Toony or Realistic

[hugo.m]

Well, here's the thing. As an animator, you should be able to adapt to any style. Keeping to one style will only reduce your employment possibilities. Think of it this way, to learn to draw, you must first take life drawing courses. Once you have knowledge of anatomy, you can go ahead and distort it. Same principle applies to animation. Learn how weight, timing, posing works, then you can go ahead and apply any style to it.

Oh and by the way, it doesn't matter what style you show on your reel. Whoever looks at it (most likely experienced animators), will be able to tell whether you are good enough for their project or not. Even cartoony animations have a form of realism...so don't stress yourself, just create some kick ass animation and enjoy it...someone will notice.

[musashidan]

taking directly from what Hugo said.Carlos Baena is a perfect example.He's worked at ILM on movies such as :Jurassic Park 3,Men in Black 2,Star Wars-Attack of the Clones. And also for Pixar on movies such as: FINDING NEMO, THE INCREDIBLES, CARS and RATATOUILLE.

Wow,now there's a nice CV :)

[jurffy]

Thank you, both of you. :)

[Brighton]

I find that "realistic" animation tends to be a disservice.
Many Game Developers who are looking for realistic animation will simply Mocap and then have an animator clean up and add character.

Focus on something that will be technically plausible to accomplish, that shows the principles of animation.

I for one think that a somewhat Cartoony animation will accomplish much more than a realistic animation, when it comes to getting into the industry.
Realistic Animations tend to be conservative, and have weaker poses. Certainly it is very possible to have a powerful and realistic animation. But you can push a cartoony pose way farther and get a smile out of the viewer.

I mean, if I watch some game animation of a character reloading or taking cover, It will be good animation. But as the function of animation, its not as interesting and won't be definitive in memory.

Now this might seem counter productive, but it should be said anyway. When you are animating something cartoony, you must not over animate it. Its too easy create really large secondary motions and flow. But its the sense of Timing and Posing that will sell better. IE, if you can create a snap and have it feel natural, that will speak highly of your animation.

[anim8tedtoon]

I have to agree with these guys I have when I was going through my bachelors I was wonder the same thing. So I asked around and found out that as long as you have the principles of animation shown strongly in your reel the people viewing and critiquing will see it. I still think its good idea to maybe have a strong realistic piece in your reel or in your portfolio.


my portfolio
anim8ted-toon (http://www.anim8ted-toon.com)

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.