Background for a new film

[slowtiger]

completely done in Mirage, in HDTV resolution. I like the "pencil" settings I made. The forest is done in 10 levels for a nice multiplane effect.

[Paul Fierlinger]

When will someone show up?

[slowtiger]

Uhm, maybe next month? I'll start the whole thing with a squirrel, which is always fine. Then a picnic will be held. I've already finished scripting, because my script reads like: "Squirrel, nut, forest. Two people, picnic. And then stuff happens." You see, elabourous preparation is everything ... *fg*

[hisko]

I don't know if it's the most secure method, but it will definitely keep your work less dull to do than mine.
There are no surprises for me the next two years, because every detail is scripted and storyboarded.

But if you want to make your own life even more easy than it is already, download the tvp demo and use the multiplanecamera.
It will make sure that the layers of trees will move in the right speeds in relation to each other.

[slowtiger]

I wouldn't call myself an animator if I weren't able to do that multiplane stuff by hand and make it look right ... but of course I'll give that thing a try.

[Paul Fierlinger]

I don't know if it's the most secure method, but it will definitely keep your work less dull to do than mine.
There are no surprises for me the next two years, because every detail is scripted and storyboarded.

How about both? Uncertainty of future income can be a an inspiration killer of the worst kind, but certainty of doldrums with no inspiration permitted is hardly any better.

I've been twice in the position of absolute hopelessness of ever seeing a proper project come my way again and prepared myself for steady employment at some ad agency. I was in counseling at the time and my counselor asked me to describe the most ideal job I could imagine for myself. I wasn't going to play with her anymore and blurted out to get this over with:
I'd be sitting alone in my studio, a call comes from a person I've never met to do some work for him, he'd FedEx me the material, I'd do it, send it back by FedEx, get promptly paid with a promise that this work will keep coming as long as I'm interested in doing it.

My psychologist said, so now you know what you want and when you see it you'll recognize it. About a week later I got a call from a friend who was a studio animator for Hanna Barbera, working on dumb, Saturday morning cartoons. He asked me if I knew of anyone who might be interested in working on stupid storyboards for a stupid show. Normally I would have completely dismissed the thought of taking anything like this but something made me ask what's entailed and he objected saying he would never ask me to do work this stupid; I just thought you might know of someone, he said

What's involved? I asked. He said if I'm serious, I'll get a call from S0&so from Burbank, he'll FedEx me the specs, I'll have only a week to do it, he'll send me a check as soon as he gets the boards and if he likes it he'll keep me busy as long as I'm interested. It was a really stupid, stupid show; Dink the Little Dinosaur but it was the right job at the right time. I loved the brainless monotony of work that offered me steady income and the combination of not having to know who's giving it to me and absolute freedom, even though the deadlines made me work 12 hours a day and the cartoons were of the worst kind.

This work didn't just carry me over a year and a half of the most depressing job slump in years but was a huge healing process for me. Eventually I found ways to make it more interesting even within the very strict guidelines of an assembly line studio. Once you have experienced the joys of creativity, nothing can stop you from implementing something of your own even into the most routine tasks. It was a great lesson in humility and it prepared me well for the next job that came along; a TV feature which offered me 100% creative freedom. I had been taught self discipline, working and delivering weekly boards, so I didn't let myself get carried away with the false promise of abundant freedom.

I think both situations are necessary for personal and creative growth. In my experience, an absolute and never ending spring well of do whatever you want opportunities spoils creativity as much as formula work if you aren't on guard and let the flow take over your spirit. The worst situation, of course is to just have nothing and at such times I would keep animating something but not set my sights too high as far as creativity goes, because when one is so low and afraid of the future, one cannot do one's best. If you say to yourself, I am not going to let this get me down but instead make the best little film I have ever made, you are setting yourself up for failure. Just any work, like starting with trees and adding a squirrel and maybe something else is the best film in the world to work on at such times.

[hisko]

Wow. That´s a long reply. Shouldn´t you be drawing right now? You only made about 700 hours of animation.
I think you are right that the best way to work is to have a structure and leave it open for inspiration. Making a forest and see what happens can trigger a great idea too.

I can put creativity in even the most tight commercial projects if I want to, but I think that in order to tell a good story(not a gag), it´s important to script and storyboard.
And then, when I start working, I´m often so involved in the story that many little ideas pop their head up while doing all the boring stuff, and most of those ideas that come very natural are often the best ideas, I think.

I was exaggerating the dullness of animating my film in my previous post. It´s probably a result of the good weather here in Amsterdam, and me being locked in this dark room, drawing the same drawing 20.000 times until it moves for 15 minutes, in order to make it look like a film.

[Paul Fierlinger]

You told me this before, but I forgot; do you scan or draw peerlessly? Because after I started drawing directly into the project window I found storyboarding meaningless to my work, unless a client wanted to see one, which is the only good reason for warranting one, I now find. When many little ideas pop in my head, I prefer to sketch them out on the spot as a quick animatic insert for instant timing results. To watch a storyboard even with a soundtrack is deceiving because we all read single picture holds much faster than watching the story within that panel unravel.

[hisko]

I draw the storyboards in tvpaint and make it real nice, so it´s easier to get funding. I also make lots of storyboards for commercials in TVpaint.
I think I might show you some work soon, but not in this post, because it´s not mine.

[slowtiger]

Last week when I was in Stuttgart I had the pleasure to meet Joanna Quinn who gave a short lecture about her way of work. Apart from her being a genius when it comes to pencil drawing, one advice seemed to be quite helpful.

She talked about sketching her animation in thumbnail size first, after studying life action of the movements. These thumbnails get enlarged and into the storyboard, and later further enlarged serving as layouts for animation.This way her first and best inspiration gets pretty unchanged into the animation.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Interesting; I too draw my first sketches in a project window which I bring down to about 25% of the project size. I draw my animatics that way too and then retrace at proper size when I start the proper animation process. Drawing small makes me feel like I'm standing far back from my canvas and looks particularly well when I keep the project frame large so the drawing glows back at me from the dark, like a movie screen.

[Sierra Rose]

I draw small (zoomed out) because my mistakes don't show so much and I can see if I'm getting the main idea without fretting too much.

[User 767]

Does the multi-plane function defocus as well? Scale with distance? Allow camera moves through the planes?

Just curious. I never liked the 'stacked cells' look.

[hisko]

Does the multi-plane function defocus as well? Scale with distance? Allow camera moves through the planes?

Just curious. I never liked the 'stacked cells' look.

Yes, the multiplane defocusses when zooming the camera, scale with distance and allows the camera to move through the planes.
It works very well. The focuspoint can be altered on it's own.
I would like to have an option to make the layers magnetic for the focusline, so that we control that more easily.
But that's just an extra that would make the feature even more comfortable.