. Just to take a look! It looks a bit daunting at first but it's good to get familiar with the layout. You can register and get a free student license here.

Once you have done that, take a look at the week 1 videos on my website Animation Apprentice. The week 1 videos are all free and this gives you a general introduction to the medium, helping you to get familiar with the language of animation.

Other useful things you can do include going to life drawing classes, and filling a sketch book with sketches, doodles and ideas. Being able to express an idea in a simple sketch is still a useful skill, even in the digital age.


If you do some or all the things on this list - you will have a great head start with us in September.

----Alex

The Animator's Survival Kit - now available as an app for the iPad

The Animator's Survival Kit came out around a decade ago as a book, and a few years later as a DVD set. Since then it has been the leading resource for students wanting to learn animation. Anyone who is serious about the medium should have a copy of the book - until now. Here at Bucks our animation dept has just had a sneak peek at the new The Animator's Survival Kit - as an iPad app. Below is our review of this new electronic addition to the animator's library.

Basically, it's awesome - better than the book, better than the DVD series - as it perfectly combines the best qualities of both. And, at around £25, it costs barely more than the book does. So this is - in short - a huge leap forward for learning animation. My only regret is we can't get a copy for the library here at Bucks. The library does not have iPads - so if you want a copy you'll have to buy the hardware first.

The iPad feels as if it is made specially for this kind of eBook. The digital ASK has many of the traditional features of a book - plain text, nice pictures - so far, so familiar.  But, as you scroll through the pages, you find video introductions to the chapters. Click on these, and you get a personal introduction to the subject by the author, giving his own view on why it's important to read it, and what you will learn.

Other little miniature icons blink at you invitingly - click on these and it pulls up a short animated video explanation of the principle being addressed. Much of this material is taken from the ASK DVD set. Confused about overlapping action? Successive breaking of joints? The importance of using silhouettes? A short video shows you what it all means, and demonstrates in simple clear terms exactly how these principles get applied in practice.

And the videos are highly interactive. It's not like YouTube, where you can't scrub and scroll through the animation, frame by frame. Here, you can pause the video, scroll through it, fast or slow, focus on an individual frame, step through it frame by frame.

It's like having a really great animation tutor right there in the classroom with you, equipped with all the latest bits of kit - video, power point lecture, white board, and good old-fashioned books - but it is all at your disposal in exactly the format you want.

It is obvious that a great deal of thought and effort has gone into the presentation. The interface is very easy to get the hang of, and simple to operate. Tap the screen and the chapters are revealed on a scroll bar at the base of the screen - so you can easily navigate to the bits you need. 

In short - it's the best £25 you will spend on any device to help you learn animation. But you have to buy the iPad first, of course.

---Alex

PS Here's a list of stuff you get with it:

1. The Animator’s Survival Kit Expanded Edition - that is to say the whole book - for the iPad
2. More than 100 animated examples of the principles of animation - taken from The Animator’s Survival Kit Animated DVD series, and inserted into the relevant sections of the text. You can slow these down and watch them frame-by-frame.
3. Dad's 50-years-in-the-making Circus Drawings animation
4. Video introductions for the chapters - by the author. 80 this year!
5. "Sensitive navigation", which "fades away gracefully away when not needed"
6. "Onion skinning" - to see multiple frames of animation at once.

The Twelve Principles of Animation - start learning today!

What is Animation all about? For a general introduction to the medium, and a beginners guide to the language and basic principles of animation, watch this video above.

The original "12 Principles" date back to the Disney Studio in Los Angeles in the 1930s, and we still apply the same rules today. So hop into our animation time-machine and travel back to the glory days of Hollywood and find out what makes the medium tick.

Here is the second part - it will take you about 20 minutes to watch both videos.

Watching videos online is an excellent way to learn. As long as you have a decent broadband connection, online study is no longer the poor relation of learning in the classroom. Here at Bucks we believe in Blended Learning, a mixture of online lectures and classroom tutorials.

Watching lectures online frees up precious classroom time for individual tutorials and one-on-one study, giving students a better experience and enabling us - the teachers - to give more individual tuition. We believe that this is a better way to teach and represents the future of education.

Just as importantly, it's the only way to deliver a really high quality training in our complex and growing industry without increasing course fees. We have a keen eye on the bottom line and we want to offer every student the very best value we can.

-----Alex

Student Showcase - Jens Kopke's "highly commended" work for AD&D

This very stylish short video is by Bucks graduate Jens Kopke, who entered it for the Design and Art Direction (D&AD) awards and was "highly commended" for his work.

D&AD is an educational charity which exists to promote excellence in design and advertising. They aim to "reward great ideas that are well executed and appropriate".

Entering competitions like D&AD is a great way for students to test their skills and compete internationally. Winning prizes is an excellent way to build a profile and also get noticed by employers.

Getting that first job is always the hardest step in launching a career. But having an award on your CV is the best start you can have.

And, even if you don't win, the process of entering competitions imposes its own discipline, forcing you to raise your game and do the very best possible job you are capable of. Which is something that few people ever regret.

---Alex

(Editor's Note: For more impressive work done by our students and recent graduates here at Bucks, check out the work of Sabah Masood. Also take a look at the work of Andy Thomas here, see our latest commercial project for Rocketseed, our short film done for a global aid agency, and take a look at the excellent work of designer Monika Dzikowicz, architectural visualisation specialist Krsytof Michalski, Alex Whitfield and the 3D artwork of Mike Swan.)

Building a great animation reel - the problem of weight

The secret of a great animation reel is simple - it must be completely free of mistakes. As Aardman animator Matt Rees puts it: "you are only as good as the worst thing on your reel".

3rd year Bucks animation student Dave Berry has been working hard on his animation reel, polishing the exercises set in my friday afternoon animation class and turning them into demo-reel-ready material.

Above is an excellent version of the "flour sack suicide", a relatively simple exercise which which tackles the problem of weight (ie how to make stuff feel heavy), and also performance, that is to say making an inanimate object come to life.

You can find the rig, which is a free download, here. And here are some thumbnail sketches to get you started.

Dave has also gone to the trouble of adding some simple textures, lighting and a camera move to make the shot feel finished. Nothing too complex - for animation purposes you want to keep things simple, lest you end up getting judged for the wrong things.

Congratulations to Dave on a very skilled piece of animation.

----Alex

(PS If any Bucks students feel they don't have enough animation in their lives and want to come along on Fridays from 2-4 pm in G1.13...come and join us!)

Animation History Quiz!

Call yourself an animator? Think you know the history of animation? Sharpen your pencil, get yourself a piece of paper, and test your knowledge with our brand-new animation history quiz! The story begins 18,000 years BC....

 

Part 1 

Part 2

There are 99 questions and the whole thing takes around half an hour. And don't forget to let us know how you did.....

----Alex

The Animation Internet Revolution

The Animation Internet Revolution: There is a revolution taking place in media and content creation. Any animator with talent, a laptop and a story to tell can now take on ...

What Makes a Hero? TEDEd

Pretty cool animated piece by Matthew Winkler about the story-telling process of the hero.

You can find more over at ed.ted.com
Enjoy!
JP 

How to Make an Animated Film

One of the biggest challenges for an animator is to tackle a short film project. Most working animators don't - they're usually too busy. But at the best animation schools, students usually tackle a group film project in their graduation year. Short films are a ton of work and they present a huge variety of film-making challenges.
The most common problem is excessive ambition - students biting off more than they can chew. We've all been there. Animation is complex and time-consuming and I sometimes think that if we were honest with ourselves about how long it takes we would never actually do it.

But it is vital to know what you're getting into before you try to do it, and hopefully avoid giving up in despair at the size of the task. It took me ages to figure out exactly what goes into making a short film (or indeed a long film), so I recorded a short video setting out the whole of the CG Production pipeline, from concept through to opening night. It runs about fifteen minutes.

----Alex

Stripped Bare

The above animation is by Ron Zorman, who did it with TVPaint.

I'm including it here because it is a clear reminder of the expressive power of motion. These days, motion is either limited and cliched or buried under textures and effects. Animation also veers between stylization with no resemblance to human behaviour or a leaden attempt at realism that fails to achieve the complexity of live acting.

The above is stripped bare: no sound, no colour, no texture, no face, few details. Just line. Yet the way the four sack moves presents us with a character that is indisputably alive. We can read the character's mind. We can empathize with the character's experiences. All of that is accomplished purely through motion.

The principles of animation are all here. Anticipation, stretch and squash, overshoot and recoil, line of action, follow through, overlapping action, drag, staggers, slow ins and slow outs, contrast in timing, etc. While an animator can pick them out, they're invisible to the audience because all of them are based on motions we've experienced in life. The motion is, in terms used by Chuck Jones, believable as opposed to realistic.

This is the core of what animation is. Everything else is elaboration.

A Toast

Last Leaf

OK Go | Myspace Music Videos

Geoff Mcfetridge used a whole lotta toast (this is at 15 frames per second) and a laser cutter to make this music video for OK Go. This is a new twist on the concept of paperless animation.

Toy Story 3:Behind the Scenes

A friend of mine pointed this article out to me from this months Wired Magazine online. It's an quick read on some of the behind the scenes work that goes into a Pixar's film over the life of three years. It has some good examples and breakdowns. Head on over and check it out here.

Toy Story 3

Enjoy

JP