So Much to Do, So Much to See

Hello again. My, it's been a while, hasn't it? It has, because I have a whole bunch of fun stuff sitting on my computer waiting to see the light of the interweb.

First of all, there's some sketches from Exeter (among other things). As usual, clicking makes things bigger! There hasn't been as much Moleskine use recently as there has been in previous weeks, but that only bodes well for bigger and better things, which will surface in due time... There's a whole bunch of people here: TJ, Jack, Mark, Harry; Guillaume and Anne make another cameo or two.


Next in the lineup is some actual schoolwork. These drawings are for the Design for Layout unit of the Year 1 animation course. It's basically a drawing class focused on, appropriately enough, layouts. This is where AIB scores a point on MICA: animators here get a whole range of pertinent knowledge: layout, using field guides*, filling in x-sheets... But then again, MICA students gain a lot of that knowledge and then some in the other studios that we can take. So... I guess they're still even. There you go. These line drawings are meant to practise using line weight and placement to give a sense of depth and perspective. How well that is achieved, I'll let you (and the course tutors) decide.
* Hear the MICA kids say, "huh??" Don't feel bad; that's what I did.


Finally, strap yourselves in for another animation dump! We're still plugging ahead on the two films. This clip from Sol probably took the longest, as I animated two separate banners, and then added the sun logo at a later date. Layout drawing by Harry.



Risk has been kind to me, and I've been able to crank out a few scenes in relatively short time. I surprised both my director and myself when I finished the horse animation the same day it was assigned to me.

For fun's sake, I included two versions of the credits sequence that didn't make the cut. They're still in the keyframe stage, so the animation's not as smooth as the final version.

Now, moving away from the Land of Art... We visited London again this past weekend. As usual, the photos may all be seen here. I went into the City with Paul and Ben, who were going to meet a bunch of people from the ConceptArt.org Forums. Ben is a third-year, and directing his own film, Kung Fu Romance. You can find him over at bendragon.blogspot.com. I missed the bus (to Uni) to catch my bus (to London) but ended up getting on an earlier (but direct) bus to Victoria Station. I met Ben, Paul, and Naomi at the Underground station, and after being thwarted by the ticket machines four times,* finally got to the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons. Appropriately for a College of Surgeons, the museum was full of all sorts of squishy things in jars and medical anomalies. Unfortunately, I had left my sketchbook home for efficiency's sake, and they don't allow photography. Very interesting, and worth the trip - if you're into looking at preserved chimps' heads.*
* The machines closed down when we were the second ones in the queue. Four times.
* The apostrophe lies, there was only one.

After getting left in the museum by the whole gaggle of artists, I took a stroll down Fleet Street past the Royal Courts of Justice, and met everyone up for lunch at the Shakespeare's Head Pub. A few of us took off for the British Museum, whilst everybody else just stayed and socialised. Unfortunately, the British Museum closed not long after we got there, but I can say that the Korea and Japan rooms are excellent. Small, but excellent. We walked back to Soho, where we met up again for dinner - Latin* - until it was time for me to leave. True to fashion, the Underground decided to have a problem on the Victoria line just when I got there, so after circuitously arriving at the coach station, I discovered that I was five minutes late for my 20.30 coach to Bournemouth. I had to buy a whole new ticket (£18) and wait until 22.00. Ugh. At least I got to finish Dracula while I was waiting. An excellent read, I highly recommend it. Closer to its film stereotype than Frankenstein.* So finally, arriving at Bourne Chambers at precisely 1.05, I went to bed. The end.
* La Cucaracha, not Ave Maria.
* Though even my grandmother is closer to her film stereotype than Frankenstein.

This Post Brought To You By the Persistence of Vision

It's been three weeks now. Productions are all well underway, and I've got some tests and roughs to share with you. AIB's Animation Production is predominantly 2D, though they do have a computer suite which runs Maya* and there is one stop-motion film being made this year. I only wish I could stay through the end of the year to see the films to completion.
* On LINUX...

I'm sort of working the field and contributing my talents to two different third-year films. The first one, Sol, plays the story of Phaëton next to a space flight loosely based on the Apollo 13 mission.* It promises to be a visually stunning film, with lots of great nebulæ and space-related background paintings. The design is very similar to my own drawing style, so that helps a lot. It's a really interesting piece, and it will look very impressive when everything's put together.

I've been working on constellations which will move and watch Phaëton streaming past in his father's chariot. The first bit of work I had was doing Aquarius. The aim was to create a feeling of the enormous scale that these constellations have. Everything is slow and elegant, like an ancient painting.
* Which sports three of the four horses** of Helios/Apollo's chariot on its insignia.
** Pyrios, Aeos, Aethon, and Phlegon. You knew this was coming.



After moving over to Risk for a few days (more on that later), I did more animated constellations. Gemini is in the same scene as Aquarius* watching the chariot. Similar thing. The whip is on a separate layer, and will be moved about and tweaked, but the animation is done.
* I know they're in the sky at opposite times of the year, but we're not on Earth here.



Concurrently, I'm animating on Risk, which is a more lighthearted and entertaining film. The story is about a chess king whose world is shattered when he accidentally gets dropped onto a Risk game board. It's a more cartoony film, with broad dynamic action and a lot of opportunity. It's completely different from Sol, which is why I decided to do both. Risk required me to only do rough passes, which is something I'm not used to at MICA: we have one chance to get the animation down for the two-week deadline for 15 seconds. We don't have enough time to do a rough pass, then a cleaned up version. So it's a good experience. I don't have to worry about drawing (as I did with the Sol pieces). The two pieces I have are from the first exposure the King has for the Risk battle. Very quick shots - only 14 frames - it was nice and refreshing after the 72 or 36 frames on the Sol bits.





I want to make a note about the way AIB handles line testing. While not perfect, it's still much faster and easier than MICA's process. AIB uses Monkey Jam, which is still in Beta, but it's a free download. We use a video camera on an animation stand to capture the frames directly through the program. It's way more immediate than the scanning-batching-reimporting method at MICA. I'm not afraid to just walk over and test what I'm doing every twenty frames or so. One of the biggest problems facing MICA animators can be remedied here... Monkey Jam! Use it!

AIB Animation: WHY is it so awesome?

"John, why is animation at AIB so awesome?"

I hear you ask. That's the aim of this post. Being here a whole two weeks now, I think I have the ammunition to properly gun this one down.* No, this post doesn't have any pretty pictures or moving drawings attached. I'm sorry. Next time, I promise.

* Excuse me. I don't know where that came from.

First of all, the Arts Institute at Bournemouth (heretofore known as AIB), is a three-year university that offers both BA and MA courses. Before entering first year, there is a foundation year which has more general study, like freshman year at MICA. But unlike MICA, after foundation year at AIB, students have a Foundation Diploma, which acts sort of like an Associate Degree (AA). If they leave AIB after foundation year, they still have the Foundation Diploma, which makes it easier to get into another university. After foundation year, the students enter their respective pathways.

That's where it gets intense. Once in a course, that's all you do for the next three years. Unlike MICA,* there is no option for concentrations or minors, and there is little to no inter-departmental interaction. Animation kids know animation kids, unless they live with someone else. In order to understand what goes on during the three years of undergrad, I have to briefly explain the way the courses are structured. It's very different from the US. At MICA, John Q. Undergrad has a smorgasbord of classes to choose from. He can take** Prehistoric Art, Painting I, 2D Animation, Life Drawing, and Western Thought all in the same semester. If he doesn't like Western Thought, he can switch it for The Way of Tea. It's all fine, as long as it works out in the end, and he'll still have a BA in animation.
* And indeed US schools in general. I will use MICA/AIB for sake of consistency.
** Or, more often than not, has to take.

Not so for Roland D. Chumsfanleigh* over at AIB. Once he decided that he wants to be an animator, he is placed on the first** floor of the Arts and Media building to meet his compatriots for the next three years. Life drawing and various other additional courses are part of the deal, but they are organised by unit, and the units are part of Year 1 Animation. You can't pick them. A year at AIB has three terms: October-Christmas, January-Easter, and April-June. They are about 12 weeks each. In total, there are 40 animators in the course.
* Pronounced Chuffley. It's not his fault.
** Still have to go up one flight of stairs, remember.

But where AIB lacks in variety, it makes up for in quality. The animation course meets Monday - Friday at 9:30AM straight through the term. The first years start by doing exercises designed to break them into the world of animation: bouncing ball, flag wave, sack drop, walk cycle. This is the first term. Second term, first years are introduced to the third year films. The directors show animatics and any other relevant product, and then proceed to "hire" the first years to work on their film. The first years obviously do mostly simple things: background animation, layout, backgrounds, whatever the director needs. In the third term, they pick up more complicated character-driven exercises, like a jump, a stretch and a yawn, while working on the third year films. All the while, there are tutorials and lectures on relevant information, like layout, design, and drawing for animation.

I don't know a whole lot about second year, but they also work with third years on their films, and during the year develop ideas and necessary product for their own films, which they pitch in the third term. The whole year gathers and with the appropriate tutors, pitches their idea, and votes on which films will be produced. On average AIB produces 10-12 films a year. This year, there are 16 because it is a a large class. Those whose pitches get chosen become directors, and those who didn't make the cut disperse and form teams around the selected films.

Third year is the big one, but also very simple to explain, at least as far as I know. The whole year is spent producing your film. First term is about story, design, storyboards, and animatics. At the start of second term, they show the animatics and take on board a slew of first years. Production and post-production go until the end of May, when the complete package is due for the exhibition and commencement (I don't know what they call it here) at the beginning of June.

So, the whole deal is very technical and industry-driven. There is not a whole lot of tutorial, and most of the learning comes from individual experimentation and, of course, working closely with second and third years on films. Over the course of three years, students work on three different films, filling different roles as their experience permits, and by the end of the road, they've done pretty much everything. The biggest complaint that I've heard from animators at AIB was that they wish they had a more traditional education. They envy MICA's foundation and wide range of skills taught. There is some life drawing embedded in the course, but they wish they had a more direct tutorial-based class, like most of the classes in the US tend to be.

So where do I fit in all this? Wherever I want. Skill-wise, I'm about at a second-year level, but I've been hanging around the first years because they seem to have more free time for studio work. Plus, they're all in the same area, so it's easier to get to know them. I'm attached to two films right now, and I plan to spend my term doing animation for the two of them and helping out to make a "for real" animation, which will be entered in festivals and all sorts of good stuff that doesn't happen at MICA. I get a bit harsh towards MICA animation when I compare the two, but AIB is one of the top animation schools in Europe (and the world) and very well-respected. MICA, as far as animation goes, is not. The UK and the US ways of doing things are very different, and I'm eternally grateful that I have the experience to work in both surroundings.

Well, I think that about wraps it up. Hopefully you have a sense of how AIB does things, and what I'm in for over the next ten weeks. There will be a project-based post in the future with some animation that I've been working on, and when I feel up to it a Throwdown: MICA vs AIB post comparing the two schools. But most of that will come through in general posts anyway, so it probably won't be as impressive as all that formatting would have you believe.

Until then, stay frosty!