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Matthew Lee1413346A comparison of reference footage in the 3D animation industryWord count without reference and bibliography: 4015/4000

Introduction

This essay will examine why reference footage has been used as a tool for character animation as part of performance and why animators rely on using reference footage as a source to use as part of the pre-production stages in creating a feature film animation.

It will also analyse how reference footages can help with animating and enhance the process of animation and how many takes of references needed to be done and why reference footage is a powerful tool to use – especially within character animation industry.

Observing from real life performances can help adapt different types of movements and as animator are always observing from real life movement, as having real life movement can often help understand how people and animals move as everyone moves differently in motion.

It will also investigate the differences of how artists and studios uses reference footage and to observe and how effective it is to work with than without it. For example, studying Eadweard Muybridge, Simon McKeown and Disney to show some comparison of the different ways of using reference.

Reference footage can be done often by practice as to why reference footage in performance needs more time to observe before animating because with reference footages, they are mainly used for pose to pose work for 3D character animation for blocking – which is a process in 3D animation workflow. It has been known that practice is always been a learning process for reference footages and performance.

“I believe that we learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. In each, it is the performance of a dedicated precise set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which comes shape of achievement, a sense of one's being, a satisfaction of spirit. One becomes, in some area, an athlete of God. Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.” – Martha Graham (Jun, 2016)

On examination, this quote is telling that performance in animation should be practised over and over until the performance is well executed, which means taking loads of different shoots which can be used for examining different video reference shoots to use for the animation scene, which then relates back to why reference videos is spent.

Especially in both 2D and 3D animation industries, it will also explain how reference footage is used differently in techniques because there are many different ways that reference is taken place in animation process and how studying real life motion is always being observed during that process.

As previously said, using the study of Muybridge, McKeown and Disney will allow to further investigate and argue whose technique is better to be used in character animation especially because there are different kinds of workflow within 3D animation industry that relates using the technique in all three case studies.


Chapter 1 – What is performance and how reference footage helps with Character Animation

Performance has different variation of meanings; it could mean an execution of an action or the action of representing a character in plays (Webster, 1828). There are many different ways of explaining what performance is, but in animation, performance means capturing real life motion and observing because animators will always look back into real life movements and how each different individuals move.

There are different parts of how reference can be taken, such as grabbing reference just based on character or capturing reference on how people move because there are many different stages of referencing that can be done. For example:

Before acting there are a couple of things to consider, asking the actor/ animator the characteristics of the person here is a prime example of the questions that needs to be done:

- “Who is the character? (Name, Age etc)- Where is the character based? (Bedroom, urban city etc)- What time the setting is based? (Present day, in the future, past?)- What does the character want? (Super powers, Money, a partner?)- Why does the character want to achieve the goal?- What is stopping the character from achieving the goal?” (Roberts, 2011)

The main similarity of reference and understanding character is reference footages can be taken anywhere, but for character referencing, it need to be specific, as it can be quite difficult to observe outside as some people may not have the specific characteristics that is needed. This is the main reason why having the questions prepared and have a personal space for actors for reference footages so the actor can help act it the way it should be.

“From the answers, you can build a solid, defined character that everybody can understand.” (Roberts,2011). The quote states that the actor will need to know what the character’s personality is and able to analyse if the character is believable before acting out the character. If the character is confusing for the audience that it is aimed at then going back to the questions and redefining the character more so it is much easier to understand the backstory.

When shooting reference footages, it is best if the footage is done in full shot with the whole body so then when it comes to animating, so then it is easier to learn and observe where different parts of the body is posed, because if the camera footage is cut it is hard to know what the cut part of the reference footage is doing (Wodja,2015).


Figure 1 Dancing reference (Lee, 2016)

Figure 1 is an example of reference video being used is where some part of the body is cut. From looking at reference in figure 1 it is difficult to understand what the head is doing as focusing the head observes mainly on the emotion of the character, this is where having adequate spacing in studios for reference shooting is needed to capture the expression of the character.

During the filming stage it is significant that doing lots of shootings of the same character with the same dialogue but with a different setting for example using props such as, doing couple of shots of the character standing up, use tables or different types of objects that can fit into the scene.

Having props allows making the reference footage better because it can bring more life into the scene than not having any props for example

Figure 2 shows reference without the use of props. From investigating Figure 2, it shows two people side to side having a conversation, which does not bring as much life into the scene as there could be a lot more that can be added.

Figure 2 Lip Sync reference for 3D which can be found at https://matthewakeshic.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/3d-production-lip-sync-progression-eye-darts/ (Lee, 2015)


Figure 3 3D Production lip sync Reference which can be found at https://matthewakeshic.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/3d-production-lip-sync-progression-eye-darts/ (Lee,2015)

Figure 2 was used to understand the character, as shown that character A is being accused of stealing and character B is claiming that character A has stolen something. From this production, using the audio provided and understanding both characters personality it started off by just using no props or any objects as shown on this figure.

Figure 3 shows the same scenario and situation but with the use of props. Props was used in this figure is to give the reference more life as a character.

Jacob Gardener from iAnimate has said that “When you get up in front of the camera to act out your idea you need to remember to let it flow naturally” (Gardener,2010) which means that within reference footage, it needs to be able to read what the body language is doing so that as an audience can tell what the character is doing, for example using props in scenes can help the character animation flow.

During shooting references footage, it has been argued by Eric Schuer that to always “Trust your audience” (Schuer,2009) as actors of the character, the audience that the featured film is aiming at will need to connect with the characters that are included. If the audience does not feel that the character doesn’t seem fitting, then it makes following the story harder as the audience themselves and would not connect with the character either way. So when shooting the performance, thinking about what the audience would like to see is part of the process in character acting and animating.

Richard Phelan says that “In Aardman Studios there is a performance booth so there is a place and space for actors to use whenever we need reference for character” (Phelan,2016) which is a good idea to have in industry as there will be adequate spacing around when acting. As comparison from Figure 2 and figure 3, in figure 3 it captures most of the expression on one character where as in figure 2 the reference captured both characters expressions, which then makes it easier to know what the character is doing in terms of expressions and emotions in the person in the reference footage.

Matthew Lee1413346A comparison of reference footage in the 3D animation industryWord count without reference and bibliography: 4015/4000Chapter 2 – How has reference footages been used from past to present and the differences from art and industry

The main reason why McKeown, Muybridge and Disney has been used as the main case studies for this comparison is because Muybridge and McKeown has similar types of techniques which studies more about motion, as well as in Disney too. All three different case studies use reference differently to study motion, which allows to compare how and why reference was used this way.

Muybridge’s technique was using photographs to able to capture motion in animals which then allows Muybridge too look at how real life objects/ animals move in stop frame – which makes it easier to understand movement. For example, as shown on Figure 4 of the Buffalo Gallop (1887) there are different images of the way the buffalo moves in motion in photograph media, which allows Muybridge too look at separate images to understand the buffalo walk cycle on where the legs are moving and the way it has been structured.

Figure 4 Eadweard Muybridge 'Buffalo Gallop' (1887)

Muybridge uses twelve cameras to be able to capture every single movement, which is shown below on Figure 5 Horse in Motion (1878), that there are twelve different images of the horse movement, which then is allows to understand horse walking cycle to be able to observe and analyse the ways the horse is moving and the way the legs are moving as it is like a moving storyboard from the ways Muybridge has placed in Figure 5.

Matthew Lee1413346A comparison of reference footage in the 3D animation industryWord count without reference and bibliography: 4015/4000Figure 5 Muybridge 'The Horse in Motion' piece (1878)

Figure 5 shows the final piece of ‘The Horse in Motion’ (1878) has been said previously. It has been specified that the horse was moving at a real life pace so there was no poses being done when doing this piece at 40 feet per second which is a normal speed for the horse to move at a steady motion (Leslie,2010), which is shown on the image below on figure 6 shows a diagram of Muybridge’s photographic methods and how it is all set up.(Leslie,2010)

Figure 6 Muybridge's Photographic Method (Leslie, 2010)

This method in Figure 6 has a similarity to what McKeown did for the project for Motion Disabled (2010) where the project was focused on motion but with disabled people and McKeown’s technique was used in motion capture. Figure 9 shows McKeown’s work of Motion Disabled which has a similar technique of Muybridge, where both studies the use of motion but using different media. Muybridge used photographs whereas, McKeown used 3D CGI motion capture, which is commonly used in games industry and for motion capture uses cameras to capture different movements of the individual who is wearing the motion capture suit.


Figure 5 Motion Disabled can be found at http://2015.adelaidefilmfestival.org/

Disney as a big animation studio uses reference footage the only similarity in both Muybridge, McKeown and Disney is that both capture reference for motion and focus on the movement in both but, in Disney, Disney use reference to capture expressions and emotions too, which allows to bring characters more real life. Companies such as Disney is a good comparison of a case study is that Disney has other ways of studying characters than McKeown and Muybridge.

As Disney makes feature films, character animators in Disney will need to also study expressions as well as motion because as shown in figure 11, the character rig has built in with eye and mouth controls whereas, for McKeown his character models has no facial features which then McKeown only need to study movement.

Disney and other big company’s uses reference videos to be able to speed up the process of production by just analysing the actor’s performance to get good pose to pose key frames. This means using motion capture is better as the actor is wearing motion capture suit and it records the way the actor moves but, motion capture can be a disadvantage as motion capture and the rig needs to be fully functional, so taking reference from the footage and manually animate in 3D and manually fix timing is a better process for feature films.


Figure 6 Frozen CGI Breakdown which can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z_k2z5m6H0

Figure 7 Frozen CGI Breakdown Final Animation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z_k2z5m6H0

Figure 11 above shows the Disney’s feature film Frozen (2013). From watching the breakdown from this, the actor and the final animation are different because the reference footage does not show much dynamic movement than the animation itself and was there for functional purposes because the reference footage was only used for timing, spacing and key posing for the scene to understand when the character actually moves. Whereas works of Muybridge and McKeown, it is more studying different movements’ and observing but, big companies such as Disney still use reference footages

Matthew Lee1413346A comparison of reference footage in the 3D animation industryWord count without reference and bibliography: 4015/4000for timing and spacing as well as key poses in order to create more life in characters because since Disney is a company that creates feature film, Disney character animators will need to look at facial emotions too as that is part of bringing characters more to life, without looking at emotions the characters will not make sense due to lack of personality within the character in the film.

Character animators, still observe and studying motion all the time to able to understand the way objects interact and move (Horne, 2016). Observing from real life motion can be argued that it is one of the character animator primary source when building up a scene. (Horne,2016) this is because character animators need to make characters to be more real life and believable, if the character is not believable in personality, the character would not have the same feeling as a human being should have – which then makes observing real life more efficient for making character bring to life.

Chapter 3 – How does it relate to your work?

Reference footage has been the main part of the process when doing character animation (Roberts, 2007). Doing a character animation show-reel, it is important that getting some performance acting is better than taking one shot and claim it to be enough visual performance, whether if it is humans, animals or inanimate objects, understanding believable movements, studying real life visual performance is always will be most important part in animation itself.

“It’s important not to think of video referencing as ‘cheating’ because it certainly is not” (Masters, 2014). Although, some may ignore using referencing and just use straight ahead animation as some have different workflows because some animators prefer doing straight ahead than planning and polish because people have different workflows when animating.

The quote also states that video footage is the animators best friend (Masters,2014) because with video reference it allows character animators to understand the emotions as well as movement, with video reference will able to analyse what the actor is doing and feeling in the scene being animated. Generally, reference videos play a vital role in the character animation field whether if I was going to animate someone doing a backflip or someone doing a slow, old person walk it will allow me to bring rigged character into life with more action.

Performance acting can really help understanding the timing and spacing within the body language of the character animation scene, for example, with 3D animation stage starts with a blocking pass, which is moving the rig to its key poses and estimating on where the timing and spacing is, which is useful to know what pose the human or object is doing on each timing. In Figure 12, I was able to stop where the main key pose is, this then allows me to examine facial expressions and what the body is doing in order to bring the rigged models to actual characters.

Figure 8 3D Production Lip Sync reference from using Premiere Pro and Autodesk Maya 2016


From looking back the images on Figure 13, this is the project that was already done which was in the blocking pass stage of the scene of the lip sync. I know that from looking at when I am working on Maya, that I can replicate the rig by using the reference footage to know where different parts of the body are positioned, as well as knowing what expressions the actors are making and reacting

This is the second part and this time it is looking at 5 seconds into the reference footage and replicating it into Maya. This process is very helpful

because when blocking pass, the blocking pass stages in 3D is really an animatic stage of the scene of getting the key poses and timing correct by looking back the reference footage and looking back at Maya with the rig being used and just examining if the pose is correct.

How all of this relates to the final project is that majority of the time will be spent on performance acting for the 11 second club, the 11 second club is a monthly competition where different junior or senior animators from around the world are able to participate which involves providing a monthly short audio and able to character animate by the lip sync from the audio.

The 11 second club task then to allows me to provide audio from the website which then enables me to give directions on how the person feel and react by giving a short list of description of how the actor sound and react, which then able to shoot reference footage on how I want the theme to be set – this is the same process on Disney or other feature film companies workflow which again shows in Figure 10 and 11.

Having video reference footage is also important to able to experiment the different actions and poses very quickly, so if the character animator thinks a certain pose needs more exaggeration then that can also be applied within the animation scene.

Figure 9 3D Production Lip Sync reference from using Premiere Pro and Autodesk Maya 2016 Part 2


Figure 10 Animation Body Mechanics: The Importance of Video Reference which can be found at: http://blog.digitaltutors.com/animation-body-mechanics-importance-video-reference/

The image above on Figure 14 shows how performance footage being used for 3D CGI animation, it using the reference footage helps to know where each part of the body of anatomy is positioned within the reference footage and the rig in Maya. This is important is because, it then helps me to know where different body is positioned in the reference footage to Maya and it is easier to know what emotion the person on the reference footage is doing, so it can be replicated to Maya to understand what the characters’ personalities are.

Studying Muybridge relates to my final project as well because motion picture relates to the field of performance, just understanding the use of walk cycles or any kinds of motion movements giving a better understanding of key poses when blocking pass in 3D animation. With Muybridge’s technique of using different key pose of the same reference helps how long each key pose is being used, Figure 17 shows an example of how I used reference footage and in CGI in the style of Muybridge.

The term ‘blocking’ is used fairly often especially in 3D animation, blocking is a form of rehearsal and guidelines of the different poses that is being intended to be used, how much space will be used and how will the character’s emotions will able to make it believable to the audience that is being targeted. (Scheur,2009)

Blocking is also being used to be able to understand the fundamentals of timing and spacing and also to define the arcs within the scene so then when posing key frames and then splining the animation, in the graph editor it will show arcs which where the timing and speed is being played as well as to add more life to the characters.


Figure 11 Fight to dance reference footage (Lee,2016)

Figure 17 shows in the style of Muybridge using motion pictures from the reference video provided, it has allowed me to get the basic key poses for my scene. Using the reference images above has helped me understand where each parts of the body are positioned, so I can replicate it using the rig provided on Maya. Whilst doing this performance for this scene, there was not enough space to capture all of the body so parts of the images have been chopped so it was hard on where the upper parts of the body is doing and positioned, especially the head at the beginning.

Conclusion

Although, all three case studies of Muybridge, McKeown and Disney is a good comparison to analyse as they all have interesting ways of studying motion, from examining them, the case studies have a different advantage and disadvantages in them in terms of referencing because there are certain ways of referencing can be used and some are irrelevant.

Muybridge and McKeown has both similar types of techniques which is good for studying movement but, it does not show any kinds of emotion or expressions – in which character animators need to study also. Not showing any expressions is the only disadvantage in using Muybridge’s technique as when working on bringing characters to life, expressions is also needed to know what the character is doing and reacting.

In Figure 17 on the other hand using Muybridge technique was good because the dynamic rig has no facial features which enables to only focus on movement. Also in McKeown’s work motion capture is good for getting real life movement as well as understanding the dynamics of how different people moves but, looking at Figure 9, which is an image of McKeown work shows that there is no facial appearances which does relate to what the final project has included but, since as a character animator which is shown in figure 10 and 11 observing facial expressions is also included to make it bring more to life as a human being.

The only disadvantage is using motion capture, because motion capture requires using many skeleton marks for the rig that is being used, otherwise, motion capture is good for capturing movements in 3D animation for better movement also, Muybridge’s referencing tool does not focus on facial expressions as from looking at Figure 4 and 5, Muybridge only studied walk cycles in

Matthew Lee1413346A comparison of reference footage in the 3D animation industryWord count without reference and bibliography: 4015/4000animals, which is good for studying animal walking cycle, but with character animation, also looks for real life expressions which Muybridge lack of doing since Muybridge only studied movement.

Overall, all techniques are all relevant to character animation because it has been proven that the “primary emphasis of the animation process is on observation in movement” (Horne,2016) because from examining from Muybridge, McKeown and Disney ways of working from the process have similar ways of observation, which is looking at real life movements and studying from real life, as well as, examining from real life have expanded since Muybridge’s technique of using photographs to using video camera.

Bibliography

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Matthew Lee1413346A comparison of reference footage in the 3D animation industryWord count without reference and bibliography: 4015/4000Scheur, E. (2009) 11 Second Club - The Monthly Character Animation Competition. 11secondclub.com, [online]. [Accessed 24 November 2016]. Available at: <http://www.11secondclub.com/helpful_hints/acting_it_out>.

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