Class 1 Week 2

What's that? Week 2? And you have an actual assignment?!!? That's right! Woohoo for poses!

You'll undoubtedly get some great feedback from a lot of fellow students...well here's what I've learned:

Keep it simple. “But Brandon, everyone has already told me this.” Yeah yeah I'm beating a dead platypus...(Don't worry it's not Perry the Platypus...ok I'm not beating anything). Seriously though. When I started doing poses last term, I wanted to be different. I wanted to be special (ha special ed...) anyway... Go for. Be unique, but don't be complicated. I was always complicated with my poses and that hurt me in the long run because it took so much more to polish.

Here's Anders Ancker reminding you to keep it simple:

Check out my reel: 

Progress Reel

Skip ahead to the end and check out my poses. Some of them are pretty cool...But some of them are simply too complicated and don't portray the mood strongly. I learned from this and you can too!

-Silhouettes are king! Long Live Silhouettes! Ok. Here's a nice trick. When you have your character all posed and want to check out it's silhouette, hit 7 on your keyboard. This won't work if you've place lights in your scene, so put lights in afterward. All you will see is your character's silhouette. Ask yourself:

-Does this pose make sense? Ask a friend or family member if they can figure out what is going on. Afterall, ultimately the audience is who will see your finished product when you're the best animator at Pixar (someday, right :) ?)

-Can you tell where the limbs are going and coming from? Sometimes if you check your silhouette, an arm might look like it's growing from the head!!! THE HORROR!

--Is there any twinning? “What's twinning Brandon?” Well...when a mama Spline and a papa Spline love each other very much...I mean uh... never mind. Twinning basically means symmetrical. You want the pose to be interesting. For more on some definitions check this out:

Animation Dictionary

-cliché or not cliché? That is the question. I told you this last week, but I'll say it again. Clichés are not the end of the world. Sure you don't want your pose to look like everything else. But clichés are what DEFINE a mood. So find a way to integrate cliché while still making it your own.

-Oh and Line of action..how did I almost forget? If you can draw a nice smooth curve thru your pose and it makes sense, you're on track. Here's an example:

I'm sure I missed about 100000000 things that you'll need to know...but hey I'm still learning too.

-Have fun! And draw A LOT! Check out the Pratt Twins's blog, they have a great posting about poses.

Message me if you have any questions! I have my own projects, but If I can help I will :)

~Brandon