Hey all! We hope you found our meeting on jobs and careers in the animation industry to be helpful and informative. Here are some of the things we talked about:
Keep in mind that different studios will have different workflows. Jobs at one studio might not be the same or even exist at another! But these are the big ones. :)
Blue Sky Studios has a great list and explanation, with images, of the animation pipeline. Check it out here! It's described here for 3D animation, but a lot of the aspects easily transition to 2D.
A good intro: WATCH THIS. You won't regret it.
Storyboard Artist
- Must know all about: composition, camera movements, timing, tangents, dynamic and interesting poses, be able to communicate actions clearly
- Think of storyboards as "blueprints" to a film
- Pay attention to expressions, faces and hands! These are usually the important aspects of a scene.
- Have a close relationship with the director
- Be aware of the differences between storyboarding for live action film,
and storyboarding for animation: storyboards in film are often more
vague and gestural. Just the basics are blocked out. In animation, every
detail must be planned in advance, because you can't easily "reshoot."
- Must embrace changes! Storyboards go through MANY revisions. Don't get too attached to your drawings!
- Paul Briggs
- Lisa Treiman
Concept Artist
- Design the look and feel
- One of the hardest careers to get into, because of demand
Prop Designer
- Take one thing, design it many different ways
- Infuse personality into objects!
- Make objects cohesive, look like they fit in the same world
- Ian Abando
- LAIKA
Environmental Designer
- Painting is a hugely valuable skill set in this career field
- Usually develop highly rendered environments
- Think of the world you're creating: everything must have a purpose and reason for being there.
- floony
- Brittney Lee
- Rad Sechrist - how to
Color Scripting
- Popularized by Pixar to generate the overall color palette for a film/movie
- Similar to storyboarding but with mood/emotion
- Must be proficient in color theory and color relationships
- Usually not too heavy on drawing
- Lou Romano
- Kuler
- Colour Lovers
- Colour Scheme Designer
- Download: Colour Cop
Character Designer
- All about giving personality to your characters
- Again, make sure they fit into the world
- Be aware of background characters: they shouldn't stand out too much/eclipse the main characters
- Important: silhouettes, expression sheets
- Character Design Blog
- Heidi Smith
Set Designer
- Similar to character and prop designers
- In stop motion, you are building a physical set
- Creating backgrounds for your characters --> plenty of empty space for characters to act in
- Important: A good set/background looks like something is missing! It is! It's missing the character.
- Animation Backgrounds
Layout Artist
- Think of layout as the sequel to storyboarding, but now everything is set in stone: script is finalized, BGs are nailed down, keys are figured out, etc.
- Create animatics (moving storyboards) to develop timing
- The gap is rapidly closing between storyboard artists and layout artists (in TV, they are often the same job)
- Decide where things GO in interior and exterior shots
- Think: someone had to lay out all the objects and things in Andy's Room in Toy Story
Modeling
- Constructing objects, characters, environments, etc, within a 3D environment.
- Wireframe
- It's IMPORTANT to have clean geometry and good topological flow with the lowest possible poly count
- be aware of how it will rig, and if it will move well (have a close relationship with animators and rigging artists)
- Mike Altman
- Liz Paradis
Texturing/Materials
- Must have proficient skills in painting
- Know how to lay out UVs
- Have to know both textures and shaders
- Shaders simulate real world lighting conditions
- Be aware of shader network programming
- Alex Alvarado
Rigging
- Essentially, setting up a skeleton for animation
- Anything that moves needs a rig: vehicles, people, animals, characters, etc!
- The best riggers make their rigs as foolproof as possible
- Hierarchy is very important as is organization (it needs to be easy to understand)
- Victor Vinyals
Lighting
- Must have a good understanding of light, how it works, how it invokes different moods, things like rim lighting, low key vs high key lighting, etc.
- Important: Need to know how to utilize linear workflow and gamma correction
- Be aware of settings like global illumination, final gathering, ambient occlusion, etc.
- tdu: principles of lighting
VFX Artists
- Effects are used in both 2D and 3D animation
- In 2D, they are much more fluid. In 3D, effects are mostly particle based, so some programming knowledge may be necessary.
- Can include all of the following: simulations, fire, water, crowds, fur, hair, clothing, etc.
- Ryan Woodward
- Houdini Reel
Rendering and Compositing Artist
- Compositors must be able to seamlessly combine multiple layers and passes into a final product
- Need to be familiar with either AfterEffects or Nuke
- Game of Thrones Compositing Reel
This is definitely not a full list, but is a good place to get started! Remember, if you have any other questions about jobs and careers in animation, ask a Collective member, leader, or animation faculty! The answers are out there!
We'll see you next week for our Skype call with Chris Oatley! COME PREPARED WITH QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS!
No comments:
Post a Comment