4 Factors to Create Realistic Animation
4 factors to create realistic animation There are many methods that will make your audience goes 'WOW!' when they see your animation. Making an object moves is an animation, but making an object comes alive is the toughest challenge and it can be very rewarding and satisfying. Here are 4 factors to create realistic animation, references, target, knowledge and pipeline. In this article, I'll use bouncing ball as an example. 1. We need to find references Art is subjective and we must find some references that will provide us a benchmark on a good looking animation. In this tutorial, we need to create a bouncing ball, so all we have to do is to go Youtube and type in the words ‘bouncing ball’ and we will many real life sample video references to compare with. 2. We need to set a target We need to know how we want our animation to look like even before we create it. This applies to all animation created in the industry. Big or small companies still practice creating storyboards and animatics to define their targeted animation outcome. In this tutorial, our target is to create a bouncing ball similar to a real basketball bouncing. 3. We need 2 good knowledge In animation context, we need to know principal of animation and software’s operation skill to achieve our target. This 2 knowledge are the critical factors to creating a good animation and they both need to work hand in hand. Principal of animation makes an animation realistic and believable because of the way human’s eyes perceive movement. Software skills are considered...Taking Animation to the Next Level
Animators need different skill sets to create good quality animation. However, to be hired as an animator, you need to have the minimal animation skills and standard. If you are a graduate and had send out hundreds of application with no reply, it’s high time to polish your demo reel. Here are 4 critical skills an animator should possess: Animation Quality - Animation needs realism and entertaining value that can be use immediately (by a company). High animation quality can be achieved if your demo reel covers the 12 principal of animations. Software skill - You must be well verse in operating the animation software in order to create animation exactly how the storyboard wants it to be. Speed and efficiency - You are able to complete your animation within a reasonable timeline given by your lead animator or director. Creativity - You demonstrate creativity in your animation on top of the given storyboard which resulted in a higher quality visualization. If you are able to achieve the above standards, you should be easily employable. Hah! That’s easier said than done! Only a few fresh graduates, mainly the top students, can achieve the above requirements and these students are mostly head hunted before they graduate. As for the rest, many became jobless, some switched career or some starved to death while waiting to be hired. So what can fresh graduates do without much industry experience? I’m here to share with you a very important tip: you do not necessarily need to good in these 4 areas to be employable. If you need a job urgently, you can...
Why is creativity so important and powerful?
Many times in my life, I come across things and events that makes me ask, “Why are things done this way when there is a better alternative?” I’ve worked for many companies who have their daily operation done in the orderly and conventional manner. These companies totally turned me off because I find that I can do those operations at a much faster and efficient manner just by giving a slight creative modification. Worse thing could happen is when you are working with people who are conformed to their daily activity. They are so conformed that even if you give them a 1 minute solution to a 1 hour operation, they will conveniently reject the solution just because, “I like to do it this way, because I’m used to it.” There is nothing wrong with this mindset because you can’t force people to change their thinking, unless it affects their pay cheque, right? So why is creativity so important? With creativity, you explore possibilities to improve things, you bring new ideas to people and stimulate new ideas to others. If you are working in the digital art and media industry, continuous improvement is important because technology and ideas advance so quickly that you will soon be obsolete. At least at the bare minimal, you must be able to catch up with the trend. Why is creativity powerful? Being creative gives you an opportunity to improve someone’s life, be it your boss or your client. If you are good enough, you might be in-charge of your project or becoming your own boss! If your dream is to...
Why are Japanese so creative? Secret Reveal !
Have you ever wonder why Japanese are so creative? I was casually chatting with my student, J, about his future plan and I got to know that he is leaving for Japan to study soon. He is one of my drawing class student but he is only planning to take up Manga drawing as an extra curriculum activity when he goes Japan to study. So here is how the topic started. J was asking if i know about this singer and I don’t really know him because I’m not very current with Japanese singer. This singer got a long weird name, starting with L and I can’t remember his name because it’s really very long. So J uses his iPhone and googled this L singer to show me how he looks like. At first look, my first impression was, “Well, that’s a normal male Japanese singer look, nothing really special.” J continued to ask how old I think this L singer would be. Based on those photos, I presumed the singer is be in his early 20s and J noded, “Yeah... I thought so too, he is same age as my mum.” (J’s mum is roughly late 40s to 50s.) I was impressively shocked after hearing that because his appearance was very young! Later on, J added that this singer is gay and he sometimes asks his male band members to give him a love bite at his neck before his concert starts, just to tease his fans. Without much hesitation, I confidently told my student, “Do you know why Japanese are generally more creative?” I...Useful Resources
About Nash Lin
Nash is a self taught animator, a fanatic gamer and a digital media coach. He has created many types of 2D and 3D animation. You will get to learn effective animation skills and tips with Nash. Continue reading...
