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

- See more at: http://blog.animationmentor.com/10-insights-from-a-game-of-thrones-and-guardians-of-the-galaxy-creature-animator/#sthash.M59l1xry.dpu

Late Night Story Telling

This week I learned video stuff! Oh... wait... you all wanted specifics...? Uh... I learned a lot about some of the tech we will be using in the future. Different microphones and terms and stuff like that. It's good stuff to know though. I also learned that finding a good place to record audio is hard... ;A;

In the near future I would like to learn how to find good places to record a documentary and good questions to ask. I'm dreading the documentary project because I've always been bad with interviews and stuff.

 Frustrated me? Uh... I suppose I've been having a bit of a problem dealing with some of the people around me. I don't think ignoring them is the best option, but I don't want to be mean either. I've tried asking politely, but I don't think that quite got the message across. I'll figure something out faithful readers I hope.

This class makes me happy. It's the highlight of my day and I simply love it! Also, my waifu Emily and I got to talking on skype and we used a random scenario generator and wrote a crap ton of Borderlands oneshots. It was great! And I've been hanging out with my boyfriend a lot lately. He will be starting his new job soon, so I'm a bit worried that I won't get to see him that much, but for now I'm just enjoying the time we spend together.

Pixar Theory

• A theory video connecting a lot of the Pixar movies together. It seems like a relatively sound theory, but I feel like it has a few holes in it. Could this be the case? I'll leave that up to you to decide.

Rockstar Tips

Mr. Ian Bowden, former art director at Rockstar Games, leaves his current job for another one, but he leaves behind some useful tips for new and old artists alike. Firstly, he reminds us all that his job was still a job. Yes, he did have some fun doing it, but ultimately it was still a job and there was still work to be done. When it comes to the actual art, one should pay attention to what others are doing and what's "in" at the moment, but they should never aspire to be unoriginal or to follow the crowd. Keep in mind the little things that are grabbing people's attention but also aspire to be different. The whole world is changing and becoming different, so your art should change with it. Be unique. Next, when one is working on a mobile game, give it the best visual qualities it can have. Don't skimp out on the details just because it's smaller. It needs to grab attention and have charming visual qualities that keep people coming back for more. Little details are what sell, not always high polygon counts and or ultra-realism. Even little icons that appear on the phone's app screen need to be attractive. They need to make people want to touch that app and play the game. Heck, even the icon for the store where the game can be purchased needs to be visually appealing. Spare no details. Also, one should always keep a sketch book on hand so they can catch the little artistic thought bunnies that would otherwise get away. Practice practice practice. Keep your art skills up to par by practicing with your sketch book on the go. Sidewalks, faces, fabric, etc can all be practiced while out with your sketch book. Lastly, an artist needs to experiment and try new things. Expand your knowledge and don't be stuck down on one singular method or style. Find inspiration from other peoples' works and learn from the people who may or may not be better than you. There will always be someone who knows something you don't.

Very useful article. These tips are good for any artist to know and keep in mind, as intended by the author of this article. I can't honestly say that I didn't know any of this stuff, but it's always good to have a referesher (even though this kind of stuff comes at us from all directions. But if it wasn't important, then fewer people would say it). I agree with this article completely and whole heartedly. How would one get their start in this field and what exactly does one with this occupation do? Anyone in the digital media field should keep this in mind. They might as well be fundamental principles of media. This information might be everywhere, but that just means that it's important and we should know it.

Brain Puppeteering

• Film makers, neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists have teamed up to figure out just how movies effect their audiences. Their studies show that the human eye often follows most closely to the action occurring during a scene in a movie. As a result, movie makers have to be cautious about how much CGI they are adding and where. Too much CGI in obvious places looks unreal and takes attention away from what needs to be focused on. The audience's brain is the best visual effects tool for the movie makers to use since it stitches the scenes together so they make sense. Also, faces and physics should be given special attention. Faces are hard to accurately replicate even with motion capture technology and the human brain is hard wired to recognize the human face. The more believable the face, the better the brain can recognize the face and relate to the character. Secondly, the audience can tell when a fall doesn't look or feel right, so the movie maker has to be extra careful to make sure that if a car is going to be tumbling and rolling, it can't look like a light weight tumble weed blowing in the wind. It has to look like a real car with real weight to create a sense of reality in the mind of the viewer. Further research is going into exactly how the brain stitches scenes together, but so far they know that our eyes take a bit of information from different sources and puts them together in a seamless stream of stimuli., even though that is not the case in reality.

• I thought this was a very useful article. These are things that all film makers, animators, or even novices should know. I learned that the brain draws little bits of information from all over the scene and it puts them together as though it was a single continuous stream. I definitely agree with what was said in the article. All of this is scientifically backed and makes a lot of sense if you really thing about it. How was a heat map generated for this experiment? If an aspiring film maker or someone else of a similar field can keep this in mind and uses it skillfully whenever they are working on a project, their films will always keep the viewers' eyes on track and never loose their attention from the main focus. This is definitely a useful skill to have and remember.

Weekly Doldrums

• What I Learned This Week

 This week was mostly a work week, but I did get a referesher on different photo editing techniques. I used a lot of the clone stamp tool and a bit of masks. I also used a bit of layer adjustments to change the color of the scene, which made some cool effects too (like a green octopus).

• What I Want to Learn

 How to edit the colors of videos rather than still pictures.

• What Frustrated you

 I don't like the new format for blogs. I understand why they were changed, but I disagree with it. The change was supposed to make it easier, but instead it made it harder.

• What Made Me Happy

 I donated blood on Thursday this week. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It didn't hurt too bad and when it did, it went away pretty quickly.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pomc3DunY8c

•  Little commentary with the Gearbox at Pax Prime 2014. They're talking about the newest Borderlands installment, Borderlands the Pre-Sequel. It's pretty cool. I personally find it entertaining to listen to.

Color Harmony

• Colorists are vital to a successful film. They fix color mistakes and make scenes generally better by adding colors and gradients. Effective use of color can be seen in not only movies with actors, but also animated films. Pixar skillfully uses colors to make the viewer feel the desired emotional response for the actions playing out on the screen. The colors can be subtle or they can be bold, but one must make sure that they do not overdo it. Find the most important scenes or most intense moments and saturate those with the necessary colors. Colors can vastly change the meaning of a scene. A darker scene might express fear or danger where a brighter or warmer scene might express joy or love. Colorists are just as important as sound editors and a good (or at least decent) colorist should be taken into mind before starting a good film.

• Useful article. Always good to keep the fundamentals of color in the back of your mind. I learned that no matter where you go in the animation/film industry, color will never stop being important. It will always loom over your head and will always play an important roll in whatever you make. I agree that colors are important and will always be important. How does one become a good colorist? Color is important no matter where you go in digital media. Always good to have a little refresher.

Boxtrolling

• Travis Knight is not only one of the animators behind the recent stop-motion film The Boxtrolls, but he is also the president and CEO of Laika where the animation happens. There, all of the skills and tricks learned from its previous movies are not only maintained but utilized in future films because there is a single core staff that sticks with the studio from film to film. Though Laika has made a group of movies with similar settings and themes, Boxtrolls is determined to be different. Boxtrolls is taking a more absurd and fantastical route, involving new creatures. To Laika, animation is more than just a genre, it's a method of conveying ideas and stories to viewers who watch it, regardless of genre. Travis Knight states that his transition from animator to CEO was challenging. He had to go from focusing on the small details to the big picture. He also had to deal with a variety of different people and a variety of different problems and the initial transition was uncomfortable and uneasy. The team seized the opportunity to try something new by rigging the Mecha-Drill with motion controls that have never been used before on anything other than cameras. Doing this was a step towards making a more sophisticated movie that people could watch and feel as though the characters were more than just dolls, but real living beings. With stop motion films such as The Boxtrolls, redoing shots is tricky and difficult. Laika relies on its careful cast of animator/actors to get the job done right the first time. For a successful film such as The Boxtrolls, the team needs to be made up of those who are good with their hands and crafting things and those who are good with technology and keep up to date with the newest gadgets. They might occasionally but heads, but in the midst of the tensions, some of the best ideas can form.

•  Personally, I don't like The Boxtrolls. That just isn't my cup of tea. Most of the information in the article does not pertain to my interests or my ideal field of animation, but I suppose the article would be useful to someone who did want to go to the stop-motion field. I learned a lot about stop motion stuff and Laika stuff: What makes up a good team, how innovations can change the feel of a movie, and how Laika doesn't want to be put into a box, so to speak. They want to be known by just one type of movie they did, but by the movies themselves. Everything in the article was pretty agreeable. It was all factual and based on the personal experiences of Travis Knight. This article is huge for those who not only plan on going into this field, but also those who enjoy animation altogether. It gives a brief insight into the Laika animation studio and what makes them tick.