Doran Meir - Stepped to Smooth

Heya folks,

haven't seen this here yet, so thought I'd put it up.

Israeli animator Doran Meir (who I believe is the inspiration behind Justin Barrett's tweenmachine) recently put up a tutorial on youtube on the benifits of working in stepped keys, and the million dollar question "How do you get to polished smooth from stepped?"

It's a very 2D approach. Personally I have found it useful to think (as Doran apparently does) in 2D terms, so first laying down my Key Story Telling Poses/Drawings (to have what the scene means), then my Extreme Edges of Motion Poses (to flesh out what's happening), then my Breakdown Poses (to describe how it's happening), and then my Inbetween Poses (to make sure the computer's not screwing up).



part 2
part 3
part 4
part 5a
part 5b

2 comments:

frank said...

Thanks Alonso. This is the a process that we teach as a foundation to new animators. From that point they can discover their own processes. I like how it is grounded in 2D fundamentals. 2D drawn animation is so important because drawing poses, having to consider every line and shape, really makes an animator look at their work.

Alonso said...

Yeah, I was just listening to James Baxter and Ken Duncan on the Animation Podcast again, they were talking about a strength of hand drawn is that you have to consider your poses graphically as a composition in 2D space (which even CG will be once it's on the screen) and how the shapes move through space, and how that applies in CG as much as it did in hand drawn but it's not as inherent in the creation of a pose.
Another advantage to the pose method, vs layered (like Kyle Balda demo's) is how much easier it is to exagerate and push reality, which is such a huge part of the fun of animation.

Hope everyone IS having fun :)