For those of you who use Jeff Lew's "hybrid method"

[kwilli30]

Not 100% sure of what jeff lew's method is, but it sounds like its starting at frame 1, and then every three or four frames you move stuff around like it was stop motion.

I think.

That approach is called _straight ahead_. I'll probably call it that later, so that's for reference :)

Dialogue doesn't work to well straight ahead, because there are definite beats you want to hit.

My suggestions would be to !!STAND UP!!, act it out until you know the timing you want. There are 24 frames a second, and 8 frames in a beat, so there are 3 beats in a second. If you can figure out the movement you want, and the approximate timing on beats, you're halfway to Jeff Lew's timing. From there, you should be able to refine OK.

Could you clarify Jeff Lew's method more?

[GrahamHRoss]

Straight ahead can be good for somethings...but for dialouge I highly reccomend you do pose to pose. Figure out your main points of the dialouge and places where you want to hit a emotion and then drop them in. Breaking ti down like that will give you a smoother animation and make it easier to fix things when problems happen....It's been my experience that straight ahead works for some cases in 2d animation...but on 3d it's pretty tough and you end up with really messed up curves and keys....

[jamagica]

Straight ahead is not every three or four frames...it's every frame. three frames makes a big difference because you have room to move keys around in the dopesheet without problems.

I understand I should probably use pose to pose for dialogue, but the main problem I have is keying in the right timing while blocking out poses, especially when it comes to moving holds.
Pose to pose is also hard because it's tough to keep the character alive without having to add more and more breakdowns 'till it gets annoying.

I'm getting the interpretation that straight ahead is every few frames, but Jeff Lew states that the hybrid method is every three or four frames, and straight ahead is every single frame. If his hybrid methods is straight ahead, what is the hybrid method?

P.S.
Kwilli, Jeff Lew's method is as you said. keying the movements every three or four frames (in 30 fps it's probably every 4 and 5 frames).

[kwilli30]

Straight ahead can be every single frame...unless you're animating on 2's (every other frame) which is common in 2d (at least outside of the production schedule...no one likes having to throw out an entire scene, which is why pose to pose is more popular)

Again, the issue is lip sync. When you have a piece of dialogue, you're trying to communicate what the character is saying, and what the character is thinking about. If I were to adapt Jeff Lew's method, I would say _plan_ every three or four frames. Drop the dialogue into the time line, play it back a million times and get a feel for how I want the character to move, then do thumbnails until I know what I'm gonna do with the scene. Then, put each pose into the computer, key every controler, and adjust the timing from their.

Hope that helps.

[jamagica]

Straight ahead can be every single frame...unless you're animating on 2's (every other frame) which is common in 2d (at least outside of the production schedule...no one likes having to throw out an entire scene, which is why pose to pose is more popular)

Again, the issue is lip sync. When you have a piece of dialogue, you're trying to communicate what the character is saying, and what the character is thinking about. If I were to adapt Jeff Lew's method, I would say _plan_ every three or four frames. Drop the dialogue into the time line, play it back a million times and get a feel for how I want the character to move, then do thumbnails until I know what I'm gonna do with the scene. Then, put each pose into the computer, key every controler, and adjust the timing from their.

Hope that helps.

It's not the lip sync I'm talking about. I basically use the messy method to match up the lips with the sound, because it isn't crucial to have an organized fashion with lip syncing. it'd take hours to try to lip sync every three frames...
I'm talking about the actual gestures and poses.

I'm still in the proccess of trying pose to pose...if you guys could throw out some tips on pose to pose in general, that'd be sweet

[jamagica]

Hey, guys...I'm actually starting to get the hang of pose to pose..it just had to take some time..thanks for all your help

[kwilli30]

Glad it's working out for you. Pose to pose really lets you work with the timing of the characters thoughts, so I like it for dialogue.

[jamagica]

Yes....I'm thinking for silent animations I will use Jeff Lew's method, however, for dialogue pieces I will use pose to pose

[SheepFactory]

By Jeff Lews "hybrid" method do you mean setting up your key poses and breakdowns pose to pose and animating the in betweens straight ahead?

[jamagica]

no...as I've explained 3 times it's animating every three or four frames, but apparently that's straight ahead too...

so I don't know what the hybrid method is

(maybe what you said, sheep)

[musashidan]

Just thought i'd clarify what Jeff calls the Hybrid method.It's basically a "Hybrid" or mixture of both pose 2 pose and straight ahead.
As there are pros and cons to both he has developed his own style incorporating elements from the two.
As there are more key poses(every 3rd/4th frame) there are less breakdown poses meaning a more fluid,natural workflow(straight ahead)whilst maintaining the structural order of regular pose 2 pose.(thus keeping your dopesheet organised while you block out)

[GrahamHRoss]

In my opinion, anthing where you don't figure out the general poses and then work backwards is straight ahead. You can say straight ahead is every frame, but with computer animation everything happens on ones and it will make all the inbetweens for you, right? So, it's more a matter of not planing and just cranking straight ahead...

The whole pose to pose and straight ahead thing is a little obscured when you're not working with paper. I think it's best to think of it as planning it out extensively ahead of time or not planning and just jumping right in.

Oh...and it's been my experience that more key poses can result in a lot of headaches and unfluid movement. For me, it breaks up the curves of movement and can lead to pops in weird places...whic can take forever to clean up if you have a zillion keys all over the place...Less is more I think....

[Gitch]

Jeff Lew's hybrid approach is a combination of straight ahead and pose to pose.

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