Warranty Direct – Animation Advertisement (2013)

My first animation job as a freelance. I animated the camera, character and car.

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The Treasure Map in Animation

As animators, both in life and projects in which we are involved, many times we wonder ourselves what’s the best path to go through, what decisions to make, and especially how to manage them in order to achieve the fruits that we desire so much.

When a shot is delivered to us and we start imagining how we would like it to be, we think about these questions. And always the uncertainty invades us about how we will get what we intend. This uncertainty, along with other external aspects that influence us, and specially the attitude with which we will take those decisions, determines the final result of our animation.

This is why I would like to share my point of view about what is the best way to tackle the problem in this thought process. Before taking any decisions, it’s important to think about a sort of assumptions that, in my opinion, are very important and essential in order to get the final results as you expect, or even much better, as you really imagine. The point is what attitude to choose towards what you want. And that also applies in life. In the  following lines I will describe a series of universal concepts, applicable to animation, or anything else, to get what you pursue.

• Wanting
• Knowing
• Power
• Imagination

WANTING, “Where there is a will, there is a way”

The Compass. Is the attitude that drives us to behave actively, with determination and enthusiasm against the adversities, so that we can get what we want. The perfect example would be the different reactions we may have against the problems that are facing us in the shot. The “how” will not become relevant if we don’t fight with our best attitude:

• Positive mental attitude. You must realize that, more than being conditioned by the circumstances of the shot, we can choose how to face the circunstances, intellectually and emotionally. The position we take against this situation will completely determine not only the interpretation of the shot but how it will be in the very end.
• Optimism. That’s it. If I really want, I can do it. And I’m doing it immediately without postponing it for later. I’m doing it now.
• Willing to be useful. Creating something with the intention of bringing novelty, value-added. Willing to give the best of ourselves, wanting to do it well and prove to people who trust us that we can do it even better.
• Generosity. If we are able to give what is expected from us, we will be very lucky. As the saying goes: “Whatever you give, is giving it to yourself, anything you do not give, is taking it off from you”.
• Risking. Do not go with false security, you have to jump into the swimming-pool so that you can check if the water is cold.
• Humility. Focus on what you really want with a humble attitude. This will give you more credentials and you will stay away from the famous arrogant image which is often projected onto the figure of the animator. This only drives you into failure  (speaking in a profesional and emotional way).

KNOWING, “Wisdom is the daughter of experience”

It is the terrain map. As artists that we are, we must never stop learning, allow yourself to be influenced by each and every one of the passions you have. The knowledge never stops growing, there’s always something new. Researching, learning, understanding and anticipating to have the best range of solutions. That will make you remarcable over many others and will make you feel recognized and valued. That’s why being prepared and formed before starting the shot is so important in order to fully understand what we are creating, and also with the highest competence. That means, if the shot requires it, doing a little research of what we really don’t know and also we need to know, in order to apply this knowledge into this particular animation.

• Willing to learn everything. Never stop learning.
• Expertise and differential knowledge. “If you want to be relevant, you have to be different from others, and being different means that you have to look everything that surrounds you differently than the rest does”.
• Make mistakes. In my opinion, making mistakes is one of the greatest privileges you have in the learning process. You feel lucky for having experienced a situation where you could learn how to do things better. It’s better having been in those situations instead of ignoring them, isn’t it? I believe making mistakes is one of the most important things when learning. Do not be afraid of failure, because that guides you to better understanding. Again, it is being privileged.
• Listen. In order to learn you must know how to listen, get involved with the best people and learn from them. Reward and appreciate the ideas they can give you.

POWER, “Act, here and now, the future is the present and you have the power to change it”

The skills. The shovel that allows you to dig until you find the treasure you desire. it’s not enough wanting and knowing if there’s no execution afterwards. You have to give to get, and it must be done in a proper way related with your mind intentions.

• Be determined. With the predisposition and knowledge inside your backpack, it’s time to implement those ideas, but it is important not to move off. That knowledge has created a very specific idea in your head. Do not miss this idea, maintain yourself focused. Put the Key Poses you think will add value to the animation and build the rest around that. So just from the beginning you won’t lose the focus of interest in the shot, which is the most important thing.
• Willing to improve. “If you do things well, then do them better.” The instinct of self-improvement is a silver bullet, and also if you get surrounded by the best talented people, it will help you improve professionally. There’s nothing better than feeling this sense of fulfillment.
• KISS, “Keep it simple, stupid”. That sentence sums it up, keep it simple, if the idea is simple and it works, keep it like that. Leave the ornamentation for when it is really needed.

IMAGINATION, “If you can imagine, you can create”

It is the light that enlightens you throughout the process. It’s the muse, what you believe in. It’s a concept that it’s linked to everything else. It’s essential to imagine in order to create all that you believe in and you have learned throughout the process. It’s very important not to lose your path and to be clear about where we want to go, trying  to see what our destination is, the “leitmotiv” of the shot.

• Perspective. When you get stuck (and it will happen) is important to step back, look at the problem in perspective, take it easy (how many times we say ourselves how bad we are animating?) to be more efficient finding the solution. That may mean stop animating and continue with other things to relieve tension, start with another shot, try thinking this is not a big deal… It’s true, if not the second, the third time’s charm, and you always end up finding the best solution. Patience is the key, but also perseverance.
• Look and feel. “It’s not enough having a vision, it’s mandatory to feel it inside you”. Try to make other people feel what you want to transmit. In this case, to your supervisor, so he/she knows exactly what’s your intention in that shot. Make him feel.

CONCLUSIONS

I could pick to pieces many more ideas, particularly some techniques like: ways of organization, how to preserve work procedures to be useful in a near future for another shot… But this is not the real intention of this post. The real intention is how we focus more emotionally towards we want, and as I said before, both in life and in animation, is extremely important. Especially if you know that in animation, the emotional and personal factors influence directly in each animator’s work.

My advice is that everything mentioned above can be applied across the board, and then you can start creating synergies that, without getting noticed, will get applied into your life, your job and your animation.

It’s us. Animators. Odd personalities. Always looking for the little details. All that is very difficult to perceive and for most people can’t see, for us is a whole world, and we are delighted to understand it. It is the motivation to find those engines that make people act, react, think, perceive or find satisfaction or happiness, that inspired me to write this article.

I hope this post has been useful for you. I encourage you to fulfill your best goals with this good dose of motivation.

PD. – Thanks to Alex Rovira and Francesc Miralles for their influence in the “Treasure Map“, as well as all the other books. It has been a great source of inspiration for this post. Thanks to Manu Menéndez that helped me out translating this post into the english version.

Demo Reel 2011

Aquí está mi flamante primera versión de Demo Reel. Saludos!

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El sendero hacia el exito

¡Hola compañeros/as!

Muchos de vosotros a lo mejor pensábais que había abandonado el Blog en el peor momento, justo cuando estaba a punto de finalizar el curso de Animation Mentor. Pues no, aquí estoy así que podéis estar tranquilos, tengo cuerda para rato. Aún así aprovecho para pedir disculpas por mi ausencia durante estas semanas. Todo tiene una buena razón de peso y el título del post tiene mucho que ver con ello. Prometo que en breve colgaré un último post dedicado a las últimas semanas de AM.

Prmeras imágenes de la película "Futbolín"

Una vez dicho esto, me gustaría comunicaros que la razón por la cuál he estado ausente es debido a una gran oportunidad profesional y personal que me ha surgido. He tenido la “suerte” de poder entrar dentro de la próxima producción animada de Juan José Campanella (Futbolín), como animador junior. Y para ello he tenido que desplazarme hasta Buenos Aires con la intención de quedarme hasta acabar el proyecto (aproximadamente para dentro de 1 año y pico).

Muchos podrían atribuir esta oportunidad a la suerte. Puede. Desde mi punto de vista creo que la suerte nos la creamos uno mismo, estamos continuamente provocando el destino para que aquello que queremos se materialice. Es por ello que, con la experiencia que he tenido durante este largo proceso de introducción en la animación (y que muchos de vosotros habéis podido seguir), me siento con la obligación de contagiaros con la única filosofía válida para conseguir alcanzar vuestros sueños en la vida, especialmente los animadores.

Es la filosofía de la Alegría, del Entusiasmo, del valor del Compañerismo, de la Autocrítica y de la Ilusón de materializar aquello que deseas. Yo me siento afortunado de poder estar viviendo esta experiencia, pero realmente me doy cuenta que si he llegado aquí és porque lo he perseguido, cada paso o movimiento que he hecho en la vida ha sido enfocado hacia lo que quería hacer en un futuro inmediato, a pesar de que fuera un paso pequeño, todo suma. Al final te das cuenta que todo lo que recibes ha sido provocado por tus acciones. Así que os animo a seguir esta filosofía. Es una filosofía aplicable a cualquier cosa, y a diferencia de otras, ésta, tarde o temprano, te devuelve los frutos.

“Animaros” a forjar vuestro sendero hacia el éxito personal. Deseo que mi ejemplo sea inspirador para muchos de vosotros y sobretodo no dejéis de trabajar duro para cumplir vuestro sueño.

Un abrazo!

Animation Mentor Class 6 – Week 4 & 5

Quince días han pasado desde que publiqué mi última progresión de Animation Mentor, pero vuelvo a estar aquí. No os dejo colgados por nada del mundo, a pesar de mi poco tiempo, sigo aqui, al pie del cañón! Como os comenté, este semestre lo que hacemos es pulir, pulir y pulir. No os explicaré los detalles y cambios que he realizado en “Paris” y “Relationships” porqué no dejan de ser retoques muy enfocados al tipo de animación de cada “shot”. Aun así, no queria publicar nada sin dejaros los principios importantes a la hora de pulir cualquier pieza, estos puntos son como la Biblia a la hora de revisar tu animación:

1. Escenografía
   
2. Poses con personalidad
   
3. Entretenimiento, mantener el shot atractivo, lo que se llama “Appeal”
   
4. Squash y Stretch
5. Anticipación
6. Arcos y Trayectorias de Acción
   
7. Timming
8. Spacing
9. Acción secundaria
   
10. Overlaping
11. Exageración
12. Claridad y sobreposición de ideas
13. Sutileza y contexto
    
14. Lenguaje cinematográfico y capacidad de narración de la idea

Entiendo que sois conocedores de todos estos principios, así que a estas alturas no os haré un monográfico de cada uno de ellos. Si necesitáis información consultad el progreso que he hecho en todo el curso de Animation Mentor. Más no os cuento porque no puedo exponeros el temario del curso, evidentemente.

Aquí tenéis la progresión de los últimos dos ejercicios. Me he centrado en el lipsync. A ver si notáis cambios Son muy pequeños.

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Animation Mentor Class 6 – Week 2 & 3

Ya he empezado la recta final. Este semestre consisitirá en escoger los clips que tienen más potencial, realizados durante todo el curso, y acabar de añadir ese 10 % preciado que convierte una buena animación en otra aun más espectacular y realista.

Para ello antes ha sido necesario trabajar mucho en body mechanics y acting. Pero a pesar de haber creado una animación que funciona perfectamente, es posible que el resultado final no sea el mejor y quizás sea necesario ir un poco más allá para hacerla creible. Pero es imprescindible que anteriormente ya se haya hecho un trabajo / estudio de la mecánica del cuerpo y que haya funcionado inicialmente. Una vez llegado a este punto es necesario analizar qué partes de la animación son necesarias corregir para dar más emotividad, originalidad o personalidad. Estos detalles son los que se abordan en este punto. Y es necesario ser consciente que para ello es posible que tengamos que cambiar cosas que aparentemente ya parecen funcionar. No temáis el cambio, el cambio formará parte de esta profesión y es imprescindible estar abiertos a lo que el feedback del supervisor os proponga. Cuánto más abiertos estéis a hacer cambios, más aprenderéis, más capacidad de aportación y variedad tendréis y más confiarán en vosotros.

En mi caso, no se si por bien o por mal (creo que por bien), tengo bastante clips interesantes (según el mentor) para poder dejar en la demo reel final. Lo más importante es abordar aquellos más complejos o con más potencial y dedicar el mayor esfuerzo de inicio para ir más relajado después, y si no se llega a pulir todo, por lo menos los shots más importantes estarán acabados.

Es por ello que he empezado a pulir la última animación, de la cual no estaba muy orgulloso (a pesar de tener un potencial enorme). Han habido muchos cambios y casi todos ellos han afectado a la personalidad de la chica que parecía no tener suficiente personalidad. El cambio es bastante sensible si recordáis la última versión. Aqui os dejo las 2 siguientes versiones de la animación.

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Un saludot

Caricatura Digital 30

¡Moni y Clara son unas estupendas estudiantes de farmacia y amigas de los animales! ¿Alguien dirá lo contrario?

Aquí las tenemos, ¡Más felices que unas pascuas!

Animation Mentor Class 5 – Week 12 ¡PROGRESS REEL!

Aqui teneis el video montadito de lo que llevo hecho hasta ahora. ¡A disfrutarlo!

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