Thumbnail poses

As mentioned in a previous post I've being doing a fair amount of thumbnail poses as practice so I'll try and collect as many as I can find here but I did most on scraps of paper that were closest to me.

I've tried quite a few different methods of getting poses down as quickly as possible, some have worked better than others and I'm still hunting for better ways.

Job Requirements

Media Molecule - Character Animator
Requirements

• The ability to create high quality, responsive in-game animations that look AMAZING from every angle
• A strong understanding of biped and creature body mechanics
• ability to create high quality, full body acting animation for cutscenes. Semi-realistic style
• The ability to plan a cutscene from storyboard to final animation
• A very strong understanding of camerawork and layout
• A highly communicative person able to interact with different departments and make own decisions
• The ability to deal with some uncertainty and reiteration (nobody will come to you and give you a final storyboard to work with. Nothing is final until it is shipped)
• The ability to create or break down animations into short responsive sequences, so that the players control always remains the highest priority.
• Passion for the details

Advantageous

• Previous experience of the games industry and it’s pipeline

Amazon Game Studios - 3D Animator 

We are looking for someone that. . .

• Has a creative demo reel demonstrating high quality key frame animation
• Has a passion for bringing characters to life
• Is able to animate a broad range of characters, from realistic humanoids to stylized cartoons
• Wants to be part of a team of smart and passionate professionals who will challenge you to grow every day
• Can make a huge impact
• Learns from others and helps grow those around them
• Takes ownership and does whatever it takes to get the job done

Basic Qualifications

• 3+ years’ experience in 3D Animation on shipped games
• Ability to animate in 3D software such as 3ds Max or Maya

Preferred Qualifications

• Ability to draw and thumbnail poses
• Facial animation experience
• 
  

Pirahna games Inc - Animator

What you will be doing:

• Works with the Senior Animator to design and implement the needed gameplay animations
• Rigs and animates characters/models
• Demonstrates a strong understanding of motion, weight, acting and timing
• Ensures animations meet technical and visual quality standards
• Work collaboratively with other members of the production team to resolve technical and/or design issues.
• Evaluates constantly the animation pipeline for improvement
• Adjusts and refines animation as indicated by the Art Director and the Senior Animator
• May assist in producing motion graphics, including character animation and cinematic
• Participate as a proactive team member to further team and project goals
• Other ad-hoc responsibilities as requested

What you will bring with you:

• Proficient with 3D StudioMax and Motion Builder animation tools
• Solid understanding of animation principles
• Highly motivated, self-driven problem solver with keen attention to details
• Strong ability to accept direction and constructive criticism objectively
• Proven track record to complete work within deadlines while maintaining constant communication with team
• Ability to work under pressure and thrive in fast-paced work environment while maintaining high quality results
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

What we consider as pluses!

• Passionate about playing and making games!
• Knowledge of CryEngine

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Above are three job listings for various Animator roles within games, these job listings allow insight into the sorts of skills they are looking for when hiring a candidate. I have specifically picked out the listings that aren't senior roles as for now that isn't where I am looking to be, I want to be confident in my role before looking to advance to a higher level as I think the experience gained would be very valuable especially as knowing the junior roles well would allow me to better understand how to direct if I ever wanted to take on the role of a lead.

Most of the requirements listed I would be comfortable in saying I could do to a reasonable standard. Judging from feedback I've been getting from mentors in relation to my latest showreel the practice is paying off and while I may not be at quite the standard media molecule would want yet I feel like it isn't completely out of my reach. There are a few things that these have flagged up which I think i should pay more attention to. For example both media molecule and piranha games inc make reference to the ability to storyboard cinematic sequences, something that i would need more practice at to be confident in. Amazon Games makes reference to thumb-nailing which could also been seen as a link to cinematic sequences, however the practice I have been getting through websites like quick pose and pose maniacs should prove to be helpful in this area. Also I have gotten into the habit of doodling poses when im out and about.

While I haven't used motion builder that much i have a familiarity with it that if needed i could use it fairly well and when it comes to 3ds max again as long as there's somewhere on the internet to guide me with the different naming of things it's more the principles of animation that would be more important to understand.

Showreel update

I should probably have kept a progress log when i was working on this but I can give a quick recap.

I have take the two fox animations form the start of the semester and chosen to use the fox jump as the first animation to play as i feel it is the strongest and the one i've had the most feedback for (11 second club) I have worked into the attack animation quite a lot more to help iron out some of the problems the original had, I have produced the sassiest walk cycle I could muster because I wanted a non generic walk cycle and everyone loves a little bit of attitude and then finally finished off by animating something a little less cyclic for the finale. There are still things i want to fix about a few of the animations but considering the time limit and the fact i needed to get feedback from mentors about both technical ability and structure of the reel itself I needed to give myself a deadline.

This is what I sent off to the mentors:

https://vimeo.com/92812895

I tried to incorporate the idea of story that James was mentioning in the hopes that it would make my reel more memorable.

Male Arms

Been looking at anatomy so I can break down the structure to better inform my thumbnails when preparing to animate.

Today I have been looking at male arms a little closer. Firstly I looked at the muscle structure a little closer, broke it down into the different parts then simplified the structures further in order to give a clearer idea of the shapes involved.

I then applied the basic structure to photos of people in various positions and as you can see in the bottom left of the image below started to apply these shapes to cartoon images with unrealistic proportions. 

Finally I then tried to apply the shapes to different builds and in poses not from reference

Even More Industry contacts

So I just had my chat with James from Denki over Skype, as it was over Skype all i have are my notes that I wrote down but honestly he was really nice to talk to so my notes are limited. We spoke for just over an hour and covered all of the topics i wanted to cover and more. While he focuses on 2D animation much of his experiences are very applicable to my own situation. As he is the only artist in a small team he takes on the entire art creation responsibility and so needs to be able to do a bit of everything. I'll put my notes here and try and make sense of them.

The first major point he made was about the maintaining of momentum and how that can be really beneficial for finding and maintaining work in the industry. He was doing stuff all the time straight out of uni be it starting his own company to side projects to joining Denki and he used the analogy of a horse running along side a train, it's much easier to jump from one moving thing to another than try and build momentum.

This led on to a chat about the main points he would look for in a person when considering them to hire. They boiled down to:

• Character - their ability to take and give direction, are they willing to learn, are they willing to teach
• Process - he likes to see the thought process behind shots rather than just them in isolation, give them story (more on this later)
• Momentum - as mentioned, the momentum of a person shows that they want to be doing this, if they choose to do something in their spare time it shows passions for the subject.

We then moved onto team dynamic and I asked him about what it's like working with other disciplines and how easy is it to get feedback, he said that the way Denki works is that they go with whoever has the best idea be it an art idea coming from code or a design idea coming from art, which ever is best they go with which makes feedback flowing between team members, he said they are at the level of being able to finish each others sentences which shows they are all on the same wave length. He also mentioned that the company worked in a way that was like painting a picture, they work in layers of detail with all aspects of the project improving at the same rate giving a well rounded project even if they have to stop working on it early.

From there we spoke about his portfolio and what it showed when he applied to Denki, he'd never done any game work before but his portfolio showed a range of styles from life drawing, realism to cartoony but tried to avoid tropes of design like the scantily clad women in space. He also said he showed a range of polished and process work (feeding back into the thought behind the piece)

I showed him my most recent showreel and he gave me some feedback. He mentioned that the clips were probably a little too long and that showing a second angle on some of them would have helped display it better but that it was solid work and showed good technical side. He suggested that it might be better to structure my shots with story in mind as that would make it more memorable and gave the example of the hippo like creature chasing someone in the scene, it would demonstrate both the technical side but also add a story element that would make it more memorable in the long term. He suggested possibly using a mock screenshot of a game and displaying my work that way (which is similar to something I've been considering doing already).

We then spoke a little about lengths of projects and how that can affect planning and concepting time.

Throughout most of the conversation we kept coming back to the theme of "Art serves the play" which usually means in a project animation can be first to go as often it has less of an impact on how the game plays, this means some of the animation isn't as polished as he'd like but other art elements come first.

Finally i asked him about finding the balance between belief in your work and arrogance and he gave a very good response in that its better to believe in what you want to do rather than focus on skill, skill will always improve with time and effort being put in so instead focus on what you want to say with your work rather than the work itself. He referenced a poster his physics teacher had which said "Aim at nothing and you'll hit it"

All in all it was a pleasure talking with James and he had some very interesting points to make. 

More industry contact

So I've spoken a little to Chris Tarrant via Facebook chat and gotten some advice and also shown him some of my work. He's given me some good feedback on my strengths and weaknesses although the work I was showing him wasn't my most up to date. He's very happy for me to send work to him for feedback and as he's the only animator where he works he's asked if he can send me some of his work for feedback which is nice.

I've also got in contact with James from Denki and have arranged a skype chat with him later on this evening he also seems quite happy to see my work and give me feedback so things are going well in that respect.

More mentors and an update to my showreel plans

 Question:

I am interested to know how the assignments are dished out to the animators? Are you directed to a network file that contains base poses to start from so that everybody is on the same page? What about transition animations, where the character moves from standing to walking or running, is the transition a separate animation?

Answer:
In my personal experience, you handed a character with a list of animations that it is required to do. The basics like run, walk, idle, active idle, 3 attacks, couple fidgets, casting, death, and whatever else that is required. Just depends on the project and the end goal.

Transition animations are not really necessary (depending on the engine) because you can rely on engine blending for a lot of the transitioning. I have never worked on any super high quality games though. I am sure they use transitions for idle_To_move and move_to_idle motions. That would be 2 separate animations. Of course. Plus any get up sequences if the character has to fall down from ragdoll physics.

Also got a response from Andrew Innes who kindly answered the questions I asked in the email however his response seemed to indicate he was busy so I've thanked him for the reply asked another question but one that has less pressure so that if he hasn't time to reply then it's not a problem. I'll be looking to find more contacts this week although I think a way of gaining a few would be to get my first pass show reel up and running so I can post it to the 11 second club for feedback. That should help inform decisions on improvements but I need to do it soon so I can act on it.

Today we had a Q and A with Gary Penn from Denki for the presentation module and I've also asked whether it would be a better idea to ask for an introduction to an animator he knows rather than going through him, he said to email him about it as he reckons that an animator he knows called James will be up for speaking to me.

I've also hopefully got a contact through Dave, he has a friend who is currently an animator in industry but we'll see how that pans out over the next few days.

Showreel wise after todays talk from Gary I've been thinking about how i can make it stand out against other people who can animate at the same level or even much better than I can. I thought about producing a mock up of a side scrolling game using the loops I've been producing, this way it would show the work in context and hopefully catch a bit more attention. I plan on running this idea past a couple of people to see whether that would work. I was planning on making the mock up last about 30 seconds and then have another 30 afterwards demonstrating the loops themselves showing that they are smooth and designed with games in mind. I've began to block out timing for it and events in order to figure out what animations I would need to produce.