By: Shawn Kelly

Animation Lightning Round!

So it's been two years, huh?  Is that crazy or what!?  Two years of animation tips.  Two years of me rambling and breaking promises of writing shorter articles.  Two years of fried chicken.

Two years!

Well, here we are at the two year mark, and frankly, I'm just so excited to see that this newsletter is not only still going strong, but it's growing each month!  As someone who holds Animation Mentor very dear (duh!), I can't tell you how cool it is to see that it continues to grow and touch people.  So, before I jump into it, thanks for sticking with us, and on a personal note, thanks for hanging out with me in my little corner of the newsletter each month!

So check this out…as a special two-year celebration, I'm going to make this short!

Well, sort of.

See, I've finally come around to the same conclusion many of you have: 
I'm never going to write an acceptably short article.  It's just never going to happen.  I'm apparently incapable of it.  Animation is just too much fun to talk about, I guess.  You might as well ask me to eat "just a taste" of fried chicken, or watch "just a minute" of Back to the Future.  I simply can't do it.  It's not who I am.

I almost made the following my entire Tips and Tricks article for this month, just to show that I *could* be concise, but decided against it:

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Hello everyone and my Mom!  I love animation.  Fried chicken is awesome.  You should do planning before you animate.

Oh, and don't forget that you are a tool.

Keep animating, and have FUN!
-Shawn
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So, no matter how bad this article turns out, at least it'll be better than THAT, right?

That said, THIS month, I *am* going to keep my comments short!

How can this be, if I'm incapable of editing myself?  Well, this month I'm doing my first Lightning Round of questions!  Yup!  I'm going to quickly answer a bunch of questions that I've received via email, or been asked in person, and I'll keep each answer as short as humanly possible.  If the topics need more explanation, then just write in and ask for clarification, and I'll do a full article on whatever it is that you're more curious about...tipsandtricks@animationmentor.com.

Without further ado, let's jump into some questions!

*1) What kind of workflow do you use or recommend?*

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.
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 polishing, doing the hands, feet, fingers, toes, tail, whatever.
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!"

*2) My animation is looking very weightless and squishy - what do I do?*

If it's feeling very weightless, there's a good chance that you're letting the computer do too many of your "in-betweens," and you probably need some breakdown poses in there to properly describe the body mechanics.  My advice would be to act out and/or film the action you are trying to animate, and really study all the small actions that happen in between the larger actions (small things, like when you shift your weight a little bit, what happens to your shoulders, feet, etc?) – that's the stuff that will make things feel correct.  Another culprit might be timing – if your timing is too fast, there is a chance the characters will feel very light, however if it's too slow, then the characters will feel floaty!  The trick, then, is to study the actions you want to create, and then exaggerate the poses and timing to fit the style you are looking for, while placing the fast bits and the slow bits in all the right spots to create the feeling you are looking for!  It all starts with studying reality whenever you can, and then applying your artistic eye to that reality in order to create something special.

And the most important "weight" tip for any creature is always to simply make sure that no foot is ever off the ground (except during a run sometimes) unless the hips are over the opposite foot.

*3) How much average time does it take to create a shot?*

That's a difficult one to answer.  Each studio has its own set of deadlines and expectations, which will also vary wildly by medium (games vs. television shows vs. advertising vs. films, etc).  Generally, as you move into larger studios, the deadlines tend to become more realistic (read: a little more spaced out).  The larger studios can charge clients more money, which the clients are willing to pay because they know the trade-off is a higher standard of quality.  The studio knows that more quality will need more time, so deadlines become a little less intense once you get to a top-tier animation studio, generally speaking. 

However, even the larger studios are increasing their productivity all the time (via new technologies, faster machines, better artists, etc), and the "average time to do a shot" is getting less all the time, it seems.

Of course, the biggest X factor in all of this has to do with the
content of the shot.   I've done a shot in a couple hours (of a hand, in the movie A.I.) but I also got bogged down for about 6 weeks on a shot in Hulk.  On Transformers, we had a really streamlined situation with a really fast feedback loop, a lot of amazing animation tools at our disposal, and terrific animation rigs, all of which helped us get our animation time down dramatically.  One shot I did of Bonecrusher on the highway only took a few days, while another took closer to 4 weeks - so, yet again, it all depends on the number of characters and what they are doing in the shot.  It's always going to take longer to animate a giant robot tackling another robot in slow motion than it will to animate one robot skating down a highway.  (There's an example I never would have thought that I'd have at my disposal!  ha ha ha)

*4) How do you find the best acting decisions?*

This is all about animation scene planning, and I *DO* think that's very important, no matter how tight your deadline is.  I usually recommend spending 20% of your time planning, no matter how little time you have. 

If you have a week to do a shot, spend the first day planning.  If you have only one day to animate the shot, then spend the first couple of hours planning.  As long as you can do SOME planning, your work will *always* be stronger, and will *always* get done faster.

I know this can be difficult, because often producers and supervisors (and clients) have a hard time understanding this.  Sometimes you can help them understand by explaining that the work will end up looking so much better, and can often finish even faster, but some people will just never accept this fact.  In these situations, all you can really do is try your hardest to find time to plan whenever you can...

For acting decisions in particular, it's all about acting it out yourself.  First, you have to figure out exactly who your character is, what he wants, etc.  Really get into his head as much as possible.  Film yourself if you can, as well as your peers or friends.  Play the dialogue line really loudly on your computer, and just act it out in front of a camera over and over, until you stop thinking about what the character is saying, or the timing of the lines.  You want to film it until all you are doing is truly feeling the real emotions and desires of the character.  Once you do that, you'll find some takes with terrific acting choices, because they will be (hopefully) real.

*5) Any advice on supplementing my animation education with any books or forums I might not have heard of?*

I'd recommend Simplified Drawing for Planning Animation by Wayne Gilbert which you can get at: http://www.anamie.com  and which I think is not only terrific, but is the best bang for the buck out there when it comes to animation books.  Wayne was my mentor, and he taught me pretty much everything I know about animation.  I still flip through his book from time to time.  There are some really cool ideas in there, and much deeper stuff than the title leads you to believe, including some cool stuff about force and body mechanics.  I'd also recommend plugging yourself into one of the online animation communities, like CG-CHAR (http://www.cgchar-animation.com/) where you can show your work and get critiques.  Feedback is the most important part of learning animation, so push that aspect as much as you can, any way you can.

*6) How do you come up with your topics for the Tips and Tricks articles?*

OK, I confess - I made that one up.   I wanted to drop another hint that I'd love more questions from you guys!  Hit me up at tipsandtricks@animationmentor.com.  I read and reply to every email (eventually!), and any topic requests are always much appreciated!  More than half of these articles come directly out of ideas and questions sent in via email, so thanks so much for all the great ideas and feedback!

I think that does it for our Lightning Round!  I might do more of these
5 Question Lightning Rounders in the future - let me know if you like this format better!  In the meantime, thanks again for sticking with me for so many articles!  Here's to another two years!  (gulp!)

Keep animating, and as always, have FUN!

-Shawn