Anyone know some Animation FX resources/thesis?

[JollyMark]

Hi!

I'm working on my Master thesis for the Drawing course I'm taking right now and I thought it might be a good idea to ask here if anyone knows about theses or books/resources that specifically focus on animation FX? I haven't turned up with much so far and I'm currently studying how animation interprets natural elements in movement as it ties in with my own work and it seemed to be lacking academically.

Thanks ^^

[Svengali]

Do a search on SIGGRAPH Annual papers and proceedings... Google and YouTube. You might find one or two topics of interest.

sven

[slowtiger]

Could you be more specific? Is it about

- FX industries/studios in a live action film context?
- FX animation as in non-character animation?
- FX as in physics simulation?
- 2D or 3D?

[D.T. Nethery]

books/resources that specifically focus on animation FX

how animation interprets natural elements in movement

For hand drawn effects there are three books I would recommend.

1.) Essential Effects Water, Fire, Wind, and More by Mauro Maressa . Highly recommended. I've known Mauro for almost 30 years and worked with him on a number of productions. He's very knowledgeable about effects animation (and character animation, too. He trained under the Disney master animator Eric Larson in the late 1970's) You've seen his work : Mauro Maressa IMDB page .


2.) Elemental Magic, Volume I The Art of Special Effects Animation By Joseph Gilland

3.) Elemental Magic, Volume II The Technique of Special Effects Animation By Joseph Gilland

These two volumes by Joe Gilland are also excellent. Joseph Gilland IMDB page .

I'd say if you can only afford to purchase one book , get the one by Mauro Maressa. (which is not to make less of Joe's books, but I think Mauro's book is more comprehensive in a single volume. However , all three books are worth having).



Basic effects animation is also covered briefly in The Tezuka School of Animation Vol.1 by Osamu Tezuka (page 73 - 105)

https://issuu.com/iceburn91/docs/tezuka_animation_vol_1


and Timing For Animation by Harold Whitaker and John Halas (page 79 - 95)

https://issuu.com/pablomoura/docs/0240521609


.

[D.T. Nethery]

Hand drawn effects tutorials (the person doing the tutorials works in Toonboom Harmony, but the principles apply to using TVPaint or any other drawing-based animation software program) --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT1LHvz ... ZHWa-e30ed




Adam Phillips ("Chluaid" on YouTube) has some tutorials on animating hand drawn effects. He is also using Toonboom Harmony, but the techniques he is demonstrating would apply to TVPaint or any other drawing-based animation software like Rough Animator or Digicel Flipbook, OpenToonz, etc. Here are a couple of his effects tutorials -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryt2V8Shglc




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhBFtiYfMGk




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This reference blog , FlashFX , by Ron Douchet. Although the blog is titled "Flash FX" it's not only for people using Flash (Adobe Animate) software. Most of it applies to doing hand drawn effects in any other drawing-based software.

https://flashfx.blogspot.com/

https://flashfx.blogspot.com/2011/06/av ... guide.html

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FX Design Notes (mostly by Dorse Lanpher , effects animator at Don Bluth Animation and Disney Animation) . This is available as a PDF file you can download from Archive.org
https://archive.org/details/FX_Design_B ... 5/mode/2up


.

[JollyMark]

Could you be more specific? Is it about

- FX industries/studios in a live action film context?
- FX animation as in non-character animation?
- FX as in physics simulation?
- 2D or 3D?

yes sorry, should have been more specific! It's directed mainly at 2D (hand-drawn) effects animation, that is anything non-character animated. (mostly focusing on elements like water, fire, smoke etc.)

D.T. Nethery has already provided a big chunk of things I was looking for.

[JollyMark]

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FX Design Notes (mostly by Dorse Lanpher , effects animator at Don Bluth Animation and Disney Animation) . This is available as a PDF file you can download from Archive.org
https://archive.org/details/FX_Design_B ... 5/mode/2up


.

Thank you so so much! I was definitely looking for a lot of this! I had found the books by Mauro Maressa and Joseph Gilland and good to know/have that extra info, going to try and get my hands on them for sure. Everything else will help me a bunch as well.

Once again thanks for taking the time to send this my way. Hopefully in a few months I might be able to share the results of the project here in the forum

[JollyMark]

Hi everyone ! Long time no see!

I can't believe it's been 2 years since I made this post! I certainly learned a whole bunch in my journey with this project and part of it started right here so it's only right that I come back and share the final result with you all! And once again I'm really grateful for the help I got because early on I was very lost in terms of resources.

I ended up finishing the animation around last summer but I was so busy compiling and writing the actual thesis itself that I ended up spending more time than I expected on this (that coupled with irl stuff that gets in the way + other projects etc.)

With all that said here's the animation I ended up producing:


I wanted to make something that combined all 4 basic elements and really showcase them in one "package" as it were. And given my academic context I ended up combining that with Bill Violas video art (stuff like this: https://youtu.be/HrEG3_4JMQs). And I linked many things really, the whole "start from the center and go outwards" thing coming from the pretty basic dynamics of a water droplet falling etc.

The real tricky bit was creating the 4 character designs that represent each effect and making it all somewhat seamless. I'm actually quite satisfied with the final result given I've done small animated projects here and there over the years but nothing ever quite clicked for me and this was the first time it did.

Well that's pretty much it really, I have a bunch of sketches and early design work that if anyone is interested in seeing I'd happily share but at any rate I'll probably post it later on in my social media (https://www.instagram.com/jollimark/).

I'm just really glad I get to finally share this ^_^ I most definitely will continue to use TVPaint in any future projects I do, it was invaluable as a tool here.

[D.T. Nethery]

Nice work on the effects animation ! Looks good.