Young animators and researching

[tufif]

I'm probably as much as, if not more of a newbie than you, but the best source I've found for reference footage is simply a $30 webcam. Whatever I need to animate I'll either act out myself or have somebody else act out in front of the camera.

[stewartjones]

Webcam? Sure, that works for indoors, but I suggest spending a bit more for a digi camcorder (mini-dv or something). Then you can get out and about with a few friends, and go jumping over boxes etc! :)


Looking in the mirror is also a good one to do, and actually 'feeling' the movement as you act it out can help a lot, well, I find this anyways! Hope that helps some!

[DrOnion]

Books:
Must have all around book for animators: Disney's The Art of Animation
Good ref for human keyframing: The Human Figure in Motion by Eadweard Muybridge
He also has a good one about animal motion. Muybridge lived from (1830-1904),
so be prepaired for some oldness and hairy pits.

[bledsoed]

Here is my experience, i graduated in december 2004, however since then i have worked on a childrens animated movie on a 4 month contract, and now am on salary at a large gaming studio in San Rafael.

Typically once i get my shot or shots handed to me i sit down close my eyes and listen, and i just sit there listening for 10-30 minutes, noting dialog changes that i may want to hit on, stuff like that. then try to see several different senarios for the shot. once i have a few ideas for what i can do, i break out the old sony high-8 and record my self acting out what i was thinking up in my head, but i dont just stop there after i acted out what i was thinking, i try to just run with it and get really crazy and see if i can create any new and interesting actions for the shot, i probly spend about an hour or even 2 recording my self, just trying out new things. then i capture what i recorded and look through the clips and find poses that i really like. then i start thumbnailing out my shot, by this time i usally have a good idea where i want to take the shot. i thumbnail based off the footage i shot, and try to come up with more ideas that i maybe missed while acting, thumbnailing out the whole shot is a good way to see if poses will work togather.

Ok now that i have spent the better part of the day working on the shot, and i haven't even touched the computer yet (except to capture my footage) its time to take my thumbnails, and all the "research" i just did and apply it into the computer. at this stage of the game it becomes pretty easy and quick because you already know for the most part how your shot is gonna look, and what i willl work and what wont. also once i have my poses and timing roughed in, i tend to take my thumb sheets and put them away so i cant see them, that way i am free to change poses if i like, and i dont feel like i have to stick with what i thumbed out.

Thats pretty much it, i try to allow myself to spend a few hours maybe the better part of a day depending on complexity of shot or how creative i am feeling that day just planing before i do anything on the computer. then once in the computer its pretty quick and easy becuase all the hard work is done.

Hope that helps, and again this is just what i do, lots of people to things different ways, and by no means is this the only way to go about planning your shots.

Take Care

Derek

[GameFace]

Thank Onion and Derek.. your method derek has alot of similarities to keith lango's mad cool thanks.. Onion your right books do help i have to check those books out.. i live by the animation survival kit lol..... thanks guys.


ok so far i got A camera, books
anyone know where you can research footage like say you need a particular thing and you would like to find footage on that object or say animal in motion where anyone know anyplaces.. should we still hug the library for stuff like that..
-thanks ruel

[bledsoed]

OK here is a great site with refrence DVD (http://www.rhinohouse.com/) i suggest any serious animators have it in their own library along with the books mentioned above. its kinda spendy but well worth the money. its ref footage of animals in motion, and they are just about to release the same type of thing for humans. Its really good. i still would recomend if you can film your self doing the action that is much better, but something you can do your self and these dvd's should help with that


Hope that helps
Derek

[r9onaldo]

I would suggest that you check this nonverbal dictionary (http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/entries.htm) , It may help you.

[WesComan]

Here are a couple of great sites for reference material. You'll need to register (free) but the great thing is that you can actually save the clips to your drive...

http://www.bbcmotiongallery.com/customer/index.jsp

http://creative.gettyimages.com/source/frontdoor/defaultfilm.aspx

hope these help :)

edit: I mean...where else can you find clips like this...
http://creative.gettyimages.com/source/Film/filmresultsmain.aspx?source=quickSearchFilm&txtSearch=358-68&doRF=True&doRM=True&usePrefs=False
hahaha...lol

[Jaa]

I'm new to 3D animation (but loving it all the same!) and I recently had an assignment in which my chosen character was a panther cub. I managed to find a book by Muybridge called "Animals In Motion" which was great to get a feel for 4 legged motion. I tried a bit of test animation just from Muybridge's plates but found the output to be very simple with no real personality in my character's gait.

So I chased my cat around for about a week, trying to get good clean footage of her walking, running, jumping -- anything that I thought I would need for my animation. She was far from cooperative and the looks she gave me sometimes, you could almost read her mind, "Oy! You with the camera -- piss off!"

In the end, I managed to get a few good bits of footage that I used as my reference for my assignment. For me, it was much easier to work off my own footage and it actually transferred quite well for my first attempt at 3D animation, my sister even commented that it looks as though it's my cat walking. Which was good because it looks like that method proved useful, only problem is that I ended up with a panther cub walking like a house cat -- but it was my first 3D animation, so I cut myself some slack.

[GameFace]

Hahaha thats nice Jaa. yeah i definatly need to buy a dv cam.. quick. so i can tape some of my acting or a friends acting. Books are good but good to an extent You have to take what the book gives you to a certain limit then alter it so it doesnt look generic. I live by the survival kit.. by Richard williams. WesComan thanks for the links man.. they will definatly come in handy and everybody that has helped me so far.....
spank you kindly
-ruel

[GuzzaBee]

To be honest the greatest reference is yourself and a mirror, I know it's old hat, but acting the stuff out allows you to feel the wieght in your own body, which is something you can't always see on a video/DVD. Having said that I've worked for a long time where I didn't do that & I think my learning curve slowed in that period; but in really I use anything and everything at hand, because speed is the crucial issue, the faster I can get something down the better it is. Books, web, photos, me - what ever, but I've learnt more doing it myself.

[GameFace]

Thanks Guzz yeah I know exactly what you mean with the mirror. so so far My greatest options are...

Mirror
Video camera
books...

thank you guys.. I have another question Im looking for a video camera real cheap so i can record my refference animation and plug up to the comp via firewire.. someone mentioned i should go hi-8.. anybody know any good deals on some cheap cameras?.

[SirRon]

http://www.bbcmotiongallery.com/customer/index.jsp is a great place for reference.

I'm still trying to figure out a good video camera myself. As long as I can get the video on to my computer as quicktime, that's the main thing I recommend going for. My digital camera makes quicktime movies but the fps is low.

[GuzzaBee]

for quick rotoscoping ref. I just use a logitech webcam, it has all the software that allows you to alter the fps and it captures at a good enough res. for reference. As for gathering external reference I have a Hi8 digital which has a firewire conection; but to be honest I've never used it for reference - I did once go through the labourious process of capturing single frames from a run cycle I found on DVD film, it worked but the time taken made it pointless. try the web cam before you spend serious moeny, they're cheap enough and you may find it does what you want.

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