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.

Update

I haven't posted in a while because of other things taking over but I have made some progress today which I think is useful.

During the last meeting with Ken I told him that I've been struggling with myself to get into contact with people. I have a bit of a problem with thinking I'm going to be bothering people and so convince myself it's better not to ask than waste someones time. I know I need to get into contact with more than just Mike despite the fact his help has been invaluable so far (side note I've sent him another email recently which some more questions that cropped up as being useful during the current group project I'll post if I get a reply)

So in order to try and combat my fears I've been looking to find a way of asking for people who are willing or have some time to talk to me a bit via the forums on the 11 second club and while looking for the right place to post such a request I came upon an article posted by Andrew Innes titled "getting a job in games"

link: http://gamesanimator.com/?p=28

He mentions as part of the article what he looks for in game demo reels:
 "Great body mechanics, focus on real weighty actions. Less emphasis on acting."

also he links to another article which goes into a little more detail from 2008
link: http://fliponline.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/getting-animation-job-in-games.html

This helps confirm information I've found in other places. As he's shown his willingness to offer advice quite recently and currently has 5 years of experience working at natural motion I thought he might be a good person to contact for more advice. I just need to re evaluate my questions and figure out which ones he's already answered in the article but I'm hopeful of a reply.


In other news my showreel is slowly gaining footage that I'd be ok with showing other people which is good, I've readdressed a load of the issues with the fox run animation and am working on a set of animations which would act as an extension to an Idle when the fox sits down and looks around. This is being split into three parts in order to show understanding of the need for quick reactions to player input.

Gamasutra GDC article

Hit a small jackpot when it comes to information regarding animating in the games industry. An article was posted to Gamasutra about a week ago now which is detailing the conversation between 5 industry lead and senior animators at GDC last year.

They are:

Kristjan Zadziuk - Animation Director, Ubisoft Toronto

Ryan Duffin - Senior Animator, EA DICE

Simon Unger - Lead Animator, Robotoki

Tim Borrelli - Lead Animator, 5th Cell

Mike Jungbluth - Senior Animator, Zenimax Online

link: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/212003/game_animation_bootcamp_an_expert_.php?page=1

This article was an amazing read, they detail everything from what they would like to (or like not to see) on show reels aiming for game animation as well as how the role is shifting away from being just animating to needing to understand more of the technical side and actively help think of ways to improve how the aesthetic and the game play collide. It's made me realize that having scenes with two characters interacting and a dialogue section on my show reel is probably not necessary and would pale in comparison to showing a set of animations separately and then bringing them together preferably in engine showing that I not only understand weight and timing but also the technical needs when it comes to game play and state engines.

I need to work on some more interesting walk cycles and animation sets to show my worth rather than the cinematics style stuff I've been working on. Cut scenes aren't a fallback for storytelling in games anymore and demonstrating my skills at creating personality through animations that would be seen during game play will play much more to my advantage.

I think I'd like to do more with my fox animations actually.. have the jump, fix the run (which i know is terrible) create a walk but then also maybe sort out some state changes so have an injured walk, maybe a couple of idle animations that also show the shift from healthy to injured.  

Another interesting point made is about being able to understand what other disciplines responsibilities and risks are and letting them know yours so instead of just complaining at design for throwing something at the art team resulting in throwing time away and not having enough time to get something done, everyone understands their place in the system. Particularly useful right now =]

"Taking the time to educate each other on what your work entails and the challenges you face can go a long way to fixing a lot of the issues that arise during production." -  Simon Unger

Simon also plugs an article he wrote back in 2012 entitled "How to get a job as an animator in games"
link: http://gamasutra.com/view/news/176374/How_to_get_a_job_as_an_animator_in_games.php

I've actually already read this article before but reading it again with new information in mind will help me see how the industry is changing and what is still a consistent request. Also this article goes into a little more detail when it comes to interviews and resumes.

Animation Planning/Practice

I was looking for existing animation reference for a different module when i stumbled across a blog done by an animator for Pixar detailing his planning process for the shots he needs to create. It's really nice to see someones process in so much detail from his initial research to thumbnails and even including some of his own reference footage. If there's one thing I'm going to have to get better at its creating my own reference footage. Its tricky to get my ideas about movement and facial expression out of my head without it. As I've been explaining in the previous post I've been trying to find better/quicker ways to thumbnail while getting all of the detail of the posing in. also being able to get the subtlety in is quite hard. I'm getting better though!

Link: http://www.carlosbaena.com/resource/resource_tips_planning.html

Another webpage that talks about workflow is on the animation mentor site. It has a short video talking about two animators from tippett studios workflows and how they are different depending on whats needed in the animation and what is most important but also advises adapting it constantly to help improve how you're going about animation. They also mention that just diving in is probably the worst thing to do... I agree. It has been something that has tripped me up in the past.

http://www.animationmentor.com/tips/jim-brown-brian-mendenhall-tippett/

I've had to abandon the box lifting clip unfortunately due to a pretty rookie mistake during blocking. I'm a little disappointed as it was starting to go quite well but at least I can try and plan a new one out better. I've already started to block a new one in and I've been fairly ambitious, I'm trying to produce a subtle performance displaying a characters sense of loss. Being able to demonstrate emotions without needing to over act or exaggerate hopefully will help show range in my abilities.

Here's the blocking pass for that:

Quickpose thumbs

I'm really disatisfied with my ability to convey a pose in a short amount of time so i can plan animations accordingly. so I started todays festivities inspired by these drawings.

I think they are pretty amazing at getting across both pose, weighting and movement and they would be fairly quick to do! So Inspired by them i used the quickpose tool to help practise getting the motion and posing down.

I started simple using the method they use in the image above and which i feel worked well at getting the pose across. I then worked into them a little afterwards which would help with refining key poses. I still need to work on facial expressions as they are tricky to thumbnail but at least I think this way I'll get some better planning for my animations.

HeavyBox Update

I've blocked out the heavy box animation a little further adding a small element of performance in. Hopefully this can progress to a point where I'm happy for it to be in my showreel.

Fox Jump Feedback/Professional contacts

Just a short one really

I've been getting some interesting suggestions on the 11 second club forum for ways of helping to improve its flow. They're suggesting animating two bouncing balls to mimic the front and back of the foxes body, this should help with the spacing between the two and help with the flow. It never occurred to me that was something I could be doing to help inform my animation but it's a great idea. It's almost like a stage of blocking before actual blocking.


As well as sending off another email to Mike concerning content of showreels I'll also be meeting with a few of the artists including the lead artist of Tag games this evening to help me understand how animators work in a smaller company. It should be pretty useful and as it's in person that means it's going to mean a lot of note taking and a write up later this evening hopefully before I've forgotten what my notes mean.

Displaying weight and force

So one of the exercises mentioned in the email with Mike Pang was to do work with characters carrying heavy boxes in order to help display the sense of weight the character has. So I've started to work on an example of that. I'm using a free rig that I'm fond of and have started by working out a few thumbnails (as suggested by the 2D animator on the 11 second club) for the action. I have it planned out but its all sketches on rough bits of paper.. I'll try and upload them later for reference. Anyway I haven't spent much time on it. Started to block out the timing and movement. I think I'm a little weak on timing and could probably use recording reference a little more often.

Fox Jump progress / Professional contact

I posted up that I had submitted my fox jumping animation to the 11 second club for scrutiny and feedback which has been going pretty well. There's a lot of worry surrounding putting work up for feedback on forums as often there are people who will criticize without offering suggestions on how to improve. My experience so far has been a good one. I've received quite a few helpful observations and suggestions and have recently uploaded a second iteration seen below:

Main Feedback followed from these two users

User: J.K Riki - 2D animation but always applicable 
"I think you've got some really nice aspects of the jump so far. Some poses, like the compressed one at the height of the jump, really work well. One of the trouble spots is the it's feeling a bit stiff, which might be because of the model you're using, I don't know. 

Did you plan out the animation in thumbnails? I find that that helps a lot (though full disclosure, I do 2D animation) and it might assist in keeping things a little more fluid here. I did some visual brainstorming of some of the keys on paper:



I'd ignore the final landing pose, it's not very good and I'd need to go back and redo it, but again this is just "visual thinking" and thumbnails are great because you can do them in 20 seconds and don't feel bad if you have to throw one out. Or all of them out, ha ha.

Anyway, what I noticed in the thumbnails I did is that getting the fox's legs extended in the places it needs to be (as he's pushing into the air, and as he's prepping to land) really adds a good flow for the audience's eyes so they can be ready for what's coming. I also think a bit more squash/weight is going to help a lot on the landing, because it feels too floaty at the moment.

You may also want to watch the arc on the fox's head. Something to try would be to isolate JUST his head and see where it moves in the cycle, because I think you'll find it kind of jumps/jiggles all over the place. If you can get that smoother, and then have the body follow, it should all even out nicely. 

Hope that helps! It's a great start you've got going on, just a few tweaks will really polish it up. "

User: Waseqazi 

"Great start! Watch the big pop in the first few frames on the front half of his body. Adding some more drag to the head as he rears back and then shoots up would also help to show the lead of the hips. His tail could use a lot more overlap as he reaches the apex of the jump, right now it stays the same until he starts coming down.

Watch for right at the end when his paws hit the ground, his root stays stuck in the same position for two frames. Try to squash that down a lot more. The more you have him reach with the front paws on the downward part, like in J.K. Riki's drawings, the more organic it will feel, same with dragging the head back a bit more on the down.

Finally, I'd add a few more frames at the end of the loop to allow his head and head to overlap downwards before it starts over. Right now he pops back into going up without having the momentum from the head and tail to end."

I've also had my first reply from an Industry professional. I sent off a request to Media Molecule creators of little big planet and tearaway to see if any of their animators would mind talking to me and answering a few of my questions, they got back to me quickly with an animator named Mike Pang who was nice enough to take time to answer some questions.

My email:

"Hi Mike!

First of all thank you so much for agreeing to speak to me, I know you must be busy so I really appreciate it, I've tried to narrow down what I'm asking because I'm not wanting to overwhelm you with questions but I have so many it's been difficult to choose!

Firstly a bit of a general background of where you came from would be useful, how and why you got into making games?

What do you do day to day?

How involved in other aspects of development are you?

Could you give me an example of the pipeline you use?

Any interesting plugins or tools that are particularly handy?

How do you keep up to date with cutting edge techniques?

What do you like to do to help practice your skills? Any exercises you'd recommend?

I'm currently trying to get my work out there a little more, posting it on the 11 second club to gain feedback and refine my existing skills, are there any other ways of gaining feedback and getting my work more visible?

And a slightly more personal question, how do you know you're good enough to apply? I keep feeling like if I apply with work that isn't good enough it will harm my efforts to find work later on when I've improved.

I look forward to hearing from you and if there's anything else you think would be good to add as general advice that would be great, maybe things that are common mistakes to avoid? As I said I have plenty more questions but I don't want to overwhelm you.

Thank you again!

Robin"

His response:

"Hi Robin,

 

Good to hear from you. I always try to make time for students as I remember how valuable it is to speak to someone from the industry when I was studying. So hope I can help in some way.

 

I originally studied traditional animation back in 2001-2004 at the Arts Institute in Bournemouth (I think it's called something else now) back then there weren't many CG courses and if there were they were technical and I didn't have the maths brain to do it. 

 

I graduated in 2004, 2D animation was dying out and not many jobs were out there, I kind of fell into games as EA at the time were doing a graduate scheme. I was one of the lucky hand picked few that managed to get a position. Starting as a concept artist but then I moved over to the animation side after 3 months where they taught me how to use Maya, from then on that's where I met a lot of talented animators and learnt from them as well. So i've been in the games industry for about 10 years now, working at a few companies and tried my hands in feature film as well. But Media Molecule is where I am now and really enjoying it. 

 

Day to day job varies at different companies. Time at EA, once moved over to animation I was solely doing animation, MPC (Moving Picture Company) was the same. At Mm as they're a creative bunch they like there staff to be versatile so as we're in the infancy of the project i'm on currently my job currently evolves around pre-visualation on the animation side and playing around with all aspects of animation with environments to particles. 

 

My involvement in other aspects of development is dependent on how much you like to contribute everyone at Mm has a voice which is great. A lot of the big companies from my experience tends to prefer you to stick with your specialism. You can e-mail out suggestions but not sure how much is taken on board. 

 

The pipeline is pretty much the same in most places. You get a technical guy who'll rig up and set up scripts for you to run the rig. Once you've finished with your animation there's easy tools for you to export your animation into the game. In film it's the same instead you export your animation curves and it's off to the lighting/rendering guys. 

 

A lot of the tools and plugins are in house so can't really share them. Don't worry though you're not missing out it's to help the exporting. A lot of the tools tend to be rig dependent anyway and the free rigs you get online are pretty much similar to the ones in games, but less complicated like the facial rigs for instance. 

 

I tend to keep an eye on most feature animations, the odd indie animations and I love the stuff that comes out of the French animation school Gobelin. The 11 second club is good and I like the critiques that they attach to the winners that's always useful to watch. 

 

At the time when I was looking for a job in film I suppose you practice and cater your reel towards more performance and creature animations trying to create them as realistic as possible. For games it's good to practice your walks and run cycles. The classic box lifting and maybe an acting piece. These all demonstrate your skill as an animator, your understanding of timing, weight and creative ideas. The other animator at Mm is currently doing an online course in the evenings as it's based in US time http://ianimate.net doing the workshop 4 concentrating on close up Facial acting and lip sync. So it can vary. 

 

As for getting your work out there what you're doing is great, I personally haven't done that before but from others I see them posting on Vimeo it has a nice stats page of who's been watching you. Blogs and forums maybe? If you like you can always send me a link to your work. 

 

As for knowing whether you're good enough, you should look online check out other peoples reels and compare yours to them. Hopefully your tutors and people around you are honest enough to give you an opinion as well. Applying to job can never harm your efforts. If you didn't get a chance for an interview maybe ask for some feedback. It's good to get a blog and keep it updated with new animation tests. It shows that you're passionate and that you're continually improving. Keep the reel at under 2 minutes and have your good stuff first and end on a high!

 

I'll try and round this e-mail off now. If you're applying for games it's good to have all those animation test as mentioned before, walks and run cycles etc. It seems like a lot of companies are asking for mo-cap knowledge but if you know the principals of animations this won't be difficult to learn. Spend time on your reel and polish you animation. If you're doing a performance piece get lots of reference act it out and plan your shot. It's so important to get these early stages right as it'll save you a lot of time in the long run and you don't stray off with different ideas. 

 

Sorry this e-mail is quite lengthy, but I hope I've managed to help out in some way. Here's my blog, unfortunately I haven't had the time to update it for some time but it gives a general example.

 

http://mikepangshowreel.blogspot.co.uk

 

As mentioned before feel free to send in your examples of work or upload it to somewhere on youtube or Vimeo so I can see.

 

All the best, 

 

Mike"

I intend to take him up on the opportunity to email him for feedback but as he's busy I don't want to make it too regular.

13-02-14 Quick Poses

Weakest: 4, Having two to draw put me off massively

Strongest: 7, I think the lines make the model seem like shed be able to balance and also shows tension in the legs.

Defining the role - Other internet sources

I know there are better ways about finding out about roles but I am in the process of setting up visits to Tag Games and Denki to talk more about what their animators do day to day, whats expected of them, what knowledge is most valued etc, but I think that by looking at how places on the internet define roles I'll be able to figure out suitable questions to add to my growing list of personal queries (I'll come to the new additions to that list later in the post)

Link: 
http://education-portal.com/articles/How_to_Become_a_Video_Game_Animator_Career_Guide.html

In this first link it goes into more detail about some aspects of requirements than skillset. I think its best to see this more as a rough average of what happens rather than the rule as there are always exceptions.

• Generally Game animators have a bachelor's degree in one of the following areas - art, computer graphics, animation, illustration. (source for this one is actually career builder.com and Gamasutra.com job postings(July 2012))
• Experience for mid to advanced level jobs generally require 2-4 years of experience (most likely referring to industry experience)
• Key skills are listed as Artistic ability, creativity, technical proficiency, ability to work as part of a team (This last one comes up regularly probably due to the need to collaborate with other disciplines in order to come to a compromise between visual performance and gameplay)
• Program knowledge of maya, studio max, photoshop, illustrator, flash, final cut pro and after effects are commonly sort after.
• Technically it can be required to have used graphics tablets

General Tips:

•  Only use your best work in your showreel keeping it short with the most eye catching stuff first to help attract attention.
• In industry experience is very valuable (This is added to by the information recieved during a visit from Ubisoft to the university, they also prize entrepreneurship and showing you are prepared to reach beyond your job description in the pursuit of excellence)
• They encourage keeping up to date with technical knowledge reading papers and possibly attending conferences this also goes for processes and pipelines too. (Siggraph is a good event for this also Animex in the UK)

Applying for an animation job within games - (gamasutra 2012)
link: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/176374/How_to_get_a_job_as_an_animator_in_games.php

Naming conventions! Name the files you send with your name and then the item name, no spaces.
e.g RobinGriffiths_CoverLetter.pdf
Unless they ask for something specific or it's in an email format in which case you make sure the subject line is correct.

Cover letter contents: "Generally speaking, it should be short, flattering (to the company or project), confident (without being cocky), and highlight what you bring to the company/project."

contact Info needs to be easy to find and maintain a design continuity throughout the resume, pick a couple of the key skills mentioned and then try to demonstrate how well you meet those. Try to get a sense of your personality and motivation across. Spell check and proof read it before sending, name it correctly and make sure it is no longer than a page in length.

Defining the Role - Skillset

Skillset defines a game animators (they seem to refer to 3D animation throughout this article as opposed to 2D) role in the following way:

Link: http://www.skillset.org/games/careers/article_4731_1.asp

"Animators in the games industry are responsible for the portrayal of movement and behavior. Most often this is applied to give life to game characters and creatures, but sometimes animations are also applied to other elements such as objects, scenery, vegetation and environmental effects."
While this is true, the role "Character Animator" does exist which I would expect would limit the role to just characters.

A key point to note is according to skillset Animators in the games industry are usually permanently employed as opposed to a project by project basis that can happen in other sectors.


Animators are not responsible for the design or modelling of the assets used within games however depending on the size of the company they may be expected to rig the character in order to achieve the motions they require. the animator will be responsible for designing the motion of the character and so may need to work closely with the modeler in order to have appropriate topology.


Animators are required to work in a slightly different manner to animators in other sectors of the entertainment industry. They will need to produce an extensive and reusable library of animations for each character while working within the limitations of the technology. Unlike film animation the performance of the character comes secondary to the interactive quality needed. animators may be required to work with limited key frames in order to keep the movements quick so not to aggravate the player. The more efficient technically the animation is produced the better it will run in engine and also makes it less likely to cause performance drops. 


Typical Career routes (that apply to me)
Most enter the industry after gaining some proficiency in a computer animation package although a background in practical art, particularly  life drawing skills is considered particularly useful.

"Any animator considering a career in game production should understand the interactive nature of games and also have an overall grasp of all aspects of their discipline, including character modelling, rigging, skinning, kinematics, and basic cinematography."

Essential skills

• knowledge of traditional and computer 2D and 3D animation techniques;
• creativity and imagination;
• knowledge of full motion video (FMV);
• spatial awareness and a feel for movement over time;
• knowledge of constraints;
• ability to work independently and as part of a team;
• organisational skills and the ability to work to deadlines;
• good communication and presentation skills;
• knowledge of the requirements of the relevant Health and Safety legislation and procedures.

"Animators will be required to demonstrate their work through a portfolio and/or show reel. Reels should last about 2-3 minutes and detail the specific contribution the Animator made to the work. Recruiters look for a variety of genres and styles; walk and run cycles, as well as more fully developed sequences; and, perhaps most important, an ability to portray a character’s personality through movement and behaviour."