Quote of the Day

"The waking mind is the least serviceable in the arts."
Henry miller

The Rule of Thirds and why it makes your scene interesting.

To all of the animators out there that think that the rules of the camera are not important in animation, youve got another thing coming, because if you make an animation and it is faniminal but the camera wrok is crappy, the director you show it to, will tell you to take a hike, so even though this kinda doesnt play into the mechanics of animation, listen up, because it is just as important. Oh and another thing, if any body out there is into photography, listen up, because this applies to you as well, and will make your photo shine above all of the rest.
THE RULE of THIRDS, what is this you ask, well interestingly enough, it is the spot on any screen that the audience is going to look at the most, the hot spots if you would. These are the most interesting parts of the screen, i dont know why, but they just are. The mind likes to see a lot in the scene, so if you have the character on any one of these spots the audience gets to see a lot more

Take a look at the picture to the right, what do you see, yes the awesome rule of thirds, well i guess your asking yourself, whats the deal with the tic tac toe. Well the dots that you see are the places that are the HOTSPOTS on the screen, it is any spot that you see the two lines cross eachothers paths, like i said, they are the most interesting spots on your screen.

Now take a look at the picture to the left, you see that the birds eye is right in one of those hot spots, why, because that is what the director wants you to look at, they either want you to look at the birds eye, or at the bird itself. In your scene you are going to want to do this same thing, you are going to put the most important character or thing or whatever, either near, or on  one of those hotspots. You will mostly see the upper dots used thats just so you can get more from the character.

Now look to the right again, i want you too try and figure out what is the most important part of this scene by using the rule of thirds.

 If you guessed the man with his head down, you are correct, but if you chose the guy on his phone you are also correct. Even though there are two characters in this perticular scene they are both still important, they both fall right on a hotspot, or near them, you can see that the guy with his head down, has the hotspot right on his head, because that is where you are suppose to look, and the guy on his phone also has the hotspot protruding from his head or near it, these guys are what you need to look at when you are watching the television screen, and it is so interesting because no matter what you do and no matter how hard you try, your eye will always go strait to the hotspots on the screen, even if the main character isnt on the hotspot you will always look at it first. Just imagine if the guy on the left had been in the middle of the picture, that would not have been very interesting, why, well its because he would make the picture unbalanced and you would see him cutting the photo and the scenery right in half, with him right on that hotspot, you get to see all of the scenery and still enjoy the mood he is in.

So remember that when you are putting together your scene, make sure that you have the rule of thirds in there, it will just make it that much better, oh and dont forget, this not only applies to film it most deffinately applies to photography as well, just go out and look at all of the professional pictures out there, they will all have the rule of thirds in them.

Quote of the Day

"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance."
Aristotle

Quote of the Day

"Even a true artist does not always produce art."
Carroll O'Conner

Much much more camera angles

Alright everyone i know that i already talked about camera angles but it is just that important to know all that you can about camera angles. It can easily determin to your audience if your movie is going to be crappy or good just from the first camera angle that you produce, they may not know that they think its crappy, but there is always that little thing nagging at the back of there neck that they just cant put their finger on, something about it was just unappealing(its called the camera angles were done porly you moron.) Sorry for the rude awakeing but it is true, crappy camera angles, crappy movie.
There are many different camera angles in many different movies, some have them more than others, while others dont have many at all, like i have said in the past, its all about the feel that you are going for. So the first thing that i am going to talk about are the different camera shots that you can have
CU= Close Up                                                                                            Close Up

XCU=Extreme Close Up

MS= Medium Shot

WS=Wide Shot

ES=Establishing Shot

Lets start with a close up. Your close up shot will always most likely be directed at one person on the camera, because anymore than that, it might confuse the audience on who the director wants to concentrate on, plus not to many people can fit in a close up shot and have it still look good. Anyways, a close up is a shot that is anywhere from just right under the shoulders and up, this lets the audience know that that person on screen is the most important at that moment, and that you need to listen to what he is saying to you or you may miss out some real jiucy information.
                         Extreme Close Up

Now for the Extreme Close Up. Be careful with this one folks because if you have one of these bad boys in your scene you had better have a good reason or it could make a real big mess of your shot. the Extreme Close Up is obviously  a close up a your characters face, the reason i chose this perticular photo is because it is the one that i have seen most. You would typically find it in a regular movie though, mostly in westerns or horrors, those guys just love to get the audience involved with all of the drama that the character is feeling.

                                                                                                                           Medium Shot

Now for the Medium Shot. The medium shot will typically show the character from the thighs up, you dont want to ever show the character from the knees up or just under the knees, that is a big mistake, it creates whats called a tangent on the screen, its when the eye wants to know to much about what going on, like with the knee, the eye wants to go down the leg, but cant have there eyes do that because the camera stops right at the knees. ( I dont know about anyone else but for some reason this photo sure doesnt look like Harrison Ford, well it does but doesnt at the same time, his eyes just kind of look a little funny to me.

                 Wide/Establinshing Shot.                                                                                                 .

Alright this shot it to show the tipe of envirnment that your character will be in, in this case Robert is in a bedroom laying on a bed naked. The naked part doesnt really matter, but the wide shot does. It tells your what is going to be expected for the next few minutes in your scene. What may happen while in the bedroom, you always want to audience to know somewhat what is going to happen next but still throw them off guard, you want them to guess the future and then be right about it.

Remember to choose your shots wisely, it could be the downfall or uplifting of your movie.

Quote of the Day

"If we could but paint with the hand what we see with the eye."
Honore D. Balzac

Lighting and camera angles

 I cant even begin to explain how important your lights and your camera angles are in your scene, alot of the characters mood in the scene relies heavily on said things. Now im sure everyone can guess the colors of mood that portray certain things. For instance red light may give a more evil dark mood, while blue gives a sad depressing mood but blues can also give off the illusion of mysterie, as well as green. Oranges will give out a more welcoming warm feeling, as if everything is calm and relaxing, yellows give out an upbeet feel, as if everything is happy. Remember dark colors give off a more negative feeling, but thats ok if your character is evil or if your are making a movie with a murder, dark colors are deffinalty the way to go dont think that just because the feeling is nagative, the movie wont be good, that is what audiences love, the contrast of light and dark, good and evil. Bright colors will give off a positive feeling, but be careful, they may give off some positive feelings, but there is such thing as to much positive good feelings in the movie.

Take both of these pictures for example what is the highlight, thats right, the orange, even though there is blue both on top and underneath the photo, the orange is still the main color, and if you notice, the blue is actually helping your eyes go strait to the orange, because both colors are the same on both ends of the picture, so your eyes want to be more entertained so they default to the house. It is also human nature to like warm refreshing inviting things anyway, so the orange will make them feel at ease. Just imagin if the picture was feeled with all blue, would you find that very appealing, no, because it gives off a cold fridged feeling which also brings sadness.

Now to elaberate on camera angels, very very very important stuff going on with camera angles, they can give you all characters moods at once, they can give you one characters mood, whichever you like, you just need to find what is best for your scene.

 Take these two scenes from catch me if you can for example, the one on the left shows you Leonardo and Tom talking(this is called a wide shot), but take into account where the camera is located, pretty much level with the desk underneath both there heads, why do they do this in film, well, they want the audience to feel as if they were apart of the scene, as if they are in the huddle so to speek, they want you to be able to know secrets that are being told. Then lets look at the one on the right, it is a close up of leonardo's head(this is called a close up). It usually will mean that something intense is happening, or that something intense is about to happen.

I love catch me if you can, it has so many camera different camera angles that show intensity, overpowering and calm moods, the lighting in a lot of the scenes in this movie are absolutly fanomanal as well.

Here is a challenge, go and rent Catch Me if You Can and see how many different moods you can get just from the lighting and camera angles in the scenes.

And remeber to always make sure you are setting the right mood for the scene, or your movie will look like crud.

Quote of the day

"All art is but an imitation of nature."
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Quote of the Day

"the beginning is the most important part of the work."
Plato

Awesome, funny video

Man with baby

Quote of the Day

"Some painters trasnform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform the yellow spot into the sun."
Pablo Picasso

Overlap and follow through

Ok this is a pretty intence subject to follow, but i think everyone can do it, becasue lets face it, we are animators and we can do anything, I mean, we are creating the illusion of life, and that is pretty big. Anyway, overlap and follow through are two big beasts all and in themselves so i am suprised i decided to talk about both, overlap in general is when say for instance(and you can try this with your own hand) you move your arm really fast in one direction, and your hand takes awhile to catch up.

Since i had a hard time explaining what it was i thought i might as well show you, try to follow along with what i have drawn. Take a look at what the arm is doing, it is going down at a rapid pace, but if you look,  the hand it is staying behind, just like i had said before it takes awhile to catch up. i have drawn degree numbers above to try and explain more clearly what it is i am trying to say. When the arm starts at the top, the hand is going to follow the most behind, then as it reaches the bottom it will straiten back out to follow the line of the hand. Go ahead do it with your own hand.

Ahaw it is not the same, and why, because when your hand reaches the bottom of its swing it has to end right, and when that happens, the muscles in your arm retracts and slightly pulls both the arm and the hand back up. Then bam, there is some more overlap, as your musles are retracting and pull your arm and hand back up, it definatly isnt much, but oh its there, and when you get this in your animation, oh my goodness it is so good.

But wait there is more, we still havent talked about follow through, i could just use my awesome hand drawing but i want to mix it up. Plus i get to talk about baseball so its a plus. Follow through, is when something(say your hand) reaches its main action, like i said before it doesnt just stop, it keeps going. There are many different ways to show this but my favorite is a baseball player.

I just love this photo, because of how it explains follow through so well, so in this case, this pitcher is going to throw the ball,  in frame1 you see him wind up, 2 he is anticipating the throw, 3 he is going intothe throw, and 4 he is following thorugh with his arm. It is going even farther after the ball leaves it, and that my friend is follow through. You will never in human kind see someone do this and just stop there hand after the ball leaves it. I actually think that it is physically impossible, but anyways, always, always, always have your character do there follow throughs, or your animation will look like CRAP, trust me, you do not want that to happen.This same thing will happen with your clothes, they will not stop as soon as you do, they will keep going, and then slowing rest on your body. Oh and recognize the overlap in frame 3, the arm is going faster, and is in the lead, so then he hand is coming behind.

Like i said, there are so many examples of both of these, like the seven dwarfs, there flab would keep going as they would stop. Only to rest back on there face.

And remeber always remeber to have all parts of your animation following through.

Quote of the Day

"The artist who aims at perfection in everything, achieves it in nothing."
Eugene Delacroix

Path of action, and arcs

Ok today we are going to talk about path of action, it is exactly what it sounds like, it is the path in which or charter, or objects travel in your scene. Everything in your scene is going to have one, and when i say everything i mean everything, well,  at least everything that is going to be moving. There are even paths of action within the characters paths of action. Every limb, the head and fingers all have paths of action, you want to make sure that you remember this, so your animation will look freakin amazing. Anyways, what exactly is it, well here is an example.

Aw yes the good old bouncing ball, this thing can realate to so many principles of animation but only some, anyways, as the ball goes down to hit the floor it needs to travel in a path of action wether its going fast or slow it will always have a path of action, but with less frames.  Also, take in those beautiful arcs that it is creating, you can see it more on the second bounce, but just look at it, when you have something travel from one point to another, it will always have an arc with it, no matter wether its going fast or slow, if it is going fast it will have a longer more stretched out arc but if it is going slower it will have an arc that comes close together. The same the applies with the hands, no matter what it is doing, it will always have an arc. ANYTHING THAT IS MOVING IN YOUR SCENE WILL HAVE AN ARC OF SOME KIND.

Like I have spelled out in the above caption, this example is crap, i drew it because no one was that rediculous to draw it on the net, but anyways do you see any good arcs in here, NO. Look at the path of action, exactly, you cant find one, if you put this up on the screen and showed your director, he would look at you and laugh in your face and tell you to come back when you know how to draw. If this is to hard at first to draw a perfect arc or get your path of action correct, just draw out the path of action with a pretty arc and then draw your character over the top, you can always trace and erase, there is nothing wrong with that.
Remember everything is going to have an arc of some kind wether its a crum falling to the floor, or a hand going to catch a ball, they all have arcs, and when you put them in your scene, the audiences eyes will sparkle because they are so amazed.

Quote of the day

"There is no such thing as a bad artist, only those who dont understand."
Tyler Gogan

Squash and stretch

Ok everyone this is as well one of my favorites, just because it gets back to the basics of animation and what we all learned or are currently learning. There are so many examples and ways that you can portray squash and stretch, it can be in the face, it can be in the body, it can be in the arms and legs, pretty much wherever you want, the possiblitlies are endless. I love this subject because it is one of the first realisations that man came up with to make cartoons and drawings look even more life like. So on that note, i would like to start off with the classic bouncing ball, there are so many different examples out there that i cant even count, but i thought that i would post another for all of the newbies, so guys this one goes out to you, but advanced people please still try to keep up.



I know that it is hard not to look at the guys above and below the ball but try not to. First off, i would like you to notice that when it is at the top of its arc, the ball becomes as it was when you first threw it at the ground, but in its travels to splat on the ground, it stretches out as the speed picks up, then just as it hits the ground, it squashes, and then leaves the ground and the process is in reverse from the ground up. Going down(normal, stretch, squash). Going up(squash, stretch, normal). But wait, there is more with this exciting little ball. As it goes to meet the ground (in your animation). It touches first, then as it goes to leave, you will not draw it touching the ground, but draw it slightly higher from when it touched. If you dont, it will seem as if the ball had a brain, as if it were some kind of animal that met the ground and then jumped off. See, that was awesome, and it gets even more exiting.

When you are drawing your character doing all of these wonderful illusions of life, it can get quite complicated, but we will tackle it right now. Just as the ball did, when the man goes to meet the ground, he is going to stretch out, then as he hits, he is going to squash, what is the difference you ask, well, if you notice, the human body isnt going to squash down as if it were a giant peice of rubber (unless you are going for a more cartoony look), the knees are going to bend and the body is going to lean forward towards the ground, then it will lift off and do just as the ball did, but this time you will show them touching the ground on impact and touching it when leaving it. 

Now, as far as the face goes, i think that this example explanes itself. If your character is making any dramatic facial changes, there will most definatly be a squash and stretch in there somewhere. Like this for example. Johny here is looking at something and gets surprised, only to get angry at the end, at whoever scared him. He starts out normal, then as he is suprised, he goes into a stretch, his eyes and head extend into a stretch, as well as his eyebrows raising, and then his shoulders will lower to give even more effect, then as he gets angry his face scrunches, his eyebrows creese and his nose rinkles, you need to also notice his neck and shoulders, his neck goes down as his shoulders raise.

Remember, in any dramatic movement in the face or wherever else, there will most likely be a squash and stretch of some kind. Oh and dont be affraid to add a little emfacise on all parts of the body when squashing or stretching things out, the more exagerated it is, the more character there is to put in the character.Just as the guy is doing below the ball in the first picture, the audience loves it. 

Here is a fishboy doing a take, it may be hard to see, but try and spot the squash and stretch that he is doing when he goes into his smile.