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Here a little spot for beat.no animated in TVPaint by gimpville.no



And here is the reference video, the rough animation, the clean animation and the final animation at the same time.

Interesting concept, the second one. It puts the animator into a precarious position; I, as I suspect many others will too, find the live action dancer the most interesting to watch. I should think that a successful piece of animation might want to work the other way around.

I agree with you for the first dance, but not for the second one and even less for the third one, which is for me the best one and more dynamic in animation

Video are good for inspiration, in particular for complex movement that you cannot do if you are not, for example, a break dancer. But the most important, is to be able to "leave" the reality and bring that surrealistic touch, needed in animation, where bodies seems to float in the air and where gravity is just another law to break easily

I notably think in that great animation (not made in TVPaint, unfortunately) :

Ryan Woodward has a"making of" video that explains his approach to "Thought of You" and the others involved (dancers and choreographer).

thanks for sharing Svengali

I share many thoughts with this animator so I understand what he wants to achieve (well, it's not all that complicated anyway) but I think he failed in what he set himself up to.

The most disturbing and telltale signs are the carefully constructed, clean and clinical lines that are supposed to represent mere natural mistakes, or happy accidents of the artist's pencil that flew loose and outside the figure -- the effect is meant to express oh well, why erase if it just reveals my passion of the moment?. It doesn't. It's not authentic. It misses the point because it is a carefully contrived line -- not a loose flair.

He wants to show spontaneity with the dancers so badly and I bet he knows very well that this is what's missing everywhere. He animates the dance the same way he used to animate special effects of body fluids.

Paul Fierlinger wrote:I share many thoughts with this animator so I understand what he wants to achieve (well, it's not all that complicated anyway) but I think he failed in what he set himself up to.

The most disturbing and telltale signs are the carefully constructed, clean and clinical lines that are supposed to represent mere natural mistakes, or happy accidents of the artist's pencil that flew loose and outside the figure -- the effect is meant to express oh well, why erase if it just reveals my passion of the moment?. It doesn't. It's not authentic. It misses the point because it is a carefully contrived line -- not a loose flair.

He wants to show spontaneity with the dancers so badly and I bet he knows very well that this is what's missing everywhere. He animates the dance the same way he used to animate special effects of body fluids.

I see his use of the constuction lines as a very conscious graphic design element and not something that should solely represent natural mistakes or to express - 'oh well, why erase if it if it just reveals my passion pf the moment' - I think it works really good for what it is and what it does for that matter. The animation has weight, fluidity and a solid mass and that is what I think carries it, the line is "just" the line. I think I would get rather annoyed or tired if something as body-structure oriented like this is went wobbly wobbly all over - would be like seeing a ballet where all the dancers had cerebral palsy.

Having done a lot of dancing and corporeal mime myself, I understand what you mean by saying that the dance lacks spontaneity - I would go to that extent to say that I see a carefully rehearsed choreography which could be interpreted as being something that lacks spontaneity, since every move is practiced over and over again, but that is what dance is - a lot of rehearsing. It can make the performance seem cold and lack a sense of inner drive, but those are more things that comes about from the skills, presence and breathing of the actual dancers and no graphic outline can reproduce that... Well, at least not as far as I'm aware. ; ) But I enjoyed the classical openess of the dancing, allowing me to put my own interpretation into the movements and gestures - not earth-shattering or exceptionally mezmerising, but simple and effective. I think it's a very honest and passionate little piece of animation - something I can't say I see that very often.

Jesper