Animation Workshop in Poland (Patreon)

On June 4th, Mochoko did worlshop with some students in Poland.

The event details here

Fundacja NAMI (fundacja-nami.pl)

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I use my script to tell you the content I have shared at this workshop.

I wanted to remind everyone that animation is basically a team effort, involving many different people. Animation is not only the work of animators. There are people who are not good at drawing, but are good at making up a story, or good at composing a story, or good at getting people together, and so on.

The positions listed here are just a few of them.

• Scenario Writer
• Director
• Storyboard Artist
• Background Artist
• Animator
• Painter
• Compositer
• Editer
• Music Compositer
• Voive actor
• Producer And so on…

What do you want to do and how do you want to express it? Once you have decided that, you will naturally know what you need to do.

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Animator’s tasks

Briefly, let me explain the work of those who are called animators.

Animators are mainly defined as Genga man and Douga man. There are also other positions such as Sakuga Kantoku and Character designer, but the main composition is Genga man and Douga man.

The Genga man's job is to create the layout, the composition of the original drawings, the composition of the scene and its instructions, the making of the movements, the timing, or to write clear instructions for the scene. They are one director, cameraman, and actor. They create a world from a blank sheet of paper with a clear understanding of the intent of the shot and solid drawing skills. Then, they make the characters act in the world.

Although the terms "layout" and "genga" are used separately, I consider the entire process to be the work of Genga.

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Next comes Douga. The animator's first job is to do what is called "clean-up," or "Genga trace," or "gentore. This is probably the first skill a would-be animator must learn. This means drawing clean lines while capturing the good shape of the original Genga, rather than simply drawing clean lines through Genga. The animator also complements the drawing by NAKAWARI technique between Genga and Genga. This is the principle that makes the animation appear to move smoothly.

Douga man does this according to the instructions drawn by Genga man and the instructions called Tsume shiji.

In the position of Douga checker, he/she corrects mistakes in the animation and checks for getting rid of mistakes. This is also part of Douga man's job.

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★ I really want student to know the position of each animator task is equality
(The pyramid shows the number of people, not the hierarchy of position)

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Necessary Skills of Animator

First of all, it is a given that you have to be good at drawing. So the only way to improve is to practice this already every day until you are satisfied with your skills. Then, the speed of description. This is a really important skill. If you work fast, you can have many jobs. That means you can earn a lot of money. You will be able to keep your schedule and produce work of consistent quality.

I believe that skill and speed are related.

Finally, there are goals and ambitions. First of all, we cannot move forward without clear goals. What do you want to create, how do you want to express yourself, and what do you want to tell people? This is the reason why people improve. If your goal is vague, to become better at drawing or to become an animator, it is just a process, and a small one at that. You will not be able to grow further. What kind of expression do you want to draw? What kind of animator do you want to be, what do you want to imagine? That is what is important.

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What I am showing you now is the layout works. This is from a job we did for a Japanese anime, Bokutoku dake ga okurinai machi. The English title is Erased.

As you can see, the layout is a scene structure. Although it is based on a storyboard, I had to incorporate the director's intention and draw the scene from the ground up myself after discussions and getting the world materials. It is just like actually taking pictures or shooting with a camera.

In addition to the drawing, I write the lighting, time, location, background (separated backgrounds called a book), details of the overlapping cell, and instructions for the art director, director, and all the people involved in the subsequent process to understand.  This is the most enjoyable part of the process for me.

This is actually a correction layout when I did the direction. (Left pic) Quality really depends on how good the layout is. Even if the animation is moving well, if the layout is not good, the image will be difficult to watch, and the intent will not be clearly conveyed.
It is important to know what you want to show.

You have to draw pictures with an awareness of space, as if the characters exist in that space. It is also the job of Genga man, although it is a difficult one, to draw in such a way that people can understand the contrast between the characters and what is being depicted. That is why it is necessary to have solid drawing skills.

Once the layout is finalized, the animation process begins. Move the image with an awareness of space.

This requires a high level of skill. Make lots of mistakes and find your own feelings.

These are Douga that complement the images/frames between Genga. Without Douga works, there would be no animation. It is a very important role. Unlike Western animation, Japanese animation is not full-animation, so the number of pictures to be complemented is small, but the timing can be used well to create a crisp animation.

Before becoming a Genga man, you should gain experience as a Douga man to gain the knowledge and animation skills necessary for animation. How to read and write timesheets and instructions. Camera work. Other video techniques.

This is a Douga I drew when I was a rookie. It took me 6-8 hours to complete. (left pic) My very first one took about 16 hours. It is much faster for old animation with fewer lines.

The drawings of characters in recent animation are becoming more and more complex, with more and more lines, but they should be designed in a simpler way.

I drew my own hands. I drew the left one realistically and the right one with anime design in mind. In the case of animation, it does not make much sense to draw a lot of details such as wrinkles and fine shadows. Unlike illustrations. Because they move. Therefore, a simple and well abbreviated design is considered ideal.

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You can see the details with previous article here.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/live-streaming-73628278?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

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First of all, I have a question for you.

What is the first thing you do when you draw or create an animation?

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My answer is to actually see, or record, how the movement takes place, or the object itself. (Sometimes to see a great animation).
Or to imagine the final images in my head.

It is not limited to animation, but first, observe. References are all around you. It is important to be your own reference, take a pose and shoot a video for your own reference.

We went out to take a video of themselves walking with our smart phone. Before we animate, observing what it means to walk and knowing how people walk are important.
Any walking style is fine.

Also, try to time it. How many seconds does one step take?
This is the preparation for animating.

Me running ---

Don't share this anywhere ^^;

Walking and running animations require an up-and-down motion of the upper body. This is called "jyouge-dou" in Japanese animation production. Notice how the top of the head starts up. It rises and falls once as if drawing a curve.

This is jyouge-dou.

Walking animation

https://www.patreon.com/posts/live-streaming-7-69733198?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

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If you want to work as an animator in Japan, however, simply being able to draw and animate is not enough to get the job. You need to read the storyboards and understand the directorial intent. If you ignore the director's intent and draw whatever you want, you will have to redraw the picture according to the director's corrections and the animation director's corrections.
If you want to animate it the way you want, it is better to do it as an individual production.

In this example, I storyboarded and directed, and TAKAHIRO did the Genga.

Thank you!