After all, in animation you get nothing for free. You start off with a digital puppet, usually in a stiff "T-pose", and have to figure out the rest yourself. In this tutorial at our Vimeo Channel, I explain how to block out a shot from scratch.
Planning animation
In this video, I explain how to go about blocking out an animated scene with no dialogue. The shot is about a character talking on the telephone. It is a pantomime shot with no audio; we cannot hear the conversation, but we need to be able to understand the tone and content of the phone call - purely from the body language and facial expressions of the character. The purpose of the exercise is to show how to plan a shot on stepped curves, telling a story without words.
The tutorial shows a planned approach to the shot, including shooting live action reference and creating thumbnail sketches to plan the shot. Most importantly, it explains how to imagine the scene, so that you start by making positive choices about the character's state of mind, and about what is happening in the shot. Animators are actors, and we need to create a memorable performance.
Write out your story
I always start out by writing the story out on paper. Write down who the character is, what his or her name is, what is happening. Try to tell a story with a beginning, middle and end.
Animators often like to skip this stage and go straight to the motion, but time spent properly planning out a shot is never wasted. When I ask my students: "what is the character thinking and feeling?", they will often say something like: "Oh, kind of neutral". Or, worse: "I have't decided yet". But you need to make these decisions up front, as the shot won't have any impact otherwise. After all, if you don't know what the shot is about, neither will your audience.
Set up your scene
Select the character rig you want to use (make sure to test it properly so you know how it works) and import the character rig into the shot.
Shoot live action reference
I generally shoot live action reference of myself acting out the shot, using a light, inexpensive tripod to mount my phone. The trick is to do multiple takes, trying out different ideas.
Then, I import the video into Premiere, select the best performance, and trim the edit to the frames I want. These can then be imported directly into Maya onto an image plane.
Create thumbnail sketches
Next I do thumbnail sketches based on the main poses. These are drawn like a comic strip, matching the bits of the dialogue to the main poses. The most important poses are the beginning, middle and end. Again, animators often like to skip this stage, but time spent planning and thumbnailing is never wasted.
Import a set
I like to import a set into the shot (there are lots of free sets available online at sites like Turbosquid.com) to make sure my shot makes sense and I know who the character is. This helps with the story telling, as we now have a sense of where we are, and what the story being told is.
Create a Shot Camera
At this stage it is important to create a camera, name it "shotCamera", frame your scene and lock the camera off. Avoid the temptation to leave your camera decisions until the end; this is a choice you should make up front. After all, you would set the camera up first of all if this were a live action shoot.
Blocking, and Key Poses
Now it's time to create your main poses on stepped curves in Maya: start, middle and end. This is the most important stage. Ask yourself - do you the poses make sense? Do we know what the character is thinking and feeling? Always do the first pose, then the last pose, then the middle pose.
The Tween Machine
Once I have the main poses blocked out, I then use the Tween Machine tool by Justin Barrett to break down my poses. This process can go pretty quickly; the Tween Machine speeds up your workflow dramatically.
Spline and refine
Once I've got my poses broken down to - roughly - around one pose every four frames, I spline the shot. To see how to do that, read this blog post. Then, it's a question of refining the shot to tweak it and make it look pretty.
I always start out by writing the story out on paper. Write down who the character is, what his or her name is, what is happening. Try to tell a story with a beginning, middle and end.
Animators often like to skip this stage and go straight to the motion, but time spent properly planning out a shot is never wasted. When I ask my students: "what is the character thinking and feeling?", they will often say something like: "Oh, kind of neutral". Or, worse: "I have't decided yet". But you need to make these decisions up front, as the shot won't have any impact otherwise. After all, if you don't know what the shot is about, neither will your audience.
Set up your scene
Select the character rig you want to use (make sure to test it properly so you know how it works) and import the character rig into the shot.
 |
| film some live action reference |
I generally shoot live action reference of myself acting out the shot, using a light, inexpensive tripod to mount my phone. The trick is to do multiple takes, trying out different ideas.
Then, I import the video into Premiere, select the best performance, and trim the edit to the frames I want. These can then be imported directly into Maya onto an image plane.
Create thumbnail sketches
Next I do thumbnail sketches based on the main poses. These are drawn like a comic strip, matching the bits of the dialogue to the main poses. The most important poses are the beginning, middle and end. Again, animators often like to skip this stage, but time spent planning and thumbnailing is never wasted.
Import a set
I like to import a set into the shot (there are lots of free sets available online at sites like Turbosquid.com) to make sure my shot makes sense and I know who the character is. This helps with the story telling, as we now have a sense of where we are, and what the story being told is.
 |
| Create a camera |
At this stage it is important to create a camera, name it "shotCamera", frame your scene and lock the camera off. Avoid the temptation to leave your camera decisions until the end; this is a choice you should make up front. After all, you would set the camera up first of all if this were a live action shoot.
Blocking, and Key Poses
Now it's time to create your main poses on stepped curves in Maya: start, middle and end. This is the most important stage. Ask yourself - do you the poses make sense? Do we know what the character is thinking and feeling? Always do the first pose, then the last pose, then the middle pose.
The Tween Machine
Once I have the main poses blocked out, I then use the Tween Machine tool by Justin Barrett to break down my poses. This process can go pretty quickly; the Tween Machine speeds up your workflow dramatically.
Spline and refine
Once I've got my poses broken down to - roughly - around one pose every four frames, I spline the shot. To see how to do that, read this blog post. Then, it's a question of refining the shot to tweak it and make it look pretty.
Planning a Shot on Stepped Curves
To find the tutorial, follow this link.
The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To apply for our BA/MArt in 3D Animation, follow this link. To apply for our storyboarding evening class, visit this page here. For the next 12 week animation course, click here.
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