Richard Williams - Animation MasterClass animated line up

[Sierra Rose]

But I love the swimmer....Williams draws so well.

It seems he found another way to make some money with his animation talent.

I think I am alone in not liking his "Survival Kit" book very much. At least after the first year of learning, I never looked at it anymore. It made me feel dead inside somehow. His drawing inspires me but I don't like learning from him. He's very cerebral, isn't he?

[Jesoped]

I think it's quite interesting what people's comment on the persona of Richard Williams. Defining him as an animator/person that only strives for technical perfection, and losing out on character and inner strength is a debate I have had going on for some time now between some of my animation colleagues . Being inspired by his work and teachings of animation, I still get the feeling of of a man that's been trying to be the best, by learning from the best, and that he had/has the conviction that animation magic lies more in the principles than what it is you want to tell or why you want to tell it. And all of this struggle tfrom learning and getting the recognition from the great masters and carrying on their legacy of a skillful draughtsman, makes me wonder if he himself realizes on a deeper level just how good he is, and that he has learned to master the craft, but doesn't quite want to believe it - I think that for some that need for always not feeling quite satisfied, can be a major drive for accomplishing great work, but it leaves one with a sensation of not being complete, maybe that could be one of the reasons that Williams quite often struggles so hard to make it to the very end... And sometimes not making it... I don't know.

I furthermore believe that judging Williams as a formula expert solely based on reading his book, is very doubtful indeed... The whole book is filled with it, and it says so on the cover, and he clearly is honest about such an approach in conveying some of his statements. I believe that Williams book is for the reader to learn these principles - by analyzing his examples and then understanding them and then do their own. If people can't see that point or possibility - then in my mind they have a restriction.

I was so fortunate to take one of his masterclasses in 2002, and had a brief encounter with him doing the last day where we he would come around and sign our freshly delivered Animator's Survival Kit books. He can be a socially distracted person, and in the midst of two other attendants wanting him to sign their books, he grabbed my book and gave it his signature - and when I calmly confirmed a "Thankyou" he looked at me and unintentionally did a double take, and for a split second he froze in his look, and then carried on signing others. The reason for this is that one of the days he was checking me out (the class offered some workshops where people could play with various animated medias such as stop motion, 3D and even Motion Capture the latter one being on where I was a performer with a suit and all) and Williams being fascinated with movement, I could sense him observing me out of the corner of my eye, and very subtly I raise only my eyes seeing if what I had sensed was correct. I saw a very serious observant individual, that changed to a shy confused big kid knowing that he had been scoped, and almost rammed in to the whiteboard trying to escape the situation.

What I aim to say with this is that we all have nuances in our personality, and he is no exception. So when people call him a formula expert, and not an elitist - cause you can't be both, I strongly disagree with them (quite frankly I'm a bit fed up with people always seeing things as an only and not an also). In my mind even the great Milt kahl's work seems sometimes like a repetition of tricks done before and so on, but that is what we do, we build up a library of knowledge and choose to use them whenever we want - that is my opinion on how some portion of individualism comes about, it's your perception and choice of where,when and why you choose to use it. The wheel has been invented - now it's up to one self to steer it in what directions you want, but who knows, maybe it isn't driving thats your thing, maybe it's flying? or swimming? etc. and blah blah blah.
On a somewhat contradiction to this is, I miss a sense of calmness in some of his animations, but on the other hand I see him as being an exceptionally original and humorous animator, and that is where in my mind I think his strength lies in. If you have seen the man in action during his lectures, you realize that this man is the Real McCoy - that old saying of there is a fine line between mad and genius definitly comes to mind. It's in his eyes, a combination of being self engulfed with one's own world, and an almost stressfully playing kid that struggles to please. And I believe that it is these qualities that can confuse some people, the man isn't by heart a businessman but a passionate hard worker that wants something magical and a sense of believable escapism in what he does.

On the account on The Thief and The Cobbler, Williams himself has stated that it started out as a learning experiment and the grew to become a feature length epic. I admire his anachistic approach in constructing (or deconstructing) a story - the gig about not sticking to a finished storyboard is a very intimidating thing indeed - but why shouldn't he? I have to admit seeing one of his rough cuts of The Theif and The Cobbler it seemed to me like many of the scenes became a gag evolving into the extreme (ofcourse masterfully crafted), and that it had a much more slower pace than so many other animated movies (actually a relief to some extent) , and then you had the big crazy moneyshots that just blew you away due to their complexity and sheer volume of work involved.

But I have to give it to Williams, going back seeing it for my inner eye the mood and ambience of the movie is like an abstract dream that has a sense of believability in that world it exists in, and that sense of wholeness is for me a large part of the package. But losing out after 25 years and millions of dollars giving him a questionable reputation in the industry, is ofcourse a tragedy in it self. But I don't choose to see that as a trait of recklessness, but one of a damned stubborned "I can!" attitude. And in my experience it is darn difficult to get people to invest in an animated project where the investors can't see the potential (many producers - again in my experience - thinks in rational terms, and not in wholeness) ofcourse it doesn't make it any easier that the project is on ones - twice the work.

Who framed Roger Rabbit? stands out for me as being where williams hits the spot, the integration of the characters and surroundings is an extremely well-crafted tour de force. And although Williams probarbly would rip my head off for saying this - I think that he is best when he goes completely bonkers, no hesitations but still keeping the character's integrity and believability within grasp. The character Zig Zag in The Thief and The Cobbler is for me almost as broad and zany as many of the characters in Roger Rabbit - ofcourse not so extreme, but his attitude and gestures seems to me that animation like that is highly enjoyable for Richard Williams.

Speaking of the animated line-up on the Animators' Survival Kit internet site, I thought it to be very amusing and inspiring, and I liked that each character had their own little entrance and then catching up to a walkcycle.
I disagree when people say that they all walk the same - then I don't think they are observing the subtleties going on. I liked the organic movement of all the characters combined and it gave me a very pleasing experience indeed. But I have the book - and just like so many others I think I will stick to that only... But the DVD's has around 350 animated examples, they could be quite entertaining to watch I could imagine.

Although I enjoy to listen to music when I work, in many cases I find myself more concentrated and disciplined when there is silence - then it's me and only me. I can understand that for some that can seem quite lonely and intimidating. But on the whole notion of listening to music or not while animating is for me something rather individualistic, we all have different motivational channels. But I have met many that uses music as an escape from themselves, and they can in some cases become highly passive aggressive when being faced with constructive critic or feedback, and that is where I draw the line, when people uses it as an unintentional excuse for not being aware of what it is they are doing. And I think that is the balance between the two, when it comes into a production pipeline context.

And on the whole issue about ones and twos - in my experience you tend to get a watery feel on ones if you cluster to much in your spacing, then the eye doesn't recognize the change from the former frame, and the the brain detects that as something more like a morph than two individual images - the brain creates the gap so to speak, that is also why ones are so difficult to get right, your mistakes becames much more apparent. Where as on twos you can get away with more - and the brain doesn't have to read everything there is, because the gap is bigger (and in my opinion cruder). But both have in my mind their advantages and disadvantages, it just as well comes down to something subjective as taste as well as perception and format.

[Klaus Hoefs]

o.k., we have tried it out with a group of students. They had to draw only the legs for a walk-cycle after Williams in Mirage and next they had to put their Wacom on the floor to observe their friends' legs walking and to draw it. Guess what happened and where was fun.
There are only a few words from my teacher (a well-known world famous painter) I have always in my mind: read all those books if you want to know what they are talking about but then throw them all to the trash.

[Sierra Rose]

Jesoped

I enjoyed your post. You bring up many good points, especially about things not being black or white, but many variations.

It sounds like you had a rich experience with Richard Williams, the man, not the distant animator, author. I'm glad I went through "Survivor's Kit" so I know what the areas of learning are and know the animation language more, so it was not a loss at all. I just dropped it after a year so who knows....maybe it means he was a good teacher because I got what I needed and went on to something else.

You are right: there should be respect for our individual ways.

[D.T. Nethery]

I have to say I've never quite figured out how Dick's book got a reputation for being about mindlessly copying "formulas" ... in his lectures and in the book the message I picked up from him was :

"Ok, this is the formula way of doing it, so you have a basis to start from : now go and break the formula !"

[idragosani]

I have to say I've never quite figured out how Dick's book got a reputation for being about mindlessly copying "formulas" ... in his lectures and in the book the message I picked up from him was :

"Ok, this is the formula way of doing it, so you have a basis to start from : now go and break the formula !"

I think Preston Blair's books provide a similar foundation -- learn the fundamentals and then see how far you can push it. It's similar to how I approach music -- some people can't seem to break away from the formulas because the formulas are safe and they never truly learned the fundamentals, they just copy the formulas without the right understanding of how they are constructed. Learn the fundamentals, and you can push way past the formulaic stuff.

[Jesoped]

I have to say I've never quite figured out how Dick's book got a reputation for being about mindlessly copying "formulas" ... in his lectures and in the book the message I picked up from him was :

"Ok, this is the formula way of doing it, so you have a basis to start from : now go and break the formula !"

It seems to me that some people doesnt' get the whole scenario, I think it can have something to do with one's focus, one sees what one wants to see - just like some people are more obsessed with prestige, as opposed to self integrity.

An interesting observation I heard about was how people who was more used to think in logical means, saw things differently than people who were more dominated in the intuitive region of the brain. The subjects had to explain what it was they saw in an aquarium filled with fish. The logical/rational group said primarily that they noticed things like the colour of the fish, or if it had big eye or a small eye - the intuitive/emotional group observed not just the fish, but also the relationship between the fishes and how they interacted with each other and the background. To me it seems like the logical group saw the small details, whereas the intuitive group saw more the thing as a wholeness - and I think that it can have something to do with this - how we think and with what side of the brain that is dominant. And although I would place animation as mostly belonging to the creative/intuitive side, one also uses the logical side in order to break things down, and structurize what ever needs to be so.

So I think it has a lot to do with our differences in awareness, and in that I logically see something that is very complex and vast, but my intuitive side just accepts the versatility.

I absolutely agree with you - for me Williams delivers with such simplicity and clarity that you cant go wrong, his principles are so clear in just his drawings. I remember from the masterclass the overwhelming amount of stimulative approaches he is able to use in order to get his point across. Verbally, visually and physically and the sheer energy he gives it, sometimes getting down on all fours, and running around imitating various types of walks and gestures - all served with great humour, anecdotes and inside stories.

I have been visiting your personal blog, and I simply love your bunnies and the clown mouse. In my opinion they are some of the best cartoon characters made with TVPaint. Very inspiring - Thanks!

[slowtiger]

That's the nice thing in Mirage (and other digital animation software): it's so easy to have different characters each with its own cycle length and walking speed in one scene.

I watched that trailer and couldn't help but to think: I don't see much difference any more between a perfectly executed "Williams Formula" walk cycle on one's, and a rotoscoped walk? Williams is, undisputedly, somebody who spent his whole life observing and drawing, to the point one might call him a "human camera" (please forgive me my cliché metaphors). If there's something within the translation process from observing movement to put it down on paper which can be put in rules, I'm sure he has found and described it all. And everybody who needs to know those rules can read them in his book.

That's Williams for me, and I don't think it makes the man smaller than he deserves. Whatever he failed in - as a storyteller in "Thief", as a businessman with the same project: it doesn't make him a lesser animator. Even more: IMO it was Williams who played a crucial role in preserving the accumulated knowledge of a first generation of animators at a time when classical animation in general was nearly wiped out, a bit in the way arabian scholars preserved the ancient greek knowledge through the dark ages.

So what's the sense in discussing a bunch of walk cycles trying to read Williams' character traits out of it? A cycle is a mechanical thing, which will get more obvious the longer you watch it. A walk cycle alone will not tell much of a story. It is a vehicle, a device you will need because you're forced to work economically and on a budget.

Think of cars. Cars are boring, aren't they? Each wheel revolving at the same speed, not much deforming of the body, and they even look all alike. Yet film history is full of cars, from the inside as well as from the outside, millions of feet of precious film stock wasted on the most boring of movements. One should think the audience would eventually be fed up with it. But are they?

Knowing the mechanics of animation is a good thing, if only for getting you through jobs which ask for only that. Express your personality through animation - well, I haven't had much of a chance to do that in any of my animation jobs. But wether you do meakly paid standard stuff for a mere living, or strive to create artistic masterpieces: it's all animation, and I see no point in advocating only one direction.

[User 767]

Mr. Williams' book was fine, though I gave up on it once I got to the hundred or so pages of walk cycles. Watching the promo on that site was interesting. Mr. Williams' movement seemed unreal in an animated sort of way. Very interesting.

Isn't something published as instructional going to end up being a formula? What can he do other than say 'this is a way it's been done, and here's how it works and why". You don't have much of a book if you just say: Observe, practice, and find your own way-and even then you've assumed that 'god-like' audacity to TELL someone that (which may not work for many readers).

Maybe there was a theory or point to the characters all changing their walks to 'in step' that's being missed here? Maybe not-seemed deliberate to me, and functional in its way.

I can't stand Ren and Stimpy, but I appreciate John K and what he does for people in animation. Don Bluth's work drives me up the wall, but he's supportive of animation as well. Richard Williams is sharing a wealth of information that he got from other people (and paid them for, no less). Doesn't matter if I like their work, they still offer valuable information. Animators seem to be sharing people. Almost as if we don't foster newcomers, then the art will go away entirely. The time I spend with newcomers is mostly rewarding. I think it helps keep my mind open to new ideas and techniques.

I'm glad that people take the time to offer something to the world. I'm sure that when Paul writes his book, it will be well received by some and complained about by others. Same with his movie, I'm sure.

On One's Two's: This brought to mind an animated short I saw long ago— Animated on one's for ShowScan (projected at 60 FPS-so that means 60 drawings per second of film-as compared to the 'usual' 12). It was an amazing feat, but nearly unwatchable. Just too much information. I think animation on 2's works well. It's just enough information. I almost think that it lets your imagination do some inbetweens at that rate. I don't know how to describe it. It's a fine balance, isn't it?

[Jesoped]

Just seen the Animated line-up a couple of times more - just loves his sense of timing and spacing! The man undoubtedly knows his craft, in my opinion great fun to watch over and over again - a little slice of masterfully executed animation.

The music is very much his style too, I was wondering if he had anything to do with that himself. I know that he plays the trumpet - and has/had his own jazz swing band called Dick's Six. I thought the piece to be very entertaining and deliciously light and simple in tone.

[Sewie]

Anybody noticed that there is an extended second edition coming out with about 40 extra pages? But judging on the messages in this thread, most of you don't really care, I assume...

[idragosani]

Yes, I have it on pre-order...

[Sewie]

I have too, I admit.
I hope he is not going to keep adding stuff to his book and lectures, though...

[Elodie]

hm... I thin Richard Williams becomes a little too... "sales and marketing person" =/

[BenEcosse]

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