inbetween charts

[Boomslang]

I wondered if professional TV Paint animators in general still use the old school inbetween charts, or do you feel that TVpaint has rendered those charts needless because you can time and space with the timeline? What methods do you prefer?

[idragosani]

Those charts are mainly necessary when there are multiple people working on a scene (like the old school main animator who does the keys & breakdowns and the in-betweener assistant who has to come along behind and fill in the rest). If you are doing it all yourself, it can be helpful when planning out a scene, but you can also use the notes area above the timeline to help you plan things out. Use whatever works!

[Paul Fierlinger]

I believe the main purpose for bringing the x-sheet into TVP (short for Exposure sheet) was to accommodate those animators who scan in their paper drawings. There was a need to organize their drawings into cycles, holds, repeats etc.); in essence fulfilling the same task as the original x-sheets were doing for animation stand camera operators. I just wonder how many of these animators even care to bother with it here. I wouldn't mind hearing from some of those too, to find out what work flow they have actually adopted. When I used to work this way I practically screamed for an x-sheet. Before it finally arrived I had moved to paperless animation but I can't imagine how an old-time paper animator can use TVP without the x-sheet.

[slowtiger]

I used the X-sheet feature extensively for my last film (did I tell you that it's sold?). Not because I did anything on paper, but because I animated the actions first and decided later where to place them in time.

That project was quite a learning experience. I expect to be much faster now with the next film. I plan a 90 sec film which I started last weekend and need it finished until August 20th. This time I will have different scenes so I will not end with a single clumsy file of several GB.

The storyboard, or what I use instead of this, is already online at http://www.enigmation.de.

[Paul Fierlinger]

I used the X-sheet feature extensively for my last film (did I tell you that it's sold?).

Good to hear both. Congrats on second. You can now join the growing ranks who dispense advice on how to animate for a living.

As for me, it's official now, Tulip has been picked up by the Toronto festival (first screening Sept., Sunday 13, 7 PM the AMC theater) Ottawa, Canada and Pusan, South Korea.

[Fabrice]

Paul, please send me an email once it's selected in Hiroshima.

Congrats anyway

[D.T. Nethery]

I wondered if professional TV Paint animators in general still use the old school inbetween charts, or do you feel that TVpaint has rendered those charts needless because you can time and space with the timeline? What methods do you prefer?

Yes, I use inbetween charts. Even if I am working alone (not passing the work off to an assistant) I use the charts to organize my thinking on the timing.

I also use a real (paper) X-sheet or barsheets to plan out my timing. When using TVP for paperless animation I have tried to keep my workflow the same ; I have simply replaced the animation disc and pegged paper with a Cintiq tablet and TVP.

However, the Timeline Notes in TVP are very useful and I can see perhaps foregoing the traditional X-sheet. Charts are a different matter and I think it is easier to keep them on the drawings (in the upper right or lower right corner of the page) where they are more easily viewed.

[Boomslang]

Just to be clear I am talking about Inbetween Charts with the Extremes and breakdowns and inbetweens, not Exposure sheets although they are ofcourse in a way intertwined and connected I guess on a grander level.

Anyway, I do agree with D.T. Nethery that it's handy to plan and organize your animation that way by drawing a little chart in your screen or on paper after the key poses and breakdown are drawn. It's not necessary, but it sure eases the job and your mind as well.

Before I started to get familiar with traditional animation methods (there is a difference between just reading Richard Williams and truly understanding it and being able to invent your own character movements) I always animated "on feeling" , not really carefully timing and planning out what I was doing. That way you always end up having to do stuff over and over again, take out frames, shift them etc. etc. Really frustrating and tedious.

[slowtiger]

It clearly depends on one's favourite kind of animated movement. I have learned to read and use charts in the studio, where the dominant style was aimed at the "Disney Standard". For my own work I rarely use them: right now my characters are much too simple to allow for much overlapping action and stuff, and the bold lines would hide the finer points of motion anyway.

It's quite comfortable to be able to animate "nach Gefühl" (= "on feeling"), which doesn't mean not to apply the principles of animation. They're all there,and (hopefully) they will be applied the same way as the laws of gravity, inertia, movement, etc, apply while riding a bike.

[Paul Fierlinger]

I've never heard of Inbetween Charts before! Do you have a sample to show? This must be something big studios use which I had never come across in the past... Are you talking about Timing Sheets?

[Boomslang]

I reckon you know it under a different name (we animators really need to improve on our terminology, maybe have a Council of Nicaea for Animation)

It's those red charts above the pillow:

[Paul Fierlinger]

Ah, now I know what you are talking about and I agree with Marcus that the school of "nach Gefühl" (= "on feeling"), or by the seats of your pants, is much closer to my style. I also understand now why you asked if this is a technique of the past since we have instant realtime replay of anything we draw, because I think this is the case. Why bother with creating little graphs of what you can see right away instead of just scribbling a few more pillows and playing them back as an animatic and at any speed one desires? You said:

I always animated "on feeling" , not really carefully timing and planning out what I was doing. That way you always end up having to do stuff over and over again, take out frames, shift them etc. etc. Really frustrating and tedious.

I think this is how we all learn to get better at timing anything such as moods and all sorts of reactions; you just eventually find yourself not having to do as much stuff over and over again, take out frames, shift them etc. etc. I think paperless animation expedites this frustrating process and condenses learning curves to a bear minimum so that I sometimes feel that I can cram five years worth of experiences into a few months.

[Boomslang]

I've always wondered how the more experimental animators in the field work with their timing, because their work I often find more interesting than the standard cartoony approach. It seems that the traditional methods instantly tend to make animations "cartoony", like it's either "Traditional method= Cartoony" or "On Feeling = experimental". But I'm sure there is a big grey area up for discovering.

Perhaps I'll have to frame by frame check films of animators I like, Koji Yamamura for example. His work certainly isn't cartoony but there seems to be a traditional planned out method behind it all.

I do feel it's just a method and a tool depending on preference. On feeling clearly doesn't work for me (probably because I'm not experienced enough yet to spontaneously come up with timing) so I have to rely on some more by the book methods for timing.

Either way, thanks for the insights in your methods! I very much enjoyed My Dog Tulip by the way (Saw it in Annecy)

[slowtiger]

One should note that these "charts" are not a means to find a timing. Instead, they are a means to communicate a timing (mostly to another person). The key animator creates the charts, the assistant animator and the inbetweener follow them. The charts are done after the keys are safely placed in time on the X-sheet.

A good introduction into charts is given in Williams' "Animator's Survival Kit" on pp. 46 - 59.

[idragosani]

Many animators use a blend of pose-to-pose animation (key frames) and straight-ahead animation (what you call "by feel") -- it doesn't have to be all or nothing. That way you can work out the timings of the scene but there is still room for some "improvisation" in the character acting. Again, use what works for you!