Layered Animation: Blender Tutorial for Beginners
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- čas přidán 25. 07. 2024
- Layered is the newest of the animation workflows. This tutorial aims to shed light on the benefits of this workflow and what shots are best utilized with this method. Layered animation focuses on movement. How movement can be added together to achieve a performance in 3D animation. If you have not seen the other 2 workflow videos check them out here.
Character download: studio.blender.org/characters...
Pose to Pose: • Pose to Pose : Blender...
Straight Ahead: • Straight Ahead: Animat...
Audio for shot 1: jayuzumi.com/macaulay-culkin-...
It's 12 spots down on the left side.
Audio for shot 2: jayuzumi.com/ben-stiller-soun...
2nd columns 5th row down.
Chapters:
0:00 Workflow Intro
1:37 Bouncing Ball
8:54 Scene setup
13:50 Acting Shot 1
37:32 Acting Shot 2
1:02:04 Final Renders
#blender #aniamtion #blenderanimation #tutorial #blenderanimationtutorial - Krátké a kreslené filmy
This guy is the Bob Ross of 3d animation, he explains everything so calm
haha thanks! Happy the videos are clear to understand and follow.
Thanks for the note!
It's so rare to find someone who is as equally gifted as an artist as they are a teacher. Thank you so much for everything you do. 🙏🏽
That's really nice thank you!
@@alexonstory Can I ask a question?
@@bbrother92 For sure!
@@alexonstory Sir, Is there a way to copy animation for different copies of an object while triggering this animation at different time points? Some kind of automation thing
realy trying to automate things but I dont know how
Here i am,having skimmed about 2 mins off each one of your 3 workflow videos,nearing tears...its exactly what i need man
:D haha that's awesome! Will be working on more videos in a bit.
Wow, this is one of the best tutorials I've watched in recent months. The presenter explains everything at a high level without randomly clicking buttons for a few minutes and then just showing a result. You can really tell that he knows what he's doing.
Thank you for the great note and feedback :)
You know it's a good day when Alex posts! 🔥
haha :) Thanks Marko!
@@alexonstory Thanks to you Alex! :)
bro...10 years before and you had made a generation of animators with influence whole industrie ! this is so GOLD !
Thanks for your note! Happy to help and see people benefiting and enjoying.
These tutorials have been absolutely incredible. I feel like I am taking a free college course that breaks down animation in a way I can understand. Thank you so much for putting the time to make these!
That's great to hear!
Really happy to make this workflow series.
Thanks for the note!
You are a teacher like God on CZcams for making own cartoon animation.
Thanks for your comment! The more people that can create something the better!
Alex should make a public statement saying that he is not suicidal, before the online animation school racquet puts a request on the suicide hotline.
Great job Alex, you just made 3d animation more accessible to the masses.
haha I'll keep one eye opened when I sleep!
Thanks for the note! Happy to share what I know.
was so scared when I did not find your channel in my subscriptions recently, very happy to see such informative tutorials from you again, thanks.
haha thanks:)
Yeah my channel was deleted by CZcams, but thankfully they restored it.
I wanted to take a moment to express my heartfelt thanks for your incredible tutorial on layered animation in Blender. As a beginner, I found your explanations clear and easy to follow, which made a huge difference in my learning journey, I can't wait to learn more from your future videos. Thank you once again for sharing your knowledge🤝
Really nice to hear, thank you for your note!
Take your time, baby steps. You'll see some nice improvements in your skill. Just keep at it!
Sir Alex! There is no one who is giving out as much as you are both paid and free. The fact that this is free makes your content the most expensive information online. You have managed to save me from bringing shame to my brand because of a project that i almost failed to deliver. Now i am much more confident and ready to deliver the project. Thank you so much
I am happy to hear that! Good luck finishing what you need to do!
I am happy to share what I know.
Thanks for the note!
You seriously make each of these lessons so digestible and fascinating. It blows my mind how you make these exercises make so much sense. You're amazing!
That's great to hear! This workflow series is so important so I am happy they are helpful and clear.
Thanks for the note!
always love your tutorials, thank you for all of them!
That's awesome, thanks for the note!
Your series is incredible! Thank you so much for sharing.
Really glad to hear that, thank you!
wow layered workflow is straight forward yet powerful!
Yeah it is for sure!
It's a different approach to animation then what most of us are used to.
Everytime I visit this channel my skills improve more just by hearing and learning new techs I'd love to see a fight animation done by your professional techs @alexonstory 0:03
That's awesome, really happy the videos are helping you!
Great suggestion, a fight scene would be cool! For sure I will do that. Might be a few months but I just added it to my list.
Thanks for the note!
@@alexonstory Thank you I loved your Ninja project by the way I'll be waiting and learning patiently 😇
AYYYYYYYY LETS GOOO!
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
:D
For sure, happy to!
These tutorials are amazing! I have improved dramatically by simply watching them and listening to your tips. What really helped me is when you explained easing into the pose and controlling the curves between keyframes.(pose-to-pose tutorial) Thank you so much for those!
That's awesome! Really happy your seeing improvements!
Thanks for the note :)
Awesome
Thanks :)
Благодарю, Алекс! Полезное видео!
Happy you liked it, thank you!
It's exactly what we needed! Thank you!
Awesome! Layered is one of those workflows that does not get a lot of spotlight.
Better than they teach it in college. Bravo👏👏👏
Thank you!
I agree, I went to Ai and half the time I felt like they were babysitting us.
Hi Alex, just want to say thank you for taking the time to share your 3D character animation knowledge. It's great to see a 3D workflow. Ive done a lot of 2D rig and character animation using Moho and am intrigued more and more by 3D
Thanks for the note! Happy to share what I know!
Very cool, looks like some cool stuff was created using Moho.
Good luck as you dive more into 3D!
Thanks alot for your time and keep going!
Thanks for your note :)
Thank you, Alex.
With pleasure, thanks for the note!
I never knew about this workflow! I just learned straight ahead and pose-to-pose. But now that I think about it, this workflow looks the most like what I usually do.
That's awesome!
Sometimes I find we do things intuitively only to learn later the names of the process or choices we made.
Thank you again
My pleasure:)
Your workflow videos are very helpful! Thank you!
Really happy to hear that! Thanks for the note!
You my friend is Pure Awesomeness! ❤
I appreciate that, thank you!
this is actually really helpfull.Thank u soo much for making this video
I'm happy to hear that!
Thanks for your note!
thisis great man , thank you !
Happy to hear that! My pleasure!
thank you so much!
For sure! Thanks for the note!
thx well explained and great!
Happy to hear that! Thanks for the note!
Sir, you are nothing short of amazing
Thank you so much for simplifying the complexity of animation
God bless you!!
Thank you for your note!
Happy my videos are helping and clear to understand :)
You are a fantastic teacher.
Thank you!
Amazing!!! This is a máster class ❤❤❤
Thank you! 😊
Very nice!
Cute character!
Thanks!
Yes great looking character. It's from the Blender movie Sprite Fright.
studio.blender.org/films/sprite-fright/
Excellent job and easy way to understand animation video thanks for making understanding video hope we will learn lot from you.😊
Thank you! Happy the videos are clear and helpful. Thanks for the note!
You definitely have a natural talent for teaching. Eng isn't my language and your vdos are super easy to understand. Hope you do weight painting and rigging tuts one day.
Thank you for the note!
I would like to make a series on building a character for animation. I can cover those things then :)
@@alexonstory Perfect. :)
LET'S GO!!!
😀😀
this video is literally a diamond
That's very nice, thank you!
Esse é o Tipo de conteudo que eu andei a procurar
:) happy to hear that!
Thanks for the note!
good stuffz
Thanks Brian!
Amazing! I am looking to change up my workflow and I can't find many resources out there for layered so I really appreciate this video! Could you make another on how you would combine Layered animation with the pushed poses of pose to pose animation?
That's awesome! Really happy this video is helping. Great suggestion. Adding it to my list.
Thanks for your note!
A Frenchman at work taught me today that "passepartout" is French for "master key" and is pronounced something like "Pass-par-too"
:D thanks for letting me know what it means and how to say it. I had another comment also letting me know I said it funky haha
He’s a talented teacher
I appreciate that, thank you!
Please do a character eye and mouth rig tutorial❤
I can for sure do a facial animation tutorial. But I am not a pro rigger. Over time I'll improve at rigging and yes I'll start to share what I know.
Been loving your recent tutorial series, so much knowledge inside of it! Quick question in regards to the layered approach - Let's say we work on a shot where one arm rotates outwards from the body, pulling the torso with it so that both rotate quite a bit. With this approach, would you key both the torso and arm controllers at the same time so you have more initial control over the overall rotation both create in combination, or would you still pick just one controller? I'm afraid doing this with just one controller would lead to a lot of overshoot you would have to correct constantly between the two, but using both means it will be harder to correct movement later on.
Happy to hear that, thank you for the note!
It's a great question. With layered it's helpful to ask what is the main driver of the action/performance? In one example it was the head and in the other it was the COG. If the arm movement plays a big role in the performance I would block it in then add the chest control afterwards. If however the arm rotating outward was part of the overall body shape I would work more on a pose to clearly sell the idea. It's okay to blend between the workflows to help you best craft the performance you need.
I'll come out with one last video in this series about hybrid workflow. How we as artist can star with one workflow and move to another workflow in the same shot.
Hope that helps!
@@alexonstory thank you for your insights, really looking forward to the video!
@@ESD8000 my pleasure! Awesome 😁
could you do a tutorial on how to effectively use an addon like Bone Dynamics Pro? I would like to see how you apply it to workflows.
Thanks for the suggestion! Looks cool. I'll have a play with it in a bit!
Your facials animation are so dope...please elaborate more on how you animate your facial expressions and lip sync😁
Thank you! My lip sync has been the weakest part of my game for a very long time. I finally took some real time to focus on it and I am happy now with how it's looking.
I'll be making some facial performance videos sometime soon.
Thanks alot am really looking forward to it😊
Hi Alex, im learning a lot with your videos. Would be awesome if you make a video talking about which is the best path to learn animation. I mean, start with the basics, then go to walk cycles maybe?... And what´s next?
So great to hear, thanks for your note!
Good suggestion! I'll make a video series focused on getting started in animation and some exercises to work on.
Next I am editing a layout reel for a DC project I worked on last year. Just found the final upload on youtube. Next tutorial is a hybrid workflow then doing a facial performance test.
Thanx for that. My case is that i already animated some complex things but i feel sometimes frustrated learning body mechanics and i think i need to go back to basics to go deeper in my understanding@@alexonstory
@@malaguinodg4079 I hear you! That's normal and I have been there, and sometimes still get frustrated.
Basics is good because we learn to simplify. Then we just layer a number of basic ideas together to create something more complex. I still go back to basics.
Again you delight us with your tutorials?
haha I try :)
I’ve been learning with maya, the way you teach makes it possible for me to do this seamlessly… thank you!
That's awesome! Really great to hear.
Thanks for the note!
Muy buen tutorial, estaria genial uno sobre cómo hacer animación de bailes.
Thanks! Yes in a little bit I for sure can do that. What dance would you like to see?
@@alexonstory muchas gracias, cualquier estilo de baile estaria bien, en donde se den giros, me cuesta entender como surge esa coordinación entre las distintas partes del cuerpo. Saludos.
@@Genshi-studio Very cool! I'll add it to my list. Thanks for the suggestion!
I found this harder one more easy by you.
I'm happy to hear that!
Thanks for your note!
Very nice man!
Hey Alex, please tell me how do you approach to subtle movements for example a simple breath or keeping BG character alive?
Thanks!
For subtle movements I would try using 1 control and doing a first pass using straight ahead. Keep refining that 1 control till you think your timing and amount of movement sells the feeling your after. Then layer more detail on top of that using different controls.
BG characters are the same idea. I would start with the pose and do more subtle pose changes. Enough to know they are still alive, but not distracting.
Your reel is looking great! Hope that helps!
Yes that helps, thank you very much for your help and time and also for watching my reel.🙏
@@MahdiAlvandi That's great! I'm happy to!
"let's layer the balls" "we'll start at 69 frames"
ahaha did I say both those things!? 🤣
Hey im loooking for someone to animate my last upload cat vid into 3d anytging youd take on thanks ?
Hey! Your latest cat video looks cool! I can not take on more work at this time. Thanks for asking!
Hey Alex, I've been doing character animation for a few years, then I started doing first person animations, but I still don't get how people make spontaneous micro movements, if you keep your hand in front of you while trying not to move there will be this kind of movement, your hand will have pretty subtle movements and your fingers may twitch, I tried using noise modifiers in blender but there is a huge lack of control.
Can you tell me how one could do it?
Hey! Sorry for the late reply! Great question!
Subtle movement is hard. I would start as broad as possible. With the part of the body that is doing most of the movement. I would do a straight ahead pass. Then adjust the levels of the curves or the extreme poses till you have the desired feel of movement. Once the main movement is working you can then layer extra detail on top of that with different controls.
Hope that helps!
I've noticed you do in fact use a tablet when you animate can you tells some of how you've set it up and how to use it? I find posing with pen is in fact easier, but I've still not find a great workflow where I don't have to press so many keys on the keyboard. I use a Intuos Pro 4 BTW.
I do yes, I have a little 'One by Wacom.' Sure I can do a quick explanation about working with a tablet. Thanks for the ask.
thanks for this. one ? from starting model sitting position there body parts intersect each other, like his hand & his pant merging look like is there any solution in blender
Yes there is crashing going on in my scene. Does not really bother me as I can't tell that much in the final render.
Normally I would take more time with my poses and do a clean up pass.
Best thing for crashing is to adjust the pose. Small crashing is okay. If you really need to you can always add a shape key that you can affect the model to avoid crashing.
Thanks for the question. Hope that helps!
@@alexonstory thanks for the reply
So what I’m gathering so far is layered is the best for full animation videos but the other two methods are good for shorter more specific videos or shorts? Like for pose to pose to shine to it would be to tell a quick story of one person doing something funny in the same spot for example, if that’s right
I think that's half right!
What I would say is try all 3 workflows a couple times each. You will find your preference. It's a bit like asking do you use IK or FK. It comes down in part to preference.
The best workflow is a blend of each? Picking and choosing different aspects of the workflows and using them to help you achieve the look your going for.
For me Layered is the least used workflow. Only because I don't often need to craft a performance. I am earlier in production. I set up scenes and make sure the sequence is playing cinematically. My focus is different.
Be familiar with all 3 as it'll make you a better all around animator and visual communicator.
Pose to Pose leans more to cartoony animation. Layered to realism. And Straight ahead to action shots.
Hope that helps!
Yea sure does thanks! I have a feeling I will be a great animator with everyone’s help when I start about next month and onwards hopefully! I’ve been dabbling in modeling and digital lighting to start my blender journey :)
@@BrandonBloxBB Great, good for you! That's it, you soak in as much as you can. I would say once you find something that's working for you. Keep with that so you get better at that one aspect then branch out again. Each new time you branch out your a stronger artist with more skills.
What exactly is the difference between Vector and Auto-clamped? I've seen you and others change the handles but I'm not sure of the reasoning so I can employ them in my own animations.
Thanks for the question!
The difference is how the curve gets to and from the key. Vector is sharp and has no ease in or out. Auto-clamped sets the hands of the keys flat so that creates a slowing down into the key and out of it.
Does that help you out?
Hello, thank you for what you offer... I have a question. When do I use these three methods, pose to pose, or others? Does it depend on what I prefer?
For sure! Thanks for your note!
Yes in large part it's what you are comfortable with. Some action and styles of animation benefit from using a workflow over another.
Pose to Pose is great for cartoon and stylized animations. Straight Ahead works well for more action shots. Layered is great for more realistic movement. You can combine aspects of different workflows that work for you also.
Hope that helps!
Thank you for your response and your attention to your followers. You are very good at this@@alexonstory
How were you a;ble to select the curve inbetween the keys at around 5:19? I'm using 2.91 is this something new?
Hey! Sorry for the late reply. Are you asking how I can select just one curve and make that the only visible one?
On the left side I can select any curve/curves I want then in the graph editor hit Shift + H to isolate just that curve.
Hope that helps!
Hey thanks for the reply. What I was asking was how you were able to select the curve in between the keys like you can in Maya. I am using 2.91 and I found out that they added that capability in a later version. Your videos are the best and I have watched a lot. Wish you would do one on the NLA editor.
thanks buddy
Happy to share, thanks for the note!
Where can i get the second shot audio?
Thanks for asking! I just updated the video description also.
Audio for shot 2: jayuzumi.com/ben-stiller-soundboard
2nd columns 5th row down.
Hi Alex. When you are inserting keyframes, are you inserting it for the whole character, every bone? I use rigify and it inserts more than 1000 keyframes every time I hit "i". I find it hard to keyframes only selected, I move bone here, bone there, and dont remember to select everything for keyframes. And even then I get a lot of keys. How are you doing it? Thanks.
Thanks for your question!
Having control over your keys and graph editor is important.
I try and keep things simple. Every key pose gets a full rig key. As I go into doing breakdown keys I just key the controls that I need to sell the action.
I hide controls I am not using, like facial and extra detail controls. Also I setup my keying set so I just do location and rotation. So I don't key scale. In object mode go to Object - Animation - Change Keying set.
Hopefully seeing me work Pose to Pose will help you out.
czcams.com/video/p8Bi7k60IS0/video.html
Thank you. Yes. I also set only location and rotation. So you make keyposes and select everything and hit "i" than you do breakdown of those keyposes and in between you are keyframing only parts of the body that you move. Would love to see a short few minutes video about the more technical aspects of animation like keyframing and graph editor. @@alexonstory
@@88RunnerBlade Nice! Yes you got it. "A" to select all and "I" to key the body for my keypose.
Good suggestionA Will work on a detailed video about keyframing and working in the graph editor.
Amazing. Thank you. If I may give a suggestion it would be good to do it as all your videos until now, take some simple animation from start to finish but instead of focusing on workflow and a higher picture, focus on technical aspects, controlling the rig, keyframing, fps, rendering, graph editor... and tips and tricks to make animation fluid and smooth. It would be really helpful.@@alexonstory
@@88RunnerBlade Very cool thank you for the suggestion! Yes creating a simple animation together is a good call.
Hmm, with the ball bounce. When I copy the translation curve to the rotation I don't get a perfect roll. The ball is very slidey. It's very apparent after the overshoot. Is there something I could be doing wrong? Or could there be an issue with the rig at all?
Thanks for the question!
I did notice when I had scaled my model down or up the copy and past would also not look right. See about testing this on a simple sphere geo to see if you can get it to work like in the video. Another issues could be that the orientation of the curve is flipped in a different direction. Maybe the curve needs to be scaled in the other direction by -1.
Those are the 2 issues I could see causing the copy and past to not look right for the ball rotation.
Give that a try and let me know.
The thing is that I also tried it and it didn't work when I used Maya. I tried it in Blender and everything worked! Seems like Blender has automatic feature to match translation and rotation.
Hey Alex, I've noticed that you don't use the "auto-keying" when animating, is this a personal preference, or is there a reason behind it?
For the longest time I thought people who did not use auto-key were backwards. Now I am one of them haha.
I had been using auto key for a good 12 years Working a lot more with cameras I didn't want the computer keying every move I made. Once I found the framing I liked I then wanted to set the key. One big project I did had a really simple camera and if you bumped your camera by accident with auto key on you would destroy your framing. So now it's just preference. I think what it does now at this stage is I am more selective about which controls I use. If I do more character animation then yes I'll start using auto-key again :)
@@alexonstory Sounds like there was a lesson learned :)
Thanks for the explanation, Alex! :)
@@markokovacevic3225 For sure! I am going to make a video about auto-key :D as it's a question that has been asked before.
@@alexonstory amazing! looking forward to that one! :)
Keep up the great work, and thank you for sharing your knowledge!
@@markokovacevic3225 Awesome, thanks Marco!
Hi is this a rig that is free or available somewhere for purchase?
It's from the Blender open movie, Sprite Fright. You do need to pay to get access to their assets and courses.
studio.blender.org/films/sprite-fright/
You can find free Blender rigs here:
agora.community/tag/blender
what is COG?
COG refers to the Center Of Gravity control. It's the control around the waist of your character and drives the movement in both the upper and lower part of the body.
Thanks for the question!
I noticed that you don't use auto key. Is this just for the instruction here or do you normally not use auto key?
I did use it since the start of learning animation. It's only been the last 2 years or so that I stopped.
While working on a big project. They had the most simple camera ever. With auto key on if you bumped the camera in the viewport, which had keys on it it would badly screw up my framing and work. I was forced to stop using auto key for 7 months while on that project. And it stuck with me.
I find I am more deliberate about the controls I use with it off. I remember thinking for the longest time. People who don't use auto key are backwards. haha I am that person now.
I had shots that I did for a children's TV show some years ago where I was able to lock the scene camera so that view and any camera movement was not able to be altered. And yes I was paranoid about messing up the camera setup. Thanks for the reply@@alexonstory
@@steinmov That's the same idea. I just could not lock the camera as I was actually animating the camera. So it was good to turn off auto-key.
Wow, amazing video ! I was already using pose to pose and straight ahead, and I had heard about the layered approached in the context of cycles or lip sync, but I never thought it could be used for whole shots. Subtle acting has always been my weakest point, but I feel like this could be a game changer for me, I’m so excited to start experimenting with this ! Thank you so much for this great lesson, and I can’t wait to see what’s to come on the channel !
Edit : I did my own little version of it, this is so much fun ! :D
czcams.com/video/3H6VHEdCrDI/video.html
Really happy the video helped you out!
Thanks for your note:)
For your first time doing Layered performance the shot turned out really well! Excited to see more!
1
:D
Please make animation tutorial for maya 🥹🥲
Thanks for the note!
Yes I'll do some tutorials for sure in Maya. What would you like to see demonstrated?
How to approach acting shot step by step tutorial please.. and production shots working also demonstrate..
How to work production shot with animatic to animation step by step tutorial
This tutorial its awesome ❤️✨🥰 Help For My animation career..
@@anonymous9184 Great idea! Thanks for the suggestion!
Blender is better than maya for charcter animation
I like Blender overall better then Maya.
Maya at this point does have more tools and support for animation.
But that's okay. I don't use 95% of the extra tools. So animation comes down to learning the artform and then you can switch between applications np.
@@alexonstory Animating in blender is easy
But famous animator like Anim mate,Alessandro camporota use maya
@@faiqsabri5264 Yeah! Lots of great animators use Maya. Blender is on the come up.