Stages of Animation
Posted in Production, Random Fluff by NathanI’ve put together a little video that describes the various stages of animation I go through. These aren’t hard-and-set rules, but more like guidelines that help me animate more efficiently. Depending on the shot I’ll be more or less rigid about keeping the stages separate.
I also left out an important stage in the video, which is sketching out ideas for the shot. I left it out because the drawings — if you can call them that — are really embarrassing. But for me it’s a really important stage because it’s easier for me to explore ideas through rough sketches than through painstakingly posing a model in 3D. (If anyone is curious, I often use Pencil for some of that drawing/exploration stage. Pencil is nice because it’s a 2D animation software, so I can actually do rough 2D animation to test out ideas.)
February 6th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Very nice video, I’m trying to learn animation at this moment and this sure helped a bit. Pencil looks nice too, something to spend the weekend with perhaps^^
Since you didn’t notice, or cared^^, about me post in the previous blog I might as well ask again. Do you any Scandinavian relatives/connections? I’m asking because your last name, Vegdahl, sounds a bit nordic =P
February 6th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Awsome! You should do the next FAQ DVD based on this work my friend. :)
February 6th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
very useful…
i need to watch this in slow motion because i can hardly notice the differences between the shots…
February 6th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
William…really cool! I would have taken a frame out when he jumping out from the branch and maybe pushed the stretch a little more. How is the pipeline when you want to do a test render of fur ? Do you upload to the renderfarm or just launch a render locally ?
February 6th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Thx for update guys :) . Shot looks really great as the branch moves and so on. I am really looking forward to the release. Keep on good work. GL
February 6th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Nice work Nathan. Odd bunnyhopping person you.
Got a training DVD in the works?
February 7th, 2008 at 1:32 am
Thanks Nathan. A good little quick guide to the steps. I found it useful, and will try to use similar techniques when animating.
February 7th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Very nice!
I also use a[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pencil]Pencil[/url] to draw ;)
February 7th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
cool! though I can’t believe you had time for this :P
Joe
February 7th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
roksvamp: the name Vegdahl is Norwegian. Genealogically I’m half Norwegian.
February 7th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Wee! I’m Norwegian!
Anyway: Cool movie.
February 7th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
I’ve been looking for a program like Pencil for a little while now. Thanks for the tip! I just downloaded it and am about to start working on learning it.
February 7th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
You help me a lot Tank you!
February 7th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Ummm… there are some free animation tools, paul.
Have you ever tried Plasticanimationpaper?
February 7th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
GREAT!GREAT!GREAT! I never stop to say GREAT!
February 7th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
I don’t mean to nitpick, but I doubt the mouse/rabbit/creature would take its eyes off the object it is jumping towards. If you watch a cat as it lines up a jump/food source it would not drop its head or close its eyes. My 10 cents worth (inflation).
February 7th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Bruce:
Perhaps you’re right, or at least it wouldn’t be so perceptible, but in animation we need to exagerate the movemnts, to look better… It would feel stiff and wrong without the recoil, I think ;)
February 8th, 2008 at 1:10 am
thats an insain amount of work for a few seconds of animation…..now i see why it takes soooooo long for a group of people to make 8 minutes of animaiton….
also….hopfully i’m not bringing up a old debate…..but i was wondering if you guys considered adding “the” to the title
big buck the bunny…sounds a bit better?
great work,
peace
def-con-1
February 8th, 2008 at 2:42 am
Super W…. I mean def-con-1, glad you see now it’s not an easy task we have on our plate.
Though this isn’t the place to bring up the topic of the title, I can tell you the title will stay how it is. It’s clear you cannot please everybody, and the same will be with our movie. And in cases like this it’s better to trust my own instincts, instead of going with half-baked suggestions from people that haven’t even seen the movie (not talking about your ‘the’…. but it’s still not getting in).
Peach out,
Sacha
February 8th, 2008 at 4:28 am
super wu’s disguse has been foiled….and baked like a potato….DAMIT!!!
now everyone knows about my collection of adult videos…..
i will disapear into the night!!!
ps. i’m glad your going to add in “the”…. INTO THE NIGHT!!!
February 8th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
humblebee: I used Plastic Animation Paper for a few months, before discovering Pencil. I think Pencil’s interface is better (PAP was awkward for me), and Pencil has more features than the free PAP.
Joacim: wootz! Norway ftw!
Bruce: you’re right. And you’ll see that in my first block I did it that way. Unfortunately, due to the huge head and cartoony proportions of the character, not having the head go down looked too stiff. It was an annoying choice to have to make, because I agree with your point.
February 9th, 2008 at 2:58 am
More inspiration! Wonderful work!
February 9th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Thanks !
Great Work :)
Do you use reference for undestand the animation ?
YEAH ! Peach will be very good for undestanding how to animate in a team :)
February 9th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
humblebee: thanks, I just downloaded PAP to check it out.
February 10th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Great Video. The animation is really good, and we can see somes of the principles of traditionnal Animation (overlapping, anticipation…) :)
Nathan : Thank you for the information about Pencil, I wanted a 2D animation software like this, and thank to you, now I have it !
Pencil is a great open-source Software !
Thanks a lot :)
February 11th, 2008 at 2:26 am
Nathan, thanks for posting this.
I am reading “The Animator’s Survival Kit” (about page 79) right now and your video has demonstrated the process pretty well. Job well done!
February 12th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Hi Ton or staff, excuse me… a question about renderfarm?
When you render a single frame used however the renderfarm? That can render individual parts of the frame and then merge?
thanks…
February 13th, 2008 at 4:45 am
This is kind of off the subject, but does anyone know if there are positions available for concept artist/traditional 2d animators in Los Angeles? I just graduated college with a major in Studio Art and I’m desperate for a job in this field.
February 27th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
WOW!! very nice lesson. thank you