90%

Most of the time when I give a designer an animation I try to follow three rules: that the file is set up properly, that it conveys the information necessary for design, and that it looks decent enough to potentially ship that way. Even if we are testing something that I know is temporary I will still try to adhere to those first two rules and hope to hit the third. I try to get the animation at least 90% of the way there.

Having a universally adhered to workflow is something I have wanted at every studio I've been at but it doesn't ever happen. Even when all of the animators are trained in the same way there is still that Artist Brain, one that works in its' own way, often strangely unique for whatever the necessity, and production usually doesn't give a shit so long as the work gets done. The only thing you can do to ensure that files are easy to understand is to work cleanly, in an organized way that makes sense intuitively, and pray everyone else is doing the same. In my entire career I've only encountered a handful of other animators who work similarly to me enough that I can work on their files without frustration, and even then, we still do some things differently. 

Because I abhor blocking animation, and because I work fast, it's easy enough for me to start from scratch and make things improve. I try to make the best animation possible within time constraints. Sometimes that's a day, sometimes less. Sometimes a designer will need something in a few minutes. I'm happy to do it, if only because it improves their iterations on ideas, and doesn't eat up my day. If anything, these test animations are a way to learn, but if you have a clear direction, 90% is a pretty good goal.

 Handing an animation off to design is a strange thing. The work will often be questioned, or criticized, or given notes, all from someone who probably doesn't understand motion as well as you do. As an animator it's important to make those criticisms yourself beforehand. Often I will hand something off, plainly admitting, "I know what you're going to say. Just get it in the game and I'll fix x." Because whatever x is isn't going to hold back the Idea a designer wants, I'm alright with putting things in that aren't necessarily going to ship. Design tests ideas, and the animators get to shape them through motion. With a file that is 90% of the way there design can often implement their full ideas, and I can iterate on motion. The overall point is, though, that the intent is what's important, not necessarily making the best animation possible.

GOW III examples.

Here are some examples of work I did on God of War III. They're really not my favorites, but I think they might showcase some things unique in that game. These are very first pass incarnations of the actual animations that went in the game.
The first is the Cerberus ride, which was new to the franchise. I'm still not quite happy with how the timing worked out, but people seemed to like the idea of riding an enemy in the series. I did the Cyclops ride as well, which is in Ascention.

                                        

                                      

   

Here's the infamous head rip, before we had an actual way to animate the head coming off.

                          
I also worked on the Chimera.

And Hercules....

The next is a Hermes run cycle, hard to tell without the video actually on repeat, but the designers sped it up by about 4x when it is seen in game. 

I did this animation for the Hades fight, among many others, but this was one of the most fun.

 

Finally, the squirrel, which I loved a lot. There was a time when the animators had a bit of time to work on these ancillary background characters when we didn't have much else to do. The rig was rudimentary at best, but it was nice to mess around with. I doubt it made the final game, but it was moments like these that made me most happy. Just something unusual you don't often get to do as a combat animator.

God of War: Ascension

Our game has finally been announced. Complete with new shirts for the team:

Crab's Journey.

This video is a great example of character design with regard to environment shaping anatomy.



There are several things about this video that struck me as inspirational, animation wise. The opening shot, in which the crabs are sort of being tossed around in unison by the current, and stabilizing themselves with their legs was somewhat eye opening. The legs aren't the only driving force behind the locomotion, and act as balance mechanisms. A very interesting counter to this video is another where a crab uses similar legs to walk on land, without current, and without an active outside force.



Notice how stable that body is without the ocean's current shifting it around. It's interesting to see an adaptation to environmental differences so profoundly expressed via changes in movement.

And finally, check out this guy:

Holy shit that walk cycle is neat.

(Also of note: the ray eating in the first video is terrifying, but I do appreciate the, "Fuck y'all I'm out" exit.)

Earthflight.

I caught the first episode of this series yesterday but it's since been removed. Amazing, amazing footage. The trailer doesn't even do it justice.

If you have any interest in animation, birds(I am horribly fascinated by their behavior), or just nature in general, I highly recommend paying attention for a pending U.S. release date.

Workflow.

I recently updated my workflow a bit and tonight I asked some other animators how they do a few basic things within Maya. What I learned was shocking. It seems that nearly all of them use Maya's default hotkey settings and, in some cases, didn't even use those when available. With 3d software packages there is typically a default setting to accommodate many different disciplines that don't necessarily make sense for just one in particular, such as modeling, animation, or rigging. The programs usually try to hit the lowest common denominator across disciplines instead, often leaving each specialty somewhat wanting for a better workflow.

This might not sound like a big deal but over time every second you lose by not having a workflow that aids your speed or particular interest at the moment (or just using defaults in general) adds up. I'm sure I touch on the subject of key layout too much but it's something I really believe can help any animator.

The main thing I noticed among other animators was that when I asked them to show me how they start and stop their animation playback they all moved their mouse to the lower right corner of the screen and hit the play button. I was baffled. This is the slowest way to perform that action and a major productivity killer. Not only do they have to remove their mouse from the viewport, they also have to take their eyes off of their animation, carefully move the mouse to the corner of the screen, and focus on something other than their work (Note that Maya does have a hotkey for a playback toggle, Alt+v, but even using two buttons seems tedious to me).

When I asked about scrubbing, the same thing occurred. They moved their mouse down, away from their scene, onto the timeline and left-click-dragged. Again, this causes you to remove the mouse and the eyes from the scene. What this way of working essentially does is remove your focus from your work and slows down anything else you might want to accomplish.

For the few folks that said there wasn't a difference between pushing a play button and having a hotkey I made a point to show them that when you have keys to use both the playback toggle and the scrub tool (timedraggertoolactivate) you can also quickly do those other things with your mouse still in the viewport, such as stopping playback, rotating the view, adjusting animation, and then playing the animation again.

Maya has a lot of default key settings I've removed or abandoned but the biggest improvement I think I've discovered (for animation) is that you don't have to hold down any key to perform an action. For example, holding Alt and using mouse buttons is the prime way to navigate the viewport. Instead, assigning the individual tools, tumble and track, to a key allows me to simply click a button and have the tool active. I don't ever have to hold down a button at any time(yes, I never hold Alt in Maya).

The same idea applies to the time drag tool(k), which I simply turn on and leave on because I've removed the "off" function. There is no holding down a button while I left click and drag. When I no longer need to scrub I switch to another tool, such as move, rotate, or even use my playback options, which is what an animator will typically do anyhow. The real benefit of all of these options is that my mouse, and specifically my eyes, never leave the scene. I am always looking directly at the animation and not trying to locate some other button elsewhere in the UI, and because of the flexibility I'm also able to switch to any other tool I might need to on the fly, stopping and starting my playback at will.

Upon suggesting this type of custom layout I was confronted with the idea that sometimes you will have to work on another person's computer, using default settings, so that's what you should use. Sure, that happens, but I'd argue that in order to get to the point of creating a custom setting it's pretty apparent you need to know the basics anyhow and you definitely should(You have to know the rules before you can break them). In a network setting it's also very easy to save and load your personal preferences very easily. I also understand that in a teaching scenario you might want to use the basics so everyone is on the same page. Again, that's fine, but one of the best lessons I ever got from a mentor was to make the program work for me.

One last thing I've learned about animating in 3d is that real estate is important. The amount of space you have on screen to view your animation is a huge deal. Maya 2012's new UI allows the removal of several key elements that I've now put on a second monitor. This includes the channel box and several other tear away menus. The result (pic soon) is a very basic, simple, and clean viewport that leaves the maximum amount of room to see my animation in the greatest amount of space.

I guess I'm kind of taking back what I've said about there being no "Wrong Way" to animate because working smarter is indeed better. It won't help your curves but it will make you a hell of a lot faster.

Paths of Hate.

Really great short film's trailer: