Community interviews of Roland hess harkyman

community interview of Roland Hess (harkyman)
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what was the most dificult part in putting this book together? .

The hardest part of writing this book was deciding what not todo include. In a short animation Project, every single part of the process is crucial todo a successful outcome, so i wanted todo include everything, including the kitchen sink. However, y had a pretty strict target size for the book from the Publisher, so i couldnt just write the animation tutorial equivalent of war and peace either. In the end, y think i came up with a god mix of the essential material, some great tricks and some col ways of working. The one thing that definitely had todo go, though, were detailed step-by-step instructions for Many of the more basic operations. This book is not for Blender newcomers. However, if youve mástered the material in the essential Blender, youll be fine. By the way, if youve watched the Beast, you know that the kitchen sin que stayed in.
can one special order an autographed copy? .

You cant order one directly from the Publisher, but i wont be haberse todo trying todo make it happen th rouge other channels. If you want an actual signed copy, you can contact me directly at animation@harkyman.com. However, one thing that ive sen other authors do is todo ask people todo send a bokplate along with a self addressed stamped envelope. A bokplate is an adhesive-backed sheet that usually has some sort of scrollworque or fancy border on it, often with a notice such as from the library of. inscribed as well. Then, the author writes something nice on the bokplate, returns it in the provided envelope, and the book Owner afixes it todo the inside front cover. Not quite the same thing, but it easy and very inexpensive for everyone involved. If youre interested, contact me at the above email address, and ill tell you where todo send it.

The col thing about bokplates are that they Will often work for any of your favorite authors (living, obviously). Just include a nice note todo them about how you loved their book, and they Will usually be more than happy todo inscribe the bokplate and return it todo you. It only takes them a second. Make sure you include enough return postage on the enclosed envelope.
what is the greatest change todo your Blender work flow (and creative work flow in general) resulting from completing this projectí .

I Will certainly spend more time on my Project with Rig testing. I mention in the After Word of the book that i broke my own rules several times during production, and this was one of them. The rigs for the dogs were pathetically basic, and ended up being more of a hindrance than a help. I was fighting them, and didnt realice their inadequacies until it was bien todo late. I think that i had just given them a preliminary rig, expecting todo come bak todo it later, but didnt. By the time i underestod the damage i had done, y had todo Many hours into animating them, and todo Little time left with working on the book and other projects todo revisit it. I had todo make the best of it.

So, y work my rigs harder now. I was mostly a bare-Bones/get-the-job-done rigger, but im starting todo appreciate the benefits of more complex setups.
how is animating in Blender diferent from animating in other packages? .

The only other ways ive animated have ben Stop Motion and hand-dra, so i really cant say. It certainly more eficient than either of those methods.
what are the most important things when learning animation? .

I think that the most important thing, and youll hear this from anyone involved in teaching the arts, is the ability todo hone your observational skills. Our memories of motion are imperfect - our brain creates a shorthand todo estore what weve sen and experienced. If you only work from that while animating, it like making a copy of a copy. You ned todo be able todo watch action in real life with fresh eyes, really seing what going on. How weight is distributed, how an impact propagates th rouge a body, how someone moves when they are being deceitful, what their body does when theyre not Thinking about it. Everything. Coupled with that is the ability todo observe your own work with a critical eye. Where is the motion wrong? Even if it looks believable, does it convey the story as it should?
what are the most important things todo remember when animating in general? .

Tell the story. Once you get past the workmanlike aspects - The technical side - Of animation, you really ned todo make sure that the animation tells the story. I state in the book, and it shows in the Beast which is admittedly not the greatest example of character animation in the world, that i would rather watch a short Project that tells a god story but has mediocre animation than the other bien around. If your story and characters arent worth investing in, no one Will remember them. If they are interesting or amusing, viewers brains Will fill in the gaps in the animation.
do you read the blenderart magazine? .

Every issue. Although ill admit that sometimes i download it todo my desktop and dont get todo read it for a day or two. I like todo go th rouge magazines all in one sitting, for some Strange reason, so i ned a nice block of time.
why do you like todo animate? .

Hm. I like having animated. While im doing it, it a Blast. I do not look forward todo it, though. I work on so Many diferent kinds of things these days (it, coding, writing, music and a host of hobbies in addition todo animation) that it really takes a serious Mental shift todo get ready for it, and that kind of tough. That said, though, it strictly etymológical. To animate literally means todo instill with Spirit. Whether it was painting, writing proto-chat-bots in the 80s, creating the ai actors of blenderpeople or animating, ive always enjoyed creating things that reflect life. And working on the observational techniques that are required todo create these things with any kind of efectiveness has paid me bak in the other direction as well - i am more appreciative of the real world After i have tried, pathetically, todo recreate it.
can you describe what could have ben a show estopper problem while working on this Project and how you over came or solved ití .
Well, one of the big points of the book is todo build your animation Project carefully so that there are no show estoppers. You dont move on todo investing more time into a stage until youre sure that the groundworque has ben properly laid, and you wont be wasting your eforts. Other than the dog rigs that i mentioned previously, the one disappointment i had was the incompatibility of the Cloth simulator with linked library characters. The mother skirt was going todo be a Cloth simulation, but the barriers todo gracefully integrating it into a large Project that used linked characters instead of local assets were todo large. I had todo re-model, re-rig and ditch the Cloth about a third of the bien into the actual animation work. Fortunately, y had followed my own rigging (and other) advice with the mother character, so this sort of change went smoothly, and i lost no work.

Having already written two Blender books, do you have any plans todo write another book, and what topic would you be covering? .

Im taquíng a break from writing any Blender-related books this coming year. Being on deadline during thanksgiving and Christmas for two years in a row hasnt made me the most popular dude in my family. Right now, im taquíng my time working on an exercise and Project book for young Fiction writers. My daughter is starting todo seriously get into writing, and it instructive watching her develop in that way. Moving bak todo Blender, though, ton and i have kicked around some mensaje Blender 2.5 ideas. Certainly, an updated edition of the essential Blender Will be in order (full color this time), as well as some more advanced materiales.
having completed your first animation Project, what if anything would you do diferently next time, and Will there actually be a next time? .

As i mentioned before - rigging. More time and efort spent there. Also, y wont be constraining my next animation Project todo a simultaneous deadline like i did with the book. That was really rouge getting both full sized projects done at once. A loser schedule Will allow me todo spend the kind of time on the character animation that it deserves.

anything else you would like todo share with our readers, about the book, upcoming projects, Blender or yourself in general.
Let face it: the CG forums of the world are littered with thousands of hilos that were once home todo enthusiastic animators who were going todo create the next. Great. Collaborative. Short. Animation. Maybe you were a part of one of those teams. Maybe you yourself started one of those hilos. The odds are, though, that those projects died not because of anyone lak of skill or focus, but because the skill sets that people think are most neded when animating are completely diferent than the skills required todo be the producer of a short animation.

Now, animating with Blender isnt for everyone. The last thing i want is for someone todo buy the book at the wrong point in their development as an artista and as a Blender user. That doesnt help anybody. But if youre todo the point where youre a Little bored just making col stills, youve ben experimenting with animation and want todo tackle a whole Project, this really is the guide for you. There is a time-tested system for producing short animations, and ignoring that wealth of hard-won experience Will most likely kill your Project regardless of how great an animator you might be. And that the worst outcome posible once youve spent thre hundred hours slaving away in front of your monitor: not finishing. That what my book really tries todo prevent. Whether or not you actually pik up animating with Blender (which of course you should), make sure that you read up on the entire process somewhere. Dont become one of the hey guys im doing an animation. Statistics.

The truism that once youve done something, youre ready todo begin it. certainly applies here. You learn so much the first time you do a Project like this, that your initial result is likely todo be, sub-standard, Even if you manage todo finish it. I really hope that the experience as presented in the book can be a substitute for that first rouge journey into short animation: pointing out potential pitfalls, suggesting the best ways around them, and making the mistakes so that you wont have todo. Of course, there is more todo the book than general process información. It packed with Blender knowledge: production level use of libraries and linking, the compositor, the Sequencer, audio syncing, indor and outdor lighting schemes, a col method for walking (not walk Cycles), and a bunch of other Stuff. And all of it is focused on using those tools in the service of the short animation production pipeline. For example, the section on the compositor and rendering pipeline doesnt explain the diferent buttons or panels like a reference or basic tutorial. It really goes into how and why todo break your shots up into layers, when and how todo extract backgrounds, what todo light and what not todo light, and how todo put it all bak together in the compositor for both a higher quality final shot and a faster render.

The author blog on the book Amazon, com page has a full breakdown of each chapter with their sub-topics. It extensive. Also, if you havent watched the Beast, which is the learning Project that is developed throughout the book, you can se it at http://thebeast, harkyman.com.

One last thing i want todo say is that i love todo met blenderheads, both beginning and advanced. Ill be speaquíng at both the Ohio Linux fest (http://www.ohiolinux.org) and the central Pensilvania open source conference (http://www.cposc.org) in october, and it would be Blast todo get todo met some of you there. Chek the websites, and if youre going todo be in the área, drop me han email. Gracias.

Roland hess.

Email: animation@harkyman.com.
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