Peer Lemmers:
I had several ideas at first, but everything I came up with was too big and too much work. I wanted to make a film in the full sense of the word, however I had no previous experience making a short film in 3D. I wanted to do as much as possible to learn more about animation and also to learn what goes into making a 3D film including camera, texturing, modeling, rendering, lighting, etc. I felt that in order for me to become a better animator, I needed to understand the medium and its process better.

At the end of class 4 I asked a mentor to look at my work, and he felt my body mechanics were not convincing. I decided then that I wanted a physical short so I could work on this, get out of my comfort zone and experience a stronger learning curve.

Sound advice from mentors and students drove me to make something focused on what I could do within the three month timeframe we had. I looked for something that I could pull from my own experience. I was currently living in the Bahamas and wanted to show that even paradise has its down sides because all my friends thought I was just happily chilling under a tree. And yes I've actually been chased out of the water by a shark. Luckily for me, there were no coconuts involved as they kill more people statistically than sharks.

Peer Lemmers:
What didn't I learn!? I think one thing I did on the short was just as valuable as the other. I learned that when I slacked off, my wife was there to give me some coffee. I learned that if you stick to a tight schedule, you will get through it and I learned that my process is very organic as during my production things changed continuously. I learned that a 30-second animatic can turn into a 60 second animation; I learned that my mentor and classmates were there to help me, and their feedback gave me positive energy. It’s very hard to make anything without support and feedback.

Peer Lemmers:
I spent three months in class 5 planning and doing research, test animation, etc. I then took a break from Animation Mentor for 6 months. Outside of Animation Mentor I had time to let stuff sink in from the course and also new things evolved in me not just as an animator but also story-wise. I spent this time making a new short but once again it was too big – two characters, two minutes in length, etc. My mentor suggested I stay with my original idea. I finished animating it during class 6 and after that I spent a month on rendering and lighting. So in total it was seven months from A to Z.

Peer Lemmers:
PLANNING IS KING! Even if you don’t use any of it, at least you then know what you don't want. Planning is to animation what cement is to a bricklayer – without it your house will be wobbly. I did as much as I could; I walked around with a camera and a note pad during the whole short film process. I looked around me. What do things look and move like? I took notes ... anything that could bring me closer to getting my ideas out there so that when it was time to animate, that’s all I had to focus on. For those in Class 6, make sure all you have to do is animate!

Peer Lemmers:

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This is the beach I lived 10 minutes away from while in Freeport, Bahamas. I spent most of my time there when not behind my computer. I was trying to keep my sets as basic as this beach. I love the wide simple decor and tried to translate that to my film. I based the rum hut on this actual one in the downtown area of Freeport.

Click images to view in new window

This is one of my very simple thumbnails of how he could get hit by the coconut; this is very minimal but tells me exactly what I’m looking for.

Click images to view in new window

In class 5, I set out to board as much as I could and I really enjoyed doing it! At this point I had not made the decision to change Bishop to Ace (the big muscular character Animation Mentor provides). As I turned my boards into an animatic and started watching it over and over again, I thought I needed more contrast and that it would be funnier if he was a big macho character getting his butt kicked by the elements of a beach environment. Having a big guy scream like a girl is much more fun to me than a small wimpy one as you sort of expect that. Also, at this stage I had not thought of the dive into the ocean shot yet. He still walks in here, but as I got more and more into the animation part of things I thought to myself, “What do I always do when I see the ocean? What do most other people do when they reach that beautiful beach in the Tropics?” I wanted him to get in touch with his inner child here; this was far more entertaining and also not so expected after the previous shot where he is introduced to the viewer by taking off his shades and being a big presence. Getting inside the character’s head is incredibly important. Sometimes it comes easy, sometimes not, and that is why I had a little note pad on me as things would pop up into my mind in the most unlikely places. Making a simple note was enough for me to remember so when I would get back to my shot at night after work it was easier to get back into things.

So this was my final animatic at the end of class 5. By the time I went into class 6 I had made some fundamental changes to the sequences as I was looking for more entertainment in my animation and wanted to push the ideas a bit more. I was continuously open to new ideas from my mentor and fellow students and I kept looking for better ways to execute what I had. I am not saying this is the way to go, in an ideal world I would have thought of all of this in advance, but for me it really remained an organic process all the way to the point of switching to spline. After that I did not change much at all.

For such a physical short I felt I needed a lot of video reference, as one of my goals on this film was to get a really solid body mechanics demo. Video reference also allows for quick and easy experimenting. I tend to shoot a lot and then choose the one I feel suits the situation best or has something unexpected in it. I would then import the video into Flash and make notes on top of the video reference, to break down the movement and to understand what is happening in the body. This gave me something solid to start from but I only used it as that. I feel my imagination is stronger than any video reference I can act out. I feel if you stick to your video reference exactly as is your animation tends to fall flat and you might miss some great opportunities to push things more and get a more lively feel to your animation.

This is just my opinion and workflow; every animator has their own process and I'm sure my way doesn't work for others like theirs might not work for me. This is a really important process to learn and while attending Animation Mentor my workflow changed with just about every assignment I did. Now, as I am more comfortable with the process it's more a matter of tweaking my workflow. Sometimes I simply couldn’t shoot video reference for a shot, like when my character dives into the water and floats around and reacts to the sharks. That's all me and the stuff inside my head.

This is where little thumbnail sketches and a lot of trial and error come into place.

This is the layout based on my animatic. At this point I thought it would be funnier to show the full impact of the coconut hitting him and his reaction to it.

At this point the major changes would be the cameras for a more cinematic feel. The backgrounds have been more defined and the dive into the water has been introduced.

The end result, oh joy oh joy Ren! Actually finishing the short and seeing it all come together is one of the best feelings of achievement I’ve had. Now the time of a good night sleep is back upon us :-)

Peer Lemmers:

The main obstacle for me was myself. I was continuously tempted to add/change things to the story and had a hard time sticking to the idea that I initially had.

Partially this was because I had so much time in between class 5 and class 6. The way I saw things had changed, and I wanted to implement my new ideas as much as possible. However, due to the production schedule of my short and also working full time it was really important that I didn't. In hindsight I'm glad I stuck to what I had since it allowed me to focus on the animation side of things, which is what class 6 is all about.

Peer Lemmers:
Without Animation Mentor, I never would have been able to make this short. Everything I know about animation, film and 3D is thanks to Animation Mentor, the great mentors, and the community. If I had any questions regarding 3D I could always ask fellow students and some even helped model some of the props in my short. Others posted links to rendering techniques, tips about rigs and texturing. These are all shared in the Animation Mentor forums. Also I must say that the character rigs Animation Mentor provides have always treated me well. I’ve had no major issues and good support. I think all the characters can be made yours. This is really important because I think a good functional character rig is what allows for good animation. If the rig doesn't work or is too limited, it’s hard to animate to the level we aspire to do at Animation Mentor. So, big thanks to you all :-)