ANIMATE FAST: Three quick tips to increase your productivity and get best results

Congratulations! You’ve been hired by visual effects giant Big Bad Wolf as a character animator on their latest feature project, Episode XXI: Revenge of the Fuzzies. In your shot, an angry Bash Dunes Pit Monster attacks an unsuspecting Stormytrooper. Boilerplate Scar Wars stuff.

The problem: You have only two days to animate this scene before a review with the A-list director and nail-biting big-budget producer in an assistants-packed room. What do you do? In a panic, your first instinct may be to jump on the computer and start animating, but this is, in fact, the very last step in the process.

Here are a few tips to help you get started in the right way.

Tip 1. Hunt and Gather

Research the character fully. Who is this Pit Monster, really? It looks a bit like a Bantha (from the closely relate STAR Wars movies) and the size is about the same, but what’s with that chameleon-type of tail? Perhaps the creature is more reptile than mammal or elephant. The animal is large, but maybe it is extremely nimble and flexible. Where is their weight centered? Does it lead a walk with its head, or drive forward with the legs?

Ask lots of questions at the turnover, or initial meeting with the Animation Director. Things that are obvious to them, may be confusing or unclear to you. Hunt for the other sources you need. Of course, there is usually a Lead Animator assigned to a particular creature and they can give you some tips, but don’t stop with them. Scour the internet, books, or animals in the wild for the right type of footage and reference.

In addition, research the overall scene for context and motivation. Why is this shot in the movie? Review other shots in the sequence, specifically other shots with that specific creature. How is the shot going to cut? Is the creature totally off screen at frame one, or have they already entered?

Re-read the script, if available. Look at the storyboards.

Make notes.

Make sketches.

Fill your brain with these images and ideas, completely.

Tip 2. Plan Down to the Last Frame

Now, take all that research you’ve just done and forget it. Seriously, put it aside. It’s all there if you need it and you will draw on it intuitively, but you don’t want to reference it directly. You want to free yourself to create something fresh.

Act it out the motion. Feel it. Get down on all fours and be that Pit Monster. (Yes, this is the really fun stuff you actually get paid for.)

Resist the urge to act it out in front of a mirror, or on your phone right away. First, put yourself in that character’s place, as an actor. You’re not searching for poses at this point, this will lead to performances that are cliché or borrowed to some extent. You are searching for thought. You want to understand what the character is thinking at those key moments. If you can feel those thoughts, then you’ve found your poses! Now, you can record on your phone or better understand the physicality or shape of a motion in the mirror.

Plan out the animation: The beats, the poses, the gestures. Everything.

Know *exactly* what you are going to animate. Every timing. Every blink, footstep and head shake. Many animators will use small sketches to guide their work at this stage, called thumbnails, but use whatever form of notes you are most comfortable with.

This design stage could take a half an hour, or it could take a whole morning, but the more time you can spend in this part of the process, the more time you will save down the road.

Tip 3. Don’t Let Your Computer Animate Anything

With your research complete and a very solid plan in your head, it’s time to jump on the computer for a blocking pass of the animation. It’s at this stage that I highly suggest that you do a full pass without stopping and without rendering your shot. Block-in every pose you had imagined, with your best guesses as to timing. Do not stop.

Why?

Because if you stop and render and see what you’ve done so far it won’t look quite right. You’ll second guess your design and planning. You’ll stall. It’s a habit we can fall into if we’re not more disciplined in our approach. Don’t get me wrong. Your computer will give you lots of ideas, but they are all bad. We call it computer animation, but it should be called people animation. Computers can’t animate (not yet, anyway), but with a few keyframes set they can make things move and that can be just enough to make us lose focus.

Once you have that full pass fully blocked: the key poses, major breakdowns and extremes roughed in. Now, finally, you can render and take a look at what you’ve got.

This is the fun part!

With all of the elements in place, you can see and shape the animation, adjust timing, make one gesture just a little bit stronger or take a motion out altogether. You will get notes from the director and make changes to the shot for the next week or two weeks, but you've laid a very solid foundation. You can discuss the shot with confidence, knowing that you have done the work and understand the shot and character better than anyone in that screening room.

Conclusion

Working professionally on a team of highly creative and accomplished artists is exciting and motivates you to do your best work, but it can be stressful if you are not completely confident in your abilities or struggling with workflow.

Animating fast doesn’t mean taking shortcuts, and it doesn’t mean finding a magic plugin for the software program that speeds up the computer processing. The challenge is to get the performance you need as quickly as possible, and you do that by communicating well with your team and then nailing the acting and action in your shot.

Much of this will come with experience, but perhaps you can use a tip or two to speed up your process, today.

Any more suggestions on a faster workflow? I’d love to hear them.