Sunday, February 27, 2011

Thoughts on making short animation.

Its been just over 3 years since I started making this animation short. It have been a long journey and I have learnt a great deal. SO I thought that I will start to write down what I have learnt making this movie and also from the articles I have collected through the years. In case I need to do it again.... There will be a few parts as I pull more stuff out of my head.

1.) Keep the audience entertained. That is the main objective. If they get bored, they don't care. You lose. It can be a beautiful visual, a suspenseful moment, a humorous moement. Even time for the audience to think and contemplate. The main focus is to keep them watching.

2.) Show. Dun tell. A quote I saw from the pixar exhibition. But so so true. Do not insult the audience's intelligence by shoving exposition into their faces. This isn't Taiwanese Chinese drama.

3.) Storyboard is King. U save weeks, months even years just locking down the storyboard before animating. Obvious but most people just want to animate.... Young and impatient. I have learnt to be patient and is no longer young.

4.) Have someone to bounce ideas off. Very Important.. Personally for me, I work best talking to like minded people, bouncing ideas off them. Maybe it is just to have a reassurance that the shot works or just to see it from a different perspective, I find it invaluable to have people to talk to. Of course it helps that the someone is actually someone that is good at this helps.

5.) Staying the course. U will get de-motivated, distracted, discouraged. Get over it. Ask yourself the purpose of what you are doing. For me, it is exploring a way out of what I was doing before. I promised myself that if I am going to busting my balls and working the late nights.... It is for my own projects.

6.) Indecisiveness and doubts in the decision making process are part and parcel of the process. Take time to explore different options and paths will lead to different outcome and possibilities. Its like facing with a fork junction on the road. Which path to take?
Eliminating the different options is time consuming and it will get better with experience and feedbacks.

7.) Take feedback humbly and constructively. But be clear of what you want. Easier said then done. But as the nike slogan so aptly putted.....

8.) The truth. You know the euphoric and liberating feeling when everything falls into place. When everything fits... When nothing feels forced, or convoluted. The pacing works, the story is tight and most importantly you feel for the characters. yeah... It feels really good. Savor it.

When you (the creator) know what the character's personality, drive and motivation is, everything else is secondary. Should it....... Or a more accurate description is that all the procrastination and doubts in the creative process are just to find out who your character really is. His motivations, dreams, fears etc.. Things that define the character. This is the hardest, by far the hardest thing to accomplish. Entire shots and scenes may have to be re-cut or discarded to reach there. But it is worth it.

9.) Story is the King's mother. What medium to tell the story, what texture resolution to use, all of these are insignificant if you do not have a story that people can connect to. It becomes another eye candy. Just good to look at, no substance.

10.) Planning is over-rated. Provided you enjoy banging your head against the wall and really enjoy self-suffering. Else plan ahead what to do. then plan some more. I am a "leap and see what happens" kinda of guy and also enjoy self-soul-destruction.

11.) Take criticism in the face then turn the other cheek. Needless to say you need to be able to handle criticism well. People will say and give their thoughts. Understand objectively where they are coming from and their personal tastes. Its ok that my animation or posing sucked. But tell me why. How can I improve it?

12.) Why are you doing this? My honest intention was that before I get too old to do it, I want to tell a story that is my own. That I feel people will enjoy looking at and feel entertained and buy the toys. I think I got stories to tell that people might like. But the only way to find out is to do it.

I only got one life. I do not want to look back and think of excuses why I didn't do it. I do not want excuses. 

1 comment:

Jerry McClellan said...

I really appreciate you sharing this about yourself. Really helpful and motivating.