Animation is Planning

Weather you are strictly an animator working only on character performance, or you are a team leader/ unit supervisor, all of your work comes down to planning.

No one would start a project without knowing what the result should be, in the industry, not having a plan would be totally disastrous and result in the loss of the contract and your job. Even the best laid plans are constantly revised along the way to project completion. The point is, You Must Always Start With the End in Mind.

As an animator, weather you are a total noob or a multi-project veteran you must always know what you are expected to produce, not necessarily what someone else is expecting, but what you yourself are expecting.

Know Your Target

When you assume responsibility for your role in the animation pipeline, then you actively participate in building the plan to hit the project targets.As a team its important to formulate a plan that works, and then to work the plan, starting with the end in mind.

When you start a project, ask yourself what you are trying to achieve, what is the target? In this case lets say that we want to launch an android platform, first person shooter, with a military sci-fi theme. This will serve as a main project target.

Our role in the pipeline will be primary character animation, so we will be bringing personality to the hero in our game. At this point we have a pretty good idea of the main objective, so now we begin to ask more detailed questions in order to get a solid picture of who this main character is.

We make a list;

1. Who or what is the hero fighting?

• Fast or slow?
• Big or small?
• Close or far?
• What kind of weapons?

2. Why is the hero fighting?

• For country?
• Duty?
• For planet?
• Personal reasons?

3. What are his motives?

• Does he care about what he is doing?
• Is he happy?
• Is he angry?
• Does he have a family?
• Does he have friends?

The more questions you ask, the better you understand the character and the more you will be able to translate that information to how the character moves. By starting with the end in mind you can develop a strategy to create the kind of performance that will keep the viewer engaged and entertained.
Ask yourself who the character is that you are animating, what the character wants or is thinking and feeling. Then ask yourself what the character is expected to do and why, this will help in your work as an animator to come up with how the character gets through the scene.

If you can see the target, and you are armed with the tools to hit that target, then it is only a matter of taking aim and pulling the trigger. Success finds its roots in planning.