The Marc Davis Celebration of Animation

Last Friday was the Marc Davis Celebration of Animation.  Davis was one of Disney’s legendary Nine Old Men, and had poured himself into the younger generation of artists.  At this Mentoring celebration, a number of today’s great animators talked about how they were influenced by many of these Nine Old Men.  Speakers included James Baxter, [...]

False Notes

A false note is something that sticks out like a sore thumb. It’s a poke in the eye. It’s something that is not right within a given context.
In music as false note is a note that is off key, or delivered out of step. In painting a false note is a color [...]

The Weight of Walking

Walks and runs are primarily a weight distribution problem. In fact, every motion is primarily a problem of moving weight. Energy is expended to move an object from a standstill. One of the problems we faced with Meteor and the Mighty Monster Trucks is that the trucks did not look like [...]

The Omnipresence of Weight

Weight is one of the foremost problems animators face. It accounts for a significant amount of problems in animation. Even many performance problems can be attributed to weight problems.  In all my years of animation I cannot recall very many times where the weight problem was that there was too much weight in [...]

Animation Step 7: Finishing & Refining

Once you reaching the finishing stage of animation, there are some details you must attend to before you’re done.  Depending on the level of secondary action and follow-through, you may want to seek an approval of the animation before you tackle the finish.
Refine the Hook-ups
Hook ups are a constant problem in any production.  Before you [...]

Animation Step 6: Execute the Animation Part 3

Having covered keys and extremes, we now move on to the pose categories lower in the chain. It’s very easy to delegate breakdowns and inbetweens to lesser importance. In 2D, the structure of the animation team tends to support this idea, since there is a specific hierarchy at work. Beginners begin with [...]

Animation Step 6: Execute the Animation Part 2

This post will look at the nuts and bolts of how 2D animation has been defined by the masters in order to give some orderly coherence to the process, and to train others in how to think about animation.
2D animators are forced to deal with a complete pose in a single frame.  On one hand [...]

Animation Step 6: Execute the Animation Part 1

Stephen King said about the writing process, for the first draft write with your door shut, and for the second draft write with your door open.  I think the same is true with animation.  Whenever I first tackle a scene I high guard my time so that I will have no interruptions (which seldom happens).  [...]

Rough Animation of Disney Masters

As we approach step 6 of our animation methodology, I have listed here some very good resources on the web for you to take advantage of.
1 on 1 Animation has a page of really good examples of rough animation of some of the Disney guys at this website:
http://www.1on1animation.com/inspiration-flip.htm
You need to review these as much as [...]

Animation Step 5: Time out your scene

Timing is just as important as posing. When timing is done well it can convey force, weight, energy, emotion, reality…and story. Poor timing can also kill all these things and turn great poses into an awkward mess.
At the very least, as scene will have 3 phrases: 1.) Where the character came from, 2.) [...]