Reader's Question: How Common Is It to Use a Flipbook or PAP to Plan a Shot?

I was wondering about the software tools you mentioned. How "common" is it for an animator to use something like Flipbook or PAP to "plan" a shot before even touching the 3D character (Sort of like animated thumbnails, not necessarily polished hand drawn animation)? Is that way of "planning" realistic in a bigger studio setting, or do most animators stick to thumbnails on paper? I was also curious as to how you're supposed to figure out what poses happen on what frames, but using the "real-life" timing makes perfect sense.

Everyone has a different workflow and if you can quickly show your ideas using Flipbook or PAP then feel free to use them. Just don’t spend too much time in those programs where they becomes detrimental to the planning process. Your sketches should be a quick way to plan ideas without wasting too much time in software. With enough experience, you will likely discover it is easier to show all of your ideas on paper than spend the extra time (even if it is 30 minutes) animating them in a 2d software package. Plus, at many studios you already have 2d animated version of the shot called an animatic (essentially a moving storyboard) so it may not be necessary to recreate the shot in 2d with your own sketches if the animatic already shows your intentions.

Animation Mentor Staff

By: Unknown On 11.50

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Regarding Timing, Do Professional 3D Animators Use Exposure Sheets? Does the ‘Old School’ 16 Frames Interval Remain?

Hi there, Nicolette!

I know in the newsletter articles I harped on planning darn near every month for a while, so many of you know that I believe strongly that planning is the key to excellent animation, particularly if you're in the first five or six years of animating, but probably for the rest of your career.

Planning, simply put, is the process of studying reference materials (pictures, found video reference, created video reference, observation in the real world, etc) in order to determine what moves in the body in order to create the proper body mechanics and emotion - and more importantly, WHY those things happen within the character.

You want to know exactly WHY the series of movements and events happens in the body before you ever start animating your scene. Ideally, if you're doing it correctly, you should know what key poses and breakdowns are going to be on what frames before you start animating.

In this way, *most* of your animation effort should be spent before you start saving keys on your character. By that point, you're just translating the performance you've already developed and the keys you've already determined and exaggerated into the computer on the frames you've already chosen.

Obviously, a big part of this planning process is determining the timing of these poses, and sure, many professionals still use old-school exposure sheets (sometimes also called x-sheets or dopesheets) as a quick way to clearly break their scene down, but many animators also simply use any piece of paper to do this. I know there are some software tools out there to aid in this as well, but personally I feel like it's easier to just do some thumbnails and jot down the correct frame number beneath the drawn pose.

Using the exposure sheet isn't really what matters, in my opinion. What matters is that you go to the effort to do as much planning as the scene requires within the deadlines you are given, and that you should know your intended timing before you start saving keys.

Sure, you might need to fudge the timing a bit once your poses are in the computer - and in fact, while I recommend exaggerating your poses in the thumbnail stage, I actually recommend (especially to newer animators) that the exaggeration of the timing happen in the computer rather than on the paper. It's easier to see, and easier to work with.

In other words, lets say you film your video reference over and over until you really nail a take that you think truly communicates the ideas and has the real emotion you are looking for. From that reference, you can find your key poses and breakdowns, and draw thumbnails of these poses. Beneath each pose, you can put the actual "real-life" frame that the pose happened on when you initially filmed it.

Now go through your thumbnails again, and work on exaggerating those poses into something even more exciting or emotional or heavy or communicative, but keep the timing frames the same.

This way, once you get those poses in the computer, at least your starting point is "true." This gives you a good foundation to start tweaking your timing (and poses when necessary) into something that matches what is in your head as the artist.

Hope that helps someone - thanks again for writing in!

Shawn :)

By: Unknown On 11.47

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How Much Detail Should I Include in My Thumbnails? Should I Draw the Beat, Balance, and Character Movements and ALL of the Breakdown Poses?

Hi Angga!

For your thumbnails, which - if you're still newer to animation and are in your first five or six years of learning - should definitely be based off of solid video reference, I'd recommend using a VERY simple character (a stick-man is just fine - just make sure it shows the angle of the hips, the angle of the shoulders, the limbs, and the head direction) and drawing all of your key poses and breakdowns.

Study your reference carefully, and make a note and/or drawing of any moment that has a change in direction for the character or a weight shift or important gesture. Animation is so complex, and ignoring a footstep here or a weight-shift there can throw off all the body mechanics in your scene, so be careful to include anything important in your thumbnails!

I don't draw thumbnails for *every* breakdown, though. I won't draw a new thumbnail breakdown for a blink or a minor eye dart, for example, instead I'll just make a note of it on my planning sheets that I'll want a blink at frame 53 or some quick frantic eye darts at 102, or whatever. That's totally fine - the important thing is that you know exactly what you're going to animate before you sit down at the computer. As long as you feel confident that you are prepared, notes are just as good for that sort of thing.

For the major body moves, however, drawings will be much more helpful. And even if you aren't the best artist in the world, drawing him leaning over his left foot is going to be a lot faster than describing in notes all the different things that happen in the body when someone leans over their left foot.

Last, I want to recommend a great book for this stuff called Simplified Drawing for Animation Planning by Wayne Gilbert. Wayne's book is invaluable for this stuff, and actually covers a LOT more than just thumbnailing - check it out at: http://anamie.com/anamie_buy_now.html

Hope that helps! Thanks for coming by, Angga!

Shawn :)

By: Unknown On 10.21

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How Do You Plan a Great Fight Scene with Weapons?

Hi Yatin!

That's a tough question because it is so specific to the situation at hand. It depends on the characters, the fighting style, the animation style, and what weapons you're given to work with.


However, here's some quick fight tips:

1) If there is any rule for planning a fight scene, it's that the fight scene needs to eventually look like it wasn't planned!

Fights are chaotic and messy, and maybe it's just my personal preference, but the more choreographed a fight looks, the more bored I am watching it. As an animator, fight scenes are the one place where we have a terrific advantage over our real-life actor counterparts! Actors must work closely with their fight choreographer and rehearse their fight over and over in order to try to create something that doesn't look *too* staged, but also doesn't result in anyone actually getting hurt. Inevitably, the vast majority of these scenes DO feel like two people trying to hit their marks and not injure each other.

As an animator, you don't have to worry about any of that, and can actually create something that has the ferocity and "messiness" of a real battle! To me, this is one of the single most exciting and fun things about animation, so I'm always extra disappointed when I see a fight scene on a demo reel or in a show or film that feels needlessly choreographed.

2) Reference!

Yeah, yeah - I know I'm beating a dead horse with the reference thing, but if you're planning a fight scene, it's one of the most important steps.

My advice would first be to watch and absorb as much footage as you can of actual people using the actual fighting style you will be employing. Actors are generally not the best to look at in these situations, and I'd especially avoid any "wire-fu" or footage of people doing wirework to pull off their moves (such as Crouching Tiger, etc) because it throws the physics off so badly and looks so weightless (though some of the sword-fighting, for example, in Crouching Tiger might be terrific reference!). Instead, my advice would be to watch some mixed martial arts such as UFC or some Thai Kickboxing or things of that sort. Look for moves you can use in your scene, but at first, just watch and absorb. Maybe go to a gym and watch some fighters and get an idea of how quickly they move, or how their feet move when they punch, etc.

Once you feel like you're getting the hang of the style you're looking to recreate or stylize, then you want to spend some time figuring out your actual scene or scenes. How much time do you have to work with? How many frames per shot? How many shots? How many characters? Who will win? How?

Once you have that stuff nailed down, THEN you can start looking for shot-specific reference that can inform the blocking of the scene and help you plan a blow-by-blow choreography.

3) DYNAMIC!

Fights should be dynamic! Stage them and cut them to be exciting, but (if it's for a demo reel) also to show off your animation. If every shot is a close-up of a face getting punched or kicked, that's going to tell recruiters exactly zero about your animation abilities, so pull that camera back and lets see what you can do!

4) My last recommendation, if you're animating the entire sequence of shots, would be to block them all in first before polishing any one of them. Maybe get the whole thing feeling 60-70% done. At that point, you can lock down your camera angles, lock down your edit, and figure out if you are missing any shots, or if the whole fight is clear and making sense. Once you have all that stuff locked down, then you're ready to get in there and polish them up on a shot-by-shot basis!

Hope that helps! Thanks for writing in, Yatin!

Shawn :)

By: Unknown On 15.08

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How Do You Plan a Shot?

I think this might be a good moment for me to depart the role of animator, and talk a little bit about how a shot comes to life at a small studio, such as Arconyx. When I plan a shot with a client, it goes through many different iterations before the final concept is decided upon. Normally, it is up to the client to provide the ‘creative’ – this is a document, or presentation, or even animatic that has a little (document) or a lot (animatic) of description of the shots we are to create. What happens next is the creative is translated into a plan for what has to be done technically and artistically to achieve the shot. I will decide which artists have the experience and skills to create the shot in question. On the animation side, and especially dealing with creatures, the decision is more heavily weighted towards experience; I’d say 60-40 as a guess. What this should reinforce for all animators reading this is that doing little tests is the most valuable use of your time. In fact, if you are an animator and as of the moment you are reading this you’ve never animated a quadruped, then drop what you are doing and go animate a dog walk cycle. Now! I’ll wait.

Ok welcome back. The point here is I know that when I am planning on the animation phase of a shot, I need to rely on the animator to create the performance that is going to be approved in the shortest time possible. If an animator has to learn a technique, style, or entirely new body mechanics on the job, I can’t be certain that I will be able to budget a project in a way that will not bankrupt the company. In addition to that, the animator’s individual plan for the shot sometimes may come into question, a plan such as the one that was asked about here. For instance, if the client has chronically rejected ideas that are not supported by boards or thumbnails, I will want an animator that is comfortable with (read: uses all the time on their own) a workflow that includes a detailed thumbnailing phase. More often however, I’ll need to recoup for lost time in development of a shot, and will need an animator that can block like lightning. Frequent restarts on a shot can’t hold up the studio from performing, so I may need someone who can give very quick and decent looking blocking for a few ideas. I need not plan too far after animation; lighting, rendering, and compositing is the same for most shots for the kinds of work that my company deals with. And most decisions, such as fur or muscle dynamics, are made and tested long before any real production shots are ready to go through the last stages of the pipeline.

This may not be what was meant by “How do you plan a shot?” However, I thought that many animators would like to know what they can do to make the best choices when their supervisor is doing the major planning.

Guest Blogger Kenny Roy

By: Unknown On 12.10

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How Do You Come up with a Good Story Idea for a Short Film?

This is something we spend a fair amount of time on with our students at Animation Mentor, but if I had to come up with just a few quick suggestions, they would be:

1) Write what you know. That's a big cliche for writers -- the idea that they will come up with the most genuine stories by writing about things they are familiar with from their own lives, but I think it holds true for animated short films as well. You can draw on your own experiences, your own emotions, your own stories, and then expand from there! The whole short film doesn't have to be autobiographical, you might start with a seed of truth and reality and then careen off into something wholly imagined!

2) Don't hold yourself back! If you're trying to come up with film ideas, then no idea is too silly, too difficult, or too strange. Let your mind wander, and let one idea lead you to the next, and see what crazy places your imagination might take you! Sometimes the weirdest idea can be molded into a cohesive short story that people can identify with.

3) What's your twist? Every short film doesn't HAVE to have a twist at the end, but if you're talking about a 1 minute short film, it sure doesn't hurt to give it a punchline or a twist ending. Something unexpected that sheds new light on the story, the situation, or the characters is great.

4) Pitch your story!! Don't just think about it on your own for a while and then settle on the idea. Pitch the idea to your friends, family, and colleagues and see what they have to say! If one person has a suggestion, that's all it is - just an idea or suggestion that you can take or leave. But if 3 or 4 people have the same reaction, be sure to pay close attention to what they are saying - that should be a red flag that probably needs to be addressed.

Hope that helps! Looking forward to seeing some cool new short films!

Shawn :)

By: Unknown On 12.17

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How Do You Approach an Animation Sequence Once You Have an Idea From the Storyboards?

When I get my assignment and kick off from the director, I usually spend a whole day away from the computer planning my shot. I refuse to lay down one key until I can see the whole animation in my head. Now I know not everything in my head may work during my execution, and I know some other things may evolve, but it's important to have a clear plan before messing around in the computer.

Here is my own personal checklist put into a rough sequential order. I say rough order, because different shots call for different things.

• Know the character(s) you are animating. Look at their model sheets for expressions. Read their character packet to know their arc (storyline) in the movie, and understand their personality traits and their limitations.
o Also understand the type of animal they are and how they move.

• Study the sequence - what is the pacing throughout the sequence. Think of the sequence as a roller coaster. What part of the ride does your shot fall on? Is it building to something else? Is it the peak before the fall?

• What kind of moment is it and what is the point of my shot? Happy, sad, calm, crazy, is it a reaction shot, or a bridge to another shot. In my opinion, this is the most often forgotten thing. There are many ways to nail a point, but there are even more ways to miss it, or overdo it. As animators, it’s in our nature that we want to do something awesome, fresh and new, and sometimes we tend to overdo some of those simple moments.

• Look at the storyboard panels. Amazing artists work long and hard on capturing each beat of a sequence. What I always find amazing, is that the artist manages to capture some of the most complex actions and feeling in just a few drawings. It’s that simplicity and clarity that we need to study.
o Keep in mind these guys and gals are really good at drawing, so we can also learn a lot from their drawing skills in how they design the character and capture the essence of that particular feeling they are going for.

• Toggle around the set. When you get your assignment, you usually get your camera and set along with it. I always find it very useful to toggle around in it to get a sense of the characters scale and what limitations they have within camera. For instance, you may find a tree is in the way, or that you only have enough room to move their head around. Whatever you find will help in planning your shot.

• Listen to audio. Listen over and over again. Try to listen for just the lyrical rhythm, then try to listen to the words and the accents, and what importance those accents have over those words.

• Draw from personal experience. Nothing paints a more vivid picture than picturing your own personal experiences. So if you’ve gone through a similar moment, draw from that.

• Thumbnails. Do lots of thumbnails. A lot of people tend to do only one thumbnail per beat in the shot. NEVER settle for your first thumbnail, no matter how in love you are with it. Explore several different variations of one pose. Its not just the pose you are looking for but what the pose looks and feels like amongst the other poses.
o After Milt Kahl would thumbnail out the full character, sometimes he would go in and do thumbnails of individual parts like hands and legs, trying to see if within those he can find a pose that gives the feeling he’s going for.

• Acting it out before a camera is really good too. It may help you see the performance a little clearer. For me, I use reference to see little happenings that I may not have thought of.

• Using movies as reference. If you can remember a scene in a movie that you thought captured the moment you are going for, study it. Find why it was successful.

• The 12 principles of animation laid out by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson.

• Some additional principles learned along the way:
- Pantomime: How would you get the point across if no dialogue available
- Texture to timing
- Rhythm of the dialogue: Use the rhythm to see how you lyrically move the character around.
- Show characters thought process
- Visualize patterns of movement within the 2D frame
- Reversals: Getting reverse curves in the body.
- Shot context: Achieving the purpose of the shot. Don’t overdo it!
- Contrast
- What is motivating the movement
- Silhouette and shapes in front of shapes. Think about color and patterns as well.
- Avoid tangents
- Develop a method of approaching your shot. How are you going to tackle the problem?
- Know what you want the audience to see and what not to see
- Direct viewers eye
- Control the head and eyes. The viewer focuses mainly on the eyes, catches the rest of the performance in their peripheral.
- Choreograph between characters
- Avoid twinning
- Don’t let the action overpower important dialogue.

• After my first pass of blocking I always analyze it using all of the principles.

Then you’re done! It’s just that easy! Hehehe.

Guest blogger Nick Bruno

By: Unknown On 12.28

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Reader's Question: How Do You Do Video Planning?

Dear Readers,
We received several questions on the What Kind of Workflow Do You Use? posting and will address some of those questions in the next few postings.

YT asked How Do You Do Video Planning?

This is a great question. The answer, however, depends on who you ask. Each animator finds his/her groove when it comes to tools such as video planning. Some shoot their own video reference, and some gather video reference from all sorts of different sources. Video planning is as unique as the animator using it. However, there are some things to keep in mind when it comes to video planning and reference material.

The first thing to keep in mind is that you will want to use this material for what it is; reference. It doesn’t make sense to copy your reference material blindly.. that’s more like rotoscoping, and you will find that your animation runs into the same limitations as live action, you can only animate what you can act out. But if you really LOOK at the reference material, you can see all sorts of subtle movements and weight shifts that you can capture, and really accentuate and emphasize. Plus, it’s just great practice to get in there and study the way your body works. You will be surprised when you slow down reference material of dynamic things like bouncing or even running... the human body is incredibly flexible, and very very interesting.

So we would encourage you to shoot video material for reference. If you are doing a dialog shot, try lipsyncing for a few takes, but when you’ve got the dialog down, go ahead and really vocalize what the actors are saying, you may be surprised how much the acting actually changes. Don’t be afraid, shoot LOTS of reference; it’s your chance to try out a bunch of different acting ideas, and you may find that you like a gesture in one take, and another gesture in a different take. Through the magic of animation, you can combine your favorite acting choices into a stellar performance.

The biggest thing to keep in mind is that there is no ‘right’ way to do video planning, but finding a method that is FUN is certainly one good way to do it. If you are having fun while you are acting out your video reference, you will be more likely to do it, and you will end up with material you are more interested in studying.

Best of Luck!

Animation Mentor Staff

By: Unknown On 09.32

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What Kind of Workflow Do You Use?

Everyone has their own workflow that they find comfortable and works for them. For me, this is what I usually do:

1. Get assigned a shot.

2. Research and study. Learn about the character, the required actions, what my character wants, where he came from and where he's going. If it's just action or is a creature, then I study the physiology of that creature, figure out how he should move, etc. As much as possible, it's good to find reference of a similar creature that exists in real life. (For example, if you're animating a dragon, you can study eagles and lions)

3. Do my thumbnails and video planning (so I know which poses will happen on which frames - at least roughly, and include breakdown poses). When possible, I'll show this planning (or video reference) to my animation director for feedback.

4. Then I simply recreate my thumbnail drawings in the computer, thinking of each pose as a "whole drawing," where I'll pose out the whole character and save a key on every single controller, even if it hasn't been moved. At this stage, I'm also exaggerating the timing of the motions and pushing the poses into something more dynamic and interesting, but keeping to the same basic body mechanics I've just studied.

5. At this point, you should be 80% finished, if you've done your planning correctly. (See my very first Tips & Tricks articles about this). This is when I'll show my shot again for more feedback.

6. If they like my blocking, then I start cleaning up my curves (making sure all my tangents are correct in the graph editor, removing any redundant keys, etc) and polishing the animation, doing the hands, feet, fingers, toes, tail, whatever else needs to be done.

7. Then I do the face.

8. Then I do the mouth.

9. Then I show it again and hope to hear the magic word "Final!"

- Shawn :)

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By: Unknown On 09.31

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