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How to Make Animated Films 328 Finally, when your mouth selections are made and fully tested in Magpie Pro, you can print out the breakdown into what is e ectively your working exposure sheet, if you want it to be. The Magpie Pro interface and the printed exposure sheet you can use for your animation decisions. If, on the other hand, you want to use your own exposure sheets for your  lm, then you have to carefully and meticulously transfer the phonetic breakdown from your Magpie Pro frames to your own exposure sheet frames on the audio column. As an alternative to Magpie Pro’s own exposure sheet, you can transfer the entire Magpie Pro – style breakdown details onto a more conventional animator’s dope sheet if you wish to. Audio Breakdown 329 If you are a three-dimensional animator, you will also be pleased to know that you can create modeled mouth sets into Magpie Pro in order to test them, and then directly output that mouth animation onto the characters as you animate them in your 3D program of choice. Hey … at last … you are now ready to start animating. Yee-hah! Assignment Break down your entire  lm’s audio track and transfer the phonetic information to your own exposure sheets. You should create a separate sheet (or set of sheets) for each scene the  lm contains. This page intentionally left blank 331 A t last, after all this time in preproduction you are  nally able to begin the animation! What a relief! Although I work exclusively in a hand-drawn animation environment, most of my teaching these days involves the production of 3D animation. Consequently, I will use many 3D student references (lest it be stated that I am biased). (Source: DigiPen student art by Raymond Ocampo.) Film Production 12 Block in Ke y Poses How to Make Animated Films 332 However, I do caution you not to jump right in and start to animate. Even within the animation period there is a preproduction element too. I personally like to block in all my keys  rst. I will even sketch  nal thumbnail poses to get into my head the kind of positionings that I want through the scene or scenes. Even if you are a 3D, clay, or cut-out animator, the process of drawing your ideas on an exposure sheet or a sketchpad is extremely important. Intensive sketchbook studies, prior to attempting a 3D animation assignment. (Source: DigiPen student art by Matt Olch.) Whatever style of animation is your passion, draw your thoughts for poses throughout the scene you are about to tackle. Do more than one thumbnail sketch per scene if you like. Don Crum, the ex-Disney traditional-style animator who now works at Pixar in three dimensions, demonstrated to my students on a visit his animation process for a scene in Ratatouille . He showed his thumbnail sketches and his large-size dynamic pose drawings. He explained that coming from a 2D tradition he learned that to sketch everything  rst, before even addressing his computer, was the best possible way. As you can see from the accompanying illustrations, this is the core process we impose on students at this stage of their development at DigiPen. Crum even showed takes of footage he took of himself acting out the action, despite his announced embarrassment at doing so. The most interesting thing that he said was that although he had a good idea of what he wanted to do with the scene in the  rst place, it was only by acting out his ideas on video and then improvising and taking the action further than he had thought to, that he arrived at the great sequence of animation he ultimately created. If he hadn’t  lmed himself and then pushed himself to do something more, then his scene would be half as good as it is. 333 Part of the DigiPen process is to have students create a collection of sketches for each pose, before  nally blocking in their most successful one (ringing in red) in three dimensions. (Source: DigiPen student art by James Barwick.) Consequently, the best approach is not only to block out your key positions but also to act out the action yourself as far as your ability will allow . If you can’t do it yourself, direct someone else to do it, and either sketch the key positions or, more practically, capture them on your movie camera. Preferably, sketch the actor in each pose, and then caricature his or her actions to bring a greater dynamic to them. That way you will have the very best reference material to go by and will probably surpass your original ideas for the sequence! If you were able to webcam yourself recording a guide track for the animatic, this is where that footage might come in handy for action reference. Pages from a sketchbook, depicting drawings taken from life, referencing a baby’s action when walking. (Source: DigiPen student art .) Block in Key Poses How to Make Animated Films 334 Once you have all of your key thumbnails blocked out either on your exposure sheet or sketchbook, draw the poses to full size on your animation paper or block them in on your computer. Work at these until you really make them strong and dynamic and completely representative of what you are trying to achieve. Remember, these are your “ key ” poses, so if they’re not right, your animation will not be right either. It is always in the key poses that great animation is born! More dynamic poses, based on sketchbook ideas. Note that the  rst pose is tested from two separate viewpoints before being accepted. (Source: DigiPen student art by Drew Mueller.) Once you have achieved all that you can with the key drawings, test them in some kind of moving-picture format, viewing them in sync with the audio track if sync sound is what is required. View the pose test over and over again … sans inbetweens if possible … until you are sure your poses are right and the timing will work. Make changes to the poses if something isn’t working. Focus intently on this as blocking out is probably the most important stage of the animation process — a “ point of no return, ” if you like. It goes without saying that everything you do from this moment on relies entirely on this stage of the production process! Again, extensive thumbnail poses are worked out before the actual 3D character pose is established. I cannot stress enough the importance of doing this for all styles of animation! (Source: DigiPen student art by William Patrick.) 335 Assignment Create key poses for all the scenes in your  lm, and check that not only the action and timing are what you are looking for, but also that there is broad continuity from scene to scene. Block in Key Poses This page intentionally left blank 337 Not matter what your technique for timing turns out to be, don ’ t neglect it! Film Production 13 Placement and Timing W e’ve already discussed placement and timing in Part 1, so this is just a gentle reminder of the things you should start to think about right now. With keys blocked out and a pose test shot, you will need to start considering the number of in-between positions that will be necessary to link them. By recording the keys to the frame numbers indicated on the exposure sheet, hand-drawn 2D animators will be able to both number their keys and calculate the required in-between drawings. Other animators will just have to judge by seeing the number of frames between one pose timing to the next on the pose test. In case you’ve forgotten, the following  gure is what a typical 2D exposure sheet will look like when everything is doped on two’s. [...]... is as you imagine it to be or it needs to be However, you should never neglect the invaluable process of rolling or flipping prior to testing You cannot possibly tell if your handdrawn animation is working unless you learn how to flip! 347 How to Make Animated Films Flipping, or rolling, will give you a quick impression of how the action is working as you are actually creating it However, because flipping... together, with the lowest number to the bottom and the highest to the top, and simply flip them from bottom to top to see how the action is working Learn to fan the drawings toward you from bottom to top before you start to flip It will make the process so much easier 349 How to Make Animated Films Clearly, flipping is a wonderful way of knowing if the action is not moving smoothly enough throughout a scene,.. .How to Make Animated Films A quick reminder of how long the same images on one’s and two’s will appear on the exposure sheet! The best way to know how many frames will work between different key positions will ultimately come entirely from experience—a commodity that most student animators do not yet have Consequently, to take the faster route to experience, I advise you to study the achievements... animator to view his or her entire scene or comprehensive sequence of animation drawings within the scene if it is a really long one The technique of full-scene flipping is essentially adopting the principles of the flip book and extending them one stage further Hold all the drawings together, with the lowest number to the bottom and the highest to the top, and simply flip them from bottom to top to. .. techniques, please refer to to my book Animation from Pencils to Pixels, where I have explained the process extensively on pages 360–365 However, for now, let us accept the fact that flipping (rolling) is a means whereby you can view up to five drawings at once on the drawing board to see how they move and work together You can flip drawings whether you are using top or bottom pegs, although the technique... others In Flipbook you can cut and paste drawings in 351 How to Make Animated Films the exposure sheet to give you an instant playback of what you need before even touching another drawing! Using Flipbook to convert drawings shot on one’s to two’s (Source: Animation by Katy McCallister.) Then, with the film giving you timing clues, you can proceed to modify the animation accordingly In this way, the pencil... give you a good impression of how the action and movement is working prior to subjecting it to a final pencil test Even when drawing key positions it is important to flip between one or more other key positions to keep form, continuity, and movement consistent For demonstration purposes, I have shown bottom pegs flipping here, although, as you can see, I use top pegs to animate Flipping (Rolling) For... won! 353 How to Make Animated Films The altar of the Holy Grail! Assignment Test (and retest) your animation until everything stands up to the standards and intentions that you first started with 354 Film Production 16 Clean-Up N ow it is time to take your film to the next level, visually speaking at least Presumably, at this stage your animation is the best it can ever be (If not, go back and make it... smoothness of most animation If, however, you do not want such a highly active and energetic line to define your animation, then you have to be more consistent with your line! An even line tracing Note that the edges and folds are a consistent thicker line, whereas the inner design lines are not as thick, providing a different quality to the image 359 How to Make Animated Films Join the Lines Most animation... always prefer to have an assistant or in-betweener do the work for them However, I have always relished The biggest workload in a traditional, hand-drawn animation studio setting is the in-betweening (Inbetweeners: Ryal Hansen and Tai Terry.) 341 How to Make Animated Films in-betweening myself It is a moment where there is no longer any creative pressure or demands on you You just have to draw accurately, . Ke y Poses How to Make Animated Films 332 However, I do caution you not to jump right in and start to animate. Even within the animation period there is a preproduction element too. I personally. doped on two’s. How to Make Animated Films 3 38 A quick reminder of how long the same images on one’s and two’s will appear on the exposure sheet! The best way to know how many frames will. How to Make Animated Films 3 28 Finally, when your mouth selections are made and fully tested in Magpie Pro, you can print out the breakdown into what is e ectively your