Planning is the first step in the animation process, and it's an extremely important one, since it helps you determine the point of your shot and where you want it to go. This post will help you with this step and give you some tips to prepare, before you start animating.
This post will be the first in a four part series, going over the four steps of the animation process. These include:
Planning
Blocking
Splining
Polishing
The planning phase is exactly what it sounds like; you plan out your animation. While it can be tempting to skip this step, it's extremely important because it helps you work out the kinks ahead of time and get the best possible animation.
Planning is all about exploration, and you can do this exploration in many ways. For me, this exploration is done in three phases, and I'll discuss each of them below.
The Idea
I always start by coming up with a bunch of different ideas for what I want to create, and from these, I decide which will work best. To do this, I write down every idea that I can think of, whether it's good or bad, since even the bad ideas will help to trigger more ideas in your mind. It's also important to come up with as many ideas as you can, since you'll often find a better idea than the first one or two that you come up with. The first idea you think of is also typically the most cliche.
Once you have your idea, you can come up with the details of the shot. Again, try to think of as many ways to execute it as possible. Think about the personalities of your characters, since this will help you to determine how they'll act and interact with their environment. The better you know your characters, the better this personality will come through in your animation as well. Also decide on the point of your shot. What are you trying to convey to your audience about the character or the scene? Maybe you're trying to show how embarrassed your character feels? Or how uncomfortable they are with the situation? This information will inform all of your choices in your animation, so make sure you know what you're aiming for and make sure each piece is consistent with this vision.
Video Reference
Once I have my idea, I move on to video reference. The point of video reference is to have a visual to help you plan out your idea more thoroughly. To get some reference, you can either film yourself or find clips on youtube that fit what you need - or both. One thing to be wary of when using youtube or other internet clips is that you should never use an animation as reference. The reason for this is that an animation has already been exaggerated from real life, and it's better to go off of something that hasn't already been modified. Besides which, it won't really be your animation if you copy what someone else has done.
If you decide to film yourself, here are some tips to think about before and during filming:
Know Your Audio
If you're animating a dialogue shot, make sure you listen to your audio over and over again before filming, so you can focus on the acting, rather than constantly trying to remember your lines.
Camera Placement
Pay attention to what angle you're filming from. If you're filming for a body mechanics shot, you might want to film from front and side view. If you're filming for an acting shot, you will want to film from the specific camera angle(s) that you plan to animate to in your 3D program.
Experiment
Try a bunch of different acting/movement options, and don't just go with your first take. Oftentimes you'll warm up and get some better takes as you keep filming. And again, this helps you to avoid cliche.
Address Problems
Take a second every take or two and play back your video, to see what's working. Then address those things in your next take.
Once you get your video reference, you can then start compiling it into one file. Choose your favorite takes and then cut everything together in a video editing program until you have one version that you really like. You may also find that you don't even need to cut together anything if you have a take that's great throughout.
The following videos do a great job of explaining how to experiment with your video reference and how it can be used for animation, so check those out if you want to learn more!
Thumbnails
Once you have your video reference, you can use it to create thumbnails. This may seem redundant, but I urge you not to skip this step! It gives you the chance to push your poses and make sure you have good silhouettes and reversals in your animation. By going through your video reference and drawing your thumbnails, you also better understand how your character is moving, which is really important to know before you animate.
The way I go about my thumbnails is by drawing the storytelling poses, which are the minimum poses needed to explain your animation. If you were to show these poses to someone, they should be able to work out what's happening. I draw each of these poses over and over, paying attention to how they link together and making each pose as interesting as possible, until I get a version that I'm really happy with. Those poses will be my final thumbnails.
I've also heard of people that do their thumbnails before their video reference, so it's really up to personal preference. For animations that are impossible to film in real life due to physical restraints (eg. a flying character), you can also use this to experiment with different acting ideas instead of video reference. If you want to learn more about planning, check out the Simplified Drawing for Planning Animation book by Wayne Gilbert: https://rbossert27.wixsite.com/mysite-2/books
Feedback
I also recommend that throughout the process of planning that you get feedback on your work. The most important thing during this stage is to make sure your idea will be clear and interesting to an audience, since that is one of the main reasons why we make animations. So make sure to show your video reference and thumbnails to people and see if they understand your idea. If they do, then you're good to go!
Now that you have your video reference and thumbnails, you're officially ready to animate! This process makes you more prepared, and it will make your animations turn out much better and clearer.
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