Live Action Ref Shd Match Camera Angle in Maya

Anim Ref and Anim by Elin Berrio Pena

Most experienced animators know about the importance of shooting live action reference to create great animation. 

However, to get the best out of your reference, you should always be sure to match the correct camera angle in your shot. If you don't, the reference you shoot won't be nearly as useful.

Live Action Reference and The Road to El Dorado

The Road To El Dorado was a Dreamworks picture that I worked on back in the late 1990s.  I was assigned to Tulio, one of the two lead characters, voiced by Kevin Kline and supervised by lead animator James Baxter, who I had worked with a decade earlier on Who Framed Roger Rabbit in London.  It was a great experience, and I learned a lot, especially about the use of live action reference to create believable animation.

Tripod For Recording Live Action Reference

One of the best ways to get live-action reference for a piece of animation is to film yourself acting it out, capture the footage on your phone, and then import the footage onto an image plane in Maya.

The best way to film yourself is by mounting your smartphone on a tripod. 

We're recommending this excellent (and inexpensive) tripod, made by Linkcool, for mounting your phone/camera, while you do the acting and give the performance.

Using Live Action to Create Great Animation at Vimeo

Edward Muybridge led the way in the 1850s

The Escape Studios Vimeo Tutorial Channel is our main hub for our animation and VFX video tutorials, making it easy for our students to find tutorials to support their classroom studies.  

One challenge for all of our animation students is how to use live action reference to create great animation - as well as MoCap animation. 

Below is a list of our animation tutorials showing how live action reference and MoCap can be the animator's best friend.

Escape Students Work on Guard Bros' "Borderland"

Felicity Jones stars in Borderland.

Escape Studios is proud to be contributing over a dozen VFX shots to the forthcoming UK indie thriller "Borderland", directed by London-based film-makers Tom and Charles Guard.

In Borderland, a retired Irish paramilitary witnesses the fatal shooting of his pregnant wife by an SAS officer, taking his revenge to the streets of 1970's London.

Animate "Monty" Dancing Using Live Action

We've uploaded a new animation tutorial to our expanding Vimeo tutorial channel - how to animate a character dancing - using live action reference.

The purpose of the tutorial is to learn how to import live action reference footage into Maya and use it to create believable animation.

You can find the tutorial, which is free for all our students, at our Vimeo Channel.

Live Action Reference & The 11 Second Club

This month our second year undergraduate animators are entering the 11 Second Club, part of Module AN5001 in which they learn the art and craft of character animation. 

The 11 Second Club is a monthly character animation competition in which aspiring animators compete to win prizes and get their work noticed. Animators from all over the world participate, animating a character speaking a line of dialogue, sharing their progress with one another and critique each other's work - just like in a real animation studio.

So how to succeed in the 11 Second Club? One dependable method is for animators to film themselves acting out the line of dialogue - using live action reference to guide the animation.

How to Film Animals for Live Action Reference

In this guest blog, Escapee Paolo Amadini explains how to film animals for live action reference.

Using live action reference to inform your animation is one of the key skills we teach at Escape Studios. Live action is important for character animation acting shots, and also for creating believable animal and creature animation.

In the post below, Paolo explains how to go about capturing your own live action reference, how to do it all on a budget, and how to use the reference to create great animation.

Animate a Ball Throw with Alex Williams

We've added a new series of videos to our Vimeo Tutorial Channel, on how to animate a character throwing a ball.

The tutorial is important for any animator learning how to animate a physical action, and shows how to use live action reference in order to create a believable and technically accurate result.

The Lost City of Aztlan

The Lost City of Aztlan from Mariam Hussein on Vimeo.
What secrets lie within The Lost City of Aztlan? Directed by Mariam Hussein and produced by Michael Vodden, this short film about a long-hidden Mayan civilisation was created by our VFX students as part of their final graduation project. Filmed on location in Chislehurst Caves in South East London, the film was completed under Lockdown and is now being entered into international film festivals.

Great Reference at Greenscreenanimals.com

Greenscreen animals - great reference for animators

Greenscreenanimals.com is an excellent online resource that does what it says on the tin.

Greenscreenanimals is a website dedicated to live action clips of animals, all filmed against a green screen background.

For animators, this provides us with super-useful reference for studying animal locomotion; reference which can be easily imported into Maya and used as the basis for an animal or creature performance.

Dinosaurs: The Making of Jurassic World

Jurassic World

One of the highlights of last week's VIEW conference in Turin, Italy, was Glen McIntosh's presentation on  the making of Jurassic World, and Fallen Kingdom.

Glen was the animation supervisor on both projects. His talk was essentially a masterclass in creature animation, demonstrating how much careful research goes into the creation and animation of the dinosaurs.

McIntosh introduced himself as a man "obsessed with dinosaurs, obsessed with "how they looked, and how they moved."

He described the Jurassic Park series of movies as a "balance between science and entertainment", as the film-makers try to keep both audiences and paleontologists happy. 

Live Action Reference for Animators

Where can animators find useful live action reference? Reference is often a necessary starting point for producing believable animation.  Of course, YouTube is a great resource, but it can be hard to find what you want, and you may need to dig within YouTube to find particular channels that specialise in the particular kind of reference that you need.  Below is a list of some of the best online resources that our students have been using find the perfect live action reference for their shots.

100 Ways to Walk by Kevin Parry

100 Ways to Walk is a series of walks acted out by Kevin Parry, and intended as inspiration for animators. The key point of the video is that the way we walk says a lot about who we are, how we are feeling, how our day has been. A great walk cycle is the entry point for character animation - can the animator describe a character simply by the way he or she moves? It's one of the first things we teach at Escape Studios, but a good walk cycle can remain elusive even for an experienced animator. Acting one out yourself, and filming yourself doing it, is a great way to get started.

Great Camera Tripod for Live Action Reference

Photo-R Tripod

Animators start their work with a blank sheet of paper - or a blank screen. So how do you get a great performance, from nothing?

One of the best ways to bring your work to life is to use live-action reference, by filming yourself acting out the shot, capturing the footage on your phone, and then exporting the footage onto an image plane in Maya, so you can start animating.

But how you film yourself acting your scene out, if there is just one of you? After all, someone has to operate the camera, while you are acting. The answer is - you need a tripod.

Endless Reference for Animators

Using live action reference to inform your animation can be one of the best ways to get started as an animator.

I have used live action reference many times on many films, especially movies with human characters, such as The Road to El Dorado and Spirit - Stallion of the Cimarron, and especially on action shots where the motion was complex and hard to get right.

Re-Makes! Love 'Em or Hate 'em?

I was asked by Digital Arts magazine to do a piece on the new trend for live action re-makes of the Disney back catalogue, like "Jungle Book" and "Beauty and The Beast".

On balance, I'm in favour, in part because I don't think the re-makes detract from the original movies, but also (of course!) because big new animation projects create plenty of new jobs for animation graduates from Escape Studios - which can only be a good thing.  To read the full article, follow this link.  ----Alex

Animation Reference from the BBC Motion Gallery and Getty Images

Here is some great reference for animators, specialising in animal locomotion and behaviour, from the BBC and Getty Images.

The site is easily searchable so, say you need some reference footage of a cheetah running, it's all very easy to find. You can easily download the videos as .mp4 files, and then open them up in QuickTime so you can step through them frame by frame. It's a great resource for animators looking for reference to create accurate, realistic animal motion.

Why Study The Work of Edward Muybridge?

Edward Muybridge

Sooner or later all students of animation come across the work of Edward Muybridge.  Muybridge was a pioneering English photographer who spent much of his life in California, photographing studies of human and animal locomotion.

Muybridge's work, now in the public domain (i.e. the copyright has expired) is still of great importance to animators, despite having been done more than 100 years ago.

For almost any kind of animal locomotion, Muybridge is still very useful for life-action analysis, even in the era of YouTube. 

Muybridge was the first person to figure out the precise details of horse locomotion, proving that in a full gallop there was a period in the horse's stride where all four feet left the ground - something that was impossible to detect with the human eye.

How Do Animators Use Live Action Reference To Create Believable Animation?

Horse in Motion by Edward Muybridge

How can animators use live action reference to create believable animation?  Back in the old 2D days of hand-drawn animation, rotoscoping (as it was called) was a legitimate, if much criticised, method of achieving a realistic look and feel to your animation.

Today, the technology has changed, but 3D animators still need to study live action to help inform their animation.  This is especially the case when doing complex animal or creature animation, of the kind that is much in demand in VFX movies.  So how, in practice, does a MAYA animator use live action reference to get a great result? Below are some techniques for making it work.