Sneak Peak

[gazzamataz]

Hi Hashers

 

Well I thought I would post a little segment from my latest 'Bella Bear' extravaganza. The finished flick itself is only a small segment from one of my stories and will only be just over a minute long when finished...

 

When done I will post the whole thing (hopefully by the end of next month) - enjoy!

 

Alf's Appearance

[jon]

i love the models and the environment, but i feel compelled to excrete a little pellet of wisdom:

 

always keep the camera moving.

 

i'm sure real animators will beat me down for such a simple 'rule', but even a mickey rooney (little creep) will help liven up an otherwise static shot.

 

take it for what its worth... and keep up the great work!

-jon

[Bendytoons]

i love the models and the environment, but i feel compelled to excrete a little pellet of wisdom:

 

always keep the camera moving.

 

i'm sure real animators will beat me down for such a simple 'rule', but even a mickey rooney (little creep) will help liven up an otherwise static shot.

 

take it for what its worth... and keep up the great work!

-jon

 

Gotta disagree with that (not the great work part).

Avoid camera movement unless it's motivated. The pan in the piece is a good example of motivated camera movement, but it needs a little tweak. As it stands the camera moves before and after the character moves. Let the charater drive the camera instead. Start moving only when the move is needed to follow the character, and stop moving just before the character does. This will help to keep the camera "invisible". And when cutting from a static camera to a moving one, it helps if the camera begins moving in the shot, it is less jarring.

I think the static feeling Jon refers to is not because of the lack of camera movement but the vanilla composition. A centered character composition doesn't have much attitude. Also it's best to change camera angles on a cut, so you might choose a less centered, not "straight on" composition for the close up at the beginning to help it cut with the shot of the tunnel. 2c.

 

Ben

[Stuart Rogers]

always keep the camera moving.

Gotta disagree with that ...

Avoid camera movement unless it's motivated.

Interesting points of view here. I find that keeping the camera static only works when the action remains perfectly framed throughout a shot. Should the action require movement, I find that the transition from static to moving extremely distracting. So, *my* rule of thumb is that if there's to be *any* camera movement within a shot, never let it start from or come to a complete stop. Keep it moving, but ever so slightly.

[Bendytoons]

always keep the camera moving.

Gotta disagree with that ...

Avoid camera movement unless it's motivated.

Interesting points of view here. I find that keeping the camera static only works when the action remains perfectly framed throughout a shot. Should the action require movement, I find that the transition from static to moving extremely distracting. So, *my* rule of thumb is that if there's to be *any* camera movement within a shot, never let it start from or come to a complete stop. Keep it moving, but ever so slightly.

 

Motivated camera moves, like a pan, work because the viewer is learning about the character as the camera moves, and hopefully the attention remains on the character. However, moving cameras subtract power from the movement of the character. Think of a character running through a scene, if the camera is static the character is creating strong dynamic movement, but if the camera is following it nullifies this movement and effectively makes the character static. So if you are following, it must add power to the shot some other way. We the viewrs often want the camera to follow because we are intent on more intimate character detail than movement through the scene. That is to say if I am watching the face of a character as he runs I might want the camera to follow so I can be intent on those details, but if I am watching the action of the run I want the camera still so that the run has power.

 

Indeed if you have an action that contains lots of cross screen movement, like a run across the screen, the framing needs to change to follow the movement. However editing is an effective way to follow the action without resorting to camera movement. In a sense it gives you the best of both worlds- you can keep the viewers attention focussed on the character, and yet retain the power of the characters movement through the scene. Also by cutting instead of following you can change radically change the composition of your image without jarring camera movement.

 

As far as the always moving camera, it is a concept that has become very popular in the wake of MTV and other content free media, but it rarely flows naturally in a narrative. In a classic "invisible camera" narrative style you want to move the camera only when the viewer would move it themselves. Imagine that the camera is binoculars and the character a bird you are watching. If the bird flies from tree to tree of course you want the camera to follow, so you can keep watching the bird. But if the bird is hopping around on a single branch you hold the binoculars still and watch the movement of the bird. If you tried to move them up and down with his hopping it would make you ill.

Of course there are many times when you choose to break these rules, but it should be a concious choice to have the viewer aware of the camera.

 

okay thats my 2c.

[Stuart Rogers]

okay thats my 2c.

Fair enough.

The case I had in mind was a recent project of mine which had the camera very much acting as a point-of-view (as if the viewer was in the scene rather than seeing things from the most convenient angles). Once the initial action happened, I wanted the camera to move in a little closer, as the follow-on action wasn't taking up as much screen space as initial action. I didn't want to cut because it would spoil the POV approach. So, I zoomed in a little. The transition from utterly static to zooming in was quite noticeable, however gradual I made it - the transition brought the viewer's attention to the camera move rather than the action it was closing in on. By replacing the static view with a very, very slow movement allowed the zoom-in to occur without bringing attention to it.

Y2CMV ("Your Two Cents Might Vary")

[robcat2075]

Nice looking sets. Great character!

 

Good discussion!

 

-I dont know the story so I don't know why the character is looking directly at the camera. But in most cases it's a rather ambiguous tactic unless the viewer has been explicitly prepared to understand it as the POV of an established character.

 

-One small animation note... the head rotates as if it is perched on an isloated axis on the top of the neck. You could loosen up that up greatly with accompanying motion in the neck bone. Try moving your own head without any neck motion at all. Bet you can't do it! And since your character has a pretty substantial neck it becomes all the more important to not leave it locked in place.

 

We could extend this concept to the whole body. You really can't move your head with out some shoulder movement too. And once yo move the shoulders the hips have to move also to balance the body. It's just a hair of motion but it keeps the character from looking stiff.

[Zaryin]

Your animation has improved along with your texture skills. Looks great to me.

[Bendytoons]

okay thats my 2c.

Y2CMV ("Your Two Cents Might Vary")

 

yeah, these days I doubt it's even worth 1.5c

[Stuart Rogers]

okay thats my 2c.

Y2CMV ("Your Two Cents Might Vary")

yeah, these days I doubt it's even worth 1.5c

I can afford the inflation - I've only been in the USA a few days and I've already amassed a pile of pennies. <SFX: Clink of pennies being counted> Yup, 10c.

[gazzamataz]

Well, thanks for the comments guys - I never quite expected such an indepth reply about camera movement though…

 

The thing to remember here is that this is just a section from a section, so if you saw the whole in context you might not think the camera angles and character at the start of this clip look ambiguous or a 'vanilla composition'. Personally it's just how I want it so I am happy with it. It is a smack-bang in your face introduuction to 'Alf'

 

Robcat

As far as the head movement is concerned, I normally (I am learning a little) rotate the neck then the head and possibly the shoulders when turning a characters head. In this instance since the turn is so rapid (he is responding to an alarm) his head and next doesn't turn at all, he spins his whole body around. I have watched this many times and feel that rotating his neck then head wouldn't really add to the movement.

 

Anyway thanks for the tips and comments now back to refining everything…

[Paul Forwood]

Gary, I agree with Zaryin. Your work has taken a leap forward. The environment and lighting improvements make the experience more immersive.

 

The one criticism that I would make is about Alf's eyes. At the moment they seem locked in their sockets and he just turns his head to view something. Allow his eyes to lead the head and it will add life to Alf. ;-)

 

Good work!

[gazzamataz]

The one criticism that I would make is about Alf's eyes.

 

 

Well spotted! I was hoping nobody would notice this and I would get away with it When I originally modeled Alf way back in 2001 I used a material for the eyes rather than model them. Since they are such an awkward shape modeling and animating unusually shaped pupils was gonna be a pain in the arse. But! I have just realised how to work around it - animate the material, it should work.

 

Thanks Paul.

 

More snippets later today I think