Hi,

I am beginning what I expect will be a long project that will involve extensive animation of V4 and M4. I don't want to use premade animations but key them myself. I've used target helpers to help 'Pin' feet to the ground for, say, a walk cycle and it helps but I do get frustrated at it.

Does anyone here have some experience with manually animating V4 in Carrara and perhaps some suggestions, tips, opinions, or thoughts of encouragement for proceding on this course?

Always interested in hearing from you all. Thanks

Jeff Lew was a great help for me to learn the steps of animation. Take a look at his tutorials, its very cheap:

http://www.jefflew.com/

It's time to go back to animations roots and the job of lead animators. 

Brief, but important history lesson

In draw-it animation studios, the lead animators job was to draw 'key frames' to tell the story. Then, all of the junior animators drew the frames between the key frames. 

This is exactly what needs to happen when you animate by hand now. Like a cinematographer or director, planning each 'shot' and then setting the key frames will make the job much easier. Carrara will draw all of the 'tween' frames for you and then you can merely fine-tune as required. 

The next important thing, since V4 and M4 are realistic, is to pay attention to center of gravity for the character which is usually over one of heels of the body. 

Finally, when you get some successful sequences, save them as animation clips so you can combine and exchange your own animations to create new ones. 

Post more questions as you have them. 

Thank you both, I will take these suggestions to heart. To do what I want I can't rely on stock animations but I know it will take plenty of time, which I am fine with. The few small animations I've done and posted up on Vimeo, each took time, my most recent exceedingly short one took hours.

I am studying the Animation Survival Kit right now. I'll look into the videos you suggest.

One think I do find frustrating is foot slippage for walk or pivit movements, even with a target modifier.

Quick additional question. Does Carrara have a dope sheet or will I have to move every key frame (select all the individual keys for each body part) to move or duplicate them?

Thanks for your patience.

fyi, here is that short little animation of my main character for the animation/story I am working on:

https://vimeo.com/55233755

Check out "The Animator's Survival Kit", by Richard Williams - This is great info for animators of any medium (Cell or 3D).  It's available on Amazon.  Great reference book and one I reach for all the time.

(I have the book and the 16 DVD set as well)

-AniMajik

mark is right, the problem when people think in aimation, they try to create a frame by frame thing that really dont work. You need to planning your sequence using a storyboard or you will do a lot of unnecessary shots and animations.

After the storyboard is done you can start to calculating time, every action need to have a time, so you can calculate how many frames it will have.

Now with you time sheet you can start to create animation blocks, that will be used as clips, but not a frame at time, but try to see where the movements change and create the master keys, let Carrara do the inbetween frames for you BUT you will need to back and adjust them after all o get a more smooth and realistic transition.

In general in a big studio, they first move the character as a block throught the space (scene), after that they create the master keys for hip (gravity like Mark said), after that legs, arms and other parts. The key is adding details, like in modelling.

Other thing that is very very important in animation is antecipation! You need to understand this very basic idea: an arm never goes up without down a little bit! Antecipation is very easy: before animate, go in front a mirror and do YOU the movement! This way you will see how your body really moves.

Great insight, Thanks! Yes, I am studying The animator's survival kit, but I don't have the dvd's.

I have created a story board which I have broken down into quite a lot of shots. I will be refinding it. I agree, Anticipation is subtle but essential.

I imagine the whole project will be a learning experience on the principles of animation, direction, lighting, compositing, etc.

Foot Slippage

To prevent that, the tweener must not use the default Bezier function – whether it's the foot or the target helper that you are animating. 

It takes years to master it all, but you need to start somewhere :)  Just keep in mind the 12 rules of animation (at least in the back of your head)  All of that is covered in the book and elsewhere. 

• Squash and stretch
• Anticipation
• Staging
• Straight ahead action and pose to pose
• Follow through and overlapping action
• Slow in and slow out
• Arcs
• Secondary action
• Timing
• Exaggeration
• Solid drawing
• Appeal

Also, remember, an animator is an "actor". You need to be able to make the animation and moves look and feel right.

-AniMajik

Awesome info, thanks both of you! Thanks for the 12. Good to print and tape to the monitor.

Mark, I hadn't thought of the beizer tweeners. I have adjusted them before for other things but this is good info.

Restif

I have done some experience animating with Carrara, both Manually and otherwise.

I must say, for me, aniBlocks saved me a LOT of time and heartache. Once I got the aniblock importer, I left manual animation behind.

That said, the others gave you good advice.

The only thing I would add is get your entire script together first. I come from a film background, so I actually do end up with a few unused shots, but I find approaching this as I would a film, really helps me make the most powerful animations. It also gives me choices in the edit bay.

Best of luck!

Animation is not the end either.  Editing and timing is very important as is the story itself. (Probably the most important is the story)

You would think that an animated movie does not require editing, but it does!  It can make something good, look great.  Even though I plan my "shots" out to the second, I almost always need to edit or add an "L-cut" to make things more interesting.

I came from an animation background in the early '70s and took a 2 year video editing  program recently, to learn the fine points of editing (Avid and FCP certified now).  While I understood many of the concepts coming from film, the course really helpped a lot with my first love, animation.

Here's Walter Murch's 6 Rules in Editing:
According to Walter Murch, when it comes to film and film editing, there are six main criteria for evaluating a cut or deciding where to cut.

1. Emotion - How will this cut affect the audience emotionally at this particular moment in the film?

2. Story - Does the edit move the story forward in a meaningful way?

3. Rhythm - Is the cut at a point that makes rhythmic sense?

4. Eye Trace - How does the cut affect the location and movement of the audience's focus in that particular film?

5. Two Dimensional Place of Screen - Is the axis followed properly?

6. Three Dimensional Space - Is the cut true to established physical and spacial relationships?

Every animated (or live action) movie or short needs to have all these things.

... and I haven't even mentioned the other half of any good movie or short: Sound Design (dialog, SFX and Music)

There is a lot that goes into this medium and a lot to learn!  But you have to do it and learn from your mistakes.

I agree with the previous post as well, I use aniBlocks quite a bit.  They can be used as a base and then modified - saves a lot of time!

Best of luck with your projects!

-AniMajik

Thanks! I Editing and sound design are definitely a subject I hope to learn some on this project. Great info here! I won't be able to work in the Avid but the little tools I have should be enough to do what is required, I hope. I have only Sony Movie Studio / actually the Imagination Suite whcih has several programs for visual editing and sound design. But as time passes and knowledge improves, I'll see what I may need.

Do you have any reference material / books you could point me to for editing?

On editing in general "In the blink of an eye" by Walter Murch (on the esthetics of editing) is one of the best.  Walter Murch was the film editor for "The Godfather", "American Graphiti", and "Appocolyse Now" and "Cold Mountain".  He's definately concidered the top of his field.

Not too sure on specific books on the Sony Studio, but I'm sure there are ones available for your app.

Many editors (app) allow for some rudimentary sound design, and may have most of the tools you need to start with.

-AniMajik

Thanks for taking time to give me such great advice, It is more appreciated than you know!