AnimSchool blog!

Hello 3DAppealBlog fans! We have shifted all content to the AnimSchoolBlog. We are starting to involve lots of AnimSchool instructors and do many more animation reviews.

3D Appeal Blog is my personal blog, but it started to feel more appropriate that these reviews happen in a blog for AnimSchool itself.

So, let me introduce you to:
www.animschoolblog.com

All the same content, but now with lots more participation! See you there!
Dave Gallagher

New AnimSchool promotional video!

Hi all! Here is our new AnimSchool promotional video, with animations and 3D work from our students and instructors! Cool stuff!

AnimSchool New Student Webcast

Hello the AnimSchool New Student Webcast will be posted soon, where we tell some exciting things about the program. Here is a quick teaser!

3D Appeal Makeover -- Review of Travis' Model, Part 2!

What are the elements of an appealing female 3D face? 

3D Appeal Makeover -- Review of Travis' Model, Part 1!

What are the elements of an appealing female 3D face?

Posing, posing, and POSING!

Hello! Here at 3D Appeal Blog, we will sit down with some animators from the upcoming film, RIO and talk about the dynamic between posing and rhythm & movement. This is sometimes expressed in animators' workflows: do you block your shots pose to pose, or focus on the motion of the parts as a layered approach and worry about hitting specific poses later?

To kick off the discussion, here is contributor JP Sans of Blue Sky Studios with some ideas on posing:

There is one thing for certain: I am still new to this industry and have much more to learn. But the more I animate, the more I realize how valuable and how much work I have to put into this one principle: smart posing.

I believe that SMART posing is what separates a great shot from one that's brilliant! Ollie Johnston spoke about how people remember in forms of pictures, not movement, and said (and I am paraphrasing) that you have to find that picture for the audience to remember: one single pose that expresses the entire scene, shot, emotion, and feeling; to find the golden pose. Sometimes I see shots that--though they are animated well--they feel somehow "over-animated". The characters are moving so much that you cannot register any pose, and without letting a pose breathe, the audience can miss it, and so miss the impact of that moment.

I think that one solid pose can be much more effective than multiple ones. I sometimes find myself doing this as well, planning and choosing too many poses when I can just work with one great one.

Now I am not saying that ALL animation should be treated like this. You do need to consider everything: style of the film, what is needed for the performance, etc. Some shots do call for the acting to be busy and sometimes noisy, but even then, I think you want to pick a pose or two to hold. Not only to add contrast and texture, but to set them apart form all the other poses, adding importance to that beat. It will help highlight the emotion or thought in the performance. Because that is what it all comes down to: selling the emotion of the performance, the inner thinking or thought-process of what the character is feeling and thinking. Often, what the character is saying vs what the character actually means or feels.

Planning, planning and more planning!

Once you pick the pose that best represents the inner thought process and feeling of the character for that moment, it's then when you have to spend more time on polishing it and perfecting it. Clean silhouette, eye direction, clean lines, good center mass, balanced proportions and weight. These are all part of good posing.

One example of great posing is Pixar's The Incredibles. This film is filled with smart choices. One simple take that always comes to mind is Helen Parr's reaction when she is vacuuming near Bob's office. This is when the vacuum starts picking up heavy dirt. That ONE pose said it all. This shot could have easily been over-animated, but it wasn't. 

I can't stress enough how important it is to find the golden poses in your work. To find them, let them breath, and let the audience take in that moment, better yet, feeling; and have them remember it.

Smart poses = smart animation

JP Sans

AnimSchool debuts for Spring Term!

Hello! January was just too close to our later-than-expected launch. We have decided to move the first term at AnimSchool to Spring. So we are now taking applications for the first week of April.

We will be spending the time putting together an amazing student experience!

AnimSchool is launched

There you have it! AnimSchool. The new online school for animation, modeling, and rigging.

http://www.animschool.com/

AnimSchool launch delayed!

Today, we contended with gale-force winds here in the New York area. So a remote-working web designer faced flooding problems today and set us back a bit.

We are so close! The site is looking great.

Tomorrow then!

AnimSchool Trailer!

Hi all! We're launching AnimSchool today!

Here is the trailer for the school!  (Click full screen to see in HD)

3D Appeal Blog Now -- Face Rig in One Day, Part 2

Can you build a face rig in one day? That's what I set out to answer with this 3D Appeal Makeover!

3D Appeal Blog Now -- Face Rig in One Day

Can you build a face rig in one day? That's what I set out to answer with this 3D Appeal Makeover!

Praise from Blue Sky's Senior Supervising Animator

Thanks to the one and only Galen Chu, Senior Supervising Animator at Blue Sky for this kind recommendation for my work!

 "Dave Gallagher is simply the BEST!  He is an amazingly talented animator, modeler AND rigger.  But his real talent is in taking a 2D design and translating it into a 3D model.  All too often a 2D design is "cheated" for a specific angle or even a pose.  Dave's genius is in his ability to bring all the elements from all the awesome but cheated drawings together to make a cohesive appealing 3D character.  And because of his background in character animation, Dave also has a unique way of creating appealing articulate facial rigs that are very user-friendly.  He seems to have a knack of finding the essence of the character and capturing it in the 3D model and in the facial expressions he creates.  Dave's work in creating appealing characters have graced Blue Sky's films for many many years.  Dave has had a tremendous influence on infusing "appeal and character" in many of the characters in Blue Sky's films"

Galen

AnimSchool Beta Classes -- starting today!

We're so excited here at AnimSchool. Our beta classes are starting today, with 24 students. That can only mean AnimSchool is closer to launching later this month. What an amazing collection of talent we have at the school! Stay tuned!

Dave

3D Appeal Blog Now -- Model Review of "Cliff"

Here is a model change and some descriptions of how to pump this character with appeal!