Guardians of the Thrones Creatures

Miss Nicole Herr is an animator from Los Angeles who has worked on projects such as Guardians of the Galaxy and Game of Thrones. When asked by the Creature Animation: Locomotion group, she shares some of her thoughts, opinions, and tips with them. She shares the tale of her beginnings first, describing her first animating job for a movie called Sphere, then she explains that her desire to animate came from when she saw The Little Mermaid in High School. After writing to Disney for advise and receiving a phone call from an employee, she knew that animation would be the career for her. Next she was asked some of her favorite shots and she gave a list of various shots she's liked, but ultimately says that she enjoyed one of the shots from Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, when all of the owls were having a tender moment as a family. Then Nicole Herr was asked the differences between character animation versus realistic animation. She narrows it down to references and the level of fine detail required. For more realistic animations, you need more realistic details. And when animating a character, she uses herself for reference. She does her best to reenact what her character will be doing and study any footage she took of herself. For creatures, she studies the animals who most closely resemble the behavior and body structure of the creature in question. For example: When animating a large dragon, she used a condor and a pelican for body structure and movement patterns, but for smaller dragons she uses humming birds and bats. It varies depending on the nature of the creature and the physical design of it too. She details the joys of animating creatures and she describes how she has to look into their little personality quirks to help give them depth. She wraps up her interview with some common mistakes she sees when mentoring and gives her advise on how to fix those mistakes. Problem 1: Overcomplicating things,  Solution 1: Don't overcomplecate things. Problem 2: The student doesn't understand WHO they are animating, so the characters aren't well developed, Solution 2: Learn who your character is and why they do what they do. Problem 3: Neglecting to study references for the creatures they are animating, Solution 3: Learn your character's body mechanics. Problem 4: Not acting out the character's motions, Solution 4: Act out the character's motions to get a better understanding on how they will move. Problem 5: Not understanding the weight of the character. Problem 6: Using bad references. Lastly problem 7: Not asking for critiques. Solution 7: Ask people to look over your work and take critiques, but don't take it personally. It's a team effort.

I enjoyed the article. It was very useful and I'm glad that I read it. I learned some of the common mistakes made made by students. Now I know what to watch out for when I animate creatures and characters. I agree with what Nicole Herr said in this article. How do you know what references are "good" and what references are "bad"? And how can you tell if a bad reference was used? Character and creature animation is everywhere. Her tips should be kept in mind at all times.

Mi Thrones and Guardians of the Galaxy Creature Animator

By: Animation Mentor

Aug

06

2014

Nicole Herr

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