Industry Experience 001 - 1st Animation Job (TV Animation)

This has been a great experience and i want to remember this!

My first Animation job in the industry after AnimationMentor, is Freelance 3D Animator doing TV Animation at Sparky Animation.

A quick description on this job: $10 per Sec/25 Frames of the Approved Shots (rate may differ for different projects), In-house work but no fixed working hours, average work load is 50 seconds per week, each Contract is 2 months (renewable as long as they have work). *Information may differ in the future.

No doubt it was really tough in the beginning. On the first week of work i was shocked and lost! And as time goes by, slowly but surely, my work flow was modified and animating speed was improved. Here are many things that were learnt from this 6 months.

1.) A Good Posture and Healthy habits

I've realised i have to sit down in front of a computer for at least 3 to 4 hours before lunch break and then another 3 to 4 hours till end of the day's work. I have never animate this continuously long before at home or even during AnimationMentor times. And as an ex-military guy i am certainly not used to this office duration. Of course i can take more breaks, but it will reduce the time i have to finish the work and also it will break focus and also distract me from the ideal "Zone". 

Having good posture really helps to last longer without feeling back aches or butt sores or leg numbness. So always sit up straight, with or without using back rest. Next adjust the height of the chair so that the arms are straight down while the elbows bend about 90 degrees which makes the wrist straight. At the same time adjust the keyboard, mouse and tablet position on the table so that it is comfortable for the hands. While sitting high, make sure the monitor are standing high enough so that the head looks straight ahead, instead of low downwards straining the neck.

I strongly recommend having a mouse in addition to a tablet, so that the wrist can have some rest while doing stuff that doesn't need a pen. Also do some fingers and wrist stretching before starting work in the morning. I was surprised even the keyboard hand fingers got strained from scrubbing frame by frame for too long.

Drink lots of water to have good hydration for the day. It keeps the body fresh and the resulting toilet breaks are good chances to give the body some more blood circulation. I drank lots of green tea during work. I had lots of candy and biscuits around to make me focus better. But after some reflections, i felt a healthier choice is to have some fruits on the table to curb the hunger instead. 

PC glasses also helps reduce the strain on the eyes in long duration. I bought one from Own Days. Unfortunately i can't get used to wearing glasses so i gave it a miss half way through the time there.

2.) Speed improvement

Along this journey, I've learnt many things that helped improve speed of animation which is the key to TV Animation's high quantity.

First thing that i did on the first day at work was to watch other people's approved shots. Getting a feel of the style, and the standard of animating the particular project, helped reduce countless corrections needed to be done in the future before the shot gets approved. I don't want to over animate something that is not present in other shots wasting a lot of time.

As time passed i realised certain things like Squash & Stretch, moving from Pose to Pose, Blinks, etc, their timing can be counted and noted down to be used for all other shots for the respective characters. For example, i used for a particular character: for head S&S +0.1 and -0.1, for blinks +0.3 for both upper and lower lids, for action to action 3 frames for fast speed, 4 frames for normal speed, 5 frames for slow speed, for blinks 3 frames close 3 frames open, for eye darts 1 frame. This will make the characters look consistent all the time, and again to save time from getting back disapproved shots. 

One of the most important thing to increase speed, is to use existing Shelf Buttons or create new ones. Every studio also has their own Tools and Buttons, so getting to know them helps use them in the most efficient way. I created lots of Shelf Buttons suitable for my own work flow, simply to reduce time for repetitive things. Things like Add Frames, Add Values, Select specific Curves (body, face), Create Display Layers (Main, Secondary, No_Anim), Preset Windows (graph editor, persp, shot_cam). Even for actions that i commonly do but have to go through menus to select them, i would create a Button, like Point, Orient, Parent Constrains. And i prefer clicking Shelf Buttons then using Keyboard Shortcuts, i don't have to memorise them.

Cycles or a series of actions from other shots can be reused either using Maya's Atom or the studio's own Tool to save animation. Of course there should be some tweaks to make them look different. But it depends on the shot requirement. If its a Close Up shot then add more Secondary Actions or Expressions like eye darts, eye brow and mouth movements, etc. If it is a Far Shot or Fast action shot then sometimes no tweaking is necessary. I always reuse cycles like Idling standing around or Idling on a plane ride. Because everything has to animate, even the hair reacting to the wind, so doing the same animation every time the character Idles is a real waste of time.  

A few more minor yet powerful tips: increase Manipulator size so that it is so much easier to grab and move, increase Time Slider height to improve control and visual, set Channel Sliders to own preference so that using middle mouse button, to manipulate curves, is smoother. Below are my settings.

3.) Work Flow

After i have done 6 months of work, i have came out with this Work Flow that i think works the fastest for me.

a. Recieve new shot.
b. Watch Animatics/storyboards.
c. Watch Director's video on explanation of the dialogue and actions of the shot. Write down notes.

d. Do a quick mental planning of the key poses to do and note down.
e. Open Maya and shot file.
f. Click Shelf Buttons for Preset Windows, preferred Settings, Graph Editor, create Layers, etc.
g. If shot is too heavy causing it to lag while moving Curves, hide the surrounding References.
h. When necessary, put respective Curves into Main, Secondary, No_Anim Layers.
i. Isolate Select the animating character.
j. Block Key Poses, usually on Major Accents.
k. Switch to Auto Spline.
l. Add Keys for Anticipation,  Follow-through, Overshoot, Holds, etc.
m. Playblast to check Timing.
n. Add Facial animation together with Lip Sync.
o. Add Secondary Actions during Minor Accents and long Idles.
p. Offset Timing of the head, body, arm, wrist and fingers by 1 frame apart, to create Overlapping Action.
q. Playblast to check Timing.
r. Turn on Simulations for Cloth, Hair, etc.
s. Animate anything else that is not on Simulation.
t. Show all necessary References.
u. Final Playblast to check for any mistakes.
v. Submit shot.

*This works only for this Project. Always adjust Work Flow to better suit other respective Projects.