Research

Scholarly Sources:

• 1 A. Novice animators struggle with timing. Setting the actual keyframes in space is simple, but timing them correctly can be difficult and time consuming. Novices can make the mistake of trying to figure it out by trying and trying, but the best way to solve this difficulty is to actually get up and act it out. Acting it out can give you a better idea of what the timing of your movement is. Another way to help you with this problem is to act it out in 2D, meaning drawing the movements quickly to give you a good idea of what timing you want to achieve. The source seems professional, I have to pay for the full version, but I had the information I needed in the preview.
• 1 A. A difficult part of animation is to actually understand what you’re animating. If you’re animating a ballet dancer, you need to learn how ballet dancer move. A good animation is a researched animation. You won’t get as good of a ballet animation from someone who’s animated clowns before, than from someone who has researched and learned about ballet. Detailed knowledge on a subject leads to a smooth emulation of movements that fits the attitude of the character. This source seems very professional, it’s a university research paper.
• 1 B. The general public can overlook the animation in an animated movie, because they are more concentrated on different elements, and so they don’t notice or focus on the animation itself. There was a study that measured the eyes of people who watched a six minute movie, and it found that most eye time for 2D movies were on the characters themselves, but for 3D it was more diverse. More objects captured the eye’s interest and so there was more eye movement around the scene. This means that since there is a lot to look at in a 3D film, one may not notice the details that are put into the animation itself. The source looks professional, it has research made by an engineer company.
• 1B. The audience who watch a movie usually wouldn’t notice nice details in an animation, but they would definitely like it. They would notice a badly animated scene though. For example, anyone can notice a badly animated human. He may act unnatural for a human. So a very difficult aspect of animation is to make the character you’re animating look convincing. The most difficult of them all are humans, for all the complex and subtle movements and facial expressions. So the general audience can tell when something is off. The only trick animators can really use to make this better is years of practice. This source seems reliable, it’s a book written by Steve Roberts, a professional in the animation world.
• Non-scholarly sources:
• 2 A. Twitter thread started by Lino DiSalvo, the head of animation for Frozen and animator supervisor for on tangled, and Bolt. He asked what was the most difficult scene you had to animate. He himself said that there was a very challenging scene in Tangled where Flynn is dying in Rapunzel’s arms. He said that he though he was good at subtle emotion, but that was another level. Several other animators replied with their experiences. David Stoddolny, animated a 3 second shot that took a month. It was an elaborate fighting shot with Po and the wolves from Kung Fu Panda. Another animator, Jill Andersen animated 40 mice from “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms”. It took him 3 months to animate, since each mouse was hand animated. He had to reanimate some of them as well. Three months for a single shot. Nice source that shows the twitter thread of several great animators, including the renown DiSalvo.
• 2 A. Mike Hollingsworth, supervisor director for BoJack Horseman, says that as an animator, his most difficult moment was when he needed to animate a speedboat race. He says that he never learned it in any classes. In class, he learned more general things such as the main principles, lip sync, etc. He was stressing out, because he didn’t know how to handle the situation. He describes how he handled the situation by learning about the subject from the internet, watching reference on YouTube. He animated the same shot over and over again 12 times until he got it right. This is a 2D example, but it is perfectly valid for 3D too. This is a good source with some interesting experiences animators had with animation of different movies and shows.
• 2 B. People think animated movies are too childish, and don’t belong alongside live action movies, and not beautiful enough to be considered fine art. Its stuck in between, appreciated by few. It has started to change in recent years and get more noticed, but most people don’t see animation as something groundbreaking or true art. They only are able to appreciate the aesthetics of the film. People think that a movie for children is just that, but it has deeper meanings. Like the Iron Giant which contains emotional depth. Animation needs to not only be more appreciated, but not seen as only for children. Hundred of artists that work years on a feature length film go unrecognized. This is a good source to understanding an animators point of view, and how animation can be undermined.
• 2 B. Animated movies are for both kids and adults. Many of them win Oscars, for being brilliant movies. Almost every Pixar film has won Animated Feature Film. Many 3D animation movies have underlying messages to them. Zootopia is a message about two natural enemies teaming up to defeat the bigger evil. Another movie, like Wall-E can have a message about pollution. Shrek covers the journey of someone being able to accept himself. Inside out tackles how emotions affect a person psychologically. There are also some adult jokes slipped into kids movies most of the time. Animated movies are always fun to watch as an adult, and shouldn’t be considered as only kids movies. The source is people answering someone’s question about animated movies and if they’re bad, since he thinks they’re for kids.