Ideas for Monthly Animation sessions

#1

ok guys, as we’re getting a bit of interest how about having this as the home of ideas in the same way the daily sketch group has one.

lets get some guide lines in though.

we do one session a month so people can get it fininshed and obviously we don’t wanna stop people doing the ten second club stuff coz thats awesome two.

each exercise can be no longer than 15 secs in total again so people can actually finish. though its not a hrad rule you can go over if you need to.:smiley:

each exercise should be character driven [size=2]because theres already an effects animation challenge about to start.[/size]

other than that the sky’s the limit, post away.

#2

Great idea Dalmanna…

I agree with most of what you suggested. One month sounds like the way to go. I’m not sure if the time cap is necessary. Depends on how we do this. If we do a 10secondclub type thing, were we animate to a specific audio clip, obviously there’s a fixed length of seconds to animate. However if we do theme-based challenges, a time limit isn’t really needed, don’t you think?

If we can do theme-based animations, I’ve got some ideas… :twisted:

Sure hope we can get the ball rolling with this. :bounce:

#3

yeah man, sorry i just spammed you with an email about this lol, but yeah time limit isn’t needed really i just thought it would make people focus on quality over quantity but again its up to the folks doing it if you think you can do more then do it its all cool with me.:buttrock:

#4

Alright I’m getting kind of confused between the different threads on this! (animation session rules / ideas for animation sessions) :argh:

but for me, the biggest questions is where we do it based on a specific audio clip, or if we do it theme-based. Like, (I think I saw this one somewhere else recently) “Waiting for a bus” or, “Walking your dog” or maybe “sitting in traffic”.

I dunno, maybe one month it could be an audio clip, another month theme-based. What I don’t like about 10secondclub.net is that it’s all dialogue based. Sometimes I like doing more physical animation, not to be restricted by the pre-recorded dialogue.

Another idea could be to animate to a music clip. Maybe the theme could be the song lyrics. Each animator could interpret the lyrics their own way. That could produce some interesting results. :stuck_out_tongue:

#5

yeah all of that is cool i was thiking like you pick a subject say it has to show a sad character and you can do it anyway you like, to music, to a voice clip, or just animate straight out.

the most important thing for me is that everyone learns to do good quality rather than massive amounts. just makes for better viewing.

#6

here’s a couple i’ve thought of.

‘awe’ as in to be in awe of something jaw on thr floor type stuff

‘adventure begins’ like the cool bit in treasure planet when jims solar surfing

‘reasurance’ as in it’ll be ok…:cry:

‘flat tyre’ make up a situation involving a flat tyre

#7

or…

‘parting company’

‘sorry’

‘pistols at dawn’

#8

good! Here’s a few more:
[ul]
[li]“waiting” or “impatient”[/li][li]“traffic” (you can see what my daily commutes are like these days)[/li][li]“fill’er up”[/li][li]“desperation”[/li][li]“anxiety”[/li][li]“hopeful”[/li][li]“bad dream”[/li][li]“refreshing”[/li][li]“I can’t hold it!”[/li][li]“Look at that!”[/li][/ul]
just off the top of my head…

#9

thats the stuff :bounce: this will rock if we can get it going just simple words create a mass of ideas in my head but such is the way of the animator :smiley:

#10

I also vote for an “anything goes” school of digital animation for the challenges (2D, 3D, digital stop motion, etc). Yes, it will make it harder to judge, but CGSociety is a great place to push boundries, and you never know what you are going to be competing against in the industry.Limiting the steps turned in is okay. Absolutely need some steps along the way, though. This helps artists with planning… and it helps others by seeing what leads to an awesome animation. Maybe: thumbnails (storyboards) - animatic - final animation? And, anything else an artist wants to include.

Since we aren’t competing for prizes… what is the feeling about animation teams?

I’m not a big fan of animating to a set sound file here. Yes, that is how the industry does it, but it feels a little confining in this environment. I am in favor of a topic similar to the daily sketch group. Sometimes it is quite specific, other times it is quite open. I think we should start with simple (and useful) animations such as:

Walking (front)
Walking (side)
Running (front)
Running (side)
Jumping (…)
Talking (…)
…

These animations can be built up into a library by each artist and used in future challenges which get more complex as we go.

On the length of the animation… 15 seconds is 180 frames of typical 2D 12 frames-per-second, or 450 frames at a high-end 3D 30 frames-per-second. I think this is a very good length of animation for simple concepts (see above), but seems really short if there are any story elements included in the challenge. Longer animations would be easier after building up a library of simple animations.

Also, a thread for animation resources is certainly in order. I’ve been hunting the web for resources lately and they are a little on the scarce side. Exchanging this kind of information can only help improve the projects we will see and create each month.

SirReality

#11

yeah the 15 second limit is kinda just a guide you can make it as long as you like, it just makes sense to have a guide that is doable in a month.

the idea behind these is an animation exercise rather than telling a story, you can kinda hint at a bigger story but the idea is to limit animators as we have a tendancy to want to make epics everytime a new project is started. to get what i mean watch disneys tarzan the bit where he first sees jane and he puts his hand to hers. theres a whole load of back story you can get from just that bit. admitittedly that was all glen keane but thats what to aim for if you want a story in it.

#12

Finally
some animation exercises! I love the whole theme based idea, and I certainly think every medium should be allowed – animation is animation, be it with sticks or paper. Having a theme gives so much more scope rather than just a piece of dialog
But if you have some dialog that fits the theme, and you want to animate to it then great.

Sounds good to me guys, I’ll certainly try and join in with the first theme.

#13

I think there should be mini contests that focus on the principles of animation similar to ones on simplycg
http://simplycg.net/viewtopic.php?t=653

#14

sounds interesting, and i would definetly participate.

#15

I like all the ideas, Animation to a sound clip…as well as animations based on spesific events like waking after a bad dream, as long as its fun (and animation always is) Im up for it…

#16

Always glad to hear about animation challenges :slight_smile:

IMO we should stray away from movie quotes since that’s 10secondclub’s thing. Short character driven exercises would be great. Like:

[ul]
[li]Listening to a joke and then laughing.
[/li][li]Hear a rude comment from a stranger and slapping them.
[/li][/ul]

These could probably be done in less than 10 seconds. Why don’t we call it our LessThan10Second Club? LOL :cool:

Personally I’d like to go for a quantity of quality… What I mean is that the challenges are short (like you can probably finish in a week) but really push to make it your best 5 seconds worth of animation ever. And have the deadline be 2 weeks.

Another suggestion I have is to do “Masterpiece” studies. Take a short clip from a favorite animated movie be it traditional (101 Dalmations, Tarzan, etc.) or 3D (The Incredibles, Ice Age, etc.) and try to copy it frame by frame.

Animation teams sound great but definately on the difficult side. I’d like to learn what it takes to be an animation supervisor myself.

Seriously, I think someone just needs to pick a topic or theme from a hat and just start the challenge. BTW Those guidelines sound great dalmanna.

#17

I have already mentioned that the challenges will be back once the animation hosting happens for cgportfolio. The topics are already picked for the first couple of em.

First of all they will be mostly about real life scenarios you will encounter as an animator. Those will include dialogue and physical animation too.

The masterpiece studies idea is just not gonna work. if you want to learn good animation study acting not trace someone elses work. I am all for studying the choices that other animator made but tracing it is not going to teach you anything.

I’d like to learn what it takes to be an animation supervisor myself.

years of experience , ability to see the mistakes of others and offer solutions , be nice and helpful , be a team leader.

–

If you guys want to start some unofficial mini challenges by all means do so. But the official anim sessions will not be restarted till cgportfolio anim hosting happens.

_A

#18

there is one way this kinda thing could work but it wouldn’t be tracing, you could take scene animate it how you enterpret it and then you’ll begin to understand why the animator of the original made the choices he did. this would be more of a study than tracing.

as for the unoffical mini challenge thing, that’d be cool to have between now and when the proper one starts.

#19

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[color=white][font=Arial][color=white][font=Arial][color=white]T[/color][/font][/color][/color][/font][color=white][font=Arial][color=white][font=Arial][color=white]he last time I got involved with an ‘official’ animation challenge here it was left to fade away and disappear in the ocean of threads. I hope these new challenges don’t suffer the same fate…

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#20

a once a week really short animation clip could be cool. cant’ wait for the challenges to start up again, if only to see more animation posts on cgtalk.