Now Ye're Talking - to a Film Animator

Boards.ie: Niamh

After an unexpected hiatus, we are back with an AMA today with an animator.

Our animator works on some major Hollywood films and is happy to answer your questions about his day to day job, what he gets up to and what goes on behind the scenes. Oooh!

He says:

I feel there is a general lack of understanding of how animated films and visual effects for live action films are made. Theres a lot more to it than just pressing render on the computer!

So, ask away!

Barry Badrinath

Bon Jovi movie animator guy!

Did you work on Jurassic Park?

Did you work on Star Wars?

What's the last project you worked on?

What was the best?

Is there a project you wish you could re-do?

What did you have for lunch?

Thanks

Dublinstiofán

Whats your favourite individual scene from any animated movie (a) your worked on yourself and (b) in general.

Gotta say some of the Toy Story and Up hold some of the best in my book.

Edward Hopper

Do you animate live cartoons or does it put too much strain on the animators wrists?

tracey turnblad

What got you interested in this? How did you get into this? My son is 11 and makes stop motion films with his Lego and super hero figured

Speedwell

What are the industry-standard software packages for modeling?

What's the best program for rendering convincing hair and fabric?

How do women fare in the industry these days?

cherryghost

How hard do you study human motion and emotions and is there a 'pattern' implementing it into animation? I heard it takes even the most hardended animator years to perfect it.

Gloomtastic!

Are you based in Ireland?

With Brown Bag and Geronimo doing really well internationally, what's Ireland's USP when it comes to persuading major studios to back Irish production houses?

Call Me Jimmy

Do you ever get negative thoughts about rendering someone else's ideas all the time? Is there enough freedom and creativity within it to be fulfilling? (No offense, i once was very interested in animation)

John_D80

Have you ever hidden any secret messages or anything rude or naughty in anything you have animated?

evolving_doors

Do you need to work in silence?
If you listen to music then what music do you listen too whilst working?

I'm an Animator, AMA

Hello all!
Apologies for my tardiness in replying, I'm currently working on the west coast, so the times I reply may be at odd hours!
So Thanks very much to Niamh for getting this set up, lets get the ball rolling!

McGruber wrote: »

Bon Jovi movie animator guy!

Did you work on Jurassic Park?

Did you work on Star Wars?

What's the last project you worked on?

What was the best?

Is there a project you wish you could re-do?

What did you have for lunch?

Thanks

Hello to you too!

Does Jurassic World count? if so, then yes

Unfortunately, never worked on Star Wars! I'd love to though, I don't think there is an animator alive that wouldn't want to work on something as historic in film as Star Wars. There's still 2 films to go, so it's still possible!

The last project I worked on was Captain America: Civil War, and now I am on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

The best Project I've worked on was probably Guardians of the Galaxy. As far as the film pipeline goes, this went as smoothly as it could. but there was a loooooot of overtime...

There's not so much a whole project I'd like to redo, I'd say it's more certain shots where I can see some mistakes/unfinished work that could really do with a few more days of finessing, but time/money has ran out for that particular shot.... It's actually pretty much every shot I do I can see a fault!
Also, in the VFX world, we don't have any say on story/screenplay/editorial etc. so if the film story and characters are trash, no amount of beautiful VFX is going to save it. There are countless examples of films like this!

For lunch I had a cheap and tasty thai dish from a local food truck!

I'm an Animator, AMA

Dublinstiof n wrote: »

Whats your favourite individual scene from any animated movie (a) your worked on yourself and (b) in general.

Gotta say some of the Toy Story and Up hold some of the best in my book.

Thats a toughy... for myself, maybe the shot at the end of Guardians where Groot is dancing in the pot plant. I always like to go along to the cinema and see the films I work on just to see how the audience reacts. I find american audiences are a lot more extroverted with their emotions in a cinema. They'll laugh, scream, cry etc. a lot faster than the hardy Irish!
So when that shot came on, there were a fair few chuckles in the cinema, which is nice to see!

As for in general, Probably the scene in the Lion King... You all know which one *wipes away tears*

I'm an Animator, AMA

Edward Hopper wrote: »

Do you animate live cartoons or does it put too much strain on the animators wrists?

Do you mean like do I use a pencil?
We'll I'm a CG Animator, havn't actually drawn in quite a while, which is a shame!
I personally use a mouse, but I'd say a good 70-80% of people at work use a wacom tablet, which is like a digital pencil and paper.
I do know some people can get wrist pains and have to do wrist exercises daily to help with it. It's not the most bodily hazardous job though

I'm an Animator, AMA

tracey turnblad wrote: »

What got you interested in this? How did you get into this? My son is 11 and makes stop motion films with his Lego and super hero figured

It's a tough one to put a finger on, I know a lot of people at work have said things like "I saw jurassic park when I was 10 and instantaneously fell in love with vfx" but for me, I was always drawing in school and really enjoyed it, but I never thought I would go into something like this for a living. it never even crossed my mind to be honest. Then I didnt really have any idea what I was going to do after school, so I tried out an online class and really enjoyed it, so it just went from there! went to ballyfermot for a bit, and then I did an online course called Animation Mentor and after that landed a job in London.
And your son sounds like an animator in the making! It seems a lot of people working in this industry had those same sort of tendencies when they were younger too

I'm an Animator, AMA

Speedwell wrote: »

What are the industry-standard software packages for modeling?

What's the best program for rendering convincing hair and fabric?

How do women fare in the industry these days?

The standard for VFX/Animated Features is 99% Maya. although a lot of games places might use 3DSMAX, and I know for things like Architectural Visualization, they use mostly 3DSMAX.

I'm not too savvy on rendering, Thats usually a job for someone else down the pipeline! But I know we use Arnold at work. I know hair and fabric is still very much a "work in progress" to get it to the realism that can be achieved in other departments.

If you're a woman and can animate, you'd be snatched up in this industry! I do know recruiters are actively seeking females in order to balance it out. So if a Male and Female go for the same role, and their skills are similar, most likely they'll choose the female. It is what it is I guess!
However from talking to a recruiter friend here, the females don't negotiate as hard for pay increases as their male counterparts, for the most part. So the company naturally isn't going to give them anything more than they have to.
So if you're a female thinking of entering this industry, keep that in mind and fight for what you're worth!

I'm an Animator, AMA

cherryghost wrote: »

How hard do you study human motion and emotions and is there a 'pattern' implementing it into animation? I heard it takes even the most hardended animator years to perfect it.

Studying the motion of humans (or animals, depending what character is in the shot) is the base for every single shot an animator does. It is impossible to just imagine every single nuance a person has in every single thing that they do.
If its a human character I film myself doing the performance a few times, maybe ask someone who can act better than me to perform the shot too and film them. If it's an animal, I'll scroll through countless videos of that animal doing something similar and base it off that. However, for a animal shot for example, once you incorporate all that animals particular movement patterns, it still needs to look good first and foremost. As long as the shot works and the character is performing in a readable and clear way to the audience, the job is done. take nagini the snake from harry potter for example. If you remember in the half blood prince (I think) when voldemort and all his death eaters are at the table, he feeds a person to his snake. In the shot, The snake is moving along the table towards the camera in a point of view of the victim, and at the end opens its mouth. That snake moves nothing like a real snake should move. It curves all over the table, whereas snakes are super economical with how they use their energy to move. Also, snakes always have their spine on top, but in this shot Naginis spine is twisting and sliding everywhere.... Yet, it's still a cool shot and quite a memorable one.
Sorry that was long winded!
But to answer your question, even animators I work with who have been in the biz for decades still use reference for their shots. You can understand how certain things work on the body, like the hips acting counter to the torso for equilibrium and such, but you'd be amazed at the little things you pick up in shooting reference that makes something come alive when you use it in your animation

I'm an Animator, AMA

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Are you based in Ireland?

With Brown Bag and Geronimo doing really well internationally, what's Ireland's USP when it comes to persuading major studios to back Irish production houses?

I'm currently in California, although I am looking into work back home, or London.
Thats a tough one for me to answer, I'm not too savvy on the bussiness side of things.
I know a loooot of studios that used to be in California are in Canada now because of tax incentives and the canadian dollar being quite weak.
I was actually in Canada working for a couple months because of all the work being done up there.
As for the likes of Universal or Warner Bros. backing Irish studios, I think Ireland might simply not have the man power to do high budget films. It takes hundreds and hundreds of people to do the vfx for big budget films, and I dont think there are any irish studios with that amount of people. But that could change very quickly, like how so many studios took off to Canada!

I'm an Animator, AMA

Call Me Jimmy wrote: »

Do you ever get negative thoughts about rendering someone else's ideas all the time? Is there enough freedom and creativity within it to be fulfilling? (No offense, i once was very interested in animation)

Wow these questions have been tough so far (in a good way)!

Yes, No and sometimes

The great thing about the animation part of the pipeline is we do the performance. So the director will tell us something like "his cat died, so he's sitting on his bed crying". it sounds quite a narrow spectum to work with, but really when you get down into it, you get to make it your own. If you gave that same script to any actors, like Fassbender, Meryl Streep, Ian Mckellen etc. they are all going to perform it differently and you can tell its their individual performance, even though it was on a script the director handed them. It's quite similar to animators (except without the incredible acting skills and massive cheques! )

And like actors, we can improvise. If I think something would add to the story/the characters emotion for the shot, I can add it in... This is where it can get annoying though! If you spend so much time on a shot and pour your heart into it, and the director turns around and says "actually, i think it'd be better if he was doing X". and you know X suuuucks, you still gotta do it. But you learn as you go to not get too attached to any of your shots, as they can be changed, given to someone else, directors notes, or even cut from the film entirely because it doesnt fit the new edit... still, sometimes you can't help but love a shot!
Thats another thing while I'm on it, the film is continuously a work in progress right until maybe 3 weeks before it is in cinema. all the trailer shots are done first so it looks like its a full film just waiting to be released, but the truth is the director doesn't have a clue what the final thing will look like until they literally run out of time on it!
I found it amazing how much of a cluster the film making process when i first got into it. Now, I just ride with the chaos and see what happens. It doesn't make it dull, anyways!

Absoluvely

Have you ever had to animate juggling? It's a well-known fact among jugglers that all juggling animations are unrealistic (i.e. shit).

I'm an Animator, AMA

John_D80 wrote: »

Have you ever hidden any secret messages or anything rude or naughty in anything you have animated?

Hahaha no, not yet!
I know one guy at work was animating a flock of birds and tried to write out his wifes name, where the birds feathers came together to spell it out on 1 frame, but he had less than a day to do the whole shot so after like 4 hours of trying to do it he gave up... he ended up staying to finish the shot til about midnight because of it!

I'm an Animator, AMA

Gebgbegb wrote: »

Do you need to work in silence?
If you listen to music then what music do you listen too whilst working?

No I actually hate working in silence!
I find I work faster when I'm listening to music, but I do have to be careful what I'm listening to because it can mess up my timing!
Animation is an art form based in time, 24 frames in a second etc. (Also fun fact: We usually do roughly 70-75 frames of animation a week. That's 3 seconds every week).
So I have found if I'm listening to something with a fast rythmn, say AC/DC for example, and I'm working on a huge beast, who because of their size, should be quite slow, ends up running like a bugs bunny cartoon!
But I usually like listening to film scores, 80s music, top of the charts stuff and when I'm doing a fast action shot... mostly Dubstep (I'm sorry).

I'm an Animator, AMA

Absoluvely wrote: »

Have you ever had to animate juggling? It's a well-known fact among jugglers that all juggling animations are unrealistic (i.e. shit).

No not yet, and after seeing that Krusty gif I don't think I could ever match something of that level!

Tell me how

Thank you for your detailed responses and effort in answering all questions.

Do you have any advice for software packages/process for someone interested in getting into animation purely for hobby purposes.

Are there online tutorials you would recommend for this purpose?

Liamario

Do you tend to analyse effect shots in other movies while you're watching them (in a non-professional capacity)?

Are there any effects shots in movies that you've created all by yourself?

IrishAlice

Does working as an animator entail working odd hours and having blocks of time where you're not working at all or is it a regular 9-5 type job?

Did you always have a talent for drawing or did you improve your skill with practice?

5rtytry56

Have you done stop-gap film product

job seeker

What advice would you give someone that want's to really follow in your footsteps? #Dreamjob!

Also

Which is your favourite? Simpsons or Family guy

misstearheus

What's your favourite colour?

How well do you take criticism?

Is this what you've always wanted to work at?

What's your dress-style like?

uck51js9zml2yt

What the next big movie in the pipeline....promise we'll swear a blood oath and promise to do nasty things to ourselves if it ever leaks out

I'm an Animator, AMA

Tell me how wrote: »

Thank you for your detailed responses and effort in answering all questions.

Do you have any advice for software packages/process for someone interested in getting into animation purely for hobby purposes.

Are there online tutorials you would recommend for this purpose?

you can download Maya for free with a student license, theyd only come looking for money if you start profiting off what you make with it. I believe 1 professional Maya license is about $3000.
As for online tutorials, I'm not sure, I know a lot of people trying to break into the industry go through online schools like animation mentor or ianimate. You should check out their YouTube channels as they have a lot of tips and tricks videos that might help