So I’m just starting to get into animation with Blender, specifically character animation with a view towards Disney/Pixar quality level (at least that’s the hope).
Now the one thing they say, is to get feedback, ideally at every stage. Easy enough to do if one is at a University surrounded by teachers and fellow students. Bit harder if one is learning via books/Youtube videos and trial and error.
Now I know there are WIP, etc sections here, but at this stage it’s not anything I really want to post publicly. I had the thought of maybe just directly PM’ing someone to see if they could spare a little time to have a look at what I’ve done so far.
However, that’s not as easy as it sounds. The PM’ing part is easy, it’s just finding anyone to even ask that is the hard part. Now don’t get me wrong, we have some great artists here and the images across the header prove that basically every day.
But from what I can tell, pretty much none of you actually animate anything. Or at least nothing with human characters and no offense to anyone, but nothing that comes close to Disney/Pixar, etc.
So, if there are any ‘hidden’ professional character animators around here, ideally using Blender, as it would be great to be able to compare notes/get specific technical help at some stages. But even if not using Blender, that would be fine, just feedback directly on videos would be a huge help.
You can directly PM me here, if you would rather not ‘out’ yourself and get flooded with requests.
Given the overwhelming response (nothing so far), does this mean I was right in my suspicion that people doing character animation with Blender are few and far between?
I think they’re here, but they might not be interested in providing free private tutoring? You could try posting in #jobs:paid-work if you have budget?
I’m not really looking for tutoring, at least not from the point of view of ‘how do I set keyframes’, or ‘what is the NLA’, etc. I’m mostly already on top of that from Youtube videos and messing around with it all.
It’s more about the feedback of the actual animation, so really much like the current WIP or Focused Critiques sections without it all being public. At least not the early storyboard/blocking stages.
Just so that there is another set of eyes apart from mine, that is way more experienced and can say, the line of action is weak in that part or the follow-through is too short or that pose needs to snap/pop more, etc.
If such people are here, then they seem to be well hidden. I had a look through the art section, filtered by animation and really couldn’t find anything. It either isn’t character animation or if a character is involved, then any animation is little more then a camera pan or hand up/hand down motion.
I don’t really have a budget, this is just something I’m personally trying to do, no plans to get a job or make a career out of it. If that was the goal, I’d likely be looking at something like the Toanimate.ca people.
While I’m not an animator, I’d say get your hands dirty.
This is to say not to shy away from posting your stuff publicly.
Personally, I’d probably start out by participating at https://www.11secondclub.com/. I mean, what do you risk? Do you really believe people have nothing better to do than laugh at your work?
And even if they did, eventually nobody would really remember anymore exept yourself, maybe.
It’s not so much about that. It’s more about wanting/hoping to make an impact with the final animation. Which is a little hard if the storyboard, animatic, blocking stages, splining stages, polish stages, etc have all been posted.
At some point, likely fairly quickly, it will then just be viewed as the next update and any final video will just be glossed over or missed/skipped entirely.
Once done I fully plan a whole breakdown video, which will show all the stages and even give some insight as to how it was all done. Due to the fact it’s currently as much a test animation of my character rig and the whole production pipeline from script to screen. Half of which I’m testing/making up as I go along.
Not that I need any help with that, I’m working it out at each stage, it would just be nice to have some professional fresh eye on the actual animation, just so it isn’t crap.
You should post some stuff in the feedback wanted section and see what kind of feedback you’ll get.
I’m pretty sure there are professional animators here even if it’s not an animation forum. Maybe someone will chime in and give advice.
But animation feedback takes time, basically you’ll either get some quick advice like “your should study more timing and spacing…” or someone is probably going to talk for more than an hour and study frame by frame your test to give you more in-depth feedback. I’m not sure there is a middle ground here.
That’s probably why people aren’t spamming your inbox to ask to be your tutor On top of that they might want to evaluate your actual level so they are sure they don’t spend time explaining stuff you can already learn in some course like these : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6lYYgLKH04
Rather than posting stuff from your actual project, which is probably going to make the review even more complicated, you should post some simple exercises like a walkcycle or a lipsync. There is probably a lot to be said and to learn with just that.
I certainly don’t work at Pixar, but I’d be happy to provide a little critique if you share your work. But there are other resources : try https://www.11secondclub.com/ (discourse informs me the link has been posted already)
Get rid of those fears and expectations, they’re hindrances. Just share your work
I’m not a pro in this field, but I am in others. And I can tell you that I am completely disinclined to start interacting with somebody as a free private tutor in DMs. That’s just not the way to go about it; I dislike cold calls of any kind.
Not that I don’t want to help – I like helping, giving something to the community, paying it forward for all the help I’ve gotten during my lifetime. The Community. I have interacted with people privately as a mentor, but it always started in public, on some forum where people share their work, and where my help benefits more than just the one person asking. It actually takes a lot of effort to do solid, targeted critiques at a high level, and if I do it for free, efficient use of my time means I want it to be widely available. Private help is for friends. From what I can tell, that attitude towards mentoring is common.
So, if you want private tutoring, be prepared to give something equivalent for it, usually money if you don’t know each other.
Otherwise, post your work in a forum meant for feedback (I see people have already recommended one). Become a member of that community; don’t just take, but give something too – IME you’ll get better help if you’re known as somebody who’s a positive part of the ecosystem (like you are here). You might even end up getting some private mentoring once people get to know you. Don’t worry so much about the things holding you back now; we all see so much stuff every day that by the time you’re done we’ll have forgotten what you already showed. Seeing something in disjointed bits and pieces doesn’t necessarily make the finished product stale; it might whet the appetite for it instead. Besides, the people you want to help you are hardly the only (or even the main) audience for your piece.
On top of that, don’t forget that we’re fellow artists here. I reckon you don’t make that movie for us, do you?
Your worst and at the same time best case scenario is that most of us do recall because your work is so exceptionally great. Still, that makes, what, a couple of thousand people out of eight billion. All the rest will be totally surprised and utterly amazed once your movie hits theaters.
PS:
even if animation is somewhat underrepresented here, there are plenty of artists focusing on animation around.
On top of that they might want to evaluate your actual level so they are sure they don’t spend time explaining stuff you can already learn in some course like these : 