Wow, where's time gone to?
15/08/10 10:08
Quite a bit happened since the last time I blogged,
where do I start?
Well, for the movie we’re working on, we got some very exciting news about the voice director we used for the recording of voices in Los Angeles. His name is Ned Lott. He’s been working for places like Pixar, Disney and Studio Ghibli (site is in Japanese only) before on movies like Monsters Inc., The Incredibles, Howl’s Moving Castle and so on. During his time visiting our studio he also gave a talk about acting and using your voice to bring out a certain type of character. Such an awesome guy and the day before he flew back to LA to continue with the voice work, he came around the each and everyone’s desk at the studio and personally greeted us all!
Graduated! Wow, I cannot believe that I’ve graduated from Animation Mentor. Just 2 years ago I started the Maya Springboard and here I am, an AM Alumni. Our graduation ceremony was held in San Francisco, but unfortunately I was unable to attend it in person. I’ve won the awards for The Most Supportive Student and The Most Entertaining Student for Class 16 and had to record two acceptance speech video clips to be played on stage there. I just want to congratulate each and every one of my fellow students. You guys rock and I’m hoping to meet up with all of you some day.
In other news, I managed to go see Toy Story 3. It was such a mind-blowing experience. They really have set a new standard to which CG movies will be measured against, pretty much the same thing that Toy Story 1 did.
Things at work are going kickass. Deadlines are tough, but doable. We have a great team of specialists working together to make the best movie we can under the circumstances. Hopefully things will turn out well for the next movie in the pipeline called Khumba. I would really like to be able to work on that movie. From what I’ve seen so far it will be just as nice a movie to work on.
Well, for the movie we’re working on, we got some very exciting news about the voice director we used for the recording of voices in Los Angeles. His name is Ned Lott. He’s been working for places like Pixar, Disney and Studio Ghibli (site is in Japanese only) before on movies like Monsters Inc., The Incredibles, Howl’s Moving Castle and so on. During his time visiting our studio he also gave a talk about acting and using your voice to bring out a certain type of character. Such an awesome guy and the day before he flew back to LA to continue with the voice work, he came around the each and everyone’s desk at the studio and personally greeted us all!
Graduated! Wow, I cannot believe that I’ve graduated from Animation Mentor. Just 2 years ago I started the Maya Springboard and here I am, an AM Alumni. Our graduation ceremony was held in San Francisco, but unfortunately I was unable to attend it in person. I’ve won the awards for The Most Supportive Student and The Most Entertaining Student for Class 16 and had to record two acceptance speech video clips to be played on stage there. I just want to congratulate each and every one of my fellow students. You guys rock and I’m hoping to meet up with all of you some day.
In other news, I managed to go see Toy Story 3. It was such a mind-blowing experience. They really have set a new standard to which CG movies will be measured against, pretty much the same thing that Toy Story 1 did.
Things at work are going kickass. Deadlines are tough, but doable. We have a great team of specialists working together to make the best movie we can under the circumstances. Hopefully things will turn out well for the next movie in the pipeline called Khumba. I would really like to be able to work on that movie. From what I’ve seen so far it will be just as nice a movie to work on.
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 30
06/07/10 20:45
Good thing I only made this for 30 days. I would
start to forget to do it. Work’s been awesome as
always. After the scene corruption I had I spent most
of today reblocking that shot, and I incorporated the
notes I received on the now-corrupt version of the
shot. They made a decision to have us block out a
full sequence so that they can look at the whole
sequence in the edit and then suggest changes from
there on. Not a bad idea considering they need to
check if shots flow nicely together, if the actions
are working well etc. This does mean that our quota
level will be updated in leaps and bounds though.
Let’s hope they change the tracking system so that we
get a assigned a percentage of our quota per state of
the shot’s progress (e.g. 40 for completing blocking,
40% for the blocking plus and 20% for polish).
Well, this is it for me. I’ll be resuming my usual blogging and only blog when there’s something significant/exciting. Despicable Me coming out real soon. Cannot wait to go see that.
Well, this is it for me. I’ll be resuming my usual blogging and only blog when there’s something significant/exciting. Despicable Me coming out real soon. Cannot wait to go see that.
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 29
05/07/10 23:40
What the... day 29 already??!?! Wow, this month flew
by!
So today I gotten 5 easy shots in a row. Just some simple flying happening in each. Managed to block out all 5 of them today, so this should give my quota a slight boost. One of my previous shots seems to have gone corrupt so I will probably have to reblock that.
It was also two birthdays at work today, happy birthday Mike and Francois. We went out for a small dinner at Primi Piatti at the V&A Waterfront. All-in-all a very good day today. Another new animator also started
today, Ruaan Grobler. He came over from Luma.
The studio is expanding very nicely now. I am
also busy cleaning up some of the old fly cycles
that have been giving us problems. I hope these
new ones will resolve the issues we had with the
old cycles.
So today I gotten 5 easy shots in a row. Just some simple flying happening in each. Managed to block out all 5 of them today, so this should give my quota a slight boost. One of my previous shots seems to have gone corrupt so I will probably have to reblock that.
It was also two birthdays at work today, happy birthday Mike and Francois. We went out for a small dinner at Primi Piatti at the V&A Waterfront. All-in-all a very good day today.
Another new animator also started
today, Ruaan Grobler. He came over from Luma.
The studio is expanding very nicely now. I am
also busy cleaning up some of the old fly cycles
that have been giving us problems. I hope these
new ones will resolve the issues we had with the
old cycles.
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 26
02/07/10 11:41
Spent a few hours today battling the rigs. Seems like
the fly cycles I created during my first week was
done on rigs that had channels locked since then
which causes havoc on the locked channels. Feathers
pointing in all directions imaginable, toes flipped
180 degrees. Quite a bit of troubleshooting but the
rigging team is pretty quick at sorting the problems
out. I’ll be going in to work on Sunday to go rework
the fly cycles on new rig versions to try and avoid
all those hassles. Let’s hope it works.
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 24
30/06/10 23:03
It’s been quite an interesting day at work today. I
figured out two workarounds for problems I’ve been
struggling with. The one being the ability to apply
an action from an animation clip without the need of
using the animation mixer and then plotting (baking)
the animation into the timeline. The second being the
enabling of ghosting to track the animation path of
an object (quite a few hoops to jump through to get
this working). I’ve also had one of my 230-frame
shots taken apart and put back together by the
director and animation lead. They looked at the
blocking in the edit suite and realized things didn’t
flow well together so lots of changes have been made.
This is awesome for it just improves the overall
quality of the movie. So to those animation students
out there reading this, IT WILL HAPPEN and DON’T
DESPAIR. You are still being paid to animate... what
can be better than that?
So I’ll be moving house tomorrow. I’m sharing it with one of my fellow animators and her boyfriend. Quite looking forward to not having to smell cigarette smoke at 3 in the morning. Woop woop!
So I’ll be moving house tomorrow. I’m sharing it with one of my fellow animators and her boyfriend. Quite looking forward to not having to smell cigarette smoke at 3 in the morning. Woop woop!
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 23
29/06/10 22:12
I’m slowly but surely breaking the will of the rigs
and making them do what I want them to do. XSI is
still hardass but it will also be broken. For now I’m
figuring out workarounds for all the issues it has...
it’s pretty much female that’s for sure. Very whiny
and bitchy. Helped a friend tonight record video
reference for a shot she’s working on. Lots of laughs
for she’s nervous but I can see her confidence
improving as she gets used to the idea of a camera
recording her every move. That’s it for now, I need
sleep.
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 22
28/06/10 19:13
Work’s been sort of productive. Been battling XSI to
give me what I want. Cycles in the animation mixer
doesn’t behave as stably as in Maya. Now I got to
plot those on the timeline once I’m sure the cycles
are acting as needed. Managed to get one of my shots
up for blocking approval but it’s still not fast
enough to get my quota of 2 seconds per day.
In other news, AM starts today. I’m sure there are many students happy to be back. Good luck guys. Happy animating!
In other news, AM starts today. I’m sure there are many students happy to be back. Good luck guys. Happy animating!
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 21
27/06/10 18:03
Didn’t touch anything 3D
related today. Went down to Simons Town’s Long Beach
and watch a buddy of mine taking part in a kayaking
race. Afterwards we drove down to Boulder’s Beach to
look at the penguins there (I’ll upload the photos
sometime soon). Left there to a picnic spot a few
kilometers down the road and had some lunch. On our way
back late the afternoon we stopped at the Spur in Fish
Hoek for a burger and milkshakes. The weather was
sunny, no clouds and I did’t get sunburnt!! Woohoo!!!
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 20
26/06/10 23:38
I spent the morning at work, trying to catch up on
some blocking seeing as all the troubles from
yesterday with the camera costed me some precious
time. A few fellow animators was also in so the mood
at work was very light... enjoyable and quiet. In the
late afternoon I drove up to go visit some friends of
mine I haven’t seen in 9 years. Was great seeing
them, they got married and had a kid since I last
seen them. Life stands still for nobody.
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 19
25/06/10 22:32
Ran into a spot of trouble today. Managed to
overwrite the official stereo camera (that everyone
at the studio references to in their scenes) by using
the option in XSI where you right-click on a local
model in the explorer and select “Convert to
reference”. I was under the impression it would allow
me to select a model to reference to and replace the
local one with. So instead it took my local camera,
the one that was offset from 0,0,0 by a lot and saved
that camera over the one on the network I specified I
wanted to reference in, and referenced that camera
back in. It didn’t even bother to ask me if I’m sure
I want to overwrite the file... it just did it. So,
anybody working at Autodesk on SoftImage... GET YOUR
FUCKING ACT TOGETHER AND FIX THIS HUGE FLAW!!!!!
Luckily we have backups so the original camera got
restored. Have I mentioned how much XSI sucks?
On the other hand I went to see Toy Story 3 with a friend of mine. Wow. There’s no other word to describe it better. Back in 1995 Toy Story set the standard for animation. With Toy Story 3 in 2010 they set the standard again. It was mindblowingly amazing.
On the other hand I went to see Toy Story 3 with a friend of mine. Wow. There’s no other word to describe it better. Back in 1995 Toy Story set the standard for animation. With Toy Story 3 in 2010 they set the standard again. It was mindblowingly amazing.
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 18
24/06/10 23:23
Gotten the details for the middle part of the new
sequence worked out. Our team lead will divide up the
shots soon. I started working on blocking in my first
shot. You get to animate all the characters in your
shot which is quite challenging seeing as we work on
a 2-second-a-day of approved animation. This means
I’ll have to skip out on the small details that won’t
enhance the storytelling by much. But you should
still add in the stuff like overshoots, settles,
follow through, anticipation. Decided to work late
seeing as Thursdays are the official work-late night
where the director and other people in charge stays
late to catch up on work. At 7PM they ordered us a
pizza and we all circled around the boxes of pizza
like vultures.
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 17
23/06/10 20:27
Been quite a hectic day today. Gotten new shots
assigned from another sequence. Gotten 5 shots so far
but it’s only for the first thirds of the sequence.
The middle part is being reworked and that will
affect the numbering of it’s relevant shots and the
last part following it. Busy brainstorming out the
small details and doing thumbnails. We’re put
together in a team of 6 animators. This will be fun.
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 16
22/06/10 18:45
Toy Story 3 had the biggest opening weekend for any
Pixar movie ever, a cool US$109 million. That’s got
to say something. Looking forward to go and see it.
I’ll be checking with the people at work tomorrow if
we will go see it as a studio this coming Friday. If
not then I’m sure we can organize pretty much
everyone to go.
Work was awesome as always. My shot is pretty much done in the AnimA phase. I have submitted it for review. They realized that the shots (mine and the one before) didn’t flow well together and they’re busy reworking the shots to make the sequence work better. They will also chop off the first couple of frames but liked what I did so they want to keep it. Glad to hear my first shot I
animated for them made the cut. But, if it
happened that they had to drop the shot to
improve the flow of the overall scene, then so
be it. I would just be glad that they realized
it and want to make the best movie possible.
This is one great thing I learned from my
mentors at AM. So I should have a verdict by
tomorrow morning if the shot’s ready for
polishing. We also have to work on our next
sequence tomorrow and as a team discuss the
shots, distribute them evenly and roughly
thumbnail things out. I have an idea of how to
improve one of the shots and will mention it
tomorrow to the director and animation lead +
animation director. I’m sure they will like it
and go for it.
Work was awesome as always. My shot is pretty much done in the AnimA phase. I have submitted it for review. They realized that the shots (mine and the one before) didn’t flow well together and they’re busy reworking the shots to make the sequence work better. They will also chop off the first couple of frames but liked what I did so they want to keep it.
Glad to hear my first shot I
animated for them made the cut. But, if it
happened that they had to drop the shot to
improve the flow of the overall scene, then so
be it. I would just be glad that they realized
it and want to make the best movie possible.
This is one great thing I learned from my
mentors at AM. So I should have a verdict by
tomorrow morning if the shot’s ready for
polishing. We also have to work on our next
sequence tomorrow and as a team discuss the
shots, distribute them evenly and roughly
thumbnail things out. I have an idea of how to
improve one of the shots and will mention it
tomorrow to the director and animation lead +
animation director. I’m sure they will like it
and go for it.
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 15
21/06/10 21:07
Been struggling with my internet connection. Was
unable to post blog postings because of that but
luckily this awesome app of mine saves the entries
and uploads them when it has a proper connection.
Work’s been good. Been working on my shot mostly. It’s in the AnimA phase (blocking plus for the AM readers out there). The timing’s a bit slow so everything feels floaty. But first I want to get my poses working before I worry too much about timing. The set I have to work in is also cramped so every pixel counts. That also makes it hard to cheat some shots because the movie is also done in stereo so heavy intersections could be spotted at a certain angle but luckily we have a dedicated guy doing the stereo camera setup and checking so he should pick it up and let me know.
Work’s been good. Been working on my shot mostly. It’s in the AnimA phase (blocking plus for the AM readers out there). The timing’s a bit slow so everything feels floaty. But first I want to get my poses working before I worry too much about timing. The set I have to work in is also cramped so every pixel counts. That also makes it hard to cheat some shots because the movie is also done in stereo so heavy intersections could be spotted at a certain angle but luckily we have a dedicated guy doing the stereo camera setup and checking so he should pick it up and let me know.
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 13
19/06/10 20:48
Had to go in to work today to help plan out my
current shot. I got a lot of things happening in a
confined space and needed to work out the paths
everything takes to prevent them from colliding with
one another. This just goes to show how important
planning is. Even if you have to do thumbnails of
every couple of frames and label each object to help
keep track, then so be it. But, I got through it all
and hopefully I can show it Monday during the
daillies to get feedback from everyone else.
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 12
18/06/10 19:20
This is it! Toy Story 3 is out today! It’s a definite
must go see. Rumor has it that we will go watch it as
a studio next week Friday so I’m not going to spoil
my appetite. In other animation related news I
got my shot’s blocking approved, the stereo guy
setup his camera and I got the go ahead for the
next part which is adding in-betweens and
splining. Plan on going in to work tomorrow to
catch up a bit for I’m a bit behind with my
struggles with getting the scene set up for the
first time. And also what controls to animate
for the camera.
We’ve also been briefed about the next scene, the one we would have originally done. Lots of action scenes, not much acting. Nice!
In other animation related news I
got my shot’s blocking approved, the stereo guy
setup his camera and I got the go ahead for the
next part which is adding in-betweens and
splining. Plan on going in to work tomorrow to
catch up a bit for I’m a bit behind with my
struggles with getting the scene set up for the
first time. And also what controls to animate
for the camera.
We’ve also been briefed about the next scene, the one we would have originally done. Lots of action scenes, not much acting. Nice!
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 11
17/06/10 22:42
First things first... the dailies. Some people dread
it, I’m looking forward to it. Maybe because I have
nothing to show yet. But this coming Monday onwards I
will be showing. Why? Because I got my first shot
assigned today. One of my fellow AM students
already sketched out some planning thumbnails of
what he foresee should happen in the shot and
it’s such cool planning that he offered for me
to make use of it. So I spent some part of today
figuring out ways to improve the responsiveness
of SI. Through a combination of display layers,
custom surface approximations and custom display
options that lighten the load while navigating
the viewport I managed to get it so-so. When I
lay out a frame I just do a rough layout with
all models on, turn off the taxing ones after
that to fine-tune the scene and then turn them
back on to check my work from all angles.
Halfway through this I realized I haven’t planned properly for things like IK/FK and found I had to switch stuff I had in FK, back to IK so lesson learned, add useful tips like that to your planning thumbnails. After work I also finally joined the guys in a few rounds of Call Of Duty 4 on the network. It’s my first time playing it so I definitely died a lot (probably the most of everyone) but I also got a few good kills in. They sat up and took notice of this new player... BoulderFoot that joined them. So all-in-all a good productive day. Tomorrow I’ll be putting the hammer down and really try and steamroll through my blocking ASAP. Now, off to bed.
One of my fellow AM students
already sketched out some planning thumbnails of
what he foresee should happen in the shot and
it’s such cool planning that he offered for me
to make use of it. So I spent some part of today
figuring out ways to improve the responsiveness
of SI. Through a combination of display layers,
custom surface approximations and custom display
options that lighten the load while navigating
the viewport I managed to get it so-so. When I
lay out a frame I just do a rough layout with
all models on, turn off the taxing ones after
that to fine-tune the scene and then turn them
back on to check my work from all angles.
Halfway through this I realized I haven’t planned properly for things like IK/FK and found I had to switch stuff I had in FK, back to IK so lesson learned, add useful tips like that to your planning thumbnails. After work I also finally joined the guys in a few rounds of Call Of Duty 4 on the network. It’s my first time playing it so I definitely died a lot (probably the most of everyone) but I also got a few good kills in. They sat up and took notice of this new player... BoulderFoot that joined them. So all-in-all a good productive day. Tomorrow I’ll be putting the hammer down and really try and steamroll through my blocking ASAP. Now, off to bed.
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 10
16/06/10 18:32
Well, today’s a public holiday, so not much to
report. I spent a few hours at the studio watching my
final AnimationMentor lectures. Also, did I mention
we have snow on Table Mountain?
Needless to say it’s slightly colder than what
we are used to for Cape Town.
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 9
15/06/10 19:24
Spent most of today boringly clicking through XSI.
I’m pretty much proficient with bypassing the flaws I
need to avoid, and I can even do it with one hand
tied behind my back. The rigs are getting better as
we report the issues. Layout guys finished with the
shots today, but the two soon-to-be-newly-assigned
team members are still not done with their current
shots. Let’s hope by Thursday I will have something
to report.
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 8
14/06/10 21:53
Didn’t get my first shot to work on today. We’re
still waiting for two of the other animators to
finish their shots because they will be joining and
leading our team. Also found a few more minor bugs
with the rigs so it’s all good. Sat in on the dailies
and a few more shots got shoved over to the final
status.
As for AnimationMentor.com, it still feels unreal that I’m finished. Just found out that Wednesday is a public holiday here so I won’t be able to attend my final Live Q&A.
As for AnimationMentor.com, it still feels unreal that I’m finished. Just found out that Wednesday is a public holiday here so I won’t be able to attend my final Live Q&A.
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 7
13/06/10 17:40
I’ve spent most of today finishing off my assignment.
This is as good as it will get without me going
insane. There’s still a ton of stuff I want to work
on but after 18 months the mind doesn’t want to
co-operate anymore. And seeing as it is in control of
the hands and so on, I fear there might be a revolt
or maybe even a coup d’état. Looking forward to the
upcoming week. I should be getting my first shot to
work on tomorrow.
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 6
12/06/10 20:24
Seeing as I’m not at work today, I really don’t have
much to say. I’ve spent most of today working on
refining my final shots for my demo reel to be
submitted to Animationmentor.com as my final
assignment. Have to create a DVD Cover Sleeve and
label that can go on the DVD Disc with my name and
contact details, just in case the DVD and the DVD’s
box get separated. I shall upload the final stuff
tomorrow.
On a sports-related note, seems like the French didn’t bring their best team to play the Bokke so they got the hiding they deserved.
On a sports-related note, seems like the French didn’t bring their best team to play the Bokke so they got the hiding they deserved.
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 5
11/06/10 22:36
So my first week is over. It’s been quite an
interesting one too. Learned a lot, and I’m still
learning but I feel comfortable at work. Still
swearing at XSI for being such a stupid program. The
DopeSheet is really not cool. And the random moving
of keys in the time line when I select keys on
another frame and move them is pissing me and some of
the other guys off. Oh well, at least it’s not just
us new XSI users that’s having these issues.
We had to watch the soccer match against Mexico today. I was just bored out of my skull and pretended to show interest at the game while I was surfing the net looking at the trailer for Mortal Kombat Rebirth. Looking forward to that and the new movie from Disney called Tangled. We were also given this bag with a few items in it:
With it was a piece of laminated paper with the following written on it:
Mints - To have a fresh outlook.
Rubber Bands - To remind you to have a resilience and “spring back”.
Sparklers - For those days when you feel everyone needs a bit of spark.
Eraser - To remind you that we all make mistakes. It’s OK, we learn from our errors.
Tea Bag - To remind you to take the time to relax daily and go over the list of blessings.
Vitathion - For body and mind energy booster.
Mini Vuvuzela - To make some noise when you have a bright idea.
All in all things have been good this week. Worked on another flying cycle for another character and looking forward to getting my first scene to work on next week.
We had to watch the soccer match against Mexico today. I was just bored out of my skull and pretended to show interest at the game while I was surfing the net looking at the trailer for Mortal Kombat Rebirth. Looking forward to that and the new movie from Disney called Tangled. We were also given this bag with a few items in it:
With it was a piece of laminated paper with the following written on it:
Mints - To have a fresh outlook.
Rubber Bands - To remind you to have a resilience and “spring back”.
Sparklers - For those days when you feel everyone needs a bit of spark.
Eraser - To remind you that we all make mistakes. It’s OK, we learn from our errors.
Tea Bag - To remind you to take the time to relax daily and go over the list of blessings.
Vitathion - For body and mind energy booster.
Mini Vuvuzela - To make some noise when you have a bright idea.
All in all things have been good this week. Worked on another flying cycle for another character and looking forward to getting my first scene to work on next week.
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 4
10/06/10 21:36
Another day’s gone by, man does time fly. In order
for us to watch the opening ceremony and first match
of the soccer world cup, we had to either work the
hours in extra tonight, or start work earlier than
usual tomorrow. I decided to stay later tonight and
get used to some other XSI tools I would need for my
first shot. Even though I have no interest whatsoever
in soccer (I reckon it’s a sport for woosies) I will
still join in the watching of the game tomorrow for I
see it as a team-building exercise. Plus there will
be food and whatever I will take in to drink.
Got my first glimpse today at the final quality renders and I’m simply blown away. The lighting and rendering guys are putting in some serious efforts and this will be one awesome-looking movie. Also joined the guys for the dailies today in the screening room and a few shots got final approval. It’s a great buzz when a shot gets final approval and one can hear the animator give a sigh of relief.
I’ve been through most of the script now and I also got to watch some of the videos that was recorded of the different artists recording the new voice tracks. There’s some great references for facial performance there and it’s quite hilarious to see what happens between takes.
I know I said I will take photos today but yet again, the day was over before I realized it. I’m considering setting a reminder on my phone to do so. Until tomorrow then.
Got my first glimpse today at the final quality renders and I’m simply blown away. The lighting and rendering guys are putting in some serious efforts and this will be one awesome-looking movie. Also joined the guys for the dailies today in the screening room and a few shots got final approval. It’s a great buzz when a shot gets final approval and one can hear the animator give a sigh of relief.
I’ve been through most of the script now and I also got to watch some of the videos that was recorded of the different artists recording the new voice tracks. There’s some great references for facial performance there and it’s quite hilarious to see what happens between takes.
I know I said I will take photos today but yet again, the day was over before I realized it. I’m considering setting a reminder on my phone to do so. Until tomorrow then.
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 3
09/06/10 19:57
Today I felt a bit more at ease going in to work. I’m
starting to get the hang of using SoftImage with it’s
keyboard shortcuts, but I’m still frustrated at some
stuff that I know how to do in Maya, but have to
fumble around SoftImage to get it to work. To top it
all off, SoftImage has this nasty habit of crashing
and not even saving an emergency copy of my scene
like Maya does. Using Winblows is also not helping.
I’ve learned to Ctrl+S once I made a few changes that
I like to a scene.
With this project they have a requirement of 2 seconds of approved animation per day. It’s a bit tough but I’m sure I will manage. I might be slow initially but I’m sure I will pick up the pace as I get used to the workflow. Today we were asked to create a few cycles for some of the characters. Even though I have only created one I have learned some of the other tools in SoftImage like the Animation Mixer, Synoptic viewer, Animation Layers and the Graph Editor equivalent of SoftImage. Still got to figure out how to get the curves in stepped mode. There didn’t seem to be an obvious shortcut button for that. As I found issues with the rig I logged them with the rigging guys and within a matter of half an hour that rig was fixed and I could update my referenced character. Hats off to Sandy and his team.
To those that asked: I will be taking photos once everyone is used to me. I don’t want to make any sudden movements or have the sounds of the shutter scare them off. Crikey! Now just imagine I said this last bit with a Steve Irwin accent.
With this project they have a requirement of 2 seconds of approved animation per day. It’s a bit tough but I’m sure I will manage. I might be slow initially but I’m sure I will pick up the pace as I get used to the workflow. Today we were asked to create a few cycles for some of the characters. Even though I have only created one I have learned some of the other tools in SoftImage like the Animation Mixer, Synoptic viewer, Animation Layers and the Graph Editor equivalent of SoftImage. Still got to figure out how to get the curves in stepped mode. There didn’t seem to be an obvious shortcut button for that. As I found issues with the rig I logged them with the rigging guys and within a matter of half an hour that rig was fixed and I could update my referenced character. Hats off to Sandy and his team.
To those that asked: I will be taking photos once everyone is used to me. I don’t want to make any sudden movements or have the sounds of the shutter scare them off. Crikey! Now just imagine I said this last bit with a Steve Irwin accent.
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 2
08/06/10 20:23
Arrived at work at about 07h50. Decided to go in a
little bit later seeing as it’s not my first day
anymore. Got greeted by everyone and I can get used
to this. It’s so awesome to get to work where
everyone is happy to be there. First order of the day
is to grab a cup coffee to get the engine started.
I spent most of the day arm-wrestling XSI and the rigs for the characters. One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was the URL of the movie’s website in case any of you are interested so here it is. I got informed today that I will get my first shot to work on this coming Friday or next week Monday. I also got a brief description of what it will be about so now I know what to focus on. I’m pretty confident that by Friday (or Monday) I will be a bit more at ease with XSI. I hope they cannot smell my fear.
I have been having a hard time
with getting the characters to do certain things
and it seems like it’s was normal for the other
guys too so I’m feeling more at ease about that.
I spent most of the day arm-wrestling XSI and the rigs for the characters. One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was the URL of the movie’s website in case any of you are interested so here it is. I got informed today that I will get my first shot to work on this coming Friday or next week Monday. I also got a brief description of what it will be about so now I know what to focus on. I’m pretty confident that by Friday (or Monday) I will be a bit more at ease with XSI. I hope they cannot smell my fear.
I have been having a hard time
with getting the characters to do certain things
and it seems like it’s was normal for the other
guys too so I’m feeling more at ease about that.
My first 30 days as an animator - Day 1
07/06/10 19:44
I decided to blog about my first 30 days of my
animation career. Due to the NDA I signed I cannot
give detailed information about the movie.
So I got to work at 07h45 this morning, waited for the rest of the people to arrive. The first thing I noticed was that everyone there seemed happy and got a lot of smiles from these soon-to-be-not-strangers. The studio is located on a farm in the middle of Cape Town. It’s a beautiful setup and so serene. The first person I met was Mike, my animation director. Was just an informal chat. Just after 8 the director held a quick studio meeting. Very relaxed and informal. He discussed the goals for the week.
After that us animators moved up to the screening room for the dailies. Obviously I hid in the back and just watched in awe the other animators’ work being projected on the white canvas while they get their feedback. It is pretty much like we were told at AM it would be. The shot comes up, it gets played through a couple of times at normal speed. The director gives his feedback, and the other animators even chip in their 2 cents. Some shots gets stepped through frame-by-frame. Some funnies even came up like on of the characters spinning out of control towards off-screen (or so we though initially) until we got informed that it’s a temporary placeholder for the character that needs to flail around helplessly after being kicked.
After dailies I got assigned my desk, with a computer (lovely Core i7 3 GHz with 12 Gigs of RAM, a GeForce GTS250 display card and a dual 22” LCD screen setup). The IT guy came around and setup all the network mappings and installed SoftImage XSI 2011 with all the scripts and workgroups I need. They showed me where the models are located and reference videos and images and told me to play around with it and familiarize myself with it as much as possible. Since I’m from a Maya background, this is crucial for me to get the hang of XSI. I’m used to doing stuff in a certain with wait Maya and it’s going to take some getting used to XSI, even though I can setup the shortcut keys the same as Maya.
At 13h00 we all got a cooked meal for lunch which I thought was awesome. One of the guys celebrated his birthday so after lunch we also got some cake. I slowly started to get to know
some of the other people working there as we
mingled during lunch. Lots of laughter as the
people poked fun at the birthday boy and sang
him an inaudible happy birthday song, of which
he joined in and sung the loudest inaudibly.
Back to the computer to wrestle on with XSI after lunch and by 17h30 the big guns were brought out. No, I’m being serious, the COD4 LAN game starts then. Even though I never played it I sure wouldn’t mind joining in some day and become the target the other guys can practice on. But for now, I have to get back home to try and work on my AM assignments.
So I got to work at 07h45 this morning, waited for the rest of the people to arrive. The first thing I noticed was that everyone there seemed happy and got a lot of smiles from these soon-to-be-not-strangers. The studio is located on a farm in the middle of Cape Town. It’s a beautiful setup and so serene. The first person I met was Mike, my animation director. Was just an informal chat. Just after 8 the director held a quick studio meeting. Very relaxed and informal. He discussed the goals for the week.
After that us animators moved up to the screening room for the dailies. Obviously I hid in the back and just watched in awe the other animators’ work being projected on the white canvas while they get their feedback. It is pretty much like we were told at AM it would be. The shot comes up, it gets played through a couple of times at normal speed. The director gives his feedback, and the other animators even chip in their 2 cents. Some shots gets stepped through frame-by-frame. Some funnies even came up like on of the characters spinning out of control towards off-screen (or so we though initially) until we got informed that it’s a temporary placeholder for the character that needs to flail around helplessly after being kicked.
After dailies I got assigned my desk, with a computer (lovely Core i7 3 GHz with 12 Gigs of RAM, a GeForce GTS250 display card and a dual 22” LCD screen setup). The IT guy came around and setup all the network mappings and installed SoftImage XSI 2011 with all the scripts and workgroups I need. They showed me where the models are located and reference videos and images and told me to play around with it and familiarize myself with it as much as possible. Since I’m from a Maya background, this is crucial for me to get the hang of XSI. I’m used to doing stuff in a certain with wait Maya and it’s going to take some getting used to XSI, even though I can setup the shortcut keys the same as Maya.
At 13h00 we all got a cooked meal for lunch which I thought was awesome. One of the guys celebrated his birthday so after lunch we also got some cake.
I slowly started to get to know
some of the other people working there as we
mingled during lunch. Lots of laughter as the
people poked fun at the birthday boy and sang
him an inaudible happy birthday song, of which
he joined in and sung the loudest inaudibly.
Back to the computer to wrestle on with XSI after lunch and by 17h30 the big guns were brought out. No, I’m being serious, the COD4 LAN game starts then. Even though I never played it I sure wouldn’t mind joining in some day and become the target the other guys can practice on. But for now, I have to get back home to try and work on my AM assignments.
Triggerfish here I come!
27/05/10 20:08
I got the great news today that I’ll be starting at Triggerfish Animation Studios in Cape Town within the next week. It’s only a 7 month contract but I am super excited about it. This means I will have to animate 4 legged animals and possibly birds too. I will also have to learn to use SoftImage XSI. Looking forward to these new challenges.
