Part One Here
The second day was more of keynote addresses versus smaller sessions of the first day. Technically, the second day was "Industry Giants" and the first day was "Master Classes."
Saturday (the second day) was sessions starting with Johnny Gibson (digital effects supervisor for Digital Domain on "Speed Racer"). He spoke on "Speed Racer" some, but then presented nicely on the history of special/visual effects. This was very cool to see the early days and creativity of effects.
David Schaub presented again about the creature development for "I Am Legend." Originally they were going to use actors in makeup for the infected people, but they cdn't get people to be as "all out crazy" as they needed to be. He showed some great material on their development.
Farhez Rayani (senior lighting technical director at Rhythm and Hues for "The Golden Compass") presented on the amazing work they did on the ice scenes for that movie. Again, too great to see the breakdown and build up of those scenes.
Piyush Patel did a brief presentation for Digital-Tutors.
Mike Anderson (supervising director for "The Simpsons") represented the 2D world very nicely with humor, technical perspectives and great insight for his show including their Universal Studio's ride and video game.
At the end they had a panel discussion to talk about how each got into the industry, their inspiration, some favorite work, advice, etc.
For each presentation this day, it was SO cool to see the breakdown of scenes and hear the explanations about how they made their decisions and motivations, etc. It was also cool to see some behind-the-scenes stuff for these movies.
Related info:
The Texas Film Commission presented and gave info on the Dallas Film Commission, Texas Motion Picture Alliance, the Moving Image Incentive, Dallas Producers Association, etc.
It was great that it was local and cheap to attend. I enjoyed seeing the feature film side of things and hear about what's going on. Mike Anderson even draw a picture of Homer for me (he's a director now, but started out as an animator on the show).
I look forward to going again next year and maybe even some events by a bunch of short guys who organized it.
Showing posts with label industrygiants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label industrygiants. Show all posts
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Industry Giants - Part 2 - David Schaub (expressive eye animation)
Part One Here
The second session was with David Schaub, animation director at Sony Pictures Imageworks and he spoke mostly in his work with "Surf's Up" and "I Am Legend."
He was teaching on animating expressive eyes which I've been very interested in and he started with some interesting science.
He showed images of brain development in embryos and how the eye forms as an outcrop of the brain. He shared the perspective of Richard Williams and how the "soul is revealed with the eyes." He also pointed out how even with animals, eye contact is always automatic. Even if something else is happening (e.g., shaking hands, fighting, etc.) eye contact is maintained.
Also, he pointed out a study that states 93% of communication is non-verbal. He breaks down that 93% as 38% voice quality (tone, pitch, etc.) and 55% body language (and he believes 35% is eyes and 20% is body cues).
He split out eye animation into several parts...
1. Shapes: directional and emotional
2. Movement: vergence, vestibular, pursuit & tracking and saccadic
3. Blinks (be purposeful: 80% top lid, 20% bottom)
Other points:
- eyes lead the action
- blinks synced w/ eye movement
- head follow the eyes
Eye Cues (this is TOO cool): NLP
The basic break down is: people look to their left for recall. They look right for construction.
For recall (left), up is visual, middle is audio and down is inner dialog. So when you're trying to remember a painting, you'd look up and to the left.
For construction (right), up is visual, middle is audio and down is kinesthetic (emotion, textile). So when trying to imagine how a song would sound with a different instrument, you'd look right and neither up nor down.
It was an amazing session and probably my favorite of the conference.
The second session was with David Schaub, animation director at Sony Pictures Imageworks and he spoke mostly in his work with "Surf's Up" and "I Am Legend."
He was teaching on animating expressive eyes which I've been very interested in and he started with some interesting science.
He showed images of brain development in embryos and how the eye forms as an outcrop of the brain. He shared the perspective of Richard Williams and how the "soul is revealed with the eyes." He also pointed out how even with animals, eye contact is always automatic. Even if something else is happening (e.g., shaking hands, fighting, etc.) eye contact is maintained.
Also, he pointed out a study that states 93% of communication is non-verbal. He breaks down that 93% as 38% voice quality (tone, pitch, etc.) and 55% body language (and he believes 35% is eyes and 20% is body cues).
He split out eye animation into several parts...
1. Shapes: directional and emotional
2. Movement: vergence, vestibular, pursuit & tracking and saccadic
3. Blinks (be purposeful: 80% top lid, 20% bottom)
Other points:
- eyes lead the action
- blinks synced w/ eye movement
- head follow the eyes
Eye Cues (this is TOO cool): NLP
The basic break down is: people look to their left for recall. They look right for construction.
For recall (left), up is visual, middle is audio and down is inner dialog. So when you're trying to remember a painting, you'd look up and to the left.
For construction (right), up is visual, middle is audio and down is kinesthetic (emotion, textile). So when trying to imagine how a song would sound with a different instrument, you'd look right and neither up nor down.
It was an amazing session and probably my favorite of the conference.
Monday, June 09, 2008
Industry Giants - Part 1- Intro and Rita Street
I went to the Industry Giants (industrygiants.org) conference this weekend and was able to see a side of the industry I hadn't spent much time with: feature film production.
I went to various sessions on effects, animation, pitching, etc. I'll post about the various sessions here starting with the session with Rita Street on pitching.
Rita Street (radarcartoons.com) spoke on Friday morning about pitching your animated concept. She spoke a lot on the perspective of the industry and the various changes going on now. It seems some key things are a move away from the Flash style of animation and a move toward teenage characters (led by "High School Musical" and "Hannah Montana" - the "Halls and Malls" idea - school halls and shopping malls: that's where kids "live" so relate to that).
Some key suggestions she had were...
1. Watch (at least) one cartoon a day. This helps see what's going on and keeps creativity flowing.
2. Have lots of ideas - you never know when an idea will meet what the industry is looking for or when you'll need another idea in a meeting for some other concept.
3. Determine good inspiration for your work
4. Learn how children think, react, learn, etc. (Nickjr.com - parenting link - list of cognitive resources)
Other good resources: Kidscreen and Cynopsis (enewsletter).
She also spoke a lot on pitching. Some highlights...
1. Pitch the hero
2. Non-episodic
3. Develop the hero (write their journal, etc.)
4. Have character quirks
5. Describe characters in "Like the time..."
6. Make your movie poster.
7. Have a very tight log line.
8. Show, don't tell - big pics, few words
For the pitch itself...
1. Have fun
2. It's ok to say you're nervous
3. Goal: get a second meeting
4. Explain, don't read
5. Take criticism well
And while a lot of take centered around seeing where the industry is and where's it's going, she had a great piece of inspiration from Carl Banks and about how they didn't make their comic books for kids, but for themselves. It's great to have the best of both worlds - enjoy it!
I went to various sessions on effects, animation, pitching, etc. I'll post about the various sessions here starting with the session with Rita Street on pitching.
Rita Street (radarcartoons.com) spoke on Friday morning about pitching your animated concept. She spoke a lot on the perspective of the industry and the various changes going on now. It seems some key things are a move away from the Flash style of animation and a move toward teenage characters (led by "High School Musical" and "Hannah Montana" - the "Halls and Malls" idea - school halls and shopping malls: that's where kids "live" so relate to that).
Some key suggestions she had were...
1. Watch (at least) one cartoon a day. This helps see what's going on and keeps creativity flowing.
2. Have lots of ideas - you never know when an idea will meet what the industry is looking for or when you'll need another idea in a meeting for some other concept.
3. Determine good inspiration for your work
4. Learn how children think, react, learn, etc. (Nickjr.com - parenting link - list of cognitive resources)
Other good resources: Kidscreen and Cynopsis (enewsletter).
She also spoke a lot on pitching. Some highlights...
1. Pitch the hero
2. Non-episodic
3. Develop the hero (write their journal, etc.)
4. Have character quirks
5. Describe characters in "Like the time..."
6. Make your movie poster.
7. Have a very tight log line.
8. Show, don't tell - big pics, few words
For the pitch itself...
1. Have fun
2. It's ok to say you're nervous
3. Goal: get a second meeting
4. Explain, don't read
5. Take criticism well
And while a lot of take centered around seeing where the industry is and where's it's going, she had a great piece of inspiration from Carl Banks and about how they didn't make their comic books for kids, but for themselves. It's great to have the best of both worlds - enjoy it!
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