Last month , I was blown away when I got my first EVER Spiderman comic  Marvel Adventures Spiderman.

The chapter was The sinister Six … Its when Doctor Octopus breaks out with other 5 deadly villains , to hunt Spidy and when Spidy have lost his powers .. Awesome ..

Half of the time Peter spends talking with him and his cool jokes ..  like while Saving kid from huge Robots , “ Hey kid , didn’t your mom told you to not to play with giant robots!!”

Anyway I come to the point ..

Its actually 8 months ago , Spiderman comic series has been launched in India. And 8 issues are already in market ..

And I’m really grateful to KIDS INDIA ANIMATION , for bringing Spidy in our life ..

WHY TO BUY

It has Spiderman in it !!!

I don’t know about you , but it was first time in my entire life , I have Got Spiderman comics !!!

The quality of paper used is the best.  The cover of each comic is attractive.

And its price is just 30 Rs. (Sometimes 35 when we get 2 comics in one issue )

You can fill out the form and get yearly subscription for just  420 Rs.

And also you can order any previous desired issues too

WHERE TO BUY :

Just walk outside , go to your closest newspapers stand Spidy is waiting for you!  Say Hi from me ..

This months comic issue includes 2 comic stories for just 35 Rs. (Cost of  your one burger)

If you don’t get at closest newspaper stand , go to the biggest  newspaper and magazine shop.

Lets hope , Kids India Animation will bring Transformers , X men , Batman , Tintin , Ironman , Fantastic four and all our favorite comics .. J

For more info check out their web

Click here

www.spacetoonindia.com

I would have love to show you some snapshots of  comics , so that you cant wait  to buy the comics , they are awesome , I just don’t have my camera with me , but I will definitely upload in few days…

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Mahesh

CG Swot is holding a series of CG Masters Free Webinars , where industry professionals will be interviewed and in these live , in-depth interviews , we all will get chance to ask questions directly to these professionals in interactive Q+A session ..

This series includes live interviews with following professionals

1. 7th May 2010 – DJ Nicke

DJ Nicke is a former Disney Animator, and is now the leading Instructor for Animation Salvation, able to not only teach, but inspire.

2.  13th May 2010 – Topher Welsh

Topher Welsh is one of the most renowned Commentators and Bloggers of the CG arena. His articles and blogs are read by millions of VFX and CG operators from countries all over the globe…

3. 14th May 2010 – Creator of Animation Salvation

Live webinar interview with creator of the Animation Salvation’s online community AnimationSalvation.com has set out to bring traditional animation studio training to every animator everywhere!

4. 20th May 2010 – Allan McKay

Allan McKay is an award winning Visual Effects Supervisor and Director, originating from the Gold Coast of Australia, now living and working in California in the United States.

5. 21st May 2010 – Dave Scotland

Dave Scotland has over 12 years of CG production knowledge and experience, working for some of the biggest clients in the entertainment industry including, Disney, Warner Bros. and Plastic Wax, just to name a few.

6.  27th May 2010 – Floriano Gerardi

Floriano Gerardi is a veteran Concept, Character and Storyboard artist

Don’t miss out this Free, Live, In-depth interview series with industry professionals and Remember that  there are limited seats available and only live attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions in a live, interactive Q+A session…

So hurry .. clock is ticking ..

Click here for all the details and registration for each webinar  …

AND DON’T FORGET TO SAY THANKS TO GUYS of  CG Swot for holding such outstanding series of free webinars …

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Join Bramhaa Animation Blog facebook page

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Until now we have explored almost all four elements of Set-up before I discuss Character relationships in How to train your Dragon, I want to share small concept of Dynamic Relationships ..

Two types of relationships exist between characters

1. Static Relationships
2. Dynamic Relationships

Static relationships are which do not change throughout the story like Friend , father, mother, boss, neighbor, enemy, brother and there is no development of relationship ,

i.e. from the start of the  story  until the end the perception of each other for each other remains same

And most important and awesome are Dynamic Relationships in story.. and it exist at that moment of story for example ..

When Woody is talking  to Buzz at first he meets him ,

Dynamic relationship

Woody –> Buzz :  Woody thinks Buzz is Andy’s new toy and must be welcomed

Buzz-> Woody : He is on different planet and Woody is some kind of local police authority

So when they are talking they have this mutual different perception of each other

And at the next moment , when all toys are impressed by Buzz

Dynamic Relationship (in next 40 seconds after meet )

Woody -> Buzz :  Now for him Buzz is threat and plus he thinks Buzz as stupid toy

Buzz ->Woody : Its still the same

As movie progresses the dynamic relationship changes continuously ..

It depends on the story how the relationship exist Static and Dynamic , story has both relationships!

But most important moments of story are when Dynamic Relationship changes between characters .. the most emotional scenes in story have awesome and major Dynamic relationship change ..

For example in “Bolt”, where Rhino convinces Bolt that why he should save Mittens , or in Cars where McQueen realizes that Doc was a famous race car. . .or in Up where for the first time Carl sees the complete adventure book his loving of wife and that moment his dynamic relationship changes with Dug, Russell(before it was “I’m stuck with you”), Kavin

The Dynamic relationships helps us to like , relate , hate , understand , love the characters in story , if there aren’t Dynamic relationships , it will be like putting together one dimensional robotic characters, who belong to different story and brought together , and forced to interact with each other..

Watch bad boring movies you will notice the difference ..

Now lets see

the Dynamic Relationships in “How to train your dragon” ,

1. Hicup<-> His father
2. Hicup<-> Toothless
3. Hicup <-> Astrid (for Astrid from Looser to the first Right Viking in 300 years)
4. Toothless<->Astrid
5. Toothless <-> Father (from hate to thank you for saving my son)
6. Hicup <-> Gobler
7. Hicup <-> friends

1. Hicup<-> His father

Every father has expectations from his son , and every son wants to fulfil them , sometimes both succeed majorly, sometimes not , its like everybody’s story .. right there we relate to this son – father relationship..

At start of Set Up we see , that father think of him as weak son and needs to be protected , we can see the desperate need of Hicup to fulfil the expectations , he thinks of his father as strongest person out there and we literally can feel the emotional distance between both , they are emotionally far away from each other ..

When in middle , where Hicup is doing good in school and Father comes back from trip and talks to him .. how he appreciate his progress in school ..

That was amazing scene , both are struggling to talk with each other

And this relationship undergoes through changes until the end , from protective father ,screaming ,”stay away ” to happy and satisfied father , laughing and encouraging , “you gave your best shot “

Another awesome Dynamic Relationship is

2. Hicup and Toothless

From strangers to best friends , when Hicup first touches Toothless  , that scene was amazing , really touchy , it starts special relationship that ever existed in their world ..

This is the best pair of friends I have ever seen , so many emotional scenes are there ..

When they learn to fly , when they play , when Toothless comes to help Hicup , when Hicup jumps in water for Toothless and last 2 minutes of movie are so emotional and portraying the uniqueness and outstanding friendship, love  we have never ever seen in any Animated movie ..

I mean I can go on and on about their Relationship its so innocent and beautiful.

And the rest of the Dynamic relationships are assignments for you.. I will discuss that when we will be studying Dynamic Relationships in  Character Series , we will plot the graph and see dynamic relationship changing along with progression of sequences in story

Though its story of ordinary guy , who fights and wins in the end , but on broader level it contains really awesome message , it shows the difference in the perception of countries or cultures may be totally wrong for what they are fighting from many years , without knowing exact wants and needs of each other and when we really understand each other together we can really make world better and most beautiful, peaceful and happy place like heaven !!”

This is one of the emotional reasons we all can relate to the story.

The conflict is really big enough and the obstacles for Hicup are planted really well. The intensity of conflict increases gradually and at one point it seems impossible for Hicup to overcome.

We haven’t learned about Resolution, still , the story has the best Resolution. (we will see about that in upcoming articles of story writing )

Lets see the Intensity of conflict using the Pyramid of transformation for Hicup, like every awesome movie “How to train your dragon”  have awesome Pyramid of Transformation for main character/s

5.Environment

It changes he is in school , he has new friend Toothless ,

4. Does/Do

What he usually do doesn’t work , he still trying to figure out some way, until  Astrid meets Toothless and freaks out

3. Capability

Somehow he convinces Astrid the truth but he realise he doesn’t have capability to convince others

2.Belief / Values

But he believes that if in the final exam he proved in front all that the truth about dragons by actual performing practically , everything will be perfect , and he drops

His weapon  , father freaks out , dragon gets more angry

1. SPIRITUAL
   

When toothless is gone , he realises whatever he believed didn’t work , father is upset , everything is falling apart ..

He sees toothless going and father on final impossible battle , knowing both might not come back again .. he is helpless ..  he thinks he made huge mistake at first not killing the dragon … which he could have..

And then he answers the Question .. Why didn’t he kill the Toothless ..

At that moment he taps into his spirituality .. and says , “ I looked at him , I saw myself “

Suddenly he transforms ..

2. Belief-Values :

His belief changes , suddenly he realises there is something more

3. Capabilty : He realizes the his true capability of his team and dragons

4.Do: What he does is outstanding , train all to ride dragons

5.Environment : Environment radically changes , in fact all his world Changes which we see in last one minute ..

Similarly you can find Pyramid of Transformation for  Hicup’s Father,

I give you a hint he reaches his Spiritual Level , when he saw  his son jumps in water to save Toothless ..

So in this way we have explored many Aspects of “How to train your dragon “using the Animation Story writing tools we have learned until now . I have left some assignments please do that they will help you a lot..

And the last thing, I think there could have been even more crucial role of Astrid .. so just think this way if you have to make Astrid as more memorable character and more important character , what things you have done in story without changing the essence of the story and emotions that portrays story.

Here I’m saying bye .. see you soon with more exciting Animation Story Writing Articles

Mahesh

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For some scenes we were on the edges of our seats, for some scenes we were so lost in the emotions , we looked at each other and said , “wow!! That’s amazing ..” and for some scenes we just looked at each other and our eyes were saying, “ this is the one of the best emotional scene i have ever seen”

Lets explore its story structure with tools we have learned in our Story Writing classes ..

Here is link where you can read about the terms i’m going to use ,so that you will get even more understanding of structure

Click here

The Most appealing things in story

1. “Toothless” : the best ever character created  in Dreamworks (i liked him even more than Poo)
2. Ordinary but yet extraordinary character Hicup (He is not appealing in appearance at first and  that’s what made him special as perfect character for story)
3. All The Dragon characters(The mighty beast is incredible)
4. The dynamic relationships between characters(specially Hicup and Toothless , Hicup and Father)
5. The progression of story
6. Some really emotional scenes  ( best ever created in Dreamworks,  reminded me of Spirit)
7. Obviously  awesome Set-Up
8. Dragon Rides
9. Cinematography is awesome

Let’s Start with the Set-Up

So we have learned that Set-Up has 5 essential things which grows and progress through the movie and planted in the

Set-Up in How to Train Your Dragon

They are

1. World
2. Rules
3. Characters
4. Character Relationships
5. Motivation And Goals

1 .2. World & Rules

The world in “How to train your dragons” is NEW ..

John Lasseter , once said that , one of the most incredible thing about Animation is that we can create any new world and not just that but we can make audience believe that this world actually exists .. (Thats why there are Pixar’s  Toy’s World, Bug’s World, Monster’s World , Fish’s World, Car’s World, Superheroe’s World …..i mean from the day I have watched Cars, in real life I still see Cars talking to each other all the time, Don’t you?)

One of the most important ingredient in Animation Story is that Exploring New worlds , instead of using already explored worlds ,  Dreamworks have created whole new,amazing and unseen world ..Which has Dragons and Humans, who are having daily battles of life and death ..

So as we know, when we create new world , we must need to educate audience about that new world and showing them that , its the similar world as they have , but somewhat different, still have same emotional needs and emotional challenges , what kind of world it is what challenges they have , how they live , what are the beliefs in the world ?

And what are the RULES of the world

The SET- UP is so perfect that it plants so many things skilfully

As the story starts ,We see dangerous battlefield on fire , mighty dragons and mighty warriors , Hicup tells about his World , its Rules and about characters in few minutes, what are their wants , what are his wants ..

As always for any story its always awesome when Character learns all the Rules , backstories and beliefs about the world in Set-Up..

And in this Hicup joins the school where he learns more about dragons , that’s perfect for us as we learn about the World even more.

Do you remember my article on Rules, where i discussed that sometimes story has some Rules already Set for the World and at the end the Protagonist Removes(changes) that rule/s and story World also changes at the end (Like A Bug’s Life) , click here for Rules article.

“How to train your dragon” also falls in that category

1. There are already set Rules for Dragons (His training)
2. Hicup studies the Rules(training,book) , and during the Set-up he realises  the exact truth in all the Rules Set in their world(His friendship with Toothless, his ride to the nest)
3. Finally fights and changes the perception of everyone (The world Changes Completely at the End)

The best supporting thing for Set-up in “How to train your dragon” is

We learn so much about dragons and their world when Hicup is being trained in School ..As I discussed in articles Its always best when Lead Character starts learning about the world , Lion king, Bambi , Dumbo, Spirit, ..(like in Avatar , the protagonist learns about the new World “Pandora”)

This way the story also progresses and we learn so much along the way ..

Sometimes there is risk in learning process of Character, it may feel boring and story is going nowhere , But In “How to train your Dragon” , the momentum of story is keep increasing , it has really nice progression ,not even for second we feel like story is going nowhere ..

You must see how they have maintained the balance between Learning process in school and with his(Hicup) friend Toothless , progression of his dynamic relationship with Toothless and with his father and Story’s momentum and progression ..

5 . Motivation And Goals

As the story starts  , we realize the Motivation and Goal of Hicup’s father , we also realize the Motivation and Goal of Hicup and along the way we realize about Astrid and all guys ..

The motivation and Goals are clearly shown , that’s what is really important for any story ,

What are character’s wants?

Why they want, what they want?

And What they actually Need?

See stories are all about filling the Gap between Wants and Needs , I read somewhere before , “You  might not get what you Want , but you may get what you Need !!”

In all his world Hicup is alone , emotionally far away from his father, though he says he have to kill the dragon , may be he will get girl friend and he will get recognized .. (Want)

Unconsciously he wants to get close to his father, he doesn’t have mother to understand and comfort him, saying ,”Hicup , you are different and you know what you are special , there must be GOD’s some purpose that you are not able to hunt dragons..”

When he meet Toothless, he get chance to be close to someone and at the end he really gets close emotionally  to his father , and even more close to Toothless (the why behind that we realize in last 3 minutes of story )

3. Characters

One of the best thing for any story is having perfect character, its like you will never able to separate him from his story (physically and emotionally).

We need appealing main characters its not always true,  We need characters which story needs .. We need the perfect character which will tell the story best possible way so that Audience will feel all the emotions, the story wants to experience them.

Hicup

One of the part is appearance of Character ..

The Story of  “How to train your dragon?”, is of really ordinary guy but unique in some way.

That’s why Hicup is perfect character for story , he looks really ordinary and not some special appealing hero ..

But he thinks differently , he has good sense of humor, He understands the emotions of people, he is LEFT handed kid, who have ingenious mind , he is constructive in his approach, he is curious to know why behind the things,

He is ordinary guy yet unique, and totally different from every Viking that ever existed in his world

Toothless

The most appealing character created in Dreamworks until now, his big eyes, sometimes he behave like a dog and sometimes like a cat , and his awesome wings , and the way he moves and flies is incredible , his quickness in movement  and his innocence… He doesn’t talk but we want to say ,“will you please at least say a word..please.. “

The moment you see him, you definitely relate to him (I showed the poster of toothless to my 1 and half year niece and she loved it )

How to Train Your Dragon : Gobber and Hicup's Father

Hicup’s father

His concern for his world , his caring for son , he is also awesome character , his motivation and Goal is really clear , he has clear vision for his world , he knows his strength .. he is also character that any father can relate to , it‘s really awesome to see strongest father and his caring for his son , his protectiveness towards him.

Gobber

He is amazing character , you definitely remember him. He is best friend of Hicup’s father , and he also cares for Hicup. He is funny and unique character out there, you also relate to him and recognize him..(I mean everyone has(wishes to have) uncle like that who tells  stories of dragons at night .. ha ha..)

While we are exploring about the Set-Up and its elements , I just realized that article have become bigger so I think I should chunk it down , in this chunk we have seen the elements how they are used in , “how to train your dragon?”

So just refresh your eyes , may be you want to stand up and stretch arms , come on move little bit and if you are not moving , at least change the breathing pattern, take a deep breath and start now ..

Now let’s see how the audience is got emotionally involved in the story .. click here ..

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Comment from Shailesh : ” I still feel coraline should have won.”

I thought there must be so many reasons that , Up is the second Animated Film to be get nominated. Here are some things i have thought that made UP so special ..

Here is my reply ..

Hey Shailesh,

If You see this way , you might feel different ,
We love animation so we think everybody loves animation but its not true ..

have you seen any Adult like 50 years old buying ticket for him and his wife , or 70 year grandpa buying ticket for him and his friend who is also 70 or 72 year old ,and all those are not buying tickets for their kids or grand children but for themselves .. ?

For Up those(the audience of age more than 30 ) not also bought the tickets , but loved it so much, Up is gentle beautiful story , which touches emotions so deeply , they enjoyed it same as kids ..

There is really awesome thing about Pixar , You must have seen Finding Nemo , the parents enjoyed it so much , i mean yeah kids loved it too .. But in theaters Parents hug their children and had tears in their eyes ..

Its my dad’s most favorite movie .. though he dont watch animated movies much ..

This time for Up the audience is of all ages,
Can you imagine , all ages !!!!! (its every film makers dream)

While making movies the Audience domain is always decided , for some special shows , they see the response on particular age domain . They organize show only for particular age before actual release

And you know we need Animated movies to show those all who have perception that the Animated films are for just kids ,and change that perception!

I guess the percentage of people who think animation is for Kids is way more than those who love..

Look at India .. i had 90% class(in engineering) who think animated movies are only for kids

People are not ready India, there is hardly an attempt to make movies beyond our culture and Gods.

Up have produced Ground Breaking Result anyone can imagine .. it has shown that its not just for kids, its for all !!
This was Walt Disney’s Vision.

Pete got letter from old widow , saying she missed her partner so much , thank you so much for such amazing experience..
I mean how often does that happen for Animated films.

I have read Disney Animation Illusion of life (i have to read again and again if possible 1000 times ), because of that or what i dont know but i felt incredible while watching movie , its like Walt Disney and all those old guys of Disney are clapping and saying… Yeah this is it , this is why we were working to make this happen , to make all kind of audience to feel the deep emotions and joy , through An animated film!!

That’s why Up was nominated for the Best Feature in Oscar .

On the other hand , Coraline is truly unconventional , really awesome and also it can have limited age group as audience.
(i was scared for some scenes..)

And i loved it so much , and i think its a must watch movie for Any Indian film maker who want to make Animated movies so that they can see beyond
Our culture, GODS, regions,religions, typical love and war , conventional thinking..

And you know most amazing thing ,
all in Pixar dont decide any age group or what ,
they say we make movies for ourselves , we make what we will love to see on screen . We never remember that we had such discussion where somebody is saying , “oh no no , lets just keep this aside its too adult or its only for kids”

Coraline , Avatar , and Up are saying the same thing to all film makers ,
“WE DONT KNOW ABOUT YOU, BUT WE HAVE RAISED THE BAR OF EXPECTATION OF AUDIENCE SO MUCH HIGHER THAN EVER BEFORE..”

Oops i just realized that , my comment has become bigger than my article ..

Mahesh

(In “Up” , Carl goes through Pyramid of trasformation for that read this  CLICK HERE)

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Before reading this you must read the previous article if you haven’t Click here

Well come back guys , few minutes ago we learned ,

1. Intensity of Conflict depends on Character and it works on two levels Physical and Emotional
2. We learned the Basic Loop of Change, at every iteration intensity increases
3. Intensity of Conflict is directly proportional to the Urgency to solve the Conflict
4. Comfort Zone of Character
5. Three Golden Rules for Decision making (Focus-Meaning-Action)

Now we are going to learn the core important tool, when you will learn this, you will notice it in every best movie and you will also able to apply in your story too.

Imagine a pyramid , its Pyramid of Transformation

5. Environment/Atmosphere (Top of Pyramid)

4. Do

3. Capability

2. Belief-Values

1. Spiritual (Bottom of Pyramid)

During following process , at each level he is asking The Three Golden Questions consistently.

5. Environment

So when change Occurs character tries to create The familiar Environment, which he has in his Comfort Zone,

He says to himself, “okay, its change , but if I create my usual Environment , it will be alright”

He will try to behave as if its normal , but guess what it doesn’t work ..

4. Do

So he will say to himself, “ okay , I can’t create the Environment but I know what I can do”

So he will do what he usually do in such situation ,

Guess what , this  also wont work.

3. Capability

He will say to himself, “What I usually do its not working , but I know what I’m capable of , I can do this , I can turn this around!!”

He tries hard , to make it work.

But it doesn’t work ,life is not that easy ,

Now his morale is getting down , he still don’t want to give up 

2. Belief-Values

He says to himself, “ now what I do, is not working, my capability is not working , but I believe that someone else have turn around this or I believe if I do this other way and don’t give up it will definitely work out”

He have some references in past , or from he seen somewhere , and he has belief system so he thinks he kept moving forward in this new way it will work out , but again it doesn’t.

1. Spiritual

Now its crisis,

He says to himself, “oh lord , everything is falling apart , my capability , beliefs aren’t working , what should I do!”

He is calm , he is now empty vessel.

At this Spiritual level , it doesn’t mean just God , it can be Nature , or even the character himself .

The spiritual is the part that has immense potential , those are beliefs too but they have no references , no supporting legs.

Like if I ask you , is there God and you have your own concept of GOD , its true for you , even you don’t have real references to back that idea up, but deep down we believe there is one energy behind every living thing.

Same applies to the beliefs about the character himself, which is his identity

And when the character is  in this Spiritual level , thinking about problem in totally different perspective, he taps into Great deep unimaginable potential inside. He discovers new energy within.

And now he step through all levels again , but he has transformed

His beliefs change , his values change

He realize his true capability

Now  what he does  is special

Now he have created new Environment for himself

And finally he Solves the Conflict ,

His Comfort zone gets expanded.  He becomes bigger than his problems.

See when I was going down the pyramid from Environment  to Spiritual,

The intensity of Conflict was increasing .

Finally at last level he transforms , steps up in each level and finally conquers that Conflict

That’s how my friends Intensity of Conflict increases and the Character Finally discovers his true potential and wins over the conflict.

So for the whole movie , sequence is like this

SET UP + CONFLICT = level 5-4-3-2-1

Conflict reaches at its peak

RESOLUTION= level 1-2-3-4-5 .

THE END

Now take movie examples and it will be even more clear .

In Kung fu panda

When Poo gets selected as Dragon Warrior

Environment

1. His environment changes , in training he tries to create  the familiar environment with others but everybody ignores him

Do

2.He tries to fight like he used to in his dreams , in funny way it doesn’t work

Capability

3. He thought he was capable of until he realizes he have to stop Tai Lung and he tries to run.

Beliefs-Values

4. Deep down he believes he can make it work , he works hard until he founds that there is nothing in that Dragon Warriors Scroll for him

Spiritual

5. He gives up , he realizes he is just normal , not special and not Dragon Warrior, and he is blank , and then he realizes that there is no Magic Ingredient , and You have to believe that there is and make it special.

Beliefs-Values

6. His beliefs change about himself,  he realizes he is Dragon Warrior

Capability

7. His capability changes, he knows that he can Stop Tai Lung

Do

8.His Actions change

Environment

9. His environment changes

The End

Now lets look at

Master Shifu

1.When Master Oogway chooses Poo as Dragon Warrior , Shifu gets a naive  student , who is cranky , fat, crazy , funny with no quality of Warrior,  he tries to be with him like he behave with others but it doesn’t work

2. He teaches Panda like he usually teaches other students , that even doesn’t work

3. First he thought that if Master Oogway thinks that I can teach him , then I may be capable of teaching Poo too , so accepts Poo as student

4. When Oogway dies and until now he was believing that somehow he and Oogway will make Panda as Dragon warrier , but when Poo tries to run , he even finally gives upon his beliefs too

5. Then he realize he cant do anything , without Oogway and he is blank , helpless and he remembers the Words of Oogway, “There are no accidents” .

Now he believes in the words ,which has no references for him , until he sees Poo eating the Monkeys Food ,

Master Shifu  Transforms

6. He realizes he can make it happen, he now believes “there are no accidents”

7. He realizes his capability , he realizes he can teach Fat Panda

8. Now what he does is Unconventional , new way to teach Panda

9. He creates the environment that will able let him coach Panda very effectively , finally he achieves it and makes Panda a Dragon Worrier

THE END

In Toy Story

1. Buzz thinks he’s on different planet , he tries to behave like he is in space
2. He acts with Gadgets like as if they are real
3. They don’t work , but he thinks he has the capability to destroy Zerg
4. Then he realizes after seeing advertisement (Not a flying Toy), he is toy and no special, no real space ranger, still he believes he can jump out the window , it doesn’t work , and his identity , beliefs get lost
5. He is blank vessel, acts like a looser , and tells Woody that , for the first time he is thinking , and Woody was right all the way .

And he is just meaningless toy.

But then Woody convinces him , that Being a toy is way more special than being a space ranger, because there is kid in that house who loves you more than anything in the world.

At this point its virtual reference for Buzz ,and when he sees the name of ANDY on his shoe , he is in spiritual level , he feels amazing connection between Him(Buzz) and Andy , a spiritual connection.

And he Transforms!

1. His beliefs change about him being a Toy
2. He realizes his true capability , and removes Woody from box.
3. He acts differently
4. He creates now different environment , not the previous of Space but the real Environment

THE END

If you watch any great movie  Up, Meet The Robinsons , Cars, Ratatouille, Incredibles,Coraline any awesome movie that touched you emotionally it goes through this Pyramid

5-4-3-2-1-2-3-4-5

From 5 to 1 the intensity of Conflict increases and 1-5 character transforms and wins over the Challenge.

In Up , when Russell leaves and Mr. Frederickson is alone seeing the Elley’s Diary , he have reached up to level 1 i.e. Spiritual and when he sees all the Diary ..

He realizes the amazing connection between him and Kavin – Russell-Dug.

You can see him transforming, at that moment , his back spine becomes straight , its like he have got new energy.

Guys If you see any movie, and that didn’t touch you emotionally it’s only because they didn’t go through pyramid overall for their characters.

We have discussed so much , I hope that will help you lot , and don’t read this stuff , apply to any movie you will watch , apply to your favorite movie , don’t just buy it because I’m saying . try it.

And this Pyramid Concept, I have learned from our Coach Tony Robbins.

Guys please give your feedback.. What you liked in article?  Or where should I improve? Or anything that you want to see in next articles…

So here guys  I’m signing off, see you next time , until then

Keep Animating .. Keep contributing .. Keep Growing

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Mahesh

Hey guys, actually its after long time , I’m writing the article, I’m working on something about story  if it works out , it will be awesome for us!

I’m also going to discuss about “Character” in this but don’t worry it won’t be too much , I will have whole another series for Character like this one.

Last time we learned about the “Progression of Conflict”, in this article I’m going to cover the Intensity of Conflict.  In this article, we are learning so much stuff , so just be comfortable , read slower , this ride going to be pretty big than usual.

That’s why I’m dividing this whole thing into two chunks , so after finishing this article read the next one immediately.

We learned in last article that, A story is all about “Change”, and “Cause –effect” relationship. Its all cause set in Motion.

Something changes, and that causes something else and chain continues further. Generally in Story as it progresses forward the Conflict starts to reach at its peak, its grows and grows , the speed of Story also increases. You can say that “Intensity of Conflict” also increases.

But what determines the Intensity of Conflict?

See it’s all about the “characters”, they face the conflict, it becomes hard for them to bear the pain of it!

And it works out on two levels

1. Physical
2. Emotional

When “Conflict” is bothering so much on both levels for “Character”, the intensity increases. It forces him to take action .

Basically,

Its Basic Loop of Change

1. Something Changes
2. That forces Character to take Action
3. He takes action and that causes something else..

it loops back to step 1,and every time Intensity of Conflict increase until the Conflict is not resolved.(or character gives up)

You also can see that for the Character,

“Intensity of Conflict” is directly proportional to “Urgency to solve the conflict”

i.e more the intensity – more the urgency to solve it

or less the intensity – less the urgency to solve it

Before going to learn about “Intensity of Conflict” in detail, we need to learn two small Concepts

1. Comfort Zone

2. Three Golden Questions

1. Comfort Zone

Once again, “All story is about Change”

Now imagine a Small Circle , suppose the Center of Circle is Your Character and the area of Circle is your character’s Comfort Zone.

That means , anything happens and which is in his Comfort Zone , he can handle that easily.

Now when Conflict occurs , Character gets Challenge , and all problems are outside the Circle and they are banging on the edges of Circle.

Now if he doesn’t do anything , the Conflict doesn’t go away , it increases and  now imagine the Circle is getting smaller and smaller.

The intensity increases , Character feel immense pressure to solve the problem , and Finally he takes massive action , pushes himself , now his Comfort Zone  expands he becomes more than he was before the Conflict.

So you got the basic Concept .

Now let’s dig little deeper. So that we will learn about Intensity of Conflict

2. Three Golden Questions

When change occurs Character takes Action.

He makes a Decision and then takes Action, right?

How does he make decision ?

Consciously or Unconsciously he asks 3 Questions ,when change occurs

1. What I’m going to focus on?
2. What does this mean?
3. What I’m going to do?

If two guys fail in exam after studying so much ,

One might “focus” on  How bad it is ?   How unfair it is ?

He will say this “means” End , this means I’m failure , this means studying is useless

He will decide that what he is going to “Do”, that’s why this time I’m not going to study at all!

Other guy will “focus” on , okay it isn’t that bad , he will focus on that he have got another opportunity .

He will assign meaning that the result says that the way I studied and written papers wasn’t proper , I need to implement something new strategy .

He will “Do” something different and efficient than his previous attempt.

Now watch any movie,when character makes decision and take action , before that he evaluates with these “3 GOLDEN Questions” (focus-meaning-action)

This is another incredible thing I learned from our Coach Tony Robbins.

When we will go into Character series, we learn even more about how character makes Decisions. For now these “3 Golden Questions” will be fine, okay?

In few seconds , I will meet you for learning how exactly the Intensity of Conflict works with really good examples from Animated Films like Kung fu panda, Toy story , Up.. click here for next article !

don’t forget that “We are committed to CANI! ” click here

Mahesh

This tutorial will mostly cover the basics in one point perspective…

so-

What is perspective, actually?

Ehm, ehm.. ”the theory or art of suggesting three dimensions on a two-dimensional surface, in order to recreate the appearance and spatial relationships that objects or a scene in recession present to the eye

OR

the appearance of objects, buildings, etc., relative to each other, as determined by their distance from the viewer, or the effects of this distance on their appearance”

There are three kinds that will help you put magic into your scene…

One point perspective

Two point perspective  and

Three point perspective.

blah, blah, blah everyone knows the things that are far from the eye appear smaller.. so when we copy this into a 2d paper.. it re creates a feeling of depth to the scene.
You may find hundreds and thousands of books on perspective all ready to confuse your already confused mind..
I was too, but the thing is perspective is really easy to understand, just shed all your fear that comes with it…

You’ll need:

A paper sheet

A good pencil

Eraser [obviously]

ruler [I strongly recommend scribbling so that you don't have to use the ruler to rule out everything]

So we begin with the horizon..

The horizon is nothing but the line that we see where the earth/sea meets the sky.. even if it is not visible in your drawings.. there is a horizon line… you can draw it up or low as you want

Tip: place the ruler’s edge perpendicular to the papers’ edge to get a straight line

Make a vanishing point…
This the the point where your buildings, rails, roads seem to converge into one single point on the horizon.

Draw the size accordingly of the part of the block facing you, the height and the width,

Connect an imaginary line called as orthogonal to the vanishing point and the sides of the block  there’ll be four in total but three visible in this case.. Draw horizontal lines where you want your block to end [parallel to the horizon]
and vertical line where you want the side of the block to end [perpendicular to the horizon]

PHEW!

Now you’re pretty much done there! just erase the orathgonals and Bingo! you have a 3d real looking block which you can convert into anything

Just be sure to use a single point for all the objects

Tips:

1. Draw the orthogonal lightly so that you can erase them easily.

2. Google the word ”One point perspective” and find out more techniques and images, try to draw the scene on your paper… try to figure out the vanishing point in the given scene

3. Add details to your drawings, like windows, sills, telephone poles and people..  just follow the orthogonal to decide the height or width of the object/person/creature.

Here are some random examples from the net that can help you to get started

That’s it for today, meet you in the next tutorial, which is two point perspective.

Enjoy making your own worlds!

Please feel free to add any comments and critiques.. this is a way of showing that it has helped you in some way…

You can check Mitali’s Blog and her works here

“We are committed to CAN! ” click here

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It has been a long and tedious way till here, but let me tell you this… every result is worth it, so pack your backpacks and join me on the adventures we’re gonna have!

… Now,   Did you ever have this idea/character roaming in your head for too long, how you wish you could only draw it to life? but only if you had this secret ingredient to make it…
I searched far and wide for this secret ingredient until I saw Kung fu Panda.. [there is no secret ingredient to it]  it’s just practice and perseverance!

So long Miss talk it…. where to start? ?

#1 Passion…
”B- But I thought….”      I can almost see your faces in amazement.. Yupp! neglected and left aside… a fuel that’s gonna light your fire when you’re down.. you have to burn for it, you have to crave for it!  you can’t sleep without it!

#2 Exposure…
Read, see, observe.. what’s worth taking.. what’s around you.. what’s in you. Watching blogs and sites such as deviant art.com can really start you up and start with a strong basic foundation of what you wanna do, you have to know where you want to reach up to…

Tip: make folders.. like guns, girls, armor, villain etc for references
Tip: make an deviant art account.

#3 Practice and dedication…
So you’re ready, eh?  Are you? Then be ready to take hundreds and thousands of critiques and be able to carry on… be there to practice.. nothing comes easy especially art, be ready to be criticized till the point that you crave for critics… so you thought criticism was a bad word, eh?
But there are certain myths that I’d like to bust before I move on..

You can draw if it’s in your genetics… duhh
Many a times I hear people saying, ” Oh she can draw well , you see her father and grandfather’s an artist…”  I have never heard such a thing being an obstacle for anyone, sometimes being able to see someone draw can be helpful but it’s almost helpful as watching a fire miles away and getting warmth from it.. remember Birbal kids?

It’s too hard
Yeah, it’s not hard but little by little, everyday you will do it.. don’t let go.. if I post some of my earlier works.. you’ll all gather round and laugh at me! [so I'll not post it]

You see, I’m not creative kind of person…
Do you remember scribbling away happily when you were a kid.. but something happened.. at some point your logical brain said.. it doesn’t look like I want it to be… I won’t draw anymore!! yeah that’s what happened…Grab the pencil/eraser, bring back the child within you and start with us!
————————————————————————————————-

The numero Uno!
Scribble your way to top!

Start with some paper and pencil sit in a comfortable position and get ready to scribble!!

Scribbling is something like doodling.. but with more concentration and defined shapes.

All you have to do is free your hand on paper and get used to the pencil..most of the times my hands and wrists would hurt , so I think this strengthens the hands, wrists and fingers as well draw anything.. shapes, sizes, and curves and straight lines, of course!

Avoid doing this..

Avoid scratching...

Avoid anything that is not rhythmic… I know this is obvious but many of them do it..

Your pad should look something like this..
circles, curves, lines, rhythm, ovals..and curls

something like this.. but you can add your shapes as you like...

Not only you enjoy this... it's a good exercise

This is more like a warm up before an exercise, and it will get better.. try to get those circles as circly as possible… exact and of same shape.. these dudes are gonna do magic for us later..

As I know.. this exercise is to be continued till the end of your life if you’re an animator..don’t get disappointed, just imagine your idol such as Jackie Chan or Rocky Balboa training, this is your training…

Remember to warm up before every drawing that you make… it will improve your quality and confidence in drawing strokes …

Now try varying the stroke pressures as you move on…
something like this:

Try to get control over your strokes and imagine the stroke on paper before drawing

try with lines.. try with curves..

Tip : try not to get carried away with other thoughts and let your circle become misshapen lumps or whatever!

Oh you like it, don’t you!

That’s it for today, the most basic but a magic ingredient for a strong foundation in drawing!
Hope to see you scribbling, guys!

Please feel free to add any comments and critiques.. this is a way of showing that it has helped you in some way…

You can check Mitali’s Blog and her works here

“We are committed to CANI! ” click here

To get latest news , professional interviews, articles , works of professionals , free online webinars ,podcasts ,job openings, upcoming movies , games , inspirational videos,inspirational articles and so much.

Join Bramhaa Animation Blog facebook page

Click Here to Join

And now

There’s a new podcast on the web that is “Speaking of Animation”, created by 4 Dreamworks animators!

1. Ben Willis

2. Adam Strick

3. Jacob Gardner

4. Stephen Melagrano

Their first Podcast is with Ted Ty!

Ted has a awesome experience of animating in both Classical Animation and CG.

He’s worked on following films: Pocahontas, Mulan, Lilo & Stitch, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda and is currently working on Shrek Forever After.

This interview is really inspiring, he talks about his passion, his decision to make career in Animation , his transition from classical animation to CG , and

the most important belief I’ve got is “Give them what they want but not in the way they expect” and there is so much great stuff he talks about , and don’t forget to say thanks to these guys for such amazing podcast , I heard this podcast again and again..

And another awesome thing is they are interviewing Ted again , and you guys can ask the question you want , so guys hurry, before it gets too late ..:)

So visit here

“Speaking of Animation”,

Here is the link for the Ted Ty interview page : click here

Mahesh

* For Animation Story Writing  Series ..click here

“We are committed to CANI! ” click here