Monsters University pre-prod Animation Test

Carlos Baena posted a fun pre-production test from Monster's University.

Enjoy!
JP

How Do Animators Plan a Shot?

Working with Maya: How to Begin? - The Curse of the Blank Screen

One of the hardest skills for an animator to learn is how to build and block an animated scene from scratch. After all, everyone animator starts their work with a blank piece of paper, or a blank computer screen. With animation, you get nothing for free. So how do you get from nothing, to something? Or, rather, how do you get from a blank screen to a piece of well-crafted beautiful animation that combines technical ability with story-telling, personality and craftsmanship? The secret is, it's all in the planning.

Every animator has their own method. Some go into a dark corner and act out their shot, filming themselves in action. Others imagine it in their head, planning the motion. Others use stock reference from YouTube or elsewhere. Many use small thumbnail sketches to plan out their work. In fact, as it turns out, most animators use a combination of these methods.

Here's a link to an excellent webpage by Pixar animator Carlos Baena on how he planned out a beautiful shot from The Incredibles. I particularly like the part where he says: "this is work that I want to be as good as possible for years to come". It's a big responsibility, working on a Pixar movie.

Enjoy.

---Alex

(Editor's Note: For more secrets of animation planning, check out this blog post from June where we explore how Glen Keane uses animation thumbnails to plan out a shot)

Blog Highlight: Brendan Body

Hey everyone

Quick post about this blog. I first ran into a post on Spungella about wings on birds. Then I also ran into the blog again on Carlos Baena's site. So I thought I would share because Brendan Body has a serious amount of great post on here. One I found on breathing I read twice!

BrendanBody 

So have a look around..really worth a look. Thanks for the posts guys!

Enjoy this great resource!

JP

A Note from Carlos Baena on Acting

Every now and then I think it's great to revisit blogs or sites that I remember and read over old posts. With all of the information out there now it's super hard to keep up with it. That is what I am here for! I read this post over a year or so ago and although I was still in school at the time it was a great post about "Timing and Acting" by Carlos Baena. I read it again and it has a whole new meaning. Carlos takes a clip from "Seinfeld" in which he breaks down his thought process as an animator as he watches the clip. Now it's hard to put our own thought process into words so
when you have an animator of this caliber doing it so clearly, it can be a great learning tool. He also has another example from "Seinfeld" using Elaine and facial "Expressions" to help with acting. Carlos also breaks it down and gives us his insight.









There are many of these gems through his site so revisit if you haven't been to his site already.

Enjoy

Planning is SOOOO important!

Hey everyone

I stumbled on this post from Carlos Baena's site. It was from one of the shots that he did on The Incredibles. The one where he saves the "jumper" and crashes through the building leading to the supers getting sued. He shows the process of his planning for the shot from thumbnails to video ref. It is a great read and really inspirational.

Check it out:

Tips and Tricks > Planning Case Study: Incredibles





Enjoy!