Webinar on Animation for Toons: Lizzielet Gracia, Trainer, Technicolor Creative Studios Academy

[Music] [Music] lights ladies and gentle fish welcome to the a room y'all stop talking you're ruining my C ation dig in birthday boy smells like [Music] beans yeah baby oh my [Music] God doesn't seem like you're having a lot of luck here Welcome to our new home babies forever Island a place where we can be wild and free you're running a fossilized business that's stalled out way below its potential and it's killing my soul [Music] wa [Applause] [Music] okay Paw Patrol ready for action well enoug

h about my fabulous [Music] light J wait stop I can explain what on Earth were you think I'm an influencer that's what I doy [Applause] asy hello everyone we are pleased to bring you the 13th installment of our learn create and grow webinar series animation for Tunes brought to you by technicala creative Studios Academy I'm Annabelle a training coordinator here at the Academy and it is a true Delight to have all of you here today our team is thrilled to have you here and we urge you to stay with

us until the end as we have some fantastic prizes to give away learn create and grow is a webinar series designed specifically for students and artists by technicala creative Studios Academy the master classes provide students with a unique opportunity to gain an understanding of the work of various disciplines within the bfx industry we introduce a new episode each month that enables artists like you to explore a broad range of topics through VFX master classes conducted by our expert trainers

today we will examine the skills associated with animation for tools before we go any further let me introduce you to our esteemed speaker lizet graer a trainer at the Academy lizet started her animation journey in the year 2000 when she joined milun animation as a result of her passion and creativity she quickly found herself in the dynamic world of 3D animation where she used her talents at DQ entertainment over the course of her career lalet contributed her exceptional talents and artistic V

ision to a variety of cartoon series among the most notable contributions are LS donkey Holly Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 1 and two tack the power of Juju Peter Pan Penguins of Madagascar and land first in addition to motion capture for movies such as barie Diaries and prodigies Beyond her professional achievements lizette's interests are as diverse as her talents spanning from oil painting and sewing to crocheting culinary exploration and more our interactive chat box provides you with the opportuni

ty to ask questions share your experiences and discuss challenges related to animation lizet and our team will be available to assist you as needed thank you anel for the kind introduction hello everyone I'm Liz Gracia a games animation trainer at technical creative Studios Academy I'm excited to share my EXP expertise in cartoon animation with you today I hope this information will inspire you all without further Ado let's get started with our webinar on the art of tune animation by the end of

this webinar you will gain a clear understanding of what is cartoon animation what is the difference between traditional handrawn animation and computer generated animation how has technology influenced the evolution of cartoon animation over the years and what are the ke principles of Animation that animators follow in the cartoon animation 3D cartoon animation also known as computer generated animation is a modern animation technique that brings characters and worlds to life in a three-dimensi

onal digital environment here's a simple explanation for a newcomer in 3D cartoon animation everything is created and manipulated on a computer instead of drawing individual frames by hand as in traditional 2D animation animators use specialized software to build three-dimensional characters these digital characters and objects can be moved and posed in 3D space just like real life puppets the process involves creating a digital skeleton for characters which is called a rig and then animators us

e this rig to pose and animate the characters the software calculates how these 3D models move and interact with their environment creating lifelike movements and action 3D animation is widely used in movies television shows video games and even educational content as a Freshman Learning 3D cartoon animation involves mastering the software tools understanding character design and developing skills in animating 3D models it is an exciting field with many creative possibilities and opportunities f

or those interested in bringing characters to life the key priority for someone looking to become a 3D cartoon animator is to understand the principles of Animation studying the core principles of Animation such as timing spacing squash and stretch and anticipation is a good start these principles apply to 3D animation just as they do to 2D animation here's how you can get a grasp of these animation principles Begin by studying the principles of Animation from books like Caron animation by Prest

on Blair the animat survival kit by Richard Williams timing for animation by haral raker analyze and watch a variety of animations both 2D and 3D pay close attention to how characters move try to identify how the principles of animations are applied in different scenes choose short animation sequences or scenes and break them down frame by frame this will help you see how the principles are applied in practice obs observe real life movements and interactions understand how people and objects mov

e in the physical world this knowledge can be appli to make your animations more lifelike animation is a skill that takes time to develop be patient and practice regularly over time you'll improve and become proficient in applying the principles of Animation let's discover the magic of 3D cartoon animation thank you for that fascinating session lizl let's take a brief break to play some trivia where you have the chance to win some exciting prizes just pay attention to the questions and type the

answer into the chat box as quickly as [Music] possible what is the random Iris movement [Music] called [Music] what is the name of the villain in The Lion [Music] King what color a SpongeBob's eye [Music] what animal tries to attack Ariel and Flounder at the beginning of the [Music] movie what is the name of the dog in the Tom and Jerry [Music] you keep an eye on your inbox as our team will contact the winner via email thank you for sharing your answers we invite you to take advantage of the op

portunity to explore the Academy's courses and learn more about the application process by clicking on the link in the upper right corner of your screen Additionally you can access our past webinars by clicking in the link in the description box let's discover the magic of 3D carton animation traditional 2D animation requires various equipments and materials like light box Peg bar animation paper to animate in 2D animation every frame is handdrawn few examples of traditional 2D animation movies

are Snow White and the Seven dwars Cula and Sleeping Beauty likewise we have Clay animation or claymation this is a stop motion animation technique that uses sculpted characters and objects made from clay to create animation sequence B 2D clay ma or 3D animation we must know the fundamentals of Animation let's see more about this cartoon animation by Preston play published in 1948 is a classic resource for aspiring animators he has worked for w Productions and MGM his book is a comprehensive gui

de to principles of animation and includes stepbystep instructions for animators to understand the fundamentals of Animation let me explain few of the fundamentals of 2D drawing character construction and proportion he has explained how to construct characters from basic shapes like circles and ovals head construction is important to understand the construction of the head to identify various head positions while posing and animating a character it is an imaginary line that runs through the spin

e of the character and helps to create a dynamic pose line of action creates a sense of flow and balance in the drawing we will begin posing the key frames prepare the scene file import the character and create a scene camera position the character in the camera angle turn on the safe action and safe title we start with a weight shift on the hip then we work on the line of action on the spine work on the XYZ angles of the spine work on the hands starting from the shoulder joint position the pole

Vector properly to get a nice flow of lines offset the fingers check the character ctor in all the angles for proper line of action balance appeal and emotion the second pose is pushed towards the left leg rotate the spine controls backwards and to the right remember the line of action position the feet and pole Vector move on to place the hands in the correct Place get a nice flow of lines from right hand to the left hand it shouldn't break at the shoulder adjust a pole vector and put the hand

s on the hip do not rotate too much position the fingers to touch the bow so adjust all the spine controls flip between the two keys to check the transition moving on to the third pose here the hip is down and push back position the legs and hands pose the fingers and tail flip between all the three frames and plan the breakdowns and inet we are going to see what is ease in and ease out by taking a simple example of a hand pointing animation here we have two keys one on frame one and one in fram

e N9 frame five is the breakdown so in between 1 and five we have the slowing out and in between 5 and 9 we have slowing in so we have the slow out then the slow in ease in or cushion in while doing the breakdown make sure your hand position is like the second example moving on to the Maya file we have a hand loaded in the my file with the reference image so let's quickly make the key frames and see how to give ease in and ease out we have the two keys here one on frame one and nine and the tran

sition is going to be like this so we don't have a breakdown or ease in or ease out added here the in between a computer generated and we don't have a breakdown so we have to add this breakdown after adding the breakdown we can see the difference between the first play blast and the second one so this is after adding the breakdown to get the ease out adjust the spacing by adding a key in between and adjust the graph to get a slow to fast action make sure the graph is very smooth do the same thin

g with the fingers and adjust the graph let's mark the spacing let's check whether it is slow to fast so in the first three keys we see that the elbow is very close and then the space is far away so that is the spacing between the first key and the breakdown and the second key now we have given the slow out or ease out so the action will be slow to fast the hand shouldn't be too stiff so I am just giving a slight Bend to the elbow to make it smooth now we'll add ease out just by giving aut tange

nt to the fingers also so we'll have a ease in and ease out make sure the graph is bent and not straight so you have a slow end a cushion to the action now that we know ease in and ease out let us see what is overshoot so here the hand shoots out too far and returns to the final position let's compare this with the cushion action the overshoot is shoots far where is here the hand decelerates in the end hard and soft accent accents can be hard or soft in animation terms a soft accent eases in and

a hard accent bounces back it shows someone pointing a hard accent goes past the extreme Point bouncing back and soft accent settling into the extreme pose the difference is on the emphasis in this example someone might be pointing vigorously shouting and pointing quickly whereas in this example someone might be pointing slowly with his hand settling into the final pose they are not shouting they aren't in a hurry when we are doing character animation we often have to choose between a hard acce

nt and a soft accent Arc is the seventh principle of Animation everything in nature Moves In A C Circle or an ark we should have the breakdown key to get the arc and flow of animation for example this hand movement is rigid so we need to add in the breakdown key we will break the joint if we take the example of a person slapping the table the elbow leads the action after moving up the elbow comes down and the hand keeps moving up and the Palm slaps the table the elbow will come down first follow

followed by the forearm and the fist the animator survival kit is a valuable resource offering practical techniques and principles that are essential for creating lifelike animations with this example from animator survival kit let us understand what is key frame extremes breakdowns and inet the key frames tell the story here we have three key frames telling the story that he has to take a few steps forward to pick up the chalk and right on the boat the extremes will include foot contact passin

g position then we add the breakdown and in between then the secondary actions like hair and tail what is a key frame the key drawings are called extremes and the pose in between the extremes are called as inet the most important pose is the key pose and all the other poses in between should flow towards the key pose work on the key poses with a reference image observe the following when you work on the key poses a strong pose will have a good silhouette and will Express the appeal and emotion o

f the character to the audience push the pose and make it more Dynamic and interesting even if it is still a good pose has Motion in it let's study the line of action balance and emotion in these poses the line of action is an imaginary line through the character's body indicating the direction and force of the post let us compare the first two poses this pose has no line of action all the lines are almost straight with no flow of line no balance and no Force whereas in this pose we have a prope

r line of action we can see the flow of lines from fingertip to shoulder to the other hand and hip upwards to the head and down the legs vary the line of action by reversing it to create contrast between poses what's balance when we talk about balance we should remember center of gravity in a balanced pose the weight of the body needs to be supported by one leg or distributed evenly or unevenly between both the legs when the character is standing and has the weight evenly distributed among the f

eet the line we draw from head downward to the ground will be at the midpoint between the feet if the weight is shifted to the right leg then the balance line will shift to the right foot in this pose there is proper Bal balance breakdown and in between if you move to the mid Keys between the key frames the computer will generate poses this pose cannot be used or edited we have to think what we want to do in the breakdown do you want to move an upper AR or lower Arc should the character move slo

w to fast or fast to slow should you add overshoot and settle in the end decision making ahead of time will help in a better workflow while posing where to position the hip for the breakdown if you choose the lower Ark then drop the hip between the keys if the hip is positioned halfway then the timing will be even if the hip is closer to the first key then the action will be slow in the beginning and snappier in the end with uneven spacing here we have three poses in the Maya file add breakdown

poses in between the keys observe the in-betweens created between the frames play with the spacing and timing let's talk about the in-betweens here we have three poses in the Mya file add breakdown poses in between the keys observe the inbet created between the key frames and the breakdowns let us see spacing and timing in detail even spacing here I Mark the hip and head positions if the spacing has to be even then we will have the breakdown down at the midpoint of these two positions the charac

ter is moving straight from key to key we start with the hip so move the hip down hip will move in the lower Ark this is even timing because the character moves the same distance with even spacing and timing similarly have imaginary points on the wrists to track the hand movements in an arc I have decided to take the lower Arc and slow to fast timing so place the closer to the first key favor the head to the first key and adjust the leg for proper balance decide what you want to do with The Arc

spacing and timing here in the first example we lead with the hip the hip is closer to the second key the head is dragging and it is closer to the first key the spine curves more on the breakdown to make the body flexible and to show variation in the line of action the action is fast to slow the hip is moving in lower Arc it is fast to slow hand is in even spacing and lower Arc the left hand is moving in Upper Arc the head is paced evenly we delay or lead with the head the head is turning in the

lower Arc the head is rotated down in x axis and the breakdown Mark points on the nose to find the Ark in the next breakdown the hip is moving down the line of action is reversed to create contrast in the action observe the movement of the head take the nose as the reference point to take check the ark again observe the line of action and how it is reversed by marking the nose and hands observe the Ark in the head and the hands squash and stretch is a term that we hear very often in animation s

o what is squash and stretch squash and stretch is a fundamental principle of Animation that makes animation look more lifelike and dynamic squash and stretch can be understood by practicing bouncing ball animation when a bouncing ball hits the ground it momentarily squashes or flattens upon impact and then St stretches as it rebounds similarly in animation a character's body can be squashed and stretched to emphasize the impact of a jump or action let's animate the squirrel skip cycle by applyi

ng these animation principles have a reference video an image sequence and load it into Meer in the attribute editor remember to keep the use image sequence option checked if this option is unchecked then you will see only one image to adjust the starting pose of the reference video you can change the number in the frame offset reduce the image plane size and position it by changing the values select all the controls and Mark the key frames let's make it interesting by adding squash and stretch

First grab the head control and push it down for the squash and you can adjust it in the graph editor use the copy and paste options to get the value in the alternate keys now move the head controls up for the stretch the bounce is exciting to animate further isn't it hold the master and work on the body tilt now translate the master up in the Y AIS copy the same value for now we can reduce or increase the height of the skip later now the skip has even spacing and timing select weighted tangents

and give Hang Time and the key will be linear when the character lands the time taken for the landing is faster because of gravitational force you can create an anim layer and make the cycle Progressive the layer can be turned off if not required when the squirrel lands on the ground there will be no translate Z movement the distance can be adjusted in the graph now select the spine control and work on the line of action the first pose is an anticipation and a squash pose the body will be bent

forward make make sure that you copy and paste the values carefully work on the head tilt and head delay you have to check your file frequently by making a play blast also by marking points you can check if the spacing is correct go to the graph Editor to make sure the graph is for smooth copy the values if required the in between keys will favor the previous keys in head delay in the front view move the spine for better line of action we can copy and paste the keys for more Cycles select all th

e controls and copy and paste connect the keys paast connect the translate Z keys in the anim layer also we can reduce the height of the the skip or gradually reduce the height by scaling down the Y AIS graph animate the lower body in the contact and take off the lower body will drag when it takes off and there will be a hang time when it is in the air and we can elongate the body using the lower body control here we animate the lower body control of the squirrel like that of the legs in a jump

we can fine-tune the shot further we're going to talk about overlapping action let's understand follow through with the example of a simple pendulum observe the swing the movement is initiated from the base the pendulum swings continuously and stop what happens in between the two keys we have the breakdown how should we pose the breakdown so the breakdown has a delay and an overlapping action the end will delay and the base will lead so in the breakdown favor the base that is the source of movem

ent closer to the next key moving on to posing the breakdown we can see that we are posing the base of the pendulum favoring the third key and the breakdown is dragging in between let's try one more cycle so in between these two cycle also we'll follow the same rules favoring the base like this and dragging the tail we can follow the same thing till the pendulum stops swinging so when it comes toward to the end it's very difficult to adjust it's better to work on the graph editor all we going to

do as we work further is to bring the extremes closer together so it's going to be extreme another extreme extr key frame and then a breakdown in between only thing is that the space between both extremes keep reducing and you have the same breakdown till the end after we done with all the breakdowns we'll move the keys apart and see how this works if you feel it is very stiff then move the extremes far away and increase the drag on the breakdowns so do not go beyond the first key that will pop

we can add keys after the first key to show little more drag same thing when it comes back also a recap again we have two extreme Keys one is curved this way and the next key is curving the other way all we have to do is create an in between that is the breakdown which will overlap as well as drag so the base will favor the second key and and the the tail will drag and it will be closer to the previous key so we'll do this throughout this is applicable for body tail hair all the secondary actio

ns let's apply this to this character so on key2 the character is bending forward so I'm not concentrating on the balance of the character just to show you how the inet are to be done so in the break down that's on key one what we supposed to do is we'll favor The Hip To Zero yes so it will tilt forward more closer whereas the upper body will be favoring the previous key that is bent backward so just spreading the keys out so we can see the delay the hip stops and then the body follows so we hav

e the wave like the whip like movement and the body body while animating your body will not be stiff so whenever you have an action always try to give a whip action or follow through in between so remember this so there should be a reason why you move the hip first and then delay the head or the upper body let's see the tail movement if these two are the extreme Keys the breakdown will be like this the base of the tail will favor the second key and the tip of the tail tail will favor the first k

ey so the base is initiating the movement so the same thing happens in the reverse Direction when the tail is going up the base will favor the upper key and the tip will drag behind this will be the very basic for doing the follow through later we will fine-tune the graph We'll add more keys in between and make the follow through very smooth and we'll also add the path according to the direction of movement the tail will not be moving in any One Direction like rotate X Y or Z it will move accord

ing to the body in all the directions so when we animate the body we have to animate the tail according to the body movement start working on the tail animation take the reference from the reference video and remember that the tip of the tail should Point towards the direction the body had moved from adjust the controls keeping in mind the wave movement and follow through and overlapping action create additional key frames to show how the tail follows the character's movement with a slight delay

the tail might continue to sway or curl a bit after the character stops the tail movement is exaggerated when the character changes direction or speed make sure that the transition between key frames is smooth to create a natural flow in the tail animation follow through and overlapping action are essential principles in animation that make characters and objects appear more lifelike and dynamic to understand this principle better observe the tail of an animal or a flag or any object with a fle

xible structure also consider the weight of the tail before animating it heavier Tails will have slow more deliberate movements while lighter tails may react quickly to change in motion the tail should not distract from the main action but should enhance it adjust the timing and spacing between key frames to control the speed and flow of the Tails animation experiment with different timing to achieve the desired effect follow through animation in the tail might require some practice and experime

ntation we will see in detail how to animate a blink how to work on eye directions and ey dots we will also see how the upper lid and lower lid will be animated in a BL when the character has a normal closed eye remember to move the upper lid properly to close it completely also remember that the upper lid has the ability to move by itself but the lower lid cannot move by itself it needs the push of the cheek muscles to move up there are some places when we don't won't close the eyes completely

so the upper lid will not close on a quick blink or quick half blink so those are the exceptional cases we do not close the eyes completely when do we animate the lower lid we animate the lower lid when the character smiles when the character has a wide smile the cheek muscles are pushed up when the cheek muscles are pushed up the eyelids are pushed up so the eyes will become smaller when we animate the blink we will not close the eyes exactly in the center line we will always close it a little

lower or a little higher to the middle line this is because the lower lid cannot move by itself unless and until the character smiles and the cheek muscles push the lower leads up when we animate the blink move the upper liad below the center of the eye when we animate a smile we move the lower leg above the center of the eye so what happens when the character smiles when the character Smiles the cheek muscles are pushed up and the cheek muscles in turn act on the lower LS pushing it up brows ey

es and mouth including the cheeks will not animate separately movement in the mouth will affect the cheeks and the eyes we do not animate the Brows eyes cheeks and lips separately there is some connection between each other when we have a wide smile the cheek muscles are pushed up and the cheek muszle will push the lower eyelid up and we pose the eyebrows accordingly when we have some close-up shots we have to Shadow the shape of the eyebrow on the eyelids if we have controls for the eyelids rot

ate it slightly to match the shape of the eyebrows it shouldn't be rotated too much but animate it to the minimum when we animate a blink the blink timing can can be two frames to close two frames to hold and two frames to open so this will vary in realistic animation in realistic animation the character will take more than five to six frames to open his eyes or it'll take 7 to eight frames to close the eyes and there will be a long hold in the closed eye before the eye opens in cartoon blank we

close the eyes on frame two and make sure the eyes are closed properly and we keep the eyelids closed on frame four as well so from 2 to 4 the eyes will remain closed and it can be a perfect hold or a moving hold go to the graph editor and hold the handles and give the moving hole like this make sure it is very less otherwise it will look like an added Movement we should only feel the moving hold to make the blink even better we have to give an uneven timing to the close and the open so grab th

e upper lid and make the timing un even while closing and opening by inserting a key in between we can add a slight movement in the eyebrows and the lower lid if the short is very tight add a slight movement in the eyebrows and give uneven spacing make sure the brow doesn't travel with the eyes now let's add a small movement to the lower lid we can polish the blank further the other Eye controls can be used to make the blink even better avoid zombie eyes in the inbetween this can be prevented by

manually keying the pupil control go to the in between frames where the eyeball is not visible hold the eyeball control and translate it down so that the iris is visible on all the frames we do not close our eyes in all the blanks some blanks are called half blanks we do half blings after a full blink so in a half blink what we do is we do not close our upper lid completely the upper lid will come half the way and it will open back we can even animate the lower lid in a half link we can adjust

the timing in the graph we change our eye directions after a blink so when we change eye Direction the eyeball should not pop or float during the blink how to animate this perfectly to avoid this we have to do the transition when the eyes are closed ey directions if we have a object and the character has to see the object do not place the aim on the object if we place the aim on the object it will look like the character is looking at it in the perspective view but in the camera view it will not

match fix the aim properly in the camera angle you can also move the individual control separately we can follow a few methods to find the I Direction so have an imaginary vertical and horizontal line running across the eyeball with the pupil at the center if this horizontal and vertical line shifts to the right or to the left the pupil will position itself accordingly so always have an imaginary vertical and horizontal line to find the position of the pupil in the next method we have an imagin

ary line passing through the eyes to the object the line passing through both the eyes should not go beyond the object but meet at a point if the line crosses in front of the object that is where the eye look at will be and if the line goes beyond the object and if it is meeting beyond the object that is where the loate will be if the object is placed below the eye level then we have to position the eyes like this if we move the eye control a little behind or inside the object it may not match i

n this case the eye direction is not on the object but far behind the object on always remember to work in the camera angle to fix the eye Direction when the character is looking down we should not have an excited eyes so remember to move the upper lid down to avoid excited eyes the eye makes some rapid repetitive uncontrolled movements such as up down side to side or in circles this movement is called ey doart or ptic movement let us see how to animate the ey dot while doing the ey Dot we shoul

d make sure that we do not change the eye Direction the eyeball will keep shifting in the Golden Triangle that is between the two eyes and the mouth or the forehead it keeps going around the face so make sure you do not change the eye direction do not move the eye control in all the directions like this or change the eye direction we give two frames for the direction change so you can do it on one axis if it is X translate in X and make sure it doesn't translate so much and change the ey Directi

on then we have a ho for two frames or four frames and we have the next shift in the direction so if the I direction is moving from point A to B that is from 40 to 42 then it is on hold till 46 so in 48 what should happen is it shouldn't go back to a we should give a new position so maybe we can animate the Y and give a new Direction and Let It Go from A to B to C so never go back to and frow so that will not be natural we can also adjust the timing in the graph editor select the grab editor and

move the keys like how I'm showing you shift the keys and place a key just before our point B and shift it back so we can get a slow to fast or a fast to slow movement in the in the two keys so when we make a play blast and check it should be very natural and subtle important to remember that practice is key to become proficient in cartoon animation it is important to practice regularly and refine your skills thanks to everyone who took part in the session I hope you enjoyed it apply today and

start your journey in cartoon animation at technical or creative Studios Academy thank you over to you annal thank you very much lizet for that wonderful session we extend our sincere thanks to all the participants who joined us for today's informative and engaging webinar we hope you found it both valuable and enjoyable please feel free to contact us us with any additional questions or inquiries through the contact details displayed on your screen please feel free to share the recording of the

webinar with anyone who may benefit from it if they were not able to attend you can stay up to date with the upcoming episodes and exciting content by staying connected with us on social media in the meantime keep those creative Sparks alive and take care of yourself we look forward to welcoming you back to the next installement of learn create and grow [Music] n