alt
Taken from www.unsplash.com

Coming back to Animation Topics

It has been AGESSSS since I last wrote a post about animation. As a fellow Animator myself, I tend to use most of these shared topics in my daily work. It's a good thing because I get to remind myself of the principles behind animation and also to share a little bit of what I do for a living. Yes it all may seem happy on TV or the movies, but behind the scenes, it's a LOT of work. Scrolling back a few animation posts that I've written last year, I've decided to re-post a few of them in days to come because I believe they're well written and helpful for any budding animators/artists out there. I hope you guys will learn a thing or two even as someone not from this industry at all. So here goes...

As an animator, it is really important how we comprehend the world around us. Not just a mere glance but how we really understand the world and its little things.

Yes, the topic for today would be 'How Animators should see the World' and because we are in a creative industry that requires us to bring characters to life, we should not miss THAT 'little thing' of a personality, an action or an emotion. The understanding of things increases through the years as an animator and this would only add more value to your work. And this come hand in hand with the planning phase that we animators have to go through but I would leave that for another day.

Today, I'm going to talk about the importance of observation.

alt
source

Observation comes way before any other planning starts. It starts when you've decided to be an animator yourself. Now, you're probably thinking... zord, I've been observing things all my life, what are you talking about?

Well, it may sound simple but it isn't as simple as you think. The way animators observe are different and this will eventually become a part of their everyday life. It becomes natural for us to observe things differently. The way we see how that action moves, the way the feathers of a bird flutters and many more instances.

Observation is much more than just 'seeing' something, it is studying it

Let's put it simply, a normal person looks at a car turning a corner and drives off, an animator sees how the car tilts as it steers around the corner. We see the timing of when the car brakes and when it accelerates. Isit a diesel car? Is the car dirty or well polished?

Get what I mean now?

An animator has to always crank up that observation to more than 'just' seeing things as they are. Of course, we don't go around creepily stalking objects or human beings. That's a whole different story. :D

alt
source

Take this GIF for example. If you were these two walking in the park, that would be just it. As an animator who observes, they will notice the casual stroll and how the guys are walking.

I would also notice how they're wearing a jacket with one of the guy hands tucked into the pocket. This could be that winter is coming and it is chilly outside. As you can also see from the background environment, that the leaves are falling. The time and day of this shot would probably be very early morning or a late evening where the sun isn't casting a strong shadow on things.

An animator should see SO MUCH MORE

Sometimes, I would look at the postures and expressions of people. All these adds up to your animation memory and can be used whenever its needed.

In most studios before starting a project, the client or the animators would go through a phase called 'referencing' and this would also be another topic for another day. But referencing is needed for animators to observe and study before starting to animate. Usually when there is a dancing animation needed, I would spend a few hours just rummaging through youtube, google images for references of dancers dancing. All these info are needed to create the animation.

How the ballerina twirls, how the dancer leaps up and clenches his fist and brings it towards his chest in anger, so on so forth.

That's Observation!

It's a natural tool everyone can master. Truth be told, I wasn't that much of an observer in the cartoons I watched when I was younger. The time when I would take out my cereal bowl at 8am in the morning to catch my favourite cartoons on a Saturday.

After I started my animation career, I felt a lack of animation sense in terms of cartoon postures and movement. Usually, the cartoon characters would always have a more exaggerated facial or posture so everything is amplified and delivers the story. That being said, I now have to find time to watch more cartoons and observe them.

I realized that my other animation friends who are anime fans since young, are usually good at expressing their characters in the scene.

What I'm trying to say that, observation is very important and if you're in this creative line, and have been missing out all these little things, it's about time to crank up that observation notch by many folds.

alt
source

Your animation will only get better from here on out, so if you're not used to observation the way I've explained it in this post. Then, it's about time you train yourself and sooner or later it will become a habit. Just don't go stalking people aite? :)

The world around you is actually really beautiful if you would just stop and look at these little things.