When we’re starting out with character animation, we tend to rejoice when we finish a single render. But for every animator, there is the desire to do more, to actually combine the individual renders into a single, cohesive story. The problem is that for many of us, it’s a whole new level of complexity when we start looking at going beyond an animated clip and into the realm of film. Film is a new language to learn, and while there are many very reputable film schools scattered around the world, there are several free film schools available to those who seek them out.

Now, we’re going to talk a lot about the craft of filmmaking in this article, and everywhere you read filmmaking just substitute it with Poser Animation. For our purposes, the two are indistinguishable. The techniques may be different, but the language of film is the same as the language of animating with Poser or Daz|Studio.

So, what are these film schools? They are the Public Library, Film Festivals, and the Internet.

The Public Library:
For people who are passionate about learning their craft, they will seek out the knowledge they need. The public library is an excellent resource for learning about the language of filmmaking and animation and it’s available to anyone for the price of a library card.

Armed with your library card, you have access to the library’s repository of movies, documentaries, and cartoons on DVD and VHS. Start watching movies–both good and bad. You’ll end up learning technique almost through a process of osmosis as you start watching and visually comparing dozens or even hundreds of different films. With DVD’s, watch the “Making of” features that come with many movies and pay particular attention to how a particular shot was created.

Watch mainstream films, blockbusters, and indie films. Watch classic movies, from swashbucklers to westerns to musicals. Watch classic TV series and see how they put together movie-level adventure by combining small-screen acting with a generous dosage of stock footage.

Seek out the great films and gain an appreciation for why they’re great. The Hollywood epics of the 1950s and 1960s represent a Golden Age for Hollywood where films were made on every subject imaginable, and there was no concept that could not be brought to the silver screen. Actors such as John Wayne and Charleton Heston worked with directors like John Ford and Orson Welles and producers like Daryl Zanuck to create very memorable movie moments.

Watch bad films–even bad films can teach you about the craft of filmmaking. Ask yourself why the movie failed to reach its objective and where it really fell down.

Watch cartoons as well. A lot of the techniques that can be used in Poser animation were pioneered by Max Fleischer, Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, and Ralph Bakshi. The fact that our palettes are digital rather than acetate and paint is irrelevant. You can learn more about the craft of Poser animation watching an episode of Jonny Quest than you can in reading a dozen books on Poser.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a few lessons that come from watching an episode of the classic Johnny Quest.

1. Work in layers as the old-school cel animators did. They would create backgrounds, and then place layers of clear acetate over top of the backgrounds to create the characters and the effects. Rendering your background, characters, and effects in separate passes and then bringing them together in a compositing package gives you a lot of freedom in assembling the final shot, as well as applying colour correction and special effects like glows and smoke. And you’re able to do it in a fraction of the time of trying to do everything “in camera.”
2. Animate only the parts that matter. When Jonny Quest was first in production, animation was very expensive for television. Hanna-Barbera created the “limited animation” technique as a means of cutting costs by cutting down the number of animation drawings required. In limited animation, the character is static except for a moving mouth when speaking, or moving arm when gesturing. The process is remarkably effective, and can be applied very easily to Poser and Daz|Studio.
3. Don’t be afraid to have action happen off-camera. For many complicated scenes, the action would sometimes happen off camera in order to avoid having to animate all of the action. An example is a vehicle crash, which would normally require a lot of work to animate the vehicle crumpling and the passengers being thrown about. By focussing on the reaction of the observers and incorporating some camera shake to simulate the effect of the unseen impact, the viewer knows that the crash happened. The director then shows the still frame of the crashed vehicle resting against the object it struck, and the audience is then made aware of the severity of the crash. Simulating an on-camera vehicle crash in Poser or Daz|Studio would involve no small amount of physics simulation as well as morphing the vehicle crumpling under impact and would take a talented animator days to complete. Compare that with an hour of animation work in doing it the Hanna-Barbera way.
4. Held frames can save you a lot of work. A held frame is a static frame that is “held” for a long time onscreen. Instead of making sure that every second of your final film is animated, a held frame can eat up time on film without eating up hours and hours of render time. There are dozens of techniques of holding a frame–here are a few suggestions:
   a. Render out a still frame of a landscape, and then use a compositing or video editing programe to simulate a camera tracking or dolly shot by having the still frame slide across the screen. This was used extensively by documentarian Ken Burns in his PBS Series “The Civil War.”
   b. Put the camera in tight on a character’s eyes so that we cannot see his mouth. Then, you can dub over dialogue without having to animate the mouth movements.
   c. Show the back of a character’s head as he speaks–again, saving you from having to animate mouth movements.
   d. Focus on a character’s hands or feet as he speaks.
   e. If a character is in shock at something he sees, a held frame can be used to help convey that shock.
5. Need to animate characters traveling in a vehicle? Simply render out a long image that can be used as the backdrop and animate that in your compositing application.

and so on.

But let’s not forget about the books as well. Read books on writing, on screenwriting, on film production and directing, on acting, on animation techniques. Read fiction as well–if you’re working in animation, you’re trying to tell a story and reading fiction is an excellent way of absorbing storytelling techniques.

Film Festivals:
Most cities have film festivals which are an excellent place to network with other filmmakers and to learn from them. And ultimately, these conversations with other filmmakers can be an excellent way of learning more about the craft of filmmaking. Networking with these filmmakers is also a great way of getting your own production off the ground by giving you access to other people’s talents such as music, or voice acting, or even other animators who may want to take part in a joint project.

Sometimes as you watch the movies being showcased at the film festival, you will find interesting techniques being used in storytelling or visuals which you can incorporate. Film festivals tend to push filmmaking envelopes and try out new techniques and ways of telling stories.

Sometimes, though, you will find films that are filled with examples of what not to do. Watch them and learn from them. It’s less expensive to learn from someone else’s mistakes.

The Internet:

Yes, if you’re reading this, you’re on the Internet.

Video streaming sites such as Youtube have gone a long way towards allowing everyone to access film on their computers. Youtube alone has over 100 Million videos of, well pretty much everything. The vast majority of these are very short films of 5 minutes or less. As with the Public Library, you can learn a lot by watching videos on Youtube or other video-sharing sites.

These sites are also home to many online tutorial videos which can show you how to create a particular effect or use a particular technique.

And the Internet is also home to a variety of other resources such as online tutorials, webinars, and even “war stories” of how people managed to get their own films done. In a future Tips for Poser Animators, we’ll list some of our favourite sites that might be of interest to the Poser and Daz Animation community.

Finally, the Internet is a huge social network where you can meet online with filmmakers and Poser Animators around the world. There’s no reason why you would have to be in the same room with an animator to work together—people can and have worked on projects together even though they’re in different time zones.

So, if you’re starting out in Poser Animation, you should now have some ideas on resources for learning the craft of filmmaking. The Public Library, Film Festivals, and the Internet are excellent resources to learn the language of film.