"Final" Animatic

The term "final animatic" suggests a rigidity that doesn't exist for this project.  I work as part of the "final layout and character finaling" department at my studio -- who's job it is (amongst other things) to tweak little bits of timing and animation that make each moment as effective as possible.  This happens long after the storyboards, animatic, layout and animation are "done".  As I mentioned last week the animatic is about laying a foundation in 2d for the overall timing, framing and shot choices for the film.  We will often get a note that the client wants to hold on the character's expression for another half a second, or to hold that pose longer, or lose that set piece in the background it's not working.  In theory this process could go on indefinitely -- I think it was Leonardo Da Vinci that said, "Art is never finished.  It is only abandoned."

So far I'm happy with the results--not abandoning it yet.  After a few revisions during the week we've come out the other side successfully.  The running time is back up to about 1400 frames -- just shy of one minute.  The sound still needs a lot of work, but a scratch track is standard procedure at this point -- something that can be discarded later.  I've worked with foley artists before, and it's really hard for them to do what they do with an incomplete visual.  So the audio is just a placeholder for now -- again to give us an overall sense of what's happening.

It's really just a matter of watching it over and over again, until you make the changes that feel right.  At least that's how I've been working it -- for me timing is really intuitive -- I'll watch a clip over and over again with my finger hovering over the space bar (pause button) and, like a gunslinger on a quick draw, try to catch the correct moment to cut to the next shot -- I like to think it's worked out so far.

As we move past the asset phase and in to layout and animation there's always room for a few more changes to make things flow better.

Enjoy

Next week the Design Package is due -- which will contain character, prop, and set designs.  Turn arounds for each character -- and likely another revision of the animatic.