Class 2 Week 1

Hello all! Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed your break!

First off a great tip from Anders Ancker that you should already know :)

I think you will find class 2 to be much more challenging that class 1; however, it is also much more rewarding. It is important to remember to keep it simple this term. I know broken record...But seriously.

One of the most exciting things this term is that you get to choose your project from a list.

You'll see that they are ranked by difficulty, but don't let this fool you. Even the easy choices can be challenging. The best advice I have for you is to pick out a few from the list that sound the most interesting to you. Next act them all out and really imagine how you would animate it.

How do your hips rotate? In what ways do you make sure you are balanced? You will be using Ballie for this assignment, so try not to use your arms too much.

Once you think you have a decision, film some reference! Here's an example of how I like to film reference. Not everyone has a camera, let a lone two; but I use a cheapo flip camera combined with my cell phone camera.

Now there's one very important thing to consider: Some cameras film at different frame rates. So this reference isn't perfect because I forgot to convert it. Normally this is how I approach reference:

After filming, I open it up in Quicktime Pro. I then follow AM's video standardization, which I hope you all still know how to do :)

NOTE: If you don't have After Effects or are completely unfamiliar with it, you may want to skip this tip.

Once I export the videos, they are in 24 fps. If for some reason the frame rate doesn't convert properly, I follow this Tutorial for After Effects

I like to composite my reference in After Effects, sync up the video by clapping your hands :)

Here's how I add a frame counter:

Layer → New → Adjustment Layer

Effect → Text → Timecode

Then in your effects controls change the display format to “Frame Numbers”, and the Time Units to “30” Then you can adjust the position and size of the timecode!

Once your video is all composited, add to render queue (ctrl+shift+/), and I like to output module to be Quicktime format, and choose where to save the video, finally render.

It's a lot of work but it's nice to have good reference.

For those of you who either don't have AE or don't know how to use it, it shouldn't be to hard to do this in any movie making program. Of course you don't have to composite them at all :)

Next DRAW, DRAW, DRAW! Draw out your poses as best as you can following your reference.

That's all you have for the week I believe. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions!

~Brandon