Sophisticated Movement

I was in a review a while back and the phrase, "Make the movement more sophisticated.", was mentioned a couple of times. The note wasn't for me but it stuck in my head as it was new to me, and I wanted to try and work out the intent behind it on this oft neglected blog.

For starters, I think that this comment is dependent on the style of movement associated with the piece of animation. The animation in "Family Guy" is basic, but works successfully in the context of the show. With the caveat that we are looking for polished modern feature-quality animation let's sophisticate our movements.

Say our gesture is Key -> Breakdown -> Key, which is the accepted way to construct animation. The sophistication comes not from these poses, but from how we treat the frames around these tent pole moments. It means applying all the fundamentals of animation implicit in our process - force, timing, intertia, overlap, intent etc. It is an attention to detail that adds all of the little stuff. Bringing a character's arm down can be a thought of in high level terms as A to B, but by considering the forces and intent at work, we can think about overlap, settle and the path or timing the arm makes as it travels through space. By applying these thoughts to our A-B we create subtle complexity on top. Makes things a little more believable at the sub-conscious level. Result! Again, this is dependent on the style of animation desired. (Pocoyo, for example, doesn't need this process as it has a lovely style in its own right. If you've not seen it, please seek it out).

Maybe I am intellectualising something that is little more than a semantic alternative to "work into this more!", but understanding a note given in a review is so important to delivering what is required of a shot that I wanted to dissect the note. I think I found it useful, and am now prepared if I ever hear it in a critique.

Cheerio!