The Usual Summer Hiatus

We hope you've been enjoying as much of the sun-soaking, free-slurpee season as you can because - you guessed it - fall is just around the bend, and with it, the end of our usual summer hiatus.

If you weren't aware, summer tends to lend itself to a lull in our regularly scheduled programming, as many of our on-site crew members depart for vacation -- but fret not! While we are getting a healthy dose of some Vitamin D (hissss, sunlight, hissss), we've also been busy preparing for another amazing year! Here's a quick update on what has been going down, a taste of what we're working on, and some things you can look forward to in the future:

First a shout out to our newly-annointed alumni leadership! Yes, three of our on-site leaders are all grown up and moving on to big-kid jobs - Thank you for all of your hard work Jonathan Marshall, Mendel Reis and Mike Kersey. While we will miss them dearly, this opened us up for the next generation of Tea Time Leadership, and we have been taking applications for our three new board members. After receiving many promising applications, we are nearly ready to make an official announcement, so stay tuned.

Speaking of new leadership, we are exceedingly proud to announce that we have just launched our very first additional Tea Time Chapter all the way in Pittsburgh, PA! They've just finished their first, successful semester, and you can look forward to hearing more from them in the future. Tea Time Pittsburgh is run by the charming and talented Justin Hartman (@JustinHartArt) and Tyler Palladino (@PallaSculpt). Please contact them if you're in the area and looking to participate!
Additionally, if you're interested in starting a Tea Time chapter of your own, don't hesitate to contact us at info@teatimeanimation.com. We have an amazing info package to help you get started!

If you hadn't heard already, a while back we launched our official community site teatimeanimation.com. If you want to be a part of our community, but sadly aren't located in San Francisco or Pittsburgh, we have some excellent discussions, amazing job opportunity postings, and even some events with prizes. The forums has been steadily growing and we can't wait to see more! Come discover important news, share what inspires you, or get feedback on your latest work. There is room for all facets of the animation pipeline, so amaze us with some drawings, rigs, models, or VFX. Remember, Tea Time is open to everyone -- whether you are just starting out or are currently an industry professional -- so don't hesitate to sign up (we're integrated with Facebook so it only takes on click) and start sharing.

This summer has been particularly exciting for many of our members, with the involvement and success of the Borderlands 2 Short Film partnership with Gearbox and 2K Games. Congratulations to everyone and their hard work. You can check out the delightful spot Kotaku did on the project here, and you can watch the full documentary below!

Finally (I told you we've been busy), we are thinking of starting a YouTube channel! The success of the Clothing the Morpheus Rig tutorial has been overwhelming, getting nearly a thousand hits in a matter of hours. Thus, we have decided to create a dedicated channel that will consist of video tutorials, industry news, and most likely one-on-one interviews with professionals. That being said - we're open to feedback! Let us know what you'd like to see in the comments below, or tweet us @TeaTimeAnimates.

In the meantime, enjoy the rest that summer has to offer and we'll be seeing you soon.

Happy animating!


Don't forget to join the conversation at www.teatimeanimation.com

Questions? Don't hesitate to get in touch with us at info@teatimeanimation.com
Twitter: @TeaTimeAnimates
Instagram: @TeaTimeAnimation

A Word on Reference

Although some might argue that there are the exceptionally gifted out there who don't need to look at reference before they begin an animation -- the only reason they got that way is from studying it so hard in the first place!

So, with that in mind where do you go for reference?
Here are a few of the most popular reference sources on the internet:

-- YouTube
-- Vimeo
-- BBC Motion Gallery
-- Rhino Horse

And of couse, you can always film it yourself! Even HD video recorders are super affordable now, and with cellphones, Macbooks/webcams, a camera is never far away! That being said, there is a time and place to take such a hands-on approach. It's great to shoot your own reference if you're looking for something specific -- i.e. a bit of acting along with a specific piece of dialogue. Here are a few situations where it wouldn't be quite so ideal.

-- Animal behavior reference
-- Accidents (crashes, tripping/falling, etc...)
-- If you're bad at acting!

No matter how much reference you shoot, you will never be an animal (sorry, Andy Serkis), you will almost never realistically force yourself to fall and/or get hit by a car, and, if you have a hard time getting into character, you will never make your acting worthwhile and all your reference becomes moot.

What are you looking for?

In reference, one of the things we so often lose sight of, is the fact that it is, well, for reference! Too many young animators start relying too heavily on their reference files, and their acting becomes rigid and lackluster -- like it's being rotoscoped instead of polished and refined by a trained eye.

So, what are you looking for in animation reference?

-- Strong poses
-- General timing
-- Observed behavior/secondary actions (i.e. hair swaying, blinks)
-- Basic mechanics (i.e. weight shift)

In watching your reference, it's great to take notes, or do draw overs based upon poses or ideas you find really strong within it, and then move along to your animation. Then, as opposed to having your reference open to stare and and/or copy, only look back at it when you need to remember something. i.e. "Where did that foot plant again?" Or "Does the back paw touch down before or after the front paw picks up?"

What am I supposed to do if the character I'm animating doesn't exist in the real world?

Well,  fictional or not, all characters (the good ones, at least) are still rooted in reality. Thus, you would assess your character based upon things you know. i.e. "Well, it sort of looks like it has a fish for a head, but then a crab or a scorpion for the body!" Easy! Go find fish to reference for the motion of the face, and crab and scorpion reference to help you understand the mechanics of the body!

A word of caution:

Although reference can be really helpful in nailing some basic timing, and, when we get stuck on something, to count frames, but you may want to double check and make sure that your reference footage plays back in the correct frame rate. While most animation is in 24 fps, most video from hand-held devices plays back in 30 fps, so your frame counts will NOT be accurate.

We would suggest using Adobe Media Encoder (or After Effects, or whatever you know best, really) to re-interpret the footage at the correct frame rate. You can find a tutorial in their help guide!

Many thanks to Cody and Frank for the delightful lecture.