Secondary Workflow

Oktobor Animation has set up a new system where information and tips can be freely shared and explored amongst animators. There is a forum for discussions, lecture/presentations for interesting topics, and a buddy system where newer animators can get support from more experienced animators. Seriously this is the best way to get all animators up to speed and to the quality that the studio is striving for. Every few weeks we've had animators present an interesting tool, workflow or thought process to the group and while a lot of it is stuff a lot of us already know, we all inevitably gain a new tip or tool to use in our animation.

Now the reason I bring it up is, I have been asked to do a presentation on my Secondary workflow (also known as the splining/polish pass). While I know my way is working well for me, I need to make sure I explain it so that people can take away any points that might be useful to them. I cannot think that people will adopt my entire workflow because in the end, it's only one person's perspective and there are thousands of way to achieve the same thing or make it even better. I'm still learning and so is everyone.

So when I get to secondary here is what I do.

Goal:
1. Perfect the body mechanics and timing (within the keys I've already made, and creating new full body keys where necessary).

2. Lip sync and facials

3. Polish and details

Body Mechanics and Timing Tips

• Moving holds. To stop characters hitting a wall, have characters relax into a pose, either at the beginning or at the end of a moving hold. Try middle mouse dragging spline overshoots (tween machine works the same) to quickly copy ease ins. Use COG, spine and head controls, adjust rotation slightly to relax, continue it's direction or ease into where it is next heading to.

• Transitions. How does it move? Move through the timeline and clean up each movement. Make it move logically, smoothly and creatively. Weight is the biggest goal here, the character is 1 body of energy so work out what moves first and what follows. Dont be afraid to create new breakdown and anticipation poses. As always, select all keys and move them together. I find that I can get really creative here, working out pacing, lead and follow, arcs and adding thought.

• Accents. There are times when a key pose is held too long and the character start to die. Look at moments in audio or story where you can add a little bob, facial change or body change (relax or tighten depending on the character's feeling).

• Timing.
  1. Time the whole animation to the audio. Select all keys and move the movement in batches (lengthening and shorting the moving holds). Usually action happens before speech, so I tend to time the action starting a 3-4 frames before. This adds thought.
  
  2. Sometimes my moving holds are tooo floaty. With this problem I sample a key that has just enough movement and copy it to the end of the moving hold. Sometimes I flatten the tangent to help hold it.
  
  3. Keep it as punchy as the show requires. 5-7 frames transition for Penguins (for a regular pose change).

Facials. This is when my key all rule ends.

Eyes. This is when the character really start to display thought. Thought happens before an action, so add in a eye dart in the direction of the movement, or new focal point. I use step tangents here and spline where necessary. Eyedarts need to be put in correctly, if it needs to travel a big distance, either put in smaller steps inbetween or add a blink.

Brows. Please do not overcomplicate the brows here. A strong shape is better than lots of wiggly little brow changes. Here, focus on the character's feeling. You can also add a subtle brow change, like a slight brow down, to emphasis an eyedart. Works really well for reactions to what the character is looking at.

Lip Sync.

The main thing I focus on is the jaw movements.

The lower jaw must work properly and look like it's speaking before any mouth shapes are put in. I also add animation using the upper jaw control to give more emphasis to open mouth shapes (it's also really useful for adding drag to the head). Great for laughs, and softening any popping movements (like 'mo' sounds where the mouth is closed and then opens in the next frame. Pop up and then ease upwards)

Phoneme shapes. I work on mouth corners first, up/down, in/out. Once it's softened I go to 'O', 'F' and 'M' shapes. Mouth corner up and down is really important. To emphasise words, try going in the opposite direction first before hitting the down or up shape. It's like an anticipaction/follow through. Brows can also be done this way. Do not forget your aniamtion principles here guys :)


Final 10% or Polish
In this part, you need to judge how much time you have left on this shot and what must be added no matter what. Fingers, toes, tongues, ears and tails must be added. Do a pass on them, playblast and fix what's needed. Work in camera view too to save animating things that dont matter.

Penetrations and contacts also need to be checked. Before submitting. And.... you're done!

There are times when you are done, you are waiting on feedback or you have made up some time because you worked faster than anticipated. This is when you can add any details, nice little gestures and perfect facial expressions. Adding deformers to exaggerate the down beats or soften any movements is great here, but use sparingly. Dont mess up the punchiness and life you have already created. Keep referring back to what you had and step away often. Remember, life is messy, if your shot works, dont tidy up the graph editor.


Extra Notes:

offsetting: I use to be a fan too, but I find it does not work as I would like. It's the prime suspect for things moving on their own like it's possessed. The best note I have ever learnt was treat each frame as an image, and the body as one unit (hence the use of Key All). To add drag or lead and follow, build it into the breakdown, antics and moving holds. Creating an entirely new full body key also works, though remember to add slight movement in the rest of the body too.

smoothing: Being the perfectionists that we are, we love a smooth graph editor. But I have noticed that life is NOT clean, wiggles happen and it adds character. Sometimes the best things happen with slightly wonky curves and why fix it when it does? As long as the character moves in nice arcs (especially the COG, spine and head), I would spend time adding more character, than fixing curves.

playblasting: Think about the audience, they will only see this shot once and briefly. After doing a whole pass of each step, playblast, go away and when you come back, look at the shot from a fresh eye. Take notes and fix only that. Repeat until your fresh eye no longer sees anything physically wrong. Playblasting also takes a lot of time, we all know the server. And when you do a playblast every time you change a frame, so much time will have been wasted and not much achieved. I have found that by scrubbing in the timeline and (if you computer allows) playing the action in maya, is enough to gauge how your animation will play.

Key All

One big player in my workflow is Key All, I key all for as long as possible, only breaking the rule when everything is working and I need to add detail and lipsync. Now, people ask why? and how on earth do I make things drag and offset without actually offsetting individual keys on various controls. Well it took a long time to work this out but offsetting keys for me generally doesnt work. My character ends up moving more mechanically and looks like parts are moving on their own. What's worse, when offset is done too early (and some people do it in primary), I completely lose track of what my keys are; which one is my storytelling key pose? which frame is my true breakdown? In the end, I end up with a messy scene and mediocre poses. So here is what I do...

1. Think of my character as one unit. Like a bouncy ball inside a pillowcase. Energy is driven from one part and the rest moves along with it. No part ever stops moving until all of it becomes still. If the bouncy ball stops, it still is moving ever so slightly because the pillowcase will pull on it as it settles.

2. So with full body keys, build the key poses. Add in the breakdown just before the new key pose and for now, make this breakdown a simple, inbetween down pose.

3. Moving holds can be built by keying where you want the hold to end, hitting spline and choosing a point in the overshoot and copying it to the moving hold key. This is using the computer's natural calculations as a tool, and it will successfully move the body in the right direction but ever so slightly. Auto tangent the whole thing and flatten the moving hold key.

How to offset neatly.

4. So here is where it gets interesting, you want the body to go into your nice key storytelling pose, but you want the head to delay. With your lovely slight moving hold, go to the beginning of the moving hold key and rotate it slightly. You now have drag on the head.

5. Offsetting arms and hands. You want the hands to go into a new pose at different times. With your first storytelling key pose (which is the end of the previous moving hold), move the right hand up slightly, remember what is driving what, so if it's the hand, move the shoulder and elbow too. In the breakdown key, have the right hand move down, while the left hand just starts to move. In your next storytelling pose, move the right hand to it's final pose, while the left hand moves a lot. With a new full body key a few frames into the moving hold, have the left hand come to it's final pose. Both hands should move slightly in the direction it was travelling till the end of the moving hold. Now the hands are offset, and you only had to create 1 extra key which is called 'easing in'. I'll try and load some pictures here to show what i mean.

6. Brows, mouth shapes, fingers and even tails can all be done in the same Key->Breakdown->Moving Hold->Key poses. With the whole body slightly moving, and deliberately choosing what should drag, this method is really powerful and your character wont ever come to a jarring stop.

Keying All is a way to keep your scene alive and clean. It's using what's there and taking control of what should be driving what. It's also excellent for retiming action and adjusting any posing should there be any feedback changes (without destroying what you have already).

Posture and health

Posture and sitting properly has been an elusive goal of mine. For some reason I just like to sit all twisted up, slouching and moving around. This movie however has allowed me to see how easy it is to change some things so that most of the time I will be sitting right. Right? haha. We'll see what happens.

Oh, and we have a new trend at work, badminton sessions in the atrium. There is nothing better than getting up for half and hour to play. You feel more energised, your eyes are rested and exercised (you watch the shuttlecock so you focus on something distant that is moving), and you go back to work so much more focused. Yay all round :)

When you get a slow day

It's odd that I'm posting so often, but just last week I ran into one of those slow days and this time I overcame it. Usually when I'm not feeling the shot or not sure what I am doing, I mess around ALL day and end up scrapping everything I did. But last friday...

I swapped the shot for 3 simpler shots. Easy as that.

My shot was 182 frames of one character piggy backing another and jogging. At 4pm, I decided to swap it for three 80 frame single character talking shots. By 8pm, it was done.

In tv, getting your quota done is number one priority. When you are stuck, it's a huge hit to your workload. Usually what I do is aim for a higher number of frames per day and factor in a slow day just incase. I think I will keep up with the extra frames per day (you never know when you need extra time), but next time, remember this. Swap it out!

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Add on: I also discovered that I could also spend the time setting up shots. Put the characters in layers, make sure I have everything I need, and pose the first pose based on the storyboards. This way, the next time I open it, it is all ready to go with a more inspiring start pose (cos you know the default layout pose is always super uninspiring and annoying to look at hahaha).

btw, the piggy back shot is now complete, I opened it on Wednesday and finished it a few hours later. I realise that, oh, by doing the start pose and just one other pose... I had all the ground work to quickly block it out. Quite a productive way to do things :)

My journey

This is more a post for me to read in the future than anything else, but I think it's quite important to remember how I got to where I am today. If anything, it'll help me remember what I have learnt over the years and things I should not forget.

2006-2007 Animalia
Basic acting
Quadruped animation (how to straight ahead animate a creature doing complex action)
Blocking in spline. Result of straight ahead animation.
Auto tangent and it's uses
Time management

2008 Zeke's Pad
Pose to pose animation, the workflow of doing a blocking pass and a spline/finishing pass
Cartoony posing and zippy action
Smear frames
Consistancy facial posing by using the pose library and making it my own

2009 Erky Perky
More care in posing, braver and using the rig to sweeten up the pose
Tighter lip sync
Using the top jaw control to animate lip sync
Crazy breakdown and inbetween (arcs)
Manually copying other people's poses in order to learn how they pose their characters so successfully (obviously I only picked the director's favourite shots)

2009 - 2010 Animation Mentor
I learnt the basics of everything in animation mentor, everything I was missing became clear.
Developed a workflow
Discovered detail and polish
Acting confidence
'movement in reality is not clean' sometimes it's better to break an arc in order to add energy

2010 Lil Larikkins
Weight shift, finger movement, feet repositioning. The details that breathes life into a character
Lead and follow
Really focus on posing (thanks to developing character sheets for the show)

2010 - 2011 Penguins of Madagascar
Follow storyboards and build on the strong foundation it provided (focusing on energy, strength and effort)
Blocking in all breakdowns, secondary action and moving holds
The importance of looking at a shot in it's entirety, taking a step back
The power of polish, really pushed everything to the limit on selected favourite shots

So... this is where I am right now. There is still a loooong way to go to even become good enough to be called a true senior animator in TV, but at least I'm heading in that direction. What I would love to discover next is:
*the way to successfully act within a pose, and make it look less pose to pose
*break away from simple actions like headshakes and explore other ways of moving to a new pose
*really push for great facial expressions

Goodbye 2010, hello 2011!!!

Wow! It's 2011 already? It's always like that haha, how the year fly by. 2010 has been a hell of a year, both good and bad. In terms of my animation education however, it's been one of the most exciting and progressive years ever. I've finished my Animation Mentor course and have successfully overcame my uncertainty in my ability to animate acting. I also learnt how to polish my work to a feature worthy degree (I'm thinking it is close because I was actually contacted by Sony Imageworks to work on the Smurfs feature! was quite stunned for a few days). Finally I have moved on to a new level of tv animation since working at Oktobor Animation. The Penguins of Madagascar Series has allowed me to exercise all the knowledge I've learnt during my AM education, in a series with great writing, great characters and very well drawn storyboards.

2011 will be another year of this great opportunity to exercise all that I have learnt. And here I must list what allowed me to attain the level I am at (time might make things hazy, but I wont forget if I wrote them here).

Tip Number 1:
Follow the boards and play with the breakdowns and transitions.

Tip Number 2:
Dont be afraid to PUSH the pose. If it means bending the rig to an impossible state to achieve the perfect pose and express personality, it's worth it! Oh but make sure you block in spline, it has to transition properly.

Tip Number 3:
The personality is in the DETAILS. Adding in the expressive hand pose, subtle weight shifts, eye movements or body spine shapes, is what gives the animation the extra factor.

Tip Number 4:
Changes is good! Critique changes or feedback notes is an opportunity to make the animation better, do not half arse it! Always do exactly what the note is trying to change, for example when the director gives notes on how to change something to give the feeling he/she wants in the story, do the note to address the 'feeling of the story' not just the note.

Tip Number 5:
Body mechanics is the main thing to address when going from blocking to splining. Fix that, address the arcs and weight, then add in the details. My workflow is to
1. put in all the moving holds
2. add extra breakdown poses if needed. The more information you put in the better it will be
3. add in 'acting within the action' poses. Fully body keys here still
4. sweeten up all the body mechanics. Dont lose it here, the biggest problem is auto piloting and turning your animation to mush, only fix what is needed.
5. add in the final details as I said in Tip Number 3.
6. finish off! tidy the ears, tails and intersections

Tip Number 6:
Education is in critiques. The saying (or perhaps from the Tarzan song) 'In teaching you will learn', if you are able to spot problems in other people's work, you will also spot it in your own work and fix it. Also, other people's successes can inspire our own shots. Very very true.

Tip Number 7:
After 5 years in the industry, I finally worked out that having fun and taking breaks is essential to how you will perform. Stay inspired, active and motivated. If you're not feeling it, go play some nerfs or make some iced mocha with the others, that will fix it quick smart :)

2010 has been a really tough and progressive year and I believe 2011 should be a year I take the most advantage of what I've learnt in the hill climb of a year. Keep at it, and who knows, maybe I will get an opportunity to advance to the next level and direct something ;) For the moment, enjoy animation and enjoy life. Good luck!