*Update: I’ve revised the run to make it more rickety, after getting some feedback from Keith Lango.

Character modeled and textured by Patrick Hughes. Rigged and animated by Sunny Kharbanda.

One of our graduating students, Patrick Hughes (http://www.pat-tactics.com/) has some cool characters he’s designed, modeled and textured. I asked him for two of them, to use in my animation classes. Here’s the first one – a gangly, rusty robot! I made a simple, fun rig for him, and animated a quick run cycle to test it out. Here’s a screen grab of the rig.

The controls spell out the word “GEEKK” which is quite appropriate, since I was really geeking out over this rig. He has gears at his ankles, knees and elbows that spin automatically as you animate his legs and arms. The main gear on his back spins as the animation plays. You can control the speed of the gears through custom attributes.

His site has some more examples of appealing cartoon-style characters. I wish more modelers (and studios) today were creating characters with personality, instead of chasing realism for the sake of it. Anyway, check out his work at the link above!

I like the combination of miniatures and CG — It brings together the hand-crafted feel of practical elements with the flexibility of animating a CG character. Sure, it’s more work, but the result is worth it. Speaking of more work: The character rigs aren’t exactly action-figure-simple, but that’s true of any good cartoon rig. CG cartoon animation calls for carefully, patiently crafting every pose; not very far from drawn animation but far enough that it has its own place. While it borrows a lot from stop-mo and drawn animation, it adds its own unique touch and does what only it can do.

More on that later.

Like that one, it’s got plenty of issues, but it was fun to animate as a quick study. It’s a heavy run, contrasting the prisoner’s extremely light one. His size and shape got me thinking he’s a mean cop, but somewhat dull and oafish. Something about his design suggested he’s the bad guy, and the prisoner’s the “good” guy! If these were for a real game, you’d play as the prisoner, running from this meanie as he tried to bludgeon you.

Yeah, I’m full of happy thoughts.

Here’s the 720X540 version. Enjoy!

Since his feet are tied to a chain, I imagined him running with short, extra fast steps, and his upper body lagging behind. The torso is a bit stiff, but I had to call it done. On to the next one!

Note: Want to see the high-res loop? download the 720X540 movie to your computer and enjoy!

Another cartoon animation exercise. The focus of this one was to come up with a simple story and animate it to a musical beat. It started as an assignment during my last APT session with Keith Lango. Big thanks to him for the assignment, and for the insightful feedback!

I’m loving this animation “style” and the freedom it brings. Being able to work in a rough, loose manner without fretting over tiny details is really liberating. I’ve actually started to like the little imperfections and the roughness, as long as they fit with the energy of the moment.

As always, C+C welcome.

Painting the backgrounds was a lot of fun. They’re heavily influenced by the golden age cartoons, of course. And if you’ve seen the recent trio of cartoon paintings I posted(here, here and here), you’ll spot all three of them in the background of this piece. Yes, that was the plan from the beginning. Although making those paintings was great fun in itself.

Enjoy!

Directed by Kunio Kato. Winner of the 2009 Academy award for best animated short.

You Are What You Eat from Sunny Kharbanda on Vimeo.

I have to say, I’m very proud of what the students accomplished! For all its flaws, the short shows a level of professionalism and quality that surpasses all our prior student work. What’s more, it’s great for their demo reels, and it was a good learning experience for me as supervisor.

Kudos to everyone who worked on it!

Here are a few things I picked up. I’m using a clip from Clampett’s "Tortoise Wins by a Hare" as an example here.
Note: Images for educational purpose only.

LOONEY LESSON #1: DYNAMIC BALANCE

It’s great to see how far they pushed a character’s pose and line of action while still making them look balanced. Keep the hips above the feet, and the rest of the body can really be pushed out there!

LOONEY LESSON #2: RHYTHM & FLOW

Rhythm and flow are a little harder to understand and explain. It’s a deeper subject — I’m still trying to absorb these concepts. I know one thing: the following poses are just dripping with them.

There’s a graceful, almost effortless visual rhythm as your eye moves around the pose.

The feet, ears or hands are not pointing the same way — or as Keith would say, "playing the same note" — yet they work together and the pose is cohesive.




Don’t be deceived by the simplicity of this pose. All the good stuff they teach in life drawing is on display here — composition, silhouette, negative space, tension, and of course, rhythm and flow.

LOONEY LESSON #3: CONTROLLED CHAOS

In other words, controlled movement. When you’re trying to pull off a crazy, over-the-top movement, anchor some part of the pose to avoid turning your animation into noise. Of course, the part that’s moving around still needs to have good spacing and arcs, but limiting the movement on part of the character helps a lot. Here’s an unusual and brilliant example: The anchored parts (the feet) aren’t on the ground — it’s quite the opposite.

There’s a lot more to learn from these old classics. I’m just beginning to scratch the surface, and I highly recommend this sort of study! Now that some of these cartoons are available on the iTunes store for a buck a piece, it’s great because you can study the clips at 24 fps and see the original timing. You don’t even have to leave the comfort of your computer.<sup>*


*</sup>Although seriously, do leave the comfort of your computer from time to time. Try it. Get up and move around. Now. This blog will still be here when you get back