Introduction
This week we started working on advanced body mechanics. The main agenda of this week was to plan the shot.
Planning the Shot
Planning of a shot consists of multiple stages
- Recording a reference
- Making Thumbnails
- Animatics (not necessary)
Recording a Reference Video
Video reference in any animation shot contains a huge importance. It is necessary to plan your shot wisely and shooting a reference is very helpful to animate the shot. If the reference is clear then it makes the task of animation relatively less complex.
Reference videos does not mean that you have to match the exact timing from the video. A video reference gives you some nice key poses that can help you block the animation.
So, for the body mechanics assignment I had a rough idea of what I wanted to achieve in my mind. I acted out most of the reference myself and used the splinter roll reference from a youtube video.
Making Thumbnails
After I got the video reference I was all set to take some key poses out of it. From the reference I took multiple key poses and drew them as thumbnails. The thumbnails have some exaggeration of the key poses I got from the video.
Animatics
After I had the thumbnails I aligned the drawings into animatics. The main purpose was to have a rough idea of whether the key poses I made will turn up into a nice animation shot.
This planning exercise we did this week helped me a lot to understand the process of animation better. The pre-planned shot will definitely help me to achieve better results.