WEEK 2: Game Dev 2 DESN2017 Assignment 1: Run Cycle Due Next Week!

Great news! Animation Mentor has granted George Brown students permission to use the Stewart Rig provided you:
1) Properly accredit the Stewart rig in their work, as defined in the terms of use.
2) Do not re-post or share the Stewart rig -- in other words, each student must download the rig directly from the Animation Mentor site.

Here's the link!
http://www.animationmentor.com/free-maya-rig/

Continuing with run cycles - here's a good place to read up on runs:
Richard Williams' "Animator's Survival Kit" pgs 176 - 200

Please do NOT use bad reference from the Internet such as AngryAnimator or Anime. Even the helpful Preston Blair is confusing to students - don't copy his drawings, they are too stylized for a normal run. Only source information from battle-tested, quality animators with high-end experience. 90% of the information online on animation is not usable at this level.

Digital Tutors has a great tutorial on runs but I will caution you it veers into territory you do not want to focus on for this cycle such as character sets, scripting for mirroring poses, and editing rotation order. You can learn these if you want but I want you to focus on just animating great poses with great timing using great reference.

http://www.digitaltutors.com/lesson/25052-Introduction-and-project-overview

This is one of the nicest game reels around - and for good reason, it belongs to Jonathan Cooper, Ubisoft Montreal's Animation Director on Assassin’s Creed III. Some killer realistic runs here:

Jonathan Cooper Demo Reel 2013 from Jonathan Cooper on Vimeo.

WEEK 2: Asset Dev 2 DESN1086 Milestone 1: Character Concept Due Week 4

You still have a couple of weeks to complete your first milestone: Character Concept.
If I were you I would aim to have completed my bio and thumbnails by this week to give me another 2 weeks to complete the revised thumbs, and rough in the sketch for the final.

Bear in mind that you will be animating this character so be ready to simplify the detail.

Here are some great resources we looked at in class and a link to a general beginning course in Digital Tutors.

Happy sketching!

http://www.digitaltutors.com/tutorial/1052-Beginners-Guide-to-Concept-Sketching

WEEK 2: Game Project Dev 4 DESN3012 First Milestone Due Next Week!

Milestone 1 is due in class next week. Late projects will not be marked.
Please verify all naming conventions and formats so you don't lose marks for simple errors.

Progression from Horton Hears A Who -
from reference to blocking to animation to final

By today you should have finished all your rough animation so you can spend the last week adding details like facial animation, fingers and overlapping action.

Please check in with me so I can tell you where to focus your energy to get the best results for this assignment.

Please remember your project must be approved in order to receive a grade.

This is an excellent example of a scene progression from Blue Sky's Jeff Gabor:

Here's an idea for an upcoming project - a contest for aspiring animators - short animation ID's wanted for "Catsuka" is a bi-monthly French animation show. "...best new idents will be selected - 5 and 10 seconds maximum, 1920x1080 HD resolution, on white background" - check out details and examples. Some really great short actions: http://www.catsuka.com/nolife/habillage/

Here's one example but there are a ton more on their site:

Catsuka on Nolife TV channel - Ident by Merwan Chabane from Catsuka on Vimeo.