Project dimensions: How large do you animate?

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » 07 May 2011, 12:06

Recently I've noticed that I'm not satisfied with HD resolution anymore. When I draw a complete human character, I can't put as much detail into their face as I'd like to do, and I'm not so comfortable with animating them in that size (on a Cintiq 21, mind you). I miss the old 12 field paper.

Not that I could work any larger on my old computer, but just for curiousity: how large do you work? And does anybody know a source about how large they work at Disney's when the draw digitally?

crayon10 · Post by **crayon10** » 08 May 2011, 15:55

I hope you get a lot of response on this.

Paul Fierlinger · Post by **Paul Fierlinger** » 08 May 2011, 17:27

crayon10 wrote:I hope you get a lot of response on this.

What's yours?

Gochris1 · Post by **Gochris1** » 08 May 2011, 18:58

With regards to drawing size, I use a technique I got from comic book artists:
I draw at 2K film resolution, then scale it down with an Anim Brush to whatever my final resolution will be, usually 720 X 486. I do this because I'm a pretty lousy artist - so shrinking my drawings makes them look acceptable!

Gochris1 · Post by **Gochris1** » 08 May 2011, 18:59

Paul Fierlinger · Post by **Paul Fierlinger** » 08 May 2011, 19:20

S Tiger, first, my question to you is why is Disney your paradigm?

As for me I like to see my drawings from a distance when I draw, like painters do with their long brushes (or even Gochris1) so I draw on project sizes anywhere from 2844 x 1600 to 1080 and export as 720, but I keep my project size consistent, which means for the the 1600 size at 33% and for the 1080 at 50%; both project sizes being equal. When I need to to get into more detail work I zoom in while I keep the full frame project window opened on another monitor.

But sometimes I like to draw on an even smaller window, so I zoom out to where my drawing becomes postcard size (about 33%) inside of the 50% frame. In other words, my frame never changes its size -- only my drawing size within the frame, which I consider one of the wonders of paperless drawing.

Sometimes I lean way back in my chair and work with an outstretched arm while my drawing on the monitor never changes and this is what you can't do as effectively on a cintiq and one of the reasons why I don't like that thing. But no matter which size I'm working at, I keep eyeballing my second monitor with the real size duplicate of the project and I often render an avi to see my drawing in process next to the other clips on Vegas.

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » 08 May 2011, 20:24

"Disney" just as an example of a big studio working with Cintiqs and having the money for really powerul workstations. I don't even know which software they use (could it still be their very own brand which they developed in the 80's?).

I never had a Disney drawing in my hands, but I literally sorted through thousands of drawings from several Asterix movies. Most of them were 15 F paper, and my favourite were the ones of the Centurio character (I mentioned this already here: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=3860). These were always my personal litmus test in terms of accuray and amount of details.

Paul Fierlinger · Post by **Paul Fierlinger** » 08 May 2011, 20:31

my favourite were the ones of the Centurio character

now that's really sad

D.T. Nethery · Post by **D.T. Nethery** » 08 May 2011, 21:49

slowtiger wrote: ... does anybody know a source about how large they work at Disney's when the draw digitally?

Coincidentally this exact same question came up for me this past week with a student of mine who is making his thesis film in *ToonBoom Animate Pro (single-user version of ToonBoom Harmony that Disney uses) . My student asked me: "If I want to transfer my film to a 35mm print what resolution should my original project size be ? Also , what resolution does Disney use for feature films like "The Princess & the Frog" ?

I asked a friend who works at Disney and his answer was : "2K for most shots , though for some shots we'll comp at 4K and downsample" .

-DN

(*and yes: I did suggest to this student that he use TVP Animation for his film , but he had already invested in ToonBoom Animate Pro and so that's what he's using.)

slowtiger wrote:"Disney" just as an example of a big studio working with Cintiqs and having the money for really powerul workstations. I don't even know which software they use (could it still be their very own brand which they developed in the 80's?).

They use ToonBoom Harmony. Their proprietary CAPS system (programmed in the late 80's with the help of a little software company called Pixar ... which was also trying to break into making their own films and eventually succeeded ) was used by Disney from 1989 up until the last two hand-drawn films released in 2003 and 2004 (Brother Bear and Home on the Range) then CAPS was retired , along with the entire hand-drawn animation dept. when then Disney CEO Michael Eisner decreed "no more hand-drawn animation, only CG from now on" .)

When John Lassetter was appointed head of Disney Animation in 2006 he wanted to restart the hand-drawn animation department , but the old CAPS system had already been showing it's age in 2003 and they decided to go with an up to date off-the-shelf software. ToonBoom Harmony was the program they settled on.

Fabrice · Post by **Fabrice** » 09 May 2011, 08:12

ToonBoom Harmony was the program they settled on.

Until TVPaint arrived a few months ago

ten_zero · Post by **ten_zero** » 09 May 2011, 08:22

Fabrice wrote: Until TVPaint arrived a few months ago

Tell us the details on other thread, s'il vous plaît ?

Elodie · Post by **Elodie** » 09 May 2011, 08:59

ten_zero wrote:
Fabrice wrote: Until TVPaint arrived a few months ago
Tell us the details on other thread, s'il vous plaît ?

Oh, there's no really need to create a new thread : TVPaint is now settled in the famous animations studios of Burbank

But unfortunately, we don't have many feedbacks about the projects ... everything is so secret at Disney.

By the way, I found your youtube video (from the Japanese forum) very intersting... In particular when they are talking about The simpsons : in fact, Toonboom was used only to to flood the drawings. Animation wasn't done in Toonboom

Fabrice · Post by **Fabrice** » 09 May 2011, 10:03

nb : I had some feedbacks about their use of the software at FMX festival. When speaking with the Disney people, they told me they really enjoyed TVPaint.
However, I didn't had any news about the animation itself. Wait and see the result

EDIT : ok, I stop my "out of topic" stuff.
Our slowtiger was not asking about that.

D.T. Nethery · Post by **D.T. Nethery** » 09 May 2011, 16:29

Fabrice wrote:
ToonBoom Harmony was the program they settled on.
Until TVPaint arrived a few months ago

Yes, I was going to mention that in my post , but I thought I'd leave that to you to make the announcement.

crayon10 · Post by **crayon10** » 09 May 2011, 22:16

I am staying at 640x480 for now.

Welcome to TVPaint Community forums !

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