What 'The Walt Disney Company' Thinks!

The Walt Disney company also supplies an array of information on each individual job role in both the artistic and technical departments.

http://www.disneyanimation.com/careers/careers

Links iv'e been following for Show Reel Tips

Links on Demo reel's and FAQ's on Demo-Reels...

Studio of interest to me, Blue-Zoo...

http://www.blue-zoo.co.uk/jobs/




http://www.digitaltutors.com/11/demoreel.php

http://www.animallogic.com/#Jobs,FAQ

http://www.pixar.com/careers/Career-FAQs




Pixar - What do you look for in Animators?

One of the most common questions Pixar receives nowadays is, “How can I become an Animator at Pixar?” There’s really no good answer that’s both short and useful, so we’ve put together some information tohopefully provide guidance for people who dream of being involved in Pixar's animation process. Pixar places the technology of computer graphics firmly at the service of the art of animation, not the other way around.  This priority is expressed clearly in Pixar’s production process, in which the Animators specialize in animation, with virtually all technical concerns handled by Technical Directors. The implication of this structure and this value system is what Pixar looks for first and foremost in Animators—we want you to be able to bring the character to life, independent of medium. Computer-graphic technical prowess is of course important, but the emphasis is not as strong within the Animation Department.

The reality is that computer graphic animators have no advantage over pen-and-ink animators, clay
animators, stop-motion animators, etc. So while it’s preferable for someone to have 3D knowledge, it’s
not paramount. In fact, three-quarters of the Animators on Toy Story were new to computers when hired.
A common question is, “What software should I learn?” The answer is implied by the above: “Software
doesn’t matter; learning to animate matters.” Still, you might expect that learning the software that Pixar
uses would give you a leg up. However, even this isn’t true: Pixar uses its own proprietary software. Your
knowledge of basic animation fundamentals is the foundation for your computer training,
not the other way around.

A Pixar Animator should be able to bring life to any object or character, showing the character’s internal
thoughts and feelings through its physical external motion. To do this, the Animator must be a good actor. 
His or her work should communicate clearly, containing simple ideas with which an audience can empathize. 
The animation should be entertaining to watch, employing good timing and relying on individualized, believable
characters to put forth humor and emotion. The Animator also needs an understanding of physical motion. 
Knowledge of weight, balance, overlap, texture, and form should be evident in the work. In fact, in evaluating a
prospective Animator, Pixar relies very heavily on the demo reel presented by the candidate.

"I'd rather see 15 seconds of amazing animation than 3 looooooooooong minutes of an unwatchable film.
Those 3 minutes can feel like an eternity if everything isn't perfect."


"You’re applying for Animation? Well—show me good animation! Show me acting.
Show me thinking. Show me a character that is alive. I don't care about lighting, modeling, shading, particle effects,
or how clever you are. Blow me away with something I've never seen. An original character with
a distinct personality!"


Employers often look for life drawing and real life observational drawings that display a sense of weight and proportion in a variety of poses - that demonstrate that the prospective employee understands the way that real life anatomical fundamentals work so that they can then use this gift and translate it stylistically onto the screen in a piece of Animation performance. 

An Introduction...

The idea that I could create a title using the fundamentals of what we first learn as Animators (The bouncing balls) and intermix it with a simplistic design that reads well to a viewer; was something that instantly appealed to me looking at it from an animation/designing perspective. Something that could perhaps be seen as something that was memorable. After all, that's what we aim to give with the Show-Reel. The Memorable. So I came up with a design in Photoshop, using typography that could both read clearly whilst in motion and look effectively 'zany' & 'cartoon' which I really wish to capture in the flow of the work. This in turn inspires my style so collectively everything functions like clockwork. 

Initial photoshop design. 

The Photoshop design was then taken and built in Autodesk Maya using 'Create Text' and 'CV Curve Tools' (for the more intricate area's) and the design was then extruded to essentially build the lettering. If flat, like in the image's, then the design wouldn't be plausible and it would be difficult for us as viewers to interpret the grounded physics of it. So extruding the lettering gives a sense of scene, a sense of physical visual place, no matter how stylistic you get - which to bring the directing streak into things, is what the illusion of animation is all about. Shadows and a little bit of reflectivity were added just to add to the world that the lettering is interacting with. 

The design being first constructed in Maya. Before extrusion. 

I then set up a 2-Point lighting system that would give the front of the lettering facing the camera the most light, whilst the back would also receive some ambience so that it would not be definitively darker than the rest of the piece. That element of consistency was always an important aspect to giving this piece a nice, even balance all around. 

 Extrusion, lighting & scene set-up 

 Animation keys been altered on the letter 'B' (see Animation timeline)

 By this point, the animation was also being worked into and steadily completed. I only needed to animate the first 31 frames of each letter and keep their poses inconsistent to keep a bettered sense of variety and character between them; so I could apply the Post-Infinity-Cycle with Offset option in Maya's Animation Graph Editor for the letters to bounce for what would literally be; forever. But for timing's sakes I only need 5 seconds worth which would need 120 frames. 5 seconds is long enough to grasp a sense of what is happening and read the text.

Going overboard and adding too much was always something that I was very cautious about; so I decided that my floor, the base of the scene which would interact with the lettering would also connect seamlessly with the background. This was achieved using Maya's 'Use Background' option in the Hyper shade. However, the effect only works in the final render and through the Camera's view.

Playblast of the animation in progress...

The same was done for the end contact details that will narratively round the show-reel off. The way I think of this, is as 'The Lord of the Rings trilogy' where, we start off in the Shire, and we return there after an proportionally epic adventure at the very end, so I wanted to bring that recurring motif back to complete everything, and not throw too many design aesthetics around.

I'll be back with more!

Another 2D Animation

This piece of 2D Animation explores liquid territory a little, as it takes it's inspiration from the gloopy, laser gun effects from the Disney film Lilo & Stitch (2002), It also challenges me to be a little more careful with line work, which can run away with itself in Flash, and also play around with Masking objects and certain parts of the work to get a desired effect, and change the middle-part of the colour, if desired. The outer movement is inspired by a mixture of the Waves I had previously created using Autdodesk Maya and the way horses move their heads and upper bodies when they gallop.

The image below shows that In the Film "Lilo & Stitch", that even the ocean has a certain, artistic design even from one still, how gloopy even the ocean is made to look, as well as the alien laser beams.

Another Fluid Test, playing around with Buoyancy.

Just another test with Fluid Dynamics, and getting a ball to interact with water, and allowing the ball to have the buoyancy physic to it for that heightened sense of place.

Simple Female Character Turn-Around

So we've really just begun to model our own characters, and like the head, I think it's one of those things that the more it is practiced, the easier it will become over time. But in order to begin tackling this with something not so difficult, I sketched up this simple female body, just to see if I can model the stylised and cartooned body that is a shift from reality in comparison with the human face that I had earlier modelled. It's still a work in progress, but the model will be uploaded soon!

Practicing with Normal & Bump Maps.

I have been testing out painting my own texture's in Photoshop and applying them to texture's and maps in Maya. This is something that I did delve into last term with my Norman film, and it's heavy use of Displacement maps, jumping from Z-Brush to Maya, and back again, but something that I had foolishly bypassed was the pipeline I could already use in Maya - so I have recently been spending a portion of time building on top of the knowledge I have of creating maps in Z-brush, whilst keeping on top of my artistic/painting skills in Photoshop - and extend my knowledge of Maya to create high quality textures. 

Below you can see the processing I have gone through. 

The Water Tower model is produced by Peter Charman in 3rd Year.

The Photoshop design compressed as a TIFF image file and inputted into Maya, and aligned to the geometry of the model in the UV Texture Editor - so there will be no pixelation, stretching or area's of the design missing when applied to the model.

Because I wished for my design to be in Greyscale, for artistic purposes

Test render of the screenshot above. 

You can see that with the design applied as a Normal/Bump Map in Maya, as a greyscale image, it does remarkably well at picking up all of the crevises of the rusted water tower which has given a fantastic result. 

Practicing with Animation

I ran away a little with this one. Couldn't help myself from seeing it through, but it's essentially something that i wanted to animate and have fun with, been able to artistically exaggerate the smoke to look more cartoon than looking at it from a realistic point of view. Below is the work in progress where I have began to work on my key frame's, and figure out where the timing is good, where the cushioning and snappy animation should take place within my little animation. It has been important to try and let the animation flow nicely, and the explosion to emit, from a snappy point, in the performance. I think it works really well, and the drawings are relatively dynamic to allow the performance of the smoke to speak for itself. 

I have taken this time to consider what else I would like to learn to animate for my Animation show reel. A bird cycle is something that I have not animated before, so whilst considering my research on how bird's movement, I prepared a little diagram for me to refer to when it comes to moving into the production stages of creating the piece.

My research on the physical flight pattern of birds can be found at...

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/FlightLesson.html

Second Project Proposal ... WITH ADDED REALISATION!

Updated Project Proposal 

In my first project proposal that went into detail on what i was to produce this term and where I wish to go in future prospects; I was committed to producing a short film that would showcase a directing flare and unique visual style true to my own. A film that demonstrated collaborative efforts and my understanding on the role of a director and the general knowledge they must know in order to shepherd a production through to the very end to meet a deadline/release date. 

In the last couple of weeks, I have spent time developing a short film idea; and In the mean time, i have began an introspective journey that has made me realise that perhaps a show reel of collective work may be more beneficial for me to produce, versus my short film proposal. 

A show reel of collective work I believe may be more beneficial for me to create - as the goal of one creating a show reel is to display this to a prospective employer. 

After time taken to research and consult with my tutors, I have discovered that a show reel will be a more accessible and diverse way to display my own abilities within a collaborative and singular effort of collective short pieces. 

I think that when I apply for a job, the chances are slim of any employer sitting down and watching a whole film, no matter how long or short in length. Considering that films, both long or short run on certain formulas of film language - by the time a film has began to unfold it's story elements an employer may have began looking at another show reel. This is dangerous and can ruin prospective job opportunities. If I were to create a film this term, at an assumption that will be 3 films that I leave University with and I would like to challenge myself to create a diverse and creative show reel that shows off what I can do. 

So while my eventual career prospects of Directing Animation have not changed, I believe that to be a director, a general knowledge (at least) of all aspects of production is needed - with an added emphasis on Pre-Production and ensuring that the vision created by the Director in this stage is shepherded through to the very end of post production. So with this in mind, I intend to further develop and showcase an intricate and unique visual style that I may claim my own that will be used from the production design stages, through to the way the formula and language in the storytelling mechanics are used. I can see myself in numerous role's in any given studio before I ever reach directing, I don't wish to be naiive and not realise this - So I wish to develop my skills as an general artist who can specialise. But keep that 'Directing Flair' wide open for myself. 

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I intend to create: 

- A short sting. Between 10-15 seconds in length. This shall be a collaborative effort and an idea named 'Whipped Cream' is currently in development. This will be a very short film that shows my ability to collaborate in a team and also full fill what I require from an Animated Production - whilst carrying through the smallest story/gag elements that show a 'directing flair'. This film, I can imagine will be heavy on compositing, like my previous first year sting; so this will be an avenue for me to explore and develop, and see If i can churn out a key visual 'look' that was present in my last film, and bring that on through into a new production. 

- Several 2D & 3D Animation sequences with an emphasis on Lip-sync & Performance. This in itself will be a chance for me to develop my animation skills, my sense of timing and also further my drawing skills by specifically using characters that I myself have created. 

- An array of Pre-production work that ranges from Storyboards, Moving Animatics, Colour Scripts, Mock-Ups, Character designs and Pre-visualisation. The focus here will be on Storyboarding. Storyboarding will demonstrate again the 'Directing flare', a sense of visual space, storytelling and timing. 

- A selection of my best work produced in Autodesk Maya. Whether this be Animated pieces, or a layout design. 

- Also any freelance work that I have undertaken that shows I have some experience in an Animation job. 

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Whilst researching what make's for an industry standard show-reel, here is the list that I have compiled together. 

- Keep it short, sharp and sweet. 

- It's better to leave an audience wanting more, than for them to be bored and fast forwarding.

- Australian VFX company 'Animal Logic' (made famously for the Warner Bros. Animated film 'Happy Feet') claims that 3 minutes is long enough for a show reel. 

- A show reel should contain your best work and only that. 

- Think about what is relevant to the job that you are applying for and the discipline that you aspire to. 

- You may have some great work that you are very proud of from a different role, but if it's not relevant, you are not helping yourself get a job. 

- Take any criticism positively. 

- If you are keen to add a soundtrack to the Show reel, it should compliment the vision, and not dominate or distract. 

- Drawings are important to include if you are applying for an artistic role; as well as the value to a prospective employer. An animators drawings might show an understanding of balance, weight and movement. A modellers drawings may show an understanding of mass and proportion. 

Photography is a great study for lighting artists, and finally design, layout and composition of painting and drawning can be helpful when looking at a compositors work. 

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