Release. Pressure. Animate.

inside software or the addition on software, and can be done with very small files that
have to be installed or set-up. Often so small it can easily be taken along on a small
webserver, attachment in an e-mail, USB stick or even your phone.
Working digitally in general though didn‟t stop him and others (among them are Niels
Beekes and Tiffany Ford) from using other things on the physical desk space. Junaid
always keeps his character sheets close to check if he‟s still on model and Tiffany
mentioned using post-its almost everywhere for reminders and small comments. Again
we can see that the analogue workspace - the space that the animator will only „connect‟
with once he stops focusing on-screen – is often used for checklists, remembering ideas,
reference for character sheets and small thumbnail sketches of poses. The same
accounts for cut-out animators, the task of planning and notations is just as much
needed for them.
In the digital environment there‟s no more need for the extensive bulk of pages of
drawings and corresponding x-sheets as the sequence of drawings for a shot are bundled
in one file. Some organization is thus already done by the software itself, but file
management and a good pipeline are still very important. A checklist on what to do and
to check when something is completed is still very useful as we‟ll see when discussing
Niels Beekes‟ workflow. Especially if you need to focus on the motion and really live the
character it is important to not be disturbed by anything else.
You suffer quite literally cognitive overload. You‟re overloading your memory and
when that happens you‟re never paying close attention to anything. You‟re never
focusing on one thing for an extended period of time. (Carr, fora.tv)
By creating a good strict planning, like a to-do list or checklist you can reduce the
amount of things you need to remember. This leaves more room in the mind for creative
thoughts and focus on the animating. Niels Beekes, owner of Aniforce – specialized in
flash-style animations, deserves a honorable mention for funniest workflow for staying
motivated to work hard and to achieve the best you can every time. He rewards himself
points for each task he assigns himself and finishes satisfactory. He keeps track of the
amount of points he has, how many he gets a week and his current high-score. Ever
since he‟s introduced it to himself he‟s been trying weekly to reach a new high-score or
to get just those extra points at the end of the week. But besides this geeky game-like
rewarding system he uses to keep himself focused and having fun at the same time he
has been dealing with working as efficiently as possible. He mentioned the data
wrangling involved with a project and he hinted at using a Google Docs Excel sheet, an
online hosted document for maintaining data. For him, going through a project closely
resembles writing a book. Books have chapters, paragraphs, words and letters. You start
by looking what you want to write in general (the subject) and choose the chapters that
fit accordingly. Later on you expand this with subchapters and the paragraphs;
2. The difference in Animation fields
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