Main Page

The Secret of Zhu..!

2011-09-01T10:12:00.010+05:30

Currently we are working on the triquel(series 3) of this DVD film:

The Quest for Zhu movie is just the first of three DVD films that will be sure to capture the imagination of your little ones.

>> Live conference with, Doug Sweetland...@ Prana Studios.

2011-08-30T20:58:00.010+05:30

Last week we got chance to share 3 hours with Pixar Animator, writer and now Director at Sony Pictures Doug Sweetland at our studio.

This visit was to educate us more about expression for current on going Disney Project- Planes. Since he was Animation Director on the movie Cars he was sharing tips and tricks to make expression more happening.
In characters like cars and planes what we get is just the eyes, rear boody and tyres to tell the story. In this session he gave us some pointers for the same. How to express emotion, how to communicate the idea and even the gender through the eyes. Over all it was very informative, interactive and inspiring. I liked what he said lastly in the meet, "Give people nothing to disbelieve."

>> Know Me..!

2011-06-18T14:16:00.007+05:30

You may know me. I'm your constant companion. I'm you greatest helper. I'm your heaviest burden. I will push you onward or drag you down to failure. I am at your command. Half the tasks you do can be turned over to me. I'm able to do them quickly, and... I'm able to do them the same every time. I'm easily managed.. all you have to do is to be firm, with me. Show me exactly how you want it done. Join the Fastest Growing Group in this category I' am the servant of all great men and women. And of course the servant of all the failures as well. I've made all the great individuals who have ever been great. And I've made all the losers too. I work with all the precision of a computer, and the intelligence of a human being. You may run me for profit or you may run me to ruin. It makes no difference to me. Make me a strong part of your life. Be easy with me and I will destroy you. Be firm with me and I'll put the world at your feet. Who am I? I am HABIT.

(-Copied from somewhere.)

>> Random Thoughts...

2011-03-31T11:42:00.003+05:30

>> Posing Unlimited..!

2011-03-10T14:38:00.007+05:30

Some more poses from My Animation Trainee...

>> Animation PRINCY. (The TWELVE..!)

2011-01-07T09:16:00.033+05:30

Principles of Animation:

Timing and Spacing
Squash and Stretch
Anticipation
Staging
Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose
Follow Through and Overlapping Action
Slow In and Slow Out
Arcs
Secondary Action
Exaggeration
Personality
Appeal

I treat these as guidelines for my animation. Even if you are not having reference you can include all these principles & your animation will be worth watching. Knowing this principle is easy but understanding & applying in to the work takes years to master.
According to Me there are 3 levels:
1. Knowing fully & Applying it in your work
2. Learning to break the principles
3. Creating your own guidelines(Principles), building your own work flow (creative heads & directors job)

Animators are on the first stage, they are very much concern about the movement of the character and application of the principle to make it move nice and smooth.
Then gradually these things become normal for an experienced animator & he starts putting more attention on the behavior & the attitude of the character. Then one will to apply principles and bend them & some time breaks them to produce a gag out of it. This requires deep understanding of the principles otherwise breaking of principle will appear as an error rather than an appeal. Example, we anticipate before an action. If my action is faster I have to anticipate it more in order to make it believable, to get registration from the audience and that something big or wild is going to happen. But how many times we have seen in the Chuck Jones animation or other Warner bros shows where character is taking big anticipation & follow up by slow action.

This is my attempt to jot down all the points about the animation principle and also my experimentation with it. This is an attempt to know more things and simultaneously share it with all.

Timing and Spacing:

Two things, Timing & Posing is the essence of any animation. People spend their life learning, applying & mastering these. Trial and error is the way to learn it. Mastering this is possible only with the experience & personal experimentation.

ð Actual duration of an action is timing. Timing gives meaning and adds purpose to the movement both physical and emotional.

· Timing defines weight of an object more than any other principle.

· Timing also indicates the mood, emotional state of the character.

· Timing can also affect the perception of mass of an object, size of an object.

Some says timing is the speed of an action which also communicates the idea behind the same to the viewer. Let’s dig more in here. Time is a universal term. We use it in number of ways. I remembered a formula which helped me to understand this principle more in depth.

Scientific Formula: Timing= Distance/Speed OR Speed= Distance/ Timing

By this equation I learnt that to make any movement convincing, timing is not the only variable factor but we need to keep the distance of the movement in mind too. Many times in production I used to get corrections that my motions are appearing snappy and I used to spend hours rectifying it. Later on I found out that to play with the speed changing the timing is not the only option but I can also play with the distance on the motion. Many times we do solve the problems with experimentation but after realizing the relation between the above three I can correct my animation faster & better. While timing anything in animation following things needs to be considered

· Gravity

· Air Resistance

· Friction

· And the Surface

ð Spacing is the pattern of the movement in given time. Proper spacing of keys, pose, frames or drawing will make your animation appear skillful. Spacing adds texture to the movements. More key or drawings between poses slows and smoothes the action. Fewer keys or drawings make the action faster and crisper.

Spacing examples:

§ Slow in – slow out

§ Fast in – fast out

§ Slow in – fast out

§ Fast in – slow out

to be continued...

>> Chandi Ka Kalash..!

2010-12-29T10:01:00.010+05:30

Recently done shot...

Chandi ka Kalash from Vikram Pandya on Vimeo.

>> Styles of Animation..!

2010-12-24T13:30:00.003+05:30

I’ve been trying to study the styles of animation from quite long time, but couldn’t actually found some core material on it. So I decided to write an article by my own. I have gone through lot of animation materials, so I am jotting it all down here by adding my own view point towards it.

Visual appeal of the movie depends on the character design, style of animation, cinematography, etc. Character designs can be realistic, semi realistic, caricatured, etc. Same way animation also differs in styles like semi real, real, hyper real, cartoony/snappy, stylized and limited animation. The style of animation depends mainly on the subject matter of the movie, director’s choice and the medium for display. Animation director’s concern is to get the idea right through the motion. Basic understanding about styles of animation will increase our knowledge.

Styles of animation:Watch Example.

· Semi-Realistic Animation: The idea of animation is not to make things real but believable. We take references for movement from real life but in many cases director wants to accentuate some idea or exaggerate some action to get registration or wants some gag to produce out of it. So we are snapping some actions or making it look bit more cartoony. For example Shrek. In this movie the movements feels real except from some shots. I remember one when Fiona is fighting with guards. She is having The Matrix movement (trinity’s pose, with camera rotate 90 degrees). Is timed cartoony where Fiona kicks the guard in just couple of frames. Overall the style of animation for the movie is semi-real. Watch Example.

· Realistic: The character’s movements will feel real here. This mostly gained with the help of motion capture. Here the devices are used to capture the motion & later animators are there to clean it up for the production. Many times in realistic motion character feels stiff. If the director is very fussy about the actions or one is making movie on subtle topics, they don’t want to exaggerate the actions much. That’s why most of the fairy tales, mythological movies are realistic in motion. Movies like The Polar express, Final Fantasy, Barbie movies etc. Many 2D movies are having realistic actions too like Prince of Egypt. Directors don’t want to make it cartoony because it will lose the sincerity of the movie. Again this is a choice one can make it cartoony & hold the subtlety of the subject. Watch Example.

· Hyper Realistic: Taking it beyond realistic motions. Audience will see muscle level animation here which is not easily visible in real life. Energy level of the characters will differ then real. The character designs for this style are unique too. Usually this includes characters which are not seen in real life but director wants them to come alive on the screen like creatures, dinosaurs, dragons, Aliens. Lots of animation & dynamics are used to make them believable on screen. People believe those actions & enjoys because of their hyper details. These are the best examples of hyper real, The Incredible Hulk, Avatar… Hyper detailing in these movies will not look foolish or cartoony but will add the appeal and strength. Watch Example.

· Cartoony Animation/ Snappy Animation: Some movie did attempt to achieve 2D feel with CG puppets. We all have seen Tom and Jerry and loved it too. This type of animation in 3D is cartoony or snappy animation. For example Madagascar, over the hedge, etc… These movies attempted to get that old classic animation feel in 3D and they succeed too. Over all style is snappy but all characters don’t move fast or snap in same rate, they behave according to their personality. In the movie over the hedge I remember human characters are moving differently & that little squirrel behaves differently, of course because of their characteristics. but idea for motion was exaggerated to add that cartoony effect. Watch Example.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feJhlG9XcJY&feature=player_embedded

· Stylized: Stylized animation is like adding cherry on top of the cake. Pixar guys are experts on this. They take real performance and make it worth pound. i.e. by adding and exaggerating animation principles on top of the original videotaped realistic performance. The best examples are Ratatouille, Horton… You will see lots of squash and stretch and arc… in almost all parts of the body in the character, where in realistic you won’t see much of it. We do see that these movements and actions can’t be true in real life, we are watching CG puppets but we do believe them and enjoy their performance on the screen. Exaggerating the real and adding more entertainment value to it by playing with the animation tools (principles.) To exaggerate motion to the extent which creates an animation style, need great sense of design. Watch Example.

· Limited Animation: This applies to 2D animation only. As a rule not more than 6 drawings are produced for one second of animation. Limited animation requires almost as much skill on the part of the animator as full animation, since they must create an illusion of motion in limited drawings. Examples are old series of Flint stones, Yogi bear, Manga anim etc… Here repetitions of the actions are acceptable. Timings for hold are increased. Many times we see character delivering dialogues with stiff body (single pose) & mouth opening and closing. Watch Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s13X66BFd8&feature=player_embedded

>> Defining Animation.

2010-12-23T15:20:00.005+05:30

I don’t refer books for animation definitions. Animation is something which cannot be defined but it should be understood. I usually ask my animation trainees to define animation in their own words. This helps me to open them up, and broadening their mind for more possibilities in animation. By this I get positive response too, they aren’t reading out definitions from any book, but they really emoting the idea of animation by exploring in their own world for the same. They come up with different exclamations like… “Animation is observation!” “Animation is acting!” “Animation is recreating reality and adding up more value!” “Animation is illusion!” “Animation is music(rhythm)!” Some intellectual students comes with unique definitions like, "Animation is Newness in Every step."; "Animation is connection of REAL(Audience) and the REEL(Movie)."

Don’t you think all these are true? :D

Animation is an art form. One can’t teach animation. We can show the way and fill up them with all information but at last they are the one who actually need to do, feel & experience it. I can compare it with swimming. One has to jump in to learn it out by using the body, heart and the mind. Coach is there to help & to provide all necessary information and techniques to do so. How this is different from animation training? It’s exactly the same. No one can actually teach animation, but one has to become the animator by practicing the art by themselves.

In simple words Animation is giving life to the characters or inanimate. Many times we see fresher’s demo reel which has the stock of unwanted, unrealistic & purposeless movements. So, for me “Animation means creating illusion of movements with the purpose.” I can also define this as “Animation is expressing the inner motion or performing an activity with the help of virtual puppets.” Surely every animator has their own definition and work flow for the animation. Same as we all have different ideology or philosophy for the life. Yes animation is illusion of life only.

Basically there are three different stages:

· Knowing Animation

· Doing Animation

· Thinking Animation

Anyone can “know about animation”. Nowadays even small kid can differentiate between the styles of animation. Knowing about the principles, tools, method of animation is not difficult at all. Doing animation by following the idea of directors which appeals the audience is crucial. Able to put the idea & make it work. There are lots of artists in the industry which will make CG puppets move according to the direction. I’ve seen people working in the industry with years of experience still they need someone to direct them because they can’t make acting choices for their shots, scenes. There are some who just have entered in the industry & moved ahead faster & became better. What makes these people different from the other? Thinking..! Thinking about the character, about the motivation for the action, thinking about the emotional involvement of the other elements in the scene with the main character... Thinking animation is the most of all. That’s why I said Animation is not making things move but moving with purpose. In current time companies need people who actually can think & deliver the performance by their own. Thinking, planning for animation is actually the toughest thing. Crating motions which actually make people laugh or compel them to cry. Doing motion is easy but artist spend all of their time in thinking and planning for the performance which can inspire the audience. Proper the planning, faster and better the work will be. There is lots of thought process involves in planning. One has to develop the skills of keen observation in order to create appealing performance. Planning for the shot is not today’s topic so I am not going deep in there. But increase the practicing hours if you want to reduce the gap between fresher and professional level animator.

More practice= more doubt or problems= more solutions (by the self R&D or with the guidance)= more experience of solving problems.

One can learn more, by practicing more and can grow faster. :D

>> The story tellers..!

2010-12-19T12:34:00.000+05:30

I would be sharing my knowledge and experience and talk in general about the Animation and Animators in brief. Some of the subject matter below can be arguable, but the only purpose of mine is providing some information to the newer talents. Whatever information is shared down is from my point of view. I am still learning and practicing this art.

Today animation is not limited in its scope. Animation is used frequently in India; earlier we use to see animation in the games but now days, we daily see numerous animated commercials and cartoon shows hitting our television set then before. So if someone who want to pursuit their carrier in animation has wide choices, that whether they want to join any game industry or any VFX studio or CG studio. Currently animation industry is growing speedily in India which opens up the doors for new talents to enter in the industry.

Director of a movie depends largely on Animators to convey the emotions and expression of the character! So the job of Animator is very crucial in the industry.

Animators have the artistic sensibilities and excellent knowledge of body mechanism as well as understanding of human behavior, solid understanding of animation principles, weight, timing and posing. So they deliver the desired output to the Director.

When People see an animated character in a movie, they are actually seeing a digital puppets stimulated by Animators. Animator are story tellers, Animators tells story by using series of pictures, make character live and put emotion and purpose to it, So when people see them they can connect themselves with the characters, and bind themselves with the story. Yaa that’s what we animators do. We pull the audience in to the movie with help of our characters to tell the story.

Some says that Animators are Actors, but if you ask me Animators job is far more complex then Actors because Actors act out one character in a movie, but Animator have to fit themselves in all characters which they animate, some times they animate Protagonist i.e. Hero some times Heroin or cruel villain or mad scientist, or sometimes creatures and unknown species too… So they have to fit them in all this kind of people, animal or creature, act out and create the illusion of their existence. In bonus, Animators consciously has to make character look appealing, add weight and check balance in all frames they animate (1 second = 24 frames, and for 1.30hour movie= 1, 29,600 Frames… Whoop..!) So you see being an Animator is not an easy job.

For newer talent, entering in the industry is a problem unless they have artistic background. Many times students have asked me that how we can land ourselves in the industry as an Animator or how to approach any studio, so I would like to share some pointer which I always suggest them:

§ Currently many studios arrange fresher training programs for Animation. They demand a reel showcasing your skill set, software knowledge & good observation skill, so there fresher’s get chance to turn their selves in to an Animator. So submit good demo reel which can bring the opportunity to your door step.

§ Take part in short film competitions, and if you can make something really good then industry will notice your work and if your work suits them they will hire you.

§ If you want to be an Animator then start Observing life around you, Study the Animation Principles, practice it to make sure that your real talent should be noticeable in your Reel.

§ Develop the artist within, rather then just learning tools.

Animation is giving life to the characters or inanimate objects. It’s not rotoscoping or just coping motion from some reference. Animation requires the artist to read between the lines and create something that is more than the original.

That’s enough for the first article isn’t it? I am keeping it short, later will go deeper into the all animation stuff may be of mine choice or from your requests.

“Keep working, keep growing..!”

Article By-
Vikram Pandya
CG Animator

>> Personal Animation Tests, 11 secondclub.com

2010-05-21T13:37:00.000+05:30

>> Animation entry for 11secondclub.com (Feb'09)

Rocking..! from Vikram Pandya on Vimeo.

After working on my short film Musing I wanted to do a dialogue shot again, so I did this exercise. Lip-sync needs more work coz I could only pull it to this level. Anyways I was able to complete it and was fun.

>> Animation entry for 11secondclub.com (Dec'07)

I Miss U..! from Vikram Pandya on Vimeo.

This time I wanted to do dialogue test with some story behind, so I waited for the real idea behind the dialogue. When Struck with this concept I didn't wait for a second.

>> Animation entry for 11secondclub.com (Sept'07)

Mistake..! from Vikram Pandya on Vimeo.

This was very first entry of mine for the 11second club. Apart from the production work I wanted to cook something for my reel. And I was very happy with the output I came of. It has flows but for that current time it was my best work, but I learned and improved.

>> Animation entry for 11secondclub.com (Nov'07)

Teddy's Invention from Vikram Pandya on Vimeo.

This was a busy month in our studio. I had started but then never actually got time to complete this one.