Teaching the Animation Pipeline Through the Lens of Independent Animation PDF

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Teaching the Animation Pipeline Through the Lens of Independent Animation Marc E Russo North Carolina State University [email protected] Teaching the Animation Pipeline Through the Lens of Independent Animation Abstract Any animation student can tell you the right way to produce an animated short. Bo...

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Teaching the Animation Pipeline Through the Lens of Independent Animation

Marc E Russo North Carolina State University [email protected]

Teaching the Animation Pipeline Through the Lens of Independent Animation

Abstract Any animation student can tell you the right way to produce an animated short. Books like The Animator’s Workbook (White), Animation from Concept to Production (Rall), and others spell out the process from storyboarding to final render. Following this template will get you to final production, but this process is meant for a big studio or large team, not for an independent or student animator. Additionally, these books focus heavily on the technical side of animation emphasizing production. Students learning to be animators need to learn both story and production if they are going to make animated films. The focus of this paper is to find ways to help students produce better-animated films. This is achieved by focusing on storytelling and by defining a process for students that better suits the timelines and compromises they make to complete a film. Looking through the lens of independent animation production and my last animated film Sheltering Sky (2019) we discover new processes for creating a story and how the processes of the giant studios can be reworked for students and independent artists and teams.

Teaching the Animation Pipeline Through the Lens of Independent Animation Any animation student can tell you the right way to produce an animated short. Books like The Animator’s Workbook (White), Animation from Concept to Production (Rall), and others spell out the process from storyboarding to final render. Following this template will get you to final production, but this process is meant for a big studio or large team, not for an independent or student animator. Additionally, these books focus heavily on the technical side of animation emphasizing production. Students learning to be animators need to learn both story and production if they are going to make

Marc E. Russo - [email protected] - marcrusso.com

animated films. The focus of this paper is to find ways to help students produce better-animated films. This is achieved by focusing on storytelling and by defining a process for students that better suits the timelines and compromises they make to complete a film. Looking through the lens of independent animation production and my last animated film Sheltering Sky (2019) we discover new processes for creating a story and how the processes of the giant studios can be reworked for students and independent artists and teams. The Animation Pipeline If a student is going to make a film then they need to know and understand the animation pipeline, the whole process: from idea to final render. They must know the pipeline so they have a structure to follow while making a film and so they can be ready to work on a team after they graduate. In teaching the animation pipeline we might favor texts like The Animator’s Workbook by Tony White, Animation from Concept to Production by Hannes Rall, or Producing Animation by Catherine Widner and Zahra Dowlatabadias as guides for our students. These books do a great job conveying an amazing amount of information about animation and the animation industry. The Animator’s Workbook focuses on the 2D animation process, the character, and making the character move. Animation from Concept to Production is broader and discusses everything from the differences between storyboards and layouts to 3D computer animation production. Producing Animation is even broader and approaches the animation industry from the business side. Each book discusses the whole animation pipeline to varying degrees and from slightly different perspectives. It is common to break the complete animation process or pipeline into three phases. The preproduction phase is building the story and figuring out how the story is going to be told, the production phase is creating all the pieces to bring the idea to reality, and post-production is putting all the pieces together so that they can be viewed. 2D ANIMATION

3D ANIMATION

PRE-PRODUCTION Script Storyboard Character and Production Design Layout and Staging Animatic and Leica Reel

PRE-PRODUCTION Idea Story Design

PRODUCTION Briefing Thumbnails Animation Roughs Testing and Improving POST-PRODUCTION Styles and Clean-Up

Figure 1: The Animation Process (Rall)

PRODUCTION Modeling Materials and Textures Layout and Cameras Character Rigging Animation Lighting POST-PRODUCTION Effects and Simulations Rendering

Teaching the Animation Pipeline Through the Lens of Independent Animation

Story Matthew Luhn, a Pixar story artist said (Luhn): “Story is a discovery process, animation is a systematic attack.” Creating a story is all about failure. You fail until you find the right solution. Luhn compared the story process to wandering about in a dark room. In his estimation, this is in stark contrast to the animation or production process, where there is a clear path to follow. There is not much about story development in Rall, White, or Miller-Zarneke’s books. They talk about story development as just another part of the pre-production process. In some cases, the only reference to story development is through the discussion of the movie’s script. Interestingly, the story is mentioned in Rall’s book in the chapter on 3D animation. The shift in focus and terms might be because this chapter is guest authored by Melanie Beisswenger. Beisswenger calls out story development as part of the pipeline, but only to talk about how one needs to consider the form of animation as they are developing the story (Rall, 4143). It is a very interesting idea, and one that I have not seen spelled out before — but it is not story development. For all three texts, this is a matter of emphasis and purpose. But the story is the key to making a film as we can hear in the words of animator and former CEO of Pixar John Lasseter: “It is not the technology or the way something looks — it’s the story.” It should be noted that the most successful modern animation studio focuses more on the story than any technical aspect or look. Films like Toy Story (1995), Brave (2012), and Inside Out (2015), are visually stunning. That took all the skill and technology of a major studio. But, these films would only be pretty pictures if an exceptionally crafted story was not at the core. While being an animator might be the technical skill for how to make a character move within a story, animation as an art form is more than that. The Emmy winning animator Michael Sporn said: “Animation has the potential to be the greatest of all the arts. It combines drawing, painting, music, acting, photography, and computer art. Anything you can think of can be combined by the animator to be used at his or her disposal.” The Latvian animator Signe Baumane states (Levy, 54) that animation is best for: “…expressing one’s soul, unique artistic vision, abstract ideas…” These suggest more than an artist simply working on movement. It is deeper than that, there is an idea and story here as well. Animation is the art of telling a story through movement and manipulating that movement to best tell the story. It is understanding the power of the cartoon to create characters that audiences don’t just observe, they become (McCloud, 36). This can be seen in every Pixar film and it can also

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be seen in the films of countless other great animators. Miyazaki, Avery, and Disney are great storytellers first and foremost. Most animation curriculums teach students how to tell a story, how to communicate that story clearly and effectively, and how to produce a story. At the same time, we teach them the technical side of animation — the software and the craft. We know that the software is complex and the craft takes years and years to simply get good at. Students need to learn all of this, practice this for countless hours, and find a way to make multiple portfolio pieces that show off their skill set. I think that we have to think about the animation pipeline and give students practical choices within the pipeline so they can better achieve their goals. Independent Films If you lined them up, student films next to independent films next to films made in a big studio one would see that there are far more similarities between student films and independent films. Students largely work alone on very limited timelines. So what is independent animation? David Levy states in Directing Animation that independent animation means wearing all of the hats at some point (47). “Independent films are very often a production of one, with the filmmaker acting as the writer, designer, animator, director, and producer, and sometimes even taking on sound design/composing chores.” (Levy, 48) In the book Independent Animation, author Ben Mitchell asks several animators to weigh in with their definition of independent animation. Robert Morgan states: “I think that on every level, it’s about doing it yourself, being yourself...” (8) And Nina Paley says: “…reflects the personal vision of a specific person who is taking a lot of risks…” (6) These definitions sound a lot like a student film. They are making it on their own. They are breaking rules to express their vision. They are learning about animation, editing, sound design, and almost everything else on the fly. So while they need to know the pipeline of a major studio, we might embrace a somewhat unorthodox process and favor a different pipeline when teaching students how to make a film. A New Pipeline Timelines are tight for students when working on an animated short. When David Levy was working on his independent film Good Morning (2007) he chose to jump into production without a storyboard. It only worked for Levy because at the time of the production of Good Morning he had years of animation and directing experience. I have heard claims like this before. Chris Ware, the highly acclaimed graphic novelist, once told Ira Glass in an interview that he does not plan much. He starts in the top left and works to the bottom right (Glass, 23). This might work for Ware like no storyboard works for Levy, but this is not an advisable process for a student, because they do not have the experience that Ware and Levy do, however, there is a spirit of flexibility in the process here that is very interesting. As

Teaching the Animation Pipeline Through the Lens of Independent Animation

educators, I think that we need to be the guide in a more flexible process. Since the story is key, a student making a film needs to find the time to iterate on the story before starting a storyboard and animatic. There are a few things that work against getting a lot of good iterations. Most students do not have a lot of experience with creating a story, iterating on a completed story is also difficult and time-consuming, and if we follow the words of Matthew Luhn, and failure is the name of the game, this is going to make students uncomfortable and less likely to make a lot of clear iterations. Students are not used to failure. Honestly, who is? So, It makes sense that they would try to avoid a process that is about failing. This is all happening in a school environment, where failure is generally considered not an option. It is hard to invest a lot of time in a storyboard when you hold onto your work as precious, which is common for students and junior designers, and you know you are going to have to throw away part of it. Storyboards are disposable, they are not works of art. I am often reminded of the scene in Waking Sleeping Beauty (2010) where early in the documentary a story artist flips through a huge stack of boards and says, “…revisions. 100 drawings go in the trash!” Matt Jones, a storyboard artist that has worked with Pixar, Laika, and Aardman, said in his article in Animation Artist, The Art of Storyboarding, “You must suppress artistic ego, the drawings are functional and disposable.” (Jones, 124) Rall agrees with this: “The drawings represented the various shots of the film and enabled the production staff to examine and exchange them, or to replace them quickly with new versions. This allowed for a constant evolution of the story process, in which the story was continuously evolving until, ultimately, a final version of the story in drawn form had emerged.” (278) While working on Sheltering Sky I started to think about how I could iterate faster. I did not have time to work through a complete storyboard over and over again. I wanted to be able to put down the story, see it all, think about the premise, and work through it multiple times before investing the time in a clean storyboard. Most independent animators and students do not have the time or energy to create all of these detailed steps. Nor is it really necessary. These are used for communication on a big team where everyone, hundreds of people, needs to be on the same page. On Sheltering Sky this was part of my pre-production process: Idea Story and Thumbnails Moving Script Storyboard Animatic Limited Beat Boards/Color Script To start I adopted and extended the Pixar story method. The Pixar story method looks like this: Once upon a time, there was a …

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And everyday … Until one day … And because of that … And because of that … And because of that … … Until finally … And every day since … Using the Pixar method is where I start with students to help them find their stories. Then, as I did on Sheltering Sky, I ask students to do one drawing per line of the story that was written. These should not be gorgeous storyboards, they should be more like thumbnails.

Figure 2: Thumbnails from Sheltering Sky The storyboard artist Matt Jones promotes thumbnail sketching as a key way of starting: “Thumbnail sketching is thinking. You should not start working out the details until you have thought through the sequence in a thumbnail.” (122) With the story written and a small set of thumbnails in front of you, it is easy to see the story unfolding and it is easier to pitch the story. Often, I also ask the students to put the thumbnails on a narrative arc so that they can further feel the rising actions next to each other. They ask the question, ‘Does the story feel like it unfolds in the same way the arc rises and falls.’ If it doesn’t, the drawings are disposable. They can be thrown away and replaced. The process of creating an independent animated story can combine a written and visual method (Mitchell, 12). And the process followed should depend on the artist or student. There is not a one-size-fits-all method to development in independent production.

Teaching the Animation Pipeline Through the Lens of Independent Animation

Next, I ask them to write in one or two lines expressing the central theme or universal truth is of the story. They look again at their story and ask the question, ‘Do all the events of the story all point toward the universal truth?’ This comes from the Pixar theory of economy in the story, which is, “Everything in [the] screenplay should relate to your core idea, to your main conflict.” (Movshovitz, 17) “Once [the Pixar Team] find[s] the emotional core … they make sure every development and every character are closely connected to this main narrative undertow.” (Movshovitz, 16)

Figure 3: Narrative Arc from Sheltering Sky If events don’t point to the central theme, what should you have to change? There are only 20 drawings, it is easier and faster to replace and rework the whole story if necessary. I often find that my real central theme is not found until I worked through the story one time and tried to write down what I wanted the story to be about. Most times I need to throw out almost the whole story, except the character and maybe one major event to rework it. This is another great example of flexibility in the process. Adam Wells talks about how he finds an ending first and then works backward to build his story (Mitchell, 12). Whatever the method, start to finish, end to beginning, or even inside-out, it is forgiving to know that what needs to be reworked did not take a lot of time. Students get frozen when it comes to producing a complete storyboard. They sit in judgment of their work, they wonder about what is coming next, they worry that the previous moments are not good enough. They are drawing and trying to solve story problems at the same time. This problem haunts me too. If the story process requires “failing” as Matthew Luhn suggested, then we need to ensure that

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students iterate and fail faster. The Moving Script and The Map There are two techniques that I have used and have used with students to work through the process of moving from thumbnails to storyboards. First, create a moving script. This technique works particularly well when timing animation to music, but it can work without music too. The technique works like this, put the soundtrack onto a timeline in After Effects. Next, import the thumbnail images and place them on the timeline where they should be located in the story. If you string them all together on the timeline you can output a very rough animatic. But the real power is going a step beyond this. Next, shorten the length of time that each thumbnail is visible. They should only be visible for the length of time that they would exist in the story. Now take the play-head back to the beginning of the timeline. Play forward and listen to the music. For each moment write out in text what would be happening on the screen. It can be very detailed with a new line of text every few seconds, or it can be a little looser. Once you have made it through the soundtrack you can now render the file. When you watch the video essentially you are reading the script in time with the music. What you have now is a guide for all the storyboards that need to be created. Part of the issue with drawing storyboards is that you are trying to do too much at the same time: work out good drawings, solve story problems, think about the narrative, and consider camera angles and how one shot transitions to the next. Using the moving script helps to eliminate some of these questions. Now it is less likely that you will get frozen in the process. It is also more likely you will have more fun in the process and that means being more creative. Another technique that I find helpful comes from Matt Jones. He suggests you might draw a map. “Faced with the first blank panel where do you begin. Start sketching key moments you think are integral. But you also might just forget about the film for a moment and work out the world and placement. So much is about where things are. So, maybe you sketch out an establishing shot, or for complex setups with multiple characters moving around a good idea is to draw a map with camera placements to stay on track and remember where things are located.“ (122) Drawing a map and placing the cameras in the environment can help to imagine what the scene looks like. It puts you behind the virtual camera. From here you might be able to see the story unfolding or just imagine more interesting shots. The World and the Myth The Pixar story method focuses largely on the protagonist, our guide into the new world of the story. If you follow their method you would write a character bio th...