S.L.A.P. Blog (Scott LaFleur Animation Person Blog)

Who wants to see some of my Animation???

2010-03-08T10:10:00.000-08:00

This is pretty cool. As you may or may not know I had the super awesometastic opportunity to work on "How to Train Your Dragon". Slash film has a clip from the film and it has a whole set of my shots in it, which is pretty cool considering the film isn't even out yet.
From about 0:27 to 0:33 is all me baby!!!
These were actually my first shots on the film.
click here

Face Animation

2009-01-04T12:10:00.000-08:00

So I haven't posted in a while because I really haven't had anything worth while to put up. But I think I do now. Lately I have been in sort of an Animation slump at work. My stuff seems stale and stiff. Among other things my face animationwas suffering a bit. There was no fleshy feeling in any of it. The great Jason Schleifer suggested that I take some time and just do some really simple tests and refresh what I know. This was SOOO helpful. These tests aren't feature quality by any means but they sure helped me to see things clear.
I took some notes along the way and Ill share those too. The first is just a simple change up to see how fleshy I could make the face feel. Again the animation isn't very good but it helped me to see what I could do to really make the face feel connected. The second is taking that idea and applying it to more change ups with some minor upper body animation.

NOTES!

Face Animation Notes
-use lid sculpt controls to keep the lids connected to the brows and cheeks.
-at the brows extreme the nose flesh will move up with them
-Arc the corners of the mouth
-Maybe a little squash and stretch in the eyes to exaggerate expression change
-Squash and stretch in the jaw and how that pulls the flesh in the cheeks and eyes and

nose.
-Have eyes react first most of the time.
-Group low face controls to offset timing from up face.
-James Baxter says that face muscles move in "fits and starts".
-Most movements in the face will be a direct result of emotion. Some will be residual
movement from those emotive moves. i.e. Brows go up out of surprise (emotion) but also the
corners of the eyes might go up because the eye brows will pull them up (residual). This
may not really happen on real people but it can add a nice fleshy feel to an animated
character. Should be used minimally.
-Sometimes its not the mouth move that is wrong, its the jaw.
-Arc the inside of the brows.
-Its animation, shape what you can to strengthen your idea.

Eye Check list
_ Brow and Lid connectivity
_ Lid and eye connectivity
_ lid sculpt
_ Eye squash and stretch.
_ eye shape Asymmetry

Brow Check list
_ Brow Lid connectivity
_ Brow to Brow connectivity.
_ Brow Muscles, Forehead and bridge of the nose.
_ Brow arcs
_ Brow lead and Overlap

Mouth Check list
_ Mouth lids connectivity
_ Mouth Nose connectivity
_ cheek connectivity
_ Jaw mouth offset
_ Jaw squash and stretch
_ lip sculpt
_ Mouth asymmetry
_ Mouth corners arcs
_ mouth up down left right
_ Jaw drag

Remember the power of a good break down.

Use mini expressions!

Screen Credit

2008-10-24T13:20:00.000-07:00

I'm getting my first screen credit!!!!!!!!
I wasn't expecting it, but I'll take it! The film is super fun and I couldn't be more proud to have been a part of the amazing animation team.
Everyone go see Madagascar 2!!!!!!!

PDI Rocks!!

2008-06-02T21:28:00.000-07:00

Today was my first day at PDI and it was awesome!! Everyone is super friendly and helpful. I loved every second of it!! But now I am tired and its time for sleep.

Ps Go see Kung Fu Panda this weekend. It going to be awesome. Skadoush!!!

Recycled Post

2008-01-16T20:58:00.000-08:00

Again this is a response to a Spline Dr.'s post. I know that its lame to repost tings but I felt that it was a thought worthy enough to be reused here. The original post on Spline Dr.'s was about shape changes and my thoughts are really a complete tangent but they were interesting to me none the less. Here are the youtube videos i am talking about.

this is the Spline Dr.'s post here

And these is my crazy thoughts about it. . . .
"Ok so I had some interesting thoughts about the second and third one. I know that this might be getting a little off topic because this post is about shape changes but I thought I would share this anyway. At first I thought that it would be cool to animate this contoring and robot dancing stuff, but then I realized that it wouldn't be entertaining at all. My reasoning for this is some what of a paradox. We are amazed and entertained by that stuff because we know that they are real people and its out of this world what they can do with their bodies. Its the audience's disbelief that enthrals them with the fact that people can actually do that stuff. You can probably see were I am going with this. As animators we function in this realm of "the suspension of disbelief" which is very fragile. When an animated character moves or contorts like that the audience is no longer willing to suspend their disbelief and, by default, they think "oh is just a cartoon and that's why it can do that". Even though it is entirely possible the audience wont believe it. Think about it, if you were to show footage of a real person contorting or an animated character, which would get the bigger reaction? Another tangent that I was thinking about was; the thing that makes David Elsewhere so cool is that he moves so unnatural. It then occurred to me that he does in real life exactly what we try to fight against in animation. Locks off parts of the body while moving others, he pops and has no fallow through on movements, seems to have no weight as he floats across the stage, no overlap or cushion, But then at other points he is super fluid and and has excessive amounts of overlap and fallow through. And his forces seem so random and illogical. It takes him really great body and muscle control to achieve in real life what it take us to do in Animation out of carelessness. Granted, he has great timing and it is all composed in a very interesting way but would that be enough if it was an animated character?. I don't know if all that makes any sense to anyone else but I thought I would throw it out there . . . wow this is long"

Golf Shot

2008-01-15T23:21:00.000-08:00

We went golfing today and my buddy Jules took these freakin sweet pictures. They were so awesome I had to throw them up here. There was fog in the morning but when it started burning off it made some awesome atmospheric perspective. We look like pros!

W.I.P. Dialog test

2008-01-14T13:08:00.000-08:00

Done a little more with the monster but it still needs a bunch of work

Venom Maquette

2008-01-13T15:05:00.000-08:00

This is my first attempt at making a Maquette. A buddy of mine (you can see him in the back ground of some of the pictures) had the idea while we were playing Marvel vs. Capcom. He said "Dude, wouldn't it be awesome to sculpt Venom" and I was Like "Yeah" and so we did it. Here they are!
Mine:

his:

Ainmation Mentor Open House

2008-01-13T13:29:00.000-08:00

Some Shrunken heads are now going to Animation Mentor and they took me along to the open house up in Emeryville. It was really cool and Bobby "BOOM" Beck is a super cool guy. I got to sit in his chair and he took a group picture with us. Here are the pics.

W.I.P. New Dialog Test

2008-01-10T12:23:00.000-08:00

I am really excited about this new test. I think it is turning out to be one of my strongest. The little monster is just blocked in so far .. .

2008-01-10T12:18:00.000-08:00

This is a walk test that i did in the middle of last semester. I have since gotten feedback from a good friend and animator, Jules Jamal. This is my progress so far. I am having trouble wrestling with counter animation of the upper torso and the motion of the arms. They seem to be really fighting against any sort of pleasing arcs. Sigh.....

DInosaurs are Awesome !!!!

2007-12-15T10:27:00.000-08:00

James Gurney, author and illustrator of Dinotopia, recently visited SJSU. He is an amazing artist and a super cool person. He gave a presentation about himself and his process. I love getting a glimpse into the mind of great people. Anyway seeing his passion for Dinosaurs made me remember what got me wanting to do animation. It was . . . bup bup baaaa bup bup baa bup bup baaaaaaaa . . . . DINOSAURS ! ! ! More specifically Jurassic Park. I was like 10 or 11 with more dinosaur books and paraphernalia than you could shake a stick at so seeing those things brought to life was freakin incredible. The Making of Jurassic Park was THE FIRST making of book I ever bought. I was so enthralled with how they made them so real. It was better than I could have imagined. I used to copy the pencil renderings out of the book, like this one, all the time.Then Toy Story came out and they brought toys to life and that really captured my imagination
and I started down that path toward character animation yad yad yad blah blah blah... Anyway Dinosaurs started it all and they are freakin AWESOME!!!

Animation Wisdom

2007-12-11T10:02:00.000-08:00

I originally posted this as a response to this post on Stephen Gregory's blog. He was addressing the question of "what is the secret formula for good animation".
Click Here

I thought my response was insightful enough to re-post on my own blog. Lame, I know.
I changed some at the end to fit here.

I think that deep down every animator knows the answer to that question. But we all want a secret formula because we think that we are applying the principles and then we get scared because our animation still looks like crap. I think the "secret" lies in the deeper understanding of those principles and in being able to control them enough to support (not detract from) our acting choices. I guess you could call it Animation Wisdom. Like any sort of wisdom, Animation Wisdom probably comes from experience and more importantly, expert instruction. I say expert instruction is more important because then we can see the breadth, width and depth of the principles applied right in front of our eyes and that is essential in making rapid progress. Expert instruction can come from people such as Stephen Gregory and his tutoring program but there is also a wealth of info available to us through books and the Internet check out Kieth Lango's tutorial on polishing animation.
I think that key is to always be trying to gain more incite into how to apply the principles in more meaningful ways yet always supporting the acting.

James Lopez said I'm Done!!

2007-12-05T00:40:00.000-08:00

Well he actually just said I should move on, but thats good enough for me!!

Heavy Lift

2007-11-29T10:49:00.000-08:00

Yay I figuered out how to embed a Quicktime mov! This is a heavy lift test in which I tried to include some small acting. Hope you like it!

2007-11-28T11:32:00.000-08:00

new profile tumbnail.

2007-10-31T00:11:00.000-07:00

ERRONEOUS!!

Is anyone else getting tired of this test?

Click Here

Linear Curves!!

2007-08-22T19:01:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post this earlier but I decided to abandon my other goals and just try to finish somthing. Here is my latest revision on the dialog test now with linear curves. Click Here!!

Revised test

2007-08-03T22:02:00.000-07:00

Hi all! Its been a while but thats because I have been workin pretty hard on this test. After many many many ... sigh ... many revisions this is were its at. Let me know what you think! Click Here.

New d-log test

2007-06-20T21:05:00.000-07:00

Hey, this is a first pass at some dialoge. Let me know what you think! Click Here.

2007-06-13T18:56:00.001-07:00

Check out my latest test. this is first pass so if you have anything to say just have at it. Click here

2007-06-11T16:39:00.000-07:00

Here is my final film (dont clik the picture) from a couple semesters ago. Its old but I think there is a little entertainment value in it still. Enjoy!

2007-06-09T20:38:00.000-07:00

Check out this Glen Kean lecture series. There are about 18 five minute sections. Watch them ALL!!
Dont miss the last one. It is titled LAST ONE. He talks a lot about work ethic and not to kill your self. He says to live a well rounded life. Its beautiful.

Why is drawing so important?

2007-06-05T11:40:00.000-07:00

Almost every successful animator, CG or not, will tell you that it is imperative that you draw every day. They will say that the better you draw, the better you can animate. But why? Is it just because Milt Kahl and Glen Keane were both superb draftsmen as well as animators, so therefore it must be true. You might say that animation is mostly acting and physics and either the computer or the clean up artist will make it look pretty for you which is not untrue. In the Illusion of Life, Frank Thomas states that Milt Kahl was the best animator because his draftsmanship allowed him to execute subtleties in the animation better than anyone else. I think that this is very true but I also think that there is more to it. When we animate, the performance first starts off in our brain. Then, through much trial and error, we put it into some form that will communicate to an audience. We are communicating to an audience visually. So lets think about this in the form of speaking. When we are young we have trouble communicating what we are thinking and people have trouble understanding what we are saying. Also when we are younger our thoughts might not even be clear to us. But as we practice, we become better at knowing what we are trying to say and being able to say it. You might say that animation is an art form and not just a way to communicate. But think about this. Singing is a audible art form and you must learn to speak before you can sing. Over the centuries the greatest visual artists start out drawing. They all will continue to draw and sketch through out their whole life. Why? Because it is the best way to learn and continue improving on how well we can communicate visually. Drawing also helps how we think visually. Just as speaking builds up a mental library of ways to communicate audibly, drawing builds up a mental library of ways to communicate visually. It will also help us clarify our initial ideas so that we can perceive problems that we will run into, without all the work. Also as animators we need to be drawing people and what they are thinking. This will do two things for us. One, it will help us communicate visually, and two, it will build up a library of sincere and real acting. It will help us with both the communication and the craft. Milt Kahl was the best because he could communicate visually with the most clarity. He could get what was in his head, into the audience's head with the most ease.

2007-06-02T10:42:00.000-07:00

Here is my "best" stuff so far. My goal for the summer is to be 10,000 time better and and actualy be able to incorporate my theory of animation into my work. I would also like to take this time to publicly state the rest of my goals for the summer so that I stick to them.

At least one 2D dialogue test
Finish my 2D baseball boy acting test
Three 3D dialogue tests
One good 3D pantomime test
Establish at least two good stories for next school year, with completed vis dev.
Properly sketch people everyday

Understanding Character Animation

2007-06-01T14:09:00.000-07:00

I
would like to start off this blog with my theory of character
animation. Mind you that this is a theory in sense that it will most
likely be changing from week to week. This
week I believe that character animation is the process of bring
something into its own unique, interesting and cognitive existence.
Vague, I know, but the possibilities of a character are boundless. From
a sleeping ball to a vagrant monster with multiple personalities to
fungus under a toenail, they all must be brought into their own unique,
interesting, and cognitive existence. Now I use that term,
" it's own
unique, interesting, and cognitive existence" instead of "bring it to
life" because I feel that it is more appropriate for animation.
Typically when you are animating something you are doing it to entertain an audience. So
simply bring a character to life isn't enough. To explain let me ask
you a question. Is every living person you know interesting enough to
entertain an audience? No way, the characters that entertain us are
dynamic and unique. The do unexpected things that we can still relate
to. The are endearing and intelligent, or they are pittyable
and ignorant. Also they are never cliche. Cliches separate us from the
character. If they are a cliche they are no longer in there own unique
existence, but they are now a stereotype that we don't relate to at
all. I put "cognitive" in there because the THINKING part of animation
can never be emphasized too much. The audience needs to be able to see
the thoughts of this unique character so they perceive the characters
inner person. As
living breathing people, we all have inner struggles that make who we
are. The best characters have these too. The characters inner struggle
need to be apparent to the audience. So therefore character animation
means to bring something into it's own unique, interesting and
cognitive existence.

I just wish I could actually do this with my own work . . .

OK well this blogging thing is tiring so Ill expound more on
this later ......