Planning the "Phone Booth Man" Pantomime Shot

 

Animators need to tell a story without words, to create "pantomime" animation. The art of pantomime is that the audience should understand the story being told without words.   In the example above, by Joshua Reynolds, Joshua tackles the "Phone Booth" exercise, in which the animator must tell the story of a phone call silently, just using body language and expressions, communicating to the audience what the character is thinking and feeling. Start by thinking about the story you want to tell. Then, act it out, draw some thumbnail sketches, and pose out the shot. Make sure the character poses tell the story clearly. 

How To Create Thumbnails for Animation

 

How do you create thumbnail sketches for character animation? Learning how to create thumbnail sketches is a very important skill, even for animators who don't draw well, because thumbnail sketches are an important tool for planning animation.  Even 3D animators who aren't that comfortable with drawing are encouraged to have a go at the thumbnailing process, because it is so valuable for planning character animation.  Watch the video above to see how to create simple but expressive thumbnail sketches for this month's "11 Second Club". 

Why Live Action Reference Needs Exaggeration

Edward Muybridge

Using live action reference to create great animation is one of the key techniques we teach at Animation Apprentice. However, as a technique, it has its risks, the main risk being that the animator follows the live action too closely, and the final performance ends up being floaty, weightless and "spliney".

Animators should always remember that our job is to give a performance. This means using live action to create realistic, believable animation, but then going further, pushing it, and exaggerating the results. Good animation is a caricature of life, not a copy of it.

Live action reference is a very powerful tool, one which I have myself relied upon countless times on many feature films to get my shot completed on time. It is a technique used by animators all over the world.

Nine Ways to Create a Great Animation Pose

How do you create a great pose in animation? Creating great poses is a necessary skill for all animators to learn. In the video above, I suggest nine ways that an animator can create a great pose - the key starting point for a great acting scene. 

Body Language for Animators

 

Body language is as important as spoken language, and just as important for animators to learn. Animators are actors (with a pencil or a mouse) and we must understand how body language can be used to communicate emotion, and how to create great poses in our work. A great pose should communicate what the character is thinking and feeling.  In the 13 minute video above, I explore some of the basic principles of body language and how these can be applied to character animation.

How to Fix Floaty Animation Based on Live Action Reference

Leopard Animation by Daniel Amor

The use of live action reference to create great animation is one of the key techniques that students learn at Animation Apprentice. 

But one of the dangers of using live action is that, if you follow it too closely, the final animation can be floaty and weightless.

Why Animators Need Stepped Curves

Stepped Curves in Maya

Why do animators need to work in Stepped Curves? Many animators resist using Stepped Curves when they first start learning animation. Spline Curves feel much more intuitive, because Maya does the interpolation for you.

However, for most character acting shots, and any shot which is basically pose-to-pose, Stepped Curves are a much more powerful tool, and one which it is very important for animators to master.

Why Animators Should Keep it Short

One of the most common mistakes made by student animators is to bite off more than you can chew. When it comes to short films, or acting shots - or any piece of animation, it's very easy to be too ambitious. 

It is almost always much better to do a great job on a short piece of animation than to struggle to complete something long and complex.

Animation takes a long time to get right, so allow yourself the luxury of being able to add all the bells and whistles and still make your deadline. Keep it short and sweet. 

Why Animators Need Thumbnail Sketches

The secret of good animation is in the planning, and good animators always plan their work.

The single most important skill that animators learn at Animation Apprentice is how to develop a reliable workflow for animation, so that our students can tackle any animation task with confidence.

One of the key tools our students learn is how to thumbnail their work. Thumbnail sketches are quick, expressive, simple drawings that are used to plan the action and tell the story of the shot in a few simple clear poses.

How to Block Out a Pantomime Shot

Phone Call Blocking by Mark Masters

How do you block out and plan a pantomime animation - an animated scene without dialogue? The trick with animation is to plan it out thoroughly in advance.

In the case of pantomime animation, we teach a workflow that is reliable and dependable, one which will get your shots approved on time, with minimal aggravation.

The secret of success lies, as ever, in the planning. Plan your work properly and you won't go wrong.

Medusa Thumbnails by Milt Kahl

Thumbnails by Milt Kahl

Andreas Deja's animation blog, Deja View, is a treasure trove of information about the Golden Age of Disney animation, and in particular the work of Disney's "Nine Old Men".

In a recent blog post, Andreas has uncovered the thumbnail sketches that legendary animator Milt Kahl used to animate his classic scene of Madame Medusa, the villainess of The Rescuers, removing her false eyelashes in the mirror.

The scene is one of Milt's best; a shot I often show in class to illustrate the importance of great acting choices in character animation.

Animate a "Take" Reaction with "Monty"

Animate a "take" with Monty

In this tutorial, we show how to animate a reaction shot, or "take" with Monty.  Reaction shots are the bread-and-butter of junior animators. On a feature film, once you have graduated from walk cycles and crowd shots, you get given reaction shots to test your skills.

A reaction shot is where animators first start to get to grips with acting and performance.  Just like live-action actors, animated characters on a screen must listen - and react.

Why Animators Should Do Facial Expressions 1st

Planning out animation isn't an easy process. In theory it is simple, but in practice there are many pitfalls for the unwary.  One of the most common errors made by novice animators is to leave the facial expressions until last.

You might think to yourself "I'll save time by blocking out the main poses, and then work on the facial expressions later", but the danger with this approach is that you might never get around to doing the facial expressions at all, and your animation will be lifeless and flat.

One of the early lessons I learned at Blue Sky Studios on "Robots" back in 2003 was how to block out the character's main facial expression from the very beginning, thus determining the main acting beats in the shot.

What is the character thinking and feeling? This is a choice you should make at the very start.

How to Animate a Dialogue Shot

Pixar Animation Workflow

Incredibles 2

Pixar animator Royce Wesley was in London recently, talking about his experience working on Incredibles 2, and also explaining his own personal animation workflow.

Royce is an experienced character animator whose credits include Brave, Coco, Robots and Inside Out.

Understanding how to plan your work is one of the key parts of the animator's skill set. Every animator has their own unique approach, and it's important to develop a workflow that you can rely on to get your shots approved without too much stress.

Thumbnailing Mrs Copperbottom from "Robots"

Robots - Mrs Copperbottom

Learning to thumbnail animation is one of the hardest skills for junior animators to master, but being able to do rough thumbnail sketches is a very helpful skill because it helps the animator plan their work.

You wouldn't build a building without architectural plans. And you shouldn't start animating a shot without a clear plan of where you are going.

How to Block out and Plan Creature Animation

This short video ten minute explains how to block out and plan an animal or creature animation shot.  What do animators mean by "blocking"? We mean the process of establishing the main key poses in a shot, using stepped curves (i.e., single poses without any smooth transitions), so that we can test whether or not the shot will work. Having a good, organised workflow is an essential part of the animator's toolkit. Long before you start making key poses in Maya, you want to plan the shot out in your head, on video, with thumbnail sketches and/or storyboards.

Thumbnailing Boog from "Open Season"

Learning to thumbnail animation is one of the hardest skills for junior animators to master, especially if they are not comfortable with drawing. But being able to do rough thumbnail sketches is an important part of the animator's toolkit, and in the video above I demonstrate how I approached thumbnailing a shot I animated on "Open Season". The trick is to create a plan for your animation so that, long before you start creating poses in Maya, you already have the shot figured out in your head.

Animation Insider's eBook - Free from Squeeze

Animation Insider's Ebook - free from Squeeze!

Get your free copy of the Animation Insider's eBook, downloadable from Squeeze animation studio in Quebec.

This free digital download describes the workflow of talented animators such as Mike Nguyen, Victor Navone and Jason Ryan.

It 's a remarkable insight into how experienced animators approach a shot, and very useful for students looking to develop their own animation workflow.

Planning Animation - Fagin Thumbnails by Glen Keane

Oliver and Company

The secret of great animation is in the planning. Open up a copy of Maya, the leading 3D software, and you just get a blank screen. With CG animation you get nothing for free; you must fill the blank space with creative, entertaining animation. 

The secret of doing great work is to thumbnail - that is to say, to plan out your work with sketches and scribbles - drawings which create a kind of road map of where you want to go.  

In the video below, I show how master animator Glen Keane approaches the business of doing animation thumbnails.