Thesis: "Interview with Carl Hawkins"

[neofisk]

That is just awesome. Excellent work!

The eye movements are really well done ... and the fact that the character is talking about his eye movements really draws your attention to that, of course.

I really liked the way you had the background character walk by the camera and cast a shadow on the main character, too ... really nice touch. Great attention to detail.

Fantastic! (IMO) http://cgtalk.com/images/smilies/buttrock.gif

Got any more? http://cgtalk.com/images/smilies/grin.gif

[Zack Attack]

Very good pointers and I love the animation good job.

[MetasynMan]

Two words.... Fan Tastic.... loved it, man. Nice plug for the pixar job I'm sure you're after, too... :thumbsup: The composition with the live people in the background was great, and you can tell you spent a lot of time with the facial expressions. 5*s

[herbertV399]

Let me please start with the backgrounds:

1_ Nice idea of the backgrounds - suitable for the characters.

2_ The color choices are very pleasant_ pastel and subtle nuances_ very pleasing for the eye

About the animation:

_quite good, but you softened up too much the movement at some moments – the main reason why I don’t think the animation-part is the best, but good.

Go into the graph editor - make out of curves more weighted kind of curves - sharpen up the amplitude points - just small changes already would change the whole animation for better.

Very ambitious work - for this and the story implementation, the project definitely deserves recognition.

[digones]

oh, man.... I really like this interview! :D


awesome!



:applause:

[arona]

just awesome

[HenningK]

You practice what you preach.
very well.
Don't feel worthy to give a crit.
-hen

[Supervlieg]

Nice to see this one here. Good job Goro!

[neofisk]

I can't believe more people haven't commented on this one. Sometimes I wish the Finished Works : Animation section had thumbnail images ... I think some people have read the title of this piece and skipped over it, assuming it was an actual interview or something, rather than an animation.

I had to come back and watch it again ... it's really well done. http://cgtalk.com/images/smilies/thumbsup.gif

One other thing I thought I should mention is that your link doesn't seem to work in the Firefox browser (at least not for me). I had to try the link again in IE to get it to work. Firefox just tells me the page couldn't be found. Thought you might want to know ...

[Goro]

neofisk:
thank you I really appreciate your words!
The guy who casts the shadow on the character is me btw ;)
and thnx for the info with the firefox browser! I edited my post.

ZackAttack:
THnx!

MetasynMan:
thnx! And hehe yes Pixar would be a far goal:)

HerbertV399:
thnx for your crits. I know what you mean. Since I had no cut for 1:30min I had to find
my own workflow for animating this scene. It would have driven me insane if I animated
the scene all at once. So I went with 20-30second steps. I started with the second part
of the interview and if you watch it you can see that the animation is improving during
that part. The intro animation was like a bonus. I thought about to animate the intro part
if I had enough time left. And fortunately I found the time to animate it.
So I like the intro part best.
Thnx again for your crits. It's always nice to hear some feedback!

digones, arona, HenningK and Sup:
Thnx a lot! :D

[MARTSMONDE]

Very very nice :eek::thumbsup:

god job

[eddieellis]

awesome! you have inspired me to try something simular

[shadowstalker]

great work! This little guy has a lot of personality.
very good! :applause:

[neofisk]

No problem Goro,


Glad I could be of some help. It's really cool that you got to be in your own short ... kind of like Hitchcock always doing some walk on or bit part in the background of his own films. :D

Keep up the great work!

[skytracid]

wow...awesome!....DUDE..:thumbsup: :bounce:

[shrinkingviolet]

stunning. loved it. :thumbsup:

[Tom W.]

yeah some not bad animation:)

[mattmos]

Nailed those eye movements. Good job :thumbsup:

[Goro]

Thnx for your comments guys!
I'm glad you like it! :scream:

[Makomako]

wow excellent... But i think it has been already said lol

[Pinet]

Im unable to open the link or save target as.. :(
looks pretty interesting!

[Goro]

Thnx Makomako

and Pinet did you try internet explorer?

[FireEyeC]

Link doesnt work! I really want to see this one too :sad:

[Goro]

hmmm that's really strange....I asked some friends...they can download it...
Don't know what's going on. Can someone give me a mirror?
I would be glad!

Cheers!
Goro

[lank]

goro,

its simply superb. great acting, i think i got some usefull tips on eye movement too, thanx for that.

lank..

[FireEyeC]

Hey I would be happy to give you a mirror if everyone is saying it is so good, I want to see it too! I'm going to try the link again right now... if that doesnt work you can send it to me and I'll give you the link

[FireEyeC]

just tried it, I even tried copying the link, opening it in IE, and I tried to go to your site but I cant even access that. :shrug:

I'll pm you my email address and I'll mirror it for you

[ekarademir]

I think both the ork babies and this interview are very cool and creative works. I hope you will create a long film about this ork babies

[neofisk]

For a time last night I couldn't seem to access the file either. But it seems to be working fine for me in I.E now.

If you use the "launchy" plugin for Firefox, it plays fine there now, too (using Windows Media Player).

Hope that helps some people to see it ... it's really well done. http://cgtalk.com/images/smilies/thumbsup.gif

[FireEyeC]

I just watched it!! The animation is sooo realistic, it reminds me of the interviews in the incredibles! Great work, this is going in my "extremely cool animations" folder!! :thumbsup:

[Goro]

Thnx Lank!

ecarademir thnx a lot! Yes wait for the series ;)

Neofisk and FireEye thnx for mirroring and your support!! I really appreciate it! And I'm glad you like my short.

Everybody thank you! :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown:

[marcowilz]

Hello Goro!

Great job what you did with the little fat orkbaby!
I`d wish I would be talented enough to write you some critics for your animation, but from
my point of view, it`s perfect.
Just send it to old Shelly to make her crazy!

marco

[erilaz]

Holy damn that was good!:D

[disrupt]

Yes this is a nice piece of animation, but I dont think we can compare it to the incredibles:) I think Goro would probably agree with me. So I don't want goro to think that I don't like it, because I really do think this is a nice piece. Now I am sure Goro wants some constructive crits on this so I will share a couple ideas. One thing that seems unnatural was that every single phrase in this dialoge is accented with some sort of hand gesture. Well almost every one. I understand that people talk with their hands alot, but it was a bit too much I think. It got to the point for me that I was watching his hands more than his face sometimes, so I think that was distracting. Also I am assuming that he is standing and not sitting. If this is the case, then I think some sort of wieght shift or foot shuffle would be appropriate. Standing in one place for that long withought ever really moving your center of gravity is unnatural. If you scrub through really fast and just watch his hips, you will see that they never really move that much. After a little while he might get tired and put most of his weight on one leg or something. His hips line would then counter the line in his shoulders giving a nicer arch in his back. It might add some nice contrast to his poses. Anyway this is a great animation. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[Goro]

Thnx erilaz!

disrubt:
Exactly! Thnx for your crits. And yes it surely cannot be compared with Pixar stuff.
I got the same feedback from Cameron Miyazaki (pixar animator) that I have too much
hand gestures going on! I totally agree with it. It was my first time doing this kind of
animation. I'm sure that you have noticed that the intro animation is way better and
more relaxing. That intro part was the last thing I've animated.
I've learned a lot during the animation process. Also because I couldn't use cuts.
That was pretty hard to keep the character believable for so long. hehe.

Yes and the standing or sitting problem.....this little actor is sitting on a chair. If you
look carefully you can see the chair behind the Character. But somehow, some people think
that he is standing and some think that he is sitting....that's why he doesn't move his
hips. Maybe the sitting position is not clear enough.

Again thnx for your feedback! I still have to learn a lot about animation!

Cheers!
Goro

[4saken]

great work goro. like always.
funny and one hell of an animation job.
5 stars for sure!
:applause:

[Propictales]

Well, seems like you did a short that's actuelly better than the one where you got the character from. Congrats!

A frontpage-plug would really hint to the importance of your thesis. I have also seen so many bad eye-animations.

[Sir-Patroclo]

Hi Goro:

Very nice work. I'm interested about what you say regarding "bringing life" to a character through his eyes... I think in most 3d animations, the "real" look of the images makes you expect for real life things... we all know that it works fine with square objects but has a very hard time when dealing with organic beings... so, your "vivid eyes" posture is interesting on helping with that issue, but, in what context the eyes should be represented? cartoon exageration of acting and movement (wich, in my opinion, looks very akward in photorealistic characters and enviroments) or more life-like subtleties?
What do you think about the way Disney (and subsequentially, Pixar) tend to adapt real gestures and movements to their animations, in order to bring something for people to relate with on the look of the characters (even if it's a toaster, an animal, whatever)? and the completely unnatural and stylized eye communication and gestures that japanese animation has?
Do you think that 3d, as a communication lenguage, could (or has) develop(ed) a particular way of conveying life?

jeje, hope not to sound to serious or boring.

Salut!

Sir Patroclo

[Franz]

Excellent work buddy. Five stars! :bounce: :love: :buttrock:

[Goro]

thnx 4saken, Franz and Propictales!

SirPatroclo:
I think animation, wether it's 3D or 2D animation is the same thing.
While I wrote my thesis I was wondering why there is so much staring and bad
eye animation in 3D and none of them in 2D. My theory is that in 2D you need
drawing skills to animate a character. (It's also one of the disney animation principles "solid drawing"). When you have drawing skills you have good observing skills. And that
is exactly what you need for 3D. The problem I saw is that the 3D software allows
everyone to animate characters, not only animators. You just have to keyframe the
characters. But if you don't have those observing skills you won't add the nessesary
details and motivations to your animation wich brings the Character to life.

If you see those pixar movies....you won't be able to find staring characters. They
are always alive!
If you watch shrek you will recognize that the backgroundcharacters are often
not so believable. Final fantasy for example is a good example for bad eye animations.
You can't understand what the character is thinking and they have no personality.
I couldn't get into the character cause there was no character behind the 3D model.

Surely you can animate with only gestures....like Pixar's Luxo Jr. or the magic carpet of
Aladdin. They're fantastic and they have a lot of personality. But when the character has
eyes the gestures could be perfect but when the eyeanimation is bad the character
won't be believable, cause we always communicate through the eyes.
So it's very important that every movement has it's reason. Like my character says...
nothing happens by accident :)

I hope that answers your question....I could go on writing but it will be too long I guess.

Cheers!
Goro

[stephan.s]

Great stuff, mate!
Your work came a long way! :) In this last movie there is really nothing left to critizise for me :)! Great job!

Keep it up

[bones]

too cool

Keep up the good work and aim high- you are well on your way

[HOON]

very good, goro!
animation was nothing short of professional, and subject matter was very nice too. keep rockin man!

[Sir-Patroclo]

Thanx for the answer, mr. Goro!

[thomas123]

Cool! Expecially the idea is great!
Sorry for my post in the other ork-thread, where I said something that sounded like this is my idea.
Everybody listen: This is GORO`s idea!! And it ROCKS!!

And I`m really honestly, I didn`t watch it just once. I watched it again and again and again... How can you do something amazing like that, I mean, you are just a... student.
Even the stuff he is talking about was sooo cool. And the voice... expecially if you saw the orkmovie before. This is so damn cool...

I hope god will give you the best jobs in the world. And it would be a great honour for me if I would meet you one day.

[Sir-Patroclo]

Can you list a few more examples of bad eye animation, to check them out and compare?

[Goro]

stephan thnx you helped me a lot with your feedback! Wish you luck for your future!
You know what I'm talking about! Rock on!

bones thnx!

HOON glad you like it. I'm hoping to find work in korea btw :)
when do we see another masterpiece of you and juji?

Thomas123 hehe thnx for stopping by! And I appreciate your kind words!
And believe me you are getting better and better. So keep up the good work!
I will go on with my hard crits! hehe ;)

SirPat thnx! Well...another good example for bad eyeanimation was Back to Gaya
a german production. This was really awful...staring all the time.
And there is Kaena, a french production. Or Final flight of the osiris from animatrix especially
the scenes in the spaceship. And a bunch of short films. I saw this short "birthday boy"
which made 1st place at siggraph. The story was great but the character was staring
a lot. Didn't work for me. (But I really liked the story)
And every 3D TV series...I know only 4 or 5....like Barbie, Action Man etc. The eye animation
is really bad. Check it out;)

cheers!
Goro

[yoa010]

The animation is nice and funny, the character is lovely, i like his big eyes.
Nice one

[goldensparrow]

Absolutely amazing. great animation. love the eye movement.

[DivX]

Very clever. Did you do any research on neurolinguistic programming? I remember reading about patterns of involuntary eye movements when performing specific mental tasks. Try to remember your first telephone number. Did you look up or down?

Cool stuff.

[bawhabmw]

Wow Goro you've gotten lots of responses for this! Good work! I'm sure you are proud.

There were a few things I wanted to mention, and some of them are repeats of what others said so here it is:

- Your eye animation was pretty good. There were a few moments of complete believablity, but it almost seemed to look like you had a certain "bag-of-tricks" for them. Like you knew one certain movement worked so you would use it a few more times later on. Maybe it was that or that some eye movements were a tad repetative. But overall, you have achieved your goal of convincing, believable eye movements.

- Your gestures got to be too much. Like someone said earlier, you almost hit every beat of that lip sync. Plus some of your gestures repeated too much, leaving some of us wanting a little more vaiety.

I find that I am guilty of the hitting every beat with a pose thing myself. I don't want this post to come across harsh, I just had a few things I thought should be mentioned. Again, I am guilty of some of the very things I critiqued you for. ha ha. Plus, the dialog clip was long so it must have been hard coming up with exciting and original gestures for the whole piece. and to finish this in a month or so! Good work.

You should be proud.
|Benno

[Agiv3D]

realy !!! gr8!!!

[Goro]

thnx yoa010, goldensparrow and Agiv3D!

DivX:
I read some books about facial expressions but I couldn't find books
with patterns for eyemovements.
It's funny that you ask the question wit the Phonenumber. I would look up.
I made a lot of observations hanging around at partys looking at the peoples
faces. What I did find out about those patterns is only very little. It is a really
big and complex subject.

But yes I think if you are calculating you would look up. I used it in the intro part
of my animation. The character is thinking about when he was modeled and he
is looking upwards. It would not work so good when he would look down.
If you are embarassed you would certainly look down etc.


bawhabmw
Thnx yes I'm really glad that I got so many positive replies.
imo it's a really really important subject. There are so many bad eyeanimations out there.
Like I said in almost every short film and even in feature films. This subject really needs attention.
The new short trailer from blur studios for example is brilliant! No crits there.
The character is believable all the time. Just fantastic

Well I didn't intentionally repeat the eyemovements. I acted out the whole scene a lot
of times to see how I would behave in that case. I observed the student while we recorded
his voice so I could see how he behaved while he was talking to me.
After every 20 seconds of animation I discussed with other students the animation.
This was my workflow.

You're right about the gestures. I said it by myself in a earlier post. I think it's a typical
beginner mistake. I never animated a character talking so long in front of a camera
So soemhow I thought that I have to use gestures all the time.
As I said already my last animation was the intro part. If you compare it to the rest
of the interview you'll notice it's much more relaxed and with less gestures.
(it's still too much I think). But I made my experience and I'll keep it in mind for the next
time:)

Your crits are not too harsh at all. I love to hear crits cause they help me a lot.
So no worries about that :)
Thnx a lot!

Cheers!
Goro

[jmBoekestein]

And those pixar guys, dhhee*, you saw them

Cracked me up!!! was the best bit imo!!!:thumbsup:

I'm using firefox, the link works fine. Really fast dl speed too!

Great work man, I hope I'll be able to do stuff like that!

[Goro]

Thnx Jim!

Well it seems to be a nameserver problem. Not a browser problem.

[nathanwallis]

brilliante, simply brilliante.......by the way thats brilliant in spanish..

congrats, nice work and keep it up

Nathan

[Goro]

Thnx Nathan! hehe yes I know spanish;)

[Erikoinen]

Excexcexcellent!

[Norl]

Good lesson on the eye movements and damn good animation at that, a real eye opener!

[Vahn]

wow !! very very verrry good animation goro :applause: :bowdown:

and grats to the job in korea :)


( hope u still find time for cgtalk then )

[javi3d]

Excellent!! There are no words to describe the excellent job you have done in animation.
Congratulations! Everything is great, eyes, hands, the little movements, the out of focus, etc, etc.

Really amazing!

Yours,

[samartin]

Excellent work,

Interviews normally bore me to tears but this was outstanding, the whole motion seemed to be realistic in every aspect, from the eyes to the hand gestures/movements...

Good luck with future work and thanks for entertaining me

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