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 Saturday, October 28th, 2006 - 6:56pm - [Direct Link] Here's a neat animation some random people did of some dragons: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=8689588039109500601 And here's a neat animation I did of a flour sack: http://stickman.mach5.org/temp/splash2.avi I've got a long ways to go.  Wednesday, October 25th, 2006 - 2:00am - [Direct Link] I'm all signed up for Spring 2007 at DigiPen! Yay! It starts sometime in January (this one ends December 15th). Now I just have to make it through the rest of this semester without failing any classes. The hard part isn't learning everything and getting all the work done. The hard part is finding time to learn everything and get all the work done. Here's my schedule. I was one of the few, it seemed, to sign up at this hour of the morning (right when it opened) so I expect I'll get all my classes. I have Friday totally free, and finally have Monday available to hang out with my church friends.
And the classes: ANI 125 - Acting for Animation Credits: 3 Description: An animator's ability to express attitude, thought, and emotion through body language is a fundamental skill necessary for success. Therefore, the focus of this course is to present tools and techniques for translating thoughts and feelings into specific gestures and actions. The course introduces students to the history of acting in the theater, animation, and film. Students will explore the basic fundamentals and differences of acting for the stage, film, and animation through a series of acting exercises and problems. Special emphasis will be given to classical method acting. ANI 151 - Advanced Animation - Theories and Techniques II Credits: 3 (5) Instructor: Tony White Description: In ANI 151 students will continue to explore and exercise the concepts and techniques of classical animation through a series of assignments. The exercises in this course will be considerably more demanding than those completed in ANI 101 as they will be longer and will require more refinement, subtlety, and creativity. There will also be a greater emphasis on character development -- the expression of personality, mood, thought, and attitude through motion and posing. Notes: Looks like they pulled the same thing as in ART 101. Conventually, ART 101 is 3 credits, so they only charged us for three, but the class is really a 5 credit class. I'm really looking forward to being taught by Tony White. ART 125 - Tone, Color, and Composition Credits: 3 Instructor: BJ Becker Description: This course continues to build upon students' abilities to draw by explornig the nature and use of tone, color, and composition in drawnig. It emphasizes methods of creating tone, using luminance as an organizational element, and critical thinking. Additionally, the course will introduce students to a variety of classical tonal systems and tonal illusions including atmospheric perspective, sculptural modeling, basic direct lighting, lighting position relative to viewpoint, light intensity, local value, and reflectivity. Students will then explore the artistic use of color. The course will cover systems and traditions of organizing hue and saturation and will examine methods of building from tonal preliminary studies. Students will also explore classical forms of compositional organization such as symmetry, asymmetry, golden mean, and figure-ground relationships. ART 151 - Basic Life Drawing Credits: 3 Instructor: Alica Rossano Description: This course introduces students to the challenges of drawing the human form for animation. Students will examine life drawing for animation in addition to methods for attaining these goals. The course will emphasize capturing skeletal structure, muscle form, emotion, and gesture. Using clothed and nude models of both genders, students will learn to apply lessons in anatomy to the figure, significantly expanding their understanding of human kinetics and structure. Additionally, students will practice extrapolating basic human life drawing and strategies to other animals. BIO 150 - Human Muscular, Skeletal, and Kinetic Anatomy Credits: 3 Instructor: Chuck Wood Description: This course explores the skeletal and muscular structures of the human body. Students will learn to identify skeletal and muscular forms from both live models and anatomical references. Additionally, students will consider terminology, structural arrangement, and kinetic function. The course will give special emphasis to adapting this knowledge to the needs of artists and animators. Notes: Dr. Wood looks just like Santa Claus. FLM 151 - Visual Language and Film Analysis Credits: 3 Instructor: Jim "Jimbo" Johnson Description: Animation is ultimately "film making," and animators should learn from the many classics on how to effectively bring various film production elements together. Students will review several films and study how the relationships between scripts, cameras, lighting, sets, production design, sound, acting, costumes, props, directing, and production lead to successful visual stories. They will also examine the fundamental theories underlying visual storytelling. Understanding the creative processes utilized by these influential filmmakers will provide insight into how students may improve their own animations. Notes: Professor Johnson has been a little difficult for me to follow in FLM 115 (History of Filmmaking), but I expect the visual language of film will be easier for me to follow than the history. So this semester I'm down to 18 credits (+2 "free" ones) from 20 credits (+2 "free ones"). The workload is expected to increase, though. And I'm going back to bed.  Sunday, October 22nd, 2006 - 11:15pm - [Direct Link] I want to talk about a subject that's very big and very complicated. But also very, very fun. I'm going to explain how to make simple yet effective pictures, and how to get the viewers of your art to see the point you want to get across. First, I'll talk about Lateral Inhibition, or "how your eye doesn't see." Second, Simultaneous Contrast, or "how your eye sees." Preface and Stuff But before I talk about the what, I want to ramble about the who and why. I'm currently attending DigiPen. The Art Dean is currently the famous Abbott Smith, who is a very respectable fellow. Abbott (who's kind enough to let the art students call him by his first name) spoke about opinions a little while back. He said there are four things you can look for when someone gives their opinion. 1. How much experience backs the opinion? 2. What education backs up the opinion? 3. What skills back up the opinion? 4. What do they put up for collateral? This works wonders on the internet, too. Next time ol' h4x0r577 blogs on the Space and says something, think about these questions. (Disposable identities are great for "high-collateral" opinions) The information I'm giving here is from Abbott Smith, the Associate Dean of Arts at DigiPen: Institute of Technology, an accredited college. To be honest, at first I felt guilty about sharing this education. I'm paying $380 per credit to take classes at DigiPen. Everyone but two of the art teachers have masters, some have doctrates. Of the two people without Masters, one has run his own animation company for 20 years, and the other was a special effects animator (read: fire, water, smoke, explosions, etc) at Disney for 15 years. I've heard them speak, I've seen them animate, and they know their stuff. Then I realized people that read this are getting it as it was understood by a student. Also, very few people read this. Of those that do, probably only one will actually take the knowledge and apply it. For the one person that will use it, you're the reason I'm writing this. Lastly, there are a few things in this that seem a bit odd, or don't quite fit into place. Rather than question them and try to produce my own theories, I'm going to present them as they were given to me. Even if they are incorrect in some way, they're correct enough that the job will get done properly by using them. Lateral Inhibition I'm going to be talking about your eye and how it works in this section. If you don't wanna hear about it, know this: What you "see" is not exactly what's there. Your eye (not your brain, your eye) amplifies and suppresses certain bits. Ok, you can skip ahead now. This is a rough side cut of your eye. The stuff we care about is labeled.  The basic mechanics of the eye are thus: Light goes in the front, does a bunch of stuff we don't care about for the purposes of this explanation, and hits the retina wall. The retina wall processes the light (and modifies the data) and sends it along the optic nerve to the brain where you can process what you're looking at. The modification of the data in the retina is what we want to talk about. Specifically what's called Laterial Inhibition. So let's draw a picture to see what happens in the retina.  This is a simplified view of the retina layer. Light hits the receptors, the receptors pass on info to the cells above them, who pass on into to the cells above them, that have a long string that joins up into the "optic nerve." The Horizontal and Amarcine cells do not actually relay information. They monitor the two junctions on the communication line. If there is very little information, they release chemicals that destroy the information before it gets passed on. If there is a lot of information, they release duplicates of that information. Again: Very little information? Squash it. Lots of information? Duplicate it. This graph doesn't explain compression. There are about 10 light receptors to every middle cell. And there are about 10 top cells for every middle cell. So our brains only receive 1/127th of the information our physical eye sees. That's why we have the Amarcine and Horizontal cells -- to squelch the too-little-to-matter information, and to amplify when changes are there. So what does this mean to us in useful terms? Here, have a picture:  If you look closely, you'll notice that the left and the right side of each band is a different value. See it? Actually, they're all solid values, but our eye sees them as gradients. What the Horizontal and Amarcine cells are enhancing is contrast relationships. The signal says, "This is brighter than this," and the Amarcine cell says, "Yeah, and more!" and we end up seeing one side darker than it is, and one side lighter than it is, making it appear as a gradient. And if none of that made sense, you'll just have to take my word for the second half. What we actually see is an enhanced or suppressed version of what's really there. Simultaneous Contrast Simultaneous contrast is the set of art rules we can get out of lateral inhibition. They're very, very useful when communicating in the visual language. Simultaneous contrast comes in three types. 1. Infinite Scale Threshold for this scale is 2x in each dimension. Go above it for something to be "bigger," and below it for the difference to be surpressed. Examples of an infinite scale include size and time. Things can be infinitely large or infinitely small.  2. Finite/Absolute Scale Threshold for this scale is 20% of the scale. Examples of a finite scale include value (black to white) and saturation. (Note that absolute scales on a computer different for every monitor. As such, this example sucks.)  3. Circular Scale Threshold for this scale is: 0-60 degrees is suppressed. 60-120 degrees is actual. 120-180 degrees is amplified. Examples of a circular scale are limited to the color wheel.  This logic is useful when you're picking colors or values for a picture you're making. For example, in Bambi they had lower values for the backgrounds. When they added the characters, they used higher values, breaking the 20% threshold and making them stand apart.  Friday, October 20th, 2006 - 1:28am - [Direct Link] I'm trying to get a "cheat sheet" made up for school. Despite how it sounds, it's more for studying. There's a lot of memorization that has to be done, and having all that stuff in one place so I don't have to sift through a bunch of notebooks to find it all would be handy. These lists and items aren't very useful alone, but knowing what they mean (each one has a paragraph if not a book of knowledge associated with it) completely changes the usefulness of it. Just to give you an idea, I figured I'd dump a couple of the lists I'm supposed to have memorized onto this page. Five Skills of Drawing Perception of Edges Perception of Spaces Perception of Relationships Perception of Lights and Shadows Perception of Gestaut -- plus advanced levels Drawing from Memory Drawing from Imagination The Six Drawing Systems Linear Value Shape Illusionary Construction (structural) Heirarchal Phi Φ = 1.618... φ = 0.618... Six Ways to Start a Drawing Scattergun Perimeter First Geometric Primitives Value Pattern/Light and Dark Scanning Structural Three Ways to Finish a Drawing Accretion Calligraphic Percision Abbott's Five P's of a Professional Practice Process Passion Professionalism Persistence Abbott's Five Step Design Process 1. Inspiration 2. Research and Exploration 3. Refinement 4. Polish 5. Presentation Marking Material Categories Additive Subtractive Fluid Linear Pressure Sensitive Shape Substrate Material Categories Smooth Textured Absorbant Unabsorbant FORM > CONTENT Professor Becker's Design Elements Point Line Shape Value Texture Pattern Color Volume Text Symbol Movement Disney's Twelve Principles of Animation Squash and Stretch Anticipation Staging Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose Followthrough and Overlapping Action Slow-in and Slow-out Arcs Secondary Action Timing Exaggeration Solid Drawing Appeal Color Components Hue Saturation Luminence Temperature Simultaneous Contrast Infinite Contrast (2x Each Dimension) Absolute/Finite Contrast (20% of the Scale) Circular Contrast (0-60 Suppress, 120-180 Amped) Vision Ranges Foveal - 2 degrees Parafoveal - 10 degrees Near Peripheral - 60 degrees Horizonal Peripheral - 180 degrees Vertical Peripheral - 130 degrees TSTA = Theory, Strategy, Tactics, Application The Scientific Method 1. Study existing knowledge 2. Identify a hole of interest 3. Observe 4. Form a hypothesis 5. Devise experiments that isolate the variables 6. Prove or reject hypothesis 7. Publish hypothesis as theory 8. Scientific community replicates 9. Theory integrated with existing knowledge Human Eye Rods and Cones Ratio Rods 200 Long 12 Medium 6 Short 1 Visual Elements of Art Line Shape and Mass Light Color Texture/Pattern Space Time and Motion The Principles of Design Unity and Variety Balance (Symmetrical and Asymmetrical) Emphasis and Subordination Proportion and Scale Rhythm  Thursday, October 12th, 2006 - 9:37pm - [Direct Link] I went and added a "past" to my blog posts. I also decided I might as well get around to calling it a blog, since that's probably the best name for it. You can also link to a news post directly if you wish, by clicking the Direct Link text next to the date of the post. Even if no one else ever uses it, I know I will.  Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006 - 8:31am - [Direct Link] My /var drive filled up and MySQL started freaking out and stuff. As such, much of the site wasn't accessible. I've fixed the problem, supposably permanently. Not totally sure -- need to check up on it in a month. Here's some videos and stuff I've been sent recently. Fun stuff. Media Photo Fraud (bad news) http://www.aish.com/movies/PhotoFraud.asp Using DDR for... Dance? (neat) http://www.glumbert.com/media/ddrsuperstar Tetris Car (funny) http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1708954  Monday, September 25th, 2006 - 1:48am - [Direct Link] So one of the first things they taught us at school was "The Seven Goals of Animation." Before I lay them down, I'm going to line them up by asking a few questions. What do you think is the most important thing in animation? How would you make animation work? If you've never tried to animate a little stickfigure walking or jumping or getting shot, go get a sticky pad and try it. When you're done, continue reading. You back? Ok, here we go. The first and most important goal of animation is to put emotion into the characters. Imagine a movie, animated or not, where the characters were as dull as dried grass. Try taking an emotionless figure in a walking animation and add "sad" to it. Adding a frowny face doesn't cut it -- the shoulders need to slouch, the walk needs to shuffle, and the head needs to hang down. Trying to add emotion after you finish an animation is like trying to right click without a mouse. Let's hop down the list of goals and I'll explain the interesting bits. The Seven Goals of Animation 1. Emotion 2. Relational Accuracy 3. Speed 4. Control Viewer's Eye Movement 5. Make it 3D 6. Selective Detail 7. Consistant Quality Speed is high on the list because one second is 24 frames. That's 24 drawings per second. The backgrounds may be static over a scene, but all of the characters must be drawn each frame. A thirty second short has 720 drawings. If you take fifteen minutes per drawings, that's 180 hours of work. It's only 60 hours if you take five minutes. If you're Superman and can do one minute per drawing, that's still 12 hours of work. Are you appreciating cartoonists yet? Controlling the viewer's eye movement is also very important. The guy watching your animation needs to know if he's supposed to be watching the car approaching from the background or the villain it's about to run over. If he's watching the car, you lose the punchline. There's a lot of tricks to getting the viewer to look where you want them to. Make it 3D doesn't mean render it with computer graphics. Animation is a flat medium, even the "3D rendered" stuff. You're watching it on a flat screen, not with some holographic projector. "Make it 3D" means giving it the appearance that it's taking place in 3D space. The key word on selective detail is "selective." If you're drawing a character 720 times each thirty seconds, you're going to want it to be as expressive and detailed as possible while having as little pencil milage as possible. The last thing that an animator should work on -- and probably shouldn't even bother trying with until he gets the rest working -- is consistant quality. Each of the 720 pictures of a character need to look similar enough that you can identify that it's the same character. In other news, I had a class the other day where the art dean was talking about the time-honored tradition of artists measuring the human body by comparing it to the size of the figure's head. It's been done that way for the past 600 years or so. He said it's a stupid idea. A few reasons it's stupid involve the fact that it's a very small measurement compared to the rest of the body, it's attached to only one end of the body, and it can be at very odd angles making it hard to get a measurement on it. A better way, which makes a lot more sense for a right-brained, no-numbers artist anyway, is to divide the body up sequentially. Here's an example: Take a loaf of bread and cut it into eight equal sized pieces. The easiest and fastest way do this is to cut it in half, cut those two pieces in half, and cut each resulting piece in half. Why not do the same with the human body, minus the knife? The first split is right where the spine ends, on the tailbone. On the front, it's at the "pubic symphysis." At this point, the art dean told all of us to grope ourselves. Moving up, the second split is at the base of the sternum, the "xyphoid process." It the bottom of that big bone that runs down the middle of your ribcage. The next split is the notch at the top of your sternum. When you look at it that way, measuring using the height of the head doesn't even come out evenly. And that's all you get. Tune in next week, where I'll probably talk about things like simultaneous and successive contrast! Or maybe the structure of your retina and your cute little ganglion cells. Or maybe I'll talk about how neurons simulate bullet trains and paper boats. That's an interesting one. Oh, and Goya was a sick, sick man. (NSFW, gore)
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