What Makes a Good and Honest Animator

Critiques & Opinions

Often in animation we are subjected to critiques -- most likely daily. I try to impress on my students the importance of learning all the principals of animation, but temper it with a bit of realism. It's a simple fact that everyone has an opinion, and no matter how good you are or how long you've been working there is always something new to learn. So seek out criticism, or take any thrown your way. Take what everyone says... Weigh it against what you've learned up to that point, and if a particular problem, or complement keeps cropping up, there must be some truth too it.

I’m sure we've all met someone who isn't crazy about our work for one reason or another.... but that doesn't mean you can't get something from their opinion. It's kinda like learning to fight... The more you mess up, the more you learn what not to do.

Animation is an art form, and as artists we all have our own sense of aesthetics. Don't take criticism as a punch to the gut -- most likely it isn't personal. Strive to do your best work, and remember it isn't your show/game. You are providing a service. If a director wants something, and you think it’s a bad decision or a problem, make it known to your supervisor or animation director, but don't fight it. If they elect to follow your opinion great, you’re a hero for pointing it out. If not don't latch on like a pit bull, leave it at that and do the best you can given the constraints. I think that makes a good honest animator: you are showing that you recognize issues, care about your work, and confront them head on, but are still a team player.

Technique

As a student learning animation, which most of us are until the day we kick the big one, we meet lots of other people doing the same work...yet everyone seems to have their own flavor of "How to do it?" What I like to do personally, and also tell my students is, whomever is currently teaching you is who you listen too.

In other words, if you are in school do what any given teacher tells you at that time -- learn what they have to give. When you move on from them, do the same with the next teacher. "But everyone does it differently, won't it get confusing?" Ahhh ...no, what you are doing is focusing on what you have to learn...not looking down the road.

Before you know it, you will have picked up a ton of knowledge and techniques, the next step is deciding what works for you and what doesn't.

This is where each animator, like some home brew from Grannies barn, picks their ingredients and heads off into the world. The only difference in animation is as we work with new director, supervisors, and animators.... we are constantly show different ways of the force. Take that ever-growing list and give it a fair tryout and see if you can incorporate it into your working method. Maybe it speeds you up, maybe it slows you down, maybe your work jumps to that next plateau. It's a simple fact that you will grow, and improve as an animator always but it won't be a simple strait shot to the goal.

Guest blogger David Breaux

By: Unknown On 11.25

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How Fast Is a New Junior Animator Expected to Work?

How fast is a new junior animator expected to work? How much would he/she be expected to produce per week?

Junior animators do need to be given time like anyone regardless of experience to get used to a studios pipeline, procedures and rigs. But from a strict animation point of view, I'd say all animators speed are a more or less controlled by the supervisor or animation director. By that I mean they will kick off a shot (describe what needs to happen in the shot) with the animator.

After that the animator blocks the shot and submits for approval in dailies, this could then be approved or sent back for changes....sometimes the animator missed something or misinterpreted what was needed, other times the animation director sees that an idea didn't work as they thought so it just needs a change no fault of the animator at all. Then there are times an animator will do something, it gets approved by the animation director but turned around by the film director....so there are lots of things that can affect how fast a shot moves through the pipes.

After getting blocking approval from the film director, the focus shifts more onto the animators speed to finish a shot. Every day you attend a dailies session where the animation director, or animation supervisor will critique the work to a finer degree, timing, breakdowns, etc., as the animation moved from blocking to temp animation and on to final polished animation. The animators job is to address the fixes pointed out in these dailies sessions, generally if they are small tweaks that can be done by the end of the day depending on what time you have dailies.

Larger fixes can take a day or two... If you have a big change which would usually only happen if there is a direction change from the client or if you are working for a (client) film director who can't judge blocked animation but instead needs to see fully splined animation to make a judgement. It happens.... I've seen it many times.

Guest blogger David Breaux

By: Unknown On 11.01

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What Is Your Favorite Part in the Whole Animation Process?

I don't know that I have one favorite part....it kinda all blends together for me.

If pressed though I'd have to say I enjoy the blocking of a shot as you get to work out your poses and experiment a bit but at a fast pace in sketches or sometimes on the rig itself.

Second, I like the polishing of a shot, where you get to add those little details and nuances that really bring something to life. Especially working on a lot of realistic characters as I do you could tweek and refine for days...or weeks... So sometimes its nice to do something more cartoony that is more stylized than realistic just to mix it up a bit.


Guest Blogger David Breaux

By: Unknown On 09.41

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What Does It Mean to Animate on 3s and 4s?

Sometimes we only need broad control, think 8s or 12s...but other times we require much more control for intricate actions.

Generally when animating on 3s and 4s you are dealing with more complex motion that needs to be broken down and controlled to a fairly tight degree.

Imagine animating a character dancing like Gene Kelly. The footwork involved can be highly complex as well as moving very fast. In order for us to block out that movement and include the proper key poses, you have to control it to a fine degree by setting keys 3-4 frames apart.

You are trying to keep the computer from splining too much so when keying fine actions like this you are only giving the computer the freedom to create 1-2 frames that are not specifically set by you. In traditional animation animating on 3s and 4s would take on a different meaning, though generally it would only be used in very limited animation, such as the Flintstones. Traditional limited animation would try to reuse a frame or parts of a frame of animation to reduce the amount of work necessary usually for budgetary or stylistic reasons. In CG it refers more to how often we key and object to define or control its motion.

Guest blogger David Breaux

By: Unknown On 10.34

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How Do You Mix Snappy Animations with Non-snappy, Realistic Actions?

I would like to know about how to mix snappy animations with non-snappy, realistic actions. How do you time out when to put snappy actions and when not to?

You should use snappy animation as a contrast to more realistic animation to keep movement and timing interesting... thus keeping your audience engaged in what you are doing.

Be careful, you can go too far..... you don't want to destroy the sense of realism say in a creature because you push the snappy aspects of its motion too far.

Make sure you maintain a sense of weight and watch your spacing so it doesn't get so your individual frames don't start strobing on you.

Try putting snappier actions where greater forces or impacts happen... Also use them to show a light fleeting character, say a squirrel or sparrow....

Remember how your character moves says a lot about there physical as well as mental states.

Guest blogger David Breaux

By: Unknown On 15.03

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