Live Action Ref Should Match the Camera Angle

Anim Ref and Anim by Elin Berrio Pena

Most experienced animators know about the importance of shooting live action reference to create great animation. 

However, to get the best out of your reference, you should always be sure to match the correct camera angle in your shot. If you don't, the reference you shoot won't be nearly as useful.

Why Animators Should Cut on Movement

One of the key principles of cinematography is to cut on movement. What does that mean? It means that if you start an action in one shot, carry it over into the second.  

Let's say you are cutting from a wide shot to a close up, you start the motion in the wide shot, then carry it over to the next shot. This makes the cut feel less abrupt.

Depth of Field in Maya and the Arnold Renderer

How do we create Depth of Field in Maya and Arnold? Sometimes we don't want the audience to see everything in our shot. Animators are film-makers, and the audience needs to be guided through the scene, shown only what is important - and leaving out what is unimportant.  Focus and Depth of Field can help with this - if something in the shot isn't important, simply blur it out. To see how to create Depth of Field in Maya, watch the short video above.  And to understand the he theory behind it, read this blog post.

Focus and Depth of Field For Animators

Focus and Depth of Field are principles of cinematography that animators need to understand, because you don't always want the audience to see everything in your shot. Animators are film-makers, and the audience needs to be guided through scene, shown only what is important - and leaving out what is unimportant. Focus and depth of field can help with this - if something in your shot isn't important, simply blur it out. To see more about what the terms Focus and Depth of Field mean - and how it all works in practice - watch the short video above. 

Animate a Camera Shake in Maya

Animate a Camera Shake in Maya with Monty

In this free animation tutorial we show how to animate a camera shake in Maya.  It's a simple tutorial aimed at beginners learning 3d animation in Autodesk Maya. 

To animate the camera shake is simple - it's just a few keyframes on the x rotation on the shot camera, simulating what might happen to a real camera operator if (as in this example) a school bus were to whizz past at high speed. 

Why Animators Should Avoid "CCTV Camera"

One of the most common mistakes junior animators make when staging their shots is to position the camera above the action, looking down on the characters. This can be tempting to do, because it is an easy way to capture everything that is going on.  However "CCTV Camera" is usually a mistake (though you might need to create a particular effect in certain circumstances). A better choice is to position the camera at eye level - where the camera becomes a non-participant observer in the scene. Watch this very short video to see why.

What is The Rule of Thirds?

What is the Rule of Thirds?  It is a "rule of thumb" for composing visual images.  The Rule of Thirds proposes that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally spaced horizontal lines and two equally spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections.  In the simplest terms, try to avoid staging your character dead centre in the middle of the screen.

How to Create a Shot Camera in Maya

In this introductory tutorial for beginners in Autodesk Maya we demonstrate how to create a shot camera.  If you were on a live action set, one of the first things you would do is set up your camera and decide what the shot was going to look like.  But in Maya, because we get a Perspective View for free, animators often forget to create a shot camera.  This is a mistake - we want to make an early decision on what the audience is going to see.  Watch this beginner's video tutorial above to find out how to create a camera in Maya and lock it off. 

Why Animators Have Too Many Cuts

One of the many challenges faced by junior animators is where to put the camera. At its simplest, a camera can be stationary, watching the character's performance unfold. There isn't any need to cut from one angle to another. 

However, when we start to storyboard and thumbnail our work, it is often tempting to jump from one camera view to another - from wide shots, to close-ups, and then to mid shots - anything but holding the camera steady. 

The trouble with this approach is that multiple cuts can become hard to control, and the resulting performance becomes overly complicated and unnecessarily disjointed. 

Why Animators Always Create a Shot Camera

One of the most common mistakes made by junior animators is to forget to create a shot camera, or to delay creating one until it's too late. If you were on a live action set, one of the first things you would do is set up your camera and decide what the shot was going to look like. But in Maya, because we get a Perspective View for free, animators often forget to create a shot camera. This is a mistake - watch the video above to find out why.

Why Animators Must Check Their Hookups

Jerich0 - excellent shot continuity

Why must animators check their hookups? Animators are commonly assigned to work on single shots on a project, which means there will be another shot, animated by another animator, on either side of theirs.

These shots must play together in continuity, meaning that there must be a smooth flow from one to another. The pose of a character at the end of one shot should be the same pose in the next shot, or else the shots won't "hook up".

In animation terms, hookups are nothing to do with Tinder, or online dating. Hookups are about continuity, and on a film project it is the animator's responsibility to make sure that their shot hooks up with the shots on either side of theirs.

Why Animators Should Avoid a Flat Horizon

Flat horizons are one of the curses of 3D animation - nothing gives the game away faster than a blank, flat ground plane extending into infinity. One of the most common mistakes made by junior animators is to animate a character on a flat ground plane - the sort of situation that occurs only in 3D - never in nature. After all, in life, our horizon lines are broken up by landscapes, buildings, trees - the jumble of modern urban and rural life. Watch the short video above for some tips on how to avoid the curse of the flat horizon.

Camera Always Follows, Never Leads

One of the most common mistakes made by junior animators is to have the camera lead the action, instead of following it. One of the basic rules of cinematography (a fancy word for a moving camera) is that the camera always follows, never leads.  For example, if a character is leaving a scene, they should initiate the motion, and the camera should follow them. This is natural on a live action set, where the camera will naturally tend to follow the actor. But in animation, where we get nothing for free, these choices have to be made deliberately, and we need to be aware of the pitfalls.

Why Animators Should Never Cross The Line

The 180 Degree Rule. Wikimedia

What is "Crossing the Line?", and why should animators never (or, almost never) cross it?

"Crossing the Line" is also known as the 180-degree rule, and it is one of the fundamental rules of cinematography.

Like most rules of film-making, the only way to really understand the 180 Degree Rule is to break it, figure out what went wrong - and then work out how to fix it next time.

Let's say you have a shot with two characters talking to one another. Draw an imaginary line between the two characters. This is the "line" that we should not cross.

How to Avoid "Motion Sickness" Camera in Maya

One of the challenges of learning 3D animation is knowing not just how to animate characters, but also where to put the camera, and what to do with it.  3D animators have to be cinematographers too.

The art of cinematography is complex and has many pitfalls for the unwary. The most common mistake made by junior animators is to over-animate the camera.

The general rule for animating the camera in Maya is this: Don't do anything you wouldn't do in live action.

Why Animators Shouldn't Break the 4th Wall

Don't look at the camera

One of the most common mistakes made by student animators is to have their characters talk directly to the camera.

Inexperienced animators often do this, at least at first. We pose out our character and we think - who is she talking to? I know - she's talking to me! But in a film, or a play, or a TV Series, the camera (ie the audience) is almost always an observer, never a participant.

Part of the so-called Willing Suspension of Disbelief is that the characters acting for us don't know we are there.

Cinematography, Stanley Kubrick and One Point Perspective

Kubrick // One-Point Perspective from kogonada on Vimeo.

This excellent 90 second video is titled "Cinematography, Stanley Kubrick and One Point Perspective". It's all about the work of legendary director Stanley Kubrick, showing how Kubrick uses camera angles with single-point perspective to enhance the story telling of his films. Cinematography, of course, is a whole discipline it itself, and can involve a lifetime of study to master. But animators need to understand at least the basics of cinematography, knowing how to compose a shot and get successfully from one shot to another. The camera can, and should be, a part of the storytelling process.

Learn the Art of Film-making For Free at LAvideofilmmaker.com

We live in an age in which it is possible to learn almost anything online. All you really need is the determination to concentrate - free of distractions - and dedicate enough time to learn the subject properly. Film is no exception to this, and one excellent site that we highly recommend is www.lavideofilmmaker.com, a free website with all kinds of excellent resources on how to make movies. Any serious student of film should navigate to it, bookmark it, and drink deep from the well.