Important Things When Posing a Character
The most important thing to look for in a pose would be a strong line of action, if it is an action pose. If the character is mid-action, such as pushing/pulling something, fighting, running, jumping, etc -- in any of those, there should be a really clear line of action, especially in your key poses. A single line that describes the force moving through the body and the momentum of the movement, ideally a line running through the entire body, and hopefully into an arm and/or leg. The stronger, longer, and more connected this line is, the more dynamic and strong the pose will feel.
If it isn't an action pose, then you should probably be more concerned with making sure the pose clearly describes an attitude or emotion. You should be able to tell, from one static frame, whether the character is sad, happy, angry, shy, embarrassed, nervous, excited, or afraid. In these cases, it is OK to sacrifice a strong line of action in order to strengthen the emotion, at least in my opinion, although it's often possible to craft a very communicative pose while still retaining a nice line of action. However, showing us the internal thought process should be the priority in these types of scenes...
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Important Things When Posing a Character
Pros and Cons of Video Reference
Pros and Cons of Video Reference
I’ve been listening a lot to various animation podcasts and watching animation videos, and it seems there are some great very experienced animators that don’t use video reference, some that don’t even thumbnail at all. Some indeed say you shouldn’t become too reliant on it, and warn that using it may suck the life out of a performance. Other’s stating as a reason that they don’t like to video themselves as they think the performance will end up being too much like them self and not like the character.
I was wondering about your thoughts on this?
I know myself that when I first started my career as an animator, I never used video reference, I never thumbnailed, I just went straight into the 3d program and animated and my work sucked. After I learned a bit more and started to plan more using reference my work massively improved – but do you think it has negative affects also?
-Steven Heft
Hi Steven! Thanks for the nice words and the great question!!!
I too know many animators who don't use much reference for human animation (I still don't know many who wouldn't at least study some reference for creature/animals work), but these are all either very experienced professional animators or are animators who's work never quite measures up.
Everyone has their own method of working that they are most comfortable with, and everyone is at a different level or a different place along that path to learning animation.
Truthfully, I don't use near as much reference anymore if I'm animating a biped. Depending on the action, I might, and certainly with acting shots I would generally film some reference in order to seek out some unique acting choices and emotional beats, but these days I'm finally able to see the action animation more in my head, and am finally experienced enough to be able to combine that vision with a deeper understanding of the body in order to be able to just dive into it and pretty much know how most of the physics will work. Of course, I still blow it sometimes and have to go back to the drawing board (whoops!), but for the first time, I'm finally understanding this stuff a little more.
But that's after over a decade as a professional working on films. I'm not claiming that's some big number in the length of a career, there are a whole lot of animators out there with piles more experience and talent than me, that's for sure. But I mention the number of years in order to point out that for at least the first seven or eight years as a professional, I needed to go through a very deep planning process for pretty much every shot if I wanted it to be a shot I was proud of.
If you include my years as a student and working in games, then you're talking about a 12-year stretch where any assignments or shots I got cocky with and skipped my planning phase inevitably turned out simply "adequate," at best. Certainly less special than they could have been. At worst, they were complete failures, and I can't think of a single shot frrom that 12 year stretch that didn't include planning that I would include on a demo reel today.
Conversely, the shots where I spent the most time planning, filmed reference, studied it, etc., are the shots that finished fastest and turned out the best, and which I am most proud of -- or at least can look back on with the least amount of cringing. :)
This is why I so strongly recommend a thorough planning process to animation students. If someone has been animating for a bunch of years and feels like their experience lets them skip that process, then I think that's great -- more power to them. However, the vast majority of us, myself included, would still benefit from some amount of planning for the majority of our shots, *especially* if they include dialogue and/or acting.
To me, recommending to a beginner or mid-level animator that they don't use reference would be just like tossing a first time swimmer into the deep end with no instruction, or handing some carpenters a bunch of wood and tools but no schematics or blueprints and telling them to build a house. Can that guy swim? Maybe he can figure it out, maybe not. Could the carpenters build a house? Sure, maybe, but unless they already have a lot of experience, my guess is that it isn't going to turn out very well, and certainly isn't going to win any architecture awards.
As for the fear you mention of reference affecting our work negatively, that's up to us as the artist. If I film reference of myself for Yoda, Optimus Prime, and ET, and they all move the same way, then I've pretty much failed in my job! ****REFERENCE IS NOT FOR COPYING.**** If someone is copying the reference verbatim, then yes, they run a really high risk of sucking the life out of the shot and animating everything to move the same way they move.
But that isn't how reference should be used. It should be a source you can study to see how the body mechanics work, or to discover great and unexpected acting choices. But THEN you have to apply your knowledge of the principles of animation TO that reference. Exaggerate the poses a bit, push the timing here, add some contrast there, etc.
As long as your are doing your job as the animator to apply life and interest to the reference you are studying, then you don't need to be afraid of it having any negative impact on your work whatsoever. That's my opinion, anyway...
Thanks so much for writing in!!
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Tips on Smooth Key Framing in Animation
Tips on Smooth Key Framing in Animation
The concept of key framing is one that has evolved with the animated medium. Historically, animation was created as frames in sequential order, (a throw back to film), but traditional animators began to explore ways in which to break down the execution of a shot into a system more agreeable to creating performance. Thus, the idea of using single frames to denote important parts of a scene quickly become the most elegant way of planning and staging.
Should a character go from happy to sad within the course of a shot, then it is possible to create just two drawings that may then describe this complex change of emotion fairly simply, absolutely spiffy for an initial stage of production. The great thing about working in modern computer animation is that this process is applicable to our digital puppets, so that we may benefit from all the the advances in animated acting and planning that have been done by our traditional peers. So for the sake of this little rambling discussion of mine, let's take key framing to be the significant poses/attitudes that define a shot, rather than the software definition of a value of a variable at at one frame in time. (It's a bit confusing, but to the computer, every knot on a curve is a key frame, but we're way more creative that that.)
Key framing has many advantages over the straight ahead, layered approach. What are they, I hear you ask? Well, I'm about to tell you!
As was mentioned above, key framing allows us to plan our work in broad strokes. We can consider the emotive or physical beats within a shot and define them, either by quickly thumbnailing/reference or at the computer/drawing table. If we can create strong, effective key poses, then they should be able to accurately communicate to an audience just what the shot will eventually feel like when it's complete.
Another advantage, and this is huge for professional animation, is that with only a couple of keys it is possible to begin a dialogue with peers or creative superiors. Working to deadlines means that it is imperative that ideas be conveyed quickly and clearly in order to get feedback, so that the shot can progress. The layered approach suffers here, as it is impossible for a director to judge the success of the animator's vision if, (for example), they've only completed some beautifully moving hips and legs, leaving the arms and face for later. Also, should we head off in the wrong direction, it is really easy to go back and rework key poses to be more in line with creative direction. Everybody wins!
The second question in the heading there is a bit of a technical consideration, I think. While it's important to the final polish of a shot, within the context of this discussion I believe the question should be more about good key framing rather than smooth.
Good keyframing comes from the ability to analyse the intent of the shot and distil it to its essence. This could be a subtle gesture or a big, broad action, the process is the same. Once we have this essence we may explore it to come up with suggestions as to how we may convey the intent of the shot in as appealing and simple a way as possible through our poses.
Getting in character, be it by acting or looking at reference or doodling on a scrap of paper is central to finding these keys. This is because empathy brings results! I find that I usually have an abundance of ideas simply by attempting to go through the same experiences to those of the character I am trying to portray.
So now we've learned a little about what key frames are, and how to find the tricksy little scamps. By empathizing with our characters and mimicking their thought process, we can stumble across cool animation choices that would otherwise be hidden to us. Questioning these choices can then help us whittle them down to the best key poses we can add into a scene to most clearly convey our intent to our audience.
It's an exciting and creative time during the creation of an animated piece of work, this 'ere keyframe selection process. Let's go and find some!
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What's the Importance of Eyelids in Animation?
What's the Importance of Eyelids in Animation?
Yikes - the eyelids are a big subject! Here are some quick tips that come to mind:
1) The lids follow the eyes.
As the eyes look around, imagine that they are pulling the eyelids along for the ride - particularly the upper lids.
2) Overdone Lids = Muddy Animation!
Remember, don't go too bananas with your character's eyelids. You want them to help strengthen the expressions and emotions, not distract from them. You're generally better off keeping them subtle unless the eyes are bursting open into a comedic wide-eyed expression or something major like that.
3) The lower lids are not used much!
There are times when you do want to animate the lower lids, and certainly emotions where you may raise them a tiny bit to help with the expression (suspicious, confused, etc), but other than that those emotion-specific instances, you'd probably only really need to animate the lower lids when the character is blinking (nowhere near as much as the upper lids, though), smiling (real, not fake), squinting, looking up (bring them up with the eyeball a bit), or possibly for anticipation to an eye-widening or change in thought process.
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Can You Provide Some Tips on Showing Characters Thought Process?
Can You Provide Some Tips on Showing Characters Thought Process?
there really isn't anything more important than showing thought process (or rather, showing *changes* in though process) when it comes to having a character feel truly alive! It's the internal thoughts that drive everything we do, from the timing of our overall gait and movements to the glances of our eyes.
You could come up with a thousand ways to show thought process in a character, but my favorites are these:
1) Blinks.
I've talked about blinks a lot here and elsewhere, but one of the most important uses of a blink is specifically to show thought process. The timing and speed of blinks can radically change the way we perceive a character's inner turmoil (or lack thereof), and thus radically change the way they seem to be processing information. A ton of blinks will feel as though the character is going to cry, is nervous, uncomfortable, shy, or possibly relieved after a big buildup; while very little to no blinking will either feel dead, stoned, worried, angry, or just very intense.
So, blinks can certainly convey an overall emotion, but what about thought process? Well, if a character shifts from no-blinking to rapid blinking, then we are seeing one of the most obvious physical manifestation a radical change in their thought process. Perhaps they were extremely worried and then relieved at the result.
2) Eye darts.
Very similar to blinking, changes in eye direction (and the speed/timing of these changes) can also describe thought processes. As someone is presented with a challenge or decision, they will very often dart their eyes around a bit as they consider and weigh their options. It's almost as if they are reading an imaginary list of possible choices! You can observe this in any of your friends or family, and layering this stuff into your animation is one of THE best ways to bring your character to life.
Keep in mind, though, that eye darts (changes in eye direction) are NOT random, and should have meaning. Either they are looking for something, at something, or it's being driven by internal thought process. Our eyes don't just drift around for no reason at all unless there is something wrong with us...
3) Overall timing changes.
Any time the overall rhythm of a character's movement changes, we are going to feel a shift in their thought process. A decision has been made, an emotion felt, a memory reclaimed... All of these internal thoughts can heavily affect the way anyone moves, and again, seeing this happen in a scene can once again truly make a huge difference in how alive the characters feel!
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What Is Locomotion? Could You Provide some Tips on Locomotion?
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.
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What Are Some Tips on Putting Force into Your Poses?
What Are Some Tips on Putting Force into Your Poses?
The most important thing for putting "force" into your poses is a careful study of weight, and how the position of weight will affect (and either help or hurt) the action. For example, if a character is pushing against a wall, you wouldn't normally have that character push with their butt either above or behind their feet, because they aren't going to get very much "force" going through their arms. With the butt behind or directly above the feet, the character is pushing merely with the strength of their arms and shoulders, which isn't going to be very much.
However, if they put their hands against a wall or object, and then put their butt (their center of gravity) in FRONT of their feet, well now it's a whole new story! Their weight wants to fall down, right? If you lift up both of your feet, what happens? You'll be on the ground in no time. Well, if your weight is way out in front of your feet, trying desperately to fall to the ground, and the only thing that is holding you up now are your hands against the wall, well guess what?!
Now all of your body weight has become a force that is pushing up through your spine, through your shoulders, and into your arms, and *against* the wall! That's potentially hundreds of pounds of extra force that weren't being pushed against the wall when the center of gravity was above or behind the feet.
This is just the tip of iceberg when it comes to force, but that's a very simple illustration that Wayne used back in the day to help me start to understand that when doing pretty much any action, we choose the most efficient and lazy way to create the most powerful forces, in order to most easily accomplish whatever the task at hand may be.
We use the weight of our bodies to get the best "bang for the buck." We use our weight to start walking, run faster, punch harder, throw further, and lift higher. Any study of internal forces has to begin with learning how and where we choose to place our weight in relation to whatever the action at hand may be.
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What Is the Best Piece of Animation Advice You Have Received?
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!
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How Do You Include Anticipation in Your First Blocking Pass?
How Do You Include Anticipation in Your First Blocking Pass?
Wow. This is a tough question. The first thing you need to realize is that this is something that students and professionals alike all struggle with to some degree. The reason for this struggle is that animation is not only slow, but you have to keep your mind on the same goal as best you can, throughout the course of your shot. You need to have a vision for the shot, and then spend the time it takes to consistently and diligently move toward that vision without straying too far from it along the way. This is made even more difficult by the fact that your vision is most likely in your head.
The best way to include anticipation in your first blocking pass is to spend more time or effort in the planning stage. Draw thumbnails. Watch video reference. Make notes as to what will require anticipation, and write that down. If you try to keep it all in your head, you will probably forget some of it along the way, so make some notes on paper. Perhaps you need to act out your shot and study your own anticipation moves in the reference video.
The next step, in my opinion, is to get as much information into the poses on your blocking pass as you can. Try to come up with poses that not only describe an emotion or action, but also imply what has just happened, and what will happen next. This isn’t easy, and if you have a chance to watch a really talented animator at work, you will be amazed at how they can keep all of this in mind as they pose out their first pass. It truly is an art form. It usually requires a very detailed pose on each of the key blocking frames, right down to the fingers and the toes. Getting a good, solid first blocking pass will tell your director not only what is there, but what will be there when you are done, including the anticipation you are searching for.
But don’t stop there. Keep anticipation in mind as you add or refine your breakdowns. A lot of anticipation is in those breakdown poses, so really nail those crucial transitional poses. And keep your initial vision intact the entire time. Only if the director redirects you should you change your mind. Don’t let your inner dialogue send you down the wrong path.
Happy Animating!
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What's a Beat? Do You Have Any Tips on the Best Way to Find Beats in a Shot?
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.
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How Can You Prevent Action From Overpowering Important Dialogue?
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.
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Could You Provide Some Tips on Staging and Composition?
Could You Provide Some Tips on Staging and Composition?
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!
What Does It Mean to Avoid Tangents in Animation?
What Does It Mean to Avoid Tangents in Animation?
This is a good question, since tangents have several meanings in the world of animation, and particularly in computer animation. Tangents typically refer to an aspect of a key frame, in that they define how the computer should ‘in-between’ the frames that are not specifically defined by keys (known as “key frames”). Since computer animators do not draw each frame, tangents help keep animation control of the frames in between these special key frames. If something needs to ‘ease in’ to a key (imaging the height of a bouncing ball at the top of it’s arc), then the tangent may be flat. If the motion does an abrupt ‘about face’ (such as the height of the same ball when it strikes the ground and is sent back upward), then the tangent might be much sharper.
Tangents in this sense are absolutely critical... so I’m guessing that the question at hand doesn’t actually pertain to this sort of tangent.
What I think the question is referring to is something having to do with the arcs of motion. Arcs are a very important principle of animation, since many natural or organic movements are defined in terms of an arc. Very rarely do we move from point A to point B in a direct, straight line – it’s just not natural. Robots may move this way, but humans, or dogs, or blades of grass actually are much more likely to move in a fluid, arcing sort of way.
The term “tangents” in this area may be referring to an invisible line that something moving sort of ‘bumps’ into. Sometimes called “walls,” these imaginary boundaries can be seen in animation that may need with it’s arcs. I recall a shot I was working on in which a character swung his hands up over his head. Other animators pointed out that half way up the arc, the hand seemed to ‘bounce’ off a wall that wasn’t there. It turned out that my arc was actually move like a sideways “V” and once I noticed it, it was quite obvious, and quite distracting. Fixing it wasn’t exactly simple (sometimes the successive breaking of joints means that tracking down the source of the problem is tricky) but in the end I was able to clean up the arc, which improved the shot immensely.
Cleaning up arcs is a very important step of the final polish pass when animating, and it’s one of the things that can distinguish really really excellent animation from animation that is just ‘really good.’
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How Do You Get a Proper Delay in Overlapping Action?
How Do You Get a Proper Delay in Overlapping Action?
The amount of delay in an overlapping action has to directly correspond with the weight, speed, and emotion of the main move that it's working with. If the main body move is fast and snappy, then I will give other parts of the body that are overlapping less frames of delay before they execute. If the move is slow and heavy, there will be more of a delay. The amount of frames to delay is always directly relative to the size and speed of the move it is following. This definitely is a skill that comes with observation and lots of practice. You have to learn how to 'feel' the weight of the things you're animating.
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Can You Provide Some Tips for Good Pantomime?
Can You Provide Some Tips for Good Pantomime?
Pantomime for animators is, essentially, the art of telling a story with the body, generally without relying on any dialogue. It's all about communicating as effectively as possible using the body language, timing, and face.
So, I'd say some of the most important things to keep in mind when diving into a pantomime shot may be:
1) CLARITY. This is SO number one that they should invent a number that comes before 1! This is your top priority, and every decision you make should be one that makes your actions and emotions ever more clear. That's not to say that every acting decision needs to be obvious or cliche, of course, but even within the complex subtlety of your performance, clarity should always be your primary concern, because if the audience misses an important action or misreads your character's emotion, then the performance is a failure and nothing else really matters!
2) Strong and dynamic poses. Particularly for action scenes, this couldn't be more important. You want the actions to not only be clear and read quickly to the audience, but you want them to be fun to watch! Dynamic poses point the way towards more dynamic and exciting actions, and the more exciting the action, the more fun it probably will be to watch it. This extent to which you can exaggerate this concept will obviously be determined by the overall style of the project (realistic vs. cartoony), but the definition of "what is dynamic" within that project is *also* determined by the style. In a more cartoony piece, you'll have to REALLY push the poses in order for a particular action to feel dynamic, whereas animated characters in a "realistic" film will feel dynamic for "half the price."
Either way, the point is to consider the most exciting, fun, and entertaining way to approach your pantomime shot, and particularly when dealing with strong actions (fighting, sports, etc), dynamic poses can often be your best friend.
3) Relatable acting choice! This is a part of clarity, but it bears emphasizing that you should make acting choices that will be recognized by the audience. While many gestures are culturally specific, many (if not most) are universal, so choose your gestures very carefully. The same thing applies to your facial expression work -- most facial expressions tend to be universal, so be sure not to get so caught up in "not doing anything cliche" that you end up choosing bizarre facial expressions that don't properly convey the emotions of the character.
4) Eyes. The eyes can help SO much in a pantomime shot, and without any dialogue, you should pay them extra special attention. The audience will look at the eyes FIRST for cues, so take that opportunity to grab the audience's attention and lead them through your shot. Let the eyes help convey the emotions. Let the eyes help your audience know where to look in the scene. The eyes can help you sell the joke, tell the story, or help us not miss an important action. Eyes are key! Film yourself *really* acting the scene out, and study what your own eyes do before caricaturing them in your scene.
5) Body Mechanics. In a shot with dialogue, the audio can really help you in so many ways. You have audio cues to tell you when and how to move the character. The words and subtext dictate the gestures. The spoken words can help you tell the story. In many ways, you can rely less on the body animation, and the audience may not notice some wonky mechanics here and there. If the character tells a funny joke, they may not notice or care that the weight is a bit off, for example.
But in a pantomime shot, every single pair of eyes is going to see that weight shift in the wrong spot, and while they may not know how to fix it, or even what feels "weird" or "fake" about the scene, they will feel the mistakes in their gut. In light of that, spend some extra time studying and planning the body mechanics of any pantomime shot so that you really nail the weight shifts, timing, lead and follow through the body, anticipations, etc. That stuff is KEY to selling a good pantomime shot.
6) Subtext. My last piece of advice would be to actually imagine that there are lines in the scene. Imagine the subtext. What is your character thinking? What is he feeling? You can even write some lines of dialogue and record yourself performing them, if you like. This may be very helpful if you feel like the "blank slate" of an audio-less shot is intimidating and holding you back from coming up with strong ideas. If you make up some lines that the character is THINKING as they are doing their performance, it can be a huge help in coming up with timing, facial expressions, gestures, etc.
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What is Your Workflow to Polish a Shot? What Makes it Polished?
What is Your Workflow to Polish a Shot? What Makes it Polished?
When I'm polishing a shot, that means that all of my timing and movements are working and approved and I'm just adding the very finishing touches to the shot before I'm finito. So when I start my polishing pass, I am certainly not going to be making any big changes to action or timing.
The first thing I do when I'm going into polishing, is a little "good shot hygiene" as one of my former lead animators used to call it. I select each and every control, and go through the attribute curves one by one in the graph editor, and smooth out any bumps or tangent strangeness. You'd be surprised how many things you can catch by scaling in and out horizontally and vertically that you wouldn't see upon the initial examination. This generally gets rid of all kinds of tiny hiccups that have been accumulating as I've been editing my animation in previous passes.
Only after that is done for every animated control, do I continue on and just double-check all of my arcs and finesse overlapping action and perhaps even add tinier details. I will playblast often, and look for anything that catches my eye when I'm watching it on 'loop'...usually if something catches my eye, it means it's not quite smooth enough - so I'll check the eases and the overlaps to make sure nothing 'hits.'
Then, after I've polished all that up, I go through and look at the curves again on everything I've polished, to make sure they're all smooth so I won't give the director any excuses to send the shot back to me again for any more touch-ups. :)
Playblast again to check...fix anything that's still catching my eye, make sure the curves are smooth, playblast again. Wash, rinse, repeat. Until it's squeaky clean.
Handing in sloppy files is very unprofessional! One thing I've learned is to never expect that you'll fly anything by the director...they *always* notice the teeniest little bumps! And they'll call you on it...oh yes they will.
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What Tips Can You Share about Your Observations of Real Life Body Language and How You Apply Them When You Animate?
What Tips Can You Share about Your Observations of Real Life Body Language and How You Apply Them When You Animate?
Honestly, my observations of real-life body language basically lead me to believe that there are no rock-solid rules of body language!
Everyone is different. At any given instant in time, none of us are exactly the same. Even if we are having a shared experience, we all have uniquely different backgrounds, experiences, and personalities that are affecting every single thing we do.
For example, imagine the body language that goes into someone seeing an old friend they haven't seen in a long time. Imagine all the complexities that will inform the "body language" of that moment! Were they good friends or casual friends? Were they lovers? Did they part on good terms? Did they have a fight? Do they recognize each other immediately or does it take a few seconds? Are they hand-shakers, huggers, or high-fivers? Are they happy or sad to see each other? Or more extreme - are they completely ecstatic or totally mortified to have run into each other?
It truly all comes down to you as the artist envisioning the situation these unique characters find themselves in, letting yourself become an ACTOR, getting into your character's heads and - taking into account everything that makes them who they are - figuring out exactly how they'd react to the situation.
There is no rule that says, "When two old friends meet, they shall look at each other's face for 17 frames, recognize each other, give a 1/2 smile, wave for 20 frames, give a full smile, and then shake hands." Every situation will be radically different, unique, and based entirely on their backgrounds, life story, and personalities.
Sometimes it's nice to have solid rules we can fall back on in order to help us construct a performance. "You cannot lift your left foot off the ground for more than an instant unless you move your butt to be over your right foot." Rules like that are pretty rock-solid, and they sure are comforting when you're trying to work out the complexities of the body mechanics in your scene.
However, when it comes to something as big and all-encompassing as "body language," the only rule I'd say is rock solid is that we are all too different for rules to apply.
But guess what? That's what makes this stuff so fun!
Every performance will be unique. Every reaction to every situation should be based on that particular character's back story, personality, and immediate (and long-term) desires and goals. Because of that, every reaction *should* be unique in its own way.
This specific thing, more than almost anything else, is what will bring your characters to life, and help you craft a performance that is memorable because of its uniqueness and the sense of authenticity that will lend to it.
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Could You Discuss Blocking Techniques?
Could You Discuss Blocking Techniques?
I am a copied-pairs-blocking kinda animator. I never knew there was a name for this technique until I started mentoring at Animation Mentor! I am the first to admit that I have issues with switching between different types of tangents when I'm animating. :) I think animators with a classical animation background find blocking with stepped keys to be very intuitive, since that mimics closely how blocking animation traditionally would work. I think choosing a method for blocking has much to do with your sensibilities, and not as much with how other folks say you 'should' or 'shouldn't'. As with other facets of animating, every animator will find a way of working that makes sense for themselves.
My background is in performance...acting and dance. So for me, it's about creating motion, which in my view is perceptionally different from thinking about it as a series of still images (even though it is essentially just that). I tend to visualize my shot as a series of moves rather than a series of poses. When I'm blocking my shot, it is just as important for me to work out the timing of my main poses of course, but I find it much more intuitive to also see how the pose transitions are working right off the bat as well. So with copied pairs, I'm getting the pose timing happening, along with more fluid breakdowns going from one pose to another by using splined tangents rather than the stop-motion-on-fours feel that you get from blocking with stepped keys. You can definitely get a good sense of the timing from either method - it's really just a personal preference. And I find it much easier to go into adding more detail and developing the shot from that base rather than having to switch types of tangents after the initial blocking.
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How Do You Accentuate the Facial Performance to Enhance the Body Performance if You Have Already Animated the Body First?
How Do You Accentuate the Facial Performance to Enhance the Body Performance if You Have Already Animated the Body First?
Well, first off, I always animate the body first. Most animators get the body stuff blocked in, and then do a rough pass of limited facial and eye animation before really diving into the facial performance, so it's a very common and normal challenge to be doing the face as a secondary pass.
The main thing to consider here is timing, and planning your facial expressions to hit at moments that complement the body performance rather than distract from it.
For example, if it's important to your story that the character is sneakily stealing a pen from a desk, then it would be a really bad idea to have his eyes doing huge radical movements just as he steals the pen and puts it into his pocket. If the eyes are really going crazy, everyone is going to be looking at his face and totally miss the story point about the pen being stolen.
Beyond just basic complimentary timing, you also want to time the emotional beats of the face to work well with the body. I tend to try to let the face lead the body by a frame or two (or more, in a slow realization or protracted emotional change) with the idea that the face and eyes will betray emotions quicker and more immediately than the body language might.
An example of this might be a scene where the character is realizing that the love of his life doesn't actually love him in return. You've already created the body performance of him eagerly offering her a flower, and then the shoulders drooping as he hears her rejecting, letting his hand fall to his side, dropping the flower, hanging his head, etc. The most important facial stuff in this scene will probably be his eyes searching her eyes for the truth as he hears this devastating news, and then the whatever you choose to have his face do as the news really sinks in.
Does he stare at her, disbelieving? Does he start to cry? Do his eyes defocus and he just stares into the distance? Whatever you choose, you should consider letting that facial performance happen before his shoulders drop, before he drops his flower, etc.
The body performance SHOULD be telling the story in itself, so be sure to spend enough time making sure your body mechanics work and the emotions read in your poses. The face should be kind of the "cherry on top" that really seals the deal, it can't carry the whole performance itself or the character will just feel stiff and lifeless.
Good luck and have fun!
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How Do You Approach a Shot Which Has No Dialogue?
How Do You Approach a Shot Which Has No Dialogue?
Animating a shot with no dialogue is WAY more difficult than animating a shot WITH dialogue. Dialogue gives you SO many cues to work with...timing, rhythm, shot arc...it also helps you with acting choices! When you're animating without dialogue, there's the extra challenge of having to work out all of the timing and everything from scratch, essentially creating your own choreography.
To determine acting choices, the shot has to be put into the context of the shots surrounding it, to be sure that the acting stays in line with the overall story arc. And since there is no dialogue to give you cues for rhythm, it is important that the animation has an interesting, dynamic rhythm that helps to keep the audience engaged. The 'flavour' of the rhythm must match the emotional content of the scene...having an upbeat, staccato rhythm won't work very well with a sad and disappointed character. When I think of how a piece of music sounds that makes me feel a certain way, I find that's a good indicator of a kind of speed and cadence of a rhythm that might work with a shot with similar emotional content.
That's where working out the pose timing in the blocking stage becomes more important than ever - creating that base rhythm that you build all of the overlapping rhythms on top of as you add more details in the later stages. And even if the action in the shot is very minimal and low-key, there is still a rhythm to the movements of a character. Even blinks can create an interesting rhythm. As always, the blocking stage is the base on which you build the rest of your animation. The icing won't hold up on it's own without a nicely formed cake underneath.
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