A review of the the original scene pencil test (see Part 1)
shows some interesting and encouraging things, despite the reconstruction to be
done. For one, the timing is
pretty good. There are three
characters, and I am lately learning how to direct the viewer attention to the
place I want. For example, the
goose only flaps its wings as the woman is making her slow, slow anticipation
before the kick, then stops so we will not be distracted by that. The man steps back twice, but not at
times when that will be a distraction either.
I find nothing wrong with the woman's windup or
anticipation, so I will only have
to change her drawings leading into the new extreme I have drawn. Tilting the goose so far to one side
suggests some new business for it but mainly only in the neck and head.
Having to do something over is unfortunate, but as long as
one is about it, examining the whole thing is a good idea in case secondary
elements could also stand to be plussed.
Looking at the pencil test and the drawings, I feel that the
recovery could be better than it is.
The timing is okay but perhaps it could have more punch and a better
sense of mass in the handling of the goose.
I start with a new set of thumbnails for the recovery.
 |
| Read clockwise 1 thru 7, beginning at upper left. |
From the backward tipping point, the character
kicks out, throwing some weight and energy to the right, then begins to
get control and overcome the inertia of the goose. At drawing 4 the
movement of the goose to the right has picked up speed and now needs to
be restrained from going too far. 5 and 6 show the effort of slowing and
controlling that mass, and at 7 the character comes to rest.
Here I want to take a moment to recognize the influence of
Nancy Beiman in her books Prepare to Board and Animated Performance. As a self-taught animator who
aspires to highly sophisticated animation but has never had the advantage of
working in a large studio under the tutelage of masters, I am largely dependent
on what I can glean from books. I
will soon add to this blog a critical list of books most useful to animators,
but for now I just want to acknowledge Ms. Beiman's stress on working out
problems in thumbnail form.
This is not advice I had not already heard, but it was
advice I had not taken to heart.
Being, as I have noted, usually the sole member of my studio, I have
often been impatient to get into the actual animation without taking the time
to plan thoroughly enough. No
doubt this is why I am now involved in this particular do-over.
Nancy Beiman insists that most of the heavy
thinking be worked out in thumbnails, and that very rough animation or
perhaps the thumbs themselves should be pencil tested for flow and
timing. Too often, I have arrogantly gone ahead and done a lot of
detail on a sequence I was sure didn't need to be tested, only to find
that I was wrong about that. Are you getting the idea that this is not
the first time I have had to do something over because of poor
planning?
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