How To Animate Faster - Breaking Down My Animation Workflow

Фильм және анимация

Discovering an animation workflow that works for you can be one of the most important factors in your success as an animator. Often times we stick with whatever workflow we were taught in school, but there isn't one method for animating that works for everyone. In this video, I break down my workflow and talk about my thought process when approaching my animations.
Tools discussed in the video: morganloomis.com/tool/ml_world...
Social Media 📰
Twitter: / markmasters92
Instagram: / markmasters92
LinkedIn: / mark-masters-062a89a4
Chapters 📘
0:00 Intro
2:05 Video Reference
3:32 Cube Pass
5:16 Body Pass
7:31 Leg Pass
12:44 Arms + Chest Pass
13:37 Leg Polish Pass
15:57 Timing Adjustments and Pose Tweaks
17:02 Final Pass
18:16 Outro
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Пікірлер: 110

  • @Som3D
    @Som3D2 жыл бұрын

    Every animator has that story of “I tried that workflow, struggled and discovered my own way of animating” AND ITS INCREDIBLE

  • @HardcoreGamingQC

    @HardcoreGamingQC

    10 ай бұрын

    I'm one of the persons that haven't struggle with the basic workflow, pose to pose. I would'nt see myself animating like this guy does, funny how every animators, animate in their own ways

  • @katakana-kun2122
    @katakana-kun212210 ай бұрын

    In animation school one of my teachers was a veteran Disney animator who taught pose to pose. I remember reading a book by a more obscure Disney animator (can't remember his name) where he explained that he liked to do the whole scene straight ahead to figure out the movement first, then looked for the drawings that could be turned into key poses, perfect them, and drew the inbetweens again with a more controlled timing. When I talked about it to my teacher he just smiled and say "yeah, you should probably stick to pose to pose". I went on and tried it anyway on my next scene, without telling him. When I showed him the scene he said "this is your best work so far" and that's been my process for traditional animation ever since. I think pose to pose has become a standard because it is the 9 old men way, but it's nice to see people try other workflows. I also don't used pose to pose in 3D.

  • @PlusHappylab

    @PlusHappylab

    10 күн бұрын

    nice love to hear that story

  • @nimaxo2012
    @nimaxo20128 ай бұрын

    "The Pose is not important. Animation and the flow is important." You have a point. That was something eye opening. Thank you..

  • @michaeljburt
    @michaeljburt5 ай бұрын

    It's awesome watching pros work. The "rough pass" is what many would consider really good - all the motion, timing and flow looks super good. And then to refine the details further from here is just *chefs kiss*

  • @ArtVandelayInc
    @ArtVandelayInc2 жыл бұрын

    I personally think animating like this is way better indeed. It is much easier to figure out timing (which is probably the most important thing in animation) with a cube rather than trying to do it with ready to use complex poses. Spending only 6.5 hours for an animation like this just proves the effectiveness of this method. Lastly, Mark your channel is a gold mine with damn precious insights all over the place. It's always a great experience to watch a professional sharing the knowledge, helping others along the way

  • @Samsstuff10
    @Samsstuff10 Жыл бұрын

    duuude, idk about anybody else, but this made soo much sense to me, one of my big problems is that i dont like the whole planning phase, I also have a really hard time thinking of it as a bunch of poses and not motion, so your workflow makes so much sense to me, cause first you get the timing of the motion down then you get the pose down. imma start trying this out!, thanks so much!

  • @titimariangiusca
    @titimariangiusca2 жыл бұрын

    Thanks Mark, this is so relatable. I was looking for a workflow that goes straight into motion. When animating I feel like those "main poses" I make are most likely going to change when I work on the motion of the character and so I was asking myself why should I spend so much time on posing other than having a good base when interpolating. But this workflow just sounds so well to my ears and I definitely need to give it a go. I really appreciate you sharing this, thanks again!! :D

  • @Zimuus
    @Zimuus2 жыл бұрын

    Very cool to see, love seeing representation for other "non-standard" workflows!

  • @phlipnolen-author8801
    @phlipnolen-author8801 Жыл бұрын

    Not only a good technique but also a very well constructed and thought out presentation of how to create and apply the methods.

  • @rossums_rule7575
    @rossums_rule7575 Жыл бұрын

    WOW! I've never seen a work flow like this. Genius. Character looks so grounded after simple blocking and a leg pass. Great vid!

  • @gaberilla4932
    @gaberilla4932 Жыл бұрын

    Finally someone who gets it! I've been struggling integrating pose to pose in my workflow and seeing everyone just breeze through it made me unsure of my animation skills in general. I kind of like seeing the animation more rather than the pose as I cant visualize the inbetweens in a pose to pose workflow. Thanks for the tips!

  • @mao3d
    @mao3d Жыл бұрын

    thank you for sharing mark, hopefully I can use this method in my workflow

  • @jamiejose
    @jamiejose Жыл бұрын

    When you got to the leg pass and explained it, I was very happy to find a faster way to animate the feet. But I was also very frustrated because the whole time there was an easier way to animate footwork, and this whole time I didn't know how to use the core control. I majored in 3D animation, but I only learned the basics cuz we basically had one class that focused on each topic (animation, modeling, rigging, etc.) Thank you so much for teaching us about your workflow!

  • @PanArt_
    @PanArt_ Жыл бұрын

    This is an amazing video my dude! thanks for the insight 👌🏾 and happy holidays 🎅🏾

  • @NazimZaki
    @NazimZaki Жыл бұрын

    my next favourite animation channel. good stuff here. I learn a lot. thank you

  • @brendananimation
    @brendananimation Жыл бұрын

    crazy how we all have our own way to do this stuff. very interesting

  • @cutatube
    @cutatube2 жыл бұрын

    Nice vid! Really informative. Would love to see a bit more of this and also the "throw it in engine" testing. Thanks!

  • @AceOfSpades_211
    @AceOfSpades_2112 жыл бұрын

    Love the hustle man!

  • @mak_attakks
    @mak_attakks10 ай бұрын

    You've brought up something important here. A similar layered approach is how most cg animators worked in the earlier days. The stepped pose thing was a workflow developed by and for traditional hand drawn animators who migrated into cg (shared by Keith Lango in his lectures). What's important is that students should be made aware of different workflows and shouldn't get boxed into working one way.

  • @npatch
    @npatch5 ай бұрын

    I'm a programmer and working in research, I had to do some animation myself occasionally since we almost never have available animators on staff. Weirdly enough I reached the same workflow conceptually when I was given mocap animations for a craftsman without any animation for the tools he used. I now had to fully animate tools based on video references of each step of the craft process and the tool used and the grips in the animation. This was about preserving the mocap detail in the end result, so we wouldn't do any keyframe reduction on them and also, it was a cinematic, so it made sense to try and replicate the tool animation as if we had mocaped the tools as well. To do that, in Unity, I did some animation rigging for the tools and aligned the IK targets to sampled hand animation at points in time that I thought were considered a "change" (kinda like local highs and lows in curves) to get a rough baseline of the animation the tool itself would have in this action and then hand animated the details over that baseline, using the IK rig and based on the movement of the hand, the grip etc. On another note, old tutorials for modelling made you import reference images in Maya/Blender etc in planes.....I see you can do the same for the video, so you can have a very quick rough baseline, by rotoscoping, instead of doing it yourself completely all the while watching the video on the side. That should be a bit faster, right?

  • @Pyraus
    @Pyraus4 ай бұрын

    Cool use of the animated cube, and explanation.

  • @weebsenpai-3098
    @weebsenpai-30984 ай бұрын

    Not even using Maya nor do I have more than few months with Blender, but this has been beyond helpful. Thank you ~

  • @qwargly
    @qwargly4 ай бұрын

    This seems like a godsend for someone more used to 2D animation, this is wonderful, Ill definitely be trying a similar method

  • @TylerGutierrez
    @TylerGutierrez11 ай бұрын

    This is literally how I eventually began animating with confidence lol love the video

  • @LetsAnimatewithIrfan
    @LetsAnimatewithIrfan2 жыл бұрын

    Amazing Stuff Mark ! really love your Chanel!

  • @MarkMastersAnim

    @MarkMastersAnim

    2 жыл бұрын

    Thank you, Irfan! 🧡

  • @riuthamus
    @riuthamus2 жыл бұрын

    Love what you are doing. Would really like to see a vide on how you go from cradle to grave in regards to animation. I watched a ton of tutorials on Pluralsight but they were all outdated. It seems like there should be some content out there showing off new methods but it is very limited for Maya. Would love to see the following: 1) Creating a control rig 2) Best practices for control rigs with the gaming industry 3) Set driven keys 4) Weighting, best practices so this doesnt take 5 years :P 5) Layers for pose setups (2 handed weapon vs 1 with a run animation) I really love your style and approach, which is why I am hoping you cover these topics down the road.

  • @user-pj6xf1hc4p
    @user-pj6xf1hc4p7 ай бұрын

    I think this is the most promising tutorial I ever watch pls keep going, can you talk about top plugins you use, and if you can talk more about the layers I like to see why you're using so much layer and how much can improve the process. Thank you!!

  • @munishanimates
    @munishanimates2 ай бұрын

    i liked ur way . wwill defintely try that

  • @DenisTrebushnikov
    @DenisTrebushnikov Жыл бұрын

    It make sense (principle 4: straight ahead & pose-to-pose) , I'd already met similar workflow in Blender tutorials. Additionally, you don't need the cube layer, you can boldly start with torso + motion trail, except the necessity to block 2+ anim objects in scene. (2 day from start Maya self+tutors learning and diving deep in animation...)

  • @haazimmalik1133

    @haazimmalik1133

    Жыл бұрын

    Yesss finally found a comment about the forth principle regarding this video. Great analysis bro

  • @vedangsharma1000pixels
    @vedangsharma1000pixels Жыл бұрын

    this is awesome!

  • @PlushGrenade
    @PlushGrenade9 ай бұрын

    It would be interesting to see your workflow with layers and how you explore ideas with layers like you mentioned in this great video:)

  • @gfxalchemist6196
    @gfxalchemist61962 жыл бұрын

    Very cool man!!!

  • @Shoobs3D
    @Shoobs3D4 ай бұрын

    Really nice explanation, I'll try this workflow out soon. Master Tutorials playlist: 4 down, 38 to go.

  • @sameermohapatra6548
    @sameermohapatra6548 Жыл бұрын

    Wow, you really have explained everything, at the end of the vdo I realized that for the first time I didn’t have any doubts regarding anything. So helpful….thanks a lot and plz make some more videos…more power to you! 🙌🏻♥️

  • @MarkMastersAnim

    @MarkMastersAnim

    Жыл бұрын

    Awesome, glad it was helpful!

  • @SandroSanakoti
    @SandroSanakoti Жыл бұрын

    Great!

  • @user-uk6tr8zk4x
    @user-uk6tr8zk4x3 ай бұрын

    Hey Mark, good to know about the progress of your shot. I would prefer to go with a pose-to-pose approach rather than the process you showed.

  • @NightWink129
    @NightWink129 Жыл бұрын

    Thank you so much! I don't even use Maya, but this is extremely helpful!

  • @thiago.p6563
    @thiago.p65636 ай бұрын

    thank you thank you thank youuuu

  • @amsuherdi1111
    @amsuherdi11112 жыл бұрын

    Thank you for sharing your workflow! I might want to experiment a bit with this method. I've been having a hard time with the Pose to Pose method lately... It's stressing me out.

  • @MarkMastersAnim

    @MarkMastersAnim

    2 жыл бұрын

    Yeah definitely give it a try! Everyone likes to work differently, so if you feel one method isn't quite working for you experiment with some others. it wasn't until I really started focusing on animation first vs. poses first, did things start to click for me.

  • @Romaelzo
    @Romaelzo Жыл бұрын

    KEEP GOING PLEASE!

  • @mail2santak
    @mail2santak2 жыл бұрын

    Man you should make more video's it's cool.. 😃 to find something new.

  • @Boba3d
    @Boba3d Жыл бұрын

    Hey man, your tutorials are great, I am still researching what you share with us. Just little suggestion and minor detail that I noticed. On 8:30 when you delete cube, you say constrain is also deleted. As I know constrain isn't deleted but deactivated because there is no more "driver" object. If you go in outliner you could see constrain is still there. To delete this kind of temporary constrains I am using arrow down/arrow right on my keyboard. In that way maya selects that certain constrain and you could delete it. Your videos are amazing, please keep going with it. I learnt already alot but this is quick minor detail just to help you to make your content even better. Best Regards, Boba

  • @bzyku9494
    @bzyku9494 Жыл бұрын

    Great video! This method seems similar to 'layered' method of animating Michal Makarewicz from Pixar is using.

  • @welatcan6993
    @welatcan6993 Жыл бұрын

    Great tutorial, I love it!!! Where can I get the rig/model you used in this video?

  • @oscjan
    @oscjan Жыл бұрын

    Great video, trying this workflow now and I can already feel the advantages of it. Just a small question, how do you do that "snap to previous keyframe" command in animbot? Closest I can figure out is just copy+paste poses, but that requires me to step back and forward all the time. Doing it with just one click would speed things up immensely. Cheers!

  • @anim8rJMunoz
    @anim8rJMunoz2 жыл бұрын

    Awesome to see the full breakdown… also just hit the animbot share keys button after selecting cog & 2 feet and it’ll set keys for you on the feet ‘shared’ from the cog.

  • @MarkMastersAnim

    @MarkMastersAnim

    2 жыл бұрын

    Thanks for the tip! Yeah, there are still so many tools in AnimBot that I need to dive into more. I also am so in the habit of doing it the old way sometimes that it can be hard to break those.

  • @SupakAnimations
    @SupakAnimations2 жыл бұрын

    Can you someday teach how you work with layers in maya? I really want to learn this workflow!

  • @prachinagwekar6458
    @prachinagwekar6458 Жыл бұрын

    Great tips. Extremely useful. Do you have a special setup for the sword by any chance that helps tracking the tip better?

  • @MarkMastersAnim

    @MarkMastersAnim

    Жыл бұрын

    Glad it was helpful! And no particular setup on the sword. I use animbots motion trail feature which allows me to select a control to track, and then offset the trail onto a specific point of the mesh. Like the tip of the sword for example.

  • @KubAnim
    @KubAnim Жыл бұрын

    I absolutely love it, is there any tool or something to do this on blender??

  • @forzamaya4087
    @forzamaya4087 Жыл бұрын

    Should've give a try to this one! Pose to pose steps not working me aswel! 😥

  • @MrJones002
    @MrJones002 Жыл бұрын

    There is one question I do have with one part of this which is the timing adjustment, because everything is on different keys do you have a way to basically make it snappier IE: deleting keys/bringing keys backwards Or do you just mess around and wait till something feels good to you? I always have issues with retiming in layered (only in specific areas that may have a fair bit of detail!) Ever since watching these videos I've enjoyed layering so much more as it allows me to "feel the motion" a lot more!

  • @monkey.5075
    @monkey.5075 Жыл бұрын

    informative

  • @dannyshotz1092
    @dannyshotz10928 ай бұрын

    Amazing idea for finding reference on specific actions! what app do you use to record and have set frames like that?

  • @MarkMastersAnim

    @MarkMastersAnim

    8 ай бұрын

    It's called Keyframe. There are two versions, Keyframe MP, and Keyframe PRO

  • @mezzokim8392
    @mezzokim8392 Жыл бұрын

    you are jenious

  • @Sharkhead123456
    @Sharkhead123456 Жыл бұрын

    How do you get such a smooth body movements? Every time i animate, its always robotic and jiggles a lot of times, i never get this feeling of a "smooth body mechanic"

  • @nadjaruiz8112
    @nadjaruiz8112 Жыл бұрын

    thank you! this is very helpful. but, is there any way to do this workflow in blender?

  • @ever6
    @ever62 жыл бұрын

    Very cool Mark wow wish ianiamte 2 game ws I took 6yrs ago would've talked more about this it would've helped a ton dang. I totally get why you didn't name your layers just curious and I have 3 questions regarding your workflow for this combo. Did you shoot new vid ref of yourself doing a 2 handed stab when you decided to to have a much stronger attack? Do you remember in those 15 layers what changes your were tweaking off the top of your mind since it's kinda fresh? How difficult was it to readjsut the 2 big changes on the 2 handed stab and then taking out that extra step to idle to stay within under 8hrs? I hope these make sense and I just sub today Darrel

  • @MarkMastersAnim

    @MarkMastersAnim

    2 жыл бұрын

    Hey Darrel, thanks for the kind words! I didn't shoot video reference for changing it to a 2 handed stab since it was mainly a pose change. I did however stand up quite a few times to act it out, and figure out the pose just by acting it out. Most likely a lot of those layers were small tweaks and adjustments. Cleaning up the arcs on an arm, I'd probably throw that onto a layer and tweak it there. Or adding a bit more overlap and settle on the body during the stab would have been a layer. It was pretty easy to make the big pose change on the stab and removing the extra step to idle. To tweak the stab pose, I just added a new layer, with all controls selected, and adjusted that area. For the step back, I added the idle pose onto the layer, and blended from the stab to the idle. It's kind of hard to explain, it could be could for a future tutorial on how to make large changes like the fairly quickly and easily.

  • @ever6

    @ever6

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@MarkMastersAnim Yeah IO think this would be a great tutorial based on what you've mentioned below. Because these are the kinda changes that's always ask for these types of animation and would be great for students as well. Whenever you get a moment "For the step back, I added the idle pose onto the layer, and blended from the stab to the idle. It's kind of hard to explain, it could be could for a future tutorial on how to make large changes like the fairly quickly and easily."

  • @mr.hunter5512
    @mr.hunter551210 ай бұрын

    Bro decided to become vergil

  • @user-pj6xf1hc4p
    @user-pj6xf1hc4p7 ай бұрын

    3:00 I am beginner and I wasn't using video reference one month pass and didn't end single scene, BCZ I have to imagine every pose, timing, and everything..

  • @Mrsmifff
    @Mrsmifff Жыл бұрын

    Would you use this same workflow for dialog anim or just body mechanics ?😊

  • @criptocatjr
    @criptocatjr10 ай бұрын

    How do you connect the character to the box??

  • @gcastro3d
    @gcastro3d2 жыл бұрын

    Great stuff Mark! Do you know of a similar bake tool for Blender?

  • @MarkMastersAnim

    @MarkMastersAnim

    2 жыл бұрын

    Hmm, I'm not sure if there is a similar tool, I might have to do some exploring to see.

  • @shunraiden9614
    @shunraiden96148 ай бұрын

    What program do you use at 2:05 (Video Reference)?

  • @sandipanbhattacharjee3088
    @sandipanbhattacharjee30882 күн бұрын

    Great tutorial ! Really inspiring. Bdw is it a People can fly shirt 🤔 :))

  • @MarkMastersAnim

    @MarkMastersAnim

    2 күн бұрын

    Thanks! Yeah it is, worked there for a few years!

  • @loony708
    @loony7082 жыл бұрын

    Was every pass a new anim layer? This workflow looks like it would work best for me as I also like to play around in maya and try out different poses

  • @MarkMastersAnim

    @MarkMastersAnim

    2 жыл бұрын

    In general, each pass was a layer, but there were definitely times when I was making changes on the base layer, especially early on, like the first leg pass was just on the base layer, the first chest/arm pass was on the base layer. Once I get beyond the first pass on everything, then I start making most changes on a layer.

  • @TheMimeGogo
    @TheMimeGogo6 ай бұрын

    10:56 - sorry I lack context- with the anim.bot tool? Snap to precious frame? What's the anim bot tool?

  • @rexildur3266
    @rexildur32662 жыл бұрын

    Thank you Mark, might try this on my free time, and also congrats on being part of Ianimate Instructor :)

  • @MarkMastersAnim

    @MarkMastersAnim

    2 жыл бұрын

    You're welcome! and thank you :)

  • @javohirparpiyev
    @javohirparpiyev Жыл бұрын

  • @Rewired_by-ADHD
    @Rewired_by-ADHD Жыл бұрын

    Hey man, first time here, first time with Grease Pencil Can you make a video, or maybe recommend one for me about... ok, I'll explain. You have your character generated by MJ AI, it's 2D, you need to give it animation so that you can run and jump in your game. The correct thing would be to trace it, map the color, give it rigging and then the animation? I'm completely lost anyway, a video on the process would be awesome

  • @HarryClipz
    @HarryClipz Жыл бұрын

    How would i do this inside blender?

  • @sivapandianreffreference
    @sivapandianreffreference Жыл бұрын

    🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩

  • @vidhyarajkr3144
    @vidhyarajkr3144 Жыл бұрын

    Wow this animation is smooth ...where can i get this rigged model ?

  • @Smartcoughdrop
    @Smartcoughdrop Жыл бұрын

    I animate in 2D, but this type of workflow is still very applicable

  • @PlusHappylab
    @PlusHappylab9 күн бұрын

    how do you animate without looking directly at the reference for every frame?

  • @philipejem3614
    @philipejem36146 ай бұрын

    How can I replicate this method in blender. Please any idea

  • @katyavillatoro1064
    @katyavillatoro10642 жыл бұрын

    What would you do if the rig doesnt have the option for the IK legs to follow the COG? Im using a rig that can only be put on IK or FK so im having a hard time transfering the keyframes following the COG.

  • @MarkMastersAnim

    @MarkMastersAnim

    2 жыл бұрын

    The easies way would be to keep your feet in IK, grab the COG ctrl, select the foot, and do a parent constrain. That way the feet will follow the COG. And then set keyframes on the feet, bake it off, then delete the constrain. That should give you the same results as if you had an option for IK legs to follow the COG.

  • @katyavillatoro1064

    @katyavillatoro1064

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@MarkMastersAnim thanks! I will try it out

  • @3Dmarvelschool
    @3Dmarvelschool10 ай бұрын

    Bro can U please do the same tutorial in blender. It will be great help. I am facing some issues. Please bring up the same tutorial for blender 🥰

  • @Anahronic
    @Anahronic2 жыл бұрын

    I love it! But I didn't succeed to install the World bake script... (((

  • @MarkMastersAnim

    @MarkMastersAnim

    2 жыл бұрын

    Sorry to hear that! Were you able to find the install instructions on the morgan loomis website?

  • @brennderose

    @brennderose

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@MarkMastersAnim Me neither. Also on his page sent me to a new page with the same instructions but no file. I search him on github browser and it throws me this message:"We couldn’t find any repositories matching" What can we do? :(

  • @EvanMapleMaggot
    @EvanMapleMaggot2 жыл бұрын

    Im sorry im new to animation, but what is the point of that method? Speed? Dont u think that lot of lazy people wont continue mastering the blocking poses after watching easy semi automatic ways like this?

  • @Deantwotwo

    @Deantwotwo

    2 жыл бұрын

    Hey there! I think you may have missed the point of the video. He is talking about his workflow, and what helps him animate at a faster speed, but he also mentions that this is the most comfortable method of animating for him. Mastering the Blocking phase is not a mandatory step. There are plenty of animators who skip this process, for example, Michal Makarewicz, who is an Animation Director at Pixar. The important thing to take away from Mark's video, is that this is just a workflow, and not the bible. It is not a video on "how to animate", but a video on "how to animate FASTER". One final note, I also use this method, and trust me, it is nowhere near semi-automatic. Lots of planning and understanding of body mechanics is involved :) You mentioned you were new to animation, so I suggest you learn animation whichever way feels best to you, and feel free to come back after a couple years and try this method out yourself! If it works, it works. Goodluck :)

  • @CGIPadawan
    @CGIPadawan9 ай бұрын

    Actually it looks a bit like how you'd animate in stop motion or if you're playing with action figures.

  • @kylesgrave
    @kylesgrave Жыл бұрын

    Clay.

  • @Novaheroan
    @Novaheroan Жыл бұрын

    Guy I just use lego characters as reference. Everyone has their own way!

  • @user-mo9kz6pc7u
    @user-mo9kz6pc7u7 ай бұрын

    In my opinion you removed the best part of the reference, the moment when you switch weapon to the other hand. I can understand that you are thinking about the movement in a game but even so ...

  • @Metarig
    @Metarig9 ай бұрын

    Shouldn't we be using mocap videos and then begin refining them these days?

  • @paparobintv
    @paparobintv4 ай бұрын

    too much blah blah blah wtf

  • @itstyler6567

    @itstyler6567

    4 ай бұрын

    Local commenter cliking on a video about the animation process surprised the animation process is complex

  • @brennderose
    @brennderose2 жыл бұрын

    Does anyone know what's the program's name for viewing a video frame by frame? And also, does anyone could download the file "ml_worldBake.py" ?? Whenever I press it it took me to a new page. HELP

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