Concerning style, how have you learned to match the style of a film? In other words, how have you approached animating so that the film appears as if it was animated by one person?Consistency is a big issue at Pixar, because we don't have Character Leads, in the traditional Disney sense. Pixar animators are assigned scenes, not characters, so any animator may animate any character at a given time in the film. This is one of the reasons that dailies are so important. We can all sit down in a room with the Director and Supervisors and see what's being done with the characters. The Director can decide what works and what doesn't, and further define how the character behaves. This helps us to all get on the same page and understand who the character is. Usually one or two animators will demonstrate a knack for a certain character, and their work will become a touchstone for the other animators to reference. These animators will occasionally give lectures to discuss what we've learned and give tips on how to approach a particular character.
We'll also develop model sheets (collections of images of the character in poses that are considered in-character on and on-model) as well as libraries of facial expressions that other animators can use as a starting point. Ultimately it's up to all the animators, Supervisors and the Director to police each other and work towards a consistent portrayal of the character.
Guest Blogger Victor Navone
11 comments:
A little more on this:
It's important to take into consideration the style of the film when creating an animated performance. What is appropriate on one film may not be on another. These kinds of choices are usually figured out in preproduction, but will continue into production as lessons are learned.
This is something I'm dealing with a lot right now; the humans on Toy Story 3 are designed, and therefore animated, in a very naturalistic way. I couldn't animate a Toy Story human the same way I animate a Ratatouille human, for example. On Ratatouille the characters were a lot more stylized, so we could push their performances further and get pretty broad with them. On TS3, I find I'm relying on video reference a lot more, and having to work harder to get the mechanics and weight just right.
Again, it's important to listen to the director an supervisors, and pay attention to what other animators are doing with the characters.
Have you ever run into the problem where you just can't seem to bring out the mannerisms of a character?
Great article Victor. It's been great to see you leaving so many tips and tricks lately.
This weeks topic is an interesting one, I can see why it is necessary to get inside your characters head and allow what you know about them drive your animation decisions.
-Jeremy Jutras
That is really interesting, I had no idea that there were no animation supervisors or leads at pixar, no wonder the films are all so good, cause it's a big collaboration
I'm sorry, but where do I ask the questions here?
not on this topic but questions which are completely independent than this one. once again , excuse me... i really don't know.
Great question and great insight Victor! Thanks for taking the time to enrich us through your experiences!
Dattaprasad, you need to send an email to (tipsandtricks@animationmentor.com).
Josh, I haven't really had this problem, but there are times when I come up with solutions that are too generic or cliche, and not specific enough to the character or situation. I these cases it's always best to do some more research, and get some advice.
mattanimation, there ARE Animation Supervisors at Pixar, but they don't function in the same way that they do (or did) at Disney. A lead animator at Disney is in charge of a single (or a few) characters, and directs the other animators working on those characters, while producing lots of footage himself. At Pixar, the supervisors oversee all of animation, work with the director and interact with other departments to keep production running. They don't do a lot of animation themselves, but spend most of their time, well, supervising.
So though as audience we dont realize that its same characters are animated in different scene by different animators,
but can you guys guess whose work is it means like you definitely have some unique signatures than others ?
like saying "hey that's definitely done by Carlos"
:)
Yeah, sometimes we can tell who animated a shot just by the style of it. Sometimes you can "see" the animator in the performance. We try not to repeat ourselves or become predictable, but we all have our own aesthetic tastes and tendencies.
I don't think this really answers the question very well, Pixar's style is consistent, more or less, and it doesn't change from one show to another. So for probably any animator at Pixar... the isue is more or less strightforward - everybody "knows" or understands the Pixar style, and it's a matter of getting better at applying it.
But I think the question was more about how you adapt when you have to move from one show to another, and how can one tackle all this... understanding, learning, and applying a certain animation style.
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