How to Clean Up Scanned Images in Photoshop

This short video shows how to take a scanned image and tidy it up in Photoshop. The image I am using is an ink cartoon drawing, but this method works equally well for pencil drawings, and also works for images that have been photographed with a smartphone camera.  Why should you clean up your scans? The purpose of the cleanup is to make your scanned images look prettier, to make them ready to send to a client, or to look nice for a presentation. Raw scans look ugly and unprofessional - watch the video above to see how to tidy them up.

Animating With Maya's Motion Trail Tool

This short video (just three minutes long) shows how to use Maya's Motion Trail Tool. The Motion Trail Tool is very useful for smoothing out the kinks and bumps in your animation, to ensure that your arcs and paths of animation are as smooth and flowing as possible. Bumpy animation curves will create pops and bumps in your animation. The Motion Trail Tool is one way of overcoming these problems and giving your animation an extra polish. 

Why Lipsync Needs Wide and Narrow Shapes

Mouth shapes by Cliff Nordberg

When animating dialogue and Lipsync, it's important to remember that animators need a contrast between the wide and narrow mouth shapes, otherwise the Lipsync tends to feel a bit like a dustbin lid opening and shutting.

The key is to find flexibility, especially between the wide shapes, such as "ee" shapes, and narrow shapes, such as "oo" or "w" shapes. 

How to Use the Grid in Autodesk Maya

We've uploaded a new free video to our YouTube channel - how to use the grid in Autodesk Maya. The grid is what anchors us in 3D space, and stops us getting lost in the infinity of the X Y Z axis. The Grid, like everything in Maya, can be adjusted and tweaked, to make it work for you and the shot you are working on. Watch the video above to see how the Grid works in practice.

Why Animators Should Avoid a Profile View

Two characters talking in profile view

One of the most common mistakes made by junior animators when they start out animating is to compose characters in profile.

When two characters are talking to one other, it seems logical that staging them in profile should work fine, but compositionally it doesn't work well.

The Importance of Anticipation

Anticipation - Illusion of Life

Anticipation is one of the 12 Principles of Animation, and it is one of the key principles that every animator must master.

Every action tends to have three components: an anticipation, an action, and a reaction. If you make the anticipation clear, then the rest should follow effortlessly.

Consider the anticipation drawing of Donal Duck on the left, taken from the classic Disney instruction manual "The Illusion of Life" - still a must-have book on every animator's shelf.

It's absolutely clear what Donald is about to do - even though he hasn't done it yet.

The trick with a good anticipation pose is that it is made so clear that the audience knows what the character is going to do, before he or she actually does it. 

Why Every Animation Needs an Idea

Animators need an idea

Every Shot Needs an Idea. One of the most common mistakes made by junior animators is to animate a scene of dialogue without clearly thinking through what the shot is really about.

Animators are actors, with a pencil, or a mouse. Like stage or screen actors, animators must always think carefully about what their character is thinking about. Who is the character talking to, and what is the scene about? What do they want, and what do they fear?

These things are important because unless these questions are asked, and answered, the scene will tend to feel empty of meaning, and lack compelling interest.

Why Animators Need "Head Muppeting"

What is "Head Muppeting" in animation? It's a term I first heard used by veteran animator Sydney Padua when she was teaching an animation class at Escape Studios.

"Head Muppeting" is a similar concept to that of "hitting the accents", developed by Richard Williams in his book The Animator's Survival Kit.

It means that, when you are animating a dialogue shot, you need to keep the character's head in motion, to make the audience believe that the character is saying the lines.

Animating Dialogue: Avoid Famous Lines

Animators: avoid lines like "go ahead punk..."

One of the most common mistakes junior animators often make when selecting their first line of dialogue to animate is to pick one of their favourite lines from a movie, usually spoken by a famous actor.

The reason that this is a bad idea is that famous lines spoken by famous actors tend to come with too much baggage.