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My Animaton Workflow

This is the animation workflow I generally use to create my animations.

These methods were taught to me by my mentors

IDEAS,REFENCES & PLANNING

IDEAS & THUMBNAILS

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First thing I do is write a list of actions and acting choices to try and find the best Idea.

Example:

  • Running from bad guys

  • shoots gun
  • does cool backflip
  • superhero landing
  • slaps self in face to get fly
  • leans in for kiss

Remember to ask yourself what the point of the shot is that will help influence your ideas

REFERENCE & PLANNING

Once I have my best Ideas written down I'll then go out and record references for them. After spending a few hours filming the best reference I can, I'll then edit together all my takes to put together the best reference I can.

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Now that I have my reference I'll scrub through it and plan out my animation by drawing over my keyframes and acting beats with stick figures.
 

The main things I keep an eye out for is the key story poses, whats driving the action, Lead and follow, Arcs, and then subtle little things to push the action

ANIMATING

Blocking

Now that I've done all my planning and prep I can get into the fun part and start Blocking. I will straight-head block out my animation from frame 1 all the way to the last frame by hand-keying a pose every 4 frames.

For example: I will pose out my first key at frame 1 and then put my next key at frame 5 and then my next at frame 9 and so on till I've made it to the last frame so that there is a key every 4 frames.

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Blocking straight ahead on 4s gives me the ability to make my characters feel organic and spontaneous while also being able to finish at a reasonable time

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This way of blocking is typically how Dreamworks animators will block out their shots

Blocking Plus

After my first blocking pass is approved and Ive addressed all the notes, I'll then go through the whole animation and break down all my keys to have a pose every 2 frames. I'm basically animating it like a 2D animator.

Splining/ Interpolation

Now that the animation is blocked on every 2 to 3 frames I will then spline the animation having it on 1s.

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