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Five Myths of Motion Capture
Feb 3rd
By now you would have seen the Academy Award nominations for best animated feature for 2011.
Congratulations to all the Oscar nominees: Une vie de chat (A Cat in Paris), Chico and Rita, Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots and Rango.
It’s impossible to say whether a film like The Adventures of Tintin was excluded from the list because it included motion capture as a technique.
But in a recent interview with Joe Letteri, senior visual effects supervisor for Weta Digital, he indicated that he had his own theory on why Tintin was snubbed.
I think that was a really big oversight… Not to recognise those achievements. The visual effects branch didn’t recognise it, because they thought it was animation, and the animation branch didn’t recognise it because it was using performance capture and visual effects techniques. – Joe Letteri
Whether you agree with the decision or not, it’s probably as good a time as any to dispell some myths about films that use motion capture.
Full disclosure: I worked on Happy Feet 2. In this article, my views are my own, naturally, and do not represent the production team or the studio.
Myth 1: Motion capture artists aren’t animators
Note: that is distinct from saying that motion capture is animation. Obviously the techniques are quite different.
But as far as the people hired to edit motion captured from a live performance, in all cases I’ve seen: studios hire animators.
The animators are hired based on their keyframe animation skills and on their showreels.
Why?
Because studios know that motion editing requires the same set of skills that make good keyframe animators: timing, spacing, strong poses, weight, exaggeration, appeal etc.
Myth 2: Movies that use motion capture look terrible
To be honest, there are some horrible looking films out there that use motion capture. You could probably think of three right now off the top of your head.
You want me to name them?
Ha! Nice try.
But you know what – some keyframe animated films don’t look that hot either, quite frankly.
I’m sure for every beautiful film that uses motion capture, like Avatar or Tintin, you could provide a counter-example, but the technique of motion capture by itself is not to blame for crummy films.
Myth 3: Using motion capture makes it a “motion capture movie”
Speaking from experience, there is no way you could possibly take just take the data from the motion capture floor, clean it up a bit and send it off to be rendered.
For starters, there are often many characters and objects that are not suitable for capture by a person in a suit: four-legged animals, birds, vehicles, sets and props.
Seriously. No-one is going to squeeze into a motion capture suit and flap around like a bird, when you could just as easily keyframe animate it.
No-one stuck reflective balls on a trained dog in order to capture the motion for Snowy in Tintin.
Calling a film a “motion capture movie” is about as accurate as calling something a “special effects movie”.
Myth 4: Motion capture movies have no animation in them
On Happy Feet 2 I had a chance to work with George Miller as my director and Rob Coleman as my animation director. When these directors were in a darkened room looking to improve the shot, they honestly didn’t care whether a scene was captured from a dance, a drama performance or animated by hand.
They just wanted the result they were after.
A lot of the time spent as motion editors was perfecting the already brilliant performances, including adding extra motion, adding spins and new gestures, selling the weight of the characters and adding overlap to the body and limbs.
All of these involved adding motion and frames where there were none previously.
In other words, even the motion editors were animating by hand in many cases. Frame by frame.
Myth 5: Films that use motion capture are ineligible for the Academy Award for Animated Feature
If you want your animated feature film to be eligible for Oscar nominations, the rules read as follows:
An animated feature film is defined as a motion picture with a running time of more than 40 minutes, in which movement and characters’ performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique. Motion capture by itself is not an animation technique. In addition, a significant number of the major characters must be animated, and animation must figure in no less than 75 percent of the picture’s running time. – Academy Awards Rules for Best Animated Feature Film (my emphasis added)
I agree.
Motion capture by itself is not an animation technique.
The argument for films like Tintin and Happy Feet 2 is that while they use motion capture as one of their techniques, there is plenty of animation in the film to allow it to qualify.
Happy Feet 2 ran at about 1100 shots, and only around 750 out of those shots contained motion capture. And of those 750 shots, almost all of them would have had some elements animated frame-by-frame: keyframed characters, lip synch, facial expression, moving sets and props.
Honestly, it would be more difficult to find a shot in the film that didn’t contain any keyframed animation.
Whether we like it or not, motion capture is here to stay.
When used intelligently, there’s no reason it shouldn’t compliment frame-by-frame animation as another technique for producing television, videogames and films.
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Connecting with your animation network
Jun 8th
Last weekend I went to a meetup for alumni and students of my old animation school: Animation Mentor.
It was awesome.
It was so great to see people again, and meet some animators for the first time.
Yes – we geeked out about which animation we really liked. Whether to spend more time doing improv or art classes. What movies we were really looking forward to seeing. Who’s working for which project.
Basically talking shop.
But it reinforced to me the importance of maintaining your network of professional contacts.
I’m not naturally the sort of guy who is good at staying connected to people once I leave that particular circle of influence – but it’s so important.
The Manager Tools website has a great podcast on keeping in touch with your network, and explains it in a practical way that isn’t daunting.
One of their key points is to make contact with your buddies even when you don’t need anything from them.
Or should I say: ESPECIALLY when you don’t need anything from them.
No-one wants to receive an email or a phone call from a long-lost pal who is really only calling because they need a job or a favor.
Keeping your contacts warm means that you never have to make a “cold call”.
Plus – animators are some of the most fun people to hang around with!
Related posts
Pixar are hiring animators
Jun 2nd
If you’ve ever dreamed of working as an animator at Pixar – now might be your big chance.
Pixar have taken out a headline banner ad on the CartoonBrew website.
You never forgot the feeling of making your first flip book.
Neither have we.
Animators wanted.
–Pixar
Even without the recently cancelled animated feature Next, Pixar have lots of projects that they are working on at the moment:
Check out Pixar’s job page for more details.
So – have you got what it takes?
Bill Plympton Cartoons on Atom.com
May 18th
Bill Plympton is one of the great independent animators of our time.
In an age where it seems like you need a staff of 100 or so artists and a multi-million dollar budget to get noticed, Plympton pumps out his brilliant (and sometimes crazy) animations in his own unique style.
He is famous for his three key pieces of advice for independent short film makers who also want to make money:
Plympton’s rule of thumb of no more than $1000 per minute of animation not only brings an important artistic challenge but also greatly increases the likelihood of commercial success.
Check out Bill Plympton’s Animation on Atom.com and support his work by stopping by the Plymptoons website.
6 Reasons to work for free
May 13th
Let me say at the outset that you should never offer your services for free. But at certain points in your animation career, you may come across interesting opportunities with little or no payment attached.
Usually the offer is presented as a way to be considered for future work, or to build your profile as an artist, or as a favor for a friend.
But you still have bills to pay, right? And no-one wants to feel like they’re being exploited.
So. When should you work for free and when should politely and firmly say no?
Here are six circumstances you might consider animating for free.
1. If you’ve never been paid for work in the past.
If you’re still a student and have yet to crack into the animation industry, doing limited, small jobs for free is a legitimate way to improve your skill level and increase your employability.
Technically speaking, submitting assignments is working for free, and if you’re at school you’re already doing those.
You can do the same sort of things with interships and animation competitions. If you haven’t already, check out my post on the 5 reasons to enter animation competitions.
2. If it’s work for friends.
The tough part about working with friends is that you’ll almost never get a return and it’s very hard to say no without somehow affecting the relationship.
The cool part is: they’re your friends!
And if you help them with their website, or short film there is a good chance they might be able to help you out with something later down the track.
Even if no money changes hands, this can be a great way to learn new skills, strengthen your relationships and be an active part of your cartoon community.
3. If you need extra work for your showreel.
In the beginning of your journey as an artist, you need a portfolio of work to show in order to get paying jobs. Identify what is still missing from your show reel and see if there is a way to fill the gap with some volunteer on another project.
As an example: I wanted to experiment with flash animation, so I volunteered for a project to make an animated remake of the classic 1968 George Romero zombie film.
The project was called Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated and it enabled me to meet some other artists and be involved in a feature-length animated film that I felt passionately about.
4. If it leads to future work.
This is a tough one, because of the all-too-common line: “We can’t afford to pay you now, but I’m sure it will lead to paid work in the future.”
It’s such a cliche, that entire spoof films have been made about the promises clients will make to artists in order to get creative work done for small amounts of money.
It could turn out well for you, but just be careful. If a large company is asking for a freebie, you should be very wary. The big guys not only have plenty of cash, but also know what your time is worth.
5. If it gets you exposure to the right kind of people.
Freelance 3D artist, Paul Caggegi and host of The Process Diary podcast, points to one example in his showreel:
I created a 3D set which has overlays of comics on it. It was done for free for Jason Badower. It was then seen on the NBC website, and even published in the hard-copy of the Heroes web comic series. Jason directs people to my site when they ask about it; I have been asked about that particular clip by artists, and it has indirectly led to more work which pays.
6. If you love it.
I have a funny feeling this is going to be the one where I get a lot of controversial comments. But let me be clear.
If you find a project you love, you must find a way to work on it … even if you don’t get paid.
Animators are in a funny industry. It’s so labor intensive and so time consuming and requires so much emotional commitment that even if your career was to last 50 years (and I hope it does), you only have a limited number of projects you can work on in your lifetime.
Think about it.
Even the greatest animators may only have 20 movies they can add to their list of credits. What are YOU passionate about having your name attached to as an artist?
So whether you’re thinking about internships, competitions or getting together with friends to make your own personal projects, volunteering your artistic talent is not always a bad thing.
