Pose to Pose 之后的生活让你的动画更上一层楼.doc

Pose to Pose 之后的生活让你的动画更上一层楼作者：作者：Keith LangoLife After Pose to PoseTaking Your Animation to the Next Level那么, 存在什么问题?在我三年前写的第一篇动画教程中, 我简单概述了一种相当普通(但是没有记载)的方法来在你的CG角色动画中管理你的关键帧. 那篇教程的重点是绝对不要宣称只有一种方法能做出伟大的动画作品, 但也仅仅是一个建议, 通过借鉴传统动画,以一种明智的,有组织的方式来完成你的动画. 有件事我觉得我永远都无法讲明白, 就是当你进行到那篇教程的结尾以后又该作些什么呢? 是什么把仅仅实现了功能的动画提升为了出色的动画呢? 怎样才能让你的优美姿势和清晰的节奏变成自然流畅的表演, 从而吸引观众的注目呢?简而言之, 你如何从OK跨越到出色呢?那么, 聪明的家伙, 你是怎么从OK的动画跃升为出色的动画的呢? 当时想一想, 我不得不承认我并没有这类问题的所有答案. 我绝对没有暗示我现在的动画是出色的 (相信我, 我不是),但是我对这些答案已经有了更清晰的条理. 现在给出一些粗体字的陈述, 我认为是对的: 对于大多数部分来说, 所有的Pose to Pose动画都趋向于同质化. 我见过几百个别人的动画测试, 他们都采用了p-2-p的动画方法. 大体上倒是都管用,但是感觉都是一样的. 基本上, 我已经止步于OK了. 我需要进入到下一步, 找到每个角色的独特之处, 好让我的动画超越OK进入下一个级别, 作出一些真正优秀的,水平接近近年来让我羡慕不已那些不朽动画的作品.谢谢你的个人陈述, 但是你没有回答这个问题.通过对我自己作品的彻底分析, 然后又分析了另一个我羡慕的作品, 我开始注意到一个趋势. 那个趋势浓缩来说就是: 我没有使我的工作变得精良. 我满足于完成某个形态, 达到主要的姿态和节奏, 但是我没有在所有的细小事情上花时间, 恰恰是这些东西提升了动画的品质. 通过反复比较我的和大师的作品, 向顶级工作室的动画师学习, 我总结了一个检查列表. 这个列表由一系列我要问自己的问题组成, 以审视自己的作品在不同领域中的表现. 有些问题是我早期还在画草图小样时提出的, 有些则是在工作收尾、我认为已经大功告成并满足于自己作品时提出的. 但是到目前为止, 我还是一次又一次的问这些问题, 而且列表也还在不断的完善中. 当我开始系统的在我的动画的各个阶段向我自己询问列表上的问题时, 我的作品便开始取得长足的进步. 这些问题直接击打着我作品的核心, 迫使我从纯粹的骨骼结构的动画中走出来, 使作品变得血肉丰满. 这些问题的答案常常需要我重新开始.好, 那么你是否愿意分享你的这个美妙的清单列表呢? 对你镜头里的每个角色的每个运动、姿势、节奏和表演来说，你需要在每个步骤和制作流程中都问这些问题，你会发现有许多薄弱环节需要引起重视。对于初级动画师来讲存在的挑战是，他们甚至不知道要问哪个问题，更别说怎么回答了。幸好这个列表会帮助你问正确的问题。它已经帮了我大忙了。虽然并不很详尽，但是，在你最后一次存盘并且认为你已经结束了工作之前，还要有很长的路要走。而找到并且执行问题的答案和问问题一样容易。弧线：检查并确信你的运动具备优美干净的弧线。如果你的软件支持轨迹显示，请打开。如果不支持的话，拿你的可擦除记号笔在屏幕上画弧线吧。1。手腕你需要在这里留神，努力避免提线木偶的感觉。2。肘部如果你正在使用IK手臂，那么你绝对有必要检查你的肘部弧线。3。足部跟踪你的脚跟和脚趾，看看它们是否都保持干净的曲线。4。头部最明显的故障动作都发生在头部，这是未完成的作业，请显示头部曲线。5。膝盖弹起和跳跃时要注意。6。骨盆人的质量中心，对于体现可信的重量来说至关重要，检查髋部曲线。7。脚踝见上。8。道具好多次我们总是忘了，角色所持/使用的工具和角色本身的运动是同样重要的。9。眼睛当它们移动时，是不是线性的？如果是，添加一些弧线。10。面部（口型同步）确信你的角色不是从一个静态的目标变到另一个，要有肌体的感觉。11。尾部要不被注意到，很机警的运动才算合格。12。检查中间帧，如果必要，强化现有的弧线弧线无力吗？让中间帧充满张力。13。没有两个运动应该有同样的弧线那样会感觉很不自然的。迂回一下你的弧线，让它看上去像个有趣的挂毯。14。弧线交叉或者重叠使之变得有趣。表演的作用线要确信你具有很强的作用线。一个OK的姿势和杰出的姿势的主要区别在于作用线。你是否让你的作用线清晰易读？你的作用线是否有趣？你的作用线是否强烈的外凸或是内凹？当从一个姿势变化到另一个时，你能否把作用线变得对比更强烈？如果这个姿势你要展示的只是一个静帧，你的作用线是否捕捉到角色的动能？就像一个好的插图那样呢？偏移找到要强调的部分，并通过安排使它提前和滞后来实现强调。偏移能让物体放松，使你的角色变得鲜活，并摆脱大多数P2P动画所具有的“姿势移动姿势移动”的通病。查找出现孪生的地方。把一只胳膊移动一两帧是不足以从根本上解决孪生问题的。你需要做更多。对你来说把手掌滞后于肘部合适吗？肘部滞后于肩部呢？在这个动作中，你的胳膊应该带动躯干之前还是被带动？在这个动作中你的手应该带动胳膊还是自然被带动？你躯干的上半部是独立于臀部而运动的吗？在这个动作中你的头部是带动还是跟随呢？如果你把旋转key相对于移动key做一些偏移时你是否有发现角色生动了一些呢？把旋转key的每个分量分别进行偏移呢？你的手指是否独立于其他手指进行运动呢？你的手指是否应该跟随在手掌之后还是紧紧的绷着？这里用偏移的眨眼（Pixar型）是否合适呢？交迭和跟随对许多P2P的动画来说，非常让人头疼的一件事就是可怕的“碰撞并粘住”。你需要找到办法在你的动画中杜绝这种现象，但是同时还要保持非常清晰的姿势和干净的节奏。你的交迭是否太过了？它看起来是不是软绵绵的？（像稀泥）你的交迭是不是有些不足？使它看起来太硬？（粘住了）你的运动是否精神涣散？（木偶）看起来你的渐入渐出曲线太线性了吧？（机械感）这个动作会得益于连续继承的关节过弯吗？你的身体按照物理学进行局部交迭了吗？手的部分是否太慢了（偏重）？或太快（轻）？不要盲目相信交迭和滞后的插入帧. 你要检查每一帧都确保无误。能量作为一名动画师，你的一项主要任务就是控制角色的张力。你积蓄能量然后释放。每个角色都会以不同的方式继续和释放能量。甚至同一个角色，在不同环境里积蓄和释放的方式也会有所不同。你的预备动作的幅度与其后发生的行为相互吻合吗？你的角色是否从一件事流畅地过渡到另一件事上呢？他应该这样吗？你的角色的肢体语言和姿势饱含的能量是否和对白的语调和能量相吻合？找办法搭建镜头的结构通过短语和情感释放来构建。不是每个姿势和动作都一样长。让你的角色围绕在脚步周围运动，来保持他的可信度。没有什么比冻结的脚步更让人觉得“不可信”的了。适当的时候，角色处在保持姿势时是否还在积蓄能量？窍门：如果一个姿势并没有一个极端的反作用力，而是意味着蓄势待发（好像预备动作的保持姿势），那么你要继续给这个姿势积蓄力量，好像经过一个长长的渐入再到极限姿势。适当的时候，你的角色在保持姿势时该姿势是否顺应重力？窍门：如果一个姿势从极限姿势回归，一般你得让这个姿势保持在顺应重力影响的样子。步调你需要让事物自然流畅的运动。如果你的镜头感觉呆滞，请看看你的保持姿势和转换节奏。我敢和你赌20美元，你的所有姿势差不多一样长，而且你的所有转换姿势也差不多一样长。你的动作是否如此，即使横穿过镜头？是不是所有的动作太快了？或者太慢了？你有没有把快的动作和相对而言慢一点的动作进行适当的混合？要注意作某一套规定动作集合时应该有的合适速度。混合不同速度的动作。快速的激动之后要跟着慢吞吞的保持动作，借以形成鲜明的对照。不要给每个动作以相同的速度和味道。关注预备动作和中间动作，还有渐出。这意味着：要考虑，某个特定动作怎样运动才最合适是慢进快出，还是快进慢出，又或者，慢进慢出但是采用快速的中间帧？和角色B相比较，角色A会怎样运动呢？侧面轮廓使你的角色姿势能被读懂，马上就能而不是需要花一个小时去琢磨。你的姿势放在简单的黑白剪影里会是清晰可读的吗？剪影看上去胆战心惊吗？检查肘部看看是不是不自然的突出来了？检查脊柱和你的行为作用线。想想办法把你的姿势/行为压缩到一个空间平面内以便于阅读。垂直于摄像机平面，或者平行于它。想一想在“玩具总动员2”中伍迪的“酷酷的镇长官”那场戏，他从包装盒里走出来。看看这个动作是怎样压缩进一个平行于摄像机平面的易读的平面的。动作病理学有什么看起来不对劲儿的东西在战战兢兢的运动吗？检查IK是否连续无跳跃。在弧线中寻找钩住的点并固定它。使动作线的任何打嗝的动作平滑渐出。消灭任何让人分心的动作。你的过调（overshoot）的动作是否过头？或者是不足？在你的保持动作中是否有足够的“保持鲜活”的元素？又或者，是不是加入的元素太多而有画蛇添足之嫌？清理掉任何令人讨厌的物体插入和穿帮。若是在一个大的动作的中间有一帧小小的穿帮，不用担心，没人会注意到这些。时间掌握节奏节奏就是全部。嗯，差不多是。在对白中，你的角色的姿势和动作是否在正确的引导言语？尽可以自由的运用一点物理学来为作品增色。在空中加一些跳跃和保持。一个动作决不应该是线性的，也不应该是平均的。你的动作在物理上可信吗（重量感）？用次要动作把长的保持动作切碎（抓挠，擦鼻子，重心转移，等等）舞台表演我们能不能从最佳的角度看到你的表演？并请记住：唯一要紧的角度是摄像机的角度。为了视觉上的愉悦，画面要一分为三。避免你的角色恰好在画面的正中间，除非你有合适的理由这样做。使用动作线来从视觉上引导你的观众从哪个角度观看。在生产过程中，你必须保持layout的完整性然后为其添加坚实有力的动作线和剪影。如果你的角色正在做一件重要的事情，请确保我们能一直看到事情的进展过程！追踪你的目光，它都落在哪里了？是它应该看的地方吗？你的眼睛是否感到镜头只是笨拙的切换来切换去？这是想要的效果吗（有时候是的）？表演我们会相信你的角色是诚恳的吗？他们真实吗？真心面对你的角色。巴斯光年不会笨拙的去学习伍迪做事的样子的。表演是否符合对白的强度？会不会看上去像是杂耍？你的手和身体是不是仅仅为你的角色说的话做注释？有多少次你做出一个击打的动作同时你喊着“我打！”？没多少。有多少次你做出踢的动作同时你说“我踢”？没多少。又有多少次你像一架飞机那样伸展双臂同时口中念道“我飞”？也没多少。猜猜为什么？因为你根本就不应该这样做。你的眼神符合你的对白吗？揭示你的角色的内心思想和感情，首先从你的眼睛开始，然后从那里层层展开。情感驱动行为。动作不阐释情感。（不要作杂耍，参看上面的说明）并且，思考并不驱动行为，情感才驱动行为。思考很少催生出决定。但是没有情感的驱使则无法按决定行事。避免过度表演。保持尽量简单。不要尝试在一个镜头中做太多的事，少即是多。如果你的角色需要做一个面部表情的转换，在表情处在保持姿势而不是变化过程时比较容易读懂，情感转换应该发生在角色大体上保持静止的时候。谁是镜头中的重点？不要自负的把配角喧宾夺主。保持次要角色和背景角色简单，不要让他们抢了观众的眼球。有时候呼吸和眨眼就可以了。当到了应该把注意力从一个角色转换到另一个上时，你要确保有一个清晰的交接。同一时刻应该只有一个焦点。基于你所展示给他们的东西，观众就会本能的知道应该关注谁了。保持与其所处的角色弧线位置相适应的强度级别，如果你的角色在第三个行动中要爆发一个主要的愤怒，不要在那个点之前表现出相同强度的愤怒。已经有好多要检查的了，还有补充吗？有一个简单的定律我发现一直对我有帮助，那就是：当你觉得你完成了你的镜头时，对你的动画进行一次预览。然后，让它重复播放，你则离开电脑键盘，去拿一只铅笔和几张便签纸来，让预览一遍遍的播放，直到你开始逐帧观看，对需要修改的地方记一下笔记。找到每一个跳跃、粘连的动作和你能发现的问题，然后写下来。不要停止，直到你发现你涵盖了每个瑕疵为止。花大约五分钟的时间循环观看你的镜头，然后，直到你再也挑不出毛病为止，回去打开你的文件并修改你的检查列表中的每个条目。有很多次，我们以为自己完成了镜头，而实际上远未完成。这个简单的练习会帮助你停下来审视你的动画，看看到底怎么样。通过留意每个小问题，你会确保你没有漏掉什么东西。然后，当你修改完列表上的每个问题后，再次重复这个过程。相信我，你总会发现更多的你之前没发现的问题。通常我会进行三到四遍这样艰难的过程，才能真正实现对自我的超越，达到新的高度。结论：我希望这些能对阁下有所帮助。像这样梳理你的镜头可能显得有些单调乏味，但是你需要通过这些努力把自己的动画从OK向更高的阶段推进。如果这很容易很简单很快，那么人人都能做的到了。但是那些致力于把个人能力发挥到及致来真正改进他们的镜头的人来说，他们会成为大家羡慕并感叹的对象：“这小子真幸运，竟然去了某某工作室！”幸运和成功其实并没有多少关系。去超越对非凡方法的简单的运用，去超越自己的能力，去把你的作品推向你能达到的最高级，这才是导致成功的关键要素。So whats the Problem? In my first animation tutorial that I wrote over three years ago, I outlined a fairly common (but under-documented) methodology for managing ones keyframes in CG character animation. The point of that tutorial was never to declare that it was the only path to great animation, but was merely a suggestion for one way to approach your animation in a sensible, organized fashion that hearkened back to our traditional animation roots. The thing that I always felt I never properly addressed was what to do after you hit the end of that lesson? What takes merely functional animation and elevates it to excellent animation? How does one get from good poses with fairly decent timing to a natural flow of performance that just draws the viewer in? In short, how do you go from OK to great?Well, Smart Guy, How DO You Go From OK animation to Great animation? Thinking about it at the time, I had to honestly admit that I didnt have all the answers to those kinds of questions. While I am in no way suggesting that I am great now (trust me, Im NOT), Ive gotten a lot clearer in my head about some of those answers. Now heres a fairly bold statement, but I think its true: For the most part, all pose to pose based animation will tend to feel the same. Ive seen hundreds of animation tests from people who have adapted the p-2-p method for their own uses. While they all generally function, most feel about the same. And when I looked at my own work I realized that a lot of my stuff had that same feel. Basically, I had stalled on OK. I needed to go the next step to find that elusive unique voice for each character, to take my animation to the next level beyond OK and start to approach some of the really excellent work I had come to admire over the years. Thanks for the Personal Testimony, But You Didnt Answer the Question.After a thorough analysis of my work up until that point, and then another analysis of of the work that I admired, I started to note a trend. That trend basically boiled down to this: I didnt polish my work. I was happy enough to get it into shape, to get the major forms and timings figured out, but I hadnt taken the time to really work on all the little things that add to the quality of a piece. After more cross reference and study and a fair amount of bouncing my work and experiments off of other animators who worked at top studios and picking their brains for feedback, I came up with a checklist. This Checklist consists of a number of various areas of the performance that I ask myself to examine in my work. Some of the questions I ask early on, while still thumbnailing my poses. other questions come much later in the game, after I think Im done and happy with the work. But by far most of the questions are asked again and again as I develop the piece. The biggest advancements in my work come when I began to methodically go through my animation at various stages and ask myself about the items on my Checklist. These questions strike at the core of my work, forcing me to get my head out of the mere construction of a skeleton of the animation and into the realm of fleshing it out. Often the answer to these questions would require me to start over. OK Sparky, So You Wanna Share Your Fancy-Dan Checklist? For every motion, pose, timing and action on every character in your shot, you need to ask every one of the following questions. By going through the list one item at a time and cross checking every motion for the item, youll find so many areas of weakness that need attention. The struggle for many beginning animators is that they dont even know which questions to ask, much less how to answer them. Hopefully this list will help you to begin asking the right kinds of questions. Its helped me a ton. Its not exhaustive, but it goes a long way to spotting trouble before you save your file for the last time and think youre done. If only finding and implementing the answers was as easy as asking the questions.Arcs: Check to make sure your motions have good clean arcs. Turn on trajectories if your software supports them. If not, get out your dry erase marker and draw the arcs on your monitor.1. wrist- you need to keep an eye on these to fight that marionette feel2. elbows- if youre using IK arms, then you absolutely MUST check your elbow arcs3. feet- track the heel & the toes to see if youre getting clean arcs on both4. head- the most obvious motion hitches will show up in the head. Its usually a torso problem, it just shows up in the head arc5. knees- watch for pops and skips6. hips- the center of mass is vital to believable weight, so check the hip arcs.7. ankles- 8. props- so many time we forget that the prop the character is holding/using is as important to the motion as the character9. eyes- when they turn, are they linear turns? If so, add some arc.10. face (lipsync)- make sure your face doesnt linearly go from static morph target to target. The face needs to feel organic.11. tails- way overlooked, and very tricky to get right.12. check break downs and make stronger if needed- weak arc? Push that breakdown pose.13. no two motions should have same arcs- feels very unnatural. Weave the arc lines like a tapestry of interesting motion.14. cross arcs and overlap for interestLine of Action: Make sure youre being strong with your lines. The difference between an OK pose and a great pose most often lies in the line. Have you pushed your line so it reads clearly? Is your line interesting? Is your line strongly concave or convex? When going from one pose to another can you invert your lines for stronger contrast? If all you had was one still frame to show for this pose, is your line of action capturing the kinetic energy of your character like a good illustration would?Offsets: Find a part to emphasize by scheduling its late or early arrival. Offsets help keep things loose and let your character breathe, combating the common pose-move-pose-move feel of most Pose-to-Pose animation. Check for twins. Shifting one arm by a frame or two is not fundamentally addressing the issue of twinning. You need more than that. Does it fit for you to offset the hand from the elbow? The elbow from the shoulder? For this move should your arms lead the torso or do they follow its weight? For this move should your hand lead the arm or follow its weight? Does your upper torso move independently from your hips? For this move, should the head lead or follow? Have you seen if offsetting your rotation keys from the translation keys adds any life to the character? How about individual rotation channels from each other? Do your fingers each move independently from the other fingers? Should your fingers flow after the hand or stay tight to it? Is this the right place to use the offset (aka pixar) blink?Overlap & Followthrough: What a LOT of pose-to-pose animation suffers from is the dreaded hit & stick. You need to find a way to get that out of your animation while still keeping strong clear poses and clean timing. Are you overlapping too much? Is it too soft? (mushy) Are you not overlapping enough? Is it too hard? (sticky) Are your motions distracting? (poppy) Does it feel like your ease outs are too linear? (robotic) Will this move benefit from the successive breaking of joints? Do your body parts overlap with believable physics? Are the hands too slow (heavy) or too fast (light)? Dont blindly trust overlap or lag plug ins check each frame for accuracy.Energy: One of your primary tasks as a character animator is to manage your tension, your energy build up and release. Each character will build & release their energy in a very different way. And even given different circumstances you character will build & release energy differently. Does the size of the anticipation match the speed of the subsequent action? Does your character flow well from one thing to another? Should they? Does your characters body language and gestures energy match tone & energy of the dialogue? Look for ways to build texture into a shot- building across phrases and releasing. Not every pose or move is the same length. Move your character around on their feet to keep them believable. Nothing says Im not believable like frozen feet. Does the energy of your character keep building up during hold when appropriate? tip: if the pose hit didnt have an extreme with a recoil, but is rather meant to build energy for release (like an anticipation hold) then youll keep growing the energy up into the pose, like a long ease into the extreme. Does the energy of your character keep settling with gravity during hold when appropriate? tip: If the pose hit had a settleback after an extreme, youll generally want to keep the held energy settling into gravity.Pace: You need to keep things moving at a natural flow. If your shot feels dull, look at your pose holds and your transition timings. Ill bet you $20 that all your holds are about the same length and all your pose transitions are about the same length. Are you motions too even across the shot? Are all the motions too fast? Are they too slow? Do you have an appropriate mix of fast moves verse slower ones? Be aware of the appropriate speed for a given set of appropriate actions. Mix up the pacing of motion. Fast flurries followed by long simmering holds. Great contrast. Dont make every move the same speed & flavor. Favor the anticipation or the breakdown or the ease out. Meaning: think what works best for a given action- slow in/fast out? Or fast in/slow out? Or even in/out but fast breakdown in the middle? What would Character a move like compared to character B?Silhouette: Make your poses read in an instant, not in an hour. Do your poses read clearly in plain black & white? Funky lines in the silhouette? Check elbows to see if theyre sticking out unnaturally. Check spine & your line of action. Think of ways to compressing the pose/action into planes in space for cleaner reads. Perpendicular to camera plane, or parallel to it. Think Woodys cool sheriff walk from the cardboard box in Toy Story 2. Look at how his motion is compressed into a single easy to read plane that is parallel to the camera plane.Motion Pathologies: Does anything have a funky motion that just looks off? Check for IK pops Look for and fix hitches in the arcs Smooth out any hiccups in line of motion Destroy any and all distracting moves Do you overshoot on moves too much? Not enough? Is there enough keep alive on your moving holds? Is there too much so that youre adding noise to the signal? Clean out any and all distracting nasty geometry intersections. The small single frame ones in the middle of big moves, forget about those. Nobody will notice.Timing: is everything. Well, almost everything. Do your characters gestures & actions lead words appropriately in dialog? Feel free to play with physics a bit to add some texture. Give some jump & hold to things in the air. A move should never be linear and it should never be even. Are your physics believable (weight)? Break up long holds with secondary action (scratching, wiping nose, weight shift, etc.)Staging: Can we see your action from the best possible angle? And remember: the ONLY view that matters is the camera view. For visually pleasing images compose on thirds Avoid stag