Atlantis: The Lost Empire...part 4

More workbook and thumbnail sketches...

Workbook (WB) poses are designed to convey the basics...it is up to the animator to make the scene entertaining.

 WB sketches (below) give the basic intent of the scene and indicate the camera move (upper right corner).

Thumbnail sketches (based on the sketches made on the x-sheet- see part 3) work out the action of the handshake, his walk toward camera, putting on the lab coat and reaching into medical bag to pull out the bone saw.

Though only his upper torso is visible, the whole body has to be kept in mind for believable animation.

Thumbnails to help visualize and work out the action (below- right #1 to left #14)...these are the drawings that I would show the directors to get their approval to proceed to animation.

The directors input...
Am I capturing the action as they envisioned?...do I need to add or omit some action, did I overlooked something?... after all, it is their movie.

Thumbnails to work out the mouth shapes for dialogue"...well, no time like the present..."
 (this scene is presented in more detail in ...part 2)

Workbook sketches...
The scene starts out with the Doctor talking to Milo about the bone saw and what he can do with it...

and ends with him saying "...say ahh..."

The thumbnails of the action and dialogue... 

Thumbnails to work out the action- into the medical bag goes the bone saw, out comes a tongue depressor...the dialogue "...stick out your tongue and say ahh..."

Thumb nailing (below) my way trying to find an interesting way for Dr. Sweet to look into Milo's mouth...

Dr. Sweet's monologue with Milo is loaded with questions of which he (Milo) cannot answer with several objects poked in his mouth in succession...

Thumbs to visually see if the mouth shapes are working for the Dr.'s  line of dialogue  "...fishing, I hate fishin'... and experimenting to see if the beakers can be introduced in an entertaining way (below, lower left).
Lower right thumbnails were probably done at a football game as the page contains a referee and player. I carry a sketch book with me at all times and when inspiration hits me I'm prepared to jot the thoughts on paper.

WB gag brings out the jokester in the Dr...

The animators job is to plus the scene by making it entertaining and appealing. By offsetting the beakers, having distance between them and having one tossed into the air made better presentation and staging without taking away from the original intent of the scene.

 WB and thumbnails "...you too..."

until next time...

Society of Illustrators Website Sticker

Artwork from Steamboat School will be on display in next weeks opening of The Original Art 2016 exhibition of Children's Book Illustration.
My and other illustrators artwork will be on display from October 26 - December 22, 2016.
until next time...

Atlantis: The Lost Empire...part 3

Introducing Dr. Sweet... 



Directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale issue the first scenes of Dr Sweet... After meeting with them and hearing their input as to how they envision the sequence, I'm ready to start.

Dr. Joshua Sweet...

The first time the audience is introduced to the Doctor we get all his vital information:

His stature: an upshot from Milo's point of view (pov) to accentuate his height...
His voice : deep, smooth, rich tone and rapid delivery of lines...
His thought process: quick brain process as he evaluates the situation that got Moliere upset...
His personality: humorous, peacemaker (Milo/Moliere), father figure (scolding Moliere), proud of his tools (bone saw) jokester (beakers) and at the same time the audience gets information about Moliere's quirkiness...


















Workbook sketches and thumbnail sketches prior to animation...

The workbook (WB) sketch gives the animator basic information- camera angle, background, character size in relation to camera field size, camera move(s) if any, and other information the animator may need to know to bring to life a successful scene.

In this sequence... 

Milo is ushered by Moliere into this mountain of a man...
The WB gives his ending pose from Milo's pov, the animator must figure how he got there (ending pose).

I started with the head in the up position with the dialogue "Uh, oh.." ending in the WB pose... "sat in the dirt, didn't you"...

Thumbnails to work out the action for the dialogue "...Moliere...what did I tell you about playing nice with the other kids?..." Tony DeRosa (Moliere) and John Pomeroy (Milo) would be responsible for the animation of the other characters.

  










WB/thumbnails...
"...I got soap..."

WB/thumbnails...
"...and I'm not afraid to use it..." 

WB/thumbnails...
 Thumbs to work out action of the towel snap...

Exposure sheet (X-sheet)- 
In written form it gives the animator information about the scene:
A synopsis, scene length, starting and ending field sizes and camera moves.
There are columns for character(s), overlay, underlay, background and  effects.
A column marked DIAL is for dialogue in which words are broken down into the syllables just as the voice actor said them and how much time between the words spoken.

 

I used the third column from the left to pose out small drawings to get  a rough idea of the timing of the action.

(Under this old system, in my era, there were limits to the number of 'cels' in a scene before the bottom levels were out of focus. With the elimination of cels, any number of levels can be compiled in a computer without compromising the quality or color of the final product.)

until next time...