Tag: animation student

Student Spotlight: Heather Vidal

AnimSchool graduate Heather Vidal shares her experience working on an emotional scene using audio from the film Good Will Hunting (1997). Inspired by heartfelt stories about the struggles of unhoused people, she explains how she channeled her own hardships into her animation. Her shot was featured in the 2024 AnimSchool Student Showcase.

Vidal explains that she got her idea from YouTuber German in Venice, who interviews homeless people. One of the most common themes she noticed from these interviews was how individuals would often quit their jobs to take care of their loved ones. However, once their loved ones passed away, these caretakers would be left with little to no money between the medical bills and funeral costs, resulting in their current situation. Upon hearing the audio from Good Will Hunting, she remembered these stories and felt inspired to make such an emotionally charged animated shot.

Initially, Vidal mentions, she had only treated the dog’s character as a prop, making him move as little as possible. During development, her instructor gave her the idea to have the dog rest his chin on his owner’s knee at the very end—Vidal was very pleased with how it turned out.

Watch her featured clip here:

Watch the full AnimSchool Student Showcase Livestream here:

At AnimSchool, we teach students who want to make 3D characters move and act. Our instructors are professionals at film and game animation studios like Dreamworks, Pixar, Sony Pictures, Blizzard & Disney. ⁠Get LIVE feedback on your Animation from the pros. Learn more at https://animschool.edu/

Student Spotlight: Lena Zahoruiko

AnimSchool graduate Lena Zahoruiko discusses her experience creating an emotionally driven animation using audio from the film Midnight Sun (2018). She dives into her process from start to finish, addressing the changes made and how that impacted the final scene. Her shot was featured in the 2024 AnimSchool Student Showcase.

Zahoruiko explains that this shot was her first ever attempt at a dialogue shot. She was cautiously excited about trying something new, and wanted to create a more emotional shot about two individuals—in this case, sisters—parting ways.

Zahoruiko adds that the biggest challenge that she ran into was filming reference footage – after discussing with her class, many mentioned that it would be beneficial if she had real crying to help push the emotional aspect of the shot. As a result, she cried on more consecutive days than she had ever before.

“It took me, I think, around three days to come up with the final version,” she says.

Initially, Zahoruiko mentions, her animation lacked small gestures, and felt a bit stiff because of it. To overcome this, she layered in more hand and arm movement, such as a sweeping motion with the hand. As she played with the balance of exaggeration and subtle movements, she ultimately learned that, for such an emotionally driven shot, “less is more.”

Watch her featured clip below:

At AnimSchool, we teach students who want to make 3D characters move and act. Our instructors are professionals at film and game animation studios like Dreamworks, Pixar, Sony Pictures, Blizzard & Disney. ⁠Get LIVE feedback on your Animation from the pros. Learn more at https://animschool.edu/

Student Spotlight: Tommaso Maurutto

AnimSchool graduate Tommaso Maurutto shares insight for his animated shot, which features audio from the TV show “The Equalizer” (2021), and breaks down his creative process from ideation to the final animation. His shot was featured in the 2024 AnimSchool Student Showcase.

Maurutto explains that he started with an initial drawing/idea pass to get a feel for the timing, spacing, and how the characters would fit into the environment. He also mentions that it was his first time doing a shot where two characters interact, and he was interested in playing with their dynamic and how their individual personalities could be conveyed through the acting and animation.

Maurutto kept the camera movement simple with only two cameras, and focused on the change of expressions of each character. One of the challenges he ran into was conveying the nervousness and anxiety of one of the characters; his instructor ultimately helped him push the idea more with smaller, supporting actions such as rubbing his sweaty hands on his pants, a light tug on his hat, and other small movements.

Maurutto also modified the character rigs to better support the dynamic between the two characters, with one being more clumsy and the other as more of a dominant and confident character.

Watch his featured clip below:

At AnimSchool, we teach students who want to make 3D characters move and act. Our instructors are professionals at film and game animation studios like Dreamworks, Pixar, Sony Pictures, Blizzard & Disney. ⁠Get LIVE feedback on your Animation from the pros. Learn more at https://animschool.edu/

Student Spotlight: Carl Nyasore

In this clip from the AnimSchool 2024 Showcase Livestream, Carl Nyasore talks about his process behind what he describes as one of his “best shots at AnimSchool.” Pulling inspiration from Disney movies like Encanto, studying shots frame by frame, and utilizing AnimSchool’s network of instructors currently working in the industry all played a critical role in helping his shot shine.

Carl explains that working on his shot taught him to always look for something new to learn. Being open to exploring new styles, practicing, and talking to others about your craft is how growth is achieved.

For his shot featured in the 2024 AnimSchool Showcase, Carl mentions that he thoroughly examined Disney’s Encanto and took his shot to General Reviews to aid in refining his smooth transitions, polishing flourishing actions, and making other small changes to make a big impact.

“Before this class, I didn’t know how to do things like head accents and leading action, so I learned a lot from just studying animated films. That’s why it turned out to be one of my best shots at AnimSchool.” – AnimSchool student Carl Nyasore

Watch his featured clip below:

Watch the full AnimSchool Student Showcase Livestream here:

At AnimSchool, we teach students who want to make 3D characters move and act. Our instructors are professionals at film and game animation studios like Dreamworks, Pixar, Sony Pictures, Blizzard & Disney. ⁠Get LIVE feedback on your Animation from the pros. Learn more at https://animschool.edu/

Breathing Life into Idle Animations

How do you keep a character alive, when they aren’t moving? How do you enable a character to feel real and animated when they are stuck in one spot? 

Animschool Game Animation Instructor Seth Kendall breaks down a successful idle animation. The term idle often means to sit still and do nothing, but in animation, to idle means to breathe life and personality into a character in the most minute and delicate manner. To idle successfully is a true test to see if you understand what it means to create the “illusion of life.”

Preparing to Create

  • Get inspired
  • Get reference
  • Have an idea/vision of what you want to do

Creating the Idle

Seth explains that the first thing you should consider is the “base loop.” Generally, this may be some type of breathing cycle with back-and-forth movement, tensing and relaxing, etc. You’ll want something that can loop well to form a “ground texture” for the overall animation.

What to Pay Attention to

Seth breaks down a few examples of idle animations and points out notable details in each, including common elements that make a looping animation successful:

  • Good overlap: hips are driving the motion – overlap occurs as the motion travels up the spine and though the arms
  • Layers of motion: in a simple breathing idle (as seen in the examples), this may be the up/down motion of the body as the base layer, a slight head shake as another layer, accessories jingling as another, etc. Layers can become more complex as you add more specific movement.
    • Try to ensure that the layers complement each other!
  • Use variation in timing and frequency to create contrast  + draw the viewer’s attention
  • Consider adding macro variations that occur over three to six loops
    • Remember not to just repeat the fidget multiple times
  • For a more dynamic loop, blend and overlap the fidgets so that the character is never still; having the character constantly in motion can be a good way to hide the loop
  • Ensure that your base idle animation has life and variation to it

Watch the full clip on the AnimSchool YouTube channel here:

At AnimSchool, we teach students who want to make 3D characters move and act. Our instructors are professionals at film and game animation studios like Dreamworks, Pixar, Sony Pictures, Blizzard & Disney. ⁠Get LIVE feedback on your Animation from the pros. 
Learn more at https://animschool.edu/