Hey Ron! Thanks for being here! Im very impressed with your career. I love PDI, its an amazing place. I actually just landed my first animation gig working on The Penguins of Madagascar the tv show. So Im really excited to be working with some of the same characters youve worked with 🙂 You mentioned earlier that you are sharing that rediculously long 1,253 frame shot with another animator. Can you describe a bit how you share a shot. Planning together, thumbnailing and shooting video referencing together… do you take turns animating or how does that work?
Thanks Ron! Matt
A:
Thanks a lot Matthew!
It was a long and winding road getting here. I have to say… that all of the prior experiences were worth while, and helped me appreciate a place like PDI like no other studio. Prior experience builds character! 🙂
Congratulations on landing your first gig on The Penguins of Madagascar TV. That’s really cool! Isn’t it a nice feeling landing that first gig?
Well…. this long shot (on the MegaMind DVD) is going to take a lot of planning between the other animator and myself, mainly because our characters are “physically” interacting at times, so that’s going to be a big challenge for me…. one that I’d love to share with everyone once that experience is under my belt. I’ve shared a shot once before at DreamWorks (with animator Kevan Shorey) on Madagascar 2… so I’ll try to explain how we approached the shot. Usually, its pretty simple (each animator animates the character/s they were assigned to). Kevan and I then got together to discuss acting choices and choreography/timing. We shot reference and edited it together so that we both had a solid blueprint of where we each planned on going with the characters in the shot. We tried to get pretty decent timing in the reference so we knew when one character would be reacting to the other. Then, through pass after pass of animation… tighten timing and adjust things accordingly. We animated at the same time since we use a standard “check in” “check out” process at DreamWorks when it comes to characters “curves” – like the ones in Maya’s Graph Editor. This enables people to work simultaneously on the same shot.
I wish you the best of luck on your first gig! You’ll do just fine!
Q & A
Q:
Hey Ron!
Thanks for being here! Im very impressed with your career. I love PDI, its an amazing place. I actually just landed my first animation gig working on The Penguins of Madagascar the tv show. So Im really excited to be working with some of the same characters youve worked with 🙂
You mentioned earlier that you are sharing that rediculously long 1,253 frame shot with another animator. Can you describe a bit how you share a shot. Planning together, thumbnailing and shooting video referencing together… do you take turns animating or how does that work?
Thanks Ron!
Matt
A:
Thanks a lot Matthew!
It was a long and winding road getting here. I have to say… that all of the prior experiences were worth while, and helped me appreciate a place like PDI like no other studio. Prior experience builds character! 🙂
Congratulations on landing your first gig on The Penguins of Madagascar TV. That’s really cool! Isn’t it a nice feeling landing that first gig?
Well…. this long shot (on the MegaMind DVD) is going to take a lot of planning between the other animator and myself, mainly because our characters are “physically” interacting at times, so that’s going to be a big challenge for me…. one that I’d love to share with everyone once that experience is under my belt. I’ve shared a shot once before at DreamWorks (with animator Kevan Shorey) on Madagascar 2… so I’ll try to explain how we approached the shot. Usually, its pretty simple (each animator animates the character/s they were assigned to). Kevan and I then got together to discuss acting choices and choreography/timing. We shot reference and edited it together so that we both had a solid blueprint of where we each planned on going with the characters in the shot. We tried to get pretty decent timing in the reference so we knew when one character would be reacting to the other. Then, through pass after pass of animation… tighten timing and adjust things accordingly. We animated at the same time since we use a standard “check in” “check out” process at DreamWorks when it comes to characters “curves” – like the ones in Maya’s Graph Editor. This enables people to work simultaneously on the same shot.
I wish you the best of luck on your first gig! You’ll do just fine!
– Ron