carlos fernandez bath time

They are many the shorts and the animations that you can see in El Portal del 3D y la Animación, but we are sure that many of you will remember the short 'Bath Time', of Carlos Fernandez, where an humanoid character tries to bathe his pet.

Carlos Fernandez is a Spanish animator who, after studying traditional and computer animation in Spain, left to London, where he has worked in personal projects and other like the game 'Sphinx', with the Anibyte team.

We have spoken with Carlos on his amazing short 'Bath Time', its creation process, and the different aspects to consider at the time of confronting a project like this one.

El Portal del 3D y la Animación - 'Bath Time' is simple short, without complicated models or hyperrealistic materials, but brilliant. How is planned a short like this one? What things must be considered before beginning?

Carlos Fernandez - Well, my idea from the beginning always was to do a simple short in which I could concentrate in the animation, since it's my strongpoint and what I like to do. Since arose the idea of the short I always have considered my limitations to avoid to be clogged. Modeling and texturing are not my strongpoints, for that reason I tried to maintain it simple but with style and apeal.

At the time of planning it always is good to have a little storyboard, with the main concepts although it could be very simple. In my case I also used much the video as reference, capturing myself acting getting many ideas for animation.

I think that one of the most important things to consider they are your limitations and to be sure that the idea, although simple, works. Before you start in the computer I always try to know as clear as possible in my head and small drawings and recordings.

3DA - As we said before, 'Bath Time' does not present complicated models, only a good background and two characters. What can you explain to us on the modelling, texturing and lighting of the background and the characters?

Carlos - The truth is that on the way that I raised the short at first it was much more simple. The background was very simple and the characters didn't have deformation, were simply bones with the suitable proportions. But once I had more or less finished the animation I decided to show it to some of my friends involved in this world, and some of them said to me that perhaps it would be better adding a little more of detail to the characters and a little of illumination to the background, so I follow their comments and I put myself to it, and in the end it works more or less.

One of my friends, Julian, took one of the frames of the animation and did a quick sketch painting over, that gave many ideas to me. Thanks Juli! :) I'm lucky because I have many friends artists, and I always showed small updates of the short to them as I was advancing to hear their ideas. I love the ideas, you can learn very much from them. Friends like Luis Gómez (remember this name, he will finish a coll short soon www.niet0.com) :) Ana Amat, Santi Colomo, Juan Solís, Alex huguet, Julian Romero, Daniel Meitin, Abraham Meneu, Isaak Fernandez and many more, I have had the luck to work with them in my last projects and they are excellent professionals and friends.

3DA - If something outstand in 'Bath Time' is the likeable that is the short, the story, and also the animation of the characters. For this last one you used CAT. What can you explain to us on this software and the setups of the characters in individual?

Carlos - In my last projects I always had worked with Character Studio, but searching in Internet I found a link to the website of this new software. What it attracted my attention more is that you could use curves and the simple way to create rigs. To do good rigs you must take a lo of time and the way the CAT people had solved it worked perfectly, and that's great.

The characters' setup is very simple. I began with predefined rigs of CAT and I scaled them to obtain the right proportions. I liked the experience with CAT very much, but now I'm passing to Maya and I really like it. Pero bueno, ya se sabe que el software es lo de menos. It's just a tool, as it can be a pencil, or a clay piece.

3DA - As we said, the animation is one of the strong points of this short. Which is your prescription to animate? Could explain in detail the steps that you follow?

Carlos - Well, the first it's to know very clearly what are you going to do before you sit in front of the computer. For example, in the case of the short, some of the ideas they came to me from old animation tests that I did when I was testing CAT. At the time of beginning to animate, is well considering small drawings with poses and ideas to use like reference. In my case, I use much the videocamera, I recorded myself doing what the characters would must to do. I record myself a lot of times and then analyzing the recordings you can find details and cool ideas for the animation.

Once I know what I want to do, I sit in front of the computer :) I used to begin with the blocking of the animation placing key poses searching the timing, posing, etc, and then, once it works I begin to detail it until leaving it polished. It's always good to request critics throughout the process, saves to you of many problems that you had not appreciated.

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