Chapter Meeting: October 2006
On September 30th, 2006, the South Florida IGDA and AIU presented its second weekend Boot Camp. The featured artist for this workshop was the 'award' winning animator Kiel Figgins. Kiel (pronounced 'keel', 'kal-el, or if you must 'kyle') is one of the lead creature animators at NCsoft who is working on Richard 'Lord Britain' Garriott's most anticipated title since his Ultima series, Tabula Rasa. Kiel was a one time Florida native during his collegiate days when he attended Full Sail in Orlando . Not being a stranger to the hurricane state, he was willing to venture back to this torrential countryside and give an extensive two day workshop on walk cycle animations and pose to pose animations.
Day One of the Animation Boot Camp, the computer lab at the AIU facilities were filled to capacity and the attendees were eager to begin. The first day of the workshop would be a beginner's level introduction to the most dreaded but necessary of animations, the walk cycle. Kiel demonstrated how the beginning of all animation basics should be done by examining real life. Watching how things are positioned and posed while in motion will give the animator a better understanding to make a more realistic animation. Kiel showed how he himself got up and moved his body into the exact pose he wanted to key frame to understand the kinesiology of the human anatomy. Kiel stressed during his lecture that the understanding of real world corporeal mechanics is the foremost important skill to becoming a competent animator. Without it, everything you make move will look flat and lifeless. Kiel worked in Autodesk's Maya but he stressed how he was teaching fundamentals that could be used across all 3D Platforms.
Day Two of the Animation Book Camp, Kiel gave a demonstration of Pose to Pose Animation. All of the attendees who had attended day one had returned for the more experienced level workshop. The initial process for pose to pose animation is drawing out the key frames. By getting up and acting out the moves he wants to animate, Kiel showed how you were able to map out each and every individual moment that is important to making a realistic movement. As he staggers each motion, with a clipboard and pencil in his hand, he is able to crudely rough out what he thinks his body's position would be. After five or six roughly blocked out drawings, Kiel shows how all his key frames have been worked out and he can use it as reference to pose his model in 3D.
The Animation Boot Camp was an interesting in-depth look at a professional's work flow process when animating for games. Kiel Figgins, throughout his tutorials gave relevant lectures about how the industry works and the pitfalls that most students go through after leaving college. Kiel was not only talented on the technical animation side but also moonlighted as a career resource center. He urged the attendees to network through message boards, email people within the industry, and to get their names out there. He said every person who emailed him would get a personal response back from him (in an appropriate amount of time). And that ranged from questions on how to write a professional resume to advanced technical animation questions. The IGDA South Florida Chapter was proud to host the second ever IGDA Boot Camp, hosted by AIU, and have Kiel Figgins honor us with his time and vast knowledge about the industry.
Related Links:- Kiel's Website
- Tabula Rasa's Website
- Shilo Design's Website