🔴 Fall Animation Hangout - Lightbox Expo Giveaways | Live Fridays

0:00 All right, I'm live.

0:01 Hello.

0:03 Uh, if you're watching this later, you've clicked on this video.

0:07 It's live stream.

0:09 Uh, I'm doing live streams every Friday in October until Lightbox just because.

0:14 And, uh, if you want to check the description down below,

0:16 we've got a link to the Lightbox request

0:19 form if you got anything you want to see.

0:20 I've got some plans already, which you'll hear about,

0:23 uh, but you can kind of, you know, throw out your suggestions, requests,

0:26 anything you would really like to see at the event.

0:28 And then there's also a link for upcoming classes, uh, animation classes.

0:33 I've got a lot of stuff planned.

0:34 I'm going to be announcing a lot of stuff at Lightbox.

0:35 So, if you want to get a heads up on any of that stuff, links are below.

0:41 Uh, yeah, but if you're going to Lightbox, then I'll see you there.

0:45 And we'll have a lot of stuff happening.

0:46 I've got some talks that I'll be giving and I'll

0:50 have a booth and then other stuff will be happening.

0:55 So, uh, you can check out the link for for that.

1:00 Anyways, that's just the quick little overview,

1:02 but hello to everybody who's here.

1:07 I realize that when I always think about when I go live,

1:12 the whole point is to like chat and just be present,

1:15 but then I always think about the fact that like

1:18 people are going to click on this video later.

1:20 probably more people will end up watching this later than

1:23 are here live at any given moment or even total.

1:27 So, I feel like it's worth sharing some kind of intro

1:32 information of I don't know stuff that I know offhand like,

1:36 oh yeah, this is going to be useful that you know, whatever.

1:41 But what's up?

1:42 How's everybody doing?

1:46 I have not nailed down a time of when I want to go live on Fridays.

1:50 This is just kind of a just kind of a thing I want to try.

1:54 I was going to go live at like 10:00 a.m.

1:56 Eastern a couple hours ago, but I just had work stuff that I didn't

2:02 get to finish and get away from until now.

2:05 And so I just figured let's do it.

2:09 trying to be less precious with things with particulars of when to go

2:15 live and when to post a video and that kind of thing.

2:20 Greetings from Selfie Guy.

2:22 I will never forget.

2:26 How you doing?

2:28 Hey Jen, how you almost missed this?

2:29 You were going to doing it earlier.

2:30 I was planning on it.

2:32 Not planning on doing it when you were at work necessarily,

2:35 but I was planning on going live earlier.

2:38 What's up, Lannis?

2:40 Yeah, I was uh I guess I haven't slept yet.

2:45 Yeah, I was up.

2:45 I've been up since yesterday.

2:46 I was which is probably you can probably tell a little bit, but nope.

2:53 I was working.

2:54 I was busy.

2:55 I had a very productive day yesterday, very, very productive evening.

3:00 And I wasn't really let ready to like let the momentum stop.

3:03 And so, I just kind of kept working.

3:05 And then it was 6 am.

3:07 And then I was like,

3:09 maybe I'll have a snack because I'm in the middle of something right now.

3:12 And then I was still in the middle of things and working.

3:14 And then it was like it was like 10:00 and I was like,

3:16 ah, I'm supposed to go live now.

3:18 I need to finish this.

3:20 And then it was 12.

3:22 Then I was kind of finishing things at like 12:40 and I was like, "Okay,

3:25 now I can go live." And then I I don't know what else I did.

3:29 I did a couple of other Oh,

3:31 I had to like change the thumbnail for the live stream.

3:34 little things like that.

3:34 Anyway, so I've just been working for like I don't know 30 hours or something.

3:42 Been working since yesterday.

3:43 I don't think it's actually been 30 hours to be fair,

3:47 but I've definitely been working for the last like I don't know,

3:52 probably like 15 hours for sure.

3:55 Little breaks here and there, but anyway, I'm a little tired.

4:04 How are you guys doing?

4:07 Um, I have some fun stuff to play with here

4:15 in my office that I'll probably make some videos about soon,

4:19 which will be exciting.

4:21 Actually, I guess I'll just start off with that.

4:25 I'll Why not?

4:26 Why not?

4:27 What else do I have to talk about?

4:28 Who knows?

4:29 I have no plan.

4:30 There's no plan for this.

4:31 I'm just We're just chilling.

4:33 We're hanging out.

4:34 Hey, everybody.

4:37 I remember those kinds of days, multiple days when I was at college.

4:39 Yeah, it was a lot easier before.

4:41 I used to stay up all night for like a couple days

4:44 at a time and it was like not that big of a deal.

4:46 I get really tired and then I go to sleep sleep for, you know,

4:48 a solid 10, 11 hours and then I was fine.

4:55 It's not the case anymore.

4:56 I don't recover.

4:57 I don't bounce back so quickly anymore.

5:02 But e, where's your Toothless action figure?

5:07 You know, that's a great question.

5:10 I think Toothless is in the closet.

5:13 Toothless is still in the closet.

5:15 I never actually unboxed it when I moved here because I

5:17 never actually properly decorated my office until like three weeks ago.

5:22 Two, three weeks ago.

5:24 It's now somewhat presentable, but it's not actually decorated still.

5:28 And so you can see like there's a big old gap right here.

5:31 He could go there.

5:34 I'm still deciding if I want to keep

5:35 that shelf there if I'm going to make some changes.

5:37 But yeah, I guess Toothless is currently in the closet.

5:40 I should unbox him and I should put him

5:41 like here because that's a good spot for him.

5:43 Maybe.

5:45 Yeah, that's where he's at.

5:49 He's napping.

5:52 Hello.

5:53 Hello.

5:54 Uh, so virtual production.

6:00 I don't know if that's interesting to anybody,

6:01 but I'm working on I'm not yet working on it.

6:05 I'm planning a video.

6:07 I'm like writing the video.

6:09 I'm writing a video about virtual production because I have been like working

6:14 on virtual production for I don't know almost two years now since I moved here.

6:21 Since I moved to this apartment in New York,

6:25 I have been it was one of the first things I set up

6:28 and I think I talked about it a little bit before in the last stream,

6:30 but like since I got here,

6:31 I have wanted to explore virtual production and I've wanted to dabble in it.

6:36 And so I've been slowly slowly building up

6:39 my on camera like at home virtual production setup

6:44 and I've tried to do it at like a budget level and then I've also tried to do it

6:48 at like a professional level where it's like okay

6:50 how do I do it with like streaming equipment

6:52 like you know not that that's cheap bunch of streaming

6:58 gear but it's a lot more affordable than like

7:01 professional film gear you know so I started

7:05 with that and then I started getting little pieces of more

7:10 professional gear so I could do it properly so

7:14 I could compare and uh anyway you can see

7:17 remnants of of pieces like this is my green

7:19 screen that's just kind of sitting here this green

7:22 screen um TV on the wall which I can

7:26 use as a virtual production background bunch of camera stuff,

7:36 you know, Blackmagic stuff, signal converters, BNC cables,

7:43 which I didn't even know what a BNC cable was.

7:50 Anyways, that monitor was expensive.

7:54 That was that was probably the largest purchase

7:57 I had to make in this whole thing.

8:00 I got it like a while back, but I use it to film my videos anyway.

8:03 Anyways, that's a whole thing, but I'm finally making the upgrades that I

8:08 need to actually get the virtual production stuff working,

8:13 which is very exciting.

8:14 I have a couple things over here.

8:15 I'll show you in a second.

8:17 First, let me catch up with everybody here.

8:19 Real dragon cave.

8:22 Oh, I was very confused for a second.

8:25 How's the vibe in New York?

8:26 I love it.

8:27 I like it a lot.

8:28 Vibe's good.

8:29 Vibe's very good.

8:31 It's now starting to become fall here.

8:34 It's getting like crispy.

8:35 It's like 60s air.

8:38 What is it today?

8:40 Today it's currently it's about it's almost 2 p.m.

8:44 where I'm at right now and it's 62 degrees Fahrenheit.

8:48 I don't know what that is Celsius.

8:50 I have absolutely no idea.

8:52 I'm trying to see if it tells me somewhere on here.

8:56 No, apparently not.

8:58 I have absolutely no idea what the conversion is.

9:02 Hello.

9:02 How do I How do I like You would think

9:05 that it would give you both that it would be like,

9:10 "Oh, this much Fahrenheit, this much Celsius.

9:13 It's really not interested in helping me out there." Okay.

9:16 Well, and that's why I don't know Celsius.

9:18 There's whatever.

9:24 Anyway, it's very nice.

9:25 I've been very much enjoying the brief times I go outside.

9:29 I am in my office most of the time.

9:31 I typically don't leave.

9:33 I just work.

9:34 As I said earlier, I've been sitting in this chair

9:37 for almost 15 hours straight because I I didn't I haven't slept.

9:44 I just I was working all day and then I worked

9:46 all night and then I was working this morning and then

9:48 I was supposed to go live earlier and then I

9:49 didn't because I was working and then I finished my project.

9:51 I was like, "Oh, I guess I can go live now." And here we are.

9:55 And I I've been up working since yesterday and I'm

10:00 still so behind on everything I need to be doing.

10:06 Anyway, hello from Turkey.

10:09 Wow.

10:10 Hey, that's cool.

10:13 Hello from Hello from here.

10:18 Oh, Rainy, I owe you a message.

10:20 How you doing?

10:22 Um, I feel like every time I go live,

10:26 there's always somebody who jumps in the chat that I'm like,

10:28 "Oh, I owe this person an email or a Discord

10:30 message or something." Like I said, I'm always behind.

10:34 There's so much to do at every moment.

10:39 Have you made it upstate yet for fall colors?

10:40 No, I haven't.

10:42 I want to.

10:43 I haven't gone upstate yet.

10:45 I don't think I've ever been upstate in New York.

10:48 No, I haven't yet.

10:51 I need to I really want to this season.

10:53 So, I'm I'm like hoping to make that happen probably November hopefully.

11:00 I miss season so badly.

11:01 Enjoy the fall weather.

11:02 I will try it.

11:04 It this it's like there's so much time that elapses and I'm like,

11:08 "Oh, I haven't left my apartment in six days.

11:15 I'll just not leave anyway.

11:20 I enjoy it when I get a glimpse of it.

11:23 So, I actually I physically moved my desk to face

11:27 this way so I could look out the window more.

11:29 I have a window right here and I was facing

11:32 the wall because it felt like it made sense for this room.

11:34 And so, I was facing the wall because I

11:36 didn't want to cover the window with my desk.

11:38 But then I realized that like for the last year and a half,

11:41 I'd be working and then I would turn and look at the window be like,

11:44 "Oh my god, it's dark." Or, "Oh my god,

11:46 it's light." Like last time I looked, it wasn't that time of day.

11:49 And I always was like shell shocked by like, oh, I have no concept of time.

11:53 And so I I specifically just reoriented my entire office so

11:57 I could move my desk so I could face this way

12:00 so that I could like glimpse the outdoors while I

12:03 work so that maybe I have some sense of the world.

12:07 Anyway, uh, do you still do parkour?

12:13 Not really.

12:14 I'd like to.

12:15 I mean, I still enjoy it.

12:16 I still can do it.

12:18 Not at the level I used to be able to do it,

12:19 but um it's something that I I wish I could

12:27 devote more time to getting back into it a little bit,

12:32 but it was I was very spoiled living in LA near Tempest,

12:36 the free running academy, because it was just like the perfect place for it.

12:39 And I think we have a couple parkour gyms in New York,

12:42 but I haven't been to them yet.

12:43 So, I've actually it's on my list like a I want to check those out,

12:46 but I I haven't done it yet.

12:51 Don't forget to stretch 15 hours feels painful.

12:53 Yeah, my tailbone kind of hurts.

12:55 I was I I'm at a standing desk.

12:57 I was planning on standing.

13:00 I was considering standing for the stream, but then here I am.

13:04 Here I sit.

13:05 Maybe we'll switch it up in a little bit.

13:09 I did recently start using a treadmill at my desk, though.

13:12 I feel like it's been great.

13:13 Actually, I'm really enjoying that.

13:16 What are you working on?

13:16 I am working on a couple things right now.

13:21 Feel like I'm juggling like four different projects and then my own stuff.

13:26 I And that's typically how I'm typically I'm

13:29 juggling like I don't know three to four

13:34 what I would call external projects and then

13:36 I've got my own stuff in various like categories.

13:42 Right now, external projectwise,

13:46 I'm animating some stuff for a cordor digital video, which is very cool,

13:51 which will end up being a video that I end up

13:53 making because or because I'm I'm helping them with a video,

13:57 which I can't say what it is because I

13:59 don't I don't think they don't announce their video,

14:00 so I'm not going to spoil it.

14:02 But, um, yeah.

14:04 Yeah.

14:05 So, I'm working on a corridor video and then

14:07 from that I'll definitely make a video on my channel of like,

14:09 oh, how I did what I did over here because that's it's a fun little,

14:13 you know, companion piece.

14:16 Hopefully, I'm hoping people will find my channel because of it.

14:19 Uh, and then I am working on I'm working on some Oh, what am I allowed to say?

14:31 I'm working on some training content, I suppose,

14:36 some tutorial type stuff for Epic Games.

14:39 Uh, that's something that I have to do this weekend.

14:43 Finish that up.

14:44 And then I What else am I doing?

14:51 Allow me to consult my list because I can't keep track of anything anymore.

14:56 Oh, yeah.

14:57 I'm teaching a virtual production training course.

15:00 I'm super I'm supervising a virtual production like program in Singapore

15:07 and I'm also training a bunch of artists for that program and spinning

15:12 up a virtual art department for that virtual production shoot that I'll

15:17 be a part of and that's all so that's all in Singapore.

15:20 I went there to start off and then I've been remote

15:22 ever since and I'm kind of doing that in the evenings.

15:25 Um, and so I'm doing that and then I'm doing

15:28 a bunch of stuff for Lightbox and I'm redoing and revamping

15:34 and adding a bunch of new course stuff which I'm

15:37 going to be announcing at Lightbox which is very exciting.

15:41 And then there's videos and like normal stuff.

15:45 And I guess the other thing is with all the virtual production,

15:47 I'm trying to actually get my at home

15:48 virtual production setup working and like like foolproof, which I'll show this.

15:57 I'll show this.

15:57 This is cool.

16:04 Upgrades.

16:07 I have recently acquired this Ultimat 12 4K.

16:17 This is a hardware keyer.

16:21 It's a green screen keying piece of hardware that you

16:25 know I show you the picture on the box.

16:29 Before and after, right?

16:32 This is you plug a bunch of camera sources in and it does

16:36 the green screen stuff and it does a really really really good job.

16:39 It suppose it's I think as far as I'm

16:41 aware and I'm pretty sure this is a true statement, but as far as I'm aware,

16:45 it is the best green screen keying hardware option available.

16:52 I mean, technically there's like a fancier version of this.

16:54 It's like 8K, but who needs that?

16:57 So, anyway, I have this because I do green screen stuff

17:00 for production because I don't have an LED wall except for the TV.

17:04 Anyway, that's this.

17:05 And there's all these cables.

17:06 You can plug a bunch of stuff into different places.

17:07 And so, there's that.

17:12 And then I have this to go with it,

17:15 which is where you actually do the recording because once you do all that stuff,

17:18 you it does that thing doesn't do the recording.

17:20 That thing just does the keying and then it

17:22 sends the video signal of like here's your finished video.

17:25 What are you going to do with it?

17:26 You have to record it somewhere.

17:28 So that's this.

17:30 So I have those, but this has to like record to a hard drive.

17:33 And I didn't get a hard drive.

17:35 So that comes next week.

17:39 that.

17:41 And so I've had to draw this like diagram.

17:46 Let's see.

17:46 Is there anything here I can't show you?

17:48 No, it's fine.

17:50 I had to like draw this whole signal flowchart trying to figure

17:53 out like which cables and adapters I need to plug what into where.

17:58 I don't know if this makes any sense to anybody, but there's it is there's that.

18:05 I have to do this a lot actually for my office.

18:06 cuz I have so much stuff plugged into different places that I

18:10 just have to like constantly draw diagrams to figure out what I'm doing.

18:15 I don't know if you actually wanted the full answer, but that's the answer.

18:17 What am I doing right now?

18:18 That's the kind of stuff I'm doing right now.

18:22 A lot of miscellaneous stuff that is like 3D adjacent.

18:34 That was my reminder for you.

18:36 effective.

18:37 Uh, I'm going to write a note to myself so I don't forget again.

18:41 Second, giant Post-it notes.

18:49 Best thing ever.

18:58 Uh, there was there's something else I was going to say.

19:01 Oh, I was just going to say light box.

19:02 While we're on the topic of lightbox, just before I forget again,

19:05 there is a pinned comment in the wherever the thing is,

19:10 the chat and link in the description.

19:12 If you are going to Lightbox, fill out the form.

19:15 It's not a crazy form.

19:16 It's just like if you have any ideas

19:18 or requests or things you'd like to see at Lightbox,

19:20 I'm going to be doing some stuff.

19:21 And so, if you have stuff that you'd really like to have happening, let me know.

19:27 But then there's other stuff, too.

19:28 There's there's another there's another reason why if you're going to Lightbox,

19:33 you should fill out the form,

19:34 but I can't tell you why yet, but you should do it.

19:36 If you're going to Lightbox or you're going to be in LA

19:38 or you're going to be in Pasadena at the end of the month,

19:41 you should fill out the form.

19:43 Can't tell you why just yet because there's

19:46 like a 80% chance I think it's an 80%

19:53 chance that there's going to be something very

19:55 very cool happening that I have no better

20:00 way to let you know than if you fill out the form because then I can

20:02 just like there's a little question that's like

20:05 hey what are your plans on a certain day?

20:07 Got got plans?

20:09 No.

20:09 Good to know.

20:10 So, you know, fill the form.

20:13 Uh, oh, but I can tell you if you're going to Lightbox,

20:17 I'm going to be doing some giveaways, which will be really exciting.

20:20 I don't know if I want to tell you all of what I'm giving away,

20:23 but I'll tell you some of what's being given away.

20:26 I've got some stuff that I'm bringing with me to the convention.

20:34 And then some of the channel sponsors and uh

20:37 brand partners that I that I work with.

20:39 I reached out to a bunch of the companies that I work

20:41 with on YouTube and who sponsor my videos and are supportive and you

20:45 know help me do what I do because one of the biggest

20:48 ways that I'm able to pay my bills is with sponsored videos.

20:50 And so the uh I reached out to a bunch of my sponsors

20:55 and you know companies I work with and the contacts there and said,

20:58 "Hey, I'm doing all this stuff at Lightbox.

21:00 Do you want to get involved?

21:01 Do you want to help like make this cool?"

21:02 And a lot of them well there wasn't a lot of time.

21:07 It was a kind of a it was planning some of the stuff

21:11 I planned it took a bit longer and so there wasn't

21:13 a whole lot of time for people to like arrange stuff and so

21:17 in the limited time we've had not everybody was able to say yes.

21:20 A lot of people wanted to but like ah we can't for XY reasons

21:23 but a lot of companies came through a fair

21:27 amount have come through with some cool stuff.

21:29 So we've got some software licenses.

21:32 We've got actually I don't know what one of the products is.

21:39 Give me a second.

21:40 What is this item?

21:45 Is it Is it a Oh, this it's one of these.

21:55 Give me a second.

21:56 I'm not going to show it because I don't know which model it

21:59 is and I don't want to get anyone's hopes up for the wrong thing.

22:04 Is it a tablet?

22:07 I think it's I'm fairly certain.

22:16 It's just a It's just a tablet, right?

22:24 Just making sure that it's not like a computer.

22:26 Also, I don't think it's a computer.

22:28 I think it's just a Oh, wait.

22:32 Oh, no.

22:34 It's a proper tablet.

22:36 It actually is not a display tablet.

22:39 Ah, that's cool.

22:41 I'm actually not familiar with this thing yet.

22:44 Anyways, there's going to be some very cool giveaways at Lightbox.

22:48 We're going to have uh a tablet a certain tablet software licenses.

22:58 Um, I'm forgetting I'm blanking some cool like desk peripherals,

23:03 like things you plug into your computer to do cool stuff in 3D.

23:11 There's one thing in particular that I've been told

23:18 that we're going to be able to give away,

23:20 but I don't know for sure that it's going to arrive in time.

23:22 And so, it will be given away.

23:25 It just may not be with me there.

23:27 And so, it's either going to be something

23:28 that I hand to someone at the event and say,

23:30 "You've won this." Or it's something that I have to get somebody like,

23:34 "All right, share your address and it'll be shipped to you.

23:41 But I'm gonna I'm gonna hang on to that one.

23:43 We still have more live streams this month.

23:45 How else do I keep you coming back?

23:47 Anyway, we're going to be doing some cool giveaways.

23:50 I've also reached out to a few animation studios and I'm trying

23:53 to see if any studios want to provide some like studio merch,

23:58 movie posters, that kind of stuff.

23:59 We'll see.

24:00 I don't have a lot of contacts at like in those departments at studios.

24:04 So like I'm not really sure who to ask most of the time,

24:06 but I'm kind of reaching out here and there to be like,

24:07 "Hey, do you guys have any like extra

24:09 stuff you want to just share with people?" So,

24:14 you know, hopefully some fun stuff.

24:18 Anyway, now that you're in New York,

24:21 you desperately need to go to the old Reinbeck Aerodyome and see the air shows.

24:26 Huh.

24:27 I don't think I've seen an air show since I was a kid.

24:31 Feel like I vaguely remember an air show at some point in my life,

24:34 but I don't really think I've been

24:36 to an air show as like a cognitively whole person.

24:47 Moved to Unreal recently, but finding simple rigs such as bouncing

24:50 ball rig with tails and legs for animating.

24:52 Wait, move finding simple is a problem.

24:57 Yeah, there's um there's not a ton of rigs yet for Unreal.

25:02 I mean, there's some, but there's not a lot.

25:04 The thing that I would recommend is the cardboard box.

25:07 There is a cardboard box rig built into the control

25:09 rig sample pack inside of uh Fab that gives you

25:14 a lot of the stuff that you're going to want

25:15 to play with that a bouncing ball would normally do.

25:18 So, if you're trying to kind of just peek into Unreal,

25:24 um I go all through all that stuff in my Unreal classes, but in general,

25:28 if you're just trying to jump into Unreal and you want to start some animation,

25:31 grab the control rig sample pack off of Fab

25:34 and inside of it's a control rig folder props card box.

25:41 It's it's in the props folder, but it's a cardboard box rig and it's

25:44 it's like a solid bouncing ball equivalent.

25:53 Uh, what's up?

25:54 I'm from Germany.

25:55 Hello.

25:56 Hello.

25:57 Hello.

26:01 Can't come.

26:01 Can't go to light box because I'm broke because America ain't safe right now.

26:06 Fair.

26:09 Can the prizes be shipped to Canada?

26:12 I'm planning on just having them with me.

26:14 My my plan is to just everything I'm planning on giving away at Lightbox,

26:17 I'm planning on just handing to people.

26:21 Uh because one of the things about Canada is if

26:23 I were to ship stuff to Canada, I'm Is that true?

26:27 I'm fairly certain that if I ship stuff to Canada,

26:30 you have to pay like additional taxes when you pick it up or something.

26:35 I forget the details now.

26:36 It's been a while since I've had to deal with that.

26:39 But I'm I'm not planning on doing any shipping if I don't have to.

26:42 I'm just going to have the stuff with me at light box and be like,

26:44 "Here you go." And if you need to ship it to yourself, then ship it to yourself.

26:50 But that's kind of my plan.

26:54 What's up, Chris?

26:56 What's up, Cherry Bud?

27:00 Uh, yeah.

27:01 But, uh, light box should be a fun time.

27:03 I'm I have a lot of stuff left to do for planning that, uh, it's a lot.

27:11 I have a lot of things.

27:12 But it should be fine.

27:15 It'll be fine.

27:20 Um, but yeah, what's everybody else?

27:24 What's everybody else doing?

27:25 What what animated movies have we seen lately?

27:27 Or what other movies in general have we seen?

27:29 No spoilers.

27:30 There's a spoiler-free zone.

27:32 No discussions of plots.

27:34 Just general question.

27:37 Any movies that people should watch?

27:41 any games that people should play?

27:45 Feel like I've been more in uh game territory than movie territory lately.

27:51 When I have free time, just want to play video games.

27:58 Is that that movie?

28:01 I feel like I I feel like I know what movie you're talking about.

28:06 Is it on Netflix?

28:07 I can't remember where it lives.

28:09 Also, I had no idea you were going to be at Lightbox.

28:11 I hope to meet you there.

28:12 Yeah, I haven't announced it very well.

28:15 I've only talked about it in these live streams.

28:16 I need to make some posts.

28:19 I'm very bad at promoting stuff.

28:21 Uh, are you going to have your own booth

28:23 or will you be presenting a demo on the stage?

28:24 Both.

28:25 I will be doing both.

28:27 Uh, if you actually I should share the link to this here.

28:31 Let me drop this in chat.

28:37 I will have a booth, booth 831.

28:40 It's kind of in the back on the right side.

28:44 And then I will be giving two talks, one on Saturday, one on Sunday.

28:49 And I'm giving a talk on uh going solo and working

28:53 as an independent artist and the things I've learned there.

28:57 And then I'll be giving a talk on Emerald Engine.

29:00 So two different talks Saturday, Sunday.

29:03 And then a booth.

29:05 And then other stuff.

29:07 I'm going to be hosting some giveaways.

29:09 I've got some plans for some stuff going on at my booth.

29:13 Dot dot dot.

29:15 Other things in the works that aren't confirmed yet,

29:19 but I'm close to confirming them and very hopeful.

29:24 Very hopeful.

29:25 I'm optimistic.

29:26 Really hoping that they happen.

29:34 But yeah, it'll be a good time.

29:35 I I'm more involved in this year's Lightbox than I've ever been before,

29:38 which I'm very excited about.

29:39 I've always wanted to speak at Lightbox and like do more at the event.

29:42 And so, this is hopefully the first of many Lightbox adventures.

29:49 I'm also planning on making some videos at Lightbox this year.

29:51 I have never I haven't made a video at or from Lightbox

29:55 since the first year I ever went to it.

29:57 Since the first year it started in 2019, I haven't made a video.

30:00 I never bring my camera to Lightbox or anything.

30:03 But this year, I'm planning on actually making some stuff, which would be fun.

30:09 So, if you were there and you want to be in a video,

30:11 you know, just jumping in front of the camera.

30:15 Thoroughly enjoying Claire Obscure.

30:17 Expedition 33.

30:20 H, I don't know that game.

30:24 I feel like I'm always really late to the party

30:26 on like what games are popular and what games are like like,

30:29 oh my gosh, everyone's playing this.

30:33 Huh.

30:35 Yeah, I have to see I've seen nothing of this game.

30:39 Turnbased RPG with unique real-time mechanics.

30:42 Cool.

30:45 I have to check it out.

30:48 I'm so behind on like the game like like B, wasn't it Bolatro?

30:53 The game of the year last year was

30:55 the card game that everyone was like, "Don't play it.

30:57 You'll get addicted." I really want to try it.

30:59 I have yet to even buy it.

31:02 I'm just I'm always behind my list of like I'm working through my games.

31:05 It's just I'm so slow.

31:07 I never have time reading more than anything else right now.

31:16 I have been also trying to read more.

31:18 What's What do you What is your genre?

31:22 I'm like I was going to say what is your genre of book?

31:25 I'm like sci-fi fantasy.

31:28 Those are my two.

31:30 I live in fiction, fantasy, and sci-fi.

31:33 That's like where my where I live.

31:36 What was the last thing I read?

31:38 I'm listening to some audio books right now,

31:40 but I don't quite count that as the same.

31:42 I count that as like having read a book,

31:44 but I don't count it as actively reading.

31:47 I'm What am I actively reading right now?

31:51 I guess I finished a book recently.

31:55 What was it?

31:56 Shoot.

31:56 What was the book I just finished?

32:00 I can't remember the name of the book I just finished.

32:05 What the heck?

32:07 Oh.

32:07 Oh.

32:08 Oh.

32:08 Oh.

32:08 It was the um What's that zombie movie?

32:11 Like that Dawn of the Dead or something?

32:14 Is that right?

32:15 Dawn of the Dead.

32:16 Is it book?

32:19 Yeah, I just read Dawn of the Dead.

32:21 That's pretty good.

32:24 Before that, I was I wrote like I read like

32:26 three different separate books and separate series about like magic.

32:32 One was really actually one was really like intense and kind of like

32:35 thrillery and another one was more like mystery noir kind of thing.

32:46 Both very good.

32:55 The Chinese movie, highest grossing animated film of all time.

32:57 Yeah, but where does it live?

32:59 Isn't it on Netflix or something?

33:01 Or maybe I just saw it.

33:02 I don't know where I saw it.

33:03 Somewhere I saw it and I was like wish list,

33:06 but I don't remember where that was.

33:12 It wasn't feeling like going out of the light box,

33:13 but after hearing that you're coming through might actually,

33:15 but I haven't got my tickets at all.

33:19 I think I think there's still tickets.

33:22 I don't think they've sold out or anything.

33:25 I actually Oh, here's I guess here's the thing I'll say.

33:28 Um I need to make a post about this.

33:30 I have not actually posted about this anywhere, but I'm looking for two things.

33:36 Well, I'm looking for several things to light box,

33:38 but um there are two things that I need to announce.

33:45 It's not like an announcement,

33:46 but I need to like make a post about it somewhere.

33:49 I haven't set up a form for either of these things yet.

33:52 I need to set up forms for both of these things.

33:54 But, uh, I'm currently looking for two things for Lightbox.

34:00 If there are any animators who want to be able to, if

34:06 there's any animators who want to give feedback to artists at Lightbox,

34:10 because that's one of the things it's like people love

34:12 to get feedback on their work when they go to these events.

34:14 And if you are someone who's like like I would love to give feedback.

34:18 I like doing that.

34:20 Um, I'm looking for some animators to participate

34:25 in some of the stuff I'm doing in my booth.

34:27 One of those things is providing feedback for people.

34:31 There's more to it than that, but at a really base level,

34:34 that's one of the things I'm looking for.

34:35 And so, I need to make a form to like where people can like say, "Oo, me.

34:41 Here's my information.

34:42 Here's the days I'm going." But that's one thing I'm looking for.

34:44 And so if that is you, then since I don't have a form yet,

34:48 feel free to either email me or DM me on Discord

34:51 or something or DM me on Instagram or LinkedIn or whatever.

34:57 Um, those are the platforms I use.

34:59 Email, Discord, LinkedIn, Instagram.

35:03 I don't think I get notifications for all of them.

35:07 No, I don't think I get notifications for all of them.

35:10 some of them I do.

35:11 Anyway, but uh that's one thing and then the other

35:16 thing and this is probably a little bit Yeah,

35:21 the other thing I'm looking for is I am

35:24 going when I'm not allowed to leave my booth.

35:27 If you have a booth at Lightbox and I think most conferences,

35:30 you're not allowed to leave the booth empty.

35:33 There has to be someone at the booth at all times.

35:35 Uh, which also since I'm gonna have like a laptop

35:39 there and like I'm doing stuff at the booth,

35:41 like I'm not going to want to just like leave it there either.

35:43 So, uh, Jess will be with me, my wife.

35:47 She'll be there helping with stuff,

35:48 but there will be times that I'm going to be speaking and so I'm going

35:51 to want to go and speak and she's going to come with me and see me speak.

35:57 And so, uh, I will need to make a form

36:01 for this, but I will be looking for two people.

36:05 to help with my booth.

36:09 Um, two volunteers essentially.

36:13 And what I can offer you in exchange is uh ticket to light box.

36:20 It's not constant, right?

36:22 because it's not like like I'll be at the booth most of the time,

36:25 but there's going to be times that I'm going to need

36:26 to like I want to go buy art or I'm going to need

36:28 to take a meeting or I'm going to be speaking or I

36:31 just need to step away for a minute for whatever reason or something.

36:35 Um, and so sometimes I'll leave and then Jess will run

36:39 the booth and sometimes we'll both need to step away or whatever.

36:42 And so it's not like it's on call necessarily.

36:45 There might be like a couple there there might be a time

36:48 like ah but more than anything it's it's a scheduled thing.

36:51 It's like for these pockets of time,

36:56 take over the booth so that I can go do my speaking my talk or whatever.

37:02 And so if anybody here is wanting to go to Lightbox and yeah,

37:10 if you want to go to Lightbox and you're in the LA area or you're

37:12 planning on being there or whatever and uh I I need to make a form

37:19 to make this like official and it's kind of like a job interview or job

37:23 application in a way just because like I need to know a little bit about people.

37:29 I'm gonna trust you to run the booth and like watch my laptop

37:32 and generally just kind of be there representing what I'm doing there.

37:36 Um, I need to know a little bit about you.

37:42 I'm going to sneeze.

37:46 Excuse me.

37:48 But yeah, so you know,

37:51 if somebody comes looking for me or somebody comes like asking and you're like,

37:55 "Oh, I don't like to talk to people.

37:56 It freaks me out to have to like talk to people." then like well it's

37:59 probably not the right fit because you have to run the booth for a little bit.

38:04 Um but anyways so uh just as a as a thing

38:09 if anybody here's considering going to light boot light

38:12 box or you haven't bought your tickets yet or you

38:15 want to give your ticket to somebody else and you

38:17 want another ticket or something like if you're if anybody

38:19 here is interested uh or if you're watching this later

38:23 when it's no longer live uh I will need

38:25 to put a form but feel free to reach out.

38:27 I will be doing that for him probably today.

38:30 I need to actually really do that because lightbox starts two weeks from today.

38:36 Literally, it is what two o'clock in an hour because the doors

38:40 open I think at noon on Friday if I'm not mistaken.

38:44 So in one hour, two weeks from now, Lightbox begins.

38:51 So I really need to do that.

38:52 So anyway, I will likely make that form this evening

38:56 and I'm going to post some stuff on my Instagram and I'm

38:59 going to post some stuff on I'll probably make a YouTube

39:03 community post and I might even post it on LinkedIn.

39:05 I should probably post on LinkedIn.

39:06 I'll post it on LinkedIn.

39:08 But anyway, yeah, because for having a booth,

39:14 I'm going to have two exhibitor badges for paying

39:17 for a booth because I'm not going to have an artist booth.

39:20 I'm going to have like a It's not a sponsor booth.

39:23 I guess it's I don't know.

39:25 There's like artist Alley.

39:26 If you've been to Lightbox before, then you might know the layout a little bit.

39:30 Artist Alley is like where there's artists and you

39:33 can like buy their art and support them.

39:37 I don't make physical art as much as I wish I could.

39:40 It's not really my thing.

39:42 At least not yet.

39:43 One day maybe, but I'm not there.

39:45 And so I don't have an artist alley booth.

39:47 I have like a sponsor booth,

39:49 but not like a fancy sponsor booth because I'm not like a studio.

39:55 I have a smaller sponsor booth.

39:57 So anyway, um for doing that, I got two exhibitor

40:03 badges and then for being a speaker I get a badge.

40:06 So I'll have one and then I I bought

40:09 a second I bought an extra exhibitor badge as well.

40:13 That way Jess and I both have badges.

40:17 so that we can get in when we need to get

40:18 in and set up the booth and all the other stuff.

40:20 And then I have an additional exhibitor badge so

40:23 that somebody else is able to come in at any time

40:26 because the exhibitor badge lets you get in early and stay

40:28 later because you're there for like setup and tear down.

40:30 And so if I need help with those kinds of things, then somebody has that.

40:35 But then so I'm not relying on one person.

40:37 If it's like, "Oh, I need this help at this time." And you're like, "Oh,

40:40 but there was a panel I really want to go

40:41 to, or I really need to go to the bathroom." I don't know.

40:45 like if there's a reason where like ooh I wanted

40:47 to make sure I had two people that way if

40:49 I have times that I need to step away there's

40:51 two different people that I can kind of rely on.

40:55 I don't know I don't know what the plan is.

40:56 I haven't figured out all the details but anyways uh

40:59 that's one of the things is I have two I had

41:05 to get an extra one manually but I now have

41:07 two we'll call them spare tickets but they're not spare tickets.

41:11 It's two tickets for those who can help me

41:14 run my booth for for limited pockets of time.

41:18 I'm not trying to monopolize your weekend.

41:22 So, if anyone's interested, that's my spiel.

41:25 I've just talking for way too long.

41:33 All right, back catching back up with chat.

41:37 I think it's the first new PC game I bought in several years.

41:39 Oh, wow.

41:42 Feel like every time there's a Steam sale,

41:44 I go and I find a game that's like, "Wow,

41:45 this game's like $3." And I like I buy a lot of these like

41:49 little games that only cost like a couple dollars here and there,

41:52 and then I just have this like library of games.

41:54 I'm like, "I haven't even installed half of these.

41:58 Very behind." I played I played two games recently, actually.

42:05 Not how recently?

42:07 Fairly recently.

42:08 I had like an evening and I was like, I'm playing games.

42:11 I'm playing games.

42:12 Damn it.

42:13 And I played Yes, your grace.

42:15 I think that's the name of it.

42:19 Yes, your grace.

42:20 Let me make sure.

42:24 Yes, that is it.

42:27 I don't know.

42:28 Yeah, game called Yes, your Grace.

42:31 Loved it.

42:32 Really good.

42:32 Really, really fun.

42:35 Um, it's a like a role playinging strategy pixel art game.

42:39 It's like resource management, but I don't know.

42:42 It's very story based, story driven,

42:44 and the choices impact the endings and things like that.

42:48 And I just played it straight through.

42:51 Like I played the whole thing straight through.

42:53 I didn't really mean to, but I did.

42:55 It was great.

42:56 And then I got to the end, I'm like, "Oh, I got like almost a perfect ending.

42:59 I got like a really good ending, which I I didn't realize.

43:03 I didn't really realize that like there were different endings

43:06 until it was like you got like a pretty good ending.

43:08 I was like oh I'm glad I made certain decisions then.

43:12 Anyway, it's very fun.

43:14 I recommend it.

43:19 Uh let's see.

43:20 I read mostly horror, sci-fi, and fantasy,

43:22 but I also read a lot of non-fiction as well.

43:24 I can't.

43:25 Well, I always used to say that I

43:28 can't do non-fiction because I found it so boring.

43:29 But I feel like at this point in my life,

43:31 I probably would enjoy I probably wouldn't like hate non-fiction.

43:35 When I was younger, I was like, I'm not reading non-fiction.

43:39 But I think like I'm I'm I'm more mature these days.

43:43 I think I could read some non-fiction.

43:44 Probably be good for me.

43:48 Although horror, I don't like to be scared.

43:51 I don't know.

43:54 Maybe in a book.

43:56 Maybe in a book.

43:58 Maybe that could be better.

43:59 I'll try it sometime.

44:00 Maybe.

44:01 I just finished The Secret Market of the Dead.

44:04 I'm still reading level up.

44:06 Oh, save those over here.

44:11 Those sound interesting.

44:16 Bit of shameless promotion.

44:17 You should check out a game I worked on called Rivals of Aether 2.

44:20 I did all the victory animations for it.

44:22 Well, that's cool.

44:23 Now I have to check it out.

44:24 Rivals of Aether 2.

44:26 Copy paste.

44:29 Fun.

44:33 Ah, these rigs are fun.

44:35 Are these characters?

44:39 They look kind of like Well, they don't look like Pokemon,

44:43 but it's like it's kind of in that spirit of like elemental animals.

44:47 That looks like a lot of fun, actually.

44:51 Yeah.

44:52 I want to see the victory animations.

44:53 I'm gonna have to I'm gonna like literally later I'm

44:55 gonna type in victory animations and try to look at them.

44:57 That's super cool.

45:05 Um, ever thought, wait, ever thought about why can't I read?

45:12 Ever thought about like doing a video series where people

45:14 send you their trashy animations and you go through them,

45:17 say what's wrong, and then reanimate them?

45:19 That's an interesting idea, but I don't think I'm really

45:22 comfortable like reanimating somebody's work, you know?

45:26 Like, it's a fun idea.

45:27 It would be a lot of fun to watch for sure.

45:29 Like, it's a it's a great concept,

45:31 but I would don't think I'd be very comfortable

45:34 reanimating somebody's work because then it's a couple things.

45:36 It's like that that's very presumptuous of me

45:40 to think that I can like outdo anybody's animation.

45:42 Like, ah, I can do it better.

45:44 Hand it over.

45:46 Um, it's a little bit of an odd energy.

45:50 And then the other thing is like if I did

45:53 that, I can't really claim that shot as my own.

45:57 Not that I want to, but I like that wouldn't really be

45:59 right because I'm basically just like building off of somebody else's shot.

46:03 But at the same time, I've then taken their shot and done whatever I've done

46:06 to it to where it's no longer their shot either.

46:10 And it's not like in like a collaborative spirit to like make the movie better,

46:14 make the game great.

46:15 It's sort of just like pollution in a way.

46:20 It's a great idea.

46:21 Like it it sounds like a lot of fun to watch because it'd be really interesting.

46:24 It probably actually very helpful and beneficial

46:26 for people to like absorb stuff,

46:28 but I think it'd be very difficult to like frame

46:32 that properly of taking someone's animation and like hijacking it.

46:39 I have thought of other ideas that are like not

46:42 as entertaining as as that but a little bit less shady.

46:48 But that's also why I haven't done those videos cuz they're not as entertaining.

46:53 But I have a few ideas that are kind of in line where it's

46:56 like people provide their animation and then we do some fun stuff with it.

46:59 But I like the concept.

47:02 But it's not I don't think it's for me.

47:04 And I think it'd be if anyone actually really

47:06 if anybody did it I'd be like that's weird.

47:13 I've read non-fiction books and watched documentaries since elementary school.

47:16 I discovered documentaries so late.

47:18 You're probably a lot smarter than I am.

47:21 Documentaries are great.

47:27 I think the first documentary, well maybe not the first, as an adult,

47:32 the first documentary that I like properly chose to sit

47:35 down and watch and then like loved was the Imagineering one,

47:39 the Disneyland Imagineering documentary, like docky series on Netflix.

47:45 I guess Disney, it was Disney Plus when Disney Plus first came out.

47:48 That was amazing.

47:50 so much I did not know about the Imagineers and the engineering challenges.

47:54 And anyway, that was all very cool.

47:57 And that's when I was like, "Wow,

47:58 I've been missing out on documentaries this all

48:00 this time." It's like they're like video essays but more.

48:10 I really liked the Into the Unknown Making Frozen 2 documentary.

48:14 Oh, yeah.

48:15 I feel like I watched that and that was really good.

48:19 I don't really remember it now,

48:21 but I do think I watched it and I do think I enjoyed it.

48:26 There's a YouTube channel I really really like called No Clip.

48:30 It's uh game documentaries.

48:32 They embed themselves in studios during the development

48:35 of games and they document all the stuff and then

48:38 they at the end they they turn around some

48:40 kind of documentary about the process of making that game.

48:44 It's called No Clip, one word and it's so good.

48:48 They're really really good, like well produced and really interesting.

48:53 And they have some on Hades and they have some on various games,

48:57 but they have some on um on Bethesda

49:01 that I love because they talk about Fallout 4.

49:05 What is it they do?

49:06 Oh, no.

49:07 They have two videos.

49:07 They have the history of Bethesda game studios and then

49:10 they have one on Fallout 76 which loops through Fallout 4,

49:15 Fall of Shelter and then Fallout 76

49:17 because it I think they released that documentary

49:20 when the game was announced because it

49:22 had been there during the development of it.

49:24 It's fascinating.

49:25 It's so interesting.

49:26 And another one, what's it called?

49:30 Raising Kratos.

49:31 Oh, Raising Kratos.

49:34 I forget.

49:34 It's the It's the Sony.

49:36 It's the PlayStation.

49:38 It's like an hour and a half or two hours.

49:40 It's the God of War documentary from the rebooted

49:44 God of War game from a couple years ago.

49:46 That one is so so flipping good.

49:50 I think that was that was my first is that the first

49:56 that might have been the first like

49:58 game development documentary I had ever found.

50:01 And I was completely just like like I had no idea that that's

50:06 how so much of games like I I didn't know much about games.

50:10 All of my education in animation was for feature film.

50:13 And through experience I learned about TV

50:16 and commercials and like other stuff that's more similar.

50:19 I never had exposure to games which is a huge like missed opportunity for me.

50:24 Like when I was going through school and I was like picking mentors,

50:26 I only ever picked like movie people.

50:30 Like, man, I wish I had learned from games

50:31 artists because it's so different and it's so interesting.

50:36 Anyway, that's a really really good documentary.

50:38 I think it's called Raising Kratos.

50:42 I can't remember.

50:43 It's got the game director and he's Cory Barlo

50:46 and he's got like a little like doll of Kratos

50:49 in like a little um like a baby harness

50:51 on his chest and he's like that's the thumbnail.

50:56 Very good.

50:56 If you're interested about game animation or if

50:59 you don't think you're interested in game animation,

51:00 you should watch it because you might actually be interested in game animation.

51:06 Hold on a second.

51:14 Oh, hang on a second.

51:15 Email's coming in.

51:16 Got to check this.

51:17 Actually, I should probably I can check on my computer.

51:22 like worried that I'd like dox myself and show my email,

51:25 but I'm not sharing my screen, so it's fine.

51:29 Give me two seconds to make sure that I

51:30 don't need to do anything right this moment.

51:42 [Music] Yes.

51:45 Yes.

51:45 Yes.

51:50 Yes.

51:50 Yes.

51:53 Yes.

52:02 Week.

52:04 Okay.

52:06 Uh, good email.

52:09 Good positive email.

52:10 Not something I can talk about,

52:12 but also not something we need to worry about right now.

52:18 If I don't check my emails right when they come in, they will get buried.

52:22 And so a lot of times I don't realize when something comes in and then

52:25 it gets buried and then I'm like going about my day and I'm like,

52:27 "Wait, when did that come in?

52:28 Oh my gosh, I missed that.

52:33 That happens a lot.

52:35 So when I do catch an email, I'm like, go look at it." All right.

52:41 Did you ever see Beyond the Mind's Eye, 1982?

52:44 No, I've never heard of that movie.

52:45 Is that I assume it's a movie.

52:49 Watch the behind the scenes stuff VHS for the original trilogy of Star

52:52 Wars made me fall in love with special effects and model making.

52:55 That's cool.

52:56 I don't remember where I saw those videos for the first time

52:59 because I had I remember we had the VHS for Star Wars,

53:04 but I never watched any special features on VHS for Star Wars.

53:08 I don't know where I saw those, but I know what you're talking about.

53:10 those videos where they're like showing like, "Oh,

53:12 we take these little pieces and we put them on the the Millennium Falcon.

53:23 I don't think I ever watched the full thing." You know,

53:25 the ones I wish I would have found, I wish I would have discovered.

53:28 I never growing up, I never went to the bonus features on a DVD.

53:34 I never had like behind the scenes on VHS.

53:37 Like I never encountered behind the scenes anything for any media ever.

53:44 And it sucks because I was so interested

53:47 in certain things and I did not understand how they

53:49 worked and the information was there and I just

53:51 didn't know it and so I never saw it.

53:54 Like Lord of the Rings, I would watch Lord of the Rings every day twice a day.

54:03 I just like I would just have it on.

54:05 I had one of those TVs in my room that was

54:08 like it had a VCR and a DVD player built into it,

54:10 which is like a big CRT with the the two things built in.

54:14 And in my room, this was in like middle school, high school,

54:18 I had this TV in my room and I just

54:24 kept the Lord of the Rings trilogy in my room

54:26 and I would just like cycle through the DVDs and I

54:30 would just play and sometimes I just like let them play

54:32 and I'd be doing other things and like on my computer

54:34 like animating stick figures and stuff and I just have

54:39 the Lord of the Rings on and if they finished

54:41 the movie sometimes I wouldn't even switch to the next disc,

54:44 I just hit play again and I just like let it replay.

54:46 Uh, and I never knew I I never thought to go

54:50 into special features or bonus features or whatever it was.

54:52 Like I did not know that these extended editions, Lord of the Rings,

54:56 had so much behindthe-scenes content of how the movies were made.

54:58 I had no clue that that stuff was there.

55:02 And so I just never saw those videos.

55:05 And to this day, I've never seen the full

55:06 behind the scenes for Lord of the Rings,

55:08 which I'm It drives me crazy because every time I'll get like sort

55:10 of some clip of like some behind the scenes video I've never seen,

55:13 I'm like, "Where'd this come from?" And like,

55:15 "Oh, this has been here forever." Anyway,

55:24 computer enhance his eyes so we can see the reflection.

55:26 Oh, my reading my email.

55:29 How dare you?

55:32 Uh, Austin, hi.

55:33 I recently found your channel from an older PC for animation.

55:36 Wait, from an older PC for animation video.

55:38 Followed up with your most recent one.

55:40 Super cool to see what you're doing.

55:41 Oh, thank you.

55:43 What What video did you find me with?

55:46 I'm curious if you if you remember.

55:47 Recently found your channel from an older PC for animation video.

55:53 Older PC for animation video.

55:54 Is that the topic of the video?

55:56 Did I have a video that was like using old computer for animation?

56:01 I don't know.

56:01 I don't I don't remember.

56:03 I'm very curious how you discovered my channel.

56:05 If anybody knows if anybody here remembers the like the first

56:10 video that you like found my channel, I'd be so curious.

56:16 Actually, I'd be curious for two things.

56:18 What was the first video you can remember that you found of mine?

56:23 And what video has been your favorite?

56:25 Those would be my two questions.

56:27 So, like which one did you think you

56:28 discovered for the first time that you remember?

56:31 And which one like was the the best most

56:36 useful or most helpful or most like meaningful or something.

56:42 Oh, good.

56:43 I got another message.

56:44 See, I like this is like the third one since I've been streaming.

56:48 But this one, hooray.

56:53 The shots that I've done for the corridor video have all worked.

56:57 They're all approved.

56:59 They're all rendered.

57:00 That's great.

57:01 It's not all the shots that I have to work

57:03 on, but it's the ones that I've submitted so far.

57:05 Those have all been final and they're already rendered.

57:09 That's good news.

57:11 We love that.

57:17 A fun little fact though,

57:18 I'm doing all the animation for this project in Unreal Engine.

57:22 I had a choice.

57:23 I was given skinned models basically these like meshes that were

57:30 you know they deform they have bones they have skeletons and technically

57:34 they were some of them were rigged in Blender like there

57:37 was a rig available to me in Blender and I could

57:40 have chosen like did I want to animate in Blender animate

57:44 in Maya animate Unreal like where do I want to animate Cinema

57:46 4D and I chose to animate in Unreal Engine and I

57:51 rigged and animated the characters in Unreal and it's been going great.

57:55 I've really been enjoying it.

57:57 I feel like it was definitely the right choice for this project so far.

58:02 Currently dealing with one of the assets that's not working great

58:05 though with the rig and I'm trying to solve that problem.

58:09 It's definitely a me problem.

58:11 I don't know what I've I don't know what's

58:13 broken and I don't know what I need to fix.

58:14 So, I'm trying to figure it out.

58:18 I tend to annoy people when watching movies because I'm constantly wondering

58:21 how the VFX is done and how cool the environment and lighting is.

58:25 When I watch a movie, we don't talk.

58:29 No talking in my movie.

58:32 I can't handle it.

58:34 When like if you're watching something like if

58:36 you're if you're watching like there's like casual

58:40 viewing of like oh you just kind of put it on in the background doesn't matter.

58:45 But if there's like, oh man, I've been wanting to watch this movie.

58:48 Oh, I've been waiting to watch this TV series.

58:50 Like, oh, I've been so excited for like,

58:53 you know, to play this game, whatever it is.

58:55 I want to be so fully immersed in that experience.

58:58 I want the biggest best screen available to me.

59:02 Doesn't mean it has to be the best screen in the world, right?

59:04 It just means whatever I have available to me, I've got to pick the best one.

59:09 If I have the option for like a good sound system, got to have it, right?

59:14 Like if I if if I only had one chance to watch

59:17 something and it was like I have to watch it on my phone,

59:19 I'd watch it on my phone because if I'm if I only have the one chance,

59:21 then I'll do my best.

59:23 But like if I'm at home or if I have the ability to be home in the near future,

59:28 I'm never going to watch a movie or a show

59:30 or something that I've been like waiting to watch,

59:32 I'm never going to watch it on an iPad.

59:34 I'm never going to watch it on a phone or on a plane.

59:37 Like it's got to be on like this on the TV.

59:41 And I don't have like that crazy of a like

59:46 sound system and the TV is not I don't know.

59:48 It's not I'm not like ridiculous.

59:50 It's just I'm always going to choose the best

59:52 thing and when I watch it, don't speak to me.

59:55 Don't talk.

59:57 Shush.

59:58 We're watching.

59:59 This is how they intended us for to experience it.

1:00:04 So people are like talking in movie theaters drives me crazy.

1:00:06 So I I I half the time I can't

1:00:08 go to movie theaters anymore because like especially after

1:00:10 co people are weird now like people don't know

1:00:12 how to be in a movie theater people are talking

1:00:14 they got their phones can't handle it even before

1:00:20 even before co it was during Avengers it was

1:00:25 Infinity War or Endgame I think it was Infinity

1:00:27 War I don't remember during one of the Aven Yeah.

1:00:30 No it was it was Infinity War.

1:00:33 We're watching Infinity War.

1:00:34 It's close to the end of the movie.

1:00:36 Things are going down.

1:00:38 Somebody in the row in front of me

1:00:41 pulls their phone out like during like action scenes.

1:00:44 Like there's like stuff happening.

1:00:45 They're like battling Thanos and like they like drop a moon on him.

1:00:50 They're doing all this stuff.

1:00:51 There's like a slight lull.

1:00:52 It's like the pacing kind of pauses for a second.

1:00:55 This person pulls their phone out in the row in front of me,

1:00:57 of course, full brightness.

1:00:59 big old yellow screen as they opened Snapchat

1:01:03 and they start scrolling on Snapchat, the white screen.

1:01:08 I took the biggest grip of popcorn and just hurled it

1:01:11 and I just started throwing popcorn at this person and they like,

1:01:17 you know, they like put their phone away and got all in.

1:01:23 And I was this close to take like I was I was like,

1:01:25 I don't want to waste all my popcorn.

1:01:26 there's a certain amount of popcorn I'm willing

1:01:28 to waste and I was approaching the limit

1:01:30 to where I was like if it doesn't work by this point I grab the drink.

1:01:33 I was so frustr I was so mad.

1:01:35 I was like no in like anyway I can't handle when

1:01:41 people are like talking in movies and of their phones whatever.

1:01:50 So I'm not fun to watch movies with.

1:01:55 If you're not that kind of person, then you won't enjoy watching movies with me.

1:02:00 But if that's how you are as well, then we'll get along great in a movie theater

1:02:04 because we'll both just like sit and it's like,

1:02:09 you know, we can like share a glance and like, oh, did you see that?

1:02:12 Crazy.

1:02:13 We're not going to discuss it until the end.

1:02:17 Anyway, I want to rant.

1:02:22 Oh, whoa, there's a bunch of I've missed a bunch of messages.

1:02:24 Uh, It was from like six years ago.

1:02:27 Wanting to build a computer was looking for advice

1:02:29 about PC builds for an animation production instead of gaming.

1:02:32 Ah, that makes sense.

1:02:35 Okay.

1:02:35 It was from like So, it was Yeah, that's an old video.

1:02:39 I hope that's an old video.

1:02:41 I hope that you didn't take what I said in the video too seriously today.

1:02:45 Like, I hope you got a second opinion because that is an old

1:02:47 and outdated video and that was also before I knew a lot of stuff.

1:02:52 Like I was sharing what I knew at the time

1:02:55 and at the time I think a lot of what I said was accurate.

1:02:58 At the time Intel was king and I think in the video

1:03:01 I even say like I'm only going to talk about Intel CPUs.

1:03:04 Like I'm not really going to talk about AMD.

1:03:06 I don't remember what I said.

1:03:06 It was like we don't need to worry about that right now.

1:03:10 That couldn't be so that like that's so not true today.

1:03:14 Like AMD is a great option and depending

1:03:16 on what you're doing it might be the best option.

1:03:18 Might not be but it might be.

1:03:20 Just kind of depends.

1:03:21 But uh yeah, and I remember people as the years have

1:03:25 gone on, I get comments on that video every so often.

1:03:27 It's like, "Oh my god, this guy's not talking about AMD.

1:03:29 Like, who is like this is a six-year-old video." Like, I wouldn't say that now.

1:03:34 But anyway, all that to say, I hope that the video was helpful in some way,

1:03:37 but that you didn't take it too too seriously because it's is

1:03:40 old and I hope you were able to recognize that it's outdated.

1:03:43 hopefully.

1:03:44 But um but yes, I I pride myself at this point on looking at technology

1:03:54 from an artistic perspective and a production

1:03:56 standpoint instead of like the gaming angle.

1:03:59 That's like I I really enjoy that because everyone else is focused on gaming.

1:04:02 So, it's like fun to look at the other side of it.

1:04:04 And so, I'm glad that that was a a thing

1:04:07 that you valued and that you found and that you recognize.

1:04:09 So, thank you.

1:04:12 And I really need to update that video and make a new version.

1:04:19 Uh, I have an animation question if you don't mind.

1:04:22 I don't mind.

1:04:24 I'm working on an animation assignment and my instructor said

1:04:26 that the hand motions are too symmetrical while she's speaking.

1:04:29 How do I avoid this issue?

1:04:32 My guess off the top of my head,

1:04:33 I'm assuming that your professor is talking about twinning.

1:04:37 That's probably what's being discussed, right?

1:04:39 Um, the hand motions are too symmetrical while speaking.

1:04:43 So, my guess is this.

1:04:45 I mean, I could be off.

1:04:46 Let me know if I'm not talking about the right thing,

1:04:48 but usually when somebody gets that note, they're they're being told that, "Oh,

1:04:52 your animation's got a lot of twinning in it."

1:04:53 And what that means is if I'm talking

1:04:55 like this, I'm basically doing the same poses

1:04:57 with both of my hands with roughly the same timing.

1:05:00 And if both of my hands are doing kind of the same thing,

1:05:04 maybe there's a little bit of offset here.

1:05:06 Maybe they kind of hit at slightly different times.

1:05:08 This one on this side has a little bit more overshoot than the other one,

1:05:13 but in general, everything I do is the same, right?

1:05:17 That's twinning.

1:05:18 It's a lot of this, it's a lot of this, it's a lot of this.

1:05:21 D.

1:05:21 And what that usually happens is when you are animating and you're grabbing

1:05:24 both arms at the same time and then you're kind of keying them together.

1:05:29 Or maybe it's not that you're keying them together.

1:05:32 I mean, often it is, but sometimes what happens is you're you go to a key

1:05:37 frame and you set a pose on everything and you like,

1:05:39 "All right, I'm going to take this hand.

1:05:40 I'm going to go up because I'm going to come down." And so you,

1:05:44 you know, go to frame 10 and you go up.

1:05:46 And then you move the other arm and you go up, but you do like a different up.

1:05:48 And so they're they're a little bit different, but they're not the same.

1:05:50 I didn't grab them both at the same time, and move them together,

1:05:52 but like, oh, they're both kind of doing their thing.

1:05:53 Maybe there's, you know, I've got some symmetry here.

1:05:56 And then you go to another frame, go to frame 15,

1:05:58 and you bring this down, and you go like this.

1:06:00 Ha.

1:06:00 And then you take this one and you have it go here.

1:06:03 And it's like, ah, they're different, but they're similar, right?

1:06:07 Because you're going to the same frames and doing similar things with both.

1:06:12 So, there's kind of that spectrum of like, you know, how bad is the twinning?

1:06:17 Like, are you literally grabbing both arms,

1:06:19 doing the same thing with each arm and each hand?

1:06:21 That's true twinning.

1:06:23 Or is it like, oh, they're close, but they're not exactly the same.

1:06:26 It's still pretty symmetrical.

1:06:27 It's still pretty flat.

1:06:29 And so hopefully that discussion gives you some ideas of like

1:06:33 you don't really want to like do that and use,

1:06:39 you know, don't grab both and just kind of like leave it with that.

1:06:42 Uh, hi.

1:06:43 You don't have to spam.

1:06:44 If you keep spamming, I'm going to mute you.

1:06:47 So, hello.

1:06:49 Um, bye, brother.

1:06:55 That was funny.

1:06:57 Um, yeah, you guys don't have to like send the same message over and over.

1:07:02 I'm going to see it.

1:07:03 I'm just I work through from top to bottom.

1:07:05 So, I'll get there.

1:07:09 Uh, let's see.

1:07:10 I'm in where where was the question?

1:07:12 Where was the question I was answering?

1:07:13 Let me go back up.

1:07:16 However, the issue.

1:07:16 So, you avoid the issue by not doing that.

1:07:18 But what to do instead is it kind of depends.

1:07:22 I saw someone else say something in there.

1:07:24 Acting it out and taking some reference.

1:07:25 Absolutely.

1:07:26 Um, if you're just kind of like working off a line of dialogue

1:07:32 and you're just staring at the computer

1:07:33 and you're just looking at your character rig,

1:07:36 typically the ideas that come into your head

1:07:38 are going to be very cliche actions.

1:07:39 If someone says, you know, I don't know, I'm so angry.

1:07:45 Gr, right?

1:07:46 You're going to get I'm so angry gr

1:07:48 like you're just going to get very like angry.

1:07:51 I'm thinking h you know like I'm happy.

1:07:55 Like you're just going to get really boring.

1:07:58 All right.

1:07:59 You're gonna get really boring default just cliche acting choices.

1:08:04 So what you should always try to do is like look

1:08:06 at reference like film your own reference or look at movies,

1:08:09 look at great actors,

1:08:10 look at just people in the world and just like find other stuff to do.

1:08:15 I have a whole video on my channel on um subtext.

1:08:18 It's an interview with JP Sands.

1:08:20 wonderful video.

1:08:21 Um, you should watch that.

1:08:24 So, go to my channel and search subtext su

1:08:28 text one word and uh that'll help a lot

1:08:32 of like how to actually figure out like what

1:08:35 should you be doing instead of these like generic gestures.

1:08:40 But ultimately the the short answer to your question is you

1:08:44 want to have different parts of the body doing different things.

1:08:49 not just arbitrarily to make them different, but based on things like subtext,

1:08:55 but you should basically be treating every part of the body with its

1:08:58 own timing because different things happen

1:09:01 at different times with different velocities, with different weight.

1:09:05 Um, and so even if you have a pose that's roughly similar and I'm kind of going

1:09:10 like this, I can have my hands do kind of the same thing for a little bit,

1:09:15 but then they've got to do other stuff at some point.

1:09:17 Maybe one of them starts doing this pose while the other one's,

1:09:20 you know, not doing that pose.

1:09:22 It's hard to think about it and try to explain it.

1:09:24 But anyway, that's that's a bunch

1:09:26 of talking around your Hopefully that was helpful.

1:09:30 I found your video on Disney.

1:09:32 Oh, nice.

1:09:32 On the on the Disneyland video.

1:09:34 That's a good one.

1:09:36 Found your channel when I was looking for animation workflow.

1:09:38 Oh, the workflow video.

1:09:39 That's a fun one.

1:09:43 How to become an animator episode one.

1:09:46 a classic.

1:09:48 Favorite most useful enemy with IKFK.

1:09:49 Oh, interesting.

1:09:54 That's a good one.

1:09:55 That's one that I think I should update, too.

1:09:59 Fun fact, if anybody here is familiar with my how to become an animator series,

1:10:02 like the original videos, the original episodes on this channel where I

1:10:06 was literally just sitting on a couch and just

1:10:07 telling my story of like how I started

1:10:10 animation and got to DreamWorks, that kind of thing.

1:10:14 I've been thinking about returning to that format

1:10:17 just for fun for a couple of videos and just like updating the story and sharing

1:10:22 other stuff that happened along the way.

1:10:23 Like I haven't done that in I don't know how long,

1:10:26 but I thought it'd be kind of fun to just

1:10:27 like return to the beginning and just do that.

1:10:30 Just like tell a campfire story.

1:10:34 Oh, hello.

1:10:49 One second.

1:11:35 All right, I'm back.

1:11:40 Uh, let's see.

1:11:46 I want to make more.

1:11:47 I want to Sorry, I'm If you If you've recently sent a message,

1:11:51 just know that I'm working through the ones in order

1:11:53 and I'll get down to the new ones in a second.

1:11:55 I'm a little bit behind.

1:11:56 Uh, I want to make my portfolio website as a 3D environment artist.

1:12:02 The problem is that most of them are still renders.

1:12:05 Wait, I want to make my portfolio website as a 3D environment artist.

1:12:07 The problem is that most of them are still renders.

1:12:10 Is there a reason why you can't animate a camera move through

1:12:13 it or just kind of like spin your environment or something like that?

1:12:17 Like maybe you're not familiar with animation

1:12:20 to like animate a camera or something.

1:12:22 I'm not sure.

1:12:23 But um yeah, if you are trying to do 3D environment art

1:12:28 and you feel like the still renders are holding back your portfolio,

1:12:31 then you should you should totally do some animated camera stuff.

1:12:37 And if your if your environment is difficult to render in your tool of choice,

1:12:41 like I don't know what you're using, but for example,

1:12:42 if you were doing it in Maya and like you needed better lighting or something,

1:12:48 you could always export it to Unreal or to Blender or something, I don't know.

1:12:56 Found your channel when you uploaded animation workflow and Unreal stuff.

1:12:59 I do a lot of Unreal animations, which aligns with my interest.

1:13:01 Oh, nice.

1:13:02 Yeah, you'll like the stuff that I'm working on now then,

1:13:05 which hopefully I'll post soon.

1:13:10 I try not to talk, but some of the things are just cool to me.

1:13:15 You inspired me to You inspired me

1:13:17 to join Anom school currently in body mechanics class.

1:13:19 Any tips?

1:13:20 Oo, that's cool.

1:13:21 Um, I really like the people that over atom school.

1:13:25 Let's see.

1:13:26 You inspired me to join school currently in body mechanics class.

1:13:28 Any tips?

1:13:29 Any tips for body mechanics?

1:13:31 lots.

1:13:31 I mean, sure, give me like a give me a more narrow part of the category.

1:13:37 Um, tips for body mechanics.

1:13:45 I mean, trying to give you something useful.

1:13:50 I would say just like off the cuff, one of the best things you can do,

1:13:58 two of the best things that you can

1:13:59 do if you're learning body mechanics right now.

1:14:02 One is to use a variety of body types in your animation.

1:14:10 I made the mistake as a student of just always using the same rig

1:14:13 over and over because I got comfortable with it and I was like, "Yeah,

1:14:15 it's just like the default like skinny twig character." And like

1:14:19 I never animated a heavy character and I never animated like

1:14:23 a light character and I ever I never animated different like physical

1:14:29 characters and so I never got to like practice that early on.

1:14:34 And I think that was a mistake.

1:14:36 You want you want some variety.

1:14:37 you want to be able because the thing is like if you have I think because

1:14:40 I knew if I stick with the one

1:14:42 like little skinny character that I was animating,

1:14:46 you know, he can like move quickly, he can move slowly,

1:14:50 and it's like ah he's there's not like really a right

1:14:53 or wrong answer to what he should or shouldn't be doing.

1:14:55 It's it's a little bit more subjective,

1:14:58 but like a big heavy character like there are some rules.

1:15:00 A big heavy character has to feel heavy.

1:15:03 And so I think I knew it would be a little bit harder.

1:15:06 Don't shy from the challenge.

1:15:07 Like take it on.

1:15:08 You should be doing that.

1:15:10 The other thing I would say is timing and timing and weight

1:15:13 are your most important things to work on and to learn.

1:15:18 And so any opportunity to if you get feedback on timing or weight,

1:15:23 really pay attention and really try to soak up what you're

1:15:25 being told because body mechanics is all about timing and weight.

1:15:30 And it's timing and weight per body part, not like the whole thing all at once.

1:15:35 That's probably another really useful tip.

1:15:43 Hi everyone.

1:15:43 I'm really excited to participate in this live.

1:15:44 What's the subject?

1:15:45 Just talking.

1:15:46 Just hanging out.

1:15:46 Mostly animation because that's what I cover most of the time on my channel.

1:15:49 But talk about anything.

1:15:53 Seven more professional animators.

1:15:58 Uh I have a question for you.

1:16:00 What character from the animation history would

1:16:02 you love to animate and under whose supervision?

1:16:04 Oo, interesting question.

1:16:05 What character from animation history would you

1:16:07 love to animate and under whose supervision?

1:16:11 I mean, there's characters that I really like love

1:16:14 to watch and like my brain goes there first.

1:16:19 Like the first character I thought of was Hades because I love Hades,

1:16:24 but that's a 2D animated movie and I'm not

1:16:26 a 2D animator and like I'm not that good at drawing.

1:16:29 So, like do would I really want to work

1:16:31 on Hades on a 2D movie under like probably not.

1:16:34 Um, but in the spirit of your question,

1:16:40 Hades is the first character that came to mind.

1:16:44 What character of animation history would

1:16:45 you love to animate under whose supervision?

1:16:48 Um, I don't think I have really a under whose supervision answer.

1:16:55 I mean, I like a couple like for sure

1:16:57 I've got I've got names flashing in my head,

1:16:58 but like just because they're people I haven't worked under

1:17:02 before that I I like and I respect their work

1:17:04 and I feel like it'd be like cool to like

1:17:06 hear from them and get their feedback and stuff.

1:17:08 Like James Baxter comes to mind is a strong

1:17:11 person floating around in my head right now.

1:17:14 But like I don't think I would

1:17:16 be picky about under whose supervision necessarily.

1:17:22 But what characters?

1:17:24 Trying to think of other characters.

1:17:25 Um yeah, I don't know.

1:17:31 I don't really think I have specific answers

1:17:33 to that because I I guess it's just you can get so much out of any character

1:17:42 with any supervisor provided that it's not like a weird,

1:17:45 you know, that it's like not a one of those cases where it doesn't go well.

1:17:48 But like I guess I don't know enough

1:17:52 about the behind the scenes and the production process

1:17:54 of so many of those movies to know which one would have been great to work on.

1:18:00 You know what?

1:18:01 You know what?

1:18:03 It's the same problem as Hades.

1:18:04 It's a 2D movie and I don't I don't have the skills, but it's like Iron Giant.

1:18:10 You know what?

1:18:11 That's what maybe that's what I would say.

1:18:13 I think it'd be really cool to work on a Brad Bird movie.

1:18:18 That's not him supervising, that's him directing, so it's not exactly the same,

1:18:21 but like I've heard only good things about working on a Brad movie.

1:18:27 So, I guess maybe that's my answer.

1:18:29 I don't know.

1:18:31 It's a good question.

1:18:35 Ah, yes.

1:18:36 Okay.

1:18:37 I was I did, but I was doing the same thing in my reference.

1:18:39 Oh.

1:18:40 Uh, then watch this.

1:18:42 Yeah.

1:18:42 Um, if you had So, we're talking about the twinning thing.

1:18:45 If if that was the problem, watch the subtext video and that should help.

1:18:53 Uh, hey brother, can you help me?

1:18:56 Sure.

1:18:56 Ask your question.

1:19:00 Maybe you asked it lower, but I'm just going to say this tip for everybody.

1:19:06 Never ask a question.

1:19:08 Like, never email somebody.

1:19:09 I'm not I'm not trying to shade you, but like never like email somebody and say,

1:19:13 "Hey, can I ask you a question?" That was a question.

1:19:16 You're already doing it.

1:19:17 So, just ask your question.

1:19:19 I can't tell you how many times It's going to sound a little bit mean,

1:19:22 but the thing is, I have a lot of emails coming in.

1:19:25 I have a lot of messages, DMs, and I have for years.

1:19:28 I cannot keep up with everything.

1:19:30 I have people who I work with actively who have

1:19:33 to pop into these live streams occasionally to be like,

1:19:35 "Hey." And I'm like, "Oh, shoot.

1:19:36 I I owe you a reply because I'm always behind on communication.

1:19:40 I'm just it's it's a lot and I I

1:19:42 don't have anybody helping me with it." And so, um,

1:19:48 the amount of times over the last seven,

1:19:51 eight years where I've gotten an email where like

1:19:54 I might get a pocket of of free time.

1:19:56 I'm like, "Oh, I've got like 20 minutes free to like just reply to emails

1:20:00 or whatever I want to do and like general miscellaneous work stuff, you know,

1:20:05 before I have to get into the next

1:20:06 actual thing I'm doing." And I remember there were

1:20:09 times when I like I'd open my email

1:20:11 and someone would have sent me some things like,

1:20:13 "Hey, like I'm an animation student.

1:20:15 I'm trying to learn some stuff blah blah

1:20:16 blah blah blah." And I was wondering like, "Can I ask you some questions?

1:20:21 Can you help me?" D.

1:20:22 And I'm like all about it.

1:20:24 I'm like, "Yeah, like I've got some free time right now.

1:20:27 What do you got?" But they never actually asked the question.

1:20:30 They provided some information to say, "Hi, I'm a big fan." Blah, blah, blah.

1:20:35 Can I ask you some questions?

1:20:39 If you had actually just asked your question right off the bat in that email,

1:20:43 I would have replied to it in the moment.

1:20:44 I would have been like I would have

1:20:45 actually maybe had the time in that, you know,

1:20:47 in those particular cases to jump in and just like answer it.

1:20:53 I was like ready to do it.

1:20:54 But the problem is I didn't know what the question was, so I can't answer it.

1:20:59 So I can't help you.

1:21:00 And the amount of times at first I think I used to say, "Sure,

1:21:04 what's your question?" But by the time they saw

1:21:06 my email and got back to me, I was busy again.

1:21:09 And then I never got back to it.

1:21:10 And then I always felt bad about that because it's like I asked like, "Oh, sure.

1:21:12 What's your question?" And then I just ghosted.

1:21:14 Never on purpose, but like that what?

1:21:17 So then after a certain point, I stopped doing that.

1:21:19 I stopped engaging with those emails because it

1:21:21 was like it was like I don't want to end up being the bad guy by like

1:21:25 giving you false hope and then taking it away.

1:21:28 I'm just not going to reply because you didn't ask your question.

1:21:32 And so I'm going to move on to other

1:21:33 emails where I actually know what I'm doing.

1:21:35 Um because otherwise it's a waste of time.

1:21:38 Anyway, I I learned that pretty early

1:21:41 on that like you should never message someone, can I ask you a question?

1:21:47 Just ask your question because that's the whole point of these things when

1:21:51 you've got like a live chat or whatever like yeah of course ask away.

1:21:56 So, I think you probably have answered, you know,

1:21:59 you probably have asked lower in the chat,

1:22:01 but throwing that out there for anyone who needs it.

1:22:13 Currently in class five of NH mentoring.

1:22:14 I hope to see you at light box.

1:22:15 Yeah, I will see you there then.

1:22:17 That's awesome.

1:22:19 Class five I struggled with.

1:22:21 I hope you're better in it than I did.

1:22:26 Yeah, I'm doing I'm doing uh live streams every Friday

1:22:29 this month just for fun because I I miss doing live streams.

1:22:33 I used to be on Twitch two or three

1:22:35 times a week for like for those who were there.

1:22:38 I mean there's a couple people who

1:22:39 were in those those uh those lives consistently.

1:22:43 I was live for what like 8 10 15 hours a day

1:22:46 sometimes because I was I was typically animating in those live streams.

1:22:50 Not always, but like most of the time

1:22:52 I was doing something animation related and like man,

1:22:56 I would live stream all the time.

1:22:58 I got burnt out eventually and so I stopped.

1:23:01 But I'm I do miss live streaming.

1:23:02 So I'm just I'm doing it for uh October.

1:23:05 Just every Friday in October until we get to Lightbox and I

1:23:08 don't think I can stream on the Friday that I'm there.

1:23:10 But it's fun.

1:23:14 So you know, if you're enjoying this, come back next week.

1:23:18 We'll do it again.

1:23:18 I'm not sure what time.

1:23:19 Hopefully a little earlier in the day.

1:23:21 We'll see.

1:23:23 I have to work on a kid song,

1:23:24 but I'm not sure how I should show the song with a single character.

1:23:27 Wait, I have to work on a kid song,

1:23:29 but I'm not sure how I should show the song with a single character.

1:23:34 Any advice will help.

1:23:38 I don't know if I understand exactly what you're doing.

1:23:42 So, you're animating like a person who's singing the kid

1:23:45 song or who's like dancing to it or something like that?

1:23:50 I'm assuming like the music's playing and you have

1:23:52 one character and you're you're kind of just like they're

1:23:54 making the music and so like you don't have

1:23:57 the full band that maybe would be what you would assume.

1:24:00 I don't know.

1:24:01 So I'm not entirely sure what the what the thing is.

1:24:08 Oh my god.

1:24:09 I'm sorry.

1:24:10 I just saw the fin I just saw the bottommost message in chat.

1:24:13 Uh I don't know if it's an uni.

1:24:18 Hello.

1:24:19 Yes, of course you can ask me your thing.

1:24:21 I just went on a whole rant.

1:24:23 I'm just jumping ahead for a second.

1:24:24 I just went on a whole rant that you should never say,

1:24:26 "Can I ask a question?" You should just ask your question.

1:24:29 But I'm glad to see that you are asking your question.

1:24:31 I'll come I'll read more in a second.

1:24:32 I'm I'm going in order.

1:24:33 So, I'll be right back.

1:24:35 Uh what was the question?

1:24:37 Somewhere kids song single character.

1:24:39 Um, I mean, if you are taking an entire like musical

1:24:45 performance and you have one character to like animate during that thing,

1:24:48 I guess take whatever the most prominent sounds

1:24:51 and like most important things that you're hearing,

1:24:54 like focus on that unless you're trying to I mean,

1:25:00 I don't know what the goal is.

1:25:01 I assume it's for like a project like that.

1:25:04 If you wanted to subvert the expectations, you could do the opposite.

1:25:07 You could say, "I hear drums and I hear a bass

1:25:10 guitar and I hear a piano and all this stuff." And then

1:25:13 for some reason every now and then there's like a ding

1:25:17 ding like I hear this little ding every now and then.

1:25:19 And like maybe you have someone who's just like standing there with like

1:25:21 a triangle ding and like all the other music's there and they're just like ding.

1:25:28 Like that's just all they do, you know?

1:25:30 So you could you could flip it and just do the opposite.

1:25:33 But I assume probably not what you're looking for.

1:25:42 Hey, what's up, dude?

1:25:44 Have you seen the new Dam Demon Slayer movie?

1:25:46 Insane mix of 2D and 3D animation.

1:25:48 Love the shirt.

1:25:50 Uh um I have not.

1:25:53 I've never watched Demon Slayer.

1:25:54 I know it's supposed to be really good,

1:25:56 and it's on my list of things to watch, but I have yet to watch it.

1:25:59 And so, no, I have not I have not seen it.

1:26:02 Um, I've heard the animation in it is wonderful.

1:26:06 You know that's funny about the shirt.

1:26:09 The shirt's cool because it's like I wear

1:26:10 it because it's very like blender coated, right?

1:26:13 Feels like it should be a blender shirt.

1:26:18 I feel like I shouldn't admit this, but like I wear it because it's comfortable.

1:26:22 I got it at a conference.

1:26:23 I wear it because it's I got it at GTC.

1:26:26 I wear the shirt cuz it's comfortable and I like open source

1:26:29 because I think that's clever and it makes me think of Blender.

1:26:31 But the shirt's actually from an AI company, like an open source AI company.

1:26:37 But that's on the back.

1:26:38 So that's okay.

1:26:39 We promote open source.

1:26:42 We don't necessarily need to talk about the rest.

1:26:45 It's just funny though.

1:26:49 Um, see, I'm jumping back up to see what I missed in order.

1:26:59 Uh, do you think that learning Maya still has meaning when

1:27:02 there are tools like Blender that are rapidly developing and are free?

1:27:06 Yes, Maya still has meaning for sure.

1:27:10 You don't have to learn Maya.

1:27:11 You can choose Blender and you will be fine for the like

1:27:15 I don't think there's any reason why you can't choose Blender.

1:27:19 I also think that you could choose Unreal at this point.

1:27:21 You can choose Maya, Blender, or Unreal.

1:27:25 And as long as you can animate, you're fine.

1:27:28 There might come a time where you have to learn one

1:27:30 of those tools you skipped depending on the studio you work at.

1:27:34 And the thing is, most studios and all proprietary software

1:27:41 based on industry software uses Maya as the comparison point.

1:27:47 Everybody makes like, "Oh, you're learning Unreal.

1:27:51 Great.

1:27:52 We'll help you go from Maya to Unreal." Like,

1:27:55 "Oh, but I'm starting in Blender." Like, "Oh, okay.

1:27:57 We don't know how to help you then.

1:27:58 Just here's just learn Unreal, right?" Like,

1:28:00 everyone is in for most at least for most of the stuff.

1:28:04 Like, the expectation is that you probably know Maya,

1:28:09 but even if you have to learn something else, we're going to compare it to Maya.

1:28:12 That's the only downside to learning something other than Maya.

1:28:14 But, you know, it's they're all 3D tools.

1:28:17 They all help each other to learn the things.

1:28:20 So, Maya is still the most robust like resourcerich tool.

1:28:27 There's the most rigs.

1:28:28 There's the most animation tools.

1:28:30 There's the most support.

1:28:31 There's the most tutorials specifically for animation topics.

1:28:35 There's the most people who know how to help you if you have a problem.

1:28:40 So Maya still has those benefits, but those may not last forever, you know?

1:28:45 So there's no reason why you have to choose Maya.

1:28:46 If you want to learn Blender, learn Blender.

1:28:49 There was a time where maybe it was like, well,

1:28:51 are you going to get a job if you're working in Blender?

1:28:52 Like at this point, there's a there's a ton of places using Blender.

1:28:56 And ultimately, it doesn't matter what software you use.

1:28:58 It's just can you animate if you're trying to be an animator.

1:29:01 And if you're not trying to be an animator, but you like animation,

1:29:03 but you want to be more of a generalist, then Blender is a great tool.

1:29:06 Blender is a much better tool if you're trying to be more versatile.

1:29:13 I was there at that time.

1:29:14 You inspired me to get an animation.

1:29:15 That's cool.

1:29:17 I've mostly been concentrating on 2D animation,

1:29:19 but seeing what DreamWorks and Glitch have put out have been

1:29:21 making me want to give 3D a try, at least a little.

1:29:24 Yeah.

1:29:25 Um, Glitch is doing some great work.

1:29:27 They're doing awesome.

1:29:29 And DreamWorks has been killing it as well.

1:29:31 Yeah.

1:29:33 Give it a shot.

1:29:34 You know, why not?

1:29:35 I think everybody should try the other thing.

1:29:37 If you do 2D, you should try 3D.

1:29:38 If you do 3D, you should try 2D.

1:29:40 You might not be good at it, but like it's it's fun and it's it's a nice break.

1:29:44 Like I literally, this was a while ago,

1:29:47 but like I I got I got the cheapest iPad possible.

1:29:51 I got like the iPad Air, which is a funny thing because like

1:29:55 I typically have to get really expensive computers

1:29:57 to do 3D animation at the level that I'm

1:29:59 like working with all these hardware tech stuff.

1:30:02 I never get to like get the cheap stuff.

1:30:04 I always have to get like the really expensive

1:30:06 laptop or the really expensive computer and the biggest

1:30:08 GPU and the fastest RAM and I typically

1:30:11 have to stick to pretty heavy duty hardware.

1:30:15 But uh when I was like I just want to draw in Procreate.

1:30:18 I just want to try like 2D animation and like Procreate Dreams and stuff.

1:30:22 I just got like iPad Air smallest one not

1:30:25 the mini but like you know it's right here.

1:30:29 It's like the lowest power thing I have and it's

1:30:32 so much fun just to like just to draw actually.

1:30:35 Oh no, I don't have it on here.

1:30:37 My wife has an iPad as well.

1:30:38 Hers is bigger and um more powerful than mine

1:30:42 cuz she actually uses it for work stuff sometimes,

1:30:45 but I just animated three different things for her this morning.

1:30:48 That's part of the reason I was late to start this live stream.

1:30:51 She's working on a video on her channel and she asked me, she's like, "Oh,

1:30:56 can you animate like a puddle splash and like

1:31:00 a raincloud with rain?" And then what was the other thing?

1:31:04 An umbrella.

1:31:06 And I animated some stuff and I did it in 2D,

1:31:08 which I'm not my skill set, but it's fun.

1:31:10 I really enjoy it.

1:31:11 So I I animated these elements for her to drop into her video.

1:31:16 And so I just did on the iPad and it's it's fun.

1:31:19 It's It's fun to do the other things.

1:31:22 It's fun to do the things you're bad at, too,

1:31:24 because you don't hold yourself to such a high standard,

1:31:26 so you won't be as much of a perfectionist about it.

1:31:29 At least for me, that's how I feel.

1:31:30 I struggle with that.

1:31:35 Uh, hey, I hope your Friday is going well.

1:31:38 Same.

1:31:40 I'm a fresher, so I can make Wait,

1:31:42 I am a fresher, so I can make a career in animation.

1:31:45 I think that's a question.

1:31:46 I'm a fresher.

1:31:47 Can I make a career in animation?

1:31:49 If you if you dedicate to yourself to it,

1:31:52 you'll have a you'll have as good a chance of any as anybody

1:31:58 at this point with the animation industry in such a rough shape.

1:32:00 That's my answer that if you dedicate yourself to learning animation

1:32:03 and getting good at it and really like learning the craft,

1:32:07 you'll have just as good a shot as anybody.

1:32:14 One of my favorite characters is the croc from Peter Pan.

1:32:16 I was looking forward to the crocodile in the Lurkins film.

1:32:19 Oh my god.

1:32:20 I know.

1:32:20 Lurkins was so cool.

1:32:22 Lurkins was so cool.

1:32:24 I'm I I think I get sad every time I think about it.

1:32:28 I loved what I was seeing from Larens.

1:32:30 Lurkins was, for those who don't know,

1:32:32 Larens was a movie at DreamWorks that was supposed

1:32:37 to come out before How to Train Your Dragon 3.

1:32:39 It was an Australian Outback buddy comedy adventure movie,

1:32:44 but it was also like an 80s rock ballad musical.

1:32:48 It was a bizarre movie, but it was really funny and it was really good.

1:32:54 Great animation, tons of characters, rigged, animated.

1:32:58 The movie was mostly done.

1:32:59 I think the movie was like over 70% animated.

1:33:02 And NBC, Comcast, Universal shelved it.

1:33:06 They said, "No, we just bought the studio.

1:33:07 that's not what we want to lead with.

1:33:09 But they didn't like postpone it.

1:33:10 They were just like me.

1:33:12 They canceled it.

1:33:15 Devastating for the studios morale.

1:33:17 And then the artists who were really doing a lot of the heavy

1:33:21 lifting on like the character and story side and animation and things like

1:33:25 that, they took those assets and they made a short film called Bilby

1:33:29 which played in front of How to Train Your Dragon 3 in theaters.

1:33:33 And you should watch it if you haven't seen it.

1:33:34 Billy is online somewhere for free.

1:33:35 I think you can watch it.

1:33:36 Very, very good.

1:33:37 really great short.

1:33:38 And then those artists who were directing Dolby have now

1:33:42 gone on to make the bad guys one and two.

1:33:48 They're wonderful.

1:33:49 They've done a great job.

1:33:52 Uh other than teaching and sponsorships, what are Wait, hold on.

1:33:56 Other than teaching and sponsorships, what are your other im income sources?

1:34:01 Love to know your approach in these challenging times.

1:34:05 Well, let's see.

1:34:07 I'm actually going to be going deep into this topic at lightbox

1:34:10 in case anyone is like if anybody heard by the way if anybody

1:34:13 heard that question was like he's talking about how he makes money

1:34:16 on the internet I want to know the answer to that if you want

1:34:19 to know like an hour's worth of me talking about it and you're

1:34:22 going to lightbox I have a whole talk called what is it called

1:34:27 it's called the art of going solo creating opportunities as artists and it's

1:34:32 literally a talk about that it is a full talk about that topic.

1:34:38 But to answer your question,

1:34:40 teaching sponsorships are probably my two biggest pieces of the pie.

1:34:45 Have like a pie chart.

1:34:47 Um, I make some money from YouTube ads,

1:34:51 like just like making YouTube videos, but it's not very much.

1:34:54 Like, you'd be shocked at how how little it actually is.

1:34:58 Um, uh, let's see.

1:35:03 There's certain things that used to make more money that don't really anymore.

1:35:06 Like affiliate links, like if if if everyone here was like, "Hey,

1:35:12 what mouse do you use?" And I was like,

1:35:13 "Oh, I use this Logitech G502 Lightseed from most stuff,

1:35:19 but when my wrist starts to hurt and I remember

1:35:21 that I shouldn't be using this gaming mouse for working,

1:35:24 I recently picked up the Keyron M5 vertical mouse.

1:35:31 These are the two mice I use.

1:35:33 And if I were smart, if anyone wants the link, by the way, I'll find it for you.

1:35:37 But like if I were smart, I would put a link.

1:35:40 I would put like a an affiliate link basically

1:35:43 that if you wanted to go buy that mouse,

1:35:45 you could go you'd click the link and you'd go buy it

1:35:47 and you'd buy for the regular price that you'd find it for.

1:35:49 If it's on sale, great.

1:35:50 If it's not, it's not.

1:35:52 But then I would get a commission of the sale.

1:35:54 It'd cost you no extra money, but I would get a kickback from Amazon

1:36:00 or whoever I sent you to, whatever, you know, platform.

1:36:05 At this point, I would be trying not to send

1:36:06 you Amazon links because I'm trying not to shop at Amazon,

1:36:08 which I've been doing a very good job with not shopping at Amazon because,

1:36:11 uh, billionaires don't need our money.

1:36:15 They're already holding it all anyway.

1:36:17 So, anyway, uh, I would I would do affiliate links.

1:36:22 that used to make a pretty not significant.

1:36:25 It wasn't like a lot, but it was, you know,

1:36:26 a couple hundred bucks a month of affiliate revenue

1:36:30 and then Amazon slashed all their rates and cut

1:36:32 the percentages that we were making off things like

1:36:34 tech and so now it's not very much at all.

1:36:36 And also, I don't promote products all that often.

1:36:38 I really should do it more.

1:36:40 I think a lot of times people are actually wondering like what I use and what

1:36:43 they should buy and I should be recommending

1:36:45 that providing that information because I have recommendations.

1:36:48 I have opinions of what's good and what's bad and why.

1:36:50 Anyway, affiliate thing is a thing, but it's not something I do very much.

1:36:55 What else do I do?

1:36:56 Uh, I do have some contract work that I do.

1:36:58 It's not exactly freelance, and it's not a job,

1:37:00 but like I do projects pretty frequently.

1:37:05 Um, consulting, things like that.

1:37:09 Um, what else do I do?

1:37:14 I don't know, I feel like I'm always doing a bunch of stuff,

1:37:16 but I can't actually in this moment remember what

1:37:19 other things are on my pie chart of income sources.

1:37:23 So, that's what I've got at the moment.

1:37:25 Guess check out my talk at Lightbox if you want more details because I'm

1:37:28 actually going to show different pie charts of like where I earned how much,

1:37:32 not how I'm not only going to share the actual numbers,

1:37:34 but I'm going to basically say here's the pie chart of my income from this year,

1:37:37 this year, this year, this year,

1:37:38 and here's how it's changed and grown and whatever.

1:37:40 I show all that stuff in my presentation.

1:37:42 So, if you're curious, I'll do that on light box.

1:37:49 Sorry.

1:37:50 And if you've been asking questions and I haven't gotten your questions,

1:37:52 I'm just really behind.

1:37:53 I'm working my way down.

1:37:54 I am I'm on my way.

1:37:55 So, let's see.

1:37:58 H off topic.

1:38:01 There's a message in staff chat in Discord for you.

1:38:04 There is.

1:38:05 That's something about the voice chat stuff.

1:38:08 I'm so disinterested.

1:38:10 I'm I'm so disinterested in Discord right now.

1:38:14 I feel like I need to change it again.

1:38:16 I'm unhappy with Discord.

1:38:18 Feel like I need to wipe it clean again

1:38:20 and redo it and it's not worth the time right now.

1:38:24 Um I think my permissions are messed up right now.

1:38:27 I can look at that.

1:38:28 Let's see.

1:38:29 I also used you in a school discussion

1:38:30 post as a helpful person in the animation industry.

1:38:33 I hope I got some traffic to your channel.

1:38:34 Oh, that's very nice of you.

1:38:35 Thank you.

1:38:36 I appreciate that.

1:38:38 Even if like one person took your advice

1:38:40 and went and found my videos and was like, "Wow,

1:38:42 this is great." Then you did that person a if if they think it was a good thing,

1:38:48 then you did them a very nice service

1:38:49 and I appreciate you bringing them to my channel.

1:38:54 Um, what was the most surprising difference between working on your own

1:38:58 projects in Animation Mentor and working in a studio like DreamWorks?

1:39:02 Most surprising difference between working on your own

1:39:03 projects and working in a studio environment?

1:39:06 Um, huh.

1:39:11 I mean, like I would probably say the most surprising difference,

1:39:21 the most surprising difference is that I just

1:39:22 didn't know what I was doing as a student.

1:39:24 And then when you have a supervisor who's able to like guide you

1:39:30 properly and like hey like go this direction you know what it is you

1:39:36 know what it is it's not you know I take it back it's

1:39:39 not a matter of the supervisor because that almost makes it sound like I'm

1:39:42 dissing the the teacher because what I'm not trying to say is that like

1:39:47 oh having like a like oh having a supervisor at a company is

1:39:51 so much better because they know how to it's not That's not that when

1:39:56 you're in a when you're working on a project in a school environment,

1:40:00 you don't take it that seriously.

1:40:02 At least I didn't.

1:40:03 And I think that's one of it's a very common issue.

1:40:05 When you're working on a school project, you treat it like school.

1:40:10 One of the biggest things I see that I remember I used to do and was one

1:40:13 of the biggest things I see and it it's

1:40:15 terrible habit is say I'm working on a shot.

1:40:22 Say I'm a student and I'm working on a shot, right?

1:40:25 And I'm responsible for blocking out a shot.

1:40:28 That's what I need to be working on.

1:40:29 I need to block out the shot,

1:40:30 get it to a certain point, submit it for feedback, whatever.

1:40:35 Number I mean, there's several things.

1:40:36 Number one, probably I'm waiting till the last minute.

1:40:40 I'm not making progress throughout the week.

1:40:41 I'm waiting until the last like two days and then I'm

1:40:44 like powering through it all the very end, I'm so fast.

1:40:47 I finished it all at the very end.

1:40:49 It's not as good as it could have been because I didn't have time to work on it.

1:40:52 Step away, come back with fresh eyes,

1:40:54 repeat the process a couple of times, plan.

1:40:56 Like, I didn't do that in this hypothetical.

1:40:59 And so, you know, I blitz through it.

1:41:04 I can see there's problems with it.

1:41:06 I know there's things that are wrong with it.

1:41:08 I probably could have even taken like if I had started days earlier

1:41:11 with that energy like I probably could have actually gotten it to like

1:41:16 the best I think it could be and gotten a bunch more poses

1:41:19 in there but like ah I got it good enough and just submit.

1:41:23 And the thing is I can see a lot of the problems with it.

1:41:25 I know that's not working.

1:41:25 I know I haven't fixed that.

1:41:26 I haven't even touched that yet.

1:41:28 And so then I get feedback that's like, "Oh, that's not working.

1:41:31 That's not looking very good.

1:41:32 And that doesn't look like you've touched it yet." And it's like,

1:41:34 "Yeah, I know that feedback.

1:41:35 I already know that stuff." then why'd you submit it like that?

1:41:39 Like that's the whole point is you're supposed to bring it

1:41:42 to the best of your ability and then get feedback from there.

1:41:45 But half the time people are like, I already kind of knew that feedback.

1:41:48 Like then you should have done something differently

1:41:51 to have done more so that is not

1:41:53 a problem so that you actually were able to fix the things that you can see.

1:41:56 The whole point is for you to be able to like go until

1:41:57 you can't see anything else and then someone will show you what you're missing.

1:42:00 Anyways, that's the first thing.

1:42:02 But beyond that, then you get a bunch of feedback

1:42:06 and you're given a bunch of things like, "Oh, fix this.

1:42:08 Fix this.

1:42:08 Change this.

1:42:09 This isn't really working.

1:42:10 Maybe do this instead." And you basically have a checklist, right?

1:42:14 Let's say you got 15 notes that you need to address.

1:42:17 And I've seen this so many times.

1:42:19 And I used to do this and it drives me

1:42:21 crazy to think about the fact that I would say,

1:42:24 "All right, time for the next week.

1:42:26 Time to work on the assignment some more."

1:42:27 and I'd pull the shot back in and I'd look

1:42:30 at my list of 15 fixes and notes and I

1:42:33 would go through and I'd hit those 15 notes,

1:42:36 you know, and I'd be like, "All right, I did it.

1:42:39 Now I submit it back for feedback." No, that's where you begin.

1:42:46 That's like, yeah, you address the feedback and now you have to keep working.

1:42:50 Like that's you just fixing what's wrong from last week.

1:42:52 Now you have to actually continue working on the shot, right?

1:42:56 You got to keep animating.

1:42:57 You got to get closer to done.

1:42:58 They're not going to tell you every little thing you need to do

1:43:01 and hold your hand and like guide you of like, "Okay, now do this.

1:43:04 Okay, I did it.

1:43:04 Now what?

1:43:05 Now do this.

1:43:06 Okay, now what?

1:43:06 Now do this." No, they're just going to tell you what's broken.

1:43:10 Then you fix it and then you keep going and you

1:43:13 take it to the best that you can make it.

1:43:15 And then you show it and they go,

1:43:16 "Here's what you're not seeing." Oh yeah, no, that makes so much sense.

1:43:21 Or I don't know what you mean.

1:43:22 Can you explain that?

1:43:23 Actually, I'm not sure I understand what that is or why, right?

1:43:27 Like, you don't have to get it.

1:43:29 You can ask questions,

1:43:29 but like you have to take it as far as you can take it and then get the feedback

1:43:32 and that's where the feedback is useful and then

1:43:35 you address the feedback and then you keep going.

1:43:39 And I think that's the biggest difference in a school environment is that you

1:43:42 can do that kind of nonsense versus in a studio environment, you're like,

1:43:48 "This needs to get done." like this has

1:43:49 an actual deadline and like pressure and like

1:43:54 I need help and so you you go and you get feedback and you get told

1:43:57 stuff and then you you get different kinds

1:44:00 of feedback where it's not about fixing issues

1:44:02 because once you're like working it's not that you

1:44:04 like your body mechanics don't suck anymore, right?

1:44:08 Your stuff isn't broken, it's just not the right direction or whatever things.

1:44:13 I mean sometimes it's broken but it's not the same.

1:44:15 It's not like hey you don't understand weight yet.

1:44:18 It's like this doesn't show the weight that it needs to show.

1:44:22 Here's where you go.

1:44:23 Ah, you're right.

1:44:27 And so in a studio environment, it's a different kind of note.

1:44:31 It's a different kind of feedback.

1:44:32 And it's a more I mean,

1:44:34 it's a more helpful feedback in that like when you're a student,

1:44:38 you don't know how to animate properly.

1:44:40 And so it's a lot of like technical stuff

1:44:42 and you're like trying to overcome working in the software.

1:44:46 and a lot of your notes are basically, hey,

1:44:48 you're you're not doing it, you're not doing it right.

1:44:53 Where in a studio environment, it's you're doing what you're doing,

1:44:56 but you need to do something different.

1:44:58 So, the notes are entirely different like category of notes and it's way more

1:45:02 interesting and it can be harder because like now you're invested in an idea,

1:45:09 but the idea is wrong and that's much harder to like change.

1:45:14 It's like when you get a a an in school, the worst kind of notes are,

1:45:20 "Hey, you did something, but that's not what you should do.

1:45:22 You should do something else." It's like, "Oh,

1:45:24 the thing that sucks about that isn't necessarily the idea." It's

1:45:26 the thing that sucks about that is I have to delete key frames.

1:45:29 Oh, I got to redo work.

1:45:31 It's going to take time.

1:45:32 It's like, "Ugh, I thought it was working." Like,

1:45:34 that's typically where people are frustrated is because it's the time loss.

1:45:38 Where in a studio environment, it's because you invested time in an idea.

1:45:41 It's not about the time as much as it is

1:45:42 about like your emotional attachment to what you were doing.

1:45:46 And that's that thing where you like to leave

1:45:47 the ego at the door and just it's for the shot.

1:45:49 Like anyway, anyway, hopefully that's helpful in some way,

1:45:53 but that's that's my that's my thing that I found

1:45:56 surprising a difference between the two that I didn't really foresee.

1:46:01 I'm so behind in chat.

1:46:03 How do you get a character designing job on Fiverr or Upwork?

1:46:06 I could not tell you.

1:46:07 I don't do either of those things.

1:46:09 I don't do character designing stuff.

1:46:10 I guess you know what?

1:46:11 I I take it back.

1:46:12 I can answer that question.

1:46:14 If the question is, how do you get a job designing?

1:46:17 Wait, how do you get a character designing job on Fiverr or at work Upwork?

1:46:21 The answer is design characters and put your work on your portfolio.

1:46:28 If you're not getting hired,

1:46:30 it's because the what people are seeing isn't convincing

1:46:34 them that they should work with you over somebody else.

1:46:37 And so the answer is keep working on it.

1:46:39 Keep going.

1:46:40 Keep doing it on your own.

1:46:42 Do the work for yourself that you would like to do

1:46:44 for other people and then share that work on your portfolio.

1:46:48 And once you get to a point where people will start to say,

1:46:51 "Oh, I really I like your stuff.

1:46:53 I'd like you to do that for me." That means that you're

1:46:56 finally showing the stuff at like the level it needs to be.

1:46:59 Everybody, as you're learning, everyone's constantly trying to get a job

1:47:04 while they're learning before you're ready.

1:47:07 And so it's like, how do I get a job?

1:47:09 You have to do the work first to prove that you can do the job,

1:47:13 then you get the job.

1:47:14 You don't get given the job because you want it.

1:47:16 You have to prove that you can do it, which is never fun.

1:47:20 No one ever wants that.

1:47:20 Like I remember being a student and applying for internships

1:47:23 and jobs before I knew how to animate anything.

1:47:25 And I was like, "Oh, I'll learn on the job." like I think I'd be a great intern.

1:47:30 Yeah, but what proof do they have that I can do a single thing?

1:47:34 So, like you have to do the job you want to be doing and show

1:47:38 and prove that you can do that job before they'll hire you for that job.

1:47:46 Let's see.

1:47:52 Besides animation, what's your favorite part of the pipeline and why?

1:47:55 Easy effects.

1:47:57 I love effects.

1:47:58 If I could be an effects artist for some amount of time, I would do it.

1:48:02 I'm learning Houdini.

1:48:02 I'm trying.

1:48:04 Got any tips to avoid rotoscoping a reference?

1:48:07 I'm going to animate using reference for the first time,

1:48:09 but I'm afraid that if I try to get every detail,

1:48:10 I might just end up rotoscoping.

1:48:11 You might.

1:48:12 The big things you should be doing, there's two things you should be doing.

1:48:16 You should push poses and timing as you go.

1:48:25 But in two different ways.

1:48:26 Push your poses as you go.

1:48:28 When you see someone like lift their arm

1:48:30 and then go like this, lift the arm higher.

1:48:34 Swing even more.

1:48:35 Like add some arc to it.

1:48:36 Like spice up what you see using the animation principles as you're working.

1:48:42 That's how you push the poses as you go.

1:48:44 And then for timing, you can either try to push it like as you're going,

1:48:47 but realistically what I would recommend is try

1:48:50 to rettime the reference before you start animating.

1:48:53 Right?

1:48:53 It's like if you've got a reference and you're looking at like, "Yep,

1:48:56 this is whatever." You can speed up and slow down portions of the reference

1:49:01 to like time warp it and change

1:49:02 the way the reference feels and speed and whatever.

1:49:05 And you have to kind of keep in mind what you're changing because

1:49:07 you're going to kind of break how the weight is meant to feel.

1:49:11 And you got to kind of remember like,

1:49:13 okay, well, what was happening in the original thing?

1:49:14 Like there was a bunch of frames of like this this drag that happened because it

1:49:19 was heavy and I went and now it's like really fast and so it feels really light.

1:49:23 Like okay, I want it to still feel heavy but I want it really fast.

1:49:26 You've got to remember like in the reference when you're in and that when

1:49:29 you're analyzing the reference you have to sort

1:49:31 of recognize oh I need this certain like behavior this relationship between like

1:49:36 the hand and the elbow and the shoulder

1:49:38 and the chest where it's like the character is going to swing a bat.

1:49:41 It's not that they like swing their arm first.

1:49:45 That feels really weird.

1:49:46 It feels like the bat's not weighing anything.

1:49:48 It's not that they move their arm and their body together.

1:49:52 Like that feels really stiff.

1:49:55 what it is.

1:49:55 Based on the reference, I'm noticing that they pull their chest

1:49:59 and their head and they pull their whole body,

1:50:02 but the arm doesn't really come that far

1:50:04 because it's got all this weight and it's got

1:50:05 this inertia and it has to like build up

1:50:07 speed and then it snaps ahead and then it's bam, it feels so powerful, right?

1:50:13 You have to analyze that from your reference

1:50:15 and like figure out the timing per body

1:50:18 part of like what's going on in this motion that makes it feel the certain way.

1:50:23 But then you can change the timing and change

1:50:25 the amount of frames that it takes to do these actions,

1:50:26 but you still have to keep that spirit in there.

1:50:29 And you can literally just animate the reference by just retiming

1:50:32 the reference so that you get that energy and you address that.

1:50:36 And then when you're using that for animation,

1:50:39 you have already started to push your timing.

1:50:41 And then you can continue to do that in Maya or whatever tool.

1:50:44 But you push your poses as you go and you tweak your timing

1:50:47 to make it more entertaining and more true to what you're trying to convey.

1:50:53 And that's going to help it not feel

1:50:55 like rotoscope because if you don't do those things,

1:50:57 it will feel like you're rotocoping.

1:51:00 I had that experience.

1:51:04 Thank you so much.

1:51:04 You're great.

1:51:06 Thank you.

1:51:08 Um, and that's stuff I I cover in my classes.

1:51:13 So, like try it.

1:51:14 Do your thing.

1:51:15 Maybe I've got some videos that'll hopefully help.

1:51:17 I've got some different videos on analyzing

1:51:18 reference that hopefully will be beneficial for that.

1:51:20 But if like if that's a thing that you're

1:51:24 like struggling with, then I have some classes for that.

1:51:28 But I've also got free videos that cover some of it too,

1:51:34 you know, learning the first.

1:51:35 By the way, uh just a quick call out

1:51:37 since I'm like on a roll right now with questions.

1:51:39 Just a quick call out that if anybody check the check the link

1:51:42 the pinned pinned link in the description pinned link over here somewhere.

1:51:47 Um, if you're going to Lightbox, I have a booth.

1:51:51 I'm going I'm doing some talks.

1:51:52 I have some other stuff going on.

1:51:54 Fill out the form.

1:51:55 Suggest some ideas, things you'd like to see.

1:51:57 And if you are interested in my classes,

1:51:58 if I'm giving good tips and you're like,

1:52:00 "Wow, this guy is he's on to something, you know,

1:52:04 fill out the class form so you can see what kind of classes are

1:52:06 coming and you can vote on the ones you want to see." I've got announcements.

1:52:10 So, forms, forum, forms, lots of forms.

1:52:13 And then two other quick things and I'm going to keep answering questions.

1:52:16 If you're going to Lightbox,

1:52:17 I will be looking for animators to give reviews to other animators.

1:52:21 So, if you're like, I would like a review.

1:52:23 I don't want to give reviews.

1:52:25 We'll get that handled.

1:52:26 But if you're like, no, I want to give reviews.

1:52:27 I want to be a reviewer.

1:52:29 I'm looking for people like that.

1:52:31 And I'm going to make a form later and I'm going to post on Instagram and stuff,

1:52:34 but feel free to like DM me on Instagram

1:52:36 or LinkedIn or Discord or send me an email.

1:52:39 And then the other thing was, ah, I'm looking I'm going to be looking

1:52:44 for some volunteers to help me with my booth.

1:52:47 And um, not constantly, not the whole weekend at Lightbox,

1:52:51 but if you're going to be at Lightbox or you're

1:52:53 in the LA area and you want to go to Lightbox

1:52:56 and you don't mind having some pockets of time here

1:52:58 and there where you're helping me with at my booth,

1:53:00 the exchanges, I'll give you a ticket for the weekend, but I need some help.

1:53:05 And so that's something I'll make a form so you can apply to that.

1:53:07 But, you know, again, you can submit your interest and then I'll

1:53:10 send you the form when I make it like, "Hey, fill this out." I got to like

1:53:14 basically kind of like interview people through the form.

1:53:17 So, anyway, that's some stuff not to forget while I'm answering questions.

1:53:22 Um, I guess you could also just fill out the light box form and then

1:53:29 just tell me those things in the uh in the notes in the bottom.

1:53:32 There's like a any other things you want to share you could just say like,

1:53:34 "Oo, I want to maybe help with those things.

1:53:37 Let me know.

1:53:42 You know, learning the first Wait, you know,

1:53:44 learning the first 3D software is like picking

1:53:46 a lunch too hard and you want everything.

1:53:50 Yeah, feels like that.

1:53:53 Job security and animation career.

1:53:54 How to plan solid career as 3D animator?

1:53:57 I don't think that's something that anybody can really plan right now.

1:54:00 Honestly, the job security,

1:54:02 the job market in animation is super rough right now.

1:54:07 I don't think there's a way that you can like plan your career stuff.

1:54:11 The best thing you can do is just have a really you

1:54:14 either have to kind of animation is a very specialized skill set.

1:54:19 You have to really focus on animation to get great at it.

1:54:21 So there is a certain amount of specialization that happens in animation.

1:54:24 But I also think it's very valuable

1:54:27 to be versatile and to learn different tools,

1:54:29 different workflows, different departments.

1:54:32 If you can learn rigging or if you can learn story,

1:54:34 if like if you have other things that you can do, if something goes up,

1:54:40 if something goes down in in the area where your job lives,

1:54:43 your security isn't necessarily that you can stay in that role.

1:54:47 It might be that you can pivot to a different role or that you're able

1:54:49 to jump to a different studio that has

1:54:51 another opportunity that's kind of similar to yours,

1:54:52 but it's different, but you have a skill set that allows you to say,

1:54:55 "All right, I'm gonna I'm gonna still have

1:54:57 a job." that is um valuable right now.

1:55:06 So just be open to many opportunities and learn from everything you do.

1:55:11 I'm currently studying at animation mentor as well.

1:55:14 Do you have any advice for us in school to be

1:55:15 hirable or industry ready by the time we finish these programs?

1:55:18 Honestly, the best thing I can Well, not the best thing I can tell you.

1:55:22 One of the best things I can tell you I'll tell you two things.

1:55:30 One of the things you can do, this is not the big thing I was going to tell you,

1:55:32 but one of the things you can do, go place like show up.

1:55:37 Show up is the advice.

1:55:39 I put it in quotes because it's something I was told.

1:55:41 Like, show up.

1:55:42 And that means go to the events.

1:55:45 Like, be present when you can.

1:55:49 Like, it's it's show up for yourself when you need yourself.

1:55:52 It's show up for, you know, when you're when you're given an opportunity.

1:55:56 show up for the opportunity.

1:55:58 When there's an event, a networking opportunity, go be there, bring your work,

1:56:03 get feedback, you know, that is worth doing like the networking side of things.

1:56:09 And I have a video if you if

1:56:10 you hear networking and you're like, networking, gross.

1:56:15 There's a video on my channel called the biggest lie in animation.

1:56:19 I think it's called the biggest lie in animation.

1:56:22 Um, and the thumbnail, I think, is me like this.

1:56:26 and there's like an X and it says the it's who you know or something.

1:56:31 Um, watch that video if you feel like networking is icky.

1:56:36 Watch that video and I will explain in that video what networking actually

1:56:39 is and how you're supposed to do it and how it actually works.

1:56:42 Especially if you're going to lightbox,

1:56:44 watch that before going to Lightbox and it will help prep you.

1:56:48 But the other answer advice to be hireable or industry ready by the time

1:56:55 we finish the programs recognize the program will not do it for you.

1:57:03 Going to animation mentor is not going to make you industry ready.

1:57:08 It is up to you whether you are industry ready.

1:57:11 Now it's not like it's just a choice and like

1:57:13 you you'll just if you choose it you'll be ready, right?

1:57:16 like you have to actually do the work and there's a lot of factors there.

1:57:18 It's not quite so simple, of course,

1:57:20 but you can't expect to go through one of those programs and then just

1:57:24 come out the other side and be just like be you spit out and like,

1:57:27 all right, you finished.

1:57:28 You should get a job now.

1:57:30 No, that is one of the biggest like misconceptions about animation

1:57:36 school and one of the things that I did not understand about

1:57:38 animation mentor when I went there and it's one of the things

1:57:40 that I learned after I was at DreamWorks for a while.

1:57:44 I realized animation mentor and other schools like it, right?

1:57:49 As much as it seems like when you sign up like I'm going

1:57:51 to go to the school and I'm going to leave ready for a job.

1:57:55 No, you're going to leave with an understanding of what

1:58:00 you need to do so that you can get a job.

1:58:03 You're going to leave with an understanding of what comes next for you

1:58:09 to do on your own so that you can get hired somewhere.

1:58:13 Now, some people are able to do it at the same time.

1:58:16 They're able to go through the program realizing what

1:58:19 they need to be doing and they're able to do

1:58:21 it as they go because they're working really hard

1:58:22 and they're cranking through it and they're like they're also good.

1:58:27 Um, like there were animators in my class who

1:58:29 were working way harder than me who were actively taking

1:58:32 the lessons and like animating really cool stuff and you

1:58:37 know they were spending way more time than I was.

1:58:38 They weren't procra procrastinating.

1:58:40 Like I was a really bad student.

1:58:43 I was pretty young when I when I went through animation mentor,

1:58:45 but I was a really bad student when I did it.

1:58:47 And I didn't really realize that I was.

1:58:49 I just thought like other people in my classes like, "Wow,

1:58:51 they're really good." And they were, but I was also really bad.

1:58:54 It was both.

1:58:55 They were really good and I was really bad.

1:58:56 I wasn't neutral like I thought I was.

1:58:58 I was bad.

1:58:59 And so I left Animation Mentor thinking that having finished

1:59:03 the school was going to be the thing that got me ready.

1:59:04 And like no, I was able to leave

1:59:08 with the understanding of like I know what I need

1:59:12 to do for my demo reel to like be

1:59:14 good cuz right now it's not like that shot's bad.

1:59:16 That shot has issues.

1:59:17 These are the notes.

1:59:18 These are the notes.

1:59:18 These are the notes.

1:59:19 These are the notes for all these different shots.

1:59:21 Like I knew what needed to be done.

1:59:23 But rather than doing that, I was like, I'll just apply with what I've got.

1:59:27 I'm sure it'll be fine.

1:59:28 I should be ready.

1:59:29 And I wasn't getting internships.

1:59:32 Like this was happening throughout school.

1:59:33 like I was never getting any offers.

1:59:34 I was like, why am I not getting offers?

1:59:36 Like I'm learning all this stuff because I wasn't applying it.

1:59:38 And so there's a huge distinction in like what you need to do to be hireable.

1:59:46 And it's not just going to the program.

1:59:49 It's going to the program, absorbing the stuff,

1:59:51 and then applying it on a brand new demo reel that has nothing

1:59:54 to do with the assignments and the things you were given in school.

1:59:57 Like those are practice.

1:59:58 Those are for you to like get it and then

2:00:00 you take that and then you use it for something else.

2:00:03 Some people are able to do both because their shots are really good,

2:00:07 but that's not the norm.

2:00:09 And so that's the big advice that I would say is like especially at school

2:00:12 like animation mentor that um you know it's not the school that gets you ready,

2:00:18 it's you which is empowering but also disappointing.

2:00:25 But if you don't know that, you will expect too

2:00:28 much and then you'll be disappointed and then you'll be

2:00:30 frustrated when you can't get a job and you won't

2:00:33 understand that there is something you can be doing about it.

2:00:36 It's not just apply, apply, apply.

2:00:38 It's keep working, keep applying, but also keep working.

2:00:45 Do professional animators like yourself rely on reference for every shot?

2:00:48 Basically, can professional animate animate with zero?

2:00:50 Can professional animators animate with zero reference?

2:00:53 Totally.

2:00:53 It depends on the artist.

2:00:54 Some people struggle more than others.

2:00:58 Some people are really good at it.

2:00:59 It's It depends on like what you understand about the motion for one thing.

2:01:03 Like like on one hand, really cartoony stuff, you might not have a way to do

2:01:10 reference for something like super zany and crazy.

2:01:13 And that's just like a creativity thing.

2:01:16 And so, uh, you know, different people are going to be better or worse at that.

2:01:21 And then um some stuff is like it has

2:01:29 to be based in reality and so you must use reference

2:01:33 or you have to really understand the mechanics of of whatever

2:01:37 you're animating to where you've like memorized the mechanics.

2:01:40 Like I'm I was always really good at parkour shots

2:01:43 and like the physicality animation stuff because I did parkour.

2:01:47 I really understood what it was to do these actions, what it felt like,

2:01:51 what it looked like,

2:01:52 what was physically happening and like what you needed to do,

2:01:55 what muscles you needed to like roll across this right shoulder

2:01:58 from like this particular muscle across diagonal to the left hip.

2:02:02 Like I knew all these technical details of how to move and do it in real life.

2:02:07 So posing a character to do it was easy.

2:02:10 Um, I knew what needed to happen.

2:02:12 And so my parkour shots were really good

2:02:13 even though most of my animation was really bad.

2:02:17 And so I used reference,

2:02:19 but I didn't need reference as much as other people would have needed it.

2:02:22 Even, you know, where other people could have looked

2:02:25 at the reference and gotten the reference wrong and been like, "Oh,

2:02:28 that's what it kind of seems like." I was able to go,

2:02:30 I must be looking at the reference wrong because I know it's not that.

2:02:33 And I'd kind of tweak and be like, "That must be it.

2:02:35 It must be like the angle and the perspective of the way I shot it.

2:02:38 I can't really see this in the reference.

2:02:41 I'm stuck." No, I know what to do because I understand it, right?

2:02:44 So it's it depends on the people.

2:02:47 So the answer is yes.

2:02:48 You you totally can animate without reference especially when it's

2:02:51 like cartoony stuff or stuff you understand really really well 100%.

2:02:55 You don't need reference.

2:02:57 You are the animator.

2:02:58 But you do need to study the stuff so that you know it or at least it has

2:03:04 to be so crazy that like it's left only

2:03:05 to your imagination though a reference wouldn't have helped you anyway.

2:03:09 So yeah.

2:03:11 How to constrain a bat in Maya?

2:03:14 Um, there are two main options.

2:03:16 There's constraints, parent constraints,

2:03:18 and then there is uh anot which is a script that's a tool in Maya that's great.

2:03:25 It's uh it's not free, but it's well worth it.

2:03:27 It's not all that expensive.

2:03:30 I cover both in extreme detail in my technical animation class.

2:03:34 If you want to follow the link in the description to my courses,

2:03:37 I have a an inexpensive technical animation class,

2:03:42 inexpensive by the standards of online classes.

2:03:44 It's a it's meant to be affordable.

2:03:46 Um, but that goes through constraints like perfectly.

2:03:49 I cover everything.

2:03:51 But if you are looking for the free answer,

2:03:53 I do have videos on the topic on my channel.

2:03:56 Um, I think there's two different constraints videos that you'll have to watch.

2:04:01 Did I post the new one or not yet?

2:04:06 One second.

2:04:07 I filmed a new constraint video.

2:04:11 I don't think I posted it yet.

2:04:13 No, I haven't posted it yet.

2:04:15 Dang it.

2:04:15 I haven't edited, I guess.

2:04:17 Um, yeah, I have some videos on the topic though,

2:04:21 so you can watch those if you want to go deeper.

2:04:23 Check out my class.

2:04:24 But, um, parent constraints are what you're looking for.

2:04:27 And Anabot has an X form relationship tool that bypasses constraints.

2:04:31 It's really handy.

2:04:36 Uh, will your lightbox talk be recorded?

2:04:38 Would love to see it, but can't make the light box this year.

2:04:40 Oh man, my Unreal Engine class I think will be recorded,

2:04:45 but my going solo talk I've asked them

2:04:49 not to record because I'm going to be sharing

2:04:53 like a light amount of like financial information

2:04:55 of like what I do and how I do it.

2:04:57 And I want to be able to answer all the questions that people ask me.

2:05:00 And if someone asked me a really specific question,

2:05:01 I want to be able to give an honest answer.

2:05:03 I I don't want that stuff on YouTube if I don't control the video.

2:05:07 I'm just not comfortable with it.

2:05:08 So that one will not be recorded.

2:05:15 Uh who do you follow for business insight?

2:05:18 Nobody.

2:05:20 Uh nobody.

2:05:21 And that's not a flex.

2:05:23 I think in some cases it shows.

2:05:25 I am naturally good at a lot of business stuff.

2:05:28 It's something I really actually enjoy and I am very good at.

2:05:32 But for sure there's stuff that like I would love more business insight,

2:05:36 but I I don't follow anybody for that kind of stuff.

2:05:40 Mostly because most of the people online who do business stuff are

2:05:44 so like loud and obnoxious in a way that I don't like.

2:05:46 Like they everyone focuses on stuff that I'm not interested in hustle culture,

2:05:53 grind this, you know, monetize this and funnels and I'm not interested.

2:06:01 It's not it's not like it's wrong.

2:06:02 It's just like it's not the approach that I resonate with.

2:06:07 So, I don't follow anybody for business insight.

2:06:14 Oh, the person about the VC.

2:06:16 Yeah, I need to No worries.

2:06:18 I gota I got to look at that.

2:06:21 Uh, as a tech artist, animation isn't my main thing,

2:06:24 but I really love it and I would like to get better, but I don't have the time.

2:06:28 I can give maximum 30 minutes a day.

2:06:30 What type of exercise do you recommend?

2:06:32 H animation isn't my main thing, but I really love it.

2:06:35 I'd like to get better at it, but I don't I mean,

2:06:37 if you just enjoy it, 30 minutes a day is a reasonable amount.

2:06:41 I mean, it's not a lot of time for sure, but like it's totally fine.

2:06:46 What type of exercises do I recommend?

2:06:48 I mean, very small bite-sized ones that you feel that I would,

2:06:52 if I were in your shoes, I would want to feel like I'm

2:06:55 making actual progress and like accomplishing something.

2:07:00 most of the time and not like chipping away

2:07:03 at a really long project over 30 minutes at a time.

2:07:05 Like that sounds pretty unhappy.

2:07:07 So I would want something with like a high return of like happiness.

2:07:12 So I would do like really targeted focused assignments or exercises,

2:07:17 you know, like animate like if you only have 30 minutes.

2:07:23 It's like like don't you wouldn't animate like

2:07:27 a character acting full body shot blah blah blah.

2:07:31 It'd be like if you want to focus if you want to try

2:07:33 having a character like if you're interested in acting and I made a blink.

2:07:39 See see how far you can get in 30 minutes of a blink.

2:07:44 Get a character to like sniffle or cough or sneeze or like or stub their toe,

2:07:58 but just the stub the toe.

2:07:59 Not like the whole reaction, like just just like the tiniest thing, you know?

2:08:04 Have a character snap their fingers like and just focus on the hand.

2:08:08 Like literally the shot is the hand going like this and going that's it.

2:08:12 Like focus on such bite-size little things

2:08:16 that you can make significant progress in 30 minutes.

2:08:18 or at least if you can't finish it in 30 minutes,

2:08:20 it only takes a couple of days and you could probably finish it within a week.

2:08:23 Um, don't take on anything big because if you enjoy it,

2:08:29 then you should you should get a reward out of it and that reward

2:08:31 should be like finishing shots and and getting to move on to other ideas.

2:08:36 There's nothing worse than when an idea that you're

2:08:38 excited about drags on to where you hate it.

2:08:44 That would be that would be my advice because

2:08:48 then you don't even have to worry about reference, right?

2:08:49 If it's just a snap, you can just stare at your own hand and get what

2:08:52 you need and try to figure out how to translate that.

2:08:59 Monica's going to light box.

2:09:01 Woo.

2:09:02 Very fun.

2:09:08 Um, hello.

2:09:10 I'm the most excited for your Wait.

2:09:12 Hello.

2:09:12 I'm the most I'm the most excited

2:09:14 for your constraint workflow to make body mechanics easier

2:09:16 for a dynamic shot like parenting the camera

2:09:18 and the characters and creating a huge control for both.

2:09:20 You're a legend.

2:09:22 Uh have I done a video on that?

2:09:25 Hopefully that is helpful somewhere.

2:09:29 Feel like I did something with like a dragon once.

2:09:35 Let's see.

2:09:36 Hope I get it to Sony one day.

2:09:38 I believe in you.

2:09:39 You can do it.

2:09:42 The future of a career in CG is to make

2:09:46 your own content and be a team of one to three people.

2:09:51 Yeah, I think I agree with that.

2:09:53 I don't think every project is going to work that way,

2:09:55 but I think there's a lot of people who will succeed in that sort of environment

2:10:01 and that is what people should be trying to build

2:10:04 more than a lot of people currently are now.

2:10:08 Hi there.

2:10:09 Love all your videos.

2:10:09 Thank you.

2:10:10 I do have a question.

2:10:11 Despite seeing many tutorials, I have a hard time dealing with constraints.

2:10:13 How do I practice using props?

2:10:14 I'm just feeling less overwhelmed.

2:10:16 I understand.

2:10:18 Um, my I I I never love I I never like answering a question

2:10:23 like this with like go buy my class because it's not the only option.

2:10:26 It's not the only It's not the only answer for sure,

2:10:30 but it is the answer that will answer all your questions.

2:10:33 So, just like as a first answer,

2:10:35 if you're struggling with constraints on my in my link down there,

2:10:40 the courses.surwway.com,

2:10:43 I have a technical animation class that I just taught in July.

2:10:48 I think I haven't updated the website.

2:10:50 So, the website's going to say like technical

2:10:52 animation skills is back now enrolling coming soon.

2:10:55 Like, it's like it'll have the dates and it'll say July.

2:10:58 We're well past July.

2:10:59 I just haven't updated the site,

2:11:00 but I haven't actually taken down the ability to sign up for the class.

2:11:04 So, what you'll end up signing up for is you'll have like

2:11:08 Zoom recordings essentially of the class that I taught over the summer.

2:11:11 And so, it's not a clean recording.

2:11:13 It is like a Zoom class that you missed,

2:11:15 but like I go through everything in such detail,

2:11:20 like I cover everything about constraints.

2:11:23 Um, so if you're struggling with constraints,

2:11:25 that will answer everything and you'll you'll

2:11:28 have it and you'll have those videos forever.

2:11:32 But I do have some videos on my channel and to answer your actual question,

2:11:37 how do I practice using props?

2:11:41 There are a couple of different kinds of constraint setups.

2:11:47 And there's different like levels of how

2:11:50 correct you want your constraint setup to be.

2:11:52 How bulletproof do you want that constraint to setup to be?

2:11:56 Because for a lot of shots, the most important thing when you're figuring out

2:12:00 like constraint shot stuff is like planning your shot.

2:12:03 Looking at your shot before you begin

2:12:06 and figuring out like what kind of constraint

2:12:09 setup do I need or might I need is important because if I'm like,

2:12:14 oh, I have a character who's holding a pen.

2:12:18 If I know that they're holding the pen and they never let go of it,

2:12:23 then I don't even need a constraint setup.

2:12:25 I could just parent the pen to one of the finger

2:12:28 controls and it'll follow it and it'll work just fine.

2:12:31 But if anything changes and it turns out, oh,

2:12:36 I need to have them let go of the pen for some reason,

2:12:39 they have to toss it in the air,

2:12:40 they're gonna like spin it in some interesting way,

2:12:43 they're going to hand it here, they're going to drop it,

2:12:45 they are going to kind of go, "Oh my gosh." And like they're going to do

2:12:47 some kind of weird little graspy thing with it.

2:12:50 There is a way to brute force work around that stuff,

2:12:54 but like it's never advisable.

2:12:56 um if I make any changes to where it's like, oh no,

2:12:58 I need to be able to disconnect these objects and have them independent.

2:13:01 Then a parent constraint does not work.

2:13:03 And if I had done that, it's going to make my life

2:13:06 harder to have to now backtrack and figure out how to switch it.

2:13:10 And so figuring out ahead of time, hm, no, I need a constraint setup.

2:13:14 Do I need a good constraint setup or can

2:13:18 I get by with kind of a weak constraint setup?

2:13:21 It's the same thing over and over.

2:13:23 Because if you're if you know for sure like, well,

2:13:25 I'm not I'm for sure not gonna do anything complicated.

2:13:28 I do need to have them like let go, but that's kind of it.

2:13:31 I just need them to like put it down or pick it up.

2:13:34 It's like, okay, then we can do like, you know,

2:13:38 a decently good constraint setup, but we don't have to go crazy.

2:13:40 But it's like, oh no,

2:13:41 I want the flexibility to have my character pass it from hand to hand,

2:13:45 drop it, pick it up, grasp it in the same hand.

2:13:48 Oops, I dropped it entirely this time.

2:13:50 kick it with my foot, pick it up with my left hand, hand it to my right.

2:13:55 If I want the flexibility to do whatever I want with it,

2:13:58 then I need a pretty advanced constraint setup.

2:13:59 It's not that it's like really advanced, it's just I need to have a really

2:14:02 well thoughtout constraint system that's very flexible.

2:14:05 And there's like a bunch of steps that that need to happen for that to work.

2:14:10 And so, um, your question, how do you practice?

2:14:17 What I'm trying to say is

2:14:20 identifying like understanding how constraints work like

2:14:24 really understanding how they work and how they think and like how Maya

2:14:27 sees constraints will help you to know like which setup you need

2:14:31 and how complex the setup needs to be for what you're trying to do.

2:14:34 And then beyond that, how you then practice

2:14:36 that once you know which one to practice,

2:14:40 you really just like you could literally just sit there and be like,

2:14:43 I've got this set up.

2:14:43 I've got a character with a pen.

2:14:44 I'm going to just link them together and like do all my little

2:14:48 tests and like you could technically just like you know practice it that way.

2:14:53 But again, it's kind of similar to the other advice I gave,

2:14:55 which is like small tests.

2:14:57 You practice it in small bursts.

2:14:59 Don't have some like I'm going to practice

2:15:02 by having some crazy thing where the person's riding