DannySouthard.com

Updated Demo Reel 05.27.08

2008-05-28T06:10:54Z

11 Second Club : March 08

2008-04-01T22:10:38Z

Back in the day, there existed a website called the 10 second club. Every month they would post a different 10 second audio clip, from a movie or TV, and animators of all skill levels created animations to the dialogue. At the end of the month, everyone submitted their shots and scored each other's work. Once the voting was complete, the animator with the highest overall score won.

For one reason or another, the site went down a couple years ago (not sure on the date though). Recently, however, a group of animators (I think mostly AM students) revived the concept and started the 11 second club. It functions much like it's predecessor, but this time the prize for winning is a critique of your submission by an AM mentor. Awesome!

I had always wanted to enter the contest, but never had the time with school. Now that I've graduated and had a month to relax, I decided to give it a shot. I'm not sure how I'll do, but at the very least I've got something cool to add to my demo reel.

Anyway, here is my entry. Enjoy!

[WIP] The Collector

2007-12-19T23:49:42Z

Six months ago, I started work on my first short film. The story went through numerous revisions and even changed a few weeks before the animation was to be completed. It was a grueling six month exercise and I must say that I learned a ton. Trying to finish a 1.5 minute short in 6 months while animating at work, is not recommended. Sticking with something around 45 seconds is a much better idea, unless you decide to quit your job to work on it. There are just not enough hours in the evenings to finish 1.5 minutes of animation in such a short amount of time.

Like my two person dialogue shot entry, I'd like to take you through the various steps in the making of my short film. Please keep in mind that this is still a work in progress. I have only made it to step 11. Over the next month, I will finish it and post it in a separate entry.

Here are the steps in order:
1. Brainstorm and write down a number of different stories
2. Narrow the stories down to 5 of the best ones
3. Choose the top 2 ideas, refine them, and pitch them to the class
4. Choose the best story, develop it, and then pitch it to the class again.
5. Storyboard the whole film.
6. Create an animatic with the storyboard panels and a scratch track
7. Layout the entire film with the set, props and character
8. Blocking Pass
9. Blocking Plus Pass
10. First Polish Pass
11. Second Polish Pass
12. Final Polish Pass
13. Replace scratch track with final sound and music
14. Lighting/Rendering
15. Compositing

As you can see, there are quite a few steps involved in making a short film. Steps 5 through 11 each took 3 weeks to complete, so a lot of time is involved as well. I hope you enjoy the following videos that show the end product of each step. You might want to watch the last video first and then go back and see how the short evolved. Enjoy!

Step 2 Written Pitches

Buried Treasure

We open with a pirate on a large flat beach standing next to a treasure chest with a shovel looking around to see if anyone is watching. Once he�s certain that he�s not being watched, he begins to dig a hole in the sand. He digs part of the hole and then moves on to the other side. As he�s digging with his back to the other side of the hole, the sand slides back in. When he finishes with second half, he�s surprised that the first half has filled back up. He digs out the first half again, but the second half fill up. He discovers that the sand will only slide back in when he�s not watching, so tries digging one half of the hole while looking at the other. The side that he�s digging this time is constantly filling back up after every scoop. He looks back at the half that he was digging and the other half fills back up again. Frustrated, he tries putting in vertical wood planks to keep the sand out. This works, so he finishes the hole, goes out, grabs his treasure chest and is about to lift it, when the hole fills up with water. The moral of the story is �think before you do something�

Coconuts

We open with a thirsty man stranded on a deserted island near a coconut tree. A coconut falls to the ground beside him. He excitedly tries to open it up to get the milk. He tries using a shell, then a tree branch, then a rock, but with not luck. He tries climbing the coconut tree and throwing the coconut hard to the ground, but it still doesn�t break. Finally he rigs the tree like a catapult and places his coconut on top and launches it straight into the air. Unfortunately when he does this, all of the coconuts in the tree are launched straight up into the air and then come raining down on him. He runs around trying to avoid them, but finally one of them hits him square on the top of the head, driving his whole body into the sand, leaving just his head above the sand. The coconut that hit his head has cracked open next to him and he�s so excited. He tries to move, but he finds that he�s hopelessly stuck in the sand, unable to move. The moral of the story is �think before you do something stupid.�

Flees

We open with a very itchy middle aged man in the bathroom of his apartment with a box of flee powder on the counter. He sprinkles the powder over his body until the itching stops. And then, the flees are pissed. They begin to jump off his body and then bounce back and beat him up. It feels as though he�s in a fight with an invisible opponent. He tries to defend himself by punching or swatting them as they came at him, but to no avail. Until finally he�s hit so hard in the head that he�s knocked to the ground. Dazed, he grabs the powder from off the counter and tosses it into the trash. We close with him battered and broken, sitting against a wall scratching himself. The moral of the story is �be considerate of others.�

The Collector

We open with a very sleepy man sitting at his breakfast table pouring a bowl of cereal. When his bowl is nearly full, a toy rolls out and lands in his bowl. He perks up and grabs the toy. He falls hopelessly in love with the toy. As he�s playing with it, he glances over and sees that the box says �collect all three�. Even more excited, he runs out to buy two more boxes of cereal (this is done all off screen). Back to the table again, he opens one box, reaches in through the cereal and pulls out a toy from the bottom of the box. It�s the second of three. He then opens the last box only to find that it�s the same toy as the first. He runs off to the store to buy 5 more boxes only to find that they are the same as the first two toys. He keeps going in this cycle until he has a table full of toys and he�s opening his last box. Inside he finds the last toy. He�s really excited, but he happens to glance at the latest box and notices that they have added an all new fourth toy. Dejected, he slams his head down on the table, and we pull back to reveal the wall of cereal boxes next to his table. The motion of his head hitting the table causes the wall of cereal to eventually fall like a tidal wave on top of him. The moral of the story is �don�t get pulled into advertising schemes.

Jogger

We open with a professionally equipped yet overweight jogger stretching before a run in his front yard. He stretches all his major muscle groups thoroughly and looks quite confident. He sets off jogging with grace and good form. We fade out and then back in to find him extremely exhausted and his form has completely broken down to where he�s barely moving. Finally he arrives at his destination, a donut shop, and we pull back to reveal that his house is next door to the shop. The moral of the story is �things aren�t away as they seem�

Step 4 Final Story Pitch:

Step 6 Animatic:

Step 7 Layout:

Step 8 Blocking Pass:

Step 9 Blocking Plus Pass:

Step 10 First Polish Pass:

Step 11 Second Polish Pass:

Updated Demo Reel 07.04.07

2007-07-06T05:57:19Z

More Class 4 Facial Poses

2007-07-05T06:55:11Z

Here are some more facial poses that I did in the later sessions of class 4:

Session 412

2007-07-05T06:11:00Z

I�m back�..again�.. I haven�t been able to keep this blog going because it�s been a really stressful 4th term. This term really lived up to it�s reputation as one of the most difficult in the program. Trying to finish a one person dialogue shot is hard enough, but a two person dialogue shot is a whole other ball of wax. I was really thankful for my class because it was loaded with talent. We had four working animators and by the end of the term two students had internships at Pixar and Rhythm and Hues. After almost a year of going to school and having no life I was starting to burn out. It was really hard to find motivation. Every time I got home from work, I had no desire to animate. Being in such a talented class really motivated me to try harder though.

So I�d like to do something a little bit different. Instead of trying to making posts for each of the weeks that I missed this term, I thought I�d just show the progression of my last shot by posting all of my assignments below from video reference (first) all the way through to the final (last):

Step 4 Pitch:

Step 7 Layout:

Step 8 Blocking Pass:

Step 9 Blocking Plus Pass:

Step 10 First Polish Pass:

Step 10 Second Polish Pass:

Step 11 Final Polish Pass:

Session 403

2007-04-22T07:15:55Z

Another week and another eye opening lecture. This time it was about design applied to animation by Mark Oftedal. He breaks design down to it's more basic elements. He shows how a simple triangle in frame can invoke different emotions depending on where it's placed and how its oriented. Then he adds a square to establish a relationship and shows how moving these around in the frame can change the relationship. Fascinating stuff! Then he describes to us a scene from Toy Story where Woody and Buzz are arguing. He shows us how their posture and relationship to each other in frame, subconsciously directs the viewers eye to the point of interest and invokes an emotional response. Wow, I had know idea that I was being manipulated like that. This lecture and the previous one about making cuts really opened my eyes into the world of manipulation. It's amazing what people know about how the brain reacts to visuals. They know exactly how to play with your mind and get a desired response.

Anywho....below I present to you my assignment. Once again you will find facial expression practice poses and for the first time I give to you my first finalled dialogue shot ever! Enjoy. It took many many weeks to get through the whole process and tomorrow I start it all over again. This time with a dialogue piece involving two characters.....yikes! This should be interesting. By the way, this next assignment is the last assignment of the term, so for the next 7 weeks I will bore you with revision after revision. Interestingly enough, this is the last assignment before I begin work on my first short film (Term 5 and 6). I'm actually looking forward to starting on my film now. I used to fear the coming of Term 5, but after all these short shots, I'm looking forward to being able to tell a proper story.

Session 402

2007-04-15T22:45:16Z

I know I�ve been saying this a lot lately, but this week�s lecture was awesome. We learned about storytelling though cuts from Patrick Kriwanek. Patrick is an editor for film and he told us all about when and while to make cuts in a scene. A cut is basically when you switch from one camera to another during a shot. When and how you do it is very important. In fact, there are set rules that everyone in the industry follows. If you break them, you�re audience will feel uncomfortable. Sometimes filmmakers will break the rules, however, when the desired effect is to make the audience uncomfortable�..like in a horror/suspense film. Anyway, really cool stuff. I can�t wait to use it in my next shot (a dialogue shot with two characters interacting with each other�.yikes!)

This week we took our facial animation out of blocking and into the refined stage. I must say that the first time that I saw this version, I couldn�t stop smiling. This was a culmination of 7 weeks of work and for the first time, I got to see the fruits of my labor. I can�t believe I�m almost done with my first ever dialogue shot! Just one more polish pass, and I get to put this shot to rest.

The other part of this weeks assignment was to find two facial expressions in magazines or the web and try to duplicate them with Bishop. We will do a number of these throughout this term to give us some practice recreating facial expressions. They�re really fun to do too!

Session 401

2007-04-15T22:44:01Z

And without further ado�.Term 4 � Advanced Acting! My new mentor is Greg Whittaker (Dreamworks). He worked on one of my all time favorite movies: Flushed Away! So cool! I know I�m going to learned a lot from him too. His whole philosophy is simple and snappy, both of which I need a lot of help with.

This week�s lecture was and introduction to facial expressions by Chris Hurtt. This guy was awesome! He was real life caricature. He had these thick eyebrows that were constantly moving around and seemed to have a life of their own. The lecture was great. All this facial animation stuff is totally new to me, so I have taking notes like crazy. This stuff is so useful.

This week our dreams finally came true��.we got the full Bishop rig with full facial setup. Wow, there are so many controls to worry about. This guy has everything. He has so much control that I�m both excited and worried. How am I do this?! There seems to be more controls in the face than there are in the body. This is going to be hard. I�m really glad that the rig is organized so well or else I would be totally lost. Plus AM gave us a video tutorial explaining all the controls. On top of that, Bobby gave us a video walkthrough of how he approaches facial animation and lip sync. His walkthrough was eye opening. He made facial animation seem attainable. He broke everything down and sort of demystified the whole process. After watching it, the fear subsided a bit.

For the assignment, we were supposed to sketch thumbnails and film reference for the face only. This was fun and a little embarrassing because I��.can�t act. I�m hoping that I can pull something out it. Here ya go. Feel free to laugh or cringe or vomit�.

Session 312

2007-04-15T22:43:27Z

This week was just a recap of everything from term 3. I blew it again this week because I�ve turned into a super slacker and this term ended on a Friday instead of a Sunday. But that�s just an excuse. I shouldn�t have waited until the last minute.

This week�s assignment was to upload a progress reel of all the work this term. And away we go.

Session 311

2007-04-15T22:42:53Z

I totally blew it this week. I turned into a total slacker and missed the lecture all together. It was a lecture about Sincerity from Mark Henn and from what I heard, it was awesome! Doh! Luckily, I have a friend in AM that is one term behind me. I can wait until he gets to this lecture and watch it with him. Unfortunately, I have to wait 3 months.

This week, the assignment was to finish the body animation with a final polish pass. Here is the latest. In just a couple of weeks, we get the full Bishop character with facial controls! Yeah! I can�t wait!

Session 310

2007-04-15T22:42:23Z

Hey remember when I said �wow!� about the eyes/blinks lecture? Well this is an even bigger WOW! This lecture opened my eyes! This was a lecture about Hands by Charles Alleneck. I really wished I had seen this sooner because I had no idea how to animate hands. I never put too much thought into my hand animation and then I wondered why my hands felt so lifeless. Charles teaches us it�s a really bad idea to just block out the body and then worry about the hands later on when the shot is more refined. Bad idea. We should make sure that while we are blocking the body, we pose the hands until they look right. Hands play a huge part in acting and they should never be glossed over. In fact, bad/lifeless hands can really kill a shot. Man, great stuff!

This week, the assignment was to begin polishing the shot. Enjoy

Session 309

2007-04-15T22:41:43Z

This weeks lecture was about Entertainment by Mike Thurmeier. I wasn�t able to finish it, but what I did learn was important. I learned that entertainment was character driven and that it�s important to know what the character is doing before and after the shot you�re working on. Also, everything you character does must be believable and feel real. This ensures that the audience with be able to related to the character because he/she is doing something that we could all see ourselves do at one time or another.

The assignment: take our shot out of blocking and begin refining. Here�s what I came up with.

Session 308

2007-04-15T22:41:08Z

Wow, what a great lecture. This week we learned about animating eyes and blinks from Jason Ryan. I didn�t realize how important the eyes were and how much thought needs to go into them. It�s amazing how you can use blinks at different times to change an emotion. Also the speed of a blink can drastically change the emotion. For example, a slow blink could indicate the character is tired or sad. We also learned a number of key tips/tricks including the number of frames for the eye to close/open and the many different ways an eye can transition from open to closed and vice versa. Wow, great stuff.

The assignment: take our shot from blocking to blocking plus. That basically means more refined blocking with more breakdowns and transitions. Here goes:

Session 307

2007-04-15T22:39:56Z

Well, this week was part 2 of Delio�s lecture. To be honest, it�s been so long since I watch this part and I can�t remember what he talked about. Guess I�ll have to go back and read my notes again.

This week we were given a new character called �Bishop.� I was so excited to get him too! I had seen some of the previous students shots using this character and I was amazed at the range he had. This was the character that I think most of us were dying to get are hands on. There was only one hitch��this version of Bishop had his facial controls locked off. Doh! Actually it�s a really good idea to do that. Basically it forces us to get the emotion across with the body first and then the facial animation is just icing on the cake. Many beginning animators rely on the facial animation to get an emotion across, but then your animation is only so-so. If the body is clearly showing an emotion and then the facial is merely adding to that, you are going to have one really strong animation. So for the rest of this term, I will be working on this dialogue shot without facial controls. The only controls I will have in the face are: the eyes and the mouth (open and close only�.like a puppet).

This week we were in charge of taking one of our clips and blocking out the shot with Bishop. I ended up choosing the Dumb and Dumber clip because it had a lot of potential for some great expressions. The Tommy Boy clip (�Which one you want�.�) was eliminated because laughs are really hard to animate and since I don�t even know how to do dialogue, I shouldn�t try to take on more of challenge than I already had. The Half Baked clip (�All my life�.�) was a close second, but since my mentor didn�t particularly like this one and I had no preference, I decided to go with the Dumb and Dumber clip. Alrighty then, here�s my first blocking pass: