Friday, April 8, 2011

Not so long to wait after all!

I forgot I made this a while ago and was meant to post it once the film had come out - well that time has come :)
Don't Forget to Fullscreen!



So this is a sample of the work I did on the newly released (in France), 'Titeuf Le Film'!

The rough drawings are done by various talented animators, and the Clean ones are the ones I did. Rather than linetests, or complete scenes, these are just a few frames to give the impression of flipping between the rough and clean drawing, so as to see the difference between each clearly.

So what does an assistant actually do?
The aim of the assistant is to take the rough animation and put the characters on model, making sure the volumes all move correctly and also making VERY sure that the intention of the animation is still maintained even with these changes (e.g an arm swings, but it is too short for the model, so it is lengthened but the arc of the swing has to be consistent. Obviously it can get more complicated than that but you get the idea!).
Some of these drawings are then cleaned up with the nice final line, and these become 'Spot Keys', which Clean-Up Artists would then follow and apply to the other keys (and possibly Breakdowns) in the scene. Then it would go to the Inbetweeners to finish off the job!

In some cases because of time and budget and all other lovely production related things, we just did the 'Spot Keys', so only a handful of drawings would have been put on model (usually the poses with the biggest variation in the scene, so as to give as much information to the people who would have to apply those changes to the other keys). This meant though that there had to be some leniency with the model, because if we changed it too drastically, it would have been harder for other studios to make the changes to the other drawings and maintain the animation within the small timeframe.

It may take a few views to see the subtle changes made (and yes, it was the design to have the eyes 'cross eyed' and to have the pupils slightly overlapping the line of the eye ball! :P).

With regards to the film itself, I saw it at the Cast and Crew Screening and really enjoyed it! It certainly isn't going to be in the running for any Best Animation EVER Awards, but aside from a few dodgy scenes, it looked lovely.
The big controversy though was the fact it was a 2D film in 3D! I say controversy because a lot of people in animation were against it, "They just want to make more money!", "Why draw something 2D to look volumous, to then convert it to look flat?" and other stuff along these lines.
It may come as surprise but generally, companies DO want to make money. Now I understand that that shouldn't be the reason driving what should be an artistic decision, but pushing that to one side, from a visual stand point, I thought the 3D worked very well!
Imagine the Multiplane Effect, with a bit more ooomf! It certainly wasn't over done. There were just a couple of shots it didn't work - one being a 360 pan around the characters (felt weird!) and the other was where the character ran off in the 'Z' direction (didn't give the right impression of depth). Was it THAT much better for being in 3D? No.... But I enjoyed the experience none the less!

That's enough for now!
'Till the Next,
L

16 comments:

messytimbo said...

wow you did an amazing job man! it looks like a really tough job.

Thanks for you comment by the way. Yeah i wanna animate the next pannel as well, maybe i'll just keep doing them and cut them together hahahah one day you might see a tank girl movie on my blog hahahaha

"TORI CAT" said...

YAYIE.... You Diiiiiid it!! :D

Looks soo good to see your clean up put together put together like this. I like seeing the rough fading into your super clean lines!!!

I remember seeing your original drawings when you had them loose in a folder and they looked great, but i think comping them together in a video like this really helps you see the dramatic changes and hard work you had to put in. I found myself pausing the video and flicking between frames, backwards and forwards as if i was animating, so i could really study the amount of work you had to do. (Hope that makes sense!)
By the way...The teeny tiny Nadia's with the speech bubbles really made me giggle!! :P

Its a great reel.... i cant wait to see your new "super clean" assisting work, especially if you say its even cleaner and stricter than this!!
Imagine now, putting your cleaned up Emmanuels next to your cleaned up Titeufs!! :P The standard and quality of work just gets better and better!!
(I know it's unfair to compare student work to feature.... Its just amazing how quickly you have to learn and develop your skills in the 'real world')

All looks fab Mr Rossi!!
Keep up the great stuff, and keep on smiling! :D

T.x

"TORI CAT" said...

Do'h...!!

iv just gone on to read what you had written about your video, and seen you wrote exactly what i just said in my last comment, about 'flipping between the frames of the video'.

Whoops!!

Oh well, Great minds think alike! hee hee :P

T.x

Jez Tuya said...

wowzahs! Impressive!

libra bear said...

Hey man, that clean up stuff looks hard, you make it look easy. I know the guys at ink were having a hard time till you showed up. This was such a good post Laurent, I really enjoyed reasons it, and your explanations are spot on. Thanks for teaching me something.

Kristian said...

Your abilities are breathtaking. What can't you do?!!!!!!!!

L Rossi said...

@Tim, Tori & Jez
Thank you kindly guys! I'm glad you liked it!

@Wes
Cheers dude!.... but I know you knew this stuff! And I'm pretty sure you knew that I knew that you knew it too! :)

@Kristian
As always, you are extremely flattering! :)
(And I would write the list for you but I don't have 3 hours... It's time for sleep!)

Frankie Swan said...

dude thanks again for your insightful comment!
i figure if i colour the ones that a slightly decent then everyone will ignore the really bad none coloured drawings!ill keep up the sketches to the bitter end!
i could vividly picture what you were saying about contrasting the movement, arh i wish i did that now! and with the cameras i was just pushing myself to try different angles and shots, i learned a lot from it i think but looking back at it, it does make me feel a tad queazy.
your so write about the skull kid,i was basing my character on him after playing majora's mask a couple of months ago (not as good a ocarina of time but still a classic) im happy you liked the idea but im afraid i dropped it for a new one. ive added some new animatics to my blog, if you have a spare moment please let me know what you think.

man the work you do is incredible and looks extremely challenging, u got some sick skills. however do you have any more observational drawings that you'd like to share??
hope your well dude

L Rossi said...

@Frankie
Hey man! Agree with you on Ocarina - it's my number 1 EVER - but I really liked the time aspect in Majora's Mask.
Anywho! I DO have some observational drawings, but I don't have a scanner. I'm gonna be sneaky and try and use the scanner at work early tomorrow - If I get in trouble, I'll blame it on you!

Frankie Swan said...

all i can think of to say is WOW!u couldn't pay for that kind of feedback and if you could it sure as heck wouldn't be cheap! thanks so much man im super excited about my film now. your suggestions are so helpful, i was racking my brain for ages trying to think of ways to improve those shots, then i see your comment and bingo!also they will prob cut some time off it as well which is also something i was trying to do. you just breathed some new life into my idea. gonna make another pass at it soon!!
major THANK YOU !!!!

Frankie Swan said...

ha Ocarina is my all time fav as well! couldn't begin to tell you how many hours me and my brothers spent looking for every single one of them golden skulltulas!

ill gladly take the blame i'm sure it'll be a noble sacrifice. cant wait to see them!

take care

Marguerite Dumans said...

Hey Hey ! :) :D

I didn't leave a com first coming here cos' I spent my time reading about ur job in ur posts ! And now I can say... WOooOW ! Thumbs up ! :) I do get what u meant now when describing ur job last time ! ¤_¤ aaand... That's quite the deal ! I mean, impressive ! How patient you must have to be, to deal with drawings that might sometimes get on ur nerves ! Some people mustn't pay so much attention to the characters and so... Must be irritating. :/ No ? Anyway :P Really impressive ! Ur lifedrawing looks pretty good as well :) really nice actually... U've got so muuch on ur blog. I need to catch up... :-S Gosh !

But hu. I'm Marguerite Dumans :D Sorry if it gets confusing ;) hehe. Same one person here ^_~ Long story on just one name :D hehe.

& Cheers for ur com !! ^^

Bon courage pour le travail ! =)

Marguerite Dumans said...

Hey hey hey... FELICIIITATIONNNS ! Impressive. Just 4 people in... WOW. Bravo en tout cas :) :P Now let's celebrate :D hehe.

Sophie said...

yeaaaah Laurent we did it! :D (it's Sophie)! Coooool! see you next year :D

Sophie said...

(ps: any good tips for accomodation in Paris? ^^')

L Rossi said...

@MargueriteDumans
Merci beaucoup! Et maintenant, nous attendons tes resultats! :)
@Sophie
Merci Sophie, felicitations a toi aussi!! C'est peut etre plus facile si nous parlons par email :)
lrossi@favelados.co.uk