films and effects flicks. They give
the director and crew a common
reference point to work from and a
chance to check that the scripted
action and timing work in 3D
space. They’re useful to people in
every part of the entire film
pipeline, from pre-production
artists, D.P.s, and actors, all the
way down to the editors.”
—Bill Wright
ROAD RUNNER IS INTRODUCED BY WARNER BROS.:The Fast and Furry-ous, a 1948 Warner Bros.Looney Tunes
cartoon, was the first Warner Bros. cartoon short to feature Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner. It set the template for the series, in which Wile E. Coyote tries to catch Road Runner through many traps, plans, and products.
1948
OSCARFOR SCENT-IMENTAL REASONS(WARNER BROS.): For Scent-imental Reasonswon the 1949 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons.
1949
produced and dropped into the animatic as it is completed during actual production. This kind of work is expensive and takes time, so planning is significant, as Angie Glocka explains:
You need an animatic to time the animation to the sound, and it also gives a stronger sense of how your story works. One of the hardest things when a live-action director shifts to ani- mation is that everything has to be planned ahead of time. You can’t just barf out 10 minutes of animation so the director can see how it looks, as you can with live action.
It’s a great revelation to see the shots being dropped into the cut as they are completed. The movie comes alive. Some CG studios have gone as far as to pre-visualize the whole movie with the computer first. This is where animators block out the shots in a rough form with cameras and characters in the scenes. Nothing is lit; the pre-viz is simply for additional tightening of the story, timing of animation, and cuts. The pre-viz step in 100-percent CG animation features is important to really understanding how the whole thing will work with camera moves and characters interacting in the frame.
When working on a movie like Kangaroo JackorStuart Little, utilizing live-action plates, an animated char- acter has to interact with a pre-shot character or scene. In this situation, the pre-viz step is equally impor- tant to making all the pieces correlate to one another. Sometimes a director will even have an animator on set to place the CG character into the scene interactively as the director shoots. This will help the director frame something that is not there on set, outside of using a stand-in or a mark of some kind.
If the pre-viz step is skipped in this circumstance, there will be much more time spent in the animation step staging and just trying to figure out where the character will be in the shot in relation to the plate, the set, and characters that have already been shot and are locked into that space. Sometimes, on the set there is a “stuffy”—a stuffed version of the character—used to help frame the shot and work out eye direction. Many live-action directors are frustrated later by footage that is not framed right for the character. The pre-viz step helps work out these issues and hookups with other shots.
Other studios working with live action and CG have gone as far as to “choreo” the shots. Choreo animators work out the pre-viz even further and are at times on set and animating with the footage as it is shot. This quick feedback enables the director to see whether the camera choices and cuts are working. “Choreo” means that all of the bits, even down to the fingers and facial features, have been touched, although in broad strokes. This approach is intense for the animators to produce quickly, but it works well with a smaller
46
TEX AVERY DIRECTS BAD LUCK BLACKIE:Two things make this cartoon stand out.The first is that it’s the classic car- toon to demonstrate the use of escalating variations on a repeated gag. Also, this cartoon is missing the scene where Spike sticks his head out of a pipe and appears with a Chinese face, showing sensitivity to racial slurs.
1949
BOB GODFREY ENTERS ANIMATION:
Bob Godfrey enters the film world, later to be called “Master of the Absurd.” Godfrey specialized in 2D media, often mixing techniques to produce fast-paced, sometimes racy films with a particular wit and sharpness.
1949
budget. It also is closer to a traditional way of creating a pose test because the whole line of action is worked out down to fingers, toes, and appendages instead of layering in the animation. Tom Capizzi explains how once most of the movie has been dropped into the animatic, screenings can help the director see what the audience is responsive to:
Moving animatics are being used more and more in feature animation. The hand-drawn ani- matics built from storyboard frames are constantly being updated with the latest animation cuts to get the editing and story tighter and tighter as production continues. By the time all of the animation is done, the animatic exists as a shaded (and sometimes partially rendered), fully animated reel. This can even be utilized for screening purposes and test marketing. Some features rely on part of the storyboard to be animated in pre-viz because the timing for that sequence has to be perfect before the sound is laid down.
The animatic and pre-viz steps are an evolution of the storyboard methods developed by Disney many years ago, and they are invaluable tools for the filmmaker today. Editing is where the story you developed is carved out, and animatics and pre-visualization help the whole team simplify and narrow the scope of the story and film. Don Waller illustrates how these tools are better than the Disney storyboard process for ani- mation:
I believe animatics are much more helpful than just the drawn boards, especially where fast- paced action is concerned. Much of the editing can be intricately worked out via the animat- ics, as a guide for the live-action shooting. And of course, for animation, the edits
and timings can precisely be worked out down to the frame!
All of these additional steps (animatics, layout, workbook, pre-visualization, and choreography) have come about with the advent of digital filmmaking and were initially created to perfect the storytelling process. However, human nature being what it is, this has created a very complex system of approval using all of these steps. In the old days, an approved storyboard would go directly to layout and from there to anima- tion. In short, the storyboarding process has evolved into a complicated set of steps in the hopes of making a better story. Drawing will never be replaced as the quickest way to visually tell a story. Computers just assist in seeing the timing, pacing, and edits of the film. And sometimes they make for a much longer approval process in the end.