Animation Cake

Shawn Kelly, Animator at ILM and co-founder of the online animation school 'Animation Mentor.com' has given this recipe for the "Animation Cake" in his newsletter. Its quite funny to read but at the same time very useful. Here it goes-

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ANIMATION CAKE:

1 gallon of rough thumbnail ideas
2 quarts of video reference (created and/or found)
1 quart of thumbnails derived from the reference

*Note to chef: Be sure to include timing notes! Exaggerate thumbnail timing and posing to personal preference

Mix contents thoroughly and pour into a pan
2 tablespoons of saving key poses based on your thumbnails
1 heaping cup of breakdown poses, again based on your thumbnail poses and timing notes
Season breakdowns with anticipation, weight shifts, eye animation, and rough arcs
Mix with original contents and stir until terrible computer-created in-betweens are completely dissolved
Add contents to baking pan, and place in oven until ready

If possible, allow animation to cool before decorating, to have a fresh eye

Once cooled, polish Animation Cake with Arcs Frosting, Overshoot Sprinkles, and top off with Secondary Animation Candles!

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Sweet!!....... isn't it ?!

For further reading, go here --> 'Recipe for Success: Baking Your Animation Cake'

Ghajini Special Effects

One of my all time favorite visual effects artists is Pete Draper. His tutorials are quite famous among 3d artists. Here is an interesting article about the making of the title sequence animation for the movie Ghajini; Pete Draper has done the special effects and is quite stirring.


Read the production story --'Gajini title animation- Makiing Of'

Animation Reusability

Here is Disney's way of reusing animation. Though the animations have not been used as such, the timing and poses are the same cel to cel. It would have greatly reduced the production time. Purely, it is economics of success !

BIG's Little Krishna

BIG animation studios has finally completed their flagship project 'Little Krishna' and its ready for broadcast(telecast/webcast/podcast and so on). The 13 episode Action, Adventure animated series will be a milestone in Indian animation.
Read the synopsis here and watch the trailer.

I consider myself lucky to have worked on some of the episodes of 'Little Krishna'. It was great to have worked with some of the most talented artists and animators in the country. I am sure this project will be a blow away success.

Animator on a killing spree !

Warning! Warning! …Look out for this ‘One Man Army’ who has let loose his imagination and is on a killing spree. Not in real life but in an animation movie. Jeff Lew, the lead animator of 'Matrix Reloaded', has finally finished his movie ‘Killer Bean Forever’ and will be releasing it soon in DVDs. He has just released the release date(June 2009).

Jeff Lew has made this movie all by himself, well…. almost. He has spent around four years from concept to completion of this movie. Gutsy!

His yesteryear animated short ‘The Killer Bean’, an action comedy was a blast. It was a series of two episodes…

Episode 1 was made in 1996 and is 2:41 minutes long

Watch Episode 1

Episode 2 was made in 2000, this sequel is 7:21 minutes long

Watch Episode 2 - The Party

Download trailer of ‘Killer Bean Forever’ from HERE

Jeff Lew is currently working on Transformers 2. Surf over to his site for more info.

Weighty stuff

Found an absolutely cool tutorial on weight shifts in animation. I have been longing to get some material on this subject. This fantastic article is supported with some awesome video references.

One of the Videos

Weight_Legs_Front from DJ Nicke on Vimeo.

Here is the link to the tutorial

http://animationsalvation.com/free_tips/dancinghip-hop/135

Really Cool !

Panda – Pure Awesomeness!

There is no price for awesomeness! That’s what the Panda replies to his awe struck admirers……in his dream . The awesome 2d animated dream sequence at the beginning of the 3d animation movie Kung Fu Panda is in my opinion the best opening for any animation movie I have ever watched. In fact, the movie also had a great opening at the box office!

The starting sequence was a hint of what was to follow. It was hilarious to the hilt. The dialogues, the acting, fight sequences were simply superb. Apart from the voices of Jack Black(Panda), Dustin Hoffman(Shifu) and Ian McShane (Snow Leopard), others didn’t appeal much to me. I have no clue as to what Jackie Chan had to do in this movie. I thought the animators need better recognition than those who lent their voice. The animation of Grand Master Oogway was a certain highlight. The fierce antagonist Tai Lung, the snow leopard, was fantastically portrayed and is now in my list of best animated villains! At last, DreamWorks animation studio has got the pulse of movies that would work for a larger audience. Kung Fu Panda is awesome and attractive; easily the best animation movie of the year. I am saying this after watching Wall-E.

Looking forward to more stuff from Dreamworks animation studio.

Pixar's next stop

Before the news of Ratatouille winning Oscar could sink in, there are some great news about Pixar's next flick. What if mankind decided to leave the Earth and forgot to turn off the last robot ?!.... thats the tag line for Wall-E, Pixar's 2008 release directed by A Bug's life and Finding Nemo director Andrew Stanton.

Read this note on Wall-E presentation at Wondercon

http://www.firstshowing.net/
2008/02/24/wondercon-pixars-wall-e-
presentation-incredible/

Watch the trailers at
http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=17343

Latest trailer
http://www.firstshowing.net/2007/12/17/
must-watch-next-new-wall-e-trailer/

Another clip showing Eve- Wall-E's girlfriend-
http://wall-e-trailer.blogspot.com/

Don't miss out the wonderful vacuum vignette animation in HD. It was animated by Victor Navone. I am keeping a tag on his blog hoping to get more info on Wall-E.