Deciding what you desire your character to accomplish should
be an obvious primary step, but I am continually amazed at the huge effort
young artists put into creating characters with absolutely no idea what they
want them to do. Then, when they try to animate them, they become frustrated
when the characters will not do what they want. The primary rule of animation (and
all types of film making, for that matter) is: put the story first. All huge
movies and shorts have stories that every aspect of the production process must
serve. Pixar, PDI, and Disney all followed this idea in every critically and
financially successful animated movie they produced. They come up with
interesting stories and then expend enormous amounts of R&D, artistic
effort, and technical resources to produce their movies. Game developers operate
on much the similar principle.
Scriptwriting is an art form unto itself. The intricacies of
the three-act narrative and beyond are way beyond the scope of this short
chapter. So, recognizing that a larger story will provide a narrative framework
in which the discrete actions of the character carry that story, I'll confine
my discussion of "script" to individual actions within that story.
This process works well when you are working to create a demo reel, which can
be made up of individual animation exercises as well as larger, more complex
narratives.
Although having no plan is bad enough, having a plan that is
too common is arguably worse. One of my nearly all difficult tasks in guiding
animation students is paring down their ideas to manageable levels. Their
troubles begin when they present me with ideas such as the following:
• "I want my character to fight."
• "I want my character to show emotions."
• "I want to do a single skin character." Why?
"Because it's a test of my modeling skills."
• And my all-time favorite: "I want to create a
realistic character."
And these are only a few. These goals, while noble, are much
too general. Hidden in these easy statements are vast amounts of work that can
rapidly overwhelm an individual.
For instance, the "I want my character to fight"
story idea lacks some important descriptive work. Unless the character is going
to shadow box, the animator will need to model, texture, and rig another
character. So the animator has to do twice the work. Next is the question of what
type of fighting the characters will use. Will it be American-style boxing,
karate-do, wushu, or drunken monkey style kung fu? Will it be kicks, punches,
throws, or grappling?
Every animator has some desire to generate Matrix-style, "wall-walking"
fight scenes, but many fail to realize that each move within those fight scenes
is extremely well thought out and choreographed. In animation, you may need to
build and rig the character in several specific ways to accommodate those
actions.
The cure for such over-generalization is a detailed
description of every action. Therefore, an acceptable beginning for each of
these ideas in the earlier list would go something like this:
• "My character will be required to throw high, low,
and middle-height snap and roundhouse kicks at targets to the front, the side,
and the back. He will also need to punch
and block with fists, open hands, and elbows."
• "My character will require to happily say the phrase
'the rain in Spain
falls mostly in the plane' while winking leeringly off camera and sneaking
cautiously off stage."
• "My character is a superhero in a red, skin-tight
body suit. He will wear skin-tight yellow gloves that rise to mid-forearm and
shoes that rise his shin. He will wear tight blue
Speedo-style shorts and have a big blue T emblazoned on his
chest. His body suit will extend all over his head Spiderman style with only
cutouts for eyes. He will need to run, jump, fly, kick, and punch."
• "I want my character to appear naturalistic enough to
engage the audience. I will concentrate on making her eyes, face, and hair
convincing so as to be improved able to convince the audience of the emotions
she will have to display."
Although these statements are substantial improvements over
the first set of ideas, these statements are only the beginnings of practical
concepts. The next step is to describe in detail what the character will
actually do within the context of the story. You need to plan each gesture,
action, and expression before you begin modeling. By describing each action in meticulous
detail, you'll get a good feel for exactly what you will require to animate,
and unrealistic expectations will evaporate under the hot light of thorough
examination.
Concurrently with writing the story for the character, you
must draw constantly. Visualizing both the appearance of the character and the
performance that character will give is essential to completing a successful
animation. At this point, the type of preproduction depends on your individual
skills. If you are a strong draftsperson, you should spend more time drawing
than writing; if you're a weak draftsperson, you can spend extra time writing
if you are more comfortable doing so. These drawings need not be highly
detailed. In fact, you can indicate motions with easy, not-much-more-than-stick
figures drawn rapidly. The quantity of drawings is what is important at this
stage; drawing the character accurately is a secondary consideration.
Furthermore, you need to fully describe each motion in the script. A kick
should have at least four drawings: a ready pose, a raised leg pose, a fully
extended kick pose, and a recovery pose. Keep in mind that these drawings help
when you begin animating.
But wait! We haven't decided what the character even looks
like, so how can we choose what it will do?
This vagueness is intentional because when possible, the
final design of your character is determined by what you, the animator, plan to
do with it. Remember that every facet of the animation serves the story you plan
to tell, and you relate that story primarily through the actions of the
character. Naturally the appearance of that character is secondary to the story
itself. For instance, it is counterproductive to expect that an obese character
can bend over, touch its toes, and vault into a forward flip. Some gesture
drawings of rapidly drawn figures your goal is to create a believable performance;
the model/character should help to achieve that goal. Conversely, you might
already have a character pre-built or preconceived. In such cases, it is up to
you to find appropriate actions for that character. Furthermore, animators
working in an effects company may have this decision taken out of their hands
entirely because they have to animate someone else's character; the animator
then has no choice but to work with what they are given. My point is that
animators should do everything possible to enhance their ability to create a
believable performance, and to the extent the animator has control, the design
of the character should not create that goal more difficult.
Drawing is the beginning of modeling, so the beginning of
modeling doesn't happen in Maya, but on paper. Here, there is no substitute for
drawing ability. Having determined what your character can do, draw the
character. If you are not proficient in drawing, you will have to either muddle
through or hire someone who is proficient. Ideally, the final product of this
phase is a fully posed "character" drawing that reveals the
personality of the model. You use this drawing as reference/inspiration later
when animating.
More significant, you need to produce a front and side
schematic drawing of the character.
The details of these drawings should match in both views.
Graph paper is helpful for lining up details
Post a Comment