March Snapshot #1

Greetings viewers! This week I thought I would delve a bit into explaining the evolution of my workflow. Seeing as how snapshots are great opportunities to show off the progression of work (like the one featured above), its also a chance for me to throw about random thoughts and share ideas.

Animation in itself is a lot of work, but making it look presentable from concept to finished product can be more involved than most might think. The attached gifs illustrate some of the steps I take to produce scenes for various projects. The first involving focus on line drawing and sfx (in this case liquids) its quite simple but it helps put the point across. I tend to keep my projects as simple as possible so as to help separate segments that don't need to be in the way of the work but also not let the layers get in the way of the workflow itself either. Its a bit of a balancing act as you'll observe :P The following gifs will illustrate from other projects how I incorporated color, grading and sfx to work in concert with each other. 

Since the style is intentional I tend to leave the final product looking like it does but should I decide to expand on that in other ways in the future I will probably start looking at alternative software packages that would allow me to extrapolate complex scenes for various tasks. You'll also see a clearer expansion of my workflow complexity between screenshots of my projects done earlier and more recently just by observing the number of render layers and sfx attached.

Although the workload has seemingly increased, the ratio at which I punch out projects has actually reduced the time necessary especially for complex shots. I will of course continue to refine my workflow and this will no doubt have further changes to accommodate even more elaborate projects.

I've also had some interested parties ask about whether I utilize animation tools like tweening and automation software that helps 'inbetween' the drawings for you. While some of these tools are very impressive they are just that, tools. The art of motion for me is understanding the pacing and positions of subject matter in a scope of time, drawing them out has a very satisfying experience by watching animations develop from storyboard panels to fluid, life-like settings. Its especially exciting to see it really come together after a tipping point, which usually kicks in when I complete all the breakdowns to see the fluidity of the motion coming together. 

While I do draw a great deal of my work I do take some liberties with pacing myself, most animations are shot on 2s at 24 frames per second so usually 12 pictures a second which still tricks the human mind in the fluid motion. I do shoot on 1s (24 pictures a second) if there's a lot of fast motion and I want to visually communicate it more clearly for the viewer, seeing it broken down further helps when it comes to those situations. There's also occasional frame holds, using a single image for a number of frames before they animate again, and while the more life-like approach would be to redraw that same subject for each of those frames to give it more vitality, it might not be feasible under circumstances where there's deadlines or higher priority project items. Tweening and camera pans can also be used but because of the complexity of setting up shots properly I rarely use these methods unless it helps build the storytelling.

With all this taken into account you can then begin to realize that some projects 800 frames long can contain literally a few thousand various drawings depending on each layer. Most might be small and easy visual graphics while others contain complex motions or interactions between subjects that requires lots of study.

I hope you enjoyed this week's preview into my workflow. I'm happy to announce that most of the projects I've been busy with are reaching that 'turning point' and its wonderful to see them really come together, its probably what inspired me to post this lengthy insider bit about the process. Anyways its nice to look at this process introspectively.

Until next time (^o^)/