Is It Important to Have a Background in Art to Be a Good Animator?

It definitely doesn't hurt. But I've seen awesome animators who are self taught with no art background. There's always an exception to everything, of course. If you have the time and opportunity to get a background in art, then I would go for it. For personal reasons and enrichment I would at least focus on figure drawing and character design-- basic areas that will help you create appealing characters and poses. If the school or institution is offering more than just fine art, I would branch out and go beyond the traditional art background.

Think about the art of animation as a whole and think about which aspects are important and helpful to your development as an animator. As an animator it's helpful to know at least the basics of acting, filmmaking, design, sound, etc. Basically most of the building blocks of a feature movie.

The study of motion and acting is the most important part to me. Good acting ideas and a good sense of timing will elevate you from being an okay animator to an awesome animator.
Filmmaking and design are important in order to understand the process of how to structure a movie, how the flow of sequences work, the composition of shots, the staging of actors, and so on. It's not just about cool animation. It’s about how you direct the audience's eye so that they are looking at the right character and not some tree in the background, how motion works between two or more shots so that cuts are not jarring and confusing to the audience.


You also have to think about sound because at the end of day the sound designers and mixers will add all the audio goodies to your shot. So if you have the main actor in a live-action movie deliver a line and you're animating a creature (like his pet dragon for instance) standing behind the actor, then don't have it roar or do crazy stuff, because that sound would overlap with the actor's dialogue and distract the audience and give the sound mixers a headache. :)
Think about the movie, or tv show, or game or whatever the project you're working on as a whole and not just animation.

Guest Blogger Jean-Denis Haas

What Tangents in the Graph Editor Do You Typically Use-- Clamped, Splined, Linear, or Plateau?

I’ve tried all of the above but have always come back to the trusty old splined. I feel I can control the most with spline and get some little finessing with it as well. Plus, I’m old and don’t like to change too much.

Kidding aside, I do also use plateau for some eases. Not too much because I look at the camera the most and not the graph editor. When I work, I stay in stepped as long as possible. I add a ton of keys through the process and am not as skilled at massaging the curves. When I do look at the GE, as all the hip animators call it, it’s during the polish phase. I do so only when there is something wonky in the camera. If there is a weird hitch or an arc isn’t as smooth as it should be. I’ll go through the keys and occasionally try a different tangent. Linear works on holds and plateau for some slow eases.

So the short answer is: Splined.

Guest Blogger Mike Gasaway

What is Important in Order to Succeed as an Animator?

There are many steps that can help you to break into the industry. A short and sweet demo reel with your best shots first will help. A reel that shows talent with plenty of upside and potential is going to get you a job.

Having contacts and good word of mouth will help, but the reel reigns supreme. Once you have broken into the industry, to continue to succeed takes plenty of work as well.

Never change your mindset and start thinking, ‘I’m done, I made it, time to relax and set some mindless keys and pay off my student loans.’ You always need to have an open mind and continue to learn proactively.

Make friends with all the great animators. Treat each shot like an assignment you had in school. Ask your peers and supervisors for feedback on how to improve. Even if you have people telling you that you are a great animator and they love your shots, keep the ego in check and be humble. You never know when that next shot you get will be something you have never done before, and will be a challenge.

That’s what makes animating so much fun! Success is simply taking all you have learned and combining it with feedback from your fellow animators, leads, supervisors and directors.

Guest Blogger Jason Martinsen

What Was the Most Difficult Part of the Animation Learning Process?

In 2D, structural drawing was an effort and technology in 3D nearly killed me.

I knew how I wanted the character to move but had trouble getting the computer to understand me. Some of my friends adjusted to CG readily, but it took me quite a while to get comfortable with XYZ, the Graph Editor, Dope Sheet and constraints.

With 2D, I had to properly space solid drawings with beautiful arcs, which took practice, but I understood it. Animating on the computer seemed like controlling a fighter jet and all of its instruments until I realized that pushing the wrong button wouldn’t blow the damn thing up.

Then I understood that I could relax (a little) and animate. Workflow was undefined when I transitioned to CG. No one had developed efficiencies to share, and tutorials were tech based.

Software has become far move user-friendly since artists and engineers have been working together, and there is so much information available on technique and workflow that the only issue now is exploring which method is best suited to you.

Guest Blogger Wayne Gilbert

What Separates the Good Animator From the Bad Animator?

I would say, from a supervisor’s point of view, that a good animator is one who shows great attention to detail and won’t hand in work that is clearly mediocre or worse, accompanied by a myriad of excuses. They are aware of the thought processes of the characters they are animating, and are conscious of communicating that to the audience. A good animator creates interesting rhythm in their shot, and isn’t afraid of using moments of stillness to accent both the rhythm and the communication.

There are also some elements of detail that I find really separate good animation from bad. One element is shoulder movement. Bad animators will not use the shoulders very much in their animation, when in reality, shoulders have a huge amount of articulation and really connect the arm movement into the torso movement. I’ve seen lots of stiff or non-existent shoulder movement in bad animation.

Good hand poses are another element that take good animation to the next level. Hands are incredibly emotive and communicative, but it is also painstaking to animate all those digits. A good animator will put the work in, not only to make the movement work, but to make the poses interesting visually, appealing, and connect those poses to the character’s acting and emotion.
Other than those particular things, it’s just a mastery of the principals of animation--paying attention to all of the elements that make a great shot! Great posing, great timing, body mechanics, great character acting (and this is something that is very difficult-- mastering the body language and personality of a particular character versus just moving a character around generically).

Something I can’t emphasize enough is the importance of having strong body mechanics. Whether you’re going more realistic or more cartoony, if the body mechanics aren’t “buyable” the character will never really take on life. If they don’t have that illusion of life, that makes it very difficult for the audience to empathize with them, and it will be much, much harder to draw the audience into the story and maintain the suspension of disbelief.

Guest Blogger Dana Boadway