Stephan Brezinsky - facial take - Critique

​That's looking good already!

What you could do in order to push it a bit further is by offsetting a few components. For instance, the first pose, in order to get rid of the symmetrical look, vary the eyebrows and the mouth shape. The first look is a bit generic.

Then, for the take, right now everything is moving at the same time from x1 to x2. Think about what he's seeing and the fact that he's seeing something means that his brain needs to deconstruct the information first. Your guy could get slapped from behind his head and the way he goes down would work. But in a take, give it a few frames to anticipate the down. So his eyes could widen for two frames, same with the mouth, etc. He would go from the current "happy" to an anticipation with a face reading "What did I just see?" and you could lift his body up a bit, so that the body does a little anticipation as well.

Then on the down, since it's pretty fast, you could raise the eyebrows as the head goes down, as if they are dragging and overlapping (so you'd lower the brows when the head goes up again; kinda what you have but you could delay the frown a few frames). On the head down you could also stretch the head and squash it around the x6 area. I'm talking about feeling the squash/stretch, not really seeing it, it's a more subtle application of that principle.

Track the spacing and arcs of the nose. On the way down and up it's following almost the same path. You could exaggerate the arc a bit more, same during the settle where the nose path would be a little loop as it settles. Nothing crazy, but a bit more pushed than what you have now.

The ending works well and the facial expression is more asymmetrical than the beginning one.


Hope that helps!
Cheers

JD

Stephan Brezinsky - Obstacle Course - Critique

Unfortunately this little exercise took much longer to do than I wanted, mainly due to workflow problems. For example, I know that you like to do your blocking with linear keys so that you can get an idea for the timing, but I find that I have trouble getting a good feel for it without a good number of breakdowns to establish the spacing. Is that something that you just pick up over time, or do you need to put in breakdowns? I don't want to spend a lot of time putting in breakdowns and trying to establish my spacing before I get my timing locked down because then I feel like I waste a lot of time moving keys around. Do you like to get the timing right on your extremes, then start putting in breakdowns to determine the spacing, or do you try to set up spacing and basic arcs before moving on to getting the timing locked in? I know that timing and spacing are closely connected and it's a constant back and forth, but I feel as though I can reduce the amount of back and forth between fixing one thing, then back to the other, then back again kind of working. I hope all that made sense.

Hey,

those are great questions. First, let's look at the obstacle course. Overall it's working really great. The only part that sticks out as being a bit weird is the very end, after the x147 area. After the ball goes through that C curve half loop it goes up but doesn't finish its momentum, the hang time gets suddenly cut off. Look at your spacing, how the ball goes up and then stops at x148, as if it hit an invisible wall. Keep going up until the momentum dies down.
Same thing for the x167 area, the up movement comes to a halt too quickly; and the same thing for the subsequent back and forth. They all kinda stop too quickly. The overall back and forth though is taking a bit too long. It's not a huge thing, but as I'm watching it, I'm thinking, okayyy, this ball really doesn't want to stop rolling. :)

So, the sudden stops and the overall length of the back and forth are the things that stand out the most and need fixing.

Now, in terms of workflow.

It's okay to have a lot of breakdowns when you block out a shot. Some movements need almost no keys, others you might have to go in there frame by frame in order to sell the idea. The point of blocking is to show every idea that you have clearly, so that the audience doesn't have to guess. If you need more keys to sell an idea, then so be it. The moment the idea is clear, move on. If you don't, then you're going into polish land which is too much at this point.

Spacing and timing go hand in hand, at least that's my take on it. The spacing will determine the timing. If you space out a head turn evenly, then the timing is even and the head turn boring. But if your spacing is big at the beginning and then suddenly small for the turn, then the timing will be more like a take or a feeling of a faster, surprised, shocked, determined, etc. head turn.

I do though, like you said, worry about the extremes first, or at least the major points and beats the characters will hit and go through. Then I add in break downs where it is needed in order to sell the story point or action. But you do get used to that process over time to a point where you will need fewer breakdowns. But again, it all depends on the action. Some things just need more breakdowns.

I hope that makes sense. :)

Cheers
JD

Stephan Brezinsky - headless - Feedback

I'd like some feedback on this very early pass at the following shot (a quick note, I do have a background image in the scene, but for some reason it's showing up as white in the playblast:

http://stephanbrezinsky.com/media/blocking05.mov

If you recall, my goals for this shot were to display character through motion (the walking and running), as well as a change of emotion, as well as cartoony acting. I am also trying a new workflow where I figure out the timing of the shot and actions first to get a rhythm going, then I start working on acting choices and subtlety. Since I'm still in the idea process, I'd like to get your feedback on the following points.

Interesting workflow. I wonder though, the acting choices will influence the timing and actions, so wouldn't you plan those out first? Although if you do it in broad strokes, that could work.

Originally I was going to add sound, specifically having the head deliver a one line phrase such as 'nice day for a walk don't you think?'. I was going to record my own sound, but now I'm not sure if that is necessary. Should I leave it as pure pantomime and focus on the acting?

Pure pantomime is okay, unless you have a good sounding voice. :)

I would like to do a big cartoony take before the character runs off screen, but I'm finding the bench setup to be limiting. More specifically, I'm afraid I will lose the viewer's eye when they have to change focus from the jar over to the man reading. How do I lead in to a fast take without losing the audience and having them miss it? Is there some good reference you could suggest for studying?

I don't think you will will confuse the audience. The beats are clear as it is now. He pokes the jar, then the head looks at him and he freaks out. I think that back and forth is okay. Since he's poking the jar, the audience is looking at the jar, so they will see the head turn. Then you introduce the take which is much bigger than the head turn, so the audience will look at that guy. Nothing will be missed.

How is my framing? I would like to stay wide and do it all without cuts, but I'm afraid then I'll have to be too broad with the animation for it to read. Or perhaps keeping it very broad fits the style? I would like to explore something more on the cartoony side.

The framing works for me, especially given the cartoony aspect. If you use more subtle things, then a close up would be more appropriate, but the way it is now is okay.

Of course if there are any other points that you feel I should focus on, please let me know. As I mentioned before, this shot may need to move to the back-burner while I switch to shorter exercises, but I'd like to at least know what direction to take it in.

Well, overall I do have some concerns though! :)

The fact that the guy looks at a jar with a severed head and DOESN'T freak out is weird. So I don't see why the head turn would freak him out that muchthen! Plus, if he looks over to his right, then there's a guy without a head, and that should freak him out as well!

What you could do is more something like this:

Guys sits down, the right guy looks over to where the head would be. He freaks out (nothing huge, but a visible scare). He then looks down and sees the jar and freaks out even more, then the head turns and smiles at him in a weird way and that REALLY freaks him out and he runs away or faints or something big. But the timing of how those three freak out stages unfold could be really funny.

What do you guys think?

Reel Feedback - Stephan Brezinsky

http://stephanbrezinsky.com/media/reel-StephanBrezinsky.mov

Stephan asked:

... can you explain to me what is it about the granny clip and the two following ones (walk cycle and jump) that you feel make them the strongest on the reel?

My thoughts on those clips:

granny clip - what cracks me up from the get go is the contrast between the set and the character. It's an old lady with a HUGE sound system. Then I like the contrast between the slow build up as she's looking for the right button to push and the huge impact the speakers have on her.
You know that the impact is going to be huge given that contrast, but what's funny is that she gets a bit closer before she pushes the buttom. The little walk up to the speakers is also funny anim wise. And you don't have her push it immediately, but it's with one swing up and then you have her push it. So all in all you're really drawing out the anticipation to the pay off. Since the audience knows roughly what's going to happen (at least they expect something given the "old lady vs. powerful speakers" set up), they're waiting for the pay off, but by drawing that part out, by prolonging the anticipation, you make the pay off that much stronger.
The pay off itself is really funny. It's great that she doesn't get blown away (like Marty McFly in Back to the Future for instance). She slowly gets pushed away. The fact that she fights against it shows character. It's not just a physical exercise, it shows what a character is doing when confronted with a conflict, which is always something you should strive for in your clips. When people have to make choices, that's when they get interesting.
The cheek flapping is awesome, same with the hair, the glasses fly away and at the end she's punching the remote. You build on the desperation of the character and consequences of the sound. Awesome.

About the walk and jump - I like the presentation but anim wise they feel very polished, the walk especially. It shows a good understanding of polish.

Nice work!
JD

Great examples

Check out Marcelo Sakai's reel if you haven't already:

Marcelo Sakai animation reel

and here Lukasz Burnet's clips, showing a huge variety:

Luke_Reel2

My Horse And Me 2

LukeBurnetTestAnim

Stephan Brezinsky's old lady with the speaker is awesome!
Reel Stephan Brezinsky

And here Uldarico Lim Jr's reel:
Demo_2009