Original subtitles

- [Instructor] Before we learn all the technique

to create the different shots from the first course teaser,

I would like to talk a bit about how

to plan this kind of production.

Gives you a couple of tricks

that are important regarding staging.

You generally start this kind

of production with a script, a story to tell.

The script will include the story and description

of the character and what happens or you tell this story.

And while a part of the team will work

on the concept art to define the art style of the film,

you as an animator

will generally be provided with a storyboard.

I'll teach you how create a storyboard

because this isn't something I usually do.

But depending on the scale of the studio you're working in

whether you're working alone or in the big team

you will find the storyboard artists

or you'll be in charge

of doing the storyboard yourself.

The storyboard shows how the picture has to be framed.

The key moment or beats of the animation,

and information about the character movement

and the camera movement.

Just imagine it as being a comic,

all the different picture of the same size

that chooses the size of the camera

and that explain what will happen

in your movie or in your shot.

By reading the script and seeing the storyboard

anyone should be able to figure what's going to happen

and what the movie will look like.

The storyboard is validated.

You can switch to creating an animatic

it's a shot with music and sound.

That will include the drawing from the storyboard

but with the right timing

though you can consider

this as being an animated storyboard.

Depending on your projection level and style

there might be other steps like pre visualization

but with those element you are generally good to go

into animating your shots.

A good shot or a good animation

depends on the staging.

Staging is one of the 12 principles of animation.

Staging is the presentation of any idea in your shot.

It includes a lot of different concept

but to keep it simple,

think of it as making the action clear and understandable.

So it includes everything about your animation

whether it's the character movement,

what he's saying if it's a character speaking

but also the way you move the camera, you frame everything.

If we take the example of our shot,

we can immediately understand that we are in the forest.

To guide the viewer that something will happen

in this specific bush,

I've made it shaking a bit.

We have also animated our character

turning his head in here,

and then there is this anticipation before it goes away.

The other example is this trailer

for the game Nora I've made in 2018.

The first thing we want to say is that we are underwater

and we wanna make it a bit mystical

with those luminous and seaweed.

As we go through the surface,

we can see those quality of drops

on the camera lens

selling that we were into the water.

While we could have used the crab for appeal only

this character is used for scaling purpose.

This way we can understand that he's on a pretty big rock

and what will appear beyond it is even bigger.

Staging is also about composition.

Every shapes tend to drive the eye toward the center sphere

and on top of this,

this is also the element

with the brightest color and the strongest contrast.

So basically when you are building a shot

ask yourself all those questions.

Does the composition read well?

Do the audience know where the animation takes place

and if it matters?, Do we understand

the character motion and feeling?

And do we understand what is going to happen?

One last example here,

this character have a very slow breathing motion

and very slow motion in general,

that tells that he is very big.

Also the composition with this pyramid double shape

shows that he's an important character.

He's currently the King,

and we can see that the light is also supporting this.

Now look at the anticipation on the next move.

His whole body is moving to raise his fist,

again supporting the fact that the character is very big

and probably very strong.

And it also give a visual anticipation

on the transition toward the next shot.

The fingers are shaking communicating anger and strength

and the shuttering rocks just to confirm this.

It's now over loop two hours quilt or shot.

I want to give you some tips and some pitfall

you should avoid.

First try to keep your camera move as realistic as possible

as if it was a physical camera in the real world

and we will talk about camera in the next video.

The second thing about camera motion

is to avoid anticipation.

Here the bush moved first, and then I rotate the camera.

So you have to think

that the camera is catching up with the action.

It's not predicting the action.

So when our character is jumping out of the bush

it's like the offset is not centered in the shot

and then the camera catch up

and center it as being the focus point.

Another very important thing regarding the readability

of your animation is to make sure

that when you switch from one shot to the other

there is a continuity in the motion of your character.

If we have a look to the transition

between the first and second shot,

the character is disappearing behind the bush,

he's into a lending motion.

So we can think that during this transition

where he's hidden behind the bush

he's bouncing or jumping another time,

and when he finally reappear to the camera

is currently how ball making the transition

between the two shots seamless.

On the next one I used a fading between the two shots.

We generally use these to tell the audience

that we are changing off environments

where the animation takes place

or that sometime has elapsed.

And this is what I wanted to communicate here.

And you can see that there is a slight difference

of lightning between the previews and current composition

as if we were getting closer to a sunset.

The color are slightly more orangy.

Another thing about this shot

is that I make the birds appearing once our character

has got through the shot.

As he's in the background

if the bird were appearing first,

that will create a lot of visual noise

and we would lose the focus on our character.

But they've added those birds on purpose.

Once our character is disappearing,

it tells me to bring some appeal

and keep this shot for a little while.

So is that when I transition to the last shot

we have the feeling that the character

had the time to climb the tree and go on the current branch.

Finally here, both the composition

and the direction the birds are flying

focus our attention toward the sun

and the logo cross this line.

So while this course will focus on the animation

of our character,

the anticipation in the way our character move

also serve the staging.

And if your goal is to create your own shots films

for example, staging is very important.

It's like any form of art.

It's about composition, rhythm, mood, sound

why I put something here and not there.

Staging is here to support the idea

to make it as clear as possible.

To summarize, we have seen that staging

is about clarity of your shot.

Your character behavior is part of the staging

whether it's through anticipation,

his mood or whatever he has to communicate

the idea behind the shot.

Composition, camera movement, and lighting

are very important to make things clear

both your thought to guide the eyes of your audience.

Unless it's done on purpose,

try to think of your camera shot as if it was enrolled

by a real human being or using real world constraints.

If you are working on multiple shot

make sure that your transition makes sense.

Blend the motion from one shot to the other

or use transition whenever you are switching space

or switching time.

Don't forget it's a creative process

so don't be afraid to experiment.

And when you are working on big project

don't forget to write a script,

create a storyboard or even create an animatic.

In the next video, we will talk about the camera

so that you can create your first shot.