Friday, November 26, 2010

The Visual Effects Specialist

Scratch the surface, you'll find your journey animator.

A working life: The special effects animator

Animator Kevin Spruce brings magic to movies, creating new worlds and mystical characters for films such as The Matrix

... Spruce found employment as an "inbetweener" at Amblimation, the short-lived London animation division of Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment ... During his five years there, he became a fully fledged 2D animator. ...

The difference between animators in visual effects and animators in animated features is ... not very much.

Lots of times they're the same people.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

All things being relative, even inbetweeners are animators. But animators dont want you to think that. It takes away the shine to their star......

Anonymous said...

"All things being relative, even inbetweeners are animators."
wow...really? I'm sure there are a bunch of animators (myself included)that are waiting to hear you explain that statement

Anonymous said...

How to animate from here to there:
Lesson 101. You take a drawing that you did that is posed like this. Then you take a drawing that is posed like that. Then you take a piece of paper, put it over the two drawings you did, and draw the difference thereof. You self-absorbed putz.

animator and not an inbetweener said...

Another animator here.
And to think I worked so hard at learning to animate and this obvious 'never got past inbetweener' has explained it all in one simple sentence.
Thank you.
I'll go tell Glen and Andreas now so they don't waste any more valuable time either.
Thank you sooo much!

Anonymous said...

Character animators aren't people who just move drawings. They're actors who bring specific personalities to life. Glen Keane being one of the most prime examples of this.

A good assistant animator/inbetweener are worth their weight in gold, but they are NOT Character Animators.

And there is a HUGE difference between an fx animator and a Character Animator.

Anonymous said...

You clearly didn't take to heart the lesson 101 that anonymous @ 10:23 was teaching.

Steve Hulett said...

All things being relative, even inbetweeners are animators. But animators dont want you to think that. It takes away the shine to their star......

Uh, no.

Also, no.

Anonymous said...

And there is a HUGE difference between an fx animator and a Character Animator.

Of course, that's not what Hulett wrote above. What he wrote was "The difference between animators in visual effects and animators in animated features is ... not very much."

Which I know to be true, since I've been an animator in 2D, CG features, and VFX. And there are lots of people who are competent at character animation and effects animation. You're right, effects animation and character animation are not the same thing, but most of the basic principles are.

Anonymous said...

Uh yes,
and yes.
Steve, you walked around telling the story of one of the nine old men who disparaged the shorts animators as not really being animators.
Making a character move is animation, and if it could be done without assistants and inbetweeners, it would be done so.

Steve Hulett said...

Steve, you walked around telling the story of one of the nine old men who disparaged the shorts animators as not really being animators. ...

Actually the story I got was that one of the A-list animators disparaged some of his peers with:

"Oh, he's a good shorts animator ..."

Meaning, of course, that the guy didn't have the subtlety or professional chops to make it in the Big Leagues (Disney features.)

Anonymous said...

lol...it's pretty clear that anonymous @ 2:29 thinks that inbetweeners are being held down and not given their due because of the vanity and egos of animators. I guess inbetweeners don't need animators at all...?

It obvious that this guy/gal has never made it past inbetweens or they wouldn't be making such outlandish assertions. I bet the animtors you have worked for just love your attitude.

Yes, sometimes character animators can transition into effects animation, but it's a much rarer event for an effects animator to suddenly start doing character animation (though not ungheard of), but most could easily do inbetweening if necessary.

Anonymous said...

even inbetweeners are animators.
<<<

Yeah. We get it. Many different roles are necessary to complete a 2d animated film. And you were "part of the magic" at one time.

However, as a former inbetweener, I can tell you that I was trained to do that job in a matter of weeks. Some of us used to joke among ourselves that we were "glorified tracers". It is the "mailroom" of animation. Sure some people make a good career out of staying in the mailroom, but most people use it as a stepping stone to something that interests them more.

While your mother might have been impressed that you were "part of the magic", no one inside the company was getting you confused with Glen Keane.

Anonymous said...

Actually the story I got was that one of the A-list animators disparaged some of his peers with:

"Oh, he's a good shorts animator ..."

Not what I heard you say. It wasn't in the context of what we were talking about.

Anonymous said...

Making a character move is animation, and if it could be done without assistants and inbetweeners, it would be done so.

Did someone in the industry really write that?!? Having been in clean-up, having been a ruff inbetweener, and having been an animator, I call bullshit.

Many animators do their entire scenes by themselves. The only reason for assistants and inbetweeners is to get more footage out of animators. Most animators with any clout only work with assistants they've personally trained. I've seen assistants who actually improve the animation, but that's rare. Most assistants don't have the full skill set to animate, and they'd be the first to tell you that.

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