An important message we need to hear (Havtza and Coloso)

[Music] foreign [Music] and the educational video platform and website colossal reached out to me to review one of their animation courses they have on their platform now some of you may have seen ads from Colosso promoting things like a course on graphic design Motion Graphics and even animation illustration amongst many but even outside of Art and animation they also tackle a bunch of different subjects in this particular video I'm going to be talking about an animation course that they have on their platform and I'm also going to talk about colossal as a video educational platform how I feel about their overall platform and setup now when it comes to animation courses I've made a full animation course myself in the past and I distributed it online through gumroad I made a course based on my experience as an animator what I learned through my mentors and some philosophy that I formed myself making a course is not easy because it takes a lot of time to prepare as well as trying to deliver the best experience for active students so I do want to give credit to people who do make their own courses so for this particular case I'm going to be talking about hobsta an independent animator popular on Instagram who has made their own animation course that is available through Colosso now the reason why I chose hobsta is because you know they are an independent artist so I was highly interested in hearing it from a perspective from an animator who is not only killing it on social media but is also not formally trained this leads to them having very interesting points of views that are unique and worth hearing whereas professionals who have been formally trained and have been in the industry for many many years they're going to spout the same kind of preachings and sayings over and over again that I don't necessarily agree with anymore so it might be refreshing to hear it from a different point of view from someone who is on more on the Indie side and after checking it out I do want to talk about so in the early part of hafsa's course hafsa explains that they come from a background of science and art was more of a place of self-expression and a hobby now after actually watching through House's course I think there were some great points of views and some good lessons that everyone should hear the most important lesson or statement from their class is somewhere in the beginning where they say we should strive to make things not because we're trying to make something deep or provocative but because it has a need to exist nothing more nothing less and in many ways this is around the lines of something that I would also say too things like just make it for the sake of making it or don't worry about the crowd be an idiot and make idiotic things for fun make things for yourself but I think hafsa understands that we are artists and that we constantly struggle with self-doubt and how to express ourselves with our art is it deep enough is it worth anyone's time is it good enough just saying the only thing your personal work needs to do is just to exist that's it is one of the most freeing things any self-doubting artist needs to hear and you actually feel this in their work too they're all little vignettes they're all little moments that aren't necessarily deep or anything connected but they're a moment it's fun it's experimental it's cool to look at it leaves you wanting more even though it's not deep and there's also some good preachings that have to has like understand your own limitations it's okay to work on multiple projects you know stop at a certain stage move on to another one rest from a certain project and return when you feel rested and when you feel ready to come back to it and another one that they mentioned know how to hold yourself back I've been trying to get more into economic or limited animation and I it's hard for me to resist the temptation of adding more production quality and value to my own work even though I know I need to train myself and when to leave things alone hafsa also animates primarily on an iPad which could be a Top Choice for some of y'all out there they use flip a clip as well as procreate flip a clip for anime Nation procreate for colors background and maybe even storyboarding they demonstrate it in their colossal course with a respective video for each of them and how to use it now it's cool that they have a part on where they do run through their tools for those completely new to those apps and for those who want to make content using those apps in the full course hafsa talks about how they get their ideas how they design their characters how they think about character design and their overall approach to animation sometimes it gets into more specific details such as character shape language cloth there's a hour video of just cloth and some interesting discussions about balance and physics when it comes to animating characters there are some pointers in the video that I don't necessarily think about when I personally animate but it's also good to know because again I need all these different points of views to help me think differently about animation there are some pretty good chapters on how they think about color for their personal animation work background design perspective thumbnailing value position things are very important when you're trying to come up with engaging visuals or when you're trying to come up with interesting compositions for storyboarding so out of the whole course this part was probably my favorite there's a whole section on effects animation and I find the way they talk about physics accompanied with the effects animation on screen intriguing when I animate it's based on feeling and Rhythm whereas hofsta talks about things like tension points acceleration deceleration wind pressure material density opposing forces again these are also good to have in your library because I normally don't think about animation like this but it's also good to be reminded about this point of view so when I do try to break down my animation in the future or when I try to problem solve it at least I have more tools and more thoughts to think about when I animate at the end of each chapter or lesson in hafsa's course hasta suggests an exercise related to the lesson like a homework I think the exercises themselves are good food for thought later in the course there's topics on compositing and from what I realized hofstock composits everything using the same programs she uses to animate on the iPad when I saw their process on how they composite using only the apps I would never do it the way that they would and half stenosis they state that hey there's not a lot of good compositing apps on the iPad they even say that what they're doing may not be ideal to many people but it's still the tools and methodology that they decide to work with and there's a lot of things to respect and admire about that like there's a part on camera moves or moving backgrounds they would actually move the prop one frame at a time whereas in a compositing software like after effects or whatnot you can actually tween a background from point A to point B and the computer would just make it move on its own the way hafsa is doing it is a very flipbook experience but it's not a method that people actually use in Productions and again how to addresses this there's actually a whole chapter where hausa talks about what it's like working in an independent setup and a professional setup and the main differences and it's also very insightful and very good and the biggest thing that I admire about hobster's course is that it feels very honest like they talk about things on how they would do it why they would do it and how they work but also acknowledge that hey this is not for everyone many major Productions do not work like this at all but for hosta it works for them and at least they share the process while I was listening to have studs course watching it on a second monitor I was also working on a few casual clips that I was trying to animate I was trying to be more experimental I was trying to be more limited and I was just trying to make things and get it out the door as fast as I can now do I have any criticisms and thoughts of House's course now it's hard to talk about that stuff because it ultimately depends on a student's experience and what they're looking for I came into it with the point of view of putting myself into hofstra's shoes how they make decisions how they execute those decisions and how they problem solve when it comes to animation but when it comes to taking a course from a specific person know that it's in a specific person's style so an example of this is hasta has a whole chapter of talking about character design and all the discussions on character design cloth shaped language they're all coming from a good place it's coming from an honest place and they all have good thoughts but I also know that hafsa style is very unique and very specific it's not traditional or conventional in the common sense it's just a specific style that has to draws in just letting you know there are moments where it does feel like how to draw in the hop style or how to draw like hob stuff now other feedbacks I have I think there could have been more work on editing and the information related on the video I think there are some parts that were really good in some parts where it's easy to get lost so most of the videos follow the format of hofstad doing something on screen and then it's accompanied by a recorded voiceover maybe I'm not sure but it does feel like that it's how I personally would do it but I sometimes feel like there are missed opportunities because there's moments where hostile will talk about their understanding of the 12 animation principles but the video doesn't really match up with the visuals on the screen so an example of this hosta is drawing something on screen that's unrelated and then just talking about the 12 principles without really showing each of those principles visually and I think it would have been good to have examples of that to really cement the understanding since animation is such a visual art form also I have to let you know that the videos themselves are super long and I feel like they could have been condensed and more straight to the point each video would have a running time of 30 to 50 minutes each that was the average that I saw and I feel like some of those things could have been trimmed or even condensed like I think the lectures and discussions could have been trimmed and then you could leave the full demos long where you can actually have the voiceover of more abstract topics and just you know fast forward certain moments where the Things become more laborious and they do that there's Parts where house uh stops talking and it's replaced by background music while the art is happening or it could show a handful of the labor process but then cut to a finished product after the Labor's process because you know even I have to admit that watching someone anime is quite monotonous and very long and it can be very quiet and can come off as pretty boring that's not House's fault that's not an animator's fault or a teacher's fault because every teacher or Mentor that I've seen animate live there were times where it was hard to stay concentrated I think the last criticism that I have with the course is the exercises that hafsa gives at the end of each chapter and lesson they're all quite good they're all great and they're all fun little assignments but if I were a beginning student it'd be nice to have a bit more Direction like hofsta could have shown examples of these exercises these finished exercises to give Clues to students on what they should strive for with the assignment what they should do to try in these exercises and things that they might want to try avoiding when doing these exercises I mean it's slightly touched and briefed when given the assignment or the exercise but it would be nice to see some finished examples of each of those assignments rather than just you do a demo and then just tell your students okay you see what I did now you do that too and having taught multiple classes myself you know students might need a push to either be more creative or to follow certain directions however I do want to remind you that overall I think hofstra's course was quite good I overall enjoyed it a lot of it is stuff that I personally already know but the discussion on color perspective composition and even some of the insightful talks about physics and the more technical aspects of Animation there are quite good reminders and Refreshers now if you're a fan of hostas work and want to embody their style of work and their art get their understanding and thinking this is good to have playing while you're making your own art and animation that's what I was doing when I was working on some limited animation practices now let's talk about Colosso as a platform because I do have some thoughts they seem to be getting some really good talents having their own courses which is a great way to attract people to their website some of my favorite filmmakers and animators have their courses there but guys sadly I can't watch all of you at the moment I need to watch more to get an idea of how colossal works or the overall type of branding that they have for each of those courses I took another one from jung-hyun which is an action animation course and that one was pretty good too it was more traditional and if you're interested in action animation that's one to really look at and I mean most of these lectures follow a certain format of here's what's happening on the screen it could be pre-recorded or it could be recorded So I think some parts of jonghyun's course is that it was live so he was doing the demo on screen while talking at the same time and you can feel it and honestly I do prefer those types of lectures because it does feel like I'm in an actual lecture or recorded lecture now I did do a course with skillshare that might come out soon and I will say that skillshare does have a certain brand and I was even working with the director that coached me and how I present information so that it remains consistent with every other course on skillshare itself okay but one major thought or criticism that I have for colossal that they can think about for the future is work on its relationship with the community and the students more like maybe a little box or a little tab where students can upload the exercises the teachers would recommend and they could share it together where every student or everyone taking the class can see what they can do after what they've learned from the following teacher no doubt it'll Inspire motivate and make the direction clear for beginning students and show that everyone else can have different styles look skillshare does this where students can turn in their assignments for everyone to see and so does a place like project City if anything if Colosso wants to be this major Collective platform of Education and I think they can work more on their community building I think that might be a good next step for colossa if they want to see themselves as more of a good educational alternative platform now here's the thing that I like about Colosso they seem to be getting some really talented individuals and it seems like a healthy mix there's Independent Artists there's full-time mainstream artists that teach practical industry related workflows there's animators that specialize in fundamentals and then there's animators that specialize in things like action or effects so there's a lot of really interesting niches that looks really appealing to me a place like skillshare would try to make their courses accessible to anyone so an animation course from there is not specifically targeting super serious animation people but more accessible to the general masses in a place like project City you get the same teachers teaching the same classes again again you know they're storyboarding there's animation there's character design they're all taught by the same roster of people that are close to project City but I think that place is just meant for people to just make projects to make animatics and reels and eventually even animation and the cool thing about Colosso is that it's not just one 2D animation class there's 2D animation classes that focus on Independent animation production 2D animation classes that focus on animation or 2D animation classes that focus on other fundamentals so you get courses dedicated on a certain topic or Niche so those are my general thoughts if you're interested in the course yourself I've provided the discount and the link to it on the video description below okay bye

Channel: Toniko Pantoja

Views: 33,517

Keywords: Toniko Pantoja, Youtube, Animation, Tutorial, Advice, Lesson, Vlog, Adobe, Photoshop, Animate, Flash, After Effetcts, Premiere, Video, Film, Drawing, Tips, Gestures, tvpaint, toonboom, harmony, storyboard, pro, coloso

Id: zQg1DSKApcU

Length: 15min 53sec (953 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 04 2023