Animation From Pencils to Pixels. Focal Press

TONY WHITE

Classical Techniques for Digital Animators

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Animation From Pencils to Pixels

Acknowledgments
This entire project has been a long, hard haul. Indeed, there have been times when I
felt I just could not go on any longer, believing during the darkest of days that I had bitten
off more than I could chew. What kept me going was the fact that I needed to exorcise
myself of a demon that demanded I share with others everything I have learned
and achieved. No project as challenging and as extensive as this could possibly have
been achieved without the genuine understanding and encouragement I received
from innumerable people, especially those near and dear to me, each of whom has enabled
me to take that one extra step I never thought I could take. It is quite impossible
for me to thank every one of you who blessed me with your love, strength and encouragement
over the past three years or so. Yet I am, without a shadow of a doubt, indebted
to ALL of you—whoever you are and wherever you are—for the tremendous help
and encouragement you provided me. If forced to name names, I would single out
those of you that I am able to recall with what brain cells I have remaining at the end of
this mind-chilling marathon of effort. If I have missed you out of this list quite unintentionally,
then please forgive me as I still do value you, even in my omission.

First I have to thank, without reservation, my wonderful contacts at Focal Press, Amy
Jollymore and Cara Anderson. You have been an absolute dream to work with and I
value the constructive and amusing e-mails we have shared together. Without your infinite
encouragement, patience and understanding, this book would never have come
into existence. I will be forever grateful to you both for your support and your confidence
in me, even when others have caused me to doubt. I thank you too for the wonderful
flowers you sent on receipt of my manuscript; they were indeed a very pleasant
surprise and a wonderful inspiration to travel further and faster! You have both given
me back my faith in publishers and publishing houses!

I need to thank too my wonderful editor, Beth Millett, whose job it was to make sense
of all my infinite and animated meanderings. Thank you, Beth, for your sensitivity, your
sound advice and your patience. You somehow made me look more like a teacher than
a preacher in all this and for that I will be forever grateful to you!

It goes without saying that but for the support of my family, friends and loved ones on
both sides of the Atlantic, I would never have been able to do anything. It is with such
valued ones in our lives that we find richness and reward and although I have been
absent from many of you in my mind, body and soul from time to time, I thank you unreservedly
for your constant love and sacrifice throughout it all. Words just cannot express
enough my gratitude to those of you who have enabled me to tread this singular
path without rant or recrimination. I especially thank my beloved silver-winged Saille
for dragging me from that dark abyss I found myself in and for showing me how to
walk freely and confidently in the sunlight once more.

Next, in writing such an exhaustive account on the ways and wherefores of this wonderful
world of animation, I must not fail to thank the great teachers and pioneers of
the work who have both inspired me and taught me all they knew. Thank you Frank,
Ollie, Ken, Art and Dick, all of whom have been and inspiration and provided me with
a solid path to walk upon. I especially thank Walt for kick-starting this whole thing
in the first place and for setting incredible standards that even today have not been
surpassed. I thank also Walt’s “young” nephew Roy, who has been of significant encouragement
to me, for generously writing the foreword to this book and for equally
generously donating his voice to the cause, so that his uncle’s great spirit could momentarily
live again within my film!

I thank too the Henry Cogswell College in Everett, Washington, especially my friend
and valued colleague there, Ken Rowe. Ken and Cogswell have shown me such support
and encouragement over the years. I sincerely believe their collective generosity has
been instrumental to the completion of the book and film. Special acknowledgements
also go to colleagues Dave Benton and Bob Abrams at Cogswell; their friendship, experience
and unbending professionalism were a great inspiration to me. I thank the students
of Cogswell too for their enthusiastic support in helping me with “Endangered
Species,” and especially those (Dani, Saille, Patrick, Todd and Warren) who agreed to
be photographed for the illustrations in this book. I thank also my new colleagues the
DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond, and specifically the irreplaceable Dean
Abbott Smith for both encouraging my work and inviting me to teach at the only current
establishment I know that truly understands the meaning of education in all of its
expression. At DigiPen, I have met great friends and colleagues who have not only supported
my objectives but have also materially contributed to them. I specifically thank

Raymond Yan, Monte Michaelis, Charles Wood and Royal Winchester for their generous
donations in encouragement and artwork, as well as Alecia, Geraldine, the remarkable
BJ, and Jazno for their great support and understanding.
Realistically, I cannot complete this picture of gratitude if I did not say a sincere thanks
to all those companies and corporations that have kindly donated materials and software
for me to evaluate. I specifically thank the gods of technology for the following
software (in alphabetical order, not preference): After Effects, Animation Master, Flash,
Flipbook, Gif Animator, Magpie Pro, Mirage, Photoshop, Premiere, QuickTime, Snagit,
Sound Forge, Storyboard Artist, ToonBoom Studio, Wacom, XSI and of course for my
pet video iPod, which has entertained me and so wonderfully enabled me to share my
work with others along the way. (Thank you, Claude “Mr. DigiPen” Comair, for making
this the most perfect Christmas gift ever!).

Lastly, I have to offer huge and heartfelt thanks to Dr. Jodi Berg and Dr. Chris Rivera for
keeping me physically going throughout this entire marathon. Without your generous
hearts and healing wisdom I don’t think my body would ever have survived the journey.
I am sure you secretly recognized the
practical folly of my mission but your
non-judgmental support and insightful
counseling kept me steadfastly
focused on the straight and
narrow path ahead of me. You are

both indeed one in a million.


Introduction

The film “Endangered Species” was created especially so this book could be written. It
may seem a quite extraordinary statement for an author to make—that they created
an entire film simply to write a book—yet this is basically what I have done. Without
the film, this book could never have been written. But then again, without an amazing,
magical, diversely enchanting world of animation which has existed for almost 100
years now, the film could never have been made in the first place!

Throughout my own 30-plus years within that magnificent century of animation, I have
always dreamt of finding one, single, authoritative book that would deal with every
conceivable aspect of animated film creation. Not just the pure principles of movement,
as some very good books already do, but EVERYTHING that an animator could
possibly ever need to know to practice animated filmmaking comprehensively, from
the principles of production to development and distribution, from screen ratios and
other technicalities to animation’s illustrious history. In short, I wanted a “one-stopshop”
book that has everything that any animator could ever want to know about life,
the universe and of course animation too. Since, I could never seem to find one, I decided
to sit right down and write it myself!

Ultimately, all animation teaching is about learning “tricks.” Over the years I have
learned a few more tricks than the raw beginner is likely to know, hence my presenting
them here. It must never be forgotten that animation is all about illusion too; it is not
real filmmaking, about real characters, but the audience has to believe it is so. Consequently,
the more tricks you know to create this illusion, the easier it will be for you to
do so. This book attempts to lay out all my tricks to help you in this process.
I recently reviewed the body of all my life’s work as a director/animator and calculated
that if everything were edited together and shown as one complete non-stop presentation,
it would actually amount to the equivalent of two or three full-length animated
movies! This was a terrifying thought, and an especially frustrating one for an animator/
director who still dreams of crediting just one full-length movie to his name before
he goes on to that “great lightbox in the sky.”

My work has always been consistently mercurial and aesthetic in its nature. I have
tended to shun the more predictable cartoon route of animation for the simple reason
that, for me, this is ground well-trodden and I prefer to travel along new paths of discovery.
The first significant award I ever won was a British Academy Award for the first
personal, short film I made, “HOKUSAI—An Animated Sketchbook.” Upon reflection, I
set up shop from the very beginning, in pursuit of the more innovative, aesthetic and
original (albeit less lucrative) work that I have subsequently preferred to do.

Along my career path, I have studied with some of the greatest names in animation:
the late Ken Harris (master “Bugs Bunny” and “Roadrunner” animator from the Warner
Brothers studio) and Art Babbitt (animator on films such as “Pinocchio” and “Fantasia”
during the golden age of Disney). I served (and survived) as Richard Williams’ (three-
time Academy Award winner and author of the exceptional “Animator’s Survival Kit”)
own personal assistant for two years. This wonderful exposure to the very best talents
the industry can offer enabled me to absorb the finer secrets of all the great traditions at a very early age.

Bringing this great circle to a close, my latest work, “Endangered Species,” pays homage
to some of the fine and classic moments of animation’s defining moments, moments
that have brought the industry to the point where it stands today. In essence,
the making of this film has been a bridging of both of my worlds: the irreplaceable past
and the unendingly exciting present. Although relatively short in length, “Endangered
Species” nevertheless proved an enormously challenging undertaking for me. Yet in
at first researching it and then ultimately creating it, the entire experience of re-enacting
the work of some of the greatest animation masters of all time, did effectively enable
me to “sit at the feet” of the great maestros from the past. As I worked on the film,
I realized it was a wonderful opportunity to teach all these discoveries, so that both the
old tradition and the new can be taught side-by-side and appreciated as one. Consequently,
in addition to the huge filmmaking assignment I had already set myself, I proceeded
to write this book as I made the film—and make the film as I wrote this book!

Within these pages I do believe you will find just about everything you should ever need
to conceive, produce, direct, animate, assemble, publish and distribute your own animated
film, whether that film is 2D, 3D, vector or raster format. But hopefully this book and its
companion CD-ROM are even more than that. The CD-ROM also contains a unique record,
scene-by-scene, of how and why “Endangered Species” was made. I comprehensively
explain why I chose the sequences I did and how they were probably created in the first
place. I also share with the reader how I subsequently re-created them in a digital environment
and how I actually animated some of the special actions of note that have not been
previously covered in other instructive sections of the book. Everything, quite literally
from “pencils to pixels” is there. I hope that any animator or student of animation will find
this book to be the very best resource publication he or she could ever wish for.
Like the current industry it reflects, the process of “passing down the pencil” from master
to student has significantly changed in recent times. Once upon a time, there was a
thriving apprenticeship system. But now it is gone. Today, education for the animators
of the future needs to occur through schools, colleges, and textbooks like this one. If a
continuity of knowledge is to remain, then this education, at the highest and most accomplished
level, has to occur without further loss to traditional values. It is so easy for
the young student of animation or those who teach the young students of animation
to be seduced by the glamour and the immediacy of the new technologies.

Digital tools and techniques have so much to offer the contemporary animator and
can effectively eliminate much of the tedium associated with frame-by-frame filmmaking.
Teaching software, and not the fundamental principles of animation, ultimately breeds
a generation of technicians rather than artists. I therefore earnestly encourage every student
who is intent on becoming an accomplished animator (yes, even those of a 3D, or
other, persuasion) to invest time in the pursuit of studying the great tradition that heralded
this current era. This way is the way of true animated mastery. It is extremely important
to me that this book will enable young animators from all over the world, of all cultures
and social classes to animate, and to animate very well. Hopefully all that will need to be
added is a humble pencil, a reliable computer and a dedicated soul afire with desire and
imagination for the great art form we all know and love. If even the slightest and yet most
significant progress is made in this wonderful, magical world we call animation, then I will
have passed on my pencil with a satisfied mind and a jubilant heart.
Tony White
Spring 2006


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Product details
 Price
 File Size
 60,396 KB
 Pages
 519 p
 File Type
 PDF format
 ISBN-13
 ISBN-10
 978-0-240-80670-9
 0-240-80670-0
 Copyright
 2006, Elsevier Inc        

Contents
Acknowledgments xiii
Foreword xv
Introduction xvi

1.Development 
Idea Creation
Intellectual Property and Copyrights 3
Purchasing or Optioning the Rights 5
Public Domain Material 7
Protecting Your Own Ideas 7
Proof of Ownership 8
Confidentiality Agreements 8
Works Created for Your Employer 10
“Endangered Species” 11
Evolving a Storyline 12
The Hero’s Journey: Story Structure 14
Summarizing the Storyline 16
“Endangered Species” 16
Scriptwriting 17
“Endangered Species” 25

2.Character Design
The Evolution of 2D Character Design
The Evolution of 3D Character Design 32
Animation Style 34
Guidelines for Character Design 36
Shape and Proportion 36
Head Heights 37
Model Sheets 38
Color Models 39
Foreground/Background Compatibility 39
“Endangered Species” 40
Concept and Environment Design 41
“Endangered Species” 43


3. Project Financing
Animation Markets
Movies 47
Television 47
Television Series and Specials 48
Television Advertising 49
Games 50
The Web 50
Direct-to-Markets 52
“Endangered Species” 53
Scheduling and Budgeting 53
Figuring the Cash Flow 54
Contingency Planning 56
Investment, Marketing, and Distribution Possibilities 57
Pre-Sale Distribution Outlets 60
“Endangered Species” 62
The Realities of Securing Production Finance 63
Advice on Sales Agents 67
Legal Advice 69
Presentation Packages 71
Logline 71
Storyline Synopsis 72
First-Draft Script 72
Key Character Designs and Concept Art 73
Sample Sequence Storyboard 74
Animated Taster 75
Development Budget 76
Evidence of Ownership of Rights and
Intellectual Property 77
Key Personnel 78
Project Web site 79
Presentation of the Presentation Package 79
Short and Independent Film Developing 80
Presentation Packages 82
Story Synopsis 82
Series Bible, First-Draft Script, or “Game Plan” 82
Key Character Designs and Concept Art 84
A Sample Sequence Storyboard 84
Animated “Taster” or Filmmaker’s Showreel 84
Project Budget and Schedule 85
Evidence of Ownership of Rights and
Intellectual Property 87
Key Personnel 87
“Endangered Species” 87

4.Rules of Filmmaking
Camera Positions
Ultra-Wide Shot 94
Wide Shot 94
Mid Shot 96
Close-Up 96
Extreme Close-Up 97
Combining Camera Positions in a Scene 98
Camera Lenses 103
Standard Lens (50–100mm Focal Length) 103
Wide-Angle Lens (20–35mm) 103
Long Lens (85–600mm) 104
Zoom Lens (28–80mm; 18–35mm; 70–300mm) 105
Fisheye Lens (6–16mm) 106
Lighting and Filters 107
Camera Moves 108
Fixed (Locked Down) Shot 109
Tracking (Panning) Shot 109
Zoom Shot 110
Dolly (Crane) Shot 111
Staging 113
The Rule of the Line 119
Shooting Down the Line 122
Getting Around the Line 123
The Cut-Away Shot 124
Moving the Camera 124
Moving the Actors 125
Two Shot, Profile 126
Two Shot, Three-Quarter 127
One Shot, Three-Quarter Front 127
One Shot, Three-Quarter Front Close-Up 128
Eyeline 129
Three or More Character Shots 130
“Endangered Species” 130
Scene-to-Scene Transitions 131
The Cut 131
The Dissolve 131
The Fade 132
The Wipe 132
The Ripple and Other Special Effects Dissolves 133
“Endangered Species” 133
Screen Aspect Ratios 134
“Endangered Species” 135

5. Soundtrack Recording
and Editing
Talent Selection
Voice Recording 140
Recording for Animation 143
Recording and Cataloging Dialogue 144
Non-Voice Recording 145
Music Track Recording 149
Final Working Track 153
The Track Breakdown 153
Film Speeds and Conversion Ratios 154
“Endangered Species” 156

6. Storyboarding
and Animatics
Storyboards 160
Storyboard Formats 162
Creating the Storyboard 164
Tips for Storyboarding 168
Reusing Drawings 168
Panning Sequences 170
Numbering Frames 172
Finish the Storyboard 172
“Endangered Species” 173
The Animatic (or Leica Reel) 173
Creating the Animatic 175
“Endangered Species” 181

7 Digital Desktop Production
Stages of Animation Production
Animation (2D and 3D) 184
Backgrounds (2D) 186
Environments (3D) 186
Special Effects (2D and 3D) 187
Checking (2D) 188
Scanning (2D) 189
Coloring (2D) 190
Compositing (2D and 3D) 192
Editing (2D and 3D) 194
Final Dub (2D and 3D) 194
Digital to Film Transfer (2D and 3D) 195
Production Team and Workflow 196
Director (2D and 3D) 196
Producer (2D and 3D) 197
Production Manager (2D and 3D) 197
Character Modeler (3D) 197
Production Designer (2D and 3D) 198
Animator (2D and 3D) 198
Assistant Animator (2D) 199
Inbetweener (2D) 199
Clean-Up Artist (2D) 200
Environmental Modeler (3D) 200
Background Artist (2D) 200
Checker (2D) 201
Scanner/Rostrum Cameraman (2D) 201
Inker (2D) 202
Colorist (2D) 202
Texturer (3D) 203
Lighting Artist (3D) 203
Compositor (2D and 3D) 203
Sound Editor (2D/3D) 204
Project Management 204
Progress Charts 204
Route Sheets 206
“Endangered Species” 207

8 Principles of Animation
Key Poses, Breakdowns, and Inbetweens
Timing 213
Charts 215
Slowing-In and Slowing-Out 217
Extreme Positions 220
Arcs and Paths of Action 221
Holds 223
Emphasis 224
Anticipation 226
Weight and Weighted Movement 227
Flexibility and Fluid Joint Movement 232
Overlapping Action 233
Generic Walks 234
Keys 235
Passing Position 235
Inbetweens 236
Walk Cycles 241
Personality Walks and Timing 242
Runs and Run Cycles 244
Personality Runs and Timing 245
Silhouetting 248
Dialogue and Lip Sync 249
Laughter 256
Takes 259
Eyes and Expressions260

9. Animating Step by Step
Key Poses
Attitude and Dynamics 270
Inbetweens 272
Adding Mouths 274
Staging and Camera Angles 275
Working with Characters 277
Extreme Action 277
Clean-Up 278
“Endangered Species” 282
Drawing for Animators 284
Drawing Terminology 287
Point of View (POV) 287
Horizon 288
Perspective 288
Vanishing Point 289
Foreshortening 289
Plane 290
Drawing upon Life 290

10. 2D Animation Overview
It’s All about Pencils and Paper
Script 297
Storyboard 298
Soundtrack 298
Track Breakdown 299
Designs 299
Animatic (Leica Reel) 300
Layouts 300
Dope Sheets and Production Folders 301
Pencil Tests 302
Pose Tests 304
Clean-Up 305
Ink and Paint 306
Backgrounds 306
Checking 307
Final Shoot/Composite 308
Final Edit and Dub 308
The Tools of the Trade 309
Lightbox 309
Peg Holes and Peg Bars 310
Field Sizes 312
Field Guides 314
Field Size Limitations 319
Overlarge Field Sizes 320
TV Cut-Off and Safe Titling 322
TV Cut-Off 323
Safe Titling 323
“Endangered Species” 324

11. 2D Animation Basics
Keys, Inbetweens, and Timing
Charts and Inbetween Counting 336
Straight-Ahead Animation 338
Slowing-In and Slowing-Out 339
Working in Thirds 341
How to Inbetween 342
Paths of Action 345
Superimpositions 346
Multiple Superimpositions 347
Dope (Exposure) Sheets and
Production Folders 349
The Dope Sheet 349
Frame Lines 350
Animator’s Notes 352
Audio Breakdown 353
Animation Layers 354
Shooting or Camera Instructions 355
Rules for Dope Sheets 356
The Production Folder 358
Special Instructions 358
Material Used From Other Scenes 359
Material Used in Other Scenes 359
Attached Dope Sheet 359
Flipping and Peg Bars 360
Using Peg Bars 360
Top Pegs vs. Bottom Pegs 361
Bottom Pegs Flipping 362
Top Pegs Flipping 363
Whole Scene Flipping 364

12. Finessing 2D Animation
Tracebacks
Eccentric Movement and Staggers 370
Takes 370
Squash 371
Stretch 372
Staggers 373
Panning and Camera Moves 375
Panning and Tracking 375
Side Peg Pans 378
Curved or Arced Pans 378
Repeat Pans 379
Panning Charts 382
Zip Pans 383
Camera Shake 384
Pan Speed and Strobing Problems 384
Shadows and Effects 385
Rotoscoping 390

13. 2D Vector Animation
The Value of Limited Animation
The Basic Approach 394
Writing for the Web 395
Storyboarding for the Web 396
Web Characters 396
Soundtracks 397
The Animatic 398
Vector Film Production 399
Animation 400
Design 400
Backgrounds 402
Inbetweening 403
Lip Sync 404
Fine Tuning 405
Being Resourceful 406
Non-Web Vector Animation 407
Games Production 409

14. The Paperless Animation Studio
When the Animator Is Ready, the Software
Will Come 412
The Technology 413
Mirage 415
Cintiq 416
The Importance of Drawing 417
2D or not 2D? 418

15. 3D Overview
The Importance of Drawing
Cartesian Space 424
Character Design 425
Polygons 426
Primitives 427
Character Modeling 429
Modeling to Suit Story Requirements 431
Rigging and Weighting 432
Forward and Inverse Kinematics 433
Creating the Bone Hierarchy 434
Adding Control Points 435
Manipulators and Nulls 435
Weighting 436
Lighting and Texturing 436
Environmental Modeling 440
“Endangered Species” 442

16. Creating 3D Movement
Blocking Out
Key Poses 444
Inbetweens 446
Fine Tuning 447
Timing, Timelines, and F-Curves 449
Constant Testing 451
Traditional Principles of Movement 452
The Value of Caricature vs.
Motion Capture 454
Sliders and Lip Sync 455
“Endangered Species” 458
Scene 70 459
v-01: Blocking In 459
v-02: Add the Ups on Each Passing Position 460
v-03: Foot Adjusts 460
v-04: Increased Up on Passing Position 461
v-05: Foot Tidy Up 461
v-06: Side-to-Side Sway 461
v-07: Rotation on Body 462
v-08: Blocked-In Arm Action 462
v-09: Left Arm Bend 462
v-10: Increased Body Action and Start
Head Turn 463
v-11: Right Arm to Match Left 463
v-12: Lighting Adjust and Final Render 463
Scene 71 464
v-01: Blocking Out Positions 464
v-02: Right Arm Blocking Out 464
v-03: Body Adjust 465
v-04: Left Arm Blocking Adjustments 465
v-05: Body Adjust 465
v-06: Right Forearm Adjust 466
v-07: Left Forearm Adjust 466
v-08: Hands Adjust 466
v-09: Right Hand Fine Tune 466
v-10: Left Hand Fine Tune 466
v-11: Left Fingers Fine Tune 467
v-12: Right Fingers Fine Tune 467
v-13: Left Hand Adjust 468
v-14: Balance Hand Actions 468
v-15: Lighting Adjust and Final Render 468
In Conclusion 469

A. Oh, I Almost Forgot . . . 471
Job-Hunting Advice 472
Showcasing Your Work 472
Drawing Portfolio 472
Showreel 473
Web Site 474
Finding the Jobs 475
Networking 475
Recruitment Officers 475
The Right Stuff 476
The Value of Experience 477
The Value of Familiarity 477
Words of Encouragement477
Glossary 479
Index 493

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