Animation Tips & Tricks, Volume I - Animation Mentor

Sadly, this couldn't be further from the truth. The demo reel described above would have an incredibly hard time landing you ananimation job at any medium-to-large studio working in any medium, be it games, features, or TV."But, why?" you might ask, and I'm glad you did. I'll tell ya!It's because that demo reel will tell the recruiter literally almost nothing about your animation skills, with the possible exception ofone shot.Huh?Ok, here's the thing...acting is very important. I've written ad-nauseum about the importance of studying acting, of creatingmemorable and moving performances, etc. A believable and moving acting performance is, to my mind and probably to yours aswell, the very pinnacle of the art of animation.But it's just that - the *PINNACLE*. In other words, it's the culminating point of our art. It's the *TOP*.If you were a mountain-climber, and your goal was to reach the pinnacle, then the end-goal of all of your mountaineering trainingwould be to, someday, be skilled enough to climb Mt. Everest, right? But would you START at Mt. Everest? Heck, no! Only if you weresuicidal! Tackling Everest as a beginner, and actually attempting to reach the peak, would almost certainly result in your death.So obviously, you don't start with Everest, right? Do you start with some smaller mountains? Maybe. Most likely, you start evenmore basic – at a short rock-climbing wall, or a hill outside of town! You start SMALL, you learn the basics, and you work your wayup, right?Animation is no different. I can't think of anything more detrimental to the progress of your animation education than to start doingdialogue shots before you've mastered the basic fundamental principles of body mechanics, physics, weight & balance, arcs, etc.Anyway, I'm veering off-track. We can come back to that stuff in a minute. Let's get back to that demo reel, and I'll dissect it foryou.And you know what? Let's pretend that the dialogue tests are good.Really good. Let's pretend that the acting is really strong and emotional, ok? Here we go:First off, we saw a character standing in one spot delivering dialogue from a movie.Since this is the very first shot, most likely the recruiters aren't going to judge it *too* harshly if the acting is at least solid. However,the key problem with this shot is that the character is standing in *ONE PLACE*. His feet commonly look nailed to the ground, andif his performance is at all active, there's a fifty-fifty chance that his ankles look broken as well.So you've got this great acting performance going on in the top half of the character. Nice facial stuff, some cool hand gestures...but guess what? The character isn't MOVING around at all. He isn't using the space of the scene. Unless it's key to his performancethat he's stationary (he's devastated, hiding, or his feet have been dipped into cement blocks - which is what these shots often looklike), you've just tossed away an excellent chance to show the recruiters that you know how to animate.Yes, they want to see acting. It's super important. But, honestly? It's even MORE important that you show that you know how tomake that character walk around during his performance. To take steps that emphasize his emotions, or even just shifting thecharacter's weight!An acting shot where the feet don't move tells me one thing and one thing only, regardless of the strengths of the performance - ittells me that the animator doesn't know the basics of animation yet.Next on the reel, we saw a medium shot of a character doing another performance.This one is a little more forgivable, because at least it won't stand out so badly that the feet aren't moving, but once again, the74Copyright 2008 by AnimationMentor.com. All rights reserved. This ebook may not be reprinted or distributed in electronic, print, web, or other format withoutexpress written permission.