Comments on Animation Tips & Tricks: Is It Better to Animate Pose to Pose or Straight A...

Hi ray, I've been animating professionally fo...

2011-01-15T21:07:40.839-08:00

Hi ray,

I've been animating professionally for about 8 years now and have always animated pose to pose....until about 2 months ago when I tried the layer method. Something just clicked in my brain and I friggin love it! I animate significantly faster (1.5-2 times faster), my animation has never looked so polished, and it allows me to explore different ideas that I wouldnt think of/have time to accomplish if I were doing it pose to pose.

That being said, I think nearly ALL students should learn pose to pose. Pose to pose is a deliberate process that really makes you think WHY you are moving a particular body part. It teaches you to plan out your shots and work out the timing within a shot length.
I think for most, starting off with layered technique will instill bad habits. You will move a body part for the sake of keeping it alive rather than for a specific purpose...then you animation turns to mush.
Once you have some experience animating, then try out different styles and see what works best for you.

Anyways that's my 2 cents.
Thanks,
Eric

thank's for claring it, your grat.

2009-10-15T13:35:20.979-07:00

thank's for claring it, your grat.

My experience with clamped is that it likes to gi...

2009-10-14T08:34:01.343-07:00

My experience with clamped is that it likes to give ease ins and ease outs to your keys by default. I want to control that myself. But certainly if you prefer clamped..if it works for you then great!

I like plateau as I have found it to be a better version of spline It doesnt give you the pesky overshoots that spline likes to provide.

Ray

dear Mr.ray, it's interesting. blocking, prima...

2009-10-14T00:00:12.052-07:00

dear Mr.ray, it's interesting. blocking, primary and secondary that's what you conveying, i am fallowing it, but i have a question, why plateau and why not clamped.

thank you.

Something to remember is that we are all wired dif...

2009-10-13T19:19:14.669-07:00

Something to remember is that we are all wired differently so what works great for one person could cause another person's head to hurt.

A good buddy of mine never works in stepped..EVER. It just doesn't work for him, but his shots still turn out great!! He starts in a layered method.

I would encourage students to at least try doing a first blocking pass in stepped. It makes the intent clear and really does provide a road map for the scene. From there do what feels right, however I stand by "the more choices you make up front the less problems you will encounter later."

Whenever I have left something in my scene ambiguous.."oh I will figure that out later". That is the part of the scene that causes me the most pain because I may struggle to "find it."

Animated on!

Ray

This is a great article; I'm still learning th...

2009-10-13T17:22:02.567-07:00

This is a great article; I'm still learning this animation thing but I think that people do get fixated on pose to pose vs. straight ahead or layered. Using a combination of methods is the best approach.

Also worth checking out Richard Williams and his suggestions regarding workflow, which is a combination of pose to pose and straight ahead. It's in the Survival Kit.

Hey Ray, great advice! You are right, I also thin...

2009-10-13T13:35:37.021-07:00

Hey Ray, great advice!

You are right, I also think the best way is blocking as much as you can on stepped mode. It helps tons and we don’t get too many surprises when moving to spline.

Have fun!
-Chris