Rainplace

Hello Jerome ~  Thank you very much for your very kind feedback ^^  I did the tie-down rough for the shot you’ve mentioned but not the clean-up.  In recent industry’s standard, animator is required to tie-down the rough animation, making it clear for the final clean-up lines to follow.  The clean-up drawing is what you see in the theater (not the animator’s actual drawing).

The different is that the tie-down line-works can be a bit looser and scratchy with some finer info of character’s model maybe left out.  This is then follow-up by the clean-up artist.  Here, the line-work of the drawing has to be meticulously clean, steady in thickness and density with no open gaps within a color regent of a character model. 

You are right that often the surface texture of a clean-up scene appearing less lively.  There are many reasons for that- most notable is the the tie-down rough generally has more pencil lines, giving them an extra textural movement that makes the animation feels more lively (sometimes deceptively).  

But the main problem is that clean-up works put major emphasis on the solid single drawing and often overlooked it’s relation to movement, making the final result appearing stiff in motion while technically sound when view as a single frame.

In a way, it is like photocopying, for every step away from the 1st generation, the image is degenerated a little.  

With all that said, yes there are ways to keep the clean-up animation just as lively and vibrant (but it will be different from the rough by its physical conditions) :D

Pleasant day to you ^^

Here, a sample of rough & clean-up from my work-in-progress feature ‘My Little WORLD’ ^^

Thank you very much Jacob ^^  Your very kind feedback helped reassure me that my writing is communicating in some ways and within general interests…I’m most grateful :D

Wishing you the very best to your creative journey ^^

Hello there ^^  Thank you very much for your inquiry but I afraid I failed your request.  Although I was credited under ‘Belle’ in Disney’s ‘Beauty & the Beast’, my contribution to the character was embarrassingly minimal.  In true, I was rather ineffective in this production and didn’t quite fit in.  I did many incidental scenes for the film before settling into the Belle unit (but more on paper than in practical terms).  When I think of Belle, I think of James Baxter, the lead animator who shaped her to be the memorable character on screen along with his unit.

It was my 3^rd production for the Disney Studio at the time, right after the college years. I was much younger, idealistic and perhaps not as reasonable.  I was not especially prepared creatively for the industry sensibility, since this was not my chosen path in life.  Rather, I was more interested in a personal connection to animation and life.  

And so here sharing with you is an image of the twirling napkins.  It was the very first set of scenes I made for the production (a personal memory to my relation with this film).

Hello there ^^  

My first thought to choosing a career is to make sure that whatever you do is most ‘joyful’ to you personally, so much that you would want to fully devote all your energy to nurture it and don’t mind the many challenges and hardships that it might brings.

Animation is a very demanding medium, both in artistry and can be difficult in making a living.  But with that said, I feel that every other career would face very similar challenges within its own requirements.

Just within the film production process, there are many specialized job categories.  The 2 more abundant needs are storyboarding and animation (which you’ve mentioned).  There are also visual development or concept art, character design, layout and background, effects animation, scene compositing etc.

All of these jobs share a common foundation to understanding filmmaking, composition, color and design, drawing and motion senses.

I would say for now- do explore the wonderful potentials of expressing yourself through the animated movements in the context of film language.  Make a little short film.  From here, you would find that perhaps a certain aspect in this creation process appeal to you more, such as animation, or character design or everything :D

Fall in love with what you do, let it grow and jobs will come (as a side effect).  All my very best wishes to you ^^

(Here is a general production process of the feature film ‘My Little WORLD’ that I’ve been working on.)

Thank you very much for your very kind thought and suggestion for ‘My Little WORLD’ ^^  Because the nature of hand-drawn theatrical features requiring much resources, I thought that maybe crowd funding would be very helpful when my film is getting closer to completion and in need of a final push :D

I also so felt that I’m relatively unknown to the animation world-at-large, crowd funding might be very difficult for me to achieve… best is to quietly tugging at the making and wait for that right moment in time (should it come) :D

Much appreciated and pleasant day to you ^^

I’m very grateful that you’ve found my thoughts of interests ^^  Life is a shared experience.  As you’re finding your own creative balance, it becomes a personal experience that you can share to others later.  Look forward to learn of your works some day :D

Hello Brandon ^^  Thank you very much for writing and I do admired your conviction to animate with papers ^^  I think because we human are naturally drawn to things that are organic and warmth, maybe that’s one reason why it is so appealing to animate on papers and pencils.  But more than anything, I think it is a personal preference (for you and for me too).  I think there are more and more 2D animators today that learned to animate using digital tools and might not miss the feel of rolling papers at all…

From the industry standpoint, it is a place of commerce and unfortunately passions for the artistry is most often second to financial goals.  With that clear recognition in mind, I feel one can go about achieving a balance in the creative life and not getting frustrated by the industry wavering conditions.

Whatever makes lots of profit, the industry will be there.   Unfortunately the US animation industry is not in favor for 2D productions at the moment. I’m sure all that would change rather quickly should a new 2D production is made and happen to be a box office sensation.  

The creative sensibility that we’ve attained from animating can be apply to many aspects of production works and adapt to different surface tools like CG, digital 2D or stop-motion. It’s the ability to create great performances that is at heart of all animated mediums.  And as an animator, we just need a bit of time to get acquainted to the technical conditions of a given medium.

Hand-drawn animation is my chosen life, and I didn’t choose it because of the industry.  In my personal outlook, working on a medium that one loves but on a production that was not interesting, then it’s just the same as not having able to do what one really wished (while making an income).

In some way, I was a lucky one.  The industry has always an opened door for me since graduated from college (it was a different time and 2D was the main industry back then).  But I’ve always known since schooldays that this was not my calling.  In 2000, I found a chance to be independent and began my feature ‘My Little WORLD’. Life hasn’t been easy (and I haven’t reach the fruitful end yet) but I’m very grateful, knowing that this is the life I meant to be (and sooner or later, it will be completed).

My suggestion is not to rely on the industry for one’s passion in life.  True that best is to make a living and immerse in something that we love at the same time.  Second best is to manage to make a living with other means (at least related to the creative field) and find time to do what one loves in parallel.  

In ‘finding traditional work’, if we don’t find that path in the industry, we can self-generate a new path.  In a funny paradox, technology while temporary taking away traditional animation works, it’s also empowering small group of animators to generate compelling hand-drawn indie productions that can stay competitive with the industry (something that was not as probable in the earlier time).

Hold fast to that joy in you by making a short film while 2D works are not available.  For one, you’d find that ‘balance’ in your creative spirit. A good film (regardless of medium) always gets noticed and in turn would generate new possibilities for you. There are festivals around the world and including self-broadcast through the internet…  More importantly, when the industry does finally turn around back to 2D, you’ll be fully ready in compelling ways :D

Hope my winding writing is helpful in some way.  Pleasant day to you and all my very best wishes to your creative endeavor ^^

Hello there ^^

Thank you very much for writing ^^  When I first started out the animation path, there were very few Vietnamese that would pursue this creative field as a way of life, but that’s not so nowadays.  Within recent time especially the last few years, I’m noticing more and more Vietnamese animation artists appearing in film credits from the major studios like Pixar, Disney and Dreamworks.  And also not just in US film industry, there are many rising Vietnamese talents from France and I’m sure in many other places that I might not be aware of.

I think long as there is passion, dedication, inventiveness and perseverance, then animation in Vietnam will find its uniqueness and grow in very exciting ways, artistically and economically.  Too, maybe in time, there will be chances for some of us overseas people to exchange ideas and insights to contribute to the animation industry in Vietnam (if not already).  

I’m sure that it won’t be long before Vietnamese animation will also be catching up and becoming vibrant on the world scenes… and it will start with passions like yours :D

All my very best wishes ^^

(…And here include a screenshot from the hand-drawn feature ‘My Little WORLD’ I’ve been working on for quite sometimes now.  It is set in a make-believe Asia but bears a strong flavor of Vietnam.  Hopefully you’ll find the film interesting one day when it’s finally finished :D )

Hello back ^^  Thank you very much for your inquisitiveness toward the writings ^^  

‘Animation texture’ for me is in relation to movement and the way they invoke the eyes to ‘feel’ in a certain way.  Some movement feels mechanical, some organic, some smooth and some feels uncomfortable, abrupt…

It relates to timing and not just mechanically fast or slow… Best is to relate the flow of motion to music, a phrase of musical notes can unfold technically perfect in tone, loudness and duration, but yet one phrase may come across mechanical, unemotional and theatrical, or- organic, emotional and sincere.

For example, you can view a sequence from Disney’s Snow White and find that the animation texture is very organic, alive with a very ‘fluid’ feel.  It’s more difficult to pinpoint key gestures as they organically flow from one to another.  There are no traces of conscious technical highlight to performance gestures or the timing chart. It is very different from the movement texture of Disney’s Sword in the Stone years later.  You can spot a clear textural difference between these two.  It’s not that one is better than the other and has more to do with personal preference.

It’s very interesting to condition the eye to feels movement, just as the ear feels sound (and for me, here is where the heart of animation lies).

Wishing you a very happy 2016 ^^

Hello ^^  This would be my first time to write about Bill Tytla… and I do feel inept to answer properly from a scholarly perspective, but more from a personal impression and appreciation to his works…  

Animation was such a new medium at the time and since there were very little techniques and instructions to restrict the mind, it must have been very exciting for animators to condition their creativity to discovering new ways to breathe life into their movements. Such was the time of Bill Tytla.

I feel that art is a reflection of what the mind is occupied with.  Life is both forms and the forces that governed them.  In this early search for life in animation, there were 2 giants that immerged from the Disney Studio- Bill Tytla and Freddy Moore- one in favor of ‘force’ and the other ‘appeal’ which leaned more on ‘form’.  (Form and force are root to the same tree, but it’s very interesting to take note here as each branch off to developing different surfaces.)

For me, Bill Tytla’s work didn’t aim to address just performance, drawing draftsmanship or emotion but simply- LIFE (where everything else is encompassed).  From analyzing his works, he must have approached animation from the perspective that life is force-driven, affecting forms to behave in certain ways.  I feel that this mindset has let him to addressing shapes in ways to radiate this primal sense of force.  

Films runs at 24 fps and to get a feel of force to read, he must have put his focus on the way movement feels in motion pending on design, distorting shapes in ways that may look unappealing in still-frame but acted as visual pops that are necessary for a feel of force to be presence.

I think addressing life forces correctly requires a sense of honesty and directness.  While these are virtues, they can also come across disquieting and can be mistaken for not being appealing.  I am curious to why Bill Tytla’s force over form didn’t get further developed after he left the studio, while everyone agreed that his animation performances were very powerful.  In the later Disney films, the 9 Old Men have taken animation performances to much greater heights, but I feel there were conscious choices to tone down certain raw feel of forces to mass and gravity in favor of acting choices and more appealing drawings.

I think also because animation is a graphic medium, we’re more readily attracted to the surface aesthetics of a drawing, the ‘appeal’ side of solid drawings with beautiful forms are more readily embraced, which has led to animation today.  The ‘force’ side I feel, has mostly fallen dormant…

I often wished that had Bill Tytla continued on at the Disney Studio and if the 1940’s strike didn’t happen, I wondered how his artistry would have continued to evolve and how that would influence the animation textures today.  But in a way, it is also very exciting…because there are new grounds yet to be discovered, from the paths that Bill Tytla has charted.

“…Whether forces or form, or well-drawn characters, timing or spacing, animation is all of these things- not just one.”

-Bill Tytla

Here, the swinging arm of Chernabog is distorted to a much longer length in size for 1 frame, giving a visual ‘pop’ to accent the massive swipe.  What makes Chernabog so powerful is not just the pure energy of the physical action but the psychological mindset that drove the swipe.

Hello back and thank you very much for your very kind comment of Rainplace ^^

For me, one of the most endearing qualities of animation is to be able to ‘feel’ the ‘organic’ life, through the interaction of mass and the underlying forces when animating.  

And so the types of conditions I look for in an animated structure are something that is more dimensional and rounded in shape designs, pliable in mass and fluid aerodynamic in motion.  This would mean a design that is more dominated by curves to character silhouette and body contours, (less of straight lines).

And also, the more exaggerated and caricatured the body proportions from realism, the more amplified the feel of force.  Heavier weight characters are more interactive with forces than the thinner ones.

These are the types of qualities that you would find in films like Disney’s Snow White, Pinocchio, Fantasia and Bambi.  They were all very pliable, organic, fluid and projecting very warmth feel to the visual sense (which I like very much :D )

Hope that helps answer a little and all my very best wishes to your animation journey ^^

I’m much grateful that my babbling do find some interest in you ^^  And in regard to your question, I’m certain that maintaining volumes will become easier with time, as you animate more and more.  

There are several ways to help keep volumes from shrinking or growing.  One is to put a model sheet scaled to size of the character in a scene and placed it on same pegs beneath the animation drawings. This will help as a reference guide to stay more consistent with volumes and on model.  Drawing a reference grid of the character’s height instead of the model sheet is also very effective.

Another way is to always refer back to the beginning pose of the scene, lining current drawing side-by-side with the first pose every 3 to 5 new drawings is also very helpful.

For me, I put less focus on accuracy of volume on first pass to allowing the feel of force to flow more freely.  The volume can shrink or enlarge a little long as it stays within range.  On the second pass, I address volume along with character’s detailing as the scene is being tie-down.

Well, these are just some…and I’m sure you’d likely to come up with a solution that is best fitted you.  Happy animating ^^

Hello back ^^  

Unlike in physics where things can be measured and explained by numbers, forces and weights in animation is rooted in the way they’re ‘felt’ and therefor much more abstract.  Because of this elusive nature, I feel the approach to expressing forces require a degree of flexibility, relying heavily on ‘feel’ and the ability to break the general technical mechanics pending on circumstances.

Weight and force are intertwined, fluid and in constant motion (even when appearing at rest).  It is a ‘feel’ that is very personal and should be reflected within a single drawing or a series in motion.

(From this sample, fig. A focuses on form and appearing more like freeze-frame.  Fig. B reflects form being affected by gravity, velocity and internal forces).

Animating is a slow process and easier to lose sight of the intended forces.  To begin with, I would establish a ‘feel’ to the flow of force for the scene much likes a phrase of music and locked onto this flow. This ‘feel’ is abstract but it is essential to guiding the scene, from spacing to distortion of shapes in rough animation and to timing when pencil-testing.

I think the key is to establish each new positioning through motion sense in successive ‘flip and draw’ pattern. Avoid drawing extensively without constant flipping as this tendency might freeze the drawing and disconnect it from the feel of force.  (This mindset is applied to tie-down and clean-up stages as well.)

When animating, I aim to establish quickly the flow of movement foundation by staying rough, light and loose, like thumbnailing but in motion.  I look to reflect a sense of velocity through general spacing of drawings, letting the surface distort and bend as the motion dictates, (even if it looks structurally incorrect but long as it feels right in motion).  

Next, I then pencil-test the scene soon as I can, make rough timing and look to adjust the feel of force through 24fps playback speed.  Here the scene’s foundation is built and ready to be refines at a slower and more careful pace.  Here is the most time consuming part but all efforts are guaranteed because the general foundation has been assured.

Here are some quotes from the painter Paul Klee that I find very insightful and most inspiring.  He referred to paintings but life’s essence is the same, regardless to mediums of expression-

What we see is only appearance.

Exercises in balance and movement teach us how to tend toward the essentials, to the functional as oppose to the external impression.  We learn to recognize the underlying forces, the pre-history to the visible.

Art does not reproduce the visible, it makes the visible.

-Paul Klee

Ummm, I sincerely hope that this answer might give you some thoughts to experiment with.  More posts to come in the near future and hopefully this issue will be even clearer still.   And in regard to Bill Tytla, he is the ONE master animator that I admired most ^^