Animation Q&A - ANSWERS - part 1 (Oct '22)

All right, welcome back to the Q&A and this time it's answer time. This is part one. I'm going to go from the first questions all the way to the latest questions. That's just the order, there's no preference besides time and chronological order, whatever it is. And I'm going to blend in the questions as always and then I'll have my thoughts about it. If you have thoughts about my thoughts, you can always comment and we can continue this. And if there are any more questions that come up in these answer parts, I will do more parts to answer more questions, but usually it's kind of self-contained and given the amount that I have, it's maybe four or five parts, I'm not quite sure. Let's start. And then the first one, sir, how to create progressive walk with no slide? Well, you can do this where you have your walk cycle like in a treadmill and then you move your main control that moves the whole character forward and you can either eyeball it, don't do that, but you can eyeball it and then you look at how much the feet are sliding and then you can adjust in the graph editor that one translate that goes into infinity to make sure it doesn't slide. It's kind of like a quick way of doing it. You can also look at the amount of translate a foot for human or creature, whatever that goes back, that curve that usually goes wherever this way is going to be the same on the main controller, but the other way, right? So if this is your curve for the foot, this is going to be the curve of your main control to translate. It's going to be the same amount, but just the opposite. So that's a very mathematical way of making sure that works. But when your foot lands, goes back and gets off the ground, two keys, and that is a linear interpolation where the curve is just flat. It's all linear. It doesn't have multiple keys. There's no easy ins and outs, otherwise you can have sliding. That would be the quick answer for that. And actually the same person is asking what is the use of dope sheet in Maya? Actually, I looked at this because I never used the dope sheet. It's said to edit keys and I think you can also put sound in there. To be honest, I never use it. I maybe used it back in school just because you had to go through Maya and learn things, but in my 20 years, I've never used it. But there are a bunch of tutorials out there. I'm going to link in the description the definition and tutorials that people have made about the dope sheet. Feel free to look at that. They'll give you a much better answer than mine from someone who's never used it. Then we have, hi, love your vids. Thank you so much. Where do you get the rigs you review? Is there a site with bunch of best rigs? Well, actually I have a site where I post the rigs that I review and the rigs that I find online. So that would be my selfish recommendation to look at that site. But it's usually stuff that I find on, I don't know, LinkedIn, on Twitter, or stuff that people send me. So it's, I have an inbox full of, you know, messages like, hey, this is a new rig that came out. Can you review it or can you post about it? And it's usually that. It's finding them online and, um, yeah, stuff that people send me. There are a bunch of sites that have also a collection of rigs. I think you can just Google and you'll find a bunch. So there's no crazy secret about this. I know I get them sent and I find them and I collect them. Animation buffet is the, uh, the site, the blog that has them all listed. I'll put the link in the description. How is the process for someone, me, but it would get a lot of your viewers as well, from outside the States wanting to join studios in the States? Okay. Will I find myself at a major disadvantage compared to those living inside the States or are companies willing to deal with the visa process? Is there something I can do to make myself easier, more appealing to hire for a US-based company? And as always, love your videos. Keep at it. Thank you so much. Actually, it's a good question. I think that question comes up every time. And I think the longer those Q and A's go on, the less qualified I am to talk about it, mainly because it's been so long and the immigration process has changed so much. Um, it just kind of depends, um, because of pandemic and, you know, borders closing and stuff like that. Uh, there was like a freeze on things and that changes all the time. So again, it's, it's totally different for me. It used to be an H-1B visa. That was, that was, I think, four years you could have it and then you renew it. Um, so I'm not sure if it's still an H-1B, how that works. Uh, there used to be a countdown. So when you're in school, you have a work visa and there's a countdown once you get out of school to get a job. It's, it's a bunch of stuff with, with work visas. So I would Google that depending on the country you're, you're living in to get into the States. Cause I think per country, it's also totally different. And in terms of making it more tasty for companies, um, I mean, there's always going to be a financial aspect and a scheduling aspect. So if you have two people that equally qualified or one, you can just hire right away because they live in the States and the other person, you have to go through the visa process, the, the financial aspect of that. That's just going to be always a disadvantage. I would say again, I don't know. I think if you're absolutely awesome and you, you beat out every other person that applies, they're probably going to go, I'm assuming, I don't know if they probably, but I'm hoping that will go the extra mileage of getting that person to the States. Um, but I don't know. So the easy, more appealing, I mean, would be to live there, but then nowadays you have remote works. I really don't know, to be honest, it's, it's a, it's a question I can, I can't answer, um, confidently anymore. I would say it's been so long stuff has changed so much. The easy superficial answer would be, you just have to live where the company is at just because there will be less friction in terms of even within the States, moving from state to state time, moving costs and stuff like that. If you're a foreigner, then it's going to be the whole work visa thing, which again, I don't know anymore. Um, I would Google wherever you're at or the country, what the, the, the recommendations are, qualifications, what is needed, stuff like that. Again, for me back in the day, a bachelor's or master's degree was better versus nothing that would help the process of applying for a work visa. Does that still apply? I think so. But to be honest, I don't know. So it's kind of like a non-answer. I guess. Sorry. There's the person again with an answer over the question here, sir. It is my last question. Please answer me how to animate a growing man, small tree to big tree in 3d. I've seen this question also in other channels. Uh, and the answer was, uh, there are many ways procedurally by hand animating the geometry. There's so many ways, but also I've never animated a tree growing in 3d. So this is just different ways you can do this. It depends what you're good at, how much time you have. Again, that's, I feel like it's an answer or a question I can't really answer because I've never done that. So, you know, you can have, you can have a shape of a tree and another shape of the growing tree and then blend between the two. You can, you can do a bunch of stuff. I don't know. Again, I've never animated it. So that would be outside my wheelhouse kind of question. Then what is your next personal shot? Love the thanks. Yeah, those are fun. Um, I just don't have time. I have a massively long list. And to this day, I see something, I write down ideas. I email that to myself. So I have a long list. I have a list on the blog. I have a list on my, on my, uh, phone app note thingy, and it keeps growing. It's a growing list of ideas of things I want to do. I just don't have the time. That's the problem. But as my job is probably ending next year, I'm gonna have to work on a demo reel again. So there might be more stuff that you will see I'll put online based on a necessity type of thing. I have a robot that goes on to clean the, uh, the upstairs, but I have stuff in front of it. So the map is going to be wrong and the robot's going to go, this is not working. So what is your next personal shot? I can't really tell you. I got lots of ideas. Don't know yet which one in what capacity could just be like a exercise warmup type thing, just for fun or straight up a shot for demo reel. I don't know yet. I feel like all those questions I can't really answer so far. It's quite the Q and A. Uh, let's go into the next one. That's a lot. Let's see. Not sure how to ask these. So I'm going, so I'm just going to try to, I'm personally still struggling with getting to grips with animation despite being in master's course. Okay. In a master's course, I kind of feel bad about it. I tried animating a bouncing ball, going through a small obstacle course, but found it difficult. Okay. Timing was off and making the rotations were clunky to make work. Probably could have solved it, uh, solved with changing the gimbal order. One. How do you go about retiming your animations? To select the keys in the timeline and just move them around? Yes, to some degree. I know what can be used with, uh, I know what can be used to retime stuff, just not executing it. Um, the dope sheet would be one thing, uh, to retime things. Uh, yeah, at the beginning I kind of blocked things out roughly and then I used the time slider thingy, the timeline to move the keys around to kind of a rough visual thing of how I think the time is going to be. Now when it somewhat works, then I go into the graph editor, then and adjust things or repost things and rekey. Uh, it can be kind of messy, but that's usually what I do. I try to key the rig, like all the controllers minus all the detail stuff on the same key. So like master key poses, you know, breakdowns, all that stuff. And then so that when I move the keys in a time slider, uh, in the timeline, it's just easier because it moves everything. Does that make sense? That's kind of what I go, uh, what I go, how I go about it. That's kind of how I go about it. Um, two, what's your animation process, which was kind of that I've tried layered and post the pose and don't feel confident with them, nor do I feel comfortable with the graph editor. I don't think weighted tangents work for me, but I also have difficulty focusing, exploring with stuff. Uh, weighted tangents are also not for me. I don't know. I just never got really into it. There's some easy stuff you can do with them. And I know a bunch of people who use them. It just never, I just like having more control and setting more keys and kind of finessing the curves like that versus scaling and adjusting the, I don't know, there's something, I don't know, it's kind of like, it's kind of like step mode learning at school a bit, but then because of work, we never really got into step mode and now I never really do it. So it just kind of a preference, but layered it's usually post to pose to, especially when I have a set limit of, uh, of a frame range. And then I go post to post because I want to put in the storytelling poses, knowing that they're within the shot maximum that I have. And once that is somewhat timed out, then I go layered with the root, chest, head, and the limbs and so on, depending on the shot. So that's kind of that. It really depends. Sometimes it's also fun to just go straight ahead, depending on what you have and how much time shot length and everything. So it's really, it depends on what the shot is and how I would approach that. And then that changes my workflow, if that makes sense. So sometimes it's very structured post to pose. Sometimes it's just starting at rough with a, let's go back here and imagine that's the rig. And then I just do your neck fly. I just go and do a no animation, nothing. It's just the roots kind of like, like a toy. And then once I have that, then I start adding more layers of the, of the chest moving the head, moving arms and legs. It really all kind of depends on what the shot is and how I want to approach it. So it's, it's kind of messy, but it always kind of works at the end. I guess so. I don't know. Hopefully. Three, is there anything you could suggest to help with getting a feel for animation? Interesting question. I often feel things aren't working and quickly give up on it. Do you think it would be best taking it slow and just think about it? Should I key every control and then move that controls keys back a frame for offset? Hold on. What did I just read? Key and controls back a frame for offset. You could. I mean, the feel, I try to observe stuff around me all the time where I, I look at someone stands a certain way or holds certain things. I was kind of like mental image. Oh, that's a cool pose. That's cool. Hand pose. Or I look at reference or kind of collect reference. So for me, it's kind of like observing things over and over and over in real life or watching a movie, analyzing it. So that gives me kind of the feel of body mechanics and timing. It's just kind of that. And the repetition of animating all the time helps me with the feel of it. There's always kind of a, like a musical thing about rhythm within a shot. It's kind of how I approach the feel of it. I guess if that's, if that's an answer. Quickly giving up on it. I mean, the stupid answer is don't do that. Keep going. Like animation is hard and it's going to be a long process over a long period of time with a lot of repetition. So you just got to keep going. And for some people it clicks faster than others. So that would be kind of the useless answer of like, don't give up, but how do you not give up? I think it's just, you have to, in my later years, it's always kind of like, I like animating. I like the process of animating. Like I like animating just as a whole. I like animating characters and creatures and cameras and props and stuff. I just like that process. It's not even the project, even though that helps in terms of motivation, but I just like going through the process of animating. For me, because I like that, it helps me to animate over a long period of time, even enough to do a lot of revisions, if that makes sense. So it's not, I'm not focused on the end result. That can be awesome or not. Even the animation can be awesome, but put into a certain project, you might not care about the project. So it's just for me, I just like animating by itself. And I think if that is something you enjoy, it's going to help you to not give up. Maybe that would be a way to approach it. Taking it slow for sure. Think about it. I mean, for me, that goes into planning. You don't always have time to plan, depending on the production, but if you're at home doing your own thing, think about it, plan it, visualize it, thumbnail, shoot reference, stuff like that. And then that way you have a better idea of how to go about it and what to do. And I think that might help with your motivation for the shot. And that way you don't give up on it. Maybe that would be something to try. And for offsets, I usually do, not usually, mostly do offsets in the posing. And I don't go into graph editor and move keys around. Sometimes, but I usually prefer to do the offsets and asymmetry and everything within the pose, within the viewport. And then that's kind of my process. If that's something you don't do, maybe that could be something to try out. I mean, the thing is workflow is really trying out different things until it clicks for you. It's like, as I always say in those Q&As, I've seen people with crazy workflows that would never work for me. And the animation is beautiful. So it really is kind of what works for you. Then I apologize for poor wording. That's totally fine, don't worry about it. My mind sometimes struggles to focus and I get easily distracted, caught up, or unsure. I know that it's really vague and I could probably be answered as such, just play around and that and such. Kinda, I mean, sometimes you just have to play around. Sometimes when I animate, I also just kind of try stuff and then there's a happy accident and I like that and I incorporate that and I keep it. So it's not always, I know what I want to do, I visualize it, I planned it and I'm doing my blocking and it's done and it's awesome. Sometimes I have no idea what I'm doing as I'm running out of ideas. Like, I don't know. And then I kind of do the reference within Maya where it's kind of post stuff out to kind of see like, how does that look? How does this look? How does that feel? Oh, that's not too bad. And then I move forward. So it's, I also do a lot of messy stuff like that. I feel rather lazy. Me too, that's fine. As well as undeserved as an animator. Don't feel like that. It's fine. Like, you have a lot of self-doubt. Maybe, you know, that comes also if you experience, you have a lot of imposter syndrome. Just how it goes. I don't know. I feel like as an artist, you're always kind of second guessing and I don't know. I don't, I wouldn't worry too much about that. I can't tell if I'm making progress. I'm sure you are. Every time you do something, you might not feel it or see it, but you are going to make progress because you're doing something again. And repetition forms habits and familiarity and also confidence in something and you're getting better. I see that with students where if I go through like a 12-week mentor semester or like a 15-week academy semester. At the end, sometimes they feel like, I don't think I progressed this whole semester. And then I show them again their first assignment and their last assignment. You can clearly see how much better it is. So sometimes you also work on things and you just lose perspective because it's your own work. And someone from the outside can tell you better. No, no, this is better than where you started at. Sorry if that's English. So I think you're probably making more progress than you think. And I feel like I'm not, especially when I get easily distracted, caught up. Again, it's just, you just are, you know, you got your blinders and you probably don't see outside of what you're doing. I'm sure you're doing better than you think. I have people that can ask for help and feedback, but don't, as I don't think that is something really worth show-worthy. I don't know, try it. Sometimes you see something really rough and you show it anyway and they might have some really broader, good broader ideas that are easier to implement because you're not too far along. I would show it anyway, just in case. I watch people animate but struggle to manage myself. You know, me too. I see things that people do and then they do making-ups, they do behind the scenes and time-lapse and like, this looks really cool. I think I should be able to do that. And then you sound like, I don't know if I can do that. Like, I don't know. Like, I have my own self-doubts and I struggle and all that stuff. But I think it always helps to do it anyway. Even if you don't save the animation, I mean, you save it to some degree, but you don't finish it and it's not something you put in your reel. It's more there to practice and go through the motion. That's also just fine. I don't know, that might just be me. It probably seems dumb. It's not. And I probably know what the potential answer might be, maybe, but I still want to ask just to try to get a clearer idea. It's probably my mindset and mentality that's more holding myself back as I struggle to push myself and commit. I apologize for the rambling. Don't apologize for rambling. My whole Q&A answers are rambling. I mean, maybe you should both apologize. I don't know. It's totally fine. And yeah, sometimes it is a mindset and mentality thing and holding yourself back. I think sometimes you also get stuck within a workflow that you're comfortable with or that you're just used to, maybe not comfortable, just used to. And it's tough to break out of that and try something new. That happens too. And again, it's easy for me to read try something new. It's not easy to try something new, but I'm still going to say it anyway. Try something new. Look at someone else's workflow. Replicate that just to see how it feels and how it works for you. Maybe you discover another workflow. You're like, you know, that's great. And I should have done this a long time ago. That would be my advice. But I would say don't be too hard on yourself. It's going to be fine. Everyone struggles, especially at the beginning. And trust me, after almost 20 years, I'm still struggling. So I don't think it goes away. I don't know that many people don't struggle. So it's probably all normal what you're feeling. Then we have, are studios big or small? Software agnostic for entry-level jobs, or is it generally necessary to have experience in Maya before applying? Is it viable to work remotely? Okay, different questions. Let me start with that one. Or let me just read the whole thing. Is it viable to work remotely from another country in an animation studio? What advice would you give to someone searching for a job in the animation industry nowadays? Tough one. What do you think a beginner should focus on when trying to get hired? Any skills that are particularly sought after? No need to answer all my questions. Thanks for everything. I will answer them all. I mean, will I have answers? That's the question. So are companies software agnostic? Most companies, I would say, are needing Maya. More and more have Blender. My Blender is free. You can try it out. But if there's a production, I don't know that they are on par with Maya. Maya is very powerful, really good, and also really complicated and really buggy, dare I say. Some versions less than others, but there's always something that's going to happen. It's just such a ginormous piece of software with so many complex functions. It's easy to say. It's so buggy. It's hard to maintain and keep it working. At the same time, it might always crash. I don't know. So it's definitely worth having experience with Maya because I think so many companies use Maya. But at the same time, there's also Blender and probably some other things. I mean, you have DreamWorks and Pixar. They have their own software. So sometimes you get there and they might have Maya as a backup, but you will train their own software when you work there. But I would say knowing Maya is definitely helpful. Is it viable to work remotely from another country in Animation Studio? I am right now, not from another country, but nowadays it's gotten better. But sometimes I hear it's going kind of backwards, also reinforcing at least hybrid, if not fully back at the studio. I hope it stays at least hybrid, if not fully remote, because I can do so much remotely. I don't know. I'm more of a remote person at this point. But you would have to check with the Animation Studio specifically. So it's kind of like a broad answer. Some do, some don't. Some game companies have been formed that are only remote and will always be remote. So it kind of really depends on how you do your research on whatever company you like and see what they're doing. What advice would you give to someone searching for a job in the industry nowadays? I would say, non-helpful answer, don't give up. Because you're going to apply, get rejected. You might apply and get a job right away. And there might just be a short-term project and you get laid off after a project and you need another job. You might get your dream job and stay there for a long time. It might also happen. I think the main advice would be, be ready for anything. Even if you think it's long-term and it's awesome, something might happen to me. And then you get laid off. And then you need a new, you know, look for a new job. So I would always have your reel up to date. Maybe that would be my main advice, just in terms of animation specific and finding jobs. Have a reel and then keep that reel updated and always be ready to show it to someone or have it, you know, somewhere online to show it to a recruiter. I think that's one of the biggest things. Apart from many other things, I mean, just because you say searching for a job, there's some other tips and tricks about being in this industry. But searching for a job, it would just be go on LinkedIn, check out Animation Minute. I post jobs there. But always kind of be aware. You can have newsletters you can sign up for with specific job searches that it sends you only those results. So always kind of have an eye open for when things are happening. Talk to your friends out of the companies. They can give you like inside scoop of when they're looking. It's mostly that. And I think for yourself, being realistic or setting boundaries in terms of what you're looking for, what works for you. It's not like, oh, I want to work anywhere, blah, blah, blah. Well, that might not work because of travel, visa issues that we talked about for, you know, work visa. So you might want to make sure that your parameters for your job search are those parameters are clear in terms of can I move over there, country or city? Do I have a reel ready for that level? Is it junior, mid, senior, whatever it is? I think just being prepared, doing your research on the company and the job and what that job requires. And then just being always ready, having always a reel and updating that reel. I hope that answers it or helps. What do you think a beginner should focus on when trying to get hired? Well, it depends. If it's reel wise, definitely full body mechanics. Just kind of, can you animate? Like that's the main thing, right? Can you actually have full body mechanics with weight and balance and just the timing and everything is there. Because if that's missing, sometimes you see reels that have just the waist up acting stuff where people are sitting and acting things out. And that might be really cool. And you're acting might be really strong, but then you are unable to just like a sidestep or like a weight lift where you show weight because you can't always do just those tight acting shots. So I think in terms of, of getting hired, if it's based, if that question is based on, on the reel is your reel has to show variety in terms of I can do this, this and this full body, um, you know, weight acting, you know, pantomime, dramatic acting, subtle acting, just kind of, you can do multiple things on your reel. I think that will be, that'll be focused on when trying to get hired. It's having a really good reel that works for that company. But it's always the thing, your reel should be tailored towards that company. Style wise, you know, you don't want to do something cartoony for a photo reel company and vice versa. That type of stuff. Any skills that are particularly sought after? It's tough because when you're reel, check the time at a time. Yes. Almost five minutes. I mean, definitely, like I said, mechanics and weight and balance and all that stuff. But outside of that was, it's not just your reel because once you are in an interview or you're at the company, it's also people skills, being able to have a conversation and work within a team. So it's not just you and your office working on things and you're unable to be in dailies and present and, and receive feedback. It's also being able to receive, you know, honest feedback that might be harsh, that might tear you shot apart. But it's something personal. It's just, this is the work that needs to get fixed there, there, and there. I think that is something that I would ask yourself if you're ready to do that. Can you animate? That's your first thing, right? But then can you animate for someone? You're doing work for someone, be it your lead, your soup, a client, whatever it is. And are you able to receive feedback? And even if it's, you know, critical feedback and harsh feedback potentially, don't take it personally. And then are you able to apply those notes in a timely fashion? You're gonna be slow to hit deadlines. Like those are all kind of the things that I would focus on among other things, but those are the big ones. And be nice, obviously. Also, that might not be in a job description, but you should also be nice. Don't be a jerk. Don't have an ego just because you're a good animator, stuff like that. And that seems to be it. Speaking of which, 27 minutes, all the camera now is turning off after half an hour. Let me see. And actually, that last was really interesting because I just had an experience at one of the schools where I'm teaching where one student was not super happy with their grade. And I thought, that always comes up, and it's always worth doing kind of like a reality check F&A maybe in the future. I got one more minute. Where it's basically my answer to that student was, just because you implement all the notes and you think you're working hard, doesn't mean that the shot's gonna look good. And that's not a reflection on your characters. You might not have enough experience to make it really work better. So sometimes, same for me, sometimes I implement notes and I think this is better than it's not. It's just different, but it didn't make the shot better. But I think that's a longer answer and something that's always important. And I think students rightly so struggle because it's new and it's difficult to comprehend. Like, I did all this work. Why is my grade not going up? Totally understand. And I think that might be something for like a whole separate F&A. But anyway, maybe you like this or not, let me know in the comments if that's something of interest. But that's it. Part one. Part two is coming next week. I'll do every week, something like that. And yeah, thanks for posting those questions. Always interesting to see what I can answer, what I can't answer anymore. Yeah, and that's it. Thanks for watching.