Could You Provide Some Tips on Staging and Composition?

I learned some great tips from my former teacher Shawn Jeffery at Sheridan College. We would analyze the layout of masterpieces like Mulan, and talk about staging and composition. He told us the importance of staging a scene as not to distract the viewer from the story being told. Layout artists do this by combining foreground, mid-ground and background objects and letting perspective and depth cues lead the eye towards the focal point in the shot. He taught us about screen axis, the invisible line that keeps characters on opposing sides of one another during a scene to avoid confusion. And when to break the axis line, like in a fight scene or dramatic moment when you want the audience off balance. These tools are important for all storytellers but often animators don't think about.

But animators DO need to understand how to compose and stage shots because the characters themselves should be positioned properly. Obviously when you are working in a studio and get a shot from layout much of this has been worked out, but it still can be improved on (sometimes greatly) with some simple rules.

The things I think about when staging a shot:

1. Always mind the format of the project you are working on, letterbox, 4:3, etc. Try to work with the action and title cut off marks on screen so not much important stuff happens outside of these regions.

2. Avoid staging characters straight front or sideways, have your character angled in more in 3/4 for more depth and appeal.

3. Avoid cutting off character with the camera plane at joints; the ankles, the knees, the neck or the elbows. This avoids a disembodied feel. Always cut off the body in mid shin, leg, upper arm or neck if possible.

4. If there are two characters in a shot, when you position one higher then another they will be more dominant, and vice versa. Even slight shifts really make a difference.

5. Always try to follow 'The rule of thirds' Place the focal point of the character, or the character himself in a wide shot, in one of the magic 'thirds' of the screen. To find these spots, divide the camera plane with two lines horizontal and two vertical, thus separating the plane into three equal parts:

The four points -- upper left, upper right, lower left and lower right -- are the best locations to place the element of interest. Having a character dead center or far left or right is difficult for the eye to track. If you place your character (or its face for example) in one of these locations it will enable you to view it naturally. Studies have shown that when viewing images that people's eyes usually go to one of the intersection points most naturally rather than the center of the frame.

More info on the rule of thirds:

http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/rule-of-thirds/

http://photoinf.com/Golden_Mean/John_Longenecker/Rule_of_Thirds.htm

http://understandingfilm.wetpaint.com/page/2.+Compostion+and+Designt=anon

http://pblmm.k12.ca.us/TechHelp/VideoHelp/aGoodStuffToKnow/ShotComposition.html

There are many good books on subject of composition, from photography to film to animation. And you can watch great movies. Most have really good composition you can steal or use as reference for your shot. There are examples for almost every situation out there.

Lastly, this isn't really a composition tip, but when animating try not to have much of movement too far away from the shots focus point. For example, if a character is standing and talking in a mid shot, and his face is in the upper right third or the screen, you don't want his hand down by his side making lots of movement taking the viewers attention far from the face, where all the important stuff is going on. Hope that helps a bit!


Guest blogger jmart (Jason Martinsen)

By: Unknown On 11.53

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How Can You Prevent Action From Overpowering Important Dialogue?

This is something I see happening often in student work. I see a lot of over animating on the head and arms. As an animator, we all have a tendency to want to make everything move all the time. To try and accent every little line with an eyebrow move or a head nod or tilt, or add as much hand gestures and shoulder shrugs and weight shifts as possible. This ends up making everything too busy, and makes it impossible to read the most important poses or expressions because they are gone in a few frames. The shot will feel very confused.

I tell my students to find the two or three storytelling poses in the shot. The poses that you could use if you had to boil down the entire animation to just a few moments, and hold them, and still feel the emotion of the character. And build off those poses with much smaller movements and subtle expression changes that don't change the main points too much. Calm down, only make the moves when it really needs it. Less is usually more with important dialogue. The main thing is to find a great expression and pose. Basically the key is to try not to do too much at once. There are some great shots of Hopper in A Bugs Life of him threatening his bumbling brother as an example of moving within a pose.

That's not to say your character can't be walking and talking while delivering an important line. However, if he is walking, stopping, turning, making large gestures and the camera is moving during a key moment you will run into trouble in pixel land. You need to simplify when something is getting in the way of reading character's face and emotions. Find the main key pose in the shot that sells what the character is trying to say and make that read. Make sure there are not too many other things going on. If action is required for the shot then try to allow the action to happen before or after the most important phrase of the line. If you are forced to have a lot of action during the exact moment of the important dialogue, try to find ways to calm the action down to its simplest form, and lessen the contrasts of it so the main pose or expression can be read more clearly.

It's hard to know what will work in on a shot general, since there are so many variations of what kind of action is making it hard to read. But there are several tricks you can use if there needs to be action going on. You can use counter animation to stabilize the head and torso, and even the arms, if a character is running. Having the legs flying around like crazy isn't a problem if the head is fairly calm. Hang time is a good secret weapon for getting the main poses to read if a characters is jumping around a lot during dialogue. Right when a big accent is coming up, have the character jump up quickly to accent it, use hang time during your main acting pose and you should be able to read what the mouth and face is doing before he zips back down to the ground again. Think big action right before the accent, moving hold on the accent, then big action again.

Good luck!

Guest blogger jmart (Jason Martinsen)

By: Unknown On 11.38

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What's a Beat? Do You Have Any Tips on the Best Way to Find Beats in a Shot?

A beet is also a dark purple root vegetable that is great in salads. But seriously folks....A beat is a moment of time. It is often used to clarify phrasing in a shot, to give the viewer more time to understand the moment. It can usually last around 8 to 16 frames and is often a still moment. A beat can be a held pose or a moving hold at the end of a line to make the point. Or a pause in between lines to show thought process, internal dialogue, realization, or confusion. A beat is something that the audience can read because it is not lost with tons of fast movement. A beat is just a clear phrasing moment in the animation that tells you what the object/character is doing. Often, the word beat is used in animation like so: "You need a beat in there." Which essentially just means you need to hold a pose longer or have more time on a certain moment. Usually less then a second.

As for finding where you need beats in shots, look for moments that need to be quieter or read longer. These moments calm down what is going on, as much as possible around the eyes, since that is what the viewer usually wants to focus on. And if need be add a few frames to these moments to have more time to register the pose. Family guy is great for beats. They really draw them out. The movie Kung Fu Panda had many great beats, that allowed time to show the characters thought process. One pet peeve of mine is how so many animated movies are just quick cuts, line, cut, line, cut, and so forth. No moments of silence or thought process to be seen!

In general if you (or your mentor/supervisor) feel your shot is too fast and there is too much going on, adding a beat can help. If the shot is not too time constricted. Usually personal and student work you can play around with time as much as you want. If you are working at a studio and the shot has time constraints, and the director doesn't want to add more time, you have to simplify the animation to be less busy.

Cheers,

Guest blogger jmart (Jason Martinsen)

By: Unknown On 13.17

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What Is the Best Piece of Animation Advice You Have Received?

Wow. This is a difficult question to narrow down. I don't think there is one thing that one single person has told me that has helped me more than anything else. Everything I have learned from countless different people over the years has been beneficial to me in different ways. If I had to narrow it down I guess actively pursuing feedback has been the most beneficial thing I have done.

When I started working on my first feature film Ice Age: the Meltdown, most of the feedback I got was from the director and supervisors only. My work only began to grow and improve when we started doing pre-development on Horton. I had made more friends by then and I would stop by and see what other people were up to, what kind of ideas where floating around. The animators would get together in small groups and brainstorm fun ideas for different characters in the movie. It was a very exciting and eye opening time to be at Blue Sky. Everyone was forgetting about their egos and just listening to one another. When production finally started I had a completely different way of approaching a shot. I would get a shot kicked off, and after the sup or director gave his take, walk around to several different people and ask if they had any interesting ideas for it, BEFORE I started doing anything. Then I would do thumbnails or reference for it, often using others to help with reference. After narrowing down the reference and ideas, I would show a few animators the options to see what they liked. Then the best would be shown to the director and he would make his notes.

Once I did start animating, I would constantly get an animator feedback that was well suited for this type of shot or stage I was at to help. Nick Bruno and Mark Harris were great for coming up with comedy and crazy ideas. Melvin Tan was always full of gold for posing and breakdowns, and Hans or Juan Carlos helped me personally many times with adding subtle beats while splining. At one point or another I had asked for advice from every person in the department. Of course the directors and supervisors always had great feedback but every other artist around you may contribute great advice too. My best shots were the ones full of other peoples’ ideas.

I believe a shot can be a group project, a work of art that gets better with each person that puts his mark on it. Although at the end of the day you are the one doing most of the work, the final result should be a team effort. I was lucky to have a great talented team that felt like family. I know not every studio has that situation, but there are always people that can help. And you don't always have to go to who you think is the 'best.' One of my favorite stories I've heard about was when Glen Keane started at Disney, he said Ollie Johnson told him how important it was to show work or poses to others for help. Shortly after he started animating, Ollie knocked on his door and asked Glen to help him with a pose Ollie himself was struggling with and set down a "perfect drawing of Penny" for him to somehow improve. Glen proceeded to, in his own words, mangle the drawing, but Ollie still thanked him for his ideas and walked out. Whether or not Glen actually helped him is not the point, the point is Ollie was willing to go anywhere for assistance.

Now go show someone your shot!

-Guest blogger jmart (Jason Martinsen)

By: Unknown On 10.22

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What Is Locomotion? Could You Provide some Tips on Locomotion?

This is a huge topic to cover with one post. Locomotion is the means or effort of moving your character through the scene under his own power. Any movement being done like walking, running, crawling, swimming, skipping, dancing, climbing etc is locomotion. And locomotion is dependent on gravity and weight. And will change in space, underwater, in wind, with inertia, friction or if the character is hindered by restrictions, baggage or injury.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_locomotion

The mechanics of locomotion and how you break it down totally depends on the character. A dog, a bird, and a human all will move completely differently, and a human like Ms. Incredible moves a lot different then Edna Mode due to proportions. And that is the same movie! First you need to get reference on what you have to move. If its a human, act it out yourself. If the character is very heavy, put on a backpack, if you can't perform how you would like, maybe a friend of yours can help.

If your character is not human, find the most comparable reference you can on the internet, movies or real life. A good place place to find animal reference is at the zoo. When you find good reference watch it over and over, and frame through it to find out how the weight shifts, and the hips and shoulders move, and the tempo of the movement.

When you actually begin animating, try to simplify. There was a shot of Horton moving though the jungle and the animator animated a simple sphere going up and down to get the timing of the body, then once he liked it, he copied the curves to the body. Then layer on top of that. If the character is simply walking or running start by creating a cycle to help yourself get started. There is a ton of info out there in books and online on how to animate walks and runs. If the character is acting while moving about the screen space, don't focus only on the mechanics of the foot placement, instead work on the key poses hitting the acting beats you want. It can be helpful to have the legs in FK or making them invisible while you pose out the body, head, and arms. Once you hit your acting beats then place your feet underneath taking the proper steps or weight shifts, you can layer on some hip shifting, more up and down with each step without taking away from the acting you have achieved.

Ed Hooks had a good tip on locomotion and acting. What is driving the character's personality? Is he very agitated or irritable and stiff, and his eyes darting around? A character like that will be leading with the head, his center very high in the body, and moving quickly, sharply, attentive. Or is it a strong masculine character? This characters center is in his chest, and animation should suggest a slow confident pull with a strong solid movement. A female character trying to seduce, maybe in the hips. A very jolly, fat character, his belly. These are all stereotypes but you get the idea. But thinking about that as you animate can help pull more personality out of the movement. It should be about mechanics but driven by personality.

And if all is lost, taking a couple body mechanics classes at AM will help!

Happy animating!

Guest blogger jmart (Jason Martinsen)

By: Unknown On 09.33

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