Being Insecure

As a warm up for the post-Neth Nom lecture post, I thought I would share this tasty tidbit of TEDx enthusiasm from Riot Games' Animator Tomáš Jech. (Thanks, Alicia Schaffer.)

An Intimate Evening with Glen McIntosh

This past week, Tea Time was proud to be involved in the Fall Festival 2013 and managed to weasel our way into hosting three of the 5 lectures planned for the week.

With the amazing and endless support of Becky Johnson, we were thrilled to have an intimate Inside the Actor's Studio style of evening with the great Glen McIntosh, directing animator at ILM (Jurassic Park III, Star Wars: Episode I, II and III, Transformers, and Battleship and many more). The event was MC'd by Tea Time’s own Frank-Joseph Frelier and gave us some insight into Glen’s life in production.





In the bright stage lights of the 620 Theater, Glen takes his seat at a table for two set front and center of the unusually small crowd gathered for the event ahead. While I had been looking forward to the Monster Mash panel all week (to say Glen's a bit of a dinosaur buff would be a vast understatement), nothing could have prepared me for what Mr. McIntosh had in store for his audience that evening; Charming, witty, incredibly informative and laugh-out-loud funny - with a pinch of some fantastic original artwork to boot - it's needless to say he surprised me.

Before going on to study traditional animation at Sheridan College, Glen initially majored in Film Studies. He got his first "Aha!" moment after taking a figure drawing course between the plethora of film history classes and the rest was history; Glen had found his calling.

After school, he moved out to Ireland and started out at the Sullivan Bluth Studios as an in-betweener and fix animator. He was thrilled - he loved the grittier feel of Secret of Nimh and couldn't wait to get his hands dirty with some Don Bluth goodness - until he was thrown onto Thumbelina and Anastasia: By no means a bad thing, but cute, cartoon bugs was not what he had initially hoped for.

During his time in Ireland, his second "Aha!" moment struck him with the release of Jurassic Park. He immediately fell in love, and was inspired to traverse into the realm of 3D. Much to the envy of all the students in the crowd, Glen jumped straight from working on Anastasia, directly onto Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace. "When I arrived at ILM I didn't even know how to turn the computer ON," Glen says, "I'm sure the woman helping me set up thought I was joking, but I told her 'no, seriously, I'm not sure how, and I want to make sure if I'm going to do this, then I better know how to do this.'" and thus he jumped in head first and started learning all the new technical aspects from the ground up. One of the largest hurdles Glen found in his transition from 2D to 3D was that 3D animation could not be cheated as much as in 2D animation. Traditional animation gives you a lot of leeway in poses. It's easy to throw in a smear frame here or there, and poses could hide certain elements of animation (an arm behind the body is an arm you don't have to worry about).  Meanwhile, in a 3D character, a pose has to look good from every angle. If poses are cheated - such as an arm intersecting the body - the pose may look fine from the view of the camera, but it may cause issues further down the pipeline during cloth/water simulations and lighting.

One of the things Glen is quite known for is his work as the Raptor lead in Jurassic Park III. Despite his phenomenal work, Glen tells us that he was pulled off of Star Wars Episode II and it felt terrible. "At the time we were seeing all of these amazing concepts for the arena and it sort of hurt to think that I wouldn't get a chance to be a part of this incredible space-gladiator sort of battle." In the end, however, he was satisfied with the decision as it lead to his chance to take on a larger role. "Being a lead of any sort wasn't something I actively pursued, I was just really enthusiastic," He tells us. "And I happen to love dinosaurs more than anything." It was simply nice to be able to be more immersed in something he was already so passionate about. One of the biggest perks about being a Directing Animator is the amount of time Glen gets to spend on set. He spent some time regaling us with stories about the set of Battleship and his brief time as both an 'acting coach' for Rihanna and a stunt double for...a stunt double.

When it comes to setting up a shot, Glen told us a bit about his animation process - particularly the importance of knowing the capabilities of your rig. When he first gets a rig, Glen makes sure that he tries out specific actions (and asks his team to do so as well) which the rigger may not have taken into account.  "By doing your homework before you even begin, the rig has a chance to be kicked back to rigger and changed making your life easier!" Glen also mentioned that as an animator - just like an actor - it's pretty easy to get type cast and it's important to avoid becoming pigeonholed into a single role. "While working on animation, don’t just become the robot person or the dinosaur person; Broaden the spectrum of your work! Take a look at your real an try to break it up into binaries such as male vs female, comedy vs dramatic, cartoony vs realistic, organic vs inorganic."

One of the most unique pieces of information Glen gave to us had to do with some of his interactions with the film directors.  "It is important to show directors only the animation in which they will be critiquing." He tells us. "While it may look cool to turn on all the textures or use some cards to show splashes or explosions, if the director sees something that already looks so far along, they get the impression that their opinion doesn't matter and you've carried on with making the film without them." Glen and his team switched to using simple geometry as placeholders for simulated actions - plus it gave them a more straightforward evaluation.

Frank-Joseph ended the night with a fun final question: What are three movies that you feel are so important (or at least important to you) that you think everyone should go out and watch them?

Jaws was easily the first movie that came to mind: While there were inconsistency issues from shot to shot due to the technicalities of being shot out in open ocean, the acting and music and the story of the movie is so powerful, that as an audience, we don't really notice. The two other movies weren’t any particular titles but Glen recommends anything from Stanley Kubrik, (Full Metal Jacket, The Shining), and anything Steven Spielburg, (notably War of the Worlds).

All in all, the evening was a smashing success, ending with some show and tell from Glen's personal portfolio (he still works traditionally! Markers and ink; no Wacom). A big thank you to everyone who made it out.

Tea Time Animation 'Monster Mash' Panel
Fall Festival 2013
Guest Post by Andy Wu
Edited by Lana Bachynski

Heading to CTN '13 in Style

Tea Time animation is now taking orders for the Fall '13 Tea Shirts! 

Shirts will be in chocolate brown, Men's and Women's sizes, $15 a piece. Pay in cash (in club) or via Paypal (lana.bachynski@gmail.com) at any time!

If you're Paying via Paypal, please add $1.00 for Paypal surcharges. If you're not local to the Bay Area, please add a few dollars for shipping, and make sure to include your shipping address along with your shirt size.

To order, e-mail info@teatimeanimation.com with your preferred payment method and shirt size. Please note - all cash payments must be in OUR hands before we will submit your order.

Happy Animating!

Save the Date: ILM Animator Pete Kelly

And the date is tomorrow! Our apologies. We've been facebooking and tweeting about it, but I forgot to post the update on here.

Tomorrow, October 18th, at 7:00 pm in the 79 New Montgomery Theater, San Francisco, ILM Animator Peter Kelly will be joining us for an EXCLUSIVE lecture on his work on Pacific Rim (complete with some tasty clips graciously provided by ILM PR). Join the facebook event (linked below) for full details.

Be there with Tea Time Merch for priority seating.
Doors at 6:30.

See you there, and Happy Animating!
https://www.facebook.com/events/1454062634819310/

Mike Makarewicz Reader's Digest Style: Part III - Acting and Performance

Last week, Tea Time had the pleasure of welcoming Pixar Directing Animator / Animation Collaborative founder Michal Makarewicz to our stage for a third time -- as per usual, it was a humbling and inspiring experience. Though it wouldn't do to give away every little secret Michal graciously shared with us (you'll have to join us next time), I've done my best to translate any relevant information from my frantically scrawled notes here for the online community to enjoy (bear with me, it was a very visual lecture). Looking for more? Please feel free to join us at www.teatimeanimation.com.

Although our audience only had but a day's notice to change and/or cancel plans and/or skip class to attend our event due to unforeseen complications with AAU (Did you go to your Townhall Meeting this week?), ~150 of us piled into the theatre for the chance to hear some Pixar-grade insight into one of animation's most intimidating topics: Acting and Performance. He began with some comprehensive advice from Sir Ian McKellen:

Ian McKellen on Extras by Victor_Bugle

Helpful, no? Well on the one hand - of course not. We have obviously learned nothing here. However, on the other hand, is there really any better way to sum up what it takes to be an actor? Any better way to dictate what it means to create a beautiful performance? Can you teach someone how to pretend? If so, how do we even begin to approach the subject?

"Well, as an animator, we can usually start with the principles," Michal continues, "in which case I generally see three important things to consider: 

One is POSING. I can then go through all of the principles and find which ones I apply to posing i.e: Pose to pose vs. straight ahead, squash and stretch, solid drawing (posing), exaggeration, appeal, staging, etc...

The next is MOTION. I can do the same thing here; find which principles directly apply to the actual movement of the character - They may overlap i.e. Followthrough and overlap, straight ahead vs. Layered, slow in/slow out, squash and stretch, secondary action, etc...

But over all, none of this will really matter. Obviously it will to a point, but it's the third category that will make or break a piece: CHOICES." If we make good choices, this is what will draw in the audience, make them believe in and connect with our characters. If we make poor choices, however, this is the exact same thing that will pull the audience away from us. When the characters make decisions that invoke thoughts like, "Oh, please, no one would ever do that" or "What? but..why?" in our viewers, we lose them."

"So, how is it we know what choices to make?" Michal asks. The answer is easy - we simply have to know our characters. Here's what Mike deems important to him when he begins a shot:

He considers his dialogue, he considers his characters, and then he considers this list. Why? Because it helps to eliminate choices! If you're able to whittle out the things your character would never do, it becomes easier to see the things they would. "We can't just move stuff,"he tells us, "our whole job [as an animator] is to bring soul to our work."...that being said, we also can't over do it.

As an animator, we should be invisible; we don't want the audience to think about the animation at all - not even in a good way! (i.e "what beautiful animation.") If the viewer sees the animator through the work, that animator is too involved. Remember: those acting choices are coming from within the character. It's not the animator moving a puppet around, it's internal motivation.

Do LESS as an animator - if you have a dialogue shot and you can get away with 3 main ideas - good! 2? Great! Stop trying to hold the audience's hand, you're overacting.

"The two most common mistakes I see in young animators are A) not thinking it through, and B) showing off. You need to move something, but you don't need to move EVERYTHING. There doesn't have to be a new pose for every word - And chill out on the eyebrows. "

First things first, we can take a macro look at the piece before we begin - what do we have: A character, and a shot. WHO is the character? What is the PURPOSE of the shot? HOW will the character fulfill it's purpose?

Let's start off with the shot - what is the context?
          --> Where is your character in relation to the main story? (what is their history?)

What is the dialogue?
          --> Mood? (what is the energy level?)
          --> Is the character saying what he's thinking?
          --> What IS he thinking?

What is the length?
          --> What is there time for? (enough time for thought process?)

Now, the Character -- who are they?
         --> List the main adjectives that define this person
         --> "You know my mother, she's just going to..."
         --> What are the ingredients? You should be able to identify this person! List actors, family, friends, anyone that resembles the character psychologically that can help you understand.

When you draw from films with great actors, or documentaries or - heaven forbid - even your real life experiences, your audience will feel closer to the characters, and can, therefore, help you fill in some of those blanks. Remember: you don't have to SHOW everything, emotions are closer in real life. If you depict them more accurately as opposed to so exaggerated, the audience will connect and insert pieces of themselves - things they recognize and identify with - into your characters, creating an even stronger connection.

If you know your character inside and out, it's easier for you to make appropriate, relatable decisions for them. Put your thinking cap on! What drives them: Their head? Heart? Stomach? Get inside their head. Take Remi and his brother Emile from Ratatouille. Remi is lead by his heart, meanwhile Emile is constantly thinking about filling his belly. 

Or, perhaps, Star Trek's Spock, Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy:

Spock is lead by his head; very analytical, Captain Kirk is always lead by his heart, and McCoy, well, not exactly lead by his belly, but he is a nice balance of all of the above.

It's important to think about their history: What have they experienced? What do they want and what are they willing to do to get it? Remember: Every character wants something, even if it's just a glass of water.

Moving into animation, it's important to remember that we should be "communicating without complicating"(Ollie Johnston). Moving the character does NOT equal entertainment. Feeling equals entertainment; you have to find the truth within your shot. What is the subtext of your dialogue?

It's important to have an answer to all of these questions that you may develop something relatable. Let's look at what makes a hero vs. what makes a villain. Both are characters who are fighting for something that they believe in (This working with the notion that rarely is it that we come across a villain who is evil simply for the sake of being evil), both are characters who clearly think that what they are doing is 'right' - so how is it we identify one as the hero? It's by how much we can relate to the actions that character. One character is designed to make the audience say "I wish I were more like him", while the other character is designed that to make the audience say "I would never do that!" or "who could do something like that?!"  

Often enough, history has a profound affect on the decisions our characters will choose to make. The pain from the past makes the choices of today. Consider the following clip from the film Groundhog Day. On the off chance you've never seen the movie, A) you should change that, and B) it's about a man (Bill Murray) who, for some reason, manages to get stuck living the same day over and over again. The clip shows a particularly uncomfortable meeting he is forced to endure day after day with an old 'buddy' from high school. As he lives this day over and over and over again, we can see how his history starts to affect the choices he makes in dealing with this situation each day. 

Unfortunately, Mike was obligated to speed through the last leg of his lecture, so my notes aren't quite comprehensive enough (or legible enough) to post here, but there is one, final subject that we touched upon that I found exceedingly important: Body Language.

"If your voice is saying something, but your body is contradicting it, the truth is always in the body".

Body language is such an important part of communicating ideas, and yet we so rarely get to really see that in an animation. If your character is too busy poignantly over-acting out each word with hand gestures and other motions that do nothing but re-say what we can already hear like gibberish ASL, that character will never have the opportunity to really speak to the audience in a resounding and worthwhile manor. Consider the following;

 

Despite the fact that we have absolutely no facial expressions or dialogue or really any of the usual tells of human emotion, we still know exactly what is going through little Darth's brain every step of the way. The trials, the frustration of the sandwich, the urgency to get to the car but, most potently of all, the absolute THRILL he has when he thinks that he makes the car rev at him. His body language is unmistakable, and as a result, supremely endearing.

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Like what you read? There's far more where all this came from over at the Animation Collaborative. Check out their wide variety of classes including 2D animation and Demo / Lecture classes over at http://www.animationcollaborative.com/. 

Curious about any of the concepts or looking to ask a few questions? Please join our community over at www.teatimeanimation.com to get the answers you seek.

Happy animating!

Chris Landreth and Theodore Ushev at ILM

SIGGRAPH and ASIFA are hosting an evening with Directors Chris Landreth and Theodore Ushev.

The event is this upcoming Friday, September 27 at 7:00pm.
Registration is free! Don't miss out on this amazing opportunity.

Mike Makarewicz Lecture -- Final Date Announced!

University 101: Buzzfeed style.

The new year has started, classes are swingin' and the freshman are rolling in wide-eyed and - honestly? - looking ready for a froshing. But we are kind souls at Tea Time, and thus, rather than some cruel brand of initiation, we covered our top 5 easiest ways to get lost in the woodwork of AAU (or any school, really), and how to avoid becoming part of the jaw-dropping, %70 drop-out rate.

 A quick note: while this article is dedicated to our many newer members, don't glaze over just because you've been here for a while. You just mind find that this comes in handy regardless of your seniority at your respective institutions.

First things first - I'm going to get all of my "mom"-ing out of the way. AAU is an open enrollment institution. This is both a great and an unfortunate thing. On one hand, we're giving opportunities to students who wouldn't have a post-secondary education otherwise. Yeah, so what - you didn't like math in high school - not everyone does. Here is your chance to still thrive as an artist! However, this is generally regarded as the exception to the rule. Sitting on our other hand is the unbelievable mass of schlubs and burn-outs who couldn't care less about their education; Those who only came to AAU show mom and dad a paper that says "accepted" without having to give more than ten minutes of their time to the process; Those who chose this school not because of a passion or a desire, but because, "I don't know, paintings fun, and overall pretty easy, right?"; Those who will spend more time faking an injury to get their medical marijuana card than they will on shading that cube for their Analysis of Form class.

BEWARE OF THESE PEOPLE. Don't get me wrong, partying is fun -- and you definitely SHOULD do so -- but the people you should party with are the people who will party hard, get trashed, then wake up at 6am hungover (or still drunk) to make sure they get their homework done on time and done well. Our industry is a social one; don't close yourself off and sit in your room alone, covered in charcoal. That's why our number one rule is:

1. Experience your education, but not at the cost of your education. 

Make those memories, have those crazy stories to tell your children when they get old enough, but make sure you're doing it with the pride of having actually completed your education. (or only dropped out because of an amazing opportunity that made you a bajillion dollars or made your life feel otherwise fulfilled.)

2. Sculpt your education. Remember: You are PAYING for this.

This is a product you are choosing to purchase - thus, you should be getting what you deserve out of it! Your advisors, and yes, many of your teachers will try to tell you what classes you can or can not take. While it's important to listen to those who may know better, always take it with a grain of salt, and always ALWAYS get a second (or third, or fourth) opinion. While you will need to take classes x, y, z to graduate, remember that classes A-W can be pretty darn interchangeable. There are so many new classes that come and go just for a semester with better teachers, and generally a better group of students that you'll be surrounded by who will push you further, make you a better student, and most likely a better person overall -- Deep, I know -- but it's true! Keep your eyes and ears out, and if you didn't hear any thing - ASK. With all of our alums and upperclassmen, Tea Time is a great place to start.

3. Never forget, you are PAYING for this.

Actually, correction - you have PAID for everything. Upfront. And your school has NO problem keeping all your money. That means that every time you blow off class for whatever reason, every time you aren't going to a workshop, or reaping every free resource you have that your tuition gets you (i.e. going to the gym, campus clubs, school events, going to the labs) you are just waving goodbye to that money. This also applies to classes. While it's important to take control of your classes, this should not translate to take "easy A's". It SHOULD mean, take classes that are the most pertinent towards a future career, and though they might be tough, ones that will actually benefit you in the long run. Though it sounds amazing to try and swap Clothed Figure Drawing with Underwater Basket-Weaving (thanks Frank), be realistic. Push yourself. Thank me later.

4. Work in the Labs

Though nothing might compare to the peaceful solitude of sitting alone in your room, lights dimmed, headphones plugged in and blasting Skrillex while you gaze, zombified into to your 24'' double monitors, it's actually important to, you know, meet people. How many times have we all heard that getting into the industry is about meeting people? Great - I'm still going to tell you again. Getting into this industry is, like, 90% of the time due to meeting someone who graciously puts your resume at the top of the stack. I mean...you also have to be amazing, but you really do need to make some friends. The lab is one of the best places to do this; you never know who you're going to meet. Plus, if you have any questions about maya or your assignment or a good sandwich shop (the Toaster Oven on 2nd, if you're wondering), rather than sifting endlessly through some online forums, you can just...ask. So even if your home computer is way faster and way better, it won't kill you to come in once or twice a week, and we'd love your company.

5. Stay Healthy

I'm not actually sure if we covered this in club, but I can't stress the importance of this enough. Repetitive Stress Injuries (RSI's) are a very real problem. They will kill your career faster than partying with schlubs ever could, and they will do so permanently. Take breaks, drink lots of water (because then you'll have to pee and you'll HAVE to get up and take a break) and make sure you go to the gym! The Freshman 15 is also very real. This isn't highschool. There is no gym class forcing your lazy butt out of a desk to do some jumping jacks. If you are in the dorms, do not give in the the all you can eat Lucky Charms (god knows I did). Work it out.

Finally, and most importantly, make sure to stay sane - brain health! If you're doing it right, school should feel just like a great workout. You should feel exhausted by the end of it. You should be using every mental muscle you have so that by the end of it, your reel or portfolio has the most kick-ass beach body people can't help but stare. It's NOT easy - make sure you have people to whine with (and to wine with), to relax with, to crunch with, and above all else make sure you have people to revel in the joy and the sacrifice that is your career as a student. (A good place to look is Friday at 3:30pm in room 349.)

Good luck everyone.
Happy animating.

We are LIVE, Ladies and Gentlemen.

At long last, Tea Time is officially official! Come say hello.

www.teatimeanimation.com

We are also officially tweeting: @teatimeanimates

and instagramming: @teatimeanimation

Mike Makarewicz - Friday, Sept 13th

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

Due to lack of a suitable meeting space, our event has been temporarily postponed. Our sincerest apologies, but keep your eyes out for updates! THE SHOW WILL GO ON.

Questions? E-mail info@teatimeanimation.com for details.

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That's right, folks! Our first guest lecturer of the fall semester is none other than the Animation Collaborator, himself - Mike Makarewicz! Keep a watchful eye here for the location, and we'll see you Friday!

Welcome to Fall 2013!

Happy Fall '13 Semester, Tea Time! A shot of New Montgomery in the Morning. 

Welcome back everyone! Yes, the summer-that-actually-feels-like-winter has finally blown through, and the fall-that-actually-feels-like-summer is finally upon us! As per usual, with the dawning of the new semester comes many new ways to get involved with your animation community.

While there is much to reveal - and it will all make it up to the blog - why not hear about it first hand at Tea Time's first official meeting of the Fall semester! You know the drill...

3:30 pm in room 349 

180 New Montgomery Street

San Francisco, CA, 94105

Did you submit an application for the Tea Time Board? 

You'll be happy to know that we spent the summer reviewing all applications. Please keep your eyes peeled for an e-mail looking to schedule an interview. 

That's all for now, folks! Looking forward to seeing all of your lovely, smiling faces at the meeting tomorrow -- particularly if you've never been to one before.

See you there!