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Those Terribly Troublesome Tangents! As students in the PCA&D Visual Thinking class know by now, tangents are unintentional points of tension in a drawing (or design layout) where two objects bump against one another or line up side by side.

Those Terribly Troublesome Tangents!

Every artist falls victim to this once in a while. When you are involved in a project, tangents are easy to overlook and it is always a good idea to show your work to someone else before committing to a final piece (or before showing your sketch to an art director...or class instructor). There are several types of tangents to look out for, which cartoonist Chris Schweizer has taken the time to point out in the following lecture. Chris has specifically geared his words toward comic art, but they apply to ANY type of illustration, fine art or graphic design: A tangent is when two or more lines interact in a way that insinuates a relationship between them that the artist did not intend.

The long line is when a line from one object runs directly into the line of another. 2. 3. 4. 5. Animation Tips & Tricks: What Is "Layered" Animation and How Does It Work? Is It Good / Better for Human Characters? Layered animation generally refers to the idea of blocking in one part or section of the body at a time.

Animation Tips & Tricks: What Is "Layered" Animation and How Does It Work? Is It Good / Better for Human Characters?

One example would be animating the up/down of the hips in a walk first, and nailing down that timing since it's going to affect every other aspect of the walk. Once you have that, you could then do another "layer" of animation by animating the torso of the character. Maybe then you'd do the feet. Then the arms and wrists. Then the head. All of those layers will combine to form one walk. Animation Tips & Tricks: Can You Tell Us About Your Animation Checklist?

Walk Cycle Depot. VNOG Blog: A couple of cool animation reference sites. Flip: In the Works 1. Here's a few grabs of something I'm working on at home.

Flip: In the Works 1

It's a situational micro short about one guy teaching another inexperienced guy how to stake a vampire. Theres no dialogue, just facial expression and body language to tell the story. This is gonna be the first real thing I create by working with a properly planned approach. I usually just dive into my animation, working layered and just letting stuff evolve from a loose idea in my mind. This is different. It's super proxy right now - the background is totally temp, and the characters are deliberately low detail ( they're actually the same rig ). Flip: Quick Trick: Draw your Timing. Not too long ago I started using 'drawings' at work to figure out timing beats for certain animated shots, and it was one of those great moments when you discover something that you instantly use over and over again, so I thought it best to post the process here on Flip.

Flip: Quick Trick: Draw your Timing

I found myself looking for a fast way to record a timing reference for certain shots, I wanted a way to quickly get an idea of the timing of certain actions or beats without having to go into blocking and actually start posing stuff out, but also without having to go to the reference room and go through the motions of recording myself, converting video to Linux and basically taking a load of time from my schedule. For me, when I'm figuring out a shot early on, I pretty much use the basic building blocks of story, posing ( with staging ) and timing to construct my blocking. Agreed, the application of this idea is limited to certain actions, but let your imagination help you here... SynchroLux » Blog Archive » A counterpoint on Blinking. I’ve suggested a couple of times that CG animators often don’t use enough blinks and interesting blink patterns to show what their characters are thinking and feeling, and in my last post I put up a live-action clip showing how much a good human actor can do with blinks and half blinks and eye flutters.

SynchroLux » Blog Archive » A counterpoint on Blinking

The great Michael Cain gives a counter-point, suggesting that actors NOT blink:His point is that blinking makes a character look weak or hesitant (I’m sorry if some of you hear “And I don’t blink, and I keep on going, and I don’t blink . . .” in your nightmares tonight!). Now, given the typical “Michael Cain” character, he’s absolutely correct.

Brendan Body's Blog. Brendan Body's Blog: Tutorials. Probably one of the most consistent comments from leads and animation directors during review is that a character 'needs a little more weight', and frustratingly it's not always easy or obvious how to rectify this.

Brendan Body's Blog: Tutorials

Sometimes it's down to posing and balance but often it's just that the character feels too light as they are moving around. weight through posing by Wayne Gilbert How to make things look heavy in animation is something that even experienced animators struggle with. I touched on this subject in my bouncing ball lecture but I think it would be good to go into more detail and really figure out how and why objects feel weighty or not when in movement. In the lecture I showed how to vary weight in the bouncing ball by altering the 'gap' - the distance between the last drawing of the ball falling and the 'squash' frame when it first impacts the ground. Maybe we're missing something, lets look at how gravity affects an object falling from different heights. The results are as follows - Model Sheets: Tex Avery: The MGM Years, 1942-1955 > Various «

Animation (tutorials

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