This is indeed a great tutorial and these are the things you also learn when doing acting, with the body laguage, expressions, filler movment etc. It was also a nice idea with that webcam thing. This will indeed be a help to all...
Great tutorial in acting. Video reference is an absolute must in character animation and you did a great job taking us from the very beginning to the end polishing stage.
I'm currently struggling in getting a workflow on my animation and iv'e been taught to work with stepped when posing but as much as iv'e tried i just can't get used to it. Glad to see that animating with flat tangents works just as well. Thanks for the vid! Very inspiring. Time to get animating!
people who think back on something typically look up left A LOT (when looked upon) i don"t feel that the animation of the female is telling me anything, but still, great work and a good class to follow!
Thanks alot, Kyle! Very inspiring. I've been looking for a general look on animation workflow and, well, this is just that :) I like your work with reference footage, I have a feeling that's a good approach. Thanks again!
This is the method I naturally gravitate towards as it helps me sculpt the performance through movement. However, sometimes if there is a particular pose I have in mind I will rough the pose in (sort of a hybrid of layered and stepped) and then refine it as the rest of the animation comes into focus.
Just 20 hours? I wish I was that fast.. Would have probably taken me 100 hours. I can't believe how this is exactly what I do (MMD) from taking a cam vid of myself and moving the hips at first.. i thought what i did was CHEAP.. seems that more professional animators do it too.. xD Thanks much for the vid!
Several software packages are available. You can find demo versions that leave a watermark on any images that are generated from them. I use Maya which is an industry standard. The main thing to remember when faced for the first time with a 3D animation software, is that you don't need to know ever single tool that it comes with. In Maya, I use about 20 different buttons repeatedly and don't know anything about other aspects (lighting, texturing etc.) of the software.
It seems to me that the result is the most important thing. How you get there should be up to the individual. I've just heard so many people criticize things like off-setting keys to get drag/overlap or saying that if the electricity went off I wouldn't know how to animate. I can make the case for the method I use to animate, I just get the feeling I'm somehow behind the times because I don't work the way most of the animators I know work.
Stepped is a very popular way to approach animation and it resembles most what was done in classical hand drawn animation. But it doesn't take advantage of timing out transition and concentrates more on the pose. In my opinion, there is not a right or wrong way to do it. From a directors perspective, if I can see a solid idea of the performance in the blocking I don't mind if its stepped or layered. beyond that, its a matter of what feels more natural for you in your methodology.
My preference is FK unless the hand is resting on a table or the floor and doesn't need to move. I think IK is a great tool to make something stay still. But FK is based off of rotations which is the natural way bone joints move and guarantees the motion looks like it is motivated from the core of the body rather then the extremities. But some do fantastic work with IK and if you can hide the linear trajectories of arm movements, then it really doesn't matter for the end result.
Hi dvanderpol, Thanks for the comment. I have done a fair number of commercials using this method and I find that its really conducive to that rapid kind of production. True, you have to take it to the POSING/OVERLAP stage before showing the client as they would run for the hills if you showed only root blocking. But this piece was created in only 20 hours, 50% of that being lipsync and polish. So even if you get re-takes you can still use this method to quickly work through them.
@3dmasterclass Thank you, that makes sense! I also apologize; it's rude to just ask questions blindly and not even comment on your video. I thoroughly enjoyed your video; I favorited it, it will DEFINITELY be of help to me when I get into animation a little deeper.
Hi, I like the simplistic, but effective approach. Would it be better, if you work other way round, finishing the lip, then facial, then the body movement, so that you have no problem of the head moving all around...just a thought. But this is one of the best tutorial I had ever seen...congrats
Actually I never use stepped curves so this is not a problem for me. Especially in the creation of something highly physical like a walk, dance or other action where the performance is more dependent on MOTION then a POSE. In a walk, I would first create the movement of the root and then build out from there instead of making a complete contact pose. I'm not a fan of stepped but think if they are used, it should be for POSE based acting rather then MOTION based physicality. Hope that helps!
Hi Kyle, I have these rigs saved on my computer, must have got them from the 3D World mag. I'd like to use them on my reel, but am not sure if i'm allowed to or who to to credit the rigs to. Do you know? Great animation demo btw! :)
Hey Kyle- I was looking at the tutorials from the magazine. Is there supposed to be sound in your captured workflow videos? The only sound present is when you have a playblast video in there.
I don't use Maya, I'm a Blenderhead. This is still very helpful though, because you focus mostly on theory without getting extremely specific about Maya. Still, Blender is becoming very much like Maya, so even your GUI screens look a lot like how it works in Blender. Anyway, I'm being pedantic. Sorry. Very helpful, keep up the great work, subbed you. Have you ever done any vids about MoCap? I find traditional character animation arduous and unsatisfying compared to mocap...
When I talk to animators it seems that stepped blocking is now preferred to this style in production animation. From what I see now most animators getting into film jobs block in stepped down to twos or fours and then switch to spline and clean up. I prefer a mixture of copied pairs and layered when I animate. Should I stop this and start stepped blocking? Were there any animators on the Lorax who deviated from stepped blocking? There just seems to be a sentiment of "this is what we used to do."
@mcv007 When its moving forward I do the first pass without IK on for the feet. Only because its distracting. Then when i like the hips, I turn on the feet and plot them out. Its going to be my next tutorial but still might be some months away from getting it online.
Hi, thanks for these tutorials! there are great! I have a question.. do you always use this method to animate a shot? or just for some specific ones ( acting? )? if it isn't, for what kind of shots you find better or worse to animate this way ??? I'm gonna try it! :)
@octavianmihailescu well I guess your right. Though it was nice to see such a perfect animation. Treat it rather as appreciation of the animation, than negation of an actor :)
Hi Kyle, I too have question about walk cycle. it looks perfect in stepped tangent, but when splined looks horrible. I rad about how you animate form the root. So would this be the way to do it? - hip control to get up,down, side movement - feet control to make feet move with the hip - then the spine controls (all maybe offset by 1 frame) - hands doing the followthrough would it be a good idea to do each pass in a separate animation layer?
@3dmasterclass I took a look at it just now.. It looks like it is a walk cycle animated in place. I am looking at animating across the screen. I guess the basics should still be the same. Anything I should be doing different in walking across approach?
@3dmasterclass what would you charge me to do a 5-10 minute promo ?? I want to do a promo for a feature - but I feel that it would help my case if I had a 5 or 10 minute teaser. Let me know your thoughts.
Funny, I have a character named Kyle, and I seriously need to learn how to use these kind of softwares and computer animations. I'm just fourteen and I want to animate my characters so badly, it's not even funny. *sighs* I wish met someone who can help me with these kind of complex animation.... :(
I am making a music video, the song is 3:34. I calculated that at 5136 frames (24frames X 214seconds). But, the movie didn't come out to 3:34. How do you go about calculating the frames you need?
does anyone know where i can find the full footage of this tutorial, or somthing similar, since i would like to learn this process, but i don't know where to look
You know what, I do have another question, if you don't mind. I know you're busy, so I understand if you can't answer me. I am planning a music video. The song is 3:34 so I assume the video HAS to be 5136 frames. However, in the video, a car is driving at varying speeds. In fact, 24fps appears too slow for the car to be driving; 18fps is much better. But, it also goes to 12fps and 8fps in the video. How would I go about planning and animating it correctly? I hope I am explaining well enough.
no prob! but since the program cost money,there is another like it. It's called blender in which you can sculpt and animate thing too. there is a lot of tutorials on both softwares too! I'm glad to help!!
![BabyChiefDoit - Too Slow (feat. STAR BANDZ) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/zayaxws7RPg/mqdefault.jpg)
I keep coming back to this just for reference, so helpful.
This is indeed a great tutorial and these are the things you also learn when doing acting, with the body laguage, expressions, filler movment etc. It was also a nice idea with that webcam thing. This will indeed be a help to all...
i was in his masterclass in brussels, this guy is just amazing !!! respect
Great tutorial in acting. Video reference is an absolute must in character animation and you did a great job taking us from the very beginning to the end polishing stage.
Simply wonderful, i'm just about to step into my final project and this has given me plenty of extra things to think about.
Thanking you kindly
What an amazing reference!!! I couldn't take my eyes off of it! I will certainly be using this alot!
Awesome tutorial. I'm putting my 3D animation reel together for the last stretch of school, this definitely helps.
I'm currently struggling in getting a workflow on my animation and iv'e been taught to work with stepped when posing but as much as iv'e tried i just can't get used to it. Glad to see that animating with flat tangents works just as well. Thanks for the vid! Very inspiring. Time to get animating!
people who think back on something typically look up left A LOT (when looked upon)
i don"t feel that the animation of the female is telling me anything,
but still, great work and a good class to follow!
@3dmasterclass that makes sense.. I will try out this technique. And cant wait till you upload the next turorial.
great video - covered alot in under 10 min
Excellent methodology!
1:30
The true creator of TikTok
And .... bookmarked :) thanks for sharing great techniques !!
Pretty amazing work for 20 hrs :)
Thanks Kyle for your fast answer. all this really helps!
Have a nice day :)
This is fantastic.
really nice dude u done u take guys near the professionalism
thanks
great job explaining and going into detail. good helpful video.
Right on. Subbed you. I'm a Blenderhead too. Blender RULES!
Thanks alot, Kyle! Very inspiring. I've been looking for a general look on animation workflow and, well, this is just that :) I like your work with reference footage, I have a feeling that's a good approach.
Thanks again!
Cool. Ultrafast animation technique. Impressive.
This is the method I naturally gravitate towards as it helps me sculpt the performance through movement. However, sometimes if there is a particular pose I have in mind I will rough the pose in (sort of a hybrid of layered and stepped) and then refine it as the rest of the animation comes into focus.
i liked ur approach of blockin...interesting method
Brilliant !
Just 20 hours? I wish I was that fast.. Would have probably taken me 100 hours.
I can't believe how this is exactly what I do (MMD) from taking a cam vid of myself and moving the hips at first.. i thought what i did was CHEAP.. seems that more professional animators do it too.. xD
Thanks much for the vid!
Several software packages are available. You can find demo versions that leave a watermark on any images that are generated from them. I use Maya which is an industry standard. The main thing to remember when faced for the first time with a 3D animation software, is that you don't need to know ever single tool that it comes with. In Maya, I use about 20 different buttons repeatedly and don't know anything about other aspects (lighting, texturing etc.) of the software.
This helps me a lot,
wow!! great job and video!! thanks, i will aplicate it!! its great help for us begginers :D, greattings from chile
great tutorial!
It seems to me that the result is the most important thing. How you get there should be up to the individual. I've just heard so many people criticize things like off-setting keys to get drag/overlap or saying that if the electricity went off I wouldn't know how to animate. I can make the case for the method I use to animate, I just get the feeling I'm somehow behind the times because I don't work the way most of the animators I know work.
Stepped is a very popular way to approach animation and it resembles most what was done in classical hand drawn animation. But it doesn't take advantage of timing out transition and concentrates more on the pose. In my opinion, there is not a right or wrong way to do it. From a directors perspective, if I can see a solid idea of the performance in the blocking I don't mind if its stepped or layered. beyond that, its a matter of what feels more natural for you in your methodology.
My preference is FK unless the hand is resting on a table or the floor and doesn't need to move. I think IK is a great tool to make something stay still. But FK is based off of rotations which is the natural way bone joints move and guarantees the motion looks like it is motivated from the core of the body rather then the extremities. But some do fantastic work with IK and if you can hide the linear trajectories of arm movements, then it really doesn't matter for the end result.
Hi dvanderpol, Thanks for the comment. I have done a fair number of commercials using this method and I find that its really conducive to that rapid kind of production. True, you have to take it to the POSING/OVERLAP stage before showing the client as they would run for the hills if you showed only root blocking. But this piece was created in only 20 hours, 50% of that being lipsync and polish. So even if you get re-takes you can still use this method to quickly work through them.
Awesome!
Interesting master class, Thanks!
super cool tips
Amazing tutoiral thank you!
@3dmasterclass Thank you, that makes sense!
I also apologize; it's rude to just ask questions blindly and not even comment on your video. I thoroughly enjoyed your video; I favorited it, it will DEFINITELY be of help to me when I get into animation a little deeper.
this is a pretty cool program for animating
.these....were the most most most .....usefulllll.......tips..u R....awesome..l
Hi, I like the simplistic, but effective approach. Would it be better, if you work other way round, finishing the lip, then facial, then the body movement, so that you have no problem of the head moving all around...just a thought.
But this is one of the best tutorial I had ever seen...congrats
10 minute animation=20 hours !
helpful, thank you.
You are really, Master! :D
Can't find a copy of 3D World Magazine issue vol117 any where. I would love to have these great character models. Great tutorial Kyle.
Thanks for the feedback....At the moment there is no DVD but there might be something of the like in the future!
Thanks very informative :)
Awesome tutorial…..
Thanks 👍
omg this was Maya?!
Actually I never use stepped curves so this is not a problem for me. Especially in the creation of something highly physical like a walk, dance or other action where the performance is more dependent on MOTION then a POSE. In a walk, I would first create the movement of the root and then build out from there instead of making a complete contact pose. I'm not a fan of stepped but think if they are used, it should be for POSE based acting rather then MOTION based physicality. Hope that helps!
Hi Kyle, I have these rigs saved on my computer, must have got them from the 3D World mag. I'd like to use them on my reel, but am not sure if i'm allowed to or who to to credit the rigs to. Do you know?
Great animation demo btw! :)
Kyle you're the boss thanks! (subscribed)
Very very interesting video :)
I liked your video... Nice video, congratulations :D
20 hours!! :O
who ever is a beginner on making 3d animation and wants to go for a long run with me on making 3d animated movies hit me up .
Hello im a beginner and i will like to learn from you
thanks..!
AWESOME!!! Is this on DVD??
Hey Kyle- I was looking at the tutorials from the magazine. Is there supposed to be sound in your captured workflow videos? The only sound present is when you have a playblast video in there.
I love it.I learned a lot. Do u have DVD of this tutorial series? I cant wait to buy
The demo was made on Maya
I don't use Maya, I'm a Blenderhead. This is still very helpful though, because you focus mostly on theory without getting extremely specific about Maya. Still, Blender is becoming very much like Maya, so even your GUI screens look a lot like how it works in Blender.
Anyway, I'm being pedantic. Sorry.
Very helpful, keep up the great work, subbed you.
Have you ever done any vids about MoCap? I find traditional character animation arduous and unsatisfying compared to mocap...
When I talk to animators it seems that stepped blocking is now preferred to this style in production animation. From what I see now most animators getting into film jobs block in stepped down to twos or fours and then switch to spline and clean up. I prefer a mixture of copied pairs and layered when I animate. Should I stop this and start stepped blocking? Were there any animators on the Lorax who deviated from stepped blocking? There just seems to be a sentiment of "this is what we used to do."
Nice....!
@mcv007 When its moving forward I do the first pass without IK on for the feet. Only because its distracting. Then when i like the hips, I turn on the feet and plot them out. Its going to be my next tutorial but still might be some months away from getting it online.
For this tutorial I used Maya...but I would use the same methodology for any software
@GleamAndGlimmer Sounds like your playback speed might not be set to 24 frames per second. This would change the length of the movie. Hope that helps.
Hi, thanks for these tutorials! there are great! I have a question..
do you always use this method to animate a shot? or just for some specific ones ( acting? )? if it isn't, for what kind of shots you find better or worse to animate this way ???
I'm gonna try it! :)
coll!
@octavianmihailescu well I guess your right. Though it was nice to see such
a perfect animation. Treat it rather as appreciation of the animation, than negation of an actor :)
Hi Kyle,
I too have question about walk cycle. it looks perfect in stepped tangent, but when splined looks horrible. I rad about how you animate form the root. So would this be the way to do it?
- hip control to get up,down, side movement
- feet control to make feet move with the hip
- then the spine controls (all maybe offset by 1 frame)
- hands doing the followthrough
would it be a good idea to do each pass in a separate animation layer?
@3dmasterclass
I took a look at it just now.. It looks like it is a walk cycle animated in place. I am looking at animating across the screen. I guess the basics should still be the same. Anything I should be doing different in walking across approach?
Can you upload basic acting tutorial Please ??
haha this 3d generated guy is a better actor than the guy from Video Reference ;) :P
whats the best way to do a good animation not so perfect but not so bad too. rotate bone by bone or use controls as ik fk actions or shapes?!
@3dmasterclass what would you charge me to do a 5-10 minute promo ?? I want to do a promo for a feature - but I feel that it would help my case if I had a 5 or 10 minute teaser. Let me know your thoughts.
how should i approach the acting to avoid cliche hand moves and such?
Funny, I have a character named Kyle, and I seriously need to learn how to use these kind of softwares and computer animations. I'm just fourteen and I want to animate my characters so badly, it's not even funny. *sighs* I wish met someone who can help me with these kind of complex animation.... :(
but how do you make everything from caracter to object look 'nice', 'hd' you know.. smooth.. am just interested but i cant do any of it^^
wow that looks more simple then blender.what program is this?
what software are you using to make the 3d animation?
Amazing!
maya
it's alright c:
I am making a music video, the song is 3:34. I calculated that at 5136 frames (24frames X 214seconds). But, the movie didn't come out to 3:34. How do you go about calculating the frames you need?
There is not an easeat way to do it¿
Do you guys make each frame individually ? Like after setting 3d preset and then saving it , then starting again rearranging the characters ?
No they, set a frame say frame 1, then go to frame 10 move the eyebrow and the software does the in-betweens
does anyone know where i can find the full footage of this tutorial, or somthing similar, since i would like to learn this process, but i don't know where to look
animatorwork.blogspot.in/2009/10/3d-animation-masterclass-learn-to.html
nice
20 hours?!
You know what, I do have another question, if you don't mind. I know you're busy, so I understand if you can't answer me.
I am planning a music video. The song is 3:34 so I assume the video HAS to be 5136 frames. However, in the video, a car is driving at varying speeds. In fact, 24fps appears too slow for the car to be driving; 18fps is much better. But, it also goes to 12fps and 8fps in the video. How would I go about planning and animating it correctly? I hope I am explaining well enough.
what software ou use for this animation?TQ
how could you make the characters do you start from a draft?? :)
and what is that soft ware??
bio lamb I think it's autodesk maya 8.5 but that's what I sawon the upper-hand side part of the program he was working on.
Vitani Harton thanks :)
no prob! but since the program cost money,there is another like it. It's called blender in which you can sculpt and animate thing too. there is a lot of tutorials on both softwares too! I'm glad to help!!
oh i have that one it's just hard to use but i'm trying lol
what software did you use ???
motion capture ???????? (first animation)
the woman character reminds me of Madame Tutli-Putli
where can i dawnlode this software
which one is better fk handle or ik handle..and y have u used fk handle in this video any special reason?
good what app did you use
Use muvizu its fastest animation it's free
o thank you
What animation software?
What name is this program.
sorry for my bad english