Animating.
- Dan Evans
- Mar 9, 2023
- 2 min read
While animating, I tried to break down the movement in a shot to make the workload and process more manageable. This is because it can be overwhelming sometimes for me to animate an entire shot, especially if the sequence has a movement that feels or looks complicated to complete.
Using my thumbnails as a guide, I did the rough key drawings first in a continuous linear timeline (straight ahead) as I was able to get a better sense of movement and check whether the relationship between them was correct. Then, once I had the proper poses, I broke the animation down even further, doing breakdown keys and considering animation principles, predominantly anticipation, arcs, slow in/ slow out and exaggeration. Again, my thinking was in the key drawings rather than the in-betweens. Finally, when animating shots in which I found it challenging to visualise or break down, I acted out the movement in front of a mirror.
While animating or trying to do the character poses, I kept thinking, “What would my character do? How would the character move its body in this scenario?” Unfortunately, as referred to shots within my production bible, some poses proved believable as a still image but not as a piece of movement. I, therefore, had to reconsider how my characters act and their positioning within the shot. As previously done, I created rough thumbnails of the animation in a continuous linear sequence to gain clarity. Afterward, I decided to work on other components of the production stage, allowing myself time to digest the thumbnails and use my time productively. Some days were better than others concerning animation content produced. I felt conflicted when altering a shot or movement to make animating easier. It brought a question to my attention: If I can’t animate this, what kind of animator am I?
While pondering this question, I soon realised that if the movement didn’t work regarding communication emotion or intent, then perhaps finding an alternative way to animate the character isn’t a bailout; it is instead finding a better way of communicating with an audience.
In my naivety as a young college and undergraduate student, I used to believe there was a formula or secret process to bring characters to life. However, I discovered that the best types of character animation come from something other than a template or a guide in a book. Instead, it comes from the animator's creative exploration, planning and preparation for a character performance, considering how a character should act or react in any situation. Of course, the technical aspects of movement, such as the principles of animation, play a vital part in the performance. However, if one wants to go further, one must look within themselves and step into the preverbal shoes of the character, considering their thought process.
Animating these characters to engage together was difficult, especially when there were moments of physical contact between the two. This is because the animation was an equation of both physical activity and subsequently a reaction. However, once I had timed my key poses correctly, I knew that, in principle, the movement was correct and therefore inbetweened accordingly until I felt the overall duration was suitable.
Example of animating process:
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