The Animator’s Eye The Animator’s Eye Adding Life to Animation with Timing, Layout, Design, Color and Sound FRANCIS GLEBAS PHD IN FANTASY First published 2013 by Focal Press 70 Blanchard Road, Suite 402, Burlington, MA 01803 Simultaneously published in the UK by Focal Press 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Focal Press is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2013 Taylor & Francis The right of Francis Glebas to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notices Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become necessary. Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility. Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Glebas, Francis. The animator’s eye : adding life to animation with timing, layout, design, color and sound / Francis Glebas. -- 1 [edition]. pages cm 1. Animated films. 2. Animation (Cinematography) I. Title. NC1765.G59 2012 777’.7--dc23 2012021762 ISBN: 978-0-240-81724-8 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-240-81725-5 (ebk) Please visit the companion website at www.focalpress.com/cw/glebas Typeset in Utopia Regular by TNQ Books and Journals, Chennai, India Contents v Contents Otnh e DVD v ii Pros and Cons of Construction 37 Meet Sackenstein 39 Preface i x Watch Your Angles 44 Acknowledgements x i Caricature and Proportions 44 Cloth 50 1 My Introduction 1 Rhythm Balance 52 Introduction 2 Sculpting to Learn Drawing 55 Introducing Iggy the Pig and Scared Bunny 5 Why Do Drawings Die in Cleanup? 60 It’s Now Time to Trace? 60 Sketchbooks and Drawing Tips 60 2 Mad Science or Magic? 9 Why Would Anyone Animate? 9 Animation Process Pipeline 9 5 The Laws of Animation 65 Creating Your Very Own Mad-Science Laboratory The 12 Principles of Disney’s Nine Old Men 65 of Animation 11 Animating: Step by Step, Frame by Frame 67 Learning Exercises for Animators 67 3 That Reminds Me of a Story … 15 How to Animate, the Basics: Thumbnails and Key Frames 68 The Dramatic Structure of Stories 15 Use and Abuse of Cycles 70 What Kinds of Stories can the Animator’s Eye Laws of Motion Principles for a Dream Up? 16 Believable World 70 Why is Story so Hard to Get Right? 17 Animation Timing 83 How to Create Interesting Characters Using Timing for Rhythmic Interest 84 Simple Rules 18 Toon Physics: The Laws of Fun! 85 Animated Performance or How to Tell Clowns The Use and Abuse of Rotoscoping 86 from Zombies 19 Motion Analysis 88 Roller Coaster Theory of Storytelling 20 Loco Motion, or Getting Around in a Funny Way 93 Analysis of Story Structure 21 Iggy Goes for a Walk 94 How Do You Start to Write the Story? 21 Four-Legged Walks 100 Fractal, Not Fractured, Storytelling 23 How to Ride the Roller Coaster to a Good Story 24 What do You Want to Say with Your Story? 25 6 It’s Alive! Animating Inner Life 103 Emotion Wheel 105 4 Secrets of Drawing 29 Show the Thinking Process 109 Seeing Shapes, Drawing Lines 29 Lip Sync 111 Drawing Basics 32 Lip-Sync Timing 113 vi Contents 7 Creating Worlds 117 9 Genesis of Idea 185 Creating a World on Your Desktop 117 The Evolution of The Animator’s Eye Flipbook 185 Creating Style Guides 119 Merge Flipbooks 190 Designing Style Guides 120 Continued Flipbook Refinements 215 Composing Pictures 121 Iggy’s Problematic Switch 215 Staging and Laying Out for the Viewer’s Eye 123 Going for a Walk with the Camera 126 10 The Production 229 Getting a Perspective of Your World 126 Production—Now We’re Cooking! 229 How to Choose Colors 127 Art Directing by Color Script 232 Color Script 134 Production Help 235 Lab Exploration 135 Software Procedures 236 Castle Interior 136 Complete Color 237 Design of the Mad Lab 137 Bokeh Backgrounds 141 Painting Technique 142 11 The Evolution of Iggy and Scared Bunny 255 Opening Pan from Layout to Background 147 How These Two Figments of My Imagination were Brought to Life 255 Pitching Ideas 258 8 Postproduction 157 Putting it Together in Post 157 12 The Animator’s Eye 261 Compositing Puts it All Together 157 Beginner’s Corner: How I Got My Animator’s Eye 261 Editing Makes Sure the Story is Told Clearly 170 My Beginner’s Corner 262 Basic Cutting Rules 174 Make Movies! 268 Sound and Music 178 Music Software 180 Appendix 2 79 Carl Stalling 180 Bibliography 2 83 Sonic Visionaries … Audioaries? 181 Index 2 85 Marketing and Distribution: It’s Time to Show Your Creation to the World! 181 On the DVD vii On the DVD watch how others draw. And for animation reference, there’s a video demonstrating various gesture movements. This also includes lip sync reference. I would like to thank the following people for their help with the making of The Animator’s Eye . First and foremost is Hans Karl who created the musical score that added the final illusion of life to the film. You can reach him at his website www . hanskarlmusic . com . J. D. Stewart provided audio production services for Hans. Chris Siemasko created the special effects of the eyes flying into the heavens for the final shot. Chris can be reached at Chrissiemasko . com . Bryan Cox provided the special effects for the transformation scene from the alligator to the bunny girl. Ryan Glebas edited all the animatics. Audio journey music courtesy of Michael Hammer michaelhammer . com You can reach me online at francisglebas . blogspot . com You can also find inspirational audio journeys to help you relax and get in touch with your inner creativity by Toni Pace Carstensen. Toni Pace Carstensen is a certified clinical hypnotherapist, meditation teacher, and Reiki master. Her healing practice combines guided visualization, age regression techniques, and Reiki energetic healing to assist clients in fulfilling their full potential. DVD Contents She also has extensive experience in the entertainment On the DVD you’ll find the complete three minutes and industry with multiple Emmy award nominations and 30 seconds long animated film, The Animator’s Eye . It’s in frequent work as a visual effects producer on feature films. full color with score and special effects. You can also watch More information can be found on a version that tracks the animatic along with the finished www . creativityconnection . com animation. In addition, you can see the early attempts at creating the story. These are very rough drawings which were done to explore the various ideas to see if they had merit. Included are the following animatics: The Tragic and Comic Sack, Duplicating Sacks , and Why Did the Chicken Cross the Soccer Game? Also included is a video showing how I draw Iggy including drawing tips and tricks. It’s always helpful to Preface ix Preface principles of animated life? These principles of animated life apply if you’re drawing, using cutouts, clay, computer- generated graphics or zombie bodies, and they apply to each stage from idea generation, animation, design, staging, color and sound. We’ll demonstrate the whole animation production process, beginning with the creative process of capturing of the original idea, through story development, animation production, art direction, production design, compositing and sound through to the completion of an animated film, as well as thoughts on distribution. Nowadays, anyone has the ability to have their own production facility right on their desktop. We’ll look at various software packages available for animation production. The Animator’s Eye film The Animator’s Eye is your unique opportunity to journey is a combination of traditional, digital 2D and computer inside a burning brain and watch the creative process at graphics. work! The Animator’s Eye is the documented demonstration This book is not going to tell you what to do. Instead of of the creative process at work, as it applies to bringing an a “how-to book” it’s more like a “how-to and why-to book.” idea to life using various animation tools and techniques. You’ll learn “how-to” but more importantly “why-to.” We’re There are many books available on the various aspects going to train your animator’s eye to get you to see and think of animated film production. I am not the best animator, in new ways about animation so you’ll know why you’re cleanup artist, layout artist, background artist, composer making your particular creative choices. or editor. I will refer you to sources to further train your Warning! This is not an ordinary book. It is actually a animator’s eye in these areas. What this book offers is to movie and a book! The Animator’s Eye film is included in see how the whole process of making an animated film fits this book as a flipbook as well as on the DVD. If timing is together. everything, how can you learn about animation without the It’s ironic that you can actually learn more from mistakes element of time? Flipbooks allow you to study the animation than you can when something appears seamlessly perfect. in motion. You can flip as fast or slow as you like and the You’ll see behind the scenes, including the mistakes as well speed of the animation changes. You can even make it go as the successes. These mistakes can be embarrassing, but if backward. they serve to instruct then it’s worth it. My goal for this book is to provide a unique learning This book offers an overview for the novice as well as new experience about bringing things to life through the medium ways of looking at old truisms of animation, such as the 12 of animation. Hopefully it may help you, the reader, become principles of animation. Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson more alive as well. There’s nothing worse than being a did the animation world a great service when they presented zombie. their 12 principles, but what if there were more hidden principles? What if each phase of production had its own