Bird Flight Tutorial from Animator Brendan Body

Here's a very nice tutorial from Brendan Body on bird flight. He worked as an Animator at "The Legend of the Guardians". I recommend seeing in 3D. Amazing Character Animation and now you can see why...

Angel wings...

This is our latest work. We finished it last saturday. It`s when the angel finally show his wings and speaks in the name of God. Pedro Vasconcelos was assigned for this product and asked me to help him with the rig. He modeled, shaded and textured. I`ve done the rig in Softimage. We`ve animated and rendered in Softimage`s Mental Ray. The compositing was done by the Lead Compositing Artist Taulio Mello and the VFX Producer Gustavo Garnier is ahead of the project. I believe we`ll see more of those wings as the product goes on.

Voltaire is alive, at last!

I`ve been working on this project for some months. It was very rewarding, a huge challenge and a great learning experience. We had to create a rat named Volaire to interact with famous comediant Renato Aragão in a 70 minute new year special, broadcasted today (January 1st) at 10:00 PM (Rio de Janeiro local time).

Here goes a small behind the scenes. They show a couple of Voltaire shots that were still WIP.



For those who want to see the whole show, here it is...

 

Alexandre "Thunndro" Areal was ahead of the project, wich means that I had most of the fun and he had to pretend he is an adult and be the responsible person and the project TD.

As usual we came to the project at the early stages of planing and development with the Directors, Marcus Figueiredo and Paulo Aragão. We started choosing the rat species and how he was suposed to look like.

We attended the shooting with the VFX Producer/Supervisor Rafael Ambrosio, who is also a talented 2D and 3D Animator and long time colleague and friend. We had great support from the Directors and unprecedent creative liberty. They really know what they`re doing and how things will impact the audiences.

I`ve modeled Voltaire in Lightwave and rigged in Softimage. Thunndro did the render passes from the base colours to the furr in Softimage`s Mental Ray and we composed the 3D passes in After Effects. He also did all the textures, lighting and colour correction, most of the compositing and managed the final output. He did most of the scene props and digital BGs. Ricardo Nobrega modeled, textured and rendered the inside of the wall for the shot scene.

I`ve also did all the storyboarding and storyreels for the Voltaire scenes and once they were aproved by the Directors, we began animating. For that, we had Sid Ahearne (he finished 63 scenes!!) and Marcelo Merola, experienced Animator and long time co-worker. Pedro Vicente, Paula Gouvea, Jan Habib and Alexandre Martins also Anmated and helped in the compositing. Bernard Machado also joined the compositing at the end of the project.

I thank all of them for their willingness and their talents. Everyone did a great job in every aspect of this show and we at the VFX team could not drop the ball. I believe we didn't. I'm very proud of everyone that helped in bringing Voltaire to life and deeply grateful to the Directors and the great Renato Aragão for believing that we could do it.

I`ve heard it was a great success. Thanks for all the people that watched!

Seven Writer's Rules for Survival in Animation

 great friend, talented screenwriter and filmmaker, Marcio Paes sent me the following text. It`s from ROB EDWARDS. You can share it or go to the direct link.

Seven Writer's Rules for Survival in Animation 

  

On my first day at Disney, I was escorted to the editing bay, shown the animatic of the film I was about to start working on and then walked to the conference room where the directors told me they would need sequences 7, 14 and 28 revised by the end of the week. When I pointed to the lines that I thought were the problem I was told that I couldn’t change them because they’d been animated already. Oh, and some of the actors were currently on Broadway and unavailable to record their lines before the next screening so it would be great if I could rewrite the lines of the supporting cast and leave the leads alone. And, by the way, what would I like for lunch? It was an inauspicious start to say the least.
Since that day I’ve worked with Ron Clements and John Musker on two movies and John Lasseter on one and I’ve had the time of my life. This Friday our second collaboration, The Princess and the Frog, opens nationwide so I thought I’d share with you my SEVEN WRITER’S RULES FOR SURVIVAL IN ANIMATION.

RULE 1. TRUST THE PROCESS

Every three months or so the film is “put up on reels”. Storyboards and animatics are edited together along with temporary “scratch” dialog and music to give everyone the best look at the pace and feel the film will have once it’s completed. It’s the equivalent to getting to test a movie before it’s even made and it’s a fantastic creative tool.
After this, everyone gathers in the screening room to watch the film and then give notes. When I say “give notes”, I mean the every time you walk through the hall or stop in the men’s room, somebody’s going to use the time to tell you how you’re ruining a perfectly good movie. Embrace this part of the process.
Andrew Stanton says the goal is to be wrong as early as possible. Take your lumps, lick your wounds, digest the spirit of what people are trying to tell you and then roll up your sleeves and fix the story. Then take heart in the knowledge that none of those tragically flawed versions will ever see the light of day.

RULE 2. GET TO KNOW YOUR STORY CREW

On your first day of work, you’ll probably be escorted to an office in the middle of the “Story Department”. A bunch of guys with china marker stains on their hands and faces will glare out from their offices at you and you’ll soon discover that those guys will consistently be bailing your butt out of trouble for the next three years. Storyboard Artists take the pages you’ve written and draw them into panels. They’re largely responsible for the dramatic staging, the “acting” (matching the facial expression to the lines), and the overall mood of the scene. If you’re in sync with them, they can make your writing sing and have your friends thinking you’re a genius, if they don’t get what you’re doing it can go the other way. This is the single most maddening part of the process. It’s also the most glorious.
Story Artists are often talented writers themselves and many go on to become directors. It’s a good idea to find out where their offices are, talk out your sequence with them, and be ready to make changes to address their concerns. Also, be ready to fight for what you believe in. You’re all trying to solve the same problems and plus the movie. Fight it out and let the best idea win but embrace the spirit of collaboration and enjoy the fact that you’re not alone.

RULE 3. THINK IN SEQUENCES

Animated features are usually divided into about 30 3-5 minute sequences. Each Story Artist is “cast” to do various sequences according to their abilities with action, comedy or dramatic moments. If you’ve followed Rule #2, you’ll quickly figure out how to write to the strength of the particular artists. If she’s great with physical comedy, take it as a challenge to create dynamic physical gags. If he’s good with drama, go for it and allow the tone of the film to change a bit. It will help give the film a variety and pace that will ultimately add to its overall entertainment.

RULE 4. REMEMBER WHY IT’S ANIMATED

The current state of special effects is so advanced that it’s become increasingly difficult to impress even the least theatrically experienced 8-year-old. But take heart, there are still things animation can do that can’t be matched by the most skilled effects wizards in the world. The key is to know what those things are and use them as tools to make your story as fun as possible.
Good animation looks for an “animation hook” – essentially a reason why the movie is being animated in the first place: Toys coming to life after you leave the room is a hook that bursts with possibilities. The ascension of a rat to the pinnacle of Parisian gastronomy would probably lose a bit of its charm in live action, but Ratatouille stands out as one of my favorite animated films of all time. The key is to squeeze as much mileage out of that hook as you can.
Which leads me to…

RULE 5. SINK YOUR TEETH INTO THE WORLD

Animators will regularly spend months researching the world of the film. They’ll practically live at the zoo watching exotic animals prance around looking for the idiosyncrasies and personalities of various animals… it wouldn’t kill you to do the same.
On The Princess and the Frog, I was looking for a series of unique ways to show conflict and contrast between the fun-loving Prince Naveen and the hard-working Tiana. I ended up spending a lot of time – don’t laugh – pretending to be a frog. I finally came to the conclusion that Naveen, a world traveler and a man open to new experiences, would immediately enjoy his new frog body. He’d have no problem at all eating flies and hopping around in the swamp. Tiana, who wanted no part of this, would try to walk upright (which would lend itself to physical comedy given the fact that it’s virtually impossible for a frog to stand on two feet), she’d resist eating flies and try to retain her dignity through the experience. In the end, her inherent resourcefulness would bail them out of a jam or two and she’d slowly warm to her new circumstances. This comes to a peak when the two waltz in the middle of the film. The dance is filled with acrobatic jumps and underwater moves that only two frogs could do and it adds to the uniqueness and magic of the movie.

RULE 6. THINK VISUALLY

When I worked on situation comedies like “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” and “Roc”, we would write stuff like “He enters and sits on couch” followed by five pages of witty dialogue. Conversely, there’s nothing more boring in animation than two characters sitting around and talking. Keep your characters moving. Don’t let them talk about what they’re going to do, put them in action. And, when they speak, keep in mind that some poor animator is going to have to sit over a light table or a computer screen for two weeks bringing the sentence you’ve just written to life. Keep it short and make what’s there fun to play with.

RULE 7. REMEMBER TO BRING YOURSELF TO THE TABLE

Animation is a collaborative medium. An actor, (sometimes a singer) and a team of animators create a character. A team of background artists give the characters places to go. Dozens of sound engineers and composers work around the clock to create an auditory reality out of thin air. The process is as different from live action as the laws of nature allow. But, at its heart, good story telling is good story telling. The more outrageous and remarkable the world of your film is, the more it needs to be anchored with an emotional reality. Find the truth in the incredible, give your characters a beating heart, tell your stories as entertainingly as possible and have a ball doing it.

I can’t wait to see the films you make and I hope you’ll all enjoy mine this weekend!

The Shark in love.....

Another scene from this guy. Now he asks for help to get the girl he wants. The problem starts when his wife arrives!

This time we had other Animators in the project. I just animated a couple of shots, modeled and adapted the rig for the female shark and did the Shark's wife from scratch.

Sid Ahearne is back with us and animated some of the scenes.
Pedro Vasconcelos managed and organized all the production, from story reels to basic compositing in After Effects. The final compositing was done in Flame by Jonas Ribeiro.

Paula Gouvea and Pedro Vasconcelos were THE MAIN ARTISTS involved in the project. Both of them were our interns and today are TV Globo's employees, improving themselves as Animators and managing projects. They've animated most of the sequence. I am very proud of them.

Again, every character animated in Lightwave and rendered in Max with the render pipeline developed by Alexandre "Thunndro" Areal.

I hope everybody likes....

Layer Animation Approach

One of the 12 principles of Animation is "straight ahead and pose to pose". Well, there´s also layer animation which is kind of straight ahead. Many Animators, myself included, like and talk about pose to pose in 3D Animation, but the layer Approach can be useful and here is one example in detail. When I had to animate these scenes I decided to do it in layers. Of course, being a fish with no hips and legs makes this project the ideal opportunity to try the layer approach.

Layer Approach in 3D Animation 02 from Marcos Piolla on Vimeo.

Woody Woodpecker

I did this one some time ago. I had to make a Woody Woodpecker animation for a comedy show.

I did the scene in 2D, but they didn´t have time to get permissions, so I had to do it again and change the overall design to avoid copyright issues.

I had already modeled Woody in 3D on my spare time and decided to do the same scene in Lightwave. Then I´ve changed the model shape and colors and rendered the generic woodpecker.

Woody, however, is such a charismatic character that I decided to render the scene with the original one from 1947.

My shading and render knowledge are very limited, even in Lightwave, so Alexandre "Thunndro" Areal imported the model and point cache to render in Mental Ray.

As far as I know I am the only Animator that had the pleasure of animating Woody both in 2D and in 3D on the same week. And they pay me for doing it!!!!

Te 2D is on twos and the 3D, as usual, on ones. The one thing I miss from 2D is that we can control the motion blur...

Here´s some screenshots and the final render from Mental Ray.

Woody Woodpecker from Marcos Piolla on Vimeo.

Rex got the flys

We did this for a comedy show. Some flys kept bugging a guy untill he releases his pet to get them. I did the concepts and character design. Modeled, rigged and animated in Lightwave. Render in Max by Alexandre "Thunndro" Areal. The frog was modeled in XSI by Thunndro and brought to Max where he was rigged and animated. I wish I had more than a week to animate all of the flys...

And he is back!!!!!

And he is back!!!! from Marcos Piolla on Vimeo.


I was fortunate enough to have another go with that great white! This time he strikes a doctor in a hospital for mental illness, that didn't believe one of his patients when he told him that there was a shark in the pool.

The guy was crazy, but was telling the truth....

Unfortunately due to realy short deadline, I had to animate without sound.

All done in Lightwave and rendered in Max with Mental Ray by Alexandre "Thunndro" Areal.

T-Rex on TV

This is a smal part of the sow we did with the T-Rex. Unfortunately, I've only animated the first shot in this sequence. Everything else was animated by Sid Ahearne and Paula Gouvea, who also modeled and textured the pterossaur in Max. Then I brought it to XSI where I've rigged and animated. As soon as I have the complete material, with the scenes I've animated, I'll post here....




In this sequence I've animated the first shot where he comes out of the woods, the one when he jumps to bite the pterossaur and the one when he gives up the pterossaur and goes back hunting the main characters.

Dragon Unleashed

Before we did the T-Rex, we had to create this guy for a TV show for kids. We had to deliver 8000 frames of animation in wich he interacted with the main actors. All done in 3 months from concept to final compositing.

This is the first sequence I've animated. The bad guy sends the dragon to seek and destroy the good guys. This isn't the final compositing, just a render test in Max.

I did the concepts, character design and storyboards in TVpaint, modeled, rigged and animated in Lightwave.

Render in Max with Mental Ray by Alexandre "Thunndro" Areal.

Scupt and textures in Zbrush by Sid Ahearne who also animated.



Dragon unleashed from Marcos Piolla on Vimeo.




Dragon attack from Marcos Piolla on Vimeo.

Finding Emo

Finding Emo from Marcos Piolla on Vimeo.

We had to do this piece for a local comedy TV show. I've modeled the main characters and did the morphs in Lightwave. The other characters were done by Tiago Reyes and Caio Nascimento. Marcelo Papf was ahead of the production when I've started and he did all the concepts, character design, model sheets and story reels. Alexandre "Thunndro" Areal did the setup in Max and the animation was done by Marcelo Papf, Bruno Costa and myself. Render by Igor Lementy who also assembled all in After Effecs with Diego Gabrig. BGs by Beto Campos.

T-Rex

We were asked for a T-Rex, but the V_rex from Kong is soooooo cool tha we decided to mix it with our T-Rex a litle bit. I've modeled in Lightwave, rigged and animated in XSI.

Here are some pics...












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T-Rex Deformation Test from Marcos Piolla on Vimeo.


Here is the rig in action.



V-Rex from Marcos Piolla on Vimeo.

Amazonia - Making Of

Old Man Dies from Marcos Piolla on Vimeo.

We had to create a digital actor for the miniseries "Amazonia" from TV Globo, Brasil. We needed to "age" the famous actor Jose de Abreu to 90 years old. But before the green light was on the director wanted to see a test and gave us 10 days. This is what we showed him...

I did the model in Lightwave based on Beto Campo's concepts. He also did the sculpt in Zbrush and Caio Nascimento textured it. Alexandre "Thunndro" Areal did the base rig in Max while I modeled the morphs in Lightwave. The final shot had 5 minutes of animation done by Alexandre "Thunndro" Areal, Rafael Ambrosio and myself.

He was the first digital actor in Brasilian television....

Casseta e Planeta

Casseta e Planeta - Making of from Marcos Piolla on Vimeo.

This one was for the feature "Seus Problemas Acabaram!" (Your troubles are over!) from Casseta e Planeta, a famous group of comediants here in Brasil. The film was directed by José Lavigne and VFX produced by Gustavo Guarnier.

We had litle more than 3 months do animate two scenes of about 2 min. each. The other one was mixed with live action.
Ive supervised the production involving 7 artists.

Concepts: Marcos Piolla
Character Design: Marcos Piolla and Marcelo Papf
Storyboards: Marcos Piolla and Bruno Costa
Animation: Marcos Piolla, Sid Ahearne, Bruno Costa, Marcelo Papf, Tiago Saad and Aline Coelho
Compositing: Diego Gabrig
BGs: Beto Campos

Bang! Bang!

Bang Bang from Marcos Piolla on Vimeo.

We did this in 2005. It was the first scene of the first chapter of a TV show.

I was ahead of the 10 artists team that delivered the 5 min animated scene in 3 months. I did the concepts, character design, color scripts, the second storyboard (firs one done by VFX producer Gustavo Guarnier) Animated and did some of the compositing in After Effects.

Alexandre "Thunndro" Areal did all the 3D BG, pre viz, and rendering pipeline. I've animated and supervised all the animation done by Orlando Merola, Marcelo Papf, Bruno Costa, Tiago Saad e Leonardo Finocchi. Ricardo Queiroz did all the 2D BGs and painted the textures for the 3D BG. Diego Gabrig and Romulo Oliveira did the compositing in After Effects.

Sharks !!!!! Making of...

Making Of Tubarões Didi from Marcos Piolla on Vimeo.

How we did it...

Sharks !!!!!

Turma do Didi - Tubarão
by unodeoliveira

I did this with Alexandre "Thundro" Areal for a TV show aired on June, 15 of 2008. I've created the concepts and character design, modeled the sharks in Lightwave, rigged and animated.

Thunndro did the texturing in Zbrush, light, shading and render. He also did all the animated BG in Max and the base compositing of the rendered 3D in After Effects.

Uno Oliveira did the final compositind in Inferno. VFX produced by Andressa Ambrosio. All done in 3 weeks.