I have a problem with focusing. It seems whenever I have to do something that is percieved as work, (regardless if its paid work) my brain just break down. On the bus, on the MRT, even walking.. there are a million thoughts and things going through my brain. And I keep thinking, these are good ideas for analysis or just starting point for stories. But surely enough, when I get in front of a computer, the mind goes blank, actually it just refuses to think. Sort of like a instinctive rebelling through force of habit. (oxymoron?)
Very annoying. need to look into solutions.... but then that brings me to the next problem. Procrastination. and there is no cure for that.
hilscreate.blogspot.com
December 18, 2008
April 23, 2008
Eye Movements 3 - Saccades and Fixations
Great Article about the different ways of animating eyes from Synchrolux.
"Convergence
is a motion of both eyes relative to each other that ensures that an object is still foveated by both eyes when its distance from the observer is changed. The closer the object is, the more the eyes point towards each other. This movement can be voluntarily controlled, but is normally the result of a moving stimulus.
Saccades
are the principal method for moving the eyes to a different part of the visual scene, and are sudden, rapid movements of the eyes. Saccades can be initiated voluntarily, but are ballistic: that is, once they are initiated, their path of motion and destination cannot be changed. Visual input is suppressed during a saccade.
Pursuit motion
is a much smoother, slower movement than a saccade; it acts to keep a moving object foveated. It cannot be induced voluntarily, but requires a moving object in the visual field. One frequent failing of thoughtless animation is having the eyes demonstrate pursuit motion when there is no object being followed by the character’s eyes.
Nystagmus
is a saw-toothed pattern of eye movements that occurs as a response to the turning of the head (acceleration detected by the inner ear) or the viewing of a moving, repetitive pattern (the train window phenomenon). It consists of smooth `pursuit’ motion in one direction to follow a position in the scene, followed by a fast motion in the opposite direction to select a new position. This is an eye movement that has probably never been animated, and if it was, it would probably get rejected by the supervisor or director because it would look so odd.
Drift and microsaccades
occur during fixations, and consist of slow drifts followed by very small saccades (microsaccades) that apparently have a drift-correcting function. These movements are involuntary, and their function is in question.
Physiological nystagmus
is a high-frequency oscillation of the eye (tremor) that serves to continuously shift the image on the retina, thus calling fresh retinal receptors into operation. Physiological nystagmus actually occurs during a fixation period, is involuntary, and generally moves the eye less than 1°. As with microsaccades, you’d need to be in an extreme close-up for this to register, but it’s another reason the human eye looks ‘alive’ in live-action extreme close-ups.
Rolling
of the eyes is a rotational motion around an axis passing through the fovea and pupil. It is involuntary, and is influenced by among other things the angle of the neck. Although this is also something we can safely ignore as animators, some rigs will automatically provide this when using the ‘eye-target’ controller.
Of the above, it’s really the first three we’re concerned with. Because of the precision that CG animation allows, we can (and should) pay much more attention to these types of movements than is typically done in hand-drawn animation.
Convergence is fairly straightforward. In a properly rigged character, convergence should happen naturally as the eye target is moved close to the character’s face. If a rig lacks this function, or the eye-target control isn’t being used, it should be a simple matter to manually add in some convergence when a character is looking at something very close. You don’t need to go too far with this to portray convergence.
Pursuit is also straightforward. I like to use the eye target to match the motion of the object being tracked, and I like to make sure the head motion (if the head is rotating in the direction of the object being tracked) is somewhat out of phase with the eye movement, otherwise the sense of the eyes actually moving in pursuit motion is lost.
There really aren’t any timing considerations to convergence and pursuit, but there are for saccades. I’ve heard various rules of thumb regarding how many frames* a saccade should take, and how long the eyes should fixate between saccades. Rather than regurgitate those, I’ll lay out some data from physiology studies. I encourage readers to do their own research — look closely at reference like I’ve posted above, and see what the eyes really do."
"Convergence
is a motion of both eyes relative to each other that ensures that an object is still foveated by both eyes when its distance from the observer is changed. The closer the object is, the more the eyes point towards each other. This movement can be voluntarily controlled, but is normally the result of a moving stimulus.
Saccades
are the principal method for moving the eyes to a different part of the visual scene, and are sudden, rapid movements of the eyes. Saccades can be initiated voluntarily, but are ballistic: that is, once they are initiated, their path of motion and destination cannot be changed. Visual input is suppressed during a saccade.
Pursuit motion
is a much smoother, slower movement than a saccade; it acts to keep a moving object foveated. It cannot be induced voluntarily, but requires a moving object in the visual field. One frequent failing of thoughtless animation is having the eyes demonstrate pursuit motion when there is no object being followed by the character’s eyes.
Nystagmus
is a saw-toothed pattern of eye movements that occurs as a response to the turning of the head (acceleration detected by the inner ear) or the viewing of a moving, repetitive pattern (the train window phenomenon). It consists of smooth `pursuit’ motion in one direction to follow a position in the scene, followed by a fast motion in the opposite direction to select a new position. This is an eye movement that has probably never been animated, and if it was, it would probably get rejected by the supervisor or director because it would look so odd.
Drift and microsaccades
occur during fixations, and consist of slow drifts followed by very small saccades (microsaccades) that apparently have a drift-correcting function. These movements are involuntary, and their function is in question.
Physiological nystagmus
is a high-frequency oscillation of the eye (tremor) that serves to continuously shift the image on the retina, thus calling fresh retinal receptors into operation. Physiological nystagmus actually occurs during a fixation period, is involuntary, and generally moves the eye less than 1°. As with microsaccades, you’d need to be in an extreme close-up for this to register, but it’s another reason the human eye looks ‘alive’ in live-action extreme close-ups.
Rolling
of the eyes is a rotational motion around an axis passing through the fovea and pupil. It is involuntary, and is influenced by among other things the angle of the neck. Although this is also something we can safely ignore as animators, some rigs will automatically provide this when using the ‘eye-target’ controller.
Of the above, it’s really the first three we’re concerned with. Because of the precision that CG animation allows, we can (and should) pay much more attention to these types of movements than is typically done in hand-drawn animation.
Convergence is fairly straightforward. In a properly rigged character, convergence should happen naturally as the eye target is moved close to the character’s face. If a rig lacks this function, or the eye-target control isn’t being used, it should be a simple matter to manually add in some convergence when a character is looking at something very close. You don’t need to go too far with this to portray convergence.
Pursuit is also straightforward. I like to use the eye target to match the motion of the object being tracked, and I like to make sure the head motion (if the head is rotating in the direction of the object being tracked) is somewhat out of phase with the eye movement, otherwise the sense of the eyes actually moving in pursuit motion is lost.
There really aren’t any timing considerations to convergence and pursuit, but there are for saccades. I’ve heard various rules of thumb regarding how many frames* a saccade should take, and how long the eyes should fixate between saccades. Rather than regurgitate those, I’ll lay out some data from physiology studies. I encourage readers to do their own research — look closely at reference like I’ve posted above, and see what the eyes really do."
January 22, 2008
Short Film advice.
Important points from a article from Mark Kennedy's website about animated short.
- There are few limitations and very little guidance as to how to proceed and what kins of subject matter to tackle.
- Do you know enough about life and experienced enough to express what you want to say ?
The important part of the decision is to pick something that will sustain your interest and passion long enough for you to finish the damn thing.
- Shouldn't do what you think OTHERS will think is cool or funny or clever or intellectual etc..
Should do what you actually find interesting, engaging and insipring enough to work on 24 hours a day for the duration of the project.
- Biggest problem is trying to over reach in terms of complexity and/or polish.
- Audience always always always respond strongly to entertainment that holds a mirror up to the human condition.
- If you can show people a glimmer of truth about themselves, they will enjoy it and remember it for a long time.
- There is nothing that connects to an audience like seeing ourselves up on screen and make us laugh at outselves.
- What something that you've noticed about people that only you can express?
- Real humor and comedy comes from well made observation about who we are, not "funny" lines or "wacky" characters.
- Focus on something real, and true, something you actually believe. Don't try to make a grandiose statement but a small one. Better yet, don't try to make a grandiose statement but try to find something that you think is entertaining.
- Don't think about what's funny or going to get a laugh, Be sincere and simple, that always work.
- The MOST important thing is to be true to yourself. Pick something to do that you really like. If you find it entertaining and worth your time to do, then an audience will find it that way too.
- Really be honest to yourself and analyze why you picked your idea before you begin working on your film.
- Are you trying to make a film that you think other people will be impressed with, or that you think others will enjoy ?
- Is your film REALLY something that you would enjoy sitting through if you hadn't made it ?
- Be honest about what you really like and make a film that you would actually like to see because if you would like to see it then others will as well.
- Failure is part of everything and an artistic life is going to be full of failure. Failure is the best way to learn so don't be afraid of it. Becoming afraid is failing before you even tried.
- There are few limitations and very little guidance as to how to proceed and what kins of subject matter to tackle.
- Do you know enough about life and experienced enough to express what you want to say ?
The important part of the decision is to pick something that will sustain your interest and passion long enough for you to finish the damn thing.
- Shouldn't do what you think OTHERS will think is cool or funny or clever or intellectual etc..
Should do what you actually find interesting, engaging and insipring enough to work on 24 hours a day for the duration of the project.
- Biggest problem is trying to over reach in terms of complexity and/or polish.
- Audience always always always respond strongly to entertainment that holds a mirror up to the human condition.
- If you can show people a glimmer of truth about themselves, they will enjoy it and remember it for a long time.
- There is nothing that connects to an audience like seeing ourselves up on screen and make us laugh at outselves.
- What something that you've noticed about people that only you can express?
- Real humor and comedy comes from well made observation about who we are, not "funny" lines or "wacky" characters.
- Focus on something real, and true, something you actually believe. Don't try to make a grandiose statement but a small one. Better yet, don't try to make a grandiose statement but try to find something that you think is entertaining.
- Don't think about what's funny or going to get a laugh, Be sincere and simple, that always work.
- The MOST important thing is to be true to yourself. Pick something to do that you really like. If you find it entertaining and worth your time to do, then an audience will find it that way too.
- Really be honest to yourself and analyze why you picked your idea before you begin working on your film.
- Are you trying to make a film that you think other people will be impressed with, or that you think others will enjoy ?
- Is your film REALLY something that you would enjoy sitting through if you hadn't made it ?
- Be honest about what you really like and make a film that you would actually like to see because if you would like to see it then others will as well.
- Failure is part of everything and an artistic life is going to be full of failure. Failure is the best way to learn so don't be afraid of it. Becoming afraid is failing before you even tried.
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