Creature animation is a must on your demo reel! (part 1)

[@jeandenishaas]

Hahaha will probably change the thumbnail in the future but it just cracked me up. Don't sleep on creatures! Tough to animate but a must on your reel!

[@christinjoylee]

Your face after the owl running is forever my favorite reaction

[@jeandenishaas]

HAHAHA!

[@justycheung5429]

What is going on, today is my birthday but got some good stuff. To be honest, creature animation does not only find in movies. even a TV show, for example, His Dark Material. I am working on my dragon animation( have 3 locomotion in this animation"Take off, flying, and landing"), I show u when I ready. Of course, I will pay u.

[@jeandenishaas]

Oh absolutely, TV shows have crazy animation as well! (I will add that to the next part!)

[@bricengorai363]

That sheep is the prime example of how I view my shots, expectations vs reality...another awesome video JD!!!

[@jeandenishaas]

Hahah that cracked me up! (and thanks!)

[@loafy3688]

My goal has always been creature animation! its nice to know it is wanted. All my animation classes focus on human animation but animals have always been my thing :) Thanks for the insightful video !

[@jeandenishaas]

Thank YOU!

[@Aaron_miraz]

The miniature Vs the cutest clips of animals in the video, I love it hahaha.

[@jeandenishaas]

😁

[@david84116]

That cat and owl clip is impressive! Can't wait to see part 2!

[@jeandenishaas]

Hahah right? Always makes me laugh.

[@eddieandersson5570]

Wow mate this was so good. You really are one of the absolute best at explaining and inspire people. ❤️

[@jeandenishaas]

Too kind!! ☺️☺️

[@eddieandersson5570]

@@jeandenishaas Just saying like it is mate.😀

[@jeandenishaas]

@@eddieandersson5570 😁

[@Pataflex]

Yay ! Creature animation is great. It's a good excuse to find interest in animals, to be curious about their behaviour and all. Thank you for the video JD !

[@jeandenishaas]

You are very welcome!

[@renarddubois940]

why would you need an excuse for that!? T..T

[@AmityAnimation]

That clip of Cumberbatch, lol. I always wondered how, exactly, the animators interpreted his mocap data for Smaug.

[@jeandenishaas]

Good question

[@harshal792]

This brought back so many memories! Excited for the upcoming parts! :D

[@jeandenishaas]

😁

[@minhaj_khan]

Thanks for giving so much insight into shot ideas!! :D

[@jeandenishaas]

Absolutely!

[@johnmonge3362]

Another awesome video and found it very helpful! I have not animated creatures yet so I am looking forward to the series and follow along! I have never laughed so much when I saw the cat and owl video. :D

[@jeandenishaas]

Thank you! And that owl is genius!

[@raremilindchitale]

Very very interesting insight into creature animation. Super great examples, how you managed to get your hands on so many of them, amazing. So inspiring, feel like starting to try animating a creature right away. Thank you so much.

[@jeandenishaas]

Sure thing! Glad you liked it!

[@LombaxKat]

Man I'd love to see the demo reel of the dude animating 50,000 orcs lmao Thanks for the solid advice!! Looking forward to part 2 :D

[@jeandenishaas]

Hahaha! That would so awesomely horrible to do.

[@rupeshmajumder]

Thanks, this is really helpful 😀, but something I always face while planning out a creature animation is Lack of good rig (compared to biped characters), sometimes it's hard to find some particular creature rig other than the usual tiger, leopard & horse. & it feels like I have to signup for some online creature classes just to get the rigs. so It would have been better if there was some good open-source rig just for some practice because not everyone can afford those online classes.

[@jeandenishaas]

I’ll cover rigs as well in part 2 or 3 but I know what you mean.

[@rupeshmajumder]

Thanks man 😢 ❤

[@jeandenishaas]

@@rupeshmajumder Well, spoiler, I will mention this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gKTXkmdvibqJqc0

[@rupeshmajumder]

@Jean-Denis Haas thank you 😀

[@jeandenishaas]

@@rupeshmajumder You’re welcome!

[@enderperez-lopezanimations4103]

Ok, since the beginning of the video you convince me about why I do need creature in my Demo Reel. So, does this skill might increase the possibility to get into this tough industry then? Amazing video, thank you J-D!

[@jeandenishaas]

I would absolutely say so! Movies, TV, games, realistic, cartoony, they all have creatures and you're missing out if you don't have it on your reel! (subjectively thinking)

[@enderperez-lopezanimations4103]

@@jeandenishaas Indeed, thank you J-D!

[@jeandenishaas]

@@enderperez-lopezanimations4103 Sure thing!

[@rdthrthth]

I've always struggled animating creatures, are there any good tutorials you would recommend? I'm ok at doing cycles on the spot, but I struggle with the workflow when animating (for example) a dog or cat walking around etc. Should I start by making all the contact poses on the front legs? then do a pass for all the contacts for the rear legs? Is there a general rule of thumb how many frames the rear legs are usually offset from the front legs when walking?

[@jeandenishaas]

There’s a general gait for each one, for a dog it would be back left/front left, back right/front right I believe, but I always check reference and the offset depends on what they’re doing (how fast, how agitated, playful, etc. I have no general rule). For me I do the body first (root and then chest and then head), then see where the legs fall and go from there. Unless it’s a very specific pose and then I do the whole body including legs in a more pose to pose approach. I will do a tutorial one fo these days. 😁

[@rdthrthth]

@@jeandenishaas That sounds like an interesting way to approach it. A tutorial would be great! I think there are a lot of cycles tutorials out there, but not much in terms of teaching how to approach an actual shot.

[@jeandenishaas]

@@rdthrthth Good to know, thanks!

[@panimation8436]

Amazing video, I really like creatures! I am wanting to do a small exercise of a dragon but don't know which animal reference I would use? As always keep up the good work.

[@jeandenishaas]

Depends on the size, you can go with eagles if you want a look where the head stays stabilized while hunting, a bat if the dragon has only back legs and the arms are part of the wing (although the scale and weight will be way off), all depends what size your dragon is and what kind of behavior you want to add to it.

[@panimation8436]

@@jeandenishaas thank you so much for responding my question. It means a lot to me.

[@jeandenishaas]

@@panimation8436 My pleasure!

[@themodernartist460]

Hey Jean! Do you mind helping me with this minor road block I am facing with a character rig? Would you happen to have a video on creating eyelids that blink? Thanks!

[@jeandenishaas]

I’m actually going to continue my facial animation series very soon! Good timing!

[@themodernartist460]

@@jeandenishaas Oh great! thanks!

[@jeandenishaas]

@@themodernartist460 Sure thing!

[@simonpapousek]

8:23 😁

[@simonpapousek]

That piece is actually a perfect animation reference. Not sure if it counts as a creature, hahahaha.

[@jeandenishaas]

@@simonpapousek Hahaha! My dog would think I’m a creature. 😁 It counts.

[@ninjadodovideos]

Have to take issue with the feature vs games thing at the start re: cycles or shots with personality. If you're not putting personality into your games animation, you're doing it wrong. The idea that games animation is just technical craft while all the 'real' acting is in feature is a long outdated misconception.

[@ninjadodovideos]

And since you only looked at films with your examples of creature popularity it may be worth noting there is a lot of creature work being done in games also.

[@jeandenishaas]

@@ninjadodovideos I will expand on that since I knew during editing that it would come across like that. The shorter nature of cycles vs. the 10s or longer acting clips students are doing is the difference I wanted to highlight. You’re not going to do a 10s lip sync performance unless you’re working in cinematics. Gameplay anim and cycles obviously need personality. I’m talking generally when students are taking creature classes (for feature classes, no game classes, hence that distinction since I’m not teaching game classes), they are tasked to do walk cycles and tend to look at reference, copy that and then call it a day. What I’m saying is that after that you should go further and develop more personality, etc. in order to make the shots more interesting and to have more fun with it. The technical critique was aimed at intro classes for feature. But clumsy wording, I will clarify in pt2 because you’re right, it is an outdated misconception and generally I hate the elitist attitude that “feature performance animation” is the pinnacle of animation.