 Welcome back. It is Friday and this is part three of the Q&A and my answers to all of your awesome questions So let's get straight into it. I got a ton of questions left So I'm gonna try to power through all these a bit faster So we can end this with part three unless there has to be a part four because there are too many awesome questions So let me sit here. I'll look at my monitor. I'm here. So there's room as always for these so eight animator or however you pronounce that Power centers imposes that's what I talked about last time or say that's gonna be the answer for today. So with power centers So you understand the examples So I should let me read the question for people that just listening power centers imposes I understand some of the examples given about this topic But I can't find a logical pattern to this concept when comparing between examples Well, I'm not sure if there's a logical pattern You know, it's like a mathematical thing of this is how it's supposed to be But I would say I would look at power centers in terms of the attitude, right? So when you have someone I was kind of thinking in terms of a Chris Farley He was kind of big and doesn't really care about how big he is and for me like his power centers Kind of the hips and the belly area where that's just the area that leads even when he's getting a rest pose It's kind of like er, that's how he is versus someone could be Maybe skinnier and lighter and more cerebral and maybe the power center would be then in the head Where like the head is always kind of leading the thing You know, it's kind of moving around as if it's being pulled by something or again It could be something in the chest depending how powerful and confident you are or the head or the hip So to me power centers would be something where it's the general attitude of the character That's throughout everything. So in the stress pose in between, you know, specific acting beats That's always kind of the defining Pose and attitudes and line of action just in the way the character is Throughout anything. So that's kind of how I see power center imposes and you can look at it in terms of is a character weak Or strong and how will that adjust your power pose depending on that so that if that will be emphasized So someone, you know, that's shy and introverted wouldn't really have a power center here Give me out of frame here, but where, you know, constantly out like that because on this, you know Maybe they're pretending and that's the thing and then whenever they're no one's looking that it gets more into like That's kind of more how they are. I mean, that's kind of how I look at it But I'll definitely want to look into that more. It's not really something that I think about Specifically where I say, well, this is the power center that I want for me It's always kind of what's the attitude of the character? What is the defining rest pose that's, you know, the definition of the character when they're just in their default pose And then what are the attitudes Depending on the shot and the story points and you know, the emotions you want to convey in that shot specifically So if that can be applied to power centers, then that's fine, too But it's actually not something that I I think about frequently in those terms But yeah, again, thank you for the question Hesitature, hesitature, hesitature I love those names. Uh, hi JD. Thank you for all your videos. You're very welcome. They are extremely helpful That's awesome. I have a few questions. Of course working on animation involving a lot of revisions There is always fixing and changing idea. How do you manage your scene or blocking so that it's easier to change? Yes, that is definitely a topic, especially at work. We definitely have An environment where there are a lot of revisions. So I basically what I do is my workflow knowing if if I present it to someone Knowing that there's going to be a lot of, you know, changes and revisions and stuff and notes I usually uh, I think as I mentioned before I Block things out every four frames So I do I block I key the whole character including face and fingers But you know, like basic stuff and I strip maybe keys I don't need But everything on the character every four frames with the main poses with the about the right timing that I want And then I adjust those keys in a timeline to move around So that the timing is correct and it looks good and the weight is there and the story points are clear The acting beats are clear and I try to incorporate offsets and asymmetry to make it as good as possible But as cleanly as I can with those clean keys And then you know, if I need to do something in between where I go from that into layered Or maybe I go in a root chest head arms and legs and I kind of I'm a bit more messier With the keys If I need more detail then that I then I do that but then that's kind of how I present it Hopefully it's clean enough and if there are notes because everything is keyed on the on the same frame on all the Controllers I can easily just delete keys And then readjust and you know and then go from there If it gets where I have too many keys because we got to present them in a more advanced stage You know, I just usually just key Like if I have a middle part that's not good that needs changes I key At the end of what's good and then I key everything at the end Of what was not good and that middle chunk I just delete the whole thing and the rest stays put and then I Put in the new animation and then I make sure that the blend points are okay So whatever was good then the new part and then whatever was good before and I kind of blend that Worst case when everything is just there's too much stuff in there I just bake the whole character baking as in I key every frame every control everything is there no constraints everything's just Boom there then I can just delete a chunk. It's not going to affect anything Readjust and maybe delete a couple keys before and after and it's kind of make the splines look good And that's kind of the approach So I'm pretty comfortable at this point just baking things out and it's deleting chunks and re going in there and readjusting And then making the transitions work out and sometimes, you know, you got revisions that are so destructive You should start from scratch Just gonna redo it Um, so that's kind of how I do it. So my blocking is as clean as possible for as many changes That I can fit in quickly Is there always subtext in every shot in a film after watching your videos? I have been trying to put subtext in my animation But I have a hard time coming up with a subtext or with subtext on some shot that the character says something Straightforward or say something that he is actually thinking For example, a character just broke a coffee machine and then people are looking at him He say I didn't do anything. So no, there is not always subtext You can absolutely do whatever you said here where it's just a full on. No, I didn't do it And that's it And so that's it's just more interesting where the character looks around goes No, I didn't do it But you clearly know that they did and they're trying to hide it So I think subtext is just interesting to do because there's there's more There's another layer to the performance and there's more interest to it And you can add some subtleties in there But at the same time, you know, you don't need it. Some shots are just very straightforward So so no, you don't always need subtext I've seen a progression reel from a professional animators But from professional animators who shoot acting reference and then animate the character exactly the same as the reference However, I had a hard time acting out to get a perfect reference where I can just copy it into my animation What is the best way to practice to get perfect reference? Or is there any other solution? It's tricky one. Um Because it depends on your style so If anybody listening to this has the attitude that reference is cheating, then it's not cheating So I just want to just put the hammer down on that. It's pretty silly that you don't want to shoot reference Why wouldn't you everybody uses reference? It's you learn from reference You don't have to copy it. You can still shoot reference and learn from the basics The principles the mechanics of how do I really move and then take what you learn and then tweak it and stylize it and And caricature do you mean like you just it doesn't have to be a copy that being said So if some animators copied the reference exactly which I have done as well because sometimes in my line of work It's photo reel and it has to be super clean I remember doing a shop for battleship where there's a shark coming towards camera around a silo like one of those Ships are on the water and then that's it But then they wanted a very specific move that was based on reference and they wanted exactly that So well, I just copied that animation one to one and it's just a Every four frames every two frames every one frame and then you just copy that It's it's a fixed scene of that reference and then so be it because it has to be photo reel But then they extended the shop before and after so it became twice as long So then the beginning was keyframe then it was reference and then it was keyframe So I looked at the reference. I looked at other reference I studied how sharks move and then I put that in so it's kind of from scratch Then it's reference and then it's from scratch and then with notes from the supervisor who knew a lot more about animals Give me tips and then at the end it's one whole cohesive piece. So Sometimes you copy it one to one like on I did the shot on Pirates two just one shot on a weekend And it was david jones and it's just the performance is so good by the actor And that's what they wanted you just copy that performance one to one creatively. It's just it's there's nothing there There's nothing that you contribute But sometimes just that's the work so To answer your question um the best way to practice to get perfect reference is that UA has to have to first look at what is the intent of the shop and what is the style If it's cartoony, then you're not going to reference a copy the reference because then what's the point? Like it's going to be too real looking you want to stylize and push anticipation push the ideas push the acting And the reference is going to be just a jumping off point right looking at maybe specific timing points for a gesture or head turn Or just specific poses or how you move from pose to pose and then you embellish on top of that So you got to look at first your style and intent and then you reference It just comes down to well if you're bad at shooting reference that you got to find someone else That's better at acting things out or if you're bad Maybe you're better at interpreting your reference in a thumbnail link and going from there So for me, there's no perfect reference in me. I mean, it depends how good you are Like the structure has to be good. So if you're not good at reference find someone that's better um, but your reference has to It's just the starting block. I know if that makes sense, right? So your your reference if you got a cartoony shot your shot You won't be able to act it out exactly the way it's supposed to be because I highly doubt that you can move Exactly in a full on cartoony way. So it's not going to be perfect. So I think you just have to live with that You just have to make it work and then use that as as the basic structuring and and then, you know, improve on that Or is there any other solution? So yeah, that's so that's what I mentioned Again, what I use sometimes in reference is just that I copy the reference I wrote a scope with every four frames Just to get a general idea of is my timing right is the the general idea right within the time frame with the live action play If it it fits if that's what I have in my shot or with the camera move or the scale of the creature Like whatever it is like sometimes I just do that quickly to see is that the right idea? And if it is then I know what to do what not to do and then I shoot reference again More specifically Uh, and then it can be more stylized and more whatever or it's the same where I just do something real Realize in the timing of it and then the animation is more stylized and just I just take elements out of reference So for me if I shoot reference for live action, um, sometimes I stick to it very closely Sometimes I throw it all away and it's just you know, basic reference if I shoot reference for cartoony stuff Most of the times 80 goes out the window. I just look at general poses the idea Maybe I like a head turn, but then you look at it and go well that head turn this looks real It doesn't have the right arc that have the right settle or the right moving hold And then that's something you just got to do by hand, you know, it's just the keyframe aspect of it All right I'd like to request a video about texture in animation. How do you get an interesting timing out of your performance? Uh, sure. Okay. Uh, I definitely will talk about timing Uh and then texture for me that goes hand in hand how to kind of look at and for me It's kind of like the flow. It's almost a musical thing how you have movements and changes So I always look at contrast contrast is huge for me contrast in timing and timing in general I almost put that above poses. Yes poses are super important Um, but you can have great poses and really bad timing. It's going to fall flat But if you have fantastic timing with crappy poses, it's still going to be better than Great poses and bad timing because with bad timing the intent is off the acting choice is off You won't quite understand what it means But even with crappy poses The timing of it for the comedy or the intensity all that stuff comes It's still visible through the timing. So texture in animation timing in contrast. That's huge So, okay, I will definitely uh, look at that and then do something specifically. All right Uh, oh, hi mark. Uh, he's got a question. Hi JD. Actually, we should thank you for your videos here Oh, please. It's my pleasure. Um, but thank you. If you have some time take a look at this video Uh, yes, I believe that was the lessons lessons of the screenplay or something. Um, I I apologize for blanking I definitely watch those it talks about screenplay, but also mention about acting and character habits My question is I think that might have been, um No country for old men, maybe I don't know but, um, check in the previous Video he posted that question. The link is there. It's great and I love that that channel. It's awesome stuff My question is how to add these little personal habits to character, but not to complicate the original idea Thank you so much for all the videos, especially acting and analysis. You're very welcome and I love that you like those Um, so how to add these little personal habits to characters, but not to complicate the original idea That's a great question and I would say My answer to that would be Don't add those personal habits. I know this goes against everything. I just said in everything that I just posted The point is that you need to have very clear acting beats acting choices Uh, the timing just everything has to be super clear to to Um, communicate the idea and the story point and the acting choices, right? So the cleaner this can be and the simpler and the more direct To me at least the better the moment you start adding Personal habits and things like you said it can start to complicate the idea So I would do the general structure and make that as clearly as you can and then just as cleanly as you can And if you have a moment where maybe I can just add that little thing here And I know it's technically well you shoot reference you planned a little moment in there And it should be in your original blocking Maybe it's tricky to do just the basic stuff and then add stuff on top of that I totally understand But if you want to be safe keep it clean keep it direct keep it just you know very focused Then you can add maybe little things here and there just to add that little habit to add that little extra thing in there and it's just kind of up to you to Kind of police yourself until you know, so you kind of look at is that too complicated? And if you're unsure he got to ask for feedback because you can't work in a vacuum You got to ask for feedback so ask your teacher ask your mentor ask your co-workers ask your fellow animators students You know me like whatever you have for feedback Just ask and go is this clear and when it's not clear strip it out and redo it until everything is clear And it's kind of like for me like the personal habits All that stuff is kind of the salt and pepper and the spices where it's the added flavor But if the general structure is not clear then it's not going to work either way But I understand what you mean that what if you add too much and it complicates it again That just goes into feedback. So add things see how it works Ask for feedback until it breaks. You're like, I don't get this like, okay Well, then I maybe I should dial back and not do that. All right, that would be my answer to that Cecilia Tedia, Teja, I don't know. I apologize as always one I always have a problem where my animation poses don't overlap well Which make my animation so stiff, especially when the movement is not action Do you have any tips how we overlap 101? Yes, um, I would say It's a good question because I do a lot of things pose to pose because if I have a set length of a shot I want to know, can I fit all the acting beats into that length? Then I kind of do pose to pose So I know I need to do this here this and frame 50 this and frame 100 Kind of fit this in how are they in between and the different acting choices in between will it fit? That's a lot of times my my workflow is pose to pose But then you have that which is kind of You know, that's the pose. So how do you overlap? So for me the overlap is There are two there are two ways overlap in sense of just the action overlaps in terms of you do something and then the action overlaps You know, copy hair secondary stuff or hat coats, you know something that's just there the movement overlaps But there's the second part where that's to be more interesting is You have to look at when you go from a pose and you go to the other pose you have to look at what's the intent What's just the acting choice? And what will lead that acting choice is your pose a going to pose b led by the head Is it led by the hand is it led by the chest the knee whatever it is, right? So if I'm talking to someone and I hear a sound that freaks me out It might be whoa, what was that and I look and I lead with the head So for me The overlap maybe that's not exactly overlap because you have a set pose and you go into something else but This could be where I do something and then I go into another pose and that will be the overlap from pose to pose I mean, so I that's kind of how I approach it. So it could be something where I turn like this If I talk and maybe someone is saying something that's that's annoying and might lead with the hand first and then I do that so So animation poses so that's kind of how I look at it how I take this question Like if the poses don't overlap well You have to look at two things are the overlaps in terms of technical overlaps where you stop something in another action This overlaps and you have secondary stuff not in terms of secondary of I'm doing something shuffling through things secondary action as I deliver the my acting choices But it's kind of like overshoot and overlaps in terms of uh, you know, again, like a coat a scar of hair Or tie. So that's just kind of more of a technical thing. So I'm not sure if that's what you mean in this case But the stiff animation I take it also in terms of I have an acting choice pose I have an acting choice pose. I have an acting choice pose that to me also makes it stiff So I look at in terms of What do you want to do going from a to b? Pose wise and what will lead the action and that will be based on your acting Intense or in a reaction to something or whatever it is, right? So I hope that makes sense So I look at again Is it something external I look and that's something that I go through here Is something that I do with my arms to stop something or is it you know, I look at someone and then I go over there So that maybe the shoulders will lead more and then the head and so on. So that's kind of how I look at that. So um Because you say especially when the movement is not action So that's kind of how I take it in terms of acting choices and not action in terms of mechanic Mechanical movement. I don't know if that wasn't clear and I took that question in the wrong way Let me know comment and then I will clarify Two Can you tell us how to create a good reference? Especially for acting I try to animate based on my references, but they don't come out very well because my acting is poorly executed Sometimes I just move the movement doesn't match wait Sometimes I just move but the movement doesn't match the conversation Or simply my movement is too simple. Just like the default human. Um, just like default human Ha ha ha. So I think I talked a lot about reference. I hope whatever I mentioned in my Long time post how to look at reference and in my q&a's now. I elaborate a lot on reference. I hope That was an answer. Um I tried to animate based on my reference, but it don't come out very well because my acting is poorly It really comes back to if you can't act find someone that can act for you Or you look at actors and moments in movies as inspiration don't copy them But you can see how they go about it and then take notes and thumbnails and kind of try to distill The good stuff and you know combine that into a movement for you Um So yeah, and you know again, they're too simple. It's not complex enough in terms of acting choices Study acting look at actors. What do they do? And if you find people around you in your community in your school, whatever They're a good actor study them ask them how they go about it And it's just it's just a matter of practice as well Three how do we make a reference for action shot like jumping parkour, etc. But we can't do it Um, that's a good question as well because sometimes you are not able to do all that jumping stuff So then I look at outside reference go on youtube or whatever you can find online People probably have done what you need and if it becomes too much Then in terms of like something that's not realistic or just something that no one has ever done Look at well, is there a basic thing that's within that action that I can look at and then base My action on that so if the jump is there But the jump that is needed for your shot is even crazier start with the thing that's real that's based on Proper mechanics that don't feel fake And then embellish on that and that was that way your structure is real like a structure your body mechanics Makes sense. It's not something that breaks where you go like I don't buy this But you can then embellish moments to kind of push the style or push the action because that makes sense So I check online and then like as always if everything fails She's got to make it up right sometimes you just got to Create from scratch and you just do it and you hope that whatever you've learned by now will make your mechanics work and Sometimes she's got to again do it from scratch all right Tanya doodle zilla vincent hi I would love to hear your tips for animating in layers versus steps I love working in step but layers is a bit terrifying. Do you have any advice? Also, I love to hear your tips on animating acting while the character is doing a mechanical act Such as the scene with the character walking and talking. How would you approach this? Love the channel and the tips. Thank you. Thank you for spending this time to teach us all you are very welcome All right, let's go one by one. Hi. I would love to hear about tips animating layers versus steps I love working in steps, but layers is a bit terrifying. All right I got lots of thoughts and I mentioned that before MP was the q&a's and other stuff I don't want to say that again here I would so my big thing if you do steps Which actually I just talked about in the class yesterday at the academy If you do steps, the main thing is that you have to be very disciplined about adding enough breakdowns in-betweens Isins and outs to really show the timing of someone of how someone transitions from post to post So if someone is standing and then gets up you can't have to suppose like this And then it pops to the post of the character standing because you're missing all the good stuff in between Well, how is the character standing? Is it just kind of like a slow or is it like a oh? What's going on is it kind of like hey you when it gets up? There's so many things in between that you can do that will tell us what the character feels So add more breakdowns when you do step mode, right? So that's my first thing about steps layers would be I I'm more in the layers. I don't do steps, but I prefer the the kind of the post to post Like my structure is post to post like I said every four frames. Cool. Whatever. It's mostly four frames The general structure post to post and then I go layered and for layered I look at what is the body part that's going to influence the rest of the Rig the most and for me that's the root and everything has to work out of the roots the weight shifts Everything is going to be dictated by that So that has to work and sometimes you can just turn off arms You can turn off legs and heads and just have a stump to torso with the hips and that can kind of just move It's like sometimes you have complicated actions instead of your rig you put in the sphere and you put in the cube And then they kind of move like a little toy. That's my camera battery. I can go That's the animation and if the timing's there and the movement and the weight That's the right structure and then on top of that Then I'm going to add the chest where the head or the root and the chest are maybe more overlapping and broken up And then once that is done, I take the head because when you move the root It's going to move the chest when I move the chest it's going to move the head Once that is done, you're going to start moving the head and start moving the arms and legs That being said sometimes you have actions where you want to lead with the head first And then you got to do the head first and then the chest and then the root because the head takes everything with it So sometimes it's just kind of a back and forth So I will look at general structure pose to pose General structure in layers in terms of root chest head because it's just the basic stuff The root just has to work and then you can go into okay Well, what's really going through you know the pose changes again Maybe the arm the arm is leading and that will take the shoulder that will take the chest And that's going to change your your mechanics. So it's there's a lot of back and forth So for me, it is nothing really clean I try to be as clean as I can like I said in my every four frames But it's still going to be messy. So every four frames might be clean But once I go layered I animate the way it's supposed to look right and that means I can have key key key pause key All keys on every frame with something tricky on fingers and wrists So then if I look at the timeline and I set the whole character my timeline might be completely red Right, so I start clean. But then once I go layered, it's just going to be this has to work Especially during polish where you go Well now this arc of the elbow of the shoulder the nose tip the sore tip You're gonna have so many keys that at the end it's just going to be messy And then if I need to tweak it like I said before I just key here key here Delete the whole thing in between and then work on changes. Um, but so that's kind of my piece of advice there Uh, I'll I'll also excuse me Also, I'd love to hear your tips and animating acting while the character is doing Mechanical acts such as the scene with the character walking talking that's massively difficult. I totally understand that question Um, so for me personally subjectively again, this is ask other people every workflow is different I will really look at what is the basic structure of the walk the direction the tempo of it the speed Um, and I would definitely shoot reference terms of how I act While I do this But I might be very rough with my roots and the legs to work Out where they are and the steps and the pauses And I kind of do that as a main structure first I don't really worry about chest and hand and the acting choices, but I want that to be Very roughly clear Then I go into the acting beats where someone might be walking and have a little pause like wait, hold on Like that little pause. I definitely want to do that first. So I know when that stops But if they're specific Hmm with a little extra step for that change and then it goes back to the walking That just gets worked into the shot on top of that And I got a tweak and delete some things and then on and on and on So I start basic to it's clear and the kind of build on top of things to make it more more complex To make that acting work be it with Step changes weight shifts and an arm move maybe a walk where someone goes Hey And then that wave is definitely going to change the chest change the roots and the balance So maybe there's like an offset step So even though my basic structure was a straight walk when I do hey And I do this you might have to tweak the leg to do a little side step And then you come back into your original path So then I just work that on top of the structure and sometimes it's it's destructive meaning I delete and redo that part or it's enough where you can have everything's done and you use animation layers Or if you have a rig with extra controllers, you could do on the extra layer controller I add that change so the basic structure is there, but you just add that change and it goes back into The original structures you kind of fade in and out of your layers or your your controllers how however it is set up, right? So that would be it so As with everything animation wise it's messy So that's my approach in terms of keeping it clean as long as I can Until it just becomes messy and for me at the end it's messy And I don't really care because if the structure is clean and the basis is good Then I'm okay adding messy things because if I take things out the basic underlying structure is still there and clean If that makes sense. I hope that makes sense Yeah, all right next up. We have Cecilia Teja oh another question I have another question about graph editor if you don't mind I do use graph editor when I'm animating basic objects such as a bouncing ball a falling cube or a pendulum But I am having a hard time to apply those concepts when animating more complex subjects. Oh, yes, absolutely uh humanoid characters animals etc because of the amounts of controllers they have And it confuses me as to which tangents of each individual controllers should I tweak especially when using an ik controller Do you have any tips and tricks to share on how to use the graph editors when animating an action or action An acting or action scene. Thank you, sir. You're very welcome. That's a great question Uh, and again, this is going to be very subjective because I don't spend that much time in the graph editor I don't really use it that much. I know this sounds super weird, but hear me out Like you said if it's a bouncing ball a falling cube a pendulum anything That's easy and lightweight and I can play in real time, which is very rare Uh, I absolutely go into the graph editor. It was as much easy because you can see it You can tweak the curves and go in there and see what how you know how the how it affects the character the rig The ball the for the cube whatever it is Absolutely, I go into the graph editor, but because I don't really work with bouncing balls that much It's mostly complex characters and heavy characters. Um, I completely I'm I'm with you. It's it gets very complicated But that being said people do it And it works and they can just do all the offsets in the graph editor with the curves They have very clear visual understanding what's going on for me so far my workflow and what I've done and it works for me is that I work in offsets. I work in asymmetry. I work in all that stuff into the pose So if there's someone jumping in the landing and you want offset legs, it's not this That's my pose. So on my almost contact points where you have full extension on your push off full extension You're landing That's the pose that I key, right? So it's not going to be Something where it's like this and then I go into the graph editor, then I change the curves for the legs So it's like this I put that into the pose And then I look at the render view and I pose it out to that view Then I check the 3d space so that it's actually legal and not cheated if it's at work because of muscle sim You know cloth sim hair or whatever it is or physics that come with that shot If it's at home and something cartoony I still kind of check so it's not completely broken But if I need to cheat the camera you cheat the camera if it's cartoony, it's okay And if your rig supports it as well Sometimes you cheat something and then you got shadows and the shadow reveals the cheat also not a good idea But so it depends on your style again But that's what I do. I go into the actual pose and on that frame I work in the offsets the asymmetry and all that good stuff. So That's how I do it. So hopefully that answers your question and it's same thing with ik controllers I mostly use ik. I'm very used to because the rigs at work have ik And it's just I'm faster with posing out ik Sometimes for clean arcs or an action like this ik is a pain in the butt But then you can maybe switch or you can always find a way to get the arc clean There's more keys or there's some other tricks you can do So for me, it's the same thing ik or not I pose it out in the scene and don't really do all the posing in a graph editor So far it's it has worked also because if I move something in the graph editor You weigh and weigh and weigh then the rig updates and okay Well, maybe not that and it's I feel like I slow down in my workflow So I prefer to just pose it in the in the pose on that frame And then go through that and kind of model and sculpt my posing to do that. That makes sense. Hopefully makes sense Samuel Hello, John Lenni. Thank you for writing John Lenni. First of all, thank you for your such great content You're very welcome. Sorry if my question seems stupid. Of course not or obvious But what do you think about drawing thumbnails or doing 2d blocking before getting into 3d animation software? Would you recommend to draw poses and try to find great timing in 2d? Or can it be seen like a waste of time? Especially if you can't draw really well and that leads me to another question If you work as an animator in a studio, are you usually free to work like you used to? For instance, if you were used to draw before getting into the 3d software Or even if you are used to do your blocking in spline or and your teammate are in steps What or even if you are used to do your blocking in spline or and your teammate are in step Do you have to follow the studio's habits so that they have more control? Or are you free to work the way you want as long as good job is done? Congratulations for the 2k subscribers Thank you. I wish you the best. Thank you very much. All right. So this can be very easily answered kind of So it's a it's not stupid and it's not obvious So what do I think about drawing thumbnails or doing 2d blocking before getting into 3d? Absolutely do it. I don't because I can't draw. I love to draw I love the feeling of a pencil and getting that stuff and seeing especially 2d animation seeing your drawings come alive Love it, but I'm so bad at drawing. I used to be okay. I mean not really, but I used to do it all as a kid Uh, but then I kind of forgot about enough forgot about it, but I'm just not good at it So kind of I'm not the one that constantly draws and practices even though I should Um, so I don't do it because my drawings confuse me. Right. I got an idea. I put it on paper and go. What the hell is this? So I just Pose it out right away. So I can kind of pose it on the on the rig, right? So if you can draw then do it. It's you know, take your Dry erase marker, right and then draw it on screen You get a pose in that right draw on screen and like that's better than just your rig according to your drawing So if that's what you can do is great if you plan out the whole thing in 2d, that's great too There's so much faster than blocking it out in 3d. So if that's what you can do Yes, absolutely do it. Would you recommend to draw poses? Yes and try to find great timing 2d Yes, or can it be seen like a waste of time? No, especially if you can't draw really well, maybe Because I can't draw well It's a waste of time for me And that leads me to another question if you work as an animator studio are usually free to work like used to yes For As you work on your own, sure Once you present it Usually you present things in a very cohesive in a in a clean way where like everybody presents something the same way Maybe the client is asking for a specific way. You know, it usually has to be just very clear I mean like it's tricky to show stepped animation in front of a live action background That's clean and smooth. So things pop. That's that might be confusing to people So it's just a specific way that we present things Um, so you would really present 2d, but you can present that to your lead or your soup As a quick blocking to get a buy-off on the idea and then you go and do it 3d. So yes, absolutely Um, for instance, if you work, uh, 3d software, so that's what I just said Totally okay to blocking and spline blah blah and step Yeah, if you have a different method to just present ideas and pitches Just ask, you know, like is that okay to show it like this? You probably want to show it to the client But maybe you are I don't know. I would just ask and see what people have done before Do you have to follow the studio's habits? So they have more control. It's not an issue of control. It's an issue of presentation Like so that the presentation is clear to the client, right? So anything that's confusing is not going to be presented If it's internal and it works and people can decipher your your drawings, that's fine And then you can just move on but again, I would ask I would ask how the studio works And how like how the structure works within your department Um, but I can tell you that if you present them to someone towards the end the director It's going to be very in a specific way because that's just how they're used to seeing it and that's just you know There's a specific way of how they can digest what you pitch in in their best way Uh, and that's kind of that's your job as an animator at a studio You present things the way the client wants Because they're the one paying for it, right? So there's it's not you and you come up with your thing and you should adapt to my workflow It's like no, no, you're presenting to someone that pays for this and he or she wants to see in a specific way And that's what you do. So, you know, again as you work not again But the more corporate your studio is the more rules you're going to have for sure Um, but I don't see it as a problem. I don't see It's not a problem for me. I don't see how 2d will be a problem presenting it to your co-workers or a leader soup Ultimately, you're still gonna have to present the whole thing in cg3d. Anyway Um, so yeah, I hope that answers the question Natalie van roos malen roos malen roos malen Hey, jean, it's not jean. First of all, congratulations for the subs. Thank you I'm only this I'm only discovered your videos two weeks ago and I love them I would love to know how you did. I think I did ask you But spread the word anybody watching this and you think it's cool spread the word that people know I would love to get more feedback. It's always cool. Thanks for all the hard work. You're very welcome I learned a lot from them. That's awesome to hear. Thank you I have a question about lip sync as lip sync in 3d has a lot of controls I kind of lose myself in them and don't know how to start Do you have any tips on how to start and make it better for sure? Um, so Actually again, I talked about lip sync yesterday in class I got lots of thoughts and that's going to be a very specific fna and I'm going to Keep it for that, but I'm going to give you like you said a Any tips on how to start? So what I do with lip sync is I do them up a test where I put my elbow on the table Whatever and then I talk and I feel how big the accents are so maybe it's something big and inside So I'm small so I know when the accents are on the jaw and that's my basic thing where I treated like a muppet so they can get away with jaw no eyeblinks and no eyebrows and it's basic Sometimes eyebrows, but sometimes you just have this right But you don't want to open the jaw for every sound every time you have that it's becomes this Chattery skeleton jaw thing it becomes too strobing. It's annoying to watch is distracting So look at like take your lip sync Analyze the intense behind everything like what what part is important? What part is not important? What are the accents you really want to hit? So then you do your tests and then you want to look at well, what's the actual movement? Okay, but maybe this when I do this it's too much I'm just going to move my jaw here and here and the rest is done through shapes To kind of get this sound across but you want to be a bit more economically in your jaw usage, right? So I do this bra bra Then I do corners corners in and out for your e and o for your extremes So once you have that you got your extremes for e and o Or whatever sound that you know shapes that you have for that and then I go m and f And that's probably like two frames at least I wouldn't do it over one frame was any kind of pops So your mom and your Fudge That I would make sure that that's in there and that to me is that to me is 80 percent You got your main accents you got your extremes You got your for specific sounds and after that you're pretty good and that's how I usually start I usually start to shot doing exactly that. I don't I don't do lip sync at the end I do lip sync at the beginning with just that basic stuff. I don't look at corners in the mouth I don't look at asymmetry. I don't look at this pushing up the cheeks and then the eyelids I don't that's at the end for me But I want to know how the basic structure is of the lip sync so when I act things out and I do a head move Is my jaw and lip movement reading during that fast move Maybe during this fast move. I need to push the lips in the jaw more But if you do just a lipstick cam or just like a you know, like a go pro cam of just the lip sync It might look way too exaggerated, but in the actual move it reads So sometimes you have to push things or toning things down. That's why I hate Cameras are attached to the face and when people critique That camera only for lip sync, please don't do that because it's unrealistic Especially when the character looks away or is in profile. It's fine to look at it for general ideas of Okay, well, this is the general lip sync and that's the shape. Okay, that's good But I wouldn't go frame by frame and tweak that because it needs to be Depending on the camera angle and depending on the action But some people do it and I'm definitely not a fan of it because it's a to me a waste of time But you're focusing on things that we don't see especially if you start giving me notes about asymmetry On the shot that's like this Come on, you don't see the side. So you're going to work on pushing what you can see But anyway, that's a whole different subject. So that to me is the the tip the general tip for how to start And with controls like There are a lot of controls on on good rigs and most of the times you don't use all of them Like, you know, you have your basic controls with your basic emotions And then you get into the details for specific moments But I wouldn't touch them until the very end when you really have to so you can get away with a lot of basic stuff But the reason why I'm saying I get away with that beginning is because to me everything has to be in the eyes and eyebrows And you know blinks and darts and eyebrows. There's so much in here Also, because I'm a foreigner, I'm used to bad lip sync because I would watch movies that are dubbed That's also I'm so used to that. I don't really care about lip sync that much But you can get away with really crappy lip sync while the eyes are super expressive And it works and ultimately when I look at someone be it cg or a live action Human character. I look at eyes. I look at what how they feel through that. I don't look at the lips. It'd be weird So again, you can get away with this and you can also do a test where This is stupid. It'll be my fna But it's one of the things where sometimes you can do this put something This is way not transparent enough, but imagine you got something in front of your face like this, right? That's a plane Uh and I act things out blah blah blah blah blah, right? And then imagine everything reads still really well while you see this super clear And it's just kind of the basics. I just got some weird thing. I will explain it in fna But sometimes you can just push something put something there. That's kind of obscuring your face But if it still works, you know, you can get away with it, right? Your lip sync has to be detailed when it's really called for it for specific shapes and Specific acting beats where you want that detail, but sometimes you just have a character doing something blah blah blah It's going to be all in here in the body Sometimes you just have to worry about it and especially if you're a close-up Sure, if it's a full body far away body motion shot, I don't really care about lip sync that much I look at what are the moments the key moments where maybe the face slows down And then I want to go into the facial stuff to really read But when the character is back to jumping, I don't really care as much about the lip sync because no one's going to notice That's subjectively what I do Mohammed Mansour Mansour Mansour Mansour Thank you for sharing information. You're very welcome in tv series animation There is almost no time for reference and hardly enough time for proper blocking when you when we have When we have to animate about 200 frames a day. Holy moly What would be good workflow or any tips or tricks to get these in animation quality? That's really tricky because I don't really work in animation. So I'm not used to that workflow I only worked on strange magic that was a super compressed time frame and force unleashed Uh cinematics for the first game and that was basically your whole shots done in a day type of thing So I actually then I go back to what I said before I Block things out every four frames keep it as cleanly as I can And if you don't have time, you know, something you don't have time for overlap You don't have time for all that detail I just make sure that post to post everything is as clear as possible And if there are changes you can just make that post change on that frame where everything is keyed on that frame And if you have extra time then go in there for overlaps and you know layered animation Um, but that would be my my approach because you can get very um limited animation because of the budget and time and everything that's still super clear like, um Poco you Poco you I don't know how to pronounce it like it's very stylized very clean animation But it's super clear and it's super cute, but it's very simple It's simple in terms of the complexities, but it's not simple in terms of timing and and intent like it's super cute And I love it, uh, but you can get away with that minimal animation and it's still Communicates all the ideas. I hope that makes sense So for me the good workflow would be be clean in your initial blocking Don't key too many things too many controls in a messy way Just keep things clean So you have a fast and clean way to move your keys around and adjust the timing and potential acting choices That would be my suggestion Maurizio Bartok By the way, this is question 21 and I think I have 28 questions. I might get this done This might be a longer one more than an hour. I hope you're good to finish this part of three So I can move on with the regular FNAs How do you keep your eyes fresh after working for days on the same shot? Do you use the mirror trick? It kind of works for me. Thank you for this great videos for this great videos Especially the acting analysis. I also really like the critique for the pixar intern. It's great when you show why something is good Thank you so much. And you know that those are also very subjective because I nerd out on the animation stuff But you know, I could be totally wrong. Um, and I definitely want to continue I'm so late on these especially the spiderman trailer and all those trailers that came out I want to do this So I'm glad you like them and I want to go back and do more of those Now how do you keep your eyes fresh? Do you use the mirror trick? Yes Thank you for this. That's a question. That's my answer But anyway, how do I keep my eyes fresh? So The couple things the mirror trick for sure also asking other people for feedback very important Um, also working on multiple shots So you work on the shot and you get tired of it move on to the other shot work on that and get tired of that Get back to your other shot. Oh clean eyes. That's interesting something doing Moving things Backwards and reverse sounds super silly was the timing is going to be totally off but every now and then I do something in reverse and it kind of I don't know Some things get highlighted like that's interesting and then play it back. Okay. Maybe I understand It's not often but every now and then I just try to tweak things or mix things up in terms of how I look at it Um, but definitely reverse and not reverse Uh mirror in terms of reverse like the you flop the plane So I use the mirror trick I definitely have the shot that I work on and something else and I go back Also super important when you play blast try to put your shot in between other shots So other stuff you've done or other people's stuff But you look at something your shot shows up shot is done Because there's a tricky thing about when you do a play blast or an a blast, whatever you know Your your render thing is called The movie comes up And it's not playing and you're stuck on the first frame and you have seconds Unless you're distracted Minutes to look at that first frame and you can soak in these are the characters. That's environment That's the general layout. I get it play Until it stops and you know the last frame. Okay. I get it. That's the last was blah, blah, blah But that's not how it works. That's not how people see it You have to understand and realize and especially be disciplined about that that your shot Starts and ends and there's something before and after so you have to make sure that when your shot starts that it's clear Right away. So within the first six or seven frames or six to eight frames various I cannot you'd say seven frames the first seven frames have to be clear I would introduce something super fast on the first seven frames because you'll miss it because you are still kind of Getting soaking in all the information of this is the shot. That's the camera the characters the layout the environment I get it now I can pay attention. So first seven frames. Don't do anything crazy fast But you'll miss it also the last seven frames don't add anything because you're starting an idea But there's no there's no resolve. There's no finish They're just starting something new then we cut out and it can be either jarring or confusing So beginning and the end be super clear and then in between, you know, do your thing So I try to not loop things over and over unless it's for polish So I gotta look at the arcs and spacing and timing up. I loop and loop and loop But every now and then look at 10 seconds of something else then your shot 10 second of something else So, you know that does my shot work when you just get thrown into it and get pulled out of it? That's a big thing And especially when you have something where a shot is like 25 frames long and you loop and loop and loop and loops That's not how people see the shot your shot. There's other stuff your shot gone and the rest So you got to focus on what is the fastest clear as read on the shot And the audience is not going to loop it and randomly for specific people and no one's going to watch his anime I'll get fired but Be careful when you have short shots. Don't loop them. You can loop them for polish But play them within a sequence in context so you understand. Does this work? Anyway, That's it. Let's get my answer Le mainstream question how to get in contact with other animators to be inspired and fired up to exchange tips to learn from each other online and offline That's a good question that I cannot answer For you because it depends on who you are and where you live. That's a weird answer, but hear me out If you are super shy and introverted, you might have a hard time getting onto like ctn and sigraf Just to kind of schmooze around and make contact. So that's going to be a problem If you're in a different country and you have to fly Or travel, however to a ctn and sigraf or whatever, you know FMA whatever convention you have a gdc. You might not not have the financial resources to do that. That's also a problem So I totally get this So you might be just stuck online so If you have the financial means and the travel means Uh, I would network like that. I would go to places where other animators are in the strike of a conversation Ask ask for feedback on your reel. Just don't be too slimy and you're like, hey, I want to be your buddy And I want to get feedback because I want to work what you work type of thing. It's a fine line Um, but try to just be surrounded by like-minded people if it's in class Maybe you have a lab where people work in evenings or whatever and you can go there and then exchange ideas there Uh, uh to get fired up, right? Um, but if it's only online Try to find forums where people post things and then comment and this could be on facebook could be twitter Could be specific animation forms where you can post your things to just comment and maybe get some relationships through that Um, for me in in terms of getting tips and getting fired up I am on twitter a ton. So if you have a twitter account Actually, if you don't create one, you don't have to use enough to post. I'm eating a sandwich now Even though I post stupid stuff like that too. Um, just create an account follow animators Follow companies follow the hr department of companies. They got tons of tips on how to create reels and things But just follow people who do animation in terms of cartoony vfx games or whatever it is, right? And if you follow me Uh, I try to retweet As much as I can if I have time to to go on twitter Um, you can go through my feed and you can see I try to retweet all the cool stuff that I see Across the board. So games vfx cartoon or whatever it is and it gets me fired up So this is not just for you, but this is for me personally as well very selfish Where I look at this and I want to look at that And I want to you know, do a collection of things that I can go back to later I'm like that was a cool move or someone just recently posted something about There's a pose and there's a pose after that and do three different versions to go from this pose To that end pose and it's I think something that he had students do Um, and it was super cool to see the approach of the three different things Um, and one thing I want to do and haven't done it yet I'm still not sure if I should do it like every monday I would do I think the name was or we through help from our animators was animation minute And within one minute I highlight all the best things that I saw that week and maybe Maybe be longer than a minute and that's kind of the recap of the week And then I post that in video forms. You can see what it is But I also post that on my blog on a spangela blog So you have the links to all the awesome things that I see So if you are not on twitter and you just want to check once a week What was the cool stuff that happened this week? It would be a summary in a way like a recap and many sites do that in terms of You know trailer news or just our movie news or whatever like a recap of the week And I think I could be kind of interesting if I keep it just one minute It's not too much work for me either because I don't want to just get bogged down with too much stuff Um If that's something you guys like maybe comment, maybe let me know if you want and do you want this, um I like it because I I retweet and like on twitter So that if I just go my likes I have my whole list of things that I want to do Watch again and then let's look at for inspiration But maybe if it's also in a more structured Each week on a blog with a tag might be better Or even like I said on youtube once a week on mondays You can just watch that and get fired up by things You know one after the other as a little package of of awesomeness. So I don't know let me know I'm still leaning towards i'm going to do this. Um So I don't know let me know if everybody says it's a stupid idea. I won't do it I want to waste people's time always my time either But I feel like I want to do it even just for myself. So I'm I'm I'm wrestling with it. Let me know. What do you think? Good question, though I did answer your question. So how do you contact? Okay. Um, yeah, actually one more thing Sometimes you can just email people or just contact him through twitter or instagram Whatever it is, like sometimes you have questions just ask them. I think So many people have answered my questions or I know of people who do that Like it's just everybody wants to be helpful. I remember one thing I did way way way back in school I did a um Like that's someone calling me here. No um So way way way back in school. I did a uh, I googled at ilm.com and at pixar.com So two companies I wanted to work for uh, and I found animator emails and I cold emailed them and I said, hey I found your email. I searched for email. I found it here. Here's my reel Do you have any any advice any help and I tried to be as polite as I could Uh, and everybody responded. Um, some were laughing like, how did you find my email? But everybody responded and helped and critique things and I remember I actually don't remember I don't remember who was if it was victory in the bone or camera Miyazaki So if anybody listens to this work in pixar knows someone I don't have to ask them They don't care. Um, but that was my experience of it was one of the two I emailed them One of the two, uh, and they answered. Yeah, I sent me your stuff and I sent three things I sent I believe it was a weight assignment Probably some acting piece and something else. I remember sending three More simpler things like a weight something. I don't know three things and I wrote. Hey, you probably Uh Get these a lot here are three things so you can choose from so that you don't always have to if you've done 10 weight Assignment critiques already today Um, because probably everybody's emailing you here's maybe something else you want to do But I think my email was worded horribly. I don't know what I wrote I'm not gonna have the excuse so I'm esl and swiss but maybe I was just bad He got mad He said dude, I said one clip. Are you sending me three? So he was not happy about it But then guess what he critiqued it anyway One page for each shot that I sent even though I you know, I one would have been okay Despite the attitude, you know, like me going. Hey show me everything. I tell me everything No, that's he was still massively helpful and generous with his time and critiqued every single shot full page And it helped a ton and this is the reason why why I do this that interaction was for me always The cornerstone of if I know anything the minimal amount of knowledge that I have in animation And I can help even just one person being in my class being online Then that to me is worth it was I got help I got help for free. They didn't have they didn't They didn't need to take the time to help me But they did and it did help me a ton and I wouldn't be here without the people helping me So at least that I can do is again with my limited knowledge Pay forward and if it's helpful, then that's great. If it's just one person, then that's great And maybe once one day I don't have time anymore I don't have the energy anymore to do it and then I just stop But so far I like doing it and I really like teaching And if it's helpful then in my classes that I so much fun at the academy I love being in a classroom and talking to people and explaining things and Hopefully seeing that light bulb go on and like they're they're getting it. It's just really a lot of fun But I do have to credit all the people that helped me and especially whoever it was that Pixar that Decided to answer and critique every shot even though they were not supposed to or that's not what I asked for So Whoever ever hears this. Thank you for having done that it definitely Helped me and influenced me a ton. So contact animators just cold email them cold contact them twitter or instagram And the worst thing they can do is not answer or say no Then have the time because they probably don't have the time because people are busy But then that's then so be it then just ask someone else but chances are someone is going to answer And if you have emailed me and I know I get emails on my specific email for feedback Um I don't always answer right away because I got to answer the students that you know that I teach now that pay for things and and you know that's kind of my my What the priority list but I have people that have emailed me a long time ago months and months ago And I do get back to them the worst one was probably two years later I emailed but I do eventually get back to everybody But I apologize if it's really really late and I have a long list But keep emailing me if when I have time I'll get to it Of course, it's not always right away and it's probably too late by now for some people Um But I have no problem with that and I just get to it when I can but do that just email people You know they will if they have the time they'll answer. So that would be my very long answer to your one simple question all right John michael steele, uh, this is from a different place I'm not sure if you already covered this but maybe something about how you plan lip-sync I was thinking about when you have a character that isn't human And so the mouth might be shaped differently if a dragon talks or a robot or a creature Do you approach your lip-sync differently? Or is that more a technical thing about how you make those shapes? And so something that you would think about more in the production bit when I watched smog talking I wonder if the animator was actually making the poses to strengthen or show the mouth shapes because They are so good and his lip-sync is so clear I wondered if this is a part of the planning of that type of shot takes again for doing these videos You're very welcome. Uh, that's a good question a very specific question about work. Um So I will definitely do something about lip-sync, but that's an interesting tweak on this when a character that isn't human So the mouth might be shaped differently. So I would look at If it's a character with just a beak for instance, you can again You can get away a ton with just like Muppet style bar around with just the jaw stuff So I would look at what's the anatomy of the creature and what it's going to read as much But also if you have something it's pretend you have an alligator and you know the lips like everything goes It doesn't have lips. I'll get us no lips If everything goes back from the mouth all the way back here having a ooo and e That might just take too long and be super weird for that shape to go all the way back So that would just simplify as much as you can You kind of hit the main M F E ooo just to kind of get that contrast in shapes Um, and just do a lot with the head and hit accents in combination of that. So that's how we do it Um, and especially if it's creatures and it's photorealic smoke stuff where it's just you want to be very careful not to go super super detail Where just there's too much moving you can still Get away with stylizing and simplifying things. Um Do you approach a lip sync differently? So yeah, that would be my approach I look at potentially simplifying things and just hitting certain moments in a more Detailed way so it looks more real and complex because of the style But then try to cheat other areas to be more simple just to get away with it because otherwise it gets too convoluted and too too messy um When I was watching a smog So I was I'm not working at wetter. I didn't animate smog. So you would have to ask a wet animator specifically for those tips Um, but I'm sure that they have a specific plan of it. Look at reference act things out themselves Um, but you're asking I wonder if this is part of the planning For me it is yes, again, I can speak for other animators, but I definitely try to plan out Even in my reference of how would this creature who for instance if you have I didn't work on warcraft But they have the tusk the thing is coming out You know, it probably would be helpful to put something in your mouth So that when you act things out and say the lines that You know, you're you're overcompensating because there is something in your mouth So if you do have a creature with something specific or a list or something in their mouth, maybe they're eating That's part of my process of the planning. I try to emulate the character As much as I can so if something is in their mouth I shoot reference with something in my mouth so that the shapes are different and it will it will you know It will potentially if anything is in here Maybe I talk with my head tilted this way to camera more Because I know this is messy here. I want to be clear in what I say with this side Maybe the model acting is is you know influenced by that And that's what I really stress upon when you do your reference is that your reference should be As close should be as close as you can to the final result in terms of eye line props If it's someone bigger put Put, uh, you know pillows in your in under your jacket so that your ranges of motion is limited So that you don't have to you don't act something out and then your character's totally different And you just kind of do a guessing game and then what's the point like to me is try to reference Do to structure the reference and do your reference so that it really works with the character and it's You know as similar as possible and again If that's something in your mouth Then I put something in my mouth because that might force a change in my acting because of a head tilt or whatever There's maybe something in your mouth that's hanging out so that I would tilt my head this way all the time So that what's hanging is here and not Drooping and resting on my on my clavicle here. So again, it's just like every Circumstance in terms of size and costume or heat or cold or something you eat Is going to influence your acting choices So I would always think about that and have that in your planning before you do anything at least me again This is very subjective Nessa goody-ness goody-ness goody-ness. I know this is probably one of the most frequently asked for topics But will you be covering how to pose animate hands? I still struggle with those no one has asked for this So this is the least frequently asked topic But yes, I definitely want to do an fna about posing and I will include hands um I struggle with those as well But I have a printout of all the classic hand poses and again depending on the style Like what are you the classic, you know triangle type of things to keep it clean But that and live action movie might feel too posed. So you want to keep it messier again It depends on your style. Um, I'm a massive fan of um Brave and tangled in terms of hand poses. There's some beautiful stuff in there So I usually just look at movies and maybe no screenshots certain scenes and and you kind of keep that in the folder of reference Um, but there's a ton of stuff on my blog on the spangela blog. I believe I have stuff tagged on their hands Uh, where I I have multiple posts about hands where people post their reference photos Either real hands or cartoony hands a collection of like merlin hand poses or whatever it is to disney stuff Um, so I definitely talk about that I definitely have my own library of hand poses and I I recommend that you do that too until You don't struggle after a while after looking at those same poses over and over Hey, you will be able to pose them out quickly. Um, and also know what to avoid like this hand pose is Harder than somewhere is hating me. But this is usually for politicians They kind of they have like politicians frequently do this hand pose for whatever reason So like for me, I look at is this pose appropriate for the character in the end of moment Or is this something that's overused and I don't use it So I definitely have a reference library of these are the hand poses and I plug those in And then I tweak them from there Because you don't want to just put them in and that's what everybody does because then it looks cliche Maybe there's a tweak that you can do but in terms of just general tip Try to not be over complicated with shapes like something like this This might work in live action if Christopher Lee or dooku or saruman does this type of thing and he has You know crazy fingers and it's cool. Also, it's real. We don't care because it's just that's a real person But if it's a silhouette and cartoony stuff like this would be just way to convoluted try to simplify You know, how how far do you have to go to really simplify a simple pose? So just a clean triangle It again depends on the style and depends on what the shot Is asking for maybe the person has finger problems And that's the whole point that the fingers are always bent like this because he almost adds an element of pain Every time that character is on scene or in the shot, you know, maybe that's the whole point And then your your poses have to be as clean as you can while holding this pose I mean like it again, it depends on the acting choice and the intent. So hopefully that answers the question Austin Do we finally get to see an example of the tentacle animation you always suggest for everyone's creature animation? I don't know maybe but skull island came As the closest to what I always wanted to do in terms of but I didn't work on that movie where Kong is struggling with the tentacle things and ripping them apart. I believe Alberto He has a post online as well. He did the He posted his reel with all the awesome shots he did on skull island But I always tell my students I would love to do a creature shot where two creatures are fighting And it's not it's like two bigger creatures could be whatever right so let's say two gorillas But like fantasy creatures on a surface sand or something with slippage because it's an uneven surface Then they kind of keep finding into a swamp. So you have a change of element So from something that's kind of slippery into like a sticky swamp Think again that will force a change in their body mechanics And then once they start fighting suddenly a tentacle comes out and then picks one of the guys and one of the Creatures and pulls them into it and the other creature goes back I always wanted to do that type of combination of two complex finding things going from surface to another surface And then one more tentacle thing taking someone on the water on the into the swamp I was wanting to do that But I tell my students all the time that would be cool and I always suggest that when I say what should we do I always say don't always stick to humans do creatures and you know cartoony stuff But if you do the effect stuff, that would be such a cool shot. I always mention it. I've never done it Um And yeah, I didn't work on skull items bums because they did actually that I would have been so cool full circle. But anyway Carlos Moreno do vids on how to make nice looking background for the animations Uh, render tricks basic modeling texture tricks. Uh, I don't know. So Carlos And you know this I was making fun of you, but Don't ask questions like this do vids like, you know, please do please and I'm not offended by this But this goes into a general thing of when you try to make connections with other people So when you're so a sigrap or sitian or something and you're asking someone say could you please blah, blah, blah, you know Have the general social Respect, uh, don't just go do this and do that again. I know you I know you personally I'm not like that's not how I'm taking it But for anybody that will post something and ask someone They don't know it's not that comes just off as very strong Like how about when I have time like that's that might be an answer, right? Um, that's a uh, a not answer to this, right? But in terms of networking going by the previous question as you find someone online or in real life Just also be mindful that they might get a ton of questions and they might be tired and exhausted Um, just always make sure that, you know, just be as polite as you can Um, because you never know what that person went through that day So just kind of be professional and courteous in general It's a general thing about that in terms of nice looking backgrounds. So I will definitely talk about this in my third chapter was now I'm starting part two in terms of Um, animation tricks and demos and workflows and all that hands-on stuff in my third one It's going to be about uh render tricks, you know, like viewport 2.0 type of things or or a specific render setup Or if you say basic modeling and texture tricks for me it would be I wouldn't do a character in front of a photo a real photo but then you have stylized designs and simple colors in front of a very complex background and that clashes And it's too busy and it might muddy your silhouettes for for me It would be the tip would be clean backgrounds where you might have a photo But then just add geometry on top of that to kind of emulate what the photo was And so it's cg in front of cg. Uh, and the style is the same Um, basic modeling in terms of maybe you can find uh, I have a texture not I have but there's a Like a starter pack that someone posted with sets A model that you can just use and maybe put your creature or your human in that set and that's your background So I would say find assets find assets online where you can use that so you don't have to spend time on basic modeling Um, and then render tricks. I would definitely try to find a way to get lighting in there So do you have cast shadow? Mainly because if someone is walking or jumping or something about whatever it is the cast shadow is going to help Show the audience when something's in the air the shadow is here and then contact and something some Movements without shadowing can be weird to look at can be tricky Um, same with if you do big camera moves and your plane is just a simple plane You don't know if the character is moving or the camera is moving So I would have elements on the grounds if it's somewhere outside Have some grass things or like a branch or a couple stones so that when the camera moves Stuff is moving towards camera and you see as a perspective change and it's just a clear understanding of what the camera is doing So but those are the things, um You might argue that you should think about before you start the shot But that's something that you maybe haven't done and it's something looks weird That's just in your presentation and that will be the third block where I talk about that for sure. Um, so yeah, that would be that All right, so, um, two more questions Anil Maharyan marja. Hello gene. Thank you very much for sharing the videos. You're very welcome My question is what would you suggest to the beginner animation student like me who is practicing animation by their own What are the things that need to be followed regarding the animation exercises or are there any suggestions from your side? I did a clip about and I think I actually responded to this with the link to Like what exercises would you do? Um, so I definitely did that. Um, so I would look at that list for sure And beginner animation students were practicing animation on their own. The big thing would be feedback So post your stuff wherever you can be at instagram twitter facebook forums wherever you can Or show it to people in real life. Um, so you get feedback. That's the biggest thing You can't start out and be in a vacuum and then you can't, um Get feedback. You just you don't know what's good or what's not good So my main answer would be show it to as many as you can many people as you can for feedback Um, and then I posted the the list of exercises and just go through basic stuff And it's important that you just do exercises and because not every shot has to be for your real and very Fleshed out. So that's just movement. Just do like 10 head turns or a couple jumps or a couple sit downs So my thing would be share for feedback and repetition Just do things over and over and over to get into a habit of it and the mental You know habit and then the muscle memory and mental memory of doing something And you will start to recognize the patterns the curves and your graph editor Um, so that will be that will be my suggestion on that side And I believe this is the last question one piece by iso bar iso bear. Hmm. Hello, gene. It's not gene. How are you? I'm great Please can you explain to us how you are doing to know exactly where to place good breakdowns and over shots between two keys Okay, all and also help us in the orientation for the demo reel for different studio Thank you for all do all you do. God bless you. Uh, well, thank you And yes, the demo reel stuff is going to be in the future the third block And then how to know exactly where to place good breakdowns and overshoots. That's kind of what I talked about before so it would be um I would look at intent and the acting choices in the character emotion in terms of Like you have a pose and a pose and your breakdowns Are going to be what will tell us how the character feels going from a to b or what the intent is from a to b If someone is freaking out or doing it slowly or a quick gesture Whatever it is for me where to place it is not a technical thing to me. It is more Well, it can be a technical if it's overshoot a more overlap the more technical that aspect But for me, it's always everything has to always be in service of the character and the acting choices in the story Points so where to place them you place them where they will explain and tell and communicate the story point and the acting choices The in the clearest way and you know the clearest fashion So I I'm not sure if that's a very helpful answer, but to me there's no mathematical thing of breakdowns. It's it's The breakdowns and easins and outs Do you want to hold this for this long if I look make general examples always look for this And do that or do that So where you put the breakdowns and easins and outs to hold this and to go over there All depends on the intention and the acting choice. So for me, it's not technical It's more what's the You know, what's the motivation of the character, but it's still true. And that's how I would Approach it. I still got time I'm looking at, you know, when my recording will stop But that's it. It's going to be one of the longer ones probably, but that's it I don't see any more questions. That's all I saved If you do have any more questions, let me know and I will do a follow-up in a month or two With a brand new q&a and I will I will definitely post something of now. It's time for questions again So maybe wait till then it's totally up to you. I will save you any additional questions Again, this was probably a very long clip if you watched the whole thing again Thank you so much. Thank you for watching these. Thank you for asking questions Thank you for subscribing. It's awesome to see the feedback and it tells me if this is, you know, helpful or not That's great If you like this like this that helps me too It gets I get to see if this is was something I should continue or not And of course subscribe if you haven't because I post stuff every day So hit that bell button so you get notifications about everything I do So you don't miss anything because you never know how youtube whatever tells you what's going on and what Where in the uploads are so that bell button is going to help you with that and that is it So this is the end of part three of all the q&a's next week I'm going to continue with part two the second block of my fna and acting tips for animators. All right. Thank you for watching