Thursday, February 28, 2013

90%

Most of the time when I give a designer an animation I try to follow three rules: that the file is set up properly, that it conveys the information necessary for design, and that it looks decent enough to potentially ship that way. Even if we are testing something that I know is temporary I will still try to adhere to those first two rules and hope to hit the third. I try to get the animation at least 90% of the way there.

Having a universally adhered to workflow is something I have wanted at every studio I've been at but it doesn't ever happen. Even when all of the animators are trained in the same way there is still that Artist Brain, one that works in its' own way, often strangely unique for whatever the necessity, and production usually doesn't give a shit so long as the work gets done. The only thing you can do to ensure that files are easy to understand is to work cleanly, in an organized way that makes sense intuitively, and pray everyone else is doing the same. In my entire career I've only encountered a handful of other animators who work similarly to me enough that I can work on their files without frustration, and even then, we still do some things differently. 

Because I abhor blocking animation, and because I work fast, it's easy enough for me to start from scratch and make things improve. I try to make the best animation possible within time constraints. Sometimes that's a day, sometimes less. Sometimes a designer will need something in a few minutes. I'm happy to do it, if only because it improves their iterations on ideas, and doesn't eat up my day. If anything, these test animations are a way to learn, but if you have a clear direction, 90% is a pretty good goal.

 Handing an animation off to design is a strange thing. The work will often be questioned, or criticized, or given notes, all from someone who probably doesn't understand motion as well as you do. As an animator it's important to make those criticisms yourself beforehand. Often I will hand something off, plainly admitting, "I know what you're going to say. Just get it in the game and I'll fix x." Because whatever x is isn't going to hold back the Idea a designer wants, I'm alright with putting things in that aren't necessarily going to ship. Design tests ideas, and the animators get to shape them through motion. With a file that is 90% of the way there design can often implement their full ideas, and I can iterate on motion. The overall point is, though, that the intent is what's important, not necessarily making the best animation possible.

8 comments:

  1. Great post and it brings up some other questions that I have for you.
    What I would really like to see you write about is how you handle a shot that has been blocked out by someone else?
    I know you like to generally work straight ahead on 5's, but what if you get a shot that is in spline mode with keys all over the place?
    What if you get a shot that every control is keyed on the same frame, but some of the keys are from 3 frames apart up to 30 frames apart just willy nilly?
    How do you handle these kinds of situations if the directors want you too keep the animation that is already there?

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  2. That's probably the worst situation for me, actually. Recently I had to do this and fix a bunch of files with a very poor set up. They should have been fairly easy, straight forward animations but the setups were designer driven, and the animator kept the temporary setups, adding all sorts of bad decisions on the curves which actually messed with design and made branching to other animations look terrible.
    Instead of tweaking what was there I scrapped most of them and did them from scratch. It was not only faster, but cleaner, and in the end I think they turned out to be a lot easier to work with.
    Whenever I get a file with keys all over the place I will usually key all the controls on the key poses and delete anything in between. Directors usually don't pay enough attention to animation to really know what's what anyway. In my experience, as long as you hit the right moments and poses and timing it's usually safe to start fresh.

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  3. For some reason, I knew you were going to say that you scrap it and do it over. LOL

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  4. Hey this is a great blog and I've enjoyed reading your posts very much.
    As someone who only really does blocking animation (as that's all I know) I would love to see more of how you would tackle and action or animation shot using your workflow. It would be amazing to look over your shoulder from start to finish on something so I could see how to achieve a potentially cleaner/faster workflow both for myself any anyone who may have to work on my files.

    I know you are a busy guy but I'm just putting the request out there as I for one would love to see your process in more detail :)

    Thanks again for the blog!

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  5. Howdy anon, I may get footage of this soon, but in the meantime I can say that animation came to me as a somewhat intuitive thing. There is a certain mindset that understands motion or at the very least just picks it up quickly. I'd like to think I am of that group. It's the same way with people who are artists and people who want to be artists. Sometimes it's an innate thing. I was always able to draw from a very young age with no training.
    To be honest, I do very little planning as an animator. It's often that the first instinct or idea I have will be the one that happens or makes it in a game. This is very unusual as far as I know but it works for me.
    Thanks for reading.

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  6. Not sure about your question, but I've got quite a few drawings here: http://whiskeypail02.blogspot.com/
    I never draw animations out, but I think it's something most animators should know how to do.

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  7. I remember seeing some of your awesome 2d animation back from your year of Calarts. Any chance those or any other 2d stuff still around to see?

    Am also in favor of seeing a demo of your 5's process. Great stuff!

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  8. I've got a ten second vhs tape layin around somewhere but I doubt it will see the light of day anytime soon. Think I still have the paper version, too. Might try to scan em sometime.

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