Animation Notes @bmcanimationnotes-blog - Tumblr Blog

Posts

Mulan style guide used for development; interesting examples of design and where it meets life drawing and how it effects animation

#design #life drawing #animation design #locomotion

Learn how to create dynamic storyboards with tips from one of the most successful animation studios in the world.

#storyboards #perspective #story development

Use these simple tips when animating your next creature animation shot from veteran mentor, Leigh Rens.

#animal locomotion #4 legged walk #walk cycle #second year

Unlock the secret sauce that makes Disney animated films so great!

#disney #12 principles

Art Babbitt on Live Action Ref

It’s all right if you use live action as a source of information. For example, I’m not a ballet dancer. I don’t know all the steps. I don’t know an entrechat from a tour en l’air, or whatever. So i think that it would be legitimate to study a film of ballet to learn the steps. But then, put away the live action - and I mean, put it away. And then start to create. You animate your impression of what you saw. You do not animate a copy of what you have been looking at. Art Babbitt, Analysis of the Goof, excerpts from The Illusion of Life

#art babbitt #live action #reference #study

Jobs

From Stephen Worth, https://www.facebook.com/groups/animationresources/permalink/1089174124475434/ I wrote this for someone asking a question in PM, but I will share it with you too... This pertains to the basic job categories in hand drawn animation and the degree of experience and skill sets required for each job. Lots of artists looking to break into the animation business think the way to do that is to come up with the idea for a character or show and sell it to a network and BAM! they go to work as the boss. That isn't at all true. Animation involves a lot of very specialized skill sets, and you have to be able to perform at a professional level in one of those areas before you can get hired to work on a show.

Entry level jobs...

The most common entry level job for most artists is Storyboard Revisionist, which means you receive technical and creative notes from the network executives and Director, and your job is to seamlessly make the changes in the style of the show. This position requires draftsmanship, a feel for cinematic staging and cutting, ability to create expressive poses and facial expressions, and the ability to draw perfectly on model for the show you are working for. Having a personal style or not being able to draw in a particular style is a handicap. You need to be a jack of all trades.

Assistant Background Layout Artist: If a candidate has a little better draftsmanship in the area of architecture or landscape drawing, they are channeled toward the field of Background Layout. An Assistant Background Layout Artist takes rough background designs by the lead and ties them down, breaking off levels for animation mechanics and continuing the background through behind overlays. An illustration portfolio focused on line drawings of environments is required here.

Clean Up Artist: There are fewer of these jobs, and it usually is done freelance. But sometimes when a key artist is under deadline, they will work rough and hand off their work to an assistant to tie down and ink digitally. This requires the ability to translate the rough sketch into a clean drawing without losing the volumetric form or guts of a drawing. A clean up artist might work on any kind of design or even storyboards. A portfolio aiming for this job would include examples of roughs that the artist has tied down.

Secondary Level Jobs

The next two job categories are more advanced and require a certain amount of professional experience to be able to do...

Background Layout Artist: In this job, the artist is assigned an environment to design... the cockpit of a rocket ship, a steamy jungle, a crowded city... and you have to be able to render it in line and sometimes shade so a background painter can paint it. This job requires complete mastery of perspective and composition. You also need to be able to build a clear stage for the characters to work on and provide details that can be used to create closer shots from different angles. Architectural knowledge is key here too. A layout artist finds the most interesting and dynamic composition to put across the environment, not flat, oblique angles. An extensive reference library of photos of different sorts of locales is useful too. The BG Layout Artist is required to make sure that the scene is broken up into layers that work mechanically- overlays, underlays that allow characters to move behind background elements when necessary.

Designer: There are two basic types of designers, Character Designers and Prop and Effect Designers. A Character Designer has to be able to juggle proportions and volumes to create an animatable character. This usually requires a lot of experience in posing characters, if not actual animation experience. They have to be able to construct characters volumetrically so they turn properly- not flat. They also have to consider the way the character is going to move. For instance really short arms on a tall character might look funny in a static drawing, but what happens when he reaches down to tie his shoes? Character Designers also have to be able to create incidental characters for individual episodes in the style of the show. This means that like the Storyboard Revisionist, they need to be able to draw well in any style from tight realistic to round cartoony. Having a personal style is a handicap. A Prop and Effect designer designs objects like guns, swords, telephones, pages in books, etc... basically any object that is animated. Solid volumetric drawing is required to create the turnaround prop drawings. In addition, they design the effects... fire, smoke, explosions, water, electricity, etc. Often the effects include multiple poses to help the animators.

The Color Stylist paints the backgrounds and coordinates the colors of the characters, props and effects to create a harmonious balance. Usually color stylists are illustrators as well, because experience with color palettes is important to be versatile enough to convey mood, different types of environments and different lighting conditions. Illustrators also are experienced at different sorts of rendering techniques- full tone painting, limited tone, textures, blends, watercolor, gouache, digital... all sorts of techniques.

Primary Level Jobs

The last two job categories require years of experience in animation to become proficient at...

Storyboard Artists create the blueprint of the show, establishing the cinematics, style, character posing, background designs, props and effects. This is the hardest job of all, because it requires draftsmanship in all areas, plus the ability to work on a tight deadline. Storyboard Artists often have to correct structural problems in the story, or improvise whole sequences to fill in things missing in the script. Scripts are usually basically dialogue with rudimentary descriptions of action. It's up to the storyboard artist to define that action and use composition, staging, posing, acting, mood and environment to put it across. They also need to be able to use the tools of cinematics- cutting, pacing, contrasts in staging, and rhythm to create an interesting filmic look to the show. On board based shows, there is no script, so it is up to the storyboard artist to work with the Director to create a structure to the sequences and flesh out the continuity.

Directors / Show Creators supervise all of the creative people on a show, so they have to know the basics of everyone's job. A good director usually has at least a decade of experience under their belt. Directors need to shepherd different artists with different tastes and different creative ideas into one unified vision. Sometimes this can be like herding sheep. If an artist doesn't work out and is fired, the Director often steps in and does that person's job until a replacement can be found. So a Director must be the most experienced and skilled person on the crew. Organizational skills and the ability to work with producers to make sure all the i's get dotted and t's get crossed is part of the Director's job too.

#jobs #industry #skill set

Principles

ANTICIPATION

Preparation Catches audience’s eye Directional focus, points out object of the action.Usually moves in the opposite direction to add punch and contrast to the action itself. In acting it will indicate character / personality. Once anticipation is established, the action itself is usually self evident. (especially true in fast actions) Slower actions have more minimal anticipations. ACTION PRIMARY ACTION is not caused by another force. It is the motivating force. Once an action is started it must be completed. Real action is a manifestation of force. All actions have meaning, some stir an emotional response, these become gestures. In dialogue, strong actions are cued by strong inflections in the spoken phrase. REACTION SECONDARY ACTION occurs as a result of another action. Subject to the effects of gravity, elasticity, buoyancy. Clothing is always secondary, either fixed or flowing. Appendages ( ears, arms, tail, legs,) can be secondary to body actions and gravity or become primary when motivated by thoughts.

#acting #forces #interaction #action #reaction

The Piece as a Whole

ANIMATION IS A SERIES OF DRAWINGS The relationship is more important than the single frame. "Animation is not so much the art of drawings that move as the art of movement that is drawn." - Norman McLaren

PHRASING Most actions resolve into ANTICIPATION / ACTION / REACTION. Keep this clearly in mind when working with dialogue. The tendency is to create major action for each voice accent. It is important to look at the phrase as a whole and subordinate some accents to allow the dominant accents to present themselves in the context of ANTICIPATION / ACTION / REACTION. In most cases it will be a collection of many words with varying accents to serve as ANTICIPATION for a dominant accent in relation to the overall phrase.

#planning #acting

Realism and Exaggeration

WHEN YOU ANIMATE DO NOT SIMULATE REALITY Direct mimic of real life is often not desirable in animation. The medium demands a distillation of the information that will enhance, exaggerate or push the presentation into a strong visual statement.

"Actions should be stronger than real life. To do so is to take full advantage of the medium."

- Ham Luske

ACTIONS SHOULD BE CARICATURED AFTER THE MEANING OF THE ACTION IS CLEAR

"Go extreme with your actions. When you think you've gone far enough, go twice as far and you'll be 1/2 way there." - Art Babbitt

#acting #exxageration #appeal

Reaction and Secondary Action

REACTION SECONDARY ACTION occurs as a result of another action. Subject to the effects of gravity, elasticity, buoyancy. Clothing is always secondary, either fixed or flowing. Drapery is secondary to body action and gravity. Overlapping and secondary action action BEGINS within the action itself. Overlap a series of actions to enhance overall fluidity CHARACTERS are subject to ALL the mechanics of structure and gravity as well. There is opportunity to expose character in reaction.

#acting #animation drawing #planning

#line of action #contrast #movement #expression

#silhouette #line of action #gesture #movement

For character design and animating-key poses especially important

#silhouette #silhouette value #animation drawing #design #expression

To prevent strain in the wrist and hand.

Remember to take a 5/10 minute break for every hour of work

#hand exercise #no more pain #no more tears

#animation drawing #gesture #expressio #characterisation

FIFTY-TWO QUICK ACTING NOTES FROM ED HOOKS

http://www.ActingForAnimators.com

1. Scenes begin in the middle, not the beginning.

2. A character should be "doing" something 100 percent of the time.

3. A character enters a scene for a reason, and he exits for a reason.

4. Thinking tends to lead to conclusions; emotion tends to lead to action.

5. A gesture need not be an illustration of the spoken word.

6. Audiences empathize with emotion. The key to good animation is in empathy.

7. Comedy is drama heightened, oxygenated.

8. An action pursues a longer term objective. (Smile at the girl because you want to date her.)

9. Short term memory causes eyes to glance upward.

10. Long term memory causes eyes to glance downward, into the soul.

11. The human sense of sight is many times more powerful than the sense of hearing.

12. Humans act to survive. Find the survival mechanism in your character.

13. Play an action until something happens to make you play a different one

14. A scene is a negotiation.

15. "Actors are athletes of the heart" - Artonin Artaud

16. Anxiety is a high or heady power center; confidence is a low power center.

17. Emotions are automatic value responses.

18. Characters that make steady eye contact for more than a few seconds are either going to fight or make love.

19. The human smile says, "I won't hurt you."

20. Never underestimate the audience.

21. When you animate, you are saying to the audience, "I understand this." When the audience applauds, laughs or cries, it is saying, "I see what you mean."

22. Actors lead; audiences follow.

23. Background characters can be defined with shadow movement - a jiggling knee, a charcter's mouth moving when he reads the paper, biting fingernails and so on.

24. "The Iron Giant" is an animation classic. Every animator should study it, like visiting Mecca.

25. We see things before we hear them; we hear things before we touch them; we touch things before we smell them; we smell things before we taste them.

26. A villain is a regular person that has a fatal flaw.

27. A hero is a regular person that has to rise to extreme heights to overcome an extraordinary obstacle.

28. The "beats" in a scene or script are better perceived as "beads" in a necklace. One bead leads to the next to the next and so on. Put the beads together, and you have a story.

29. The purpose of (character) movement is destination.

30. Acting has almost nothing to do with words.

31. Commercials convey almost zero actual information. They are about emotion.

32. Humans and other animals negotiate status continually.

33. To energize a scene, convert the character's "wants" to "needs."

34. Theatrical reality isn't the same thing as regular reality.

35. Acting is reacting.

36. Animators are not mimes. Mime is a specialized art.

37. A key ingredient of empathy is distance.

38. Old people stoop because their bodies ache.

39. A drunk character tries to counteract the effects of the alcohol.

40. To show that a character is hot, have him try to get cool.

41. To show that a character is cold, have him try to get warm.

42. An "adrenaline" moment is one the character will remember when he turns eighty and looks back on his life. The best movies include plenty of adrenaline moments. (Re-read #24)

43. A character analysis is like a character biography.

44. When a character is faced with a choice, be specific. Avoid ambivalence.

45. Allow your characters to be affected by the atmosphere in a location, the "feeling" it projects. (A car wreck has an atmosphere; a church has an atmosphere; a marriage bed has an atmosphere.)

46. Yelling is a weak acting choice.

47. We speak of memory in general terms, but it is referenced in specific mental images.

48. A character that is listening to another is actually preparing to speak.

49. The camera tends to follow the character's gaze.

50. A scene should have conflict, otherwise known as an obstacle.

51. Trick for suggesting villainy: tilt head forward; eyes peer upward, exposing whites in lower portion of eyeball.

52. Character "personality" is actually character "behavior."

#sorry for the long post #tips #acting #expression