While animation demands the patience and technical efficiency of a brain surgeon, more often animators are asked to perform as obedient, robots. Most people can't tell doctors where to set a broken arm, but we are forever telling the various mechanical geniuses who keep our twentieth century habitats in order, where to do this or that repair or construction. So it is with animation. There are detailed storyboards that spell out almost every bit of information that is to be communicated to the viewer. The real problem arises between the storyboard frames. It is important for animators to know how something occurs, just as much as they need to know when it happens. It's not that animators are sterile. They are extremely creative, but when solving problems for paying clients, their solutions may not be the ones that work for the spot. For instance, a storyboard might show a man standing in a box (A) and then in the next frame reveal the man outside of the box (B). How did the man get out of the box? An animator can solve that in many ways, but the "right" way may be only in the mind of the person who devised the storyboard.
Here are some of the ways that the man can be removed from the box:
1) Dissolve from a shot of the man in the box to a shot of the man outside the box.
2) The man climbs out of the box.
3) The man pushes the box over, crawls out as the box springs back to its original position.
4) Dissolve the box away from its position to another position leaving the man standing alongside it.
5) There is a door in the back of the box which the man opens and shuts behind him as he walks out.
6) The man jumps out of the box.
7) He flies out of the box.
8) He digs a hole through the bottom of the box and comes up alongside of the box.
9) He walks through the box like a ghost.
10) He opens a zipper in the back of the box and then zips it up as he walks out. 11) He tears the box to shreds. It then reassembles as he remains standing outside of it.
12) He kneels, picks up a ladder, places it against the side of the box and climbs out. He replaces the ladder on the bottom of the box.
13) The box flattens out, the man walks to the side and the box animates back to its original shape.
14) The bottom of the box rises up and ejects the little man. The bottom goes back to its original position.
15) The man disintegrates and reassembles alongside of the box.
16) Cut or zoom to a closeup of the man's face. He blinks, the camera pulls back and to and behold he is out of the box.
And so on and so forth....
Animation is the most creative way to tell a story. It is drama, humor, comedy, dance and tragedy. There are many ways to get the man out of the box. Knowing what information to give an animator can certainly help bring out the potential ideas inherent in any spot. Not knowing what to tell the animator could box everyone in.
No comments:
Post a Comment