Animation Relaxation 

Week 12 Talk with Greg Maguire from Humain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.humain.co.uk/team/2016/6/5/greg-maguire-ceo

Greg was a tutor in our university up until 2 years ago until he decided to leave to make his own company. He was at University when i did my interview to get onto the course and i had a chat with him and found out about some of the projects he had worked on  and some of his experiences and learnt about his employment history and the projects he worked on like Lucas Film animation and the Star wars clone wars animated series. He then left to explore other opportunities and ended up creating his own animation and rigging business called Humain.

He came from a design course into university and studied animation by converting from illustration as it wasn't for him so he made a change. He then began work in ILM, Don Bluth Studios and Lucas Animation over his career as an animator.

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Films he worked on:

Dinosaurs

Land before Time 

Avatar

Harry Potter and the prisoner of Askaban 

Star Wars The Clone Wars  2008 CGI series

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Greg went on about how he  likes a challenge and loves to problem solve and doesn't like when a problem becomes a recurring theme or if something is simple and straight forward as you don't learn anything from it. He as an animator thought he would attend life drawing classes to understand movement proportion and emotion and develop his skills and knowledge and knew it would only aid his animations he then later attended sculpting classes to capture in a 3d format and as a result thought in a 3d format and could visualise and design with his hands and could imagine and develop the figure and outlines. The important thing he pointed out was to try and take steps to improve or better yourself or change ones own self for your own benefit down the road. Once he learnt everything he need to it, wasn't enough any more and he needed to know more as his thirst for knowledge kept him busy and helped him to find new and more challenging problems to solve leading on to more and better things.

 

Greg also co-founded ZooGloo in 2006 so he had experience in running or in cooperation for running and managing a company.

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Humain:

Humain is Greg's own new company that he created in Northern Ireland in 2016. Humain build in house tools to aid in the rigging process and for animation and focus on realistic rigs. Using images and real references and working on both humans and creature characters to bring them to life. The company is currently globally known and have obtained technicians and animators from around the world. They have collaborated with Microsoft's R&D team to assist them with their new virtual reality and augmented reality systems. 

F.A.C.s allows them to work with psychologists in order to understand expression and human emotion creating more detailed and realistic facial rigs conveying a wider range of emotions and microscopic movements and mannerisms. 

Greg suggested we learn as much as we can and to explore some of the following software's before going on placement next year:

Texturing: Substance and Quixel

3D: Maya, 3Ds Max and Blender 

Effects: Houdini

Composition:  Nuke and After effects

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Before this talk i realised what i wanted to do for my personal project and devised several ideas for things i am going to do these ideas are unique and special to me as they reflect things i like and mean a lot to me.  This is what Greg said to focus on as it means you will be passionate about them and you will give it your all and it won't seem so much as work more as a hobby. I plan on trying to create a character from nothing and develop them until i produce a finished product using everything i have learnt over the past year and i want to delve further into aspects like like rigging and texturing etc. in the pipeline. Greg was interesting and the things he has worked on are things i grew up and inspired me and gives me a great appreciation for him as i wish i had worked on the same projects. Greg was very intriguing and helped me to see rigging and animation as more a of a form of enjoyment rather than a chore which is what i felt it was like at the start but have changed my opinion and feeling towards it but i still find it as a length process but i can find enjoyment in what i am doing and pleasure in it. He said that riggers want to solve problems whereas animators want to bring something to life that is the most basis description of the jobs that his company works on and reverts the job description to the most basic of truths.

I really want to create my own characters and bring them to life and have them interact in a 3d enviornment. I currently feel like i am only creating and populating scenes and feel like i  need to try something new and different going into next semester. I haven't had time to do my own stuff and animate for fun which  i would like to do and dabble in everything so often to diversify my skills and so i can broaden my mind. I want to explore this later and see if i enjoy it more or if i find it to difficult or a chore to complete or if i could see myself in it  as a potential career for the future.

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Reflection :

I found Greg to be very lively and truthful which seemed genuine compared to some of the other lectures. For the talk it makes you feel insignificant and worthless as you seem to know very little in comparison to some one like Greg. I am interested in all fields of animation i am just try to work my way through the pipeline so i can work anywhere in it as a generalist. I found it amazing the depth they went to capture emotion like using psychologists and facial capture software to record emotion and to help them to build better rigs for famous movie companies and VFX industries. Greg  company focus on more inclusive rigs for features and also explore their new way or retopologising a mesh for a character was very different from what i am used to. It has however caused me to look into it in more depth and found that it could prove more effective than the traditional method.

Greg has helped me to set goals that will not limit myself or my work and i will not be afraid of trying something new as you don't have to be the best at everything. You just have to make a start it is the fear of failure is the thing that is stopping you from doing something in the first place you have to take risks and get out off your comfort zone to become the best you , you can be.

You have to start some where and you can only strife to do your best and you can't do more than that. I plan on applying what i have learnt and hopefully it will show in my work as it changes and develops over the next semester. As things will become more complex but and hopefully not as monotonous  as it seems to be the same thing over and over again and i have a renewed vigor to go and try something new after the Christmas break.

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