Mack Ironside | Production Coordinator | Animator
Weapons Seam Ripper
Scene Animation
A smaller scene near the beginning of the film I was given quite late in production, which made the animation process slightly different.
The final version of WPNS_SR. It has been lit, textured, and rendered.
The original storyboard animatic for this scene, done by Cal and Isabel.
The animation process of this specific section is quite unique, because I was given this scene by one of our other animators fairly close to the end of this project, only a month or so before animation needed to be done. I was still working on all of my other scenes, and trying to get them all to a point I was happy with, when one of the other animators asked me if I'd take this shot, since it was frustrating them. They believed that it would be better to swap some shots instead of continue to wrestle with this one. They took one of my other scenes, and I took WPNS_SR.
Since I was pretty much only doing the final pass of animation for WPNS_SR, I actually wasn't involved much in the process before that, trusting it to my other team members. It changed a lot since the storyboard, as scenes tend to do, and the most reworking occured when it got to blocking stage. Trying to figure out how to convey the interaction with the weapon without words was a bit of a struggle.
The version I was handed when I took over the animation for this scene looked like this:
It ended up being handed off to me in very rough condition, due to the fact that the other animator had been focusing on other shots instead, since they didn't like how this one was turning out. Of course, I was completely fine with that, it happens!! I know I had a scene or two I put off or gave up to someone else because it was giving me a brain anyeurism. Still, it was very clear what I needed to do, so I got to work, using the same process I used on pretty much all of my shots.
This one did have the added necessity of me fully setting up the scene, background and all, before I started animating. I didn't have to do that with my other animated shots, because the blockers handled that section normally. It took some time and several references before the scene was in a good state where I could animate in it. It's not difficult to do, but it's tedious and time consuming and can be annoying if you're doing scene after scene, so I didn't mind doing this.
I did get a lot of creative freedom in this scene, though. Due to its rather rough nature, the changes it went through, and the rough look of the storyboard, I focused more on the emotional and storytelling of the scene than the explicit actions they were supposed to do. It's why I ended up with Seed leaping out of frame on the last shot instead of dragging their crochet hook out, like in previous versions. Despite the difference, it hits all the right marks, so I am pretty happy with the way it turned out.
The cat wasn't in this scene, so I didn't have to worry about waiting for the rig, which was nice. I just powered through the shots in about two weeks and handed them to our lighter.
The simple blocking, done by Sam and Isabel.