#animtors react

[reacttothek]

Our guest series is back up and running with animation students reviewing 6 different animated K-Pop/K-Indie/K-R&B MVs 🎉

Watch part 1 of animators react here!

[alexanderessexmediaroles]

Day 7 - Rooster Teeth

NOTICE: The last part of the blog got deleted which I had to write up again, apoalgies if it dosen’t sound right in places as there are some bits I may of forgotten to put down

Same with how I approached the Stop-Motion aspect of yesterday’s post, I plan to look at the roles of 3D Animator and Rigger further for more details to how they work and what it takes to get in as well as looking further into Rooster Teeth and how it brings back to our theme.

Rooster Teeth is a small 3D, 2D and visual effects company in Austin, Texas that are known for their animated web shows on YouTube and on their personal site with their most popular shows like ‘Red vs Blue’, ‘Rwby’ and ‘Camp Camp’. I found the company to be really interesting and aspiring when I first researched them for the presentation due to how much they’ve succeeded with their projects for being a much smaller animation company comparing it to something like ‘Sony Pictures Animation’ and how not using the industry standard software can still make you successful in what your trying to make.

Speaking of software, the company has gone through several animating software as with their show ‘RWBY’, they first used ‘Poser’ to animate and model the show but have evolved to start using ‘Autodesk Maya’ as it allowed them to make better looking characters and set pieces in the show (as well as ‘Houdini’ later on for lighting and visual effects). Whilst this is very helpful towards a role like a rigger, the animation is only enhanced from the switch to Maya as the animation was still just as good when they were using poser in my eyes.

Going back to the roles that I’ve chosen to look at further in 3D, I discovered that ‘Rooster Teeth’ had a lot more resources and information on how they create their shows than I thought there would be out there as due to being a small company, I wasn’t expecting some really detailed looks to my chosen roles. Whilst I had already researched some of the CRWBY videos that they’re released on their channel showing the different roles working together to make the show RWBY, I discovered they had done a whole playlist on how they rig for the show. This was perfect for me as they had multiple videos on how to make cleaner rigs for models, how to create rigs through ‘skinning’ on the model as well how to make the model as easy as possible for the animator to animate with. Through watching all the videos, there was a lot I hadn’t known that you could do in ‘Maya’ as well as some technical terms like skinning and how to problem solve with the model which all really inspired me and has encouraged me to try it out over the summer and see what I come out with. Whilst not link to the roles I’ve chosen, the playlist went into not just rigging at ‘Rooster Teeth’ but also lighting which was just as interesting to learn and watch as the rigging section. Whilst I have more of a passion towards rigging than lighting, it’s definitely something I want to keep in the back of mind as I love all the different roles that go into the makings of a project as I enjoy doing everything.

The Autodesk Maya Rooster Teeth Playlist

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_6ApchKwjN_fCxk5WtSYFDAXvqXmD_9G

Rooster Teeth 'RWBY' Tutorial #1: Using Maya's Blend Shapes for a 'Breeze Effect'

In addition to the Autodesk Maya playlist I discovered, I also watched the ‘CRWBY’ playlist on YouTube disclosing how they made some of the key aspects of each episode on RWBY Season 6 as well as interviewing the different departments to how they created those said aspects of the show. It was a little similar to how the ‘Maya tutorial’ was laid out as they went through step by step to how they created the scenes and assets to the show like how they rig the model’s so that they behave how they should or hearing their thought-process to how a character is going to be animated without that aura of being a tutorial and rather something more casual and realistic to learn about. Speaking of looking at the role as a CG Animator, one of my favorite episodes out of the CRWBY playlist is episode 5 where they talk in depth and show you how they animate one of the fight scenes that happen in the middle of Season 6 of RWBY specifically on the character ‘Cinder’. I found it to be really fascinating to learn how they do dynamic change in the animation when it comes to the reactions of characters as the clip goes into the idea of ‘see, think,do’ where a character will see and action unfold in fromt of them which will cause them to think about and then react. It was really nice to see this breakdown through the frames too to give a visual representation. In addtion of showing how they animate in Maya from an animtors point of view, I really loved that in a way it links to the whole idea of story-telling too as the fight scene breakdown goes into how they make the smallest of changes like the change in their wyes and mouth expressions to express how the characyers are feeling within the scenes.

CRWBY Playist on RWBY Season 6

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9ly3y_pYF010B2TLFg-NEd1Nkg27MfcD

CRWBY Ep 5: See, Think, Do | Rooster Teeth

After I had watched both playlists on how Rooster Teeth make their shows (specfically RWBY), I soon discovered on their website that they did a live stream lecture consisiting of animators at Rooster Teeth as well as a parthernership with ‘Full Sail University’ where two of the head lectuers on the 3D animation course were on stage too. The talk itself was really intresting to watch and learn as they went through how themselves got to where they are in the industry, what changelles and dofficulties they have faced on their journey and what advice they would give to people that are about to go into the field. One of the points they brought up when disccusing about their journey was that a 3d lectur from ‘Full Sail university’ went into how becoming a runner really helped him to gain contacts in the industry as well as talking to a lot of proefessiionals there as well. Because of thi, I do plan to look and research more into the runer role for the media roles project as this might be something i plan to look into after or during univeristy.

Full Sail Live Stream: RT Talks Animation Process

https://roosterteeth.com/watch/rt-extras-2019-full-sail-live-stream-rt-talks-animation-process

Finally the last piece of research I did when looking up ‘Rooster Teeth’ was this very old article on when RWBY first came out. I’ve decided to inculde this as part of my research due to how much the company has evolved from where they first started to where they are now as I felt it was a good example to follow by in the future that no matter how rough in some places it might be at the start, you develop and get better at the skills as you progress along.

The 3D secrets behind hip anime series RWBY

https://www.creativebloq.com/animation/rbwy-anime-action-dynamic-3d-twist-9134477

To conculde, im really happy that I ended up researching Rooster Teeth as depsite them being a smaller 3D animation comapny compared to others in the industry, they were filled with rescouces and info to what it’s like to aniamte there, how to get into the industry as well as learning techniques i hadn’t known before like skimming in rigging. The research i’ve done has all provided me a lot of motivation and deterimantion to keep 3D as a potential career choice as an animator or a rigger alongside Stop-Motion.