Release. Pressure. Animate.

more focused workflow by blocking certain media while at work and thus removing much
of the interference. This really is a personal thing and might seem irrelevant to tool
building, but the distinction isn‟t that big. I‟ve already mentioned that any notations and
reminders should also not constantly be in sight of the animator and interfere with its
flow, this comes down to the same principles. Even more, a bright pink layout constantly
on screen is distracting as well. Therefore, when building a tool it‟s very important to
keep away from distracting things that break the user‟s focus from the task at hand.
The constant access to communications, computers and such social data has changed
much social expectations. We expect immediate responsiveness and continuous
productivity. (Gazzaley, 2011) But this is not how animation works, or any complex task
for that matter, because we need time to focus and get ourselves into the task at hand
before we can fully become creatively productive. As Percy also learned to not interfere
with team members‟ flow this is an interesting learning point for a tool that has intuitivity
- even flow-enhancement - as its core. Occasionally I already mentioned the idea of a
review system. When comments are added it should not immediately notify the animator
(unless the animator is waiting for it.) Because such a notification can really introduce
interference, and will break any possible flow that the animator might be currently
undergoing. Looking for information or the usage of such reminders should be used at
only the times the user chooses to do so. Though, possibly it could be presented at a
regular interval (like dailies) as it will be scheduled and will make sure the animator is
waiting for it and it doesn‟t interfere as an unscheduled interruption.
For an intuitive toolset, as said, it‟s important that it does what the user thinks it‟ll do.
But if we go even further with that, what we actually want to give the user is the ability
to adjust something and know how it‟ll end up. It‟s not necessarily WYSIWYG, but even
more it is common sense that something is not useful if you don‟t know how to use it or
can‟t wrap your head around. Therefore it is important to – if tools of such complexity
would be created – that the user can learn how to use it easily. A “read-me” can be a
starting point, but thorough documentation is a good idea in general. Even more,
annotations -where possible - corresponding to buttons should be clear and simple to
understand. This also helps to make the animator feel more comfortable as he works in a
more understandable and recognizable environment, thus an interface that doesn‟t „bite‟.
Animation is teamwork. So, an intuitive toolset created for animators could heavily
support this point. Any toolset that would help something in the pipeline (where multiple
people might be working on) should be easily accessible at all times - preferably at the
same time. Even more, it should be clear who made the changes (if needed) and the
distinction should appear at first eye-sight. Again speed and simplicity are very important
in this.
Another significant point is that if there‟s a lot of data to be managed or even a lot of
4. Developing a toolset
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