What Do You Like about Supervising and What Do You Miss from Being an Animator?

At Sony, I get to do both! For Spider-Man 3 and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, I was a sequence lead who manages a team but I also animate shots. Perfect! Supervising can be a very rewarding experience. I really enjoy working with the junior animators and watching them grow over the course of the show and I also take a lot of pride in shepherding a sequence through the animation department. I guess you can say it’s the best of both worlds.

Chris Williams

By: Unknown On 10.46

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What is the Importance of Teamwork in Animation and What Makes a Most Effective Team?

Teamwork is crucial. We wouldn’t be able to get these movies done if you couldn’t rely on everyone to help out. Speaking as a supervisor, I definitely appreciate when an animator is as enthusiastic to help out on background characters as they are on doing their own shot. Your co-workers appreciate it too and one day they’ll help you out and return the favor.

In terms of efficiency, there’s definitely a balance between working to people’s strengths and what they ultimately want to do on a show. For example, if an animator is very good at complex physical animation, I’ll obviously want to throw those kinds of shots their way. They’ll be able to knock them out of the park quickly and I’ll know that the quality will be there. But if they really want to try out some subtle acting, it’s important to recognize that and allow them the opportunity. Seeing someone’s face light up when they get a shot that challenges them and inspires them goes a long way on a hard production schedule. I know it might take them a little longer then someone who specializes in that particular style, but they make up for it with their enthusiasm. Making sure I give my team those opportunities is one way I can help foster teamwork and efficiency. If everyone’s in a good mood, everyone works hard. Makes sense right?

Guest Blogger Chris Williams

By: Unknown On 10.17

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How Do I Address a Change That Was Made to My Animation (by a Fellow Animator) Without Looking Like I Have a Big Ego?

Hmm - that's a tough situation. I wanted to answer this on the blog, because I'm curious if anyone else out there has had something like this happen to them. I've certainly heard of more senior animators changing the animation that someone junior may have done, or a lead or supervisor fixing up a shot late at night at the last minute (although most companies and animators in leadership roles certainly try to avoid this whenever possible, for obvious morale reasons), but if you mean that a fellow animator who isn't "above" you in the company randomly decided to change your animation overnight - well, that's just bizarre and plain old rude!

My advice would be to ask the animator in a very professional and polite way what happened, because most likely there is some misunderstanding going on, and more likely than not, someone probably asked him to make the change. If that isn't the case, though, then I don't think it's egotistical for you to follow up and find out what happened or why it was changed - even though you're doing commercial work, it's still your art someone is monkeying with, and they should have some kind of good reason to be fiddling with your stuff if they aren't supervising you.

This sort of situation is a good example that we can all learn from. If you're working at a company, then you are part of a TEAM, and you need to not only treat each other with professional courtesy and respect, but you need to treat the project and work with a bit of reverence. We're all pouring our hearts and sweat and souls into our shots, and we need to keep that in mind whenever we're giving feedback, constructive criticism, or deciding whether or not to change someone else's work without telling them. (Hint: don't do that unless you want to hurt feelings, anger people, and tank the morale of the whole team!)

Well, hopefully you're just stuck in a misunderstanding, but I think you're well within your rights to at least ask to be told when something in your shot is going to be changed by a peer. If it's someone in a supervisory role, though, then my advice would be to express to them that you wished you had had a chance to make the change yourself, but leave it at that. Sometimes being part of a team means being willing to let someone else finish your shot if it's for the good of the project, and if a supervisor decided he wanted to tweak your shot, he or she probably had a good reason for it that you just might not be aware of.

-Shawn

By: Unknown On 10.53

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How Do You Go About Creating a Really Cool Action That Changes the Director’s Original Idea for the Shot?

Great question! That's a tricky one, because there is a really fine line between offering up what you think is a cool new idea, versus the director feeling like you aren't delivering what was asked.

The best tactic to take would be to pitch your idea to the Director (or maybe first to your Lead Animator or Animation Supervisor, depending on your hierarchy at work) to see if other people can get excited about the idea. Most studios do not want to think that you're animating Idea A only to find out you've spent all day working on your own Idea B -- that could land you in some hot water, so at least get permission to flesh out your ideas before spending any company time on them.

If your supervisors like the idea, or if you're working directly with a client but maybe don't have the opportunity to pitch your idea before the Director will be expecting to see the work at least blocked in, then my advice would be to do two versions. I know it's extra work, but if you keep them both rough, you can often find time to put together a version that the client asked for as well as your own proposal of how you envision the scene.

What you DON'T want to do is ignore the Director's request completely and instead only work on your own version. There's a chance they might love it, and you'll be hailed as a hero, but there is an equally great chance that they might be angry. I've seen this myself, and Directors are never happy when they start to feel like the crew is making their own version of the movie behind his or her back.

So, I guess my advice is to put together the coolest proposal you have time to do, but to have the "real" version of the scene in your back pocket in case the Director isn't on board with your idea. A little insurance never hurt, and even if they don't like your proposal, they'll probably really appreciate the extra effort, and may even start to see you and your studio as more of a creative partner they can look to for other ideas!

Good luck!

Shawn :)

By: Unknown On 13.23

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Animator Vs. Animation Supervisor

Here’s a question that was sent to the tipsandtricks@animationmentor.com that I think will resonate with many animators: How do you feel about remaining an Animator where you’re still involved with hands-on animation versus being promoted to an Animation Supervisor or Director where you are managing a team and providing critiques?

It's a really good question you bring up, and it's something that many animators eventually face as they become more and more experienced. It can be difficult -- weighing the pros and cons of actively pursuing a promotion like that. On the one hand, you'd have a lot more prestige, more say in the final product, and probably a nice pay-raise. On the other hand, you'd be spending a huge amount of your time in meetings, you'd probably animate a fraction as much as you would as an animator, and you have to deal with all the politics and demanding responsibilities of that role, not to mention the enormous pressure of performing at a high level and constantly trying to impress the studio heads and their all-important client.

I guess this is something that everyone eventually has to decide for themselves.
Since you ask about me personally, I used to say that I never wanted to be a Lead Animator or a Supervisor, because I always want to be doing the actual animation, and I feared that in a leadership role, I would no longer have that chance. For a long time, because of that, I never pursued any kind of Lead role.

However, a great opportunity came up and I had my first chance at being a Lead animator recently (for Transformers), and I have to say, I really had a blast. It was such a fun experience, I learned a ton from my fellow Leads and my Animation Director (Scott Benza), and it was really an amazing feeling to have a little bit bigger impact on the film than I would have otherwise.

So, for me, the lesson was that while I feared that I wouldn't like being a Lead, it actually turned out to have been my all-time favorite project, and while the work was incredibly challenging, I've never had more fun. For me, the trade-off of having more pressure and responsibility was totally worth it, and I'm really excited to be doing it again.

As for moving up to being a Supervisor, though, that's still another story. I really tip my hat to those guys - the longer I'm in this industry, the more I see how difficult that job is on so many different levels. For myself, I'm just not ready for a job like that, in every possible sense. I have a lot to learn before I could even start to think about that, and on top of that, there are incredibly talented people at work who I would definitely put in that role long before me.
I guess I've learned just enough about this stuff to know that I have a lot more to learn before I'm ready to be the Captain of the ship. For now, I'm just having a blast enjoying the ride, and learning as much as I can from my Captains along the way...

Shawn :)

By: Unknown On 09.43

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