tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42483415966291592632024-03-05T11:53:19.672-08:00StrongmAnimatoranim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-30378291580882019022014-03-04T12:28:00.000-08:002014-03-04T12:28:47.408-08:00GDC 2014: The Year of Animation FOR REALSYOU GUYS.<br />
<br />
I just did a quick audit of all GDC talks related to animation. This includes, but is not limited to, animation, design, AI, character development and rigging. What did I find?<br />
<br />
Monday is the full day <a href="http://reanimators.net/?p=520" target="_blank">Animation Bootcamp</a>. But we knew that already.<br />
<br />
Tuesday is nap day. We animators need our beauty-pass.<br />
<br />
Only 11 am Wednesday is free of animation goodness. Silly 11 am, you don't know what's good for you.<br />
<br />
The great part about this is that animators will have a true smorgasboard of talks to attend. The bad part? A few conflict with the <a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/speaker/borrelli-tim.21377" target="_blank">Animation and Character Performance Roundtables</a>. But you know what? I'm OK with that.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/smorgasbord1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/smorgasbord1.jpg" height="320" width="206" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Animators and Jerry Lewis, separated at birth.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
I'm OK with the fact that animation is finally getting proper representation at GDC. I'm OK that we finally have a GOOD problem to deal with- choice.<br />
<br />
So what are these choices? GLAD YOU ASKED. I have listed them below. If you read this and feel that another relevant talk should be added to the list, let me know in the comments or <a href="https://twitter.com/Anim8der" target="_blank">via twitter</a>!<br />
<br />
Monday ANIMATION BOOTCAMP WOOOO:<br />
<br /><a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/828009">Animation Bootcamp: Intro & Achieving a Believable Performance</a><br /><a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/828010">Animation Bootcamp: Establishing an Ecology for NPCs</a><br /><a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/828011">Animation Bootcamp: Fluid and Powerful Animation within Frame Restrictions</a><br /><a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/828029">Animation Bootcamp: Animating the Spy Fantasy in Splinter Cell</a><br /><a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/828012">Animation Bootcamp: Animation Prototyping for Games</a><br /><a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/828030">Animation Bootcamp: An Indie Approach to Procedural Animation</a><br /><a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/828031">Animation Bootcamp: Using the Power of Layered Animation to Expand Premium Content in Battlefield 4</a><br /><a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/828032">Animation Bootcamp: Animating Cameras for Games</a><br /><a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/828033">Animation Bootcamp: Animator's Approach to Directing an Idea</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Wednesday:</span></div>
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11 am:<br />NONE?!? Well, it's because GDC knows we like to sleep in!<div style="color: #222222;">
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2 pm:<div>
<a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/826131">Animation and Character Performance Roundtable: The Role of Animators</a> (ME!)<br /><a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/826446">Face Animation Retargeting in Destiny</a><div style="color: #222222;">
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2:35 pm:</div>
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<a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/827743">2D Animation at Klei Entertainment</a><br /><div style="color: #222222;">
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3:30 pm:</div>
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<a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/826364">Sucker Punch's Performance Capture for inFAMOUS: Second Son</a><div>
<br />5 pm:</div>
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<a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/826510">The Art of Reanimating Plants vs. Zombies 2</a><br /><a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/825537">The Last of Us: Human Enemy AI</a><div style="color: #222222;">
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Thursday:<br /><br />10 am:</div>
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<a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/825809">Unsynced: The Last of Us Melee System</a></div>
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<br />11:30 am:</div>
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<a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/826291">Harmonix's Character Rigging Framework: Harmony</a></div>
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<br />12 pm:</div>
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<a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/826015">Super Powering the Saints: Animation Direction of Saints Row IV's Super Jumping</a></div>
<div>
<br />2:30 pm:<div>
<a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/828073">Animation and Character Performance Roundtable: The Future of Game Animation</a> (ME!)<br /><a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/827750">Creating BioShock Infinite's Elizabeth</a><br /><a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/826259">Enter the Stage: Cinematic Dialogue in Performance Capture</a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
4 pm:</div>
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<a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/825792">Ellie: Buddy AI in The Last of Us</a></div>
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<br />5:30 pm:</div>
<div>
<a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/826103">Change Is Good: The Importance of Iteration Within a Character Art Pipeline</a><br /><a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/826378">Characterization, Purpose and Action: Creating Strong Video Game Characters</a><br /><a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/826386">Designing the Bungie Animation Workflow</a><div style="color: #222222;">
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<div style="color: #222222;">
<br /></div>
Friday:<br /><br />10 am (GDC forgot that we like to sleep in):</div>
<div>
<a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/828074">Animation and Character Performance Roundtable: Animation Techniques, Tips and Tricks</a> (ME!)<br /><a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/826151">Building Customizable Characters for Bungie's Destiny</a><br /><br />11:30 am:<br /><a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/826430">Next-Gen Characters: From Facial Scans to Facial Animation</a><br /><br />2:30 pm: <br /><a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/827749">Discovering the Story and Character in the Real-Time, Animated Short Film Unplugged</a><br /><br />So yeah! Here's to an awesome Animation year at GDC 2014!</div>
</div>
anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-6965281726819141662013-08-01T10:16:00.002-07:002013-08-01T10:28:45.367-07:00Open Call for GDC 2014 Animation Bootcamp SubmissionsWe are starting to plan the next GDC Animation Bootcamp and we want to open up submissions to anyone that has something to say!<br />
<div>
<br />
In our second year, and to build off of the success of the last, we plan to make the presence of animation at GDC bigger than ever. The desire to balance deeper, animation specific talks with more cross-discipline buy-in is what we believe to be the ultimate goal, and to do that we hope to make it a two day affair.<br />
<br />
The first day would be very similar to last year (<a href="http://www.gdcvault.com/search.php#&category=free&firstfocus=&keyword=animation+bootcamp&conference_id=" target="_blank">which you can watch on the GDC vault</a>), with a focus purely on the craft of animation, digging into topics like believability, body mechanics, facial animation, and acting.<br />
<br />
Then on day two, we dive directly into the game abyss, armed with the creative knowledge from the day before. We bring in AI programmers, designers, writers and indie devs to show the theories and solutions people are applying the illusion of life to, either in conjunction with or in ways other than animation.<br />
<br />
All of this is contingent on the bootcamp being accepted by the advisory board again, but based on our numbers and feedback we feel quite confident in our plan.<br />
<br />
So what type of talks are we looking for? Well…<br />
<br />
What is your process? What is something you do in your games that you are surprised isn’t more common? What is something that you wish you COULD do? What is a tool or tech that you couldn’t live without? What motivates you? What are your best practices when it comes to working with and influencing other disciplines?<br />
<br />
The guidelines and schedule for talk submissions are as follows:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Talks can be 30 minutes or 1 hour long. It should be a talk that will be unique to the bootcamp.</li>
<li>AUGUST 23rd – Proposed submissions due date. Email a short description and takeaway to <a href="mailto:gdcanimationbootcamp@gmail.com">gdcanimationbootcamp@gmail.com</a></li>
<li>AUGUST 29th – Submission due date for the Animation Bootcamp. By this date we hope to have the bulk of the presenters already lined up to show the overall tone of what we have planned.</li>
<li>NOVEMBER – If the bootcamp is accepted, we need all specific talks along with an outline submitted around this time</li>
<li>If the specific talks are accepted, finished talks will need to be prepared sometime shortly after. (The ability to make slight revisions should persist until the conference)</li>
</ul>
We are expecting the Bootcamp to be on March 17th & 18th in San Francisco but that is just the beginning of GDC’s focus on animation. In the following days during the Main Conference there will be a daily Animation and Character Roundtable, hosted by Tim, to carry on the conversations across all game dev disciplines. Our goal is that by the end of GDC 2014, animation will continue to grow as a necessary part of the discussions at the conference and the industry as a whole.<br />
<br />
We look forward to you not only being part of the conversation, but helping to drive it.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/lightbombmike" target="_blank">Mike Jungbluth</a><br />
<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/timborrelli" target="_blank">Tim Borrelli</a></div>
anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-24827640508444232422013-03-31T14:07:00.001-07:002015-02-09T17:37:47.717-08:00GDC 2013: The Year of Animation What a GDC it was for animation this year! From the day of amazing talks at Animation Bootcamp to the three days of evolving discussion in the Animation & Character Performance Roundtables, animation was alive at GDC. All around Moscone we would run into people who attended each day’s sessions and hear how grateful they were that animation was getting such a large focus this year.<br />
<br />
So how did it all happen? <br />
<br />
From 2010 to 2012, I was fortunate enough to host the Tech Animation Roundtable with great success. However, as each year rolled around, I found the audience and the topics were shifting more towards character performance. As I started re-evaluating what the roundtable should be after GDC 2012, <a href="https://twitter.com/lightbombmike" target="_blank">Mike Jungbluth</a> proposed the idea of the Animation Bootcamp to a few of us. Since I had already been planning to change the Tech Animation Roundtable to something more animation driven, this aligned amazingly well. After many email discussions, we had formulated the perfect storm of animation for GDC 2013: An Animation Bootcamp at the start of the week to get animators excited about discussing animation, and an Animation Roundtable for the rest of the week to get multiple disciplines discussing how to push animation further in games. Hence the Animation Bootcamp and Animation & Character Performance Roundtables were born. <br />
<br />
<h4>
The Bootcamp</h4>
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<br /></div>
The Animation Bootcamp on Monday was amazing. If you were unable to attend, it will be available on the GDC Vault, so check it out if you can!<br />
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<br /></div>
<div>
The hard work that all the speakers put into their talks was apparent, and we all learned so much from each other. Jalil Sadool’s talk on observation and ownership of a character kicked off the festivities. Amy Drobek’s talk on creature animation gave us incredible insights on how to break down a creature’s anatomy for rigging and animation, and gave me many ideas to take back to work this week.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="https://twitter.com/Simonunger" target="_blank">Simon Unger</a>’s talk on the actual nuts & bolts of planning, shooting and implementing motion capture was a refreshingly detailed and useful view of the technology as a productivity tool. Animating the 3rd Assassin, the talk given by <a href="https://twitter.com/gameanim" target="_blank">Jonathan Cooper</a>, was eye opening in its examples of how to use previs to sell an idea to your own team, how to develop a unique animation style in an existing franchise, and outlined the sheer amount of work that goes into an animation-heavy title.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/AnimationMerc" target="_blank">Ryan Duffin</a>’s talk on Giving Purpose to First Person Animation gave an amazing view of how the principles of animation, especially staging, can be used to create a believable first person performance (while also giving us a great lesson on how the golden ratio can be implemented to increase the aesthetics of a first person view).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Finally, <a href="https://twitter.com/lightbombmike" target="_blank">Mike Jungbluth</a> and Ed Hooks gave the most thought-provoking talk on Designing a Performance, asking us to think about how we can create an empathic connection between player and character. <br />
<br />
<h4>
The Roundtables</h4>
<div>
<br /></div>
After the bootcamp, we got a ton of positive feedback as we walked around Moscone. So much, in fact, that on Day 1 of the Animation and Character Performance Roundtable (henceforth referred to as “the roundtable”) was filled to capacity and people had to be turned away. Each subsequent day saw the room fill to capacity, and each day the hour flew by. Overall I feel that the roundtable was a huge success (though we’ll have to wait and see what the evaluations say!), and I am excited to continue hosting it for years to come. <br />
<br />
Since the roundtables are not recorded for the vault, I did my best to take notes immediately following each session. Today I will provide bulleted notes, and I will attempt to write up each day in full over the next few days/weeks as I recall the conversations and ask a few of the folks there to pass along their mental notes as well.<br />
<div>
<br />
<h3>
Day 1 Notes</h3>
<ol>
<li>Started by asking “Who are we?” (We are animators, game developers, collaborators) </li>
<ol>
<li>Note to self, never do this again. Thankfully the room forgave me and we got past it quick with better topics! </li>
</ol>
<li>Design and animation collaboration </li>
<li>Implementing animation (who does it, how long) </li>
<li>Does creating networks take away from animation time </li>
<ol>
<li>Spend less time on the finer details. Get good blocking/posing/timing and get it into the animation network/engine </li>
</ol>
<li>Moving disciplines together </li>
<li>Communication (marked as topic for next day- in person or offsite?) </li>
<li>What do students need to learn? What are students learning? (specialize? broad knowledge?) </li>
<li>Animation principles (marked as topic for next day) </li>
<li>Don’t be a jerk </li>
<li>Be good at your craft, the tools are just that- tools to learn </li>
</ol>
<h3>
Day 2 Notes</h3>
<ol>
<li>Today was almost entirely filled with “Applying the Principles of Animation” </li>
<li>Anticipation in animation as well as gameplay (building up to a moment with audio, or building an attack combo, or just the mental anticipation a player has before they hit the button) </li>
<li>Staging with state transitions, an contextual environmental cues </li>
<li>Timing. Blend times, avoiding the “Scale slider” </li>
<li>Squash and stretch in poses. </li>
<li>Arcs in mocap. </li>
<li>Getting rough blockouts to design who can scale them till it feels right, then we finish </li>
<li>Design communication/docs (marked as topic for tomorrow) </li>
<li>Back to implementation and communication. Where we sit, how we communicate (marked as topic for tomorrow) </li>
<li>Empathy- how? Idles could be taken too far. Where is the balance of believable motion to believable character? </li>
<li>Seeing stuff in game with zero iteration time </li>
<li>Sorry Josh Scherr for skipping you at the end please don't kill me</li>
</ol>
<h3>
Day 3 Notes</h3>
<ol>
<li>Empathy, the whole time. Amazing. </li>
<li>Doh, forgot to do roll call for disciplines today.</li>
<li>Papo & Yo </li>
<li>Walking Dead: Clementine= physical conscience </li>
<li>Metal Gear Solid 4. Kojima is apparently the staging and empathy king </li>
<li>No camera cuts in Splinter Cell for reals? </li>
<li>Does anyone but animators care about the subtle changes, or do we need to paint broader strokes for the broader audience? </li>
<li>Uncharted injured walk creates some distance for empathy </li>
<li>Enslaved, Tomb Raider as examples of how character’s animation changes as they evolve </li>
<ol>
<li>No credit to Andy Serkis! :) </li>
</ol>
<li>Cinematics is a bad word now. Why? </li>
<li>Figure out how to flow game camera into cinematics without feeling disruptive </li>
<li>Also no load times! That breaks the emotional connection from gameplay to cinematics </li>
<li>Difference between games and cinema- one opinion that too many cinematics means we watch, not play </li>
<li>Didn't keep participants flowing towards the end. Sorry people I had to skip!</li>
<li>Not enough time to discuss how the use of camera lenses, angles, methodologies can create an empathic connection with the player </li>
</ol>
<br />
Stay tuned over the next few days (or weeks) as I expand upon each days topics. To those who participated at GDC this week, thank you, keep in touch, and watch out for next year!</div>
</div>
anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-43827145345862956392013-03-08T10:03:00.001-08:002013-03-08T10:03:58.515-08:00GDC 2013 Animation EXTRAVAGANZA<br />
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GDC 2013 is only 2 weeks away! This year, animators attending will find a buffet of animation offerings! Tasty morsels of information and conversation! How else can I get this to sound like food!<br />
<br />
FEED YOUR CREATIVE BEAST!<br />
<br />
There we go.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Animation Bootcamp</h4>
<br />
Leading off the week will be the first annual Animation Bootcamp! We have a ton of great speakers and topics during this full-day event.<br />
<br />
Here's a link to the bootcamp on the GDC website:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://schedule2013.gdconf.com/session-id/822362">http://schedule2013.gdconf.com/session-id/822362</a><br />
<br />
And the currently planned schedule:<br />
<br />
Monday, March 25<br />
10 - 10:15 - Intro - Mike Jungbluth, Tim Borrelli and Nate Walpole<br />
10:15 - Making an Audience Believe - Jalil Sadool (Dreamworks)<br />
11:15 - It's Alive! Developing Animal/Creature Movement - Amy Drobeck (WB Games)<br />
12:15 - 1:30 - Lunch<br />
1:30 - How to Get the Most Out of Your Mocap - Simon Unger (IO Interactive)<br />
2:30 - Animating the 3rd Assassin - Jonathan Cooper (Ubisoft)<br />
3:30 - Giving Purpose to 1st Person Animation - Ryan Duffin (Danger Close)<br />
4:30 - Break<br />
4:45 - Designing A Performance - Ed Hooks & Mike Jungbluth<br />
5:45 - 6:15 - Q & A Roundtable - Tim Borrelli (5th Cell)</div>
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In addition to Ed Hooks' talk at the Animation Bootcamp, he'll be giving another during the main conference:<br />
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<a href="http://schedule2013.gdconf.com/session-id/824127">http://schedule2013.gdconf.com/session-id/824127</a><br />
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It's on Wednesday, at 3:30 PM.<br />
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But that's not all!<br />
<br />
<h4>
Animation and Character Performance Roundtable</h4>
<br />
This year will be the inaugural year of the Animation and Character Performance Roundtable! After three years of hosting the Tech Animation Roundtable, I noticed that more and more of the conversations involved discussing how game development teams can work better, and facilitate meaningful dialogue with designers, animators, modelers, writers, and AI programmers. Unfortunately, many of those people were not in the room! The Animation and Character Performance Roundtable aims to correct this. This roundtable will focus on the entire process of a character's performance in-game, including the initial design spec, concept phase, modeling for animation, rigging, creation of animations for proper player input or AI controls, use of motion performance capture, creation of state machines and blend trees, voice recording, implementation in the game engine, and finally, the end-user experience.<br />
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<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
Here are the links to the roundtable sessions on the GDC website:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://schedule2013.gdconf.com/session-id/822399">http://schedule2013.gdconf.com/session-id/822399</a><br />
<a href="http://schedule2013.gdconf.com/session-id/824296">http://schedule2013.gdconf.com/session-id/824296</a><br />
<a href="http://schedule2013.gdconf.com/session-id/824297">http://schedule2013.gdconf.com/session-id/824297</a><br />
<br />
And the currently planned schedule:<br />
<br />
Wednesday 2:00 PM<br />
Thursday 10:00 AM<br />
Friday 4:00 PM (last session of GDC! Last year I had a great turnout, so let's beat that this time guys and gals!)</div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
If you are an animator, character artist, concept artist, designer, writer, AI or animation programmer, or just interested in animation and characters in games, come by! Get involved in the discussion on everything that goes into character performance- from concept, to model, to rigging, to animation, and into game.<br />
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So spread the word! And be sure to come and participate in what are bound to be lively discussions!<br />
<br />
See you all at the buffet table in two weeks!</div>
anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-14042733001883676402013-02-26T22:24:00.001-08:002013-02-28T12:49:42.467-08:00VFX Today: Why Game Devs Should Pay AttentionI had this whole long response to a co-worker regarding the plight of VFX artists, but it was TL;DR. So instead, I tried to put it in terms that game devs can relate to. Here's what I came up with:<br />
<br />
Imagine if your studio's only money came from milestone payments, that were determined by a signed contract. Then imagine that the publisher was unwilling to pay the current milestone because they asked you to change something in the delivery after it was delivered, _even_ if you matched the delivery requirements of the signed contract 100%.<br />
<br />
Now, imagine that this happens over multiple milestones. Imagine that if your studio fought back on that refusal of payment, they would be cut off by the publisher, who would tell other publishers to never work with your studio. Imagine that they then take the game elsewhere.<br />
<br />
Given that possibility, imagine that your studio makes the game under those circumstances, with a team who hasn't even been paid base wages. Imagine the game comes out, and your studio has to lay you off, and possibly shut down due to lack of funding.<br />
<br />
And then imagine that your game breaks sales records, with no money coming to you or your now bankrupt studio<br />
<br />
After all of this, imagine that you need to potentially uproot yourself (and your family if you have one) and move not just across the country, but across the world to find work.<br />
<br />
This is what happens, as I understand it; This how movie studios screw the VFX studios.<br />
<br />
And that is why you should care.<br />
<br />
UPDATE: Polygon has run an excellent opinion piece on this subject:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.polygon.com/2013/2/28/4037202/opinion-will-vfx-studio-unionization-inspire-video-game-developers">http://www.polygon.com/2013/2/28/4037202/opinion-will-vfx-studio-unionization-inspire-video-game-developers</a>anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-33161694605347000422012-02-26T22:49:00.001-08:002012-03-02T13:26:11.776-08:00Animation Is Easy?<i>“I hate when people go on TV and tell you how hard it is to do animation … No, UPS is hard work. I’ve done some animation … It’s the easiest job in the world. I go in a booth and I go, ‘what’s the line?’ And the guy goes, ‘it’s time to go to the store.’ And I go, ‘it’s time to go to the store!’ … And then they give me a million dollars.”</i> - Chris Rock<br />
<br />
Now, to be fair, Chris Rock was talking about voice acting for animation (although he could have clarified that a bit better). Yes, his delivery was funny. Hell, I laughed at first. Then I realized that his words were to full-time voice-over artists what <a href="http://strongmanimator.blogspot.com/2011/08/open-letter-to-andy-serkis.html">Andy Serkis' words</a> were to VFX professionals. <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/tarastrong">Tara Strong</a> even <a href="http://www.examiner.com/african-american-entertainment-in-national/tara-strong-attacks-chris-rock-over-oscar-2012-animation-comments-quotes">took note of this message</a> well before I did.<br />
<br />
I'm not going to jump on a soapbox. I'm not a VO Artist. However, I see enough of a parallel that I need to say SOMETHING. So I'll say this:<br />
<br />
The award that Mr. Rock was introducing and announcing went to a movie (Rango) that used a technique that has been coined "emotion capture." It is a process where not just the voice acting was used, but the physical acting was also referenced by the animators, as shown in this featurette: <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/n-nXpv-H97I?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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This looks and sounds to me like these actors didn't just go in a booth, say some lines, and collect a million dollars, now doesn't it?anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-26398381621230471902012-02-20T20:01:00.000-08:002012-02-20T20:09:34.675-08:00GDC And Other Things<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
So GDC is only 2 weeks away! Are we pumped yet? ARE WE EXCITED?!? I know I am.</div>
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This year will be the third year of the Tech Animation Roundtable! I am hoping to to get more animators, character artists and AI programmers involved this year so we can get some great discussions on everything that goes into character performance- from concept, to model, to rigging, to animation, and into game.</div>
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Here's a link to the roundtable on the GDC website:<br />
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<a href="http://schedule.gdconf.com/session/13473409/Technical_Animation_Roundtable">http://schedule.gdconf.com/session/1...ion_Roundtable</a><br />
<br />
And the currently planned schedule:<br />
<br />
Wednesday 2:00 PM<br />
Thursday 5:30 PM<br />
Friday 4:00 PM (last session of GDC!)</div>
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I highly encourage artists, designers, writers, programmers, to stop by. Hell, anyone and everyone interested in character performance in video games (both cinematic and in-game) should feel free to come and participate in what are bound to be lively discussions!</div>
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On to the other things. Obviously, I haven't written anything here for a while, nor have I contributed to <a href="http://www.altdevblogaday.org/">AltDevBlogADay</a> for a couple of months. The truth of the matter is that I was starting to care more about what I was writing and less about why. When I started writing, I wanted to talk about game animation, creativity, process, and most importantly, why I love doing what I do.</div>
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Somewhere along the line I lost some of that. I took a look back at some of my writing and realized that I may have become that jaded, bitter animator guy. I realized that the experience of writing became a lot less enjoyable, so I just decided to stop, step back and pay more attention to what I love about animation, art and the video game industry.</div>
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">Also, Skyrim.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
During my hiatus from writing, I started drawing- every day, actually. I know, it sounds odd- an animator that doesn't draw every day? Really? WHAT IS WRONG WITH THAT GUY. Unfortunately it was a habit that I fell out of, but I have now jumped back into it with fervor! I'm even participating in a Daily Draw for February over at <a href="http://satellitesoda.com/">SatelliteSoda</a>, my thread involving drawing monkeys from my wife's stuffed monkey collection (and one of our dog's!) You can find my thread <a href="http://satellitesoda.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=5336&start=0">here</a>.<br />
<br />
If you want to see a quick shot of the most recent work from all the artists participating, hit <a href="http://satellitesoda.com/sodapop/dd2k12/">this link</a> too!<br />
<br />
Drawing regularly again been quite fun! It's even got me looking at Cintiqs or Asus Slates so I can start 2D animation again. My creativity seems to have been sparked, and I am excited about the possibilities, with both personal and professional work.<br />
<br />
Speaking of professional work, I've also had my head down leading the amazing animation team at <a href="http://www.5thcell.com/">5TH Cell</a>, working on our XBLA title <a href="http://www.whatishybrid.com/">Hybrid</a>. The team has been working really hard on this game, and we can't wait till the public gets their hands on it- team-wide playtests are a blast, and I know the fun will carry over to the real world. Just don't ask me when, because I ain't tellin'.<br />
<br />
I'm even training more seriously for strongman competitions this year. I may be flipping a tire or tossing a keg in a town near you!<br />
<br />
Anyhow, I'm not sure how consistent I'll be writing, but I may get back in the saddle soon. At the very least, I'll have a GDC 2012 Trip Report! Stay tuned...<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.sportressofblogitude.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/buckwheat-otay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.sportressofblogitude.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/buckwheat-otay.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(it also didn't hurt that Oscar nominations have come and gone)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-81687915112721581552012-01-08T21:06:00.000-08:002012-01-11T23:57:17.537-08:00Open Letter to Deadline Hollywood<span style="line-height: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">To Whom It May Concern,</span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Recently, you ran this post from James Franco:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<a href="http://www.deadline.com/2012/01/oscar-exclusive-james-franco-on-why-andy-serkis-deserves-credit-from-actors/" style="line-height: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">http://www.deadline.com/2012/01/oscar-exclusive-james-franco-on-why-andy-serkis-deserves-credit-from-actors/</span></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="line-height: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">That's cool. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I
applaud Mr. Franco for supporting the use of performance capture while
admitting that it can be a scary technology for actors. I also applaud his
vocal support of a fellow actor.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 15pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 15pt;">However, I do not support the fact that someone at <a href="http://www.deadline.com/">http://www.deadline.com/</a> has deleted a comment I made anonymously to the article. Maybe it was an
accident, so I reposted it. Here's a screengrab of post #2, in case </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 15pt;">it
accidentally gets deleted again:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvZxsTzB2IN9XI2Ijl1CzN5lj3bJ4keRI3rlolAXEUWrxIfqgX3MPN6vQAsM0f9-KlmBqG1CCA5e2IN52LLDMs_u-GJWW85EXO9GEnnEXjclkcx3sLiz5mNxX9E5Q-09hx9-cx6EPRCmI/s1600/JamesFranco.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvZxsTzB2IN9XI2Ijl1CzN5lj3bJ4keRI3rlolAXEUWrxIfqgX3MPN6vQAsM0f9-KlmBqG1CCA5e2IN52LLDMs_u-GJWW85EXO9GEnnEXjclkcx3sLiz5mNxX9E5Q-09hx9-cx6EPRCmI/s320/JamesFranco.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 15pt;">Maybe I don't understand your posting rules of "don't impersonate anyone." In that case, I apologize to "Not Convinced" and "Afraid of the Truth," which were the names I used and possibly the 2 people I impersonated.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 15pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="line-height: 15pt;">Perhaps it was a mistake on my part to post it anonymously, let alone twice. </span>Surely, I
do not shy away from this topic of conversation. With that in mind, I am posting
it here, where you can't delete it and where everyone knows who wrote it:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Disagree completely. Look at these 2 “Andy Serkis/Caesar Morphs”
that Andy has been promoting on his Facebook page:</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><a href="http://vimeo.com/27743347" style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-image: initial; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in; text-decoration: none;">http://vimeo.com/27743347</span></a><br />
<span style="border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: initial; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1pt; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in; text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://vimeo.com/27787023" style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px;" target="_blank">http://vimeo.com/27787023</a></span></i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Now look at this animation demo reel:</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px;"><span style="border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-image: initial; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in; text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://vimeo.com/12630822" style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px;" target="_blank">http://vimeo.com/12630822</a></span></i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px;"><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>This very talented animator’s shot breakdown notes that in
Caesars’s Goodbye (link 1 above), “Everything (from 0:00 to 0:17) was keyframe
animated, except for the character’s spine where mocap data was used &
polished.” Also, </i></span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 15pt;">at 0:44, h</i><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 15pt;">e notes that the very same shot from link 2 above was animated entirely by hand.</i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>So really, whose performance deserves recognition?</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If you could let your readers, or even Mr Franco, know about this,
I would greatly appreciate it. I would love to finally start an actual dialogue between
animators and actors regarding this topic, instead of just trading tweets and
blog posts about it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sincerely,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Tim Borrelli<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">PS: An update (1/11/12): Facebook apparently considers the direct link to this blog post to be spam! Here is proof to go along with Lamar Hunt's comment below- my wife tested this claim and we found it to be true!:</span><br />
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<br /></div>anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-80310232445271278412011-11-23T18:53:00.001-08:002011-11-28T12:05:37.658-08:00So You Wanna Be In Charge?<em style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">"It is a well known fact that those people who most <span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;">want</span> to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it."</em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">- Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">This blog was cross-posted</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;"> </span><a href="http://altdevblogaday.org/" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">here</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">OK, animators. I know the deal. You guys want to be the next Brad Bird, the next John Lasseter, the next Jennifer Yuh Nelson, or the next Glen Keane.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">Well, don’t we all. But here’s the problem. Instead of concentrating on the craft that you so passionately want to blaze a trail in, some of you are concentrating on figuring out how to become the next amazing director. While some of you are going about this endeavor in a respectful and proper manner, some of you are</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;"> </span><a data-mce-href="http://strongmanimator.blogspot.com/2011/03/dont-be-dick.html" href="http://strongmanimator.blogspot.com/2011/03/dont-be-dick.html" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">doing it wrong</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">In fact, by my completely unscientific count, there are 99% of you doing it right, and 1% of you doing it wrong. It's not just animators, either. It's just about every discipline in this and other industries. So to the rest of you, when you read "animator," fill it in with your specialization!</span><br />
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 19px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 19px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The 99%, Part 1: The 85%</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 19px;">
<br />
I’ve interviewed many of you. I’ve asked many of you the stereotypical “what do you want out of your animation career while working here” while trying to fill entry to senior level positions. Almost all of you have responded with “learn game animation, contribute the best I can and be a part of a great team.”<br />
<br />
You guys and gals are the easy hires. If you’ve got a positive attitude, a killer demo reel and the position is open, you’ve got a good chance of being picked up. If the position is filled, your reel will stay in the pile for future positions.</div>
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<br />
<br />
You’re going to work hard at improving your craft, no matter what your experience level. You’ll soak up as much information as you can, learn to give and take constructive criticism and build positive relationships with many of your fellow animators in the trenches. You are going to excel in animation and be the people that everyone wants on their team.<br />
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You probably don't need to read on, but I bet you will, because you want to learn.</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 19px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 19px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The 99% Part 2: The 14%</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 19px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 19px;">
<br />
Some of you want it all, and want it now. When asked what your short-term goals are, you answer “To be an animation supervisor!” When asked why, you answer “Because I have great ideas!” or “That’s how I feel I can make the biggest impact!” That kind of ambition is great when expressed and executed respectfully, and many of you understand that.<br />
<br />
You guys and gals are a little harder to hire. Your enthusiasm to excel may be off-putting to some potential employers. Others may see a little bit of themselves in you and want to give you a chance. In some cases, the position you are interviewing for just won’t match your goals, and in others it will.<br />
<br />
Out of your smaller group, many of you realize that you aren’t going to just be handed the responsibility you want. You work your way through the ranks, learning like sponges, waiting patiently for the opportunity to prove your ability to lead your peers. You step up in team critiques. You seek out opportunities to speak at conferences or start podcasts or conversations to talk about the future of your craft while embracing its past. You may not all excel at animation as well as the 85%, but many of those 85% respect your leadership.<br />
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You should probably read on, I promise it'll help you achieve your goals.</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 19px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 19px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The 1%</span></div>
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Then there are the rest of you. You have a sense of entitlement that is mind boggling. Not only do you want it all, and want it now, but you proclaim you have great ideas and scoff at those who disagree with them. You routinely criticize other disciplines, proclaiming you could do their job better than them. Whether or not your beliefs are true, you have little respect for the path already laid (and those who laid it) and even less patience for earning a shot to prove you can improve that path.<br />
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You guys and gals are usually excellent at manipulating people to your side, which can be misconstrued as leadership. Hence, you tend to talk yourselves into getting hired and promoted. Some of you will force people out of the way to move up, others will simply move on to the next studio when a higher position opens up.<br />
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There are a few of you who can animate to the level of the 85% or 14%, but not many. You’ve spent more time trying to LOOK good and less time trying to BE good- good at animation, good at teamwork, good at being a leader. You seek praise, not feedback. You are quick to blame, but quicker to take credit for a job well done. You are on a team, but not always a team player.<br />
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You probably won't read on, even though you should.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The 100%</span></div>
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No matter what your goals are with your animation career, and no matter what group you fall into, there are some things you all need to learn. Some of you will listen, some of you won’t, and that’s fine. These things will work themselves out over time. This isn’t so much a checklist of what to do as it is a guideline on how to behave in a professional and social environment.<br />
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More importantly, this is my priority list of what I’d like to see in a person looking to become an animation lead, supervisor, or director. Most of this stuff is fairly common knowledge, but unfortunately not common practice:<br />
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<li>When giving critique, DON’T give it the way you would want to be given it. Not everyone will respond the same way to feedback. First, learn how to constructively critique (saying something sucks, doesn't "feel right", or "you'll know it when you see it" isn't constructive). Second, learn how each member of your team most effectively responds to critique. Easy? No, but being a lead isn’t easy.</li>
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<li>On that note, if you are talking about work done on another studio's project, publicly calling their work "horrible," "terrible" saying "it sucks", etc., is fairly poor form, even moreso if you offer no opinion on how to improve it. Who's going to want you directing them if that's how you treat the hard work of people you don't even know?</li>
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<li>No matter how good you are, or think you are, there is always someone better. That someone might be on your team. Be OK with that, and look at it as an opportunity to improve YOUR craft. Besides, if you want to be in charge, you won't be animating as much (if at all) anymore. May as well get used to it.</li>
<li>When someone compliments something you worked on, your first response should be to credit your team. This applies to in-person as well as in interviews, via email, on Facebook/Twitter, etc. Whether you believe it or not, at least ACT like the thing being complimented was a team effort. Chances are it was anyway, and everyone knows it.</li>
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<li>Conversely, if you make a mistake, own up to it. Being in charge also means taking the brunt of the blame when things go wrong, and if you can't even admit when YOU made a mistake, few will trust you to stand up for them as their leader.</li>
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<li>If you don’t like how a teammate or your current lead does things, talk to them about it. Don’t harbor ill feelings or talk about them behind their backs, since the people you talk to will eventually assume you treat them in the same manner. Besides, throwing your team under the bus is not a sustainable career tactic.</li>
<li>Self-promotion is important, but don’t do it selfishly or immaturely. You weren't the only one who worked on your project, after all, so don't misrepresent the rest of your team by acting like a child. Promote your game, yes, but leave the interviews to the PR and community team to set up. If they want you to be a part of them, they’ll ask.</li>
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Above all else, treat teammates like human beings, not like resources. If their work is suffering, maybe something in their personal life is distracting them that you can try to help them work through professionally. If someone has the potential to exceed your abilities, encourage them instead of setting them up for failure. If someone pays you a compliment on your work, pass it on to the others who had an impact on that work. If you feel the need to shout to the rooftops about how awesome YOUR work was on a game, remember there are teammates who don’t seek that recognition who worked just as hard as you did, if not more.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">Doing it Right</span><br />
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If you want to be a director, supervisor or lead, you'll need to learn to let go. Let go of being the one who animated the cool thing. Let go of believing that you are the only one that can act out those moves from that passion of yours. Let go of trying to be the best animator on the team.</div>
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Instead, learn to direct the cool thing and allow the animator you directed to shine when it comes out well. Learn to trust and direct your mocap actors. Accept that you aren't in the spotlight on your team anymore.<br />
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You are no longer the producer of content, you are the ENABLER of those who DO produce the content. It's not an easy transition to make, especially if you were the go-to guy for a long time. However, if you follow the guidelines above, and find that the transition is right for you, it's definitely a rewarding one.</div>anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-35144916036227451742011-11-07T10:26:00.000-08:002011-11-07T10:28:25.326-08:00Who Designs Animation?<br />
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This blog was also posted <a href="http://altdevblogaday.com/2011/11/07/who-designs-animation/">here</a>.</div>
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Designers, do you work with animators or an animation lead who think they can design better than you with regards to animation? <span class="Apple-style-span" data-mce-style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal;">Animators, do you work with designers who don’t care how the animation looks as long as the gameplay feels right?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" data-mce-style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal;">Well stop that and play nice!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" data-mce-style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal;">My stance on animation vs. design has been <a data-mce-href="http://strongmanimator.blogspot.com/2011/05/designimators_11.html" href="http://strongmanimator.blogspot.com/2011/05/designimators_11.html">documented before</a>. Long story short, I feel that animators are not designers, not in the traditional sense. We serve the vision of the game, and we animate FOR design and gameplay. Yes, everyone who is part of a game development team has some amount of influence on game design, but that doesn't make us all designers.</span></div>
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That doesn’t, however, mean that animation isn’t an integral part of design.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Technical Creativity?</span></h3>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">This topic comes up in conversation frequently- in my case, when I was recently invited to be a guest on the </span><a data-mce-href="http://reanimators.net/?p=337" href="http://reanimators.net/?p=337" style="font-weight: normal;">Reanimators Podcast</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">. During the podcast, we discussed where next-gen console development (the real next-gen, like PS4 and XBox 720 or whatever) was headed in regards to tech animation and animation overall.</span></span></h3>
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Topics like more realistic cloth sim, improved skin and hair dynamics, and better body physics were brought up as needing attention on the tech side. When we shifted to animation, the topic of animators being “motion designers” came up in regards to how more and more animators need to become technical in order to use animation network editors. Where 10 years ago animators may have begun to rig and write facial animation toolsets out of necessity (giving birth to the tech animation discipline), now they need to understand more than the basic logic that goes into how animations behave with one another to use these editors.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE</span></td></tr>
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During the podcast, I believe I made the prediction that tech animators will be rebranded as Character TDs, and that tech animation will be more of an animation heavy role that involves animating AND building up these animation networks. I’ve thought about it since then and am changing my prediction a bit.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Motion Designers?</span></h3>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">While many studios and animators have already been using network editors, I’ve noticed a split on who uses them. Some places have a tech animator setting up the networks full time, while some have the animators do the simpler blendtrees/state machines and pass them off to programming for the more complicated behaviors. And in some cases, even the designers set up the networks. In any case, there is still a back and forth between the owner of the animation networks and design.</span></span></h3>
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With all of the potential hands in this pot, the question I’ve been thinking about since the podcast is this: Will the need arise for a “motion designer” discipline?</div>
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I’ve spoken with animators who think that the discipline should exist, and that it should have an animator-driven workflow. When pressed for reasons why, the typical answer has been “because designers don’t care about how the animation looks, they only care that it’s fast enough to be fun.” Well no kidding. Of course designers care about gameplay and the game being fun- that’s what they do! That doesn’t mean they don’t care about how the animation looks, and even if they really don’t, creating an entire new discipline wouldn’t solve the problem! Designers will still want to get in there and tweak values in the animation networks to make it “feel” right for gameplay, and they have every right to want to do so.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Pop Quiz! Animator or Designer?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 19px;"> </span></span></td></tr>
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On the other hand, it IS the animation team who knows how they intended their animation to look and feel within the design constraints. Where design may ask for a reload animation that is 3 seconds long, animators will create an animation with the timing INSIDE those 3 seconds that looks best. They don’t want design going in and scaling the speed of the animation to 2 seconds, as the timing would then be off from the animator’s vision. If they are lucky, the weapon balancer will alert them to the change ahead of time so the animation team can get updates scheduled and executed (I'm fortunate to be in this situation), but this is not always the case.</div>
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Additionally, where design might want a hero character to have a “tough, Clint Eastwood-looking motion set,” the animation team will base that look on not only their individual poses and animation timings, but also how each of those motions blend and transition between each other. Tweaking even the slightest of blend values or cutting transitions out for the sake of a faster pace can break the immersion of the character being that “tough guy.”</div>
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So does that mean we absolutely need a “motion design” discipline?</div>
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Yes. But not in the way some might think. Motion design is a needed discipline, but it <em>already exists.</em> Instead of it being an individual role, however, it’s a team effort, combining the talents and hard work of animators AND designers. Unfortunately, the case can exist where each side (animation and design) doesn't see it this way. It may not be intentional, but all too often there is a gap between the two disciplines when it comes to seeing eye to eye on looking good vs. feeling good.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">How Can We Bridge The Gap?</span></span></div>
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Not all studio cultures allow anyone expect designers to have influence on game design, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Both animation and design side can make the effort to bridge the gap between their disciplines, by working to resolve some of the following behavior patterns:</div>
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Designers, do you work with animators or an animation lead who think they can design better than you in regards to animation? Find out why they think that and work with the team or the lead to figure out what the design team can do to get them what they need to animate effectively for the design vision. Remember, however, that you need to respect the ability of the animators to create animation that will allow gameplay to come first. Ideally, you’ll have (or seek out) an understanding and appreciation for animation so you don’t just grab that animation speed slider and butchering the timing of animation.</div>
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Animators, do you have designers who don’t care how the animation looks as long as the gameplay feels right? Ask them what makes the gameplay feel right when they scale animation speed values, and offer them animation solutions that both look AND feel good. You also NEED to understand that gameplay should come first, and you should build an understanding and appreciation of what design wants and needs a set of animations to do for gameplay.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Answer</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">It also helps get stubborn knots out of your back.</span></td></tr>
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Animation and design are disciplines that often have desires that are at odds with each other, causing conflicts in determining the ownership of motion design. With the advent of network editors and a concentration on character performance in more and more games, the question of ownership has become a much bigger topic of debate.</div>
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However, the game and its gameplay should always determine what motion design and character performance the end user experiences. The best, and in my opinion, only way to deliver the best motion possible while providing the most compelling gameplay is to have animation and design working together, without the need for an individual “motion designer” position the be created.</div>
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So I say again: Animators, make it a point to understand where the designers are coming from. Designers, make it a point to understand the passion that the animators have when creating the motions you request.</div>
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And both of you: Stop that and play nice!</div>anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-27468209113873777642011-10-07T11:42:00.001-07:002011-10-07T13:26:57.877-07:00Managing Culture Changes<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">This blog was cross-posted <a href="http://altdevblogaday.com/2011/10/07/managing-culture-changes/">here</a>.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Ah, culture change. It happens at many studios- as they grow, as they bring in new management teams, or as they shift in genre focus. In the age of tech art, there are times that culture change can occur in art content creation and management pipelines. From world editors, to audio management tools, to animation systems, new tools will often create new problems before solving the ones they set out to fix. Managing these changes can prove to be quite difficult.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Ch-ch-ch-change</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">s</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVme6hdKQivv30JkBx5instENHdd6dmzoLxCybdzKhUQWrbFHiMV-737azAVX4bcPzRT4Ix7HKYxKYor_5nYFDEJrVcpW7n7qGzhMaNBe8hYn9c6MH8thTZ1Bbb9Nx7omI_VXrom11Dp0/s1600/Bowie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="77" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVme6hdKQivv30JkBx5instENHdd6dmzoLxCybdzKhUQWrbFHiMV-737azAVX4bcPzRT4Ix7HKYxKYor_5nYFDEJrVcpW7n7qGzhMaNBe8hYn9c6MH8thTZ1Bbb9Nx7omI_VXrom11Dp0/s400/Bowie.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">They happen all the time</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Let’s say you’re the character team lead. Your team has just shipped a great game, but during the course of creating the game you and your team compiled a list of shortcomings in your character creation system, software, and pipelines. The phrases “we need to find a way to do this better,“ and “we need to stop being so dependent on Bob the programmer so we can create characters more efficiently” were uttered often, especially during the final push.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Even with those "broken" pipelines, the project was successful. Your team moves on to the sequel, which needs to be created much faster with many of the same tools and pipelines. Sure, you make a fix or a change here and there, but you’ve barely made a dent in that huge wishlist you compiled during the last project. You go on to make a better game than the first, but the problems from the first development cycle still exist.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Thankfully, as the sequel ships, studio management finally agrees that a new Character Creation System (CCS) is needed to keep moving forward with the franchise in a way that can compete with the big boys. The studio selects you as the person to guide the CCS development team, and gives you the resources to create the ideal CCS.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">6 months later, it’s done and works perfectly! Pipelines are exactly what everyone wants! The CCS works like a dream! The tech and project teams are delivering each other’s babies! All is right in the world and you are all now rich. The end.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Hahahahahaaaa. Right. If only :)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">Reality Sets In</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A few months after the CCS team begins development, reality sets in. The studio needs to re-allocate resources, so your team shrinks, and with it, your Alpha milestone feature list. You begin to realize that even in the design phase, the character artists are beginning to question decisions that are being made in regards to the new CCS. Features they had clamored for just months ago were suddenly not so important. The old CCS suited them just fine, they claimed, except for these three things. No, make that five things! In the coming weeks, it’s ten completely different things, all of which were never on the initial wishlist. And forget about the animators, they say, even though they need this tool as well. Just implement the character art features and let the animators deal with it!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNIWVgsrItIgQC6R5r_taAt6OrGZ-D8qzm-WJtJYYfwTIBO9CAkmlpERSIg2DvEDRvchyjjaa1PLj_e8UlCoZ1_m8jjFeg_LcKNjjQ5TEILNcb3FnuXn2-1H2goj68JLHKwS1HPvJDKfk/s1600/dealwithit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNIWVgsrItIgQC6R5r_taAt6OrGZ-D8qzm-WJtJYYfwTIBO9CAkmlpERSIg2DvEDRvchyjjaa1PLj_e8UlCoZ1_m8jjFeg_LcKNjjQ5TEILNcb3FnuXn2-1H2goj68JLHKwS1HPvJDKfk/s320/dealwithit.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">After all of this, it becomes apparent that the character artists each had their own idea of what the proposed changes would be, and how they would affect their daily workflow. While this individuality is what will eventually make the CCS great, it currently makes it extremely difficult to develop in a way that will make everyone happy.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Not only is the new CCS affecting the workflow of the character artists, but it’s affecting you! As the CCS team lead, you want to deliver the best possible toolset, based not only on your experience but on the experience and input of the rest of the character artists. There is a lot of pressure on you, not only from the character artists to deliver what they expect, but from management.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">So you rely on the character artists to give input and guidance for WHAT to deliver while balancing the features that the CCS team CAN deliver. Quite often, you come out as the bad guy with the character artists, even though you are one of them- you were even involved in the initial wishlist that resulted in the CCS team being created! The level input you receive from the character artists devolves from enthusiastic to almost nothing, even when you request it. You begin to deliver incomplete or incorrectly developed features only to learn that the character artists never read the design documents for those features in the first place, even though THEY prioritized them.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Eventually, you feel like the character art team is working against everything you are working for, even though you were all supposed to be working towards the same thing. And the character art team feels like YOU are working against THEM. There is a lot of tension between the sides, and eventually management has to intervene, sometimes more than once, with limited effectiveness.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">It’s not quite how you envisioned it happening, is it?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">Tim’s Amazing Way To Do it Right!</span><br />
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The thing is, it doesn’t have to be this way. Both sides of a culture change don’t have to be in conflict- hell, they don’t have to be on opposite sides! There is a better way to handle a situation like this, but it takes EVERYONE involved- in our example, the character artists, the character art lead, the CCS team, and most importantly, management.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Here’s how:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Management Support</u></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijou7kErAadIn0iXzE91TrEev-QFZWCSTs91Ush4hg7nLHJb2QwO-7HtVEniiMfWkKhzvpRDFYSoBl_vu67fzW3PgrQQOvYd3j8deiFWOwcrzfWxqirvJz2WkCmB8l72kDKl9AJCC7c7o/s1600/lumbergh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijou7kErAadIn0iXzE91TrEev-QFZWCSTs91Ush4hg7nLHJb2QwO-7HtVEniiMfWkKhzvpRDFYSoBl_vu67fzW3PgrQQOvYd3j8deiFWOwcrzfWxqirvJz2WkCmB8l72kDKl9AJCC7c7o/s320/lumbergh.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The number one thing that a change like the CCS needs is support from all levels of management- from studio level down to the character team lead, and everything in-between. If this support doesn't exist, you need to get it, starting from the bottom up. Get buy-in from the character artists that this is a change that needs to happen (This should be easy, as it was their idea!), then gain support from their and your managers by outlining the project cost savings of the CCS, and then finally studio management.</span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Once you've garnered the proper support from all levels of management, you then need to set some ground rules. The character team and its lead need to know that their managers support your development of the CCS. Studio management and your managers need to support you by helping deal with any conflicts that may occur between the CCS team and the character team. You should also now hammer out how features and assets will be delivered, and implement a change request system for features that are broken or require changes as well as for new features.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Once the rules are set, you are hopefully making the development of the CCS more about the behaviors of the people involved and less about how it is being developed.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Seek Peer Counseling</u></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbI47L6MI6PCgkJbIrxjLeTCJ3-tDMSxfl5ADS6eJfxqVl7N0Q8_m-RAWfqzYKqZ0hp3HRh647FHCvC6e333ELXQMPeo05ecvRV1i4r6iwx08zjkVUjGtPrDbxNlj2d8sI3r275gEvpmg/s1600/lucy+as+psychologist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbI47L6MI6PCgkJbIrxjLeTCJ3-tDMSxfl5ADS6eJfxqVl7N0Q8_m-RAWfqzYKqZ0hp3HRh647FHCvC6e333ELXQMPeo05ecvRV1i4r6iwx08zjkVUjGtPrDbxNlj2d8sI3r275gEvpmg/s320/lucy+as+psychologist.jpg" width="320" /></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The number one thing that YOU will need while guiding the development of a change like the CCS is friends. People to talk to. Peers, not just in character art, but in life. Developing the CCS is going to be hard, it's going to be stressful, and it's going to flat out suck sometimes. You'll find times where you don't want to get email from the character art team for fear of what they don't like that day. You'll find yourself second guessing every feature design spec you write.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">So you'll want, no, you'll <em>need</em> people who you can go to. People you trust, who can sanity check your ideas and also tell you when you are being an idiot.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">If you have people like this to unload on, then being confident in what you are trying to deliver will come easier. It will also allow you to get stress off your shoulders so that you don’t take it out on the team you are delivering to (in this case, the character artists).</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Stay the Course</u></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Remember that the CCS was a group idea, supported by management. If it ever feels like everything you are doing is pointless, worthless or unappreciated, just remember that the goal is to deliver a toolset and pipeline that will make everyone's lives easier when it is done.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">In that same vein, be confident enough to change direction if needed. It could be that the initial ideas sound great on paper to everyone, including the character art team, but once put into practice it becomes obvious that things need to change. Work with naysayers of the vision to determine if their concerns are valid and course correct if they are. If they aren't valid, clearly lay out why they aren't valid to those people.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Most importantly, don’t feel threatened by people who seem to be working against the end goal of the CCS. Give them all of the information they need and ask THEM propose better solutions. Quite often their antagonism is caused by simple miscommunication (I'll outline what should happen if it is truly brought on by ill will or poor intentions later).</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Communication</u></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Communication and Transparency, the catch-all words that are supposed to make everything better, right?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Wrong.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Just saying you "need to communicate better" or "have decision making be more transparent to the team" isn't enough. You'll need to outline HOW communication needs to happen and how each side will respond to it. You need to have a process for making decisions and making sure those affected know how the decision was made without holding 5 meetings and having different go-betweens.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBtkuKbTN7_SUNMjSdz-jfdPnbGfiljMobZgaY8F436uYOd10JMNUxZ9zEkdnuujlDQei5vnagShX0YqLliafcdtMtPRcpEuMytXwz-t7Rot7j-o3PguUTpME4EYW2JY4lkq6HGOQrKhU/s1600/talktomegoose.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBtkuKbTN7_SUNMjSdz-jfdPnbGfiljMobZgaY8F436uYOd10JMNUxZ9zEkdnuujlDQei5vnagShX0YqLliafcdtMtPRcpEuMytXwz-t7Rot7j-o3PguUTpME4EYW2JY4lkq6HGOQrKhU/s320/talktomegoose.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">If you have features that the character team needs to read over, set the ground rules for how they'll read over them- are they just bullet items? Do you have design docs written for each feature? Set a consistent expectation and then police it. For example, let's say you've got a feature list that contains design documents for each feature. At 12:00, you ask the character art team to read it over and prioritize it. At 12:10pm, they have it prioritized. Does that sound right? No. They probably didn't read the design documents of each feature. Kindly ask them if they did, and if they didn't, ask them to do so in order to ensure that the CCS team delivers the features properly. This will hopefully eliminate the possibility that, upon delivery, the feature is not what they expected, which could (unfortunately) lead to your team being thrown under a bus due to miscommunication.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">If there is resistance to proper communication from the character art team or the CCS team, you still need to keep trying. Get management involved if need be, but hope that you won't need to. It would also would be a mistake to step back and stop pushing for input and feedback, and to stop GIVING input and feedback to the project and project needs. You need to remain steadfast against the wishes of those who are either complaining about or worse, threatened by your presence- instead, talk to those people and find out exactly what is causing the tension,and work to correct it.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">And if at all possible, keep the CCS team and the character art team in the same room! Feedback can come more freeform, both sides can see how each other's decisions are made, and it can potentially eliminate an air of open hostility (if it ever devolves to that). At the least, it can help you identify when it starts so you can work to resolve it quickly.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Respect & Ownership</u></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Lq1d7ZG7nhYG5wmYUSFZJaBvPCvR2YaG4-TqSuhXhQP9iPUyulaFyfnLsDGBgwbt7RGLjj5taMgCkAHiiT7YCnIPiwpMWnNIz0fTCflZXTE2Y8t9iwEhuGRa6R4Cg6Tgpqylp0VDto8/s1600/cartman-as-the-police-respect-my-authority11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Lq1d7ZG7nhYG5wmYUSFZJaBvPCvR2YaG4-TqSuhXhQP9iPUyulaFyfnLsDGBgwbt7RGLjj5taMgCkAHiiT7YCnIPiwpMWnNIz0fTCflZXTE2Y8t9iwEhuGRa6R4Cg6Tgpqylp0VDto8/s320/cartman-as-the-police-respect-my-authority11.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Don't pull a Cartman</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">No matter what you think as the CCS team leader, you don't own the CCS. It's being developed for the character art team. Make sure they know that, and make sure they feel empowered to use the processes outlined in the points above in order to get the tool that you and they had initially envisioned. This is very hard to do, especially when things aren't going the way that everyone had planned or hoped.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The best thing for the CCS team leader to do is to treat character art team with respect, and leave it up to them to return the favor. During troublesome interactions with the character art team, think of how you would resolve a situation with one of your closest friends- would you complain about them behind their backs, try to garner support against them, and then blindside them? Or would you lay it all out to them, face to face, with the hopes to resolve what is likely a minor conflict?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Make Personnel Corrections</u></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC1577c1-Ns_bUJ3rtAW0yoU1WOeCCCl8cnKMYhb9ML9YwwAk2v-qKVBfNk8UHixnkOQwI6kL7ax5SxBgY_PfxB7_nx9roSFcw-7mr_vnweKyd33wDykPqCSelv7vooDMkfbLXmayttmY/s1600/GroverTrustMe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC1577c1-Ns_bUJ3rtAW0yoU1WOeCCCl8cnKMYhb9ML9YwwAk2v-qKVBfNk8UHixnkOQwI6kL7ax5SxBgY_PfxB7_nx9roSFcw-7mr_vnweKyd33wDykPqCSelv7vooDMkfbLXmayttmY/s320/GroverTrustMe.jpg" width="223" /></span></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Even with the best communication, the most thought out processes, and all the respect in the world from your team, there are people who just aren't going to get on board. Whether they don't trust that the CCS will be what they want, or don't like the people working on it, there is the possibility that you'll have to deal with bad situations involving them. Like in the above example, if the character lead or team is shown progress of said feature, but raises no red flags until the feature is delivered, that's just bad. If those people are also involved other subversion (like circumventing the use of the CCS), that's ev<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">en worse! First, you'll want to find out if there is a valid reason for this behavior. If there truly isn't, those people need to be properly disciplined- performance warnings, firings (last resort), whatever, but it needs to get nipped in the bud.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">If management is already supportive of the goal of the CCS, they should get involved in these situations quickly and correct the situation as swiftly as possible. If they don't, as the CCS team leader, don't take it out on them. There can be any number of factors in determining if someone needs to be disciplined. You need to trust management to do their job just like they are trusting you to do yours.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">That's All Folks!</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Overall, making a culture change like the CCS is not easy. It can be a long, arduous journey, but if everyone realizes that they are all aiming towards the same goals, it can be successful. Getting management's support early, setting up expectations properly (and following through with them), treating everyone with respect and making sure the right people are in the right positions are the keys to that success. I'd love to hear from others regarding their experiences with similar situations, and if they have their own ways to do this better!</span>anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-22092986014787730262011-09-20T22:09:00.000-07:002011-09-20T22:11:00.675-07:00Law Of Diminishing Returns: Redux<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"></span><br />
This post is a revisiting of a previous post from this blog, and is also posted <a href="http://altdevblogaday.com/2011/09/21/the-law-of-diminishing-returns/">here</a>.<br />
<br />
Every so often, the hot topic of crunch/overtime/extra hours comes (read: anytime a jackass like me writes a post about it or the mainstream media decides to interpret what a jackass like me writes as a scathing commentary on the state of the industry). Sometimes, though,<a data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/#!/ID_AA_Carmack/status/115616182161252353" href="https://twitter.com/#!/ID_AA_Carmack/status/115616182161252353"> high profile people</a> say something about overtime, and it incites a reaction, no matter what the intent.<br />
<br />
It’s no surprise to anyone, in any industry, that overtime can creep into all facets of our lives. In the case of me being both a powerlifter and a video game developer, overtime has come in the form of overtraining and crunching, respectively.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a data-mce-href="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/bicycle-crunches.jpg" href="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/bicycle-crunches.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-16727" data-mce-src="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/bicycle-crunches.jpg" height="300" src="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/bicycle-crunches.jpg" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not this kind of crunch, guys</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
For powerlifters, overtraining generally involves training your body so hard that it effectively cannot recover- your basal body temperature drops, your central nervous system begins to shut down. For game developers, crunching is typically a point in a project that requires developers to work 60, 80, or even 100 hours a week to hit a deadline, pushing our mental capacity to a limit. In both cases, you become lethargic and your sleep suffers, furthering the lack of recovery. The belief for both overtraining and crunch is that that the extra time put in will result in higher quantity and quality of results.<br />
<br />
Our ability to cope with such overtime hinges heavily on the amount of time we have to recover from engaging in it.This recovery, whether or active (by, say, deep tissue massage or engaging in an unrelated interest) or passive (by relaxing on the couch or playing video games), can only work if those needing it are given the proper amount of time and resources to ALLOW it to work.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><u>All The King's Horses</u></span></h3>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><u><br /></u></span></div>
Recently, I spent a large amount of time training for a national powerlifting competition. I trained for 5 months, competed in a local meet as a warm up, and then trained for another 2 months before the national meet. During the initial 5 months I worked very hard in the gym and took regular breaks from training so my body could recover, and I saw great gains in strength. At the local meet I set a personal best in the deadlift, and walked away happy.<br />
<br />
After the local meet, I took only a few days off, and then decided that I had recovered from the first meet and the stress it had put on my body. Since I had limited time before the national competition, I spent the next 2 months working even harder than I had before. Not only did I not take enough time off after the local meet, I eliminated any down time from my training, effectively giving my body no time to recover. After several weeks of this new training plan, I actually felt weaker. I started skipping workouts and making excuses to myself to not push it too hard. It got to the point where I didn't even want to compete in the national meet anymore. I was burnt out, stressed out, and flat out tired. Even still, I set a goal to break my personal record for total weight. In fact, I planned on pushing myself to move more weight than I had ever done, even during training.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a data-mce-href="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/babes-in-toyland-humpty.jpg" href="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/babes-in-toyland-humpty.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-16783 " data-mce-src="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/babes-in-toyland-humpty.jpg" height="300" src="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/babes-in-toyland-humpty.jpg" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">He probably overtrained something...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
So what happened? I failed. I didn’t allow my body to recover from the incredible stress I was putting on it, and as a result when it mattered most I couldn’t compete at my full potential. I didn’t reach my goals, and the national meet was one of my worst in recent memory.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><u>All The King's Men</u></span></h3>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><u><br /></u></span></div>
Game devs are probably wondering what this <a data-mce-href="http://articles.elitefts.com/articles/iron-brothers/planet-fatness/" href="http://articles.elitefts.com/articles/iron-brothers/planet-fatness/">meathead, lunkhead, Planet Fitness-reject's</a> story has to do with them. Well, to paraphrase Matthew McConaughey in “A Time To Kill,” just imagine if what I described above was the progression from a press demo to a final build (or, maybe the progression from shipping a game to working on the next one).<br />
<br />
Imagine that the whole team gets behind polishing the absolute hell out of the first hour of gameplay. We spend a good 6 months of time getting the first 3 missions right. The scripting, the code hooks, the character performances, everything. We show it to the press during the months leading up to launch, and all of our attention is focused on that one hour of gameplay shining like a star.<br />
<div class="mceTemp" style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<br /></div>
After all of that, the realization sets in that we have 3 months to finish the game. We have to get ALL of that hype into the rest of the missions, the gameplay, the general feel of the game. Maybe this mission here doesn’t have enough of what dude from Kotaku loved, and maybe those animations there don’t live up to the expectations of our publisher. So we start spending extra time revamping, changing, cramming in content. Features creep in. Hours start piling up. Some of us are thinking "I'm working extra hours because I believe in the project," so when we hit a wall at 10pm, we push through it.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a data-mce-href="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/humpy-dance.jpg" href="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/humpy-dance.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-16779 " data-mce-src="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/humpy-dance.jpg" height="240" src="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/humpy-dance.jpg" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We probably looked like MC Hammer on crack at times, too</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Suddenly it's Thursday, 2 weeks before submission, and we've already put 50 hours in this week. We start to check in bad data. We break the build. We snap at co-workers. We're no longer being smart or creative about making the game- instead we're going through zombie-like motions to just get it done. We just want to ship this thing and move on to the next project.<br />
<br />
And that passion we had? Starting to dwindle, if not gone already.<br />
<br />
Sound familiar?<br />
<br />
<h3>
<u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Putting It Back Together</span></u></h3>
<div>
<u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></u></div>
The thing is, though, that it doesn't have to be like this. There can be good overtime. For example, I've overtrained my deadlift and seen incredible gains by pushing myself on heavy days and taking a month away from the next heavy session. I've worked 50-60 hour weeks, with 5 (and rarely 6) days a week for no longer than 2 or 3 weeks to get a deliverable out the door, and have produced work that was higher quality and more rewarding, with no negative effect on my health or marriage.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuJQHZFV_wAELP21qBs8PEDzXg_f18urWfdQvKzTnhFl8uVnSNiM5vmovf2u5TgWfp6_0TEKPdKkD0tvIRfhAScSe_O85rxRpo1w-G_XAHTbnDwXJeO8wMbvLcVqXaqxDYIlmsTY7mYck/s1600/waterboy_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuJQHZFV_wAELP21qBs8PEDzXg_f18urWfdQvKzTnhFl8uVnSNiM5vmovf2u5TgWfp6_0TEKPdKkD0tvIRfhAScSe_O85rxRpo1w-G_XAHTbnDwXJeO8wMbvLcVqXaqxDYIlmsTY7mYck/s320/waterboy_2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
What made the good overtime better than the bad?<br />
<br />
After the bad overtime, I was done. I thought I had recovered enough, so when I tried to (physically and mentally) get back into both activities, I couldn’t. I was done, and wanted out. I considered quitting both powerlifting and game development after the last bad overtime experience with each.<br />
<br />
<br />
In the case of the good overtime experiences, I was able to take the proper amount of time off that both my body and mind needed to recover not just AFTER the overtime, but DURING it. The work I put during these smaller pushes was of higher quality, more rewarding in the end, and most importantly, kept me engaged in I was doing and looking forward to getting back to it at full tilt as soon as I could.<br />
<br />
It can be argued that if we want to be successful, we have to push ourselves harder than the average in our fields. It doesn’t, however, have to have a negative affect on the things we are passionate about. We’ve all read the reports, seen the opinion pieces, heard about EA Spouses and Kaos’ “thousand yard stare.” I’ve read articles on how overtraining has blown out knees, biceps, backs, and worse. Everyone universally agrees that too much overtime is bad- Bad for your health, bad for relationships, bad for studio morale, bad bad bad.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Smell The Roses</span></u></h3>
<div>
<u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></u></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a data-mce-href="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/ferris-bueller.jpg" href="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/ferris-bueller.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-16780" data-mce-src="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/ferris-bueller.jpg" height="250" src="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/ferris-bueller.jpg" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" width="250" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Don't let life pass you by</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Overtime exists and it’s not going away. I’m not suggesting that it does. I’m not going to rant about crunch time ruining lives. I’m not going to claim that my life has been horribly affected by working overtime or training too hard.<br />
<br />
I am, however, going to say this- we all need to manage it better.<br />
<br />
I don’t mean that we need to plan better (we know), or avoid feature/exercise creep (we try), or never put in overtime (we will). I mean that we as individuals need to manage how we represent ourselves while working overtime. We need to be conscious of the fact that people who are interested in what we do (powerlifting, game development, insert-your-interest-here) are going to look at us as an example. They’ll see us doing stupid things in the gym or working 100 hours a week, and see us wearing both of those things like honor badges. They’ll see us tweeting about how we’re “crunching to make the game better for you, the consumer!”, or read our Facebook post about how we just totally killed a training session and can’t walk right now- but hey, "no pain no gain!"<br />
<br />
Those people will enter our fields and expect that to be the norm, the right way to do things, and they will never question those methods until they too are burnt out. And that’s a damn shame, because we can prevent it. We can teach these newcomers a different lesson- to not make the mistakes that we did. We need to encourage them to come into our industries and change them for the better.<br />
<br />
When all is said and done, people will only remember the 4-million-on-day-one sellers, and not the people who worked hard and sacrificed to get the game to that point. We’ll only remember the monster numbers that a powerlifter put up at Worlds, but we’ll never see the training that was put in to achieve that. So let’s take back that part. Let’s do it smarter. Let’s follow the Law of Diminishing Returns.<br />
<br />anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-89770628832613230422011-09-05T11:48:00.000-07:002011-09-05T11:54:41.522-07:00Technically, It's Creative!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><em>This blog was cross-posted <a href="http://altdevblogaday.com/2011/09/05/technically-its-creative/">here</a>.</em></span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span">While waiting for a reply to my open letter from a few weeks ago (I still haven’t heard back from you, Andy<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">!), I </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">gave a talk </span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">at PAXDev</span> regarding how to animate quickly for design, which contained both creative and technical approaches to game animation. After the talk, I received an email asking two things:</span><br />
<br />
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;"> “How do I get into video game animation? I've always found animation to be a very interesting discipline. The problem is that I'm not even sure where to begin training for such a thing.”</div>And:<br />
<br />
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">“Is animation more technical than artistic, or is it the other way around?”</div><div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;"><br />
</div>The first question is something I am asked often, and am glad to help with. I responded to the inquiry with this:<br />
<br />
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">“The first thing to do is learn the basics- read up on the 12 Principles of Animation (read The Illusion of Life- it's the animation holy bible). If you can draw, you could start doing the basic animation tests (bouncing ball, flour sack, etc.) that way w/o needing to buy Max or Maya (though both have 30 day trials!) I've seen far too many beginners jump right in with a walk cycle and not be able to take or understand critique on their work because they don't understand the principles and the vocabulary.</div><div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;"><br />
</div><div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">http://www.11secondclub.com/forum/ is a great place to share animation, as well, once you feel comfortable with it. Online schools like http://www.animationmentor.com/ and http://ianimate.net/ are good, but they are not cheap.</div><div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;"><br />
</div><div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">Also, watch movies! Watch old WB classics, watch Disney, Pixar, and study the animation. If you see something cool, rewind and step through frame by frame to see what they did. Deconstructing the masters is a great teaching tool.”</div><div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;"><br />
</div>However, second part really made me think. Is animation more technical than artistic, or is it the other way around?<br />
<br />
The easy answer to this very good question is “yes.” Game animation is both creative AND technical. Animation is creative by nature-we’re figuring out timing of our motions, developing poses that communicate emotion and intent to the player, and ultimately, we’re delivering the look and feel that design wants. In all, we are breathing life into our characters!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a data-mce-href="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/master-thespian-jon-lovitz-500x378.jpg" href="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/master-thespian-jon-lovitz-500x378.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-15728" data-mce-src="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/master-thespian-jon-lovitz-500x378.jpg" height="378" src="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/master-thespian-jon-lovitz-500x378.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nah, we're just painting pixels, really</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
However, it helps if you have some proficiency with understanding the technical side of things (though I’m not talking about rigging and other technical animation specialties - those have their own discipline separate from animation). In some engines, your timing in that walk cycle needs to match the timing for the rest of your walk cycles so it blends properly, or your footstep events need to be setup so time-scale blending to your run cycle works properly. In other engines, your poses need to be setup so that they makes sense against other poses they will blend to, unless you want to create countless 3 to 6 frame transition animations.<br />
<br />
And you better know what state machines and blendtrees are. If you know how to build them, that’s a big advantage. Know a little scripting? That’s even better.<br />
<div class="mceTemp mceIEcenter" style="text-align: center;"><br />
<dl class="wp-caption aligncenter" data-mce-style="width: 310px;" id="attachment_15733" style="background-color: #f3f3f3; border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: center; width: 310px;"><dt class="wp-caption-dt"><a data-mce-href="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/basic_state_flow-300x107.png" href="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/basic_state_flow-300x107.png"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-15733" data-mce-src="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/basic_state_flow-300x107.png" height="107" src="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/basic_state_flow-300x107.png" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" width="300" /></a></dt>
<dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 0px;">Oh hey, I can handle that!</dd></dl></div>This begs the question, however, of where exactly the line drawn is between the two, and how important it is as an animator to BE technically trained. Sure, you can create the best looking run cycle in the history of run cycles, but how does it work with animation layers in-game, how does it transition, and does it hold up to speed changes?<br />
<br />
Or does it really matter? Who’s to say that a game animator NEEDS to build those blendtrees? Or that they have to understand how to set up an IK chain in-engine? Or know how the aiming system works?<br />
<br />
In my opinion, animators will be far more successful if they have that knowledge.<br />
<br />
I don't expect them to have it right off the bat, mind you. Entry level folks should be concentrating on creating good motion and letting their leads dictate the technical details. I also don't think it's a requirement to know scripting or understand how to build a complex state machine in order to be a successful game animator.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a data-mce-href="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/havokbehaviortool.jpg" href="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/havokbehaviortool.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-15734" data-mce-src="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/havokbehaviortool.jpg" height="244" src="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/havokbehaviortool.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">SWEET JEBUS THIS IS BEYOND ME HALPS!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
However, those animators at any level should be learning WHY those technical details exist. Why a pose needs to be oriented one way or the other, or how their motions will be used in game and why it works that way. They should know what scripting can do for them, at the least so they can request a tool from a tech artist. All the while, continuing to hone the creative side of their craft, in order to become the best game animator possible.<br />
<br />
Marrying the creative side of animation with the technical side makes an animator even MORE creative. For example, on a project early in my career, I was tasked with giving the attack animations of a character “more flair.” This was all the direction I was given from my offsite corporate producer. I worked for weeks on just adjusting and presenting the animations with no success. By shear “he was a close friend” luck, I spoke with the VFX artist on the project on how we could push the attack animations further. He told me that I could attach VFX to my animations! I immediately added ridiculously exaggerated spinning weapon movements to the attacks, and worked with that VFX artist to create trails for the weapons. We hooked it up in game, showed it to our producer a week later and he exclaimed “that’s it!” Had I not known about that ability to tie VFX to an animation, I may never have succeeded in bringing my producer’s vision to life.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/gTn9YZeUrAg?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;">(at 3:16) More flair, Taurgis, MORE FLAIR! :)</div><br />
Understanding what happens after your animation is done and makes its way into the game will allow an animator to devise new and interesting ways to make a character move. It also allows them to do it more efficiently, leaving more time for polishing animation or sneaking in that fidget animation that everyone keeps saying they should do.<br />
<br />
Understanding both sides also creates the opportunity to be creative with the most tedious, technical animations, like those aforementioned transition animations. Mike Jungbluth does an excellent job discussing how to inject more character into those animations in <a href="http://altdevblogaday.com/2011/04/10/growing-game-animation-transitions-player-input/">a separate post</a>. By not treating those animations as a technical requirement and instead as an opportunity to communicate a character’s personality, they become a creative necessity, not a technical one.<br />
<br />
Use of motion capture is another opportunity to push beyond the technical. If treated like nothing more than technical data, the motion will stay as it was captured, and the performance delivered will fall short, no matter how good the actor (and we all know my opinion on THAT). Inject the creativity of an animator, and you have the opportunity to punch out poses, adjust timing for bigger impact, and even change shots after the fact. Yes, this opens up the <a href="http://www.motivesinmovement.com/blog/2011/09/who-owns-the-pixel-digital-rights-and-performance/">"ownership" debate</a>, but it’s the end result that matters. It’s important to remember that it’s a creative, collaborative effort, and not a technical hurdle that gets in the way of a performance.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/iRZ2Sh5-XuM?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;">Well, usually. :)</div><br />
In the end, it’s best to approach both the creative and technical sides as wholly creative. The technical side varies from studio to studio, engine to engine, and it's ultimately a teachable process. The creative part comes from you, and you take that to whatever studio you work at and use it in whatever engine you work with.anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-61806448530113442202011-08-15T12:32:00.000-07:002011-08-15T12:32:03.957-07:00An Open Letter To Andy SerkisDear Mr. Serkis,<br />
<br />
If you deserve to be considered for an Academy Award nomination for Acting in regards to your performance motion capture, then every animator who has ever animated a character in any movie deserves consideration as well.<br />
<br />
Sincerely,<br />
<br />
Tim Borrelli<br />
<br />
P.S., Let me clarify:<br />
<br />
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Recently, you have been quoted as claiming that performance capture actors deserve to be considered for the Academy Awards in Acting categories:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/aug/12/andy-serkis-motion-capture-acting">http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/aug/12/andy-serkis-motion-capture-acting</a><u><span style="color: blue;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Before I even start, let me say that I feel that you are a great actor. I don’t doubt your acting ability, both on stage and on film. But that’s not the debate here.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">From what I gather, here is what you are suggesting. You seem to feel that performances like yours in Lord of the Rings (Gollum), King Kong (King Kong), and Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Caesar) should be recognized by The Academy as an individual effort in excellence of acting performance.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Wait. What?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
Let’s ignore the fact that animators have been doing this without motion capture longer than you have been suiting up for it.<br />
<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Performance capture is the digital capture of a performance of an individual actor, to be later applied to a digital character. Yet according to you, “…there are two parts to the process. The first part is capturing the performance. Only later down the line do you start seeing the characters being painted over frame by frame using pixels." <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">First, that doesn’t sound like an individual performance to me.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Second, painted over? Using pixels? For a guy who has positioned himself to be the spokesperson for performance capture, it sounds like you don't <i>quite </i>understand what goes into the entire process.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Ignoring the fact that there is nothing “being painted over frame by frame using pixels” (almost) anywhere in the process, you seem to be ignorant of what happens to your performance data after you walk off the set. Many times, chunks of data need to be thrown out entirely and done by hand. Also, it is quite often that the actor’s proportions don’t match that of the digital characters, requiring a remapping of the motion. This may not seem like it affects a performance, but it in fact does. Different proportions means poses don’t read the same. It means a slouch on a short actor is a hunchback on a tall character. It means delicate interactions often need to be heavily modified or redone with animation due to differing limb lengths. I could go on.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Long story short, it means the performance is not 1-to-1 from performance capture to screen.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Furthermore, you claim that "Performance-capture technology is really the only way that we could bring these characters to life… It's the way that Gollum was brought to life, and King Kong, and the Na'vi in Avatar and so on and it's really another way of capturing an actor's performance.”<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">You then go on to say, “That's all it is, digital make-up."<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">What. The. Hell. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Well, makeup artists HAVE an Oscar category. So are you also suggesting that the people behind taking his performance to the big screen be considered in that category? When you say “that success using the technique can be rewarded with current accolades,” is that what you mean? Should the modelers, animators, painters, shader TDs, lighters, etc., be considered for Makeup and Costume Design?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Makeup and Costume Design teams do <i>amazing </i>work. I just have trouble seeing how modelers, animators, painters, shader TDs, lighters, etc. fit into those categories.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Or are you referring to the VFX category (which, while valid, is a much broader category than acting), or even the lesser known, non-televised technology categories? Are you basically saying that your performance, which wouldn’t even be viewable without those aforementioned teams of people, is more deserving of public recognition? <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I, as well as many others, won’t argue that motion capture data is only as good as the actor in the suit. I have directed and worked with motion capture data from actors on both ends of the talent spectrum. I agree that without the proper direction and performance, the end result that I produced wouldn’t be as emotional, as powerful, or as accurate.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">However, I also know that without a talented digital character team (animators, modelers, TDs, etc.), that performance will NEVER look as intended.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">What you've done here, Mr. Serkis, is downplay the contribution that the whole team makes to bring a character like Gollum to life. What’s worse is that you aren’t alone. In this featurette on the making of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the animation team is completely overlooked!<br />
<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/XM9Pvfq1KhE?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Is the technology that Weta developed awe-inspiring and exciting? Hell yes it is. I’d love to be on set just for a day and see what the technology is like from start to finish. It would be amazing (and after writing this I may never get the chance). But to see the contribution of an entire discipline glossed over so readily by both a recognizable name (your own, Andy Serkis!) AND a production team is disheartening and frustrating.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Yet, as infuriating as that may be, this is not the point I want to make here. That point is:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">If you deserve to be considered for an Academy Award nomination for Acting, then every animator who has ever animated a character in any movie deserves consideration as well.</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Animators, both hand-keyed and motion capture artists, breathe life into their characters. They push performances of their characters to an artistic limit, based on the direction they are given. Many even use video reference- animators often of themselves performing (yes, ACTING) the scenes they are working on, mocap artists using video shot on set.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Not to single one person out, but some do it REALLY WELL, like this example (password: education):<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="225" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/27379093?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="400"></iframe></div><a href="http://vimeo.com/27379093">Rio Comparison Reel</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user8028778">jeff gabor</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">And this one:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ah2WGBeWbAE?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It should be clear that this guy is an amazing animator. He’s also a great example of an animator using his own performance to bring characters to life (in the case of Rio, a female lead, and supporting male, and a bird.) As animators, we’ve been taught that video reference is a powerful tool. Like any tool, however, it requires training and practice to get right.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Some things may come more naturally (in a male animator’s case, the supporting male). Some things may take more creativity (like humanizing a creature, such as a bird). Even other things may take a bigger investment into the movement and emotion of the character (the female lead).<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">However, the end result in Rio didn’t come from just an animator’s performance. It came from the ability to translate that acting into what the digital character warranted.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Like you, Mr. Serkis, animators use their performance to improve and sell the characters they are acting for, in the interest of the whole story.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So my question for you is this:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Don’t animators also deserve individual recognition from the Academy for Acting?<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Mr. Serkis, please leave a comment here, or drop me a line. I welcome the discussion, as would many others who do and do not share my opinion.</div>anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-381244590848497042011-08-06T12:35:00.000-07:002011-08-06T12:35:28.806-07:00Designing Animation For SpeedThis was cross-posted to <a href="http://altdevblogaday.com/2011/08/06/designing-animation-for-speed/">AltDevBlogADay</a>. Look for a powerlifting corollary sometime soon!<br />
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<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Everything I ever needed to know about animation, I learned from watching Looney Tunes.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Seriously.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Sure, I went to school. I learned HOW to animate there and from other sources, but none of that taught me what I needed to know about animation as much as watching Bugs outsmart Elmer, Daffy play the second banana, Foghorn Leghorn fumble about, or Wile E. Coyote fall to yet another demise.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><h3 style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 1.17em; line-height: 19px;">Gravity Doesn’t Exist Until You Look Down</h3><div><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><a data-mce-href="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/WileECoyote_fallstart1.jpg" href="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/WileECoyote_fallstart1.jpg"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-13545" data-mce-src="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/WileECoyote_fallstart1.jpg" height="320" src="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/WileECoyote_fallstart1.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: left;" width="240" /></a>Bugs is the popular one. Daffy is the memorable one (Stuuuuuuupor Duck!). Foghorn, well, I say… I say, he was fun to watch with his contraptions. However, Wile E. Coyote is the one that sticks out the most to me.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Not only is it entertaining to watch poor Wile E. try and try again to catch the Roadrunner (with a seemingly unlimited credit line with the Acme corporation), it is also a very good study of how developing a formula can allow an animator to work efficiently while keeping a high quality bar.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Take the timing of Wile E.'s fall, for instance. Did you know that every time he falls, it happens in the same exact number of frames? He tends to walk/fly/float/propel himself over a ledge, and doesn't fall until he looks down (for Wile, gravity doesn't exist until he does this). He then falls over N frames until you see a puff of smoke and hear a distant "splat."</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">This comedic timing (combined with a happy accident regarding the audio level of his "splat") allowed the Looney Tunes animators to build up to this punchline without worrying if the punchline itself would feel right. It also ensured that re-takes weren't going to be needed- once that formula was set, it was followed.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><h3 style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 1.17em; line-height: 19px;">Set Your Pace</h3><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">For game animation, I take the same approach, especially for transition animations. In fact, on our current project, we try to animate all transitions to occur on 6, 12, 18 or 24 frames. Each of these frame counts corresponds with the desired perceived pacing of the character's thought process. For example:</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">"Ready Now!" - 6 frames</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">"Get moving and STOP!" - 12 frames</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">"I gotta be ready <em>before </em>I get there" - 18 frames</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">"OK, I'm gonna pick my spot and get ready when I'm there." - 24 frames</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">These frame numbers allowed us to build a visual language with these transitions. For example, the faster ones are more immediate and needed for faster gameplay responsiveness (say, for aiming and shooting). Having them all on a 6-frame count holds the player's expectation that if “I've gotta shoot, I'll get there in .2 seconds.” It also allows us to later add interruptible follow-through for an extra 6 or 12 frames without that extra motion feeling out of place.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">In contrast, the 18/24 frame transitions typically denote the end of longer, deliberate movement- the player knows they are moving at a certain speed and when they have reached their destination, the transition will carry that speed to a stop. These extra frames allow us to sell the character's weight at that stop, which in turn creates a mental acceptance by the player that it took longer than the 6/12 frame motions.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><h3 style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 1.17em; line-height: 19px;">Fast Iteration</h3><div><br />
</div><div class="mceTemp" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
<dl class="wp-caption alignright" data-mce-style="width: 213px;" id="attachment_13568" style="background-color: #f3f3f3; border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; float: right; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: center; width: 213px;"><dt class="wp-caption-dt"><a data-mce-href="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/exposusresheet1.jpg" href="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/exposusresheet1.jpg"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-13568" data-mce-src="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/exposusresheet1.jpg" height="233" src="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/exposusresheet1.jpg" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" width="203" /></a></dt>
<dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 0px;">Sweet, sweet consistency</dd></dl></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">The next benefit to the frame counts is that they are easily scalable from one to the other. Personally, I set poses every 3-6 frames. This lets me easily slide the keys around if I need to make timing adjustments after the animations are implemented. These adjustments can also be easily scriptable (for fast tests), so I can adjust the timing of 160 animations very quickly to see if the new length feels right before going ahead and hand-tweaking them.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Since I've spaced out my keys in a uniform way, I can re-time the motions much more efficiently.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Lastly, these frame formulas give us efficient consistency. Since a uniform length exists, once we nail down the first key animation, we can modify it to create other motions in the same pool. For example, If we need to transition from a non-shooting pose to a shooting pose, we’ll work on a key motion that gets across the character’s intent and the player’s feel. Once design deems the look and feel to be good for gameplay, we can create every other transition in that pool much quicker.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><h3 style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 1.17em; line-height: 19px;">Happy Accidents</h3><div><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Much like the audio level on the splat of Wile E. Coyotes's fall (see the book Chuck Redux), coming up with the multiples of 6 formula was actually a happy accident- the Source Engine's default engine blend value is .2 seconds (6 frames!) In order to not disrupt existing gameplay, we started animating to that frame number. After implementing many transitions, it was apparent that not all of them could or should work on 6 frames. The easiest thing to do was scale the motion by 200% and work back from there. Lo and behold, 200% worked great, so we redid all of those motions with twice the frame count.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Since that pacing looked good, we extrapolated that 18 and 24 frames would be logical to try next. It worked, and now we have a (undocumented till now) visual language for our transitions. We've since extended this philosophy to our movement system, and the animators who work on that pump out high quality motions like nobody's business.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><h3 style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 1.17em; line-height: 19px;">It's Still Creative!</h3><div><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Purist animators out there might be shocked that we take shortcuts in order to produce efficient, high-quality animation at a fast pace. The fact of the matter is Warner Brothers, and even Disney, did the same thing! Read Chuck Redux, or watch this:</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/IKER9K9QozA?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">The key is to not get so married to those formulas that we are unwilling to change them when they no longer work, or get stale. If that happens, we play with new formulas and do more timing tests until we get it right. In the end, the better we can nail down the punchline, the more time we can spend on the fun part of getting there.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><a data-mce-href="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/WileECoyote1.jpg" href="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/WileECoyote1.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13547" data-mce-src="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/WileECoyote1.jpg" height="320" src="http://altdevblogaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/WileECoyote1.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></a></div><h3 style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 1.17em; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</h3><h3 style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 1.17em; line-height: 19px;">Feedback!</h3><div><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">I'd love to hear from other animators and designers what their processes for this are, as well! So speak up, tell your friends to read this and rip me to shreds, tell me how awesome I am or somewhere in between. I'm always looking for different techniques and opinions!</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div>anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-3541009103133635262011-07-22T10:33:00.000-07:002011-07-22T10:34:31.240-07:00Power Animator<div class="MsoNormal"><i>(ed. note: If you’ve made your way here from <a href="http://altdevblogaday.com/">http://altdevblogaday.com</a>, welcome!)</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">“There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.”</span> – Booker T. Washington</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">If there was ever a quote that equally embodies my life as an animator and as a powerlifter, this is it. Aside from the literal translation regarding weightlifting, I feel that this quote also demonstrates how we can excel in our areas of interest by seeking out and nurturing an encouraging an environment of constructive feedback.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">For today’s post, I’m going to tell parallel stories based on my experiences as an animator and a powerlifter, and show how opening myself up to external feedback has helped me grow throughout my careers in both. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">2005, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Champaign</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Illinois</st1:state></st1:place>. My then girlfriend (now wife) Jessica and I were working out at the local Gold's Gym together for the first time. We had been dating for 6 months or so, but until this point, we had different gym memberships. We talked about weightlifting quite a lot (she was an amateur bodybuilder at the time), but we rarely lifted together, and that was about to change.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKK6r5BDnhyphenhyphentJZBpjuiciF2hRnZ5_ObVqUgYOP4kMhTMS-Evv1K6Jvp6TCEJ3L7h3g6lGL57XDm1Wevgl0Jl-LupXjlxHChyphenhyphenS7iqoGD6Wh7ZRFbZQllFVPYhm7IZHFbD8zr9l4jsBYwoA/s1600/csi.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKK6r5BDnhyphenhyphentJZBpjuiciF2hRnZ5_ObVqUgYOP4kMhTMS-Evv1K6Jvp6TCEJ3L7h3g6lGL57XDm1Wevgl0Jl-LupXjlxHChyphenhyphenS7iqoGD6Wh7ZRFbZQllFVPYhm7IZHFbD8zr9l4jsBYwoA/s640/csi.png" width="233" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal">On that day at Gold's Gym, I was benching and curling, because THAT'S WHAT MEN DO (that's how my mind worked back then). I saw Jessica go over to the Olympic lifting platform and start warming up for squats. I told her, in my all-knowing way, that those would hurt her knees and to be careful. She looked at me with the look that I now know is reserved for idiocy and when the dog poops on the carpet. At the time, I took it for confusion, as though I had just unleashed upon her this knowledge that she was sorely lacking.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">She continued on with her squats while I performed my "superior" bench sets. After I was done, I went over to the squat rack to load up a bar. Jessica comes over and asks what I am doing, since "clearly squats are supposed to be bad for your knees!" I reply "I’m gonna do some curls!" I get the same look as before. She stays over on the platform and starts loading up a bar on the ground, and then starts lifting it! I have no idea what she is doing but it MUST be bad for her back, and I tell her as much.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">She ignored me. She was deadlifting, and that was serious business for her.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Later on that night Jessica turned to me and asked "So, what are your fitness goals?" I replied "To get bigger and stronger, of course." She proceeded to ask me how I was planning on getting stronger if all I ever did was bench, curl, and use the nautilus machines for my legs. I made some excuse about how I used to squat in college and my knees were all messed up from it.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Then she said it:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCCzWajB6oiDhhsPg8FK2JWZ2zAWdwFw9CknCebaeFrd34oxB0zPmKX9-2DyndgyH4Pf9v81TmSESyYYhrV-PezE0zZHVEgSifWsRZTajDkoAwDww-bmjpHbs76mafxTLntlS4N_23Q1Y/s1600/LooneyTunes_Gossamer_Model_Sheet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCCzWajB6oiDhhsPg8FK2JWZ2zAWdwFw9CknCebaeFrd34oxB0zPmKX9-2DyndgyH4Pf9v81TmSESyYYhrV-PezE0zZHVEgSifWsRZTajDkoAwDww-bmjpHbs76mafxTLntlS4N_23Q1Y/s320/LooneyTunes_Gossamer_Model_Sheet.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is apparently what I looked like, hair and all.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">"You know you have chicken legs, right? You're shaped like a light bulb ready to tip over. And what the hell is with curling in the squat rack? Frat boys do that."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I was disheartened, totally bummed out, but more importantly, I was <i>confused</i>. How could this happen? I spent YEARS in the gym, doing everything anyone ever told me was the right thing to do. I read websites and Men's Health! They HAD to be right!<br />
<br />
More importantly, <i>HOW IS A GIRL TELLING ME I AM WRONG ABOUT WEIGHTLIFTING? GAAHH!!</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Jessica and I didn't go to the gym together for a few days after that. My ego was a bit... shattered. I wish I could say that I had resources to turn to, but as I looked around, I realized I had none. No books, no expertise to draw on. That's when it hit me- Jessica was my doorway to proper strength training. She knew more about it than anyone I knew, and she could prove her knowledge worked.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Training in a vacuum that way had stunted my growth in a literal sense- I wasn't getting any bigger, faster or stronger. I was living in a viscous cycle of train -> get frustrated -> try something above my strength -> get hurt -> recover -> repeat, and I needed it to end.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">That summer, I asked Jessica to design me a program that would improve my strength and help me shed my chicken legs. She did one better and show me how to design that program, reading through books and teaching me different training techniques and calorie intakes. Over that summer I gained 20 pounds, most if not all of which was muscle in my legs. Since then I've gone on to compete in both powerlifting and strongman competitions, and will continue to do so till they have to scrape me off of the platform. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So I guess getting strength training advice from a girl isn’t so bad after all. <span style="font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
I invite you to read my parallel story about animation on AltDevBlogADay (<a href="http://altdevblogaday.com/2011/07/22/power-animator/">http://altdevblogaday.com/2011/07/22/power-animator/</a>)</div><div style="line-height: 14.25pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-30203476609074124732011-06-20T13:48:00.000-07:002011-06-20T13:50:30.854-07:00Law of Diminishing ReturnsOvertime can creep into all facets of our lives. In the case of me being both a powerlifter and a video game developer, overtime has come in the form of overtraining and crunching, respectively.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">For powerlifters, overtraining generally involves training the same muscle group(s) at a higher than normal rate with the expectation that the increased training volume will result in increased strength gains. For game developers, crunching is typically a point in a project that requires developers to work extra hours to reach a milestone, the belief being that that the extra time put in will result in higher quantity and quality of work.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In my experience with both powerlifting and game development, the main factor in overtime having beneficial vs. negative results has been how far away the target result is; i.e., how long you are working overtime, and what you hope to accomplish by doing so. Our ability to cope with such overtime hinges heavily on the amount of time we have to recover from engaging in it. This recovery, whether or active (by, say, deep tissue massage or engaging in an unrelated interest) or passive (by relaxing on the couch or playing video games), can only work if those needing it are given the proper amount of time and resources to ALLOW it to work.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Personally, I’ve experienced both bad and good overtime. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I’ve overtrained my deadlift (by either training too frequently or using too much weight) to the point where I ruptured a disc in my back (multiple times), and I’ve crunched for 100 hours a week, 7 days a week, for 9 months straight (again, multiple times). Each time this occurred, I took a week off. Yes, A WEEK. For training, my ego took over- I felt invincible (and I surely could recover quickly, right?) For game dev, that’s what I was given for my efforts, and so that’s what I took. Plus, I was in a culture that required being present in order to thrive. In both cases, after that first week I went a little lighter on my weights and my hours for a few more weeks, but my true recovery period was only ONE WEEK.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I have also experienced good overtime. I've overtrained my deadlift and seen incredible gains by pushing myself on heavy days and taking a month away from the next heavy session. I've worked 50-60 hour weeks, with 5 (and rarely 6) days a week for no longer than 2 or 3 weeks to get a deliverable out the door, and have produced work that was higher quality and more rewarding, with no negative effect on my health or marriage.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">What made the good overtime better than the bad?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">After the bad overtime, I was done. I thought I had recovered enough, so when I tried to (physically and mentally) get back into both activities, I couldn’t. I was done, and wanted out. I considered quitting both powerlifting and game development after the last bad overtime experience with each.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In the case of the good overtime experiences, I was able to take the proper amount of time off that both my body and mind needed to recover not just AFTER the overtime, but DURING it. The work I put during these smaller pushes was of higher quality, more rewarding in the end, and most importantly, kept me engaged in I was doing and looking forward to getting back to it at full tilt as soon as I could. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It can be argued that if we want to be successful, we have to push ourselves harder than the average in our fields. It doesn’t, however, have to have a negative affect on the things we are passionate about. We’ve all read the reports, seen the opinion pieces, heard about EA Spouses and Kaos’ “thousand yard stare.” I’ve read articles on how overtraining has blown out knees, biceps, backs, and worse. Everyone universally agrees that too much overtime is bad- Bad for your health, bad for relationships, bad for studio morale, bad bad bad.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Overtime exists and it’s not going away. I’m not suggesting that it does. I’m not going to rant about crunch time ruining lives. I’m not going to claim that my life has been horribly affected by working overtime or training too hard.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I am, however, going to say this- we all need to manage it better. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I don’t mean that we need to plan better (we know), or avoid feature/exercise creep (we try), or never put in overtime (we will). I mean that we as individuals need to manage how we represent ourselves while working overtime. We need to be conscious of the fact that people who are interested in what we do (powerlifting, game development, insert-your-interest-here) are going to look at us as an example. They’ll see us doing stupid things in the gym or working 100 hours a week, and see us wearing both of those things like honor badges. They’ll see us tweeting about how we’re “crunching to make the game better for you, the consumer!”, or read our Facebook post about how we just totally killed a training session and can’t walk right now- but hey, "no pain no gain!"</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Those people will enter our fields and expect that to be the norm, the right way to do things, and they will never question those methods until they too are burnt out. And that’s a damn shame, because we can prevent it. We can teach these newcomers a different lesson- to not make the mistakes that we did. We need to encourage them to come into our industries and change them for the better.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">When all is said and done, people will only remember the 4-million-on-day-one sellers, and not the people who worked hard and sacrificed to get the game to that point. We’ll only remember the monster numbers that a powerlifter put up at Worlds, but we’ll never see the training that was put in to achieve that. So let’s take back that part. Let’s do it smarter. Let’s follow the Law of Diminishing Returns.</div>anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-45360776790136305572011-06-08T21:05:00.000-07:002011-06-08T21:05:15.257-07:00Looking Back To Forge AheadIt's been a while since I've written anything. I've had a few ideas kicking around that I am still working on, but overall I haven't been happy enough with any of them to post them.<br />
<br />
One reason for this is that I have been in a bit of a funk lately, from a creativity standpoint. I kind of lost my mojo, as it were, and have been working on getting it back. Writers call it writer's block, I don't know what the hell animators call it, but I have it. I can point to a few external factors that have been contributing to my overall funk, and I know they'll pass.<br />
<br />
This week was going particularly bad, and tonight was meant to be a mindless, woo-sah, clear everything from my mind night. My wife went out with a girlfriend, I ordered pizza and watched random crap on TV. Recipe for success, right? Wrong. None of it was working.<br />
<br />
Then I stumbled across a few things that I had written in the past that put my current funk into perspective. Some were recent, some were ancient. The recent ones reaffirmed decisions that I made last summer, and reminded me that my wife and I are in a better place.<br />
<br />
But reading those still didn't shake my funk.<br />
<br />
The ancient ones, however, are helping. They are Developer Diaries I wrote for IGN 11 years ago. They are poorly written, and I just <i>sound </i>young with my words. However, I saw something else there- A passion for what I was doing. A somewhat intelligent ability to break down my animation processes (and caffeine habits). A desire to attack any challenge head on and do the best I can. No, better than that.<br />
<br />
There were also REALLY BAD stick figure drawings.<br />
<br />
My point here is that we all get stuck in a rut creatively. It sucks. While we need to constantly push forward with our craft, every so often it doesn't hurt to look back to where we came from. Sometimes, that older version of you might have something to teach the current you.<br />
<br />
Oh, and in case anyone is morbidly curious, here are the links to the Dev Diaries:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://pc.ign.com/articles/075/075980p1.html">http://pc.ign.com/articles/075/075980p1.html</a><br />
<a href="http://pc.ign.com/articles/080/080913p1.html">http://pc.ign.com/articles/080/080913p1.html</a><br />
<br />
Enjoy.anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-23594501209903474932011-05-11T10:21:00.000-07:002011-05-13T13:58:48.509-07:00Designimators<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><i>editor's (my) note: <a href="http://whiskeypail-test.blogspot.com/2011/05/animation-nerds.html">Mike Carr's post</a> beat me to the punch, but I still wanted to share my experience because I already wrote this :)</i></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Over the course of my career, I have interviewed a lot of animators. Phone interviews, on-site, at schools. Some wanted to just animate. Some wanted to be managers right out of school. Some were more cinematically inclined and shied away from in-game motions, and some were the opposite. One guy claimed to have run over 300 motion capture shoots in a four year period! (we later found out he counted each day as a full shoot) It's safe to say year over year I had thought I'd seen it all, and year after year I was wrong.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Case in point- over a one to two year period, I saw an influx of animation applicants who all fancied themselves as designers. When asked what their goals as an animator were, without fail they expressed a desire to move into design. This is a valid desire (the current lead designer on Saints Row 3 started at Volition as an animator), as we're all in the games industry because we want to make games. In reality, to some extent we have input to the design of the areas we work in. In this case, however, the sheer number of animators wanting to be designers became a topic of conversation enough for one of the animators to deem them "designimators."</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">These animators felt that animation WAS design<i> (ed. note: here I am referring to the interviewees, not any of the animators. Sorry if that isn't clear)</i>. Since they made the characters move and hence had an impact on how a character (quite literally) moved forward in the game, that they were designers. Some had respectable and honorable intentions, but some flat out thought that they had actually designed the last game they worked on and felt that they could immediately be in senior design positions. True or not, it was fairly mind-boggling to hear such claims be made at an interview for a completely different position.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Obviously, I feel differently.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">As an animator, I recognize the impact that animation has on gameplay. I've long felt that animation is equal parts design and art in regards to video game development, possibly moreso than other disciplines (I admit I am biased and I'm sure my friends and colleagues in other artistic disciplines will beg to differ, and I welcome that). However, I do not fancy myself a designer nor do I feel that I can do a better job than a designer. My job is to make the animation look as good as possible within the design requirements of the game.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Quite often, the easiest way to satisfy those design requirements is to make sacrifices to the principles of animation. In my opinion, this is the wrong approach. While I have cut frames to "make it feel better" in game, that is only the first step. My goal is to get our timing, blending and "feel" right, before we create final animation that still works within the gameplay design yet follows the principles of animation. During this process, design is king. Animation gives input, but the goal of both disciplines is to make the game fun to play.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I have been fortunate (past and present) to work with talented designers/creative directors. These people have been tolerant of my desire to try to solve their requests and challenges by experimenting with animation solutions that still employ the principles of animation. These experiments have ranged from simple previz animations to full blendtree/state machines in-game that take time, but more often than not yield positive gameplay results without sacrificing animation quality.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">As animators, we got into this discipline because we are passionate about breathing life into a character. In games, the "character" isn't just the muscle-bound hero, the large-breasted babe, the Italian Plumber, or the generic soldier. The whole world is the character- the environments, the effects, the writing, the code that runs it all. EVERYTHING. But I never hear of an animator calling themselves a modeler, or a writer, or an effects artist, or a programmer. Animators are not designers. We serve the vision of the game. We animate for design- only in that sense are we "designimators."</div>anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-6321382279101255352011-05-01T18:50:00.000-07:002011-05-01T18:50:31.060-07:00Need A Spot?In my training log from yesterday I wrote:<br />
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"The way this day typically goes is that if one of us (my wife or I) PRs, the other one has to PR to keep pace."<br />
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This kind of training applies not just to setting PRs, but to our overall philosophy of pushing each other to continually train and improve. The same kind of mentality should always be present in an animation team (or any team) setting- if we all work to improve and push each other to improve, our overall output will be more efficient and of higher quality.<br />
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Some days, we're in the gym and one of us just isn't feeling it. It would be easy to just quit, walk upstairs and eat some ice cream. It would be easy to just say "it wasn't happening today" and have that be that. But we're a team. Teammates are there to pick each other up when they need it, and to work with each other to figure out what will work that day in the gym. We don't want to let each other down. We know that if one of us gave up, the other may not have a successful training session or worse- neither of us will make any progress towards our current training goals.<br />
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There are also times where even though we are confident in the lift we are about to do, we need someone to make sure we don't injure ourselves- it's called "spotting" someone. Having a spotter also allows a lifter to go higher in weight during a session- not only due to being safer from injury, but by giving a confidence boost to the lifter that they can lift the weight.<br />
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Animation is the same way. There are plenty of days when I or another member of the team just cannot figure out a pose, a motion, timing, etc. An animator will plan it all out, it'll sound great in their mind, and when they go to execute, they just can't get it. When this happens, the team looks at it together (i.e, we "spot" each other). We throw out ideas- some good, some bad, some that will work better for another motion. Some are just so over-the-top hilarious that we know we can't use them, but have fun talking about them. The goal is to come away from that interaction with a fresh perspective on the motion and try it again. I know that for me, sometimes just that interaction with the members of my team is enough to get me over the hump.<br />
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This same interaction needs to occur when motions are completed and just aren't working from either a style, gameplay or quality perspective- while I am the lead and do the initial approvals, I try to encourage the team to give feedback on everyone's motions, mine included. This pushes each of us to continually put out high quality work that fits within the vision of not just the animation direction, but of the game.<br />
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For various reasons, however, not everyone is part of a team. This may be due to working better alone, being at a small studio, or being a student or jobless and trying to break in. Aside from those who prefer to work alone (who wouldn't be on my team anyways), I encourage the rest of you to go find yourselves some teammates! Get on Twitter, post on deviantart or polycount or wherever. Meet people via online networking, learn from them, teach them, let them help you improve while you yourself encourage others to improve. Get a spotter, as it were.<br />
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Use these powerful forms of social media the right way (i.e., <a href="http://strongmanimator.blogspot.com/2011/03/dont-be-dick.html">don't be a dick</a>) and you'll find yourself open to a world of people who are trying to do the same as you: improve their craft and become a meaningful part of a team.anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-5883713252731729572011-04-18T18:56:00.000-07:002011-04-18T19:00:38.988-07:00Squats and StretchYeah, I know, it's <i>Squash </i>and Stretch, but that's not the point.<br />
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This past weekend my training involved squatting, and I can think of few other exercises that so perfectly demonstrate the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation">12 principles of animation</a> than the competitive back squat. There's squash-n-stretch, ease in/out, arcs, timing, exaggeration, etc., each having its own part in performing not only a mechanically sound squat, but a squat that will be successful in competition.<br />
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To perform a mechanically sound squat that will get white-lighted (judged as successful) in competition, you generally have the following to consider:<br />
<ul><li>Staging - You are standing on a platform in front of 3 judges</li>
<li>Anticipation - Unrack the bar and wait for the "Squat!" command. Popping my hips back to start the squat. Waiting for the "Rack!" command at the end.</li>
<li>Ease in/Out - slow the descent of the squat, accelerating on the way down</li>
<li>Squash & Stretch - Going from standing (stretched) to squatted (squashed) position, and going from squatted (squashed) position to standing (stretched)</li>
<li>Arcs- actually, here there is a desire to remove arcs- keeping your back stiff and not rounded, and keeping the bar moving in a straight line up and down</li>
<li>Solid Drawing- holding your form is very important, and akin to keeping solid volume with animation- if the volume is bad, the move is bad. Good form prevents injury!</li>
<li>Exaggeration - Going deeper than is necessary on the squat (below parallel) so the judges have no doubt you hit depth.</li>
<li>Secondary Action - it's always entertaining to see the facial expressions on people who are squatting.</li>
<li>Followthrough - the heavier the weight is, the more the bar will bend. You get some cool overlap of the bar post-squat. You also need to bring the bar to a standstill post-squat to get the "rack" command</li>
<li>Timing - on top of only getting 1 minute to perform the action (which usually takes 3-4 seconds), your speed to the bottom of the squat and explosiveness up factor heavily in a successful attempt.</li>
<li>Appeal - The overall look of your squat, when judged as a whole</li>
<li>Straight Ahead/Pose to Pose - The whole squat action itself is very pose-to-pose driven, while unracking and racking is more straight ahead.</li>
</ul><br />
Here, I've thrown in the principles as they are executed in one of my squat attempts:<br />
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In animation, we can look at the bouncing ball test to learn the above principles. This animation would obviously be considerably faster than a squat movement, but the principles and mechanics are generally the same:<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/RXxV-WskjEs?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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When used properly, the principles as applied to animation guide an animator in creating an appealing, successful animation. Breaking down my squat in terms of those same principles helps me understand the mechanics of the human body, and allows to me see where, why & when I should use each principle when creating my animation.anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-24317305805467705592011-04-09T19:40:00.000-07:002011-04-09T19:40:51.348-07:00On FailureToday, my training session was for Maximum Effort (i.e., 1-rep max) bench press. I felt good going into it, but I failed on my last attempt. What's worse is the weight of the last attempt wasn't even my PR (personal record/best)- I've done better and I know I CAN do better. It was just one of those days where it didn't happen.<br />
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The same thing happens for me with my animation. I'll plan a move, think it's going to work great, and then when I start working on it, I just can't get any traction with it. Sometimes, I'll get a move done, get it in game, and realize that it just doesn't work for the art direction we have. Other times, I think I've nailed it, and I'll get feedback that it just doesn't work and needs to change.<br />
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All of these things are "failures," just like my last attempt was today. Failing sucks, big time, but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing- in fact, it's just the opposite. Without failing, you can't learn why something doesn't work. Without breaking down and learning why something doesn't work, and identifying what needs to change, you are bound to repeat the same mistakes over and over.<br />
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It's important to not get discouraged by failure. When you can't quite figure out how to animate something, approach it a different way. Use mirrors, video capture yourself doing the move, animate it backwards, walk away from it for a bit or just talk to someone about it- I've found that verbalizing a problem usually makes my brain kick in and find a possible solution.<br />
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In the case of my bench press, I have video capture of the attempt that I can break down. I can identify what I did wrong, and I will correct it the next time I train my bench press. The same goes for my animation- as long as I can break down the motion and determine why it doesn't work - from a planning, execution or design aspect- I can start again and be successful on my next attempt.<br />
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Failing sucks, but there's no better feeling then coming back and kicking its ass.anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-60071532081773315232011-04-06T12:12:00.000-07:002011-04-06T12:15:07.352-07:00Know Thyself"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">the process of knowing my own body continues to be a source of learning and the source for improvement" - Brad Clark</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">3D is all about the body. Knowing how it works because you're using it is going to make you a better modeler, rigger or animator." - John Neumann</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Both of these quotes are excellent examples of what I hope to achieve with my new blog format. I even have a story that relates!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">I remember one project I was on where I performed video reference for many of the in-game moves. One was pulling myself up from hanging on a line by the hands only, to hanging upside down and prone on the line for shimmying. I animated to the reference, punched it out, and got it in game. A few days later I had someone tell me that the move was unrealistic- I believe his words were along the lines that no human could possibly move that way. I quickly pulled up the vid ref, explained what I did and how I knew that a gymnast could do this move. Given that our main character was a thief with gymnastic abilities, the move fit within the design of the game. With that ensued a discussion after which that person moved on more educated to my process and my experiences, as well as to the goals for the animation design of the game. Without having had that knowledge before I animated the move, I may have second-guessed myself or just done it wrong to begin with, and I certainly would have had trouble engaging in a fruitful discussion with that person.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">The same goes for me now- I'm still not an amazing animator by any means, but I still refer back to my training when thinking about how a body would need to behave to perform a move. It's not always easy when I only have 15 frames or even 5 frames to work with, but at least I can get those few frames working properly. If I don't know how a person would move, I get the other animators to throw out ideas. When all else fails, we either find vid ref, vid ref it ourselves, or even animate it backwards.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">During this whole process though, I'm constantly thinking of how not just I would perform the move, but how the character in game would- what his motivations are and how his physical ability would allow him to perform not just that move, but all the moves that are related.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">It goes the same for my strength training- how do all of the exercises and lifts I do contribute to my current goals? Once I am able to map that out and execute, I find myself successful at achieving them.</span></span>anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-33384866460667111792011-04-05T22:08:00.001-07:002011-04-05T22:08:42.880-07:00Unchained<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">(Cross-posted between <a href="http://devlifters.blogspot.com/">devlifters.blogspot.com</a> and <a href="http://strongmanimator.blogspot.com/">strongmanimator.blogspot.com</a>)</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Tonight was DE Bench day, but before I get into that, I'm going to vent for a sec. I'm not sure who has seen those Planet Fitness ads (I've only seen them on YouTube), you know, the ones where they basically make anyone who is serious about strength training out to be a muscle-bound mentally challenged idiot. Like this one:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/3FGZvFZdVbk?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Sure, this guy is a caricature, but the commercial effectively makes all of us who are into strength training out to be idiots who just like to lift heavy things (and grunt a lot in the process). I don't care in this was meant to be tongue in cheek; these perceptions bother me.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">If anyone knows strength training, they know that there is a level of intelligence needed to succeed. That intelligence doesn't necessarily need to translate each athlete knowing exactly how to eat, how to train, or how to rest to succeed- a lot of the times it's know who to talk to and how to learn in order to succeed. Picking things up and putting them down is a part of this, and it IS the fun part, but it's not the only part.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This gets me to my point- A month or so ago, I started a separate blog about my video game animation career. I specifically stated that I was going to keep my training and my animation career blogs separate. In effect, I was separating my life not into work and play, but into smart and stupid. I made the poor decision, in retrospect, to ignore that each of these aspects of my life actually affected each other in ways other than how I spend my time. I'm going to change that starting now.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I'm still going to post my training log on <a href="http://devlifters.blogspot.com/">devlifters.blogspot.com</a>, but I'll be discussing both my training and my animation career on <a href="http://strongmanimator.blogspot.com/">strongmanimator.blogspot.com</a>. My goal is to shed light on and discuss how animation and my career parallel my training- how successes and failures in one affect the other, and how I learn from those success and failures in one and apply that knowledge to the other.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I have no idea how well this will go, and I hope those following me and those clicking on my links will give me feedback so that I can continue learning while I try to teach them something. This should be fun :)</div>anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248341596629159263.post-78208345313406918512011-03-27T23:11:00.000-07:002011-03-27T23:11:03.284-07:00How I Got My Start In Animation (and how you can, too!)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Every so often, I get connected with someone who has question about how to become an animator or how to get into animation in the games industry. When this happens, I typically find myself writing a ridiculously long email or having a very long conversation with that person. Today was no different, and while replying, I began to reflect on how I got started with animation.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">This particular student wanted not just general advice on how to start learning animation, but specifically help deciding if 2D or 3D was right for him. He's been interested in animation for as long as he can remember, and has taken art classes all through his schooling. Currently, he has hit a snag- he can copy drawings quite well but is unable to draw the ideas he has in his head. He's tried anatomy books, drawing skeletons, and while he feels he is improving, he still feels stuck.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I can relate to this- growing up, I knew I wanted to "make cartoons" but I had a serious deficiency with drawing. I started out drawing and tracing what I could, taking art classes in school, making the standard flipbooks, but I didn't know how to learn to animate- the internet didn't exist, at least for me and for animation, in the 80s and early 90s.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I improved slowly over time, but even by college I was fairly convinced that I would never be an animator. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Then Toy Story came out during my sophomore year, showing me that animating characters on a computer was possible, and I felt that I found my calling in life. I went from animating space ships and effects to attempting character animation on my Macintosh, in Strata Studio Pro, with an FK rig. </span>My first attempts were pretty horrible. I realized then that drawing was not the hurdle I needed to overcome with becoming an animator. Instead, I needed to broaden my understanding of what animation was and how to succeed at it. If I was going to be serious about animation as a career, I needed help, and lots of it. However, like the student I mentioned above, I didn't know where to turn.<br />
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My next series of blog posts will cover how I learned and grew into an animator. I am hoping this will be fun for me as I recall how my childhood dream became my career, and I hope that both aspiring animators & seasoned vets will get a kick out of it too. Stay tuned!anim8dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16163982411548251104noreply@blogger.com2